Odd. Too many of you are having good days.
I suggest assassinations.
But I always suggest assassinations.
I must therefore give this job to Bean.
Bean, your task is to pie everyone in the face.
Work from the Zs up.
Dracos
My face! My beautiful, beautiful face!
I haven't pied you yet, though.
But, since you were obliging enough to appear for me to do it, I'll be nice.
*Hits Zenthor with a cream pie*
Alrighty! Next? If I have to come looking for you, the pie is gonna be rhubarb!
Stand back!
A depressive cloud of hatred and darkness and evil is HEADING ThIS WAY.
I think it's some sort of Oscar/Rhea hybrid monstronsity - but I'm not positive.
All I know is - DANG IT, LIFE SUCKS!
At least for this post, it does.
And what the hell is "Read or Die"?
-J
Normally, I'd say "Ask Google!" but the truth of the matter is that google isn't as up to snuff as it used to be. Therefore, let us consult with ... the WIKIPEDIA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read_or_Die)!
Alternately, we can check out our homegrown review of the TV Series (http://pishoque.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=886).
For what it's worth, I liked the OAV, but we don't have a review for that yet. I suspect that Huitzil will resolve this for us by tomorrow, though.
Huh? Google's first hit for Read or Die is a review of the OAV with quite a bit of detail.
Dracos
*Hits Dracos in the face with a blueberry pie*
Next!
*laughs* You got the order wrong, Bandit of Bandits. =)
Dracos
Bean Bandit takes orders from no one! Especially concerning his pies! QUESTION NOT THE PIES, FOOL! O_O
>_>;; On an unrelated note, I have not slept nearly enough.
Nope. He just saw that you were the first to fall victim to my CUNNING TRAP.
I assure you, it was designed with CUNNING TRAPTITUDE.
Clever man.
Dracos
You want us to bitch about something? Okay.....
I want complain about why so many good videogames have come out in September and October. Nocturne, Paper Mario, X-Men Legends, Shadow Hearts: Covenent, Phantom Brave, Gradius V, Fable, Katamari Damacy, Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War....ARGH! Why couldn't the split them up a bit more? WHY?!!!
Because of marketing genius.
Hundreds of them.
Dracos
I'm kind of glad, though. No one who wants all of those games (hardly, anyway) can afford them all. When the market can't bear that kind of load, people take a step back and look at why the model isn't working.
Console games do tend to resell more around the holidays, but this is not true for most PC games. Hopefully, we'll see the gaming industry reanalyze their scheme, and try to make something that, you know, works.
Otherwise, they're going to sell less, and people will get the games they wanted now in a few months for a much marked-down price.
:D
I RIDE THE TSUNAMI! THOUGH I DIE, I DIE A HERO! =P
Dracos
Friends who set you up for a fall.
When someone says he wants to hang out with you at 3:30 on a Sunday. So you talk to him that morning and say, "Awesome, dude, I've actually got some chores, so I won't really be around until 4:00 ... but call me when you head over to check, just in case."
And they say that's great, so you're home and 5:00 rolls around, and you call your friend to ask what's up, and he bitches at you for waking him out without so much as a, "Oh, yeah, I was feeling really tired. Sorry I forgot to say something about that."
Eww. Sucky. :\
Dracos
I have so much goddamn fucking stress right now, I'm losing sleep over it. Come Wednesday, I'll tell the lot of you if it's justified or not. It all depends on when the tests get back from the doctor.
I have a set of about 15 easy but time consuming tasks to acomplish right now (over the past month really) and have accomplished very few thanks to procrastination. It really makes me feel incompotent -_-.
Customers. I hate customers. I can't figure out how the average customer climbs out of bed without killing him or herself. How the heck can you not be able to figure out that when the last movie starts at 10:30PM that we're not going to let you buy a ticket at 11:40PM?
To clarify: your problem is that the group gets along too well?
*whistles*
Hi there. I'm Otter.
Quote from: "Otter"To clarify: your problem is that the group gets along too well?
Wow... talk about giving away your newbieness with one statement. ^_-
This is a group that
likes bitching for the most part. When members of this group aren't bitching about
something, then generally speaking much bad things are afoot with the planning of great evil... well, more than there
usually is that is. ;p
Heya Otter.
At a guess, Otterland? =)
Nice Planescape:Torment avatar by the way. And welcome to the boards.
Dracos
Quote from: "Priss"Quote from: "Otter"To clarify: your problem is that the group gets along too well?
Wow... talk about giving away your newbieness with one statement. ^_-
This is a group that likes bitching for the most part. When members of this group aren't bitching about something, then generally speaking much bad things are afoot with the planning of great evil... well, more than there usually is that is. ;p
LIES! I am not plotting the assassination of half our population via the selective use of teletubbies and naked politicians!
Quote from: "Celisasu"Quote from: "Priss"
This is a group that likes bitching for the most part. When members of this group aren't bitching about something, then generally speaking much bad things are afoot with the planning of great evil... well, more than there usually is that is. ;p
LIES! I am not plotting the assassination of half our population via the selective use of teletubbies and naked politicians!
Indeed. Technically, three-fourths of our population, while perhaps including the same half of our population you mentioned, is not actually the same thing.
Quote from: "Dracos"Odd. Too many of you are having good days.
I suggest assassinations.
But I always suggest assassinations.
I must therefore give this job to Bean.
Bean, your task is to pie everyone in the face.
Work from the Zs up.
Dracos
Who's having a good day?@!?
awaits an answer so he can ruin it
On an unrelated note. I can't seem to read any fanfiction. The only parts of stories are continuations of ones I've already started. And even those are dwindling. I know a few author's I like, and yet, nothing. A chapter and I give up....
am I growing up?
Quote from: "kpjam"Who's having a good day?@!?
I am!
Because you posted.
:D
Beat that!
Quote from: "Brian"Quote from: "kpjam"Who's having a good day?@!?
I am!
Because you posted.
:D
Beat that!
little hearts form in this one's eyesYou like me? You really like me?
skips away
This sounds like a job for Schadenfreude Man!
People who walk slow and block your way. Arr.
Oh, and the smell of vinegar.
Curse them slow peoples! >_<
People who wield high-powered morals and rapid-fire religion as weapons against the percieved evils of society.
For an example, see feminists.
No, not the feminists that actually accomplish something, I mean the ones that can't get it through their thick skulls that just because they were 'repressed for thousands of years by the male conspiracy,' they should be given whatever they want.
Ah, yes. Fundamentalists.
Stinking hippies.
Well, all hippies are kinda wierd... but yeah, those stinking ones are reaaaaally bad. ;p
People messing up the Little Drummer Boy song. I prefer it being sung by a choir thankyouverymuch.
That boy who is always trying to walk with me in gym and always slows up or speeds up to catch up with me. He freaks me out.
People who type LiKe ThIs.
The repetitiveness of "The Little Drummer Boy" can quickly get annoying enough that, as Dave Barry wrote, he would "find himself at the emergency room having his drumsticks surgically removed from his rum-pa-pa-pum, if you know what I mean."
For anyone who cares, full article here:
http://www.hollandsentinel.com/stories/120102/fea_120102082.shtml
short, obese girls who wear very revealing clothing.
Quote from: "StormDragon"short, obese girls who wear very revealing clothing.
So you'd prefer tall obese girls wearing very revealing clothing?
Or short obese men wearing very revealing clothing?
QuoteSo you'd prefer tall obese girls wearing very revealing clothing?
Or short obese men wearing very revealing clothing?
Actually, I prefer hedgehogs.
...what?
Fat women.
That's it.
Stop eating McDonald's and go for a jog, you spherical bitch.
I don't want to hear about your thyroid condition. I know girls with that, and they are nice and healthy.
I also don't want that bullshit about hereditary obesity. I have hereditary psychosis and diabetes, but this does not mean that I am insane or a diabetic. Yet.
So, take your excuses and propell yourself out that door, if you can fit.
If everyone just did a little exercise and ate SANE portions at mealtimes, America would NOT be the FATTEST NATION on the PLANET.
but I like my second helpings of awesome. ;_;
=P
Dracos
Metabolism master.
Quote from: "Yuthirin"I also don't want that bullshit about hereditary obesity. I have hereditary psychosis and diabetes, but this does not mean that I am insane or a diabetic. Yet.
Just because your entire family is obese doesn't mean it's hereditary. You're all just lazy.
QuoteI also don't want that bullshit about hereditary obesity. I have hereditary psychosis and diabetes, but this does not mean that I am insane or a diabetic. Yet.
I can believe you're not diabetic... ^_^
Quote from: "Dracos"but I like my second helpings of awesome. ;_;
You're skinny, keep your second helping.
When you work the Thanksgiving holiday, and volunteer for New Year's, as well, so that when you ask for Christmas Eve off, you can get it.
Only, you don't, so you end up working every holiday, even though there are guys in your office who have every holiday off.
The fact that all remote users are morons.
Its cold.
Its wet.
I have to paint some guy's house (ok, two rooms >_>), not get paid for it, and he can't even be bothered to be home at the time he said he'd be, forcing me to extend my evening hours over to his house when I could be finished while the light still shines.
Well, it would shine if it wasn't raining heat-sapping liquified ice crystals, but you get the picture.
Brrr.
G'luck, and how'd you get roped into that? Kill someone?
Obviously he killed the wrong person, then.
I dislike people who say "'assume' makes an 'ass' out of 'you' and 'me'."
Assuming makes an ass out of you and some guy named ming.
Merry Christmas, everyone! Guess who managed to destroy his car going a laughable 12 mph? Come on, guess. -_-
Quote from: "thepanda"Merry Christmas, everyone! Guess who managed to destroy his car going a laughable 12 mph? Come on, guess. -_-
John Wayne?
Dunno, what happened?
Here's how it goes.
I'm turning the corner on a icy road and I loose traction. 12 mph isn't fast, per se, but mass + volocity and all that. <_<
I hit a curb, which bumped my car up JUST HIGH ENOUGH that when I hit this really low brick formation (it wasn't high enough to be called a wall) in the median it struck UNDER my car, knocking the whole motor mount-type thing up and back, which nearly was enough to make my engine fall out. Oddly enough, my engine is ok, but something under there is twisted, and it'd cost me about $1000 usd to get it fixed.
I can get and entirely new frame for half that price. -_-
-_-
I swear, you have the worst luck this year. Just...ugh.
My mother says I have her aura.
Which, translated, means shit will happen often, and it will seldom be small.
Why couldn't I have just gotten her lips and left it at that? ;_;
Because of your aura, silly. ^_^
But, um...seriously? Hopefully it's just a bad year.
Considering the fact that the weather forced the schools to close early, thus leaving my student status in limbo right before the holidays, I'm thinking there's enough bad mojo to drive me well into the new year.
Quote from: "thepanda"Considering the fact that the weather forced the schools to close early, thus leaving my student status in limbo right before the holidays, I'm thinking there's enough bad mojo to drive me well into the new year.
-_-
Oi. Well, you can always hide out and bitch in OOC land, at least.
I try to stay happy despite it all.
Thus, why Mihoshi is always my none-gaming avatar.
She makes me happy. ^^
Quote from: "thepanda"I try to stay happy despite it all.
Thus, why Mihoshi is always my none-gaming avatar.
She makes me happy. ^^
Speaking of that...heh. I need to line you or Rat up for Setsuna's spot, most likely. How are your hours coming up looking?
Mihoshi as the senshi of time?
DOOMED!
Dracos
Quote from: "Dracos"Mihoshi as the senshi of time?
DOOMED!
Dracos
GAHGAHGAHGAHGHAGHAHGSDHJKLSAJfkasdjf;laskjdf;lkaj;lksdajfBOOOOOM!
Thanks, Drac. You blew my mind out. No, it'll be Panda as Rei or C-Rat as an OC if either join up. Setsuna's spot is open, they won't be playing Setsuna; however.
I couldn't fall asleep.
So I didn't sllep.
I'm sitting in my office at 8:22.
I'm waiting for a conference call so I can then go home.
I figure I can get to sleep after being awake for 25 hours. That will be good...
It will be, yes.
Sleep is good, even better when done regularly. Much like crack-cocaine, really.
Being sick is annoying. Especially when you always get really sick -- cough, sore throat, sneezing, runny nose, unable to focus....
I hate it. ;_;
I honestly can't concentrate on work, and don't understand half of my course.
I hope it's not boasting to say that up til now, I didn't have to work much, because honestly, I didn't. So it's difficult to sit down and get work done, because I've not done it before. So I don't. So I don't build up study skills.
Shit.
Argh.
I wrap up the RPing session for Friday early, as May has to bolt. So I go to lay on my bed and kill some time watching my brother game. Great idea, right?
zzz...
Seven hours later, my day off is gone. Bleh.
I spent an hour digging my car out of the snow today.
It is now snowing.
A foot of snow is visible on every car I can see from my window.
I hate you reality.
Dracos
Firefox is a piece of crap. Refuse, if you would. A smoldering pile of shit wrapped in a nice box of 'over hyped'.
Oh? Why's Firefox bad? I'm guessing you tried to use it as an FTP client; I've heard it sucks for that.
If I were Supreme Being, I would outlaw those sinks that require you to be holding down the little push-things for any water to come out at all. I hate them with a passion.
I hate people who, when the teacher announces a 10 minute break, go to the cafeteria and return 15 minutes later with fried chicken and proceed to eat it in class. Yes, guy next to me, who came in and squeezed past me with his fried chicken, I mean you. Dammit. And it's very dodgy fried chicken... It's making some very disgusting sticky/sloppy noises.
I'll second that. One my Spanish classes had that problem since it was right next to the cafeteria. It wasn't ever fried chicken, but crappy fries, pizza and other junk doesn't really help you concentrate on Espanol.
So, they've given me twenty minutes to either move my car (under a snowdrift) or have more snow piled on it.
I bear them no love.
>_<
Dracos
Someone's going to be walking to class today, eh?
Eh?
Or shovelling snow in a post evil frenzy of car recovery in the chilly New York air. Damn.
I always walk to class.
I just don't like being asked to move my car.
Dracos
Oh.
Well, were you able to move it in time?
It's still there.
It isn't moving.
I'm a stubborn lout.
Dracos
The school rejected my finacial aid.
When asked why they said I needed to make corrections to my FAFSA.
When asked what needed correctingthey told me to check my SAR (student aid report) online. I do so. Nothing is flagged as missing or wrong and it clearly says I can recieve aid.
I ask the school again. They tell me the same bullshit. I ask what the hell is wrong with it? Again with the bullshit.
So I CALL the aid place. Thankfully I managed to get someone who knew very well what they were doing and she points me to one question. One. Freaking. Question.
And this may or may not be the problem. I make the correction. Now I have to hope that 1) that was the problem, 2) that was the ONLY problem, and 3) that it gets processed before they drop all my classes and kick me out.
Oh, right. When would that be by, you ask?
Why, this thursday, of course!
Why not take out a student loan?
Your FAFSA has to be processed before you can do that so that the bank can see if you are eligible.
Goddamnit all. -_-
Wow, sucky.
Dracos
That's crazy ^_^;
Here if you're desperate enough you can apply for an emergency loan and pay it back within 60 days, or you can draw a student line-of-credit from a bank if you have a) a job or b) a co-signer as guarantee, basically ^_^
*Pats Panda*
Yeah, financial aid is full of pitfalls and failures. Good luck getting through that mess in time to take your classes. Considering how it goes...well....
You might just need that luck.
Hm. Well, my SARs reports that my aid was processed two days ago, but I have yet to recieve the confirmation email. Weird. o_O
I really, REALLY hope this means they've sent the correction to the school. I'll have to look into that later.
On a completely different note, Because I was (and still am) panicing over my aid I forgot to do the reading and our weekly quiz is in a few hours. Beowulf and The Green Knight.
Um, oops?
Beowulf and the Green Knight?
Good books.
Dracos
It has been a HELL of a morning.
Left for work an hour or so early so I could get a haircut.
Went to first haircut place, there are FOUR people ahead of me. At 11 am on a weekday. And the two people working there were talking, not cutting anyone's hair.
So I go to another haircut place. Two people in line, and I have 20 minutes before work. So I give up on the haircut and go for something to eat before work, since I skipped breakfast.
So I go to Subway. Where I spend the last ten minutes before work waiting in line for a sandwich, and the guy behind the counter is spending more time chatting up the two girls behind me than paying attention to my sandwich.
Which gets me to work a few minutes late with zero time to eat, without a haircut, and madder than a hornet.
Update!
It actually made it on time! Whee! Now I'm on hold, meaning I'm not getting my classes dropped!
Now I just need to get a copy of my mother's old W2 form for the school to look at...
*DumdumDUUUUM*
Ouch and score, respectively, to the last two posts.
That's a fine case of Murphy's law in both of those incidents, and I got whacked with it to.
Boss: You have more than enough work for a 5 hour shift, more than the person whom works 8 hours before you does? Oh yes, and do this twenty minute task every day now, too.
>_<
When your lunch is scheduled at 10:00 AM because you start at 6:00.
But you never get to take lunch before 11:30 because your company's servers are continually failing, thus prompting the majority of your company's high-paying customers to call you up and yell at you for it.
And then when your co-worker who shares a carpool and lunch schedule with you says, "Let's go to lunch," and you clock out....
...and he says, "Well, I'm not REALLY ready to go to lunch, because Co-worker C promised he'd take this four hour call for me. But he's not availible, so this hasn't happened."
So then you spend your lunch hour being asked co-workers questions about the system, because you don't have a car of your own to get anything for lunch, so you just stay at your desk. (You won't complain about the rain. You love the rain.)
Even better -- when you come home from a long week of work, and find out that your hard-disk has crashed.
How about spilling juice all over your bag and a good number of books?
Coulda been worse, I guess. I'm drinking water from now on.
That's nowhere near as fun as your friend spilling alcohol all over your bookshelf, then insisting it can be mopped up, leaving no damage to the books. Some of them still smell slightly.
Leaving work early because you have to spend more time in the bathroom than at work really takes the fun out of leaving early.
Damn.
Quote from: "Jon"That's nowhere near as fun as your friend spilling alcohol all over your bookshelf, then insisting it can be mopped up, leaving no damage to the books. Some of them still smell slightly.
That's the poorest excuse I've heard for your house smelling like boozohol.
When people decide to reverse themselves, and view you as nothing but a source of their entertainment. A whole week of 'there will not be gaming' does not result in a positive when asked 'uh, right, can you show up ASAP and GM for four hours?' right as I'm about to head off for the evening. >_<
On the plus side, they used the messenger it is easiest to say no to.
And then they complain when I see them the next day.
>_>
You have lame gamers.
Dracos
I am going to go out on a limb here and pre-bitch about the patriots winning the super bowl.
I believe, Drac, that the proper combination of "lame" and "gamers" is "14m0rz."
Ungh. I didn't watch the bowl this year. For some reason, however, I've developed a yearning for bacon while typing this. And waffles. And of course I'm stuck in the house without any. ;_;
(Hundreds of years from now, when future generations or intelligent life-forms reading archives will ponder over the meaning of seemingly random and yet widely repeated punctuation patterns, such as ^_^ or o_o or ;_;)
The super bowl happened.
Fucking super bowl.
Fucking noisy people who watch the super bowl.
Dracos
SECONDED.
You lousy Americans. Rule Britannia =)
The superbowl rocks!
It was yesterday, right?
It was, even if it was a shitty game.
But hey, I'm sure the bad game didn't interfere with it being the excuse of many to get wasted, as well as to call in sick to work today.
Stupid superbowl.
Dracos
*shrug* My sometimes friend roots for the Eagles, so I was pleasently amused to see the Patriots win like that. Not that I suspected they wouldn't. But whatever. Now I have to call him up and taunt at him.
I'd be careful about that. Eagles fans have gone through hell to get this far, this defeat is far harder than any other they've had.
Just be wary of giant explosions and massive attacks from them. They aren't the most stable to begin with.
I've had to dodge explosions and attacks from Bruce before. I think I'll manage, but I'll be on my guard just in case.
In other news, do ya think you can save some of those puzzles for when the rest of the world is awake, Rak? I can't very well earn a cookie if they're handed out before I wake up. Thanks.
Wake up earlier. ^^
I managed to. Sadly, when he posts later I'm at college. Post earlier, dabnabit. >_<
*Kicks local internet service*
Blargh. Stop screwing around like that. Internet going down=very bad.
Double post, because today has really sucked. <_<
Work sucks. Check this out - I leave early one day and am off for the next two. Over the period of those three days, something doesn't get done. Whom does the supervisor blame and send a nasty letter to? Not the person who covered my shift Friday, or the person who worked the weekend! Oh no, it's the person who wasn't here and already is getting a lot of stupid flack that gets the nastygram!
It's getting to the point that the team leader on the shift, myself and two other people are openly talking about new jobs and where we're applying to. Oi.
Yay for business.
Dracos
Big business, small brains?
Heh, you should have seen the flack that I went though on Monday when I had jury duty.
Got a urgent phone call from a user who didn't call the help desk, called me directly. When I didn't respond (because I was at court), she went up the chain of command.
It ended with her making a fool of herself and me being the condesending nice guy. ^_^
Yeah.
Reality and the hatin'.
That's really all.
Dracos
If this semester got any more sucky, I would be ripping professors heads from their shoulders and embeding them in the wall. My ears are being violated by these wastes of FLESH! >_<
Dracos
Walk out of class, then. Get someone to tell you what work you need to do and olny show up to do it.
I had to walk out of my early morning class today because one of the screws popped out of my glasses. I swear glasses make you eye sight get worse. We have a huge projection screen and I couldn't even make out the freaking picture taking up most of it, let alone the text. There was no point in sticking around if I couldn't even see what was being discussed.
Had to go to Walgreens and purchase a new kit, only to find out the screw drivers are no longer magnetic. I wonder what genius decided to do that.
"Oh! Let's save money by not making the screwdriver magnetic anymore. I mean, it's not like they can't see the screw to put it in. Oh! And let's double the price as well! That should go over great!"
9_9
Don't walk out. It's character building being there. Listening to people who would serve the world better by suicide is a daily fact of life...
Three words: The substitute teacher.
TOTAL BITCH.
Pyoko won't connect. And Ana, post you! >_<
No wait, strike that. Today's subsitute.
COMPLETE UTTER BASTARD.
Ouch. Rough break with the sub.
On it, Panda. Finally.
When after just over a year of no trouble, you have a seizure at work.
Damnit.
Ick :\
Dracos
When your players REALLY wanna play D&D, but you tell them no since you're playing in another game, that you really don't like. And the only reason you're still in that game is it makes a friend happy.
And this is why we hit people like Jon.
With hammers.
Dracos
"Duh. I'm in this game I don't like!"
Ow ow ow not the hammers.
And, well, I'm just an optimistic sort of guy.
If we had a working, interactive, multi-user, online tactical map-thingy for 3rd ed, and could reliably meet on IRC (or some alternative; Huitzil was actually looking into this), I'd run a 3rd edition game at some point.
But there's not, damnit! (Thus making this post appropriate for the thread.)
I return from a successful battle with multiple exams only to find Ah! My Goddess TV licenced by Mediablasters.
There.
Is.
No.
Justice.
Life is trying to give me an ulcer by continuingly having 'good' things occur in rapidfire poorly timed and synchronized things.
Additionally, I hate greek.
Dracos
Fear sucks. =P
Dracos
Ways for a professor to make a day start off sucky: Trying to be sympathetic on how tired everyone should be while assigning three assignments.
Fuck him.
Dracos
Grawr. Proglang and it's tests which are twice as long and as hard as planned.
Dracos
Les Miserables makes it better though.
I'm going to bitch about the DMV.
1. For having an asshole driving tester who shouldn't be allowed to test people. The first time I failed on my own merits. The second time though the tester was a jerk going out of his way to make sure people failed. You don't yell at the people you're testing before they even turn on the car!
2. For having an annoyingly convoluted phone system that's constantly redirecting you back to the start. Finally I gave up on it for arranging appointments. I'll just go in person. Maybe the other DMVs are better but definately not the Whittier DMV.
Well, maybe I'm biased by the miami system, but I think they all suck pretty much equally.
It's all luck of the draw. Don't worry 'bout it. Enough tries get it. It's just a bit of suffering before you get onto the roads and can forget it.
Dracos
Yeah, I'm retaking my test for the permit because I failed the driving test three times. The first and third were my own fault(the first I was way too nervous as it was my first time and I f'd up, the 3rd I just lost two too many points) but I'm ticked about that 2nd fail.
And the general disorganization of the DMV annoys me probably because I'm a very organized invidual.
I failed the first time because I keep a light touch of the break. =) Just keep trying and driving. You'll get it eventually.
Dracos
Damn snow! Going to get 12 inches of the white stuff... it will be a pain to shovel tomorrow morning at 6am.
Grawr. I hear that's coming later tonight.
Dammit.
Dracos
Snow came.
Not quite as bad as they made it sound, but then again I haven't started shoveling yet... >_>
When you walk from your car to your dorm, longing for the warmth, since it's cold enough outside to be snowing. And you get to your dormroom to find that your roomie has flung the window open wide, and left the building. Thanks a lot, bastard.
You know, it's just great whenever it's become warm enough that the possibility of snow is nil, and you can walk outside without a jacket.
Wait, actually, it is. Nevermind. *Mocks the people who still have to deal with the cold.*
Quote from: "Zenthor"You know, it's just <i>great</i>
*Mocks the people who don't know how to use the
italics button on the Post page. Or the Preview button.*
*Mocks people who type slow enough that using the italics button saves time from normal typing. Tries to find something to mock for him not using the board code instead of html. Fails miserably.*
Oh well, at least I'm warm. Heh heh.
Quote from: "Zenthor"*Fails miserably.*
Indeed.
Quote from: "Zenthor"Oh well, at least I'm warm. Heh heh.
So am I. Now that I'm underneath
a metric ton of blankets.
Yeah, but I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Actually, it may be a bit too hot right now. I think I'll go get a glass of water to alleviate how hot it is in here without blankets.
I don't think you understand the appeal of a metric ton of blankets.
I don't think you don't understand the allure of being comfortable without being covered upby a metric ton of blankets.
Blankets are comfortable. Enough said. Back to on-topic:
When you start wondering why you're taking history courses at an expensive private liberal arts college, when your chosen career lies in computer networking and security. Roughly one mile of books have been written about Winston Churchill. Perhaps five inches of them are actually worth reading. Historiographies suck.
Well...
Why are you?
Dracos
Because I don't want to lose face by giving up.
I've read a proof in the book Zero (I think) that Winston Churchill is a carrot.
When you buy anime but don't have the time to watch it. Damn work...
Quote from: "Jon"Because I don't want to lose face by giving up.
Ah.
Punch the professor in the face.
Dracos
Quote from: "Ranma_007"When you buy anime but don't have the time to watch it. Damn work...
I know the feeling. I have, I think, 12 hours of anime on my hard drive that needs watching.
Only 12? o_O
I could marathon through a couple days without stopping and still wouldn't have caught up. And that after I just cleared up a lot of space by putting stuff on discs.
As you might guess, I eagerly await spring break. ^^
Aren't you on vacation though? =P
Dracos
Yes, twelve hours is pitiful. I have more like a week. More than 33 series people have given me copies of on dvd that I haven't got around to watching. Damnit.
JON LACKS ENTERTAINMENT!
=P
Dracos
Well, I did just say "on my hard drive". I have quite a bit more burned to cd.
Quote from: "Dracos"JON LACKS ENTERTAINMENT!
How can you say that when I've got people like you to laugh at?
JON LACKS PERSPECTIVE!
Dracos
I'd be happy just to have any anime on my hard drive, you large-hard-drive high-speed-internet-connection jerks.
What's that? I couldn't hear it over the hum of all that anime transferring.
Dracos
Quote from: "Dracos"JON LACKS PERSPECTIVE!
ITYM 'DISCIPLINE', THANKS.
JON LACKS <NOUN>!
Quote from: "baka-ken"JON LACKS <NOUN>!
Nah, laziness I have in abundence. And lack-of-tact. And gullibility. And mad Al Bhed skillz.
Mad Al Bhed skills? Dude, I have two bots that speak it... and one, I didn't even have to teach it... it just learned!
-Dan
Quote from: "odin"Mad Al Bhed skills? Dude, I have two bots that speak it... and one, I didn't even have to teach it... it just learned!
Yeah, and you also have an anime girl that bounces her chest for you. Dan, you gotta stop selling your soul to the devil.
Yeah, you're flooding the market. I can't even get a car in return for mine these days. >_<
Hey, I haven't sold my own yet. I just buy and sell those of others.
It's my *JOB*! :P
-Dan
You suck.
<Looks at your gloating post.>
Well, maybe not this month. o_O
AND he's got a supposedly extremely sexy girlfriend.
You have to admit, odin is doing quite well.
Well... non girlfriend.
We've been on three dates. Doesn't really qualify.
-Dan
I hate people who think tap water is enough for breakfast and lunch.
>_<
It's not that hard to buy something for lunch, is it, especially since I won't eat until 10 PM when I get off from work.
Depends on if they can afford to buy lunch...
How about... people who nag and reproach you, without even trying to find out what the problem. Even when there *is* no problem, they still get on your case. When you try to complain or whatever, they get upset and call your counselor: "I think we may need to fire her, she's doing unsatisfactory work... blah blah blah..."
heLLO. I'm the only one actually doing any work. The other helper just puts up a small handful of books and goes to the computer for the rest of the period to look at her e-mail and whatnot. And is the teacher saying anything to HER? Noooooo....
(Only a few more weeks left.... just a few more....just a few more....)
QuoteYou have to admit, odin is doing quite well.
Yeah, but I bet the whole "one eye" thing gets in the way every now and then.
Only if you're not in to eye patches.
-Dan
When you've worked hard all bloody weekend, and then Monday rolls around, and you realize... "Damn, I didn't get to do laundry this weekend! What am I going to wear tomorrow?!?"
When the mantra: "One can still go far when one is tired" sounds like a cheerful song.
First playable today. Two tests. Four assignments. And a lambda-calculus interpretator in a language that has never failed to struggle hard against my every attempt to mess with it. And I do have to prove again why I get paid and take a flight.
Good Mondays.
Dracos
When you work 12 hours, and you have to drive 5 hours tomorrow cause the local tech is sick.
And then you have to drive another 5 hours on Wednesday cause you are drafted to train the new guy.
Damn it.
You know what I hate? People who walk on the wrong side of the hallway.
I live in America. I dunno about England or Australia, but here we walk on the RIGHT SIDE, dammit. I'm tired of bumping into people when I go around corners because they're walking on the wrong side. And when I do, they usually look at me like it's my fault.
So if any of you frequently walk on the wrong side of the hallway, please consider that you are commiting a crime against humanity. Thank you.
Damn, I seem to be posting to this topic a lot, considering my lurker status.
*goes to request a day off for vacation*
-007
Grawr.
that is all.
Dracos
read subtext.
Is there enough bitching yet?
Quote from: "Dracos"Grawr.
that is all.
Dracos
read subtext.
/signed, as they say.
There's not nearly enough bitching.
Suffice to say, a incident happened last night that showed me who my real friends are.
To those who participated in said incident, I say this. You motherfuckers.
I shall now relax with tea and chili. Mmmm, chili.
I downloaded and burned a large file onto a CD. When I got home, it WASN'T $?%&-ING ON THERE.
Grrrraaar.
I don't want to be at university next term, doing what I'm doing now - it's not in my best interests, unless my best interests involve getting massively depressed.
In a few hours, I'm going to try and convince my tutor of this.
Hmm.
My roomate has now been missing for a while. He was supposed to be back from Baltimore on Wednesday night.
It's not unusual for him to vanish for literally weeks on end without notice.
All the bills default to me.
Who can't afford a new laptop this month after bills. -_-
If he was supposed to be back from Baltimore but isn't, he's probably dead :p
It's that or syphilis. Wait, we're not #1 in that anymore. Nevermind. Maybe he's just still stuck in traffic. That happens too.
If my roomate is dead, he's instructed me on the process to claim his income, and he left his car (and keys) behind.
I'm actually worried that because I have this info, that if something DOES happen to him, I'm immediately going to be a suspect.
I'm calling the police.
And I'm placing you under citizen's arrest until they show up at your house, wherever the heck that may be.
Needless to say, it may take a while.
Gah! Mixed up the due dates to two reports. The LONG one is due today, the short one two days later. >_<
Gah! Migraine ate all of my Sunday afternoon. Aspirin.... Failed.
Father bothing me to DO things while a rush through this report.
Father downloaded a casino program onto my computer without asking. I suspect I'll have to burn the HDD with fire to remove it.
Gah! I hate today! >_<
www.lavasoft.com
See if you're clean.
I needed to see my tutor this morning to speak to him about leaving university now and returning on a different course.
He's not here.
When the damn University advisor insists on giving you classes that you ALREADY HAVE THE CREDITS FOR.
And this is why I do my own schedule planning.
Your university advisor can read?
Dracos
Good one.
Roll for doing a far more complex assignment then need apparently.
Dracos
I am receiving a lecture on the greatness of Java.
There is no loving god in this universe.
Dracos
Shiavo gets huge media coverage while findings that US intel were almost completely wrong about all their information going into Iraq gets a few seconds on the ticker tape.
My supervisor is quitting.
Time to work on my resume.
When you save the company 30k+, and all you get is a email saying thank you.
Bah.
I totaled my car last Friday driving home from Reno.
Ouch. Good luck with the car. I feel your pain.
Man, I'd heard how badly 4kids butchered OnePiece, but I couldn't believe the rumors. There was just no way it was THAT bad.
. . .
Yeah, I was really, REALLY wrong. -_-
"When he wakes up, someone tell him it was a cap gun." - WTF?!
Wait, what scene was that? o-o;
Luffy's flashback. When thpirates finally decided to get serious with the mountain bandits/rangers/whatever the hell they were. You know, the head shot that came out of nowhere. I believe they edited a cork onto the end of the bandit's gun and then, once he was shot by the fat pirate, the Straw Hat guy said, and I quote. "When he wakes up, someone tell him it was a cap gun."
I, like any sain person, just went "WTF?!" and decided never to watch this crap again. I thought the HK subs were bad, but at least they tried. o_O
Salsa.
Dracos
It's about time I actually bitched in here...
And it's a bitch about the weather!
It has been raining, sleeting, and *snowing* for the last two weeks. It was supposed to be somewhat decent today so Lin and I made plans to go for a ride, but of course the heavens decided to pour more inclement weather down upon us!
The annoying part is I've been trying to find more time to spend with her, but it just isn't happening. All I've seen of her lately has been at the bar with tons of other people around.
Thus ends my bitching.
-Dan
My time to bitch.
A whole bunch of my stuff was lost, including the 500+ mp3s and fanfiction I wrote.
I shall now angst.
There's no longer enough bitching. I'll start us off, shall I? My dad should stop bitching at me about every little thing, especially the state of our family's finiances, after he gets a sodding job, or at least starts applying for them. I leave for work at 6:45 am and get home at about 7:20pm. When he's doing the same, then he can yell at me to "put the fucking dishes away in the morning".
It is time for me to train another. Baka-ken, come with me and learn mastery of Scullery-fu!
Quote from: "baka-ken"There's no longer enough bitching. I'll start us off, shall I? My dad should stop bitching at me about every little thing, especially the state of our family's finiances, after he gets a sodding job, or at least starts applying for them. I leave for work at 6:45 am and get home at about 7:20pm. When he's doing the same, then he can yell at me to "put the fucking dishes away in the morning".
Ewww....
Dracos
2 6-page papers due tonight.
Damnit.
I got that Drpmon.dll, aurora crap in a bad torrent.
This thing is being quite the bitch to get rid off, aw well. None of my normal methods and protect have worked so far so its off to the forums!
. . .
I hope people who make viri burn in a special section of hell. -_-
They don't. The politicians have to share space with them.
Dracos
La la la la la trains.
I love trains.
I left work four hours ago. I just got home. Wee~~~~~~
Hot.
It is very hot outside.
This is the perfect weather for jumping in the pool.
Just set up the pool a week ago.
The water temperature is perfect.
However, the outlet for the filter went bust. >_<
My name is Getzeye Dragon.
Or Getzeye.
Or more importantly Getz.
I've had this nick for years.
There is a car also called Getz.
It is made by Hyundai.
Now. Where the heck is my bling bling?
CUT THEM!
Quote from: "Getzeye"Now. Where the heck is my bling bling?
Seek out the one toed man. Ask him where the chicken ribbits. He will then give you a map in swahili. Learn it, translate it, and the location of your "bling-bling" shall be revealed! @_@
Sincerely,
Shuten
Quote from: "Shuten"
Seek out the one toed man. Ask him where the chicken ribbits. He will then give you a map in swahili. Learn it, translate it, and the location of your "bling-bling" shall be revealed! @_@
Sincerely,
Shuten
So basically a man with one toe knows about chicken ribbits, has a map in swahili that will show me where Hyundai has stashed the money they owe me for using my nick for one of their cars? o.O; wtf?
And i cannot remember if i have played Guilty Gear. @.@
Getz,
Exactly! @_@
Now go forth Cabbit and reclaim what is rightfully yours! The corrupt Hyundai Empire must be brought to heel! @_@
Sincerely,
Shuten
Grandmother had another heart attack. Spent the week driving back and forth from Memphis to Peoria. That's a 7 hour trip, one way. And now I have some 300+ posts to catch up with.
Ouch. Hope she's okay.
Shit fucking happening while I am out of town. Hum, I need to move into good teacher language mode now too, bleh.
Dracos
Trying to put the door to your room back on. Having the door close without a doorknob in it. Getting someone outside to pick up the doorknob and put it back on. Having the latch fail to engage, thus rendering the doorknob useless. Taking off the hinges. Door will still not budge. Going out the rarely-used porch door after clearing a path to said door. Knocking in the door from the outside. The whole ordeal took at least an hour and a quarter.
So, today is almost a total waste due to computer crashes, yay.
Dracos
School starts too quick.
BLEH.
Dracos
Completely screwed up on a phone screen for a possible interview....
Even after passing 2 actuary exams I find a way to mess things up -_-
How'd you do that?
Dracos
Ended up being asked questions that I didn't expect/wasn't prepared for.
They finally cut off my webspace at OU. Thankfully, I was somewhat expecting it so I did a backup of everything on there before it went down, but I'm still gonna miss having 204 MB of free webspace with unlimited use uploading and downloading. ;_;
*pats merc* I'd say you could move over here, but we haven't really set that stuff up yet.
Dracos
*sneezes*
I still haven't finished my capstone.
Curse my own laziness. X_X
Dracos
$50 overdraft because one of the stores I shop at didn't bother to pull the money from the bank for two days. When I checked my account during those days it showed me with far more money than I actually had, so I bought school books. Add to that a $28 dollar overdraft change and, well, crap.
Double crap, even, as next week's check is going to go something like $130 (insurance) + $20 weekly rent + $30+ for this goddamned gas. Add to that the fact that school is back in, I work at night, and I have early classes in the morning...
Eww. :\ Gluck, panda.
I actually have to like do things today.
No, I don't really have anything worth bitching about. Life has been good to me.
Dracos
Meanders. Stupid class.
Now it is time for stupid fucking bitch professor theater.
Today's topic, the usefulness, or lack thereof of UML.
We had some winner quotes. I give exercepts from my notes!
"Is it possible to build a tool that reverse engineers the class diagram exactly?"
"no."
-Whoops, isn't that a nice tool!
"Java syntax is simpler". - Fuck you.
" in class station (C++) : List<Link*> _link;
in class station (java): hashSet _links; problem, it can't actually figure out what it is."
What was wrong with this? Well, java fixed this in its most recent version. But besides java sucking, the professor was obsessed with ignoring the fact that it was no longer a consideration.
"What IS UML?"
Notes:Ooh. She can't answer the question. It's a graphic model to model objects. This is prime stuff! It's the UML math model. It has a constraint language that is used to define constraints. The main language is a graphics model. Truly, great stuff. It isn't a well defined language.
"Messages and Sequence number
We take objects and then number the messages that go between them. Wow, this is absolutely brilliant. Seriously, this is sort of self-evident. If you used this on even our renzi program, you'd get several thousand of these."
This was followed up by me asking if she'd ever used these things on any project.
"Have you ever used them for anything?"
"Only for this class."
PaulZacz (4:59:33 PM): This seems to be a class called, "let's bash the professor on her material"
"A&D of Sequence diagrams versus collaboration diagrams?
Dead silence. I love it."
On UML as a 'language':
"Hopefully they'll stop changing it"
I hope to make this a twice a week feature assuming there is enough material each class.
Mmm, I guess I should organize the quotes more.
Highly amusing, Dracos.
In other news, I have four papers to write and a Java applet, which will take appromixatly 8 hours. There goes my weekend. Damnit.
Oh yeah, resting heart rate = 112. Going to go see a cardiologist at some point soon.
Good luck, 007.
Dracos
At my new desk on floor 20 of the Metro Tower. 21 is the top floor.
o_o
I think I got paid, if so, my life is officially on the upswing. Won't know until I can see how much is left after the direct deposit went through.
Rock out, ohki. May wealth come thy way.
Dracos
I didn't get paid. I should get monies between Saturday and The End of Time. Maybe.
Bastids.
Also, fire alarms are inherently MUCH SCARIER on the 20th floor. Fuck whoever said 'leave your personal possessions behind'. My laptop and fanfics are coming with me. o_o
Quote from: "Brian"
Also, fire alarms are inherently MUCH SCARIER on the 20th floor. Fuck whoever said 'leave your personal possessions behind'. My laptop and fanfics are coming with me. o_o
Duh.
Downside:
I ran around today like a maniac. I walked at least five-ten miles, going all the way down into the city and back a couple of times X_X. I was given the runaround with my pay checks. I had to fill out crap last minute for my job.
Upside:
Project Pirates has been re-GreenLighted.
Glee.
Dracos
Did you walk, or run? There's a difference ;p
Walk. up 5000 stairs. @_@
DIE KWOK!
This room is chilly. X_X
Dracos
If you have a moron in your family that believes 8 AM is a proper time for a family gathering, shoot them.
>_<
Thunder carries quite well above buildings. Lightning sure is visible, too. Sometimes you just see the rain around the building light up when it gets struck with lightning.
o_o
I get to walk home in this crap.
Ewww.
Have an umbrella at least?
Dracos
Mouse not working, tower emitting little beeps, large numbers of errors, computer with about 1 motherboard with its socket on the general market (and that wouldl require new RAM, new PSU, and probably a new case just because this one's a bitch), transferring 28 gigs onto the laptop, missing class because I have to take care of this before it gets worse.
I'm having fun, how'bout everyone else?
Rita.
Category 5.
Houston bad.
Austin to Dallas...
..no Hotels.
G'luck, Merc. :/
Sony's lettin' people go (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/22/AR2005092200433.html).
As they say, "Last one hired, first one fired." I wonder how long I'm gonna be here. o_o
Quote from: "MercForHire"Rita.
Category 5.
Houston bad.
Austin to Dallas...
..no Hotels.
And now you get stuck with Haru the Giant ^_^
Nah, the hotel ended up having some people cancel once the evacuation notices for Houston disappeared. Still an inland hurricane watch so a lot of people are still leaving, but we managed to get to stick around in the hotel. Hal's still awesome though for offering.
DANG ...
Those bastards cut off my power... and it's wasn't my fault this time!
So I lost everything for a day or so... ick.
-J
Ow. I slammed my leg on a slab of rock. I got about 13 stitches, and I can't let it get wet for two weeks.
Moving over, yay.
But: new apartment is FULL of bugs. Not so yay. Must whip apartment complex.
I retract my bitching about the English teacher making us write those essays.
That is all.
Lovely. I can't get MW2:Mercs to work. It's too old.
Dracos
Quote from: "Dracos"Lovely. I can't get MW2:Mercs to work. It's too old.
Dracos
Instructions I found a while back that may be helpful.
QuoteOkay here we go. These instructions assume you have a version 1.0 CD-ROM of the game and Windows 2k/XP. If you have the 1.1 version - skip the patching portion of the process:
1) Create shortcut to command.com on your desktop.
2) Under the Properties for this shortcut set the EMS, XMS, and DPMI memory values to 12 megs.
3) Apply the changes to the shortcut
4) Double click on the MS-DOS Prompt (command.com) shortcut
5) Place Mechwarrior 2 CD into your drive.
6) Navigate to the drive containing the MW2 CD in the command window
7) Execute minst.exe (NT may complain - if so click "Ignore" and then hit "F" for fail until things work)
Install the game to c:\mech2
9) Manually set up the soundcards (0x330 General Midi, 0x220 IRQ 7 DMA 1 Soundblaster non-pro non-16)
10) Choose a full-blown installation.
****** Note if you have the 1.1 CD-ROM version you can skip the next three steps ******
11) Once installed download the 1.1 patch from: http://www.boonic.com/parches/index.php?download=pres&cat=m
12) Using the command prompt execute the patch by typing mech2v11.exe
13) Start the patch process by executing "patch.bat c:\mech2" in the command window.
14) Download the zip archive I've created containing the cracked versions of mw2.exe and mech2.exe using the following URL: http://www.jaylittle.com/jaylittle/downloads/mech2_1.1_crack.zip
15) Extract these files into your MECH2 installation directory.
16) Download DOSBox 0.61 from http://dosbox.sourceforge.net
17) Install the program and setup your config file using a text editor.
1 Execute dosbox.exe
19) Mount the "C" drive by typing the following command: "mount c c:\"
20) Type "C:"
21) Type "cd Mech2"
22) Type "Mech2"
23) Use CTRL-F11 to lower emulation speed and CTRL-F12 to heighten emulation speed.
24) Use CTRL-F10 to get your mouse back after Dosbox steals it away.
25) Use ALT-ENTER to make DosBox Fullscreen.
Yeah, the dosbox method. I concluded that was the way as well, but been too lazy to set it up.
Thanks anyway though.
Dracos
The Universe is inducing a state of apathy in me as of late. Not really bitching, but eh.
ARGH...
My mind is leaking out my ears.
Dracos
This class on software engineering is reaching ridiculous levels of being horrible.
And dammit, the professor needs to take a course on public speaking. Um is every fifth word X_X
Dracos
Software engineering will drive me to kill.
Or bite someone's neck.
Stupid professor.
20 minutes of java advertisements. WHOLLY UNNECESSARY @_@
Dracos
It's raining, just like it has been the previous seven days. On the second day, my wallet bled. On the third day, a friend got punched by a bouncer and received a concussion because he didn't want to give up his jacket after we LEFT the stupid bar. On the fourth day, I got sick. On the fifth day, my cell got cut off because im a dufos and instead of sending one bill with all charges, they send monthy bills that, that only denote the most recent month, not today charges. The total charges comes seperately and I didn't open it because I already received a monthly bill. On the other days(first, sixth, seventh), I got wet. WET! Today, on the supposedly last day, I have to wear a suit for a meeting. Can't find my belt. I forgot I lost my trenchcoat so I either have to wear nothing, or my winter coat.
I've gotten sick from all the rain.
Bleegh.
Dracos
My computer has died. I need a new harddrive >.<
It's not often I can honestly say it would have been quicker to walk than taking the train.
In fact, today is the first day I can say that.
Quote from: "StormDragon"My computer has died. I need a new harddrive >.<
The yaoi killed your HD, obviously ^_^
Quote from: "Ebiris"It's not often I can honestly say it would have been quicker to walk than taking the train.
In fact, today is the first day I can say that.
What happened? ^_^;
Quote from: "Kwokinator"What happened? ^_^;
A timeline of disaster!
1730 - I leave work.
1740 - I arrive at train station. My train is delayed.
1749 - Train arrives. I board and we depart for Edinburgh.
1803 - Arrive at Edinburgh Waverly. I get off train 1 and run madly across the station to catch train 2.
1805 - I board train 2 just before it departs. No seats left, so I stand in the vestibule. Which is okay, since it's just a short journey.
1820 - Train stops. Not particularly unusual. Besides, I have my portable video/mp3 player to keep me entertained.
1845 - Train driver makes an announcement. He kinda whispers really quietly, though. From what I gather there's something wrong with the rear carriage.
1900 - Further announcement. They can't fix whatever's wrong, so they call out an engineer.
1945 - Engineer arrives, apparently. He might have arrived sooner, I wasn't paying particular attention at this point, and the announcements were really quiet, as if the driver was sorely ashamed of himself or something.
2130 - Batteries run out on my video/mp3 player.
2200 - Customer service guy who apparently boarded the train sometime after the engineer makes an announcement. They can't fix it, so the train will move forward at walking pace to the next level crossing (a mile and a half away, he says)where we will disembark and get buses to our destinations. Much angst from passengers travelling down to Southern England.
2300 - Train reaches level crossing. Ooooh! There's a fire engine and an ambulance! Exciting!
2310 - I disembark train. At least it's a nice night. Can see so many stars in the sky, out in the middle of nowhere. The buses are waiting for us, so I get on the one for Dunbar.
2345 - Bus departs.
0010 - Bus arrives at Dunbar train station.
0015 - I arrive home!
To put things in perspective, the level crossing we stopped at is about 7 miles from my home.
That's sad ^_^;
That's almost as bad as some of the traffic jams I've had in Hong Kong, but made infinitely worse by having this experience on a train instead of a bus ^_^;
I miss my computer. *sob*
I think she's going through withdrawal.
We better get her a software patch to cure her addiction.
We feel your pain, Storm, and miss ye.
mmm, I'm seeing someone going over the probability models of queueing techniques that haven't seen use in TWENTY YEARS.
@_@
Dracos
My grandfather's funeral took up my Friday (wake) and Saturday. Sunday I go to work, and only five people in my area including myself have come to work. My area ususally has about 12 people in it on a Sunday. Of course, we get hit by a huge load. Got home Sunday only to have the worst headache I've had in months. Monday came. Only then did it sink in that I had four major tests in the course of 3 days. Starting Monday morning. For which I have not been able to study.
Joy.
Ow. Bad Fortune :\
Dracos
Tomorrow's the 12th.
I thought it was the 11th.
I take the GRE CS on the 12th.
I curse time.
X_X
Dracos
No reply back from the UPS place. Bleh.
Dracos
Good news: Just got a Dreamcast.
Bad news: It came with the wrong set of cables.
This should be fixed in a couple of hours at least...
And in other news, just ordered Mario Kart DS from Amazon... which has it slated to be shipped around January 21 o_O
o_O
Weird.
Dracos
I have aquired a list of Distractionary Power for use in Las Vegas.
I suspect the entire experience to be overshadowed by the fact that I'll be wandering the city that Sterling died in.
Go vacation.
Damnit.
Aside: How the hell did I become such a slacker? I've got nearly 1 MB of C&C to reply to.
Holy hell, that storm was bad. Now we get 30 degree temperature to cap it all off.
I have been dragged away from DQ8 for class.
Meanwhile I almost aced the Software Engineering quiz.
Dracos
It has gotten cold.
I hate cold.
Dracos
Despite working every day for the past 4 weeks, I still have work to do over Thanksgiving break.
And not just one assignment, but 3. Not just papers, but presentations as well.
In front of the whole department.
>_<
P.S. Cold sucks.
I found out today that I apparently shipped my hard drive to WDs corporate office instead of their repair place. I really should not do these things when I'm feeling meh, rush requirement or not. Anyhow, poked customer service, maybe they'll be nice.
meh.
Dracos
Break technically doesn't start until Thursday, but all my Wednesday teachers have mysteriously found doctor appointments and the like popping up left and right and 'Oh, I guess we'll put off the exam until after Thanksgiving. Teehee.'
Really, you'd think they were high school students.
Quote from: "thepanda"Break technically doesn't start until Thursday, but all my Wednesday teachers have mysteriously found doctor appointments and the like popping up left and right and 'Oh, I guess we'll put off the exam until after Thanksgiving. Teehee.'
Really, you'd think they were high school students.
This thread isn't "there's not enough bragging" ;p
Quote from: "Kwokinator"This thread isn't "there's not enough bragging" ;p
Yes, Kwok,. because nmothing says 'enjoy your vaction' like the knowledge that you have two exams, a presentation, and a crapload of homework due on the first day back. -_-
*pat pats*
C'est la vie. :/
Mmm, day long. Flight longer.
Flying is a 9 to 5 job.
Dracos
yay for 2 hours airborne.
Essay to write on the ageing crisis in Japan.
Don't really care about ageing crises anywhere.
Meh.
Database homework due on Thanksgiving.
I've got a ton of cleaning I need to do. Woo! This is my 200th post!
I desire irony.
Congrats on 200 posts. :)
Dracos
I forgot to pick up the slime controller Tuesday.
The store was only supposed to get like two in.
... Here's hoping there is still one left tomorrow. ;_;
I get the distinct feeling that after the next couple weeks, I'm going to need something hard to drink.
I'm getting that same feeling. Share some details, Zenny? :p
I bombed my take home test worst than I did the last test I took at school but wasn'tready for.
God, another semester of calc, here I come. -_-
Oh, gah. Sympathycount++? :/
I loathe me the maths, so I can commiserate.
I've magically found I have over ten projects to work on by tuesday.
My mind explodes at this concept.
I found I have been volunteered to present one of these projects on monday at the very start of the presentation schedule. I suspect that my end of course evaluation of this specific professor will be the stuff of legend. I wonder if I can get a pen that uses blood as ink.
Finished one today in an eight hour coding rush during class. Let's see how the others go~
Dracos
Quote from: "Brian"I'm getting that same feeling. Share some details, Zenny? :p
I'm apparently worthless with absolutely no skills that will prove useful sometime in my life. That's reason enough to drink.
Quote from: "Zenthor"I'm apparently worthless with absolutely no skills that will prove useful sometime in my life. That's reason enough to drink.
I'll drink to that! I've got no skills either, that's why I work in tech support. :3
I commute 5 hours a day to/from work, and really, my entire life is pretty much work, commute, sleep. I watch an hour and a half of television a day, three-four on Fridays (hello Mr. Letterman!). On weekends, if I can, I go visit my friends and game. Did I mention I'm 3k in debt and have been forced to move in with my parents? They throw me out onto the streets the day after New Years.
Heh. Nothing like someone else's misery to put things into perspective. Man, you can have the drink. Hell, I'll mail it to you overnight. You need it far more than I do.
Tomorrow is hell day.
Dracos
<Carthrat> shit.
<Makoto> ?
<Carthrat> My sister and her boyfriend are going to be moving back home for a month or something while they get their travel plans in order.
<Makoto> ouch.
<Carthrat> Or, rather, *just her boyfriend is* while she goes to India. o-o
<Makoto> ...
<Carthrat> The plan, which I just discovered.
<Makoto> o.O
<Carthrat> IS that he will be sleeping in my room.
<Carthrat> And while he is a great guy and I have nothing against him.
<Makoto> Wow.
<Carthrat> My room is *mine*. >_<
* Makoto nods.
<Carthrat> The only place in the world where everything is how I want it.
<Ranma007> Dude. That sucks. Royally.
<Carthrat> Ugh.
<Dracos> ...
<Dracos> You poor man.
<Dracos> That totally sucks.
<Dracos> No guest room to stick him in?
<Carthrat> See.
<Carthrat> There's a funny story about that.
<Dracos> Like the basement you just dug that's convienently six feet under?
<Carthrat> We were in the process of shuffling rooms.
<Carthrat> And I thought my younger sister would have her room, my sister and her bf would have theirs, and I'd get the current guest room;.
<Carthrat> But because someone died and we have this sudden influx of furniture, well, the entire house is cluttered to the nines.
<Carthrat> And my sister will be bringing *her* furniture back.
<Dracos> o_O
<Dracos> O_o
<Carthrat> So the guest room is kind of packed, as is the rest of the house.
<Carthrat> And I don't actually want to give it away because I want to take some of the stuff with me when *I* move out.
<Carthrat> So I'm stuck. I don't really want to move out just yet but I value my privacy enough that it looks attractive. >_>
<Ranma007> That should go in the there's not enough bitching thread, C-rat
<Carthrat> You post it for me, I'm too lazy to type it out again. :)
In separate and unrelated incidents that occured on the same weekend:
I twisted my ankle.
My laptop died.
I got fired.
And the Raiders lost (damnit).
Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?
Sorry to hear that, Brian.
Well, except for the bit about the Raiders. ^_^
Ouch. That's.. shitty. Sorry to hear it, Brian.
Quote from: "Brian"In separate and unrelated incidents that occured on the same weekend:
I twisted my ankle.
My laptop died.
I got fired.
And the Raiders lost (damnit).
Well, at least you don't have 5-hour commutes anymore ^_^
More importantly, I also get back to school. My laptop again lives (Oyez! Oyez! Mobile Ohki is dead! Long live Portable Ohki! Oyez! Oyez!).
My ankle may not be twisted, it may be slightly fractured, because the swelling has not significantly decreased.
Also, the Raiders lost their playoff chances last game, but in better news, may be giving Tui a shot to play QB for the rest of the season (what do they really have to lose at this point?).
Positive thinking. Now to stop being a week behind in my e-mails/other replies.... -_-;;;
Sneezing sucks.
Sinus cold without sneezing still sucks.
Dracos
Driving to Richmond and back to help out lil' sister who screwed up her plane tickets.
Then realizing you shouldn't stay up till 2 am being the postking while writing random articles up the night of :)
Dracos
There is no way to make widescreen internet surfing not look shitty. It bloody makes everything look odd.
Dracos
Drac: My screen resolution is 1280x768. Try finding wallpapers for that.
I'd do 1280x800, but it makes everything look really crappy.
13 hour drive to Harpers Ferry...
... Yeah, I think I'll be looking into flight plans. >_>
Quote from: "Dracos"There is no way to make widescreen internet surfing not look shitty. It bloody makes everything look odd.
Dracos
Feh. Give Sailor Chibi-Photoshop your wallpaper, and it can be resized....
I've said ...nothing about the wallpaper. =)
I meant that most sites just aren't even remmotely designed to stretch out.
At least the forums do so passably.
Dracos
Everyone is too damn quiet.
Dracos
Looking at statistics that indicate a 0 average job completion for my dev team -_-
Dracos
Quote from: "Dracos"Looking at statistics that indicate a 0 average job completion for my dev team -_-
Dracos
You didn't take the people who work for me, did you?
Not as far as I know.
Dracos
grawr, tiresome.
Dracos
I have three major tests this week. One is in the EARLY morning tomorrow and I only just recieved the text book (finally) a few minutes ago in the mail. ;_;
Oh god, I'm gonna play catchup all year again. ;_;
Also, the other two test? I got their books last week and the week before. Its like the more important the test the longer I had to go without a book.
Eww.
No asking for an extension?
Dracos
Man, it's quiet on the otik board lately.
Dracos
Wow. Just finished the test. Totally bombed it. I doubt I managed 15%. The really sad thing? The test wasn't very hard.
So why did I bomb it?
Its the way the teacher lectures. Personally, I love his style. Basically you're expected to actually read the material before/after the lecture, while he outlines what you need to focus on in the lecture. The only problem is that without a book you miss all the important stuff.
And, yeah, ALL the boards are quiet lately.
Ew. :\ That sucks.
You really should talk to the professor about it.
Dracos
For those that have not heard, I am crushed under a lot of work right now. !_!
Games I am running are paused for the week.
Dracos
The american workforce is stupid.
Is it so hard a concept that if you want a raise, if you want to get promoted, bitching about what the company isn't doing for you, is not a productive way to go about it. Especially when you only perform your job to an average level. If management only thinks of you as a cog, you are a cog, doesn't matter how much you think of yourself.
Some kids here don't think there is enough training. Did it ever occur that there are volumes of books available that explain what we do. Go Read.
Wait, spending time learning your field, blasthomy.
That's nothing.
There was a guy at the store I recently transferred to. He was constantly asking for a raise and a promotion, but he wasn't performing on an average level. He wasn't even performing on a mediocre level. Fortunately, he accumulated enough writeups to be let go two days before I would have had to deal with him.
This crunch never ends ;_; The artists still haven't finished level 1.
Dracos
Wants to snore a few hours.
So i did that presentation.
We got a request for significant amounts more documentation, chewed out by the local game dev ceo for our system being 'unproductive', an indication of regular 'development progress' meetings, another interim meeting to be held in a month, and the musician didn't show up. Additionally, I have to get the others to share the presentation load. These being people that do not like to present and instead far prefer (and are better at) simply getting their work done right.
I want to strangle the musician. -_-
Dracos
Bitch, bitch, bitch.
Grarh!!! I seem to be unable to log onto any IRC server whatsoever all of a sudden. Anything -other- than IRC seems to work fine, though. I was in the middle of starting Bloody Fields gaming when I got kicked off and found myself unable to relog on. I thought it was just peer, but I can't log onto any other server either! >_<
Eww.
Tried sending it through other ports?
Or using the java client?
Shit, I didn't see this until midway through. Ok, no problem, then.
Yeah, I've tried the java and other ports. I don't really understand what the problem is. I -still- can't log on, and I'm trying all I can think of. =/
And really sorry, Rat. I actually went to sleep at a decent time yesterday and was fully awake when we started, but then just peered after Thaeos' action and couldn't relog on. >_<
What about the router? Has anyone been fiddling with settings or internet controlling software? Barring that, have you tried calling your internet provider?
grawr, headache horrible.
@_@
Dracos
Too damn tired to do homework. I frickin need to do the homework, but I frickin need to sleep too.
Damn.
Flat broke. In game and in RL.
Need a new job. In game and in RL.
Gah.
>.<
mmm, soreness sucks.
Dracos
Headaches also suck.
Dracos
CAPTAIN ObVIOUS STRIKES AGAIN
Have evil space flu/cold/fever/plague. Coughed up blood this morning (damnit). Takes so long to recover.... -_-
My modem tanked and I have no way of knowing when it'll be back online.
Net cafe for the win~
The internet is asleep.
Mmm.
Dracos
"Hi, we'll be presenting at X, will that be acceptable for when to review our project?"
"Sure. Invite other professors."
"..."
"Oh, by the way, did you realize your presentation would be running in parallel to X?"
*looks at email from himself appended to said followup*
"No. How could I have ever realized such."
I really need a god damn break from bureaucracy. It's fuckin' eating my soul. All of this is meanwhilee being pasted to miss bitch who will, inevitably tear us a new one on THINGS I ALRREADY KNOW!
Dracos
The first week of summer vacation begins and my brother runs off with the PS2. >_<
And I just bought Kingdom Hearts. ;_;
Kill him and take his stuff, Panda.
My favorite online java game is missing?! Since my company restricts the use of .exe on my computer, what am I supposed to do during the day?! Work? What cr*p is this!
WTF Grandia 3? Why? You have so much going for you. Why must the voice acting and story go to shit on the second disc? I mean it actually hurts me inside to play you. I should have beaten the game earlier this week, but its become a Hurculean task. Like cleaning the stables. Kingdom Hearts wants me to play it, but nooooo, you just gotta go be a bith about it.
Gah. >_<
Yeah, I heard such. So I didn't give them any money, despite how cool I heard their battle system was.
Consistency or nothing!
Dracos
Quote from: "thepanda"WTF Grandia 3? Why? You have so much going for you. Why must the voice acting and story go to shit on the second disc?
Because it's a Grandia game?
Sore arms suck.
Mmm, and being behind does too =p
Dracos
Being poor sucks. Also, mom's connection keeps spazzing so I haven't been able to get into IRC for a while.
I miss the long boring periods of silence interrupted by a few seconds of complete randomness ;.;
*le sob*
I guess I could contribute to the bitching by whining about my roomie :D
The day before I left for Japan, I spent the day with my travelling companion (rathany), and we shopped around for last-minute important stuff. Point being, I was Not At Home.
My roommate called me THREE times that day, because he couldn't get the Internet to work. I told him a few things to do and then told him to call comcast if they didn't work. I didn't hear back again, so I assumed that this had done the trick.
I got back from Japan to find the two-week-old corpse of my Internet, still defunct. My roommate said he'd called Comcast, but that they wanted him to (gasp) go through the router settings. He didn't want to do that while I wasn't there, because lord knows he doesn't know anything about how routers work. And obviously, the Comcast guy he was ACTIVELY ON THE PHONE WITH wouldn't have been able to help him out if something went wrong, RIGHT? I mean, it's not like that's what they're THERE for or anything, you know?
So. I called Comcast and over a 30+ minute call (with only 5 mins on hold, for what that's worth) we determined that it was a problem that could not be fixed via one non-expert and one tier-one-level tech support guy over the phone. So I scheduled for a comcast guy to come in the next day (which is today).
Comcast guy showed up EARLY, of all things, but that was okay since I'd actually managed to wake up and get showered (at 1pm, yay jetlag).
He was still there at 4:30pm. We had determined that my router wouldn't work. His replacement router wouldn't work. He even had another coworker bring a THIRD router out to Forest Grove (it's a ways) to ensure that these routers were NOT working. He'd found a problem in the cablebox outside, but even after fixing that none of the routers worked.
So now another comcast guy is coming tomorrow to try a non-Linksys router (apparently Linksys did something that's fucking up a lot of their routers, thanks to a signal they sent out to upgrade stuff or something? It sounds a little sketchy to me, but for once I actually felt like our tech guy knew what he was talking about, or at least like he thought he did).
And my roommate, apparently, is too much of a weenie to have gotten any of this done while I was gone. Because he's brilliant like that.
But the best part of all of this?
He was supposed to be moved out a WEEK before I got back. He's paying rent for this month either way, so it's not a big deal that he's still here. But I was NOT expecting to see his car in the lot when I got home, or boxes of his crap in the living room downstairs.
The current plan is that his dad is sending up a moving van and movers to haul his crap down to southern california, and he himself is flying down. But he's not sure when. Probably the 10th. But it could be the 11th. As in, 2-3 days from now, and he's not sure.
...I can't help but feel like the fact that this guy got a degree cheapens mine. -_-
Hit him with a pipe?
Dracos
I was clicking around last night, killing time til the daily show.... So I decide to see what was on Sci-fi........
And what do I get? WWE... WTF???? WHy the hell is their pro-wrestling on my sci-fi station? What they decided that they had dead air and instead of filling it with something like reruns of Bablyon-5 they'd use sweaty men in tights???
ARGH!! You're the Sci-fi channel.... ergo you show shows with science fiction/fantasy........ NOT WRESTLING!!!
THis is almost as mind boggling as when Adult swim was showing episodes of Saved By the bell......
I was clicking around last night, killing time til the daily show.... So I decide to see what was on Sci-fi........
And what do I get? WWE... WTF???? WHy the hell is their pro-wrestling on my sci-fi station? What they decided that they had dead air and instead of filling it with something like reruns of Bablyon-5 they'd use sweaty men in tights???
ARGH!! You're the Sci-fi channel.... ergo you show shows with science fiction/fantasy........ NOT WRESTLING!!!
THis is almost as mind boggling as when Adult swim was showing episodes of Saved By the bell......
Watch tv?
Why?
Anyhow, I'm gone the next week being familial.
Well, at least yellowstone is nice.
Anyone around there?
Dracos
Man, but shopping for a new computer and searching for a job to pay for said computer (among other essentials, like 'life after college') can be tiring.
Additionally, the fact that the last episode of Paranoia Agent filled me with intense disdain for its creators makes me think I should stop watching anime for a while.
Heh, poor karlinn.
Poke me on the PC thing. Might be able to help.
Dracos
Cut vacation short a day needlessly because management at place of employment is retarded. Am currently missing a day and a few hours of overtime from my latest paycheck.
Stupid poorly run hotel.
Everyone being too broke for SR gathering + too much god damn bitching.
Dracos
Yeah, talk about being broke for SR gathering...
I had to pay off a 2k debt to CMU health insurance because the department failed to notify me that I was suppose to be paying it off myself. Current balance of savings account, 0$.
That, and I'm bitching at myself for not making absolutely sure that I was suppose to be paying for my own insurance.
=(
I wanna play Starfox 64, but the N64 controller has disappeared.
I HAVE FURY. >_<
Ugh. Feeling lightheaded after 15 hours of sleep blows. It usually takes a good day or two for this to go away entirely. BLEH.
My grandfather just passed away.
Man, I knew he was dying, but... really, it didn't hit me until it actually happened.
Sorry to hear about your grandfather. It never really sinks in that someone is going to die until they actually do.
Closing the store at 12:30, taking the bus home, getting home at around 2:00, getting called at 9:00 and interrupting the most awesome dream about a rocket-powered ping-pong tournament (you and Kyon were ahead, damnit! You could have won a date with Mutsumi!) by a coworker who's afraid of doing anything without someone to walk her through it.
Staring blearily at the phone and realizing you have to be at work in two hours anyway.
;_;
Out of curiosity, what job are you holdin' right now, Brian? Sounds like it sucks if they're calling you at home. Fuck that noise.
Right now? I work at a bookstore. Somehow, I've transcended grunt status and am now a supervisor. Mostly, I really like my job. I wish it paid better, because I'm only just able to make ends meet (without being able to afford school). The only real problem is that I don't like my manager ... but he left the store.
There is a co-worker who I'm not so keen on, but since it's another supervisor, it's seldom an issue. And with luck, she'll be leaving the store, too. Then it'll be time to ask for a raise....
Well, Sunhawk, you were right. My power supply is the cause of all my problems; two nights ago it went 'kerplnk' and died. So I hafta buy a new one.
I miss my cooomp! T.T *le sob*
First, background: I'm currently working a tes- Quality Assurance Engineer at a "technology" company. My job consists of breaking the software they make and telling people about it. A lot of this involves writing python scripts that make various requests to a server running the server and check that the results are as expected. I have a dedicated linux server to do this on, so I can mess around with web server configuration and so on as necessary.
I spent more of today fixing bugs in my own tests and wondering how the fuck various things work than I did creating new tests or finding bugs that I can report to developers. >.>
Today's bitching? Spammers. Fuck'em.
Today's Bitching: Spammer's still suck.
But tires that tear themselves to shreds suck much worse.
Yeah, there are better ways of getting exercise.
Dracos
Today's bitching:
Let's hear it for digestive stress and acid! Yaaay! (Fuck.)
Oh, no.... Ana, if you need to talk to me about that, feel free. I spent several years fighting off an ulcer.
In the meantime, I move that spamming be an offense punishable by revoking all internet privelages -- permanently. :3
Quote from: "Brian"Oh, no.... Ana, if you need to talk to me about that, feel free. I spent several years fighting off an ulcer.
In the meantime, I move that spamming be an offense punishable by revoking all internet privelages -- permanently. :3
Yeah. It's from stomach to throat, too, a full upper body sorta deal. Got the acid backwash, scorched/irritated esophagus, and central wear. Got on Protonix for it, but we'll see how it goes. Here's hoping. OW.
Well, when it happened to me I ended giving up red meat. Possibly not a required change, but it did help quite a bit.... Of course, now that I'm better, I still don't eat red meat, so....
Heh. I don't eat red meat 'cept for ground hamburger so it's not big. Giving that up would suck hard. We'll see how it goes in a month. Hope this stupid pill does it's job! <_<
Good luck. :3
Also, Sunshine and Kittens!
Oi.
So I when I get to work a few days ago my boss and my supervisor ask to talk to me in their office. So I ignore the raging 'oh fuck' vibe and brace, right? It's probably just some silly bullshit since this job is about 99% bullshit. Well, past the disgusting work and horrific pay, anyway!
Turns out I'm wrong. It's never fun hearing that your bosses aren't happy with your work performance, doubly so when you're already working your ass off. Just ugh.
There are ants in my laptop.
;_;
Oh, geez ... how did that happen?
And last night I get a call from someone at the head office asking what I'm doing at work; they've got security cameras on us, and all three of us were just goofing off and sitting down. I was massively sleep deprived and just had a dizzy spell where I was seeing spots. And then it turns out that this is a prank phone call from an off-duty co-worker....
Guh.
Homicide.
I'd kill the sonuvabitch, but I have no tolerance for those sort of pranks. <_<
same.
Laptopkeyboardbroken.
spacekeydead.
Veryannoyed.
I'm sorry to say that your reply made me fall over laughing, Drac. G'luck!
Quote from: "Brian"Oh, geez ... how did that happen?
And last night I get a call from someone at the head office asking what I'm doing at work; they've got security cameras on us, and all three of us were just goofing off and sitting down. I was massively sleep deprived and just had a dizzy spell where I was seeing spots. And then it turns out that this is a prank phone call from an off-duty co-worker....
Guh.
That sounds like something I'd do.
The timing was really bad, though. I was so stressed out ... and then three off-duty co-workers pop in the front door laughing their asses off. It was a year ago to the day my best friend and roommate died, we managed to miss his memorial (I don't have a car), I hadn't slept in just over 40 hours....
I almost had a breakdown when I found out it was a joke. If I'd been on top as far as sleep and well rested, I think I woulda seen through it. As it was?
I almost cried. -_-
Well, at least all three of the co-workers felt really bad about playing with me like that. And they all gave me hugs afterwards. One of them gave me a candy bar, in the hopes that sugar would keep me from passing out.
The thing of it all is, I utterly loathe prank phone calls. I used to work in a call center....
My parakeets escaped when the stupid cage fell over and broke. Now I'm all worried about them. We have the cage outside with food and water where they can see it, but they still haven't come yet.
T.T
Quote from: "StormDragon"My parakeets escaped when the stupid cage fell over and broke. Now I'm all worried about them. We have the cage outside with food and water where they can see it, but they still haven't come yet.
I read this at first as "my parents escaped". It seemed an odd thing to be complaining about.
Quote from: "StormDragon"My parakeets escaped when the stupid cage fell over and broke.
Oooh.... Well, not sure what else to say except: Good luck with that? :/
Ugh. Am I the only one that hates those Doomsday specials that are ran every so often? Y'know, the ones that list the way the WORLD CAN END and how nastily it'll go. It's nothing but fear mongering.
No,-but-speaking-as-if-everyone-was-me..
You-might-be-the-only-one-that-watches-them!
Dracos
Down-with-tv!--Up-with...something-that-isn't-tv!
Quote from: "Dracos"No,-but-speaking-as-if-everyone-was-me..
You-might-be-the-only-one-that-watches-them!
Dracos
Down-with-tv!--Up-with...something-that-isn't-tv!
Heh, heh. It wasn't my choice to watch it, either. >_> TV isn't that bad, anyway. It brought us anime, after all!
I hate sore feet from walking four hours straight. OWWIE. I get it, my arches and heel are tender. Stop it, damn it!
>_<
Walking bad. *pats*
I remain very unimpressed with the organization of things here. There's no machinelike efficiency anywhere. I also remain unimpressed with the heavy focus on LIVING at the campus. I go to learn, to listen, to work.. I demand the whole 'sleep at home' bit.
Dracos
I suspect they're training you to live at work once you graduate, Drac.
It's quite possible. Pity I'm a very firm adherent to the "There is a better way to do things" and "more hours in the chair does not equal more productivity" school of thought.
Dracos
Expects much continued clashage.
Storm: Put up signs around the neighborhood.
A family friend had a parakeet escape, and through a turn of fate they found out that it had been found and adopted by an elderly Russian couple, who returned it and bought one of their own. I hope you find them again too.
Got in a car accident (wasn't driving). We were turning left at an intersection. A brand new mercedes benz slammed into the door next to me (rear passenger) before we were able to clear out. The driver of our car turned away, thus swinging the rear end of the car (and, you know, me) into the oncoming vehicle.
Hit my head against the window, and it hurts. Slammed my elbow into the door, which buckled in and hit my knee, too. My knee's not bothering me, but my elbow is stiffening up something fierce.
Seriously. What's wrong with me? We're going through the intersection, I look up from reading the disgaea 2 strategy guide (a game I don't plan on ever playing, since I suck very badly at tactical strategy games), I see car headed towards us, I realize it's honking its horn, I've been in accidents, so I _know_ that we're going to get hit. I know it's not shock, I actually thought about this. Then, deciding that the driver was already aware (he was), and there was nothing I could do, I turn to look back at the guide again, instead of bracing myself or yelling. (Page 537)
I appear not to take damage as a normal person; I just get bitchier and even more cynical instead of being wounded. I may be immortal.
But at what cost?
No one else adds funny quotes ;_;
Dracos
I just found out Crocodile Hunter was killed today. :(
My dad wants to borrow $100 to get his car back from inspection 'under the table'. UGH. I already wrote off one loan of a like amount to him. -_-
Today's hate:
Loud business trucks at 2 and 3 am in the morning respectively revving up or whatnot out on my street. Hate.
Dracos
Knee screaming at me. Tendons aching. Mind losing coherenty in sea of pain. Bad turns of phrase swarming. Help.
Owie. :\ Take more pain relievers?
Long work schedules that don't really give me tons of time to devote to site.
Dracos
No traffic at all in the Galleria. Barely making around $50 - $60 per shift on my first job. BAD. Also, my boss not wanting to do his shift duties like sweeping and mopping and taking out the trash, instead preferring to leave them to the underlings (me and fellow co-worker.)
"You're supposed to set an example!"
"I set an example in many ways!"
"Like looking up football scores on ESPN.com?"
Le bah. Oh well.
Also, on receptionist job. I just need to work a little on my phone skills.
Hate phones, that I do.
Dracos
Ignored plans to go somewhere fun with people I know to go somewhere less fun with family, only to have family flake out at the last minute. Friends had left the city by then.
Gah.
Steal the family car and chase after them!
You can make it!
We have a family car?
I spent five hours down in a vr lab with poorly documented and barely functioning equipment that hurt my eyes while northerners nearby wrapped themselves in blankets and wondered at why I wasn't cold.
I'm now cold. Damn their suggestions and the drafty equipment rooms.
Dracos
Fucking stomach at work AND I'm missing the Redskins game. Bleh.
I have film class.
That's really enough bitching there.
Dracos
Huh.
I always thought film classes were nothing more than BSing and watching old movies with an old stoner for a professor.
I lived with media students when I was at university.
Never watched so many films in my life as I did over those two years.
We're filming stuff every week for show pretty much.
Dracos
I've been dropped from all my classes because my aid came in a few hours late.
Today I had film.
Then I somehow bruised my index toe to the point it feels exceedingly painful to put my right foot down.
Then I got sick.
On my way out, I had a parking ticket on my car from following the parking office's instructions.
Then a thunderstorm chilled my room and cut the power for a bit.
Not a good day.
Dracos
Cripes! Thepanda, I am so sorry to hear that! Can anything be done? o_o;;?
Quote from: "thepanda"I've been dropped from all my classes because my aid came in a few hours late.
Talk to the financial aid, the bursar/cashiering services, and admissions offices. Explain the situation and have them reinstate you since it's usually in the best interests of the institution to get your tuition than to purge you. If it truly was a matter of bad timing then you have some wiggle room to take the issue for appeal.
I can't speak for particular institution, but I'm pretty sure you'd be helped and approved were you at my office so you should be okay.
Good luck on that.
The panda's obvious solution is to move to Las Vegas and go to school at where the plushie works <_<
I don't mind, personally. Our school's enrollment numbers are a bit down so we'd welcome it. ^_^
And then upon graduation he'll assassinate you and assume your identity and cushy job of getting paid to chat on IRC! O_O
Poor Kwok, already facing competition for your dreams?
Dracos
Naw. If it comes to it, I'll just assassinate the panda and assume the identity after he kills the plushie and assume HIS identity
Lightning strikes that fry computer components. -_-
"Why yes, sir, I'd like my order to be extra crispy..."
*flees*
There's nothing quite like the searing pain of getting your foot run over by a giant cart. >_<
14 hour days suck.
Yes they do.
Being unable to post most of the day because of the damn webhost makes it worse.
Dracos
The cameraman stunk at the BVW broadcast today. They improved it later, but way to have shitty feed quality and way far away camera for recording those going first.
If anyone wants to try and grab the 1 gb webcast. I'm the guy at the comp during group 1.
http://wetc.tv/download/2006/bvw/bvw2006_round1_finals.wmv
I'll get the actual game up here soonish.
Dracos
YOU KNOW YOUR JOB SUCKS WHEN:
You spend a half hour in the bathroom out of the blue. Sick, miserable and in pain, you're the picture of a gastric catastrophy. When you get out, the first though you have? 'Kick ass, that's a half hour down the drain! YES!'
-_-
I thought everybody did that. ^_^
Now I'm even more depressed.
Morpheus: "Welcome... to the real world."
Speaking of, I broke my glasses. Fuck.
The bad: New glasses cost $300 after discounts and Dad needs to borrow $200 due to a car expense.
The badder: Dad rejects $200 check, saying it's not enough and that I 'let him down' since I'm not volunteering to pay the entire $900 bill.
The weird: Get to work today and find out the new supervisor that was hired to 'clean up' our department(I didn't really like her, either) got summarily fired out of the blue.
So I dunno what the fuck!
Um... yay?
The Cave Story Oekaki board is gone. I was hoping it was apparently only down for a bit or changing servers, but according to a doukutsu LJ community post translating Pixel's development diary, it doesn't look like that's the case. Bah =/
Today's bitching: Feeling like you're going to throw up all day. >_<
Nooo, I liked the Cave Story oekaki board! ;_;
I still need you to send me all of the CS fanart you have, Merc.
I spent the better part of three days last week on assignment, essentially back to back.
Part of our uni's IT section is that you submit everything online through unix, there's a program you have to enter on the command line that is notoriously easy to fuck up.
Luckily, it's easy to check your e-mail and realise this, so you can fix it without problems, and not miss the due date by like a week.
Unless, y'know, you're a retard. Guess who is a retard? -_-
oh yeah, it's worth about a quarter of my assessment grade. (which is 20% of my total grade.)
My assessment grade needs to be at 50% to even be able to pass, never mind the exam.
It's like... 45% at the moment. >_<
However, it's also easy enough for them to check the modified dates and your command history.
Talk fast, Rat!
Had an online assignment due this week and turns out that it was due today at 8 in the morning instead of on Friday like I thought. Crap >.>
Can't get a round five team together. Depressing.
Dracos
People who set up a seminar with dinner and don't have the dinner arrive until a half hour later and don't start the seminar for another half hour after that. Way to plan!
Dracos
I swear to God whoever made Virus Buster needs to be raped with an axe.
Repeatedly. Jesus, how did thjis shit download to my computer without a promt of some sort? My firewall should be up to date. I shouldn't have had to spend my early morning hours fucking around in my computer with shit that'll probably cause problems later on.
God-fucking-damnit. If I had a boot disc I'd just reformat the whole thing. I can always redownload the anime, but this shit-
I
Losing your internet connection long enough to have registration on your IRC channel drop. ;_;
Two exams in immediate succession, both of moderate difficulty, on a Saturday.
Kyar.
Woohoo getting a nasty sinus cold so bad that it turns you into a mouthbreather! It sets in at -work- no less, so I can't just take some decongestant. Blah.
People waited until near the last minute to give me content for the visual story final project.
Hate them quite a bit.
48 hours and I leave. Hopefully without failing the class.
I'm ungodly tempted to fail the class and leave today, along with the code knowing they almost certainly won't get it done if I do. But I've little desire to sit through this again.
Dracos
I'm banned from 4chan for no apparent reason. Weird.
Just send 'em an email, and they should clear it up for you.
Not spending the holidays with family sucks.
Aw.... But, you've got your friends! Happy Holidays~!
Bad night at work, and most my net friends have been avoiding my AIMing lately. Boo on them.
I'm theoretically 'settled' in San Mateo at the moment.
That said, my internet is nonexistent and I'm being flown down to LA in a couple of days, so it'll be a little longer before I have some kind of stable routine and internet.
Man my email is a mess x-x
Dracos
Here's a good rant. It sounds a lot more serious than it's supposed to be.
Today at about 2:00 or so I built a snowman. It took about an hour. I put a blue wig and a visor on it. Now (10:30), looking out the window, I see the bottom part lying melancholically outside, clearly mourning the loss of 2/3 of its body. I imagine the torso and head are likely also rather chagrined to be seperated from the base. Upon inspection, I found the rest of the snowman lying behind the base, with some sort of hard styrofoam ring around the head. It looked like a case of ring toss gone bad.
10:53
The snowman is now standing again, facing a slightly different direction than it was originally. It only took me about twenty minutes to put it back together. I still can't help asking myself a few questions.
I suppose I'll start with, "What kind of shithead knocks over a snowman?"
I mean, what'd the snowman do except sit there and be crystallized water droplets? I'd like to believe that whoever did it had no intention of doing anything but landing the styrofoam ring on the head, but clearly no forethough went into this. Considering the possibility that it might have been a deliberate attempt at decapitation, though, I think I'm mainly back to my first question: "Seriously, what the hell?"
On the other hand, I shall content myself that if it was deliberate, whoever this was is likely on a lower maturity level than the snowman. Also, there's probably a level in hell for this :D
Have you given any thought to the possibility of snow youma?
This post won't go through.
Quote from: "Dracos"This post won't go through.
Yeah, that's actually what I expected from the snowman post. After getting the error, I decided not to post it after all. I was quite surprised to see it pop up o_o
Quote from: "Ragnar"Quote from: "Dracos"This post won't go through.
Yeah, that's actually what I expected from the snowman post. After getting the error, I decided not to post it after all. I was quite surprised to see it pop up o_o
I don't believe it.
This post won't go through either!
Right side of my 5 month old Toyota Corolla is scrap metal. Some guy didn't see my car or something at a four-way stop and slammed into the side of my car as I was crossing.
Ew. I'd say that qualifies as justified bitching, yeah. At least no one was actually hurt, right?
Man, crash day. My ride's van got smashed in pretty much the same fashion, only in a parking lot. Glad you're not hurt, Merc.
Dracos
Cold sucked yesterday. Got myself the chills for a while.
Been pretending the last week to be part of the group culture here to break in and...I am but it silly. Watched a bunch of folks get shitfaced last night as a karoke trip transformed into a korean bar run for five hours. Not really caring about football or drinking kinda sucks among a group that practically does nothing but it.
Dracos
You could be the designated driver, Drac?
---
Ah, fuck. I left my wallet in my pants when I tossed 'em into the washer. Now my debit/checking card is acting funny. Dammit.
Yeah, but I lack a car and various other things.
---
The places I want offers for aren't being swift.
Dracos
I nearly blew up at my boss today. >_<
My mom still thinks I'm gay. ~_~
Which of course, means she just HAS to try setting me up with a girl at work I have no interest in at all. ~_~
Quote from: "Dexie Oblivion"My mom still thinks I'm gay. ~_~
This is the point where you "accidentally" leave a softcore porn mag sticking out from under your mattress...
Or fake it. Guilt trip her. Make her think it's her fault you're gay.
Or don't be a dick. You know, whatever.
Yikes. What happened with your boss, Ana?
Working with twenty year old computer programs makes my brain hurt. XP
I finished my shift at work at 5:30.
The manager decided to go to the bathroom, and then i decided to go as i've finished my shift and what not, i passed him on his way back and i went in.
On the floor was a little rectangle of foam, you know those foam sheets that are at the back of the miniature blister packs. Thinking to myself WTF?! i walked into the stall wondering how the heck it got there and i saw a ripped open blister of the Witch King of Agmar.....WTF!
The manager said he never saw anything like that when he went to the toilet, kinda obvious as the foam sheet was out in the open.
i KNOW i haven't sold any today, the Manager KNOWS he hasn't sold any, the 3IC KNOWS he was the only one that has sold one in the last 3 months.......ARRGHH I WANNA KILL THEM ALL!
We're now paranoid with everyone who comes into the store....even the regulars.....*twitch*
Cabbit
"Smokin' Joe of the Australian GW Chapter"
Waiting sucks.
Dracos
I think my memory's beginning to slip.
I've been forgetting all kinds of minor things lately, which is disturbing, but lately, I seem to be forgetting more and more major things. o_o
^^^^^ Who are you? What are you doing here? Better yet... who am I? @______@;;;
To stay on topic: Writing a graduate thesis proposal sucks, and I have the sinking suspicion that I may not be ready for graduate level research yet.
Quote from: "Brian"I think my memory's beginning to slip.
I've been forgetting all kinds of minor things lately, which is disturbing, but lately, I seem to be forgetting more and more major things. o_o
It is called getting old, man. Get used to it. I'm pretty sure I officially entered senility last year, myself.
Quote from: "Ginnezumusha"To stay on topic: Writing a graduate thesis proposal sucks, and I have the sinking suspicion that I may not be ready for graduate level research yet.
Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahaahahahaha.
Yeah.
No one is. But by the same vein, don't sweat it. The only way to
get ready for graduate level research is to jump in and start paddling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_Racer_%28film%29
*head explode*
Fuck NO. This does not need to happen. X_X
Quote from: "Brian"I think my memory's beginning to slip.
I've been forgetting all kinds of minor things lately, which is disturbing, but lately, I seem to be forgetting more and more major things. o_o
Your name is Brian. You write really good fanfics.
What else is there to remember?
I tried to give Civil War a far chance. It even began ok.
I wish to shoot the creators in the face.
And Frontline? Don't get me started on Frontline. Between the bleeding nipples and Mr. Myspace I just wish the Punisher would kill them all.
Captain America, Spider-man, Luke Cage; I feel sorry for the lot of your characters.
Game Over. Evil wins.
Fuck you, Marvel.
Fuck you.
Quote from: "Edward"What else is there to remember?
There was an intervention for me on Sunday.
I showed up drunk.
I guess I wasn't winning that argument. -_-
So, suspicions confirmed. I'm an alcoholic.
Let's give me a three-day sobriety counter, eh? :/
Yeah. All the drunken Bri jokes, while good, are ultimately stale. Lay off the sauce a bit.
Today's searing hot needled to the stomach? My Dad's foot is taking longer to heal than anticipated, he won't be able to drive for at least another month. Not only is this an obvious transportation issue all around, but Dad's also going stir crazy as hell.
My car is on the east coast.
I want it on the west coast. Yesterday.
Damn distance.
Dracos
So my boss is trying to give us homework. Y'know, the crappy job that no one wants to do in the first place? It's not just idiocy, it's retarded customer service shit.
arriving home only to that night get the most violently sick you've been in years.
Bloody planes of germs. @_@
At the least I'm home for barely being able to haul myself out of bed.
Dracos
Dealing with idiots at work.
I dont need to say anything else, do I?
Hey, you've got a job... I'm still unemployed after 2 months and potential employers that refuse to even call me to tell me AFTER interviews that I wasn't the right person... or even to tell me that after I bug them.
You need better employers to bother with. That said, that kind of shit is endemic, even of good ones. Got to be more aggressive. That and its good modus operandi to talk to them right after the interview (Thanks for your time, bullshit) anyhow.
Dracos
Ryder. When I was trying to get a job with Fluor, it basically took two months for me to get told "Okay, we can hire you. When can you start?"
After contacting someone in Fluor (it's -very- helpful to have a contact of some sort at the company you're applying to. When you can't bug HR, they can do it for you) who used to go to my university and giving them my resume to give to HR, I had to make four calls to ask if they had any openings. First time I left a message with HR, second time I actually talked to them (they told me they still hadn't had a chance to look over the resume, two weeks after having it handed to them), third time I called again and left a message again, fourth time I just told my contact to talk to the HR person.
Got a call for an interview appointment some time later. Go through interview, get told to wait two weeks for a reply. Two weeks come by, and I call, leave a message. Call again the next day, still the HR person does not answer my calls. Call a few more times over the course of the week, before again, I end up using the contact to prod the person. He calls me and says they're still considering all applicants. Wait a week, try again, this time just going through the contact. Says the HR person is on a two week vacation. Okay, call again after the two weeks are over. Contact says he'll talk to the HR person and remind them about me. Few days later, I get offered a job.
So yeah. Takes effort. >_>;
I am possessed of (by?) an all-consuming hatred. It interferes with my ability to write. I can't sleep. I can't focus. I've been spacing out and making stupid mistakes at work lately.
Why do I care so much about something so terrible? Why do I keep trying to get through to someone who just can't get it? Why can't I give up and get on with my life?
Hate.
Because you lack sufficient faith in knives. Or fire.
Brian, just let it go. If he was ever going to get it, he would have long before now. You can't fix all problems.
Feh.
The past few days have just been as boring as hell.
Most of my friends don't come online much anymore, and when they do they're super-quiet on AIM/IRC, I haven't been able to concentrate on any game for more than a few minutes at a time....ugh.
I've spent most of my free time the past few days just refreshing the same few forums constantly, waiting for people to post. -_-
postcount++?
Dracos
Quote from: "Dexie Oblivion"Feh.
The past few days have just been as boring as hell.
Most of my friends don't come online much anymore, and when they do they're super-quiet on AIM/IRC, I haven't been able to concentrate on any game for more than a few minutes at a time....ugh.
I've spent most of my free time the past few days just refreshing the same few forums constantly, waiting for people to post. -_-
Best bet is to go find something new to do or hang out at. Get some variety in your life or go do something. Gotta break up those doldrums.
Quote from: "thepanda"I tried to give Civil War a far chance. It even began ok.
I wish to shoot the creators in the face.
Killing is too good for the likes of them.
Quote from: "thepanda"And Frontline? Don't get me started on Frontline.
The last issue was the worst. The Iron Man part did a lot to redeem him, but when Captain America gets chewed out for not being a pop culture junkie and just takes it, you know something's seriiously wrong.
Quote from: "thepanda"Captain America, Spider-man, Luke Cage; I feel sorry for the lot of your characters.
Hey, at least Luke Cage and Spidey didn't get their brains, spine, guts, and balls stolen by bad writers.
They still hire WRITERS over at marvel? =p
Test post since SR keeps not letting me post too @_@
Dracos
Rules to live by:
1) Do not play Angband while drunk.
2) If you do play Angband while drunk, try to remember to not use the character that managed to find Ringil, Balance Dragon Scale Mail, the Boots of Feanor, a Ring of Power, and ... well, you get the picture.
Scumbags... thy name is Best Buy (http://wsbradio.com/inside/newsletter/031407_clark_bestbuy.html). -_-
Confirmation (http://www.courant.com/hc-watchdog0302.artmar02%2C0%2C7914953%2Cprint.story) from the "Scumbags" themselves.
Sincerely,
Shuten
Forum bugs and semicorrupt databases make drac sad.
Dracos
The Fullmetal Panic novels were licensed ;.; So they won't be translating the anymore.
Darn you Tokyopop!! *shakes fist*
Stormy, have you read their translation of The Twelve Kingdoms yet? If they handle the FMP novels half so well you'll be happy with the result in the end.
I have the stomach flu. I don't really need to say much else, do I? Bleeech.
My laptop seems to have died some time yesterday evening. I was reading some fanfics when suddenly my screen went black. I shut it off and restarted the laptop after a few minutes. Seemed like it was just a bug/glitch/weirdness since the screen was loading fine...and then it went black again. After that any restart attempt just resulted in the black screen. Connecting to a different screen (ie, my TV screen) has not worked.
As a result of my laptop dying, unless (a) it somehow gets fixed by sunday or (b) I buy a new computer by then, I may not be around for S&S. I figure I should be able to find a decently priced non-crappy computer if that's the case, but you never know.
On the oddly neat side, I'm typing this post off my nintendo Wii's internet browser. Sadly, the wii has no IRC browser for me to use on sunday. Le sigh~
Melancholy haiku:
Power bill is due!
Yet roommate does not pay it?
My house is now dark.
I'd recommend being civil about it. I'd pay the power bill myself including any shut off fee. Once power is back on, I'd go into the kitchen and fire up the old blender. Make two chocolate and peanut butter milkshakes and go up to your roommate. Smile and tell him not to worry about it and have a good laugh over the shakes. Oh, and remember to grab his head and slam it into the table until his gray matter leaks out.
Computer shuts off.
No request to power down?
A hardware issue!
What component fails?
When all have been replaced....
Buy a new PC!
Alas and alack:
New parts are just not that cheap.
Not enough money.
I've been in Mexico for five months... supposed to be going up north to visit my girlfriend for a week (haven't seen her since she came down here in Jan!), then head home finally. This flight was supposed to be tomorrow.
Except our travel department lost my request.
I submitted it last Wednesday (even have the confirmation number), and when I hadn't heard back on Thursday, I bugged my director who said "give them until COB Friday. I did that and... email on Monday saying they can't find my request.
Great.
Now there are no flights left tomorrow.
I should be going on Wednesday now, but I still don't have an itinerary.
I wish this wasn't typical.
-Dan
I was thinking of posting what I'd done on my wuxia-ish fic just as a backup measure. I hadn't backed up my hard drive in over a year, and I'd written quite a bit (for me, anyway. DB Sommer probably writes about as much over his lunch break). So I logged into soulriders and began typing. Guess what crashed half way through?
(Incidentally, anyone have one of the old copies of the drafts I've sent out from time to time? Fall? MS? Kwok? It won't have any of the work that I'd done on Ukyou's role, or the really really blackmail weird scene I had in mind, but...)
Ouch. For the record, I tend to store backups of folks stuff that they want. I have a pretty good low loss record.
Dracos
Microsoft's Guided Help application broke my computer's Winsock catalog instead of fixing it. I haven't been able to connect to IRC or the interweb from home for two days. My rage, it devours all.
UPDATE: I defeat Winsock, despite Microsoft, by reinstalling TCP/IP!
Hey, what do you expect from Micro$oft products?
Glad you got things fixed.
Letting other things manage your network protocols is never good.
Dracos
Monday: Buyer's system crashes; by the time it's up again, orders have missed their deadlines (they won't ship out on schedule). Store Manager then decides that I can send back another store's stock from an offsite this weekend, even though I do not have the required paperwork (they didn't ship it to our store in the first place...).
Tuesday: No incoming shipments, since we missed the deadline. I spend the entire day hauling boxes (of an average weight around 45 lbs.) around to try and make room for the double-shipment that's coming in tomorrow. Along with our warehouse shipment. I manage to (no joke) lie, cheat, and steal to get the paperwork I need, since the receiver at the store the books actually arrived at doesn't like me, and won't fax over a copy (also, not a joke).
Wednesday: All three shipments arrive simultaneously. After a grueling celebration of the annual Festival of the Pushable Cube, I realize I only make 10/hr.
Tomorrow: I come in late, because the company will not pay overtime, and they want me to run a book club in the evening (even though I've had 0 attendees for the last three meetings). Did I mention there's still boxes that I wasn't able to receive today? I have to take care of them, tomorrow's shipment, and I'm on a time crunch, and they want me to run a club....
Quote from: "Edward"Glad you got things fixed.
Apparently it was too early to call it "fixed". Originally, the problem was my internet connection got cut about ten to twenty minutes after a boot, which it wasn't a network problem since others on the network were going fine and my own mIRC was as well. I downloaded Microsoft's Guided Help, and when I first downloaded and ran it, it didn't work. Apparently it's a web application, so to run it you needed to be connected to the internet on the computer which doesn't connect to the internet, the issue that made you run the app in the first place.
*cough*
WORTHLESS*cough*
Ahem. Sorry, something in my throat. I don't know, maybe the application wasn't actually a webapp but just decided to give me the "can't run this application right now" message during a time I didn't have an internet connection... for no reason. I mean, it doesn't make
less sense.
After futzing with the Network Connection properties a bit (during which I found out about the Winsock issue), I ran Guided Help again during that 10-20min window after the boot. Guided Help tried to do what I eventually did manually, reinstall TCP/IP, except it stopped before it began reinstalling, saying it "couldn't find the next step". Okay... well, Microsoft being the brilliant bastion of programming that it is, I couldn't ctrl-alt-del to Task Manager to kill Guided Help and the rest of my programs weren't really responding either, so I rebooted.
Welcome to no connection at all! Winsock catalog corrupted, and not even mIRC would connect, which was a problem since I had figured at least I could run to #soulriders and beg for real-time assistance from somebody if nothing else worked out. Instead, all I get is a "cannot create socket" error.
Fast forward two days, as I was out of town anyway. I ran to a library computer, research networking, memorizing all those ipconfig and netstat and netsh command-line programs, learn to reinstall TCP/IP, did so, and back to the original 10-20min window. Which is a lot better than nothing. For some reason this fix began some sort of background process that was always running, slowing down my computer and making my mouse cursor show the hourglass all the time.
After that, a day or two of figuring out what's making my connection die. Thanks to Wickedfox and Fallacy for tips. I determined that it was Windows Explorer that was opening SMTP port-25 connections all over the place despite the fact that I don't think I've ever used SMTP email in my entire life, and it was exhausting my system's supply of connections so the system automatically locked down my network for security. After boldly failing to get my firewall to block port 25 (free firewalls don't have that capability, apparently), I just set the thing to block Windows Explorer. That stopped explorer.exe based connections, but svchost.exe not only stepped up to fill the void, but started doing it the instant I booted instead of waiting twenty minutes first. Argh!
As an aside, my computer suddenly, and it seems randomly, developed a harsh "blue screen and reboot the instant Windows begins" problem. I remarked during the beginning of the entire affair on IRC that I hadn't seen an actual blue screen of death for almost a decade, but in order to deal with this... let's just say I made up for that decade of absense. Oh, did I mention that this problem came along with a friend called "Windows freezes when it goes to Safe Mode"?
After dealing with... that, another hour or two with netstat was spent to figure out which program was running with svchost to multiply the SMTP connections, and finally today I determined that it was some nondescript DLL named
isbzzxlnskm.dll. I don't know where it came from, since I don't download all that many programs, but whatever. After determining that this dynamicly linked library wasn't a system file according to the major infosites, well, I bet we can all imagine the level of extreme prejudice that went into expunging it. The murderizing required Unlocker and resulted in another Winsock corruption. Luckily, I'm already
well experienced in diagnosing and fixing that, so TCP/IP was again reinstalled.
At the moment, I no longer have all the SMTP connections springing up, so I'll cautiously say that the internet has been properly restored. No hourglass either, so that was probably connected.
Unfortunately, I never definitively ended that blue screen issue, since I never figured out why it happened in the first place, so for all I know, the saga may continue yet. Although I find it ironic that the blue screen consistently pops up whenever I try to scan my system with Spybot or Ad-Aware, and that it began appearing on startup when I installed ZoneAlarm (which starts itself on startup). I don't know if it's because those programs are doing deep scans and the activity is making my computer hiccup, or if some malware on my computer is in fact actively detecting these anti-malware programs and rebooting to protect itself. Heck if I know.
On the bright side, I never found the time to learn networking like I wanted to years ago, and I guess this whole affair gave me a shot in the arm on that.
That sounds like you had a nasty virus/trojan. Specifically one that was probably using your system as a mailing machine.
Dracos
The idea did cross my mind, especially after the thing began spawning more and more .dll files with similarly random-string filenames in my Windows/system32 folder. After sweeping all of those out, it began spawning random-number .exe programs instead. And all the while, I still have some sort of driver error that bluescreens me about once a day.
But I can sort of manage this at the moment.
Update: Arrange files by modified date was useful for finding those .dlls and .exes, and it looks like I now found wincom32.sys (which is in fact a Trojan) as the specific problem. I figured as much, since every time I glanced over it while looking for those other executables I found myself squinting at it and wondering why I've never heard of this .sys file.
Today's Bitch: Being too tired to do anything but doze before bed. Bleh. I wanted to do something besides be a chair lump, but I got a wicked case of the sleep sands at work, and it stuck like hell.
*nods*
Waking up blindingly early doesn't help either @_@
Not being able to afford to replace your ailing computer.
I've bred at least 40 Shroomish recently, and not a damn one has an Adamant or Jolly nature.
Waking up with a sore back can blow me. Stupid new mattress.
I feel your pain on that one, Dune. The cat got locked in the bedroom and peed on my old mattress, so I had to go get a new one. I'll get used to it eventually, I'm sure, but for now I keep waking up frequently in the night.
Quote from: "Ragnar"I feel your pain on that one, Dune. The cat got locked in the bedroom and peed on my old mattress, so I had to go get a new one. I'll get used to it eventually, I'm sure, but for now I keep waking up frequently in the night.
Yeah. I'm used to it now, but fuck did those first few nights blow. In an unrelated story, I try to do a good thing at work and end up getting an extra assignment just before quitting time. That's lovely reinforcement there, eh?
No good deed ever goes unpunished!
I get a call on the weekend for someone in the Richmond office, 2.5 hours away. So I help them (they're not even my office), and the result was to have everybody work a extra 4 hours on the weekend for 3 months.
Trying out mouthwash... yeah never used it before. It is kind of owie to use...or maybe just since I'm not used to it.
Dracos
Quote from: "Dracos"Trying out mouthwash... yeah never used it before. It is kind of owie to use...or maybe just since I'm not used to it.
Dracos
Use it and get used to it. Trust me on this one. <_< This is doubly ironic, since I have a bitch about mouthwash I came to post. Namely, laughing while getting mouthwash in your mouth is a GREAT way to accidentally swallow the entire mouthful. Fuckin' A, my throat stung for a good half hour.
Pirates of the Carribean 3 sucked. Ugh, that's five bucks I'll never see again. :/
First complaint; five bucks? Where do you live, the mid 90's? I haven't had a movie that cheap in a loooong time.
Second complaint; One Piece. How does a series that's usually so good to me make such GODAWEFUL movies? Movie 6 is complete and utter crap. did they not have enough room to do their preaching and make a decent movie at the same time? Crap. Crap crap crap. I should have known what I was in for having suffered the previous movies and all, but damnit I had hope. Hope that was squashed like a goddamned bug.
Quote from: "thepanda"First complaint; five bucks? Where do you live, the mid 90's? I haven't had a movie that cheap in a loooong time.
Second complaint; One Piece. How does a series that's usually so good to me make such GODAWEFUL movies? Movie 6 is complete and utter crap. did they not have enough room to do their preaching and make a decent movie at the same time? Crap. Crap crap crap. I should have known what I was in for having suffered the previous movies and all, but damnit I had hope. Hope that was squashed like a goddamned bug.
First, it was a 4 dollar matinee, plus a one dollar fee for ordering my ticket online.
Second....welcome to the world of popular long running series. : / You can see the same thing in not just One Piece movies, but DBZ's movies, Pokemon's movies, and pretty much any anime with a yearly flick. XP
I've actually enjoyed the Pokemon movies quite a bit. Probably because the reverse of the One Piece movies seem to happen; Ash is allowed to grow and be nifty more than in the anime (in such a short timeframe) whereas the One Piece moives seem to depower everyone to an annoying level (and make them incredibly stupid). It's like watching Naruto filler. ;_;
Wait a sec, you mean to tell me you paid to see Pirates 3?
Quote from: "thepanda"I've actually enjoyed the Pokemon movies quite a bit. Probably because the reverse of the One Piece movies seem to happen; Ash is allowed to grow and be nifty more than in the anime (in such a short timeframe) whereas the One Piece moives seem to depower everyone to an annoying level (and make them incredibly stupid). It's like watching Naruto filler. ;_;
I used to enjoy the Pokemon movies, but they started getting too predictable for my tastes.
Quote from: "Ranma_007"Wait a sec, you mean to tell me you paid to see Pirates 3?
Why yes, I did. How else would I see a movie that's only in theatres and not on DVD or showing on TV yet?
A google search for pirates end torrent should be about right. :)
Google can solve all problems.
Quote from: "Ranma_007"A google search for pirates end torrent should be about right. :)
Google can solve all problems.
But that spoils the fun of getting to see it on a big screen! :p I'd have to watch it on my shitty monitor. XD
Not to mention it'd take like, a month to DL on this piece of crap. XD
Quote from: "Dexie Oblivion"I used to enjoy the Pokemon movies, but they started getting too predictable for my tastes.
What? You mean open with a fight set to music, meet the cast, a little Team Rocket hijinks, main fight (in which Ash may or may not die but will be brought back by the power of PLOT), resolution, possibly a little more Team Rocket, and the clsing credits with Ash and co. randomly traveling what looks to be an awesome fantasy setting?
How could that possibly be considered pedictable? :)
Quote from: "thepanda"Quote from: "Dexie Oblivion"I used to enjoy the Pokemon movies, but they started getting too predictable for my tastes.
What? You mean open with a fight set to music, meet the cast, a little Team Rocket hijinks, main fight (in which Ash may or may not die but will be brought back by the power of PLOT), resolution, possibly a little more Team Rocket, and the clsing credits with Ash and co. randomly traveling what looks to be an awesome fantasy setting?
How could that possibly be considered pedictable? :)
I was thinking more along the lines of....
Ash visits a new fantastic place. Ash meets a ZOMG LEGEND. Generic One-Shot Evil Dude/Dudette wants ZOMG LEGEND. Ash tries to protect ZOMG LEGEND.
ZOMG HUGEASS BATTLE.
Ash says goodbye to ZOMG LEGEND. Roll credits!
Like women love Spider-man, Legends love Ash. It can't be helped.
I need to get IRC on here. And aim. Even when using two computers to compile shit, it still leaves too much wait time.
Dracos
My computer died, thus mocking all my efforts to fix its internet connection.
In unrelated news, I've been doing my regular "study how to take my writing to the next level" work, and I've crossed a threshold on that journey (finally found a good model for writing active scenes, if you're curious; it's one of my weaknesses). Of course, whenever I improve my understanding of writing, moderating the Anime Addventure every day becomes harder, more straining, as I observe my fellows not similarly improving on their own (plus, you know, the "can't do punctuation" problem).
To relieve that strain, I need to drag the AA across a threshold of its own so those writers don't lag too far behind. Whenever I do that, some group or another throws a crying hissy fit.
I don't know how much longer I can take this cycle.
Might have to just crushinate soon.
Crushinating AA fools is awesome. I want front-row seats~! :D
I'll bring the popcorn.
I'll need some time to prepare, since I was slacking during the months I was fixing my computer and working on my scene-building.
Right now, I'm just going to seal up the "if you post long episodes I'll let you slide on more errors" loophole. That consideration is supposed to encourage writers to post more thoughtful episodes, but some proofreading-challenged people take it to mean "post garbage in bigger chunks". Then I have to read them.
Also, I'm posting a "do you know what you're doing?" rule.
Quote from: "KLSymph, Restart Cascade! addition"Threads extended from the Restart Cascade! must have a discernable story direction and make noticable progress toward that direction within the first few episodes. If you don't know what it means for a story to have a direction, what it means for a story to progress, or how those things are detected, I recommend you research the matter; otherwise, extend from the Cascade! at your own risk, and keep backups.
It seems so stupid as I sit here typing it, but if rule #16 (will you people stop discussing ideas and start writing them?!) is any indication, I'll see people not understanding the point of this rule.
Edit: added "how those things are detected" line to rule. Preemptive strike against dumbness.
Oversleeping a nap, and thus not getting any sleep last night at all, going to a thesis presentation as a last resort plea for support, and finally heading over to a friend's for a couple-few hours of gaming...to find him falling over drunk because of the nearby block party, and his soon to be boyfriend (right as soon as the boyfriend breaks up with his boyfriend) half-drunk, and desiring a repetitive digestion of social anxiety.
mrf.
Addendum: Telling people what they did after they blacked out 12 hours ago, at 5:40 in the morning.
Asrana: That is a massively disturbing signature...
Some fucker slashed one of my fucking tires at work last night.
If I ever find out which fucking bastard did it, there's going to be fucking hell to pay.
I've got an exam tomorrow on 1868->present history of Japan.
I know basically nothing.
I'm fucked.
Ninja fucking Gaiden would be a hell of a lot better if the camera wasn't so errattic.
Work was meh today.
Oh well
Dracos
Being exempted from a bonus for your hard work by someone in the corporate office who just didn't think about things. Having the same corporate someone inadvertently make your job needlessly more difficult because they just didn't think about things. Having a whole group of people behind that one try to 'help', and just worsen the situation.
Feeling totally helpless in the face of things that cause unhappiness, even when your situation feels like it should be stable enough that there shouldn't be anything to worry about.
I think my chemical depression is kicking in again.
Damn eye surgery. When they were pulling the sutures in my eyes, it felt like someone kicked me in the face. Plus everything is all blurry and I'm leaking blood tears and I have to wear full cover sunglasses to prevent bright light in. And the eyedrops are a pain in the ass. And I feel like I have a hangover and am extremely tired.
On a more positive note, morphine is great.
Double vision sucks!
Ah, the new standard bears fruit already! Usually I wouldn't subject everyone to what I have to deal with for the last three years, but I feel like spreading the joy today.
Quote from: "KLSymph's reply"Hi!
>Dude man i was just asking you take my stuff down cause i think your a power hungry lil nazi bastard and I don't wany to be associated with such people.
I knew why you want your stuff taken down. Everyone who makes that request has the same reason: pettiness. But please, can call it whatever you like.
>I know you feel like you have 'power' and 'authority' because of your massive status as a 'system admin' on a tiny anime based website but get over it.
Since you plainly have no reading comprehension, I'll explain it to you: in life, people have constraints on what they can do. When you ask for something and I can't give it to you, I want to tell you why so that you can understand my actions. The idea that I'm lording my power and authority by telling you that they don't stretch far is ridiculous to everyone who has logic.
>Listening to your excuses for being a prick just makes me want to distance myself further from any group that would be dumb enough to give a person like you power over it. I had wanted to be nice but damn man you really are just the ass I thought you were, guess that's what I get for trying to not judge a book by its cover.
Of course. If a moderator doesn't overstep his bounds, then that's all you need to know to tell he's a prick, isn't it? I'm sure that makes plenty of sense to you.
>So lil man why don't you tell the real people in charge to take my stuff down, since you don't have any real power to do anything besides say "I AM GOD HERE!!! LISTEN TO MY RULES AND IF YOU BEZ MUY FRIEND OR LICK MY DICK I CUT YUZ STUFF DOWNS HAHAHAH'
Because moderator emails are automatically copied to all moderators, so Bast! already had your request, but he doesn't handle day-to-day operations so you should go and ask him personally.
>If you don't take my stuff down, not that I care anymore since I doubt I'll waste my time looking at what you turn the place into, no skin off my nose.
I'm sure I'll cry myself to sleep tonight knowing you don't care about how I run the Addventure.
>Have fun with your fake power and once you drive everybody way I hope you don't kill yourself.
Your concern is touching.
>But then again people like you often tend to so I won't hold my breath.
By all means, don't hold your breath, since holding it means you expect me to drive everyone away and kill myself quickly, and by not holding it, you show you're confident that I won't do those things anytime soon. Thanks for the support. I hope you learn how to proofread someday.
Quote from: "Previous email"
> Hi!
>
> > Hey Mercaba here,
> >
> > Can you just take all my stuff down i dont' want to be associated
> > with your website anymore. The fact that my stuff gets pulled for
> > some grammer mistakes and you let people post 'chapters' that
> > consist of four sentences really doesn't fill me with 'love and
> > respect' for you're group.
>
> Episodes are only removed solely at author's request before a
> certain point, otherwise I only do so for quality reasons. Since
> your episodes passed quality standards at the time it was posted
> (though they probably won't today), I do not have the authority to
> remove them. Bast! might personally delete them for you.
>
> > I know you must have had your reasons for pulling my stuff, I
> > respect that. But I can't respect the fact that 95% of new
> > chapters it seems is less than one full idea or concept. I'd
> > rather nobody read any of my stuff than be associated with a
> > place that does that.
>
> The term is "episode", not "chapter". Since episodes were never
> meant to encapsulate whole ideas or concepts, the fact that they
> don't encapsulate them is not a problem. I'm not sure where you got
> the idea that they should.
>
> > I'm not upset at you pulling my stuff again, I wrote it in about
> > 30 min and I should have re-checked it, I know. But your lack of
> > adhearance to your own standards makes me not want to associate
> > anymore. I've only got a few other chapters in the Maho Shinji
> > arc and would like for you to remove them at your earliest
> > convenience.
>
> May I ask what parts of my own standards I did not adhere to by
> deleting episodes for reasons of technical quality but didn't
> delete for not following episode structure that doesn't exist?
>
> > Sorry for the hassle, hope things go well for you too. Just try
> > to be uniform in your policy enforcement. Seeing my stuff removed
> > and seeing the other things that you 'let slide' really irritated
> > me at first.
>
> If you find my policies non-uniform, I would like to hear
> specifically what things I let slide that you think shouldn't be.
>
> -- KLSymph
It's so hard to stop myself from appending "Retard" to these emails, but I still manage to do so. Usually I try to be even kinder in the previous email, but I didn't try as hard yesterday since he was already doing the "you're a bad mod" routine, and there's only so much of that I can take from people who don't know what they're talking about.
Your patience is astounding! I wouldn't be nearly as generous.
It is the fate of those who mod dumb people.
Dracos
Quote from: "Dracos"It is the fate of those who mod dumb people.
Dracos
Whenever "Soulriders: Teh 2D Fightan Game" gets made, that totally has to be your win quote. :P
Quote from: "KLSymph's next reply"Hi!
>I simply didn't find the need to profreed for something maybe 2 or 3 people would read.
I don't see the need to post something maybe two or three people would read either, but that never stops anyone.
>Not like your place gets much attention these days. Hell I'm surprized its still running.
I'm not. That might be because I know why and how well the Addventure runs in the first place.
>As for pettiness...don't think so highly of yourself or the location you so 'highly' serve.
I don't see you refuting the pettiness charge.
>I'm sure reading these emails realy boosts your shallow little ego.
Don't be silly. I have to spend hours each day cleaning up after people like you. These emails just depress me.
>"I'm ticking this guy off yeah!'" "I'm being a hardass and telling him how it is! Bitchen" where all you're doing is proving my point.
You don't have a point. You used to have one: KLSymph's moderation is inconsistent. That point disappeared with the morning mist.
>If its not what YOU want you trash it. If its not YOUR friends you trash it. It has to be YOUR will or YOU get rid of it...catching the theme?
Since you're pretty slow, I guess I'll have to point out that since I didn't delete your old episodes, even though I admittedly don't like them, you must be wrong.
>Likely you're not, highschool can only teach one so much these days...
That implies you had a better education than high school. Setting my own education aside for the moment, I've read your writing, and I did better in grade school.
Seriously. I received a Young Authors award for short story in third grade. Imagine how badly I must've written in grade school and still receive a medal. I don't know how it happened. Anyway, continuing:
Quote from: "KLSymph's next reply">Its 'selfishness' can you see that? Shall I spell it out for you? Claiming to 'not be lording' over things while your strike back at me so venomantly proves your defensive. Defensiveness is a sign of weakness.
Weakness, you say? So what does that say about your emails? Here's a tip: don't psychoanalyze other people's harsh responses when yours is worse. It makes you look like a hypocrite. Here's another tip: "venomantly" is not a word.
>Personally I find this whole thing highly entertaining, haven't had this big a laugh in years.
You must not get out much.
>So much importance you give yourself. But those with little cling to what they have so tenatiously don't they.
Ooh, here, let me try. So much importance Mercaba gives himself, thinking he got KLSymph to give a heavy response when KLSymph has been doing this every day for three years. But those with little cling to what they have, no? It's not like Mercaba can find entertainment in writing well for others.
>By all means though say more things that 'I'm being rude' or 'I'm the foolish one' it really does make for interesting reading.
I have a suggestion for even more interesting reading: books. Maybe if you flip through some, you'll learn how to write.
>Bet the best you could do, don't see you posting anything anywhere.
I don't see you checking the Addventure's authors' list for my name, so we're even.
>Easier to judge than to create isn't it. Things are easier to break than build ^_^
Of course. That's why I have to work hard every day to build the Addventure into something better. Shoveling out episodes of your level is just a chore.
>So please, keep me entertained a little longer with your prattle, it soothes the soul.
While you're over there soothing yourself in front of your computer, remember that other people are practicing their writing.
-- KLSymph
I demand that that win quote be for when I win against someone, and then Dracos can come up and say it to me as I stalk off in disgust.
I can't wake up on a nice Saturday morning. Blaarghfuckle.
been fighting very slow moving fires all day. MRGH. Also can't get on aim or irc at work. Sadness. Gtalk needs to get its multilayerness going yesterday. I should be going home in 5 minutes...but I won't, because the fires aren't done. x-x
Dracos
Mrgh.
My dog thinks my bed is slang for 'place to shed on'. Again. Siiiiiiigh.
Downloaded the Lucky Star ending pack, but I can't it it to play in anything I have. God, but that is annoying.
On a completely different note, was there an update to the forum? I never noticed this spell checker thing before.
My roommates have three cats. Two of them are great.
The third is an outright bastard. It's a Maine Coon, so it's huge, but it's also violent (I have recieved a total of 15 bleeding wounds from him so far, just trying to help the owners apply their 'soft paws' to it and moving it from the shelf where it tries to knock down all of the glass display pieces in the living room). The thing acts semi-feral, and I'm not happy about it being around since while most pets are kept as friends, this one is kept as a merciful alternative to being put to sleep.
No idea what to do with the bastard, and the owners don't want it declawed because it's inhumane.
Damnit.
When one of your roommates doesn't ever tell you (but he told everyone else), that the family that was coming to visit him in California is, BTW, moving in with you in your new house for a week.
Apparently, my income is low enough that my contribution towards rent means I don't need to be told these things.
How considerate.
And what will your revenge be? ^_^
To sulk quietly in my room and kvetch about it online.
I'll have to notify Slacker. Apparently Spikey-Bats will still be required.
Quote from: "Brian"When one of your roommates doesn't ever tell you (but he told everyone else), that the family that was coming to visit him in California is, BTW, moving in with you in your new house for a week.
Apparently, my income is low enough that my contribution towards rent means I don't need to be told these things.
How considerate.
They fail to factor in things like "psychotically violent friends" in your rent contributions, I see.
I'll need you to provide me with a listing of sporting goods and hardware stores in the immediate vicinity.
DRIVE BY PARTAY, PARTAY!
Dracos
Claims the pipes
I hurt my knee and it's screaming at me now. The left side of my left knee, including the side where I think something important and connect-y is. Fuck.
While it's nice to have the confidence of the polisci department in being asked to prototype next semester's textbook instead of taking the normal online polisci course...
The open ended nature of my midterm paper will not let me stop writing. I'm at over the twice the page requirement (limits don't...technically exist, but I may force them into existence with this), and I'm only vaguely approaching the end.
But since this professor never likes tests, we have to do what amounts to a lit review and analysis to demonstrate understanding of the material, so...I still have my own actual theory ideas to throw out on the branch once I do the full evaluation of the author's thoughts and those of the philosophers they cite.
I'm writing about power and its possessors, IT WILL NEVER END.
The final paper's going to be murder.
Also, anyone know what Rousseau was smoking? I need some.
Add typical bitching about students that come in the day after their paper was due and demand a tutor just point everything wrong out, and continue to insist we can just point/mark it when at least half a paragraph needs rewriting. Argh. =_=
We read bitch almost twice as often as we appreciate. =)
Unrelated to the recent ones, just thought that was kind of interesting.
Dracos
Man, that postbot goes crazy in SR. That silly Dracos, making us bitch about postbot spam! <_<
Awesome! Complete Victory :D
On an unrelated tangent, today's life lesson is: Always take 10 on checks to get when you have a sore knee. Risking it just isn't worth it. Owwie, fucking floor hurts to fall on.
Got sick on overpriced Sonics after the rafting. Still feeling the effects. x_X
Owie...
Take some tylenol and be careful, Dune. Don't want to cause lasting damage.
Dracos
I forgot to bring a book today.
Dracos
Playing a game for six hours without saving then losing all your progress because it freezes up is not fun.
Freezes suck.
I also forgot to bring books today. TOday would be good for books.
my jaw has decided it wants to ache. Yay.
I'm blocked at work, so doing really annoying tasks while waiting @_@
Dracos
Ow, Drac.
All I have is that my dog ate part of my lunch. You have me beat cold.
I have to have a wisdom tooth yanked out. It is impacted and has also caused an infection. Yay teeth.
Dracos
Moderating the Addventure (http://addventure.bast-enterprises.de/display_comment.php?episode=117010&n=14&m=0&d=3) makes me want to write video game stories for a living. I need something appealing in my life to balance things out, and I've spent an hour staring at RPG Maker XP (http://www.enterbrain.co.jp/tkool/RPG_XP/eng/index.html) debating whether I should take AA moderating time out of my day and put it into playing with that instead.
Even though the demo video is so lame.
...
Somebody give me a job doing video games.
So every time I lay down, I can't seem to relax mentally, and want to sit up and do something. When I sit up, I feel miserable and ridden with pains and what may be a fever.
Driving home from not quite the middle of nowhere, popping a tire, removing a tire in the dark only to realize the spare isn't aired up, replacing the tire in the dark, driving very, very slowly to the nearest gas station only to find them closed so you can't get change for the air pump, driving to the next station only to find their pump busted, and then going back to the first to finally air the tire and get home.
I left an hour early and ended up coming in later than usual.
KLsymph: No openings for writers at where I am right now...sorry... but poke folks anyway! The aggressive get in!
And yeah, RPG Maker is lameness.
oh yeah,
http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/writers these folks are pretty cool. They can help you out.
Dracos
I woke up all night with stomach cramps, so now I'm tired. Fuck.
Quote from: "Dracos"And yeah, RPG Maker is lameness.
Basically I've played a game made with it a long time ago, which is why I knew about it. I figure, if Laxius Power (http://laxiuspower.org/) can be "one of the best fanmade RPGs I have ever seen" according to the Underdogs (http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?gameid=3453) despite being one of the most mind-blowingly unfun games I myself have ever seen (and I'm pretty patient with unfun RPGs; in fact I tried the game TWICE, hoping to like it, and still had to stop playing from the crushing tedium even with a walkthrough to skip as much of it as possible), then heck. If I don't have to worry about the programming (which I can do) and the artwork (which I can't), I can probably make a decent game.
RPG Maker looks awful, and when I tried it it didn't seem much better than it looked, but if I use the mechanics well I can probably make engaging interactive fiction if nothing else. I already mapped out a concept and everything. Maybe someday... or maybe not.
Quote from: "Dracos"oh yeah, http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/writers these folks are pretty cool. They can help you out.
I will investigate! Though I admit mailing lists aren't my preferred medium. Are you on there?
It is one of the very few places I lurk silently. I went there hunting a fallout 3 job, chickened out, and stayed there watching for a good while.
Dracos
When your car spends over half the time you've owned it in a shop because the morons there can't get their @$#&ing acts together and make up their minds about how they accept payments.
AFTER they spring an extra 330$ expense on you post-initial estimate.
And they're supposed to be reputable?
I'm freaking livid.
That's total garbage. :\ What are they claiming it is for?
Dracos
Muffler was rusted all the way up to the catalytic converter. Had to be replaced to pass the smog.
When your cat learns to remove its cast, so you have to go to the vet and pay to have it replaced again. Its like she doesn't want to get better....
Hooray extra expenses.
Also, she's learned to smack me in the head with her cast, and meows just a bit louder than my earplugs will block out, so it's not like she lets me get sleep anyway. Isn't it enough that she makes me suffer directly? Does she also really feel the need to attack my wallet?
*sigh*
There go my emergency savings. -_-
And Peter thinks he's going to get this cat back, while I cover all expenses. Yeah, right.
You're still talking with that fella? Why?
Dracos
I'm completely unconscious today.
This sucks.
Getting up at 4:30am the first day of fall classes and work because I couldn't fall back asleep.
Oh well, at least work should be dead today, and there's just one class this morning. =_=
Mr. Morning Radio: "Heading into the city, all freeways report no accidents."
*KLSymph, while on the freeway heading into the city, passes three automobile accidents on one twenty-ish mile stretch, two of which involved four cars and had police and tow trucks on the scene, adding another twenty minutes to his commute.*
What the heck.
Reading IT books. They're a pain to read.
Trying to figure out this blasted Gtalk thing and send an instant message to Dracos at work. Drac, check it so I can try to figure out the IMing capacity of this thing?
Well, you got me there long before you got me here =)
That's because you're superfreaky.
... Where are my classes? They've just... vanished.
I did everything I needed to do during the summer to make sure this shit wouldn't happen and yet here I am, start of a new semester, no money owed and still missing all of my classes. Why does this happen to me?
Also, 5cm Per Second looked great, but I hated the story a lot. Don't the Japanese know what a happy ending is?
I decry the lack of good fiction out, expecially in the Ranma section.
And damnit, when will we see Soulriders 3.11 for Workgroups? ^_^
You know, this was supposed to be a four day weekend. A nice mini vacation. It was a piece of fucking shit over and over, with very brief moments of fun.
I'm giving a lecture tomorrow afternoon, and the evening after. I've never given lectures, I hate speaking in front of people, I feel like utter crap before and after. I'm still an undergrad.
I'm walking this curious edge between screaming as I have a nervous breakdown, or just bawling.
Really, I should try to cheer up. ._.
Quote from: "Ranma_007"I decry the lack of good fiction out, expecially in the Ranma section.
I feel like I'm trying to take care of that alone, some days.
The other days, I feel like I chased everyone else away and that's why I'm alone.
Meh.
Anyway. I decided to arrange a party and birthday present for a roommate that everyone else forgot about (even his wife!), and it went spectacularly; I was able to use my dying computer as an excuse to ask him what parts he would buy.
We gave him a surprise party, and a new computer, and bonus, since he had a new video card (PCE, or whatever), he gave me his old one.
His old system was suffering, with either the mother-board, or the RAM being the likely damaged component.
After it blowed up my computer, I decided it was actually his old video card. On this same day, my bank decided that 90$ - 70$ = -98$. I forget all the other problems, but it was a landmark bad day; I ended up giving up on my old system, so now have just the laptop. :/
I miss being able to game.
Your karma hates you Brian.
God is a fucking asshole who lately gets his kicks by ruining my vacation experiences for me.
Quote from: "MercForHire"God is a fucking asshole who lately gets his kicks by ruining my vacation experiences for me.
I bet he only does it because your avatar is so creepy-weird. It reminds me of Serial Killer Doc Tofu.
Quote from: "Jon"I bet he only does it because your avatar is so creepy-weird. It reminds me of Serial Killer Doc Tofu.
Yeah, really, Merc; what the hell IS that, anyway?
It's Dr. Tomoe from Sailor Moon S.
Quote from: "MercForHire"It's Dr. Tomoe from Sailor Moon S.
AKA Serial Killer Doc Tofu
Quote from: "Ragnar"Quote from: "Jon"I bet he only does it because your avatar is so creepy-weird. It reminds me of Serial Killer Doc Tofu.
Yeah, really, Merc; what the hell IS that, anyway?
You mean I'm the only one who reconized it? >_>;
Shuten slashes thru the collective members confusion!
The lot of you need to brush up on your useless anime trivia... that or just keep doing whatever you're doing. In fact just keep doing the latter. ;p
Sincerely,
Shuten
I'm sicker than a dog, and my nose won't stop running. Fever, chills, slight right ear pain, general feeling of awfulness... yeah.
Quote from: "Shuten"Shuten slashes thru the collective members confusion!
The lot of you need to brush up on your useless anime trivia... that or just keep doing whatever you're doing. In fact just keep doing the latter. ;p
Sincerely,
Shuten
Fine, who is that =P
Dracos
Quote from: "Dracos"Fine, who is that =P
Dracos
Youmu Kanpaku from the Touhou series. The shot itself specifically comes from Touhou Kitogeki 2.
The full screenshot that was used can be found here (http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/5651/kitoyoumuscgo0.jpg).
Sincerely,
Shuten
Quote from: "Dexie Oblivion"You mean I'm the only one who reconized it? >_>;
I'm pretty certain everyone who's ever been in the SM RPG chatrooms knew who he was. =p
On an update for God's evilness, it has been triumphed, and Tomoe laughs at him.
Shuten:
Ah, yeah, the entire face not being covered does help =) Nice sword though.
Dracos
My kid cousin's birthday is tomorrow, and apparently that's his cue to be even more annoying than usual. Over the past week, I ask him what he wanted as a gift.
KLSymph, for the umpteenth time: "Hey, what do you want me to give you?"
Cousin: "Dolphin." (and then crams the dirty plush dolphin he carries everywhere in KLSymph's face, again)
This continues until today, when his dad buys him a Nintendo DS game (Mario Kart). I take a moment out of my day to bitterly remember that I've never gotten a video game for my birthday, and my parents smacked me whenever they caught me playing any (yay college!).
KLSymph: Okay, if you're not going to tell me what you want, I'm going to get you (thinks of the dumbest thing to buy a 10-year-old boy) flowers."
It's too bad I ultimately didn't buy him that 94-cent bundle of plastic Walmart flowers (with fake plastic butterfly, slightly folded), because that would've been a funny ending to this story.
Further conversation:
KLSymph: "Okay, pick the one you want."
Cousin, having decided he wanted poker cards more than he wanted the aforementioned plastic Walmart flowers, points to a $2 pack of cards.
KLSymph: "Very well, that's your birthday present."
Cousin: "Hey, you said you'll buy me something up to ten dollars!"
KLSymph: "Yep. Two dollars is 'something up to ten dollars'."
Cousin: "Can I get two things?"
KLSymph: "No."
Cousin: "Why?"
KLSymph: "I don't like you that much."
And after I bought it, I didn't let him hold it. 'Cause it's not your birthday yet.
I'm horrible.
The cousin birthday concludes.
Cousin, at the restaurant table: Can I dolphin around? (he randomly asks this all the time)
KLSymph: Yep, you can do whatever you want, because it's your birthday! Tomorrow, we all go back to treating you like crap. (last part trailing off to silence)
Cousin: What?
KLSymph: Nothing.
And finally:
Cousin: Oh, I know, let's celebrate your birthday.
KLSymph: But you don't even know when my birthday is.
Cousin: Yes I do, it's in July!
KLSymph: No, if it was in July, we would've celebrated it then.
Cousin: Then it's in October!
KLSymph: Are you sure?
Cousin: It's in December!
KLSymph: Are you sure?
Cousin: Yes!
KLSymph: Well, you're wrong.
Cousin: It's in October!
KLSymph: Nope.
Cousin: January!
KLSymph: Nope.
Cousin: February!
KLSymph: Nope.
Cousin: March!
KLSymph: Nope.
Cousin: April!
KLSymph: Nope. (actually yes)
Cousin, after listing the rest: But those are all the months!
KLSymph: The truth is, I was never born.
Cousin: Then how come you're alive?
KLSymph: Because I'm magical.
That's awesome. XD;
A coworker got fired and we're all even more shorthanded now. Morale at work is painfully low.
Blanked through about 3/4ths of a calc test. The funny part? I was able to do the harder stuff easily. It was all the basic stuff that I completely blanked on for most of the test.
Not having anything to eat, and thus being unable to take your medication because of the 'take with food' requirement.
Panda:
Happens to the best of us.
You should see me on basic maths~ =p
Dracos
Does some double integrals instead.
Company decided not to pay for the exam fee for the CISM certification.
I'll just have to get it myself, then throw it in their faces when I get it. Boo yah!
Bills suck ass, I owe a bunch of money, and on top of it all, I need to get back into my PT regimens. Life is awesome.
They blocked ff.net at work. Fuckers! >_<
Quote from: "MercForHire"They blocked ff.net at work. Fuckers! >_<
My workplace has had SR blocked for over a year due to it being a 'game site' ^^;
yeah, SR's been banned for a bit over a year. It wasn't banned when I started to work for Fluor, but was banned somewhere in my 2nd-3rd month. But ff.net has been unbanned for over a year and a half, and now it's banned. And it hurts cause most of my ff.net bookmarks are on my work computer. I've got to transfer 'em to this one now, and that's a bit annoying. I liked being able to read stuff in the slow periods.
Today instead had me -writing- in the slow periods. Ugh. >_<
Found out that I did pretty crappy on my first accounting 300 exam. -_-
I am not going to be graduating next semester after all.
Turns out I misread the list of courses that count towards my minor. I thought it said ENG 471 or ENG 472 or ENG 473 or ENG 474 or ENG 476 or ENG 477 or ENG 478 or ENG 479.
Turns out it just says ENG 471 or ENG 472 or ENG 474 or ENG 476 or ENG 477 or ENG 478 or ENG 479.
So the ENG 473 course I'm taking this semester won't count for anything except total credits completed. And it's not even a fun course. And I'll have to take an extra English class before I can graduate.
Next semester, I'm already scheduled to take 20 credits. A normal load is 12-16. 24 is right out. So unless I can test out of one of my classes, looks like I'm screwed.
And by screwed, I mean dropping out. I don't care that much about my degree that I'm going to stick around here for ANOTHER semester.
But still, major sucking.
Quote from: "Jon"So the ENG 473 course I'm taking this semester won't count for anything except total credits completed.
Talk to your advisor, see if you can petition to substitute ENG 473 for one of the other ENG classes.
Quote from: "Edward"Quote from: "Jon"So the ENG 473 course I'm taking this semester won't count for anything except total credits completed.
Talk to your advisor, see if you can petition to substitute ENG 473 for one of the other ENG classes.
Yeah, I did. Turns out that's a standard procedure for 473. Crisis averted.
I found a dead bug in my cereal today.
Nothing like a good "argh" moment to start off the week.
If the bug died trying to eat the cereal....
It was pretty old cereal.
Join us next week for KLSymph's autopsy.
Ew. That's disgusting.
---
I slept so poorly last night that I remember waking up at least eight distinctive times. Fuck.
Quote from: KLSymph on October 08, 2007, 11:31:09 AM
It was pretty old cereal.
Join us next week for KLSymph's autopsy.
Why can't I ever get free things in MY cereal? I never get free things in my cereal.
Hmm, the IRC servers have gone into Defcon mode. "/join #soulriders" "You need a registered nick to join that channel." So I try to register a nick. "-NickServ- Services are in Defcon mode, Please try again later." Who has launched this invasion upon our domain that calls for such a lockdown?
Ah! Seige is lifted, donuts and root beer for all.
Quote from: SabreMau on October 09, 2007, 02:40:31 AM
Hmm, the IRC servers have gone into Defcon mode. "/join #soulriders" "You need a registered nick to join that channel." So I try to register a nick. "-NickServ- Services are in Defcon mode, Please try again later." Who has launched this invasion upon our domain that calls for such a lockdown?
Ah! Seige is lifted, donuts and root beer for all.
It had something to do with botnet issues. +R is the best way to stop that.
Ah, I was wondering about that.
Sabre: Sorry, that wasn't us blocking it, though I'm glad that their defense went cleanly it seems.
Dracos
I miss the idle chatroom chatter. ;_;
I found a guy selling Lunar Silver Star Story Complete (Collector's Edition) for $45, but he won't sell it to me because he is a fucker.
Arriving and finding several machines knocked down over the weekend :)
the website "IRC at Work" does not, in fact, work at work.
Ah damn.
I'm not surprised, Websense has the bad tendency to be on the ball.
Postbot still buggy.
I hate stomaches so damned much.
TAAACOO BEEEELLL! Argh.
The Anime Addventure deleted the entire collection of comments for a deleted post, the entire thread being one giant collection of awesome comedy. Especially because the guy just did -not- get what he was doing wrong. Nobody was even trying to be particularly subtle with him. Mind you, nobody bashed the obvious right into his face like a brick, but still, it shouldn't take that much effort to get what was being said.
Rather belated, but my life hasn't been particularly peaceful enough to post anyway:
So a week ago, I'm heading to the class I TA. Very little stress! No grades or assignments! I just sit there, force students to think by asking questions they'll never come up with, and lighten the load on the professor.
I get there, the Academic Affairs lady has found her way to our door, and is talking about the class being canceled. But wait! "The professor left instructions that the tutor could work with students on rough drafts and questions about the test. Is the tutor here?" "...Me."
So I led a class. I spent two hours skimming rough drafts, giving verbal feedback, and initialing papers so they'd get the points for bringing in a rough draft face to face with reams of lazy though not quite bitter students. I then had a minor anxious breakdown and went home.
Normally they don't pay me for the TAing, it's all about having recommendations and references and experience that makes an application glow like the sun, but they did pay me that day. I shouldn't be doing this, psychology isn't even my major, but I'm considered the secondary authority for all of this professor's psych classes.
Students are the bane of my academic experience. Truly.
If you don't hate them, you're doing something wrong.
Something broke in postbot again.
test
I've managed for my time in college to maintain a certain luxury, making half my classes once a week evening affairs so that I have a three day weekend free and clear.
It appears now that such will no longer be possible.
Good night, sweet prince~
Sis is in NY visiting friends, while parents went off on cruise through caribbean. Meanwhile, I'm stuck with work with increased traffic due to people having energy to go to work 'hour earlier' and november's lame atmosphere/weather, and having to wake up at 4am everyday to take a medical pill I need to take at least 2 hours before I eat breakfast. Normally I wouldn't mind being alone too much, heck, I'd generally almost enjoy enjoy it...but I've been feeling depressed a lot lately, work sucks a heckuva lot lately, and my body feels just shitty overall, so not a time to be wanting to be alone, y'know?
Sis was supposed to come back tomorrow, but she just called asking if I cared if she stayed a while longer, until next monday, given parents are out till sunday and she's well aware of how I've been feeling lately.
And well, I kinda -do- care, but I figure, I'm only really gonna be seeing her for 4-5 hours in the evening, while she's gonna end up being the one depressedly alone for 10 hours a day while I'm at work when she could be with her friends and such, right? Heck, we don't even really do all that much when we're together due to a lot of different interests. And really, what kind of big brother am I if I tell her to come home just to keep me company cause of how I've been feeling when I know she'll end up way more depressed while I'm at work? She went to NY in the first place because she was feeling lonely with not having friends in the area and such.
So I told her to go ahead and try to call the travel agency about that and that I'd pay for the extra fee for her as an "early christmas" gift if she can still manage to change her travel plans. Still, part of me hopes the call to the travel agency call doesn't pan out for her and she does come home, and the fact that I'm even thinking that just causes me to start feeling depressed again.
I can't get on the chatroom from the Java client or from mIRC, from home or school.
The gods of the interweb hate me.
Of course they hate you; you're the chief mod in Puragatory.
Sure, but is it just me? Or did we switch chatrooms and nobody told me? Why does nobody ever tell me? You horrible people.
Shhh, nobody tell KL where we really are. :D
Not sure what the problem is, I can get onto the channel. If it makes you feel any better the channel is dead. 90% of it is Postbot saying you and I are posting to this forum thread. Most of the rest is ping timeouts and rejoins.
Since you're so busy, maybe you could give me a little C&C. It's probably less dire than the stuff you have to read on AA.
Ah, yes. I was going to do it over the weekend but my cousin hogged the computer so I distracted myself with twenty-some episodes of Nanoha StrikerS and eight books of Death Note. I have an exam tomorrow, so I don't think I can do much good C&C at this moment either. Maybe tomorrow. As for "less dire", yes, but that just means I can't just scan it and stamp "fail" on it. Which is good, of course.
That stamp of yours must be worn out.
When's your birthday again? We'll all pitch in and get you a new one.
Is there anything more pathetic than being caught between two passive aggressive people in the middle of an argument?
Many things, but not killing them is pretty high.
test
I am no longer employed.
Going to be gone for a bit.
My own fault. I'd been cheating on my timecards.
That sounds worse than it is. See, I like to go home early, so I'd often skip my lunches. This would get my boss in trouble, though, so I'd claim to have taken a lunch that I actually didn't. But, I didn't like not getting paid for a half hour (my lunch), so I just claimed to have stayed half an hour later than I had. My direct boss, and her boss were cool with this.
But the guys at the head office, once they saw that, the time I missed for my injury, the time I was sick, and then the personal days I took for family issues.... No more job for Brian. :\
Also, I'm not eligible for unemployment.
And this font is still totally invisible against the quick-reply background.
Huh.
I'm mostly glad my time cards are more of a 'this is when you were in' fashion. "9-12" "12:30-6" etc.
Weird about the font though.
Quote from: Brian on November 11, 2007, 10:29:13 PM
My own fault. I'd been cheating on my timecards.
That sounds worse than it is. See, I like to go home early, so I'd often skip my lunches. This would get my boss in trouble, though, so I'd claim to have taken a lunch that I actually didn't. But, I didn't like not getting paid for a half hour (my lunch), so I just claimed to have stayed half an hour later than I had. My direct boss, and her boss were cool with this.
But the guys at the head office, once they saw that, the time I missed for my injury, the time I was sick, and then the personal days I took for family issues.... No more job for Brian. :\
Also, I'm not eligible for unemployment.
Shit. That's is just bad luck; I wouldn't blame yourself for something your two immediate bosses signed off on. I suspect that the days off sunk you, not the half hours. Further, I think federal law prevents time off for injuries on the job(Workman's comp claims, ect) from being held against you. Then again, the latter two could be enough depending on the job's employment policy...
Or hell, maybe you just ran into a sour bean counter up the chain. Happens. Any lines on a new job yet?
Still not out of the feeling-sorry-for-myself phase.
I redid my resume, and I think I'll use the down-time to get some dental work done before my coverage vanishes. I'll start looking seriously on Tuesday. I have a car now, so I can get a real job. This is probably actually a good thing, but....
Bleah.
Quote from: Brian on November 12, 2007, 12:10:53 AM
Still not out of the feeling-sorry-for-myself phase.
I redid my resume, and I think I'll use the down-time to get some dental work done before my coverage vanishes. I'll start looking seriously on Tuesday. I have a car now, so I can get a real job. This is probably actually a good thing, but....
Bleah.
Good luck, man. I know a day off or three can help. Maybe Drac can get you a job? <_< >_>
Quote from: Brian on November 12, 2007, 12:10:53 AM
Still not out of the feeling-sorry-for-myself phase.
Understand, being fired is never fun.
/me gives Brian a Mutsumi plushie.
My notebook is dead. Vista reinstall, bios flash, puttering around for an hour on the phone with someone in India repeating things I'd already done...
Just fuck. At least it's still under hardware warranty. So here comes the happy fun fun mailing it in part.
Ew, what a pain. Still, at least it's not just a paperweight because it's out of warranty.
Uhg, water stages = motion sickness headaches. I feel ill.
Went to S.F. yesterday on public transit (I don't want to drive in that city). Got a headache from screetching brakes, my agorophobia was triggered by too many people, and the P.A. system in the train terminal on the way home sent my into an aural state for most of last evening (giving me residual migraines today). Bleah.
I paid $6.50 to see The Mist.
I want my money back.
Millenia is a troublemaker. Examplebot is nicer. He works right?
He does not. See, Fresh fried examplebot!
I am a happy test post. I am an editted test post. Testy.
Millenia: I'm a demoness! With no delete problems and finished yes?
Mil, did you break? -_-
mrgh
Showed up late to a stats test today because of the buses bypassing my stop because they were full >.<
Pretty sure I failed the damn thing.
stopped causing trouble?
Good postbot?
Finally watched the second half of Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann. I kind of wish I had stopped watching when the credits rolled in episode 27.
Getting sick right before finals.
Millenia is down for a bit. I've got to run some tests and I don't have time to do it.
Heart burn fucking sucks. I knew I should've avoided that garlic tomato sauce, but noooooo...!
Bleh.
Still no internet at the new house, RARGH.
We're 1800 feet from the nearest cable wires, so cable internet is out. Dial-up is a big NO NO.
Any other options...? ;_;
Car broke down.
During finals.
Mil-bot proving me wrong.
Fixed?
My stomach is doing a five tambourine shuffle ever since I ate the buffalo chicken yesterday. Fuck.
I fucking hate fucking everything, especially being tired when I have Christmas toys to play with.
For Christmas, I received... a trip to the emergency room and two shots of morphine for stomach problems. Yay!
That and a Jesusfish paperweight.
Also, the family tradition of "If KLSymph doesn't put up the tree, then we don't have a Christmas tree this year" continues.
And they wonder why I never call.
Went to the doctors yesterday because I could barely hear out of my right ear. Turns out I have an ear infection, oh well at least it's not that painful.
I've been down and out with a combination of the flu+pneumonia since Christmas Eve.
Fuck.
So I'm over the flu at last, but I still have to take cough medicine that knocks me out. Uaraaaaargh.
I'm taking a course that I tutor. Unavoidable, composition 1, that I've put off until the last possible semester. I'm not sure if it's better or worse for it, because I'm pretty sure I'd still bitch about it if I took it my first semester. The bar is so low, it hurts. 325-450 word descriptive paragraph we're required to have notes for, about the campus and surrounding area (or your own neighborhood), in an hour or less, on a computer, in class.
How do I not fall asleep?
By writing it entirely about your desk or some smaller area to increase the challenge?
Had to reformat.
Lost just about everything. Music. Pictures, Wallpapers. Programs. School work.
Everything.
;_;
Ouuuuuch. o-o;
Spent all night installing and uninstalling codec packs. I can't seem to play .mkv files anymore without massive slowdown.
I have the k-lite pack installed now. If someone could please help me.
Stupid bitching =p
I hate interactive ads that don't have the willingness to go the extra mile, yes, that includes the retarded punching ads, but if your ad concept is going to be "People interact with experience" your sale pitch should be delivered smoothly during it and it should leave when "I" am ready (Or advertise while I'm playing your crap).
Brought about by an interactive pencil that lacked scribble capabilities. I won't say who by, because they failed, but as soon as that pencil started moving to my mouse, I wanted to scribble with it...and I couldn't and thus I am throwing a fit =P. Bad ad! Instead, it popped up their window...equally without the ability to scribble on it. Sure, playing off the human compulsion to interact with toys gets the initial click...but it's shortsighted, regal me with why your crap product of the minute should garner my attention while I am playing with your stupid shit, don't stop me and go CRAP PRODUCT NOW.
The wind chill has reached -40 to -50 F. This is about -40 to -46 C.
I hate my bus commute.
Also, my psych prof is so sick I can barely understand her phone message. Lack of psych prof and exam + paper topics due today, and no one checks their email so they all think it's still due = I the tutor being zerg rushed by psych students. Haaaate.
My mother's on her way to the hospital after suffering a major attack. It's not even 1:00 pm eastern standard time and this day already sucks big time. >_<
Sincerely,
Shuten
My moving van apparently crashed.
I tore the knee out of an old pair of pants. It's not a huge bitch, but I was rather fond of those. They were great lazy day pants.
Quote from: thepanda on January 26, 2008, 02:11:47 PM
Spent all night installing and uninstalling codec packs. I can't seem to play .mkv files anymore without massive slowdown.
I have the k-lite pack installed now. If someone could please help me.
The only codec pack worth anything is the CCCP. http://www.cccp-project.net/
Uninstall k-lite before installing CCCP. Reboot after installing CCCP. Use the CCCP's version of Media Player Classic rather than a standalone version, since Media Player Classic's dodgy internal MKV support needs to be overridden. After installing CCCP, go download Dennou Coil. Enjoy.
I kind of-sort of got mkv files playing again. But some of the ones I used to be able to play (the 720p version of Sketchbook~Odd Punctuation's~ for example) still get the slowdown.
Dennou Coil will have to wait until I finish the half dozen series I'm already watching. ^_^
CCCP is pretty boss...but it's not been kicking ass for me for a while. It bats a good 95, but every so often I get audio/video desyncing on most/all video apps on it or forced to switch video apps to make it work. I blame the codecs because almost all of the time, updating those will fix that.
Given CCCP Media Player Classic is pretty consistent, it's also a very barebones player.
Quote from: Jon on February 04, 2008, 11:27:14 AM
The only codec pack worth anything is the CCCP. http://www.cccp-project.net/
Jon is right on the money here. I also personally use the application that comes with it, Zoomplayer, for all of my anime.
Have four exams this week as well as two quizzes, just took three of them today -_-;; Accounting 301 kicked my ass.
Nose bleeds suck. This is doubly true when you're sick with a cold and needing to blow your nose a lot. >_<
My psych professor's flu/pneumonia has become a three week epic resulting in the Dean of Liberal Arts attempting to contact me (through an incorrect phone number) to lead two classes today.
Utter coincidence that I think to call the psych prof to ask a question related to the class. This averts the most immediate disasters possible by informing me of this situation an hour and a half before its impending occurrence.
Standing in front of 40 cranky people with an anxiety problem = shitty.
Why do I have to be the most qualified individual in the building to lead a specific teacher's classes when psych isn't even my major? HATE.
Must keep reminding self, this will look good for grad school, there is a reason not kill them all, I can claim this as work experience.
Wow, that's pretty ridiculous. That's "You guys are including a paid vacation with my certified recommendation letters, right?" ridiculous.
I'm the only person in the school with half a clue of a) What the prof wants the students to know, b) What any of the prof's curriculum means, c) What parts of the syllabus no longer apply because the required materials are ordered but have yet to arrive. d) What handouts the students have and what the hell they mean.
As the kicker, I've never technically taken the class. I just TA it and I've sat in on it before, and have the background knowledge and understanding of the professor to answer most any question from it.
What scares me the most is that I probably would've done it even if they hadn't offered to pay me the overtime.
So glad today is over.
That's just a bad habit. Work over it. Folks will totally roll you for willingness to help out without pay if you let them. :P
I can't get through to the credit agencies.
Bleh.
Stupid credit agences with their faux reports. They really are quite ridiculous.
There's been a lack of bitching lately.
I have a headache. It's a start.
I'm sick.
Meh.
Every time I think things are looking up, everything takes a nosedive into the pits of hell.
I'm getting a bit tired of it.
Someone called me today.
It went a little like this.
"Hey, congratulations, you've won a thousand dollars for being a visa member."
"Cool."
"You've also won 60 months free of five magazines."
"Uh, okay."
"You just have to pay some trivial shipping fees."
"How much?"
"3.84 a week."
"Yeah, how about no to the magazines, just send me the thousand bucks."
"But the magazines come with it, you have to take them."
"I don't read magazines."
"But...oh well, goodbye."
Yay, scams. You know, I have number recording. Next one from that company is going to get spammed back.
I just discovered that my nice red sweater that's just heavy enough for early spring evening chills is very too heavy for early spring evening surprise downpours.
In possibly related news, I hate weather and I hope it dies.
My job has for the last year and a half of my experience there been rather laid back. Keep a low volume on your headphones, but you can still listen. Bring lunch back if you don't have break time, make sure you get things done, but don't worry too much about the order, etc etc.
In the last week, we've gotten a 'script' of precisely what should be addressed and precisely when with any students that come through our door. There is now a schedule to be at the front desk to confront students coming in, there is a schedule of a sort of brevet-sub-manager position, and a half dozen new regulations from 'no headphones at all' to 'all food must be hidden in your bag.'
This wouldn't be a real problem if my job involved constant work, it doesn't. I can spend 3 hours uninterrupted at a desk on a Friday, and I can't listen to music on low volume? HATE.
Ouch...
No distractions+slowwork=ugh.
Fuck the worst day of work I've ever had.
Something was supposed to be submitted this morning with instructions sent out.
It was 'done' friday. I waited till today so that it wouldn't break stuff over the weekend.
Good thing: My instinct there was correct.
Bad thing: It is nearly eight o clock and it is not submitted.
I've spent so long with psych classes that I can do an APA article citation from memory. I've spent enough time on databases that finding articles for a paper, an activity that can take the average student a day or three and vocabulary assistance from an instructor or myself, takes me 20 minutes. I'm writing an academic paper about 4chan, specifically /b/ as an example of anonymous culture and the reactions of group ideology.
When will the horror end? I pity the poor soul that inherits my position next fall.
Also, irony of ironies, the registration system for summer admits me to the class who's reqs I'm currently fulfilling, but tries to block me from the class that I've TAed for two semester.
I want to sleep instead of working.
And that sounds less horror and more "Bitches, I be awesome psych person. Pay me the monies~"
I wish the world had more infinite loops. >_<
Finals this semester suck. Did horribly in accounting 301 so I'm gonna have to retake it >.>
Last week was the week of 'last days'. Like a dozen of them. It was ugly.
The social board's been pretty dead lately. Bah.
Yeah... :\
I think there's been a lot of busyness all around. Social has been antisocial x-x
4th edition was leaked and it has issues.
Just issues?
You're saying it has a whole subsciption?
It publishes 12 times a year.
I hate my new cubicle.
Ouch. :\
Goddamn guild drama over a stupid fucking wand in WoW. And as an officer, I'm caught in the middle, especially as I'm the guy all three sides in the conflict happen to like/know/trust.
Goddammit.
Just pick whomever you feel is right and move on with it. Avoid the drama.
Brought Spore home all happy and whatnot to try it out only to come face to face with a reality I had hoped to avoid; my video card is horribly dated. Gah. Now I need to get a new one and probably a new power supply just to play the creature creator.
Sadly, I know jack all about building computers.
Edit: In fact, If anyone is willing to give me some suggestions I'm all ears. This is my system. http://www.dealtime.com/xPF-E-Machines-Desktop-with-AMD-Athlon-XP-Processor-3000-T3025
I bought it years ago and outside of buying more RAM I haven't and changing a broken dvd ROM drive I haven't done anything to it.
Help?
Echo on guild drama (kicked one member+all alts).
Echo on cubicle location (through the use of a cunningly placed wall, I am in both the exact center AND the most remote corner of the office).
Something else. Overtime makes Brian.... Something something.
Tried to start my desktop yesterday and it kept resetting after every 5 seconds. I'll need to test it with different RAM and power supply and if that doesn't work then clean the CPU which will involve having to remove the entire motherboard from the case -_-
Worst case scenario is that there's something wrong with my motherboard and I'll have to buy a new one since this one has already passed the warranty date :/
Nothing will ever break within warranty, and if it does ... then it will be in a way that is not covered by warranty.
All begins with warranty, and ends with warranty.
This is my belief.
At least...
for now.
Internet keeps cutting out over and over, causing peering, every time it so much as clouds over. Makes me want to smash things with hammers.
Dracos keeps snubbing my PMs.
I have allowed my game to die.
Again.
Damnit.
Ana: I am? *blinks**hasn't seen them o_o*
AT&T made a mistake, and switched our DSL provisioning date and our DSL disconnect date.
Meaning, they start the entire (10 day) install process over again from today.
Aside: Technology has advanced. Shouldn't DSL provisioning/installation be down to like, two days by now?
Telecommunications in the states have been aggressively fighting technological advancement, and AT&T is really at the front of that fight. They own so much of it, they often want to produce the impression that its still very hard to get/achieve since it means folks will pay more for it (As we do).
Have OT all this week (12 hour days, 8 hours on Saturday). It's voluntary, but if you don't volunteer, it's highly likely that you will be put down.
Slept in this morning (resulting in 6.5 hours of sleep) because I forgot to set my alarm.
Drove to work last night and had to slow for road repair. The smell of the tar was so strong it made me nauseous. Then when I get to work I have to ride a bus over to the main building an someone was drowning in perfume. Cue headache. Twenty minutes into work and I'm puking my guts out. So I get sent home and I not only don't get paid for a full night's work, I loose my overtime for the week.
I have had trouble sleeping all week. Well, really Sunday and Yesterday.
I ended up staying up all night sunday and sleeping in the office Monday afternoon.
Today still goes on after 3 hours sleep and only an hour or so left.
Of course I have a meeting with my manager in 40 minutes were I tell him I can't work with one of my co-workers anymore.
Ouch, rough. :|
We blew a fuse at 2 AM. It took over a half hour of sleepy figuring to find out that my bedroom fan was the cause. Balls.
Still no interwebs. It seems that AT&T is screwing our provider around.
When we call AT&T to say, "Whyfore the DSLExtreme not work?" AT&T says, "Dunno! But our service could be set up for you in THREE days! :D :D :D" I can only reply with: ò_ó.
But it is a most heartfelt ò_ó.
They're making me work a full 10 hour day tomorrow, instead of letting me take the day off and start my vacation, like I was supposed to. Blegh on upper management. Blegh!
...Ouch. :|
Been without AC since yesterday and the repairman still hasn't come even though we set an appointment with them >.<
My car is undrivable until I can afford 500 dollars of repairs/parts.
Also, I'm a failure and didn't get the tech writing position. And likely never will.
My new car has a dead battery, stranding me at work on a Sunday.
I had a date tonight.
Man, what a horrible day, Brian. Did today get any better?
It did, actually. The delayed date went fine. And I operate on the virtue of the fact that things can get worse ... but not much. ;_;
sigh. So a week or so ago, a task gets dropped on my desk needed immediately for the game team here with intended expansion for long term use.
Today with it done save starting to stick it in front of customers for feedback, it becomes "it's not really that important" followed by evidence that his ducks aren't in order and there's an entire buyin session that should've happened before this project even started. Oh, it's meant to be a secondary/tertiary way of it going? Well, thanks shit for putting it as a P1. You could've waited in the back of the queue for actually important updates to get in, but noooo...
So yeah, it was a boss' pet project using shit I'd never touched before. Pet projects are going to the back of the queue from now on regardless of priority level. Fuck that noise.
Long hours and early mornings lead to coffee. Coffee leads to sodas.
At the end of the day, I finally got to the point where my caffine intake was causing dizziness and nasea.
Now I'm going through hardcore caffine withdrawl. It's like a hangover that doesn't go away.
For two weeks.
Overtime to eternity. 12 hours, Monday-Friday, 10 hours Saturday, Sunday off (this week. Next week, 10 hours).
I hate patients that get agitated with every fiber of my being. There's nothing like spending 20 minutes in an overheated room trying to hold down a nutcase. It's even worse when the (mild due to unrelated health issues) sedative doesn't take and we have to do full restraints. Argh.
Superdickery's current site design is made of inconvenience and advertisement.
Quote from: SabreMau on August 01, 2008, 04:12:09 AM
Superdickery's current site design is made of inconvenience and advertisement.
Based on the name of the website, I'm shocked that you find that odd.
Anyway, new estimate on car is in the ~1k range, and loaner car was swapped out (for the next three days) for loaner Van, which I have renamed the Van of Sadness.
It is named this because it needed gas when I got it. And a full tank cost 100$.
Quote from: Brian on August 22, 2008, 12:10:50 PM
Quote from: SabreMau on August 01, 2008, 04:12:09 AM
Superdickery's current site design is made of inconvenience and advertisement.
Based on the name of the website, I'm shocked that you find that odd.
Anyway, new estimate on car is in the ~1k range, and loaner car was swapped out (for the next three days) for loaner Van, which I have renamed the Van of Sadness.
It is named this because it needed gas when I got it. And a full tank cost 100$.
Where'd you get it from? If it's from the dealership or service company, they should have paid for that.
Brian:
Considered looking for another used car perhaps? By the time you get to paying 1-2000, you might just be able to buy a replacement car instead that's newer.
Yeah, but I just dumped 350~ dollars into new tires. Getting the repair should last (barring accidents) quite some time, and either way, until I can afford the repairs, I don't have to pay insurance (handy, that).
And the loaner car is my epilleptic roommate's. She can't drive it for medical reasons, so she lets me borrow it. Her brother wanted it for the weekend, so I got his powder-blue Chevy Astro with broken fuel gauge. He gave it to me with criminally filthy windshield and, "Probably about 60 miles of gas in it, but the meter don't work right, so your guess is as good as mine."
I am totally expecting her car to be returned in the same condition.
There was an explanation about the gauge, which took about ten minutes. The gist of it was, "When the fuel gauge starts acting up, put more in."
New whine:
FFIII DS sucks. One of my guys died, and I was out of phoenix downs. No store I could get to at that point in the game could sell me more. My white mage couldn't cast Life because it wasn't for sale anywhere. Couldn't find a clinic/healer, or anything. And by the time I decided that I didn't care if a healer were right around the corner, GameStop was closed. Boo. :(
Yeah.
Fuck the guys who made FF3DS.
And FF4DS.
HAATTE!
I have a cold.
I took some decongestant.
It does nothing!
Feel better, or else Drac will have you 'repaired'!
I used to be human, before I offended him ... and he still has a copious supply of cabbits and napalm. :x
Hope you feel better soon, being sick sucks. :\
My backpack weighs a ton, and my right shoulder blade feels like someone drove a few nails into it.
Off to the first day of class!
There's nothing like waking up in sublime agony because you slept wrong on your shoulder. >_<
Ouch. :\ Feel better Ana!
It's been a week.
I'm still sick. Can't sleep when I'm sleeping, can't stay awake when I'm awake.
So Dracos, Brian says you offer some sort of repair service?
I was trying to cycle manic from my depressive stage.
Someone managed to crush my hopes and plans.
There's no point to trying, anymore.
Career testing, I guess.
Hurricane Ike knocked out power all the way until just now. I'm only hoping that I don't have to go to work tomorrow, becuase it's been a hot, sweaty, uncomfortable weekend.
I can't sign onto aim tonight. How weird.
Stomach cramps that ruin my night suuuuuck.
it was 'suggested' that we bring blankets/pillows to work for the coming push
the boss has a contest going. anyone who works 80+ hours in a week gets a day off
bad time to try and quit drinking coffee
I'm fairly sick -_-
My mother has passed away. Been expecting it for quite a while now but it still hurts beyond compare.
A very depressed,
Shuten
My condolences, Shuten. I am sorry for your loss. :(
One of my loans, that until now I have done semester to semester to cover the loose ends of tuition, has now been split between two semesters, for no discernible reason other than the college's wackiness.
This currently leaves me $1500 short on my tuition.
Must try to not go on stabbing spree in financial aid office UNLESS they tell me they can't do anything about this, and that late fees will be applied regardless on the exact same schedule as all else.
And of course, can't talk to them until tomorrow. Yay 8am.
Ouch. :(
I managed to go nearly two days without getting a minute to write my own bloody code. @_@
Sneers to working hard all week every week and having next to nothing to show for it.
I'm at that point where I'm reading a condensed version of the Maastricht Treaty, and might go looking for a condensed version of the Treaty of Nice, while on a depression bender.
Really, it's all kinds of fun.
I looked at my stocks yesterday.
I eyed my yearly salary.
Well, I'm not yet averaging a negative for the year.
-_-
Asrana: Whenever historical things like that get confusing, I just remember about Martin Luther and the Diet of Worms (http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_701766727/diet_of_worms.html) and laugh for a while.
Sitting with a nice and social (but not too social even by my introverted standards) person for three hours of abnormal psychology class has made my depression significantly worse. For no apparent or comprehensible reason.
Seriously, Brain, what the hell.
Twiki upgrade gets through weeks of testing.
Rolls out.
Google doesn't work on the Wiki.
I have now done black magic onto Twiki that I have no idea how to document. I believe I shall call it "First, you sacrifice a chicken" in the documentation. It works now. It works and a person watching the entire process would not be able to tell you what I did to accomplish it.
The ground has frozen while wet. This results in dunes of ice-dirt, slippery and camouflaged. This means I can't do karate on my schedule in the yard.
Time to talk to the dojo again.
Also, Drac, that sounds like a Cthulhutech adventure in the making.
I am having a shitty week.
I'm currently under investigation by my company's human resources department because a coworker filed complaint against me.
What was the complaint, you ask? She says she's intimidated by me and
afraid for her life. I don't talk to, look at, or in any way interact with her outside job specific activities.
So you're thinking something must have set this off, right? People don't just up and file complaint with human resources for no reason, surly? Apparently, the fact that I read book during down time in the area was what set this off, even though there are five or six other people in the area that read/do puzzles/whatever. So now books are banned from the area. On top of that my manager has forced me to move away from my spot on the line because it was beside her spot and I have to maintain my distance from her.
His reasoning? That in a situation like this with little evidence to back her claim up the company would still likely er on the side of caution and come down on me
because she's a woman! And now I'm hearing from people outside of my work group that she's spreading rumors that I'm going snap and shoot her
Quotelike those columbine kids.
I went to HR to file counter complaint about the rumors leading to a hostile work environment last night. Now I just have to see how this all works out.
I think it is about time to look for a new job.
Wow...that sucks.
If she doesn't get fired, get a new job. That's random bullshit that can't be tolerated.
Quote from: thepanda on November 13, 2008, 05:52:02 PMHis reasoning? That in a situation like this with little evidence to back her claim up the company would still likely er on the side of caution and come down on me because she's a woman! And now I'm hearing from people outside of my work group that she's spreading rumors that I'm going snap and shoot her Quotelike those columbine kids.
My brother was once assaulted by his girlfriend at the time; she was trying to beat him with a cookie sheet. When he called the police to report her for that and scratching him up, he was arrested.
10,000$ bail.
Also, some employees at work were not given paychecks today. Some were. The last time this happened, those that did not get their checks at the regular time were fired.
I was not paid today.
Edit: Update, I now have check. Others ... still do not. :x
Quote from: Brian on November 14, 2008, 01:59:26 PM
Quote from: thepanda on November 13, 2008, 05:52:02 PMHis reasoning? That in a situation like this with little evidence to back her claim up the company would still likely er on the side of caution and come down on me because she's a woman! And now I'm hearing from people outside of my work group that she's spreading rumors that I'm going snap and shoot her Quotelike those columbine kids.
My brother was once assaulted by his girlfriend at the time; she was trying to beat him with a cookie sheet. When he called the police to report her for that and scratching him up, he was arrested.
10,000$ bail.
Also, some employees at work were not given paychecks today. Some were. The last time this happened, those that did not get their checks at the regular time were fired.
I was not paid today.
Edit: Update, I now have check. Others ... still do not. :x
I'd say you were full of it...but I've seen that happen. It's sad, but it happens. Gender equality, eh?
We get to leer, they get to throw us in jail.
I was scanning DailyWTF and one of them was a guy interviewing a gal who had no business even remotely applying to the job in any way shape or form. The reason from his boss? "I really like not having a gender discrimination suit on my hands."
That's life. Equality is a bitch.
---
My co-worker's 10 year old nephew has spinal and brain cancer. He has less than a year to live. Blech.
Conversations....
Me and the lead I respect:
Me: "This job is starting to really suck; I spent all my time on fringe projects, being the only one willing to do them, and now my co-workers give me crap for not being as familiar with the core project as they are."
Lead: "Did you try talking to the deparment manager?"
Me: "He is too passive-aggressive to be any use in the matter."
Lead: "LOL! Yeah...."
What really pisses me off is that these are the same co-workers I stood up for when the nastiest curdmugeon in QA was still here. And ... the lead in the heckling is the lead of my last project, which I ran (completely, after the first week), because he didn't feel like it.
I cannot wait for my contract to end. If I weren't so worried about finding another job/unemployment, I'd quit already. Final confirmation in 10 days. Freedom possibly just as soon.
E-mails between me, my brother (carpool), and the department manager:
Boss-to-all: "Can you volunteer for OT this week?"
Brother: "I'm doing tomorrow, Thursday, and both days this weekend."
Me-to-boss(and bcced to brother): "I will work OT tomorrow and Thursday."
Brother: "Don't feel like working this weekend?"
Me: "I'm sure the boss will ride my ass about not taking more OT any moment."
(The expected e-mail arrived while I was sending that one.)
Boss: "Do you want to work more OT? Maybe one day this weekend?"
Me: "Boss, if I wanted more OT, I would have signed up for more OT. If you're going to insist, pick a day; I really don't care which one."
Later I get this defensive argument about him just trying to do his job ... yeah, right. He can ASK us to work OT, not insist that we VOLUNTEER. We can't legally be required to work OT in any case, so there's no difference in how he asks ... but if he's going to be Shinji every time, I'll tell him to screw off. No sense encouraging poor management habits.
Flash drive corruption. Lost my joke file and had to go to my last backup, so the news ones I brainstormed in the last two weeks are probably lost forever. Also lost an entire folder of pictures and my entire portable installation of XEmacs.
I overslept on the one day of the week I couldn't really afford to oversleep. Fuck!
It is finals week for me and I hate it so much. Studying for tax accounting, an area full of so much confusing law that I can't make heads or tails of it ><. *sighs*
I got swarmed by viruses.
Hate McAfee so much.
All of my C&C lately has just gotten authors to tell me I'm wrong/they don't care. Very frustrating to invest time in commentary that was requested, but not actually wanted. This is probably why I don't C&C that much anymore. Three times in the last year or three, I think? And of the three people I C&Ced, only one of them appreciated it/listened to my advice.
I had that happen to me back in the day, Brian. If they don't want your help, don't give it.
While I have asked a large number of people for C&C in the past year and had little success. I'm almost desparate enough to check for beta readers on ff.net.
I still have Edward's fic in my inbox with a small chunk of C&C written for it.
I suck ;_;. Sorry, Edward. :\
Quote from: Edward on December 10, 2008, 06:14:30 PM
While I have asked a large number of people for C&C in the past year and had little success. I'm almost desparate enough to check for beta readers on ff.net.
Yeah. I think a lot of the formerly productive sorts have lost interest. I used to C/C a lot but...eh.
I'm probably getting fired.
QuoteHello Chris,
Well, to put it simply, after investing as much of myself into the project as I had, it was frustrating to be told my contributions weren't necessary any more. I've been doing C-Mo's job for quite some time, pretty much by myself – the last times PS2 issues arose, he wasn't even in the loop (I didn't request him to be left out; I even CCed him on what was going on). And when you needed a report on the PS2 last time, I didn't have any trouble making it for you (by myself).
Basically, it felt like you took the task I'd been responsible for the last few weeks away and gave it to a stranger. Since I was able to do the report myself last time, it seemed like your plan was to try and get C-Mo and I to be friends. I hate to be critical of my manager, but that's not the best call on the same day I blew up at him. We're not seven year olds who need to learn how to share; we're a dedicated worker and someone with a severe social disorder respectively. I try and ignore unprofessional behavior as much as I can, but I have a finite limit, and I'll admit that I've got a weak spot for my family. C-Mo's banter didn't bother me so much that it would get in the way because he used to work. It was a (slightly off-color) characteristic of a co-worker.
But one day he stopped being a co-worker, and was just a guy who showed up occasionally to look busy and heckle. This puts me in a difficult position; he's the lead, he's supposed to be the example. What am I supposed to do in this situation? Go over his head and report to you? That'll piss him off. Meanwhile, all during the project people who don't want to talk to C-Mo because of ... off-putting characteristics (to say the least) refuse to talk to him and go straight to me. So I panic and try to keep things on the project together myself. Except ... I pull it off. It doesn't blow up or instantly go down in flames; C-Mo's able to screw around, and I'm able to kick out test plans builds and reports when he doesn't come in and tell me to stop making him look bad (which did happen, several times).
The worst thing that happens the entire time is that you notice the things he's supposed to be doing aren't getting done, and then tell me how to do them myself. Forgive me for misinterpreting, but this (and your, "You're actually the lead",) comments may have given me a greater sense of duty to the project than you intended. I thought I was in charge; I was certainly doing the lion's share of the work.
So, after proving myself capable, you wanted to force me to work with C-Mo to see if we'd get along. I admit, I don't understand how you thought this would be productive, though I do believe that no malice was intended (you probably didn't understand how deep my frustration with C-Mo has grown over the weeks of doing his job).
And after all of that, I was supposed to be on a full play-through to help Ken's project that day. I put it on hold and was hopelessly behind once you told me to stop working on that report for the PS2. I felt like everything I was trying to accomplish that day was being attacked, even if it wasn't intentional on your part (you didn't know). I apologize for my behavior, but the frustration was intolerable, and I didn't feel I would accomplish anything productive without taking some time to calm down. After looking back, I'm not as frustrated anymore; being off the project means I don't have to work with C-Mo. And now I know how to be a lead on a project; useful job experience.
Bottom line, it was probably my fault for not saying anything sooner ... but if the rumor-mill is to be believed, maybe the objections to rehiring C-Mo should have been given greater credence. It sucks, but the guy is a known issue, and I know I'm not the only person he affronts. Regardless, if he can leave me alone for the duration of my contract, I do not intend to cause issues.
Regards,
Brian R.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Chris Bruno
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 3:37 PM
To: Brian Randall
Subject: Tomorrow
Hi Brian,
Was hoping to have a chance to sit down and talk to you before you left today. Hope you made it home alright.
When I get in tomorrow I would like to sit down for a moment and chat with you. To figure out what caused you to leave so suddenly today.
Thanks.
~Chris
Edit: Or not. I'm still stuck here.
Oh whew. You need the job, don't you?
Arguably. I can take unemployment between contracts, depending on how I lose my job. If I'm fired due to favoritism, I win. If I'm fired due to (say) attendance, I lose.
If I make a huge issue with HR that threatens my manager's job, sending all of the racist e-mails, chats, sexual harrasment innuendo, and general swearing that I've recieved from this guy, and ask for an investigation ... well. Those e-mails and chats are all queued up for my way out the door, along with stern recommendations for communication/assertiveness training to handle a >_<worthy amount of passive-aggressive uselessnes on his part, and a lawsuit worth of slander evidence on the part of the employee who gets away with doing nothing....
My e-mail is going to comment that it seems likely that C-Mo is actually blackmailing my manager, because I don't think my manager is stupid enough to keep on a trouble-maker like this. In the meantime, I take savage delight in watching the project I'm not on burn to the ground in a giant pillar of fail.
Edit: I never realized what an asshole I was until recently. Or maybe I forgot. Oh well. :D
Not being able to afford Christmas presents for my friends and family.
Again.
Yesterday, I was going to head off...and one of my alarms flashed that the tools build was broken.
I investigate since I own that crap.
I find numerous impossible things. -_-
Today, I will be cutting throats until things make sense.
Laid off from work (well, two weeks, but yeah). Not horribly unexpected as I've been on the bench (between projects) for a little over three months now with -nothing- to do, but still kinda annoying. On the plus side, it was three months of essentially free money for doing -nothing- at all except sit at my cubicle and looking, well, pretty. On the minus side....well, when I say doing 'nothing', I mean doing nothing. Intensely boring? You have NO idea.
Oh well, now's a good time to start looking at that master's degree and what I'd need to get it, I guess.
Sorry man. Considering the economy, this might be a very good time to go back to school.
Good luck, Merc.
And yeah... indeed. :(
It's not all bad. You have time to line up references and think about what do next. You also have a strong family support system by all accounts, so you have something to fall back on.
*nods* yeah, I'm still living with the parents, so this doesn't really impact me harshly, thank god for that, and I've been saving most of my money as a result of living with 'em, so there's that to fall back on if they decide to kick me out for some weird reason too.
You're better off than a lot of people I know. Take a bit of time and decide what you want to do next.
Been wavering in and out of being sick all week.
Also, currently on a 'one friend gets laid off every 4 days' schedule for weeks.
36 hour long headache + polisci theorist attempting to involve calculus in their theory writings.
I cut myself (fairly badly) trying to fold the Tales of Vesperia disc. Fail on so many levels....
That's a special kind of fail. :(
My dog threw up on my bed. Argh.
I turned 30 on Saturday. My friend Jim gave me a new video card -- an ATI Radeon 4850, with 512 MB of DDR3. Exactly like the one I already had (that he got me for christmas). So, we begin the process of trying to get Crossfire to work between these two cards to make an epically awesome monster system!
Fry's Trip #1:
...but my power supply is too weak to support it. So, given that this will require some major hardware changes anyway (the PSU isn't the most troublesome, but...), I decide to cut into my savings and give myself a birthday present of a system upgrade -- just to be sure. All of the components we buy are Crossfire compatible. New CPU, new motherboard, and new RAM.
Back home to assemble the system!
Computer Central Trip #1:
Wallace lost the Vista disc and key he was going to get me, so we had to buy a new one.
But we're off!
Fry's Trip #2:
...but the new power supply is not modular, as its packaging claims. It must be taken back and replaced.
Then we get to build awesome system of the ages!
Fry's Trip #3:
After assembly, the new system can only count half its RAM.
Now with good parts!
Fry's Trip #4:
After installing the new replacement RAM, we realize that RAM socket 0 on the motherboard is actually dead. We need to replace the motherboard.
...now with more thorough testing.
At this point, the system begins behaving oddly with regards to the windows boot disc. If the disc is in the system drive, it won't boot. We manage to get it to read once, and the install is off!
Now, to install drivers, and configure.
32 hours later, after rolling back and trying 4 different drivers, 3 different Catalyst Control Center versions (this is the software that will say yeah or nay on CrossfireX working), and what happens? A known issue according to ATI. Both cards work fine separately. Both cards are identical in terms of spec (though, it turns out that CrossfireX is supposed to be forgiving on this front anyway), but the option to enable CrossfireX simply never appears. Finally, earlier today, I turn to their tech support.
After telling the first tech my issues, he transfers me to someone else who says, "Well if you've tried all of that, then all I can suggest is reformatting and reinstalling your OS. Then, install each component of your new video setup one piece at a time, with a reboot between each software and hardware installation. Some guys on our forum said that sometimes that works."
Yaaaay.... But it didn't work.
So, the better part of 3 days, 1200$ in new parts, and ... I can't use CrossfireX, which means all I can get from the card is that my system will run hotter and use more power. It won't accomplish anything useful, but it's there. So I uninstalled it and gave it to my roommate.
I fail at receiving birthday presents.
I already snapped my phone into pieces out of frustration over trying to get the stupid thing working (better than the video card/MB), and after gouging my hands on that and the inevitable nicks, cuts, scratches, etc. that come from upgrading a system.... Oh, yeah, AND I now own a copy of Vista. Great.
ATI has received enough blood, sweat, and tears. For the next few weeks, I am a crusader against their company -- an emissary of hate, if you will. Words actually DO suffice to express my frustration, but I'll save them for ATI staff.
Noted: Avoid ATI products.
Three more formats and 7 installs later ... trying to get an install of Vista that isn't corrupted.... Very frustrated. >_<
I also ended up losing both my RL and MT spots in our 10-man Naxx this week (WoW stuff), since my system was down at the time. ;_;
Random suggestion:
Try Windows 7 Beta?
And man that's painful.
Tempting, but I've got it stable, and fear offending whatever digital gods torment me.
Yesterday I dealt with hysterical people, bad interview luck, demos, and sleepiness.
Today started at six am. It not look much better.
Rapid, repeated netsplits can go fuck a mountain lion.
Have a 10 page project due tomorrow and just started to work on it tonight because my teams sucks at scheduling a time to meet with each other. Goddammit.
Hmm...Crazy weeks.
Today is one one of those days where I wish "Mutual Assured Destruction" were still part of our foreign policy. I would then be able to enjoy the thought that there was a small chance the world would end.
Can't seem to get on to Tokyo Toshokan. Is it just me?
Dunno...^^; Don't go there.
my department might cease to exist.
this is scary. :(
I have to rely on group members to be informed. About Israel-Palestine, with a Turkish professor. And they come from the caste of near-humans that think Cs are acceptable.
:(
I have my cost accounting final today and even though I spent a whole lotta time studying I still feel unprepared. Dammit >.>
"Why aren't you letting me tail you to every meeting you go to?"
"Because it is creepy and you should be doing your own work?"
Stupid boss headaches around switching a single day off SUCK.
Shitty haircut is shitty :(
Just got back from a great cruise in Europe and awesome weather. Currently it's raining in Michigan and around 50 something degrees...>.>
I'm on vacation...and I'm getting hives. Fuck.
Yesterday, after a power-surge/outage (one of the circuits in the house blew), my system started randomly bluescreening. Rolled back to the saved state before the power issues, no joy. Replaced many drivers, even installed SP2 (for Vista) ... problem persists.
Only seems to happen with games, so either it's RAM that standard applications don't touch, or my video card. Hoping it's somehow just a software issue, and have spent all of this morning reinstalling my OS ... good times. :|
I spent an entire day navigating memory corruption on a multilanguage application.
And then arrived to pages of rule disputes. :(
Quote from: Brian on June 04, 2009, 04:48:12 PM
Yesterday, after a power-surge/outage (one of the circuits in the house blew), my system started randomly bluescreening. Rolled back to the saved state before the power issues, no joy. Replaced many drivers, even installed SP2 (for Vista) ... problem persists.
Only seems to happen with games, so either it's RAM that standard applications don't touch, or my video card. Hoping it's somehow just a software issue, and have spent all of this morning reinstalling my OS ... good times. :|
Yeargh, that's horrific. Did you have any luck fixing it?
I reinstalled my entire OS, which meant reinstalling and configuring everything I had -- my last option to try and fix the system.
Unfortunately, no, SOME PART of my hardware is bad. And, bottom line, I do not have the money to fix it. I have a very expensive paperweight that occasionally may double as a word-processor for brief periods of time. No solution will be timely, and no solution will be free (other than doing without a computer).
Quote from: Brian on June 06, 2009, 07:01:15 PM
I reinstalled my entire OS, which meant reinstalling and configuring everything I had -- my last option to try and fix the system.
Unfortunately, no, SOME PART of my hardware is bad. And, bottom line, I do not have the money to fix it. I have a very expensive paperweight that occasionally may double as a word-processor for brief periods of time. No solution will be timely, and no solution will be free (other than doing without a computer).
Argh. Bummer. Still cash strapped and jobless?
My laundry machine might be broken, thus involving several trips to the laundromat. Ugh!
That is rapidly becoming an eternal state in this economy. It's like misanthropes aren't liked, for some reason....
Those *censored* asshats!
Work monkeys give me a poor performance review on a project that was outside of my control.
I need new glasses.
One and a half hour long netsplit is pretty lame. Only good thing is it was late at night when nobody was talking anyway.
Increeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedibly PISSED with my local walgreens pharmacy and whomever the idiot in charge of my medication history at my doctor is, if not my doctor himself.
As I've mentioned, I'm going to be out of the country (going to Peru this friday) and going to be gone for a while. At my last doctor appointment I -specifically- mentioned this and asked if there was going to be any problems with getting prescription for long enough to last me through my time out of the country. I was assured there would be no problems. I also asked this at the pharmacy when I last went a month ago and was again told there should be no problems, I'd just have to pick it up before I left on my trip.
Today, I called doctor's office so they can get my prescription refill going, they call me to verify my prescription, and I -again- state the fact that I'm going for a month, and I need 5 weeks worth of medicine in case of an emergency. I am also asked to clarify my prescription (I take two different quantities of same medicine, 0.2MG once a week, 0.175MG once a day the rest of the week) and I do so. Sounds like everything is going fine and I'm told they'll make the order before the end of the day.
Except I just returned from the walgreens pharmacy, where they insist my prescription is -wrong- and I'm supposed to take 0.2MG twice a week, and that insurance -won't- pay for fifth week, meaning it came out of MY pocket....and worse they would hear nothing of what my prescription is or the fact that I have enough leftover 0.2MG medicine to last me two months, thus -forcing- me to buy the crap when I specifically stated I DID NOT NEED 0.2MG AT ALL. And unfortunately, I am forced to do so because I am out of the 0.175MG and -need- to have that for tonight, and they would not hand it over without the 0.2MG. And of course, as the order was done at the end of the day, this means I could not call doctor's office to fix shit tonight.
Thankfully, the fact that my trip is not until friday means that I have tomorrow to waste on stupid retarded shit like calling my doctor over my prescription (I would -THINK- I know my own goddamn prescription, especially when I'm asked to clarify it and am not told I'm incorrect, hell just the fact that I was asked to clarify how I was taking it kinda points one way....) order, the insurance company over this fifth week out of my pocket, and the fact that this walgreens store is waaay in my shit list and I'm probably not shopping there again except for getting this shit fixed. Still going to be a -wasted- morning on crap like this when I could be doing other stuff.
Tell 'em off and take your business elsewhere. It's all you can do.
Getting people to show up in meetings is a pain in the ass.
So is making things work 'just right'.
My reccomendation for a good book was met with hate and rage over a technicality (it is two volumes, not one). This, evidently, induces hate. I can't help but feel targeted since it was my reccomendation that engenders such negativity.
I'm already severely agoraphobic. All I need is less reason to communicate with other people at this point.
I lost my job. Though, I guess that actually happened last week.
I think I've made an enemy or three and ignored gathering allies to my cause. :( Oh well.
Quote from: Brian on September 01, 2009, 02:53:44 PM
I lost my job. Though, I guess that actually happened last week.
That was quick. What happened?
Quote from: Anastasia on September 02, 2009, 02:30:25 AMThat was quick. What happened?
I have an unfortunate lack of tolerance for managers that swear at me or make threats. That he did it to the entire department....
While I'm glad to be in grad school, sitting for 4 hours in a small classroom being bored to death sucks.
My computer's video card crapped out and died.I thought at first, not so horrible, I have time to pick up a new one, and I'd been considering upgrading my old one and adding more memory, so what the hell, this just encourages me to head to Frys sooner rather than later.
It's been -pouring- rain, rain and MORE rain lately here in Houston, so the drive was a bit nasty, but once I got to the store, things looked good, due to weekend sales. Memory was on sale (only $5 off, but eh, it's something), and a GTX 260 was $70 off. It looked like a nice mid-range selection for myself, definitely better than what I had, so took it.
...Unfortunately, here's where my not shopping for my computer very often rears its ugly head and bites me in the foot, as I forgot to take into consideration increased power consumption. This soon became apparent, unfortunately, because new card isn't exactly helping me much, now is it? Here's a hint, I'm on my laptop.
Apparently the GTX 260 recommends 525W power supply minimum. Looking at my 450W power supply... le sigh.
And more unfortunately, I may not have time to head out this weekend due to family getting together due to visiting family from Peru, so I'm stuck on my laptop for a bit.
Not -horrible- mind you, but still, it's kinda annoying, since a lot of the software I like to play with (like, say, the graphics demanding crap I wanted to get said upgrades -for-) is there.
No matter how good the reasons and how justified it may be, people dropping from games sucks. Games always lose a little something when a member leaves.
It's a really nice day outside today, 70 degree weather. Too bad I had to spend 4 hours of it stuck in a classroom with no windows taking an exam. Not only that, I have another four hour class to go to today. Whee...-_-
Suspect my father is relapsing (alcohol), must talk self into confrontation over fears that confrontation will sew distrust.
Must not talk self out of it, must not overreact.
Sigh.
Dad relapsed, not entirely sure how long. Can't let anyone in the family in on it. Here's to hoping salvage goes optimistically.
Ouch, that's terrible :(
Today is really stressful. I'm in charge of a series of large updates that have roughly a 45 percent chance of going off cleanly and a deadline of 1.5 hours. It's not fun :(
Grandmother's in the hospital.
I'm sneezy and got six hours till plane time. Man, who failed to invent the teleporter already?
I waited an extra seven hours at airport. For a three hour flight. Teleporter would have been appreciated here too.
The irc app I use at work got banned as part of a moderate crackdown on fun at work :(
I feel like shit. Think I caught what my mom has. My joints hurt like crap too.
That sounds terrible. Rest up and I hope you feel better.
Man I miss chat :(
in today's awesome news, I've been laid off. the scummy "here's two weeks severance, do you need a box for your stuff, let me walk you to the door" kind of laid off.
Currently weighing my options between sticking it out in SF, or moving north to Vancouver like I'd planned to do in December.
That sucks.
Today I spent 1 hour on my work and 7 hours on people being broken. Yay. :(
Work has driven me from energized and motivated into frustrated wrath. After a day of pretty much entirely dealing with the floor being moved out from the code I was trying to solidify and check in so I could move on with my project, I was subjected to an hour of manager speak that I don't really trust followed by a task with a deadline of that night. A task that'd only been mentioned once the night before with no stated deadline. I chat with my producer "You're not really expecting this, right?" "Of course, I want your next 3 months laid out."
Fucking assholes. :(
My cat is starting to have seizures. Fuck.
Quote from: Dracos on January 22, 2010, 11:58:34 PM
Work has driven me from energized and motivated into frustrated wrath. After a day of pretty much entirely dealing with the floor being moved out from the code I was trying to solidify and check in so I could move on with my project, I was subjected to an hour of manager speak that I don't really trust followed by a task with a deadline of that night. A task that'd only been mentioned once the night before with no stated deadline. I chat with my producer "You're not really expecting this, right?" "Of course, I want your next 3 months laid out."
Fucking assholes. :(
Time to start looking around.
My Religions of East Asia course reader belongs in some lich's dusty library of massive tomes.
Crunch is bad. @_@
also, a variety of games ending is also sad.
USPS is a piece of shit. Remind me to never use them again, and just use fedex or ups. My application to grad school is somehow lost somewhere in Houston despite my having it certified and with return receipt. How the fuck? It's like...two hours into downtown at worst assuming heavy traffic, but it's been almost a week since I mailed it.
Thankfully, I had asked for a second copy of an official transcript from my old school, and everything else is a document I can print myself, but now I'm probably going to have to pay next day delivery or something to get it in before deadline next week.
...Or maybe I should just drive to the school and deliver it in person. I'm very much considering doing this tomorrow. At the very least, if I do it, I can guarantee no fuckups.
I think I'm getting a cold. Sore throat, congestion, tiredness. I also can't call off from work today. Joy!
I took my laptop in for repairs. The guy said it would be done in 24-48 hours. It is now 50 hours later and they haven't even looked at it yet.
Ugh, took an exam today and because I made two simple mistakes I was off by two questions to get a B-. Got a C+ instead. Bah
Ugh woke up today feeling awful. Couldn't stand without feeling dizzy and having the room spin. Turns out I have vertigo, something wrong with my inner ear. So not only can I not sit up without feeling sick I still have a final to study for tomorrow. Hopefully he'll allow a makeup.>_<
I have a dentist appointment tomorrow. >_<
Drowsiness is very drowsy.
I have lost six hours today to someone else's bug. I do not even know who to blame. So frustrating.
Doesn't subversion (or your versioning alternative) have a 'blame' command, or is this bug so ancient it would take even more hours of work to find the change?
They took away my blog.
Basically, because 'not enough people used FTP', they decided to drop all support, and while I CAN use a custom domain, blogger refuses to support any URL with a directory path. IE., I need to get a website (or subdomain) specifically for nothing but my blog, or I can't have one.
What utter bullshit. I don't see what was broken with FTP that needed to be 'fixed' like this.
Why don't you just get an LJ or something, or are there technical issues involved?
I liked having my own blog, is all. And while I can go to LJ (or whatever), that means I lose my previously archived blog (which seems inevitable now anyway).
But, as it turns out, I cannot have nice things.
The assholes at fanfiction.net? They wrote an automated daemon that went through every story on the website and stripped out all asterisks. Just last night.
Guess what I've been using as scene dividers for over a decade?
That's right. They defaced. Every. Goddamned thing. I ever wrote.
So fucking furious right now.
Man, that's fucked up. Why would they remove asterisks, though? Why?
Quote from: Brian on April 28, 2010, 08:26:59 PM
I liked having my own blog, is all. And while I can go to LJ (or whatever), that means I lose my previously archived blog (which seems inevitable now anyway).
I note that Wordpress has a Blogger importer.
Quote from: Anastasia on April 28, 2010, 11:33:31 PM
Man, that's fucked up. Why would they remove asterisks, though? Why?
I dunno! I sent them the politest e-mail I could asking why. I mean, I can't see it being part of a URL, or spam, or anything else like that.... And even though they had previously disallowed asterisks, they had let older posted fics retain them. Then, for some reason, about a month ago, asterisks were kosher again.
I thought that was cool.
Then this. Quite frustrating, but, meh, on the positive side, it's impetus for me to actually update my damn website. :p
There's some upside, but man. Who knows with FF-net, anyway.
I know pretty much more about perforce than any person who does not work there. I'm detailing out what will be how project teams here work with it for probably the next decade.
That there really is no non-painful way to slice a chunk of one perforce server out and transplant it, full multi-integrate history intact really sucks. It really, really sucks.
If I recall correctly Perforce is what they use at Google.
Yes, they do.
Who are ye? :)
We use more of a Perforce-Godzilla hybrid.
"It appears this cadellac does not drive with 30000 people on it."
"We can solve that. I present...GODZILLA."
"I don't see how this...."
"GODZILLA, CAR MODE!"
Quote from: Dracos on May 07, 2010, 01:15:44 AM
Yes, they do.
Who are ye? :)
Gpfault, or nobody of any importance as of yet :P
At any rate, my favorite vcs du jour happens to be bazaar at the moment...as long as it doesn't crash.
Hum. You were on RPGamer back when I was administrating it. Mmm, oh well, hardly remember. Welcome to the area.
Bazaar is nice when you can use it. Not really something that holds together well in the terabytes range.
Quote from: Dracos on May 07, 2010, 05:09:48 PM
Hum. You were on RPGamer back when I was administrating it. Mmm, oh well, hardly remember. Welcome to the area.
I'm afraid your timing is off.
I got banned by Rico, and unbanned by Paws...but yes indeed I'm that nutcase from RPGamer all right.
Also showed up briefly on Ammon's forum. Anyway, well met.
Quote
Bazaar is nice when you can use it. Not really something that holds together well in the terabytes range.
The only plus for me for bzr, is first class rename tracking. But it's a mighty big plus.
Git is god. All else is heresy.
Today I decided not to wear a coat.
As I sit here just slightly too cold to properly concentrate, I recognize that this was a terrible decision. Warm May indeed.
Dracos dislike cold.
Dracos also dislike smoke.
Dodongo Dodongo.
Six days ago: Producer does an import from spreadsheet into database.
Four days ago: I notice program is behaving screwily. I sigh and hope it clears up over weekend. Go home.
Yesterday: No such luck. Things more hosed than earlier appeared. I spend an hour hunting down phantomseque problem. No luck.
Today: It is placed as higher priority than making sure team isn't hosed. We try using my buggy test version of the program. Find problem gets worse. I copy database to previously working test server and find it suddenly hosed. Oh... Check to see if producers dumped anything special there last week. Producer strangled.
Today+5 minutes: Please add feature to protect me from hosing rickety cheap production program by being clumsy.
@_@
Burned my lunch a bit. Baaah.
So wednesday evening, my mom got into a car accident, a three-way accident at that and she was the sandwich.
(http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/5226/carsl.jpg)
Basically, for whatever reason, the girl driving the silver/white car hit the breaks. I wasn't clear on why, it sounded like she was saying someone ahead of her did, so she did as well. Whatever the reason, she slammed them suddenly and fast. Mom has to do same. So does the guy behind mom. Both cars don't breaks near well enough. Fronts are totalled for both vehicles. Cops come in (it takes them TWO FREAKING HOURS in that texas sun to make it in), and they seem to decide both my mom and the kid behind her were at fault.
Looks like the sixteen year old girl gets off scott free, with nothing but a dented exhaust pipe (there is absolutely -no- damage otherwise to her car).
During those two hours we were stuck there, all we heard from her was bitching and whining "I want to go home, mom!" and the like. Just stomping around, this was not her fault and it wasn't fair for her to be here! Just being a brat in general. Her mother, when she shows up, is a similar pain. Her daughter is innocent! Everyone else is a maniac! Just getting in everyone's face, acting bossy/haughty and just plain rude, demanding everything and anything.
The other kid in the red car is sweating, doing the spiderman cracks joke routine when nervous, but you could see him shake, and he really did try to be helpful through the whole mess. My mom was a nerveous wreck herself, dazed from impact and such and they even had some EMS guys check her out. The other kid also seemed to be okay, outside of his nerves.
Again, both of their cars are completely TRASHED in the front. And the girl has just a dented exhaust pipe. And yet, two days later, it's the sixteen year old brat who is 'mysteriously' the injured party, as insurance calls. And I mean injured as in -real- injuries.
And my mom is, again, a nervous wreck.
Thanks a lot, you brat. You and your redneck mom are a real piece of work. Because I truly believe you were even remotely injured as you were stomping around like you owned the place and whining up a storm.
That's terrible :(
And standard traffic law. :( If a car in front stops, for whatever stupid dangerous reason, and you don't, it's automatically your fault. Though I always was told it's the last person in a pile-up that is held to be at fault. Either way, terrible hicks. :(
Yeah, this pretty much straight sucks for you. Traffic law sucks, let alone with idiots get involved.
Usually it is the last person (even if it -is- a retarded law). The girl had been insisting she felt two bumps though (which is why it's just her exhaust pipe bent, of course. Oh and why she sustained injuries), so the officer told my mom she was technically at fault as well, though he said he wouldn't give out tickets even though he should to both my mom and the other kid. But yeah, I don't just feel sorry for my mom, also feel sorry for the other kid. From my point of view, what I heard, and what I saw of the cars, the blame really is mostly the girl's, even if both my mom and the other kid were also partially responsible. That she's getting off scott free -and- piling on this injured bullshit is what irks me.
Ew.
Your avatar is apt now.
That's why I changed it. It fits my mood.
This makes far more sense than it should. Poor Merc.
Today I sat through eight hours of consulting team fixing. It wasn't bad but eight hours of it @_@.
Heart burn can go die in a river.
RElated to the above, stomach aches bloooow.
I'd been trying not to post in this thread because I'm already so negative and bitter. But it seems justified, this time.
So, I'd been evicted, and today was my move day. Mid arranging things to move to a storage locker while I couch-crash at a friends for a few weeks, I get a call that my step-father's mom's house burnt down, and she didn't make it out. Her grand daughter was in the house, and made it out, but the girl's father (my step-father's brother) is missing in what we would call 'suspicious circs'.
I won't pretend to be close to the woman, as I (sadly) never thought highly of her -- but the old man (my step-father) is my favorite father figure (and I do have choices!), so I feel badly for him and his niece.
When it rains, it pours; an all around sucktacular day.
That's terrible. Good luck, man. Thoughts, prayers and good hopes are with you.
Some days suck. It doesn't matter what you do or how hard you try to adjust. With an inexorable knowledge that shit is coming, the day keeps getting worse. This was one of those days for me. Not a damned thing went right or how I planned.
I just got notice that I'm losing my job in 2 weeks, since I'm moving to Chicago to be with my fiancee.
A big screw you to my job. They're calling it a reduction in force, so I do get severance and I can collect unemployment.
They also told me in March that I would have a job once I move to Chicago. Two weeks ago, they changed their mind. Screw them.
But really, the best revenge I can get is to go out there and get a better paying job. I've already got a interview set up with a company that would give me over a 50% increase in pay.
And then I can sit back and laugh at how badly the people I used to support would be screwed by my not being there, because really, I did a heck of a job for them, and they know it, and they're going to be taking 4 steps backward.
Noo, you're moving out of Charm City? For shame!
Fuck heat exhaustion. Nothing like being overbusy and then getting fried in the process.
Occupying two machines with tasks, yet bored. Alas for the lack of irc at work.
They took out IRC? :o
Well, yes. They did, effectively :( No brainless midday yammering!
Hey, at least you have internet access at work!
Well, yes. at least.
At least you have a good paying job, too.
That is a good thing :)
Meh, just a few days of meh.
edit: somehow I get the sense that I should've stayed in bed today, yay crashes/stalls. >_>
Yeah. When you get on a roll for a few bad days, it turns into a bad week. Do something to break the cycle this weekend. Do something fun and put it all behind you.
So, what he SAID was, "You can stay with us until you get back on your feet."
What he MEANT was, "After a month, I'm going to become passive-agressive as all fuck and make you uncomfortable until you leave without ever having the maturity to address the issues like the thirty year old man I am. Also, I'd help you move your furniture out, but you don't have a place or way to move it, so, I GUESS I'll just have to keep all your furniture."
Fuck it. I'm tired of Jim's bullshit (also, living out of my car at the moment -- but have a place to stay for this week courtesy of house-sitting for Jon (No, Drac, this does not mean house-party)). I'm tired of him sabotaging campaigns that he's in because he's unhappy with them, yet unable to tell me that he's not enjoying it, because passive-aggressive is all he does.
Arg ... I've been trying to get over this, but being the rage-prone person I am, I've just been getting more and more pissed off about it.
I wish I didn't have a temper. -_-
Or that more of my RL friends even aspired to be mature.
I drank half of my bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label last night. ;_;
So how hung over are you?
My email got hacked today.
Given it was recovered in eight minutes which was nice speed, but still BLEH.
How'd it happen?
Dunno. I suspect password break in, but no settings got changed, but hundreds of emails were sent in those few minutes, so probably automated smasher managed its way through :(
Was it a weak password? It's possible a machine you're on is compromised or rooted.
Not really, but it is an old one that has been used before. :(
Mmm, that's a scary thought.
It might not be, but I'd change your password from a known safe machine and check out the machines you use it on. I'd be more concerned with your home machine, since assuming decent It they'd catch any serious virus activity on a work computer.
I think I'm getting sick.
It's amazing how a six am phone call can leave your entire day sleepy. @_@
Ew. What happened?
Family wanting tech support. Seriously was not cool.
Java is a language that crawled out of James Gosling's arse, and for some reason he decided to inflict it on the world. Technical details follow:
Java has five integral types: byte (8 bits), short (16 bits), char (16 bits), int (32 bits), and long (64 bits). Of these five, char is always unsigned, and the others are always signed. However, char is meant for working with string characters, not numbers. So there is effectively no unsigned integer type in Java, which causes problems when, for instance, you want to implement a VM whose specification assumes you have unsigned integers.
But that's not the best part. The best part is this: as far as the JVM is concerned, bytes, shorts, and chars do not exist. They are implemented as ints with a bit of bit-masking. This means that if you have an array of one thousand bytes, it doesn't take up 1000 bytes of memory; it takes 4000, since each byte is stored as a 4-byte integer.
And they use this language for embedded programming!
Yeah, not surprised that Java is still absolutely terrible for tight memory constraint applications. I remember having to deal with with an earthquake simulation that we wanted to scale to the millions of nodes. The first step of that on the java side was tearing down everything to raw packed data since doing it through their normal data types did exactly what you said and that by involving classes, there would be bumping to the next minimum packing level.
My bitch would also be programming related. Someone at some point in Ruby decided:
$:
Was a good syntax for path. Seriously. Was using some kind of word too hard?
I woke up with my guts aflame and acid in my throat. It's lovely for your first day back to work after a vacation to be a working sick day.
Quote from: Jon on September 15, 2010, 04:13:11 AM
But that's not the best part. The best part is this: as far as the JVM is concerned, bytes, shorts, and chars do not exist. They are implemented as ints with a bit of bit-masking. This means that if you have an array of one thousand bytes, it doesn't take up 1000 bytes of memory; it takes 4000, since each byte is stored as a 4-byte integer.
Okay, turns out it's not quite that bad; byte arrays still only take up 8 bits per cell, but they're sign-extended into 32-bit ints as soon as you read from them. Still abysmally stupid, though.
Quote from: Anastasia on September 15, 2010, 01:24:39 PM
I woke up with my guts aflame and acid in my throat. It's lovely for your first day back to work after a vacation to be a working sick day.
That's terrible :( Hope ye feel better.
The computers at my office block java applets. :(
Quote from: Yuthirin on September 15, 2010, 06:00:08 PM
The computers at my office block java applets. :(
Is this about IRC? Try Mibbit.
Mibbit was so awesome, until mibbit got blocked.
Too quiet.
There are two servers over in a room not too far away from me. Some call them rocktrack. I call them a stone around my neck because I am the only one who knows how the fuck they work.
I seriously would like to toss them out the window. They are right there. And a window is not far away from them.
WotC taking down their free 3.0/3.5 web articles/previews/enhancements...
so, Rocktrack fell because someone put 823 in a weeks field, causing it to perpetually request 16 years of data whenever that person clicked anywhere. Fucking crapware.
Also, the above, sucky indeed. Seriously, what the hell does it hurt them to leave up or archive history?
Really, Cy? I just browsed and they look up to me.
It's not all down yet. Quite a bit is still up, but slowly it's being deleted.
Ick. Are they doing it officially or quietly?
I haven't seen any links to an official post, but someone has noticed that it's might not be 3rd ed that's being deleted.
QuoteIt looks like WotC isn't deleting their 3.5 archives, but rather their 4E archives. So far, all of the pages I've checked that were stored via the old-style (3.5 era) web url (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fc/20060728a format) are still there, but everything after the switch to the new style of web address (http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4pr/20071004a format) is gone.
It's probably cleanup and reorganization then, or more of a shift to Insider. I doubt they'll take down previous editions material. They have errata to second edition stuff on there, soooo.
Good to hear. It'd be a ridiculous decision, much like them not keeping up as much old material as possible is. The long tail and all that.
Fuck spiders.
Death? Lost limb?
Major fright?
Minor annoyance?
Pontificate on your potentially venomous and/or web-spinning eight-eyed difficulties, my friend. I hate the octopedal bastards, too.
I was typing, glanced down, and saw a big black one crawling on my hand.
I feel compelled to step in. This thread has contained a lot of minor complaints, but this just takes the cake.
What's wrong with spiders? Why do you hate them? They perform valuable services in the realm of sibling-terrifying and mosquito consumption! And yet you hate the little wonders? That's racism! And racism is part of communism! Why do you hate freedom?
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Do_rats_eat_spiders
Someone's sticking up for their food source, eh?
Personally, I dislike centipedes more than spiders.
Liches can go drown in holy water.
They totally should.
Sick for the second time in two weeks.
AWESOME HALLOWEEN PARTY~!
I was enlisted to help decorate, I got to help choose what kind of awesome foods would be there, I got a nice new pirate costume....
...and then I had to babysit three kids instead of getting to go. Damnit.
Halloween sucked. I had to work, the Redskins lost and the candy was bad. What a waste of a day.
I miss IRC at work.
Things that are bad: Screaming at 2 AM. >_<
Test 2.
The Redskins really suck.
Concurrency bugs. Buffer Size concurrency bugs.
Cid's vanished. Where the hell did he get off to?
We are sadly cidless ;_;. Hope he's okay.
I'm the sickest I've been in years. Waking up at godawful am to puke my guts out = really not fun. It being the Thanksgiving holiday party today=also not fun.
Ew. Been there and done that, hope you feel better.
I got a flu shot last tuesday.
Now I'm sick.
I blame Dr. Acos.
It is indeed my fault.
I blame dune.
His plague spreads.
My shoulder is sore and stiff as hell.
My entire body is now sore. I don't know what it is, but I ache all over the last few days.
Prima Donnis, the Attention Grappler, is how I refer to the most annoying and terrible character I've had to play with in a recent game. His player and I recently had a falling out, what with this player sabotaging a recent campaign, then telling me on the third session of my Pathfinder dungeoncrawl, "This was just an engine test, so I got what I wanted out of it," and "I never had fun playing anyway"....
Arg. This is the guy who plays a grappler in the Friday game, so he can be the ONLY one acting against a boss-type-enemy, OR he will whine/bitch/moan/cry that he can't do anything if denied that option. Keeping in mind that grapple rules generally mean that the rest of the party can't even _try_ to help him while he's grappling, thanks to a 50% chance to hit (or heal) the wrong dude. He loves that.
But he can't be assed to play a support caster in Pathfinder, that'd be like _my_ character in the Friday game -- a mystic theurge who was told to prepare to fight against a red-dragon. So I go through an entire session being told not to waste any of my spells because we might find the dragon. At level seven, I have three classes with +0 BAB for their first level, so my BAB is +3 at level 4 (before my +1 strength bonus), so I can't really melee. We fight some undead, but as a mystic theurge, I'm only a level 3 cleric, so I don't want to waste a turning attempt on trying to defeat them (we also have a level 7 cleric, so all of the cleric duties are covered, actually).
The entire session turned into a dungeon crawl where I got to cast resistance to energy twice and drop a spell for healing. But Grapplor the supreme got to wrestle a wight into submission and kill it with his bare hands. Given that my pathfinder game is on Wednesday, and the other game was on Friday, this made post-game on Friday, after the Attention Grappler got to pretty much 'win' the session while I was kept in a holding pattern (got to level 30 in all classes on DQIX, though, so it's not like it was a total waste of time), he came up to me and said, "I'm quitting your Friday campaign because support casters are bitches, and I don't want to put up with that. Also, fix your Monday campaign, because I don't like combat."
FFfffff.....
The premise of the Monday campaign is fighting slavery! That means killing dudes that say slavery is great! They live in castles and travel in armies! You will not rid the world of slavery by killing rarer and rarer monsters in increasingly obscure holes in the ground!
/me sighs.
So, my Monday campaign is crippled, my Wendesday campaign may die because we have no healer, and the replacement I found is loathed by the tank (interestingly, this bit of infighting is the Attention Grappler's fault), and I can't abide the player, so I dropped out of the Friday game before I finally got what would have been my mystic theurge's first genuine moment of awesome since choosing a class level other than cleric (dropping nearly thirty scrolls on buff spells pre-combat. Would have been pretty epic).
So angry.
Sounds like you got a case of That Guy. Been there, done that and got the headaches for it. Fuck 'em, get rid of him and have fun with people who give a shit.
"This is stupid. Look, change this and everything will be faster."
*time passes*
"Fine, I'll change it myself."
*changes happen*
*folks try it*
"WARNING: EVERYTHING IS FINE AND DANDY"-> "Error, it looks like there's a warning! Ask for help!"
*folks ask for help*
"I'll just fix that it treats that warning as an error conditiooon..why is the handler to this attached to this gigantic program like a small support column?"
Perforce C++ api, I deplore you and your lack of on the fly handler overrides.
Bonus:
"It looks like you're using the default XDK tools to interact with the xbox. These are not parallel use safe, but will cause the deadlock on the remote side only. Look at this example of having a giant manager application that avoids ever sending more than one command at a time." - sigh.
At 2am a bunch of people stumbled into my house, drunk. I stayed up until 4am corralling them from drunk to bed.
That's a special type of kick to the 'nads. Being the DD when you didn't even go out and have fun sucks.
I dunno, the girls were all hot and watching drunk people be drunk can be fun. I'm only complaining because I'm tired as fuck.
I've started reading Ranma fanfiction again.
I never stopped. What did you start reading?
Had a random whim and read a few fics:
Crossed Wires: I'd missed this one before. It's okay though dated. Author has a knack at building up the situation for humor.
Am I Smart: Apparently making Ranma want to be a girl is popular now. Okay fic.
Bitter: Re-read. I liked it before, more neutral on it now. I wasn't in the mood for a darkfic when I read it, ended up analyzing it this time around. Interesting fic, feels like the author went through depression or knew someone close who did.
The Bitter End: Still an awesome fic, as long as you accept the premise and understand Akane's as much a victim as anyone else.
I'm forgetting a few, but oh well.
After decades, I'm running out of patience to deal with an alcoholic family member.
Unfortunately, in order to continue having to have a place to live, I must be an enabler. I don't know how much more of this I can take.
Reading fanfiction is interfering with my DM prep.
It'll pass, but arghfuckle. I have a post I've had half written for three damn days now.
I now remember!
This is what it's like to stay up to 4 AM! Reading a fanfic that's awesome is a wonderful thing! That is, until the last 5% has a twist that ruins the entire story.
I remember why I don't read fanfiction.
Sooo.....
...gonna pass on that fic suggestion, then. :)
http://www.angelfire.com/nj4/ceaejbs/REDHEAD/Redheadmain.html
It's uh...
Hell. It's not really Ranma, but the author is a good writer who gets you interested in the characters. He has that knack, you know? It's sort of like Ranma as a shojo series, less fighting and more feelings. There's certainly flaws that muddle the quality of the story. Ranma doesn't quite feel like Ranma, there's not much action and Doc Tofu got a serious upgrade.
On the other hand it makes you keep reading. I cared about Ranma, Akane(Somehow, I normally loathe her), Nabiki and Kasumi. It shows them all in a favorable light, building up to the climax. Also, the idea of Ranma having a loyal dog as a companion and ward to keep cats away makes a hell of a lot of sense. It makes so much sense that you wonder why Ranma never did it in the first place. (Hint: Ranma.)
Warning: Ranma starts to become a real girl fic.If the shojo didn't tip you off, this should. I think I've had my fill of those for awhile.
Heh, we should yammer on this in the fanfic section~ :P
Probably. Once I catch up on my DMing I plan to take a post or two over there.
Proper priorities. :P
Yes. DMing is an important one or PCs chase you. It's scary.
Or the DM chases the PCs away from reading too much fanfics. :) Wait, cycle!
A scary one, isn't it?
Well, when a fanfic makes me scream ABORT ABORT ABORT out loud it's usually a bad sign.
1. Re-reading Ranma fanfics has reminded me of a salient fact. I don't like Akane and I don't like her with Ranma.
2. I don't like her made into a PMSing superbitch, either. At least treat her sorta human or have her offscreen.
You can guess how this can lead to problems.
Quote from: Anastasia on December 18, 2010, 04:05:56 AM
1. Re-reading Ranma fanfics has reminded me of a salient fact. I don't like Akane and I don't like her with Ranma.
2. I don't like her made into a PMSing superbitch, either. At least treat her sorta human or have her offscreen.
You can guess how this can lead to problems.
Much the same thing happens over in Potterfic, such that Ron The Death Eater (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RonTheDeathEater) is a named trope.
The sane, happy medium is the species bordering on extinction.
Quote from: Anastasia on December 20, 2010, 11:25:14 PMThe sane, happy medium is the species bordering on extinction.
No, see, that makes ME happy, so it can't be sane. Or else I've gone completely full circle....
So, my happy overweight self is on a crash diet called 'even water makes you vomit'.
It's a seventy two hour diet, so far. <censored>ing miserable. -_-
Quote from: Brian on December 21, 2010, 01:51:49 AM
Quote from: Anastasia on December 20, 2010, 11:25:14 PMThe sane, happy medium is the species bordering on extinction.
No, see, that makes ME happy, so it can't be sane. Or else I've gone completely full circle....
So, my happy overweight self is on a crash diet called 'even water makes you vomit'.
It's a seventy two hour diet, so far. <censored>ing miserable. -_-
Hahahhaha. The stomach flu sucks, make sure you don't get dehydrated. I had that happen awhile back and it's pure hell.
Brian, while you're here, you still read a lot of fanfiction I presume?
Quote from: Anastasia on December 21, 2010, 03:53:20 AMHahahhaha. The stomach flu sucks, make sure you don't get dehydrated. I had that happen awhile back and it's pure hell.
Brian, while you're here, you still read a lot of fanfiction I presume?
Not so much with the reading, these days. More with the writing; I've been reading a bit of Haruhi fanfiction, and I have a soft spot for Ranma fiction, still (for some reason)....
Quote from: Brian on December 21, 2010, 05:55:34 AM
Quote from: Anastasia on December 21, 2010, 03:53:20 AMHahahhaha. The stomach flu sucks, make sure you don't get dehydrated. I had that happen awhile back and it's pure hell.
Brian, while you're here, you still read a lot of fanfiction I presume?
Not so much with the reading, these days. More with the writing; I've been reading a bit of Haruhi fanfiction, and I have a soft spot for Ranma fiction, still (for some reason)....
Aaah. I've been reading the hell out of (mostly) Ranma fanfiction for the past week, wanted to see if you were still in the game. In the time I've been gone, there's been some fantastic stories penned. Read any of these/have opinions on any of them?
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3505392/1/Hell_is_a_Martial_Artist
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5258470/1/Ah_My_Goddess_Haloes
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3566724/1/The_Dark_Lords_of_Nerima
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3949222/1/Another_Rainy_Day_in_Nerima
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5308231/1/Tabula_Rasa
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4722676/1/Her_War
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4823447/1/Reversal_of_Fortunes
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3592336/1/Together_A_Tale_of_Transformation_and_Tragedy
(This is also a not so subtle good fanfic link dump.)
Quote from: Anastasia on December 21, 2010, 03:46:11 PMAaah. I've been reading the hell out of (mostly) Ranma fanfiction for the past week, wanted to see if you were still in the game. In the time I've been gone, there's been some fantastic stories penned. Read any of these/have opinions on any of them?
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3505392/1/Hell_is_a_Martial_Artist
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3566724/1/The_Dark_Lords_of_Nerima
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5308231/1/Tabula_Rasa
These sound familiar; I think I've heard that they're fairly popular.
Quote from: Anastasia on December 21, 2010, 03:46:11 PMhttp://www.fanfiction.net/s/3949222/1/Another_Rainy_Day_in_Nerima
Kind of interesting, but ultimately, annoyingly like the Bet. Author says, "I'm going to write leadins to a bunch of interesting stories, but only bother finishing the highest voted one -- also, it can't be Akane." Come to think of it, that's more than just _like_ the Bet....
Anyway, it was actually kinda interesting at first, but I kinda ... stopped caring before it ended. Maybe I'll go back and take another look.
Quote from: Anastasia on December 21, 2010, 03:46:11 PMhttp://www.fanfiction.net/s/4722676/1/Her_War
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4823447/1/Reversal_of_Fortunes
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3592336/1/Together_A_Tale_of_Transformation_and_Tragedy
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5258470/1/Ah_My_Goddess_Haloes
(This is also a not so subtle good fanfic link dump.)
Hmm. Not sure about those. Probably going to be better than that bizzare Halo/Ranma/Metroid crossover I read three chapters of....
uuuh... Not that I want to discourage fanfiction talk at all (Far from it)
But the bitching thread is kind of a poor place for it.
I recommend here:
http://www.soulriders.net/forum/index.php?topic=1791.0
Okay, I'll reply over there.
Apparently Sleep is needed sometimes. Boo that :P
Resist sleep.
Here's a complaint. I've been on this board for 5 years, and not ONCE has Otik sent a waitress around to give me the spicy potatoes I ordered.
I mean, REALLY.
I'd rather have Otik send me a spicy waitress. ;)
Otik's slacking. Asshole.
Nah, he's just -Old-. He probably just forgot your order Brian! Grab a permanent marker and write it out on his palm!
We think I have Gallstones, since any food with a lot of oil/grease will make me spend 12 hours in stomach-cramped exorsist-spewing unpleasantness.
I have no insurance.
Gallstones? Good luck man, can you get insurance through a job or something?
Kinda. My debt at the bank of my parents increases constantly. I pretty much must get insurance, be covered, pretend it wasn't a pre-existing condition..... :(
Though, for what it's worth, my condition (assuming we've diagnosed it correctly -- it could be stomach cancer, or an ulcer, or an alien parasite (or a less alien parasite, but ew)) is seldom lethal. Then again, it also does not improve without treatment. :\
Speaking of insurance, I'm grumpy because I live in Washington and their medical coverage is getting a severe cutback. Specialist coverage is going bye-bye.
Good thing my glasses-frames decided to go kaboom before new-years or I'd have to pay for those buggers out of pocket. And they aren't cheap where I'm from.
Quote from: shentino on December 26, 2010, 03:55:04 PMAnd they aren't cheap where I'm from.
I'm assuming you're from this planet; if there's a place on Earth where they ARE cheap, I would LOVE to hear it. >_<
Coming up on new-glasses-time soon, myself.... :\
Well they were always cheap for me since my insurance paid for them with zero deductible. I never really even got the bill, so to speak. DSHS handled everything.
Funny thing is that I'm lucky the lenses were still intact and all I needed was new frames, since lenses are strict 2-year interval replacement thingies. I'm wearing a MacGyveresque hack job cobbled together from the clinic's parts bin that actually looks fairly decent, plus I have some officially new frames on the way to being delivered.
My complaint is that Donkey Kong Country Returns was a HUGE disappointment. It's not that the game is ugly, or the levels don't look fun. The problem lies simply in that the controls are utter SHIT and completely turns what should have been an enjoyable game into a frustrating experience.
So fine, some people can adjust fine to the shitty wiggle control mechanics, but why the hell didn't they put control options for people that DON'T want to be playing it with it, or just some form of options besides shitty option A and shitty option B? Why are we FORCED to rely on clunky mechanics instead of having some simple gamecube controller or classic controller support? THE GAME SYSTEM IS BUILT WITH SUPPORT FOR THESE RETRO STUDIOS! GET THE HINT! ADD SOME GODDAMN SUPPORT YOURSELVES!
To be honest, the blowing or ground pound mechanic being tied to wiggle controls don't bother me at all. They're not going to kill me due to responsiveness and they're not vital to the gameplay. The rolling mechanic is a -vital- part of DKC games though, and having it tied to wiggle controls fundamentally bugs the hell out of me. It's extremely frustrating to pull off a roll-jump and each time I shake the controller and fail because DK either does not even -roll-, or he jumps too early/late after roll, I feel like shaking the controller for a different reason afterwards.
And because I have the latest system firmware, I have two options: (1) Either I get used to the shitty controls (2) I buy Smash Brawl so I can homebrew the game.
The worst part is that the game gets rave reviews and almost none of them really go into detail into just how BAD the controls are and the whole having to get used to it.
Ubuntu told me it had updates ... so I updated. The new version did not support my wireless hardware. Interesting security feature, but it did completely protect me from the internet.
Once I got around that, and found a newer version of Ubuntu to upgrade, it didn't mention that it would wipe out all of my files and settings.... Absolutely all of them....
Is this the year of Linux on the desktop?
Maybe for people who have desktops. ;)
Random one off: Am I the only one who finds 'Ranma goes to college' fics to be inherently stupid? I just can't see him there.
Quote from: Anastasia on January 01, 2011, 02:18:52 AM
Random one off: Am I the only one who finds 'Ranma goes to college' fics to be inherently stupid? I just can't see him there.
Ranma is going to Toudai like he promised, and you can't do anything to stop him.
>_>
Quote from: Anastasia on January 01, 2011, 02:18:52 AM
Random one off: Am I the only one who finds 'Ranma goes to college' fics to be inherently stupid? I just can't see him there.
yeah, mostly pretty weird to see him there. It's hard view.
Google 'Ranma declaration of motherhood'
Sometimes there are no words.
I'd really rather not.
Good man. (Unlike Ranma, apparently.)
Stumbling back from the bathroom half asleep, ready to go back to bed? It's the perfect time to slip, trip and jackknife yourself into the head of your bed. The hard, nasty, painful end.
Wife had to go to Dallas for a day. Miss her already.
It didn't take long to remember why I don't miss my housemates. god damn hypocritical slobs.
ah motivation to buy a place :)
Quote from: Anastasia on January 07, 2011, 04:31:45 AM
Stumbling back from the bathroom half asleep, ready to go back to bed? It's the perfect time to slip, trip and jackknife yourself into the head of your bed. The hard, nasty, painful end.
The pastor of my church can unfortunately beat you at that. Stumbling in the bathroom half-asleep because he was suffering from food poisoning, he tripped and fell. One foot caught behind the toilet, resulting in a spiral fracture of the ankle. His head hit in a way that resulted in a bruised spinal column. The doctors aren't sure how he managed to avoid becoming a quadrapeligic.
Quote from: Anastasia on January 01, 2011, 02:18:52 AM
Random one off: Am I the only one who finds 'Ranma goes to college' fics to be inherently stupid? I just can't see him there.
I could see him in a dorm full of Rumic World-style characters, I just can't figure out what he'd major in.
Quote from: Edward on January 09, 2011, 10:20:37 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on January 07, 2011, 04:31:45 AM
Stumbling back from the bathroom half asleep, ready to go back to bed? It's the perfect time to slip, trip and jackknife yourself into the head of your bed. The hard, nasty, painful end.
The pastor of my church can unfortunately beat you at that. Stumbling in the bathroom half-asleep because he was suffering from food poisoning, he tripped and fell. One foot caught behind the toilet, resulting in a spiral fracture of the ankle. His head hit in a way that resulted in a bruised spinal column. The doctors aren't sure how he managed to avoid becoming a quadrapeligic.
Good Lord. That's both terrifying and a small miracle rolled up together.
There are days where all you can do is to fight, fight, fight and fight some more. There is a miserable sub-sect of those days where all that fighting is in vain, failure is determined to catch up to you with a furious vengeance. I hate those days.
So, it turns out that my basis for understanding one of the character dynamics in the Haruhi universe was wrong....
And thus, the premise for K:BDH is also flawed.
God DAMN it.
How bad are we talking here?
Quote from: Brian on January 14, 2011, 03:20:20 PM
So, it turns out that my basis for understanding one of the character dynamics in the Haruhi universe was wrong....
And thus, the premise for K:BDH is also flawed.
God DAMN it.
Folks seem to like it anyway, and I'm looking forward to reading it once I finish the prerequisites. I hope this doesn't ruin the story for you.
It turns out Ranma is a villian according to this source. Almost all fanfiction I've read is apparently flawed. The enjoyment garnered is now invalidated. I have to pay back the created enjoyment debt. ;_;
Wait? Have...Fun?
Quote from: Anastasia on January 14, 2011, 03:32:39 PM
How bad are we talking here?
It's fixable, but I'd wanted to let the series sit on hold for a bit, and now I feel obligated to repair the error even though I was going to take a break....
Bah.
Quote from: Brian on January 14, 2011, 09:52:43 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on January 14, 2011, 03:32:39 PM
How bad are we talking here?
It's fixable, but I'd wanted to let the series sit on hold for a bit, and now I feel obligated to repair the error even though I was going to take a break....
Bah.
Eh, why not let it ride? Just add an AN at some point explaining what happened. I mean, it wasn't something you could know until now, was it? If it's a good fic people will be willing to accept that.
Quote from: Anastasia on January 14, 2011, 11:56:35 PM
Eh, why not let it ride? Just add an AN at some point explaining what happened. I mean, it wasn't something you could know until now, was it? If it's a good fic people will be willing to accept that.
Tempting. I'll sleep on it.
Cool, lemme know what you decide. I'm curious now.
Right, so ... gonna go with correcting the technical detail and pretending the interpretation was otherwise correct. Really, that seems to work. >_>;;
A little bit of alternate character interpretation, but then, I kind of already do that for everyone else in the cast anyway.
Classes start again tomorrow.
I'm burned out on work and I need a vacation, but I won't be able to take a vacation for a month at the earliest.
GOing to work sick= bad idea @_@
Yes it is. Why'd you go in?
Because "I was feeling better" - dumb.
Snowmageddon is coming.
No jesting posts today. Sadness.
My cat is dying.
Fuck you Dell!
I just had to sit on the phone with those guys for an HOUR being an obstinate prick to get my fucking warranty service done today. It was -meant- to be done yesterday. Then this morning. *mutter*
My cat has passed on. RIP, Punk. :(
Whenever the son of the owner of the place I work at is working, it's like I can do nothing right. I am so, so, so tired of him giving me extra things to do when I'm busy with the things I'm suppose to be doing. There are other things I'm tired of him doing but am afraid I will break into a frothing rage should I try to write them all out. Arrrrrggggg!
Skiiing is not muchly for me.
Losing people on a mountain, kinda troublesome.
10 Print:
"You have to go to the ER now -- you've had two seizures."
"No I didn't!"
"...yes, yes you did."
"No I didn't!"
20 GOTO 10
God DAMN it.
Having to possibly salvage an old HD for 7 year old logs is a pain in the ass.
Quote from: Anastasia on February 08, 2011, 03:04:09 AM
Having to possibly salvage an old HD for 7 year old logs is a pain in the ass.
And losing that data isn't? :p
I'm getting sick - fever, sore throat, nasal run. JOY.
ick. Hope ye feel better.
mid-day drowsy.
I think I'm awake.
Quote from: Dracos on February 09, 2011, 06:33:28 PMI think I'm awake.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai_BhTY_7RI
That is a good AMV. It has been a while since I watched it. :3
My landlord is raising the rent. (The only reason I came to this apartment complex is they had a track record of not doing so.)
Currently evaluating the pros and cons of just moving now, instead of at the end of the year.
Sucky.
Tried asking them not to? I know, it sounds ridiculous, but another friend of mine was in the exact situation a year ago, and the landlord ended up being willing to leave them with the same rent rather than have them depart for elsewhere.
I borrowed against my existing debt to pay for Punk's cremation. I just found out that the bill for the vet's is 3 times as much.
I have to come up with 500$ to pay for my cat being put to sleep, and pretty much until I do, the Buffingtons won't talk to me.
Being unemployed really, REALLY sucks.
That's terrible o_o
The funeral racket is a great way to lose money, animal or human.
Going to pick up the ashes.... Of course, all that Cheri cares about is that I somehow pay for everything.
Wow Brian, that sucks man.. Makes this seem minor in comparison.
Went and decided to do something nice for the office and bout a little over $35 in coffee for everyone. I literally had to walk through snow, slush, ice, and mud puddles to bring it back to the office.
Not a single person said thank you.
And yet, I'm the ass in the office. Human race, how I loathe thee.
Test. Ignore the attachment, it's just a random image.
Okay, what the bleeding fuck?
With this account I can't see attachments or add them to posts, except if I edit someone else's post with an attachment. I can see that in the edit screen, but it's still hidden after I leave it. With my Yulia account attachments work fine on all ends. Any ideas, Drac?
Oddly I can see this one with Yulia now, but I can't see old attachments on buried gaming boards.
Being stuck home sick for a whole week, during crunch time for the project I'm leading? Really sucks.
Quote from: Anastasia on February 17, 2011, 03:39:26 AM
Okay, what the bleeding fuck?
With this account I can't see attachments or add them to posts, except if I edit someone else's post with an attachment. I can see that in the edit screen, but it's still hidden after I leave it. With my Yulia account attachments work fine on all ends. Any ideas, Drac?
Oddly I can see this one with Yulia now, but I can't see old attachments on buried gaming boards.
Huh. Very confused. Starting investigate. I may need to catch you tonight to look into this further though.
I am sick. :(
Quote from: Dracos on February 17, 2011, 02:21:22 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on February 17, 2011, 03:39:26 AM
Okay, what the bleeding fuck?
With this account I can't see attachments or add them to posts, except if I edit someone else's post with an attachment. I can see that in the edit screen, but it's still hidden after I leave it. With my Yulia account attachments work fine on all ends. Any ideas, Drac?
Oddly I can see this one with Yulia now, but I can't see old attachments on buried gaming boards.
Huh. Very confused. Starting investigate. I may need to catch you tonight to look into this further though.
Club me when you get home in PM.
Quick test.
Someone posted a picture containing Cologne from Ranma 1/2 dressed as Sailor Venus on a board I frequent today.
Now just imagine Cologne hitting on anything male that moves, just like Minako. For bonus points, imagine her hitting on anything female too, ala bad fanon.
Quote from: Brian on February 17, 2011, 07:06:11 PM
Someone posted a picture containing Cologne from Ranma 1/2 dressed as Sailor Venus on a board I frequent today.
The return of Sailor Algol?
Ye are horrible people :3
This morning I awoke feeling like someone hit me on the right side of my stomach a dozen times. Life has been better @_@
I hate those days where all you do is stare off into space. You know, you should be productive but instead it's a total wash? That's today for me.
Spent a little too much on social baloney, so I'm a little short on food this month.
Thankfully I have an emergency reserve of soybeans and garbanzo beans, among other types.
Interestingly enough, they're about the lowest carb beans I've found, which is good for me because I'm a diabetic.
Getting my next SSI deposit tomorrow, so things aren't bad. I also have 100 bucks squirreled away in a savings bond.
Rough Shentino. Good luck!
That does suck, but you can make it through. Hopefully!
I'm offer #2 of 5. Arguments continue. Hopefully it becomes 1 of 5. Sooo much phonecalls @_@.
Family backed me up and that apparently is keeping me in the running. Someone is offering more money, I though am offering money in hand but they're pushing for 'close instantly'.
BLoody give me the house already.
NEXT week, on an exciting new episode of the forum: Drac discovers the joy of escrow!
You have as much sympathy as I can offer to a guy who's trying to buy a house. :)
Looks like my car battery died (not entirely sure since I know jack-squat about cars besides driving them, but the car wouldn't start). Which is stupid since just last thursday I took it for inspection. They didn't find -anything- wrong then? Really? I haven't even really ridden the car since I went to do that, so what the hell?
Had to have my mom drive me to classes today since school requires a parking permit to park there and visitor's parking isn't long enough to park in visitor area. So I got there a late too as a result, and my mom kind of got stuck just sitting out there waiting for me since in the time she'd take driving home then back again to pick me up, I'd be out of class. So that makes me feel bad too. =(
Some asshole on ff.net trolled the fuck out of me, then blocked me from replying.
Is it wrong to ask all of SR to bomb Wittgen's ff.net message box with reminders that his opinion aren't fact?
I'd e-mail him myself, but, well ... he's a total coward. And shadow accounts on ff.net take 24 hours to be allowed to send messages. Without any stories of his own for me to review....
Yeah, I'm a bit pissed.
How'd he troll you, anyway?
Warning: I
am an asshole.
Ech.... This is kind of a long story if you haven't read the fic in question.
To try and simplify things, basically, I liken one of the characters (pretty much constantly) to dogs. His speech indicators are 'barked', 'whined', 'growled', etc. where it wouldn't be too grating, and when I finally rolled around to writing a scene from _his_ PoV, I decided he'd be color-blind. Just like dogs aren't (urban legend -- they just percieve colors as muted).
This also let me joke at the standard fanfiction thing of identifying characters by hair-color, since to him, it was either light gray, gray, or dark gray.
So, I get a review that ... actually, here's the relevant part:
QuoteEspecially when you refer to Sakura as "the gray-haired girl." And later you pull the same crap with Naruto. Come on. No one thinks of Sakura or Naruto as gray-haired. I don't care if there's a bunch of ash in their hair from explosive tags. You didn't make a point of their hair changing colors. Conveying that information in inane referrants is just a terrible choice. Completely throws readers out of the story for nothing.
So, I was suckered in. I thought this was legit, and he was dumb. So I reply ... and ff.net didn't save the first reply. Well, basically I told him that Kiba was color-blind; all colors are gray.
Witless:
QuoteHave you ever talked to a color blind person? They don't refer to everything as gray. That's not nuance. That's just nonsensical. If you couldn't see color, you would not specifically use color to differentiate things. If everything was gray, then being gray is totally not noteworthy.
Also, the issue with your writing about referring to people as cute little descriptions of them rather than their names still stands. It's a bad habit and your writing would be better without it. If you want to dismiss criticism by insulting the critic, yelling at them, and telling them that if they don't like the story they can just stop reading, that's your choice.
I would point out, though, that I obviously like your story. I already left a review to this effect, but the characterizations are spot on and the plot set up is intriguing. That does not mean your writing is flawless. Many writers post fanfiction to get feedback so they can improve their writing. I apologize for mistaking you for such a person.
Sincerely,
Wittgen
Which, naturally, means it's
on.
QuoteDid you know there's more than one type of color-blindness? If you did, you would realize that in some cases, color-blindness is complete. In some, it's red-green, or blue-green color-blind (etc.), so there's still partial color recognition. Do you know which one should be more obvious to a reader? Seriously -- five minutes of internet research would clear that up for you.
On that note, it's inaccurate insofar as the REASON Kiba's color blind is a joke at him being close to dogs (just like most of his speech indicators are ostensibly things that could be assigned to dogs in this story (another subtlety I'm positive you didn't get)). Dogs aren't actually color-blind, as much as their perception of color is greatly muted.
How much fun would THAT be to read? (Also? Internet research again.)
Secondly, on your issue with descriptors to avoid repetition: This is a bullshit opinion. YOU DON'T LIKE IT. THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT WRONG.
Seriously, people have been using alternate descriptors to avoid repetition of names for centuries -- it's a tradition dating back to the oral preservation of Homer's poems from Greece, literally thousands of years older than your 'bad fanfiction convention'. (Again? 5 minutes of goddamned internet research.)
If it REALLY bothers you, go through every single line of the fic and replace all instances of other descriptors with proper names. Oooh, doesn't THAT make it an amazing and different story?
So, given THAT, do you honestly believe I give a crap about the rest of your review? I see you're trying to make up for your earlier tone, but I don't particularly care. I am an English major with a minor in Mythology. Where's your English degree? I'm not going to claim to be infallible, but I know for a fact I'm a damn sight more sure of what I'm writing about than you are.
I DO care to improve my writing, I DON'T care to teach myself to conform to something to satisfy _one_ opinionated idiot who thinks that his opinion is _fact_. You haven't mistaken me for someone who wants meaningful feedback; you've mistaken yourself for someone who's capable of giving it. And you're not. If you can't even figure out the fact/opinion hurdle, AND you judge without bothering to research ANYTHING you say....
It's great that you enjoy my writing, but I still think you're a moron. Enjoy it quietly, since I know for a fact most of it goes way, way over your head. Also? I take no pains to hide the fact that I'm an asshole -- continue to leave me stupid remarks, and I'll continue to treat you like the idiot you are. Until I get bored and ignore you, anyway; we've already established that you can provide no insights of meaningful value.
See, he kind of snared me with that first response, where he comes across as somewhat reasonable (and mostly he got me by saying he still enjoyed the story (sadly, I fell for this)).
And here's his response:
QuoteI did know there was more than one type of color blindness. Did you know that my point had absolutely nothing to do with the specifics of color blindness? 10 seconds of actually reading my first paragraph (if you're slow) would clear up for you that my point is about how someone who can't differentiate color would not categorize people by the color of their hair. Constantly using descriptors instead of names is a crutch that reduces readability, but using descriptors the POV character would never use is an extra layer of inanity.
I know that certain techniques were used to great effects in the orally transmitted Greek epics, but I hope that fancy English major of yours will eventually teach you that a)we've learned a lot about writing English over the years and b)English is not Greek. Maybe you'll even learn about logical fallacies like appeal to authority and ad hominem attacks.
I wish you luck in these endeavors, but please do not bother me anymore. If you need further help on avoiding common fanfic errors, please refer to this series of excellent essays on the topic: m-mcgregor.livejournal. com/128509. html#cutid1 (Remove the spaces first.)
Sincerely,
Wittgen
PS: You do care what I have to say. That's why you've written far more than me yelling about how I'm stupid and wrong.
God. I wanted to tell him he still utterly failed to defeat the opinion!=fact hurdle, but I can't, because he's hiding behind his coward's response of running away from the fight he started. Also, not sure what he expects that whole "I obviously care" bit to mean -- naturally I do, or I wouldn't have replied at all. But then, given he's written jack shit, and I post prodigiously, I would put good money on him investing more time into this, even if I do have more keystrokes.
I guess it's petty. I was really about to win an internet fight ... and then he ran away. Guess that's because he couldn't handle the heat, but talk about being robbed. :\
Meh, raged out now. I burn bright, but brief.
There's a lot of merit to not directly replying to reviews. He does come across as either a troll, a 'tard or a jerk, and none of them are worth wasting time on. Ah well, live and learn.
Uh... I'd go with 'feel better, don't send that' personally. Good to feel better, but really, seems to be going far.
Quote from: Anastasia on March 09, 2011, 11:40:32 PM
There's a lot of merit to not directly replying to reviews. He does come across as either a troll, a 'tard or a jerk, and none of them are worth wasting time on. Ah well, live and learn.
You make a profound point that I feel all the more foolish for not realizing earlier.
Dangit. I wish I didn't get so angry.
Today kinda sucks.
Today sucked. On the flip side there are signs tomorrow won't.
Quote from: Anastasia on March 11, 2011, 02:07:47 AM
Today sucked. On the flip side there are signs tomorrow won't.
Depends where you are in the world, I guess. It's a good thing (for my convenience, anyway) that I wasn't planning on visiting Sendai this time.
I was woken up at 4:00 AM for a tsunami warning. While we are on the bay, there IS a mountain range between us and the ocean proper, so it seemed a waste to wake up the entire county for something that should only affect the coast.
Quote from: Brian on March 11, 2011, 06:04:28 PM
I was woken up at 4:00 AM for a tsunami warning. While we are on the bay, there IS a mountain range between us and the ocean proper, so it seemed a waste to wake up the entire county for something that should only affect the coast.
My story as well. Still lagged from it.
Waiting sucks. Buggy strange day sucks too.
I've been in a bad mood most of the day for no particular reason. It's starting to lift away, but fuck it sucks.
Quote from: Anastasia on March 16, 2011, 02:14:12 AM
I've been in a bad mood most of the day for no particular reason. It's starting to lift away, but fuck it sucks.
I hate when that happens. :x
Try and find something to laugh about anyway?
My brand new monitor has a dead pixil. Sadface :(
Horrible sneezing cold is horrible -_-
Sounds like traveler's flu.
Somehow, my mother let a pitbull into her house while I was at work.
A six pound, eleven year old yorkie terrier is not a match for a pitbull.
She didn't last the night, though the vet said it was a miracle she survived as long as she did.
That's horrific, Brian. Is the pitbull at least gonna get put down?
That fucking sucks. Sorry man.
Supposedly the pitbull has already been put down, but I don't really trust the owner.
Don't suppose you can verify it any way?
It was a homeless guy's dog ... my mom thought she was being a good samaritan by inviting him into the house to use the washer/dryer, etc.
I should probably find out if there was a case number or anything else they can offer. They'd left by the time I got home.
My cat has jaundice and probably has liver failure. Ugh.
I could kinda use 2 of me today.
Quote from: Dracos on April 04, 2011, 06:13:41 PM
I could kinda use 2 of me today.
To the cloning chamber!
I'm sleepy...on a beautiful Sunday in April, 65 degrees and sunny.
Rotten timing.
heh
Some days I pretend I work at my desk.
Some days I pretend I'd notice if it wasn't even there :P
Well, I would. Kinda.
Quote from: Dracos on April 12, 2011, 10:21:58 PM
Some days I pretend I work at my desk.
Some days I pretend I'd notice if it wasn't even there :P
And today is going to be one of those days for me. O_o
I have an accounting test this afternoon that I have somehow completely forgotten to prepare for.
Memory Corruption on a gigantic integrate.
Fuck @_@
Drac: what happened?
My cat died.
Fuck. Had him since middle school, croaked while I was at work.
Aw geez, sorry Dune. :(
Quote from: Anastasia on April 14, 2011, 11:18:04 PM
My cat died.
Fuck. Had him since middle school, croaked while I was at work.
My condolences. :(
Thanks. I knew it was coming, but the entire thing still sucked.
Well, this probably sounds trite, but: It always does.
Try and think not of the last few painful moments, but instead the entire life once lived.
That's what gets me through the days.
Quote from: Brian on April 15, 2011, 07:07:47 PM
Well, this probably sounds trite, but: It always does.
Try and think not of the last few painful moments, but instead the entire life once lived.
That's what gets me through the days.
I'm mostly okay with it all, I just miss him a lot. It's more of a pang of sadness about 10 times a day.
I re-read Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader last night. I still don't care for it as a story or as a work of art. Yes, Gaiman has some interesting things to say about superhero mythos, but I find the entire thing to veer into a masturbatory examination of 'legend' of Batman. I also find the entire resolution of it to be unsatisfying, no matter what statement it's making about the Batman mythos and how it's constantly reinvented and recycled.
The problem with Finnegan's Wake is that it's essentially meaningless. In it's effort to convey deeply layered meanings and dream-like interpretative states, the core of meaning is lost in suggestions and symbolism. It's an empty casket at a funeral of madness, with nothing of value surviving.
Fuck Finnegan's Wake.
Gah. I went to increase the resolution on my avatar, and instead of using http://cleannorth.org/~odin/pics/pontbikinib.gif for my avatar like I told it to, the site downloads it, takes only the first frame, and stores it locally.
Bitch, bitch, bitch.
-Dan
Hmmm?
I'll ping you later and see if we can get this fixed up :3
I am juggling far too many balls.
Also looked into odin's picture. WEIRD. I know a workaround option though, when I am home in front of the shell, catch me odin and I'll fix it up.
Quote from: Dracos on April 25, 2011, 09:25:14 PM
Also looked into odin's picture. WEIRD. I know a workaround option though, when I am home in front of the shell, catch me odin and I'll fix it up.
You rock!
Also, then I won't have anything to bitch about.
-Dan
There's no blonde PrC in D&D. >_<
I am sick. I've been sick for 4 days. Blarg.
Quote from: odin on April 25, 2011, 10:32:33 PM
Quote from: Dracos on April 25, 2011, 09:25:14 PM
Also looked into odin's picture. WEIRD. I know a workaround option though, when I am home in front of the shell, catch me odin and I'll fix it up.
You rock!
Also, then I won't have anything to bitch about.
-Dan
Workaround done...Looks like there's kind of a skip in the gif once in a while, not sure why. But anyhow, it's up.
Quote from: Dracos on April 26, 2011, 12:43:59 PM
Workaround done...Looks like there's kind of a skip in the gif once in a while, not sure why. But anyhow, it's up.
Rock on!
Also... jiggle jiggle. :-)
-Dan
Work still sucks. The only good part of my day is seeing my wife when I get home from work.
I am still sick. I have The Worst Flu In The World.
Well, not the worst. But it feels like it right now.
Quote from: Music-chan on April 27, 2011, 06:39:24 PM
I am still sick. I have The Worst Flu In The World.
I am trying to pretend that I am not getting sick.
Bah.
Also, I got a great muse-rush, and wrote a whole chapter of K:BDH in a weekend.
Then I re-read it and realized about half of it just ... had to go. The rest needs to be rewritten.
Bleah.
Quote from: Brian on April 27, 2011, 08:10:51 PM
Quote from: Music-chan on April 27, 2011, 06:39:24 PM
I am still sick. I have The Worst Flu In The World.
I am trying to pretend that I am not getting sick.
Bah.
Also, I got a great muse-rush, and wrote a whole chapter of K:BDH in a weekend.
Then I re-read it and realized about half of it just ... had to go. The rest needs to be rewritten.
Bleah.
You know what they say. Write as much as you can; you can always edit later. You never know what gems will come out of an initial writing.
Or what monsters :3
I was feeling so good this week ... got all the money my work owed me....
...now bills are due. And I gotta buy a new phone.
Bleah.
Spammers are not only just solidly dodging right through but also cleverly setting their birthdays to match so they're always in view.
Fucking annoying.
I noticed this on a few other forums recently. Sneaky development, that one.
They are really hammering SMF 1.x forums it seems. SMF 2.x ones are significantly more resliant, but I've been waiting for them to go final there (and they just have been dropping the ball)
How beta is SMF 2.x, anyway? It may be worth the upgrade if it's a stable beta.
It's pretty darn stable, but also just was really hoping for them to finalize it. They're in some kind of political shit-stirring mess at the moment adjusting their licensing terms :(, it's kind of dehabilitating to that community maintaining it.
The off the top that I hear is that pretty much all mods break every update with SMF 2.x at the moment, and that makes it a bit untempting to get on :(
But yeah, spammers.
And now for something completely different.
10m not a prob.
20m not a prob.
30m same
40m same
50m getting tricky
60m not too bad
70m wtf am i doing?
90m getting better.
Why is it that i'm only every having major problems at 70m?
Thats right, i'm a FITA archery, compound division. I hate 70m. Can't group arrows to save myself....
I am being asked to commit some form of puppy-based crime to fabricate evidence to get a dog killed....
I got out of this on moral grounds, even though I believe the pitbull in question deserves to die, but I also think it'll happen without any deceit. He did kill a smaller dog.
I say this realizing that my life has somehow turned into a f%#$@ing soap opera. It really has.
Puppy court is this morning, and after that, my mom and stepfather would be going to a wedding in Oregon. Would be, except....
She fell over last night at dinner, and hit her head on a pole, then fell to the sidewalk.
Thirteen stitches, four internal stitches, and 12 hours at the ER later, she comes home, so it seems that they're not going to the wedding....
But, man. Always something crazy stupid dramatic gotta be happening.
I'm expecting a crazed ex with a gun any moment now.
I'm still good at complaints. Lessee...
Coming back after years away means I have to re-figure out my way around the forums.
My second trip to Japan has been delayed several months.
Just about everyone who watches, or has heard about my little routine for leaving my apartment agrees I have OCD.
And...Uh, I split my hand open so wide that I got a good look at the muscle underneath before the hole started filling with blood.
I've finally thrown the towel in on GMing.
I've been GMing tabletop games once a week (at least) for almost two decades now. Outside of a few months off here and there (usually the holidays), I really haven't gotten much of a break.
Crappy attendance on the part of the players, and a complete inability to adhere to a schedule have burnt me out. I'm done with it. -_-
For the first time in several years, I'm not actively running or playing in _anything_. I think I just murdered the non-fanfiction half of my social life. >_<
I think we should take a moment of silence.
Take a break and start an online game?
>_>
Well, I'll agree on the first part....
Kind of feeling a lack of motivation to create campaigns at this point, though. Drama, you know?
Yeah, I get ya. Been there and done that. It takes time to recover. I found it helpful to take a bit off then start a new campaign with new people. Cleanse the palate, y'know?
Also: Fuck sinus headaches.
Wasabi, my friend. Wasabi.
Well ... that's really only good on congestion-based sinus headaches. Still! If that's the underlying cause, there's a clear solution!
(Horseradish works, too.)
THe weather in Niagara Falls was truely horrible today.
Sorry visitors. We were hoping for better.
I woke up to Cthulhu trolling me.
Quote from: Anastasia on May 04, 2011, 02:11:26 PM
I woke up to Cthulhu trolling me.
How's old 'Thulu doing, anyway? Last I saw he was looking for a roomate. I can probably find the ad around here....
"Owner of downtown R'Leh home seeks roomate. No pets, smoking okay; owner spends most time sleeping."
But what's he done to you?
Motherfucker stole my $20 out of my wallet to order sushi. Asshole.
I can see how that would really suck. :\
No shit. It's not like he can't just eat some fucking whales nearby, but noooooo. He has to have -sushi-. Asshole.
Well, he is a GREAT Old One...he's allowed to have expensive taste.
He can get a great old JOB then. Asshole.
I'd go to that McDonald's. Every day.
Quote from: Yuthirin on May 05, 2011, 02:07:58 AM
I'd go to that McDonald's. Every day.
Me too.
Though I'd never eat there.
It's no use, my desktop PC is kerfuckt.
As a related note, does anyone know what it means when, even though the power indicator light on the motherboard is lit up and green, when I press the power button, nothing happens? Motherboard was replaced two days ago, due to me thinking it was the board. It's obviously not. :(
Power LED on the Motherboard is lit up? Or the back of the PSU?
Generally in that situation, I would expect a hardware fault. Specifically, (somehow) your MB may actually be grounding against your case, so enough power to light up that LED goes through (if it is the MB light), but when you try and boot, nothing happens.
Actually. That may be overthinking things.
First-things-first. Is your power button correctly connected to your motherboard? If it became loose, then all the punching on that button won't do a dang thing....
After checking for grounding issues (loose screws pinned between the board and the case, for example) and connections, the next step is to systematically gut your system of everything it does not absolutely NEED to function. Sound card, video card, if you've got onboard, all but the minimum of RAM, etc. I am NOT kidding about this -- I had a system that failed POST 50% of the time because of a bad 2.5 inch floppy drive. Another one because of an older CD-RW.
No, seriously.
Does it boot? If so, then great (well, not really:) one of the removed devices is bad. Shut down, re-install devices one-at-a-time until it stops working. That's your faulty device. If not, then obviously one of the critical components still in is the faulty one. If you've got spare RAM sitting around, swap that out.
If at this point it's still no joy, the most likely culprits for the source of your issues are: CPU, RAM, or PSU.
Good luck!
Yes, the power LED on the motherboard.
The motherboard was replaced due to this fault. When I replaced the board, I air-dusted the system and checked for bad posts and whatnot, so I don't believe it's grounding against the case. Otherwise, that scenario is it exactly. I have disconnected all drives, though I haven't tried the RAM idea. I'll give that a shot tonight.
Otherwise, I was afraid you'd say both the PSU and the CPU. Those are the two parts that are just slightly out of warranty, parts I really don't want to replace. :((((((
Yeah ... hardware manufacturers have a pretty good idea what the MTBF of something is when they offer a warranty. That's how they get their money.
Yeah, condolences man. Rotten luck.
My stomach and bowels have gone DEFCON 1. Fuuuck.
CALL THE PRESIDENT!
After my eye doctor visit today, I have a partially detached retina, will be seeing the retinal specialist tomorrow, and will probably require eye surgery quickly.
Fuck.
Eeew, that does blow. Good luck!
Hundreds of spammer attacks in the last week or so make me quite sad.
Quote from: Ranma_007 on May 10, 2011, 12:16:34 AM
After my eye doctor visit today, I have a partially detached retina, will be seeing the retinal specialist tomorrow, and will probably require eye surgery quickly.
Fuck.
Cripes.... Best of luck, 007.5. :x
If possible, see about maybe getting a cyber-eye from Q...?
Today (also bled from yesterday) has kinda sucked. Not only in sort of a negative mood, but things have just not been going my way.
Electrician I hired fucked around, so instead of being done this thursday, he's targeting middle of next week. As if I don't have a dozen other guys that need to get work done that I'd prefer to be there and done before I move all my stuff in. So yeah, that's gonna either be trouble or a few hundred bucks of rent to resolve. Lovely.
Get in, and find something scheduled for the end of this month is now knocked off schedule because of e3. Lovely. Things that depend on it being done now can't be done. Also lovely.
I'm going to try and have something be a success today and wade out of the pool of failures.
And a spammer seems to have gotten through. WHEE.
A friend has shared this (very) NSFW song about bitching with me:
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=136054170&m=136021610
Be warned again, this is NSFW.
And probably sacrilegious.
I was kinda a whiny jerk yesterday. Apologies to all.
With your entire house clusterfuck, I don't blame you.
Quote from: Dracos on May 12, 2011, 02:39:41 PM
I was kinda a whiny jerk yesterday. Apologies to all.
Pish. You share a board with _me_. If these people suffer with me, they'll put up with you -- no sweat. ;)
For what it's worth, I didn't even notice. :p
So yes, I need eye surgery tomorrow. Damnit.
007, I feel for you. My uncle had that same surgery done.
Quote from: Ranma_007 on May 13, 2011, 12:10:01 AM
So yes, I need eye surgery tomorrow. Damnit.
Good luck man. Good luck.
Quote from: Ranma_007 on May 13, 2011, 12:10:01 AM
So yes, I need eye surgery tomorrow. Damnit.
Holding out for good news from the front, 007.5.
Well, I'm not blind... but rest is required. Will post more later...
Hope you heal fast!
Agreed (though you probably shouldn't be staring at a computer while 'resting').
So, I bought a tablet today. Set it on the table, table got jostled and it fell and cracked the camera. Took it back to the store, since I bought the warranty plan, and instead of returning it, they want to send it out for service.
And I leave tomorrow. Fuck.
I'd keep it and just write off the camera, unless you absolutely need one. The rest of it works fine, right?
Tomorrow's my birthday and it looks like it's going to be cool and rainy all day :(
There was a freakin pipe bomb put in a US Postal Mailbox (one of those blue mailboxes) two houses down from where I live. Damnit.
Shit on a carosel, that's scary shit.
Chicago lives life on the edge, maaaaaan.
My nose is nothing but snot and congestion.
Flaming someone and having them turn around and say that you're right and apologize seldom ever feels like victory.
Damnit.
Why is being a misanthrope so hard?
Rousseau was Right (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RousseauWasRight).
Quote from: Brian on May 23, 2011, 08:59:12 PM
Flaming someone and having them turn around and say that you're right and apologize seldom ever feels like victory.
Damnit.
Why is being a misanthrope so hard?
Because you're a decent human being?
I have to replace all of my sewer, which will run into the multiple thousands of dollars.
Right now, it's bubbling up in my shower. Not cool.
Of course, we have some money for a emergency fund, but not enough to cover full replacement. Damnit.
The joys of owning your own home!
Damnit! My basement flooded last night AND this morning. DAMNIT!
Unrelated to the sewer. So I need to replace the sewer, the sump pump, the new carpet which we just put down 2 weeks ago, AND I lost all my old NES and SNES and N64 systems and games. Damnit!
Quote from: Ranma_007 on May 26, 2011, 01:59:15 PM
Unrelated to the sewer. So I need to replace the sewer, the sump pump, the new carpet which we just put down 2 weeks ago, AND I lost all my old NES and SNES and N64 systems and games. Damnit!
D:
That's awful! I know we can find the carts and emulators, but damnit.... That sucks, 007.5. I'm sorry to hear that. Especially the work on the carpeting.... >_<
ew :(
:( is right. That's crushing.
Actually, having a few minutes to think about this, I've realized that more likely than not, given time to dry out, your game carts should actually be fine. I remember many success stories involving the carts being (in some cases) totally immersed.
The systems ... could be toast. But your games may yet live!
Hey, good luck then.
I spent most of yesterday on IIS configuration issues. It seemed the machine had an extra ASP.net install on it that was conflicting with the other ASP.net installs, overriding the settings but not appearing in the IIS manager as an installed/registered set of dlls. So hate.
Self-imposed avoidance of all book 10/11 spoilers for Haruhi until I can get my grubby paws on at least a fantranslation....
...failed.
An eager K:BDH fan e-mailed me asking what I thought of some things, and one massive spoiler got through my defenses.
Damnit (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Jossed).
What was the spoiler?
Well:
The bigger one is about the new character. It turns out that
the new girl is not a slider, like we originally though, she's a fragment of Haruhi that was created to help Kyon and Yuki with some things. She doesn't really slide, she just happens to be able to travel between the two instances of the one world that she split (and eventually, her job is supposed to be to tie them back together).
So oops.
Hilariously, that didn't actually bother me, as I was expecting to be Jossed (though not to that degree). What really got me was the casual question:
"What about the fact that Fujiwara calls Mikuru 'Mikuru-onee'?"
...damnit. >_<
Ouch.
Nothing like spoilers. >_< By the way, how's the theory of Kyon being God holding up?
Gaining strength by the page. Every girl in the series with powers whatsoever gravitates towards him, if not directly, then through his aquaintences.
I'm pretty sure that the best we'll get on that one in canon is a Shrug of God (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ShrugOfGod), but it does seem that the author is going out of his way to avoid Jossing it.
I actually find myself really appreciating that, though.
spammers still get on the boards.
They don't manage to post, but seriously, I really don't know what more I can do aside from hand scribing my own registration prompts.
Could you code up something unique? It doesn't even have to be big, just something unusual that a typical spammer isn't going to get past. After all, it's just a small forum and I doubt it gets any real manpower hours dedicated to cracking it. This shit is all automated, maybe you can find a hole with some luck?
So, I was supposed to go on a one day trip to get the last of my stuff from my old base. We did space reserve/blocked seats on flights to make it happen.
But, the flight got delayed twice, canceled once, changed once, and held on the runway. Then, we couldn't even land where we were supposed to and wound up, quite literally, on the opposite side of Afghanistan because of weather.
What was supposed to be a one day trip turned into a three day tour of Afghanistan.
FML.
Quote from: Iron Dragoon on June 02, 2011, 09:56:42 AMWhat was supposed to be a one day trip turned into a three day tour of Afghanistan.
I'm begining to think that our friend Iddy may need an exorcism.
I'm trying to end my vacation by getting sick. Argh.
mmm, talking with other coders is constantly resulting in additional work that does not actually ensure a better end result.
The moment I go to make a Looming post, my stomach goes sour. Cue long bathroom sidequest. The curse strikes again.
Must admit, I'm getting terrified about the last two exams. They're on wed/thur and I feel crazy unprepared for them.
Lot of stuff going on - latest is that I have a 10 page paper due at midnight, and I haven't started.
Now to crank out ten pages in 3 and a half hours!
You can do it!
2 hours to go, 5 pages to go!
Nine.
Hour.
Meeting.
Construction is distracting.
*looks up* OUCH.
Tomorrow is another nine hour meeting.
Someone hates you. Someone evil.
Wait, I thought we were evil.
But do we hate Brian?
If I am included in this we, then yes, we do.
It's the yearly engineering kickoff. QA gets two days -- eveyone else goes the full week.
I feel your pain. I've sat through 13 hour 'Welcome to my Base' briefings from Generals.
Fuck cold sores.
Due to circumstances, there are children in my home.
It's more likely than you think.
Can't wait for 'em to go.
My employment status is looking shakier by the day.
Eeek. Good luck Dune, that's always terrifying.
I'll make it through. Worst comes to worst I can get by awhile without a job, plus I have a strong family safety net. It's still sucky.
Food poisoning. ;_;
Ew. What food gotcha?
Something in the grease at the Chili's ... good thing I oly had like three fries. Was only sick for 2 hours, which was pretty mild. It's the same reaction I developed around Christmas.
I'm pretty sure it's either something in the oil itself, or some preservative they're using for processed fried chicken. I thin it's the latter, and it happens to get into oil... One more place to mark off the list. :x
Oooow. Any idea what in particular is triggering it? I mean, if you can figure it out and knowing is half the battle and shit, I dunno.
Point is that sucks and I hope you can find a way to stop it.
Plumber found one of those durable dish rags in my sewer pipes. Also at least one pipe down there is broken/cracked. Insurance called. Yay.
Going to work hungry sucks.
It does! This is why fast-food places serve crappy breakfast-alternatives!
But seriously ... I know how lame that is. :x
Yeah, and I'm not gonna have a chance to get anything 'till after work. Blargh.
D:
This sounds like a job for cup-o-noodles. Those things last for months -- you should always keep a cup or three at your desk.
I don't have a desk at work, or even a locker. Not a banner day for me.
I don't know where to go to chat with other fic writers who are interested in my fandoms anymore.
:(
Clearly you should just invite fic writers you like over here to talk :P
Bleh, plumbing repair work moves onward...I think I have at least the main issue resolved.
I need more hours in the day to write.
I haven't been this sick in two years.
What'cha got, Panda?
Common cold, as far as I know. Thing is, I've been unusually healthy or the past few years; well, so long as you discount sinus headaches.
Quote from: thepanda on June 24, 2011, 04:22:57 PM
Common cold, as far as I know. Thing is, I've been unusually healthy or the past few years; well, so long as you discount sinus headaches.
It could be worse. The last time I got seriously sick, it was the fast acting flu and pneumonia. I was pretty much recovering for a month after.
I had no power for over 60 hours. And it rained. It sucked.
My houseguest just got arrested. Fuck.
Quote from: Ranma_007 on June 25, 2011, 09:19:56 AM
I had no power for over 60 hours. And it rained. It sucked.
That does blow. Reminds me of the last hurricane we had here. It was a week of no power in hot, humid misery. Urk.
Quote from: Yuthirin on June 25, 2011, 12:00:06 PM
My houseguest just got arrested. Fuck.
Oooh, what for?
Openly carrying a handgun and posession of marijuana and drug paraphenalia. All of which were on the front seat of his car, which he parked in someone else's driveway.
Faaaanfuckingtastic work there. Are any of those felonies?
The handgun is for sure in Illinois. He might just get fined for the weed and bowl, he might not. It's all medicinal. He's got paperwork for it and everything. >_>
Illinois lacks a sense of humor when it comes to guns, though...and this is a sleepy little town where nothing happens except bicycle theft and drunk drivers. It probably means that the cops will freak out about it.
Not in most states, unless he was carrying a loooot of some controlled substance.
Possession is a misdemeanor. Possession with intent to distribute ... not so much. If you're carrying enough, they assume you plan to sell.
I'm less clear on the gun, depending on local laws.
Edit: well, the prescription will help if it's recognized by the county.
It depends on whether or not they'll honor the prescription. It's from California. He's in Illinois. If they go by Cali laws, he's fine on that. If they go by federal, he's boned on it. I know how much he had, it wasn't much. Dunno if he'll get intent, but the gun won't reflect favorably on that ruling.
Yeah, the gun might really bone him. What do you think when you see a gun and weed? Dealer. The cops aren't likely to be nice.
I can say right now, there is about zero chance of them recognizing the prescription unless your state also allows medical marijuana. Probably, if he cooperates, there won't be a felony charge, though. Probably. :/
It's in the hands of the cop and the DA. How big a felony is the gun charge?
Not big enough to keep him in jail apparently. $120 bail.
He's probably going to be okay then. I mean, $120 bail is pretty piddling.
Christ, my brother got higher bail for driving with a suspended license.
Just got done talking to the local cops, they gave him a tresspassing ticket and a paraphenalia ticket. Two misdemeanors. Apparently, the guy whose house he parked at is a real bastard to the cops out here. :) they weren't gonna charge him at all but the homeowner raised a big stink, so the cops gave my guest the smallest stuff they could.
Note down Crazy Neighbor to not have friends park at?
I'm probably going to do something horrible to him.
That was pretty awesome of the local cops. On the other hand, when you're relying on the police to go nice and bail your ass out, you've done fucked up.
They're trying to take an hour and a half off my check every night. -_-
Ah, enforced break deductions?
Kicked our start times back half an hour + dropped an hour off the end of the night for all part-timers. They want to start enforcing breaks, but they can't do much there since the planes have to be worked, and quickly.
Sadness observing that everyone who has over a thousand posts here has been here from the beginning. Energetic Newbie recruiting flat. Oh well.
I don't have 1000 posts, and I'm from the beginning.
Quote from: Dracos on June 28, 2011, 09:56:37 PM
Sadness observing that everyone who has over a thousand posts here has been here from the beginning. Energetic Newbie recruiting flat. Oh well.
Yeah, it takes some time to get 1000+ posts. I mean, even someone who posts a fair bit is gonna take awhile to rack that count up.
There's also the fact that a lot of the games -are- IRC games. That kind of makes it hard to really rack up some forum posts. The people with high forum post counts tend to either be GMs or have been in a couple of the rare few board games.
Or both.
Indeed both. That's how I have so many posts. Ah, I remember well the 50 post days going back and forth with Rat. Those were the times.
If you want to recruit people you pretty much need to drag them here from other places to play in your game. They're going to come for a person or group, not the site. Because games do not start that often, there are limited opportunities to get new people in- and most of us source players from the present pool as it is. Statistically, a lot of games die, too, along with their players.
Given that most of the actual socializing is done on IRC anyway, SR is probably doomed to be a niche hideout forever...
I *guess* one way to rope people in would be to create a large forum-based game with a premise that holds wide appeal, and then refuse nobody entry after spruiking it on other, more successful websites. You know, the kind where people run multiple characters and nobody is really GMing it, and everything is done by mutual agreement. Does that sound like fun? Write in and tell us now!
True.
We lack for board games :P
The Killing forum theme apparently causes the browser on my iPad to crash. Shit.
Really? Haven't had any problem with it on mine. :x
Did you try closing the app (double-tap the home button) and relaunching it?
Yup. Boom, every time. Mid-load. Ahh well.
Waiting for work on job applications is way too stressful.
eek :(
Spammers broke through. Took 2 days it seems.
Going to start adding additional anti-spam defenses tonight.
Boooooo. :(
New UBUNTU doesn't like my onboard wireless card....
Found out my laptop is so old it can't use my new 500 GB HDD....
Bleah.
Just took the first part of my CPA exam. Not confident in the results at all >.<
Oh god accounting
Quote from: Yuthirin on June 28, 2011, 10:29:50 PM
I don't have 1000 posts, and I'm from the beginning.
Yeah, I hear ya. Same here.
So apparently the new mIRC stops opening after 45 days of free use.
Hadda buy it for just that reason.
Right before I realized that XChat is superior.
Damnit.
QuoteSo apparently the new mIRC stops opening after 45 days of free use.
It sorta doesn't, it's just the next level in it's nagware. While it will normally give an option to exit (ie, you can't open mIRC), it will sometimes give you an option to log on, generally if you open the register link (even if you don't actually register). It still takes time, and it's kind of random, so that can still be pretty annoying.
While it's only $10 (here's a coupon (http://www.mirc.com/register.php?coupon=MIRC-SWV0-MNKL) that makes the price 50% off the usual $20 if you care to pay for it), I've lived through enough of it's nagging that I don't feel like paying for it when it made the nagging even WORSE than it used to be. That's just rewarding bad behavior! >_>
If you want to move onto something else though, try Xchat 2 (http://www.silverex.org/download/) like Brian suggests. A lot of people use it, it does have a few nice features mIRC doesn't. Most importantly, it's free, not shareware (like original Xchat) or nagware (like mIRC).
I don't particularly like it myself, though, I tried it very briefly and didn't like trying to set it up. It might be possible to get it to the sort of set-up I like, but the mIRC thing doesn't bug me much since I usually leave it open even if I'm not logged on, and I like having most of my chat windows visible at the same time, whereas Xchat, from all I could see, only seems to have a tree-view, where you can only have one chat window visible at a time and have to tab between channels.
QuoteWhile it's only $10 (here's a coupon that makes the price 50% off the usual $20 if you care to pay for it), I've lived through enough of it's nagging that I don't feel like paying for it when it made the nagging even WORSE than it used to be. That's just rewarding bad behavior! >_>
That's sort of why I bought it. Not the nagging - I bought it years ago - but because I'd been using it forever. I can safely say MIRC has proven it's worth, it's worth a few bucks after all this.
Yeah, I'm rather fond of mIRC...and I like buying things.
Quote from: Merc on July 13, 2011, 02:38:47 AM
I don't particularly like it myself, though, I tried it very briefly and didn't like trying to set it up. It might be possible to get it to the sort of set-up I like, but the mIRC thing doesn't bug me much since I usually leave it open even if I'm not logged on, and I like having most of my chat windows visible at the same time, whereas Xchat, from all I could see, only seems to have a tree-view, where you can only have one chat window visible at a time and have to tab between channels.
At least in the Linux version, Xchat has the option to 'detach' a channel from the main window. So you could detach all your channels, then use your window manager to tile them.
X-chat 2 is obnoxiously non-free to windows users.
Anyhow, sadness, no looming yesterday, lots of 'you don't win' problems at work lately.
Quote from: Dracos on July 13, 2011, 02:27:37 PM
X-chat 2 is obnoxiously non-free to windows users.
That's why you have to use the silverex build Merc linked.
Trying to get a new job or a transfer is proving highly difficult. Every time I put in for a job, the position closes a few days later. Argh.
Ouch :(
Too depressing. Dropping out of the Haruhi fandom for a while.
Oh, ouch.
So, I like C# for a lot of things. It's a neat language, it supports both compile time type checking and automatic typing. It's got a very powerful library set on it.
What I don't like is that its project format (for MSbuild) is a painful to read mess of wildcard syntax and blocks of unconnected rationale. It's ugly and it's just a binary representation away from being only readable for machines. That mass property definitions have their own custom editor now and can't simply just be added rapidly.
Meh!
So... VS2010. Going to it.
Who's there waiting for me as the new standard project format for everything under the sun?
Screw you microsoft. Really @_@
I hate having to make bad and worse choices.
IT'S FUCKING HOT
Half-sleep idiot nearly takes my head off at work last night after almost smashing another guy's foot between a 7000 lbs container and a lock meant to stop said container from moving. The asshole managed to scratch both of my lenses up while my glasses were on my face.
Can still see enough to function but goddamn is it irritating. Went to get 2 pair of new glasses (lenses and frames). Fortunately, my insurance is pretty good. Covers up to 115$ on a single pair of glasses and pays half of the second pair and the 40$ full eye exam only cost me 12$. Still end up paying over 300$ because the insurance doesn't cover the extras on the lenses (no-scratch, HD, uv block, no-glare) or the warrenty. Won't get my new glasses until the second of august, though.
Kind of ruined my B-day plans and I feel like I'm going to be needlessly irritated for the next two weeks.
Shitty person. :(
Nothing sucks worse than having your glasses messed up. :x
It's a zillion degrees out and I'm fat.
My grandfather died yesterday. So this weekend I need to drive up to Kansas City and attend the funeral. Looks like I'll be kicking off my b-day vacation with dead and the consoling of family members. With no internet connection. And I suck at consolation.
These one-two shots to my bank account. . .
D:
Well, if a rare opportunity arises for me to be a bro, I should take it; things are going well enough for me I may be able to help you out if things get really bad. Lemme know. :x
In the meantime, I still hope for the best for you.
It's not food poisoning. It's gall bladder attacks.
Evidently, every so often, my gall bladder will fritz out and decide that I cannot digest everything I've eaten in the last X hours. As Drac can unfortunately testify, this is about 5.4 gadzillion more times uncomfortable than it sounds (and it sounds pretty damn uncomfortable).
I wouldn't call it agony. Consider it to be hours of the most intense discomfort imaginable (and throw in enough retching to tear abdomnial muscles).
Kicked in right at the end of a lunch meeting, too ... good thing my old man could drive me home; I sure couldn't make it. -_-
Well, at least you know what it is now?
Ugh.
Can you do anything to prevent/cure alleviate?
Yeah. I have to change my diet.
Some fats are very dangerous for me, and if I cut them out, I will become completely intolerant. For best overall health, I must constantly edge the line between safety and misery.
Bleah. So, I will be drinking a spoon full of vinegar before every meal, carrying a small supply of magnesium pills, and so on. In an ideal situation, I can dose myself as soon as I feel an attack come on, and it may only last a few minutes or half an hour.
Which is a real improvement.
Being made to drink a cup of apple juice mixed with three tablespoons of apple cider vinegar....
There's a whole list of things I need to avoid/be cautious of, chief among them: Anything fried, and red meat.
For example, eggs are supposed to be horrible for me, but it turns out that as long as they're made with no fat (egg whites only, and no butter or grease), then they're fine. Of course, plain egg whites on plain toast is still kinda meh....
There's a thought that my decision several years ago to avoid red meats actually _caused_ this.... So. I have to learn to love beets, vinegar, and flax oil (never to be used for cooking). Gotta watch anything with a lot of acidity.
Having my gallbladder removed changes it from a problem of variable intensity/duration, to something constant but significantly less intense (as well as having to remove pretty much all fats from my diet forever). Of course, I don't have insurance anyway, so that's moot.
Terrifying. Absolutely terrifying.
I found a charge on my credit card for some cosmetics company in Hong Kong. I'm pretty sure I've never ordered anything like that. The card is only two months old...
And it's being cancelled; they're sending me a new one, which does inconvenience me a bit, since I have to change all my automatic billing to the new one.
This has cast a pall over my afternoon.
Spilled some water over my nice keyboard. Now have a chintzy replacement model. Sigh.
Suffered a seven hour attack, which I am just now recovering from.
Why is HUMMUS so oily? >_<
It's now OFF THE LIST!
What can you eat now, anyway?
Avoiding oils? Not a whole lot. Raw vegetables?
>_>
<_<
/KICKS EVERYONE IN THE JUNK
Some sonnvabitch in Venezuela hijacked my email account for spam.
A promising RPG died midgame thanks to mandatory overtime and weekend shifts.
My muse has gone into witness protection.
My boss seems determined to make me quit by making my job hell.
And Batshit Bachmann can count on a minimum of 27% of the vote.
So how have your last couple of years been folks?
Hi Shade!
Yo.
I was amazed my old login was still here.
Wow, Shade's alive?
The story on his return here is nothing short of amazing. Trust me, it would never be believed. The venzulian druglords alone would never admit it.
Welcome back for a time, Shade. Good to see ya :)
Dracos has since began purchasing California slowly but surely. Also makes games people possibly have heard of with their international distribution and all.
And at some point I went back into reading fanfics :P
We really should be in the welcome back thread or somethin'. Oh well. Screw the rules, I am admin. :P
I got kicked in the junk by Shade, when he still owes me a Ranma/Ukyou fic. ;_;
Hey, I got something to bitch about.
I maintain a relatively small text file of quotes, and I was in the process of updating it with a new one I found when I started perusing the older entries. I came upon a chatlog from #soulriders. I was first struck by how everyone used full, complete sentences, with proper capitalization and punctuating everything (which I've been really, really lax with lately). Then I saw how dumb I was, because I was actually reading through the chat and understanding what the hell was going on instead of just sitting in my corner, feeling lost. There was actual, good content, smart things being said, and I know that I didn't understand half of it at the time.
And then Iddy starts telling dead baby jokes.
Suffice to say, I'm bitching about how I've missed out on years, *years* of hanging out with really cool people. Ugh.
Hahaha welcome back, then? :D
Welcome back! Pull up a chair, relax and don't let Iddy get you.
Ugh. I didn't even manage to feel tired until after 2:00 AM this morning.
I woke up a few minutes after 6:00 AM.
Stupid fic.
What fic?
You know. That one. -_-
Guy keeps trying to get on my good side, or something.
"Have I stopped being depressing yet?"
"Your username should be EmoKid."
"I wrote an uplifting chapter!"
"...no, you didn't. You wrote a chapter that wasn't as depressing, but still carried the theme of overwhelming futility."
Can hardly _wait_ to see how badly he ruins the next chapter, which is supposed to be the most positive.
Ah, THAT one.
You're caught in it's orbit, no matter how depressing it is. It's like the black hole of fics.
Singularities are mentioned in comparison to it frequently.
Actually, I've progressed beyond being depressed about his fic. He crossed my threshold and I just don't give a damn about the characters anymore.
It is funny how chapter five's character tries to say all of my issues are misconceptions, but he does have a character outright lie about the underlying premise to try and sell her explanation for it.... Probably almost as irritating as the arrogant way he misleads the readers and expects everyone to be elated over a story that is literally 'Kyon is Jesus in Purgatory'.
Christian themes do nothing for me, so his story is just a big load of depressing. I should start calling it 'The Passion of the Kyon'.
I feel compelled to ask; why do you keep reading the fic you know will hurt you?
Quote from: Carthrat on July 25, 2011, 06:23:20 PMI feel compelled to ask; why do you keep reading the fic you know will hurt you?
Mostly because he keeps begging me. Really, really begging.
I think ... part of it is his horror at realizing he's an unintentional agent of angst (he seems to _really_ want his story to be happier than it is), and he's constantly trying to 'fix' things and earn my approval (though, what we write is so different, I can't imagine why my input is valuable to him). It's kind of like watching Akane Tendo fix someone else's cooking mistake. Wrong, incredibly dangerous, but much like flame, hypnotic to watch ... and ... you kind of wonder what would happen if you were to toss P-chan in there....
I've gone past apathy and into mild anger, though. Let's see if he can _really_ piss me off and generate one of the good-old-days level flames, eh? :D
Live the flaming dream!
I figured it was battered wife syndrome rather than him begging you, but whatever works.
Quote from: Anastasia on July 25, 2011, 07:15:32 PMI figured it was battered wife syndrome rather than him begging you, but whatever works.
You say that _after_ I resisted the rant about how in a forum founded on (among other things), fanfiction, I'm probably the last active writer we have left? ;_;
You guys all grew up and moved on.
This is all I have left.
That's something to bitch about, I guess. :\
I want to write! I just suck at it. ;_;
Quote from: Brian on July 25, 2011, 07:24:00 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on July 25, 2011, 07:15:32 PMI figured it was battered wife syndrome rather than him begging you, but whatever works.
You say that _after_ I resisted the rant about how in a forum founded on (among other things), fanfiction, I'm probably the last active writer we have left? ;_;
You guys all grew up and moved on.
This is all I have left.
That's something to bitch about, I guess. :\
I didn't stop writing. I merely found a different way to indulge my inner writer. RPing is awesome for it! When it clicks, it's like a collaborative project that's going great.
Quote from: Yuthirin on July 25, 2011, 12:53:51 PM
Hahaha welcome back, then? :D
Sadly, I leave for Basic in a week, so... I can't exactly stick around.
Quote from: Kt3 on July 26, 2011, 01:56:50 AM
Quote from: Yuthirin on July 25, 2011, 12:53:51 PM
Hahaha welcome back, then? :D
Sadly, I leave for Basic in a week, so... I can't exactly stick around.
Oooh, good luck! What branch?
Army National Guard. MOS is 25N.
I needed a sane way to pay off my student loans, and getting a normal job didn't look like it was going to be happening anytime soon, so...
Right now I'm realizing just how much useless crap I've had lying around my room. It never seems like much but it builds up over the years when you're not looking.
Quote from: Brian on July 25, 2011, 07:24:00 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on July 25, 2011, 07:15:32 PMI figured it was battered wife syndrome rather than him begging you, but whatever works.
You say that _after_ I resisted the rant about how in a forum founded on (among other things), fanfiction, I'm probably the last active writer we have left? ;_;
You guys all grew up and moved on.
This is all I have left.
That's something to bitch about, I guess. :\
I write. It's just that I seem to write completely outside your fandoms.
>_>
<_<
I don't write at all.
*goes back to writing side stories for Looming*
Not one bit.
Diaherra, not so fun.
Weird, I've only eaten salad today pretty much. You'd think that'd be easy.
Roughage (salad leaves) are among the most difficult things for your stomach to handle. Especially with nothing else in there.
Here's a link that explains why it goes through you without being digested:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roughage
You can slow your digestion down by eating something before the salad, or (as I do) eating a teaspoon of vinegar before your meal. Of course ... some parts can't be digested anyway. :)
(Edit: Lawl, wrong link.)
Today, I pretty much had a 'Come ask for help' sign.
Even when I put up a "Do Not Bother Me, Shit Needs To Get Done" they formed a line inside my cube. Seriously. -_-'
Today, I was like King Midas, only everything I touched turned to shit. Seriously, I broke everything I touched. A computer. A printer. A desk. A letter opener. A trophy my sister won YESTERDAY.
Son of a BITCH.
You're ice cold today. Go to bed early and try again tomorrow.
For the last few weeks, my netbook's wireless had some sort of configuration problem where it doesn't connect to my home wireless internet on bootup unless I manually change IP settings, and then I have to reverse the settings when I connect at work.
Two nights ago, finally getting tired of it happening randomly and then getting better for no reason, I hacked together a batch script to flip IP settings using netsh, ported it to Ruby and cleaned the code, and put a few convenience features just to be fancy.
In response, my home's DSL line died yesterday while I was at work.
ARGH.
Destroyed my phone with delicious Mexican spicy sauces. Upside, I have twelve pounds of chicken and beef fajitas.
People at the HQ can't seem to understand that I'm not stationed at any one base for more than a month at a time. This leads to them expecting me to answer questions for *every* base I've ever been on as if I were permanently based there.
In specific, the QA/QC people are fucking retards. The same guy wants me to fix multiple timesheets for linguists. NO TWO ON THE SAME F'N BASE. >_<
Started the eight hour drive back to Memphis only to have a piece of tire knock something under my hood. Now my air, she is dead and it was a hundred freakin' degree outside.
Today I entered the office and almost anything that I maintain had some disaster on it. Really, not an awesome week starter.
My other grandmother died tonight. That's two in about a six month period. Arghfuckle.
I swear, if I have to read 'casted' one more time...
I never quite knew that family could make receiving gifts this unpleasant. "So this thing you own sucks, so we're going to throw it out and replace it."
Wow, really? What was it?
I must echo, sadly unable to provide new input:
Quote from: Anastasia on August 06, 2011, 11:03:32 PM
Wow, really? What was it?
Well, I guess I can say I'll be pissed if it was the grill I put together for you.
Oh no, that they just moved.
That's really just the general tone. Came back the first day to "Where's my dining room table?" "Oh in the garage. Also your couch that's been in your house for two weeks is old, so we should throw it out." "Wait, you really weren't going to use that real silverware were you? That'd just be silly." "Your kitchen is filthy, so we're gonna clean it."
Who really needs "We're gifting you stuff, but it comes with a lecture on how anything we're replacing was crap or hand-me-down and you're an idiot for ever using it, also we're reorganizing your rooms. Why are you giving us a look?" Nevermind that I'll have the family side that sent the original furniture gifts coming not too long from now, so in accepting this gift, I'll have to deal with bothersome disappointment on the other side.
Today the majority of the stuff is supposed to arrive and even though a lot of it will undoubtedly end up being nice and worth the nusiance, it really makes me favor just...not getting gifted stuff at all. Sure, it would've taken me a year or two to have the spare cash to put nice furniture in all of the rooms, but then it would've come with zero drama.
And it's all 'put it together yourself' furniture coming too. Ah, it's so rare that comes to any good end. It'll start arriving later today. Then I'll probably have to decide what to junk afterwards so I don't have multiple copies of furniture pieces around -_-;.
Throw. Them. All. Out.
Lots of throwing out.
Seriously it's your house.
Alternately, get Mr. Spiky Bat out and get to work.
Quote from: Dracos on August 07, 2011, 01:07:30 PM
And it's all 'put it together yourself' furniture coming too. Ah, it's so rare that comes to any good end. It'll start arriving later today. Then I'll probably have to decide what to junk afterwards so I don't have multiple copies of furniture pieces around -_-;.
In semi-related news, I may have use for unwanted furniture very soon.
In completely related news, I can assemble furniture for you, if you like.
Yes, I am aware. Indeed this popped into my mind as one valid reason not to dispose of perfectly functional furniture, and aid shall be welcome. I will certainly still have plenty of it by next hangout time.
And yes there was a lot of that today. "I know you have a beautiful picture in your heads, I am living here, these things are not changing."
yadda, they aren't staying and leave my awareness tomorrow morning. It's really quite inconvenient to have an argument with family paying for a couple thousand in furniture. They get all sulky.
Now just to deal with the clutter and hopefully turn nusiance days into net win.
I have been tasked with completing the missing paperwork for the current site I am at.
This includes pay records. All the way back to last year. Which are dumped into a small filing cabinet. With no folders and no order. And there is a vast amount of missing paperwork to go with these timesheets. Missing invoices and invoices for which I can find no timesheets.
And personnel files. I have three weeks. ;_;
wow, :( That sounds terrible, Iddy.
Quote from: Dracos on August 08, 2011, 03:49:29 AM
Yes, I am aware.
Okay. Just pointing out that I offered to assemble furniture for you.
Not to help you assemble furniture.
I still remember the grill.
o_o
Iddy: ...job security? :D
I hate waiting on the results of job interviews.
Quote from: Brian on August 08, 2011, 12:40:50 PM
Quote from: Dracos on August 08, 2011, 03:49:29 AM
Yes, I am aware.
Okay. Just pointing out that I offered to assemble furniture for you.
Not to help you assemble furniture.
I still remember the grill.
o_o
Iddy: ...job security? :D
*laughs* I see :)
Quote from: Anastasia on August 11, 2011, 02:17:30 AM
I hate waiting on the results of job interviews.
Sympathy. Hope good news shows up soon. I hate job hunting, probably part of the reason I haven't moved jobs in years.
I think I'm getting sick, plus I still haven't gotten a callback from that job. It's listed as being open still...gah, I don't want to have wait over the weekend to find out.
Main boss came in; didn't get full-time conversion interview. Worrisome. Hopefully will have it on Monday. And ... hopefully will get the job. ;_;
Then I can start the apartment search, and get out of my incredibly unpleasant situation (you know the one >_<).
Also, we're a bit too intimidating for the tropers (though ... they are lurking). Hopefully they'll warm up to us a bit, or at least join for the gaming.
*bizarre, awkward cross-forum-wave~!*
Anyway, Ana, I hope you feel better soon ... and I hope for good news in your employment future. :x
I miss the old internet, circa about 2000 or so. Before it was all facebook, smartphones and everything is perfectly polished and plugged in. I don't know why I do, either.
eh
I don't miss the old internet since it hasn't changed that much for me.
I just entirely ignore all this social networking stuff.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 15, 2011, 02:19:52 AM
I miss the old internet, circa about 2000 or so. Before it was all facebook, smartphones and everything is perfectly polished and plugged in. I don't know why I do, either.
You do?
Fixed (http://reocities.com/Area51/1331/).
No Wikipedia, no Youtube... my God, how did we live?
We all went outside back then, I think.
Kicking and screaming, in my case. >_>
Quote from: Ebiris on August 15, 2011, 03:16:59 AM
No Wikipedia, no Youtube... my God, how did we live?
Fan shrines, webrings, mailings lists, archives, and fora where a few hundred posts meant you were awake one weekend. We marched the march of madmen, laughing loudly as we danced through the flames.
Also, Geocities, twirling animated .gifs, and midi files that blare the moment you open a page? Do Not Want.
Remember how we found fanfiction back then? Because authors would link eachother.
Most people got in from the anime web turnpike (doesn't THAT take you back?).
We actually brought up the Anime Web Turnpike at the mini-gathering. Good times.
Quote from: Brian on August 15, 2011, 12:42:33 PM
Most people got in from the anime web turnpike (doesn't THAT take you back?).
Man, doesn't it? I remember that Duke Nukem/Bubblegum Crisis mod, Toybox, Jeffrey "OneShot" Wong, so many Sailormoon/Ranma crossovers, round-robin fiction. . .
Anipike!
Wow, that does bring back memories.
And for no particular reason I googled him (his site is long gone) and he has a ff.net page. Looks like he decided to archive his old stuff over there this year. The last time I checked he was at the Slayer crossover. That was part six. There are 14 parts up.
One part of me knows reading this is a bad idea. The other part, man, the other part wants to read it soooo badly.
Huh. I wonder if Megane 6.7 ever got back to writing? To the googles!
Googled who?
...not.... Not Oneshot. You are not that much of a masochist.
...are you? ;_;
Not gonna lie, when I first got into fanfiction I loved his stuff. It wasn't until 'Ranma' fights angels shaped like 'Ranma' that it turned into train-wreck-watching.
I forget what fic it was, but at one point, Oneshot had (one of his older, pre uber-power) fics that seemed to almost perfectly segue into a truly unexpected but surprisingly decent Hinako/Ranma matchup.
I was stunned.
And then he dropped it and the story went on, never addressing Hinako again.
Poor Hinako.
The Least One Can Do? The one in script format? Or maybe it was Ranma's Girls, where he had twins?
I ... don't remember anymore. I just remember that one scene, and feeling that it was pure luck on his part to have made such a great scene....
...and then he utterly failed on followthrough.
Damn my curiosity! I think I broke my nostalgia goggles. ;_;
Wong was that guilty pleasure that I never told anyone about, right up until he started getting...really weird.
Okay, guys, this should make you feel better:
The first fanfic of any sort I ever read (discounting the Star Was franchise) ... was DnR. Daisekei no Ranma -- Ranma goes to college. As the very first fic I ever read, I thought it was _brilliant_.
Then I read other stuff, a few years later, and tried to remember ... what ... was good about that fic?
It wasn't that it was really good, it was just that...there wasn't as much out there, so...wait. Why did I read it?
Quote from: Yuthirin on August 15, 2011, 03:22:09 PM
It wasn't that it was really good, it was just that...there wasn't as much out there, so...wait. Why did I read it?
If you're like me you stumbled upon an awesome lemon series for the first time, the computer crashed, and you ended up there while trying to find that site again.
It's like when the house is empty 'cept for a box of Corn Flakes. So you grab the box and start munching. A few hours pass and you realize you've eaten the entire damn box! You don't even really like Corn Flakes, you'd rather have a pizza or something. But it's all you had handyl.
On a related note, I want Red Baron pizza, but I don't have any, and I don't want to go to the store to buy it because I'm cheap.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 15, 2011, 03:33:33 PM
It's like when the house is empty 'cept for a box of Corn Flakes. So you grab the box and start munching. A few hours pass and you realize you've eaten the entire damn box! You don't even really like Corn Flakes, you'd rather have a pizza or something. But it's all you had handyl.
But how would you explain Jim Bader?
Quote from: thepanda on August 15, 2011, 03:36:39 PM
But how would you explain Jim Bader?
Large amounts of whiskey.
No, that's when you have a 24 case of Natty Ice at home and nothing else.
Good god, I wouldn't drink that stuff if I was dying of thirst.
That's Jim Bader for you, ladies and gentlemen.
I don't drink so am I to assume Natty Ice tastes like it sounds?
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Natty+Ice&defid=932049
Turns out it's slang, not a brand.
Oh. I learn something new every day.
Natty Ice, or Natural Ice, is a sub-sub-sub premium beer. You can pick up a case of it for under $3 in some places.
It's for college students. That really says it all.
No college student I know would drink that.
You don't know desperate college students.
That's true. Everyone I know is rich or has rich parents.
You're a fortunate man.
Indeed. I'm very grateful.
BUT GRATEFULNESS IS NOT FOR THIS THREAD!
So like 200 kb in?
On any fic?
:)
I met Wong once, he was pretty cool to hang with.
Been feeling like crap the past week or so, actually went to doctor today because of it. Apparently the medication I take for my thyroid hasn't been absorbing into my body well for some reason, still not sure why. Having to deal with being the 'mom' of the house and doing all the house chores and my own stuff hasn't helped in any way but giving me massive headaches so whenever I'm not doing one of the above, I'm pretty much bedridden or looming over the sink with nausea.
At least my mom's coming back this friday, so I'm getting that off my plate then...except school starts next monday. Uggggh...
Get better, Merc!
Quote from: Merc on August 15, 2011, 08:45:12 PM
Been feeling like crap the past week or so, actually went to doctor today because of it. Apparently the medication I take for my thyroid hasn't been absorbing into my body well for some reason, still not sure why. Having to deal with being the 'mom' of the house and doing all the house chores and my own stuff hasn't helped in any way but giving me massive headaches so whenever I'm not doing one of the above, I'm pretty much bedridden or looming over the sink with nausea.
At least my mom's coming back this friday, so I'm getting that off my plate then...except school starts next monday. Uggggh...
Good luck, Merc! Let us know how it goes.
No interview today....
Damn you, status quo ending. Damn you.
Still in job limbo. ASDF.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 16, 2011, 04:33:10 PM
Still in job limbo. ASDF.
Ditto on that until Monday.
Also:
Lexus, why the hell can't you be bothered to install working turn-signals as a standard feature on your cars? I get mad when I see bad drivers, particularly when it's for stupid reasons. And I don't know why, but I've almost _never_ seen the driver of a Lexus use their turn signals. Today, on a length of road about a half-mile long, some woman nearly pulled into me to try and pass the car in front of her.
Driving a lexus, and not signaling. When I say 'pulled into me', I mean 'the back of her car was even with me in the driver's seat when she started to pull into my lane'. Without signaling. Okay, this should put me in her blind spot.
THAT'S WHY YOU CHECK YOUR BLIND SPOTS, ESPECIALLY AFTER COMING OUT OF A TURN!
So, I slammed on the brakes (and horn) to avoid an accident, but she zips around and immediately does the same bullshit two more times.
Okay, so she risked my vehicle (and health) once, her own vehicle three times with her careless driving, (in the mere half-mile stretch, mind you), and what did she get for her efforts?
To be the first one at the red light all the cars she passed stopped at anyway.
So stupid. So, naturally, when I went to make my turn, I flipped her off. I don't resent that she passed me. I resent that she imposes so much risk on _other_ people for negligible gain.
When people do that to me, I let them hit me.
She would have been at fault, so I honestly should have.
As long as you're not on the highway, make her pay for a new car!
Not only does she break the rules...she is also bad at it? She fails to win at being a bitch?
Also, maybe it's just me, but really, has that ever been worthwhile? It's a dangerous bet that they have insurance, will pay, and that the payment that you get is actually able to get you a good/better car. Also, there's the whole getting hurt in the accident risk.
100 pages of bitching. I feel proud.
Dracos: I live dangerously.
Quote from: Dracos on August 19, 2011, 02:51:52 PMAlso, maybe it's just me, but really, has that ever been worthwhile?
Rage seldom knows reason.
I guess I should be glad my first instinct was preservation, and not retaliation.
Food is so damn expensive these days. It is actually cheaper for me to eat out, but I really don't need those kinds of health problems.
The trick is finding the healthiest fast food.
In my neighborhood, that's El Pollo Loco. Not great ... but not quite as bad for you.
Alternately, if you're lazy, find a sammich shop.
You show me a locality where you have no sammich shops, I'll show you a glass crater the next day, because there was no civilization there to destroy. O_O
Alternatively, find a subway or quizno's
I just said that. :p
Well I'm agreeing with you.
There is no Quizno's nearby and the closest subway once gave me food poisoning.
Quote from: thepanda on August 19, 2011, 06:55:33 PMThere is no Quizno's nearby and the closest subway once gave me food poisoning.
Glass crater it is.
In
completely unrelated news, a few meters of concrete should stop the blast, but to avoid the worst of the fallout, you'll want a solid three feet of earth (minimum) between you and the exterior envrionment.
Well that was a most disastrous attempt at an update. Gah, at least I didn't lose my bookmarks this time.
Fuck throbbing headaches.
I hit a point where I think I'm doing okay with my writing. Then I read other people's stories and realize how infantile it is.
I need to stop coming up with happy happy stories and serious up.
Pfah, fuck that. Happy stories are just as valid as serious ones or emofests. The sentiment that maturity brings seriousness is such a load of bullshit.
Have to agree with Ana here.
A story doesn't have to be serious to be good. Though, out of curiosity, which stories prompted this?
It was a ZnT/Madoka one. The writing on it blew everything I wrote before. Feels like I'm writing See Spot Run compared to it.
http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=199414 : Here's the link. It's dark, though.
It makes me want to write a counter fic where Louise fails her summoning, but winds up becoming a better person for it, but I don't think I can ever approach the level of writing in this story.
The essence of mastery isn't being able to do lots of stuff, it's knowing exactly what you are and are not capable of doing.
... or, uh, something like that.
Quote from: Olguin on August 23, 2011, 05:25:37 AM
It was a ZnT/Madoka one. The writing on it blew everything I wrote before. Feels like I'm writing See Spot Run compared to it.
http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=199414 : Here's the link. It's dark, though.
It's dramatic, but honestly ... doesn't feel like FoZ. Louise starts off sympathetic, for one. Making things grim and angsty makes them seem more dramatic, but thst's not always auotmagically better.
I thought it was okay, but a bit overdone. Will give it points over Louise summoning one of the regular cast, so it's at least more original....
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on August 23, 2011, 10:37:25 AM
The essence of mastery isn't being able to do lots of stuff, it's knowing exactly what you are and are not capable of doing.
... or, uh, something like that.
Amen. Knowing your limits is a big part of mastery, so that you can push your limits to improve and avoid problematic areas.
hum. We've contracted highly in games being run.
Dune, Eb, Cid, and Dune are the only live DMs at the moment. Sadness. Good opportunity though for someone to quickly get players as there's clearly 3-5 people sitting on the fringes to game.
I'm listed twice? Go me!
No one remembers me saying the things I said.
Sometimes, I wonder if I just think about saying things and never remember to do it.
God damnit.
Quote from: Brian on August 26, 2011, 08:22:48 PM
No one remembers me saying the things I said.
Sometimes, I wonder if I just think about saying things and never remember to do it.
God damnit.
Come again?
Kidding, kidding.
I have that problem every so often when I DM. Drives me apeshit crazy. I try not to take it personally, since people are people and make mistakes.
Oh, I shouldn't really complain. -_-
On the whole it was a good day ... but I do have to be in the office at 8:00 AM tomorrow.
And the AC will be off, because it's the weekend.
If things go well, I will only have to work three hours!
If they do not, I will be working until Sunday.
Oh no, complain away. Bitching is good for the soul.
That blows, Brian. Why the overtime?
There's a storage expo/trade show that my company is going for (avoiding specifics for casual googling >.>). In a distant city.
Long and short of it, a piece of equipment is being demoed, and all of our field agents and marketing engineers are onsite to escort this precious baby of a demo all the way to and through the show, because if it falls over we look ... pretty bad. This morning, for example, we were so short on everyone else that since I happened to be the first QA guy in, when something blew up in the marketing department, they ran over to beg me for help to fix it.
So, I spent half of the day as a sales engineer (actually talked to a customer; had been a while). Was actually kind of a fun change of pace.
Unfortunately, it's also a preview of what's going to be happening to me tomorrow. There shouldn't be any sales guys, but if the field reps and higher-up engineers need something done, or me to send a file over (a distinct possibility), then ... since everyone else is busy (the old man is flying out tomorrow morning at like ... 5:00 AM), I have to be the guy in the lab.
Basically, they shouldn't need me for anything.
...but they might. And there's a lot of money riding on this ... evidently my help this morning saved a six figure deal, which I'm glad no one mentioned to me until after I was done....
So, yeah, on the positive side, the marketing team loves me, and my lunch fortune cookie read, "You will gain the respect of someone influential," right after I finished the job, so that was a pretty sweet deal. Hoping this is enough momentum to catapult me to full-time.
That's a pain in the ass, but a worthwhile pain in the ass. G'luck with it!
Whee. Schedule friday hangout with a couple of friends to see some movies.
Get ditched by both shortly before hangout time.
Awesome Friday is Awesome.
Quote from: Dracos on August 26, 2011, 11:40:00 PM
Whee. Schedule friday hangout with a couple of friends to see some movies.
Get by both shortly before hangout time.
Awesome Friday is Awesome.
/me squints, then looks at the thread title.
Oh God, an hour hike turning into a 3 hour hike because of getting lost in the woods isn't really all that fun!
My feet hurt :(
Quote from: Music-chan on August 27, 2011, 05:57:09 PM
Oh God, an hour hike turning into a 3 hour hike because of getting lost in the woods isn't really all that fun!
My feet hurt :(
I can teach you how to land nav. Dead reckoning, terrain feature recognition, azimuths and back-azimuths. All that jazz. You'll never get lost, as long as you have a map and compass!
I'm awake, it's not light out yet, and I need a Red Bull.
Buzz Buzz. Focus of Gnat acquired.
If you're going to label your fics, do so correctly.
Seriously.
Because I really did not open up your adventure.humor fic expecting the first chapter to be about how Naruto was abducted and raped for a week when he was in the academy.
I will probably not be getting a full-time offer.
It's been more than two weeks since my interview. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StatusQuoIsGod)
Time to look for another job starting Monday. :(
Quote from: thepanda on August 30, 2011, 08:33:23 PM
If you're going to label your fics, do so correctly.
Seriously.
Because I really did not open up your adventure.humor fic expecting the first chapter to be about how Naruto was abducted and raped for a week when he was in the academy.
There's apparently a group of monkeys who have started abusing FF.net's tagging system to do crap like that.
I am getting sick.
My temp status got changed.
I'm going from direct contractor, to contractor through a third party agency.
I'm pretty sure that's their official answer to me getting a full-time offer.
Edit: Greater GTFO has failed. The spell levels and components are lost.
Time to research the lesser version.
That shits :(
Stuck in NYC with no hotel. My flight back is on Thursday. This is a holiday weekend, meaning everything's booked.
JP Morgan Chase is an evil company.
It's not been a good week.
Quote from: Jon on September 02, 2011, 07:33:47 PM
JP Morgan Chase is an evil company.
Yep. Absolutely.
George Lucas ruins Star Wars Again.
Just make it all fucking stop already!!!
http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/nooo-george-lucas-makes-more-changes-original-trilogy-191605319.html (http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/nooo-george-lucas-makes-more-changes-original-trilogy-191605319.html)
Can't help himself.
Isn't it more 'still' than 'again' at this point?
George Lucas just wants to make money.
My office is all of a sudden full of children. I do not like this, Sam I Am.
Goddamn kids. I got my lunch changed from 12 to 1, and now when I go to the bakery near work it's absolutely swarming with the little fucks. No more tasty rolls for me...
Had no power for most of the day, was bored out of my mind. >.>
Was promised offer letter yesterday/day before.
No offer letter.
Boss is OOO/WFH today, so no chance of him giving it to me. It's his transmission, so he'll be out of the office until Tuesday at a minimum, where he will be flying to Athens (Georgia) for a week.
I am seriously of the belief at this point he just won't tell me he doesn't want to hire me (and he is not going to hire me).
Job search begins tonight when I get home, when I would rather be napping, since I have to pick Jon up at the airport tonight.
Combination of depressed and angry.
That is some seriously shitty treatment. I say look for another job even if the letter does come through, because you can't trust them anymore.
Good luck with the job search; I'll let you know if I hear of anything.
Thanks ... I guess this is also a generic, "Looking for work! ...again." post, isn't it? >_<
Update:
Man, I never get to complain about anything valid.
As soon as I was convinced it would never happen, I got the offer letter.
Got stung by a wasp.
In the face.
On my right eyelid.
Goddamn I hate nature.
Ow, that's terrible. :(
...ouch, Panda. :(
How's your sight? Blocked for that eye for a while, or just hurting/swollen?
Quote from: Brian on September 08, 2011, 01:21:53 PM
Thanks ... I guess this is also a generic, "Looking for work! ...again." post, isn't it? >_<
Man, I never get to complain about anything valid.
As soon as I was convinced it would never happen, I got the offer letter.
Hooray!
Quote from: Merc on September 08, 2011, 06:06:17 PM
...ouch, Panda. :(
How's your sight? Blocked for that eye for a while, or just hurting/swollen?
Half my face hurt for a while, but there was no swelling. Thankfully, I don't have wasp allergy.
Wow panda, that really blows.
Besides not having a job, my life's been pretty decent right now. 'course, that's big flaw in the whole shebang. The first month has been fine - I have money enough and a long vacation was overdue. It's starting to be a lot less fun now, need to find something. Stupid dead job market.
Woke up this morning feeling great!
... Then realized my right eye was almost swollen shut. I look like someone popped me one. 0_-
:x
Hope that clears up for you, Panda. :
Me: "Ah, first day of a fine new weekend, where I can--"
Galbladder: "DO NOTHING!"
Ugh.
Nightmares suck. In particular:
> Nightmares of psycho super techno bitch Alyson Hannigan suck.
<Iddy> I have no idea who that is.
> Willow from Buffy.
> Dreamed that she took over the TV and was torturing the entire family.
What the hell?
I wish I could remember my dreams more than 1-2 times a year.
Alyson Hannigan? Was she at least half-naked? Then everything would be okay.
No she wasn't.
That IS unfortunate.
So, I'm still a noob at this whole home ownership.
Apparently watering your plants late at night causes them to rot. Did not know that. Probably why they've been having such problems with disease.
Switched it to six am. Hopefully they'll recover.
There be work to do.
Capital One called me and said "Hey, your card was in some database leak somewhere, and we're not going to tell you where. Instead, we're just going to cancel it and send you a new one in a few days. Then you can get busy changing all your auto-billing to use the new card, assuming the companies make that possible. What's that? You wanted to spend money on the card tonight? Sucks to be you."
This COUGH will NOT go AWAY. It's pissing me off. Made me throw up today.
Think it might be the super allergies that are going around, not a real cough? Try some benadryl tonight.
I take like 3-4 benadryl a day. 1600 mg of ibuprofen, and two tablets of Allegra. It's not allergies.
It's from the cold I just had. Got over it last week. The cough lingers, though.
Also, I ripped the fingernail off of my middle finger today. The whole nail. GO ME!
Ugh. I think it's a cold, not allergies for me.
Bleah.
3 pm, First line of code written. Whee.
There is a song. I know it exists. I used to own it, but the backup disc got wrecked a while ago. Now I cannot find any trace of it. I think I may have gotten it from someone on mIRC back in the day. And it is driving me mad that I cannot find it.
Oshiete Happiness, the Nukunuku OAV ending theme. There was an english language version. I swear there was. And it is DRIVING UP A WALL THAT I CANNOT FIND IT!
Quote from: thepanda on September 18, 2011, 06:10:34 PM
There is a song. I know it exists. I used to own it, but the backup disc got wrecked a while ago. Now I cannot find any trace of it. I think I may have gotten it from someone on mIRC back in the day. And it is driving me mad that I cannot find it.
Oshiete Happiness, the Nukunuku OAV ending theme. There was an english language version. I swear there was. And it is DRIVING UP A WALL THAT I CANNOT FIND IT!
According to this site: http://www.generasia.com/wiki/Haruneko_Fushigi_Tsukiyo_-Oshiete_Happiness- It was called In The Fluffy MOON Nite.
Link to song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bv8hUBYY2A
Is this the right song?
YES! THAT'S THE ONE!!
Thank you!
I got this drunk again.
It's three am here and instead of sleeping I'm typing up my super-waffy Mikuru-perspective fic. And watching Brian get more and more drunk, I guess.
I woke up out of nowhere at one am because I finally figured out how Mikuru could have met (essentially) Year One Haruhi under different circumstances and ended up admiring her, so now I'm trying to wrap my inspiration up and get back under the covers.
If you think this isn't bitching, just wait till the morning when I have to actually wake up and do, you know, stuff.
Hangover.
Who saw that coming? >_<
/me raises a hand.
Actually, to be completely honest, I got worst-of-both-worlds, right now.
Only 3 hours sleep, so woke up with nasty stomach and also still slightly drunk.
Win-win.
Time to go to work.
Great, so your hangover cancelled out the usual sleep-deprivation euphoria.
I feel for you.
I pretty much bombed my first exam of the semester. I left HALF of it blank because I had no idea either what the professor wanted with one problem or how to derive the equations he was asking for the other problem.
The sad thing is that I've been getting perfect scores on homework, and I feel like I understand the material. It's just that for whatever reason, I could not connect the dots and figure out what I needed to do for those two problems. :(
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on September 19, 2011, 11:54:38 AMGreat, so your hangover cancelled out the usual sleep-deprivation euphoria.
I feel for you.
I brought it on myself....
Quote from: Merc on September 19, 2011, 06:38:16 PM
I pretty much bombed my first exam of the semester. I left HALF of it blank because I had no idea either what the professor wanted with one problem or how to derive the equations he was asking for the other problem.
The sad thing is that I've been getting perfect scores on homework, and I feel like I understand the material. It's just that for whatever reason, I could not connect the dots and figure out what I needed to do for those two problems. :(
Ugh. >_< Good luck, Merc? It's only the first test!
Ugh, I've been there. Did anyone else look like they struggled with the test?
I didn't even look at other people, honestly. My eyes were pretty much glaring holes at the test paper up until I left, and I pretty much flew out of the room once my test was in the TA's hands.
Condolences. Maybe everyone bombed it and he'll curve it?
I didn't get the impression that he curves.
But he does have an end-of-semester project that he uses as a wildcard of sorts, as rather than being worth a set percentage of total grade, if he thinks you did really good, he'll raise your letter grade by one (and conversely, lower it by one if it sucks).
SO there's some hope from that, as projects usually do give time to think things calmly and make all the connections I need to make unlike 1 hour tests.
Exhaustion just caught up with me.
Guess you need more than 3-4 hours of sleep a day, after all?
My bitch of the day?
People who do not bathe even though they have access to showers. My office fucking *reeks.* I gagged. Literally dry heaved.
I fell asleep on Monday Night Football. Yeah, it was a shitty game, but c'mon.
Evidently, "All Japanese curry has beef in it."
Bleah.
Wasted lunch hour. Sammich quest as usual, then....
Also:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8783011/Speed-of-light-broken-by-scientists.html
Maaaaaaaan. Just when you think you have the theory down....
Dark matter engines are go!
That'd be neater without "Relevent Articles: Same thing, 4 years ago".
We believe you this time, telegraph.
Reading those related articles, one deals with moving light instantaneously (three feet), and the current one was about neutrinos moving faster than light (but not instantaneously).
Related: http://i.imgur.com/kLC0u.gif
I know ;)
But awesome picture and totally worth the snarky comment =)
Panda has more than 1 post for every 10 I have.
This is horrible and I should break his legs. Or congratulate him.
Maybe both.
</AttentionSpanofaGnatToday>
Amazing, isn't it?
Well, back down to zero group games. Should probably run something, dunno what though.
I'm going to try'n'club one or two of you into running games. Get some evening variety here.
Sure, but only if you play.
Let it go, Rat. You're rapidly eroding what little patience I have for that.
Even among experienced gamers, we still have drama.... :(
Such is the curse of gaming.
Need to confront someone about their gaming habits and point out that they're generally very inconsiderate of other players.
This isn't going to be fun. -_-
I arrive at a point of introspection, seeking a point of absolution.
Damnation.
(Aside: I am an asshole, and this no longer helps me in any perceptible way. Changing this will be a difficult evolution.)
Also, I have seen this same episode of How It's Made the last time I undertook this quest. IRKSOME.
/me sighs.
Had to have some 15 year old kid arrested last night at the youth center because he was selling drugs. Seriously. :(
What kinda drugs?
Norco.
My stomach hurts.
Man, for some reason that brings back memories of being sick in elementary school. Wow, days long gone.
It disappoints me when folks intending to write perforce scripts have yet to master 'find file already in depot (whether synced or not)'.
Sadly there is no shame.
You're using perforce; there's already plenty of shame to go around.
(Yes, I'm a git fanboy; what of it?)
Last I glanced, git simply did not survive terrabyte depots. We're a game company, right tools for the right job.
Accursed contractor tax rates.... I forgot about the no-taxes thing, overcompensated, and miscalculated my income.
...so my raise from conversion wasn't 58%, it was actually 104%.
It looks like I'm going to be doing some work in a rehab clinic this weekend.
Glad to help.
Hate the necessity.
(And, man, do I hope it sticks this time, though I'm really not holding my breath.)
Edit: Uuuuuuurg.
So, our company has a customer in the Congo. They keep two sets of our equipment (one mirrors the other). The reason for this is that one of their hardware stacks is at the bottom of a mine. There's a running gag that if someone screws up in our department, they'll be sent there.
It's looking like someone's going to be sent there because the customer actually will need an experienced hardware technician to help install stuff ... and I'm the guy in the office least chained to current tasks.
Maaaaaaaan. I really hope I can get out of this one.
Don't get eaten by a gorilla!
Quote from: Jon on September 29, 2011, 01:58:57 PM
Don't get eaten by a gorilla!
I hear they have special gorilla-detecting technology these days...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QrelL9fOjY
Wake up at 4:50 AM (two hours early). Read e-mails while getting some water (I have a lot of technology, okay?).
Become unable to go back to sleep thinking about e-mails.
Forget to take calcium/magnesium supplement on way out the door.
Get to 7-11 to grab coffee and something for breakfast -- thwarted by NO PARKING. (No, seriously, some jerk parked his pickup across two spaces and was just chilling there with his buddy.)
Ugh. Hungry, tired, and generally distracted, hit the highway.
Horrirffic accident in front of me, I don't know what it was, but it's the first time I've ever seen street-sweepers brought in (with police escort) to clean up the huge masses of tiny broken glass/plastic/metal bits, and even after they're done, the ground looks like it's still covered in debris. D:
Delayed by that, not enough time to grab breakfast before getting into the office.
Work is fine until I unrack a co-worker's server to replace it (an SP-3000; 2 U -- not that heavy). I'm at the front of the rack, removing the screws and securing the HDDs, she's in the back, removing connections. She gives me the all-clear, so I take the system by the front-hooks and haul it out of the rack (it's stuck, so takes a bit of force). As soon as it's out and I'm holding it by the hooks, the power-supply that she forgot to lock in falls out and hits the lab floor.
Daily meeting, little to offer about my progress, since I finished my project Monday and all I really did today was inventory the lab and drop a power supply.
Cut out after the meeting to hit the cafe early, since I missed breakfast and am starving and irritable, and I have an interview to check out a new place this afternoon (in about an hour). This place almost never has people in it before noon, but today, the universe seems to think I must be punished for something, because the line wraps around the counter twice. Being that I'm in a rush, I didn't even wait for the door to finish opening before I turned around and walked away.
Bah.
After my appointment, I drove a slow (some would say, scenic!) route back to try and find something that I could actually eat (given, you know, my gallbladder issues).
Nothing.
I finally settle for going to the same place I usually grab lunch, two hours later.
Ye olde sammich shop ... is OUT OF BREAD.
Ugh.
Yay soup.
Aaand ... now the same guy who led the tide of trolls to flame me off ff.net is trying to start something on tvtropes.org .
Awesome.
Man, you're running bad. I have hives and I'm the fortunate one.
Quote from: Brian on October 04, 2011, 11:06:37 PM
Aaand ... now the same guy who led the tide of trolls to flame me off ff.net is trying to start something on tvtropes.org .
Out of curiosity, who is this guy? I'm part of neither community, so am unaware.
I have avoided mentioning his name publicly to keep the drama minimal.
This whole thing is stupid enough as it is.
Those custom dice I ordered got sent to the wrong address.
They were dropped off without a signature.
A week ago.
(Not a complaint:)
Panda started a thread that spawned some fun discussions RE: Akane bashing, and the discussion has moved to Harbinger:
http://www.soulriders.net/forum/index.php/topic,101882.msg1025911.html#msg1025911
So, I've spent the day solving problems and making people look stupid.
First, the finance people fucked up an invoice shorting a guy. They argued with me about when he was hired. I proved he was hired *over a year* prior to the date they had.
Then, I had to hunt down an employee number they had *double issued* and, again, fucked someone's pay.
Then, I had to argue about an invoice they had failed to issue. They were over a week past due issuing it. I proved it with emails. And they still argued.
I won every argument, but fuck, it's exhausting.
Go Iddy! Much respect for the guy who saves your check.
Props, Victorous Dragoon.
*sighs*
Alright, so. Moved to a site and it was in flux on if I stayed or not. It's semi-official I'm staying here. So.
I started looking into things. I am.. un-happy.
Database: Totally not maintained. Have to go line by line for every linguist we have. Over 360 people.
Military POCs: Totally not maintained. Getting POCs who say that the linguists we have on record as being assigned to them... Have never even been heard of.
Finance: Fucking every possible thing up. Slow. Inaccurate. Argumentative. Stupid. And inexperienced, yet convinced they know exactly what is going on.
Got my work cut out for me.
Again. Man, I'm tired of fixing other people's shit.
You really need to get a better job, preferably one that doesn't have people shoot at you.
Quote from: Anastasia on October 08, 2011, 01:05:30 AMYou really need to get a better job, preferably one that doesn't have people shoot at you.
It wouldn't be so bad if I could shoot back.
If only you could.
This Thanksgiving weekend, I suddenly discover that I have become mildly allergic to turkey.
:-(
I keep finding fics that start out well enough but I just can't be bothered to finish.
Aweh? How did that happen? No tolerance for tryptophan?
Ugh. She lied her way out of rehab. Supposedly on accident.
They put her back on Ativan, which means we get (effectively) another week of detox with no hope of improvement.
Yay memory issues and screaming. ;_;
/me facepalms.
Quote from: Brian on October 09, 2011, 12:06:45 AM
Aweh? How did that happen? No tolerance for tryptophan?
Dunno. Walked into a house. The ostensibly delicious smell of freshly cooked turkey is everywhere.
Suddenly I'm looking for a room without OH GOD THE TURKEY IT'S EVERYWHERE MAKE IT STOP. It's just on the level of "moderately irritated by its existence". I'm able to eat it without particular ill effects, averting the crisis of sitting out a Thanksgiving dinner. Or, I dunno, it might be screwing with my immune system to cause me to catch a cold during the subsequent week...
Similar "allergies" do I possess to chocolate (makes me sneeze 100% without fail, it's actually somewhat comical to watch) and quinoa (just don't ask, but thankfully it doesn't smell as much).
Alright. So. Today, I moved from dealing with finance to dealing with the database.
It hasn't been updated or maintained in over four months. I've used timesheets as accountability formats to bounce the information off of.
I started at 8 am. It is now 3 pm. All I have accomplished is grouping the timesheets/Points Of Contacts together properly. Alphabetizing them, and verifying and correcting the information for only *two* POCs.
Fuck.
My.
Life.
Poe's Law isn't a laughing matter when it comes around and bites you in the ankle like a rabid hobbit....
A while ago I got rather upset by a fic that (apparently unintentionally) turned the characters into abhorrent caricatures of themselves. I handled the issue by writing a parody where the squick was turned up to eleven in an anvilicious manner, producing the most offensive effect I could think of.
Now ... I have squeeing fans who want to see more of the same.
Face, meet palm. Palm, face.
The Aesop: the next time when you feel like parodying bad fic ... just don't.
Quote from: sarsaparilla on October 09, 2011, 09:12:41 AM
Poe's Law isn't a laughing matter when it comes around and bites you in the ankle like a rabid hobbit....
The fanfics list of the "CONTINUE PLEEEEASE" guy/girl/person on your reviews page shows... a fairly amusing pattern. (Generally: genderbending and boys whose behaviour makes you want to throw up.) Judging by a sampling of their favourite stories, you now have the dubious honour of a parody that is more competently written than most of the source material.
Unfortunately, more common than you may believe (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MisaimedFandom). :/
My flight is delayed due to weather. So far, only 30 minutes, but still annoying.
Incidentally, do you need a ride from the airport again?
The fight actually was only delayed by six minutes! I made my shuttle! Everything is pretty okay!
Man, my side is killing me. Wonder what the heck I did to it. Pain medicine go @_@
3 bean chili is trying to kill me. Ooow.
Man. Are we just getting older in general? Should we start looking into an SR hospital/retirement community?
"In my day, we did CHARGEN with 3d6, assigned as rolled -- and we liked it!"
Man, why did I put my points all in int? Con is where it's at. Con~!
Subjective/Opinion tests are bullshit. You lose points on just about anything and can't really argue the points. Well, at least when the teacher is bullheaded stubborn. Which he is in this case. And after the exam he says 'I don't curve, as a warning but if you did badly, if I think you understand the material you can still get an A. If I don't you'll likely get a B'. So even the final grade is going to be subjective/opiniom bullcrap. =/
That's why they say 'learn your teacher'.
Quote from: sarsaparilla on October 09, 2011, 09:12:41 AMNow ... I have squeeing fans who want to see more of the same.
Face, meet palm. Palm, face.
The Aesop: the next time when you feel like parodying bad fic ... just don't.
That guy was inspired to write something of his own. (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7452412/1/The_Melancholy_of_Kyonko)
Uh, only click that link if you're feeling Bile Fascination. While I'd say it wasn't quite as bad as the origin point for this, it's.... Yeah, I feel dirty for reading that. Not sure what's worse; the content ... or the grammar/spelling/premise.
Hoog. I don't think you should feel too bad about someone taking it the wrong way, anyway -- it's their prerogative to be unable to figure it out, or so ... (can't think of a neutral word, and don't really want to for this situation:) messed up that they don't understand what's wrong in the first place. Realistically, it could be argued to go the other way with regards to the idea being parodied.
But then, like I said -- that happens rather frequently. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ValuesDissonance)
Haven't you had a set of those, Brian?
Several, yes.
Though I suppose it has been a few years.
Quote from: Brian on October 10, 2011, 06:03:25 PMUh, only click that link if you're feeling Bile Fascination. While I'd say it wasn't quite as bad as the origin point for this, it's.... Yeah, I feel dirty for reading that. Not sure what's worse; the content ... or the grammar/spelling/premise.
Oh well, 'dirty' is indeed the executive word here ... the fact that I could read the fic in a detached and calm manner means either that I have successfully externalized and sealed away that particular squick, or that the fic doesn't rise to the minimal level of competence required for taking it seriously. Or both. Whatever, I intend to industriously avoid finding out. =_=
It's a learning experience all right.
Went from work, to taking my dad to his double knee surgery at 5 in the morning, to being stuck at the hospital until 1230pm where I couldn't sleep. I'm so freaking tired right now, but now that I'm home I'm wide awake.
And I have to go back to work tonight.
You sound super-screwed. Condolences. Can you call out from work?
No. -_-
*pats Panda* good luck, hope you can at least leave early or something. And that your dad's surgery went well, of course.
Her: My doctor wants me to start taking pills for anxiety, and I don't think I'm that stressed out! I hate filling my body with chemicals! I just have pain everywhere!
Me: So, even though your fiancee is a drunk, has kicked two of your sons out of the house, and is mean to your third, and before him your life was even shittier, plus you have three mortgages, you don't think you're stressed??
Her: IT MUST BE FIBROMIALGIA!
Me: I have now stopped caring. -_-
I work with this person.
Can't help those who don't want to be helped.
Hum. I dated a girl that developed fibro. Not until after we broke up, nearly a decade a go, but.
She's unable to really function these days, spending 3-4 days a week bedridden. I think she's also developed agoraphobia as a result. Certainly, it's all but impossible to get her out of the house, especially if she's got enough time to stress about it in advance.
The worst part about fibro is that even people who argue for it agree that it's just as easy to have the condition exist wholly in someone's head. Is it real? Sure. Does any specific person have it? Maybe.
I suspect that it's real for my friend, but I also suspect that it's not being handled the best way it really could be.... :(
Yuth, you seem to be describing the beginnings of a co-dependency spiral, and at the risk of being a total jerk, girls have tried to capture you in those before. Backing away is the right move -- this girl is going to look for emotional support and people who agree that she deserves sympathy, but shouldn't have any responsibility for improving her own life. At least, based on my knowledge....
To quote something a supervisor told me many, many, many years ago....
"Girls = drama."
The flipside of that, of course, was, "Try to date women, instead." >_>;; That's not really applicable here, but it seems really demeaning if I leave just the half of it. (Naturally, 'boys' are no better, but there's a good point about drama and maturity across the board, here.)
Edit: Beate'd to it by Dune.
Hum, i may have forgotten to pay bills earlier this month. Bleh.
I've become a Memetic Complete Monster, I believe.
This review:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/reviews.php?target_group=FanficRecs&target_title=The+Unraveling+of+Suzumiya+Haruhi#4676
Resulted in this:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5586839/1/The_Unraveling_of_Suzumiya_Haruhi
If it's possible for a mortal to ascend to divinity, I expect I must be transforming into some horrifying tyrannical figure that haunts the fanfiction world....
Quote from: Brian on October 12, 2011, 03:13:48 PM
Hum. I dated a girl that developed fibro. Not until after we broke up, nearly a decade a go, but.
She's unable to really function these days, spending 3-4 days a week bedridden. I think she's also developed agoraphobia as a result. Certainly, it's all but impossible to get her out of the house, especially if she's got enough time to stress about it in advance.
The worst part about fibro is that even people who argue for it agree that it's just as easy to have the condition exist wholly in someone's head. Is it real? Sure. Does any specific person have it? Maybe.
I suspect that it's real for my friend, but I also suspect that it's not being handled the best way it really could be.... :(
Yuth, you seem to be describing the beginnings of a co-dependency spiral, and at the risk of being a total jerk, girls have tried to capture you in those before. Backing away is the right move -- this girl is going to look for emotional support and people who agree that she deserves sympathy, but shouldn't have any responsibility for improving her own life. At least, based on my knowledge....
To quote something a supervisor told me many, many, many years ago....
"Girls = drama."
The flipside of that, of course, was, "Try to date women, instead." >_>;; That's not really applicable here, but it seems really demeaning if I leave just the half of it. (Naturally, 'boys' are no better, but there's a good point about drama and maturity across the board, here.)
Edit: Beate'd to it by Dune.
I spent the entire day telling her that she needs to consult a physician, then heed their advice. Then I berated her for attempting to self-diagnose without a medical degree. I told her that if she did not follow a certified medical doctor's medical advice, I would not help her.
tl;dr, she takes the anti-anxiety pills in my sight, or I ignore her.
Furthermore, I have a friend in Phoenix who has fibro, she has pretty much all her life. Her life is difficult at best. I know how it goes. It also manifests in only about 2% of the population, and when it does, the treatment for fibro is either antidepressants, exercise, painkillers, or some combination thereof. And Fibromyalgia is kind of a garbage diagnosis anyway. There's no real proof of any actual abnormalities as of yet, only consistent pain receptors. :/
Quote from: Yuthirin on October 12, 2011, 09:16:36 PMI spent the entire day telling her that she needs to consult a physician, then heed their advice. Then I berated her for attempting to self-diagnose without a medical degree. I told her that if she did not follow a certified medical doctor's medical advice, I would not help her.
...maybe I'm hypersensitive to this, but I'm seeing signs she's still trying to build a co-dependent relationship, here -- or is otherwise trying to drag you into that.
Effectively ... she's in a place where she's comfortable, because she can pretend events are outside of her control. She will engineer events 'going outside of her control' in an attempt to make you (or anyone else nearby) take the responsibility she's trying to avoid.
Quote from: Yuthirin on October 12, 2011, 09:16:36 PMtl;dr, she takes the anti-anxiety pills in my sight, or I ignore her.
I must encourage more of this sentiment. What you really need do to is tell her that you aren't interested in helping her until she's got an interest in helping herself -- and at that point, she's still got something to put into it. Otherwise, the only person she can blame for her situation is her (a fact she will not appreciate).
Still sounds co-dependent. Helpful, but yes.
hum, I need to go see the eye doctor. And get my oil changed. Bah chores.
Anyhow, today was 'bills aren't paid, and are days overdue' panic. This is resolved thankfully, but argh.
I do not get to run a game after all.
Seriously.
I find a successful formula, and everyone just dismisses it because 'It's just a dungeon crawl'. Bah. BAH.
"I only want to roleplay."
I don't respond with, "REALLY!?!? Because I've played with you for over a decade and never seen it!"
Cuuuuuuuurses.
The joys of DMing strike again!
Sorry man.
Comcast will not sell me internet service. Someone else rented my apartment and didn't bother to cancel his account, so they won't let me get service there.
Edit: internet signup failed. Three phone calls, demands to speak with supervisors, and they finally tell me I have to go into the office.
I kind of feel sorry for the rep I'll be talking to, as I'm starting my introduction off with, "Unfortunately, this is my fifth attempt to get your company to take money from me. I've had a nightmarish experience with your customer service department so far, so proceed with confidence that you will have to put effort into it to disappoint me further."
They have an office?
I have trouble believing that. Wouldn't it involve human beings?
I'm there right now.
Time spent talking to rep: 5 minutes.
Time spent watching rep click things on his PC: 25 minutes.
I don't think he even noticed me whipping out the iPad and mobile hotspot.
QuoteUnfortunately, this is my fifth attempt to get your company to take money from me.
This is really, really, REALLY sad.
It took me 3 attempts and a bit over an hour. And I owned the property.
Comcast's service model is failure.
Evidently they'll have an installer out on Sunday, which ... works for me, actually.
Comcast has always sucked for Customer Service.
So I was going through a set of story files, trying to make the syntax of commands consistent so my hacked perl script would process them into HTML properly. The big problems were a lack of closing braces on the ends of simple macros or just overall weird spacing with ellipses.
So I had the clever idea to open all 48 files in vim and manipulate every buffer all at once with a regular expression.
I also realized it was annoying that the command to manipulate every buffer would stop whenever a file was changed, so I set an option to automatically save every time it moved to the next file.
One of the problems I had was use of an ellipsis command near a regular period. So in the regular expression, I put in to find \\ldots{}. and so on.
Except . in regex is a wildcard that means any character.
And I was auto-saving every file as soon as the regex completed.
And for whatever reason, I wasn't clever enough to mass-undo that before closing vim out of horror and, hence, losing the undo history.
So now a lot of ellipses have munched the character next to them or put dots in weird places that they shouldn't be. And that's not awesome.
Quote from: Muphrid on October 15, 2011, 05:58:41 AM
So I was going through a set of story files, trying to make the syntax of commands consistent so my hacked perl script would process them into HTML properly. The big problems were a lack of closing braces on the ends of simple macros or just overall weird spacing with ellipses.
So I had the clever idea to open all 48 files in vim and manipulate every buffer all at once with a regular expression.
I also realized it was annoying that the command to manipulate every buffer would stop whenever a file was changed, so I set an option to automatically save every time it moved to the next file.
One of the problems I had was use of an ellipsis command near a regular period. So in the regular expression, I put in to find \\ldots{}. and so on.
Except . in regex is a wildcard that means any character.
And I was auto-saving every file as soon as the regex completed.
And for whatever reason, I wasn't clever enough to mass-undo that before closing vim out of horror and, hence, losing the undo history.
So now a lot of ellipses have munched the character next to them or put dots in weird places that they shouldn't be. And that's not awesome.
I have no idea what any of that means. =D
Bad, bad things happen when you set things to autosave and you make a mistake. That's more or less the gist of it.
This is why I have so much version control over everything I write. Eve dropbox is better than nothing, though that's more intended as portability than version control....
I highly recommend setting up 'git' for version control. It doesn't require a server, so you can save versions ('commit') without a network connection, but you can then later push the entire history up to a server for safe-keeping. (Or to another machine on your network, etc etc)
http://boingboing.net/2009/02/13/flashbake-free-versi.html is a neat wrapper around git that at least one novelist uses to automatically commit changes every 15 minutes.
You can find me on irc and I'd be happy to talk your ear off and help you set up git for your particular situation.
That's a smart way of doing things. I'm slightly more familiar with darcs (but still pretty new to either of them), so I put that on my machine and set up repositories for all the stories I'm actively working on. Thanks for the tip, Jon!
I realize my last comment here may have sounded somewhat condescending.... FWIW, I only learned that lesson after managing to format the HDD with my fics on it, some years ago. >_>;;
Today: James's Personal Hate Machine e-mailed me to say, "Dude, you're being unreasonable. D:"
Wow.
I'm still awake. Fuck.
I hate the cold. Why couldn't it stay warm at night?
So wet.
So cold.
;_;
Therepist is ticking us off. Keeps changing the day of the appts so it's never stable, today is the second time she's just neglected to show up for the appointment...gah.
We have to take what the insurance covers since the child does need the therapy, but this is getting to a point where we really wish we had the money to take him somewhere else.
Next time she doesn't show up, bill her for time and travel.
Your time is just as valuable as hers. If you didn't show up for your appointment, would she still charge you?
Her: Come to my wedding! We've been friends forever!
Me: Are you still with that guy that constantly told you that you were fat two years ago, even though you're the single hottest woman I've ever known?
Her: Well yeah! He's great now!
Me: No.
Quote from: Yuthirin on October 20, 2011, 10:51:06 PM
Her: Come to my wedding! We've been friends forever!
Me: Are you still with that guy that constantly told you that you were fat two years ago, even though you're the single hottest woman I've ever known?
Her: Well yeah! He's great now!
Me: No.
Ah, the joy of friends in those sort of relationships. He sounds a bit abusive.
More than a bit. He REALLY LIKES doing it, too.
Sounds like a gem. Does he verbally abuse her in more than one way?
Quote from: Yuthirin on October 20, 2011, 10:48:03 PM
Next time she doesn't show up, bill her for time and travel.
Your time is just as valuable as hers. If you didn't show up for your appointment, would she still charge you?
Man, if we even tried that we'd stop being able to take the kid to her at all. We're paying for this ENTIRELY through insurance, there's not even a co-pay. So...yeah, we're in the Beggers/Choosers situation here. Doesn't make it right that we're getting jerked around like this, but it sure as hell does mean we don't have a choice but to put up with it or not get him therapy.
Reminds me of a conversation I had with my brother about his roommate's boyfriend several years ago....
Brother: "Yeah, the guy she's dating now is a total loser."
Me: "Oh? How can you tell?"
Brother: *eyeing me side-long, tapping his nose* "We can smell our own."
Quote from: Gatewalker on October 20, 2011, 11:17:08 PMMan, if we even tried that we'd stop being able to take the kid to her at all. We're paying for this ENTIRELY through insurance, there's not even a co-pay. So...yeah, we're in the Beggers/Choosers situation here. Doesn't make it right that we're getting jerked around like this, but it sure as hell does mean we don't have a choice but to put up with it or not get him therapy.
Uh ... contact the insurance company, explain you need a different therapist -- any therapist? I know you're doing the best you can, but the insurance company does have a legal obligation to try and help you out (within certain bounds), even if your assigned therapist is useless.
Also, look online for reviews on this person (if possible). If there's more than just you having bad experiences, the less direct route is to get that person out of that job -- or under enough scrutiny that they do their job right. Not _fun_, but.... :\
Quote from: Anastasia on October 20, 2011, 11:09:45 PM
Sounds like a gem. Does he verbally abuse her in more than one way?
Just your basic fat, stupid, ugly, etc. stuff. The guy's a real asshole, and she's seriously the hottest & sweetest girl any of us know.
Quote from: Yuthirin on October 20, 2011, 11:32:29 PMJust your basic fat, stupid, ugly, etc. stuff. The guy's a real asshole, and she's seriously the hottest & sweetest girl any of us know.
Play her this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fz3zFqLc3E&ob=av3n
Nice song, but...Wouldn't that song encourage her to marry the guy?
Catchy!
Quote from: Merc on October 20, 2011, 11:46:22 PMNice song, but...Wouldn't that song encourage her to marry the guy?
...maybe. But I suspect that not much will
discourage her, either.
Quote from: Yuthirin on October 20, 2011, 11:32:29 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on October 20, 2011, 11:09:45 PM
Sounds like a gem. Does he verbally abuse her in more than one way?
Just your basic fat, stupid, ugly, etc. stuff. The guy's a real asshole, and she's seriously the hottest & sweetest girl any of us know.
You could try an intervention, but those usually don't work. Can't make someone stop loving someone, no matter how horrible they are.
Ultimately, while I think she's making a huge mistake, it's her life. Not mine.
If someone is at the 'Planning a wedding' phase, it's long past appropriate intervene time. Yuth got the right idea above. Her life, not his.
Tomorrow I go apartment hunting. True, I wanted to get up into SF again anyway, but it's still an annoying prospect.
I have never hated a class of mine as much as I hate this classical-statistical thermodynamics class.
Looking into selling my car, and the blue book value is $800 less than what I owe on it. Shit.
(I paid sales tax when I bought the car, of course. And I paid $1500 so it'd keep the manufacturer warranty. Which is transferable, but I dunno how valuable that is to another private-party buyer.)
ITCHY!
Every time I become truly confident about something, I'm doing something terribly, terribly wrong.
And on that note, time to format my harddrive and reinstall again.
Edit: Haha, already going wrong.... Time for Dr. Baccardi.
Wait, what? What'd you do!?
I attempted to work it while sober!
I'm really honestly not clear what happened. I must have accidentally grounded the board while disconnecting SATA cables -- when I reattached my large drive to install Windows 7, for some reason, the system suddenly wouldn't boot properly.
Reboot, get a message about the CMOS being corrupted, set to defaults--
Works fine from then on.
Other than that, there was a single issue where Windows 7 flipped out when I connected my old disks (with active install), but a single safe-mode boot/reboot fixed that. :)
Groovy.
I kind of miss rambling about a game. :( Nyuu, poor MGvN/Looming.
Some lazy jackass hasn't updated the front page for years.
Man -- I was going to ask you about that, actually. And if we really wanted to keep that format, since it seems as a whole, we're too lazy to constantly generate content for it.
We should take this discussion offline. Hum. Interested in coming over this evening to discuss it, Drac?
Edit: Ugh. Company events. "Wine and cheese celebration!" Not quite mandatory attendance, but not showing up raises eyebrows. Okay, I put in an appearance, get annoyed by all of the co-workers who crowd around the tables to get their cheese and bread, and then ... stand right there, blocking everyone else. My impatience for disorder left me grumpy and drinking on an empty stomach (a winning combination). I ducked out the second the CEO/CFO/etc. were distracted. -_-
Some intern over in the netherlands cost 3.5 programmer days today. Mine was one of them. Nothing like a good poorly tested "Hay Guys, looks like I broke all the rendering in primary editing tool". I give the guy points for staying up till godawful am and owning up to it, but I would've liked more if my hand wasn't needed on the cleanup.
So this is a bitch about anything at all thread? I could do that. Not sure it would make it better. The things I bitch about would still be there to annoy me tomorrow. Don't you really just hate that? You can bitch and bitch and bitch and bitch, and nothing ever changes. It really grinds my gears. I need to bitch about that more.
:)
Ah, evening fun.
Go to party.
eat semi-decent potluck.
"Hey do I need a visitor tag or anything to park here?"
"Nope, you're fine."
"Are you sure?"
"Yup."
4 hours later.
"Huh. My car is missing."
1.5 hours and 325 dollars later.
"God damn cheri."
Brian will be able to extra appreciate this, as now I know the cost of treating Cheri like a person.
Am I missing something? You ask if you need a tag to park someplace, so I presume you don't have one? Then a person confirms you need said tag and later you're surprised the car has been towed? Unless "Yeah, sure," was interpreted as "No, it's cool," it doesn't really make sense.
Quote from: Dracos on October 30, 2011, 02:44:39 AMBrian will be able to extra appreciate this, as now I know the cost of treating Cheri like a person.
Er, yes -- that's an extension of her agoraphobia; she's got no real ability to deal with the outside world without someone to help her out. She gets panic attacks. -_-
When pressured, she guesses; basically, there's a hard line at the door, and her knowledge beyond it.... Yeah. :\
Sorry to hear that, Drac. >_<
Right. I'm lost. Who is Cheri?
Umph. An ex-girlfriend of mine from a decade ago.
I don't like disliking people (surprised?) so I made up with her and we're still friends. Drac and I gamed with her when I was roommates with her and her husband several years ago, which is how the connection was made.
Ah. Exes. Nothing like 'em. =)
I... seem to have slipped into the role of forum yandere.
This is something I need to seriously ponder.
Or it could just be me.
Thankfully, there are cooler, more rational minds to have discussion with than I.
Quote from: Sinom Bre on October 30, 2011, 11:53:05 AMAh. Exes. Nothing like 'em. =)
And how thankful am I for that! >.>
Quote from: Ebiris on October 30, 2011, 08:34:12 AM
Am I missing something? You ask if you need a tag to park someplace, so I presume you don't have one? Then a person confirms you need said tag and later you're surprised the car has been towed? Unless "Yeah, sure," was interpreted as "No, it's cool," it doesn't really make sense.
I wrote it unclearly, but basically I was told I didn't need a visitor tag. I asked again because I'm used to these places needing one and was confirmed "Yeah, it's fine, you don't need one".
So yes, it was a surprise when I walked outside and found my car missing.
Quote from: Brian on October 30, 2011, 04:10:02 PM
Or it could just be me.
Thankfully, there are cooler, more rational minds to have discussion with than I.
Frankly, the "cognitive gap" between us, as you put it, is something I keep trying to figure out. (Why I regard Kyon as unsympathetic in 'Sigh'
as well as Haruhi is a long discussion which neither of us are probably in the mood for at the moment.) I hope I
do figure it out eventually, since ceasing communication is an unpleasant outcome, and this pattern of constant
faux pas on my part is completely unsustainable.
Anyhow, I'm posting one final (brief) comment on the "Sympathy" thread, and I'm going to cool down from C&Cing your stuff for a while.
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on October 30, 2011, 05:04:53 PMWhy I regard Kyon as unsympathetic in 'Sigh' as well as Haruhi is a long discussion which neither of us are probably in the mood for at the moment.
Disagree; we both agree that they were unsympathetic (if you're stating that, versus, "Kyon was the unsympathetic one, of the pair"). I can't find it exactly, but I think I compared it to some moments in the Ranma manga as 'a great opportunity for no one to shine'. >_<
Unsatisfying, but sadly true-to-life. Anyway. Kyon could have handled it better, so I find him
most sympathetic there on account of his intent to effect positive change (get Haruhi to stop treating Mikuru) but not
wholly sympathetic, because violence is not the best answer (though, being honest, I don't know that Koizumi would have let Kyon accomplish much there anyway).
The Redskins really really really suck. That is all.
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on October 30, 2011, 04:07:53 PM
I... seem to have slipped into the role of forum yandere.
So, when do you plan to assassinate Dracos?
Quote from: Jason_Miao on October 30, 2011, 09:13:00 PM
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on October 30, 2011, 04:07:53 PM
I... seem to have slipped into the role of forum yandere.
So, when do you plan to assassinate Dracos?
No, no, assassinate Jason first. He works in some kind of law office or other. ... Meow. =)
"No lawyers?! Where would be without lawyers?! You can't have good government without lawyers! They go together like a pig and its parasites!"
Quote from: Sinom Bre on October 30, 2011, 10:43:36 PM
No, no, assassinate Jason first. He works in some kind of law office or other. ... Meow. =)
Meow. :)
And I work for the government. I'm just naturally helpful like that.
Quote from: Jason_Miao on October 30, 2011, 11:34:19 PM
Quote from: Sinom Bre on October 30, 2011, 10:43:36 PM
No, no, assassinate Jason first. He works in some kind of law office or other. ... Meow. =)
Meow. :)
And I work for the government. I'm just naturally helpful like that.
Considering you use Kyuubey for an icon, I am very frightened of your brand of help. =)
Kyubei: "Why don't you just..."
*puts on expensive lawyer shades*
Kyubei: "...deal."
Don't be frightened. I'm merely from a magical girl creation agency, and I'm here to help. Nothing to lose your head over.
Quote from: Jason_Miao on October 31, 2011, 01:26:37 AM
Don't be frightened. I'm merely from a magical girl creation agency, and I'm here to help. Nothing to lose your head over.
BRRRRR!! My name is
Dave; not Mami!
This new work schedule is unfun. I'm basically working 24/7 from now until January, with time off for holidays. Luckily, I can sleep any time I've got an extended automated test block, but still.
*sigh*
I've been trying to ignore something for a little over three weeks now, and it's just not going away. So, evidently, despite all of my better efforts, I've become infatuated with someone.
Stupid, useless feelings. Why can't I have a debug menu with the option to disable 'become enamored'? What a useless sensation.
So depressing. -_-
Oh, to have your problems. I am practically a hermit, these days.
Quote from: Brian on October 31, 2011, 02:04:02 PM
This new work schedule is unfun. I'm basically working 24/7 from now until January
Whaaaat?
Yeah, it's ... complicated. I was in until 2:15 AM last night, made it in at 11:15 AM today.... Basically, until we get automation ... yeah.
Ugh, missed breakfast, too. >_<
That's ultimately not so bad; today was payday.
Quote from: Sinom Bre on October 31, 2011, 02:11:16 PMOh, to have your problems. I am practically a hermit, these days.
Likewise, which is why I was expecting to avoid this. :\
Quote from: Sinom Bre on October 31, 2011, 01:59:15 AM
Quote from: Jason_Miao on October 31, 2011, 01:26:37 AM
Don't be frightened. I'm merely from a magical girl creation agency, and I'm here to help. Nothing to lose your head over.
BRRRRR!! My name is Dave; not Mami!
A wish can change that!
Quote from: Dracos on October 31, 2011, 06:53:25 PM
Quote from: Sinom Bre on October 31, 2011, 01:59:15 AM
Quote from: Jason_Miao on October 31, 2011, 01:26:37 AM
Don't be frightened. I'm merely from a magical girl creation agency, and I'm here to help. Nothing to lose your head over.
BRRRRR!! My name is Dave; not Mami!
A wish can change that!
You ain't that powerful, Old Man Hokage. Cease your taunts and thread the sun needle. ;p
Quote from: Sinom Bre on October 31, 2011, 07:51:13 PM... thread the sun needle. ;p
/me pulls a Rez and
Dives
For
Cover.
Considering that finding a sun needle seems to have turned me into a blonde, I don't even want to know what a sun needle is.
I mean, look at my avatar (taken before the incident in question). Clearly I am a blunette and wish to stay that way!
But at least you are team-minded! Meanwhile, I seem to have become a glutton.
It's all references to my Naruto fanfic. >_>
Drac really liked it.
At zero posts, users are 'Emoboy': Sasuke (what, biases?)
Needs Sun Needle: Sakura
Team-Minded-Blonde: Ino
All-you-can-eat-champion: Choji
Anbu-Bug-man: Shino
Bastard-sensei: Kakashi (hi!)
I forget what flavor of yandere is Hinata.
Library-bunshin: Copies of Naruto he makes to read books in the library so he can study while he trains (dawg).
And so on and so forth. :p
That's far too easy Brian~ =P
They should read it: http://pishoque.net/brian/fanfic/motivation/
Then figure it out.
But yeah, the entire forum is currently Motivation themed.
Then maybe you can name them all :3
Emoboy
Needs Sun Needle
Team-Minded Blonde
All-You-Can-Eat Champion
Runs with the Pack
Yandere Stalker
Anbu Bugman
Chibi-Kage
Library-Bunshin
Things that suck: Being out of work long enough to try online survey sites. You have to do a lot of homework to find a few good, reliable ones that aren't scams. Even then it's a crappy return of time/benefits at best. It's not a serious option, but if I can score a bit of extra cash right now it would be nice.
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on October 31, 2011, 08:35:16 PM
Considering that finding a sun needle seems to have turned me into a blonde, I don't even want to know what a sun needle is.
I mean, look at my avatar (taken before the incident in question). Clearly I am a blunette and wish to stay that way!
Thank you for saying that. I had wondered why you were described as a blonde when your avatar clearly is not. I like blunettes!
Quote from: Anastasia on October 31, 2011, 11:23:37 PMEven then it's a crappy return of time/benefits at best. It's not a serious option, but if I can score a bit of extra cash right now it would be nice.
Sounds unpleasant. :x
Best of luck in that, Ko!
Woke up to some sort of insect (didn't take the time to look at it) the size of a quarter crawling its way down my sleeping bag today.
Yay Afghanistan.
Quote from: Iron Dragoon on November 01, 2011, 06:26:49 AM
Woke up to some sort of insect (didn't take the time to look at it) the size of a quarter crawling its way down my sleeping bag today.
Yay Afghanistan.
/me ships Iddy a case of bug spray.
Hey. I'm seriously considering Afghanistan myself.
Anyway, I'm trying to put up with all the crap that AIT gives, particularly being in Ft. Gordon (#1 in STIs in the Army, woo!) and all the fun that stems from being there. I just got here not too long ago, so I'm not given all sorts of nice benefits just yet, I have to earn them. Couple that in with all sorts of forms I have to fill out for Christmastime and Thanksgiving, having the night schedule for classes (which also means that the sergeants in charge feel obligated to absolutely dump all over you all in the name of making you a better soldier), and getting everything absolutely perfect so I *can* phase up...
I'm tired. And that's putting it lightly. I don't even like most of the people in my class. Nor the teachers.
It would be okay if I had my music, but because of an error on my part (ordering a 2.5" enclosure instead of 3.5") it'll take like another week or two to get to me. And that sucks. Hard.
Quote from: Kt3 on November 02, 2011, 01:56:05 AM
Hey. I'm seriously considering Afghanistan myself.
Anyway, I'm trying to put up with all the crap that AIT gives, particularly being in Ft. Gordon (#1 in STIs in the Army, woo!) and all the fun that stems from being there. I just got here not too long ago, so I'm not given all sorts of nice benefits just yet, I have to earn them. Couple that in with all sorts of forms I have to fill out for Christmastime and Thanksgiving, having the night schedule for classes (which also means that the sergeants in charge feel obligated to absolutely dump all over you all in the name of making you a better soldier), and getting everything absolutely perfect so I *can* phase up...
I'm tired. And that's putting it lightly. I don't even like most of the people in my class. Nor the teachers.
It would be okay if I had my music, but because of an error on my part (ordering a 2.5" enclosure instead of 3.5") it'll take like another week or two to get to me. And that sucks. Hard.
Welcome to four years of my life. At least you're in the Army where you get a bit of slack. The Marines have no such luxury. Music? In MOS training? ahahahhahahaha. Yeah, no. For us, MOS training is the same as boot camp, except you get to wear rank for it.
Ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff-
So. Just got a new desktop in the office for our local national assistant. Got it all hooked up, double checked all of the connections, and plugged it in.
But. Forgot to check one thing.
Power supply. Set at 115V. Power on this base? 230. Fried the fucker.
FFFFFFFFFFffffffffffffffffffff-
Uuurg. >_<
How bad a setback is that?
Few weeks of shipping.
That's what I was afraid of. :x
Condolences, Iddy. I hate when that happens. :(
Nothing like waking up in the morning, stretching and enjoying the sunshine! That is, before you rush to the bathroom to be stomach sick for a half hour. Ugh.
I didn't particularly want to be at work today, anyway, but I've run between the third floor (my desk) and the sixth (the lab) 18 times so far, trying to install a stupid windows box, just to run some obscure Hitachi HDD tool.
So, my W2kserver install can't use the onboard (or any attached) ethernet-- Annoyance.
The HDD tool (that exists only to update firmware) CANNOT RUN WITHOUT .NET 2.0 installed. WTF?
Trying to install .NET ... auto-detects my desk computer (64-bit), copy installer to USB keyfob, run to Windows system (64-bit)....
...why would it give me the 32-bit installer?!
Another wasted hour. Starting to develop a real dislike for Hitachi.
Edit: Aaaand the Elements crash I just had ate 4k of the fanfic I wrote during progress bars! I've crossed the line from 'upset' to 'indifferent'. Just too much. @_@ Oh, well; at least I can look at things from a totally detatched PoV now.
Quote from: Iron Dragoon on November 03, 2011, 07:16:30 AM
Welcome to four years of my life. At least you're in the Army where you get a bit of slack. The Marines have no such luxury. Music? In MOS training? ahahahhahahaha. Yeah, no. For us, MOS training is the same as boot camp, except you get to wear rank for it.
Hah. I have a friend who entered into boot camp about the same time I entered Basic. He was hella jealous of all the nice things I got that he didn't have.
Then again, I wish we didn't get most of the nice things we got. Our platoon definitely didn't deserve it, and I'm pretty damn sure most of them didn't learn their lesson. Oh well.
In regards to music though, I don't think I'd get as much privileges here at Ft. Gordon if I weren't here for 24 weeks for MOS training. And that's with going immediately into classes (which doesn't happen often apparently). If it were another 4 weeks or someshit like they do for infantry then I could roll with it, but 24? Hell no.
Quote from: Kt3 on November 06, 2011, 12:59:17 AM
Hah. I have a friend who entered into boot camp about the same time I entered Basic. He was hella jealous of all the nice things I got that he didn't have.
Then again, I wish we didn't get most of the nice things we got. Our platoon definitely didn't deserve it, and I'm pretty damn sure most of them didn't learn their lesson. Oh well.
In regards to music though, I don't think I'd get as much privileges here at Ft. Gordon if I weren't here for 24 weeks for MOS training. And that's with going immediately into classes (which doesn't happen often apparently). If it were another 4 weeks or someshit like they do for infantry then I could roll with it, but 24? Hell no.
In the Marines, Infantry goes to boot camp for 12 weeks. Then they go to Infantry school for an additional 12 weeks. 4 weeks? Pft. I'd laugh and sleep through it. =p
Okay, Iddy. We get it. You're a badass. =p
By the by, any more fun bugs crawl into your shorts lately? ^_~
Quote from: Sinom Bre on November 06, 2011, 02:48:27 AM
Okay, Iddy. We get it. You're a badass. =p
By the by, any more fun bugs crawl into your shorts lately? ^_~
It's not a matter of being a badass. It's a matter of the Marines being better than the Army =)
As for bugs, yes. Yes there have been. I am less concerned about them than I am about the rockets and car bombs, though =)
Quote from: Iron Dragoon on November 06, 2011, 03:02:26 AM
It's not a matter of being a badass. It's a matter of the Marines being better than the Army =)
Ouch! Thou shalt pulleth no punches! =p
Ooo-rah!!
Quote from: Iron Dragoon on November 06, 2011, 03:02:26 AM
As for bugs, yes. Yes there have been. I am less concerned about them than I am about the rockets and car bombs, though =)
Understandable.
No caffeine for two weeks starting Monday.
Quote from: Brian on November 06, 2011, 06:05:02 AM
No caffeine for two weeks starting Monday.
For Iddy or you?
Quote from: Sinom Bre on November 06, 2011, 06:06:33 AM
Quote from: Brian on November 06, 2011, 06:05:02 AM
No caffeine for two weeks starting Monday.
For Iddy or you?
I do not partake of caffeine. I don't drink soda nor coffee.
I wasn't sure who he was referring to.
For me. Every so often I start to get to the point where I get horrible migraines from drinking too much coffee (these crazy hours aren't helping). When that happens, usually time to stop for a while and let my system clear itself out. Bleah.
My body is fundamentally coffee incompatible. One cup and I'll get jittery, two cups and I'll feel really sick for the rest of the day. Not a big loss, then, that it tastes about as bitter as alder bark, too.
Never got into it.
Now sugar addiction... :P
Quote from: Dracos on November 06, 2011, 04:57:40 PM
Now sugar addiction... :P
Ugh, all the Seven-Elevens in my area seem to be on Phase III of the worldwide sugar addiction conspiracy...
I pour myself a cup of tea and the cashier is all "hey, two donuts for a dollar"!
*snarl*
Been through this before... do not want donuts shoved at me! Particularly do not want the kind of donuts that you sell for 50 cents apiece!
There, that's my dose of bitching for today.
Coffee is very much an acquired taste. Like Earl Gray. :x
I find that I can drink large amounts of good oolong tea, even though I do not handle large portions of coffee very well. This may sound odd, since fresh brewed tea tends to have a higher caffeination level than coffee (or so I'm told), but it seems to hold true. Once you've cleared your system of coffee, you may want to consider trying tea, if you're just looking to wake up.
I don't know about english teas, since I dislike drinking those. If you experiment with those, let me know.
I've never been able to tolerate coffee and have habitually disliked tea. Yet I slurp diet soda down like it's going out of style.
Go figure.
Well -- in my case, coffee is a biterant, so useful for regulating my gallbladder. Other than that, drinking (ugh) 4-5 cups of coffee is suggested to help prevent future risk of heart failure or liver damage after drinking alcohol.
So, work late, coffee the next morning, drink that evening, coffee the next morning, etc.
I also enjoy tea, though am moving away from English tea and towards green tea, as that seems to have superior health benefits....
Uuuuugh. Too depressed. -_-
Quitting the board for a few weeks to clear my head and focus on work -- good luck all.
Quote from: Brian on November 07, 2011, 11:48:23 AM
Uuuuugh. Too depressed. -_-
Quitting the board for a few weeks to clear my head and focus on work -- good luck all.
G'luck man. Cheer up and keep your chin up through it.
mrgh. Drama.
Mrgh work. Also Mrgh people that just really aggressively don't bother to know what's going on. Seriously, there was 2 filed bugs today on the build system that basically amounted to "You changed shit, yes it needs to build. That's normal." Apparently it was widespread to turn off the do you want to build...so much so that when folks had that setting off, they panicked and declared things broken. I get that they don't know what's going on. But really, is panicking and bug reporting really the way to go?
Also mrgh, recently went and tried In and Out again. It really is quite horrible. I now shall look down on all who eat it willingly. It's below McDonald's quality in both fries and burger, and McDonald's isn't a high quality mark.
Mrgh, drama times two.
Quote from: Dracos on November 07, 2011, 05:05:53 PM
mrgh. Drama.
Mrgh work. Also Mrgh people that just really aggressively don't bother to know what's going on. Seriously, there was 2 filed bugs today on the build system that basically amounted to "You changed shit, yes it needs to build. That's normal." Apparently it was widespread to turn off the do you want to build...so much so that when folks had that setting off, they panicked and declared things broken. I get that they don't know what's going on. But really, is panicking and bug reporting really the way to go?
Also mrgh, recently went and tried In and Out again. It really is quite horrible. I now shall look down on all who eat it willingly. It's below McDonald's quality in both fries and burger, and McDonald's isn't a high quality mark.
Mrgh, drama times two.
Mrgh, eat chocolate, feel better.
Mrgh, eat more chocolate, get fat, bitch about gaining weight.
Mrgh, eat chocolate, feel better.
^_^
Simon Bre! I remember you.
Quote from: Ranma_007 on November 07, 2011, 09:18:44 PM
Simon Bre! I remember you.
No, I'm just a figment of Merc's imagination.
Merc has an overactive imagination.
Fever and headache, again. Clearly, my body doesn't like me. >_>
The new schedule at work is pure, unadulterated bullshit.
First chapter says "Second Revision" at the top.
First paragraph: six gramatical mistakes and twelve spelling errors. I'm already done with this.
Some folks don't know what revision means?
New addition to List of Unexpected Things I Have Caused to Explode in a Microwave: apple cider.
(Items already on the List include: liver and onions.)
Wait...what?
How does apple cider explode? o_O
Closed container? When heated, pretty much anything explodes eventually if there isn't any room for thermal expansion. I'm more puzzled about the need to microwave apple cider in the first place....
Running. Solves.
NOTHING.
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on November 12, 2011, 08:41:15 PM
New addition to List of Unexpected Things I Have Caused to Explode in a Microwave: apple cider.
(Items already on the List include: liver and onions.)
A story (as well as I can articulate, given my current state):
Once, when my mother and father were still young (and married), my mother asked my father: "What happens if you microwave an egg?"
Quoth my father: "...it explodes."
He leaves for work that day. Comes back home. Nothing is amiss, but he eyes my mother and muses, "So ... what did you do today?"
Replies she, "Cleaned the microwave."
*beat*
"...you did it, didn't you."
"...yeah."
(This is Lore: Family, as I was not actually born at the time-- But a demonstration of the principle that the microwave MUST be used to detonate things.)
Entirely unrelated:
Arakawa, if you're free in the next (eternity) we should chat in IRC at (temporal coordinates undefined) so I can properly apologize to you over my various behaviors.
Edit: SO. MUCH. WORK. I have been on-call or attending scripts 24/7 for the last five days. Holy COW it's unsettling becoming inexplicably integral to so many high-level aspects of the company. I did not realize until the CEO came to talk to me that I had carte blanche om hardware control, but now that I do know, I am absolutely disqualifying the less performant H/W in-stack.
Quote from: sarsaparilla on November 08, 2011, 01:05:53 PMFever and headache, again. Clearly, my body doesn't like me. >_>
Oop, didn't catch this; hope you're feeling better now.
Quote from: Dracos on November 13, 2011, 02:29:44 AM
How does apple cider explode? o_O
Quote from: sarsaparilla on November 13, 2011, 03:22:06 AM
Closed container? When heated, pretty much anything explodes eventually if there isn't any room for thermal expansion. I'm more puzzled about the need to microwave apple cider in the first place....
No, no closed container.
It was very nice apple cider which had been kept around a little too long and started to turn a little alcoholic? I don't know, I was exactly as surprised as you are. Ruined a perfectly nice cup, cider all over the inside of the microwave, I guess if you don't do things for Science, Science will do things for you :-(
I'm not microwaving anything with alcohol in it from now on, just to be safe... *remembers* There goes that theory... I'd been flavouring it with a dash of cognac on previous occasions, so now I have no clue what made it explode this time. Ditto with the liver and onions, being reheated on top of a perfectly open plate (I guess the outer surface of the actual liver had effectively become a sealed container from previous cooking?)
Why cider was being microwaved: lazy way to heat it up, of course. Put in two sticks of cinnamon, some nutmeg, dash of some aromatic liquor, highly recommended. Just make sure it's fresh cider, and, (given my recent experience) either make sure your sympathetic vibrations are attuned to not-blowing-things-up-in-microwaves, find a reality warper who is likewise attuned and get them to supervise the process for you, or use a stove.
Quote from: Brian on November 13, 2011, 05:30:16 AM
Arakawa, if you're free in the next (eternity) we should chat in IRC at (temporal coordinates undefined) so I can properly apologize to you over my various behaviors.
Okay, I'll do my best to catch you at some point... can't make any guarantees as to exactly when. Hope to have an interesting conversation and not just an exchange of apologies :-)
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on November 13, 2011, 11:22:02 AMI'm not microwaving anything with alcohol in it from now on, just to be safe... *remembers* There goes that theory... I'd been flavouring it with a dash of cognac on previous occasions, so now I have no clue what made it explode this time. Ditto with the liver and onions, being reheated on top of a perfectly open plate (I guess the outer surface of the actual liver had effectively become a sealed container from previous cooking?)
With only a very little grease and time to congeal, onions can asplode, too.
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on November 13, 2011, 11:22:02 AMWhy cider was being microwaved: lazy way to heat it up, of course. Put in two sticks of cinnamon, some nutmeg, dash of some aromatic liquor, highly recommended. Just make sure it's fresh cider, and, (given my recent experience) either make sure your sympathetic vibrations are attuned to not-blowing-things-up-in-microwaves, find a reality warper who is likewise attuned and get them to supervise the process for you, or use a stove.
This is the only thing I can guess, but since it wasn't clean water, it's at the statistically highly improbable end of the spectrum:
http://www.snopes.com/science/microwave.asp
The following video demonstrates another thing that can be detonated to a degree within a microwave:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeXQBHLIPcw
Not for the faint of heart. ;p
ugh
As a fan of Weird Al, that is my least favorite song by him, only because the content is depressing instead of hilarious.
Heh. It's one of my favorites, especially the Ben Affleck line. ;p
My grandmother died yesterday.
That makes, what, three funerals this year? Plus the accident my sister is still recovering from. Crap, but this has been a year. -_-
Cripes. I'm sorry to hear that, Panda. :(
I hope things take a better turn for you shortly. :)
Condolences, Panda. I had both grandmothers die this year, it blows.
graaaarrg
72 hours of testing progress lost to a failed VM and a host of other hardware issues. -_-
No Thursday off after all.
Can't wait until Thanksgiving for a day to sleep in.
Quote from: Brian on November 13, 2011, 05:30:16 AM
Running. Solves. NOTHING.
It can solve a weight problem!
Quote from: Brian on November 13, 2011, 10:06:54 PM
graaaarrg
72 hours of testing progress lost to a failed VM and a host of other hardware issues. -_-
No Thursday off after all.
Can't wait until Thanksgiving for a day to sleep in.
Seriously, you gotta put in for at least a weekend day off at some point. They got other testing staff right?
Purchased a liquid concoction known as "Lung Lover" from the local juicery.
*blagh*
Not buying any drinks with cayenne from them again. In general, this is the kind of place where they give the customer ample opportunity to shoot themselves in the foot. If you want a 32oz bottle of chilled beetroot juice with nutmeg, they will give you a 32oz bottle of chilled beetroot juice with nutmeg.
(The latter item was excellent in a heat wave, and completely undrinkable otherwise.)
Got hit in the face with a Kevlar helmet today. Busted my eye open (but no stitches or anything) and bent my prescription Oakley's beyond my ability to fix.
Now I have no sunglasses, a bleeding, swollen eye, and a headache. No black eye yet, though.
Ugh ... I'm sorry to hear that, Iddy. :x
Down to 38ish days, right? Hang in there! I hope to see you stateside at some point. :)
Urgh, nothing like being stomachsick and wanting to curl up into a little ball.
Feeling better, Ana?
For myself.... Gave up on trying to put together that Pathfinder game. Just not happening. Too many scheduling issues, travel issues, issue issues, etc. Man, I really wanted to be able to play or run a game. -_-
Condolences. It's a pain in the ass to get a gaming group together, let alone when there is adversity. You could always try finding a gaming shop and advertising, but that can be one hell of a gamble.
Yeah ... Drac and I will try recruiting more locally (or, actually, probably joining some other game) some time in January. Just kinda frustrating. :\
Sadly, it seems to be the only real option.
*sneezes* Well, there's upsides? It's not like we were throwing together a good group. We might have better luck on randoms? There is in theory a thriving pathfinder community out here.
It's my day off, but I feel sick....
Might be coming down with a cold.
Feeling pretty miserable. Cold's getting worse.
Gonna take a week off from SR to recuperate. Probably work, too. x_x
Quote from: Brian on November 20, 2011, 01:53:23 PM
Feeling pretty miserable. Cold's getting worse.
Gonna take a week off from SR to recuperate. Probably work, too. x_x
I dunno. Lack of regular SR infusions might worsen your condition.
Then perhaps I shall just become lax about responding to things in a timely manner for a week.
That is allowable :P
I have my CPA audit exam tomorrow. Not looking forward to this. >.<
Good luck!
Ditto on that good luck.
In other news, I woke up with a head cold. Ugh.
Quote from: Anastasia on November 21, 2011, 02:33:34 PMIn other news, I woke up with a head cold. Ugh.
I may have given you that. Over IRC.
It was Yuth's fault, spreading it via e-hugs!
Tells you something about fishmen, eh?
Ah, but-- Hope you feel better. Remember, plenty of fluids. And you could be at work with it, like me. :p
DY: Belatedly, good luck! Tell us how you do!
Thanks guys, I just finished the exam. I think I did okay, but we'll see.
Also, hope you feel better Ana.
My day was absolute shit. As a whole, I'd have been better off staying in bed and not getting shot at.
Wait, shot at? O_O
Everything okay?
Glad you think you did okay, what the fuck Yuth and seconding Brian.
Talked about it in #e earlier; long story short, my father has tried to put a bullet in me twice in my life now. Context is appalling but mostly meaningless.
Things I hate: Thanksgiving leftovers. Urgh, joy, two straight days of nothing but food I didn't like the first go 'round.
Minecraft gives me headaches so no joining the Minecraft server for me. -_-
Heh, same situation with headaches for me. It's pretty much why I play Terraria instead.
2D 16-bit (no headaches!) vs 3D 8-bit (OW! PAIN!). >_>
You can disable the head-bob, but if it's 3d in general you don't like, well.... Nothing to be done. :\
I tried Terraria, but it feels very limited in a direct comparison to minecraft, at least in terms of creative building-- But I own both, so I will probably try playing Terraria again at some point. Just ... having only left and right instead of the entire compass rose to choose from.... I dunno. :/
I managed to stay up 'till 4 AM. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.
Brian: It's primarily the first person perspective. Something about that really screws with my senses and I get dizzy/headaches from that. Games like Portal/Doom/etc also do the same to me.
I can handle 3D with third person perspective (usually, depends on the camera), but the third person mode from minecraft generally looks pretty clunky from what I've seen of it in youtube videos, and I suspect it will both do little to help with headaches and little to help with building.
As for Terraria, yeah, it really is more limited in terms of creative building. Minecraft's focus is build > explore > fight. Terraria's focus is explore + fight > build.
There's a patch coming out next week for Terraria that is adding some 200+ new items though, a lot of them decorative (but a fair chunk are combat related too), and some of the stuff being added is things like switches and pumps. Still not close to the level of minecraft for building, but getting closer.
Insomnia.
My PS3 just died in the middle of a game, damn you yellow light of death! >_<
Was it Skyrim? I have a friend whose PS3 was murdered by Skyrim.
I am foolishly stubborn and sick. :(
Ugh, been going around, yeah. Hope you feel better soon, Drac. :\
Quote from: Yuthirin on November 29, 2011, 05:22:13 PM
Was it Skyrim? I have a friend whose PS3 was murdered by Skyrim.
Actually it was. >.>
Also, hope you get well soon Dracos.
Noted. No PS3 Skyrim.
*looks at TOWER OF DOOM*
Not a problem.
Never get a Bethesda game for a console anyway.
The mods and console commands are all on PC.
erg
feels like someone's trying to dig out my eyeball through my forehead with a spoon
stress-induced migraines suck
wait, no
all migraines suck >_<
Edit: also, spending the entire day on the verge of a gall bladder attack; man, today is totally a 'my body is out for revenge' day ._.
So, here is a serious squick which has taken literally months to bubble to the surface of my normally-imperturbable yandere psychology.
So, first I saw "Princess Mononoke". It was mostly about environmentalism. And it was pretty cool.
Then there was "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind". It was all about environmentalism. And it was also pretty cool. It was like Star Wars for treehuggers. I went and read the manga, and that was even cooler.
"Future Boy Conan" was also a pretty cool anime about environmentalism, which took a tedious Western book as its starting point and actually made the story really engaging.
However, all of the above are by Hayao Miyazaki.
So I set out to find some environmentalist anime that isn't by Hayao Miyazaki.
Next I saw "Tokyo Mew Mew". The first five minutes looked like it might be an anime about the creation of some guardian race attuned with the environment and able to protect the earth from being destroyed due to humanity's folly. Except no, it isn't. It's just the standard Sailor Moon formula, with cat ears. And also with creepy flirting alien antagonists. Umm... what was that about humanity screwing up the environment? Forget that, it's all the aliens' fault. Ugh.
(Tokyo Mew Mew is an ultimately harmless anime, but man, the fact that they tried to half-ass this environmental theme into it pisses me off.)
Then I saw "Squid Girl". The first five minutes also looked like this would be a series about environmentalism. Weird-looking woobie girl declares war on humanity, for polluting the ocean. Then we find out that she has an attention span of about ten seconds, which prevents her from ever accomplishing anything. The series just an excuse for cute moe (though to the show's credit it is actually kind of cute and not just shamelessly exploitative, completely unlike -- say -- K-On). In this show the only character who ever bothers to give a damn about the environment is generally also so pathetically wild-eyed, inept and helpless (and just generally a butt monkey for the remaining cast) that the only apparent message I can try to derive from what I'm seeing is that human civilization as it is now, is actually pretty awesome, and its opponents are mostly subhuman, childish retards. I could kind of understand and appreciate (perversely enough) a series which actually deliberately set out to justify that kind of insane human chauvinism, but that's prooooobably not what the creators were aiming for. They were just looking for a framework to insert cute moe waff into, and this ridiculous subtext comes out unintentionally as a result of the specific set of comedy tropes they settled with.
(Actually, I kind of liked Squid Girl, but at the same time, that last aspect kind of makes me utterly loathe myself for liking the other stuff in it. Again, environmentalism has absolutely nothing to do with a cute and harmless series which mostly just recycles tried-and-true Azumanga waff. The only scene where the creators manage to sort-of-maybe-justify having brought up the theme in the first place is the scene where Squid Girl manages to get a crowd of children to suddenly start cheering for the villain of a traveling Kamen Rider show. This is unusually thoughtful and sophisticated compared to the rest of the antics on Squid Girl... that is, before the resident yandere shows up and puts the insubordinate sea creature back into her designated lowly place on the food chain. This is, of course, meant to be funny. Again, UGH.)
Can anyone recommend good-quality, environmentally-themed anime or manga that's actually about environmentalism, and isn't by Miyazaki? I'm getting kind of depressed at this point. To the extent of being tempted to plan out some monumentally horrifying doujin which takes Tokyo Mew Mew and Squid Girl, inverts every premise that makes them so cute and harmless, and deconstructs that general sort of thing to all hell. Because my impression so far is that there's too much Tokyo Mew Mew out there and not enough Nausicaa.
Earth Girl Arjuna is a magical girl who fights for the environment.
It's appallingly inaccurate, unfortunately.
Edit: You know, it's veering a bit from your ideal subject matter, but I highly suggest Planetes. Janitors ...IN SPACE. (Better than it sounds.) If you're willing to go back to Miyazaki, there's also Spirited Away. It's subtler in both of those, but....
Also, just recalled this one -- Ghibli, but NOT Miyazaki: Pom Poko (very, very awesome). That's probably what you're looking for.
Somewhat related: http://www.mit.edu/~rei/manga-environmental.html
Well, as long as Arjuna doesn't blame everything on aliens, I'd be inclined to give it a look. Unless it's pretty damn good, though, it won't alter my fundamental complaint about the existence of Squid Girl and Tokyo Mew Mew.
(Reading a review, I notice it's actually not too dissimilar to the sort of storylines I was mulling over, with the character who's in tune with nature, to the extent of being forced to experience its pain. However, Arjuna probably won't explore even half of the horrible implications that I could see following from such an idea.)
As for the other Ghibli stuff, that's kind of the problem, is that I've seen most of it, not that I wouldn't mind watching more of it :-) Pom Poko strikes me as the most complicated work of the bunch, because like a documentary it has the luxury of bringing up questions it can't answer... which makes the ending kind of a downer, but it's at least a justified downer.
Now that I think of it, Mushi-shi would also probably be in the running for 'environmentalist' anime. Many episodes have the whole "foolish humans fatally alter the balance of things" thing down pat... in its own odd way.
Curious to see what makes you recommend Planetes in this context, as well.
I love Arjuna to death, but I wouldn't recommend it for serious environmentalism.
QuoteHowever, Arjuna probably won't explore even half of the horrible implications that I could see following from such an idea.)
Actually, it does this so strongly it becomes painfully anvilacious. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Anvilicious) Of course, that really is the point of Arjuna to begin with, so... (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped)
(The scene after she has gained her power and takes a bite out of a burger still sticks with me. And the one where she is near a field when they're dusting it. Talk about blessed with suck. -_-)
Also, Yoko Kanno on music duties, really conspicuous CGI, a magical bacterial plague that destroys all things made with petroleum, ect
Oh, hey, TVTropes to the rescue! (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GreenAesop)
Mmm ... other than what Brian mentioned I can remember that there's Origin, Spirits of the Past which kind of tries to be something like Ghibli lite. It starts well enough but doesn't quite deliver, as it's reduced to a boring shounen power trip toward the end. Or at least that's what I recall.
I'm giving up on the visual novel project. So:
Screw it. The lack of support has soured me on it. Sorry-- I must express disappointment at everyone who said they'd help and then bailed.
Drac, please move the Ranma:VN forum into the 'dead games' archive. It's moved from 'fun multiplayer project' to 'another job I do after my regular one, only without any co-workers'.
Edit: Or pay. The stress was almost the same, though.
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on December 02, 2011, 04:58:17 AM
(Reading a review, I notice it's actually not too dissimilar to the sort of storylines I was mulling over, with the character who's in tune with nature, to the extent of being forced to experience its pain. However, Arjuna probably won't explore even half of the horrible implications that I could see following from such an idea.)
It's surely not what you're specifically looking for since it's a book and she's just a supporting character, but the Necroscope series of novels by Brian Lumley (short synopsis, British and Russian psychic government divisions spar during the cold war while alien vampires try to take over the world) has someone who fits the bill. It's been a while since I read them but she's a Geomancer or something like that who's deeply in tune with the Earth and it's condition is reflected in her physical condition - she's horribly old before her time, unfit and cursed with myriad health complaints. Her basic job is to use her one-ness with the Earth to locate Soviet ballistic subs, but in the books she's generally roped into finding otherworldly monsters and horrible magic by the traces it leaves on the environment. In a later book they visit a primitive alien world and she's much healthier there!
I recommend the books in general, they're fun horror/spy stories.
I've read some of that Necroscope series and enjoyed it, although it's been a few years. I found it a little light on the characterization depth and little heavy on the "the world is about to end, oh, noes!", but overall very enjoyable. The sameness gets a little tiresome after a couple of novels, as a caveat.
I also enjoyed Lumley's Titus Crow trilogy, based on the Lovecraft mythos. One of the better treatments I've seen.
Quote from: Sinom Bre on December 02, 2011, 04:31:56 PM
I've read some of that Necroscope series and enjoyed it, although it's been a few years. I found it a little light on the characterization depth and little heavy on the "the world is about to end, oh, noes!", but overall very enjoyable. The sameness gets a little tiresome after a couple of novels, as a caveat.
I also enjoyed Lumley's Titus Crow trilogy, based on the Lovecraft mythos. One of the better treatments I've seen.
Lumley really makes the Mythos enjoyable, doesn't he?
The cable for my laptop has mysteriously vanished. Sigh.
I'm in a half asleep daze today. Ugh.
Started reading 'Sam and Fuzzy'. Took about five minutes for my eyes to stop trying to read it from right to left. Too many Mangafox scanlations.
*snrk*
Sorry-- I hate MegaTokyo because of Lazy Piro days (long rant, there), but I recall trying to give it a second chance when I saw the book in stores. Flipped it open straight to the back page and got a, 'You dumb otaku -- you're reading it wrong!' message.
So, I know the feeling, believe you me.
Hah. that's an interesting complaint :) "Too American style!" =3
And I am oddly amused that you are currently the most obscure of the titles too. I dunno why. Still, neat to hear others trying it out.
The author of this fic:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7539904/1/
E-mailed me directly and asked me for my feedback.
...damn my pride.
Once more: As I sow, so too must I reap.
Well, what can I say to that fic, but not my cup of tea. I do look forward to the inevitable subsequent speculation about what the writer was hoping to get from (a) writing it in the first place, and (b) submitting it for review to someone with a completely different focus.
And I wish the writer luck in writing a different fic that actually has some kind of idea it can try to live up to. The best case is that they're someone who has an honest suspicion that they're not accomplishing anything with what they're writing, and the review will be confirmation of that. The worst case... I have some thoughts -- not all of them charitable to the writer, so I'll consider whether or not to voice them after the review wraps up.
----
(By the way, thanks to everyone for all the anime/book recommendations earlier in the thread, regarding environmentalism and whatnot. Put a bunch of them on my list of things to consume. Eventually.)
Insomnia. Been a tough week for sleep. -_-
I'm awake and I don't want to be.,=buttons
I'm...going to have to fire someone today. God dammit.
That's never fun. :(
Too depressed over the stupid trolling (and the fact that people enjoy those attacks on something I appreciate) to focus on writing anything at all. Man, I left ff.net -- what did I do that was worth them coming after me?
*sigh*
Probably nothing. Morons like that latch onto something and don't let go. Like retarded pitbulls.
You're probably right. I always feel silly after whining like this; time to grab my bootstaps and get something done.
Maybe work on those bridges in Minecraft. :p
My everything hurts. ;_;
The YKTTW page is broken, and I can't edit my entry. Editing on comments works just fine. :(
I have no idea what that page is. TvTropes?
It's You Know That Thing Where.... Which is how most trope pages get launched.
Cold enough to want my coat. Go check for it. Realize I haven't seen my coat since I was staying with Walker/Jim--
SON OF A %&@*.
Walker stole my trenchcoat.
Something is busted in my heating system. I think it is the fan motor probably. Spent much of this morning figuring it out. Now irritable as really I don't want to do repairs before I head off to vacation.
Today is a stressy day. I dislike scheduling days.
It is definitely Not My Day.
My PS3 is nowhere to be found in the building. My suspicion is that someone came in the unlocked window, took it, and then left. Oddly, nothing else in that room was taken, even the conspicuous and open backpack full of games.
Anyhow, if anyone sees me over on PSN in the short term, that's kinda not me.
Mrgh. It's almost not expensive enough to file a police report. Probably cost more filing an insurance report. Bleh. At least they haven't tried to buy anything with it.
Man, that sucks, Drac. :(
Cookies? :)
More things seem to be missing now that I am investigating in daylight.
But there are so many good things to steal they didn't. It's really baffling!
They left a television, and a laptop....
To say nothing of the gaming library!
Edit: I hope you have luck when you file the police report.
Police report filed. Total damage seems to be just over 750 bucks.
Quote from: Dracos on December 13, 2011, 11:26:35 PM
Police report filed. Total damage seems to be just over 750 bucks.
Bummer. Insurance cover it all?
Depends on his deductible. Dunno about homeowner's insurance in CA, but it's likely he's got a $500 deductible and it'll apply. That'll make it barely worth filing the claim, as he'll probably lose any claim-free discount he would otherwise likely have.
Yeah, I pulled up and I think I have a 1000 deductable. At 7-800 in stolen, it won't do anything :(
Looks like they either got my borderlands or LBP2 (and I just misplaced my borderlands somewhere :( ).
It's painful in a lot of ways, but in a sense, at least the damage is only <800, instead of thousands. If they'd shattered one of my doors, I'd be screwed, since I couldn't be here to see it properly fixed.
Urgh, I am completely unproductive today.
Aaaand the e-mail bombing resumes.
*sigh*
/me just stops checking his spam folder. -_-
Quote from: Brian on December 16, 2011, 01:06:54 AM
Aaaand the e-mail bombing resumes.
The perpetrator seems to be bragging about this in the relevant thread on FF.net, by the name 'RL Taro'. I don't know, but shouldn't mailbombing be illegal enough so that something could be done to nail the culprit?
Probably. Proving the actual identity of whoever's behind it is the hard part. And since (from what I can guess) they're using some older ... effectively the same stuff spammers use? Yeah -- they send the e-mails from other people's compromised systems. So the people I could actually 'get' probably don't even know it's going on. And the source keeps changing, too....
Well, if it's going to follow the same pattern as last time. Gmail's spam filter actually catches all of them; I just used to check my spam to see if any legitimate e-mails had gotten through. Now it appears I won't. :\
Edit: Hmm, RL Taro. RL Taro. 'Rebel Leader Taro'? From Aondehafka's Dream of the Earthbound? I don't think it's Aondehafka himself (way too nice a guy), but this is probably someone I pissed off long before joining the Haruhi fandom, if that's the connection. Well, that sure came back to haunt me. >_<
Please see my previous advice to you regarding mentally-challenged trolls.
Ignore them, they're not worth your time.
Am doing. The real-life trolls, however....
I cursed at an old woman, today. Not directly, but:
There's a street between two medical complexes that I take to get to work (or the highway, etc.). Because people jaywalked so often, the city put in a stoplight in the middle of the street (and a crosswalk). It's not an intersection, just a crosswalk, so pedestrians can wait for the light and cross safely.
Too many times I've seen people ignore it and run across. That irks me because my 'rules are there for your own safety; they don't work when you ignore them like that' stance. I get over it. But today -- today! Today a woman, 45-50ish, I'm guessing, decided she was going to cross against the light. Right after I rounded the corner and started down the street I saw her break from the small crowd of law-abiding citizens waiting for the light to change.
She had the temerity to shoot me a dirty look -- but pedestrians have the right of way, so I stopped. I was pretty pissed, but, I thought, stopping one car, not the biggest deal in the world. Then I realized that oncoming traffic in the other lane had to stop for her, too -- another dozen cars, all of them stopped at a green light because of this woman's disregard for the law and sense of self importance.
"The light is there for a $%#ing reason!" shouted across the street at her. So angry at people who are willing to risk their lives to save -- what -- 40 seconds? Maybe as much as four minutes? So they can wait at the other doctor's office that much sooner? Arg-- Just as bad as people who weave through traffic because they're impatient, or don't use turn signals because they're lazy.
I wished a police officer was there to give her a fine for jaywalking.
Police issue fines for jaywalking out by you? Nobody does that out here. Hell, you can stand in the middle of Michigan Avenue during rush hour and the cops won't do more than glare at you.
45-50 is not old!
Brian, Level 10 Archivist, Lawful Good.
Did not expect this.
Heh, I drive past that intersection 3-4 times a week, and it really is terrible. I understand with two hospitals there they need to cross frequently, but it's a short light stop for folks coming out of the last intersection, and somewhat of a bother to stop at anyway. Walking across when the light is green is practically asking to get smashed into by a car coming in from the faster speed street right nearby.
I really don't get the occassional pedestrian chicken games. "Dude, there's a green light. You're not really going to bike across 4 lanes during this just because their emp...You are. Okay, you'll surely stop at the divider as MY car is barrelling straight down it's lane and will be intersecting your direction because I have the right of way with a green light. Really? Really you're going to play chicken on a bike with a car? What the fuck is wrong with you people?"
I actually go out of my way to avoid that street now. It's just stupid.
Bought Phantasy Star Portable so I can play with friends only to find out they're playing PSP2.
So, ok. I'm able to return the game but none of the stores within a hundred mile radius of me have the game.
But! I remember it's on sale in the PSN store! So I get a $20 playstation card, put it on my account, and find out they stopped selling the game altogether 10 days ago.
. . . Maybe I should just buy Y's and call it a day. -_-
I don't actually have any space I can use as a robot construction workshop, so my grand plans will be curtailed.
This is going to be a priority when I start looking for a place in January.
A while back I sent copies of Bridge of Birds to some people free of charge, the only requirement being that they read and review it. I've yet to see a single review from this.
(I admit, I probably should have specified a window within which I was hoping to see the reviews.)
My copy is in Forest City, Arkansas. I don't have time to drive out there at the moment (been doing 10-12 hour work days since around thanksgiving). But I haven't forgotten about the review! I just need to finish reading it first.
I slept poorly Monday night. I slept poorly last night. I'll probably sleep poorly tonight. Dammit.
Why are you sleeping poorly?
Had to leave work early because the smells coming from the final stages of construction in the lab directly behind my desk were overwhelming me.
Quote from: Anastasia on December 21, 2011, 07:33:09 PM
Why are you sleeping poorly?
I DON'T KNOW. I still feel like shit.
I was invited to forums.spacebattles again:
http://forums.spacebattles.com/showpost.php?p=7026670&postcount=42
Wheee. (Also, EarthScorpion is a cock.)
Yeah, the tvtropes hate over there strikes me as really disproportionate. Beyond that, I'd thought what they were doing with this organized review thing would be good, but considering the main reviewer (that havocfett) isn't a writer himself, I think I see the problem: he doesn't understand the difference between what doesn't appeal to him as a reader and what can't appeal to anyone.
In short, it seems like he has the attitude that anything he's going to read will be crap, that what he reviews will be intrinsically flawed (which is why he couldn't Kyon and Haruhi's unusual interaction as indicative of something deliberate instead of a mistake). And hating on tvtropes just because some authors rely on tropes too much is, well, silly. tvtropes isn't telling anyone how to write.
Guess I won't be submitting my next Eva piece for review over there.
Edit: and what was the guy thinking, sending an e-mail out of the blue to trash the story? Man, angry much?
Yeah, it's pretty clear now they were just trying to troll me/use me as a scapegoat.
Here's the header of his personal e-mail:
Quote from: some jerk even more arrogant than Brian:I apologize in advance for the shitty formatting and color display, I crossposted this from a forum you don't visited, and am a bit busy vomiting to bother editing it or softening the blows found within. Some of the things said are as a result of debates over tvtropes and that regard forum politics. As a result, this review is not going to be nice, it is not going to be polite. It is written by someone who was told you wrote very, very, well and was gravely disappointed. I've read the first several chapters, and will be emailing them to you, and I pray that you improve with time and this advice.
Any advice really, I aint picky.
My critical piece of advice for this work? TVTropes is a fun thing to use on the side, it can help you find neat and interesting works and scope out what they might be like to watch, read or hit with a stick (twilight). It is not, under any circumstances to be used as a serious writing tool.
Standard Havocfett Review Disclaimer.
OK, I'm horribly sick and high on painkillers. I mean, really high on painkillers. I'm delirious? Fuck you, deal.
Quote from: Jon on December 24, 2011, 07:44:32 PM
Wheee. (Also, EarthScorpion is [an unlikable fellow].)
This I have heard frequently. If you and Huitzil agree on an issue, it absolutely must be true.
I hear not-good things about spacebattles of late. But I don't really go there.
My patience with spacebattles ran out when I couldn't find any form of newbie instructions for the fanfiction section, and their search engine was indefinitely disabled due to load issues.
With that and their troubles with the thread-length limit (the one fanfiction I follow on there has had to move to a new thread... twice already to avoid exploding under the sheer amount of Dalek lolcats being crammed into the comments by fans), it's evident that (completely separate from the quality of their community) they're having such severe scaling problems that there's no reason to contribute to them by joining.
And the reviewer guy is a jerk. Really... that's your complaint? That you have this character interpretation that Haruhi=the blind idiot god Azathoth (so, does that mean Yasumi=Nyarlahotep ??), and you don't have the patience to read the fic long enough to determine that the author is not, as a matter of fact, using that exact character interpretation?
To be brutally honest, I only read his first few paragraphs of the guy's so-called review (even in the e-mail). It was all "HATE HATE HATE! HATE TVTROPES ESPECIALLY!" and I determined it was a waste of time to read further. Judging by everyone else's comments, this was the correct decision.
I've tossed out a fic on their creative writing forum (Hot Air, as it happens). I expect equal combinations of vitriol and disdain, but at least I'll be able to say I put in the effort.
Whoever designed the magic items in the epic level handbook needs to be summarily fucking smacked.
Quote from: Anastasia on December 26, 2011, 02:38:20 AM
Whoever designed the epic level handbook needs to be summarily fucking smacked.
That's more like it.
Good adjustment :P
Though dune loves his epic levels.
My mother is drinking again.
So now the woman is dead to me.
Worst. Christmas. Ever.
My mom's always looking for new kids, Brian!
Heck of a commute, though, Yuth. :p
Her biscuits & gravy are to die for, though. Especially at 4am.
Nothin' wrong with havin' to fly across country to see the family. Let's them build up charm. :)
Alright, you've sold me.
Today's the last day of the holiday season. Boo.
I'm stuck at home for New Years for reasons too long and uninteresting to go into. Boo.
That moment when you run out of salt.
Got a game for a late Christmas present of which I already owned a copy.
Realized my dog thinks my bed is a salt lick. >_<
Apparently, one of my job interviews went over poorly! So poorly that the system politely informs that they won't be considering any further applications from me, ever. Sigh. More fish in the sea, more fish in the sea.
Uguu. :(
Sorry to hear that, Ko-- Better luck next time!
Quote from: Anastasia on January 05, 2012, 10:00:10 PM
Apparently, one of my job interviews went over poorly! So poorly that the system politely informs that they won't be considering any further applications from me, ever. Sigh. More fish in the sea, more fish in the sea.
Rude.
Thanks you two.
I though the interview went rather well, so I'm inclined to think we were talking past each other. I mean, I qualified for the position so it isn't that.
I just want to slightly disagree with Yuth: Being informed is better than, "We'll call you," and eternal silence. Even if it does seem that they were being jerks about it.
(Also, they'll totally forget about you in 4 years.)
Could be that you were (or they thought you were) overqualified for the position and they felt you would bail on them the second something better came along.
I doubt it. If anything they sounded like they really needed the help. The entire thing doesn't play unless I somehow offended the interviewer or violated some unwritten rule.
Quote from: Anastasia on January 06, 2012, 12:00:25 AM
I doubt it. If anything they sounded like they really needed the help. The entire thing doesn't play unless I somehow offended the interviewer or violated some unwritten rule.
(Remembering an unsuccessful job interview of my own where we warmed up by discussing data encapsulation, at which point the person did not like my explanation, claiming that what I'd described was called 'data abstraction'. I can only assume that this was some SubDepartmentOfFacelessBigCo internal jargon which I was just not savvy to; either that or the interviewer had just memorized Object Oriented Software Construction or some textbook like that and was expecting me to give the definitions exactly as in the book. I don't know... haven't read that kind of literature in a while, you know?
I bet it was OOSC. Not to say it's not a neat book, but from what I remember the guy who wrote it
also sounds like the kind of person who'd turn away a job candidate based on some triviality like that.)
Also feeling bitter about the job offer I had to turn down from the other department of FacelessBigCo which actually seemed like a nice job, until I realized that 30% of the reason I had been hired had to do with straight-up cultural nepotism, and I would spend the next k years becoming completely isolated from broader Canadian society in this bizarre onshoring enclave flourishing within BigCo.
I don't regret turning it down, but I really wish I'd had the sense of etiquette necessary to do so in a way that wouldn't be douchebaggy within either of the sets of cultural assumptions I had to be dealing with.
(Hilariously, this happened after I wrote that demented worldbuilding thing with Canadian future-history and onshoring in the 'Anywhere in this World' thread. Thus, rather than a diseased invention of my imagination, onshoring turns out to be quite real, although in reality it occurs by complete accident, and seeing it in action is mostly disconcerting. Welcome to the 21st century.)
Abstraction and encapsulation are pretty different, though! Well, if we're talking from a programming perspective.
Some interviews, though. :/
Things that suck: The night after a heavy, spicy, bean laden chili feast. Uguuuuuu.
My umbrella broke on the way to work.
Also, I was late.
Also, I now have to pay a fine for skipping a train ticket and getting caught out. Dammit, I just ran on board because if I didn't catch that one, I would've been even later. Crime not paying off for me this year. :(
best morning ever
Well, you'll probably have a really good day tomorrow to make up for it. Right?
Silence, Murphymancer! We've been over this! >.<
Rat: Sucks on getting the fine and all. :(
For what it's worth, once you're late, you're late ... the magnitude of lateness isn't usually a huuuge issue ... is it?
Don't worry, we'll plot a bank heist instead! That'll pay off for sure!
Murphymancer. That sounds like a PrC.
Hm. Excuse me.
Nah, nobody really cares if I'm late, but because I'm paid hourly I have to stay back to make it up, so instead of leaving at around 4 and dodging traffic, I'll get to leave at 5 and no-doubt get stuck in it.
I have consistently failed every single #$%!ing promise I have made to everyone who has e-mailed me to ask when my website will be updated.
That it's not my fault doesn't make me feel better, just that I am losing power over something that I should never have allowed out of my control.
Edit: This is why K:BDH 50 wasn't posted officially today. :|
It's generally understood that schedule promises on things like fanfiction and webcomics are governed by the strongest and most vicious form of Murphy's law ever imaginable.
3 days until I return to Afghanistan.
*Iddy is a sad Iddy.*
Weird getting back into work.
Got laid off today. Not really the best time for it. :(
That's terrible Music :(
Condolences. Unemployment sucks.
Yeah, I'm sorry to hear that, too. :\
On the bright side? If you were laid off, do you qualify for unemployment?
Quote from: Anastasia on January 11, 2012, 07:46:17 PM
On the bright side? If you were laid off, do you qualify for unemployment?
Yes, I can put in for my EI stuff. We did most of that today, but I have to wait for my Record of Employment from the store to finish the process. My former employer said they'd get that for me next week.
There are some positives to being laid off right now. I can really devote myself to packing and I can start looking more seriously for work in the GTA, in preparation for Cy's possible job change. I can also look into rental places out there and call people during normalish business hours.
Still, the whole thing sucks overall. I didn't even have a chance to say goodbye to the girls I work with. I can always go back into the store, obviously, and I'll try but there's still a lot of coworkers and customers I would have liked to say goodbye to that I might not run into casually.
QuoteI can start looking more seriously for work in the GTA
Grand theft auto requires serious effort. *nods*
Quote from: Merc on January 12, 2012, 03:13:24 PM
QuoteI can start looking more seriously for work in the GTA
Grand theft auto requires serious effort. *nods*
Conversely, it feels surreal to keep thinking "traffic jam in downtown Toronto, brr" whenever I see a GTA game.
I'm planning to visit Toronto and Montreal this summer! Music-con!
I hate being sick while on vacation!
I hate puking, period.
I think I'm done playing Dreadmore with permadeath enabled.
Roguelikes can be kinda neat.
Ridiculous cheapness is not.
Edit: According to the wiki I encountered a bug involving fire on your current tile being stacked. Repeatedly. I think my decision will stand.
yay no-permadeath :P
This topic is nearly 8 years old. We've had too much bitching.
Quote from: Anastasia on January 16, 2012, 01:23:30 AM
This topic is nearly 8 years old. We haven't had nearly enough bitching.
Fixed that for you.
This thread is like a shared blog. Who needs facebook?
I don't really bitch on Facebook. Too many friends are business related.
Quote from: Yuthirin on January 16, 2012, 01:44:56 AM
I don't really bitch on Facebook. Too many friends are business related.
That and facebook is easy to blend worlds with. There's no real discretion.
Exactly. That's why I only talk about how awesome I am on Facebook.
Good call.
Someone I consider to have good taste in writing expressed curiosity about my writing hobby, then (after I handed over the link with some misgivings) gave in-person feedback.
Pointing out the obvious - that I'm catastrophically failing to cross the gender gap with my narration. Mikuru narrates like a precocious, snarky, likeable eight-year old boy.
GODDAMN IT (because I have no idea how to even begin to rectify this)
And what was to me less obvious - there was just the one bit at the beginning where I display a reasonably engaging sense of character, and then everything after that goes flat.
GODDAMN IT * 10,000 (because I can't sustain the state in which the indicated bit was written for maybe more than half an hour on a good day)
If I can't... write about... people... how... can I... understand them?? As something other than mechanisms to be exploited! This is, surprisingly enough, pretty important to me!
(Which is probably why I spend so much of my time writer's blocked.)
Sorry, needed to vent. I think I'm overreacting right now. (Been a while since I've overreacted to something... I think it's because someone in-person unwittingly saw -- for just a moment -- past my facade to what is arguably part of the psychologically shriveled thing within, and then had the -- from my perspective -- condescension to tell me that I was worrying too much about a non-issue. They didn't do anything wrong, but when I can hide a problem that well it becomes an incredibly isolating feeling.)
Probably in the morning I'll resolve to do less bitching and more writing. Even if it comes out as mostly drivel. Or maybe I'll drop my story and search for an easier idea. It's also a fifty-fifty chance I might delete this post.
Keep writing. The answers may seem far away, but more experience and practice will only bring you closer to your goals.
Okay, putting the hissy fit aside.
With the specific fic I'm talking about, it was a weird but potentially fun idea; however mostly unworkable since I didn't know which end to grasp the story from. Which was... it was a spur of the moment decision to switch the entire fic to first person Mikuru narration. And the first chapter felt like it came out fine (the sum of feedback I've received seems to indicate she's at least mischaracterized in an engaging fashion) and I thought that the idea might, after all, come together. Except it's a huge problem to have a female narrator if I can't write feminine prose (at any age) and people notice this fact.
(My first choice of fandom, Lucky Star, is also kind of problematic in that regard, with a cast of mostly girls.)
Which brings me to the problem of just plain finding inspiration. It's pretty obvious that unless I'm really inspired, what I produce isn't even engagingly mischaracterized, it's just flat. With weird, occasionally squick-inducing spikes which I use instead of emotional engagement. Which corresponds nicely to the way my flat, immovable psyche perceives things.
Right, except I'm not that inspired, in spite of having a serious psychological need to do this. I'm not even sure what to write anymore. Since these frustrations have drained my inspiration and without inspiration I have to admit I'm stuck at a very low baseline. And experience shows the only way to get inspired again is to do some (passable) writing first.
The question comes back to what.
/me wanders off to think.
What is it that this person found to be masculine about the piece? I admit, writing from a female perspective is something I can only guess at and approximate. There must be something recognizably not how most girls or women would think that should give some idea of how to fix it.
It is indeed a common problem. Anastasia's right, though. You have to keep iterating, and keep getting criticism from people who know what your character should sound like. See point one, here (http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/02/03/thoughts-on-zoes-tale/).
I can't really blame the people on this forum for not pointing it out / calling me on this / noticing; with the field being dominated by male otaku with moderate writing ability at best, it logically seems like it should be a common enough problem that it's not even worth giving grief about it? I don't know.
(Although it was distinctly pointed out that the character doesn't really feel like Mikuru, which should have been the giveaway for me.)
I remember sarsaparilla mentioned struggling to cross the gap in the other direction to write Kyon narration. Should have paid more attention to that, as well.
...I'm not the best person to say this, but I'm not sure that's an entirely valid criticism, Arakawa. The gender-bias bit, I mean. The issue on getting the character, maybe -- the gender.... If you have the character, doesn't that just come with it?
I don't know-- Maybe I'm horrible at it and have never actually managed to capture gender notions in my writing correctly-- Maybe it's all hugely masculinely biased and I just don't know it-- But I don't see that as a crippling bar to storytelling.
I agree with parts of not worrying about it too much. But specifically where it gets to that point; the goal is to tell the story. Obviously, the presentation and capturing the character is important, but worrying about hugely strong gender implications feels kind of.... For an eight year old? Really?
It's more off that she mentions going to a bar and having a beer (an age slip, if you will, instead of a gender one) -- but that was intentional on your part, so. Maybe that's just me.
Anyway-- I've got a pile of unused ideas. I doubt you'd like any of them, but I wouldn't be surprised if one of them gave you the inspiration for a better one.
Edit: For what it's worth, I don't think Sarsaparilla's portrayal of Kyon feels 'feminine'. Maybe I'm just blind to this issue-- I dunno.
Part of it was that the person was unfamiliar with the Haruhi series, so they built the character in their head as male (based purely on the prose style) and then described being surprised to see the narrator refer to herself as a little girl. Maybe just bad luck? This is someone I'd assume to have a nose for these things.
So the situation was completely different from opening up a Haruhi fic knowing in advance that it's going to be narrated by, say, Kyon and that Kyon is a guy. (So you immediately adjust the prose to sound male in your head, I guess, even if the particular writer gave it female aspects.)
(This also has to do with the last thing I was blocked on, trying to transfer bits and pieces of the Doctor's personality to Haruhi, while having her remain recognizably Haruhi.)
I'm going to take Brian's advice and not worry about this particular aspect of things that mch since it's a complete and utter blind spot for me at the moment. (I'm not even sure I can estimate how large a degree of difference exists between the genders in prose style.) If I was a professional writer like the guy linked by Jon I could afford the time and emotional drain of studying the problem and pestering women to read my drafts, but at this stage...
EDIT (seeing Brian's edit): to summarize, trying to understand the difference between genders in writing (in complete isolation from character), is something I'd be inclined to do if I was paid to write. Since this is fanfiction... I think I'll settle on just getting one character right at a time.
Which I still need to work on...
Regarding sarsaparilla's writing, I'm referring to her complaint at one point that she has an easier time getting Kyonko's voice right than Kyon's, not to any of my observations of her writing style which on this point aren't exactly going to be clear or accurate. (The Kyon/Kyonko thing was cited as frustrating since the genderflip universe isn't really a goldmine of inspiring premises, to put it mildly... whereas conversely most of my interesting ideas happen to involve girls in prominent roles, so I seem to have an analogous difficulty. I'd have better luck writing male characters, if I weren't interested in premises which don't feature them.)
I assume sars just treats the issue exactly like you said, like one of many attributes of the character to get right.
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on January 17, 2012, 01:56:29 AM
Part of it was that the person was unfamiliar with the Haruhi series, so they built the character in their head as male (based purely on the prose style) and then described being surprised to see the narrator refer to herself as a little girl. Maybe just bad luck? This is someone I'd assume to have a nose for these things.
I think this is something to highlight in fluorescent yellow marker and tack an exclamation point on at the end. I think the power of the preconceived notion has a lot of influence toward filling in the gaps that the writer takes for granted--whether by choice or by necessity. Simply thinking "this is a boy" and then finding out it's not can be enough to taint one's perceptions. Readers aren't writers--I tell myself this a lot. A reader trying to tell you what's wrong with a piece is like a patient trying to tell a doctor what's wrong with them. They can say what hurts or doesn't feel right, but that's not a diagnosis, and it doesn't tell you how best to fix it.
No REM phase on account of Shami deciding that two hours of sleep is plenty for me.
For what it's worth, I didn't find anything in the fic that was particularly indicative of Mikuru acting like a boy. I'd tend to disregard that remark as largely a case of male being the default gender if not told otherwise.
Concerning my problems with the portrayal of Kyon, it wasn't a fear of writing a feminine character as much as a fear of writing a neutral and/or flat one. My portrayal of Kyonko contained several little details that allowed me to make an emotional connection with the character; however, those details would have been out of place on Kyon. I understand the basic gender differences on a mechanical level which allows me to suppress any improper tendencies that my mind suggests for a character, but I have a hard time trying to come up with substitutes that would allow me to feel the kind of connectedness that I need for a convincing portrayal. As an example, in The Shadow it was a conscious choice that while Kyon described girls' clothes to a certain degree, he never described his own beyond acknowledging that he was wearing some. While that was a plausible thing to do, it didn't help me 'feel like Kyon' and I had to wonder what I might be missing. On the other hand, I could very easily connect with, e.g., the alternate!Mikuru (as I observed the whole chapter through her eyes), and people remarked that my portrayal of her seemed to have a greater than average degree of depth.
I think that I've had some progress in this issue, but it's still all too easy to slip out of Kyon's PoV in any situation where he's interacting with somebody I find easier to connect with.
Got to wok last night and the moment I stepped into my work area I vomited everything in my stomach up.
Got sent home, but couldn't actually drive because the nausea was so intense. I end up sitting in my car for an hour hoping the nausea will die down. Once it did I tried for home. Made it three blocks or thereabouts. Pulled into gas station and thankfully they had some stuff to keep the nausea down enough for me to get home.
This is my third sick day in the last two weeks.
Today is one of 'those' days. Inadequate sleep, poor meditation, my right hand is bleeding in three places (only two for the left), the meetings I cared about all got canceled, and my plans to work from home tomorrow were suddenly interrupted by my boss rescheduling today's 1:1 to tomorrow.
At least I was able to get my laundry money and pay my phone bill.
Broke my Pc today. Bought a new processor and tried to install it. In my excitement and stupidity, I bent the pins. Shit, that's money down the drain. Also, turns out my old processor was stuck to the bottom of the old heatsink. Thus when I pulled it out, the processor came out incorrectly and the pins in that one are bent too. Dammit.
RMA it anyway. 90% chance they'll only check I it's in the box before try send you a new one.
Alright, will give it a try.
I recall tedious hours of manual pin-straightening with needle-nosed pliers in similar situations before. -_-
If plausible, you may want to try straightening them at least cosmetically -- enough to pass an 'at-a-glance' inspection.
I might write this one off as a loss, depending on if my motherboard was damaged. Sadly, can't test it out now to see if it works. Would an improper removal of a Cpu damage the motherboard?
Only of it was either powered or you left pins behind. Or you manhandled the socket and pulled it loose
Yea, I'm afraid I likely manhandled the socket. Because I removed the heatsink and the Cpu came off with it, it was stuck to the thermal paste. Normally, I would be able to remove the heatsink and then the processor by releasing a lever. Did not get the chance to do that.
RMA it anyhow. Get a working one. Try again on this motherboard. If it doesn't work, you still have a perfectly good processor to plug into the next board. don't write it off man, those things are expensive.
Yea they are. Alright, thanks for the help.
Ok, so I applied for a RMA and paid for a shipping label. Does anyone know how rigorous Newegg is when inspecting returns? Oh well, what's done is done I guess.
They're not. I've RMAed several things through them. Very smooth.
Well, that's good to know. Thanks.
Nearly got arrested by TSA & police at Security, got thrown off a plane for being on the wrong flight, and now the plane I'm supposed to be on is broken. Whee!
Red letter trip home, eh?
I have learned that it is very, VERY important to make sure that there are no KNIVES in your carry-on luggage before entering the airport.
I'll take No Fucking Shit for 2,000, Alex.
I was going to go with, "where have you been since 9/11/2001?"
I thought it was in a drawer underneath my computer monitor.
End of the story: I lost a $70 knife, 30 minutes, and some of my pride.
Sorry to hear that, Yuth. :(
...though the fine is much smaller than I would have expected -- thanks for that, right?
Quote from: Yuthirin on January 18, 2012, 10:06:20 PM
I thought it was in a drawer underneath my computer monitor.
End of the story: I lost a $70 knife, 30 minutes, and some of my pride.
They confiscated the knife?
Well, what else would they do with the knife? It can't go in the plane, and they're not likely to make a nice offer to put it into long term storage for when you come back...
(Unless there was someone seeing you off?)
The knife cost me $70 in the store, there was no fine. They just loomed threateningly at me for 30 minutes while they checked if they needed to arrest me or not.
Quote from: Anastasia on January 18, 2012, 10:24:30 PM
Quote from: Yuthirin on January 18, 2012, 10:06:20 PM
I thought it was in a drawer underneath my computer monitor.
End of the story: I lost a $70 knife, 30 minutes, and some of my pride.
They confiscated the knife?
Of course. They confiscate nail files, Dune.
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on January 18, 2012, 10:43:15 PM
Well, what else would they do with the knife? It can't go in the plane, and they're not likely to make a nice offer to put it into long term storage for when you come back...
(Unless there was someone seeing you off?)
They had unfortunately already left!
Quote from: Yuthirin on January 18, 2012, 10:50:48 PMOf course. They confiscate nail files, Dune.
Yeah, I figured. Just wanted to be clear on it. That does blow pretty hard.
It's my own fault.
When I came back from my first tour in Iraq, we returned on a Delta charter flight (military only). I got onto this flight wearing full combat equipment (body armor, kevlar helmet, magazine pouches, ect.), a SAW (machine gun), a drum of security ammo (200 rounds), a 6 inch combat/fighting knife, and a couple of people had M203 (grenade launcher) rounds and hand grenades.
Before I got onto the plane with all of the above, they confiscated my multi-tool because it was an 'unauthorized weapon.'
To this day, my response is simply: "....whut?"
The military, everyone.
hrg
Sometimes, I really hate my country.
http://www.wolfhirschhorn.org/2012/01/amelia/brick-walls/
At least I'm allowed to complain about it. >_<
My only opinion is that the business of deciding who gets transplants and why is absolutely miserable.
That's probably true, but this wasn't about saying she could get an organ or not -- it's about the doctors saying that even if the parents donated their own, they refused to do the surgery.
Quality of life is certainly a factor that goes into approving invasive and traumatic medical treatment such as surgery. I know there are plenty of cases where the family of a patient wants some heroic measures to keep someone alive, and it's the doctor's ethical responsibility to say no.
In this case, man, I don't know. Is it even medically a good idea for an adult to donate a kidney to a child?
The underlying issue, however, is unequivocally not unique to the United States. So if this prompts emotions, it's more like hating modern society in general and the methods it uses to solve ethical dilemmas :-|
Quote from: Brian on January 19, 2012, 06:54:03 PM
hrg
Sometimes, I really hate my country.
http://www.wolfhirschhorn.org/2012/01/amelia/brick-walls/
At least I'm allowed to complain about it. >_<
I am entirely unsurprised by this situation and I'm inclined to side with the doctors on their decision.
However, their social worker is a giant pile of shit.
Rashes. RASHES EVERYWHERE.
Goddamn monkeys everywhere.
Quote from: Brian on January 19, 2012, 06:54:03 PM
hrg
Sometimes, I really hate my country.
http://www.wolfhirschhorn.org/2012/01/amelia/brick-walls/
At least I'm allowed to complain about it. >_<
Anastasia is right: it's a miserable business. I read another couple of actual news articles about this particular baby and the travails of the parents trying to get this transplant done. If it were a question of how best to use some stranger's donor kidney, the doctors
might have some cause to deny the child, especially if the organ has another recipient waiting in the queue for it, but if the parent is willing to donate only for their child specifically and has the money to burn on it, the doctors don't really have an ethical leg to stand on for denying the transplant. The little Peruvian(?) doctor is acting like once the organ is out of the parent, it no longer belongs to the parent but to the medical community to be used at their discretion. Bad, bad, bad way to look at it.
Also, the question of whether mental facility is used as a screening criterion is all over the place, according to one article. About 40% do, 40% don't, and the remainder are somewhere in the middle.
A miserable business, indeed...
Edit: Jon brings up a good point: can you stuff an adult kidney into a toddler?
Quote from: Iron Dragoon on January 19, 2012, 12:08:09 PM
When I came back from my first tour in Iraq, we returned on a Delta charter flight (military only). I got onto this flight wearing full combat equipment (body armor, kevlar helmet, magazine pouches, ect.), a SAW (machine gun), a drum of security ammo (200 rounds), a 6 inch combat/fighting knife, and a couple of people had M203 (grenade launcher) rounds and hand grenades.
Before I got onto the plane with all of the above, they confiscated my multi-tool because it was an 'unauthorized weapon.'
To this day, my response is simply: "....whut?"
They'll let you onboard with enough ordinance to blow the plane up, but God forbid you have the capacity to take it apart with your multitool. :D
Quote from: Sinom Bre on January 20, 2012, 11:52:32 PM
They'll let you onboard with enough ordinance to blow the plane up, but God forbid you have the capacity to take it apart with your multitool. :D
Yep. Pretty much. I could have disabled the smoking alarm in the lavatory, god forbid.
Today I am wearing All of the Hats.
It sucks. I want like seven people to try and tackle these.
Quote from: Dracos on January 24, 2012, 03:27:14 PM
Today I am wearing All of the Hats.
It sucks. I want like seven people to try and tackle these.
Just go all Kirby on them and delegate. ;p
This is the third time this morning I have heard this Ke$ha song on the radio. I hate it. I want to turn it off. I lack that option.
Quote from: Sinom Bre on January 24, 2012, 05:02:04 PM
Quote from: Dracos on January 24, 2012, 03:27:14 PM
Today I am wearing All of the Hats.
It sucks. I want like seven people to try and tackle these.
Just go all Kirby on them and delegate. ;p
Well, Kirby doesn't really delegate. He eats people, steals thier jobs, and does all the work himself. Which seems to be what Drac is already doing here.
Minus the eating people part.
Hopefully.
I haven't won the Power Ball lotto. That really sucks.
Quote from: Sinom Bre on January 25, 2012, 05:59:40 PMI haven't won the Power Ball lotto. That really sucks.
We've been over this, DFR.
You gotta buy tickets.
Quote from: Brian on January 25, 2012, 07:17:22 PM
Quote from: Sinom Bre on January 25, 2012, 05:59:40 PMI haven't won the Power Ball lotto. That really sucks.
We've been over this, DFR.
You gotta buy tickets.
Damn! I was hoping to skip that step in the process... I am of the opinion that the money you win is the money you don't spend on lotto tickets. :)
I want to get things done tonight, but damned if I can focus. I open up a tab to be productive, stare at it for a few minutes and then end up on another unrelated tab. An hour later I've pissed all that time away. It's the sort of night that's dominated by wiki, tvtropes and youtube. Urgh.
On the other hand, my outlining has been very productive lately.
Too productive.
What the hell do you do when the plot summary for one of your fics is ballooning over 5,000 words and mentions (counts on fingers) whew merely fifteen characters to worry about getting right, and the outline for another one of your fics seems likely to reach 10,000 words and presently covers hundreds of years of backstory?
(My primary fear is that these ideas are going to be just too complicated to solicit meaningful feedback on.)
On the plus side, the process is making me feel inspired. Inspired and severely daunted by the scale of what I'm trying to undertake.
When inspiration hits, run with it. You can always come back down to earth afterwards. Let the idea bloom and trim it down later.
I got walked out of work by the police tonight.
That's...not good. What happened?
Oh geez, that's bad. Got fired? I know that's standard procedure in some places, and at the hospital security at any firing was mandatory.
Quote from: Anastasia on January 27, 2012, 11:57:55 PM...dominated by wiki, tvtropes and youtube. Urgh.
I WIN AGAIN, LEWS THERIN.
/me coughs.
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on January 28, 2012, 12:32:11 AMWhat the hell do you do when the plot summary for one of your fics is ballooning over 5,000 words....
I'm positive I could take the same summary and strip it down to less than half that word-count. What's probably going on is that as you plot out the outline, you determine other details that are more than just 'summary' in scope-- But because it's your plan moving forward, you include them anyway. For what it's worth, I frequently outline large blocks of details/ideas to include in a scene.
On a few occasions, the outlined text resulted in a scene that was not much longer than its summary. This is probably not a bad thing, and like all writing techniques, it's probably something you'll want to play around with.
From my personal experience, that level of detail is fine for the first two scenes, but as you reference scenes a chapter or two down the line....
The big risk is that one of your characters will surprise you at 10% of your summary, and do something that ruins all of your planning. Then you have to chose between something that (to you) feels forced to keep the story on track, or discarding much (possibly _all_) of your outline.
My suggestion would be to scale back the level of detail in your committed outline for anything more than two chapters beyond what you've written -- at least until you get closer to writing them. Don't throw anything away, but further ideas can be written out, or moved to a 'snippets' file (or the like) for later consideration to see where an appropriate scene to apply them might be.
But that's just me. >_>;
Quote from: thepanda on January 28, 2012, 02:11:19 AMI got walked out of work by the police tonight.
Echoing the 'what happened'?
QuoteThe big risk is that one of your characters will surprise you at 10% of your summary, and do something that ruins all of your planning. Then you have to chose between something that (to you) feels forced to keep the story on track, or discarding much (possibly _all_) of your outline.
This happened in Sword and Shadow. Had a nice story outline(about a page), and individual chapter outlines(about a paragraph each) all done up through the end of the story.
Then the characters changed the game on me. -_-
Story's turned out for the better because of it, but was still a bit "well fuck. What now?" at the time.
Quote from: Brian on January 28, 2012, 02:18:12 AM
I WIN AGAIN, LEWS THERIN.
I had a tough time explaining why I was laughing so hard at work at 9 am.
QuoteWhat happened?
Stupid work policy. I still have my job, by the by, they just forced four of us to take a day suspension (with pay!) because our names were on a piece of paperwork. The details don't really matter.
Thing is, it used to be that something like this would take 10 minutes to process and we'd be back in our work area. Now? They take your badge and police escort you out of the building. Oh, and it stays on your record for 24 months.
Customer complaints suck. Especially for government jobs. :(
Quote from: thepanda on January 28, 2012, 12:41:28 PM
QuoteWhat happened?
Stupid work policy. I still have my job, by the by, they just forced four of us to take a day suspension (with pay!) because our names were on a piece of paperwork. The details don't really matter.
Thing is, it used to be that something like this would take 10 minutes to process and we'd be back in our work area. Now? They take your badge and police escort you out of the building. Oh, and it stays on your record for 24 months.
Welcome to the era of Homeland Insecurity, I guess.
Quote from: thepanda on January 28, 2012, 12:41:28 PM
QuoteWhat happened?
Stupid work policy. I still have my job, by the by, they just forced four of us to take a day suspension (with pay!) because our names were on a piece of paperwork. The details don't really matter.
Thing is, it used to be that something like this would take 10 minutes to process and we'd be back in our work area. Now? They take your badge and police escort you out of the building. Oh, and it stays on your record for 24 months.
That is a remarkably stupid policy. Glad it wasn't any worse, Panda.
Physicists and mathematicians have spent hundreds of years trying to find a general solution to the three-body problem.
And yet it is nowhere near as complex and chaotic as the generalized three-mind problem.
sigh
I've yet to solve either the one-mins OR the one-body problem.
Quote from: Brian on January 28, 2012, 02:18:12 AM
Quote from: Anastasia on January 27, 2012, 11:57:55 PM...dominated by wiki, tvtropes and youtube. Urgh.
I WIN AGAIN, LEWS THERIN.
Jeez, I didn't think anybody was still thinking about WoT anymore. :)
/me echoes Yuth's laughter...
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on January 28, 2012, 06:23:44 PM
Physicists and mathematicians have spent hundreds of years trying to find a general solution to the three-body problem.
And yet it is nowhere near as complex and chaotic as the generalized three-mind problem.
sigh
What are those, anyway? Mathematics aren't my strong suit.
The n-body problem in physics is to determine the motion of n ideal point particles which interact via gravity, given their initial positions and velocities. For n=1 and n=2 the solution is basically trivial. When you add a third particle, however, things can start to get seriously funky:
(http://www.scholarpedia.org/w/images/c/c4/3body_problem_resonance_scattering.gif)
http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Three_body_problem
(image and link chosen for its ability to start out intimidating and get even more intimidating the more you look at it)
The generalized three-mind problem has absolutely nothing to do with physics, mathematics, or science. It is what I regularly fail to solve when I can understand the interactions between my own mind and that of another person's, and I can understand the interactions between my own mind and that of some third person's, but when myself and the two other people interact, I suddenly have no clue what is going on anymore.
Looking at that picture, it's a fairly good metaphor for a love triangle. 1 and 2 in a stable relationship, wind up colliding head-on with 3. Some messy stuff happens, and 1 runs off with the much more quirky and exciting 3, while 2 is left to plummet into the interstellar void.
Thankfully, the specific three-mind problem I'm facing is, in comparison, a silly and minor thing which should be much easier to deal with.
Physics is a good way to put your problems in perspective ^_^;;
Wow, I get like none of that in your first post. But hey, if it makes things better for you it's all good.
Arakawa, people tend to behave at least slightly differently in different company. As you have your own bonds and connections with various people, don't they also have them with one-another? I don't think that the parallel is that close....
You're being too hard on yourself again. :)
Hum. Somehow this is locked.
Unlocked.
Puzzling. I'm usually the culprit, but the 'lock' function is nowhere near the reply or quote buttons.
I went 0-3 at the Dark Ascension prerelease event tonight. (Magic the Gathering event.) Bad cards, worse luck.
I also have a suspicion the first guy I was playing may have been cheating. He had two planeswalkers (powerful, ultra-rare cards). He had three packs that could have each had one of those cards, so it's possible he was just very very lucky in which cards his packs had. But for some strange reason he was storing those cards (and only those cards) in a bag identical to the bags the store packages your ordered cards in, when you order them individually. May well have been a coincidence, but it nags at me.
Quote from: Dracos on January 29, 2012, 02:27:51 AM
Hum. Somehow this is locked.
Unlocked.
Wasn't me, either. Got no idea on this one.
Quote from: Jon on January 29, 2012, 02:32:07 AM
I went 0-3 at the Dark Ascension prerelease event tonight. (Magic the Gathering event.) Bad cards, worse luck.
I also have a suspicion the first guy I was playing may have been cheating. He had two planeswalkers (powerful, ultra-rare cards). He had three packs that could have each had one of those cards, so it's possible he was just very very lucky in which cards his packs had. But for some strange reason he was storing those cards (and only those cards) in a bag identical to the bags the store packages your ordered cards in, when you order them individually. May well have been a coincidence, but it nags at me.
Eh. I played some Magic back in the day and I've had that happen. Random schmuck draws awesome boosters while you struggle to do anything. Wasn't grounds for anything by itself unless there was another reason to call bullshit. I remember one guy got two Yawgmonth's Will and a Serra Avatar in four boosters. What can ya do, you know?
Quote from: Jon on January 29, 2012, 02:32:07 AMI also have a suspicion the first guy I was playing may have been cheating. He had two planeswalkers (powerful, ultra-rare cards). He had three packs that could have each had one of those cards, so it's possible he was just very very lucky in which cards his packs had. But for some strange reason he was storing those cards (and only those cards) in a bag identical to the bags the store packages your ordered cards in, when you order them individually. May well have been a coincidence, but it nags at me.
I can't speak to whether the fellow was cheating or not, but getting double Planeswalkers in a draft isn't too impossible. The most improbable thing I've done was open two Akroma, Angel of Fury in row while cracking Planar Chaos boosters.
Even if it doesn't feel fair, try not to let it pull you down too much. After all, you got to go to a prerelease. As long as you had some fun.
Quote from: Jon on January 29, 2012, 02:32:07 AMI also have a suspicion the first guy I was playing may have been cheating. He had two planeswalkers (powerful, ultra-rare cards).
Vague hate for imbalanced-paying-field games in general. CCGs with 'rarer' and 'more powerful cards' are either a genius marketing ploy, or a horrifyingly blatant marketing ploy. Did you at least have fun?
Well, it was sealed limited, not draft. Still, it's possible, and I wouldn't have been suspicious had he not had them in a purchased-card bag. I really dislike non-draft limited, I guess. At this point I'm going to the prereleases mostly out of tradition. (And I was supposed to meet a friend there, but she didn't show.)
(Also I dislike most of the people who play Magic at shops. Please, take a shower before coming.)
Wait, your store has to do Sealed with only three packs? Booster packs? I haven't played Sealed since they stopped making tournament packs for Sealed so I don't know what the procedure is these days, but I'm pretty sure ~45 cards per player is not big enough a card pool to play 40-card Sealed.
nope, six packs. but it's the release of the second set in the block, so we got three packs of Innistrad and three of Dark Ascension. His planeswalkers were Garruk and Lilliana, so both Innistrad planeswalkers. He'd have to get two planeswalkers out of three packs.
(Silly me, trying to simplify my bitching for the benefit of non-players.)
Oh, whew. I was about to say....
Woke up with crippling migraine.
I have got to stop using tvtropes for fanfic recs.
Dare I ask?
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on January 28, 2012, 06:23:44 PM
And yet it is nowhere near as complex and chaotic as the generalized three-mind problem.
There is a fairly interesting book by Allen Pease called "The Definitive Book of Body Language" that purports to address this topic. I haven't really seriously studied it (read through it once or twice, but haven't practiced any of it beyond the hand chapter), so I can't say whether there's something to it or not, but if you're really frustrated and motivated to learn how to read people...
Quote from: Anastasia on January 29, 2012, 09:41:40 PM
Dare I ask?
Let's just say that when half of the reviews on the massive recs page purport the fics to be the 'best Naruto fanfic I've ever read' while simultaneously describing premises so absurd it makes you wonder how the hell someone could ever pull that off well, don't wonder.
Because they can't.
Seriously, who was the genius that came up with the 'Naruto is banished from the Hidden Leaf' plot? Or the bane of my current foray into the fandom, 'Naruto is abused/beaten/regularly mobbed by the citizens/ninja'?
It has gotten so god damned annoying I feel like punching the internet.
Everyone (!) loves a super-duper-(mega-ultra-bodacious)tragic hero! Especially if he's abused by father figures and friends!
You see this a lot in Harry Potter fanfics as well. It's really irritating.
Quote from: Yuthirin on January 29, 2012, 11:57:34 PM
Everyone (!) loves a super-duper-(mega-ultra-bodacious)tragic hero! Especially if he's abused by father figures and friends!
You see this a lot in Harry Potter fanfics as well. It's really irritating.
I'm glad I don't read those fandoms now.
Quote from: Yuthirin on January 29, 2012, 11:57:34 PM
Everyone (!) loves a super-duper-(mega-ultra-bodacious)tragic hero! Especially if he's abused by father figures and friends!
You see this a lot in Harry Potter fanfics as well. It's really irritating.
It's so stupid, though. They're really just going to kick their NUCLEAR WEAPON out of the village because he dared harm Sasuke when he went to retrieve the kid RUNNING AWAY TO JOIN THEIR ENEMIES!? And this isn't just one fic, oh no. This is a sub-genre of Naruto fic unto itself.
Yeah, I've definitely learned to treat tvtropes recs with a healthy dose of salt. You do still stand a better chance of coming across decent fics there than general ff.net searches, but most fandoms are split about 50/50 between worthwhile reads and drek in my experience.
The thing about TVTropes recs is ... while most tropers have fairly high standards in terms of qualities, there are no bars in adding fics to the recs pages. I mean none. It's even explicitly permissible to recommend your own stuff.
It's a wiki. Anyone can edit it.
Of course, in that example, yeah, there's also a pile of people who agree it's awesome. In Naruto specifically, this is what I consider an extension of the RSE situation. NSEs, instead-- People want Naruto to be a hero emerging from tragedy, so they make all of his 'pranks' either a testament to his amazing skill, or entirely justified because the leaf villagers are monumental idiots in order to (presumably) make him seem more sympathetic.
For what it's worth? I haven't much read Naruto fics like that. Because when it heads that direction, I find something else to read.
On topic:
Insomnia. -_-
Edit: Also:
BLEAGH. Someone asked me for the old (crappy) ending of Later to be restored. Bah. BAH!
Quote from: thepanda on January 29, 2012, 11:40:22 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on January 29, 2012, 09:41:40 PM
Dare I ask?
Let's just say that when half of the reviews on the massive recs page purport the fics to be the 'best Naruto fanfic I've ever read' while simultaneously describing premises so absurd it makes you wonder how the hell someone could ever pull that off well, don't wonder.
Because they can't.
Seriously, who was the genius that came up with the 'Naruto is banished from the Hidden Leaf' plot? Or the bane of my current foray into the fandom, 'Naruto is abused/beaten/regularly mobbed by the citizens/ninja'?
It has gotten so god damned annoying I feel like punching the internet.
It's not correct.
But you can blame skysaber. There's even reasonable evidence to support.
Quote from: Brian on January 30, 2012, 11:01:39 AM
The thing about TVTropes recs is ... while most tropers have fairly high standards in terms of qualities, there are no bars in adding fics to the recs pages. I mean none. It's even explicitly permissible to recommend your own stuff.
It's a wiki. Anyone can edit it.
Of course, in that example, yeah, there's also a pile of people who agree it's awesome. In Naruto specifically, this is what I consider an extension of the RSE situation. NSEs, instead-- People want Naruto to be a hero emerging from tragedy, so they make all of his 'pranks' either a testament to his amazing skill, or entirely justified because the leaf villagers are monumental idiots in order to (presumably) make him seem more sympathetic.
For what it's worth? I haven't much read Naruto fics like that. Because when it heads that direction, I find something else to read.
On topic:
Insomnia. -_-
Edit: Also:
BLEAGH. Someone asked me for the old (crappy) ending of Later to be restored. Bah. BAH!
Well, to be fair, dropping lil pranker kid naruto mostly from the script makes for a more interesting Naruto to follow in most cases.
Quote from: Dracos on January 30, 2012, 01:27:53 PM
But you can blame skysaber.
This is actually the answer to every problem. Ever. Anywhere. True story.
Quote from: Yuthirin on January 30, 2012, 01:35:48 PM
Quote from: Dracos on January 30, 2012, 01:27:53 PM
But you can blame skysaber.
This is actually the answer to every problem. Ever. Anywhere. True story.
Including the fact that I'm getting hives and sneezing right now?
Quote from: Anastasia on January 30, 2012, 01:36:38 PM
Quote from: Yuthirin on January 30, 2012, 01:35:48 PM
Quote from: Dracos on January 30, 2012, 01:27:53 PM
But you can blame skysaber.
This is actually the answer to every problem. Ever. Anywhere. True story.
Including the fact that I'm getting hives and sneezing right now?
Absolutely. Skysaber is a known allergen.
I'd believe that.
...Bjorn should come back from hiatus just to comment here.
Whatever happened to Bjorn, anyway?
As I understand it, mostly life. And a new GF that didn't like him spending what time he had with her online.
LIIIIIFEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Ah well.
That's when you put your foot down and say, damnit, I'm going online when I want to. :p
If I had an image macro of the cliche of the guy having to sleep on the couch, it'd be here. :\
Insecure girls = awesome.
An armful of warm woman versus you guys? Tough choice. Hmmm...
/me looks back and forth repeatedly.
Pick up car from body shop, park it at work garage, try to put it in a tight parking space, scrape car against pillar.
So, yeah, that's a nice scratch just above the rear right wheel. No way that's buffing out.
I'm trying to get this car ready to sell.
Fuck.
That sounds like prime FML territory.
That is in fact the hashtag I used when I posted about it on Twitter.
Well done.
Going through GMing notes, building dungeons. Hmm, misplaced the last dungeon I was working on. Go over to bookshelf where I have an entire shelf of just notes/character sheets/maps/etc. from various games I ran. Grab a notebook and see one of the maps I was looking for sticking out.
So far, so good.
Flip open notebook to the page the map is tucked into--
Realize notebook belongs to best friend who passed away six years ago, who ran one of the best games I've ever been in.
Cry for an hour.
...damn it.
Also, the rest of the maps I wanted were sitting on my kitchen table.
Edit: Nope. Evidently I pulled all my maps and notes out of that notebook. Except for the single map/page that ended up (somehow) in Sterling's notebook, all of my dungeons are missing. Presumably forever.
Time to start from (practically) scratch. =_=
So they finished their investigation at work.
I was fired tonight. I've never been fired before. It took everything I had not to start crying when they told me. I feel like shit.
Here's hoping I have better luck in the appeal process.
Condolences to both of you. G'luck with appeals, Panda.
...that sucks. :( I'm sorry, Panda.
Can you talk about it any detail now? I mean...from the way you framed it, it sounds like something minor being blown up.
I don't know why, but I just got a spontaneous attack of crippling depression.
There's not even a reason for it.
Sometimes I hate whatever parts of me make me feel.
Especially the part that makes me hate.
Still depressed-- Even woke up that way. It was strange, I had a dream (which I remembered some of), where I felt vague amusement about things, but I woke up and my depression immediately returned. Even meditating and trying to force myself into emotional shutdown didn't block out the depression.
Tried going to work and ignoring it, but sat at my desk for an hour feeling more miserable with each passing second.
...am home again now. Going back to bed; maybe I'll get to dream about feeling something more positive again. >_<
I've had days like that. Here's hoping you find some joy soon.
Cy didn't get the job he was hoping to get.
Silver lining: The chef likes him and offered him a lower-ranked position.
Bad side: It pays less than he earns now.
Back to the ol' job hunt. I'm also putting in apps places because at least the gov't will know I'm trying to get another job. Life is kind of up in the air right now.
Toronto Transit Commission is going to pot these days. Used to be I could budget about forty minutes to get to work (getting out to match the bus schedule) and an hour to get back. Now for the same commute I need to budget more like a full hour in the morning and -- today I took an hour and a half getting back. Some kind of scheduling snafu on the subway. Last week there was a day with *two* snafus -- someone felt sick at St. George and something caught on fire in St. Clair West station, both events happening simultaneously.
Ironically, today I was stuck in one of the new Rocket trains and the doorman was passing the time by repeatedly opening and closing its doors, the whole thing reminding me uncomfortably of scary stories I've read about that time MUNI Metro's fancy new signaling system went haywire in San Francisco.
(On the plus side, the new subway train was *shiny* and I was entertained by the computer-generated announcer voice repeatedly warning us to stand clear of doors, not to mention Hong Kong-style blinkenlights on the subway map.)
Wake up to inbox with nearly 50 e-mails saying, "Where's 'Sympathy'? It's coming back, right?"
Ugh. Not sure what to do. Re-write, remove the most (personally) uplifting and optimistic parts? Re-write, ignore some comments and try and write something that selfishly satisfies (evidently) just me?
No good answers.
Edit: Okay, compromise wins again.
So apparently a train derailed on the track I'm on. Freight. Yay.
Gonna be stuck there awhile, eh?
Maybe they'll pay for a cab if you're lucky.
It's METRA.
That's shorthand for that you're fucked, isn't it?
Half an hour late. Not terrible. Almost to the theater.
I hate drive by virus attempts. It's gotten to the point where I run Firefox in a sandbox since I'm sick of this shit.
AVG + Chrome = relative safety.
I run Firefox+Noscript+Ad-Block+Secunia, which stops a lot. I'm still tired of it, so I grabbed Sandboxie to run my browser out of.
As usual, I have no idea what a drive-by virus attack is. I haven't had a virus of any kind in years. Maybe I'm just not surfing the right sites. :)
Edit: Well, I do have the occasional bit of adware, but no real virus per se....
I'm pretty sure I'm on a six-plus day streak of 1-3 bad things happening every day.
It's kinda starting to grind a bit painfully.
Let's hope tomorrow at least breaks the streak and doesn't include shittiness like "You have to pay the fake ticket anyway!" or "And team x is down terribly." or "so and so now dislikes you."
Sounds like you need a day off doing nothing.
Yeah, I kinda could. But kinda don't really get that.
Want to come over for some cookies?
Confirmed: my roommates wish to move out. Which means finding replacements.
My right shoulder is freezing into place and it really freaking hurts and I don't know why it's happeninggggggggggggggggg
Hot shower, soak shoulder illiberally. If your shower-head has a 'massage' setting, dial it to 'most painful' and try to handle it like a boss for 10 minutes solid.
Then take a nap.
Took a shorter walk than I wanted to, since the dog wanted to sniff'n'shit every 5 feet in the middle of the fuckin' street.
Someone busted into my house again today.
I am now again short a ps3, a ds, a psp, and now also my new headset and my entire ps3 game collection.
Also they wrecked my room.
Thieves are awesome that way -_-
...holy shit. Man, Drac, that sucks. =/
F'in hell, Drac. That really does suck. Time to invest in some security?
If not a dog, I suggest a roommate with a long reach and a short temper.
I spent two hours working on a 15 minute task. So massively unproductive tonight that it's staggering.
Moving sucks...
Quote from: CyMage on February 10, 2012, 02:29:37 PM
Moving sucks...
OH GOD THERE'S NOT ENOUGH TIME! *runs around in circles*
On the bright side, moving from one location in the Golden Horseshoe to another location in the Golden Horseshoe probably doesn't suck nearly as much as moving across the continent...
You didn't hear? They're moving down to the bay :P
</unfortunately not. The gaming table is sad for this>
Getting pulled into the black hole that is the Bay Area is a perennial hazard in tech, particularly according to the conventional definition of "success" in the field.
(Personally, I wouldn't mind a job opportunity where I can spend a year or two in the bay just to see what the fuss is about, and then have the option to get out of there after two years with minimal career disruption, but seriously, how likely is that to happen? I found one opportunity like that, but didn't quite qualify, and now am committed to a different job. C'est la vie.)
Spent a few years watching acquaintances try (and sometimes succeed) to get into Google or Apple or this or that, with the grim determination of a Jane Austen bride prepping herself for marriage. I'm getting to suspect that the whole buzz back in the day about Google's "nurturing environment" was unconsciously due to the fact that it functioned as an idealized marriage surrogate for young, unloved nerds, meh, but this is me being cynical based on too little information. It could also just be they used to have good stock options.
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on February 10, 2012, 04:36:40 PM
On the bright side, moving from one location in the Golden Horseshoe to another location in the Golden Horseshoe probably doesn't suck nearly as much as moving across the continent...
And it's not as bad as moving across country boarders, which we did when I moved all my stuff from the US to Canada.
It just seems very sudden, even though we knew it was coming.
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on February 10, 2012, 06:18:32 PM
It could also just be they used to have good stock options.
Instead, now we just have good stock
grants. I got a grant of stock when I joined Google. Each summer, another chunk vests, and it's worth about 10% of my yearly salary.
Working at Google isn't perfect (speaking as someone with entrepreneurial tendencies, it's actually only just barely a good fit for me), but it is remarkably better than most CS job prospects.
My dog has a new plan. She wakes me up by nudging or licking my hand, acting like she has to go out. I stumble out and take her out, she rushes back in and past me when she's done. By the time I get back to my bed, she's curled up right in the middle and looking at me like she owns it.
Dogs.
Quote from: Anastasia on February 11, 2012, 12:14:40 AMDogs.
(http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/1037/businessdog.jpg)
BusinessDog regrets your decision to discriminate against canine-kind and will file litigation on Monday.
Cats. Forever. Dogs are teh suk. :)
(http://s6.postimage.org/nbxzfv7hd/1287666606877.jpg)
Guys: "You should run a game, I'll totally join it if you do!" x10(ish)
Me: (after weeks of pressure) "Fine, alright."
*puts effort into building a game*
GuyA: "Also, if I'm playing, GuyB can't."
Me: "...okay."
*time passes testing various online dungeon map tools, building encounters, etc.*
Me: "Alright-- Ready to launch. I put some effort into this, so who's interested?"
GuyA: "I was actually kind of wondering if you could just run a game for me."
Me: O_o "Uh ... yeah, let's see if we can't round up more players. Anyway-- GuyC, you're one of the people who said I should do this, do you want to play?"
GuyC: "Not really."
Me: "...."
GuyD: "Hey, join my new secret game that I'm not announcing on the board!" x2
Me: "Well, now I know why recruiting on the board isn't working. :|"
*goes out, drags potential players in from other sites trying to get game off the ground*
Me: "Well, that brings my total to two, unless I coerce a friend into joining when the game isn't their style. I guess I'll wait a bit and see if anyone else shows up."
*A week passes; no one else is interested*
Me: "...this is really not a good use of my time."
Congratulations, Soulriders online gaming community. You have successfully convinced me to not try again. Table-top and in-person only; this was an incredibly embittering experience.
I resent all of the people who pressured me to start this, and then (from my PoV) snickered behind their sleeves at my failure. The height of uncool; you could have just /kicked me from your chatroom if you didn't want me there.
I'm not a gamer, but I'll be your friend, Brian. :)
/me patpats.
I think I could use friends more than players anyway.
Quote from: Brian on February 11, 2012, 01:34:07 PMI resent all of the people who pressured me to start this, and then (from my PoV) snickered behind their sleeves at my failure. The height of uncool; you could have just /kicked me from your chatroom if you didn't want me there.
I don't think anyone's snickering at your failure, Brian. My advice - keep trying. Rather than letting depression and unhappiness speak, hang in there. Keep on trying, no one's trying to drag you down or mock you for it.
Quote from: Brian on February 11, 2012, 01:34:07 PM
I resent all of the people who pressured me to start this, and then (from my PoV) snickered behind their sleeves at my failure. The height of uncool; you could have just /kicked me from your chatroom if you didn't want me there.
I'm really sorry you feel this way. I know that I expressed interest because I thought it was a cool idea, but there's no way I could have played with me picking up more hours at work and my Balmuria hours drying up starting this week. I'm sorry you're upset, but I really don't think that there was any malice in anyone's actions here.
I can really only speak for myself though, so I could be wrong. I'm hoping that I'm not. I'd encourage you to keep trying with it as I still think it's a cool idea and I wish I could play it. With work, Balmuria, and having to learn Pathfinder which I don't really understand yet, I just can't do it.
The fact is that I like you and I hope you stick around. I'm sorry that you're upset over this.
So another instance of, "that sounds cool," and then a lack of follow-through?
While I'll get over it, I don't intend to try running another game online. The underlying issue is the fact that I didn't want to run this game -- I was pressured into it. 'Keep trying' doesn't feel like the right answer.
I wouldn't have minded terribly if I weren't pressured into it -- and then ignored. But I did this by request.
I think I was the friend you tried to convince to join. I remember you talking about it, but then I didn't hear any more from you. Sorry to hear that it all went up in smoke.
Eh, I'll get over it. It happens.
Trying to find good FF7 fanfiction is one thing. Trying to find good FF7 fanfiction without yaoi is difficult as hell.
Looking for anything in particular? X-over, romance, character focus, comedy, ect?
Quote from: Anastasia on February 13, 2012, 02:33:40 AM
Trying to find good FF7 fanfiction is one thing. Trying to find good FF7 fanfiction without yaoi is difficult as hell.
That's on the way to being the norm for almost any series to varying degrees.
I watched the GRAMMYs last night and I kind of wish I hadn't.
Eight years at one job doesn't seem so impressive when I put it on my resume.
Boiling eight years down into a few lines has that effect.
However, given that most employers only read the first page of most resumes, that's actually a good thing. Having worked so many jobs that they can't fit on a single page in a decade is much worse.
QuoteThe underlying issue is the fact that I didn't want to run this game -- I was pressured into it.
I don't want to sound like a dick here, but honestly? That line right there tells me it's probably for the best that it fell through. Running a game when you don't actually want to can make you resent your players and poison the freindship like nothing else. I let myself get pressured into running a game once! It turned out to be the worst game I ever ran, and I sorely regret ever doing it.
That's probably valid, but it still feels like a completely wasted effort on my part. :\
Tumblrs not to read when you're hungry.
(Work safe) http://cheese-porn.tumblr.com/
MotherFUCKER.
Go to bed. Must go to bed. Maybe just one more page on Reddit...
Looks like a major phishing blast of fake iTunes invoices went out last night. Today is going to be hell. -_-
I landed in DFW at midnight.
At 1 am I was in the hospital for sharp pains in my stomach.
At 2 am I found out I have apendicitis (which is better than what I was expecting: a herniea).
So now I have surgey at 4 pm.
Hell of a way to spend my first day home. Guess it's better than it happening 8000 feet into the mountains of a war zone, though.
Dammit Iddy, you're just full of surprises. Get better soon, glad it didn't burst on ya in the 'stan.
What can I say?
Go big or go home :P
How long are you going to be laid up from this, anyway? Hell of a way to dampen your coming home party.
Quote from: Anastasia on February 14, 2012, 01:29:14 PM
How long are you going to be laid up from this, anyway? Hell of a way to dampen your coming home party.
No freaking idea. Haven't met with the surgeon yet.
G'luck, man.
When I had appendicitis I was out of hospital in two days, but took a week to fully recover, for what that's worth.
Could be worse, you could be this (http://www.doctorross.co.za/antarctica/self-operation-tracking-down-a-good-story) guy. (for those too lazy to click, Soviet doctor on an Antarctic expedition comes down with appendicitis, operates on himself)
I made a couple of mistakes (https://plus.google.com/109980545908388166736/posts/2kJvXxznDTw) in my first attempt at making baguettes.
They ended up being more like crackers. Quite edible crackers, to be sure. But not baguettes.
All this driving to Toronto is hell on gas consumption. >.<
I'm 0 for 3 now in my in-person interviews for jobs. Well, let me rephrase. I turned down a job that paid more money in place of a job that potentially I could make even more money, but I didn't get the second (after leading comments that indicated that I would get the job), and worked sucked the big one today. Damn, I think I need a beer.
Quote from: Ranma_007 on February 15, 2012, 08:03:51 PM
I'm 0 for 3 now in my in-person interviews for jobs. Well, let me rephrase. I turned down a job that paid more money in place of a job that potentially I could make even more money, but I didn't get the second (after leading comments that indicated that I would get the job), and worked sucked the big one today. Damn, I think I need a beer.
You could go back to the first company, hat in hand, and ask if the offer's still open. You never know.
Quote from: Jon on February 15, 2012, 08:32:23 PM
Quote from: Ranma_007 on February 15, 2012, 08:03:51 PM
I'm 0 for 3 now in my in-person interviews for jobs. Well, let me rephrase. I turned down a job that paid more money in place of a job that potentially I could make even more money, but I didn't get the second (after leading comments that indicated that I would get the job), and worked sucked the big one today. Damn, I think I need a beer.
You could go back to the first company, hat in hand, and ask if the offer's still open. You never know.
Worth a shot unless they told you, point blank, you wouldn't be considered after this.
Never count your hypnotizing phoenix eggs before they hatch, Ranma!
The taste of burnt alfredo sauce lingers for hours and hours after eating. Tooth brushing? Mouthwash? No effect. Arghfuckle.
Quote from: Anastasia on February 17, 2012, 01:38:33 AM
The taste of burnt alfredo sauce lingers for hours and hours after eating. Tooth brushing? Mouthwash? No effect. Arghfuckle.
But why would you even eat it in the first place if it's burnt? It's like eating burnt popcorn.
Misplaced, stubborn pride.
I'm loathing milk based sauces for cooking. I can't seem to get them right on this stove to save my life. It was just an instant powder since I was in a hurry, but argh.
You need to heat it slowly, is the thing.
Yeah, I've been trying. This stove's burners get too hot too fast, I think.
You want alfredo generally on real darn low.
Yeah, I know. I'm just frustrated since this has happened several times with this oven. I've made alfredo before with other ovens just fine.
Maddening.
Yesterday was godawful. I was up until 8am, wired out of my damn mind. Finally fell asleep, only to wake up at noon to a screaming stomach. Fell asleep again around 2. Woke up at 5. Same stomach issue. Finally got back to sleep at 10:30, slept for 9 hours. That's sixteen hours. I'm terrified to go back to bed.
Sounds like you had a 24-hour flu (or some variant) and may not even have known it.
Generally speaking, Yuth, when you sleep that long ... it's because you need to.
BUT I COULDN'T SLEEP
And it scared the hell out of me. I haven't been in that state of wakefulness since I overdosed on coffee.
Ah, right. I remember you talking about that.
Did you feel anything peculiar while that was going on? Emotionally speaking, I mean. Also, did you eat anything that you've never had before/had not had in a long while?
It's not particularly common, but sometimes allergic reactions present themselves in odd ways.
(Though, in the back of my mind, I'm thinking this actually sounds a bit like someone slipped an upper into something you ate/drank. You get wired, freaked out by it, and the next day your body really starts to feel it and you're exhausted.)
All I did was eat at a restaurant with family. o_o
Exposure to anything unusual for you, then?
Same sushi place I always go to.
I hate hate hate HATE bugs. Argh.
Hum.
One piece is stripped off of manga fox too.
I suppose what's it called is really serious on trying to get their own digital offering off the ground.
Got back to my apartment to find the elevator broken.
Six story climb while exhausted.
Ugh.
In the spirit of bitching:
Why do light novels take so long to get official translations :(
There is an actual answer to that question, but do you want it? It's a sad tale (and I will need to go get someone to repeat it for me so I can repeat it back).
This is the slowest work day EVER. No calls. No walk-ins. No successful cold calls. Seriously.
Quote from: Iron Dragoon on February 14, 2012, 01:32:54 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on February 14, 2012, 01:29:14 PM
How long are you going to be laid up from this, anyway? Hell of a way to dampen your coming home party.
No freaking idea. Haven't met with the surgeon yet.
/me offers the use of his rusty spork for the after-procedure procedure. ^__^
BTW, are you up and about yet, Iddy?
Quote from: Sinom Bre on February 20, 2012, 06:12:44 PM
Quote from: Iron Dragoon on February 14, 2012, 01:32:54 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on February 14, 2012, 01:29:14 PM
How long are you going to be laid up from this, anyway? Hell of a way to dampen your coming home party.
No freaking idea. Haven't met with the surgeon yet.
/me offers the use of his rusty spork for the after-procedure procedure. ^__^
BTW, are you up and about yet, Iddy?
Mostly. I'm walking pretty well and I can sorta bend over and stretch now. Bandages should come off here in 3-4 more days.
I got a slight fever. Hope it goes away tomorrow.
Turns out our internet provider doesn't serve the area we're moving to. Time to find a new one. >.<
Sometimes, literally weeks after I look at something, I suddenly realize I was actually pissed off as all hell at it (without noticing at the time).
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=379064095 (note: iTunes U)
I got about ten minutes into the first lecture before quitting in what I thought was boredom and what I now realize is disgust.
I could literally write a volume about what is wrong with this picture, but let's start with the fact that when they teach an introductory course on justice, they start by having people contemplate the possibility that it can sometimes be laudable and moral to push a fat man into the path of a streetcar.
In answer to your question, Professor Sandel, if you push the fat man in front of the streetcar to save a bunch of other people, regardless of how moral (or not) the action might be considered by a Harvard professor of ethics, the fact that you did this out of the blue in the middle of Boston rather than in a war zone will mean that anyone remotely sane will immediately peg you as a sociopath and not want to associate with you.
Really. What the hell, Harvard?
(Sorry, that was vitriol. I actually have to force myself to share this, since I figure it's better to express the feeling rather than repress it and have it stew away unacknowledged inside my unconscious. I've been doing the latter far too often, I think...)
Ah, trolley problems. They are a splendid example of thought experiments which have absolutely nothing to do with the real world.
I misread "trolley problems" as "trolling problems".
Which, now that I think about it, is incredibly apt. Because it's basically trolling.
It (intentionally or unintentionally) goes for the jugular, so to speak, and attacks an unexamined point in most people's moral compass. That's why starting with it is so dishonest. It's perfectly fine to attack this kind of conundrum much later, after you have the intellectual ammunition not to feel completely overwhelmed. (Personally, I had to go into the nuances of the difference between everyday life and a war zone, and why societies tend to instill people with strong inhibitions against violence, and why on most days, when there isn't a contrived trolley accident or a total war going on, this is a good thing.)
But done right at the beginning like this, it just leaves the students feeling helpless (further accentuated by how people in the crowd are called upon to stand up and deliver stammering, monosyllabic replies, which the professor uniformly dismisses as all being "equally valid", and thus equally useless), and therefore vulnerable to having some fallacy shoved into their minds further down the road.
The more cynical part of me suggests that this is indeed intended to create an opening to shove some propaganda into their minds, which is a thoroughly depressing but perhaps accurate thought. It makes me want to go back into that course (with thick, rubber gloves this time), and figure out exactly what they could be selling.
I'm well aware there are dark places in my soul. I try not to dwell on them too much, but I acknowledge there's good reasons (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DrunkOnTheDarkSide) I shouldn't have a power like Haruhi's. (Thankfully, not something I have to worry about much.)
But there is something I don't know how to deal with. My brain has gotten its hands on an idea for what would basically be my equivalent of the "OH JOHN RINGO NO" material, and for obvious reasons it's a little hard to ignore. It wouldn't be about being a darker and edgier version of Captain America -- that's Ringo's kink, not mine -- but it's still not something I'm comfortable sharing the details of, even with you guys.
The thought tends to recur; I can usually put it out of my mind for a while, but it's surprisingly hard to forget an idea once you've thought of it.
You're not the only one to be there, Jon.
We all have those moments. And those ideas that do stick around for a while....
In my experience, it'll pass.
People who use the phrase 'cliffy' instead of cliffhanger need to be summarily fucking smacked.
That's a waste of a good smack.
I just spent three hours listening so a full-grown wealthy man defend his decision not to bathe and why his wife and children are wrong for abandoning him. He hasn't bathed with soap and water since May 13th of 1991, btw.
I CAN TASTE THE SMELL. IN MY MOUTH. OH GOD. IT'S EVERYWHERE.
Yuth, you live a charmed, and magical life, meeting characters more bizzare than any anime or manga could ever generate.
You should become a writer; translate these experiences into text.
Brian, I wouldn't inflict this an anyone. Not even the devil. This is awful. Febreez isn't working. Nothing works.
Vinegar.
In August of last year I tried to park in a compact parking slot at work. The slot next to mine was also a compact slot. Parked there was a 2001 Honda Odyssey. Which is a minivan.
I scraped the wheel well slightly getting out of there, so I did the right thing and left my card. He emailed me and said he was going to get an estimate but he didn't think it was worth worrying about. Then he didn't contact me for months.
Today he calls back and says he has an estimate for the damage to his car. The estimate is $1500. I told him that was insane, and he could either have $150 in cash or try his luck with my insurance. I hope they will laugh at him, because how do they know what may or may not have happened to the car in the intervening months.
From my experience, they'll pay him and ding your record for it. Just because he parked like a moron and waited 6 months to get it repaired doesn't mean they'll deny him. Though they might investigate it!
Did you get pictures? Of him parking a minivan in a spot labeled 'compact'? That's the kind of technicality your insurance company will eat up.
Hum.
Translation:
Jon was a good person. Jackass decided to kick him for it.
Really, being a good person, doesn't tend to pay well. Also if he doesn't already have your insurance, I would not bother to give it to him. Because with six months delay, he has no case worth speaking of for hit and run. Yuth is right though, trusting insurance to say 'no, that's stupid' and protect your interests isn't particularly a wise choice. I'll trust an agent to give it to me straight on how they'll screw me or help me. I wouldn't trust a random claim handler not to just accept a claim.
I already gave him the policy number. Worst that can happen is the insurance company decides to raise my rates. Since I'm selling the car next month I'll be canceling the policy anyway.
I guess I was kind of expecting car insurance to behave like health insurance in this regard and not pay out anything unless they absolutely had to.
Shame. Well, good luck.
Small claims like that usually get handwaved. It'll go on your claims record for three years, which is maintained by the state
G'luck, had a scare with that a few months ago. It usually doesn't amount to much.
I managed to accomplish absolutely nothing today.
Ugh.
On the other hand, you managed to accomplish absolutely nothing today!
Yay!
I had plans to accomplish things today.... It didn't happen. I lazed the day away.
Likewise. I just had zero focus on important things. Maybe tomorrow.
Thoughts:
Today is going to be really busy.
Reality:
I am either the bottleneck or The Supreme Expert for five departments with problems today while also trying to coordinate resolutions with people in two other countries.
Busy is not exactly a sufficient term for describing today. Though apparently I still have time to bitch about it between answering coding leads.
Minor chemical burns on my left hand. Unpleasant.
Oh hey, Panda. I meant to ask - any luck finding a new job?
Quote from: Anastasia on February 27, 2012, 07:37:46 PM
Oh hey, Panda. I meant to ask - any luck finding a new job?
Yeah, I was wondering the same.
I now have a total of six different email addresses which might be considered 'current' and hence a valid place to try to reach me. No, actually seven -- I now remembered another one, though thankfully the reason I forgot about it is because it reliably forwards to my primary email.
Moreover, I now have to sort things out with people who were given one particular address to reach me... quite a while ago and encountered stony silence.
Monumentally awkward.
Your g-mail account can probably be configured to access your other accounts. >_>
That's what I did. <_<;
Quote from: Sinom Bre on February 27, 2012, 07:40:53 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on February 27, 2012, 07:37:46 PM
Oh hey, Panda. I meant to ask - any luck finding a new job?
Yeah, I was wondering the same.
None yet, although I take a class for forklift certification tomorrow. That should increase my prospects a lot.
Quote from: Brian on February 27, 2012, 08:23:26 PM
Your g-mail account can probably be configured to access your other accounts. >_>
That's what I did. <_<;
I use a desktop IMAP client. Not too different from what you're suggesting ^_^
I'm honestly surprised said account still exists, let alone that someone was giving it out as a way to reach me.
In fact, one of the things I have to double-check now is whether the Byzantine bureaucracy managing it is going to continue keeping it around, or if it's just in some grey area such that they might delete it without warning if they need to free up some disk space.
Was it your student account?
Indeed. Turns out it's hard to beat the Byzantine bureaucracy of the second largest university campus in North America, particularly in terms of its inability to deal with edge cases.
(This was an account created for a temporary gig, and I have a permanent, official account. The person responsible for giving me the temporary gig was the one giving the temporary address out.)
Heh. All my friends had my student account address and then I got locked out of the system when I changed schools way back when. >_>
Yeah, I tried generally to avoid ever using my student account as a login. It always seemed like a bad idea.
On the plus side, I guess the fact that I'm still subscribed to a private grad events newsletter on that account (and that account only; another weird edge case) and I get information on their theory lunches, implies that I'm welcome to schlep up to St. George anytime I have a hankering for free sushi.
I just have to listen, nod, and make sufficiently theoretical noises once in a while <_<
/me weighs his chances at getting into a PhD program somewhere down the road... say, three to five years? Don't tell the people he's about to start working for.
Oh yes, and in terms of switching jobs, a few months from now my commute is going to suck. Goodbye strategically chosen reliable back-alley bus route + subway to the downtown, hello regular alternation between crosstown traffic jam from hell / crosstown bus from hell (which is also stuck inside crosstown traffic jam from hell), as I get tired of one or the other mode of transport.
I'm on a bitching roll today.
Shami's chewed off 2-3 inches of my hair.
Whiskey-tango-foxtrot? I mean ... seriously!
Guess I'm going to need to sleep with it in a bun, now. >_<
Edit: On the upside, my split-ends are gone. :\
Huh. Hope you can train that phase out of him. Seems like he's going through everything.
Gotta be the feline equivalent of the Terrible Twos.
Friend's cat passed away today. Always a bummer. -_-
/me makes a note to give Shami extra attention tonight.
The shadow box and awards my former (fuck yeah!) employer sent me in the mail got shattered on the way. It's repairable, but all the glass is in shards and it looks like the award certificate and the flag included might have gotten cut/torn.
F'n mail..
Central computer system down at corporate is down, so nothing business-related works. Dune, don't be surprised if you see me posting all day.
Iddy, your avatar fits you.
So you don't have to do work at work? Don't bitch about that, it sounds awesome!
I have a shit-ton of work I need to get done today and I can't DO any of it. :(
Ew. Okay, that part sucks more.
Bleh, I had a bad turn into a gas station this morning. New dent/smash on my fender.
I am a menace on the road. But luckily I usually only hit my own car.
Ouch.... Sorry to hear that, Drac. :x
Bah, shitty way to start the day. Perk up and take out your rage on some helpless interns!
Man, ironic poke. I spent part of this morning discussing with IT a conversation that was:
"This team should handle it, but they have no interns to handle it, so its bleeding out into your team. Here's how you're going to bounce it back, because it is a waste for you guys to be investigating these things."
Oh well.
There I was, having a productive day of selling hot dogs and playing FFTA2 and then suddenly...
WEATHER!
I have discovered that Highgway 7 sucks balls. O.O I didn't get into an accident today, but I passed others and saw some really horrendous driving!
You haven't truly experienced the awfulness of Highway 7 until you've driven there in rush hour and had to spend 12 minutes waiting to turn left at a traffic light.
Hatbox has died. Shut down in the early hours this morning with a kernel panic, now won't even boot to the BIOS; I strongly suspect a fried mobo. Possible that it might also be a dead graphics card, but given that I don't hear any hard drive activity or the boot-up beep, I suspect that's not actually it.
This wouldn't be so bad since I just upgraded my Windows box and could use leftover parts to replace it... except that I've already offered said parts to my mom as a computer upgrade for her. Blarg.
Bummer, miserable luck. Hopefully it's a minor thing.
Weeds suck. :(
Sour milk sucks.
Broken oven timers suck.
Waiting 20 minutes to get off the highway offramp for what the locals tell me is typical weekend traffic is abysmal. The traffic on the surface streets ... was worse.
Do I ever hate cities. >_<
I think I gained another level of misanthrope.
So what level of misanthrope are you up to now, anyway?
Hard to say. They keep naming them after me.
I'm impressed and terrified all at once.
Misanthropy!
God, allergies suck. -_-
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on March 10, 2012, 08:17:24 AM
You haven't truly experienced the awfulness of Highway 7 until you've driven there in rush hour and had to spend 12 minutes waiting to turn left at a traffic light.
*INTENSE FEAR*
My XBOX Live account somehow got hacked. They bought $95 worth of stuff before I caught it the next day. This automatically went to Paypal, who approved it, and debited it from my checking account. Now I have to wait 10 days to get my money back. Rrrrgh.
Edit: NOPE, I LIED, IT'S BEEN GOING ON FOR MONTHS TO THE TUNE OF HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS YAY
Lesson I've learned from seeing time after time of Paypal screwing people over: Never use Paypal for anything if there's an alternative.
It's not even Paypal's fault. I had linked my Paypal account to my Live account the day before. They did everything right.
What Yuth says is true. I always have my paypal set up so I have to put in my password every time to use funds. Unless you completely trust a website, I never assumed it was safe to give that kind of access to my paypal account.
Product manager: "Why didn't you do X?"
Me: "I didn't have the parts. I e-mailed you about this."
PM: "No you didn't."
Me: *pulls up e-mail, points to screen*
PM: "Oh, well, I get like a thousand e-mails a day. I don't read 'em. Why isn't this done yet?"
Me: "...waiting on my boss to approve this."
PM: "Well, I'll tell him to do that right now!"
Which leads to:
Boss: "What's this about?"
Me: "That MTA I sent you last week, with the comprehensive report about needing X, Y, Z, and Z^2-Z^7. Those are less critical, but until we get X, we're blocked on progressing."
Boss: "...you e-mailed me about this?"
PM: *raises eyebrows*
Me: "...yes. This morning. Twice."
Boss: "...oh. So ... somewhere in my e-mail...."
PM: *starts tapping foot*
Me: "Did you lose the e-mail?"
Boss: "Yes! So -- send me another one."
urg
Edit: And approval comes through less than a minute after I send the MTA again. So awesome.
A long standing annoyance has risen into actual hate.
I hate folks who intentionally ignore inconvenient questions. Especially those that take advantage of being asked 2 or 3 things, to ignore the first question.
"Hey, can you do this important thing?
Also sure, I can do x that you needed."
"Great, moving on with X."
"...I need that important thing to happen."
"And other stuff."
This annoys me now more than simply folks who will stonewall or say no (Which isn't too annoying), but just pretending you didn't say anything. @_@
FFFFFFffffffffffff
"Yeah, you should talk to your mom again!"
"Things are going better?"
"She hardly drinks at all anymore! She's almost like a normal person!"
Got into work late. Have step-father as co-worker. Maximum awkward points/miserable day. :|
Went to jiujitsu tonight. Now my everything hurts.
Whoever wrote the ending for Mass Effect 3 needs to have all his bones broken so he can never write anything again. It's not just a lazy ending. It's actively shitting on the entire 2.9 games that came before it.
So, got around to watching Genesis of the Daleks. Cool.
Got around to watching Planetes. Mega cool.
Feeling pretty good about myself, for having cool stuff to watch.
From good feelings about myself arises overweening hubris to anger the gods!
The gods punish me by allowing me to attempt to finish reading a fic that I'd given up on previously out of boredom. Namely, Partially Kissed Hero.
I get exactly the same amount of chapters in (~50 or so), and give up for the exact same reason I gave up the previous time. (Namely, the things that would turn most normal people off the fic by chapter 5 have accumulated by chapter 50 to completely break my brain. I think the "longbows > guns" chapter is the part when my brain starts noticing something is off.)
Then I get this weird nagging to check in what context it was originally mentioned on SR that I found out about its existence.
Namely, a link to this page:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/PartiallyKissedHero
Only after actually reading the post that gave the link, and the tropes page, do I finally find out who 'Perfect Lionheart' is, and why the fic was eventually so bewildering.
So to summarize. After taking the time to read 50 chapters of the fic in question, twice.
（╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
Grass! I was attempting to eat grass!
Good god, having squick blindness sucks.
I don't think I could handle PKH. Weirdly enough, I did read all of Chunin Exam Day, and surprisingly enough, being familiar with Skysaber ... it didn't bother me that much. It does help that most of my biases line up, but even I thought that the sharingan-bashing was kind of brutally over-the-top. <_<;
But, yeah. We know him well, unfortunately.
...
Tesla batteries.
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on March 19, 2012, 01:24:08 PM
（╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
Grass! I was attempting to eat grass!
This is actually what I do whenever Skysaber/Perfect Lionheart/Phoenix/Whatever writes a new fic. I just start throwing furniture and eating grass. Because it makes more sense.
Quote from: Brian on March 19, 2012, 01:40:08 PM
Tesla batteries.
I... I seriously don't want to know.
I think part of the problem with Skysaber is that there's just enough interesting stuff in what he writes that reading it I
wanted to like the rest of it. Which is, sadly, utterly impossible. If he was just a raving lunatic, full-stop, nobody would have wasted quite so much time with him.
PKH has good points: some neat worldbuilding. A deconstruction which happens to plausibly explain why HP canon felt kinda morally abhorrent in and of itself.
But not as abhorrent as PKH (pot, kettle). Example: everyone in Skysaber's universe is either a Good Guy or a Bad Guy. Good Guys are morally justified in mind raping and torturing Bad Guys, but not vice versa. This is possibly okay until... they fool Bellatrix into working for them. Because Bellatrix is working for the Good Guys, she must be a Good Girl! You can see Skysaber
tries to write it differently, but his brain won't let him.
Worst part? Feeling cheated like this results in me feeling a psychological need to go back and analyze what exactly is so bad about PKH, which nevertheless sailed past my radar, so that I'm never tricked that way again.
Ugh. Is there a non-horrible Harry Potter deconstruction out there? I'm losing hope.
It rather depends on what you're looking to get out of a deconstruction. Unfortunately, the inconsistencies in canon mean a lot of writers have tried their own responses to them.
You might like The Lie I've Lived (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3384712/1/The_Lie_Ive_Lived), which I think might be what you mean by a HP deconstruction.
I wanted to like the guy's stuff too, a decade or so ago. As I understand it though, his writing is worse today then it was back then, namingly as it reflects more of his mental issues in them.
I've ignored his works largely since his plagiarism of Shade ...in probably the beginning of that there fic, but it could be another harry potter fic of his. The last I looked was his front page where he had his shockingly crazy challenge that had spun all over the naruto fandom (shockingly really).
You are correct that he has a policy that good guys can do no wrong, bad guys can do no right, hated characters must remain around indefinitely for constant humiliations and punishments (Akane, Dumbledorf, Genma, Other), and generally instead of taking refuge in suspension of disbelief, he takes a specific prodding of elements that are non-sensical in his fic, drawing them into the light directly. These are elements of his writing that go back a decade and some. It's just how he writes.
The saddest thing is that there's parts in PKH I can see where he's trying to add some nuance to his writing, struggling with the notion, and then failing miserably and writing exactly what you describe anyways.
Quote from: Dracos on March 19, 2012, 03:34:32 PM
I've ignored his works largely since his plagiarism of Shade
Oh nostalgia. The ranting letters. The insanity. The hours spent alternatively laughing and shaking our heads in confusion.
I don't think Skysaber really tries to add nuance as much as just originality. Give the man his due -- while what he writes is typically not very good, and frequently outright retaliatory to people who offer him legitimate advice -- he can come up with interesting, original ideas. Quite frequently. Alarmingly quickly, in fact.
Where he falls apart is having those neat ideas actually stick together into a cohesive whole. Everyone has their own points for where things failed (to them) when reading Skysaber's work. For me, it was Mirrors Multiplied. Most everyone failed it at the 'Tesla Batteries' point, if not a few chapters before. I lost all respect for the work as an original thing once the crossover abundance hit a critical mass, somewhere around Robotech.
Some people didn't get that far.
Being able to read his original MM side-by-side with the re-write, I read the original first, then slogged through the remake; he was actively adding extra plot threads that he'd fail to follow up on, while doing nothing to close out what later became dropped threads.
While the pages are all gone, the sheer volume of 'Bet' fics he contributed to probably outweighs anything done by Gregg Sharpe. If you're not familiar with 'the Bet,' basically a bunch of gods watch Ranma's adventures in Mimmir's well, and they mess with Ranma's life in 'one small way' to produce an AU or divergence. Thousands of starts/ideas that aren't full fics. They allow the ideal framework for Skysaber to work with, as they demand interesting setup, and nothing in the way of follow-through.
As others have said, Skysaber's only redeeming value is audacity, and the moments where his writing seems most successful is where it is isolated from anything else in the fic, entirely. So, Skysaber's a terrible writer, but also an interesting one. He generates brilliant ideas that he can't execute, and manages to even share a few of them from time to time ... just don't expect _him_ to write an amazing story, even if he can puzzle one out, and only really imply it between the chapters from some other, vaster (and less cohesive) attempt.
I don't know if they still do (or are), but Gregg and Sky were good friends at one point, and it was less Skysaber writing a lot of original Bet-fics (though he wrote some) but more them collaborating.
Gregg Sharp really does deserve the credit for the bulk of them. He definitely did write or at least co-author most of them that occurred, and his specific style of constantly spinning off slight divergence ideas is still seen today over on the addventure. His writing has various other problems (whose doesn't?), but the bet really was his thing and the amount of basic setups he did off it were ridiculously large.
The framework basically is one that Gregg still uses to today (look at many of his recent works and you'll still see a start point of Toltiir meddling fairly early and thus being used as a grounding for a dozen or more fic concept pieces). It's just something that they both share, though of the two, Gregg is more likely to finish a work in some fashion (or was anyway).
Man, I can't even remember which one Mirrors Multiplied was. You peoples memories are way too good.
(Is it the one where the American Revolution failed, Japan became a super power, and Ranma megamaned his skills from Ranmas from other people's fics?
Or is it the one that kept inexplicably turning into a musical/song fic at random points in the narative?
Or the one with Dr. Where?)
Yes.
All of the above.
All of the above with a side order of extra batshit insane.
See, I read those capsule summaries and I almost think it might be worth reading. Then I remember it's the author of PKH and CED, and the feeling goes away.
(┌0-0)
( ε ε)_┌0-0
(┌0-0)
Really?!
Yes. I actually like crack-ish things, if they're well done, and they can be good for a laugh even if they aren't. Heck, PKH and CED were good for minor entertainment on first read. The idea of rereading them, however, gives me hives.
Quote from: alethiophile on March 19, 2012, 11:24:44 PM
Yes. I actually like crack-ish things, if they're well done, and they can be good for a laugh even if they aren't. Heck, PKH and CED were good for minor entertainment on first read. The idea of rereading them, however, gives me hives.
The thing that's killing me is that I was referencing at least two (probably three) different fics that I vaguely recall. I wasn't expecting one that held all three.Next you'll tell me one of the alt Ranma's was Capt Picard's daughter.
Ah. Well, I haven't read the Mirrors Multiplied story that's under discussion, so I can't comment there.
No need, Panda, you said it yourself. O_O
Quote from: Brian on March 20, 2012, 01:25:38 AM
No need, Panda, you said it yourself. O_O
ಠ_ಠ ...Named Orchid or some such?
Yup.
A factor that's been stressing me for nearly a week now still prevents me from writing a single new word.
%$#@ OCD.
Three fingers on my right hand have fissures where they've cracked open because of overwashing. Stupid stress habits. >_<
Hurts to move my right hand in almost any way. :|
Him: "Yeah, man. Sorry I'm late."
Me: "This is the third time THIS MONTH you have been late, and it's by an hour and a half! Two days ago you didn't even show up for work. Please enlighten me as to why I should not fire you right this instant."
Him: "...fuck I'm high. What'd you say?"
Me: "...seriouslyjustgetthefuckouttahere."
aggggghhhh
Man, %$#@ that guy. I'm hoping you at least gave him suspension? Should probably actually BE fired, but maybe a severe warning will get him back on track? :(
Sounds like someone who just doesn't give a fuck. Can't do much about that.
He gone.
And now for the grumbling part. It's a good thing I paid off my school loan in full now, because April 3rd is when my movie theater finishes converting the other half of the auditoriums from 35mm film projectors to all-digital. Sharper pictures, no wobbly/scratchy sound, easier download/copying of films and trailers to projectors, and an elimination of the booth position I've worked since mid-2000.
If all else fails, I go back to cleaning theaters 2-3 times per week at 9-something-an-hour here. But for the time being, I don't have another job lined up and I actually don't even know where to start.
Quote from: Brian on March 21, 2012, 03:38:10 PM
Three fingers on my right hand have fissures where they've cracked open because of overwashing. Stupid stress habits. >_<
Huh. That... sucks incredibly?
I have to wonder why it's so commonly expressed as handwashing.
Quote from: SabreMau on March 21, 2012, 11:43:20 PM
And now for the grumbling part. It's a good thing I paid off my school loan in full now, because April 3rd is when my movie theater finishes converting the other half of the auditoriums from 35mm film projectors to all-digital. Sharper pictures, no wobbly/scratchy sound, easier download/copying of films and trailers to projectors, and an elimination of the booth position I've worked since mid-2000.
If all else fails, I go back to cleaning theaters 2-3 times per week at 9-something-an-hour here. But for the time being, I don't have another job lined up and I actually don't even know where to start.
Is that you Dannycat? Long time no see. That sounds terribly rough. :( At least you have a little time to job hunt and some salary to tide you over. Are you still out in Korea?
No, I've been at home since 2008. Working at the same movie theater I started at in 1997.
*nods* Feels like there's been a lack of Dannycat around.
Wow. Clearly you should challenge the owner to mortal combat and take over the theater :)
</knows nothing>
So back in november I went to the dentist.
Eventually, I get mail from insurance, pretty routine stuff, insurance should have taken care of it...except I see the claim has everything as patient responsability and it's $200.
I call them up asking what the hell, and they tell me that it seems the claim got submitted to the wrong insurance, I was using UHC through different providers than the last time I'd went to the dentist, and despite my checking about that, telling the dentist that I had changed insurance and everything, still lameness occurs.
Okay, fine, shit happens, I call the dentist, so they can resubmit claim. February...same sort of letter, same problem. I actually -visit- the dentist office about this now, make them scuttle around until I am assured they'll get it right as they grab my dental insurance card, make photocopies, call the insurance themselves, and basically tell me they're submitting it again.
I just got the letter -again-, still seeing those $200 as -my- responsibility, the insurance is telling me they're not seeing -any- claims for the account ID I have with them, oh and the dentist office is closed for the week. How fucking hard is it to submit a claim correctly?
I'm also worried because I just got a new job, comes with it's own benefits meaning I'll have to cancel this one, and I don't want to have problems later about the insurance not paying because I'm not using them anymore or whatever once they finally do it correctly.
This is just absurd.
Quote from: Dracos on March 22, 2012, 10:15:11 PM
Wow. Clearly you should challenge the owner to mortal combat and take over the theater :)
Allegedly there exist IMAX projectors that are intense enough to cause things that are placed too close to spontaneously combust. If you could somehow design a handheld version, a duel with a couple of those ought to be sufficiently mortal.
Quote from: Merc on March 23, 2012, 06:12:34 PM
This is just absurd.
Around this point I would seriously consider filing a complaint with the state's insurance commissioner. (Certainly you should do so if the insurance company gives you trouble because you've switched employers.)
Yeesh. Good luck with that one, Merc. :x
Hope you find something too, DannyCat.
Quote from: Jon on March 23, 2012, 06:37:52 PM
Quote from: Merc on March 23, 2012, 06:12:34 PM
This is just absurd.
Around this point I would seriously consider filing a complaint with the state's insurance commissioner. (Certainly you should do so if the insurance company gives you trouble because you've switched employers.)
I'd be quicker to blame the dentist's office. Most medical claim fuckups are the result of a misfiled claim by the medical facility. Filing a state complaint will likely net you not a damn thing, because they're in no way shape or form obligated to pay a claim they have no knowledge of.
Best of luck, Merc. I know exactly how that goes, and it can really suck getting it straightened out.
Right now, yes, I'm blaming the dentist's office.
Woke up. Decided to browse SR for a few minutes before going back to bed.
Turned back, saw Shami had decided that my side of the bed made a good litter box. Were his claws not capped, he would have started shredding my bedding, too.
Going to be a $%@#ing awesome week, I can feel it.
That's just a cat's way of expressing his everlasting hate for everyone that is not also a cat.
Also, the elevator is out. When I'm trying to do my laundry/dispose of a ruined bulky 18 kilo foam mat.
*eyes up*
Ah, I see world. Needed to have a competition in Shitty Day.
So, today I was late for work.
Then my car decided not to start. Call AAA.
Get it started. Result: hey, you should take your battery to get charged.
Take it to a mechanic. "Yeah, get charged? This battery is dying. It's way past standard lifespan."
Take it to more reputable mechanic: "Yup, that was right. Also, Lots-Of-Money". "I am tired with dealing with this problem. I will tolerate your obnoxious markup because I do not want a surprise in my engine."
So yeah, morning also not awesome.
My day was going good! That is until I got into a stupid family fight. Sigh. Way to total a fine Monday.
Quote from: Dracos on March 26, 2012, 07:47:54 PM
*eyes up*
Ah, I see world. Needed to have a competition in Shitty Day.
So, today I was late for work.
Then my car decided not to start. Call AAA.
Get it started. Result: hey, you should take your battery to get charged.
Take it to a mechanic. "Yeah, get charged? This battery is dying. It's way past standard lifespan."
Take it to more reputable mechanic: "Yup, that was right. Also, Lots-Of-Money". "I am tired with dealing with this problem. I will tolerate your obnoxious markup because I do not want a surprise in my engine."
So yeah, morning also not awesome.
I imagine a lot of people don't know that car batteries only have an estimated lifespan of 6 years or so. After that point, they get far less reliable.
Spent all day yesterday trying to get rid of a mean piece of maleware. It slowed my computer to a crawl, disabled all of my antivirus sftware, hid all my icons, rerouted .exe files, changed a bunch of setting, and kept blocking attempts to get rid of it.
I would have formatted the whole thing but I can't find my boot disc. -_-
Fortunately, looks like I managed to get rid of it.
I hope.
-_-
Malware's brutal. To be honest, you can never really be sure....
If it were an option for you, I'd say take your OS disk and attach it to another system -- scan it when it's not active. Makes it a lot easier to get rid of those things.
Anyway -- if you're not free of it, lemme know if you need an install disk. I can probably help you out.
For me:
An employee in another department is still trying to push the idea of having me collect performance data instead of functionality data. He even set it up to look like a standard qual. Except that phase one is testing the new hardware out on systems we don't manufacture or sell. He decided that since I always countered his proposals by pointing out that it'd slow me down (and that I'd be doing his job), he'd ask my boss directly.
My boss is now very unhappy that I've e-mailed him back to say, "#2 takes a week. #1 is Guy's job, so he'll have to tell us how long it takes him."
I hate this time of year so much. -_-
It's 3:00 AM and I couldn't figure out what to do with my insomnia ... so I went to work.
FML.
At least you have a job.
Small consolation, but silver lining and all that, right?
Not just any job, but one I can go to at 3:00 AM because I have insomnia!
If that means you can go home at 11 or 12, it's all good!
There are days that capacitive touchscreens work like a charm. And then there are days this happens:
Me: huh, why did my phone turn itself on? I just hung up...
Phone: "Hello, this is RANDOM INSTITUTION X, {secretary's name} speaking."
Me: ...
Phone: "Hello?"
Me: "... I'm sorry, I must have accidentally dialed my phone."
Phone: *hangs up in disgust*
"Voice Control On."
"Dialing... Dialing..."
"Hello? This is Ragnar?"
"...Sorry dude."
Fuck my brain. I had weird dreams all night, probably due to my fever, and now I'm questioning the validity of my perception of reality.
In other words, what the hell just happened last night? Yikes.
Getting sick, the sort of sick where you hack bloody, inflammed throatchunks out.
Usually that's referred to as 'The Plague' and is something you either need dark magic to cure, or a doctor.
Or a dark magic doctor.
Dr. Voodoo?
home with galbladder issues
stupid Amichi's pizza
130 dollar gas bill.
Gas leak.
Gas turned off to the building. No heating, etc.
;_;
Brian would make a joke about one upping him, but he'll have to deal with it too.
Condolences, both of ya.
I have a cat and extra blankets.
To say nothing of natural insulation.
The lack of hot water will suck, but my lease on my old apartment is still valid. Truly worst case scenario, I (or we) could go there and use their hot water instead. Just throw your bathing supplies in a bag.
yeah. I also have showers in my office available. I'm just hoping it can get resolved tomorrow and we can be laughing about it that evening. Ha, ha. @_@
I got sick, then Cy got sick, then I got sick AGAIN.
FUCK my immune system.
Yeah, just went through a head cold 'round the house this past week. Sucks when the entire house gets sick like that and it keeps ping-ponging. Hope you feel better.
Cold typically has to go through three mutations before you can catch it again, for what that's worth.
What is more common is 'feeling okay' but still having it and there being a supply of it to help avoid it getting totally cleared from your system. Or so I think.
I've come to think that the first thing I got was totally unrelated to what Cy got. The symptoms were different. What I have now is almost exactly what he was suffering from.
I'm mostly annoyed that I got sick twice in as many weeks.
I have too many Haruhi fic ideas I want to write right now.
Dangit, brain, one thing at a time! And I still have to put serious work into overcoming my unreasonable pro-Kyon bias!
...he says, even though he writes Kyon: Big Damn Hero. >_<
What's wrong with a pro-protagonist of canon bias?
There's a ton of good fics with Pro-Ranma or Pro-Harry or Pro-other protagonist.
Well, while enjoyable, I worry that my presentation drifts further and further from canon. :x
At this point, the cast of K:BDH are effectively the Haruhi cast In Name Only. >_<
Well. There's been character development of rather a significant nature; it's natural that they'd appear different now. Generally unfamiliar with canon though I am, I haven't noticed anything egregious.
Eh. You've had almost as much space as the canon itself had originally to develop the characters from your starting point, so a strong divergence at this point is not terribly surprising. The only character that really diverged sharply (IMO, at least) was Haruhi herself, and that one not so bad as to make her unrecognizable.
Er, sorry. :x
Didn't mean to fish for reassurance like that.
Hah, I'm a pathetic mess--
Some really annoying crap at work. I'm worried it may cost me my job. Drac can relate some of the stupidity. >_<
I know I haven't exactly contributed anything at all to this forum since my introduction post, but Brian please stop being self-conscious about BDH. It is singlehandedly one of the greatest pieces of fiction I've ever read. I don't claim to be an expert on Haruhi canon by any stretch of the imagination but I can list offhand the ways that what you've done with the characters are completely in character for them.
Quote from: Neillium on April 11, 2012, 10:19:36 AM
I know I haven't exactly contributed anything at all to this forum since my introduction post, but Brian please stop being self-conscious about BDH. It is singlehandedly one of the greatest pieces of fiction I've ever read.
This.
I don't like kids so why did I volunteer to watch my niece? She's barely walking. o_O
Quote from: thepanda on April 11, 2012, 05:40:52 PM
I don't like kids so why did I volunteer to watch my niece? She's barely walking. o_O
Duct tape her to the ground and she won't be walking at all! =D
Getting into a fight with one of my bosses over a piece of hardware being inadequate (in my view) for customers.
This is where I find out if I just get fired so he can send it out anyway. >_<
Quote from: Iron Dragoon on April 11, 2012, 07:43:51 PM
Quote from: thepanda on April 11, 2012, 05:40:52 PM
I don't like kids so why did I volunteer to watch my niece? She's barely walking. o_O
Duct tape her to the ground and she won't be walking at all! =D
That's cruel, unusual, and
I have no tape.
I just took her to the park and let her hit empty.
Quote from: Brian on April 11, 2012, 08:38:41 PM
Getting into a fight with one of my bosses over a piece of hardware being inadequate (in my view) for customers.
This is where I find out if I just get fired so he can send it out anyway. >_<
Eh, have some optimism. Would they really fire you over something like this? (I mean, you didn't insult your boss or do something way out of bounds, did you?)
I worry way too much about stuff.
The guy took it extremely well, including the part where I replied to the wrong e-mail thread and said a different piece of hardware was failing and then redacted myself. I prevented a 50k$ loss ... but not a 12k$ one.
Many tears from the engineering department. That 'Harbinger' nickname is going to stick withe me now for sure....
On the bright side, no one wants my bad news, so almost no one talks to me at work unless they have to? :x
Quote
On the bright side, no one wants my bad news, so almost no one talks to me at work unless they have to? :x
You've become Harry Creek from
The Android's Dream.
"Asssuming Direct Bad News..."
Maybe if you play your cards right you can get people to start calling you Stormcrow.
Quote from: Brian on April 11, 2012, 10:41:40 PM
I worry way too much about stuff.
The guy took it extremely well, including the part where I replied to the wrong e-mail thread and said a different piece of hardware was failing and then redacted myself. I prevented a 50k$ loss ... but not a 12k$ one.
Many tears from the engineering department. That 'Harbinger' nickname is going to stick withe me now for sure....
On the bright side, no one wants my bad news, so almost no one talks to me at work unless they have to? :x
Things like this are how you get callsigns in the military! No callsign ever came from anything good, trust me on this (I know, I have one >.>;).
Harbinger is actually a pretty good one, though! =D
Beats 'Cassandra'.
Quote from: Brian on April 11, 2012, 10:41:40 PM
I worry way too much about stuff.
The guy took it extremely well, including the part where I replied to the wrong e-mail thread and said a different piece of hardware was failing and then redacted myself. I prevented a 50k$ loss ... but not a 12k$ one.
Many tears from the engineering department. That 'Harbinger' nickname is going to stick withe me now for sure....
On the bright side, no one wants my bad news, so almost no one talks to me at work unless they have to? :x
Is bad news that saves the company scads of cash still ultimately bad news? It might be a bitter pill, sure, but I'd hardly call saving money a bad thing.
Technically right, Grahf, but it is a complicated thing. Being the person that locks down a project that is going ahead otherwise is rarely a great place to be. Most companies reward people that produce significant gains, even if expensive, not reward those who avoid making significant costs.
Good god Chicago is weird.
Also the view from my hotel room sucks.
(http://i.imgur.com/akIrw.jpg)
Why are you in the windy city?
Are you there to kill someone?
If you knew the truth behind my itinerary, I'd have to kill you.
So... hopefully not yet.
(It all boils down to glorified sightseeing at the expense of a gullible corporation.)
Man, I love Chicago. I'm actually kind of jealous of my cousin who moved there. I've had nothing but good memories from my time spent there over the years.
Chicago is GREAT! I live here. There. Ish.
Humanity, you have disappointed me once more:
http://www.haruhisuzumiya.net/haruhiforum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=49&start=150#p174943
Man, that's just so depressing....
Welp. It appears their moderators are incompetent, and I cannot get myself banned without openly flaming. I give up.
/me pats Brian.
I like how they interpret you saying that a fic is "awful drek/character bashing" as being somehow the same as saying that it is "good but not perfect." In my mind, "awful drek" denotes something that is less than good, not just less than perfect.
Well, actually he pulled that line from my review on tvtropes (which was, in fact, condescending as all hell).
Anyway, SOStmos finally PMed me, but not as a good moderator. She asked if I'd be happier somewhere else. Friendly, but lacking in required firmness to be a mod. I gave her some constructive criticism:
Quote from: criticismSOStmohs,
Look-- I dislike you as an author (and I dislike some of your opinions on respect/writing), but I have nothing against you as a person, SOStmohs. Actually, being entirely honest, you're rather likable, despite what I think of that story your boyfriend posted, and I feel bad about some of this. Actually a lot of it.
I hope you take this well, so I'm going to try and give you (and the moderator staff) some constructive criticism. While it's obviously not this site, I'm a moderator of a fanfiction community myself (several, actually; I admin the FFML, I'm a global mod for the Soulriders, and I was the owner/operator of the Refuge before we lost our server). I genuinely mean this to be helpful, and I hope it is -- and that I don't come across as arrogant and condescending (both of which I can be -- my apologies for that).
To the point:
Your community is suffering at least a little bit, and it really is in part because of Hedgey. As a moderator, I recognize that you probably got the position because you're friendly to everyone. Not quite a popularity contest, but you're likable, the administrators saw you got along, and then they gave you the position. That's my guess, at any rate.
And that's fine. But at the same time, when people in the community are disruptive (as I am acting, and Hedgey frequently legitimately is), you need to step up to the plate and set the 'nice girl' disposition aside. Be tough! Be strong! You have powers, and with those powers come responsibility. You should have (as a moderator) told me I was being out of line and had to behave; I admit I wasn't gentle about it, but I was trying to goad you into doing that.
Be firm, but fair.
I feel a little bad about how much of a jerk I was pretending to be, but it still didn't get you to stand up for your community and defend the rules.
You have a post that says what the forum rules are. And one of those is that we must respect one-another in the community (Hedgey and I both broke this today, and she frequently does it to people she knows anyway), and another one is that we must respect the moderators (I broke this one). I'll apologize to you; I didn't mean insult, even though I was trying to prod you into action.
But my actions should be unacceptable. At the same time, Hedgey's are significantly worse -- neither of them should be tolerated. Instead of politely suggesting that I might enjoy another community more, I suggest you demonstrate your role and your ability to back it. Don't just bow to me (or a bully like Hedgey) when we're openly making trouble and starting flamewars-- Have the courage to step in and say, "This behavior is not appropriate."
It is your right, but also your responsibility to do this. For example, Bey-something or another posted a reply attacking me (well, retaliating against me and defending Hedgey, his/her friend). While that's commendable, it's also off-topic. This is a good opportunity to step in and show your moderator strength; I'll even cooperate, since I don't wish to be disruptive in the long term.
You should post something along the lines of, "This has gotten out of hand. Masamichi, you're out of line. You get [whatever punishment]. Hedgey, while you meant well, that wasn't constructive, either-- Same to you, Bey-(whatever). People who won't follow the rules will be reprimanded, and that goes for everyone. Let's drop that issue and get back on topic (which means no sniping -- from anyone)."
I presume I should be either permbanned (which I'm fine with) or temp-banned (I've made myself unwelcome enough I don't think I'll be posting much anyway).
But this also means that if you go back to the incident where you (the moderators) apologized for Hedgey's behavior, you should have moderated her properly. Instead, you just apologized for her, letting her run roughshod over the rules -- just like you're allowing me to right now. I'm sure I'm not the only person Hedgey's poisoned against your community. Reclaim your strength and demonstrate that the rules are being enforced.
I'm willing to comply and play the role of the Red Oni, as I think this community can be a great place -- but you have to help make it that way! And that means reigning people in with they misbehave. If someone had moderated Hedgey in the thread I where she picked a fight with me even though I repeatedly asked her not to, we wouldn't be here -- her behavior there broke the forum rules, but was permitted by you (the mod staff in general, not you specifically). You can't let things like that slide, even if she is a friend!
It's not good when multiple moderators (and other users) PM me and say, "Sorry she's such a problem." You know she's a problem. Do something about it -- and I don't mean ban her, I mean moderate her; make her follow the same rules everyone is supposed to (including me). I recognize by her post-count and the number of friends she has that she can be a productive and valuable member of your community. I'm not trying to get you to get rid of her; the best solution is clearly for me to leave. But that doesn't mean letting her do whatever she wants. Retain her, but make her follow the rules and be a completely productive member of the forums, not an occasionally productive member. (Incidentally, you should probably remark to her on the forums that she shouldn't step in and moderate; you have an actual moderator staff for that.)
Beyond that, I did have one suggestion for the rules in general, and that is that one of them says (paraphrasing here), "If a user and a moderator have a problem, that moderator and user will work it out." Just to avoid potential conflicts of interest, I strongly suggest that it be revised to, "If a moderator and user have a problem, another moderator or admin will step in to mediate." While you guys typically seem easy-going enough, the first rule (the one you have) suggests a conflict of interests, while my recommendation shows that you are willing to be impartial and responsible.
Yes, ideally everyone will be reasonable enough that you shouldn't need an impartial mediator, and things can be worked out peacably, but I think you can protect yourselves from potential criticism on that front. Perhaps overly cautious on my part, but you can never be too sure.
Beyond that, as I've mentioned before, I've probably made myself unwelcome (Red Oni syndrome), and don't intend to come back. I truly have asked for a ban, and it is entirely within reason for you to give it. I do hope your community succeeds, and if you want moderator advice (assuming this isn't too arrogant), you can reach me via e-mail at durandall@gmail.com for any questions or discussions you might have; I can only see PMs on this website when I log in, and if I do that, I'll be tempted to keep trolling for moderator action (think of it as trying to toughen you up, not an act of pure malice). It is for the best that I don't ... but I don't mind continuing this discussion with your moderator staff in e-mail if you wish to do so.
Best of luck to you all.
-Regards,
Brian R.
Edit: Well, I got her to delete the thread, which I guess is a step. Mildly disappointing, but better than nothing at all.
Edit2: I guess CCing the admin in that got him to permban me, but I'm disappointed they did it invisibly. Sweeping the problem under the rug, still.
So.
Was supposed to go to a training class this weekend. Here's what happened.
-Paid $250 for hotel rooms.
-Drive five hours.
-Get charged $7 a night for parking by hotel.
-Received two chocolate chip & pecan cookies from hotel.
-Eat dinner at a local BBQ place.
-Return to hotel room, start watching "O' Brother, Where Are Thou?"
-Receive email from master instructor for training class.
-Training class *canceled.*
-'Storms' start rolling in (reason training was canceled).
-Decide to leave same night so as not to get caught
-Hotel refuses to cancel reservation and does not refund the second night, which we didn't stay for.
-Drive another 5 hours.
-Arrive home at 2 AM.
-Wake up, check weather forecast. Clear skies in city training class was supposed to be in.
Yeppers. Spent $250, Gas, and 10 hours for some BBQ and cookies.
Fucking amazing.
Man, I would have stayed in the hotel the entire time if they weren't going to refund me for it. Treat it like a mini vacation.
At least you're not working both days of your weekend?
Edit: FFFffffffffff
Someone took ten harddrives from my desk. I can't do my tests. -_-
Porter Airlines - Convenient Downtown-to-Downtown Travel!
Original schedule: departing 7:25 Chicago time to Toronto Island Airport.
Delayed due to bad weather: departing 8:40 to Toronto Island Airport.
Delayed due to delays: departing 9:40 to Toronto Pearson Airport (the actual huge airport on the outskirts of town).
Delayed due to crew change: now departing at 11:20pm and landing at Hamilton International Airport in fucking Hamilton, Ontario.
Colleague who recently moved from British Columbia: "Where is Hamilton anyway?"
Me: "sort of the western end of Lake Ontario. The airport itself is kind of southwest of Hamilton, above the Niagara escarpment."
Correction by a more knowledgeable local at the gate: "Hamilton airport is nowhere near fucking Hamilton."
Well, an exaggeration to some extent, but indeed, look at how far from the intended airport I'm ending up:
http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Hamilton+Airport,+Hamilton,+ON,+Canada&daddr=Toronto+Island+Airport,+Toronto,+ON,+Canada&hl=en&ll=43.397065,-79.682465&spn=0.646604,0.918732&sll=43.441952,-79.650879&sspn=0.646125,0.918732&geocode=FW2ekgIdGGs8-yE8u22wQas6Yg%3BFXvEmQIdXYVE-yHr4SmBlprrVQ&oq=Hamilton+airport&mra=ls&t=m&z=10
In summary: Wut.
Ah yes, our weather here has been delightful over the last day or so.
Wow, I never noticed there was a moving walkway in the terminal here!
Thank you, automated announcement system which says "moving walkway" every two seconds for no reason.
"No reason" being "safety concerns".
Not that I'm saying they're valid. Symptomatic of everything needing so many safety labels and precautions it's annoying, because above all else, we must be protected from our own incompetence.
Quote from: Brian on April 16, 2012, 01:47:54 AM
"No reason" being "safety concerns".
Not that I'm saying they're valid. Symptomatic of everything needing so many safety labels and precautions it's annoying, because above all else, we must be protected from our own incompetence.
Let me put it this way -- once I noticed, it was only a couple of notches less annoying than the phone in the English dub of Pokemon that goes "RINGRINGRING RINGRINGRING... PHONE CALL!"
I think Chicago must somehow have a thing for pointless announcements. When on the El I heard the infamous "gambling and soliciting is prohibited on the Chicago L" announcement. Yeah... good to know.
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on April 16, 2012, 03:34:00 AM
I think Chicago must somehow have a thing for pointless announcements. When on the El I heard the infamous "gambling and soliciting is prohibited on the Chicago L" announcement. Yeah... good to know.
Yeahhhh...that's...that's actually a thing. A real problem. Yeah.
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on April 16, 2012, 12:57:49 AM
Wow, I never noticed there was a moving walkway in the terminal here!
Thank you, automated announcement system which says "moving walkway" every two seconds for no reason.
I think the blind might appreciate the heads-up. o_O
I am in a horrible mood today.
Starting off with the traditional e-mails about someone liking something that I wrote (that was not intended to be liked), to dealing with work ("Yeah, we know you're an engineer, but we know you worked in shipping and receiving, so could you do about seven hours of manual labor for us?") ... and g-mail. G-mail, why? Your new themes suck!
And then even more ME3 spoilers. I should give myself points for getting this far....
Quote from: Brian on April 17, 2012, 02:06:20 PM
I am in a horrible mood today.
Starting off with the traditional e-mails about someone liking something that I wrote (that was not intended to be liked),
They just missed the point, or was it something sarcastic or scathing that they just read and interpreted on the surface level?
Meh, I just found depellebar depressing. The fact that people look at my expression of futility and depression and say they enjoyed it....
It just makes me wonder what I'm doing wrong. :\
Nothing at all.
Different people, different strokes. You can't control what people like, nor can you assume that they'll look at it the same way you do.
Best not to dwell, probably.
Indeed. There are odd and odder people out there.
My razor broke halfway through shaving my head.
Ow. You didn't cut yourself, I hope?
Why were you shaving your head in the first place?
Because I always shave my head, starting in March.
And no, I'm fine. It was just really difficult to finish.
Ah, I think I see. I had the same thing happen when shaving my legs for a halloween costume one year. Boy was that not worth it. :x
My suggestion is to keep a replacement razor on hand for such situations.
The solution there is just to hate enough. If you hate ENOUGH, hair will just fall out.
I'm finding I have less and less capacity for hate as time goes on.
Yeah, it's a real pity.
I don't hate with the same energy I used to either. It takes a good while to muster proper vitriol.
Then hate your lack of hate! Bootstrap your way up there!
You can do it! I believe in you!
Quote from: Yuthirin on April 18, 2012, 07:01:54 PM
I'm finding I have less and less capacity for hate as time goes on.
Quote from: Brian on April 18, 2012, 07:17:33 PM
Yeah, it's a real pity.
I don't hate with the same energy I used to either. It takes a good while to muster proper vitriol.
That's okay, guys. I more than make up for it. I think I absorb the hate others can't muster up and grow more powerful with it.
Every day, I grow closer to becoming the old man from Gran Torino. And I *like* it.
While we've got it taken care of, finding out that the area of Toronto we live in had a HUGE hike in car insurance rates was a very unwelcome surprise to CyMage and myself. Going from $150 a month to $400 a month for payments is just mind boggling.....and it's all because of the postal code we live in and some "statistics" that say the area has a lot of accidents. Look, I don't know what statistics they're using but this has got to be one of the most quiet neighbourhoods possible in a city of 2 million people.
Anyway, we did get something new (and at a reasonable increase from our NF rates) but the whole experience has left a bad taste in my mouth. Might have to take insurance into consideration if we ever look into moving to a house.
While I was asleep, Shami knocked over a glass of water on my desk. Nothing ruined, but he's a cat, so I know he will never give up that habit-- Any glass of water + unattended cat = disaster.
Also, he decided to use his scissor-like teeth to chew clean through the string on my drawstring pants. LESS THAN 20 CM FROM HIS CHEW-TOY.
FFffffff
Kitty.
The Keys are completely rained out. On the plus side, I'm in the Keys.
Hot, humid and muggy. Can't concentrate on anything.
Some piece of hardware in my computer is faulting.
I fell down three times today. It hurts to walk.
I have nothing to complain about, gosh darnit!
Wait.....
Um....drivers in Toronto suck?
Every time I try and drop in the chat no one seems to be there.
I have terrible timing. Perhaps even terribad timing.
Well, I'm not sure, but....
[19:45] * Grahf (186da48b@....) has joined #soulriders
[19:46] * Grahf (186da48b@....) Quit (Quit: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client)
[22:29] * Grahf (186da48b@....) has joined #soulriders
[22:30] * Grahf (186da48b@....) Quit (Quit: Grahf)
...I think, you might try sticking around a bit longer. Chat can take a few minutes to spin up. ;)
Yeah, we are not always a talkative bunch so sometimes if you say something, then wait around for 10 minutes or so, someone will say something back. When we get going though, we can be quite chatty.
Also the times Brian posted are PST I believe. For Music and I that's 3 hours later in the day.
Well, now I feel like an idiot.
I wasn't sure if mibbit was actually connecting or not, so when everyone kept showing up as idle I thought it might have been the program.
... I'm not good with IRC.
It happens. I'll have to take a look. We can get quiet certainly, but it's not cuz we're ignorin' ya. I'll follow up with you this weekend.
Nah, I can almost guarantee that Brian is right and I just wasn't sticking around long enough to be noticed. The other part is that I'm only generally around on Wednesdays and Thursdays. The other days of the week I work the majority of the evening, so I'd be on at odd hours. I'm not generally sure if people would be around after midnight CST, but that would be when I'd be around some days.
Nonsense at work. I've destroyed a system and one of the developers for the product I used to do it is insisting that I used it wrong; it's not a bug.
Blearg. My credibility! Well, at least it can't get worse, right?
<co-worker> guess what, brandall?!?!
<co-worker> we have to requalify all disks for 6.2.0.
$#%&. That's six months of working 7 days a week to do over. To say nothing of the logistics of getting all those disks to re-test!
Apple's iPhone store policy on free apps sucks.
Really, I don't buy shit from them, but if I did, I wouldn't mind their obnoxious Abere!@3451 password system of being a pain in the ass to type in. It's handling money and there's importance to having safety measures in place for either side.
But I'm not buying stuff. I'm downloading a free product where no monetary transaction is taking place. So why do I have to enter my password every time? It's a god-damn pain. And since I do it so infrequently, I often don't remember, so have to go through a reset song and dance number just to do something as trivial as download a stopwatch. Or don't, because the problem I am trying to solve isn't worth the bother and I just pick up a different device to solve it with that doesn't have me enter extra passwords every time I download something.
Oh, you want to update a product you already have? Passwords! Really guys? I have to enter my password for each one? Edit: Apparently not. After the sixth security prompt it considered me logged in enough to just hit update all and have it work.
Also suddenly this time its adding another song and dance of security questions? Through the iphone interface? Aren't these already entered from when I created the account years ago?
Do Android users have to put up with this? Just curious because as cheap as I am, I'm definitely looking at non-iphone at the moment for when I eventually let this thing die. I really dislike arbitrary data entry through a phone's touch-screen. It's awkward and I should be having to do it dozens of times to do a simple thing like 'get software updates you're identifying exist for apps I've already gotten'.
Some days, I think it would be less stressful if I just chucked the phone in the trash and went and bought something else. Seriously, I'm on twenty minutes to download a stopwatch because I figured it would just be more reasonable then requisitioning one from facilities and it's requiring a bunch of arbitrary questions that don't apply well to me, so I won't remember the answers.
Quote from: Dracos on May 02, 2012, 03:53:04 PMDo Android users have to put up with this? Just curious because as cheap as I am, I'm definitely looking at non-iphone at the moment for when I eventually let this thing die. I really dislike arbitrary data entry through a phone's touch-screen. It's awkward and I should be having to do it dozens of times to do a simple thing like 'get software updates you're identifying exist for apps I've already gotten'.
No. Log into the phone and Android assumes you know who you are and what you're doing. Hell, I have it set to just update things for me; I only have to manually hit 'update' when it says, "Hey, this program is going to interact with your GPS/camera/flux capacitor/data connection in a different way. You cool with that?"
But I run into the same exact problem on my iPad. I'm almost positive it's because while Apple is willing to trust your security on their devices, you can have iTunes itself running on a system that they don't trust the security of (your PC). It's the same store, so there's no way around it. I wouldn't mind so much, but there's no reason to do this for things that are entirely free in the first place (I could tolerate this with less grousing if they only checked my password for updates to software that had a fee attached, but that's not how it works). Still, they do it for everything.
Very annoying.
/me stopped using his iOS gizmo as more than a music player sometime last year; it just wasn't worth the hassle.
http://xkcd.com/936/
I am also reminded. Screw modern password design.
To be fair, I got the order of words wrong in the example (staple horse battery correct). But I did remember them all.
I do generally agree, but modern systems require you to use at least one numeral and one punctuation anyway, and then label your security 'strong'.
Actually, modern ones have gotten worse. They fail passwords that lack those things. So instead of me giving a long set of common words using simple characters, I need uppercase and numbers in it too. Which in turn means I am almost guarenteed to not remember the unique password it is getting a month down the line.
Dropbox has actually written a password strength checker (http://tech.dropbox.com/?p=165) that tries to respect xkcd 936.
Quote from: Brian on May 02, 2012, 04:28:12 PM
To be fair, I got the order of words wrong in the example (staple horse battery correct). But I did remember them all.
I do generally agree, but modern systems require you to use at least one numeral and one punctuation anyway, and then label your security 'strong'.
Truthfully, thinking on it, a non-insignificant number of my standard passwords are pretty much that with a numstring at some point. Partially because they are passwords that I can remember forever. The mixed-case/symbol stuff with apple is largely why I tend to miss-enter it.
I find I can just about always remember even strange mixed-keys stuff; it's something like a physical mnemonic, wherein I can remember where my fingers didn't go where they should have to enter the plain word. That said, I use the same password for the vast majority of cruddy random sites I visit, because I'm not in the business of trying to remember a different one for each and most of them aren't worth the effort to set up a password vault.
Yeah, there's an xkcd for that, too:
http://xkcd.com/792/
And no, Drac, it's not the same one as for my email or anything that can get at financial resources. :P
Man, I remember when I thought xkcd was the coolest thing ever. For some reason since then, it just stopped clicking for me.
Although I am partially guilty of xkcd 936. Namely, for important accounts I wind up combining both schools of password design and then wind up having to refer to a hintfile to even have a chance of remembering. And approximately once every two weeks the hintfile fails to jog my memory and I have to reset my Dropbox or whatever.
Fun.
EDIT: Hopefully my memory will be better in a few months as my password choices stabilize. They're related to each other by a complicated scheme that I doubt will help a password guesser any. Now I just need to spread some disinformation about myself and I will...
become extremely paranoid.
Yay!
My approach is to not be responsible for anything worth stealing my passwords for.
Yes, I do wonder what would cause me to become important enough that my GMail account would be worth cracking for 3 straight days at 1000 requests/second.
Paranoia is a fun game to play, though.
It's impossible not to be. Do you have money? Then you've become responsible for something available digitally that is important enough for someone to care. Yay theft.
The thing is not 'hey, we are putting effort in'. It's 'hey, here's a script-kiddy program that you point at annoying person's email and let it thrash in the background and boom, now you can send them obnoxiousness from their own account!'
E.g. childish trolls. You don't have to be important to have them.
Toronto is the worst.
When the plane arrived in Toronto airspace, it had to turn around and fly to a different angle, due to weather. This took 20 minutes. Once we were on the ground, we waited at the gate for 40 minutes before the airport was willing to extend the bridge. I was supposed to be at my hotel by now; instead I'm waiting for my checked luggage.
Quote from: Dracos on May 03, 2012, 09:32:42 PMIt's 'hey, here's a script-kiddy program that you point at annoying person's email and let it thrash in the background and boom, now you can send them obnoxiousness from their own account!'
Or just send them tons and tons of hateful spam, yeah, I guess that's true. -_-;
Any site that isn't completely stupid will start throttling down authentication attempt rates after three or so, and/or present a CAPTCHA for further attempts. Online cracking of Gmail or a banking site, for instance, just isn't going to happen. That gizmo is assuming no structural entropy and offline hash checking with a relatively pathetic hashing algorithm, which is a combination that happens pretty much never. Sure, pessimistic assumptions lead to better security, but that thing was judging perfectly good passwords to be weak.
Valid.
A password such as A$$R@ckTwen|y3 is a strong password. But also providing the rest of good modern development, simply the potential that one of them will be a symbol or caps or number should be enough to make: HeyEverybodySoulridersRoxs a stronger password (Yes, the all common word does make it dictionary attack vulnerable but still).
Quote from: Jon on May 03, 2012, 11:03:38 PM
When the plane arrived in Toronto airspace, it had to turn around and fly to a different angle, due to weather. This took 20 minutes. Once we were on the ground, we waited at the gate for 40 minutes before the airport was willing to extend the bridge. I was supposed to be at my hotel by now; instead I'm waiting for my checked luggage.
On the bright side, you didn't get redirected to Hamilton due to flight delays. Having to zoom down the QEW on a bus at 3am would have been a hell of a bad first impression.
What's the concise term for 'a continuous carpet of dustbunnies an inch thick that you have the misfortune to be cleaning up'?
"Other people's messes."
'Annoying'. Also 'kind of gross'.
In the class I'm taking, we were going to have a take-home final. The teacher said it'd be posted friday, or early saturday at latest. He had also claimed that we would have five days to work on it, and at least a weekend to work on it for those of us that work full time.
He did not post it until 7:30pm on saturday. I have wasted a good chunk of friday and saturday checking the goddamn website at frequent intervals.
It is due next friday. I consider his claims BASE LIES.
This man is also notoriously bad at replying to emails unless he's bombarded by the same request by a ton of people (I've asked questions regarding homeworks before that he's never even answered).
Oh, and this exam also looks to be just slightly on the annoying side. -_-
That sounds like prime scholastic bullshit.
I think it sounds more like general incompetence.
Hah, I guess he got enough emails sent his way (including one from me) to actually grab his attention, as he extended deadline to next saturday at midnight. I may actually still be able to finish it tonight, but it's good to know I'll have the extra time available if I need it.
It occurs to me that I get slightly offended when people are loudly offended at (certain) things.
In particular when I get offended at something, I then get offended at myself for being offended and then...
Um...
... today's bitching is kind of existential ^_^;;
Self sustaining offense loops? Sounds pretty standard for modern 1st world culture.
Quote from: Anastasia on May 06, 2012, 09:19:11 PM
Self sustaining offense loops? Sounds pretty standard for modern 1st world culture.
Fortunately the loop isn't infinite, but tends to undergo radioactive decay into mere annoyance.
Headache, stomach ache, general sense of miserableness....
Bleah.
Ugh, that sucks, Brian. Get better soon!
Cats are like kids:
http://www.soulriders.net/forum/index.php/topic,101865.msg1036376.html#msg1036376
Kitty.
Can you get a tougher one?
I just need one he can't take off.
The safety collar is mostly important for kittens ... he's demonstrated that he's a big enough kitty to get one that's fixed.
And if he breaks that, I'll get him a chain collar.
Workplace drama is the worst. -_-
Human resources at its worst: people whose salary literally depends on wasting your time and distracting you from what you're being paid to do.
i.e. if HR in the head office have a mandate to organize 'social activities' in a branch office located several thousand miles away, cower in fear
Today I am tasked with fixing things in the Monument of Hate.
First step, reinstall the monument of hate on a new machine, so there's at least a second copy to debug issues on.
Initial Estimate: few hours.
Reality: It appears the software combination that makes up the Monument of Hate may possibly be unable to be recreated. I have 3 possibilities left. Apparently the Monument of Hate is also a ticking time bomb.
Dog yanked my mom over while they were walking. In the doctor's office.
My bro, though he means well, is trying to give diagnosis without even having first aid training. He's also trying to say it happened because she was bent over when the dog pulled. Totally ignoring the fact that he's activily missed every dog training class for the past four months.
Stress is causing him to shift blame, I suppose. Still annoying.
Edit/Update: Mom's shoulder is broken at the ball joint and impacted further into the joint. Specialist appointment to be made on monday.
Ouch Iddy! That's not a good mother's day. :(
Well shit. Sorry to hear it, Iddy.
That's no good.... Hope things look up soon. :x
:(
Revenge of the return of the son of stomach bug. >_<
I have spent far more time then I care for being sick lately.
Are you sure it's a stomach bug and not something more chronic? You've had that a lot lately, you're right.
Stomach issues are a pain to diagnose.... :\
Hope you recover soon, or at least figure out what the cause is soon. :x
Edit: As a suggestion, it'd be good to keep a written record of what you eat and when, if this keeps happening. That makes it much easier to track things down if it turns out you're having a reaction to something in your diet. Even if you've historically never had problems with a given food, well, part of growing older is your body saying, "You can't enjoy ye favorite food because it contains X!"
It could be nuts, fats, certain types of dairy (and not others) or even something like 'whole meats' vs. 'ground meats'. I've seen a lot of strange gastro issues in my life, so I hope this helps you.
A DailyWTF occurred at my office this morning. Also at several other sister studios.
Something like http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The-Core-Launcher.aspx to be specific.
It made for quite a surprise morning. I'll be curious what ends up being the designated culprit of placing a "C:\program" logfile on every machine in the company.
So I have to give my dog a bath today. I get her in the tub, shampoo her and do all that. I'm kneeling by the tub to do it, and it's a small bathroom so I'm right next to the toilet. As I get up to turn off the water and start to dry the dog off, she decides to jump up, right into my chest. My dog weighs about 50 pounds and she became a wet canine torpedo right into my ribs. I end up falling back, slamming into the toilet and sending my glasses flying. Total tally? Bruised ribs, toilet knocked off the hinges and my glasses are crooked now.
I just woke up in a bad mood. Maybe I had a dream about something I can't remember that upset me? No clue, but I woke up wanting to get into a fight for some reason.
Got over that, did the normal waking up stuff, realized I took some advice on my latest fanfic that I really should have followed my gut instinct with in the first place and not gone with -- but it's really soured me on working on it any further, and was followed up with an analysis that even if some people are really nice to me about it, it was really poor quality. Now I'm tired, grumpy, and something crashed half the equipment in the lab over the weekend.
And I really need to get my glasses replaced. >_<
Today has yet to stop getting worse.
Sorry to hear that. I admit I was blindsided when I logged in and read that you'd dropped Precious Moments. Still, if you weren't happy with the way things were turning out then I can hardly blame you.
I hope that things turn around sooner rather than later.
Man, what is going on with me these last few days? Can't think straight, had to take a day off work.
Maybe sleeping will help. >_<
Today I blocked off for getting some updates done.
A team managed to blow itself up. Terribly. I am not bailing them out. Even if they have producers at my desk every hour.
I've spent half the day training someone.
IT is unhappy that I am saying "There is Update or Update. There is no Rollback strategy."
Bah, humbug.
Last night was not a good night. Firstly, it was decided by the Powers That Be that I would be moving over 7000 miles to live in a small, two-room apartment so I can receive 'better healthcare benefits', which actually means they want to move me somewhere they can pay me less. Second, the move has been planned for a date that prevents me from seeing any of my friends or extended family between now and then, so I don't even get a chance to say goodbye to most of them. I will most likely never see many of those friends again.
This has obviously exacerbated the aforementioned stress-related medical condition, so I will probably be spending the time between now and the moving day in a significant amount of pain, the cause of which is still not completely clear.
And people wonder why I have anger management issues.
Wow. All I can say is good luck, since that blows on steroids.
Last episode's destructive rage/depression leads to a today of regret.
I gave up too easily. -_-
Ah, but regret is easy....
Regret's easy. Why not just pick up where you gave up and try again?
Pride is quite a horsepill. o_o
Especially with a side of crow.
Scaaaaary.
I'd say something else but I'm running on E for wittiness. G'luck, no matter how it goes.
While I was walking near Golden Gate Park, a guy leaned out of his van window and asked me for food money.
I am done with SF's panhandling population. No more.
Tell them that you'll buy them a drink instead. When they bite, squirt them in the face with your concealed water pistol and run away laughing.
Funny but dickish. Are these homeless people or some other form of panhandling? I don't normally associate 'van' and 'panhandling' together.
He was parked outside a McDonalds at the time, so your guess is as good as mine.
Generally speaking, SF's panhandlers are homeless, though. (Also, usually mentally ill, which is at least half the reason they're on the streets.)
Most in-your-face panhandler I've ever encountered was at Queen & Jarvis. He was like a demented auctioneer.
"can I have one dollar pleas I need to buy the food can I have one dollar...
*guy gives him a dollar*
can I have two dollars pleas I need to buy the food..."
On the other corner, an old lady was shouting her head off at a guy in army uniform for... I don't even know. But it had to do with his uniform.
Queen & Jarvis is a depressing intersection.
I am on a short-ish diet to clear out my internal systems a bit. This first week is killing me though. All green veggies, no proteins or starches. Even when I try to eat at normal intervals, I am finding myself kinda hungry all the time. Really looking forward to having protein again. Ug.
That can't be healthy. Or else I misunderstood; are you eating vegetable protein, at least? Get some legumes in there, and whole grains.
Quote from: Music-chan on May 28, 2012, 03:49:54 PM
I am on a short-ish diet to clear out my internal systems a bit. This first week is killing me though. All green veggies, no proteins or starches. Even when I try to eat at normal intervals, I am finding myself kinda hungry all the time. Really looking forward to having protein again. Ug.
Good for you. That'll help out a lot with the toxins in your system. Doing that combined with some decent vitamin supplements and a regular work out will help kick your ass into shape.
Bricked a dev box. Thankfully, one of the better and friendlier engineers on staff was able to get into a console and un-brick it, but....
This is the start of a third week in which technical issues have prevented me from getting anything actually _done_ at work, and tomorrow's my monthly 'justify your job' interview/meeting.
I gotta ask, why do you have monthly justify your job meetings? That sounds sort of adversarial.
Everyone in my department has it. The manager we hired (usually a cool guy) likes it.
He doesn't _call_ it that, and says it's just 'touching base' with us to keep track of what we're doing. But it's pretty readily apparent what the extra functionality of these meetings is.
Aaaah, okay.
Some dude in a red pickup truck just pulled up not ten feet from my open office windows, leaned his head out the door, yelled obscenities at the place next door, and laid on his horn for a solid minute. Classy.
Did you unleash your horde, armed with power tools, saws, and hammers, and offer to fix his faulty horn?
Better. I called the cops. :3
Today's mandatory, "Be sure to let us maximize our profits on anything you invent," meeting comes with a free lunch.
From one of the few places that I've determined always gives me a gal bladder attack.
/me sighs.
My work today is a series of things falling apart. Very frustrating.
Quote from: Iron Dragoon on May 29, 2012, 01:05:18 PM
Quote from: Music-chan on May 28, 2012, 03:49:54 PM
I am on a short-ish diet to clear out my internal systems a bit. This first week is killing me though. All green veggies, no proteins or starches. Even when I try to eat at normal intervals, I am finding myself kinda hungry all the time. Really looking forward to having protein again. Ug.
Good for you. That'll help out a lot with the toxins in your system. Doing that combined with some decent vitamin supplements and a regular work out will help kick your ass into shape.
I have to keep telling myself that. Every day. =p
I still can't wait until I can move on to proteins. Basically a gluten-free diet for a month or so with some suppliments to help clear out the rest of the bacteria and replenish the good stuff. While I didn't do this originally for the weight loss aspect, at least it's a nice side effect.
Quote from: Music-chan on May 30, 2012, 11:32:18 PM
Quote from: Iron Dragoon on May 29, 2012, 01:05:18 PM
Quote from: Music-chan on May 28, 2012, 03:49:54 PM
I am on a short-ish diet to clear out my internal systems a bit. This first week is killing me though. All green veggies, no proteins or starches. Even when I try to eat at normal intervals, I am finding myself kinda hungry all the time. Really looking forward to having protein again. Ug.
Good for you. That'll help out a lot with the toxins in your system. Doing that combined with some decent vitamin supplements and a regular work out will help kick your ass into shape.
I have to keep telling myself that. Every day. =p
I still can't wait until I can move on to proteins. Basically a gluten-free diet for a month or so with some suppliments to help clear out the rest of the bacteria and replenish the good stuff. While I didn't do this originally for the weight loss aspect, at least it's a nice side effect.
Yes, yes it is. My bro and mom did one of those cycles while I was overseas. They immediately started feeling better and having more energy. It's good thing to do. Keep up with it, but remember, losing weight is like 3/4ths diet and 1/4 exercise =)
Cut out all the BS like soda, and you'll start dropping weight fast.
Quote from: Iron Dragoon on May 31, 2012, 12:41:20 PM
Quote from: Music-chan on May 30, 2012, 11:32:18 PM
Quote from: Iron Dragoon on May 29, 2012, 01:05:18 PM
Quote from: Music-chan on May 28, 2012, 03:49:54 PM
I am on a short-ish diet to clear out my internal systems a bit. This first week is killing me though. All green veggies, no proteins or starches. Even when I try to eat at normal intervals, I am finding myself kinda hungry all the time. Really looking forward to having protein again. Ug.
Good for you. That'll help out a lot with the toxins in your system. Doing that combined with some decent vitamin supplements and a regular work out will help kick your ass into shape.
I have to keep telling myself that. Every day. =p
I still can't wait until I can move on to proteins. Basically a gluten-free diet for a month or so with some suppliments to help clear out the rest of the bacteria and replenish the good stuff. While I didn't do this originally for the weight loss aspect, at least it's a nice side effect.
Yes, yes it is. My bro and mom did one of those cycles while I was overseas. They immediately started feeling better and having more energy. It's good thing to do. Keep up with it, but remember, losing weight is like 3/4ths diet and 1/4 exercise =)
Cut out all the BS like soda, and you'll start dropping weight fast.
I already don't drink soda, but I do consume plenty of other sugary things. Going without sweets for a month will probably help the most at this point. I'm also hoping that I'll get into the habit of writing out a meal plan and not just eating 'whatever.' Whatever mostly tends to be crackers and bread, easy stuff.
Sugar promotes the production of fat-storage hormones, like insulin. Insulin is good, but a lot of it = fatty fat-fat. Cut most of your sugar, and you'll see that weight fly away.
Also, go on a walk shortly after you get up, and try not to sleep more than 6-8 hours a day. You can survive well on 6-7. More than 8 and you feel lethargic all day.
I think the sleep thing varies from person to person. I need 8-9 or I'm incoherent and miserable all day.
It's a thing some people need to get used to, yes. It took me about a week before I started waking up feeling awesome.
Eh, I naturally wake up after 9 hours, but I've also slept for like 16 hours and woken up feeling amazing.
I hate when they have a film crew in the office. -_-
Oh man, yeah, film crews in the office are a pain :( We had one running around on wednesday. At least I sit in the "They are not allowed to be here" section.
Kinda wish I had IRC today. something to yammer while I unwind the threads of code.
Still no IRC at work, eh?
Quote from: Brian on June 01, 2012, 04:32:04 PM
I hate when they have a film crew in the office. -_-
At least they're not making you *be* the film crew.
"We're being required to send something in to HQ for the quarterly thing! Who has a video camera?"
Man, with today's weather the way it is, I'm wishing I'd brought a bigger umbrella.
In fact, I'm wishing I'd brought one of those military grade Touhou style parasols that minor deities can use to bludgeon each other with...
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on June 01, 2012, 07:34:47 PMAt least they're not making you *be* the film crew.
"We're being required to send something in to HQ for the quarterly thing! Who has a video camera?"
That'd match my pre-QA background, actually. I kind of wish I'd managed that career path, but alas....
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on June 01, 2012, 07:36:59 PM
Man, with today's weather the way it is, I'm wishing I'd brought a bigger umbrella.
In fact, I'm wishing I'd brought one of those military grade Touhou style parasols that minor deities can use to bludgeon each other with...
This rain, right? I would have suggested a raincoat or poncho as well, to be honest.
Me, I stayed inside ALLLL day.
I slaved away for about two hours with a needle and thread yesterday to convert that old shawl into a wall hanging.
While I slept, Shami chewed the tassles and a bit off and ate one corner.
...I guess I'll get the authentic 'tattered' look really easily, now. -_-
More worried about that darn cat making himself sick by eating things that he really shouldn't be! >_<
So today's my birthday! Unfortunately, I woke up with my stomach imitating the Ride of the Valkyries due to some bad pizza last night. Fuuuuuuck.
Happy birthday, Ko. Hope you feel better.
Some chemical is trying to tell my brain I've done something horribly wrong and or stupid.
I can't think of what I've done that qualifies, so now I feel miserable, guilty, and inexplicably full of self loathing.
What the hell, brain chemistry? What did I ever do to you?
That makes it sound like your brain is trolling you.
Don't even get me started....
If my dreams are anything to go by, that's absolutely the case.
My throat is so swollen right now it hurts to talk. Eating has become a special occasion, especially after last week when I bit the inside of my cheek so hard I got an ulcer.
Very much a "first-world problem", but my hard drive is too small for the torrents I'm downloading.
Also, I had a disturbingly detailed dream about murdering the cast of the first Jurassic Park movie. And Bruce Willis.
Don't go see Prometheus. It sucks. A lot.
I should probably write a review or something. >_>
That's vindicating. Now, just to be clear, does it suck as a horror movie, or does it suck as a sci-fi film? Because my expectation is that it's at least a mediocre horror movie pretending to be sci-fi.
And, hope you feel better, Squibidyflop. :x That sounds unpleasant.
It sucks as a
movie!The music direction? Sucks.
The acting? Sucks.
Directing? Writing? Story? All suck.
I will say that the CGI in the movie was actually really pretty and not at all distracting for once. Well, except for that stupid UI in the
The old man makeup was terrible, though.
It isn't a horror movie. It's scifi. But, man, they lose track of their theme early. You can see all the pieces that were supposed to form the theme, but it's handled so poorly that nothing comes of it. It was supposed to raise questions without giving definitive answers (as scifi is wont to do) but they're so divorced from what's happening in the narrative that by the end of the movie the only question that seems to matter is 'How many vaginas
can you stick on one monster?'
The answer?
Quite a few. ^_^
The cat that I left with my parents when I moved out had feline cancer and was put to sleep.
A few.months ago. My family didn't bother telling me until just now. I don't know if I should laugh or cry.
Quote from: thepanda on June 10, 2012, 08:11:40 PM
Don't go see Prometheus. It sucks. A lot.
I should probably write a review or something. >_>
I have to agree with Panda-chan. Prometheus did
not, in any fashion, manner, or form, live up to its hype. It fell far, far short.
Quote from: Sinom Bre on June 12, 2012, 07:50:24 PM
Quote from: thepanda on June 10, 2012, 08:11:40 PM
Don't go see Prometheus. It sucks. A lot.
I should probably write a review or something. >_>
I have to agree with Panda-chan. Prometheus did not, in any fashion, manner, or form, live up to its hype. It fell far, far short.
It's like they took the cast from an Eli Roth movie and put them IN SPAAACE!!
Quote from: thepanda on June 12, 2012, 08:02:16 PM
Quote from: Sinom Bre on June 12, 2012, 07:50:24 PM
Quote from: thepanda on June 10, 2012, 08:11:40 PM
Don't go see Prometheus. It sucks. A lot.
I should probably write a review or something. >_>
I have to agree with Panda-chan. Prometheus did not, in any fashion, manner, or form, live up to its hype. It fell far, far short.
It's like they took the cast from an Eli Roth movie and put them IN SPAAACE!!
hahaha
My 360 finally bit it. I've never had to replace one. ;_;
Fell asleep with my head on my hand. Now it's so stiff it feels like a prosthetic.
I have two KVMs. One does V, and the other does KM.
I really needed that many cables behind my computer....
My Linux Mint install also exploded last night when I tried to add a second monitor. Had to reinstall. My windows system also got into a state where I had to reset the CMOS while trying to get the more expensive KVM to pass keyboard signal to the Mint box, and then tried to boot an old Vista installation that I'd intentionally damaged the profile on.
Made for a nice heart-attack to see it get that far, though.
Now that all of my technical issues have gotten squared away, I'm free to write again.
...but I have no motivation for anything new, and I can't help but feel like my last project blew up in my face. o_o
The ninja are always watching?
That seemed like a really stressful evening. good to see you got through it, brian.
Za Wurldo is Not Enough. I don't really got much to bitch about at all, side from money (money, money, money...). Everywhere I look, I can see that for me...Life is pretty good.
Con weekend. I planned on going with friends but other worker had to reschedule so I'm stuck working. At least I didn't pay in advance.
I went to an archery range on Saturday, but despite archery being pretty fun, the only thing I clearly remember about the experience is the spider that crawled up my pants leg while I was on the field.
Haven't recalled a single dream since Shami got more aggressive about pulling my hair when I try to sleep.
New glasses are so expensive....
Edit: ugh, dialated pupils. Can't see. Have to head to work. Bleah! I should probably just be happy I have insurance.
The frequency of the bitching in this topic thread is too low. Surely your lives must be more miserable than such would suggest. I'm quite disappointed all around.
:)
I'm unemployed going on month 10 or 11 of unemployment. What few jobs open up get deluged with applications, so you have to about win the lottery to even get an interview.
That better?
*pats* Here's hoping you don't go through as long a dry spell as I did. You'll get something, I'm sure.
Quote from: Anastasia on June 20, 2012, 06:31:30 PM
I'm unemployed going on month 10 or 11 of unemployment. What few jobs open up get deluged with applications, so you have to about win the lottery to even get an interview.
That better?
Indeed.
Quote from: Sinom Bre on June 20, 2012, 02:58:36 PM
The frequency of the bitching in this topic thread is too low. Surely your lives must be more miserable than such would suggest. I'm quite disappointed all around.
:)
Life doesn't suck enough to complain about! Bitchbitchbitchbitchbitch
=p
Eh. This is a bitch channel, so I complained about something. Sue me. :)
As soon as action lawyer Charles Carreon (http://www.popehat.com/tag/oatmeal-v-funnyjunk/) finishes his current crusade, we'll have him do just that, Rain. ;)
Quote from: Brian on June 20, 2012, 08:35:24 PM
As soon as action lawyer Charles Carreon (http://www.popehat.com/tag/oatmeal-v-funnyjunk/) finishes his current crusade, we'll have him do just that, Rain. ;)
Meh. He's just as likely to sue every member of SR as he is just me. Careful what you wish for, B... =p
Things appear to be coming to a head at work. I've either made almost our entire department very powerful enemy ... or am about to get someone fired.
Oh, boy. -_-
Erg. Inescapable feeling of loss and depression.
What the hell, chemical brain? Stop messing with me! >_<
Arg, clarifying:
Screwed things up with someone and tried to apologize, but it's one of those 'you just never know' situations.
Trying to think positive, but it's oppressive to realize just how _badly_ I may have screwed things up ... and that it may never be possible to overcome it. Blerg.
Spent a bunch of time "reviewing an X to consider an implementation strategy for Y".
Not the proudest moment of my career ^_^;;;
Not the proudest moment of your career ... so far!
My feet are killing me. Also, I spilled my water all over my lap on the bus today. :(
Better than on your computer! Or something that stained!
But I'm sorry to hear that, Music. :x
Hope things look up for you soon. :)
Thanks. :) It's really just a minor bitching, but when you're tired and you've been on your feet all day, spilling water all over everything just feels like the WORST.
Some like it hot. I do not.
Thing about that is that with the humidex it's going to be 102 here tomorrow.
Excuse me while I go boil like a pierogi.
Technically you're a 'pieróg', which is the singular form. >_>
Being in at work early is sigh. Oh well, must be done.
Tried adjusting to my new glasses for a week, but it's not happening. Prescription's off, and it's giving me a migraine trying to acclimate to what my eyes are telling me is wrooooong. ;_x
Even being at work this early, was not early enough to get in front of the team. They are a steam-rollin'. Brawgh.
And the other team is asking for emergency help while this is going on. So awesome ~_~
Man, I thought having a mild headache sucked. This topic is showing me otherwise.
New glasses adjustment is still not working. This really. Really. SUCKS.
I never really expected to be forced into this kind of growth experience at my day job.
I worked 11 hours today. Some people were working 12 or more. New stores are rough.
Arakawa! You should come to our 'family and friends' event! I don't know anyone else in Toronto to invite. :x
3 hours of bad sleep+102 F heat+wedding+pokemon music at wedding reception=I think I'm going insane.
After about a month of drought, it decided to start raining again the past few days. Tonight it turned torrential. About five leaks in our roof. >_<
Quote from: Anastasia on July 07, 2012, 09:01:59 PM
3 hours of bad sleep+102 F heat+wedding+pokemon music at wedding reception=I think I'm going insane.
Game or anime?
Simon and Garfunkel plays as Sunday's work continues.
Blargh.
Dracos is a rock. He is an island. *nods nods*
Technically, there is a small squad here with me.
But yeah, sunday night work not cool.
Urrgh, I seriously dislike the feeling of my muse letting me down yet again...
The trick is to realize that your muse, like everyone else's, is out to get you.
And be cool with it.
For some silly reason, many restaurants in downtown Toronto close at 10pm. It's like this city doesn't have a nightlife.
Take two days off. Come back to work.
91 unread messages.
...well, I guess on the bright side, it'll be hours before I have time to do real work.
Pointless (EDIT: but necessary) things I did so far this week:
- Programming language design. In the real world this apparently consists of several people sitting in a circle for several hours attempting to decide on the least ugly line noise to use for feature X in the internal scripting language. "Backtick? Nah... it looks like someone shot m4 code with a shotgun if we do that."
- Emergency typesetting for a mathematician. Apparently the person who was originally supposed to do the typesetting was a postdoc who kept mixing up gradient and square root. o_O
- Nearly roped into a 'date' situation. Concluded that my attitude towards this sort of thing is the same as Shikamaru: "...troublesome."
Co-worker has a crush on me. Long suspected, now confirmed.
Awkward. -_-
Guessing you aren't interested in her?
Yeah. Or more specifically, I'm much more interested in someone else, and even trying anything with my co-worker would be heinously unfair to her. I already know there's not enough interest on my side to make it work. -_-
The only good thing is I can play the, "Let's keep it professional; we're co-workers," card.
That's always wise. Workplace drama blows.
Still losing sleep over that friend who hasn't spoken to me since I tried to apologize.
Not a day passes without self-recrimination over that.
*sigh*
Fucking stupid Saturday buses cannot FUCKING RUN ON TIME EVER.
Quote from: Music-chan on July 22, 2012, 01:01:03 PM
Fucking stupid Saturday buses cannot FUCKING RUN ON TIME EVER.
Ah yes, the good ol' TTC. So many
fond memories:
(http://i.imgur.com/TTvy4.jpg)
(Admittedly, this was an exceptionally bad day at St. George.)
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on July 22, 2012, 04:01:44 PM
Quote from: Music-chan on July 22, 2012, 01:01:03 PM
Fucking stupid Saturday buses cannot FUCKING RUN ON TIME EVER.
Ah yes, the good ol' TTC. So many fond memories:
(image)
(Admittedly, this was an exceptionally bad day at St. George.)
Wow.
Also, you need a better potato to take pictures on. :D
Haha, I recognize imgur-speak.
...what have I done with my life.
Anyway, I forgot today was Drive Like an Asshole day. Oops.
Isn't that...every day?
Yes.
Yes, it is.
I just spent 8 hours washing dishes.
They never ran out.
Not even at the end, when they just decided at the end "okay we'll just finish this tomorrow".
;_;
You know, this is going to sound kinda said, but I'm so neurotic I'd be totally cool with washing dishes for eight hours?
Washing dishes can be kind of fun, really. If I had nothing better to do over the course of eight hours (unlikely), I would as happily wash dishes as anything.
Waking up sick is one of life's most annoying miseries.
Ugh. Didn't get enough sleep last night. Probably am going to have to go home early just to pass out. -_-
Last night was one of those nights where every decision I made was a wrong one.
Nothing serious but it just felt like an awful night. Today is better....I hope.
I move across the country in one week. Everything is going to shit!
At least you're headed out of it?
Terrible day at work.
Stressed by guilt/self-recrimination over that whole friendship I screwed up. Came up with a fic idea to try and address it, but had no free time to work on it.
Got blocked by the incompetence of other companies that supply us while trying to do my job.
Got home to unwind, had trouble getting my microphone to work.
Because Shami chewed through the cables.
While trying to round him up to show him the cable and let him know he was bad for chewing it, find a big pile of cat puke underneath the kitchen table.
After finding him, he's so scared of me he runs into my bed and hides under the covers.
And wets himself.
Great. So I'm so terrible I drive away friends and my cat is so terrified of me he loses control of his bladder when I'm upset about him chewing my stuff up.
'FML' indeed.
And I still have to work this weekend.
Why do I always do my best thinking on completely irrelevant things?
Nyu.
Just sorta quiet today.
Is that a bad thing at work?
The person I was supposed to room with in Arizona has just now informed me that her condo will not be ready until the 12th. This will leave me homeless for 4 days. Time to spend the entire day hunting for an apartment. Sigh.
Ugh. Sorry to hear that, Yuth.... No hotel or anything that will work for just a day or three? :x
Hotel yes. $80/night. Way more than $500/mo
No warning signs, no symptoms, just found my cat's dead body under the bed this morning.
...
Ah geez, I'm sorry. I've been there and it sucks.
You still have my sympathies. :(
Just sort of casually irritable today. Not even much reason for it, but I feel more like punching people then helping them.
Why do all my "quick trips into town" turn into these huge productions? I mean, the Yonge subway line has a power outage on the day I'm trying to use it for more than just work? Yikes.
Stupid bug (that I'm responsible for) in released software. Stupid Ontario bureaucracy. Stupid usually-but-not-always-48-bit protocol fields. Stupid, massively stupid weather outside window.
This has been one of those days... so far.
House smells like burnt meat.
Every so often I feel the need to get really depressed by reminding myself of friends I've lost.
Blearg.
Tomorrow would have been Sterling's 31st birthday. It'll be seven years on the 24th.
I don't know what's worse. The ones who have passed, or those who are still alive, and it's just the friendship that's died. -_-
/me sighs.
Quote from: Brian on August 12, 2012, 07:11:22 PM
Every so often I feel the need to get really depressed by reminding myself of friends I've lost.
Blearg.
Tomorrow would have been Sterling's 31st birthday. It'll be seven years on the 24th.
I don't know what's worse. The ones who have passed, or those who are still alive, and it's just the friendship that's died. -_-
/me sighs.
Know how ya feel. I'm down 13.
Wow. I feel like a turd for thinking that biting the inside of the mouth accidentally for like the fifth time (and it swelling up rather large) is anything that could be posted, given the serious nature of the previous two posts.
On a related note, however, I was listening to a cd of X Japan, and then I remembered that I found out about the band when Celeste Byrd died, because she had a tribute page of some sorts to them. It felt rather depressing.
Man, the best job lead I had in months ended in an abrupt automated email. Sigh.
Being sick sucks. Tomorrow should be good enough at this trend but still.
Yeah, I'm coming down with something, myself.
It's Shami's fault.
I spent this more putting disinfectant out where I'd touched. Hopefully that'll help. But yeah. Shitty cold is shitty.
Eh, if I'm going to catch it, I'll catch it. Not that worried about it.
Also, Shami's fault. ;)
RIP Harry Harrison (http://io9.com/5934884/rip-harry-harrison-creator-of-the-stainless-steel-rat-bill-the-galactic-hero-and-soylent-green)
Man ... Deathworld was really fascinating, despite what you might expect from the title. I remember those books....
Edit: Arg. Woke up with a migraine. Went back to sleep to try and shake it off. Woke up later with the same migraine.
Even the dream about driving the unrealistically cool motorcycle/car thing and protecting Earth from alien invasion doesn't quite offset the ouch. x_x
I'm still sick at work. Bleh!
Our cat passed on yesterday. We're pretty sad about it. :(
An unfortunate season for SR's cats.... :\
My condolences, Music.
I'm awake at 3 AM. Again.
Leaving the office at midnight.
On a Sunday.
Ugh. Crawled into work far too early. Time to quit coffee for two weeks again, I think. Gotta clean the system every so often. x_x
Four sessions before collapse. I guess that's not too bad. It was bi-weekly, which was kind of a strain, but things seemed to mostly be going okay. And then....
At the end of last session (last Sunday), Drac announces he'll be missing the next session because he's got something planned. Gate's already left, but the remaining players all discuss options and we talk about sliding the game back a week. Everyone agrees that if it works for Gate, it works for them.
Send out a scheduling e-mail to let everyone know what's up today.
"Oh, I didn't know that. I scheduled classes for what would be the new game dates. Can't make it."
"Why did we make this change? I can't make that schedule!"
Honestly, people! We had a discussion about this! I hate to sound elitist, but the hazards of working with folks who don't have to abide by corporate calenders and all the restrictions they impose ... with less awareness of how much time they have and when they need to schedule things ... it seems some of my friends just cannot schedule anything for crap.
So the game is on hiatus until January because I don't want to fight holiday scheduling considering how many issues can be cooked up over something as seemingly inconsequential as this.
And once again I am in no games. I have to think the problem is with me.
Silver lining: More time to work on fanfics.
Gagh, irony. Just ran into the exact same problem of trying to schedule a meetup with some people who apparently don't comprehend the concept of 9 to 5 ;_;
Time management is a skill people put on resumes for a reason, I guess. :\
Bah, working again this weekend. -_-
:(
:(
:(
...but tonight Daos faces our Indignation?
Twice. Man is he gonna wish he never got out of that coffin.
... and more frightening than the fury of the common man is the Indignation of the Exalted.
(I don't know, Capitalized Notions make me think of White Wolf Games now for some reason.)
Don't get me started on White Wolf. :p
In this case, Indignation is a proper noun because it's the name of a spell. Well ... I ... think it's a proper noun. Outside of Potter-fic and RPGs, I'm not sure how much call there is for style guides concerning spell descriptions. But I think we're getting off topic....
Holy crap there are a lot of people at FanExpo.
Dreamt instead of going to work right now I snuck off to a waterpark. Amusingly, I could *almost* pull that off in waking life.
I just need good weather... and a waterpark with good wi-fi access so I could do some work remotely.
Oh well. I will cherish the idea as I go to work today.
EDIT: and, of course, in the hypothetical ideal waterpark there are no long lineups so I can strictly alternate between working and fun-ing.
brian@Kuyou ~/Dropbox/Elements $ du -ch Fanfiction/ | grep total
39M total
It turns out I really do have no life.
I'm a little sick. This sucks given I have a plane ride tonight.
Stupid rain is messing up my business when I really could use the money. >_<
Someone was parked in my spot in front of the house when I got back from going out with some friends this morning. Not a big deal. I found a spot down the street to park.
After a few hours, I noticed that the space in front of the house was free, and went to move my car. The guy who's house I had parked in front of (who still had enough room to park behind me) said thanks when I went to move my car.
Didn't think much about it until I had moved down the street, some 30 meters to my usual spot. When I got out, I noticed that someone had keyed my car, from the front wheel well to the trunk, three times across the entire length.
I went back to the guy who had thanked me (and moved his truck up the four meters I was blocking him) to say, "Hey, did you do that? Did your kids do it screwing around? My car's all scratched up now!"
And he suddenly forgot how to speak English.
There's nothing the police can do, so I haven't called. Not really sure what to do. Super pissed off, though.
He's an asshole, that's for sure. What can I do? Write a note and post it on his fence? "If you park here and aren't the home owner, some asshole will illegally vandalize your car."? So now my car is all fucked up (not that it looked awesome in the first place), my neighbor's got some grudge against me for _daring_ to park in front of his house on the public street, and there's nothing I can do about it.
I mean, unless I park in front of his house at every opportunity and rig the car with security cameras or something, but that's an unreal amount of time and effort. I'm just so pissed off at the blatancy of the, "Don't speak English," defense when I know for a fact he does. It may have been his kids instead of his, but that dodge of responsibility....
Maybe get someone to translate a letter into Spanish and just hand it over? "You owe me 700$ to repair my car because vandalism is illegal."?
In the end I probably will do nothing but be pissed off about it, because there's nothing I can do without spending effort that will never be rewarded. The only other option is to sink to his level, and I'm not about to do that.
That's very annoying. My condolences.
Quote from: Brian on September 02, 2012, 04:21:47 AM
Someone was parked in my spot in front of the house when I got back from going out with some friends this morning. Not a big deal. I found a spot down the street to park.
Similar incident that I was in a while ago, more lucky in outcome but no less idiotic: we park somewhere in the vicinity of Runnymede Station. Seconds later, as we're about to leave, guy (possibly even drunk? now that I think about it; or maybe just drunk with anger) with a huge dog comes out of the house and starts screaming his head off at us about how we're blocking his driveway and he won't be able to pull his truck out of the driveway.
(All this time his dog keeps trying to go over and make friends, and he keeps taking time out from screaming his head off at us to screaming his head off at the dog, Bill Sykes style. I feel very sorry for his dog.)
We say, look, we're an entire metre from the edge of your driveway, we're not blocking it. He screams his head off some more, then says something like "I'm going to pull out of the driveway now, and I'm going smash your car up. You just watch. Don't say I didn't warn you." He pulls out of the driveway, doing his damndest to hit our car in the process, but doesn't manage to do it. He screams his head off some more, and then he and the dog drive away in supreme and utter disgust.
Now I realize it's a lucky thing Canadian politeness prevailed and he didn't come back and key the !@#$ out of the car while we were gone, or ram our car deliberately, or something.
Never seen the "don't speak English" defence here yet. That... would suck to deal with. Time to start learning Spanish?
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on September 02, 2012, 10:47:51 AMNever seen the "don't speak English" defence here yet. That... would suck to deal with. Time to start learning Spanish?
Learning better Spanish than I already have isn't my top language priority. Giving us a (second) common language just means he has to be more obvious about being a jerk. He won't acknowledge that it happened.
Plus, it really could have been his kids. I'm still pissed he doesn't even have the decency to say, "That's terrible; I'll talk to my kids about it," and instead say something I can't even recognize in Spanish. There's really nothing to be done without putting more effort into it than it's worth.
I mean, if I see someone else parking in front of his house, I'll warn them that the owner of that house is a jerk, and their car will be vandalized, but in the end, that's still the jerk winning, using criminal actions to control city property (the sidewalk).
How fragile and mysterious a thing is goodwill between two random people on the street.
Particularly noticeable when it disappears.
Fuck, sorry to hear that. I looked into whether there was any way to preserve your spot but it seems that there is no legal priority for people to get to park outside their own homes or have others not do so. Even when not having that causes all sorts of problems. Nothing that can be done legally.
Meh not all of my neighbors are assholes. Just enough to poison the community. Pretty sure I know which. The guy who has his kids hold up signs to the street.
The guy across the street and south two houses, who's got the kids (don't think I've seen them with the signs) and is always doing home improvement.
Which I somehow doubt he's gotten permits for.
Quote from: Dracos on September 02, 2012, 12:17:17 PM
Meh not all of my neighbors are assholes. Just enough to poison the community. Pretty sure I know which. The guy who has his kids hold up signs to the street.
Huh. What exactly does 'hold up signs to the street' mean, again?
Ugh.
I have three different things that I've promised to be proofreading for three different scientists, so my long weekend Sunday is going to hell. This is completely separate from and in addition to the C&C that, in an ideal world, I would like to be doing here.
I really need to learn to start saying 'no' to these odd jobs that don't enhance my life.
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on September 02, 2012, 01:39:57 PM
Quote from: Dracos on September 02, 2012, 12:17:17 PM
Meh not all of my neighbors are assholes. Just enough to poison the community. Pretty sure I know which. The guy who has his kids hold up signs to the street.
Huh. What exactly does 'hold up signs to the street' mean, again?
It means they dangle off the side of his truck holding notices at cars.
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on September 02, 2012, 01:48:46 PM
Ugh.
I have three different things that I've promised to be proofreading for three different scientists, so my long weekend Sunday is going to hell. This is completely separate from and in addition to the C&C that, in an ideal world, I would like to be doing here.
I really need to learn to start saying 'no' to these odd jobs that don't enhance my life.
Or at least get paid properly for them.
So Sunday night we made home made meatballs for dinner. They were awesome and everyone liked them.
...Cue 24 hours later and it's the great family bathroom apocalypse '12. Fuuuuuuuuuck. The last 12 hours have been one symphony of misery and bathroom breaks.
>_>;;
Fail Meatballs.
Anyhow, morning office construction really is @_@.
The meatballs tasted great. I dunno what the hell went wrong.
Undercooked, most likely, if everyone's having the same reaction. They don't have to taste bad to cause issues.
I've decided to file a complaint against the neighbor who keyed my car just to establish precedence anyway.
G'luck with that, Brian. Hopefully that'll be the end of it.
It won't be. The neighbor won't even know it's been done. It's mostly to establish a precedence for insurance, and so if (when) he escalates, the police will know there's a record of that car being vandalized in front of his house.
Once he does serious damage instead of just keying it (or keys it worse -- I take pictures, now), that won't help his case either.
I wouldn't call it the real me now, but there's a side of me that is completely incompatible with healthy human interaction; my inner yandere. Being emotionless on my end, and having utter disregard of people's feeling on the other end, in favour of some petty personal point. I mask it very carefully, but it's still a part of me, and it slips out once in a while.
And after I've put it back in the box, I always wonder whether the damage I do in those moments is really outweighed by the hypothetical small benefit I bring people by being around them.
EDIT: on a more positive note, I write fiction and the deficiencies people spot often mirror something lacking in my own understanding. So the scathing feedback I get is useful at a more than superficial level. Though I'm reaching a point of diminishing returns there; hopefully that means I can instead worry about writing something people will enjoy, now.
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on September 10, 2012, 06:25:40 PM...Being emotionless on my end, and having utter disregard of people's feeling on the other end, in favour of some petty personal point. I mask it very carefully, but it's still a part of me, and it slips out once in a while.
I believe that's a component of everyone. Your behavior is at most a disorder, which is just that; elements that are part of everyone, but pronounced enough in some cases as to make life difficult. At the same time, consider the fact that OCD, the most popular disorder that people claim they have, is not
actually a disorder in most people -- unless it actively interferes with their life.
Someone with NPD, for example, will only be midly (or even severely) self-centered, but if they generally can overcome it.... Or in my case, with DID. Or a hypothetical person with SPD -- or any other disorder at all. The point is that if you can work around it and generally function, it's more a sign of where you came from than anything else. Does OCD prevent you from leaving the house and finding work, because you had the wrong thought when you washed your hand for the seventeenth time? Can't stop on a non-square number of shoelace re-tying?
Then there are significant issues. Something like that significantly impacts quality of life, and it's generally time to seek treatment (unless you're happy that way, in which case, as long as you can still function ... alright).
In your case, most likely people will think it was a mood at worst, and let it pass. If it happens often enough, they may consider you moody. If they're your friends, until it has a genuinely negative impact on their own lives, they probably won't really care that much. And if they are your friends, they'll stick with you and give you more credit than it sounds like you give yourself. ;)
TL;DR: From what I can see, it's not that bad. While introspection is good, and reflection builds character, don't obsess about it.
Most people are terrible, but are good at hiding this terrible. Because of this, people have little context for reflecting upon their own terrible, adapting to it, and recognizing how to deal with it.
*shrugs*
http://jollyjack.deviantart.com/art/They-ll-kill-us-all-326617683
Nnn...
Educating myself on current events is a largely unrewarding effort.
Frustrated and depressed.
Being ignored when striving for clear communication.
That all-too-familiar sensation of utter powerlessness, when there's nothing I can do to resolve or improve the situation.
Sometimes, the real world just sucks.
I should write some cheerful escapism.
Took me over two hours to get home by bus yesterday. Fuck Finch St!
Quote from: Music-chan on September 13, 2012, 12:16:10 PM
Took me over two hours to get home by bus yesterday. Fuck Finch St!
The TTC, a leading North American transit agency: if they're doing things right, I don't want to know what wrong looks like...
Today...is just kinda tiring.
So many fires. Everywhere.
Somedays I seriously miss IRC at work @_@.
Bleh.
Any chance you can get it unblocked?
Quote from: Dracos on September 14, 2012, 09:13:58 PM
Somedays I seriously miss IRC at work @_@.
Bleh.
My condolences. Without a way to secure shell into my computer back home I think I'd be pretty lost. I'd suggest something about a proxy maybe, but I really don't know enough to have any idea if that would help. Sorry.
If you run a Unix, it should be fairly easy to do a screen+irssi+ssh setup. If you don't...I have no recommendations.
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on September 13, 2012, 07:42:16 PM
Quote from: Music-chan on September 13, 2012, 12:16:10 PM
Took me over two hours to get home by bus yesterday. Fuck Finch St!
The TTC, a leading North American transit agency: if they're doing things right, I don't want to know what wrong looks like...
Well, in the TTC defence, since I started using it this year, this is the longest delay I've had. Most of the time it only takes an hour. I'll be happy if all those proposed subway extensions go through though. Very, very happy. You know, in 10 years or so when they finally open. =p
Oh, someone's a fan of my writing:
Quote from: ff.net PMQueenwitch | disappointed
i found your website to finish reading Motivation and it wasn't on either of the two websites. Why put all of your stories is on your website or soulriders website. I dislike people who are not truthful about their stories since I will put in the extra effort time to read and review. I liked the story and am disappointed I went through bs trying to find the site you where talking about since it was not clear on your profile and after finding your site and the soul rider site no story for Motivation. I dislike liars of any kind. Next time say that only some of the stories are on the site so people don't have a reason to call you a liar.
I love getting woken up by PMs like that. Returning to ff.net was so clearly worth it.
How in the world did a PM wake up you in the first place?
Because I live on the internet.
Anyway, the PM sends an e-mail, which reaches my phone, which prompts my cat to flip-out, ninja-like, and attempt to pull off a one-cat Hiryuu Shouten Ha in my room. I get a lot of work e-mails at odd hours, too.
...though I'm mostly waiting for an e-mail that will probably never come.
My gtalk at work keeps cutting out randomly :\
"Here's a problem we need to fix. Here's a zip demoing the problem. Can you please look at and try and fix this?"
Tech Guy: "Let me know how it worked."
In preparation for a long day at work, drank coffee for the first time in five months.
That was stupid of me...
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on September 21, 2012, 12:02:35 PM
In preparation for a long day at work, drank coffee for the first time in five months.
That was stupid of me...
Got to start small. Cup of tea. Green tea if you like it, as the caffeine in green tea digests better than other types of caffeine.
Man. Bugs.
Seriously, I spent more time today detailing what was going on then I did fixing problems.
And watching paint dry. I mean stuff build.
I'm not sure why, but over the past two days my connection speed seems to have suffered some sort of catastrophic loss in speed. Images take forever to load, a two minute video takes ten minutes to buffer.
I'm going to have to call my provider soon. Although I've only gotten one response it would seem that I'm not even the only person suffering this problem.
How aggravating.
HELP, I'm stuck in an epically long lineup in the Ontario bureaucracy!
... at least there's free wifi from the coffee shop across.
Don't panic. Just relax.
Pull up a long fanfic, or just something you meant to read, but aren't obligated to comment on.
In the future, as Drac and I have learned, carry a Gameboy DS around. ;)
/me carries his Kindle everywhere.
It's awesome. Just the right form factor to be carried and read one-handed. I think everyone who ever sees me thinks I'm very strange. :P
My phone has roughly 60 fanfics that were amusing enough to read twice.
I suppose adding new stuff on there would be good, but its been a convenient distraction point.
*flips open motivation again*
:P The DS is the better option though.
Half bitching and half tech support here, but I wanna get this out since I'm not sure what the fuck happened.
So we had to replace our old desk that held the router and modem. So we remove those two, junk the desk and set them back up. Nothing special happens during that. When we hook it all back up the modem won't power up. We try it directly in the plug instead of in a multiplug, nothing. Same with another plug altogether. The router's getting power and fine so we can't figure it. Since it won't power anywhere we figure it chose a shitty time to die.
So we go out and get another modem, hook that up. When we get that working, it's the same thing with the router. The modem works fine now, but won't power up anywhere. Bam, dead. What the hell? I can't figure what the fuck beyond a bad multiplug, but is there something that could cause those to spontaneously die one after another?
Did you get their power adapters switched?
Nope. Kept the cords separated to be sure.
Well, best guess is some components were old and worn enough that it was the power fluctuation that did them in. Either that, or the outlet (or the plugs) weren't grounded, and somehow it's static from the moving that fried them. :\
Something like that's my best guess. That or shit luck chose the wrong day to strike.
On monday, I was in the office to 8pm. On wednesday, the same.
I could really use a break so its a good thing I get this Friday off... No wait, I just got asked to come in on Friday.
Well, its a good thing I have saturday and sunday!
...well shit, I'm being 'asked' to come in on sunday too.
One of my engineers is in the hospital. Two were in training half of this week. My process lead is swamped with meetings. He is also the third on this job after the first went to another company and the second decided to retire about 2 weeks into the project.
I have two ten hour meetings next week I am in no way prepared for, but I am attending because I'm the most prepared we GOT because of that process lead situation.
Cherry on top: I am also going to school at night for my graduate degree. I have a team project due next week on the same day as one of those meetings. My 'team' has selected me to be the leader despite my arguments of not having time.
Time is a precious commodity. And I am starving for it.
Ouch. Especially on the all-day meetings. Those are always grueling. :\
Sympathies, Merc.
Y'know, it's funny. I was thinking about you today, Merc. I was thinking, 'Merc's job is going downhill faster than I can imagine. At this rate they'll 'ask' him to work weekends and he'll snap and quit'. I hate the fact that I'm right, but point is they're overworking you to hell and back. Good luck.
Went to Nuit Blanche in my town. Formed knee-jerk opinion.
Nuit Blanche. is. BULLSHIT.
Not worth paying for the transit fare to get there.
(Unless, God forbid, your interest is in hooking up with one of the crowds of mildly-skanky possibly-single girls rather than looking at the 'art'.)
worst meeting ever
starting new job search tomorrow
So yeah, what happened?
it's difficult to articulate
sr. dev and (recently) hired pm got into a yelling match
sr. dev pointed out some really good points about things that were being assigned to me that should not be my job
he was basically shouted out and otherwise ignored
my job should be hardware compat, no bs perf. testing
new revisions to my job go from 6-8 day testing cycle to 9-14 day testing cycle, up to double that for legacy support, because they really want the perf. testing
i propose, 'hey, why not make a new role/suite for perf testing to make it separate and give it the attention it deserves?'
'that would be too expensive in terms of time'
even though the amount of time spent would be identical, it would just be a 'stage two' where i would complete testing and handoff to someone else to finish -- or even continue myself but on a different testing matrix
don't understand
'oh, by the way, we're going to need to requal every disk we've ever had with the new upcoming controller'
i don't have all disks ever
'and we need it done early enough in q4 that sales can move units'
so trebling or quadrupling my workload
fml
Wake up to see that Shami has chewed through yet another headset's cord.
Ready to fucking stab a bitch.
A lovely Friday for both of you, eh?
Awake at nearly 4 AM.
Too work buried.
*writes job reqs for assistants*
I think my graphic card is starting to die.
Getting lectured for a bunch of crap that has jack all to do with me was not pleasant. Said lecturer finding out they blamed the wrong person and instead of apologizing, acting like nothing happened is down right frustrating.
My graphics card is slowly dying. Oh well, I needed to get a new computer anyway.
Evidently people can't tell when I'm joking in person. I'd heard it before and always just dismissed it, since I usually tend to try and be silly.
I realized today I have a crippling social flaw that probably creeps people out:
I have the same affect for almost everything I say.
This does explain why when I say nonsensical things, I evidently have a very deadpan delivery. :\
Getting overwhelmed at work, things keep piling up. Between meetings trying to answer a question about a procedure I forgot to document when my boss asks to talk to me.
Some disks went missing a few weeks ago (around 5,000$ of them) and I figured it was going to be about this, and then.... (http://www.soulriders.net/forum/index.php/topic,2212.msg1040789.html#msg1040789)
Of the three people I shared my Borderlands 2 four-pack with...I can only play with one of them.
My frustration is intense.
In line at the DMV. They open soon, and I'm about 40th.
At least I can register to vote!
Worked both days this weekend, even Saturday after the "prod with hooks/blast with energy beams" session. Came in today and realized that some other execs hadn't given me further assignments, so I had nothing to do.
Started working with the Athens manager to figure out what we should prioritize next. Before the exec who can give us the list can respond, my manager e-mails me to say we need to speed it up because the test plan doesn't look like it's been updated.
This is frustrating, since the test plan effectively is a giant waste of time, a 'do this instead of your actual assignment' thing. They can't just ask me how progress is going, or let me use the traditional tracking system -- they need me to make and maintain pages to show the project as it goes.
Just as I'm getting used to this unwelcome waste of time -- the VP of engineering comes to my desk to ask me how we can speed things up. Thankfully, I had answers for all of his questions -- since they were the same damn questions my manager already asked, which were also the same questions I discussed with the Athens manager! Don't these people know how to communicate?
I guess they don't -- they just read progress update pages without any actual regard for the work effort.
Anyway, I gave a plan for the minimum work required for me to be confident in the hardware, and they decided that I should really only do about a quarter of it. Because they take too long, performance and stress testing are off the matrix.
...ugh.
I don't even know why they're bothering with going through the motions of having me qualify at all.
Quote from: Brian on October 29, 2012, 03:14:45 PM
Anyway, I gave a plan for the minimum work required for me to be confident in the hardware, and they decided that I should really only do about a quarter of it. Because they take too long, performance and stress testing are off the matrix.
...ugh.
I don't even know why they're bothering with going through the motions of having me qualify at all.
Get that in email. That way, when the hardware fails and they flip out and ask why, attach the original email and say, "See attached emails. The minimum work I proposed for confidence in the hardware was directed otherwise."
My CYA-fu is impenetrable.
Everything is logged.
Everything.
Today's hilarity:
A developer had borrowed one of my initiators and accidentally yanked out the cable I had set up so we could attach drives and downgrade firmware for testing. Rather than tell me about it and ask for help, she removed the drive from above where the cable went, so she'd have enough room to fit her hand in the bay and reconnect the cable.
The drive she yanked was my boot disk.
Beyond that, I found out today that for the current project/effort I am on, I have suddenly been given management responsibilities.
Ffffffff....
I have made a grave error, and am now being punished for my competence.
Eh, Obama won.
Same thing here. :\ None of that 007.5.
So I found a great new job that fits me. I qualify for it and it would be a good fit. It was just posted so I quickly apply. Don't even get a call before it's filled. Bleh.
Nothing quite like the slow realization that the hope you've been letting build for a while that you're actually making progress was all false, and you've not only gotten nowhere, you've lost an awful lot of time getting to that point.
Hello darkness, my old friend.... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvsX03LOMhI)
It is six fucking AM.
That will be all.
Damn dog managed to chew a hole in the side of her head.
Does your dog have portal technology, or do you mean the side of her mouth?
Er, not chewed but scratched.
Ugh. Poor doggy.
Time for the Cone of Shame. :\
Ding ding ding!
CONE OF SHAME! CONE OF SHAME!
I wonder if I can have the part of my brain that makes me depressed for no evident reason removed.
New cat peed on the new bed today. It's not been a great day. Need to figure out how to keep her from doing it again.
Don't use her as a towel to try and soak up the mess.
It just makes you also have to wash your cat.
However, cats _usually_ only do that if their litterbox isn't clean enough. In this case, because it's a new cat, she could just be uncomfortable with her environment. It didn't do a lot for Shami, but Slacker says that 'Feliway' is really good for calming the cat down enough to behave slightly better.
My boss's replacement came in.
My boss has the task of training him.
We had a meeting about it.
It was ... a meeting.
That sounds marvelously unpleasant.
Quote from: Brian on November 12, 2012, 05:13:04 PM
Don't use her as a towel to try and soak up the mess.
It just makes you also have to wash your cat.
However, cats _usually_ only do that if their litterbox isn't clean enough. In this case, because it's a new cat, she could just be uncomfortable with her environment. It didn't do a lot for Shami, but Slacker says that 'Feliway' is really good for calming the cat down enough to behave slightly better.
I just wish I knew why she decided to start doing it two weeks in, and only when both Cy and I are in bed together. She was sleeping in bed with us just fine prior to that.
It probably is stress but I don't know how to calm her down so that she doesn't do it again. Did look at that feliway stuff. Kinda expensive.
One of the projects I sunk months into is facing getting scrapped and not released.
I'm ... actually torn about this. The project is a piece of junk, but all that wasted work....
I guess I should be happy. I still got paid for the effort.
It's something hard to get perspective on. Sometimes efforts are well and truly doomed. Sure you can sink time and energy into them, but it can be out of your control on it being crappy. Best thing to do in those cases is work hard, but not extra since the extra doesn't salvage anything.
At least you're free of it and got paid. Now hopefully you can sink time into something more successful.
Having to work on Thanksgiving. Bleh.
So, this guy is a total jackass:
http://singularitysummit.com/videos/david-brin-on-so-you-want-to-make-gods-now-why-would-that-bother-anybody/
I think my future task of explaining to people why I don't want anything to do with Singularity movement (as a community) will be greatly simplified. My explanation will consist of showing people this video and noting that the luminaries of the community in question seem to think this guy was worth inviting and listening to.
Shami was a bad cat. :\
Luckily Brian recovered for shami but, Shami, bad cat.
What did she do?
He chewed through the cable for the Wii's sensor bar.
Eeew. Bad kitty. Bad!
How you'd fix it?
I gave Drac the sensor from my Wii.
That works. It still sucks, but hey. Kitty.
For what it's worth, apparently the Wii sensor bar is actually just a pair of IR sources, one at each end, and all the location calculations are going on in the remote. So you can replace the sensor bar with any pair of rough IR point sources, such as candle flames, in the same location, and have it more or less work. (Disclaimer: I have never tried this.)
I really hate Planetside 2.
I almost caused a multiple-car collision ... by stopping for a pedestrian.
One of those areas where the offramp merges with an overpass, so there's a pedestrian walkway with a crosswalk going across the offramp. The SUV behind me slowed to a graceful stop, but the white Lexus behind it raised a very high plume of smoke from the tires while braking. Another ten feet up and I think it would have been able to smash the SUV into me -- and possibly the pedestrian.
Before that, the christmas music ... some bizzare hip-hop/electronica version of Carol of the Bells remixed with a bluesey Santa Clause is Coming to Town. My ears.... My poor ears....
Wow, that's just a crummy day all around. At least nothing came of it.
I was not able to get a moment free to even EAT today until I finally just walked out of the office after shutting everything off for the weekend, completely ignoring the ringing phone and the emails awaiting replies from me. As I drove out of the parking lot, I was eating my breakfast and nursing a minor migraine.
That's an impressively shitty day.
ugh
teeth
constant agony
This is almost as bad as a gal bladder attack.
*pats Brian* Any idea what's bothering your teeth?
Did not get the job I was applying for.
I will never escape my current position. -_-
Condolences, both of you. Hope y'all feel and do better.
I got the first installation of my braces in (ugh) and am adjusting to it ... kinda.
Wish I'd realized -- I'd have waited for after my vacation to start this up. :x
kiley is being acting like a bitch, so i left.
Hello?
Who are you?
Bah. Had some issues with my ipad.
Went to grouse about it.
Got %$#@ loads of unwelcome political BS and, "That's why I use *nix." I was looking for help with a problem, guys, not to hear how much you hated Apple and were otherwise competing to be specifically unhelpful.
Ah idiots. Poor Brian. Hang in there.
The trip hasn't been able to take my mind off someone I haven't heard from in a long while, but was still fun.
Until I got sick.
That's the thing about traveling, the damn germs.
Today I got confirmation that I was responsible for driving someone from the boards and them no longer writing fanfiction. I'd suspected it for quite some time already.
I ... won't be participating in the C&C subforum anymore.
Over a week with no abatement. I think I may have progressed into pneumonia.
Work sucks, client is abusive, client doesn't want to pay bills, everyone's unhappy, happy holidays luncheon today, yay free food will cheer people up, oh look, they laid off three of my friends after lunch. Merry christmas. =(
Man, your entire day is horrible. G'luck, Merc.
I always hate when companies lay off people around the holidays. It's not cool, no matter how much sense it makes.
Waking up in the middle of the night to be sick sucks. Lots.
I've been doing it for nearly two weeks solid.
At times I contemplated suicide as a less painful option.
If you have insurance, and maybe even if you don't, consider seeing a doctor. In my case it had progressed to bronchitis (cheapter to treat than pneumonia), and I have this really fun cough syrup with codine in it.
I'd offer you some, but my arm doesn't stretch from west to east coast.
Thanks, but it's not that kind of sick. It's the kind of sick you get after welcome back party. Y'know, when someone added way too much pepper to the dishes and your stomach burns like an inferno sick.
Oh. Yeah, I don't ... get that.
My body produces way too much bile, remember? So that stuff just gets broken down without a blink by my system.
In your case, I think eat some white bread and take antacids. Much easier to deal with than two weeks of the Death Flu.
Feeling better, by the way?
Slightly less delirious, more physically pained. I think I'm recovering, but my throat has been transformed into an organ that exists only to activate pain receptors.
Every so often, a hit off the asthma bong helps a bit. The one interesting thing is that usually cold air is worse on a sore throat -- like jagged shards of ice tearing up your throat. Since I've been to Alaska, the outdoor air has no effect on me.
Kind of novel, actually.
It's probably for the best; I can end up getting super emotional when delirious. More to the point, do you have antacids on hand? If not, knowing your stomach issues ... why not? And also give me a shipping address so I can send you some for christmas.
I usually feel soothed by cold with a sore throat, even cold winter air. Go figure that one. Anyway, took a shot of Pepto and that helped on the road to recovery.
Anyway, I had the real flu a several Christmases ago. It was nearly a month before I felt close to normal and another month to really rebuild my inner stamina. Hopefully you'll beat my time.
So a player in the Mutants and Masterminds game my wife started on RPoL built this horribly broken duplication/shrinking build....specifically so that he would effectively auto-succeed on everything without ever having to roll. Obviously he kept quiet about how he was planning on using this stuff until rolls actually came up in game, then blithely threw down the math and declared himself to impossibly high totals.
Jenna's response was to talk with him in PM awhile, then make a house ruling on duplication limiting that kind of stuff because it's frankly no fun for the rest of the group when one dude can outperform all of them at once at everything at the same time. After much griping and whining, he agreed to the rule change.
Then he goes, takes all those private conversations, and edits them so that he seems reasonable and she seems defensive and antagonistic, and pastes them in the OOC thread. Trying to stir up support from the other players to let him have his broken build(which he carefully avoids pointing out how broken it is in this, of course).
Little did he know that he was the only player in this game who hadn't been in one of Jenna's prior games, and she's known for putting up with far more bullshit from bad players then she should in order to try and make stuff work. So he not only got no sympathy, he got a backlash.
THEN he goes and posts another long PM to her tearing down her GMing abilities, pointing out every "flaw" she has(she's put logs of her old games up online, he used those as ammunition) and generally being the biggest abusive asshole of a bully he could possibly mange to be.
She kicked him from the game(he seemed SURPRISED BY THIS) and spent the morning in one of the most miserable moods I've seen her in in years. I would love to reach through the internet and slap this asshole around right now. >_<
Wow.... That really doesn't sound like he ever intended to play, though. That's really pretty much pure troll, right there.
Trust me, we can smell our own, and I can tell from here.
Nothing more annoying that being on a nice, warm bus that is going to where you want it to go and being told over the intercom that hey! They CHANGED THEIR MIND and are turning around at a later street, thus meaning you have to get off before you're close enough to walk to your destination.
Fuck you, short-turn bus. Fuck you!
Wow, that sounds pure shitty Gate. :(
Went to see the hobbit. Family + 40 person line + 1 person doing ticketing (Poor girl, who the hell assigns one person to ticketing duty during any point in holiday season?) resulted in it being listed as 'try another day'.
Lenovo kind of did a crap job on the OS image on this box. Windows updates constantly fail. Been wasting most my morning cleaning this up because I'm tired of spontaneous overnight reboots as windows tries to do auotmatic updates.
Quote from: Dracos on December 22, 2012, 02:37:08 PMLenovo kind of did a crap job on the OS image on this box. Windows updates constantly fail. Been wasting most my morning cleaning this up because I'm tired of spontaneous overnight reboots as windows tries to do auotmatic updates.
I loathe the automatic updates. I've disabled them many times -- some installs respect your choices, and some don't. There's some obvious settings you can change, which may or may not actually change anything. My desktop at work respects my choices, but interestingly enough, the lab systems I built don't. Mildly irritating, but, meh.
I got the last of the hardware installed today. Pretty much, I can't speak anymore. I'll have to relearn how over the next few weeks, but it's going to be in for at least a year.
Ugh.
At least I seem to (finally) be kicking that flu.
Internet's peering harder and faster than Drac on an ECB.
* dracos was planning on doing it this afternoon, but well, this afternoon ended up sucking terribly in the "Computer will not boot" level of suck.
* dracos stole the family mac, downloaded a windows seven disk, and repaired the boot sector. Stupid thing. Icing on Cake? I was just trying to boot into safe mode to get a recaltriant windows update to install.
<dracos> extra 'yay'? It's totally repeatable too. Any time I go into msconfig and change the boot setting to safe mode, it will instead delete the boot configuration record.
So yeah. That windows update bitching? It went Epic.
That last update can stay there. Fuck it. I don't even know what it is at the moment anyway. Disabled automatic installs. I'll deal with it later when it annoys me less.
That sounds like you need to bulldoze and fix the entire thing from scratch.
Quote from: Dracos on December 22, 2012, 10:25:11 PMAny time I go into msconfig and change the boot setting to safe mode, it will instead delete the boot configuration record.
I.... I think that trumps _my_ most bizarre Windows experience. o_o;;
Ever since a recent exchange with someone who I think will never speak to me again, I've been too depressed to write.
Maybe retiring from the creative writing forums was more appropriate than I thought.
Quote from: Brian on December 30, 2012, 05:06:07 PM
Ever since a recent exchange with someone who I think will never speak to me again, I've been too depressed to write.
Maybe retiring from the creative writing forums was more appropriate than I thought.
Take some time and let the hurt heal itself. Don't consider it a retirement, but a sabbatical to recover.
Anastasia is right. I know that this affected you deeply, but stepping back and just taking a break rather than stepping out entirely is the way to go.
Well, the needed thing right now is either resolution, or since that won't happen ... time.
We'll see.
Sorry -- thanks for the support, guys. :)
No problem. Feel better and let time heal the wounds.
Just got over the flu ... now am coming down with a sore throat.
%^$@#.
Someone decided to pull the fire alarm at 6:30ish this morning. It was not fun.
I wish people would drive legally and safely.
I hate doing what's safe/legal and having some vapid bitch decide to change lanes without signalling, in the middle of an intersection, and block that intersection because of a stopped car in front of me. (That's three separate traffic violations.)
She happened to be driving to the same supermarket that I was, so I yelled at her when she was at the ATM to ask what the fuck was wrong with her, but she just grinned like an idiot.
I was so pissed off I keyed her car.
If people would just be reasonable and safe drivers, I wouldn't rage. I really wouldn't*.
Edit: About bad drivers. As much.
Edit2: And now I feel bad about it.
Also, the board's anti-spamware is giving me trouble and doesn't want to let me post.
ugh, insomnia
Also, working both days this weekend, boo.
Had to put someone I considered a longtime friend on ignore for being utterly intolerant and crazily unreasonable in judging other people.
Ironically, that's something I won't tolerate.
Sucks to find that out about someone you used to respect.
I hate being so stupid.
Catching a slight cold. Realizing that the network manager isn't just a bit quiet but very passive and seems reasonably ineffectual in all things that I crossed his path on today.
Had to sit through a meeting where that guy's boss pretty much told him that even he wouldn't approve the project that he was told to write up because the business case was so poorly put together. He has a week to fix it, so that we can get those server purchases underway.
Work has been a nonstop nightmare of handling issues that belong to other departments and otherwise being stressed by abusive marketing assholes.
I have wasted every hour this week that could have been productive trying to get drives to produce a number that will make the marketing people happy. They lack the technical ability to explain what they actually want in terms of testing, and utterly failed to convey what they were actually looking for, resulting in literally wasted _days_ because they thought that by saying "run the exact same test again -- in linux," I would understand that they meant "instead of testing the drives hardware we manufacture and sell, take the disks and connect them directly to some motherboard, and tell us the results."
So when I misunderstood and just switched which OS the tests were run in, they were unhappy.
Anyway, I'm not a performance expert. I just plug the tests in and babysit the automation, so it _really_ grates when they want me to explain something I don't understand, and I have to point out, "You probably know more than me."
Tomorrow is a mental health day.
Frustrated beyond all rational thought with work.
The work week hasn't even officially started, and I already have 12 hours of overtime on the clock for doing pretty much nothing of what I was expecting to be working on, after having to go to the office on both my off-friday afternoon and saturday morning.
I don't get overtime, just a pat on the back for a 60+ hour work week.
Yeah, that's one of a few pluses with this job. Both my dad and sister don't get overtime either at their jobs.
Still frustrated because of various circumstances involved with the particular situation I was referencing.
Finally clear of marketing/performance data hell.
Start work on new qual effort, get told to pull one drive before I even start. No big deal. Gives me time to work on the inventory project.
Marketing guy e-mails me, "I don't get these numbers. Are you 100% sure about them?"
Looks like I'm going to be running the same performance test a third time.
If he comes to my desk, I'm going to be as polite and nice as possible, and offer to train him how to run the tests himself.
Marketing guy is the bane of my existence:
Marketing guy: "Hey, so, you remember the bullshit I made you go through last month where we changed the entire foundation of how you do performance testing, which is something way, way, way outside of your job description? And how now all your tests moving forward include those performance tests?"
Me: "Unfortunately."
Marketing guy: "So, do you have results from those tests on disks that you qualified a few months ago?"
So it looks like my job description is being changed by marketing assholes. And when I complain, I'm told by senior engineering staff, "Don't say anything. There's a rift between marketing and engineering. If you complain, you prevent that rift from being healed."
What rift? Marketing is fucking incompetent and destroying the company! They are in charge of things they shouldn't be, because they can't understand them! That 'rift' is engineering trying to keep the company from going under!
So it's smile-and-nod, but mostly polish my resume because I can see it here -- the company is going under, and it'll be because of incompetent marketing BS like this.
Edit: I continue to be astounded by this guy's incompetence. I just don't have words. It's like he thinks if he ignores the problem and keeps asking the same questions, he'll eventually get an answer that makes him happy.
I lost a spacer a while back. I had assumed it popped out from between my teeth and been swallowed or I'd spit it out without noticing.
My orthodontist said, "It slipped into your gums."
I didn't believe that.
It popped out today, and now my gum is bleeding profusely.
%$@#.
One of my computer monitors died last night.
Edit: Well ... not that bad. Replacement will arrive tomorrow, and it gave me a good 6+ years. Still...
Realizing in reorganizing changelists to prepare for checking in, some critical files got reverted. Luckily I had backup from earlier, but bleh.
Sick and feverish enough to have delusions. Fucking bullshit.
THIS DAY.
I have 4 project teams shouting for my attention. Apparently nobody else can solve problems today, including code leads. This is crazy.
The Tsunami is readied.
The Tsunami is released.
The Tsunami is readied.
The Tsunami is released.
That kind of day, huh? How about sushi with a gap youkai?
Taunting miko optional.
Hum. This is a new experience.
Apparently Tomb Raider is popular enough to be mass pirated before release. Now I suppose I can say I've been on the other side, corporate drone watching our product get pirated instead of customer watching it happen. :P Definitely can see more appeal into the 'cutting out non-digital distribution' since either that or review copies would've been the source. Not that pirates really are necessarily paying customers, but it's a shame real folks have to wait for the street date while folks swiping it are broadcasting it all over the place. Certainly gives a clearer view on the kind of exec insanity that leads to ridiculous anti-piracy schemes.
Yeah, but actual revenue loss vs. projected/claimed revenue loss. :\
Plus, I would bet Shami's entire share of sushi from the next Higuma trip that it was a reviewer leaking it vs. a hack of a digital distro -- and the anti-piracy measures wouldn't help a whole lot vs. that, methinks. (Jerkwards gonna jerkward.)
It's not great, but it could be much worse. From what I've been hearing, it'll still be successful anyway, and the big money-maker is console over PC anyway, right?
Oh, I don't think it was anything digital. I bet either jerkwad reviewer or jerkwad gamestore employee. But I understand how these events can lead to insane exec screamin' anti-piracy bullshit. It is actually the console version that's being pirated, comically enough.
To me the new perspective really is sort of the sadness: "Man, there's all those cool folks paying for this, and the jerkwads get to play it first. That's lame."
And also how with moves toward pure digital distribution, there just wouldn't have been as much room for it. When the street date is "Click button on steam" instead of "Manufacturing several million boxes and discs and send them to like seventy countries around the world, hope that no one in that chain is a jerk", there just will be a lot less room for BS to happen.
Ah, yeah.
There's a whole culture of the pride of being the first to pirate a triple AAA target. Don't get it myself. :\
When I did pirate, it wasn't out of spite, but lack of money.
A big chunk of the pride-in-first-to-pirate thing is tech types competing to see who can break the DRM first. Which takes the ordinary drive of a tech type to solve computer problems, not a force to be underestimated, and mixes it with probable ideological opposition to copyright in general and/or DRM in particular, alongside game fanboyism. Can see why it happens so quick now. :P
I'm pretty sure aside from the standard 'compiled for an xbox 360' we don't have DRM. There's nothing to break that isn't there for every 360 game (specifically: faking the system). I say this as the guy who wrote what little DRM is there and also what compiles it out of the final product, since it was just meant for control and tracking of demos. I mean, I suppose there might be some in some part of the codebase I'm not aware of...but not really likely at all.
I mean, I suspect we might have steamguard turned on for the PC specifically, just since we do have steam integration anyway. But I don't recall that either. Either way, I don't think that was all the way out the door anyway yet.
The first-to-pirate thing has nothing to do with DRM and everything to do with Provider Cred. "Yo, Yo, my supply got the cool shit already~." Sure, there's an educational side for a handful of folks, but the vast majority of copy protection schemes are break once, repeat the break on all other products that use it. It's a more childish and primitive thing than any such ideological struggle.
Hmm. I'm unfamiliar with how the console games really work; I've only ever somewhat interacted with that scene as it regards PC games, which usually do come with DRM of some form or another (even if it's just CD keys or checking if the disc is mounted). Not actually sure how you would go about pirating a console game. Is it a matter of physically copying the discs?
Truthfully, I'm not the most familiar with how modern console's do it, but I'm sure there's something to check that it's a valid disc and not just a blank cd with the data on it. It's usually a pain to deal with, but if you've dealt with it for one, you've dealt with it for all. Usual way is hardware modification to bypass the checking or emulation.
Either way, has nothing disc-side to bother with. Folks doing it are just sticking the disc in their machine and ripping it with a basic copier. I mean it's a dvd, there's nothing that stops that.
Attended the engineering brown bag weekly meeting that I'd always otherwise ignored.
Special, this week only:
It was all marketing info.
My opinion on [UNNAMED DRIVE VENDOR]'s quality of support and the intelligence of the tech who's been screwing us up for the last six months almost made the dev who's been coming to me for help for about that length of time cry.
I feel like a jerk. =_=
My step-father got me a job some time ago, which I'm really grateful for.
I'm ... not thrilled that he got my mom a job there, too, so she now sits adjacent to me.
Also, what I mistook as a symptom of my OCD compulsive handwashing appears to be a degenerative skin condition, so now bits of me are falling off and I'm bleeding constantly. Time to see a doctor....
At least I have insurance?
Today has been almost unmitigated suck.
I've been in pain most of the day from trying to do gym yesterday.
I've made many poor decisions which quietly blew stuff up. Luckly I think I cleared things up by the end of the day, but man, I was superklutz.
Sounds like you're ready for the weekend.
I just can't seem to get some time to myself to do what I want. It's really starting to grate.
Aren't you in Las Vegas this weekend?
Fuck DST. Just tossing that out here.
Triple post!
Drac, aren't we do for a new set of custom titles and the like?
Federal Tuition for troops in the National Guard has been suspended indefinitely due to politicians not knowing how to balance a budget and having no sense of responsibility.
I don't know how I want to approach this anymore. I've almost written off college now.
:\
I spent some time writing folks about it, but the entire thing is just sort of a reflection of how out of touch and overall irresponsible congress has gotten. Retaliation from constitutencies is either non-existent or too far off to matter, so things that should never happen are just allowed to occur because it's too easy not to find some workable plan to agree on.
Hmmm.
I think my ridiculous portable drive finally bit it. It had been traveling around for... I think at least 9 years. The last four or five sitting atop a computer as a 'screw policy' music drive.
I'm sick, the kiddo has a ear infection, and I had a cavity filling today. I can't feel the bottom part of my mouth.
Hum. Bad financials. At least one guy up top taking a fall. Generally pessimisstic news. :\
I found out my desk phone number is close to the number of an area hospice.
Explains the very awkward calls I'd been getting. =_=
Working weekends.
All the time.
Modern video game endings.
Why, Bioshock: Infinite? Why?
You were a great game before that !@#$ storm of an ending!
Lucasarts died today.
All the good studios keep closing, I swear. Sometimes I wonder how there's any left.
Alcoholism sucks.
Screaming stomach cramps are no way to start the day.
worst workday in quite some time
Hum, a bit feverish today.
I think all of my remaining brain cells have fused.
What happened?
Just trying to answer a bunch of emailed questions that are asking for a ton of arcane details that I don't have and don't have any resources to get answers from since everyone else is busy this week.
I would offer to join you in an attempt to reach Riverside for stress relief tonight -- I hear they're still evacuatin' folk -- but I will likely be in the office until 1-2 AM.
Have to pull a all nighter tonight to finish my 12 page research paper. Haven't done this in years. On 3rd cup of coffee at 10pm.
Ah, crunch time.
My sympathies, 007.5.
Yesterday sucked royally. It was salvaged by good times with friends, sushi, and the best axe murderer girl anime ever :P
Now to headbutt yesterday's insane work.
I slept on my elbow wrong and I'm getting nerve twinges. Nothing serious but it's enough to prevent me from really focusing on what I'm doing.
So there were layoffs today.
I'll find out what the damages were in total at a meeting in about thirty minutes.
Edit: So I still have a job. Still stressful, and the, "This is just a restructuring," meeting didn't help.
Lots of pressure to do our jobs better and everyone was given what amounted to admonishments and told to learn new skills to handle different responsibilities. Performance Test Guy and I both dodged that bullet on account of being highly specialized. Blearg.
Attempting to find some point in TIME in which PS3 build runs to test my software against it has become an ordeal. The Present is clearly lost, so I am now traveling through time to back when we shipped a product under the vague hope that there will be something that compiles there.
One day there was a PS3 build. Somewhere.
Goddamn testing.
Dispatching friendbot to assist.
Jon tried to send me something, but the Post Office didn't seem quite up to the task (http://www.soulriders.net/forum/index.php/topic,101865.msg1043692.html#msg1043692).
That was pretty lame.
I just rode 7 hours on my motorcycle with the stock seat.
My rear end and lower back are f'ning destroyed. I hurt. Badly.
On the up side, my new, awesomer seat should arrive in two weeks.
Damn Iddy. Hope you don't need to ride it for a few days.
A night of rest got me feeling pretty good again. But damn, that seat is a POS.
I'm still working at least one day a weekend, work is generally very crappy, I'm exhausted, the drivers on the road were especially dangerous with their entitlement today (no, just holding up a hand palm out does not mean it's okay that you almost t-boned me illegally running a stopsign, and still didn't actually stop), it's hot, and I had to my lower wire replaced with a stronger gauge.
None of which is as miserable as screwing up my last attempt at writing.
bleah
It's rained all damn day, plus I never managed to go out and do what I needed to get done. Arghfuckle.
I hate selling things on Craigslist so much.
Every so often, someone you trusted reveals they aren't trustworthy.
I can handle someone disagreeing with me, but not lying to me about it in private (agreeing), only to publicly deride me about it later.
Another brotrayal....
Mondays.
Whether Early. Whether Late.
It doesn't matter. The Fire Will Be Burning.
Brand new hip flask leaks.
I now have no vinegar to drink, but smell like I do. :|
Irritation.
I hate people who flake on Craigslist with a fiery passion. If you change your mind, at least fucking toss me an email.
I got my conditioner mixed up with a similarly-colored bottle of shampoo.
Spent around 40 minutes tearing hair out with a brush trying to get it to the point where I could even braid it before I realized, and then had to wash my hair again. I was seriously considering cutting off about two feet of hair to defeat the impossitangles.
I cannot fathom the idea of people with long hair who say they wash it only once a week, or less.
Another day, another job rejection email. I figure I'm getting closer to employment; usually, I don't hear anything back at all.
...sigh.
Crackfic author asked me if they could write a fic based off my fic.
All things considered, since it's not like I expect Tanigawa would give me permission, I couldn't say no.... =_=
At least they asked, I suppose?
Quote from: Brian on May 22, 2013, 01:14:31 AM
Crackfic author asked me if they could write a fic based off my fic.
All things considered, since it's not like I expect Tanigawa would give me permission, I couldn't say no.... =_=
Look at it this way, the guy liked your fic enough to want to emulate your fic. That's never a bad thing, right?
I guess there's that.
I have vastly underestimated the ferocity of the line at the Starbucks.
If I don't make it, to Shami I leave:
No sushi.
104 out and getting hotter. My power has been out for 15 minutes now.
Time to take a long cold shower, Yuth.
I'm the sort of tired where I putz around and do nothing productive. It's like being in a mental coma.
Woke up to find this:
http://www.soulriders.net/forum/index.php/topic,101865.msg1044503.html#msg1044503
Shami took less than twelve hours to start chewing on the new cables.
Time to invest in some hot chili spray or something?
depressing communication is depressing
I have the hiccups.
I haven't had the hiccups in so long I have no idea what to do.
Oh yeah, and I also can barely move, muscles are too tired.
I must be the only person I know who can actually just hold my breath to make hiccups go away.
I actually do that most of the time. While holding my breath, I try to force myself to hiccup, then when forcing doesn't cause it, at least half the time it's over.
You would not believe how many people insist that I'm lying, or otherwise act as though the ability to do so were supernatural, JB.
Why don't we have hibernation chambers we can set to put us in cryo until receiving that one important e-mail?
Even more than the flying car, I begrudge our lack of cold-sleep.
Having to go in on a WFH day because of the incompetence of co-workers.
There's something amazingly aggravating about constant bad luck when you're selling something.
I've been trying to sell this for three months now. I've had horrible luck getting it sold. I've had random flakes, bad luck and overall things just refusing to work out. I had two pick up and buys fizzle out today. Unreal.
Edit: Then the guy shows with one hell of a good excuse and makes a painless sale. Yay.
Feeling overwhelmed by all the opportunities I don't have time to pursue because I'm stuck putting out all these fires ;_;
Hopefully I can get my life back under control by the end of the week.
Ah, the curse of those destined to be management.
Too good at handling other people's trouble to be allowed to make your own.
Having to replace fridge. Not cool.
It is surprisingly hard to retain my "I do not look at Kotaku" stance. People link it at me all the time it feels like. This makes me sad, as they're a terrible company that profits on misinforming their readers and creating controversy out of thin air around people just making entertainment products.
Quote from: Dracos on June 25, 2013, 01:41:17 PM
It is surprisingly hard to retain my "I do not look at Kotaku" stance. People link it at me all the time it feels like. This makes me sad, as they're a terrible company that profits on misinforming their readers and creating controversy out of thin air around people just making entertainment products.
Market share is the enemy of all good ethics.
Co-worker gives me pieces of information and a vague mention that I should learn awk to decipher some data before a meeting in 1.5 hours.
What? :\
Pulled through, finished testing, made an awesome spreadsheet of results in time for the emergency meeting, and was able to deliver the information concisely and on time.
Some major bosses were present to look at the results, and no one but me had time to look them over before the meeting. The guy who provided (and configured) the testing setup before I ran it started yelling (no, actually yelling) at the most senior manager present about how bad the results were, and said that I must have screwed up.
After about twenty minutes of this, I was given a massive task list of emergency 'must do immediately before everything else' assignments. When that was all done, it was determined that I hadn't done anything wrong at all, and the numbers were bad because the thing I'm testing is a pile of garbage.
No one apologized for blaming me or saying I had screwed up.
I got extra work thrown at me.
i feel so miserable
I fucking loathe Windows Server 2012, I seriously do.
There's nothing significantly wrong with the underlying OS, but what <i>cockgobbler</i> thought Metro was a good idea on a server? Seriously?
Allergies fucking suck. Especially allergy attacks that make sure you only get four hours of sleep. It's like my nose is a portal to the para-elemental plane of mucus.
$@%#ing FFML shenanigans.
Oh noes. What is the FFML up to these days?
Dunno, I quit.
I receive enough sensitive personal confidences from people, without volunteering much (if any) information about myself in return, that some days I wind up feeling like some kind of priest taking confession.
Why? I don't even strike myself as that trustworthy.
Quotewithout volunteering much (if any) information about myself in return
Which from a different perspective might be 'shutting up and listening'. :)
Quote from: Rezantis on June 27, 2013, 12:48:28 AM
Quotewithout volunteering much (if any) information about myself in return
Which from a different perspective might be 'shutting up and listening'. :)
It's probably exactly this. I've found that happening to me on occasion, and when I asked 'why me?' the response is generally, 'you're really good at listening, and just letting people talk their way through things, and have good advice.'
It's about trust-worthiness all the time. Sometimes, it's just the ability to shut up and listen. Or let people talk without showing frustration at having your time spent on their BS =p
Quote from: Brian on June 15, 2013, 10:54:25 PM
I must be the only person I know who can actually just hold my breath to make hiccups go away.
I can do this!
We must be from the same ninja clan! Separated at birth!
Quote from: Brian on June 28, 2013, 03:37:29 PM
We must be from the same ninja clan! Separated at birth!
We practice the ancient art of the Brofist.
Meeting about 'the company's future' from the Product Manager who long ago tried to accuse me of losing a 7,000$ drive (he had loaned it out himself). It was basically a 40 minute long sales pitch about how we should remain positive despite the lack of raises, or any promising future leads. In the meeting, the senior tester (my step-father) asked:
"So, we're going to be going multiple quarters without being able to ship. What's our plan for this? We're not looking for investors, so how is the board going to make sure we're still solvent and will be profitable after this?"
His answer:
"That's a concern. We've learned from our mistakes, and our technology is going to be great." And then back into the blurring sales pitch nonsense I tuned out. A few other pertinent questions, along with a generous heap of scorn on the results of our past efforts. "Who cares about that tech? It's worthless. This is what we need to focus on."
Not great. Meeting runs long, by the time we're released for the free lunch it's all gone. It's thai, though, so I don't view it as a loss.
Some talk between the co-workers, it turns out that the new 'manager' (not actually a manager, just has a manager title for prestige) has been pushing for one of my co-workers (the one who has a crush on me >_>;) to get fired.
An all around bad day on many fronts, confirming most of my negative suspicions about the future of the company, and losing one of the co-workers I commiserated with the most.
Also, another superior demanded a test be run on all disks that I'd been running tests on over the last two months -- guaranteeing I will not make our ship date on the product to qualify. A different superior wants me to pore through many months of test data to make a consolidated document giving an overview of different data sets (seriously, we should have someone to do this; I need to test and pointlessly move things around the lab for the 'manager'), and....
I'm so apathetic to the situation. I'm just padding out my resume and adding skills to it. If I didn't already buy in on the stock options (around 30% vested) and really want to get solid years on my resume, I'd be looking for other work already. I am so indifferent to the actual results of my work I should probably be ashamed.
Quote from: Brian on June 28, 2013, 06:15:09 PM
I am so indifferent to the actual results of my work I should probably be ashamed.
Maybe, but when you do wind up looking for a different job, instead of "indifferent", just say you were "professional" and you can pretend to be proud of it instead. :-P
That'll be the Art of the Resume, right there.
I spent some time in the kitchen cooking a big-ass dinner. Guess what happens just as I'm finishing? Someone comes home with pizza.
Sighfuckle.
Pizza makes good breakfast. Just toss that into the fridge and eat your dinner!
Was making cutlets and dipped a (batter-coated) finger into the oil. Fried myself up nice and crispy. :\
ow ow ow OW
My hip flask is already leaking....
Holy crap but this weekend sucked.
Eight hour drive to Kansas City by myself. First thing my mom says when I get there?
"Your uncle Calvin died."
"When?" o_O
"This morning."
And that is just the tip of an iceburg full of family shit I don't feel comfortable posting about online. Plus the money spent on gas and making sure the car is not going to break down on me out there. Oh, and the eight hour trip back, too.
Goddamn but this weekend sucked.
Ouch. You have my condolences, Panda.
Travel can be rough, but that sounds especially harsh. :(
If the batter is thick enough, it *should* act as insulation.
Guess it wasn't. :(
It helped a little....
So, I went back to work after a break mainly spent handling chores.
My computer was dead as a doorknob on arrival, and they hadn't moved my desk stuff. I'm asked to come in late tomorrow anyway to let them do so.
Spent most the day working via remote desktop and email on the side of our big meeting room.
Hard to be too annoyed with it though given... *other thread*
Waking up to a personal attack via board PM instead of e-mail.
Great start to the day
So, wait, now are they just making throwaway forums accounts to send you nasty messages?
Some people have way too much time on their hands.
Quote from: Grahf on July 10, 2013, 09:30:43 PM
So, wait, now are they just making throwaway forums accounts to send you nasty messages?
Some people have way too much time on their hands.
This, and not enough sense.
No, long story.
Someone I managed to piss off without even trying.
I usually consider that an accomplishment. Normally I haven't met my goals unless someone's unhappy with me. :D
My grandmother passed away, July 2nd. My aunt told my mom via text.
My mom only remembered and mentioned it to my step-father this morning, who only just now remembered to tell me.
/me sighs.
2 year of unemployment coming up. So frustrating.
:(
Admitting that you're wrong and fucked up badly is never pleasant.
Damn my pride.
I keep F5ing the forum main page. So bored.
Then start a discussion on a fanfic you like.
Or one you hate.
Fine.
We shall help the turtle.
Everyone, get together and make a giant monocle.
This will entertain gentleman turtle for days.
Quote from: Dracos on July 19, 2013, 03:48:35 PM
Fine.
We shall help the turtle.
Everyone, get together and make a giant monocle.
This will entertain gentleman turtle for days.
Huzzah!
This week has sort of been a domino field of things just being wrong around me at work. Kinda getting old. I finally get the tenth piece of hardware for this week's deployment (only 1 week late~), and it's not been correctly imaged. I could fix what I see, but that's just asking for trouble down the road :( Meanwhile, I fix solutions that have never actually built correctly (and was missed by the developers that made them). Again.
I assigned my flunky to get the statistic chart generation stuff going yesterday. It's the ugliest code in the building, and I expected it would take a few days. I did not expect that a day in it would be discovered that someone broke the statistics recording stuff a year ago, and no one had noticed so the chart generation had no possible input data.
Quote from: Dracos on July 19, 2013, 07:11:16 PM
This week has sort of been a domino field of things just being wrong around me at work. Kinda getting old. I finally get the tenth piece of hardware for this week's deployment (only 1 week late~), and it's not been correctly imaged. I could fix what I see, but that's just asking for trouble down the road :( Meanwhile, I fix solutions that have never actually built correctly (and was missed by the developers that made them). Again.
I assigned my flunky to get the statistic chart generation stuff going yesterday. It's the ugliest code in the building, and I expected it would take a few days. I did not expect that a day in it would be discovered that someone broke the statistics recording stuff a year ago, and no one had noticed so the chart generation had no possible input data.
That last part...sounds rather disastrous.
Steam installed?
Check.
Finally remembered login name?
Check.
Money in the bank?
Check!
Many, many games I've wanted to try for a while now at dirt-cheap prices?
Check!
. . . Running linux so can't actually play any of them?
. . . check. ;_;
There's nothing quite so irritating as getting a time-sensitive part-time job offer out of the blue, and then being given the runaround for a month on getting an actual face-to-face meeting and necessary information, so your time to prepare keeps shrinking and you start uncharitably concocting conspiracy theories in your head that someone (and you have no idea who) at that place wants to hire you just so they can see you fail three months in and, I don't know, heroically step in to do your job for you or something.
Oh well, at least that's (almost) over with and it doesn't affect my day job either way.
It's also a shame because there's people there I know personally, genuinely like, and want to help out, but the organization as a whole is (intentionally or unintentionally) making it very difficult for me to actually be useful.
Quote from: thepanda on July 19, 2013, 11:17:14 PM
Steam installed?
Check.
Finally remembered login name?
Check.
Money in the bank?
Check!
Many, many games I've wanted to try for a while now at dirt-cheap prices?
Check!
. . . Running linux so can't actually play any of them?
. . . check. ;_;
Steam on Linux isn't actually a thing yet? Or is it just for a small subset of games?
A very, painfully small subset of games. I think I can buy the games, burn them from a windows computer, and run them on mine through wine.
Maybe.
Possibly.
*sighs*
Hard drive decided to for once and finally seize up and die. Been coming for a while, and I can probably get most of the data off it, but having to leave environment and babysit copy operations for probably three consecutive days is :|.
Lost my Blizzard authentication tool.
I'll never be able to log in to WoW again. Oh, noes.
Actually, this means I do lose Diablo II ... so, yeah.
In hindsight, I guess I don't care that much. If they ever finish Starcraft II, I'll probably try and fix it.
Hard drive dies. Not a huge deal. I have backups of almost everything, and a recovery path for what I don't (mostly lolhueg torrented stuff).
Backup drive dies in the middle of recovery.
*@%$ #$%^ @!$*.
Quote from: alethiophile on July 22, 2013, 08:54:10 PM
Hard drive dies. Not a huge deal. I have backups of almost everything, and a recovery path for what I don't (mostly lolhueg torrented stuff).
Backup drive dies in the middle of recovery.
*@%$ #$%^ @!$*.
Oh that
sucks.
Murphy's law strikes again. Sorry man, that blows.
Quote from: alethiophile on July 22, 2013, 08:54:10 PMBackup drive dies in the middle of recovery.
Statistically, that's usually when it happens.
That's why you try and rotate drives out before MTBF, as if you don't, when a raid breaks due to one disk failing, the extra load on the other disks is exceedingly likely to make it happen to another.
Long story short: If you buy a disk and its backup at the same time, and replace neither before MTBF, you're likely to have a bad time. :\
I don't review fabrics anymore and I've just realized quite how much I miss it.
Sigh.
EDIT: FABRICS!? Fanfics.
QuoteThat's why you try and rotate drives out before MTBF, as if you don't, when a raid breaks due to one disk failing, the extra load on the other disks is exceedingly likely to make it happen to another.
Also known as 'The RAID-5 problem'. I've had two RAID-5s collapse during rebuild in that way on production systems necessitating a restore from backup. :|
At least I got to say 'I told you so', that's often fun.
Quote from: Yuthirin on July 23, 2013, 04:28:47 AMEDIT: FABRICS!? Fanfics.
My mind went to this guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=EgedZswWVtM&t=41
Quote from: Rezantis on July 23, 2013, 06:45:06 PMAt least I got to say 'I told you so', that's often fun.
Depends on what data was lost. It's possible to have a
really bad day.... It is annoying how many people don't follow best practices on such things. :\
Quote from: Brian on July 23, 2013, 08:18:59 PM
Depends on what data was lost. It's possible to have a really bad day.... It is annoying how many people don't follow best practices on such things. :\
Nah, we had backup tapes, so they lost half a day's worth of productivity. An expensive lesson, but not a crippling one.
'Course then they ignored me again and built another RAID-5 instead of spending the money on extra disks and a hot spare, so whatever.
Sometimes it takes a lot of shoving nose in stupid to make it go across.
Man, I sat down with the CTO of some middleware that we use heavily today. 30 minute meeting, 25 minutes of it was him just bullshitting without pause to ensure that not only did nothing meaningful happen, but that we could barely get a word in edgewise. Most of it being: "Running a business takes money!"
Well, no shit sherlock. We pay you folks a lot of it and work in a business too. We get it.
I don't understand how people like that get and keep these jobs.
Because while it ticks everyone in the room off, its visibly effective at preventing discussions of discounts.
I just read my least favorite scene in Sigh... hoping for new insights, and while I found some ... his behavior afterwards makes me want to punch an esper. :|
Ah, that scene. Nobody came away looking good there.
Yuki might have kept neutral, because I can't remember her actually doing anything in that scene. It's definitely the most uncomfortable one of that novel, perhaps even the entire series.
Bragh.
In early, In late.
Demo prep sucks.
Forgot to save. ;_;
Comcast has done some fucking up of some sort. Since last night, I've had no internet. TV was working fine, but phone and internet? Kaptuski.
It seemed like it got fixed this afternoon, I've had internet and been browsing fine...and then I realizedthat apparently, for whatever ungodly reason, Steam and IRC were still blocked. I only just -now- managed to get both working.
What the hell, Comcast?
Session canceled today.
Sadness.
Eh, that session would have been with a crappy GM anyway.
My hip flask sprung a major leak on the way to work. :|
Also, my little brother basically said, "I don't care, I'm showing up anyway," when we told him we didn't want him showing up to game sessions until he was on good terms with his parents again. It's great that he's willing to risk getting kicked out of his home, but I don't want to be part of it.
Ugh.
It may be that because he won't listen, I'll have to call game off entirely. Not happy about that, either.
MRwagh. Angry. And For various reasons can't talk about it.
This day sucks.
Quote from: Dracos on August 07, 2013, 03:52:10 PM
MRwagh. Angry. And For various reasons can't talk about it.
This day sucks.
I HAVE DAYS LIKE THAT! I celebrate your rage.
Reality does not know how to take a bad news break.
I really, REALLY need it to be Friday. It's not.
Quote from: Dracos on August 07, 2013, 04:14:35 PM
Reality does not know how to take a bad news break.
I was wondering why I couldn't find you on IRC. That bad a week, eh?
Yup.
I've done so many surveys that I'm about to start bleeding demographic information. At least I'm racking up some cash and gift cards.
Working on the impossible task. With distractions.
A major relationship ended today.
Sounds like a breakup. Condolences.
Sadface.
So, I must say, I hate Chase bank. It took me all day to get my money out of limbo, goddammit.
Today has sort of sucked a massive amount of dicks. It's 106 outside and my house has no power. That's ok because I'm still at work.
Unfortunately my brother's computer has recently decided that it doesn't like to be turned on, so any attempt to restart it is an Ordeal. It will eventually restart, but it takes luck, patience, and usually several hours. The power is out. Guess what isn't turned on anymore.
I had a surprise event today where I was told I needed to do a 30 minute presentation on my company at the drop of a hat, so I did that completely unprepared. That sucked a lot.
I'm tired. I have a test next week that I haven't studied for yet. Argh.
Joyous. Your day sounds like it's on the superhighway to pure shit.
I am attempting to salvage it, but am unsure how.
There are days you don't really salvage, per se. You survive them, suppress the memory and bury them in a mound of shit. That's one of those days.
Home internet connection is so bad it's useless for anything but IRC. Even gmail times out half the time. :|
Hum, dinner at work.
Some mixture of vegetables, meat, peppers under rice. A stir fry.
Who the heck puts meat with bones still attached in a stir fry?
@_@
oh that's gross
All three of the boxing fights tonight have been boring. Bleh.
Having to explain the gender-bending trope (as used e.g. in Ranma 1/2) to a straitlaced conservative Anglican professor without coming across as a pervert.
Mrg.
Edit: to make things more messed up, this was during a discussion on whether human souls (as considered separate from bodies) have gender or not. Bleh.
So how'd you tackle it, anyway?
Quote from: Anastasia on August 19, 2013, 09:06:01 PM
So how'd you tackle it, anyway?
Short answer: I didn't.
Long answer: In a roundabout manner, using classical mythology (Tiresias &such) rather than Ranma. The whole argument was whether gender is an essential (unchangeable) attribute of the soul, whether it was possible to assert as such outside of the assumptions used by Mormonism (he's a Mormon-leaning straitlaced conservative Anglican professor); he was arguing that he can't conceive of a humanoid entity lacking a definite sexuality, I brought up genderbending as an example that there are other conceivable possibilities outside the dichotomy (entity with eternally immutable gender / the amorphous genderless entity he can't imagine), he responded that the ancient Greeks were perverts and that this kind of story is not universal across cultures, and moreover Tiresias opted to become a man again when he had the opportunity, so there must have been a soul-body 'dissonance'....
...
The whole conversation was inconclusive, but hopefully I got across the point, at least, that 'metaphysically inconceivable' and 'kind of perverted' are two different things. If not, I'm not exactly willing to pursue a further line of argument that would probably require me to explain by way of example not only Ranma 1/2 but
Ozzalos, to a Mormon-leaning straitlaced conservative Anglican professor.
I get into the oddest conversations.
Thankfully, I'm pretty sure he already thinks of me as a weirdo who is capable of stimulating discussion, so that aspect of my reputation is undamaged.
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on August 19, 2013, 09:24:35 PM
the ancient Greeks were perverts
I very much want to have a physical confrontation with this professor.
The Modern Human Beings were perverts.
Quote from: Dracos on August 20, 2013, 04:55:08 PM
The Modern Human Beings Were Perverts.
That's the name of my B-52's tribute band!
The B-52s have enough fans to form a tribute band?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjxBns7U9Fo
I saw 0.5 seconds of a man in tight white tiger-stripe pants and closed the window. I was askurrd.
The music is actually even worse.
Tonight I will not be leaving the office until around 9:00 PM. Added to a very stressful day due to work being crappy, and frustration at being blindsided by information I hadn't specifically asked for.... My fault for asking about something closely related, but I wasn't emotionally prepared, so that left me feeling lousy in general.
ugh
At least I have a week off coming up soon.
Your lack of B-52 tribute is disappointing, Yuth. o_o
*has no idea who they are*
Quote from: Yuthirin on August 20, 2013, 03:29:26 PM
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on August 19, 2013, 09:24:35 PM
the ancient Greeks were perverts
I very much want to have a physical confrontation with this professor.
That is one definition of a
stimulating discussion, I guess....
Swear to god FiM fandom can be creepy as all getout. Feels like half the chapters I've seen released this past week have been stupid-dark, clop-fic, or foul-con. If you don't know what that last one is I highly suggest you don't look it up.
Quote from: thepanda on August 21, 2013, 12:58:31 AM
stupid-dark, clop-fic, or foul-con.
I only understood the first one.
But then I don't like horses overmuch, and tend to veer away from anything anthropomorphising (whut) animals.
I'll give you a hint:
That 'u' was a different vowel and makes a word that relates to horses.
See also: the topic that convinced me I didn't want to be part of the FFML anymore.
Hah! I cannot spell!
Foal-con, yes.
Or rather, no. God, no.
Wait. Waitasec. Just wait. I'm trying to think.
...
Uh. So. Hm. Yeah, that went to a different place in my mind that, while not as vivid as where it went with "foul-con," is no less vile.
Hurray.
Living within range of the Toronto International Film Festival is like the torture of Tantalus and Sisyphus combined and delivered to you over the Internet.
"You want to see Kaze Tachinu? Okay, check back on August 20th! Now check back on the 31st when we will sell tickets to the general public! Sold out? Check back at 7am every day! Maybe we have rush tickets! But remember, we don't take Mastercard under any circumstances!"
And now I need brain bleach. I hate you guys sometimes.
Another exciting 'optional' meeting tomorrow.
I suspect they'll announce another terrible decision, or fire more co-workers.
Apparently Ben Affleck has been cast as the next Batman.
I saw that, not sure what to think about it. >.>
Pre-vavation meeting. Giant marketing circle-jerk waste-of-time that engineering doesn't need, going 30 minutes over anticipated time.
Starts with my boss just fucking dropping an extra seven hours of work on me after 1:00pm on a Friday.
Wrong paint = day/money wasted.
Spent 2 hours in the ER today. Cut into my left middle finger due to stupidity and now have 2 stitches. -_-
Ow, ow, ow. That always sucks, ERs are a special type of hell.
One of my teeth felt a little loose last night when I was pushing against it with my tongue. I wasn't sure if that was real or an illusion, so I gently pinched the tooth between two fingertips to try and wiggle it a little.
Instead of wiggling, it came clean out. Along with a molar. I started freaking out just a little because, well, that's freaky, and they didn't even stay in because of the glue on my brackets. WTF? Oh, wait, I told myself. Maybe it's a dream.
And yet, until I actually woke up, I couldn't prove it was a dream at all. So, hooray for over a year and a half of working on lucid dreaming.
I guess on the bright side, no teeth actually came out; I just dreamed about it in disturbing detail.
While I haven't had a dream like that since I've starting trying to lucid dream myself, most of the dreams I remember are just flat out weird. Like, evil sentient jawbreakers that must be eaten weird.
Hopefully you'll be able to prove you're dreaming the next time something of that nature pops up again.
Quote from: Brian on September 03, 2013, 12:22:13 PM
I guess on the bright side, no teeth actually came out; I just dreamed about it in disturbing detail.
Dental anxiety dreams seem to be a thing.
http://www.jwz.org/gruntle/toothdreams.html (warning: disturbing imagery, obviously)
Keep in mind that it could always be worse. Haven't suffered from dental dreams, but in the past I've sometimes wound up dreaming I had more than the normal number of (insert body part), just so they could
all be diseased. :-(
(e.g.
two big toes on one foot, and both are smashed up and inflamed. Yeurgh.
)
The dental dream thing is right up with eye-gore as far as squick/horror for most people. I'm fairly sure it's related to proximity to the primary sensory organs, and therefore an increase in the primacy of the terror. Dental dreams happen more than eye dreams because (I am guessing) most people primarily dream in their most significant/important sense, which for most people is sight. So eye-horror would cause waking.
In retrospect, I have had dreams similar to yours where I actually had a third set of teeth that erupted ... just to also fall out. -_-
Never could get the hang of lucid dreaming myself. But I have had so many "losing my teeth" dreams over the years that even my dream self is just mildly annoyed with the loss and then gets on with the rest of the dream. So I sympathize, its not much fun.
Being sick really sucks. As does the room steadily moving whenever I'm not paying attention.
Also, idiot people that are on bikes and turn left into the right hand turn lane going the wrong way. What the fuck, people? I almost ran you idiots over because you literally just shot out there and turned INTO oncoming traffic.
Bicyclists are above the law, naturally.
Hope you feel better, though. :x
Ugh, bicylcists.
Get well soon Dracos.
Quote from: Dracos on September 04, 2013, 05:45:37 PM
Being sick really sucks. As does the room steadily moving whenever I'm not paying attention.
Also, idiot people that are on bikes and turn left into the right hand turn lane going the wrong way. What the fuck, people? I almost ran you idiots over because you literally just shot out there and turned INTO oncoming traffic.
Bicyclists: as flimsy as pedestrians and a hell of a lot faster / less predictable. Not a fun combination to be driving around.
I only dislike bicyclists when they put themselves in danger. I recognize that it's a lot more effort to restart at a stop sign on a bicycle, but by the law, you still have to stop. Doesn't stop any number of bicyclists just blazing across an intersection without even looking for oncoming traffic. =_=
It's also the law for both pedestrians and bicyclists to be moving with traffic and not against it if you're on the road. A bicyclist having a head on collision shouldn't be possible, but that's exactly what two of them almost managed. At the very least, they should've been aiming to turn two lanes to the left of me, where traffic was at least heading the same direction.
I don't ride nearly as much now that I'm not on campus, but when I was living there and getting everywhere by bike, my rule was "Make the cars not have to worry about you". (This was partly from consideration, and partly because some fraction of the cars, empirically, did not worry about you, whether they had to or not. :\)
That's just being reasonably intelligent about things. >_>
I think about bike riding (rare as that is) with the consideration that, in an argument; my soft fleshy body will lose to the extremely hard, high velocity boxen on wheels.
I'm training yet another person, this one I'm sure has been hired specifically to be the one that takes over my shifts when I leave (counting the days). This person actually seems more engaged than the previous one I was training, and also less loud and more understanding of the concept of personal space. These are good things.
Which is why I really, really wish that a monitor hadn't decided to just up and die near the end of the shift, necessitating that another, older, crappier monitor be brought from downstairs. Said older monitor promptly worked, for about ten seconds, after which time it couldn't get a signal. After "troubleshooting" (read as, unplugging and replugging things and silently swearing to myself), the thing decides to work again, just as another part of the system decides that it's time to give up the ghost.
Granted, I've expected things to start going wrong for a while, all the computers and systems are old, and I know that despite the insistence of others that they'll still work fine that things are in fact starting to go. Of course, they choose to start going when I'm about to leave, never to return. Perfect.
Not sure the context, but if you're leaving and the business people staying aren't acknowledging proper TTL of equipment, that's their problem.
My bank account is dwindling. Making it to the Gathering is starting to seem difficult or financially crippling.
Hope wanes.
:( That...that would really suck on a lot of levels. :\ But if you're in danger financially, you've got to look out for that.
Hope waning is just a side effect, I'm sure. I checked the logs:
* Yuthrin has joined the Gathering: Diablo's minions grow stronger.
Back at work. Cough remains. Damn cough.
Careful not to overdo it, Drac. Nothing sucks like overpushing yourself and getting sick all over again.
E-mail drama. My little brother (adoptive) is super unhappy about not getting to play in the Sunday sessions.
My wrist is toast.
What happened, Yuth?
I was rescuing a pack of baby harp seals from an oil slick down the street from my place when I was suddenly attacked by a pterodactyl. In the process of repelling and ultimately slaying the pterodactyl while simultaneously selflessly saving thirty baby seals, I wrenched my wrist.
Ladies.
In other news, how to know you're getting sick in Phoenix: You're cold.
Add in that you intentionally distracted the pterodactyl to prevent it from committing arson to a nearby orphanage.
Haven't found a way to disable e-mails from Steam about selling junk on the community market. :x
There was this epic dragon's crown run. The dwarf was crushing everything. The sorceress was freezing everything. Bosses were being waylaid left and right. The S-ranks were coming like water.
And then the game locked up eleven stages in.
Quote from: Dracos on September 12, 2013, 03:36:29 PM
There was this epic dragon's crown run. The dwarf was crushing everything. The sorceress was freezing everything. Bosses were being waylaid left and right. The S-ranks were coming like water.
And then the game locked up eleven stages in.
*sets the system to lock up ten stages in next time.*
Work crappiness.
Manager angry at me for doing what he told me to. Things not being where they should be. Utilities not being compatible with the equipment we have.
Can't go home early today after all. =_=
Stomach's been bothering me since I accidentally swallowed that rubber band. =_=
Taking an elementary Mandarin course as part of a graduation prerequisite. I'm left handed, which makes writing characters using proper stroke order distinctly uncomfortable. Of course, we didn't touch the idea until the first day after the drop/add period ended. -.-
Quote from: Onyxlamb on September 14, 2013, 11:58:34 PM
Taking an elementary Mandarin course as part of a graduation prerequisite. I'm left handed, which makes writing characters using proper stroke order distinctly uncomfortable. Of course, we didn't touch the idea until the first day after the drop/add period ended. -.-
Did you ask the teacher what left-handed Chinese people do?
... even if only for the tragicomedy value of the response?
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on September 15, 2013, 05:13:51 PM
Quote from: Onyxlamb on September 14, 2013, 11:58:34 PM
Taking an elementary Mandarin course as part of a graduation prerequisite. I'm left handed, which makes writing characters using proper stroke order distinctly uncomfortable. Of course, we didn't touch the idea until the first day after the drop/add period ended. -.-
Did you ask the teacher what left-handed Chinese people do?
... even if only for the tragicomedy value of the response?
They learn to be right-handed Chinese people. No comedy to it, though the "tragi-" part is still valid.
Quote from: Merc on September 15, 2013, 06:20:45 PM
They learn to be right-handed Chinese people. No comedy to it, though the "tragi-" part is still valid.
The comedy part comes from seeing whether the lecturer knows and how they would have to explain it.
"Because Communism."
From the native side, the conversation goes like this:
Parents: Your handwriting is terrible.
KLSymph: I wonder why.
Yeah, her response was basically "Deal with it. Stroke order makes the letters prettier."
Bosses are bringing incompetence to a new level. The belated good news is we have a new CEO, and supposedly he's going to be getting the Silo of Incompetence out of the company. Which I'm glad to hear.
But today, the bottom rung demanded 72 SSDs from the entire department. I've been complaining since about my third month on the job we don't keep enough disks on hand to test, and this just proves my point; I know for a fact that even once he sabotages all other testing by taking all SSDs, valid matches for the escalation or not, he'll still be 35 short.
This will end well, but until it does, epic stupidity.
such a crappy day at work
starting to get super pissed off at this performance bullshit
Basically, manager complaining that he gave me bad test parameters like it's my fault. When I've got the stress of moving 180 kilos of hardware. All this other stuff....
Arg. Not happy.
First thing in the door:
More performance issues and whining about them. Yes, the data you asked for sucks, because your specifications were crappy. How can you think this is a surprise?
I think it's time to look for a new job.
Good luck :(
Quote from: Brian on September 18, 2013, 01:31:50 PM
First thing in the door:
More performance issues and whining about them. Yes, the data you asked for sucks, because your specifications were crappy. How can you think this is a surprise?
I think it's time to look for a new job.
Sounds like it. You seem rather.. Unhappy there. Good luck with the search.
It used to not be so bad.
My day sor far: "Hi! Welcome to work! Here's a month's worth of work that needs to be done by next week!"
Yay.
Quote from: cmd.exePinging www.google.com [74.125.225.115] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Ping statistics for 74.125.225.115:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),
Thanks, university wireless network.
Quote
Thanks, university wireless network.
Did someone say 'university'?
(http://i.imgur.com/aTU06wtl.jpg)
I don't even...? Is there something that pouring coffee on a wall should accomplish?
My best guess is that someone thinks that putting liquid in trash bags is not so great (in fact, it isn't, but some trash bags are better at handling it than others), and they're doing something positive. In reality, there is a degree of sense in throwing a liquid onto the ground instead of the trash, especially outdoors. If it's bad for plants, you probably shouldn't have been drinking it in the first place, after all.
But 'the wall'? Someone's primitive attempt at vandalism via coffee stain? I'm really unclear, here.
Not as much on the bitching thread, but when I saw this - http://www.weather.com/news/weather-hurricanes/typhoon-usagi-threatens-taiwan-hong-kong-20130919 - I immediately thought of Sailor Moon.
That's what anime does to ya.
So, I'm probably going to be fired because I'm not a performance expert, and they've decided that's what my job is. That and not giving me sufficient equipment.
Quote from: Brian on September 20, 2013, 02:11:01 PM
So, I'm probably going to be fired because I'm not a performance expert, and they've decided that's what my job is. That and not giving me sufficient equipment.
Same thing happened to my office just before I joined. The performance group was given fifteen different tasks, no funding, no supplies or support.
Our part of the team spent a good portion of our time helping them out against the orders of the corporate bigwigs, because we wanted work done, and they couldn't do it alone. I did much of the cross department work because I was new and had to learn everything anyway.
I sympathize, even if we are in completely different fields.
Allergic reaction from something at the gathering is spreading to cover more and more of my left arm, despite being back from it.
It's surprisingly painful, not to mention disturbing in appearance.
Physician time? Also, cortizone cream and benadryl?
Yeah, that seems to be holding it steady.
If it continues to spread, you may have a serious problem.
It's stopped spreading, but doesn't seem to be improving much. I'm probably going to see a doctor tomorrow.
Quote from: Brian on September 29, 2013, 05:52:58 AM
Allergic reaction from something at the gathering is spreading to cover more and more of my left arm, despite being back from it.
It's surprisingly painful, not to mention disturbing in appearance.
It's just weird that it's in one localized area like that... If it was a reaction to something, it'd be in more than one place. And I'd think it'd be on your hands instead, since that's what touches everything...
It's the 1st day of October, an awesome month! You know what we need to celebrate it with? A head cold!
Fuck.
Quote from: Iron Dragoon on October 01, 2013, 10:05:05 AMIt's just weird that it's in one localized area like that... If it was a reaction to something, it'd be in more than one place. And I'd think it'd be on your hands instead, since that's what touches everything...
At this point, I suspect it's shingles. One big patch of my arm, and the back of the same hand. A few tiny spots elsewhere, but they're actually fading, and my left arm isn't.
I can tell you one thing. If I end up with the option, I will be asking for cybernetic limbs.
Joy.
Doctor thinks it's allergies. No better guesses than gunpower/GSR.
At least I have some prescription strength stuff?
Glad you got something for it, even if it is relatively diagnosed. Hope the cream helps. I always stock up on aloe vera when I am
I just wanted to complain about 10 hour work days five days a week on a salary (i.e. without overtime). The only free time I have is in the morning before work or before the day starts on the weekend, giving me roughly nine hours total to myself a week, all early morning and bleary eyed. Seven hours a night of sleep during the week and six on the weekend.
I don't have it horrible, so don't take this is a "woe is me I am the most wretched of wretches" post, but, man, am I tired and feeling isolated from my hobbies.
Quote from: Brian on October 02, 2013, 03:11:05 PM
Doctor thinks it's allergies. No better guesses than gunpower/GSR.
At least I have some prescription strength stuff?
Wrong arm for it, I think. Bullets eject to the right side of the firearm. If it's on your left arm, I don't think it's gun powder... Could be blow back from the slide and stuff, but I'm sorta doubting it.
Could be, though.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, actually. There wasn't any wind, either.
I do plan on trying to shoot again once this clears up as a control. On the other hand, it does raise questions as to what the hell it was. :x
Maybe you brushed up against something when you went cave diving?
Could be anything. :x
No one can be fired during the government shutdown so we can't get rid of this sack-of-fail that should have been fired last week.
Pearl harbor and some other tourist attractions are closed until further notice due to government idiocy.
Quote from: Merc on October 04, 2013, 03:51:24 AM
Pearl harbor and some other tourist attractions are closed until further notice due to government idiocy.
We're supposed to go on vacation to the Grand Canyon next week.
And it's shut down.
Ah lots of things on fire this morning.
I AM ON FIRE
Yes, yes you are.
Fuck it. Nobody gets put out.
World burns.
Water elementals say otherwise.
I'm currently inside recovering from being swarmed by yellow jackets. And I can't find my glasses, as they were knocked off when the swarm landed on my face. Swear to god, I thought a prickly tree branch had fallen on me at first. Thankfully I was wearing a long-sleeved hoodie and jeans so they only got to my neck/face/head.
Holy crap, that's terrifying. O_o
Fortunately yellow jackets don't hurt nearly as much as wasp.
Yellowjackets are assholes.
Quote from: Yuthirin on October 08, 2013, 12:27:22 AM
Yellowjackets are assholes.
Nono, they came from a hole in the ground. I can tell the difference! >_^ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zXDo4dL7SU)
A contractor who had been warned about my mother's memory issues basically convinced her to give up 1.5k for a 200$ job.
So stupid. My stepfather pointed out that he'd originally planned on paying the guy a lot more for additional work anyway, but mostly I'm upset about things. I may not like dealing with her specifically because of the memory issues, but someone who would take advantage of someone like that....
Urg. Upset.
See, these are the situations where I would just show up and start punching the guy.
Got this PM from my brother:
1:47:41 PM The Hipper, Older Randall: Just got another manic, all over the place text from mom. Jesus christ.
1:48:37 PM The Hipper, Older Randall: In it she says " Brian's about to possibly be let go, it's a "re-org" thing."
One hopes it's just her drunken rambling and not grounded on fact. But then, it's very sad when that's the positive thought.
I found out via e-mail something that I had previously not known about the circumstances of my departure from the FFML.
Namely, that Gary Kleppe didn't have anyone else's permission, or even tell them his plan; in fact, in response to the list owner saying he wished I wasn't gone, Gary actually promoted himself to admin specifically to tell the list I was gone, evidently to prevent the owner from contacting me and inviting me back. I mean, I knew Gary was letting his biases blind him to reason, but I had assumed he was just favoring the guy who gave him C&C, and thought he didn't have such a pathetic grudge against me. Then again ... Gary was overriding the owner's wishes when he insisted I had no grounds to ban Lurker in the first place, so it wasn't like there wasn't a precedent for it....
That is the first time I think I've become angry at myself for giving an apology to someone, because Kleppe clearly didn't deserve one. Man, that pisses me off almost as bad as my mom getting conned. I wanted to give the guy the benefit of the doubt, because life with Aspergers can be difficult ... but, ugh. I don't think that even covers it anymore.
Anyway, put that on my list of things I was happier not knowing.
On the other hand, I'm told he pretty much now shares the list only with Lurker, so I suppose he's already in a hell of his own devising.
If I had known Kleppe to be that dickish, I wouldn't have put any more time into c&c'ing his fic. Sounds like he's got all the control of that place that he wants.
Ah, it doesn't matter. His personality aside, his story should stand on its own merits, and I recall him being decent, if a little stiff. I just disliked his stuff because he went out of his way to troll Ukyou fans ... but that's ancient history by now.
Quote from: Brian on October 12, 2013, 04:08:21 AM
On the other hand, I'm told he pretty much now shares the list only with Lurker, so I suppose he's already in a hell of his own devising.
"I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have to share it with Lurker."
It's nearly 1:00 AM and the neighbors are blasting their music and screaming incoherently along with it. I don't mean, "I can't understand what they're saying." I mean they're literally just emitting wordless shrieks as loudly as they can. They are not trying to modulate tone, there are no components of any genuine language; it's just shrieking.
Time to call the cops.
Well, the bad manager is my new boss.
Quote from: Brian on October 13, 2013, 04:45:30 AM
It's nearly 1:00 AM and the neighbors are blasting their music and screaming incoherently along with it. I don't mean, "I can't understand what they're saying." I mean they're literally just emitting wordless shrieks as loudly as they can. They are not trying to modulate tone, there are no components of any genuine language; it's just shrieking.
Time to call the cops.
This is why I own a shotgun.
California.
Nice.
Cops deal with it?
Surprisingly. It seems when I called them, someone else had already just called, and a car was already on the way.
As much as they were annoying (and truthfully quite so), I don't think the situation would've been improved by either waving a gun at them or doing warning shots.
The cops were the right solve for indecent neighbors :(
Mrgle.
People do things wrong. I have enough bugs showing up to look at to take me the rest of the day.
Decided to restart playing Mass Effect from the beginning since my internet is out. Popped in the first game, disc unreadable. Red ring of death. Son of a BITCH.
Life hates turtles, eh?
The guy from CenturyLink will be out to my place sometime between 2:30 and 6:30pm, which is right in the time that my mom needs to be picked up from the airport. I CAN'T CATCH A BREAK TODAY!
Quote from: Yuthirin on October 16, 2013, 03:32:33 PM
Decided to restart playing Mass Effect from the beginning since my internet is out. Popped in the first game, disc unreadable. Red ring of death. Son of a BITCH.
Sometimes life makes you want to (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻)
Pick up my brother, get him back to the apartment. I am 5 minutes late in getting back to work when we arrive there. Get him inside only to discover that our turtle has managed to, at some point in the day, wedge herself into a small cranny underwater and drown herself halfway to death. We got her out and when I left, she was still clinging to life but it might not be enough. This day seriously cannot end fast enough.
Fucking hell. Hang in there, Yuth.
Yikes. I hope everyturtle pulls through this one. :x
Turtle appears to still be alive. She is swimming in a lively manner.
Guy from CenturyLink came out yesterday and had a look at the lines.
Looks like the lines that are in the building are stripped down to the metal wire and there is huge signal attenuation because of that. The guy told me that if I actually had a home phone, it wouldn't work most of the time.
I spoke with the apartment complex and they repeatedly stated that they would much rather prefer that I use Cox.
Comparison: When CenturyLink works, it's great. Fast, clean, no latency.
When Cox works, it sucks. No streaming video or audio, random disconnects, high latency.
I plan on fighting this.
Ah so glad to be out of apartment complex. :)
Yeah, replacing cable is expensive, so they're not going to be happy about that, unfortunately.
I lived in an apartment complex once with ungrounded electricity, which is evidently somehow legal. They sure as heck didn't have any interest in fixing that, though they did at least install three prong electrical outlets, so that people were less likely to realize....
Quote from: Brian on October 18, 2013, 02:30:07 PM
Yeah, replacing cable is expensive, so they're not going to be happy about that, unfortunately.
I lived in an apartment complex once with ungrounded electricity, which is evidently somehow legal. They sure as heck didn't have any interest in fixing that, though they did at least install three prong electrical outlets, so that people were less likely to realize....
My house was entirely wired with that when I bought it. It cost thousands to replace, but was pretty much a no brainer for doing so.
...how is that even legal
It's not legal to have it in new construction. Old construction is grandfathered in.
There are quite a few things that get around building code this way.
It's not even that crazy really.
If you did it any other way, you'd leave the situation where a perfectly viable house for a low income person that got it years ago suddenly gets 10-20k in bills because a law got passed.
Oh right grandfather laws
The Dark Souls 2 closed beta was disappointing.
Edited: More on this. (http://www.soulriders.net/forum/index.php/topic,102942.msg1047223.html#msg1047223)
Yesterday was my step father's last day of work at this company, and I was WFH, so I missed it. >_<
I have complete SR4.
It never really rocked the house.
Quote from: Dracos on October 31, 2013, 02:37:57 PM
I have complete SR4.
It never really rocked the house.
Silly Dracos, that's why we're on SR 5.0 now. You're so behind!
I stand humbled by your vast my little pony knowledge.
*nods*
:P
"Can you do a mixed type performance test on these disks?"
"This is XXXX's doing, isn't it?"
"...uh, anyway, we need to do this test. Do we have a template for it?"
"I can do this test yet again, but it's not in the plan because it's a waste of time. You mix two different disks, the performance is always going to be between the two disks, trending toward the slower one."
"Right, so can you do it? How many disks do you usually test with?"
"Eight."
"So, test with eight of the new ones, and then two of the old ones."
"That's ten, not eight."
"Er.... Well, use two of the old ones."
"Sure. Whatever. A total of eight disks, two old, six new."
"I meant six old, two new."
"Why not just do it both ways?"
"Okay. Is this on the test plan?"
"No, because it's a corner-case, it's a waste of time, and the results are never interesting."
"So, add it to the test plan with a note that it's a corner-case."
"The qualification plan, or the performance plan?"
"Yes."
"This is going to take an entire day because it's four tests."
"Yeah, we have a meeting later today to discuss your efficiency."
"Fantastic."
So stupid.
Spent four hours today washing and waxing two cars. Think I would rather be at work. At least I can listen to an audiobook while staring at charts and statistics.
Quote from: Brian on November 01, 2013, 01:39:37 PM
So stupid.
Not quoted from Brian's workplace: a re-enactment of the Who's On First sketch, and that Looney Tunes gag where Brian (in place of Bugs Bunny) convinces a manager to agree with him using reverse psychology.
Someone actually linked me another one of those Anita Sarkeesian videos when discussing video games. =_=
She's that person who pulled a kickstarter to pay for her doing a bunch of talks about sexism, right?
What was this specific one about?
It was part two of her, "Damsels in Distress: Tropes vs. Women," video.
Which evidently is now three parts.
On the other hand, it does suggest to me that her target audience is not gamers, or even the small percentage of gamers that are female: it is people who have no basis of knowledge for video games themselves, and thus cannot recognize how she cherry picks and misrepresents things.
Linking any of them at all is basically asserting that her monstrous diatribes have any place in rational discussion of culture. That's usually the more relevant concern over what she's saying in any specific video.
Quote from: Brian on November 04, 2013, 01:25:42 PM
On the other hand, it does suggest to me that her target audience is not gamers, or even the small percentage of gamers that are female: it is people who have no basis of knowledge for video games themselves, and thus cannot recognize how she cherry picks and misrepresents things.
The stuff I've seen reminds me oddly, in certain senses, of the "Harry Potter promotes Satanism" crowd. Which have a similar approach to engaging with the source material :-/
Things not to do: Go to KFC for an early lunch/late breakfast. I feel like my stomach is a bulging bag full of grease and I didn't even have much.
Was not actually needed for jury duty. Won't be eligible for another six months.
Sadness. I was really interested in seeing how it worked. :\
I got called for jury duty at the beginning of this summer. Called their robot-number, turned out I wasn't on the list. Oh well.
It would be interesting to do.
Losing more good people at work. Manager continues to be incompetent.
Not sure what to do, since I haven't even heard hints of replacing the bad/corrupt folk who are destroying engineering.
Ugh. I don't want to hunt for another job....
Too much of my day lately involves lines of people following me around for a few seconds of my attention.
At least one of them was easy.
"Yeah, so we'd rather that new server not go live today at Reasonable Hour in the Afternoon. How about SuperLate? or better yet, Sunday!"
"Fuck you. I'm not working Sunday to change out a DB server. Server swap starts in 1 hour."
Grieving for a loss. It sucks. :(
Condolences, 007. Hang in there.
They're killing off Winamp. Son of a bitch.
Nooooooo! The only music program I've ever tried that wasn't slow, bloated, and/or adware-driven!
*hugs his Winamp Classic*
Someone racked a 4U server holding 36 HDDs (net weight: 50kilos) with the box-mounted rails reversed, which caused one of the rails to pop out when it was extended to have a new card installed. It almost fell, but the tech doing the work managed to wrestle it back in.
We don't know who originally racked it, because it was some time ago, but basically, I now have to pull every unit out of around 20 racks and verify that the rails are installed correctly ... and since almost all of them are powered on and in use, that's probably going to by my entire thanksgiving vacation, since that's the nearest planned lab shutdown.
Also, heating/AC will be off while I'm doing it ... alone.
I feel remarkably sanguine about this.
Quote from: Brian on November 22, 2013, 02:23:07 PMI feel remarkably sanguine about this.
Speaking of blood, what part of California do you live in?
The Bay Area.
San D or San F?
San Diego has the audacity to claim a 'bay area' in California?
BRB, activating earthquake machine.
I only ask because I'll be in San Diego this weekend. Alas.
Trying to do banking/grocery shopping today. Looks like a 30 minute line at the bank so far. Wpn't be surprised if the groceries are worse. :¦
Needed to print some fairly important stuff. Luckily I got my printer up and running a couple of days ago, and tested it so that I know it works.
Why isn't it printing?
Trying looking for it, try sending multiple copies. Hell, try getting out my old laptop, which should have the drivers for the damn thing still on it. Nope, doesn't even show up.
Frustration grows. Then, a flashback. One time in university, I was experiencing the same problem.
Look at the back of the printer. USB cable receptor has ever-so-slightly come ajar. Put it fully back in.
Device recognized.
Now I'm not mad, just depressed.
Overnight Black Friday shifts suck. Split shifts suck even more.
Quote from: Anastasia on November 28, 2013, 11:23:41 PM
Overnight Black Friday shifts suck. Split shifts suck even more.
At least you're employed! :D
SO. BORED.
Really, that's one of the better complaints to have.
So, the incompetent manager has managed to demand enough extra (pointless) work added to a drive qual that a two week stackable (through parallelization) test is now a month-long effort. He also expects me to somehow get 10k$+ of equipment and to kick other people's test equipment out of the lab to make some things work.
In addition, I have to install some new hardware into the lab, and it ... sucks. As well as the fact that someone put out guide tape on the racks to show where the hardware went, and realized after we installed the second of three major servers that he actually wanted them installed with a rack unit of space between them to add room for initiators.
Which means that much of my work in the lab was pointless, as well as being backbreaking. YAY!
I'm seriously thinking of demanding that my title change become both official, and include a raise. :|
Do it, do it.
Got sick this past Monday it seems, was hoping to get through the rest of the year without catching something -_-
Bad manager is too stupid to deal with.
So frustrated.
My Little Pony seems to have gone completely off its meds this season.
Wait, maybe that's a good thing?
*ponders, is confused*
Today I learned that reading bad fanfics at work actually makes the day go slower.
Quote from: Yuthirin on December 11, 2013, 11:47:06 AM
Today I learned that reading bad fanfics at work actually makes the day go slower.
A terrifying thought: that means that, theoretically, if someone should write an
infinitely bad fanfic, it will actually
stop time and trap the unfortunate reader in
an eternal stasis of awfulness.
/me fears to click on ff.net links from now on.
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on December 11, 2013, 12:26:17 PM
Quote from: Yuthirin on December 11, 2013, 11:47:06 AM
Today I learned that reading bad fanfics at work actually makes the day go slower.
A terrifying thought: that means that, theoretically, if someone should write an infinitely bad fanfic, it will actually stop time and trap the unfortunate reader in an eternal stasis of awfulness.
/me fears to click on ff.net links from now on.
Further research supports this claim. I am three for three on random bad fics this morning. It's now been 9:28am for over an hour.
That really explains a lot.
I took my first phone call my job today, since training is almost over and they want to get us on the floor.
To say that it was a mess would likely be an understatement.
sigh
I'm hoping that on the optimistic side that after a phone call like the one I took, that there's literally nowhere to go other than up.
Support?
Yeah. Although not tech support, financial stuff, which is why I can't say much about the actual details of the call.
Support in any capacity is draining. :x
You'll get more used to it, though.
My grandmother passed away this morning.
I'm sorry to hear that, DY. :(
You have my condolences.
Condolences, man.
Sorry to hear that, DY.
Thanks everyone.
At a meeting today the bosses realized they had screwed things up and didn't plan adequately.
And from there they just start talking about how I can fix this by working through the weekend.
They don't say, "Hey, we need you to work through the weekend." They sure as hell don't ask.
They just assume.
Kind of pissed off about this.
Sorry to hear that, DY. My condolences.
Doing research on buying a car. Talk about a huge pain in the ass. I've narrowed it down to the Ford Escape or the Honda CR-V. For kicks, I'm checking out the Acura RDX, but that is out of my price range (frugality).
I am letting the dealers go after each other in a gladiatorial death match. That part is fun. But it's a lot of research.
Steaaam. Just sunk an hour into getting its offline mode to work that eventually came down to... Corrupt local config file.
Basically for this:
Offline mode saying "Could not connect to steam network" and saying there was a problem with the network connection (Whether it existed or not).
This file C:\program files(x86)\steam\userdata\<account>\config\localconfig.vdf file was corrupt/wouldn't update, so every time I went offline it didn't.
Glad I eventually found someone that had that problem and had jotted down the fix. Including another one just because.
Really, crappy error messaging steam :(
Jury duty.
Yay!
Excused from jury duty.
Yay!
Must report again tomorrow.
>:(
Apparently there was an enormous fire here.
Didn't notice.
*pushes the smoke out of the way*
At work at 10:00 PM. Probably going to be here until close to midnight.
Getting over a cold and still congested? Check. A sudden stomach bug on top of it? Check. A lack of sleep on account of those? Check. A long workshift ahead today? Check.
Fuuuuuuck.
Dooooooooooom!
DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Wife had jewelry stolen at a airport because she put it in her checked bag and not her carry on bag. Expensive lesson.
I've been lying on the bathroom floor at work for ten minutes now. Not sure when I'll decide to get up.
At least it's clean in here.
007.5: So, the TSA stole your stuff?
Tortle: You don't seem like a crack addict, so ... 'splain?
I am exhausted. This sinus infection is absolute murder.
Quote from: Ranma_007 on January 02, 2014, 10:24:09 AM
Wife had jewelry stolen at a airport because she put it in her checked bag and not her carry on bag. Expensive lesson.
That's terrible. Sorry to hear that :(
Got in touch with old college friend. Learned he'd been hit by a car in the last month since I chatted with him :\ Luckily it seems it shouldn't be any permanent damage after the surgery, and he's okay, but bleh :\
Damn drivers.
Assholes!
Manager
So
Bad
My universe is an endless vortex of anguish fueled by their stupidity.
The now daily migraines aren't helping.
Quote from: Brian on January 08, 2014, 06:05:57 PM
Manager
So
Bad
My universe is an endless vortex of anguish fueled by their stupidity.
The now daily migraines aren't helping.
Dude, get your resume together and go look for another job. You're fuckin' miserable there and have been for a long time. It obviously isn't getting any better.
Yeah, but I have a plan. Just need to hold out a little longer.
Quote from: Brian on January 02, 2014, 02:39:01 PM
007.5: So, the TSA stole your stuff?
Tortle: You don't seem like a crack addict, so ... 'splain?
No, it was the folks in the Dominican Republic. Punta Cana Airport. Watch your stuff if you go there.
Oh yeah. That's like going to Mexico. If you like your stuff, leave it at home.
"I AM A DEVOUT CHRISTIAN RABBLE RABBLE"
Insert nonsensical bible quote attributed to Jesus Christ.
Me: "Bro, that was an apostle. Jesus was dead by then."
Sometimes I hate being the Jew who knows the New Testament better than most Christians.
I sympathize completely.
My favorite thing is when someone says some variation of, "I follow the Bibke word for word."
And I go, "Okay, which one? There are over 230 versions of the Christian Bible currently in circulation in the English language."
I've had non-existant internet most of today. Kinda sucked for streaming music.
Bleh. Coming in to some of his old fics up. Was rereading motivation just on friday. :(
He'll be missed.
Had to stay at work for an extra 2 hours today, to bring the day to 11 hours long, for nothing to show for it but "welp you tried, have a good day".
On the flip side of that, I only have four hours scheduled this week. My bank account weeps.
That sucks, I am sorry. If it makes you feel any better (via schadenfreude?) I get paid salary, and I don't get to move my hours around at all.
The grass is always greener and all that. It's just more motivation to be ready to change positions or something. Thanks though.
Absolutely the best of luck on that. I am looking for a new job too.
Yeah, it's tough. I'm just a few months removed from a long-ass job hunt. It's murderous.
/me is still a fan of Salary, even though he sees the abuses.
I'd rather know I have X money each month then run into surprises there.
Not sure why, but I'm getting the vague sense of being haunted by Brian. If so, it is the most polite and reassuring haunting I have ever experienced, but normally I like to get through my day without having to question the ontological and metaphysical status of major experiences, along with my grip on reality.
I guess the question would be Why me? but that's actually fairly simple: in a sincere but in-hindsight-painfully-ironic choice of words, just a few days ago, I told him offhand that he'd be welcome to haunt me anytime, if it came to that. If the result is a product of my unconscious mind, my unconscious mind takes things curiously literally.
And effectively de-haunted. I think talking about this with people rather than stewing within myself was the right choice. :-/
You'd be shocked how often that is the right choice. I find that talking to people is a good way to get my thoughts in order.
Notably, I have a bad habit of doing the "YOU'RE A GENIUS" thing halfway through the conversation.
Humans, like most other primates, are social animals. While many of us do very well with low levels of interaction and are overwhelmed by high levels, it doesn't change that some level of interacting helps.
Glad you got a chance to talk about it. We all hit grief in different ways, but none of us are alone in it.
Bouncing back and forth between doing okay and barely functional the last few days. alternating between the two at the drop of a hat without any warning. Massive depressive episode is incoming, and it's like standing there watching a storm roll in when you have no way of getting out of the rain. Like "yup, this is gonna suck. Wonder how long it'll last this time?"
So the gods have apparently decided that in addition to recovering from pneumonia last week I would now be afflicted by some horrible stomach virus. Spent yesterday puking into a bucket and I've lost another two days worth of work I can't afford to lose. I wonder what I did to piss them off? >_<
Hang in there, Gate. It'll get better with time.
Speaking of that, I got the flu and then stomach flu combo around Christmas. I feel for you, that sucked beyond belief.
Getting ambushed by someone who wanted to vent about how much he hates the tool build system right before gym/lunch.
Missing gym after seriously not being able to politely convince him to write up his own crap for an hour.
Man, so very annoyed @_@
Getting back into gym after a break hurts. @_@
*will get running today*
One of these days I'll balance my desire to consume all things with a suitable schedule.
Girl scout cookies are around.
They are probably delicious still.
*stares at wallet and tries to hold off at a mere five boxes of tasty*
Man, I haven't had those in awhile. How much do they run these days?
Five a box. And a fist shaking.
*shakes fist*
Had a pounding headache all through the night. Went to sleep fine but I started dreaming I had a terrible headache and what do you know, I wake up to a terrible headache.
Clearing out through Brian's stuff sucks. Yeah, bitching about it.
Tonight will be cd cases and the boxes in the garage.
Yeah, that sort of thing just sucks. G'luck Drac.
Whole family is sick, and I can barely breathe through the sickness. What a pain.
Also, that sucks, Drac. Agree with Ana.
Sorry, Drac. That's rough.
On an unrelated note, I've discovered that Gmail has been filtering everything regarding fan fiction into my spam folder for MONTHS. No wonder it's been so quiet.
Yeah, Yuth. That happened to me a couple months back. apparently ff.net changed some of their formatting and it happened to everyone using gmail, I think.
Also, Hope you and your family get to feeling better, Ranma.
Quote from: Yuthirin on February 04, 2014, 08:44:43 PM
On an unrelated note, I've discovered that Gmail has been filtering everything regarding fan fiction into my spam folder for MONTHS. No wonder it's been so quiet.
But on the plus side, now you have a lot of fanfics to binge on?
Quote from: Merc on February 04, 2014, 09:42:38 PM
Quote from: Yuthirin on February 04, 2014, 08:44:43 PM
On an unrelated note, I've discovered that Gmail has been filtering everything regarding fan fiction into my spam folder for MONTHS. No wonder it's been so quiet.
But on the plus side, now you have a lot of fanfics to binge on?
My spam folder only has the last seven days. So...maybe? I dunno.
Cut my thumb bad on a broken plate last night. Can't play games or type with both hands for a few days since it's a nasty, deep cut. Blarghfuckle.
Getting a new router.
Having the wireless resolution on it be broken on day 0.
You know what's not fun? Urinary tract infection. It burrrrnsss.
Apparently my immune system is somewhat depressed after my recent illness. At least I have concentrated cranberry juice to drink. It's absolutely vile, (you are supposed to add water or juice to it) but usually clears it up pretty fast.
Cranberries are the devils balls
They are very good for your bladder, but yeah. I don't much care for cranberry juice.
Left my lunch on the bus this morning. Hope whoever finds it needed a meal I guess.
Bleh, that sucks. I'd offer ye a carrot, but they don't really go through the internet well.
Getting back into networking, feeling like I've basically had a chunk of my ramp-up time stolen from me. :(
hum.
I realize my wireless network card is bad, and the song and dance I went through with Asus is my fault, given long ago I knew this, and discounted it as pointless since the machine was always wired in anyway.
That's a bummer. How much is it going to cost to replace?
Eh, I'm not gonna replace it. I was only using it for testing purposes, to verify that the house wireless will still work.
Though it seems brian had a wireless usb thing in his laptop, so I suppose I could stick that in.
Sleep Zombie Dracos reporting for work or whatnot, unpleasant. Got rid of a lot of the ewaste today though. Tomorrow, UPS.
Quieter board.
Everything's cyclic. All you can do is post and try and get other people to post.
The power of cycles disappoints.
I demand flat-line squarewaves of doom.
Also donuts.
But I apparently have donuts. So nothing is wrong there.
Donuts help many things, so long as they aren't Crispy Creme.
Ah, politics. I donated a couple of times to a party.
As an end result, they are now emailing me upwards of ten times a day. I do care about helping support various political positions, but shit, I don't care to hear about it that often. Sure it all ends up in a politicalspam tab but sheesh.
Quote from: Anastasia on February 13, 2014, 02:45:20 PM
Donuts help many things, so long as they aren't Crispy Creme.
They were, which are inferior things, but better than nothing this morning.
I've been sick for almost a week and I want it to stooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooop.
I hope you feel better.
Man, today has started off rotten.
Woken up at 5 am by a falling speaker. Check my system and its gotten into matrix mode, so everything was checking off as busted. Spent like an hour and some figuring it out. Realize I didn't actually clean the bathroom rugs last night when I pull out the dried laundry and find just rags and the dinning room set. Attempt to remove other speaker, and damage the ceiling in doing so. Then have someone knock and hand me an envelope that appears to have my address, but not my name. Find out after accepting it that it's for someone down the road.
I wonder what's next. @_@
Quote from: Music-chan on February 14, 2014, 12:14:13 AM
I've been sick for almost a week and I want it to stooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooop.
Go use that amazing free health care Canada has that I keep hearing about.
Fuu, almost but not quite with setting up music server from home for office. Looks like traceroute fails somewhere at the local comcast office. Guess I get to figure out why the packets aren't quite getting all the way to my router.
Caught a fraudulent transaction on my credit card today. >.> So glad I found it quickly.
Off to another funeral and more goodbyes.
Wandered by the old breakfast place today. Knew it'd feel different going alone after so long but man it was hard. :(
Come back to work after vacation. Spent day proofreading research papers written by scientists who don't have English as their first language.
QuoteAccording to the analysis of bioinformatics, among the 79 differential genes of more than 2 times of differences, except for 3 genes were of unknown location, the other 76 differentially expressed genes distributed most in chromosomes, the most genes distributed in chromosome 1, containing 9 genes (11.3%); the rest were for chromosome 2, containing 7 genes (8.86%); no differentially expressed gene distributed in 4, 9, 20, Y chromosomes. 57 genes located in the long arm of chromosome, accounting for 72.2%; 19 genes located in the short arm of chromosome, accounting for 24.1%.
This paragraph is followed by a 20-cell by 2-cell Excel table written as a single sentence. And then followed by that same Excel table as an inserted table.
Shut up. Science demands it.
I've been on a massively unmotivated streak lately. I've spent a few days doing absolutely nothing but daydreaming. I have zero focus for any sort of work. Annoying.
Another local friend's family member was brought to the hospital during monday hangout. They later died. :( It's really that kind of year.
Wow Drac. It better pick up for you soon.
Well, apparently I just haven't been sick enough lately.
My brother, having noticed that I was actually starting to get back into a somewhat decent state of health, thoughtfully went out of his way to contract a strain of the cold that I haven't been exposed to yet. He then decided to share it with me, because hey, it's that time of year.
So now I have MORE coughing, sneezing, and congestion.
SO MUCH RAGE.
Thief comes out tomorrow, but I can't get it because I blew my money on a vacation.
Why not post some vacation pics?
Because I spent the weekend replacing the garage door opener.
Things that suck: Moving entire sheds at work.
Another yukata day. The animosity between me and flu viruses is both mutual and heartfelt. >_>
I'm good for evening shifts.
I spend the morning yelling at coworkers by email.
And then come in and continue.
/ShiftFailureYo.
This is a new thing to get used to. At least until I decide morning is better.
Damn snow.
Heard I have cavities.
But what really pisses me off today is on the way back, in the middle of a 4 lane city street, I see a jolt out of the corner of my eye and slam the breaks. Some woman had decided to break into a full run to try and beat my car and jaywalk the street (ignoring crosswalks at either end of the street, with pedastrian lights). Worse? With slightly better judgement, but not much, her husband and 2 8-year old kids were in the lane right nearby, having thought better of breaking into a run to accomplish their jaywalking before the 5 cars that stopped beside and behind me hit them. Then walked across anyway once everyone had come to a compete stop to avoid hitting these morons in the street.
Quote from: Ranma_007 on March 05, 2014, 02:44:24 PM
Damn snow.
As a former resident of Chicago, please let me say unto you, "
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!"
Heh. Yeah, the snow really sucked monkey balls this past winter. Plus we're getting more on Wednesday.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-03-01/news/chi-chicago-snow-records-20140301_1_snowfall-total-inches-snowiest
Laugh it up, Yuth. The curse of Chicago weather will find you, erelong.
Record Form Letter Recruiting:
"Hi Philip,
Hi Simon,"
I've had an ear ache for the past day and a half. Allergies have been kinda destroying me all week.
Bleh.
Today was kinda sucky.
Ran into:
Content assert before controller was initialized, blocking skipping.
A dialogue bug causing a crash at head down a path only I was going down.
A corrupt dialogue asset.
And then also save games having never worked for some time and nobody noticed.
At least tomorrow will be better. Right? Right?
After spending most of the week sick and away from work (already a not fun thing, and I burned more than half of my available PTO), I arrive back at the office today to find out that the big project, the one with most of the staff including myself...got suddenly cancelled, no warning whatsoever.
Blargh.
Stressful job aside, it was work that kept a good chunk of the staff doing stuff. Some part of me is thankful it's done, most of me is thinking "Aw fuck, time to update the resume."
Here's to worrying over what will come in the following weeks.
Good luck, Merc.
Damn it!!!!!!
Lots of cavities. Unpleasant. :(
I got judo-flipped by a treadmill at work. Yeah, it was that sort of night. Long story.
That sounds like a hell of a long story o_o
SR was down.
Is back now.
It is a long story. At least it wasn't serious.
On the flipside of knowing my job is secure for the time being after spending some time worrying about it...four good friends/co-workers were laid off today.
Ouch, that's always a punch in the gut :(
Layoffs and firings suck. Your industry seems more prone to them, or is that just me?
There's quite a few layoffs in EPC companies (contractor companies that go for engineering/procurement/construction contracts), yes.
Frequency also tends to depend on the size of the company. Big companies tend to pay better, but the turnover tends to be high. My company's decently big, and the department I'm in is fairly new, so they keep trying to expand it, but whenever contracts get lost, people invariably get laid off.
Grandfather passed away. My mom thankfully managed to head over to Peru on Friday, so she at least got to see him before he passed away, and it sounds like he passed away peacefully in his sleep as far as my dad knows. There's that at least, but still down about it.
Condolences. At least it sounds like y'all were expecting it.
Somewhat. Mom might have. I honestly didn't.
Condolences again. G'luck, Merc. Are you going down there for a funeral?
Unfortunately, no. My sister will be going though.
Not sure how -that- will work out because before my mom left, the two of them got into a big argument, and both are clearly still steamed at the other.
I'm hoping there's no drama, but frankly, I don't have it in me to play middleman over a funeral. They'll have to figure things out on their own.
Yeaaaah. Getting in the middle of females having an argument seldom goes well. Let alone when it's family. Best to stay out of it and let them work it out.
Pretty much.
Sorry to hear about that, Merc. My condolences.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Separately:
Fuck Ubisoft. It's Uplay has a cloud implementation that apparently does brilliant things like "Huh, the saves on disk don't match the ones in the cloud, I'll silently overwrite them and not say a word, because obviously the cloud saves are superior!"
So 50 hours of play gone. Oh well, Uninstalled. Pissed off at them. May rant a bit about the game, but frankly that was a shitty followup to an game crash.
Uplay is a very terrible piece of software.
Holy shit that is some absolute horse hockey.
Work on saturday, fixing sound bugs for not here sound guy. Yay.
Getting sick while pregnant is the worst thing in the world. I can't take any of my usual pain/sinus-relieving medications. I want to crawl under a rock and cry. But I still have to work. ARGLBLRGL.
Aren't there pregnancy approved alternatives? 'course, I imagine they aren't as effective.
Quote from: Anastasia on April 08, 2014, 11:19:00 PM
Aren't there pregnancy approved alternatives? 'course, I imagine they aren't as effective.
There is basically Tylenol. I can also take cough drops and use vic's vapor rub to help with congestion but that's about it. :\ I never really realized how much the sinus meds I normally take helped me out until I wasn't allowed to take them any more.
Ew. I know I depend on allergy medicine to function this time of year. I can't imagine going around in a haze of not having them.
GUYS I HAVE A PAPER CUT ON THE STRETCHY BIT OF SKIN BETWEEN MY MIDDLE AND RING FINGERS ON MY RIGHT HAND MY LIFE IS OVER
DON'T KEEP TOUCHING IT YOU'LL GET INFECTED AND THE INTERNET SAYS PEROXIDE IS BAD
Have you tried rubbing strawberry jam into it, Yuth?
Ah, sixty-degree weather. Spring has finally come to Chicago--
(http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m133/KLSymph/IMAG0123_zps7895ba2b.jpg)
Hail?! HAIL?!
And Imageshack now charges money for picture uploads, so I had to move to Photobucket.
I also blame this on Chicago weather.
Quote from: KLSymph on April 12, 2014, 01:53:03 PM
And Imageshack now charges money for picture uploads, so I had to move to Photobucket.
Try imgur, it's free once you make an account. And accounts are free, too.
I'd suggest moving to imgur. It's the best image site I've dealt with.
Quote from: KLSymph on April 12, 2014, 01:53:03 PM
I also blame this on Chicago weather.
It's supposed to snow tomorrow in Chicago. :(
Some KKK fuck head in Kansas kills three Jews and suddenly everyone at work thinks its a good idea to make their anti-Semite views public. What the fuck.
Dare I ask, Yuth? I mean really, what the fuck?
Two managers and a team lead are apparently white supremacists.
Well shit, that ain't good.
It's warm and humid here. It's like a reminder that the weather from now 'till October is going to be fucking miserable. I hate summer.
It snowed last night, went from near 70 degrees yesterday to about mid 30s high today. At least we broke the record for the most snowfall in a season. Yay?
So I get home from work and I'm all hungry. There's a serving of dinner left and it smells great. It's meatloaf and mashed potatoes and it just sounds perfect. So I put it into a bowl and head on to sit down. I put the bowl on a perfectly flat surface and a few moments later it flips over and dumps my food on the floor. I'd be more pissed off, but I'm utterly perplexed as to how it even happened in the first place.
What the fuck?
Arrgh, TTC blackout breakdown snafu *headdesk*. Not fun to head home at 9:30pm and find half the subway isn't running. And you are being pounced on the pitch-black streets by TV reporters eager to interview random passersby on the situation.
I very nearly ended up taking a taxi, and you'd have to drive me to extremes to even make me consider doing that.
I fought the Xbox One today.
It won.
Four casualties.
I now deem it a high level encounter.
Came off my bike last week - again. Two days in hospital, moderate concussion, sprained wrist, some pulled muscles and a bunch of abrasions and small lacerations.
But on the plus side, I'm okay and there's no long term damage.
I've gotten rid of the bike - one accident is unlucky, but two is a pattern. I'm kinda going to miss it, though.
Quote from: Rezantis on April 17, 2014, 07:56:55 AM
Came off my bike last week - again. Two days in hospital, moderate concussion, sprained wrist, some pulled muscles and a bunch of abrasions and small lacerations.
But on the plus side, I'm okay and there's no long term damage.
I've gotten rid of the bike - one accident is unlucky, but two is a pattern. I'm kinda going to miss it, though.
Motorcycle?
No getting yourself killed on a bike rez O_O
Yeaaah, motorcycles are shiny death traps.
Quote from: Anastasia on April 17, 2014, 03:01:13 PM
Yeaaah, motorcycles are shiny death traps.
...full of spiders! (http://www.cracked.com/article_19217_6-things-nobody-tells-you-about-owning-motorcycle.html)
Get well soon, Rezantis.
REZ DON'T DIE
Ahahahaha . . . everyone who saw my damage assumed motorbike!
Nope, just a normal bicycle. I totally suck. :(
I've seen people die on those. I've almost done so myself.
Quote from: Rezantis on April 21, 2014, 06:29:27 PM
Ahahahaha . . . everyone who saw my damage assumed motorbike!
Nope, just a normal bicycle. I totally suck. :(
Was asking because I went down on my motorcycle a few months ago myself.
Quote from: Rezantis on April 21, 2014, 06:29:27 PM
Ahahahaha . . . everyone who saw my damage assumed motorbike!
Nope, just a normal bicycle. I totally suck. :(
I got all of that out of my system when I was in grade school and university. I fell off....a lot. In really horrible ways sometimes. I kept at it though! Might be all the brain damage from not wearing a helmet though. XD
Got to see a pretty classic self-absorbed douche today. Making a left turn into oncoming traffic, while looking right, and being on a cell phone.
He was not juggling a kid with his other hand though.
It's now officially storm season. Boo.
Work ran until 10 pm.
It involved wonderous things like overloaded network infrastructure, mis-spec'ed hardware, and the real fun one: Unexpected automatic scheduled reboots. Seriously, a lovely time bomb to have been pushed this morning to hit anyone that didn't reboot today scheduled alongside a full team migration.
Why is John Walter Biles still allowed to write? WHY??
What did he do THIS time?
Mystara/MLP crossover.
Didn't he post that a while ago? I'm pretty sure someone did such an MLP crossover a while ago anyway.
/me facepalms.
MLP fandom freaks me out
Quote from: Yuthirin on April 27, 2014, 12:40:02 AM
MLP fandom freaks me out
Yeah, no argument there. At heart I don't really have anything against the show, but the fandom freaks me the fuck out.
A major portion of it is freaky, but some of it isn't that bad.
I've read some nice fanfics for it before and the show itself has some hilarious moments. Generally I stay the hell away because of the freaky though, so I miss out on some good fics.
And really, I haven't kept up with the show, so I don't even know who some of the characters that show up in fics are nowadays if it's not one of the main characters.
I won't question freakishness of Biles in any case.
I'm a complete mental zombie tonight. Can't focus.
Mrgle.
Should sleep more.
Kinda made a fool of myself the other day with unicode. Not that anyone knew, but bleh unicode.
Yeah, short sleep is one hell of a saboteur.
Slept...none hours last night. Went to work as a zombie. Hate having insomnia so much.
That's horrible. No sleep and work is a poisonous combo. At least you got through it, right?
Made it home, collapsed. Slept fourteen hours. Felt much better afterwards.
Quote from: Kaldrak on May 09, 2014, 04:05:39 AM
Made it home, collapsed. Slept fourteen hours. Felt much better afterwards.
Good. Nasty stuff all the same.
Fuck jellyfish.
They just made my list.
Ouch. Nothing good.
Yeah. Top of my left foot and ankle.
Ow. Yeah, jellyfish are assholes.
I pledge to become an extinction level event for them.
Come to Australia. Our jellyfish (actually, a small but significant fraction of our marine life) will fucking kill you as opposed to leaving you alive to bitch about it. :D
I know. I've been to Austraila.
Australia seems like a suburb of Hell every time I read about it. Scary!
Well, the next meeting of the council of six is there, so I'm sure you are right :)
Think I'm never going into the Southern Hemisphere after hearing that.
We need a Gathering in Aussie land.
We can all stalk Rez and Rat while we're there.
Be careful. I have a two year old, and she's about as dangerous as the rest of the wildlife.
Mmm, all this change and death is pretty stressful. I'm trying not to drop various things, but bleh. Kind of feel pushed toward giving a fence job toward two options that are the cheapest but won't do a stellar job for sure. Both by neighbors and just the reality of change.
Hmm, Gtalk isn't accessible this morning. Oh, now it is.
Yay communicative Power.
Boo reality. G'damn the new space is noisy.
A mee-tan was canceled. Hooray!
... later, it turns out mee-tan was canceled to make way for a full-day mega-mee-tan.
/me goes off to assemble a sentai team to battle the huge monstrosity.
Sorry to hear that Arakawa.
Quote from: Dracos on May 12, 2014, 02:48:25 PMHmm, Gtalk isn't accessible this morning. Oh, now it is.
Apparently they decided to update the hangout status indicators from thin, almost imperceptible bars to dots. All well and good, but they still don't have an indicator for "away, but logged in" instead of "logged out."
Really, Google?
Really?
Well, aside from being able to penetrate most 'no communicator' stuff, it's really got almost nothing going for it anymore.
Everything else is off limits at work, Drac?
Quote from: some guy on a threadI do want to clear something up for Arakawa though...
I may have it missed you stating it explicitly, but I gather that you are a Christian woman. If so, you are more rational minded than most (which is a compliment, by the way). But you need to understand that for men, sexual matters pretty much override any semblance of reason. Men can't simply choose to not "feel lust.
*grooooan*
I should
really stop getting into these kinds of flamewars.
(This was an argument over whether competitive swimwear is modest, or not.)
/me tilts head to the side.
How the hell did that get all the way to that? Do I even want to know?
What, is the guy suggesting that competitive swimsuits need to be more modest because otherwise, men will, inevitably and uncontrollably, have raging stiffies whenever they watch women's freestyle?
Quote from: Muphrid on May 13, 2014, 03:59:49 PM
What, is the guy suggesting that competitive swimsuits need to be more modest because otherwise, men will, inevitably and uncontrollably, have raging stiffies whenever they watch women's freestyle?
I'm not sure if explaining this in further detail is going to run up against 'no politics' rule. I posted enough of the quote to google for it if you're curious... you will probably be able to see how I inadvertently set myself up for the "you must be a woman" thing....
I mostly wanted to share the awkwardness of the latter part, which transcends all merely political concerns in its sheer awkwardness. And I still need to figure out how to respond to that.
Quoteyou will probably be able to see how I inadvertently set myself up for the "you must be a woman" thing....
I suppose on the bright side: I
do know how to write convincing female characters!
XD
Ahahahahahhahahaha.
Bright side to everything.
Had a horrible night at work last night. Utterly awful. Nothing went right.
Quote from: Anastasia on May 17, 2014, 02:44:04 PM
Had a horrible night at work last night. Utterly awful. Nothing went right.
Hate that. I pointed out a few issues with some of the systems at work to the people responsible and was graciously given the responsibility of handling them from now on. No good deed goes unpunished it seems.
That's pretty common :(
It's an excellent way that many MANY businesses convince employees to shut up, do what they're told, and not do anything else because seriously, observing problems gives more work.
Saw Godzilla.
Wow, not even good enough for a flame huh? :P
You want a more detailed review?
And by review I mean bullet point list of the many, many missteps this movie took.
Flame on~ But like in the review section or something so we don't spoil the poor folks that care :P
Or in spoiler tags. Whatever.
Quote from: thepanda on May 18, 2014, 09:44:43 AM
You want a more detailed review?
And by review I mean bullet point list of the many, many missteps this movie took.
Just watched it myself with a couple friends of mine who are huge Godzilla fans. I found the movie moderately amusing. One of my friends loved it and the other was more nitpicky about things. What was so bad about it? Bear in mind that I'm not really a Godzilla fan.
Let me start by saying I don't really care about the lore. I can even enjoy the Roland Emmerich version of Godzilla. My complaints are about how the movie is put together.
The pacing was terrible. Scenes are strung together in such a way that my jaw actually dropped by the leaps in logic the narrative had to take to string some of them together.
Especially with soldier guy in Japan after the kaiju broke out.
The score was bombastic to a fault. It is hard to build tension if you insist that
ever single thing requires blasting music. There are just too many points in the movie where cutting the music would benefit the storytelling. They seemed to be doing pretty well at the beginning of the movie, but after the above spoiler point they gave subtlety the middle finger.
The acting was bland. Except breaking-dad, who chewed scenery left and right. The only child actor they get emotion from is the first one.
Come to think on it, the bit before the time skip was handled well.
Anything they tried to explain with science made me shake my head.
Especially anything that had to do with radiation. Also didn't appreciated head Japanese science guy's sudden and inexplicable shift toward spiritualism. Wreaks of ethic stereotyping.
And was this movie white or what? Did anyone get more than two lines who wasn't white aside from Japanese main science guy, because I seriously cannot recall any at all.
The monster designs were drab. Is Hollywood is afraid of color or something? Like they got their idea of realism (in a giant monster movie!) from crappy video games. 'Needs more gray! Brown! Gray-brown!' Bright anything would have given that kaiju battle some much needed visual excitement.
And Godzilla and co apparently have a silencing charm or sep field or ninja training. I am convinced Godzilla has short range teleportation abilities in this movie.
I see what they were going for. There is the outline of a good movie here. And let's be real, it's still better than a lot of Godzilla movies. It just could have been so much better with some competent acting and pacing. But instead it was bland, which might actually be worse than a bad movie.
Also, how is Godzilla a background character in his own damned movie?
Quote from: thepanda on May 19, 2014, 10:24:16 AM
Also, how is Godzilla a background character in his own damned movie?
Blame the success of the transformers movies. Remember the stars of that? It sure wasn't the giant robots whose name is on the movie.
My friends were in the military. One of the things they found hilarious?
Hauling that mega nuke by hand. Seriously, those must be the strongest soldier's EVER and man did they move fast.
They did both agree that the military attitude was about right though, except
that admiral who obviously didn't give a damn about any of his ships, having them as a freaking escort for Godzilla. Seriously, they were way WAY too close to him and it was a miracle none of them got sunk when he changed direction.
I really enjoyed some of the visuals, such as
the HALO jump into the city where the giant monsters were fighting and the quarantine zone after fifteen years.
Basically I went in with no real expectations and didn't really take it seriously. I found it entertaining. Not as good as Cloverfield, but not a bad giant monster flick really.
I broke a parallel continuation with a notification event on an object creation inside the continuation.
By reading a bool.
Error: Function taking invalid parameters that fatal errors on invalid parameters.
But only on packaged builds. Not on the same code run through gamegui or visual studio.
Fuck that shit. I draw legend of crazy bugs.
Been feeling a bit poor lately. Blargh.
It happens. Try taking a 'me' weekend. Do some fun things and rest up.
Had a job review that was pretty much "You're awesome, but we've forgotten about promoting you". Kinda furious. They're looking into fixing it.
Saw Godzilla on Thursday evening, since friends wanted to see it.
I remember going "Argh" every 10-15 minutes because of something stupid.
A few of the more memorable ones:
This monster emits EMP...but our navy ships and remote cameras still work (sometimes).
The enemy eats radiation. We decided to store it in a nuclear waste facility.
We're airlifting a nuke, which the enemy is chasing. Since it's airlifted, we can go in any direction...but let's fly it THROUGH San Francisco.
There is a ridiculous amount of rain today. Flood warnings and tornado warnings and yadda yadda yadda. Ah well.
Quote from: Jason_Miao on May 24, 2014, 12:46:26 AM
Saw Godzilla on Thursday evening, since friends wanted to see it.
That movie was goddamn retarded.
Let me throw some other things out there.
- The nearest source of radiation to the Phillipines is apparently not-Fukushima
- WATER. DOES. NOT. FUCKING. WELL. FLOW. LIKE. THAT.
- Megaton nuke a couple miles off of San Francisco is A-Okay (I actually assumed the protagonist was dead after that nuke went off, because survival was inconceivable)
- Apparently everyone forgot that, like, most naval vessels are nuclear powered, not to mention that surely nuclear power plants would get a lot more attention than a bomb.
- That one building in Hawaii with the tsunami-proof windows (lucky!)
- They vivisected the giant monster and then . . . dumped it . . . intact and still alive . . . with a bunch of nuclear waste?
Honestly, I can't think of a scene without at least one jaw-droppingly moronic thing in it.
So I woke up after 5 hours of sleep and can't doze back off. Blarghfuckle.
I have nothing to complain about.
So you bitch about not bitching, eh?
Why do I propose things at work? Then I have to actually implement the proposals.
Workworkworkworkwork
Oh, and lately I've started having to coordinate with one of Those Guys. Not actually incompetent, but... you know the ones who think they know everything about your proposal and the ways it sucks, even before you've opened your mouth to start to actually explain it to them? You probably know the type.
He doesn't even actually need to care how I design my part of the thing. Just that I do it properly.
Edit:
Other person: "that constellation is Canis Major, not Minor...."
Me: "quit bikeshedding!"
Less than three hours of sleep last night. So...tired.
Hate having insomnia. Hate so much.
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on June 03, 2014, 12:22:55 AM
Other person: "that constellation is Canis Major, not Minor...."
Please tell me you paraphrased that and it's not a direct quote.
Quote from: Rezantis on June 07, 2014, 03:27:42 PM
Please tell me you paraphrased that and it's not a direct quote.
It's a My Little Pony reference that aptly captures the nature of all bikeshedding comments.
I recognised it. That's why I asked.
;-;
It's okay, Rez. You have a little girl. You have an excuse! =p
I know every single goddamn word of Let It Go and Do You Wanna Build A Snowman as well. X_x
Ah, but can you join in to collect ice with a Frozen Heart?
No shame in being a parent dude :)
Ah, E3 broadcasting loudly right over my desk. So 'awesome'.
Let It Go sounds like Nietzsche's philosophy distilled for Disney Princesses.
(Have listened to the song, haven't seen the movie.)
I know -most- of Frozen Heart, too. x_X
Also, joke's on you Seijyo, Elsa is a disney princess who is actually a queen!
Quote from: Rezantis on June 09, 2014, 09:24:10 PM
Elsa is a disney princess who is actually a queen!
... and yet she's still clearly a Disney Princess. :-P
Kind of like how Cinderella is still a Disney Princess even when she's an unofficial housemaid.
I am an angry person today, for some reason. Not good.
*takes a chill pill*
I feel the same, except replace anger with general aches and pains. Odd, since I haven't worked since Saturday night.
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on June 09, 2014, 11:02:07 PM
I am an angry person today, for some reason. Not good.
*takes a chill pill*
Take a chill strip instead. put it on your tongue, let it dissolve, Chill...
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on June 09, 2014, 11:02:07 PM
I am an angry person today, for some reason. Not good.
*takes a chill pill*
(http://www.comicbookkid.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/tumblr_m9czzqP0J71qiiqedo3_500.gif)
... another one of my online friends / acquaintances / whoever has posted erratic-sounding messages about untimely death and stuff and went into radio silence.
I hope to God not, but even though he's probably all right (mostly), I will now still be waiting a day or so to be certain.
*can't take much more of other people's problems*
:(
Quote from: Dracos on June 10, 2014, 12:59:18 PM
:(
Okay, guy is not dead, was just angsting.
:( -> upgraded to -> :/
Glad to hear it.
Not dead is almost always better than dead.
Quote from: Yuthirin on June 10, 2014, 02:51:23 PM
Not dead is almost always better than dead.
http://crimemagazine.com/images/Adolf-Hitler.jpg (http://crimemagazine.com/images/Adolf-Hitler.jpg)
Hyper linked because some may not want to see that mug.
I did say almost always.
Ants have gotten into my kitchen, apparently through a wall socket as far as I can tell. Possibly from under the stove as well, though it looks like the wall socket mostly (hopefully the ones under stove were coming from there).
"Interesting" thing... quarterly pest control just came by 2-3 weeks ago. Why the fuck do I have ants coming out of my walls?
I had just vacuumed house this weekend too, have to do it all over again to clear out any ant trails and generally clean kitchen up.
Dude. Ants are freaking everywhere. I'm not surprised that they came back. I get a few ants in my home too. in the second floor bathroom.
A few ants getting in is understandable. This was an INVASION FORCE.
Luckily, I'm bigger. And better equipped.
Good luck to you Merc. May your battle with the insectoid menace be swift and decisive.
Me, I keep getting ants in the dry cat food I leave out for the kitties. Annoying.
Good luck, Merc. That sucks.
*lays out bacon, seasoning, filet mignon, heats up grill, sets up oven... reaches for toothpicks and finds they have vanished from his kitchen*
*blames roommate and grumbles*
A girl is apparently really attracted to me... I smell a trap....
*several days later*
Yep, I give her what amounts to :-/ face and she breaks down and admits to having been in therapy for borderline personality disorder.
...That's... Okay, I don't know what to say about that. Maybe Sympathy? I've had therapy for some emotional breakdowns before....
I'm enraged by my lack of financial freedom.
I'm also *silently* frustrated at how long it's taking to get some of the stuff I'm working on into the project. QR is good, as long as it's happening and things aren't just jammed in at the top of the pipeline.
Quote from: Rukatin on June 11, 2014, 08:07:09 AM
...That's... Okay, I don't know what to say about that. Maybe Sympathy? I've had therapy for some emotional breakdowns before....
Sympathy does seem to be the right thing, but I'd be less hesitant about actually offering it if she weren't apparently trying to seduce me. Or merely dissect the deepest, darkest corners of my psyche for the sheer amusement of the thing, which would be exactly as bad.
Either way, I need to figure out how to interact in a way that doesn't draw me deep into her emotional drama. Or if that's impossible and I should just not worry about being objectively inconsiderate, and cut her off as thoroughly bad news, or at least a person whose eccentricities I'm not strong enough to handle.
Quote from: Arakawa Seijio on June 11, 2014, 01:52:47 AM
A girl is apparently really attracted to me... I smell a trap....
*several days later*
Yep, I give her what amounts to :-/ face and she breaks down and admits to having been in therapy for borderline personality disorder.
This is why I make a habit of avoiding relationships. Too much dramaaaaaaa
Nothing like falling asleep way early and wrecking your sleep cycle. Bleh.
I can relate, believe me. Did the same thing and then woke up at 3am today. Aren't we a pair? =p
Make that a trio.
It's the three dream stooges. :)
AGH, THE DAYSTAR.
A single spring I replaced in one of my rifles after cleaning wound up damaged because the manual was shit and unclear. I now have a $1500 paperweight, for which some parts are on 60-90 day back order. I have no idea if the spring I need is on that list.
It was only my second time shooting this rifle. I am... Displeased.
I have started Summer school, to gain back credits from three classes I failed. First up, Citizenship. They hand me a folder of folders containing all the work I need to make up. IT'S A INCH THINK.
Why was I such an Idiot ?
Sucky Iddy.
Rukatin: Well... Sometimes work beats the idiot out of you? Good luck with it.
THINGS I LEARNED YESTERDAY
A Chronological Account
10:00 am) Chewy Chips Ahoy cookies for breakfast are AMAZING
12:00 pm) Reese's Peanut Butter Oreos with milk for lunch are AMAZEBALLS
02:00 pm) Hot sun feels good. Should help me shake this nagging headache!
04:00 pm) Making crab & lobster-stuffed salmon fillets for dinner! Life is AWESOME!
06:00 pm) I have mild indigestion.
08:00 pm) IT'S NOT MILD!!
02:30 am) Please kill me I just want to sleep.
04:15 am) WE ARE OUT OF PEPTO
06:00 am) zzzzzz
06:45 am) WELP TIME FOR WORK
This has been a Turtle Time Production. We hope that you have enjoyed the show.
Quote04:15 am) WE ARE OUT OF PEPTO
That's when you know there's no hope.
I drank the whole bottle
I should be dead.
How were those Reese's Oreos, anyway? I've been meaning to grab a box.
Pretty good actually.
Quote from: Yuthirin on June 21, 2014, 02:32:19 AM
Pretty good actually.
Wrong wrong wrong wrong WRONG WRONG! WRONG! NO POINTS FOR YOU!
I was sorely disappointed with them. I lay this at your feet, tortle.
I have been unproductive all day.
This is cause for celebration.
I was being sarcastic maybe?
Oooooh, okay. The joy of sarcasm not always translating well online.
Lawn-mowing and Gardening. SO MANY WEEDS.
Yesterday was not a very good work day.
Today is not really ending up better.
They changed the schedule at work. I went from a three day weekend to a two day weekend with a day off somewhere in the middle of the week. I'll be too tired to do anything the night before, and I can't do anything the night of because work in the morning.
Why did I go see the new Transformers movie? That is money, and more importantly time, that I will never get back.
Quote from: Grahf on June 28, 2014, 01:05:12 PM
Why did I go see the new Transformers movie? That is money, and more importantly time, that I will never get back.
Hope springs eternal?
I don't see why it would have for anybody. My hope died after the first travest...err, 'film'. =p
So I'm not familiar with Transformers at all. What's so bad about this movie?
Quote from: Yulia on June 30, 2014, 08:23:41 PM
So I'm not familiar with Transformers at all. What's so bad about this movie?
When I want to contemplate the badness of Transformers, my mind jumps to that one scene in the first movie where the conversation jumps to the topic of masturbation for absolutely no reason, and then that cures me of wanting to contemplate the badness of Transformers.
That makes it sound like a bad teen comedy. I suspect that doesn't mesh with transforming robots.
Quote from: Anastasia on June 30, 2014, 08:55:57 PM
That makes it sound like a bad teen comedy. I suspect that doesn't mesh with transforming robots.
I've heard reviewers observing that the transforming robots have testicles. I wouldn't know, because to me it was all a mass of unparseable CGI gibberish on the screen, but I would not be surprised.
It's like if you went into the world depicted on
Idiocracy and that was what was playing on the screens in lieu of an action blockbuster.
This suddenly reminds me of Batman and Robin, and not in a good way.
All I remember of the transformers movie was when the silent robot decided to spill oil out of a valve set in its crotch all over the comedy relief villain.
Watching Transformers for me is like watching that scene again and again, forever.
...yep. That's...a thing.
Don't forget tweedle dee and tweedle dum the redneck transformer twins...
That sounds positively charming*.
*No, not really.
I watched the new Transformers movie in IMAX 3-D, and it was fun.
Watched The Conjuring. Not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, but SIX demons haunting a family. Point being, I didn't get any sleep last night.
At least you'll sleep good tonight?
That's a pretty tiny silver lining, though.
Quote from: Anastasia on July 02, 2014, 10:38:45 AM
At least you'll sleep good tonight?
That's a pretty tiny silver lining, though.
The solution was sporadic naps throughout the day.
Everything about Jamie Lee Curtis freaks me out on a fundamental level.
I look into FFML, and there is a fic by Fox.
Felix the Cat demonstrates proper response:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK6Ub6Zn-lM
The AC was broken at work. It was in the 90s with a heat index of well over 100. I work in a warehouse moving and stocking big ticket items like appliances and furniture.
/me whimpers.
That's horrible...and potentially unsafe in a warehouse. Any idea on when they're gonna fix it?
They're working on it. It's legit bad luck, no one's fault really.
The level that My dog is going to freak out tonight...
Something I heard on the radio, that I have tried and seems to work, is to have somewhat loud music playing in the house. It sort of dilutes the noise of the firework, which helps to keep the dog from freaking out as much.
Wish I had seen the post earlier, where this tip would have been of more help -.-;;
I allowed a bad call to be made. So now in addition to the normal late work, I will also probably need to come in gadawful early.
Blargh. Hate.
Also the subordinate that was supposed to manage the deployment ignored a lead asking it to be delayed, and didn't let me know, so there's an angry lead at our group too, bleh.
Hang in there, Drac. That's tough.
http://www.dilbert.com/fast/2012-11-28/ I remember these kinds of things. They totally never applied ever :P
Anyhow, stuff is all back online. Now on to normal work. Totally not staying late today. SLeeeeep.
*grumbles at microsoft*
Listen to our API signals, except when the sky is blue. And if it's not blue, then you better resolve everything then, but no declaring any problems.
God damn morons. I'm absolutely furious at interacting with their controller handling and especially their ridiculous bullshit setup that is built around basically "The Kinect annoyed people".
I have a new boss who doesn't really know our department and has their own ideas on how to do things. Naturally, this results in a lot more work for us. Argh.
Hopefully this is the sort of thing that fixes itself in due time. It usually is, everyone learns. The learning curve just sucks.
If it's anything like projects tend to be for me, as soon as everyone gets used to the new way of doing things, the old boss leaves for another company or he gets laid off or transferred to another project and they'll bring in someone new that has their own ideas.
So....good luck?
Quote from: Merc on July 11, 2014, 10:25:54 PM
If it's anything like projects tend to be for me, as soon as everyone gets used to the new way of doing things, the old boss leaves for another company or he gets laid off or transferred to another project and they'll bring in someone new that has their own ideas.
So....good luck?
I'd rather they just relax and let us do our jobs in peace. But if they wanted to transfer or get a nice new job somewhere else, that's cool too. I can't really wish for someone to get laid off, though.
So for the past while, I've been working with a couple of network engineers at the big problem of getting things to a point that can ship on the new platforms. They've been an awesome combination.
Engineer Senior by Two ranks to me: Continually commented her stuff all over the place with "// phil says: ". Not, "Here's what's going on here and why" but "I listened to your high level view on things, and then put that as the reason I did things, rather than commenting them with confidence that something is doing a certain job for a certain way". Currently on maternity leave until project is over.
Engineer Two Ranks Below me: Junior, but at least not troublesome.
Porting Engineer: Don't mind me, just every day I will fix one thing, and break two things. Thus having you confused at why things that worked a week ago are now a broken wreck. Currently on vacation for a month.
Now it's pretty much me and contracting engineer with 3 times my work experience to close out the project. I think it's the first time this project I'll be partnering with someone competent. Now if only I can finish ripping out all the stuff senior engineer did and replacing it with something that can ship.
Grawr.
Code such garbage.
I wasted my lazy day...being lazy. I'm not sure why I'm bitching about this.
Doesn't sound like you wasted it. Sounds like you did exactly what you wanted to do with it! Not sure why you're bitching about it either! =p
Quote from: Merc on July 14, 2014, 01:40:45 AM
Doesn't sound like you wasted it. Sounds like you did exactly what you wanted to do with it! Not sure why you're bitching about it either! =p
I'm not sure myself. It's just one of those things, I suppose.
Quote from: Anastasia on July 14, 2014, 01:09:31 AM
I wasted my lazy day...being lazy. I'm not sure why I'm bitching about this.
Careful now, you might just start sounding like a responsible member of society with that attitude!
Minion out sick. More work to my plate.
Tired and my shoulder's sore. Bleh.
There's something just a little depressing over being in involved in multiple cancelled projects in the past year.
Quote from: Merc on July 15, 2014, 01:08:11 PM
There's something just a little depressing over being in involved in multiple cancelled projects in the past year.
At least you're still getting paid, right?
There's that, yes.
The stuff I do at work is slowly being replaced by online options or outsourced to other departments. We've had duties taken away from us pretty steadily for the past couple years in an effort to 'streamline' the way we do things at the college where I work. Eventually, someone's going to notice that we aren't taking in much money or actually doing much of anything anymore. Due to working in a bureaucracy, this will likely take a while, but I fully expect to be out of a job within the next few years.
Quote from: Kaldrak on July 15, 2014, 11:56:00 PM
The stuff I do at work is slowly being replaced by online options or outsourced to other departments. We've had duties taken away from us pretty steadily for the past couple years in an effort to 'streamline' the way we do things at the college where I work. Eventually, someone's going to notice that we aren't taking in much money or actually doing much of anything anymore. Due to working in a bureaucracy, this will likely take a while, but I fully expect to be out of a job within the next few years.
That blows hardcore. Any chance you can transfer to another department?
I've been looking around. I don't really have the degrees necessary for most of the positions however. I work in the cashiers office at the college, taking tuition payments and selling parking, among other things. They're bringing in a new automated system where they're trying to get the students to pay for everything online and essentially streamline the cashier's office out of existence. I mean, it'll still be there, but it probably won't be open for very long and they'll likely reduce the number of people working there. I, as the part time employee, am likely to get dropped first. Heck, I'm not even part of the union due to not being full time.
I have a dentist's appointment today, and I know I haven't been taking good care of my teeth. Wish me luck.
Good news is, I don't have any cavities. but what I do have is a tooth covering thing that needs to be fixed before I do get a cavity.
Get all gold plated teeth!!!!
Still better than getting cavities. Those suck.
Quote from: Merc on July 16, 2014, 05:55:31 PM
Get all gold plated teeth!!!!
Who am I? Takarada?
I don't know.... ARE YOU?!?!?! 0_0
So sick I'm puking bile. :(
Damn, talk about something that hit me like a ton of bricks.
Quote from: Ranma_007 on July 17, 2014, 01:52:14 PM
So sick I'm puking bile. :(
Damn, talk about something that hit me like a ton of bricks.
That's the sort of sick that makes you just wanna curl up in a ball. Namely, sounds like the stomach flu.
Quote from: Merc on July 17, 2014, 01:22:25 PM
I don't know.... ARE YOU?!?!?! 0_0
http://i3.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/007/423/untitle.JPG
Busy week of work coming up. Bleh.
Very sleepy today. That's annoying.
Also finished arguing with cert team today.
"Our reqs are crazy because Kinect is a buggy piece of hardware."
What can you say to that?
Not much, honestly. Have fun with that one.
I got to talk to a manager about repeated off color comments made by a coworker, whom I have to deal with regularly cause he one of my project leads.
Three weeks in, what a good start.
Quote from: Ergoemos on July 22, 2014, 06:52:07 PM
I got to talk to a manager about repeated off color comments made by a coworker, whom I have to deal with regularly cause he one of my project leads.
Three weeks in, what a good start.
That blows. How bad are the comments, anyway?
Things that suck: Mowing the lawn in the heat and humidity. I can't wait for autumn.
I hate being drenched in sweat so much. Hell, I hate sweating period.
Quote from: Anastasia on July 24, 2014, 12:02:36 PM
Things that suck: Mowing the lawn in the heat and humidity. I can't wait for autumn.
I hate being drenched in sweat so much. Hell, I hate sweating period.
I'm a winter person myself.
Quote from: Rukatin on July 24, 2014, 01:02:04 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on July 24, 2014, 12:02:36 PM
Things that suck: Mowing the lawn in the heat and humidity. I can't wait for autumn.
I hate being drenched in sweat so much. Hell, I hate sweating period.
I'm a winter person myself.
Ditto. I'm comfortable in short sleeves when it's 20 degrees out. My family's from up around Chicago and apparently I take after them.
Quote from: Anastasia on July 24, 2014, 01:06:36 PM
Quote from: Rukatin on July 24, 2014, 01:02:04 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on July 24, 2014, 12:02:36 PM
Things that suck: Mowing the lawn in the heat and humidity. I can't wait for autumn.
I hate being drenched in sweat so much. Hell, I hate sweating period.
I'm a winter person myself.
I was born in Florida, but I've lived in Wisconsin for most of my life. It's all about Varied-Weather-Experiences.
Ditto. I'm comfortable in short sleeves when it's 20 degrees out. My family's from up around Chicago and apparently I take after them.
I have the distinct displeasure to live in the south. Which means humidity and heat run the show from May to September. I prefer colder climates, but alas. Ebiris mentions the weather in Scotland sometimes, and it always sounds so chilly and nice.
Bad storm hit yesterday. Drenching rain, high winds and hail. Blew through and knocked out power from 4pm last night to 9am today. Lots of tree branched hitting wires apparently. Some places still aren't back up.
I hate being without power. >_<
Quote from: Kaldrak on July 24, 2014, 11:59:16 PM
Bad storm hit yesterday. Drenching rain, high winds and hail. Blew through and knocked out power from 4pm last night to 9am today. Lots of tree branched hitting wires apparently. Some places still aren't back up.
I hate being without power. >_<
Ew, ew, ew, ew. Being without power in the summer is a special sort of misery.
Slamming my hand in a door car closing it. A long string of curses followed.
That sucks, Kaldrak.
Sitting at work feeling dizzy and nauseous. >.>
Brawl in the Family is ending.
Quote from: Dracos on July 25, 2014, 02:55:07 PM
That sucks, Kaldrak.
Thanks, but it got better. Now, the internal fan on my laptop dying on the other hand....
Sequence of decisions:
- I decide to make a large Paypal donation.
- Paypal decides to freeze my account.
Fascinatingly, while my account is frozen, it doesn't let me take money out of it (obviously), but I am still allowed to
deposit money into it from my bank account, if I so choose. I'm sure I will want to make use of that </snark>.
Ouch. I'd heard of paypal doing that to artists (and I think sex workers?). I hope you can get your money back.
Good luck. I've heard of it happening with larger amounts of money. Do your homework, research and keep on kicking.
I want to do so many things tonight, but I'm struggling to keep my eyes open. Bleh.
Quote from: Anastasia on July 29, 2014, 11:55:50 PM
I want to do so many things tonight, but I'm struggling to keep my eyes open. Bleh.
There's a solution to that, it's called coffee.
Quote from: Rukatin on July 30, 2014, 03:47:16 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on July 29, 2014, 11:55:50 PM
I want to do so many things tonight, but I'm struggling to keep my eyes open. Bleh.
There's a solution to that, it's called coffee.
Never been able to stand coffee whatsoever. Nasty stuff.
Xbox Live Core ServicesLimited
Affected platforms:
Xbox One
Affected services:
Signing into Xbox Live
7/30/2014 4:50:51 PM CST
Guess I will find some other work to do aside from...say my job developing game stuff.
Man working against this platform stinks.
Bleh, something I ate is destroying me. I only ate salad today too @_@
Salad is inherently self-destructive. Only meat will heal you!
Some of the worst stomach upsets I've ever had have come from greens. It's rare, but when it happens, it's spectacular. G'luck, Drac.
Pepto is your friend.
Work is destroying me this week. I'm coming home, drifting off and sleeping 9-10 hours. No idea why, it hasn't been that bad a week.
Rest up. Might be a subtle bug hitting you.
Quote from: Dracos on July 31, 2014, 03:21:49 PM
Rest up. Might be a subtle bug hitting you.
Might be. I don't feel sick, but maybe I'm fighting off something minor.
Nothing like spending your Sunday being stomach sick. Bleh.
Hope you feel better soon. Stomach ills rate at just about my least favorite thing ever.
Yeah, it sucks the fun out of life. Fortunately, it passed and I'm human again. Yay.
And then I have a crappy night at work. Bleh.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 06, 2014, 12:14:54 AM
And then I have a crappy night at work. Bleh.
This again. This one's mostly my fault over a few stupid things, but still.
*pats*
Work is a mess.
You haven't lived until you've managed to give yourself a paper cut using a manila file folder (http://www.amazon.com/Smead-3-Cut-Folders-Letter-12143/dp/B00006IF1X/ref=sr_1_6?s=office-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1407609808&sr=1-6&keywords=file+folder).
/me has gained a level in Klutz.
Ow ow ow ow ow ow. That makes me whimper just to think about.
So, I heard Legend of Korra season 3 had overcome the BS-writing disease that plagued the last two seasons.
I heard WRONG.
(Oh well, it still has people telekinetically throwing rocks at one another.)
*eyes the last post message in the main board*
"Last post by Arakawa in Arakawa Seijio"
What an odd thing to name your post! =p
Quote from: Merc on August 10, 2014, 11:47:23 PM
*eyes the last post message in the main board*
"Last post by Arakawa in Arakawa Seijio"
What an odd thing to name your post! =p
The hell?
/me blames 1password autofill.
Now to figure out
why it decided to screw up like that before it decides to post my passwords on Facebook or something :P
=)
Ew. Scary stuff, 'specially since I use a similar program.
By the way, why'd you change your name to just Arakawa?
Getting into it with my neighbors. We are putting up a fence on our side of the property line. They want us to push it back 6-12 inches so they can get in on their side. Heck no. We have every right to put it on our property, on the property line. That's where fences go. It hurts resale value and basically if it's 50 bucks a square foot, we would be asked to give up thousands of dollars of property. No. Just no. So we had that discussion and we said no.
Sorry neighbors, you don't have a leg to stand on. The fence goes up.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 11, 2014, 12:25:05 AM
Ew. Scary stuff, 'specially since I use a similar program.
It makes me sad to drop the use a password manager, since the whole purpose of having it is so that I can wipe my cache whenever I close the browser, while only having one click to manually re-log-in to all of my accounts afterwards.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 11, 2014, 12:25:05 AM
By the way, why'd you change your name to just Arakawa?
I decided a while ago that imposing the lastname-firstname ordering scheme in English is actually kind of obnoxious (I used it to great annoyingness in my first fanfic (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6995057/1/Ten-Percent-Worth-Dying-For)), but only realized just now I could simply change my display name. I could have done firstname-lastname, but everyone else here uses a short name, and there are no other Arakawas around for me to be confused with, so *shrug*.
Quote from: Ranma_007 on August 11, 2014, 12:46:11 PM
Getting into it with my neighbors. We are putting up a fence on our side of the property line. They want us to push it back 6-12 inches so they can get in on their side. Heck no. We have every right to put it on our property, on the property line. That's where fences go. It hurts resale value and basically if it's 50 bucks a square foot, we would be asked to give up thousands of dollars of property. No. Just no. So we had that discussion and we said no.
Sorry neighbors, you don't have a leg to stand on. The fence goes up.
Fair enough. But what exactly do you mean by 'so they can get in on their side'? Like they want a gate there or a gap or something?
Quote from: Arakawa on August 11, 2014, 01:44:19 PMIt makes me sad to drop the use a password manager, since the whole purpose of having it is so that I can wipe my cache whenever I close the browser, while only having one click to manually re-log-in to all of my accounts afterwards.
You could try a different program instead? I've had good results with LastPass.
QuoteI decided a while ago that imposing the lastname-firstname ordering scheme in English is actually kind of obnoxious (I used it to great annoyingness in my first fanfic (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6995057/1/Ten-Percent-Worth-Dying-For)), but only realized just now I could simply change my display name. I could have done firstname-lastname, but everyone else here uses a short name, and there are no other Arakawas around for me to be confused with, so *shrug*.
It sort of is, if only because it's obviously foreign. I don't think it's indefensible if the situation would make it appropriate, and I don't think your name was ever obnoxious, but yeah.
I did not get the job. I am depressed.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 11, 2014, 01:47:18 PM
It sort of is, if only because it's obviously foreign. I don't think it's indefensible if the situation would make it appropriate, and I don't think your name was ever obnoxious, but yeah.
Yeah, it was more defensible as a nickname. It's blatantly obnoxious within a fic text, being just another form of Gratuitous Japanese. It's one thing to import Japanese for cultural realities like 'sensei'/'sempai' type honorifics that are cumbersome to render in pure English, another to import Japanese ordering for a concept (first & last names) that has an exact analogue in English and corresponding rules people expect to be followed.
Quote from: Rukatin on August 11, 2014, 08:16:56 PM
I did not get the job. I am depressed.
Sad but not uncommon. If 10 people apply to a job, 9 people get let down. Hang in there and try not to let it get to you.
Robin Williams is dead. :(
Quote from: Arakawa on August 11, 2014, 08:33:42 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on August 11, 2014, 01:47:18 PM
It sort of is, if only because it's obviously foreign. I don't think it's indefensible if the situation would make it appropriate, and I don't think your name was ever obnoxious, but yeah.
Yeah, it was more defensible as a nickname. It's blatantly obnoxious within a fic text, being just another form of Gratuitous Japanese. It's one thing to import Japanese for cultural realities like 'sensei'/'sempai' type honorifics that are cumbersome to render in pure English, another to import Japanese ordering for a concept (first & last names) that has an exact analogue in English and corresponding rules people expect to be followed.
Fair enough. I'm okay with it in a fic if it's consistent and makes sense within the confines of it. Like if the eastern style name order has an impact on the fic or otherwise has merit. I recall some fic or another ages ago that it actually mattered in.
Quote from: Yuthirin on August 11, 2014, 09:18:57 PM
Robin Williams is dead. :(
What a miserable, miserable bit of news.
A senseless, miserable tragedy.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 11, 2014, 09:25:02 PM
Quote from: Yuthirin on August 11, 2014, 09:18:57 PM
Robin Williams is dead. :(
What a miserable, miserable bit of news.
A senseless, miserable tragedy.
Terrible, really can't believe it.
Quote from: DY on August 11, 2014, 11:20:19 PMTerrible, really can't believe it.
Neither can I. It's one thing if he just died of natural causes. This is so pointless. He's a beloved man who could go to virtually any movie fan on the street and get heaps of praise. A bit of an effort could get him as much help as he could ever need.
Sigh.
I only just now realize Jennifer Diane Reitz is one of the main authors of those weirdly preachy Conversion Bureau fics that are infamous among people who read pony fanfiction.
That... explains a lot.
(Unicorn Jelly (http://unicornjelly.com/) is still pretty cool.)
Quote from: Arakawa on August 13, 2014, 04:45:30 PM
I only just now realize Jennifer Diane Reitz is one of the main authors of those weirdly preachy Conversion Bureau fics that are infamous among people who read pony fanfiction.
That... explains a lot.
(Unicorn Jelly (http://unicornjelly.com/) is still pretty cool.)
I can't explain how happy it makes me that I have no idea what that means.
Quote from: Yuthirin on August 13, 2014, 04:58:54 PM
I can't explain how happy it makes me that I have no idea what that means.
Let me fix that for you: OvershadowedByControversy (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OvershadowedByControversy).
Quote from: relevant quote
The My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfiction The Conversion Bureau and its numerous spinoffs are most well known for their misanthropy, Unfortunate Implications (least of which include the advocating of genocide), and the intense Flame Wars that often accompany these fics.
So at the risk of a whole lot of misery, what exactly -is- the conversion bureau, anyway?
The fight is long.
Matchmaking continues to tire.
I want to sleep a while.
Bloody matchmaking service.
Quote from: Dracos on August 13, 2014, 05:25:29 PM
The fight is long.
Matchmaking continues to tire.
I want to sleep a while.
Bloody matchmaking service.
So still having loads of fun at work, eh?
Looking for a girlfriend, Ko?
Quote from: Yuthirin on August 13, 2014, 05:48:18 PM
Looking for a girlfriend, Ko?
I'm somehow wary of this tangent. Like I'm being set up for something horrible.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 13, 2014, 05:21:51 PM
So at the risk of a whole lot of misery, what exactly -is- the conversion bureau, anyway?
For those who don't care, picture pony fanfiction written by a transsexual Skysaber. For those who do....
*takes deep breath*
So, from what I gather some guy Blaze came up with the basic idea. It had the whole 'ponies are superior master race' thing right from the outset, from what I gather. To wit, one fine day, a portal to Equestria appears in the ocean. There is an expanding zone of magic around Equestria which is poisonous to human life, so the only solution is to set up Conversion Bureaus that give you purple potion that turns you into a pony. Some humans accept the change, while others predictably respond by setting up terrorist groups. But the ponies are in the right! For as a bonus, the potion fixes the evilness of humanity, for humans are naturally evil warmongers, but turning them into ponies makes them nice and cuddly on the inside as well as the outside. This is the part that many humans reading the fics objected to as kind of preachy.
Then along came Jennifer Diane Reitz and put her own spin on that; part of which involves applying the Message with a sledgehammer where the original used an ordinary hammer.
Jennifer Diane Reitz is a Wiccan atheist singularitarian transsexual Internet crazyperson from San Francisco who has put together some interesting and imaginative science fiction; I mentioned Unicorn Jelly above, as a webcomic which starts out as apparently a vaguely-Japanese-medieval-D&D fantasy (meh), but then turns out to be a science fiction about humanity having been stranded in an alternate dimension with weird and very alien laws of physics. (Their planets coalesce as triangular flat-earth 'worldplates' in a Sierpinski pattern.) Some pretty scary dilemmas, at-least-entertainingly-dorky alternate-universe costumes and cultures, decent amount of
Neon Genesis Evangelion style mindscrew, except unlike
Neon Genesis Evangelion I can actually understand it by the end of the story. Good stuff.
So, the stories are imaginative, but the politics of it, good God... how can I explain it? While there are interesting character
ideas (just as with the setting), in lieu of development the characters themselves are frequently made to partake in Anvilicious morality tales about love and tolerance of sexual minorities. In the case of Ponies, this is a chance to preach about how humanity is evil and our evil ape biology is evil (but it's not our fault because our evil godless universe made us that way) and we are killing the Earth and along comes Celestia to save us all by turning us into ponies who are good, and love and tolerate. We have the Cardboard Fundamentalist arguing all day with Equally Cardboard Atheist but then they're turned into ponies and the Fundamentalist guy is magically cured of religion and they discover their repressed homosexual feelings for one another. I wish I was kidding. (see somewhere here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1868/27-ounces (http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1868/27-ounces))
I am not even touching the politics here; even assuming all of the ideological premises, if you read you will find those types of scenarios are just
fascinatingly bad in how they're put together, considered purely from a storytelling standpoint. (On the opposite end of the spectrum, I found myself annoyed at CS Lewis with
That Hideous Strength recently for somewhat similar reasons. i.e. it's just not good when whatever point the author wants to make ends up devouring what should first and foremost be a story.)
Rather than pony fics, this can also be explored by looking at one of JDR's comics, e.g. http://www.pasteldefender.com/040.html (http://www.pasteldefender.com/040.html). Or her advice to transsexuals (http://transsexual.org/cherish.html) and gender confused people. From all this I infer that, (a) coping with people brandishing knives at you, by going off and constructing an elaborate fantasy universe where you win, is a thing; and (b) between herself and a hostile universe JDR clearly has put up an impenetrable and ultimately counterproductive wall of self-esteem. For this results in reacting to many people with undisguised anger, with many people who provide constructive criticism on how to tell a better story getting brushed off while other people crawl out of the woodwork to provide much nastier destructive criticism (http://badwebcomicsarchive.blogspot.ca/2007/06/pastel-defender-heliotrope.html). Much, much headshakingly noisy drama.
And the Conversion Bureau stories of JDR have that same quality, with the ensuing drama multiplied by the fact that they're hosted on FimFiction with more idle eyeballs around bumping into it, whereas to care about an original fiction like Pastel Defender Heliotrope either way you'd actually have to seek out the author's website.
So, in summary: JDR writes/draws/produces fiction that alternates (more properly, 'veers wildly and unpredictably') between intriguingly inventive, and unusually Anvilicious, which is a combination that for me personally balances out to enjoyable but many other people seem to object to. I actually read some of the Conversion Bureau stuff on Fimfiction without realizing that this was the same author of Unicorn Jelly, and was wondering why I was having such a bad case of the
deja vu.
And come on, a person who can display a sense of irony like the following is not all bad:
Quote
(http://jenniverse.com/images/aerostatica%20my%20little%20ponifaloon%20sm.png)
"We welcome you to Aerostatica, with open tentacles and open sacs. Join us and float in peace and harmony. Just drink this, a mere three ounces of ponifaloonification serum, and you will live in love and joy as one of us."
I read that, blinked and realized I'd repressed whatever I read. Something about...you know what, nevermind. Thanks for the info. Gonna go do something mind rotting for a good while, make sure I got all of that out.
*Shudder*
Dear Christ.
Quote from: Yuthirin on August 13, 2014, 07:16:03 PM
Dear Christ.
That also works.
In seriousness, I read lines like:
QuoteIt had the whole 'ponies are superior master race' thing right from the outset, from what I gather.
QuoteJennifer Diane Reitz is a Wiccan atheist singularitarian transsexual Internet crazyperson from San Francisco who has put together some interesting and imaginative science fiction
My brain slips gears. I try and formulate an intelligent reply, but it's drowned in a tidal wave of the letters W, T and F.
Eh it takes all kinds.
I think for a nice unifying opinion, I'd like to say "fuck you" to the guy who came into my office celebrating the death of the "hippy no talent drugs addict godless comedian". His words summarized, not mine.
Wow.
You've got to be a pretty petty person to be that negatively worked up over someone you view as a comedian.
Quote from: Ergoemos on August 13, 2014, 10:29:08 PM
Eh it takes all kinds.
I think for a nice unifying opinion, I'd like to say "fuck you" to the guy who came into my office celebrating the death of the "hippy no talent drugs addict godless comedian". His words summarized, not mine.
"Godless" implies that this person is some variation of Christian. Catholicism specifically states that you should be forgiving of your neighbors. Celebrating the death of someone firstly, isn't very forgiving, and secondly, isn't very respectful to the family.
It seems he is a rather poor Christian, and small minded, petty people are never worth getting worked up over.
I say be content in that this person will likely be miserable in some facet of his life for as long as he lives, as he is too petty and small to ever move past anything, and dismiss his existence as much as you can.
If god does exist, I'm sure he/she/it has done the same.
You know what sucks? Being a good guy at work, always trying to help people out and when it comes down to it? The people you help leave you to hang when the situation is reversed. Ugh.
Some people will take advantage of your generosity. Be generous anyway.
(yeah, it sucks, man. Lamers.)
Quote from: Carthrat on August 15, 2014, 10:23:25 AM
Some people will take advantage of your generosity. Be generous anyway.
(yeah, it sucks, man. Lamers.)
Yeah. I feel better with a night of sleep, but man that was annoying.
SWell, I tried this 'sleep' thing everyone's been talking about. Doesn't seem to work for me...
Quote from: Rukatin on August 15, 2014, 11:49:43 AM
SWell, I tried this 'sleep' thing everyone's been talking about. Doesn't seem to work for me...
Ew. Nothing like insomnia to ruin an otherwise good day. It's a special annoyance to go through the day in a sleep fog.
Quote from: Ranma_007 on August 11, 2014, 12:46:11 PM
We have every right to put it on our property, on the property line. That's where fences go. It hurts resale value and basically if it's 50 bucks a square foot, we would be asked to give up thousands of dollars of property. No. Just no. So we had that discussion and we said no.
Not only that, in certain states that use adverse possession laws, putting a fence is considered to mark the property you're using. So if you did what they asked and left it for a number of years, it could be argued that you're voluntarily surrendering property to them.
(I don't know what your state or local laws are of course, so please treat this as just a sidebar comment on a online BBS rather than actual legal advice.)
Quote from: Anastasia on August 14, 2014, 11:40:48 PM
You know what sucks? Being a good guy at work, always trying to help people out and when it comes down to it? The people you help leave you to hang when the situation is reversed. Ugh.
After getting burned a few times like this, I have three rules:
* I have no expectation that any uncontractually based kindness I give will be repaid helps manage these sorts of expectations; if I'm going to be nice, it's for the sake of being nice.
* I will assist other people to do their work, but I will not do other people's work for them.
* Anyone that has my back gets put on a very short list of people that for whom I will sacrifice personal time to help.
Essentially, most people are ungrateful jerks, and very little will change that. Some people are not, and it's worth finding them.
Moving furniture. That has been my day.
Quote from: Jason_Miao on August 15, 2014, 02:36:03 PM
After getting burned a few times like this, I have three rules:
* I have no expectation that any uncontractually based kindness I give will be repaid helps manage these sorts of expectations; if I'm going to be nice, it's for the sake of being nice.
* I will assist other people to do their work, but I will not do other people's work for them.
* Anyone that has my back gets put on a very short list of people that for whom I will sacrifice personal time to help.
Essentially, most people are ungrateful jerks, and very little will change that. Some people are not, and it's worth finding them.
Yeah, sounds about right. I'm over it now at least. I'll keep those in mind for next time.
Quote from: Rukatin on August 16, 2014, 07:15:47 PM
Moving furniture. That has been my day.
Reminds me of my job. Advil's your friend.
I was unable to avoid the giant ball of angry radiation in the sky this weekend when I went to a Ren faire. The experience has left me a tad burnt.
Quote from: Kaldrak on August 18, 2014, 10:46:22 PM
I was unable to avoid the giant ball of angry radiation in the sky this weekend when I went to a Ren faire. The experience has left me a tad burnt.
Ooow. I burn really easily, so I feel you. I don't even tan, I go straight to lobster red.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 20, 2014, 12:33:01 AM
Quote from: Kaldrak on August 18, 2014, 10:46:22 PM
I was unable to avoid the giant ball of angry radiation in the sky this weekend when I went to a Ren faire. The experience has left me a tad burnt.
Ooow. I burn really easily, so I feel you. I don't even tan, I go straight to lobster red.
There was this one time I went canoeing and forgot to put sun screen on my thighs. By the end my whole right thigh was blistered.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 20, 2014, 12:33:01 AMOoow. I burn really easily, so I feel you. I don't even tan, I go straight to lobster red.
I prefer to stay inside and away from the radiation, but for some reason most people don't really look at things the way I do.
Quote from: Rukatin on August 20, 2014, 01:17:39 AMThere was this one time I went canoeing and forgot to put sun screen on my thighs. By the end my whole right thigh was blistered.
Ow. That just sounds awful. Worst sunburn I ever had was on my back when I was a kid. My dad introduced me to the wonder that is the Aloe Vera plant. Still pretty unpleasant though. Was peeling for days.
Getting woken up by sirens blows.
WHO NEEDS SLEEP ANYWAYS! ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU START SCHOOL IN A WEEK, WHICH YOU STILL HAVEN'T PREPARED FOR!
*Insert Explosion of frustration*
*pats*
Well, not the people at work :)
*bangs head against desk*
Stupid fucking insomnia.
You should, perhaps, see a doctor for that.
Earthquakes are silly, and get lots of panic about them, even when they're far away.
Quote from: Dracos on August 25, 2014, 12:07:49 AM
Earthquakes are silly, and get lots of panic about them, even when they're far away.
Yeah, I thought about doing a post asking 'are all Bay Area folks all right'? Then I thought about it and realized that, from what I knew, the Bay Area SR folks were nowhere near Napa valley.
The weirdest part was reading news stories trying to up the injury total, by counting how many folks injured themselves being careless cleaning up broken glass afterwards.
People who say men and women cannot, or shouldn't try to be friends, tick me off.
Quote from: Arakawa on August 28, 2014, 01:39:13 PM
People who say men and women cannot, or shouldn't try to be friends, tick me off.
What a strange sentiment. Is their reasoning along the lines that we can't be friends without wanting to sleep with one another? Cause I always figured that was an issue of self control.
Quote from: Kaldrak on August 29, 2014, 04:24:44 PM
What a strange sentiment. Is their reasoning along the lines that we can't be friends without wanting to sleep with one another? Cause I always figured that was an issue of self control.
More or less. Thus far I have encountered this kind of sentiment in Catholic (http://www.scifiwright.com/2014/08/an-unspoken-assumption/), Mormon (http://www.jrganymede.com/2012/10/26/the-only-platonic-friendships-are-with-plato/), and jackass (http://www.returnofkings.com/24101/its-impossible-for-women-and-men-to-be-friends)* flavours.
(* Warning: not kidding about the jackass-ness.)
Fear of flying really sucks :(
(Message sent from within a Jet Blue plane about to lift off)
Quote from: Ginrai on August 29, 2014, 08:45:17 PM
Fear of flying really sucks :(
(Message sent from within a Jet Blue plane about to lift off)
Nah, it's not the flying, it's the landings and takeoffs the get you.
You're a bit early Ginrai~ :)
Quote from: Arakawa on August 29, 2014, 07:13:19 PMMore or less. Thus far I have encountered this kind of sentiment in Catholic (http://www.scifiwright.com/2014/08/an-unspoken-assumption/), Mormon (http://www.jrganymede.com/2012/10/26/the-only-platonic-friendships-are-with-plato/), and jackass (http://www.returnofkings.com/24101/its-impossible-for-women-and-men-to-be-friends)* flavours.
(* Warning: not kidding about the jackass-ness.)
Wow...where do I even begin with this?
From the religious perspective, it seems to be all about avoiding the sin of lust...or maybe making statements about the general decline of society...or something along those lines. Regardless, the first two articles and the comments on them were very interesting to read.
The third article is nothing more than a horrible ball of misogyny and it links to one that's even worse. You definitely weren't kidding and it's no wonder these people tick you off.
Basically, what it looks like to me is that these people don't really understand what being someone's 'friend' actually is. You don't become friends with someone just for your own benefit. You become someone's friend because you like them and want to spend time with them. Hopefully the arrangement is mutually beneficial and it isn't all 'take' 'take' 'take'. People like that don't make good friends, regardless as to whether or not there are any sexual undertones to the relationship.
It's about companionship. Having someone to talk to and hang out with. Someone to share your hopes and dreams and time with. Reducing and limiting this possibility between the sexes to only 'I wanna bang that person or not' feels dehumanizing and does not account for the more complicated reality that we exist in.
Stressed out from my job. It's making it hard as hell to do anything in my free time, plus it's murdering my creativity.
School starts Tuesday. NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
If you mean high school, haw-haw.
If you mean college, I'm terribly jealous.
Quote from: Carthrat on September 01, 2014, 12:15:54 AM
If you mean high school, haw-haw.
If you mean college, I'm terribly jealous.
I daresay that you enjoyed your college years more than your high school years.
Sometimes you're waiting for a sign...and waiting...and waiting.
Waiting can be such a trial.
I have now encountered a second person on the Internet who thinks My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is cleverly disguised propaganda for National Socialism.
Quote from: Arakawa on September 01, 2014, 11:19:11 PM
I have now encountered a second person on the Internet who thinks My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is cleverly disguised propaganda for National Socialism.
I'd ask, but I suspect I really don't want to know.
Quote from: Anastasia on September 01, 2014, 11:21:03 PM
I'd ask, but I suspect I really don't want to know.
This time, you probably really don't.
I'm not sure at what point I started specializing in finding Internet strange people. Not the predictable kind of strange, but the kind of strange that you are genuinely surprised exist.
Quote from: Arakawa on September 01, 2014, 11:27:18 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on September 01, 2014, 11:21:03 PM
I'd ask, but I suspect I really don't want to know.
This time, you probably really don't.
I'm not sure at what point I started specializing in finding Internet strange people. Not the predictable kind of strange, but the kind of strange that you are genuinely surprised exist.
The world is a strange, scary place. Of that I have no doubt nor need no proof.
So if you're finding Nazi pony fans, what about communist pony fans?
Quote from: Anastasia on September 01, 2014, 11:39:44 PM
So if you're finding Nazi pony fans, what about communist pony fans?
Probably Jennifer Diane Reitz would count?
This has been a hectic week and it isn't even over. Labor day found me helping family all day, tuesday was schedule move up on stuff because they want things out by next tuesday, today i had a doctor's appointment as I was asked to meet with doctor early over my last lab results and this was the only day I could meet him before SR gathering. I entered doctor's office to find it FULL of patients. Someone screwed up bad with scheduling. I had a 2hr wait for a 10 minute visit.
On top of all that? Dogsitting for sister this week, I have all day training on thursday, and a dentist appointment on friday. Somehow, i still have to finish through the work resulting from tuesday.
Most importantly, i am fucking STARVING due to wait at doctor's just now.
HOLY SHIT I HAVE A KIDNEY STONE
Quote from: Yuthirin on September 07, 2014, 06:39:05 PM
HOLY SHIT I HAVE A KIDNEY STONE
That implies so much misery in so few words.
Having had those before, my condolences, Yuth.
A coworker of mine has taken it upon herself to watch what I do and order me around as well as make comments on my performance when I'm super stressed out and really busy. The smug, superior tone of her voice and the fact that she is both older than me and full time, while I am part time, aggravate me to no end. She is not my supervisor and it is not her place to dictate what I do at work, yet the imbalance between us makes me feel as if I cannot voice complaints about her conduct without sounding petty and whiny.
I feel that homicide is a justified response in this scenario.
Murder is the best solution as always.
Murder is never the best solution.
There's far too much paper work involved.
I am always of the opinion that you should avoid murder when the judicious use of viciously cruel practical jokes can get you so much further.
Quote from: Kaldrak on September 11, 2014, 12:13:35 AM
A coworker of mine has taken it upon herself to watch what I do and order me around as well as make comments on my performance when I'm super stressed out and really busy. The smug, superior tone of her voice and the fact that she is both older than me and full time, while I am part time, aggravate me to no end. She is not my supervisor and it is not her place to dictate what I do at work, yet the imbalance between us makes me feel as if I cannot voice complaints about her conduct without sounding petty and whiny.
I feel that homicide is a justified response in this scenario.
Not addressing the matter won't solve anything. Record the comments and/or conversations, either via audio or simply make notes, and raise the issue with your supervisor. Retain a copy of the meeting with your supervisor and if nothing is done, contact HR.
This may seem like an overreaction to what amounts to a smarmy mouth, but trust me, in any business/corporate environment, it's pretty much the only solid way to get anything to happen.
I had to do it quite often with PoCs and my people overseas. The notes and emails I kept and submitted were a significant factor in the removal of two finance directors, about a half-dozen smart mouth military PoCs, and about a dozen linguists.
Quote from: Iron Dragoon on September 11, 2014, 01:22:13 AMNot addressing the matter won't solve anything. Record the comments and/or conversations, either via audio or simply make notes, and raise the issue with your supervisor. Retain a copy of the meeting with your supervisor and if nothing is done, contact HR.
This may seem like an overreaction to what amounts to a smarmy mouth, but trust me, in any business/corporate environment, it's pretty much the only solid way to get anything to happen.
I had to do it quite often with PoCs and my people overseas. The notes and emails I kept and submitted were a significant factor in the removal of two finance directors, about a half-dozen smart mouth military PoCs, and about a dozen linguists.
Thanks for the advice. I've been a bit at a loss as to what to do. It's mostly been little things, for example our workstations are right next to each other and she's slowly infringed on my space over a long period of time now. I mean, I'm not there all the time or nearly as much as she is, but at one point I had reserved office supplies for my own use and now she views them all as hers, even though they are stored in the shared area between our workstations that I used to have for myself. I mean, I feel really stupid complaining over something so little and neither of us actually own the office supplies, but do I deserve not to have anything on hand just because I'm part time?
It's like I said, just little things, but the little things keep piling on top of each other. At this point I feel like she's watching me and she keeps making remarks about how I'm not working fast enough or annoyingly pointing out stuff I "should be taking care of". The obvious implication (implied by her tone of voice, comments, and body language when she interacts with me) is that I am a lazy bastard who's slowing everyone else down and who keeps leaving work for other people. I REALLY HATE THIS.
So far I've been trying to ignore her passive aggressive behavior, but that's not really helping matters. I mean, I can DO passive aggressive if I really have to, but it's so goddamn unprofessional. I have no desire to behave this way at work. I'm there to do my job and I do it well, even if I'm not quite as fast as my coworkers. I'm thinking of just straight up telling her off the next time she makes some comment about me, but I'm not sure that's a good idea. I may just be non-confrontational to a fault though.
Quote from: Kaldrak on September 11, 2014, 03:01:00 AM
So far I've been trying to ignore her passive aggressive behavior, but that's not really helping matters. I mean, I can DO passive aggressive if I really have to, but it's so goddamn unprofessional. I have no desire to behave this way at work. I'm there to do my job and I do it well, even if I'm not quite as fast as my coworkers. I'm thinking of just straight up telling her off the next time she makes some comment about me, but I'm not sure that's a good idea. I may just be non-confrontational to a fault though.
My sympathies. As someone who is also terribly non-confrontational, I know the feeling. I agree with Iron Dragoon's advice.
I suggest you observe to see if she acts similarly to anyone else who is part-time/less senior than she is. I can't imagine that, if she does this only to one person, that she doesn't have the same impact on others. Rarely have I seen a person be singularly aggravating to only one person at work and not annoy others as well. Generally, you shouldn't name any other names unless they ask to be, but saying that you aren't the only victim you have seen does merit better investigation.
Also, unless there is some extreme shortage of office supplies, she shouldn't be appropriating yours at all.
If you want a way to broach this with your supervisor, you could always ask to see if there is anything they have found wrong with your work, or if they expect you to be doing better. It would be an easy segue into how you have been getting concerned, given that your coworker is constantly depreciating the work you do, and that it has become distracting from your real work.
I have found that, as long as you are actually doing your job, directly asking the supervisor if there is more you should be doing tends to lead to kind reactions and dismissal of your concern, though I may have simply run into exceptions, rather than examples, of the norm.
Destiny was sold out at my local Gamestop before I could get a copy.
Re: Bad co-worker. Iddy's right, start documenting and investigating. Get things done so she backs off.
Quote from: Rukatin on September 11, 2014, 09:56:33 AM
Destiny was sold out at my local Gamestop before I could get a copy.
Can't you buy it digitally?
Quote from: Kaldrak on September 11, 2014, 03:01:00 AM
Thanks for the advice. I've been a bit at a loss as to what to do. It's mostly been little things, for example our workstations are right next to each other and she's slowly infringed on my space over a long period of time now. I mean, I'm not there all the time or nearly as much as she is, but at one point I had reserved office supplies for my own use and now she views them all as hers, even though they are stored in the shared area between our workstations that I used to have for myself. I mean, I feel really stupid complaining over something so little and neither of us actually own the office supplies, but do I deserve not to have anything on hand just because I'm part time?
If it's stressing you out to the point of not wanting to go to work, then it's not a little thing. Every big problem is just a series of smaller problems piled up. TBH, it sounds like she's not happy with her job, or that she got passed over for a promotion. I've seen behavior like you're describing in the military from people who've been told they don't have the leadership qualities to get promoted. Their reaction tends to be extreme and overbearing to publicly prove they do.
Which, ya know, only makes them look like an asshole.
Quote from: Kaldrak on September 11, 2014, 03:01:00 AM
It's like I said, just little things, but the little things keep piling on top of each other. At this point I feel like she's watching me and she keeps making remarks about how I'm not working fast enough or annoyingly pointing out stuff I "should be taking care of". The obvious implication (implied by her tone of voice, comments, and body language when she interacts with me) is that I am a lazy bastard who's slowing everyone else down and who keeps leaving work for other people. I REALLY HATE THIS.
Well, little things or not, they're distracting you from your job, and distracting her from her job, as well. She's not just slowing you down, but herself. From a supervisor's point of view, that's two people not working because of one person.
Further, if she doesn't have any offical position over you, she's got no place to be saying those things to you. Honestly, I would start making notes of the extra work she wants you to do, and then casually bring it up to your supervisor:
"Hey, <annoying woman> told me I needed to get this done today, but I couldn't get to it after I finished the work you assigned me. This is the list of what she said needed to get done, so it needs to get passed to the next shift so it can get finished on time." Sort of deal. Be professional about it, but again, if *you* dont' address it, it certainly won't get solved. Additionally, your supervisor is managing multiple people. Sometimes things fall through the cracks, and he/she may just not know there's an issue with her behavior. I'm willing to bet this woman is reserving her comments for when the supervisor isn't within earshot.
Quote from: Kaldrak on September 11, 2014, 03:01:00 AM
So far I've been trying to ignore her passive aggressive behavior, but that's not really helping matters. I mean, I can DO passive aggressive if I really have to, but it's so goddamn unprofessional. I have no desire to behave this way at work. I'm there to do my job and I do it well, even if I'm not quite as fast as my coworkers. I'm thinking of just straight up telling her off the next time she makes some comment about me, but I'm not sure that's a good idea. I may just be non-confrontational to a fault though.
Blowing up at her is absolutely the last thing you want to do. That will lead to a counseling for you, which will put you on a radar you don't want to be on. Having been a supervisor, people who lose their shit, no matter how justified, concern me more than people being assholes.
(Granted, I dealt with a work place that had free access to firearms, so my concerns are a little slanted.)
The best thing you can do is ask your supervisor for a meeting time and preface the conversation with, "I know these issues are mostly small and I hate making them seem like big things, but this is an issue that's been on-going for X months/weeks, and it's been *really* distracting me from my work. Her behavior is slowing me down, and I have no idea where this extra work is coming from, but it's keeping me from completing my assigned tasks."
It's concise and addresses the issues in a framework that'll make the supervisor realize that it's impacting work performance. It'll get attention. You just have to be ready to back it up, which is where the notes and lists I mentioned before come into play.
Quote from: Ergoemos on September 11, 2014, 06:42:03 AM
I suggest you observe to see if she acts similarly to anyone else who is part-time/less senior than she is. I can't imagine that, if she does this only to one person, that she doesn't have the same impact on others. Rarely have I seen a person be singularly aggravating to only one person at work and not annoy others as well. Generally, you shouldn't name any other names unless they ask to be, but saying that you aren't the only victim you have seen does merit better investigation.
This is a really good suggestion. If you can get examples of instances of her doing this to others, or others who agree her behavior is inappropriate, to back you up, then it turns into something that the supervisor *can't* ignore. Two people not getting along is a fairly minor thing, overall. Three, four, or five, ect., being impacted by it is a significantly different issue.
Quote from: Ergoemos on September 11, 2014, 06:42:03 AM
I have found that, as long as you are actually doing your job, directly asking the supervisor if there is more you should be doing tends to lead to kind reactions and dismissal of your concern, though I may have simply run into exceptions, rather than examples, of the norm.
Understand that people, in general, don't like confrontation at all. The vast majority of people will take a non-confrontational path if it's open. A quick mention of an issue is easy for someone to dismiss. If you bring up an issue with notes, lists, and witnesses, it becomes something they can't ignore. It's also a matter of workload. Sometimes supervisors just don't have time to deal with things that -seem- like petty problems, which is why you have frame it in a context that they can't ignore. Things like it slowing down the work of multiple people, or work not getting finished. Two people not liking each other doesn't matter to a supervisor for the most part; it's not their job to make every like each other. It *is* their job to make sure tasks get completed, and when you have proof that it isn't because one person is being an ass, then it's a situation they have to deal with.
And if they don't, well, that's what HR is for.
Also, I'm sure I'm not the only one who's dealt with this. Though this is sort of a convo. that should move to PM, input from others may offer you a path that you're more comfortable with. I'll admit my suggestions are a bit confrontational, but I'm used to working with military and former military people, and confrontational is just how things work for me.
Console player Dracos
I really should get around to reading Worm one of these days. The amount of fanfiction on the forums I go to about it is staggering.
Quote from: Rukatin on September 12, 2014, 09:57:08 AM
I really should get around to reading Worm one of these days. The amount of fanfiction on the forums I go to about it is staggering.
It's worth reading. As someone who doesn't think much of it, it's still an incredible effort that deserves a chance. All the fanfiction around it is just a plus.
Well now all that hard work was for nothing. Depression mode, activate!
Quote from: Rukatin on September 12, 2014, 03:09:59 PM
Well now all that hard work was for nothing. Depression mode, activate!
Sorry man, that does blow. I'll keep a slot open for you if your times line up better, it's the least I can do.
*pats* It wasn't for nothing! You learned about gestalt and starting a character at higher levels!
Folks broke into my house while I was at work last week. They shattered the back window, stole my tv, x box, and a bunch of games. On top of that, when they yanked the wires from my computer (they took the external hd but not the cords and I was using my tv as my monitor so they yanked those cords too) they fucked up my computer.
This is the second full reinstall this year. No back ups. Lost all my links again. I am not happy.
(fortunately, I was able to recover the external hd and my missing games. There must not have been enough of them to grab everything in one trip so they stuck a buck of my stuff in an abandoned house nearby to get later.) Filed a report but I doubt I'll be getting either my tv or my xbox back.
Quote from: thepanda on September 13, 2014, 09:12:05 PM
Folks broke into my house while I was at work last week. They shattered the back window, stole my tv, x box, and a bunch of games. On top of that, when they yanked the wires from my computer (they took the external hd but not the cords and I was using my tv as my monitor so they yanked those cords too) they fucked up my computer.
This is the second full reinstall this year. No back ups. Lost all my links again. I am not happy.
(fortunately, I was able to recover the external hd and my missing games. There must not have been enough of them to grab everything in one trip so they stuck a buck of my stuff in an abandoned house nearby to get later.) Filed a report but I doubt I'll be getting either my tv or my xbox back.
Condolences, Panda. Nothing sucks like a burglary. It's really an offensive at against your sense of security and well being.
I doubt you'll see your TV/Xbox either. Do you have insurance, at least?
No, unfortunately. My dad kept telling me to at least get renters insurance.
But did I listen?
Quote from: thepanda on September 13, 2014, 11:13:04 PM
No, unfortunately. My dad kept telling me to at least get renters insurance.
But did I listen?
Live and learn.
Do you live alone? There's a lot to be said about someone being at home at all times, namely that it makes burglaries a lot less likely.
You have my utmost sympathies, Panda. That truly shits.
Kaldrak:
Lot of good advice in the thread. Will note that it can vary on the supervisor. Some do recognize little pesterings drain people and that's enough to hold a conversation. Some are overworked or undertrained, and do need the added detail. Iddy is right, Job being Done is the most important thing for a supervisor to be keeping track of.
Thanks everyone. We'll see how it goes.
Peanut Tillman
FUCK
How's it shaking out, Kaldrak?
I have about three days of recorded incidents. Problematic coworker has gotten sick and that seems to have taken much of the snark out of her sails, so the past week has been peaceful for the most part. Not sure if I have enough to do anything with so I'll hold my peace for now.
That being said...
I've decided to reinterpret something in the overall situation. It's clear to me that my mere presence irritates my coworker. This means that she has granted me the power to aggravate her simply by showing up and doing my job! Ahh, revenge without effort. I can make her miserable without even trying, whereas she has to work to aggravate me. Perhaps I should not be enjoying this revelation as much as I am, but I never claimed to be a saint.
Quote from: Kaldrak on September 20, 2014, 03:34:40 AM
I have about three days of recorded incidents. Problematic coworker has gotten sick and that seems to have taken much of the snark out of her sails, so the past week has been peaceful for the most part. Not sure if I have enough to do anything with so I'll hold my peace for now.
That being said...
I've decided to reinterpret something in the overall situation. It's clear to me that my mere presence irritates my coworker. This means that she has granted me the power to aggravate her simply by showing up and doing my job! Ahh, revenge without effort. I can make her miserable without even trying, whereas she has to work to aggravate me. Perhaps I should not be enjoying this revelation as much as I am, but I never claimed to be a saint.
Hey, whatever gets you through the day. Glad to hear it's getting a little better.
Sunday night: "Man, I have a busy week ahead. Let's go to bed early so I'm rested for it."
Monday morning: "I slept 10 hours?! Great! But why is my throat sore and my head stuffed up?"
Nothing like a head cold to start the week.
Aye, Aye.
Still recovering from the plague I had all through the gathering.
There's nothing quite like coming down with a brutal cold right after having a wisdom tooth pulled.
I have this habit of finding something new to read, and looking it up on tv tropes. I then proceed to give myself spoilers, and that somehow removes the desire to read it. I did this with Worm and now I hate myself. Tv Tropes will Ruin your Life.
An old professor of mine analyzed demo syndrome to have similar problems. It satisified the sense of understanding of the approaching game and reduced considerably the desire to pay for it.
Sick, sick, sick, sick and sick. I hate colds.
"Hmm, I'll work hard to get game ready to go."
"Servers offline. Signin. Achievement. Invite. Matchmaking. Party."
"I will...twiddle my thumbs. Swear repeatedly."
I am running out of energy. I'm assuming that sometime in the next month or two, the baby will start to sleep more and thus allow me to sleep more but I am so tiiiiiiiiired right now. So tired.
You have my sympathy. Having ADHD means lack of sleep is always a possibility for me. Such as today, where I woke up an hour before my alarm, when only falling into a restless sleep a little after midnight. A.K.A. , less that 4 hours of sleep.
Working on saturday.
Being bugged by family to travel more to see them (Because two trips across the country this year for that isn't enough.)
Quote from: Dracos on September 27, 2014, 04:02:53 PM
Working on saturday.
Being bugged by family to travel more to see them (Because two trips across the country this year for that isn't enough.)
Sometimes there's not enough of you to go around, eh?
Horribly ill.
Function at work has ceased. Eating is difficult, as food intake makes me queasy. I have almost no energy. Feel weak and tired most of the day. Kind of dizzy when I get up and move around for too long. I wake up with terrible headaches.
I can only conclude that some vile microorganism has hijacked my body's systems for it's own nefarious purposes which are a mystery to me.
I view this latest affront to my sovereign dignity as captain of this biological ship with ill humor. The defenders must be rallied and the invaders expunged. Wish me luck my friends.
Wish me luck.
Quote from: Kaldrak on September 28, 2014, 09:38:01 PM
Horribly ill.
Function at work has ceased. Eating is difficult, as food intake makes me queasy. I have almost no energy. Feel weak and tired most of the day. Kind of dizzy when I get up and move around for too long. I wake up with terrible headaches.
I can only conclude that some vile microorganism has hijacked my body's systems for it's own nefarious purposes which are a mystery to me.
I view this latest affront to my sovereign dignity as captain of this biological ship with ill humor. The defenders must be rallied and the invaders expunged. Wish me luck my friends.
Wish me luck.
It's ebola.
Quote from: Kaldrak on September 28, 2014, 09:38:01 PM
Horribly ill.
Function at work has ceased. Eating is difficult, as food intake makes me queasy. I have almost no energy. Feel weak and tired most of the day. Kind of dizzy when I get up and move around for too long. I wake up with terrible headaches.
I can only conclude that some vile microorganism has hijacked my body's systems for it's own nefarious purposes which are a mystery to me.
I view this latest affront to my sovereign dignity as captain of this biological ship with ill humor. The defenders must be rallied and the invaders expunged. Wish me luck my friends.
Wish me luck.
God-speed and good luck.
It's also not Ebola.
Quote from: Anastasia on September 29, 2014, 09:20:49 AM
God-speed and good luck.
It's also not Ebola.
It's totally Ebola. Don't you watch TV?! IT'S ALL EBOLA!
Quote from: Iron Dragoon on September 29, 2014, 09:22:38 AM
Quote from: Anastasia on September 29, 2014, 09:20:49 AM
God-speed and good luck.
It's also not Ebola.
It's totally Ebola. Don't you watch TV?! IT'S ALL EBOLA!
I hate to break it to you, but TV lies.
Quote from: Anastasia on September 29, 2014, 09:23:21 AM
Quote from: Iron Dragoon on September 29, 2014, 09:22:38 AM
Quote from: Anastasia on September 29, 2014, 09:20:49 AM
God-speed and good luck.
It's also not Ebola.
It's totally Ebola. Don't you watch TV?! IT'S ALL EBOLA!
I hate to break it to you, but TV lies.
NNNnnoooOOooOooooO! What will I do for information?! Where will I go to have my opinions given to me now?!
Went out of town for a wedding. Had to schedule months in advance just to get the time off for it. I get there.
No wedding. They rescheduled it a week ago and nobody told me or my brother who, being in the military, also had to work get there.
I get back home from that disaster and find my door kicked in and all of my games, the wii and peripherals, and both 3ds have been stolen. I was still researching renters insurance from the last time.
Fuck.
Quote from: thepanda on September 29, 2014, 10:48:03 PM
Went out of town for a wedding. Had to schedule months in advance just to get the time off for it. I get there.
No wedding. They rescheduled it a week ago and nobody told me or my brother who, being in the military, also had to work get there.
I get back home from that disaster and find my door kicked in and all of my games, the wii and peripherals, and both 3ds have been stolen. I was still researching renters insurance from the last time.
Fuck.
Shit. Sorry man, sounds like it's time to move and yell at your friends. That's horrible.
I have absolutely tremendous sympathy for your situation.
As someone who has made almost the identical mistake.
Fuck robbers. :(
Double ouch, Panda. You've been having a shitty series of events this year. =/
In something way less important than Panda's crappy luck? I'm in a creative downturn all of a sudden. This past week has been totally dead for writing much of anything.
Mwaarrrrrgh.
I cannot stand having an unrelated meeting going on nearby with microphones while I'm trying to get various submit bugs done. @_@
Reality annoys me right now on multiple levels.
Oh my god Chase just pulled some bullshit out of its ass. I just, I can't even.
They waited a month after to tell me my scheduled payments were up, while I still have two more months worth to pay on my principle. So that's a month of interest added, plus I wont be able to pay the rest of the principle this month so throw another month on top of that. And you know this shit is going to show up on my credit score.
I swear, this year... this fucking year.
That sounds awful. I quit banking with Chase years ago. Originally I was with Washington Mutual and when Chase bought them out they swore up and down that they would render the same level of service to us that we had with WaMu. Of course that only lasted for a year or so and then we had to upgrade our accounts from the type we'd had to one of the more expensive ones and then I was unemployed for a while and Chase told me that for the privilege of me having MY money with THEIR bank, I either had to have a direct deposit of 500 a month or they would charge me ten bucks a month...for keeping what little money I had left with their bank. So, they couldn't tell me more clearly than if they'd shouted it that their policies are not friendly to poor people and I wasn't worth their time. Damnable liars. Could not quit fast enough after that.
Chase has long been on my 'you shouldn't do business with them' list. Sorry to hear that Panda.
A better bank or a credit union sounds like a slam dunk. This year, Panda. This year.
I changed to USAA and I have had *zero* problems of any kind.
I had one of my final parent/teacher conferences for High school. I'll graduate with minimum credit requirements, ...As long as I don't fail any of my classes. And then we talked about college. My plan was to wait a year before going back to school, work a job and get some money. They don't want me to do that instead just hop right in.
Quote from: Rukatin on October 09, 2014, 11:24:22 AM
I had one of my final parent/teacher conferences for High school. I'll graduate with minimum credit requirements, ...As long as I don't fail any of my classes. And then we talked about college. My plan was to wait a year before going back to school, work a job and get some money. They don't want me to do that instead just hop right in.
Either/or's okay if you can keep your determination to return to college. If you can't or you have parental pressure, it's likely better to just go along with that. If they're paying for it themselves, it's really best to be quiet and just go. College loans suck, and if you can avoid them it's awesome.
Quote from: Rukatin on October 09, 2014, 11:24:22 AM
I had one of my final parent/teacher conferences for High school. I'll graduate with minimum credit requirements, ...As long as I don't fail any of my classes. And then we talked about college. My plan was to wait a year before going back to school, work a job and get some money. They don't want me to do that instead just hop right in.
Yeah that whole "I'll just go work for a while and get some money" can backfire on you pretty badly if you're not careful.
I've spent almost ten years in retail/customer service since I left college. I make jack and I'm poor. If you've got a plan for getting a degree that'll get you into the higher income levels, you should probably go for it.
Frankly, if you're barely passing, college is unlikely to do you any big favors. Paid education is nothing to turn down, but keeping an eye on vocational training and or schools that are built along that is a wise choice.
Even if you want to go to college I'd say do the vocational school thing first. Two short years and you'll have a skill that you can use for life that keeps you out of the 'barely scraping by on minimum wage' hole so many of use find our way in. There's good money in heating and air-conditioning, refrigerator repair, ect.
I want to study geology. Iwas planning on going to a two year collage to rise my GPA, the going to UW Milwaukee for my 4 year
Quote from: Rukatin on October 09, 2014, 10:52:18 PM
I want to study geology. Iwas planning on going to a two year collage to rise my GPA, the going to UW Milwaukee for my 4 year
Not a bad idea, but take it from me, you want to keep that knowledge fresh. I'm having to take my final two math classes after a long break in college, and I had to drop both classes and find a tutor because I simply didn't remember enough of the foundation math to pass the classes.
Consider taking a few half-load semesters if you want a break and to work. It'll give you time to work and build money, keep that knowledge fresh, and may be a good compromise with your parents. Get those pain in the ass general education classes out of the way while you don't have a full load of courses pressing down you, get a bit of money in the pocket, and make your parents happy. Win, Win, Win.
Quote from: Iron Dragoon on October 10, 2014, 12:17:48 PM
Quote from: Rukatin on October 09, 2014, 10:52:18 PM
I want to study geology. Iwas planning on going to a two year collage to rise my GPA, the going to UW Milwaukee for my 4 year
Not a bad idea, but take it from me, you want to keep that knowledge fresh. I'm having to take my final two math classes after a long break in college, and I had to drop both classes and find a tutor because I simply didn't remember enough of the foundation math to pass the classes.
Consider taking a few half-load semesters if you want a break and to work. It'll give you time to work and build money, keep that knowledge fresh, and may be a good compromise with your parents. Get those pain in the ass general education classes out of the way while you don't have a full load of courses pressing down you, get a bit of money in the pocket, and make your parents happy. Win, Win, Win.
Yeah, the 2 year college is UW Waukesha, it does general education (which as I understand it, is just like high school classes) and if I do well in it, the credits I earn will transfer with me when I go to UW Milwaukee.
Also, if any of the technical colleges provided courses for a major in Geology, I would go there.
If all else fails, I'm going to try welding! (even though I BARELY passed my Electronics class. I never got the theory, my only saving grace that I was good at the hands on stuff.)
Meanwhile my parents for the past year in a half having been repeating the mantra of 'Get good grades and pass your classes OR ELSE' and I'm like http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ROqYlaZhErs/UrIk2FMOmkI/AAAAAAAAPYI/oIGowXco3q4/s1600/i-get-the-concept.gif
I hate back-up bowel movements.
What a wasted weekend, but at least I had fun.
Oh, and I work an extra day today due to a holiday sale. Boo.
extra pay at least?
That's something. On the other hand, the day off shuffle sucks.
Being short at work blows.
How tall are you? I'm about 5'8"-9"
Quote from: Rukatin on October 23, 2014, 09:10:41 AM
How tall are you? I'm about 5'8"-9"
About six feet tall, though that wasn't what I meant. I meant being short of people at work, since we lost one person recently and a couple are on vacation this week.
Oh. Sorry.
Quote from: Rukatin on October 23, 2014, 02:36:33 PM
Oh. Sorry.
It's cool. I got a laugh out of it, so it's all good.
*takes sunday off. Gets 5 s bugs. Blargh*
Woke up before my alarm and had a brief moment of panic because I mistook the 5 for a 6. Was already up, dressed, had made my lunch and was ready to wait for the bus before I realized my mistake.
Been tired, drained, creatively empty and altogether wiped out the last few weeks.
Quote from: Rukatin on November 11, 2014, 09:22:14 AM
Woke up before my alarm and had a brief moment of panic because I mistook the 5 for a 6. Was already up, dressed, had made my lunch and was ready to wait for the bus before I realized my mistake.
At least you had some time to kill in the morning? I think I did that once or twice myself, back in the day. Or at least fell asleep early enough to wake up early.
Wasn't there a web chat thing for this forum? I remember being on mibbit...
Quote from: Rukatin on November 15, 2014, 04:27:53 PM
Wasn't there a web chat thing for this forum? I remember being on mibbit...
irc.lunarnet.org
The main chat room is #soulriders and there's also #elysium for the games I run (that was the one you were in for that game I ran that didn't work out for you).
Quote from: Anastasia on November 15, 2014, 05:33:12 PM
Quote from: Rukatin on November 15, 2014, 04:27:53 PM
Wasn't there a web chat thing for this forum? I remember being on mibbit...
irc.lunarnet.org
The main chat room is #soulriders and there's also #elysium for the games I run (that was the one you were in for that game I ran that didn't work out for you).
Ah, thanks. Rings a bell now.
I was really sick. I figured out what was making me sick. It was the medication that was supposed to make me not-sick.
RRGH.
Quote from: Yuthirin on November 16, 2014, 09:29:45 PM
I was really sick. I figured out what was making me sick. It was the medication that was supposed to make me not-sick.
RRGH.
Catch 22!
Car trouble. :(
Bleh
Black Friday looms. Arghfuckle.
*buys your store on thanksgiving*
You are free. There is nothing to sell :P
Test.
fj
I have absolutely HAD it with people this week.
You know what the fun thing about working in a bureaucracy is? There are things that I cannot do. But explaining to people that there are things that I cannot do is apparently having a 'bad attitude' and then people complain about me to my supervisor or her boss, depending on how pissed off they are and how high they want to take it.
Most people are understanding when I explain these things and point them in the right direction, but ohhh no, not SOME people. Some people are apparently too thick to understand that when one person in a department can't help them, they send them to someone else in a different department who can. Seems simple enough right? But NOOOOO. These people are like, 'why can't you handle [problem] and I'm like, 'because I am literally incapable of doing that' and then whoop! Here come's the blank look again. The words are going in their ears, but there's no comprehension happening. And then they ask their question again. 'But why can't you handle this?'
My coworker (the one I like) has a saying for times like this: "It's hard being stupid." And these are people trying to go to college!
Or, OR they get angry with me for not being able to help them or for having a 'bad attitude'. Which of course I have, because I'm telling them something they don't want to hear and sending them bouncing from department to department trying to find someone to help them. I know this. I am as sympathetic as I can possibly be about this, but ye gods...sometimes I SEEETHE WITH RAGE.
And I kept making mistakes this week at work. First I fail to help Mr. 'bad attitude' guy who complains way over my head about me to the district office, who of course know who I am because I'm the only male working in my office, then I turn away some autistic guy because I don't have change for him (he regularly swings by and gets different denominations from us) so he goes ranging all over the campus searching for someone to give him change and there's blowback on us for not 'being there for the students.' I should've asked my coworkers, but they were busy, so I told him I didn't have what he wanted and directed him to an automated change machine. BIG MISTAKE. Concerned calls were made. Stern emails exchanged. Whoopsie daisy. My bad, so sorry everyone. Now my coworkers and boss are pissed at me.
After a long conversation with my supervisor yesterday on both of those issues, Mrs. 'Thinks I'm a lazy bastard' whom I work with just kept throwing things at me all day today. She and my other coworker routinely handle certain things, but my other coworker is out on vacation this week, so I'm stuck the high and mighty smartass lady. She decides that I'm obviously not working enough, so she decides to have me take care of something that I've never done before.
When I protested that I haven't done this and asked her how, she explained that you do it just like you 'always do'. I...I don't understand. I JUST SAID I'VE NEVER DONE THIS. What in the name of HELL is wrong with your brain? Do you not speak English? So, after she flat out refuses to run me through it and I check the giant manual of our procedures, only to find that it's not there, I call my supervisor and have her run me through it. Of course, they both say that I 'should know this already', which means...what?
WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE SAYING? How does telling me 'I should know this already' help anything? Is it some sort of insistence that reality is other than it is? Are they both just wanting to feel superior? I had to explain several times to both of them and then they just shook their heads at me in a 'boy aren't you intelligent' way.
I just love that phrase: You should already know this. Try it the next time someone asks you something. It's a fantastic way to make yourself feel superior, especially if you shake your head and sigh.
And then there were the emails, in which my supervisor explained things to me in a way that I would explain things to six year old. I know I've been asking questions, but I'm. Not. STUPID. And then I found out that my coworker forwards my emails to my supervisor, pointing out little errors that I'm STILL MAKING, mostly because I'm trying very hard to control my temper at this point. I know, I KNOW that she's complaining about me to my supervisor and...and there's almost no way I can recover from this easily. Now she's double checking my work, which is almost enough to make me want to kill something. Of course, the solution is to just do things CORRECTLY, but....
Oh, and then there are the new procedures that nobody bothers emailing me about and then it's my fault because I somehow didn't get the email, but no one believes me and I end up looking like a primo asshole for trying to do things the old way or for telling people we can't do something we can actually do now.
I...I hate this. I really, really hate my life sometimes.
Screw em all. I won't be doing this job forever. I'm not a carpet for you people to just walk all over. One day I won't be poor anymore. I won't be struggling every month just to pay my rent and buy food. I'll be able to afford to fly around the country and see people I care about that I haven't seen in YEARS.
One day I won't be in the GODDAMN SERVICE INDUSTRY.
I wish that day was today. God I'm tired of this....
Sounds like a day for deep breaths and lots of relaxation.
I feel ya, even if I only deal with service things some of the time at my job. Get a nice dinner, relax and put it out of mind.
dndtools.eu got coup de graced.
Quote from: Anastasia on November 20, 2014, 12:18:09 AM
Sounds like a day for deep breaths and lots of relaxation.
I feel ya, even if I only deal with service things some of the time at my job. Get a nice dinner, relax and put it out of mind.
Thank you for your kind words. My week got worse after that actually, but it's not important.
*waves at everyone*
Quote from: Kaldrak on November 25, 2014, 11:23:08 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on November 20, 2014, 12:18:09 AM
Sounds like a day for deep breaths and lots of relaxation.
I feel ya, even if I only deal with service things some of the time at my job. Get a nice dinner, relax and put it out of mind.
Thank you for your kind words. My week got worse after that actually, but it's not important.
*waves at everyone*
Ew. At least that week's over and done with, right?
Curse my weak will towards board games!
I was able to ignore the 'Black Friday' sales from Cool Stuff Inc. (http://www.coolstuffinc.com/) (it was atrociously crappy, so that was super easy) and Miniature Market (http://www.miniaturemarket.com/) (this one had good stuff, but I was able to resist all of the games I had interest towards).
Then I came onto CardHaus (http://www.cardhaus.com/)... where I just finished spending $220 on game stuff. @_@;
Note to self: Scan a few of these for Zun Tzu and run SR board game sessions again to justify expenditure.
Your links are messed up, Merc. Remove the quotation marks.
Fine, fine. Done. So bossy! =)
Quote from: Merc on November 26, 2014, 01:56:41 PM
Fine, fine. Done. So bossy! =)
Excuse me for fixing your mistakes, Mercury!
You didn't fix it! You just pointed it out! Lazy admin! =p
Quote from: Merc on November 26, 2014, 02:00:05 PM
You didn't fix it! You just pointed it out! Lazy admin! =p
I'm a global mod, not an administrator. You're not too good at this accuracy thing, are you, Mercury?
Nope!
Quote from: Anastasia on November 26, 2014, 03:09:37 AMEw. At least that week's over and done with, right?
Yes. That week is over and done with.
I don't have work this week, thankfully, so I can try to decompress. I approach next week with extreme wariness.
Oh, and I have nowhere to go and no one to spend Thanksgiving with so....
x_x
12 hour shift (6:30 am-pm) on Thanksgiving plus they're holding the pay checks hostage until 2 pm Friday. One assumes to keep people from coming in late from shopping.
Quote from: thepanda on November 26, 2014, 09:45:09 PM
12 hour shift (6:30 am-pm) on Thanksgiving plus they're holding the pay checks hostage until 2 pm Friday. One assumes to keep people from coming in late from shopping.
I feel you. I'm working 10 PM Thanksgiving day until 9 AM Friday, then I come back 5 PM to 10 PM Friday. I'm gonna be such a zombie by Friday evening.
Off I go. Wish me luck, this is gonna be a thing.
Good luck! Remember, all work and no play makes Dune a dull boy! Don't be going nuts or anything!
Same to you as well, Panda!
Did everyone survive their Black Friday experiences?
Quote from: Kaldrak on November 29, 2014, 04:25:20 PM
Did everyone survive their Black Friday experiences?
I did. I work tonight but it's a short shift, then I have a few days off. Working the overnight shift is surreal when you're already short on sleep.
I burned myself while trying to make karaage for the first time.
Do you like deep-fried food? Have you ever wanted to take some fresh from the oil and immediately put it into your mouth?
......Don't do that.
Quote from: KLSymph on November 30, 2014, 12:31:51 AM
I burned myself while trying to make karaage for the first time.
Do you like deep-fried food? Have you ever wanted to take some fresh from the oil and immediately put it into your mouth?
......Don't do that.
Yeaaaaaaaah, don't do that. That's a fine life lesson you learned there.
Also I bet that's a hell of a nasty burn.
I scorched the roof of my mouth. It actually didn't hurt quite that much at the time (but let's just say it's difficult to curse when you're juggling 350-degree food inside your mouth). The real annoyance is that your mouth becomes too sore to eat properly for days after.
Another life lesson: if you have 350-degree food in your mouth, it's probably socially acceptable to spit it out rather than juggling it in your mouth. Especially if you're alone while cooking it.
Wasn't one of my smarter days.
Quote from: KLSymph on November 30, 2014, 02:44:09 PM
I scorched the roof of my mouth. It actually didn't hurt quite that much at the time (but let's just say it's difficult to curse when you're juggling 350-degree food inside your mouth). The real annoyance is that your mouth becomes too sore to eat properly for days after.
Another life lesson: if you have 350-degree food in your mouth, it's probably socially acceptable to spit it out rather than juggling it in your mouth. Especially if you're alone while cooking it.
Wasn't one of my smarter days.
At least you have a reason to eat ice cream?
But wow yeah, life lessons learned by the bushel!
I burnt my finger tips in art metals today. Not with the torch, but with a bench grinder.
Stupid copper. Stupid heat conductivity.
I have about five dollars to my name until I get paid on the tenth. Fortunately, all expenses are taken care of, but it's always fun to look around at all the stuff I can't afford during these wonderful sales going on everywhere. >_<
Burned myself again. Soldering iron I didn't know was on.
Art metals is fun, but it's painful as well.
There's an out of stock game that originally sold for like $22 and typically can only be found for $50-80 nowadays. I had pretty much given hope of ever owning it for a realistic price. As I was browsing Kicktraq, it caught my eye that the title of that game was there! "Taluva: Deluxe Edition"!
Giddy, I go click on that, expecting a new game around $40-45 maybe since the original was $22 and this was a deluxe edition.
It looked really pretty and stuff! I was excited! I go to pledge! I see the price!
...Ninety fucking seven dollars?!?!? Jesus fuck! Forget that nonsense! >:-/
That game is nice and definitely fun, but it's not worth that freaking much, deluxe or not deluxe.
I honestly wish there was a non-deluxe version reprint, even with just wooden cubes or something for the buildings as an option, but that kickstarter is goddamn ridiculous.
One of the options is an addon for a $30 piece of blue cardboard paper! Thirty dollars! The hell kind of money do they think I'm made of?
It has sucked being sick. Just about over it though.
Merc is also made of Luigi's awesome stares. And Money.
A 100 dollar board game is pretty pushing the limit.
Work flies me interstate to meet new staff and go to LAN parties and expensive Italian restaurants!
So of course I come down with a cold.
Calling it a 'cold' understates it, though. It's more like the dreaded Japanese cold that completely incapacitates you.
Winter sucks, though it hasn't gotten as bad as last year yet my heating bill is still absurdly high >.>
Eye bleeding sucks. Fortunately it looks like it was caught early enough and stopped, but I've had a miserable, scary few days.
Oh man that's awful. Glad that you're fine!
So I got this new laptop, which is good and everything, I didn't expect it for my birthday...It's really nice, touchscreen and everything.
It just won't connect to my Fucking wifi.
Quote from: Rukatin on December 13, 2014, 08:57:47 PM
So I got this new laptop, which is good and everything, I didn't expect it for my birthday...It's really nice, touchscreen and everything.
It just won't connect to my Fucking wifi.
This might be an obvious thing you've already checked, but did you see if the wifi switch on the laptop is on? It might accidentally have been switched off.
Terrorists have taken over a chocolate shop in Sydney, and have 20 or so hostages. This is horrible.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/lindt-chocolat-cafe-hostage-drama-in-martin-place-sydney-20141215-1278cx.html
Uber attempted to exploit this by raising prices and directing more cabs into the city, but got smashed on social media and refunded everyone. Civic responsibility, what is it?
Geez, it's right next to parliament, a bunch of consulates, and the reserve bank.
That's some scary shit right there.
Here's some appropriately sober reporting on the topic.
https://twitter.com/nicchristensen/status/544340812448804864/photo/1
Twitter: When more than 180 characters or so is too much fucking trouble and depth.
Sorry, the twitter shows the image of a special-edition newspaper that's thrown out a hyperbolic opinion piece, which is what I'm actually referring to. Sometimes I say the opposite of what I mean and in a situation like this that is probably inappropriate.
Quote from: Carthrat on December 15, 2014, 12:32:47 AM
Sorry, the twitter shows the image of a special-edition newspaper that's thrown out a hyperbolic opinion piece, which is what I'm actually referring to. Sometimes I say the opposite of what I mean and in a situation like this that is probably inappropriate.
Oh, I know. I just wanted to complain about Twitter. Don't mind me, just going off on a pet peeve.
Three people escaped!
Apparently brainless assholes are mugging muslim women in the suburbs, in what might be retaliation.
Quote from: Kaldrak on December 14, 2014, 06:30:18 PM
Quote from: Rukatin on December 13, 2014, 08:57:47 PM
So I got this new laptop, which is good and everything, I didn't expect it for my birthday...It's really nice, touchscreen and everything.
It just won't connect to my Fucking wifi.
This might be an obvious thing you've already checked, but did you see if the wifi switch on the laptop is on? It might accidentally have been switched off.
Me and my brother tried everything. I'm think now it might be a hardware issue.
I hate headaches so much.
Headaches are a terrible thing. Headache medicine, when available and effective, is a gem of wisdom.
Goddamn Stomach flu.
Quote from: Rukatin on December 20, 2014, 11:55:24 AM
Goddamn Stomach flu.
I feel you on that one. Just about my least favorite thing ever.
Quote from: Rukatin on December 20, 2014, 11:55:24 AM
Goddamn Stomach flu.
On the bright side, at least you're hopefully getting it over with
before Christmas.
I remember waking up on Christmas Morning once with stomach flu; Santa must have been
extra pissed with me that year :-P
Quote from: Arakawa on December 20, 2014, 09:51:23 PM
Quote from: Rukatin on December 20, 2014, 11:55:24 AM
Goddamn Stomach flu.
On the bright side, at least you're hopefully getting it over with before Christmas.
I remember waking up on Christmas Morning once with stomach flu; Santa must have been extra pissed with me that year :-P
Nah, I was gifted it from my father.
Stomach flu is now in the house. Praying I don't get nailed with it.
Good luck.
Quote from: Rukatin on December 27, 2014, 03:36:14 AM
Good luck.
Thanks.
In other news, new boots at work=oowwwww. I hate breaking in new boots.
Urgle. I still have to work on the spammer problem.
The Redskins have yet another losing season with the playoffs nowhere in sight.
Quote from: Anastasia on December 28, 2014, 03:10:45 PM
The Redskins have yet another losing season with the playoffs nowhere in sight.
Go Packers...?
Quote from: Rukatin on December 29, 2014, 03:34:39 AM
Quote from: Anastasia on December 28, 2014, 03:10:45 PM
The Redskins have yet another losing season with the playoffs nowhere in sight.
Go Packers...?
/me whimpers.
Enjoy having a good football team. The opposite suuuuuucks.
Watching the Ravens beat the Steelers... damn, I love watching the Steelers lose (even though the game isn't over yet)
Quote from: Ranma_007 on January 03, 2015, 11:38:01 PM
Watching the Ravens beat the Steelers... damn, I love watching the Steelers lose (even though the game isn't over yet)
Aaand it's now a one score game.
Bed deflating under me as I sleep.
Yeah, 'fancy' air mattresses my ass. Man I'm tired @_@
Sick all day yesterday. Got nothing done.
Nothing like an upset stomach to ruin an evening's focus.
Back to School for me. Fun.
Quote from: Rukatin on January 05, 2015, 12:19:47 AM
Back to School for me. Fun.
It's your last half of high school and public schooling. Try and enjoy it, you'll look back fondly at it one day. Probably. Maybe.
Quote from: Anastasia on January 05, 2015, 12:21:19 AM
It's your last half of high school and public schooling. Try and enjoy it, you'll look back fondly at it one day. Probably. Maybe.
And on that note, I almost missed the bus this morning. Slipped and fell on my ass running to the next stop.
Ugh. I have so much backlog of fan fiction that regularly updated. I didn't read it because I didn't have a regular schedule over break to read them.
Quote from: Rukatin on January 05, 2015, 10:33:10 AM
Ugh. I have so much backlog of fan fiction that regularly updated. I didn't read it because I didn't have a regular schedule over break to read them.
Truly you live a difficult life, where good fanfiction just waits for you in great heaping piles.
The only backlog I had I knocked out today. Alas.
Well most of it is forum based and I like to read the comments. Plus I'm not particularly picky on what kind I like.
Ugh...where should I start. First, my computer caught a bug that kept popping up annoying adds, so I had to figure out how to remove for most of my free time. After downloading a new antivirus software and a cleaner thing, I was frustrated to find that it did not go away. I ended up having to un-and reinstall chrome to get rid of it completely.
Then I remembered I had a physics project due the day after I got back from break. So my other half of free time was spent constructing an Egg drop-thing from Popsicle sticks, plywood and hot glue. Many eggs were sacrificed.
Damn you, arctic blast! *shakes fist impotently*
Endless parking permit sales at the college where I work. Blech. I'll be happy when this week is over.
-20 out today. That's cold.
today: -30 (celsius)
:)
Today: Warm enough for a t-shirt.
>_>
<_<
*increasing bitching~*
Glad I'm not out in the frigid lands anymore. The whole airport was covered in snow on my way out.
Hate hate hate hate hate HATE allergies.
Two weeks until my last day working at my movie theater. I didn't quit or anything, it's just they're going to close and bulldoze it to put up office space. Something about sudden lease problems.
Tallying it up, I find I worked over 10,000 hours there over nearly 18 years. Spent months last year working overnight hours scraping and scrubbing and painting the floors, and now they're planning to just go in and break them up.
Eighteen years at one place?
That's Dannycat? Or am I misremembering the nick.
Either way, wow.
Yeah. I left my last job after 8 years and it sucked. I can't imagine how much it would after more than double that.
Quote from: Dracos on January 18, 2015, 03:47:26 PM
Eighteen years at one place?
That's Dannycat? Or am I misremembering the nick.
Either way, wow.
Well, it was seven years from 1997 to 2004, then time spent in Korea, then rehired for 2008 to present. So not 18 years straight, but the hours count is still up into five digits.
I'm less offended by the closing than by the demolishing. Now I gotta get clearance to take pictures and video for historical purposes before it's all gone. The consolation being that they're transferring me to a larger theater a couple blocks away, but now I'm increasingly motivated to study data structures until I can get an actual job, as going from "senior employee who's been around so long they know everything" to "fresh newcomer who's been there the shortest time of all" isn't something I'm looking forward to.
Yeah, that dropoff suuuucks. Went through the same thing too and it's really no fun. You don't realize how comfortable you are at the top until you tumble on down.
My dad asked me to look at his laptop since it was running slow after my sister used it.
I believe it to be possessed by the devil. It should never take an hour to navigate 3 webpages. Open Chrome is tries to run 20-30 processes from the get-go and locks up memory; open ie and every page takes 20+ minutes to load.
That's right, ie is running better than chrome. I can't deal with this tonight. Gotta get up too damn early again tomorrow.
Yeaaah. That sounds like it's time to flatten and reinstall. Majorly.
Hahaha no install disk. Or disk drive for that matter.
Quote from: thepanda on January 22, 2015, 10:55:26 PM
Hahaha no install disk. Or disk drive for that matter.
Ooooooooh. That's of the not good.
Any plan of action?
I haven't had time to look at it. If I can get hold of a memory stick I might be able to get Norton on it. Do a sweep and see if that does anything.
Car in shop.
Car in shop, until thursday.
Yay air pump @_@
Can I hear a CHA-CHING?
Sorry Drac, that does blow. How bad?
About a grand.
Quote from: Dracos on January 28, 2015, 03:33:44 PM
About a grand.
Geez, that's a solid ouch. Sorry man.
MTG is roping me in again.
They have your soul, Rat.
Only a robot unicorn (4/4) can save you now.
Quote from: Carthrat on January 29, 2015, 07:25:36 PM
MTG is roping me in again.
Stop. Drop. Roll.
'cause your wallet is about to be on fire with how fast the cash comes out of it.
Damnation.
http://roosterteeth.com/members/journal/entry.php?id=3302319
Quote from: Kaldrak on February 02, 2015, 09:21:58 PM
Damnation.
http://roosterteeth.com/members/journal/entry.php?id=3302319
What a miserable tragedy. I wasn't a fan of too many of his works, but the man was talented as hell.
Agreed.
Generally, what works I didn't like were because the modeling/animation felt a little clunky, but his fight choreography was pretty damn impressive and something I really enjoyed from Red vs Blue's later seasons.
Always seemed like he was trying something new and even if I didn't enjoy things like RWBY, I can still be impressed by what he did.
I really liked his work.
>_<
The guy inspired me to try to be better at what I do.
I've been stressing out. Not really achieving much in lowering that. Mrgle.
You know how your back feels when you put on a jacket that's a size too small and try to stretch your arms forward?
My back has felt like that for the past few days when shirtless.
Also, my w-2 is late.
Re-thinking my college plan.
Quote from: Rukatin on February 04, 2015, 09:53:06 AM
Re-thinking my college plan.
Oh? What changes are you thinking about?
Quote from: Anastasia on February 04, 2015, 10:30:15 AM
Quote from: Rukatin on February 04, 2015, 09:53:06 AM
Re-thinking my college plan.
Oh? What changes are you thinking about?
Going to a technical college instead. I was told it would be a better fit for me, and I realized I agreed. I'm a terrible study. I would much rather do something with my hands.
But now I have to choose my career path.
Follow your interests then. What part of working with your hands do you like?
Quote from: Anastasia on February 04, 2015, 11:17:24 AM
Follow your interests then. What part of working with your hands do you like?
I don't know. I just do. I can see myself being a mechanic, a welder, or an electrician or a heavy tool operator.
My previous plan was to go to UW Milwaukee and get a degree in Geology. But WCTC has no geology degrees.
A bad way to wake up? The dog knocks things over and it startles you awake. Ugh.
Our most widely-read newspaper had an editorial peace unironically advocating for a 'benign dictatorship' as part of restoring 'real democracy' to the state.
And ministers are literally calling the opposition 'commies' in parliament!
Quote from: Carthrat on February 09, 2015, 11:26:25 PM
And ministers are literally calling the opposition 'commies' in parliament!
I dunno Aussie politics, but ARE they commies? Honestly curious.
My first day of work is tomorrow, but I'm still trying to organize some transportation for myself. I mean, I could walk there, but it's winter. In Wisconsin.
No, they're not actually communists.
Quote from: Rukatin on February 10, 2015, 09:19:33 AM
My first day of work is tomorrow, but I'm still trying to organize some transportation for myself. I mean, I could walk there, but it's winter. In Wisconsin.
Nice. What job?
Really, Dune
Sometimes we're just ignorant. It isn't malice always.
I had to go to the DMV today.
No, nothing else really needs to be said.
I find myself unable to upload a review for a game on steam. This irritates me as I feel people should be warned of the awfulness.
Really not liking the latest fic fad on spacebattles/SF.
What is it?
Also, I think I've managed to have this year's start go almost as rough as last year. @_@
Quote from: thepanda on February 12, 2015, 07:46:53 PM
Really not liking the latest fic fad on spacebattles/SF.
The CYOA one?
Quote from: Dracos on February 12, 2015, 10:06:36 PM
What is it?
Also, I think I've managed to have this year's start go almost as rough as last year. @_@
Quote from: Anastasia on February 12, 2015, 10:58:51 PM
The CYOA one?
Yes, those.
Yeah, I feel you on that one. There's two that I consider worthwhile and one of them is a parody. So yeah.
Two?
Quote from: thepanda on February 13, 2015, 12:02:03 AM
Two?
Including the parody, yes. One normal fic that I think that's okay and the parody's funny.
link?
Sure.
http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/they-should-have-sent-a-poet-worm-si.326362/ - Overpowered, but tries to get into the psychology of it rather than just being a power fantasy. Draws conflict from that rather than his opposition.
http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/being-si-is-suffering-worm-broken-cyoa-fake-si.327337/ - Parody SI.
Really dark dream about Mexican free runners trying to get to the border while being chased by lions and shot at by drug cartels. At the end there was a chain-link fence across the whole border (think cage match high) and on the other side was a bunch of Americans who came to watch people get eaten.
The only guy to make it over somehow brought part of the fence down with him, letting the lions through.
There were a lot of lions. And my mind didn't feel the need to censor any of this.
-_-
What's CYOA stand for?
I need to slowly start killing stressing.
Gonna start doing coursework on saturdays to exercise mentally more.
I thought CYOA was cover your own ass. :)
Side note - migrane, and red-eye flight. Ow.
Quote from: Ranma_007 on February 20, 2015, 05:13:21 AM
I thought CYOA was cover your own ass. :)
Side note - migrane, and red-eye flight. Ow.
I always thought that was CYA - just flat cover your ass.
Anyway, bad time for a migraine. Not like there's ever a good time for one.
I now say goodbye to a bunch of good people who think greatly of me. It is saddening. But that is life. Somewhat. :P
I'm hoping that's your old job and not SR.
Naw, I'm with SR to the end :) That's old job.
The keyword there, 007, was when he said "good people" instead of "terrible people".
Ah, Luigi, my Brother! :)
...Sometimes I wish I had a switch or something I could flip and simply just 'care'
Deceptive lying to yourself that you do sometimes helps :P
Quote from: Dracos on February 27, 2015, 03:01:40 PM
Deceptive lying to yourself that you do sometimes helps :P
You can only tell so many lies to yourself before you start to believe them. I'm not looking to be delusional.
He lived long, and he surely prospered. But all things come to an end.
So long, Mr. Spock.
So there I was, adventuring in one of the minecraft mods called Runic Dungeons with my brother. We found a strange room with only one block inside of it. Wary of a trap I entered alone and examined the block. Would it trigger some sort of explosion? Spikes? Monsters? A boss?
Alas, no.
Instead, it crashed the server and corrupted the world. So now we can't get back on. Good game Runic Dungeons. Good game.
Others have complained of this problem in this thread here:
http://forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/1-0-2-corrupts-world-runic-dungeons-guardian-noclassdeffounderror.65195/
And the first few comments on the mod describe the bug as well:
http://www.curse.com/mc-mods/minecraft/227065-runic-dungeons
I'm sorry Hal. It's not my fault, I swear. The first thread details some possible solutions.
Hey Drac, could you show Hal this post? I'm not sure when you guys are going to get up, but it'll probably be before I do.
Sent him an email. He's got a business conference he's at today, so dunno when he'll read it.
Problem fixed. Thanks.
Not quite getting stuff done.
I know how that is, Drac. I know that feeling quite well. >_<
Ditto. I have so much to do but I'm being lazy.
I hate the adjustment period for new glasses.
Going to a research convention tomorrow. Laptop with presentation data spontaneously cracks monitor today.
Best Buy can't fix without sending somewhere for repair. Undesirable, because convention.
Spent two hours walking around downtown carrying laptop (can't close laptop to fit in backpack without cracking further), trying to find any computer repair shop using Google Maps. Failed, because Google Maps is filthy liar.
Had to stop because smartphone was running out of battery, because smartphone eats battery life like EA eats development studios.
Train home delayed extra fifteen minutes by rail work because why not.
Contemplates eating ice cream for dinner. Afraid stove will stab owner if used. On the other hand, afraid freezer will stab owner if opened. Afraid of spoon stabbing in general.
Technology.
Yeah, not sure what's up with Google Maps lately, but I had a bunch of problems this weekend with it not being able to reliably show things.
I hate waking up early for appointments.
Decided I might want to try for a CS PhD from Top5University.
Go through admissions rigmarole. Accepted! (Yay.) Go for visit and look Potential Supervisor (or two) in the face. Have awkward conversation that leads to getting serious cold feet.
Send follow-up email with Penetrating Questions about What The Hell Am I Being Hired to Do. No straight answers follow, and I think I turned the guy off. (Doubly awkward when I'm the one holding the offer and making final decision.)
Maybe I do not understand this PhD thing. I think my problem is that I am thinking of a fairly specific project area, which is hard to push through when Supervisor has own (fairly arbitrary) research agenda (which I can't get anything out of him beyond vague generalities; our conversation consists of me telling him how I would guess he would pull off X thing he says he is trying to pull off, and me staring at his face and trying to divine if I guessed remotely right). Am getting a suspicion he wants me for something different, but isn't willing to say outright. Don't have enough political skill to contemplate going to manoeuvre my project into existence in spite of official agenda. (Know this from bitter experience already trying to do so once at GenericCo. Maybe grad school has more leeway for this, but seriously doubt it.)
Go and talk to old undergrad research supervisor (high-octane source of recommendation letter) about my qualms and get a "how can you be so crazy to throw away an offer from Top5" pep talk. Feel ridiculously guilty and awful, as if I've wasted everyone's time. I have about a month to try to do... whatever to turn my apathy for the whole thing into enthusiasm, wrangle answers out of the professor, find a different professor, I don't know. Is it really worth bothering, tbh?
*sighhhh*
I think that prior bitching may also just demonstrate that my real-life social skills are not up to scratch....
My opinion as someone who has never dealt with this? Follow your gut. If your gut is telling you NO NO NO, it's usually best to listen to it. If you get a bunch of people in the know telling you that you're wrong, that's one thing, but barring that I feel you're best following your instincts.
Quote from: Anastasia on March 16, 2015, 02:38:54 PM
My opinion as someone who has never dealt with this? Follow your gut. If your gut is telling you NO NO NO, it's usually best to listen to it. If you get a bunch of people in the know telling you that you're wrong, that's one thing, but barring that I feel you're best following your instincts.
My gut tells me Top5 has to employ grad students as wage labour just like anywhere else, but admitting such (which would allow for some sensible negotiation as to what I'm wage-labouring
at -- what type of leeway I'll have to decide) does not fit with their image of "hiring self-driven people to come up with groundbreaking research". It does not make a difference in practice because most people who apply to grad school don't have as clear opinion what to work on, so are easy to steer into the correct type of project for the supervisor. (Look at the admit candidates and count how many are there because "I want my PhD from Top5" and they have a good undergrad research trail -- with no real specific interests.)
Maybe the goal of the wage labour here is not so much "produce specific product" as "produce fashionable research", but research fashion is a helluva constraining thing, in many ways more constraining than "useful product". (not to mention it keeps changing, sometimes with no rhyme nor reason) It makes me wary when being offered to work on a topic which is already having 50 zillion papers produced in it, which seems unlikely I'll end up noticing anything interesting, let alone real-world-impact, with my tiny brain. (Logic: if they are producing 50 zillion papers and not getting anywhere, they are trying to solve an important question in a way which is inherently flawed. I might like to spend some time to
study this to understand what they're doing wrong, but committing myself to be involved in this particular paper pileup seems rash.) In the end the questions I would prefer to jump into, are ones people are ignoring, which
a priori requires a supervisor willing to be pushed outside their comfort zone in what they let a student work on.
Luckily I have a less ambitious offer closer to home that's more worth considering. Somehow "lower on the food chain = more freedom", or at least more honest about what the constraints are (so I can seriously think if I fit there or not).
And, of course, CS is rather unique in that a single person can do a decent project. Obviously, if I was doing Nuclear Engineering, I would not conceivably have any type of leeway in proposing what should be done.
Speaking from experience with my own Ph.D. research for a minute: I really didn't have any strong idea what I wanted to do, or who I wanted to work with, even after I was in the Ph.D. program for a semester. I thought I was cool doing whatever other people wanted me to do, in that sense. The reality is that a Ph.D. requires some level of self-motivation, but you don't necessarily need to have it to begin with. It took me a couple years just to feel comfortable enough with what I was doing that I could feel like my project would help advance science and that I could put my own spin on it, that I could make it mine in some way.
If CS up there is anything similar in that respect, I do imagine that professors have some broad research interests and that, if what you want to do doesn't really fit with what they want to do, that might be an issue. Then again, they also gave us a couple years (years, man!) to decide if we really wanted to stay with one adviser or switch to another. During that time, they had us doing grunt work officially for pay (grading papers and tests) and doing research officially for nothing, but at least that meant we weren't tied to one particular person for our research. We could evaluate whether the research interest and the professional relationship would ultimately work. CS could be quite different, though.
Realistically, though, I think most papers in academia are people making tiny tiny changes to what other people did and seeing what happens. It's easier to produce a lot of papers that way, and you can more easily justify the research expense because it's grounded in something otherwise well understood. I'm not at all surprised that folks might be skeptical of doing something more or less from scratch, or that's unrelated or without consideration of the established literature. It was hard for me to get used to that idea, too, but after a few years, I began to appreciate some of the possible ways in which to build off other people's work in a way that felt like I was contributing something to scientific knowledge without having to totally reinvent the wheel.
But, it's hard to know how you'll feel about something in a couple years; you have to make the decision in the present, after all.
blargh, too much noise. Focus scattered.
Car still in shop.
Some windows broken today.
Ca va.
Fell asleep early and slept in late, pretty much shot my free time for the day. Bleh.
Window Repair Guy: Yeah, someone was trying to rob you. See, here's where they went at it with a screwdriver.
Yay.
Have you considered moving to a better neighborhood, Drac? You seem to get robbed a lot.
Mrgh. You really wouldn't think it'd be a problem. I literally have a large elementary school right near my house. I'm 4 blocks from a high school. We're the community that isn't covered in gates, which I guess is the problem.
Anyhow, not considered moving yet.
Anyhow, sick. WFH yesterday, doing the same today. I've learned that the concepts of Measuring Before Cutting and Cleanup are both completely fucking foreign to my new coworkers. "Yeah, most of the stuff in there is junk." "I'll just make a new branch without the junk." "...thanks. That is like 3 seconds of time and there couldn't possibly be a reason I didn't do things like that, like say you guys being morons and using two branches simultaneously for the same set of code with hacks up and down it that don't cleanly merge. That you now have 3 branches that may be relevant surely improves the situation, because now I'd have to change the build machines to use it."
You're gonna need a whole lot of headache medicine, aren't you?
So I've been out since Sunday with what I think was food poisoning (and unlike Yuth, I didn't have chicken that smelled like sulfur).
Feeling mostly okay now...and I just got a phone call from a friend telling me that he's gotten a two week notice as have some other people in his office and he was checking up for info on my side of the office (I'm set up in a different building at the moment). Obviously I don't really have much word since I've been out sick, but I did check my work email and found out that one of the projects I've been working on has just been canned.
Well, now I'm dreading going back to the office tomorrow. I still have one project ongoing, so there's that, but with all the projects getting cancelled and already hearing of upcoming layoffs again...
Ouch, good luck, Merc.
Quote from: Dracos on March 31, 2015, 11:42:00 AM
"Yeah, most of the stuff in there is junk." "I'll just make a new branch without the junk."
At least they don't do stuff like check two versions of the same thing into two different folders on the same branch. A friend of mine had to deal with that at [DenOfIniquity Inc.]. Along with things like the number of parameters of a function varying according to preprocessor conditionals. Also very helpful for understanding how their stuff works. *grateful I don't work there*
Quote from: Arakawa on April 01, 2015, 12:08:50 PM
Quote from: Dracos on March 31, 2015, 11:42:00 AM
"Yeah, most of the stuff in there is junk." "I'll just make a new branch without the junk."
At least they don't do stuff like check two versions of the same thing into two different folders on the same branch. A friend of mine had to deal with that at [DenOfIniquity Inc.]. Along with things like the number of parameters of a function varying according to preprocessor conditionals. Also very helpful for understanding how their stuff works. *grateful I don't work there*
Arakawa, I'm not sure what you're talking about.
For the current scripts, which should be burned in a fire, there are THREE versions of the same deploy script, which are in the same folder with different names and slightly different changes over time. Two of them (at least) are still in use. That said, its better... Because they have two separate branches of that folder which are both in use on the build machines. So for any given deployment, one of four scripts might be being called and its entirely possible to be reading the wrong branch and the right named script.
Yeah, it should be obvious that my diagnosis for the current stuff is to be burn it with fire.
Slowly adapting from Batch to Bash.
Not particularly liking the disconnect on what works on Terminal and what works in Bash. :(
Quote from: Dracos on April 02, 2015, 11:49:11 AM
Arakawa, I'm not sure what you're talking about.
function this_is_totally_predictable
(int x, int y, widget frotz,
#ifdef CONFUSING_PREPROCESSOR_OPTION_DEFINED_SOMEWHERE_IN_A_DIFFERENT_FILE
void *ultraspecial_configuration_nonsense
#endif
)... except with about 20 parameters to the function.
Yes, I was saying That Happens Here.
Getting called into work to cover for a sick friend that turns my four-hour shift into an eight hour one. Oh well, I get paid more and 8-hour shifts means I get free food.
I hate call-ins with a passion. I understand they happen sometimes through no-one's fault, but they always mess with my head a lot. If I have a day off, losing it to a call in sours my mood for days afterwards.
I get there's history for the reason why things are they way they are in unix derivatives...
But I can't help but shake my head when things remain "update-rc.d" or "init.d" (I get it, it's for daemon, but really, is initDaemon just too long?). It's like on one side you see a lot of fancy tech advancements and on other sides you see things like "It's not 1976 anymore, we can use more than 5 characters to describe a relevant part of our operating system."
My head hurts.
Also I feel vengeful against Xcode. I know people that work on xcode, and yet I feel vengeful against it.
What's xcode?
I woke up achy and tired. I hate when I sleep poorly.
Mac's version of Visual Studio.
These people built an exporter into their source control. I work with madmen.
what are *you* doing with xcode
I work at a crappy mac house these days? They lured me with piles of money. It was a trap.
Just heard about this apparent scumbaggery:
http://www.chez-vrolet.net/pipermail/ffml/2015-April/004537.html (http://www.chez-vrolet.net/pipermail/ffml/2015-April/004537.html)
At work our system crashed and when we got it back up, we apparently couldn't reconnect to the internet. So we couldn't take credit cards.
Quote from: Arakawa on April 15, 2015, 01:10:54 AM
Just heard about this apparent scumbaggery:
http://www.chez-vrolet.net/pipermail/ffml/2015-April/004537.html (http://www.chez-vrolet.net/pipermail/ffml/2015-April/004537.html)
Grawr.
I'm...not sure I can file a DMCA on behalf of a dead person, but that is really beyond lame.
Brian released his works under Creative Commons Share Alike following his death. I don't believe that invalidates people doing this?
Legal or not, it's in poor taste. Bad form all the way.
Quote from: Dracos on April 15, 2015, 12:35:21 PM
Brian released his works under Creative Commons Share Alike following his death. I don't believe that invalidates people doing this?
I believe Sharealike is just a copyleft license, like GPL? Yeah, you can even sell copyleft stuff, as long as it stays copyleft (i.e. the person you sell it to can then give it away, which sort of nullifies the point -- unless you're bundling it with some service like a Red Hat Linux support contract). No, I'm not going to buy the thing to see if the ebook scraping scumbags kept the license on, given that their actual revenue source is probably from harvesting credit card numbers.
This does not apply, of course, to the vast majority of non-Creative Commons Share Alike stuff that they've scraped, including apparently the friggin' Harry Potter books. I guess fanfic authors are considered too small to sue, while Harry Potter is too huge to care.
I did find this neat blog of stuff, including (more recent posts) people trying to figure out if they can get them de-hosted by complaining to their ISP who presumably does not condone piracy:
http://www.isfanficlegal.com/post/116301992754/weve-been-getting-pings-and-s-all-morning-about
Not much to do beyond that except spread word that these be scumbags. It's still irritating as to the state of the world.
Quote from: Arakawa on April 15, 2015, 01:51:23 PM
Quote from: Dracos on April 15, 2015, 12:35:21 PM
Brian released his works under Creative Commons Share Alike following his death. I don't believe that invalidates people doing this?
I believe Sharealike is just a copyleft license, like GPL? Yeah, you can even sell copyleft stuff, as long as it stays copyleft (i.e. the person you sell it to can then give it away, which sort of nullifies the point -- unless you're bundling it with some service like a Red Hat Linux support contract). No, I'm not going to buy the thing to see if the ebook scraping scumbags kept the license on, given that their actual revenue source is probably from harvesting credit card numbers.
This does not apply, of course, to the vast majority of non-Creative Commons Share Alike stuff that they've scraped, including apparently the friggin' Harry Potter books. I guess fanfic authors are considered too small to sue, while Harry Potter is too huge to care.
I did find this neat blog of stuff, including (more recent posts) people trying to figure out if they can get them de-hosted by complaining to their ISP who presumably does not condone piracy:
http://www.isfanficlegal.com/post/116301992754/weve-been-getting-pings-and-s-all-morning-about
Not much to do beyond that except spread word that these be scumbags. It's still irritating as to the state of the world.
Yeah, that was my read. It smells like a fly by night credit card harvesting and advertising revenue scam. Using a bunch of shell companies to hide it and a lot of generic content to lure people in.
My numenera group recently started a new campaign, again. One of the people in our group named Justin wanted to try being a GM and my brother wanted to a Pc for once so they switched places. The first attempt at the campaign he set up was a failure for a bunch of reasons. First, My brother was eager and created a complex character that turned out to be abrasive to everyone, so our party dynamic was thrown off so all we did was bicker. Second, the last session of that campaign ended with us stuck in an infinite labyrinth. He admitted that he didn't know what to do next because thing were so open ended and we didn't have a focused goal besides 'get out', so we started over. new characters, new setting.
Now Justin has done thing differently. First session was great, But halfway through the second we all started to notice he was trying to railroad us a little bit. Now for the setting, we were in this big coastal theater city. My brother was a necromancer P.I., I was a an ex-secret police, another was a bounty hunter, a thief, and an explorer. So I was totally ready for some type of big murder-mystery conspiracy type thing. Now all of a sudden the city is in martial law and there's a corrput government. Now it's all set of for a rebellion, which all of our character are not inclined towards.
To be fair:
Good GMing is hard. Most don't quite recognize this (They see the hard being coming up with a story or characters or prep, which is just the basics really). Might be good to talk with him on setting expectations before character creation (which is the best time to handle rail-roading by making sure the players know at least the initial type of campaign you're hoping to run so they can make characters that'll have fun with that).
My pc mic cable broke today, apparently the company I brought it from doesn't sell the cable separately so unless I buy a new headset I'm out of luck currently. >_<
Quote from: Dracos on April 17, 2015, 10:25:06 AM
To be fair:
Good GMing is hard. Most don't quite recognize this (They see the hard being coming up with a story or characters or prep, which is just the basics really). Might be good to talk with him on setting expectations before character creation (which is the best time to handle rail-roading by making sure the players know at least the initial type of campaign you're hoping to run so they can make characters that'll have fun with that).
I want to second that. DMing is hard and takes time to master. Sure, you run into the occasional natural, but most people have some false starts before they really get it. The best thing you can do is communicate honestly and without rancor, so that he can (hopefully) learn from his mistakes.
I hurt myself not once, but twice at work today. The cut on my finger is nothing compared to the burn on my arm.
Ow, ow, ow, ow. How bad is the burn?
Man, burns suck. Hope it wasn't too bad.
Just a bad first degree. I was lucky to just not drop the pan. But it was a horrible spot of luck too, the oven mitts we have extend down the forearms. i got caught right by my elbow.
The burn actually reminds me of a really bad sunburn I got canoeing once. Pro tip, don't forget to put suntan on your knees and thighs.
Ow to both of those. The latter brings back some unpleasant memories, since I burn if the sun looks at me funny.
Yesterday, my phone decided to lock on me. I use the android fingerprint locker and it decided there'd been too many failed attempts.
So it disabled fingerprint unlocking. Fine, I'll use the alternate password. Nope, not taking.
Fine, I google about, I'll use the android device manager override, because that knows I am me, can identify (and download itself) the device, and hey, it supports password override. Nope, it's broken with the fingerprint scanner, and instead locks it twice. Once with the fingerprint scanner asking for a password it won't take and once with the android device manager not allowing me to enter any password at all.
Now the part that makes me really really angry.
I google around, it says go to carrier store and they can unlock. Sounds unlikely, so I call carrier support first, explain the issue...and they confirm loudly they can help, I just need to drive to the store. Wow, didn't expect that. Okay will hold off on wipe and do that.
Drive to the store, Nope they lied, they can't help me at all, but samsung support can!
Nope, they can't help me, but other division of samsung support can!
Nope, they can't help, but carrier support can... Fuck that. Hard. @_@
Wiped phone. Discovered I had phenomenial photo backups.
And negligable phone contact backups. Will try and be recreating my phone list now. :(
This makes me glad I don't have a cell phone.
That really blows, though. But if I may ask, why would you need a fingerprint authentication in the first place? Isn't that overkill for personal security?
It is, but it was built in and supported and offered as one of the default options. I figured: Fine, I'm doing more interaction with business things, might be a good idea.
Didn't expect it to break down on me.
I wouldn't be able to use the fingerprint authentication, as I have a skin condition that results in me losing my fingerprints for a little while. Would make that extremely irritating for me to use.
Quote from: Bezzerker on April 22, 2015, 02:18:40 PM
I wouldn't be able to use the fingerprint authentication, as I have a skin condition that results in me losing my fingerprints for a little while. Would make that extremely irritating for me to use.
Really? What sort of condition is it?
I'm not doubting you, just curious.
He works for the Men in Black. He has to repeatedly submit himself to that doohickey that wipes fingerprints.
(http://i61.tinypic.com/2v28djn.gif)
Forget anything was said, Dune. You've just been doing Paragons prep this whole evening.
Ahahaha, that should be your new avatar.
I briefly did replace it, but the 'flash' was bugging me, so I embedded it into the post and just changed back =p
Unexpected schedule change threw off my plans.
Quote from: Anastasia on April 22, 2015, 11:18:33 PM
Really? What sort of condition is it?
I'm not doubting you, just curious.
I don't know the exact name for it, but my mom has it as well. Basically, the skin on the palm of my hands and fingers peels excessively on an almost seasonal basis. This makes it hard for fingerprint scanners to pick up my fingerprints (It's even difficult to actually
see my fingerprints at the time), as well as makes my hands rather sensitive to temperature.
We like to joke that there are snakes somewhere in our family tree.
Maintenance works are jackhammering outside my office window.
Quote from: Arakawa on April 15, 2015, 01:10:54 AM
Just heard about this apparent scumbaggery:
http://www.chez-vrolet.net/pipermail/ffml/2015-April/004537.html (http://www.chez-vrolet.net/pipermail/ffml/2015-April/004537.html)
Just an update on this, FYI, that the ebooks-tree site appears to have been taken down.
Good to hear.
A bunch of people on my team got fired today. Including the person who introduced the company to me.
Sadness. Stress. Frustration.
Quote from: Dracos on April 28, 2015, 09:35:55 PM
A bunch of people on my team got fired today. Including the person who introduced the company to me.
Sadness. Stress. Frustration.
Oh wow, sorry Drac. That really blows. If you can talk about it, was there at least a good reason for firing them?
That sucks, Drac. Sorry that happened in your workplace. Being in that type of situation always blows.
By some standards. It was mostly getting rid of the people that weren't good communicators about problems. Personality clashes. Right or wrong, it was the call that got made, and business is like that.
Either way, it moves a team closer into being horribly undermanned, removes a lot of experience, and removes a lot of people who were saying true things. It also keeps up a net negative inflow of people for the team over the year.
Quote from: Dracos on April 29, 2015, 12:42:29 AM
By some standards. It was mostly getting rid of the people that weren't good communicators about problems. Personality clashes. Right or wrong, it was the call that got made, and business is like that.
Either way, it moves a team closer into being horribly undermanned, removes a lot of experience, and removes a lot of people who were saying true things. It also keeps up a net negative inflow of people for the team over the year.
Ugh, that sucks. I can (from a removed, dispassionate perspective) understand letting people go for that. I do think there's a lot to be said for having a work team that gets along and communicates well. On the other hand, it's so painful to lose people, especially when you're already shorthanded.
It sounds like a crappy situation no matter what.
Nothing like getting up at 6 AM on your day off. Bleh. Stupid appointment.
Nothing like getting up then anyway. Bother.
Quote from: Dracos on May 06, 2015, 10:24:16 AM
Nothing like getting up then anyway. Bother.
Yes. I don't know how early birds do it.
Quote from: Anastasia on May 07, 2015, 01:13:50 AM
Quote from: Dracos on May 06, 2015, 10:24:16 AM
Nothing like getting up then anyway. Bother.
Yes. I don't know how early birds do it.
I don't know about anybody else, but I use sleeping pills and caffeine to regulate my sleep schedule when necessary.
Insomnia sucks.
Quote from: Kaldrak on May 07, 2015, 02:46:06 AM
Quote from: Anastasia on May 07, 2015, 01:13:50 AM
Quote from: Dracos on May 06, 2015, 10:24:16 AM
Nothing like getting up then anyway. Bother.
Yes. I don't know how early birds do it.
I don't know about anybody else, but I use sleeping pills and caffeine to regulate my sleep schedule when necessary.
Insomnia sucks.
Sleep schedule? What's that?
I sleep like the dead.
My back is killing me.
Stomach flu is, as always, a miserable way to pass a few days. What's worse it that I pulled, bruised or otherwise strained something in my ribs during one of the times I threw up. Just what the stomach flu needed, sharp pain every time you breathe.
/me whimpers.
:(
Feel better you guys.
*tosses healing potions*
Stomach flu's passed. Now all i have to deal with is sore ribs. Bleh.
I have had both of those things, though not necessarily at the same time. I hope you feel better soon.
I earn my paycheck putting up with inordinately stupid. Lost more than a day to a person who basically kept going:
"Go do this, set this up"
Only person who had access to do that? That person. Actual amount of work that needed to happen? Like copy 3 lines of text from a web page and send it over to another department. And they kept pointing to stupid poor docs that obsfucated the issue.
Hard drive died.
So did backup drive.
Quote from: Merc on May 22, 2015, 06:34:36 PM
Hard drive died.
So did backup drive.
Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Condolences, man.
Yeeeeep.
Aww, sadness.
You know of any data recovery services you could use to save some of your stuff?
So how'd that work out for you, Merc? Going to get new HDs, I assume?
Already did. As mentioned before in IRC, the SSD still worked, and I had IRC/web browsers/bookmarks there, so I wasn't really offline at any point, just lost data/backup hard drives.
I already have two new 3TB drives, and I recovered 20gb of rpg books and some other misc game stuff from an external drive. Wasnt going to spend a lot of money to 'maybe' recover other data, and I am just giving that data up for lost.
Right now, the only pending issue is setting backup, I am having an issue where microsoft does not seem able to backup from a 3tb drive, so I need to figure out how to resolve that, maybe need some program for that. Dunno yet.
Good: I was not called in for the goddamn ridiculous midnight push to solve bug.
Bad: There was a midnight push, it didn't solve things. I have been pulled into mission GetShitDone.
Quote from: Dracos on May 27, 2015, 08:15:36 PM
Good: I was not called in for the goddamn ridiculous midnight push to solve bug.
Bad: There was a midnight push, it didn't solve things. I have been pulled into mission GetShitDone.
Fun and joy for everyone. Is this going to get done?
I am here. So it will.
I just positively hate heroic efforts being needed for stupid shit. Heck I hate heroic efforts being needed in business period. Plan better, Test Better, Pitch Harder and all that.
Quote from: Dracos on May 27, 2015, 08:22:35 PM
I am here. So it will.
I just positively hate heroic efforts being needed for stupid shit. Heck I hate heroic efforts being needed in business period. Plan better, Test Better, Pitch Harder and all that.
In other words, get it done right the first time rather than having to play catch up and repair man?
Quote from: Anastasia on May 27, 2015, 08:23:25 PM
Quote from: Dracos on May 27, 2015, 08:22:35 PM
I am here. So it will.
I just positively hate heroic efforts being needed for stupid shit. Heck I hate heroic efforts being needed in business period. Plan better, Test Better, Pitch Harder and all that.
In other words, get it done right the first time rather than having to play catch up and repair man?
Yeah. There's nothing 'awesome' about people needing to work all night and day to get things done.
There really isn't. I feel for ya, Drac.
Feeling kind of morbid recently, twinges in chest, fractured toe, wife had to go to hospital unexpectedly (she's fine)... feel like I need to write a letter to my son with advice in case I randomly get hit with a heart attack. And unborn daughter...
:(
You'll survive.
That said, it is a really decent thing to do anyway. And if it amounts to nothing, you are mostly prepared to take care of the people most precious to you afterwards, and you've got a series of letters for your son to read over showing how much you cared...when you die in bed at 103.
Yeah. In other words, hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
Made it through 5 pages of solid advice, damn thing brought me to tears when writing it. Need to think about what to write for baby girl...
*pats* Good man, 007.
"Dear baby girl, if I am gone, it falls to your brother to protect you. Once you start being interested in boys (and please, dear god, don't let that be for, like, 25+ years), all boys must undergo a trial by combat and must defeat your brother in an Anything Goes martial arts competition. Genma_007, protect your sister. Become the strongest. Don't steal panties. That is all."
More seriously, take care of your health, and here's hoping for many more years for you and that this is just a needless precaution.
*laughs*. Thanks Merc, I needed that. :)
Nasal dehydration sucks.
I use saline sprays, though they are kind of annoying to use and I keep forgetting to use them with any frequency.
I used to use them when I was younger. I forget why. *erases life*
Worked late last night. Problems got solved. Tiredish.
So bored at work. Counting down the minutes until I can go home...
123 minutes remain...
globals().update(vars(parser.parse_args(argv[1:]))) - ugliest code I've seen this week. Grab the arguments off the command line and shove them in the global namespace sight unseen.
Yeah. Guess how my day is going. This is at the top of the critical path code I'm looking at.
Quote from: Kaldrak on June 03, 2015, 03:30:47 AM
I use saline sprays, though they are kind of annoying to use and I keep forgetting to use them with any frequency.
Yeah, I just endured it. I don't usually have the problem, but the one-two punch of allergies and a cold did my nose in. Ow ow ow.
I made the grievous mistake to listen to Yuth's advice on what to eat at Taco Bell.
Isn't everything there a grievous mistake? =p
Not my fault you couldn't handle it.
I looove Taco Bell...but then again I've been gaining weight rather steadily over the past several years, so....
Coworker suddenly died today. I wasn't really close to him so I was just left feeling numb about the whole thing... but he was my brother's best friend and he's taking it pretty hard...
Ah crap. Sorry man, there's nothing good to say there. Try and hang in there.
Quote from: Kaldrak on June 07, 2015, 04:20:54 AM
I looove Taco Bell...but then again I've been gaining weight rather steadily over the past several years, so....
Getting older annoyingly reduces ones ability to process stuff :(
Quote from: Rukatin on June 15, 2015, 12:44:21 AM
Coworker suddenly died today. I wasn't really close to him so I was just left feeling numb about the whole thing... but he was my brother's best friend and he's taking it pretty hard...
Death happening nearby is always rough, whether or not there's connection. Hang in there for your brother.
We get the weirdest spammers lately. Its always 1-3 posts where they post to a long dead thread with some random nonsense that almost appears to be a response to the previous post. I mean, its better than them selling us pills or russian lessons or something, but its just so...odd?
Yeah, it's strange as hell.
By the way, thanks to everyone who reports those posts. It makes it easier for me to clean them up.
Yeah no kidding. This is the tiny fraction that is getting through our walls (which are bombarded daily).
Quote from: Dracos on June 17, 2015, 02:50:35 PM
Yeah no kidding. This is the tiny fraction that is getting through our walls (which are bombarded daily).
Clearly SR has something spammers want.
Truly a rare and precious thing on the internet.
Another long workweek with a messed up schedule. Bleh.
Uuuuugghhh. I ate too much.
Also, this PE application shit is entirely too time consuming. I am almost DONE. As long as it gets accepted and I don't have to worry about filling out another for a long time, I'll be pretty damn happy.
I turn 31 today.
This fills me with existential angst. There should be something I can take for that. I'm thinking maybe chocolate.
Happy Birthday, man. Try to enjoy the chocolate and don't worry about it.
Chocolate helps. So does cookies and cream.
I speak from experience, as a 32-1/2 year old!
Thanks guys.
I suspect that because of stupid shit involving timing, my application for PE license will fall through and I'll have to resubmit all the stupid paperwork again.
My own fault for forgetting that while I can optimize my part of the work process, and sometimes pay a premium to make others optimize their part of the time, I can't optimize everyone or pay them all off to do it faster.
I could still get lucky.
But somehow, I suspect that with the holiday looming this weekend and all of that, my paperwork will get lost in the mail or something and I will -just- miss the deadline.
But I could still get lucky.
(Fuck this license shit is stressing me out)
Your avatar is once again apt, Merc.
I have to work extended shifts today and Sunday in an un-air conditioned warehouse.
Gonna fry like an egg. G'luck, Iddy, that blows beyond words. A lack of AC is miserable.
Good luck merc. :(
There's something wrong with my heart! I MIGHT DIE! Before Fallout 4 comes out!
My priorities are somewhat skewed.
This is a heads up for you all, in case I spontaneously disappear and don't ever come back.
Don't die! Just imagine the regret you'll feel if you don't play Fallout 4!
(Your priorities seem fine?)
G'luck, Yuth. That's horrible, had a bit of a scare with my own back in the day. Hopefully it turns out to be nothing.
Dog kept trying to sleep on my legs last night, kept waking me up. No sleep. Rrg.
Man, radiator is all sorts of pain in the ass to hook in.
Got most of the parts in now. Drives going in soon. Might be back on a real comp later today.
Your computer needs a radiator?
That must be one awesome computer. A steampunk computer?
Water Cooling thing?
Anyhow, my attempt to clean install windows 10 was a failure. Trying to work around it and running years of win 7 upgrades.
Got lots of drivers to install now. Laptop continues to live on :)
Xonar cards are a serious pain @_@
To install or setup? I've heard about both.
Both. I flat out gave up on it. I have a pointless soundcard that isn't wort trying to get 20-30 bucks back out of by returning it.
Computer is mostly on the finished side. Still have the motherboard screeching alarms when I run a benchmark so I need to figure that out :(. Temperatures are green across the board in two separate tools. It casually hits 250 frames per second during DAI's benchmark, screeching the whole time. It doesn't seem to be the processor at all anymore as that passes a big generate heat test. Maybe the ram? Meh. Stupid alarms without records. Could at least leave a light or error code for why you were just screeeching like a banshee. Will be pinging asus on it.
I recall a mobo that shrewd at me even though everything was fine. I remember spoofing it to think I'd fixed the problem and it ran fine for 3 years.
So the problem, to laugh, was my UPS, which can handle somewhere around 300 watts... less than my computer + monitor draws when overclocked and pegged. That sat right next to my comp and was the alarm screeching. Ordered a new larger one.
Dublin, Ireland shift sucks. Blargh. *gets to sleep now*
I hate headaches so much. Pound, pound, pound pound pound pound.
My body is made out of sheets
Detergent is my blood, and fabric softener is my heart
I have washed over a thousand blankets
Unknown to benefits, nor known to a decent wage
Have withstood tedium to fold many towels
I have no recourse; this is my only job
Truly my whole life has become: Unlimited Laundry Works
Yeah, I feel that one. Only replace laundry with lifting things and warehouse work.
Job hunting.
I feel like I don't need to say anything else. Ugh.
The whole of Washington appears to be, if not ON fire anymore, at least subject to the numerous fires that rage all over the place. Spokane, where I live, is coated in a blanket of hazy smoke.
I hates it. >_<
So I went into work today on my day off. I have on idea why I did that when I could've ducked the phone call.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 22, 2015, 11:01:51 PM
So I went into work today on my day off. I have on idea why I did that when I could've ducked the phone call.
Money, Dear Boy.
Quote from: Merc on August 22, 2015, 11:26:57 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on August 22, 2015, 11:01:51 PM
So I went into work today on my day off. I have on idea why I did that when I could've ducked the phone call.
Money, Dear Boy.
It wasn't worth it.
Going onto day 2 of no water. Plumber was supposed to come this morning to fix the issue. Never showed, then only rescheduled to tomorrow after I called them. >.<
Quote from: DY on September 01, 2015, 01:35:59 PM
Going onto day 2 of no water. Plumber was supposed to come this morning to fix the issue. Never showed, then only rescheduled to tomorrow after I called them. >.<
DY, do you need an evac helicopter from the 2nd circle of hell?
I just might, here's hoping they show up today.
Quote from: DY on September 02, 2015, 09:24:12 AM
I just might, here's hoping they show up today.
Did they?
Quote from: Anastasia on September 03, 2015, 01:48:18 PM
Quote from: DY on September 02, 2015, 09:24:12 AM
I just might, here's hoping they show up today.
Did they?
Yep, everything is fixed now. I have access to water again, huzzah!
Well, today sucked. I can't even really be witty about it. Work was just awful. Being by yourself while way too many people want you to try to help them and trying to scramble around accomplishing everything alone and knowing you can't is notgood.
Notgood feelings all around. And I wasn't able to close on time either. There's this feeling in the back of my head that steadily grows the longer I continue to work at any job where I can't get off when I'm scheduled to. No matter how long or short the shift was, if I'm still working after the end of it, especially if the job is pure tedium or tons of complicated busywork like I have now, the feeling that I should be done and off work becomes all encompassing. A small voice in my head insists that we are finished and that continuing to work, even if we get paid and are authorized for it, is a monstrously unjust proposition, and that our compensation for such had better be damn good. The longer I continue to work after my shift should've ended, the more irritated I get.
I don't want to be angry and I don't like to treat people poorly because of it, but I am SO SICK of people sometimes. I am sick and tired of helping them with whatever it is they want from me. You're here after we closed and I can't just throw you out, oh no. I have to help you with your damn problems. The kindest thing you can do is shut up and get the hell out of my face, but failing that, don't give me special, complicated requests that take time to accomplish, because I have almost no patience left. Just GO AWAY.
So tired. I'm glad it's the weekend.
I'm sick. Head/upper respiratory. I sound like a fucking mummy.
So this week was a second week of pretty brutal crunch. I went fuck this a bit during it and headed home at normal hours some nights just to remain humanish.
Star quote though of the week "Well, I'm not very motivated to work on this mission critical thing I'm assigned." Wah, wah...I'm not your fuckin' boss and don't assign you work. You don't get paid 6 digits to always work on fun shit. Sometimes scut work needs to be done and it's not like I want to do it anymore than you do. No tossing your crap repeatedly my way, and grow the hell up.
yeah, lots of various 'well, I have a deadline, but I don't really feel like making it.' stuff too.
I'll do scut work for six figures. Where do I sign up?
It probably has headaches like needing to know how to program and do all those things. Y'know, requirements.
Driving a motorcycle in full gear in 100 degree heat for 10 hours is f'n miserable!
Quote from: Iron Dragoon on September 07, 2015, 11:37:03 PM
Driving a motorcycle in full gear in 100 degree heat for 10 hours is f'n miserable!
I never would have imagined that.
I feel tired and uninspired. what do
Today the clown car was moving at full speed, in circles with all squeaky horns going.
This whole "work" thing is the grindiest MMO I've ever played. It takes way too long to level and the loot is lousy.
Quote from: Dracos on September 11, 2015, 12:36:33 AM
Today the clown car was moving at full speed, in circles with all squeaky horns going.
I understand days like this.
This week has been insane and I'll be so tremendously glad when it's over. 2 more hours.
My morning started with the german team whining as they failed to put together tickets for what they needed and stressed the importance of having things they were too incompetent to set up themselves without help.
Then "Um, the game repo is broken. Help please." - 9:10 am. Infrustructure tech after an all nighter at that point.
Yeah. That was my day.
Fuck Git. Fuck Gitlab. And fuck the architecture of string and shit they encourage. Repo corruption by space allocation? Management systems that take 600 GB for a 6 gb repo? History rewrites on mainline that leave any sense of 'is everything there' up to fate?
"Hey is this commit in mainline? Who fucking knows, we have a standard integrate option that loses that information".
"Is this backup copy of the git repo a true backup? No?" - I got to watch as once we had it back up, we realized our backup wasn't quite right, so we rebuilt it over 2 hours of fiddling with commits. I can't say I've ever had such an enormously stupid thing happen even going all the way back to fiddling with CVS.
Yes, great power and stupid usage...but you know, there's a lot to be said for systems that don't have a 'History? What the FUCK is that?' option when they're revision control systems.
Edit:
Also screw jenkins for anything outside of toy projects. Seriously, having hundreds of copies of git repos to get synced back up with the fixed repo was a complete nightmare, and only part of it was our stupid as hell scripts.
Bleh, made a request a while ago that broke abunch of backend stuff. Annoying @_@
Quote from: Dracos on September 21, 2015, 02:15:23 PM
Bleh, made a request a while ago that broke abunch of backend stuff. Annoying @_@
Well, as long as you have good backups, try and fix it up.
Today's been a day.
Car battery died at lunch, stuck out in the sun until I finally found a coworker with jumper cables willing to drive to where I went for lunch, jumpstarted it, got back to the office, jumpstarted it again, car died on the road, jumpstarted it a third time, made it to a car shop, replaced battery, got home, received SD card that supposedly will fix treadmill (did I mention my treadmill's program got fucked? I'm sure I didn't, but yeah, it's fucked, I had fun all of last week trying to get customer service for that), wrestled with screws trying to figure out how to get to the goddamn console slot where the SD card goes, finally figured it out, seem to have two screws extra, not giving a fuck about that because you know what just fuck it, and now just waiting for SD card to finish with installer crap and to see if treadmill works again.
Did I mention today's been a day? It's been a day.
Quote from: Merc on September 22, 2015, 10:23:29 PMnow just waiting for SD card to finish with installer crap and to see if treadmill works again.
It did not.
"10 crashes per second" - Graph as I was walking out.
Past the point of ridiculousness.
"Wah we don't know what this thing that was supposed to be communicated to everyone is! Leads claim ignorance. PANIC!"
Really guys? Really?
Oh google, I should take an alternate route today? The 280? Sure.
*drive drive drive*
"oh, dead stop. That's...neat."
*six emergency vehicles pass*
"Well, this is gonna be a long drive."
That's just not gonna work out. Condolences, Drac.
Grabbed a hot pizza pan with my bare hands. OWWW.
So we have a pizza pan at home, one of those ones that's criss-crossed with holes. Makes a nice pizza, but unless you want crumbs everywhere, you have to move the pie onto a plate to cut it. So I do that and use a hot pad to put the pan in the empty sink. I go to cut it and it's still soft, so I figure it needs a few more minutes. I absent mindedly go to grab the pan.
Problem 1: The sink was empty so the pan was still hot.
Problem 2: I used my bare hand.
Problem 3: I am not resistant to burns.
Arghfuckle says it all.
Quote from: Anastasia on October 05, 2015, 10:47:02 PMGrabbed a hot pizza man with my bare hands.
I am very sorry for your pain. I may not appear to be very sorry for it, but your unfortunate typo is to blame for that.
Quote from: Merc on October 05, 2015, 11:12:39 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on October 05, 2015, 10:47:02 PMGrabbed a hot pizza man with my bare hands.
I am very sorry for your pain. I may not appear to be very sorry for it, but your unfortunate typo is to blame for that.
Typing with burned fingers is hard, okay?
Bad Merc. Baaaad.
Like I said, I am very sorry for your pain. Even if I don't appear to be sorry. I really am. Honest.
Quote from: Merc on October 05, 2015, 11:15:55 PM
Like I said, I am very sorry for your pain. Even if I don't appear to be sorry. I really am. Honest.
That's got to be the easiest Sense Motive check ever.
Sensing honesty is the best, isn't it?
Quote from: Merc on October 05, 2015, 11:20:15 PM
Sensing honesty is the best, isn't it?
I dunno, since I'm not sensing it here.
As an Honesty professional, I can confirm that Merc is being 100% honest.
Quote from: Rukatin on October 07, 2015, 02:24:44 AM
As an Honesty professional, I can confirm that Merc is being 100% honest.
As a profession verifier, I can verify that Honesty Professional is a real profession.
As a professional Ko, I can verify that I'm whimpering in a corner now.
Why would anyone ever want a professional Ko? An untrained Ko is just as good and cheaper to boot.
Personal record: searching the codebase for a JDBC connection statement and finding a Java class more than 15,000 lines long.
The interface it implements is itself more than 1,300 lines.
Why.
You know, I never particularly though any variation of Windows cron service was particularly great...
but man would I stab someone to get it over launchd and macports wrapping. "Okay it failed to start. Can I get an error code? Maybe the log? Perhaps something that could be run on the command line to see it? No, we have it wrapped in a package that is wrapped in a package and it turns out its not running long enough to write startup stuff to the error log."
Bleh. *Goes back to seeing why php-fpm suddenly won't start*
*handholds a group of senior engineers through the notion of listing out high level deliverables*
"So you want X built and deployed to server Y? Okay, write that down, that's one deliverable. And server Z separately? Write that down, that's another."
My one good eye continues to go downhill. Bleh.
Quote from: Anastasia on October 24, 2015, 02:18:56 PM
My one good eye continues to go downhill. Bleh.
*pats* =/
... Totally unrelated to Ko's line but...well, it's been my morning:
In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.
Don't wanna go to work. Sometimes it's nice to have such a simple, routine reason to bitch. It may suck, but it's the sort of suck that isn't the end of the world.
Dracos: Had a discussion on 'how to have working dns' which shows the level of amateur hour
Hat: ...seriously?
Dracos: I need not imagine anything, I live in comedy land.
I have my PE exam tomorrow.
Having that last minute panic where you know you've done everything you can and still think everything that can go wrong will.
It doesn't help that I did a practice exam and kept making stupid nervous mistakes (and of course, they result in answers in the multiple choice list because why the heck not).
Halloween headaches. Ick.
Also, holidays are so much more fun as a kid. Adulthood sorta sucks like that.
I blame the media for sucking the joy out of halloween.
Quote from: Merc on November 01, 2015, 01:08:45 AM
I blame the media for sucking the joy out of halloween.
How so?
All the horror stories about razor apples and all that nonsense. Halloween felt more like a community thing when I was a kid, nowadays it doesn't, and all I can remember is that as I grew up and it felt less and less fun I kept hearing all these stories that made parents worried about things that never really happened or were really isolated events. Might not necessarily be linked, but it certainly felt like it growing up.
Quote from: Merc on November 01, 2015, 10:36:08 PM
All the horror stories about razor apples and all that nonsense. Halloween felt more like a community thing when I was a kid, nowadays it doesn't, and all I can remember is that as I grew up and it felt less and less fun I kept hearing all these stories that made parents worried about things that never really happened or were really isolated events. Might not necessarily be linked, but it certainly felt like it growing up.
Yeah, that is true. Fair point, Halloween seems more...detached now. Regulated.
Earlier today I ended a 12+ hour transit that involved subways, trains, crying babies, planes, crying CTOs, and 'yes we need your help to fix servers while you're traveling'.
Yet another reason that I don't want a cell phone or any sort of mobile communication while I travel. It's like people expect things out of you.
Headache today. Lot of work. Xcode compiling super slow @_@
quite scared myself yesterday when after forgetting to take my epilepsy meds, I started twitching. In the shower no less. Long story short I fell, stubbed my toe, and now have a chink in the small of my back.
That's pretty serious, yeah. Sounds like you have it pretty bad.
Quote from: Anastasia on November 14, 2015, 01:56:32 PM
That's pretty serious, yeah. Sounds like you have it pretty bad.
Depends on your definition of 'bad'. I've never had a seizure. (at least, no full body convulsions) In fact, this was kinda violent as my twitching goes. Usually (or rarely seeing how my meds stop this sort of thing.) my twitches are just jerks of my arms, causing me to drop something or fling it across the room. This was a full body spasm an lapse of focus, leading to me suddenly on the floor.
This leads to a scared me walking slowly and clutching furniture because I don't want to fall and crack my head against something. I know what that feels like. (Filing cabinet vs. back of head, tipping chair in school.)
Here's a link to all you curious folk. http://www.epilepsy.com/learn/types-epilepsy-syndromes/juvenile-myoclonic-epilepsy
Yeah wow, that's rough. At least you seem to have it under control and it's not crippling.
G'luck man, hope it gets better as you get older.
Quote from: Anastasia on November 16, 2015, 12:31:01 AM
Yeah wow, that's rough. At least you seem to have it under control and it's not crippling.
G'luck man, hope it gets better as you get older.
I'm almost 19. I've pretty much accepted that I'm going to have this most of my life.
Apparently, when I got 'epilepsy on the defects list, I rolled to see what type in a sub-table and got one of the less serious ones. Yay.
Also, It turns out, I
have had seizures before. Just not Generalized tonic-clonic seizures (Full-body convulsions) but Absence Seizures, where you stare off into space and your mind goes blank for a few seconds. I remember doing that a lot when I was younger actually...
I went to Bethesda for a research conference hosted inside a Marriott hotel. Had good catered food and a two-person room to myself. And on the last day, coming out of the shower, I looked upon the white sheets of my bed, and thought to myself, "That's a big, big cockroach."
You didn't expect to see bugs at a Bethesda event?
You win this round, Mercury.
I don't know anything about Bethesda that I didn't see on NCIS.
I don't know anything about Bethesda.
Quote from: Merc on November 20, 2015, 02:00:31 AM
You didn't expect to see bugs at a Bethesda event?
This is legit the funniest thing I've read all week. I laughed for like fifteen minutes. Still giggling. L
Step One: Acquire nearest makeshift weapon.
Step Two: Enter V.A.T.S.
Step Three: Kill Radroach.
I work a six day work week coming up. On Black Friday week. That's just whimper-worthy.
Spent 2 and a half hours on my ass scrubbing grime out between wall tile at work
Flight delays and connecting flights. Blagh combo. Didn't get home until 2am or so, crashed, and back at work office today. Double blagh.
I did not have the foresight to take a day off of work on my birthday.
Get 'sick'?
Nothing like being in super early to have another team drop the ball :(
Hours have continued being really really long. Schedule continues to be stupid.
It's almost like you're working in retail during the holidays.
True, it definitely could be more rough. Survive Ko.
Every day Ko bleeds his PCs of tears and blood and this empowers him to survive through the hell that is retail.
Tomorrow I don't do an 8 to 12 shift.
Somehow my window was open a crack last night and it got horrendously cold here (30F). Woke up at midnight, shaking so hard it hurt. Was half asleep, couldn't think of why it was so cold. Spent 4 hours attempting to sleep. Woke up 2 hours later in intense pain from my muscles seizing and monster cotton mouth with a tremendous headache. Went to work for an hour or so before I gave up, came home and slept. Still feel like trash.
Owww, Yuth. o_O
Crap, I had that kinda shit earlier this year (The window crack, was some burgler). It's amazing how a small crack is enough to just destroy a room's temperature.
You seem to have a real problem with burglars, Drac.
I bet it's all those delicious pomegranates he grows in his yard. The scent draws them in likes flies to a flame.
Yeah, I've had about .7 burglars trying to wreck my day per year :( I've become sadly experienced with it.
Set traps for them! Unless California has laws against it! Which would be dumb, but I wouldn't put it past them to have laws protecting burglars against traps!
Two days ago I dropping my laptop (trying to put it in it's case/backpack so I don't drop it) and at first it seemed nothing was wrong. Until my computer froze and and so I restarted it, only to have it take half an hour to boot up and once it was done, all I got was a black screen. Took it in to have it looked at, and the most likely problem is that the hard drive is damaged. Looking at $170 for repairs.
Oof, that's never fun.
Problem:
My beloved cats are kicking cat litter on the floor from the litter box.
Further problem:
Due to said litter being present, particularly lazy cats now think the floor is a good place to poo and pee on, rather than going through all the effort of jumping into the litter box and doing their business there.
Worst problem:
I have carpets, not wood floor...and one of the cats just peed on them.
Febreeze. Lots of it. Good luck.
Family drama. Every winter holiday.
And I thought I made it past that this year. But noooope.
Quote from: Merc on December 31, 2015, 03:21:18 PM
Family drama. Every winter holiday.
And I thought I made it past that this year. But noooope.
How bad this time?
I'd rather not say how bad.
On the plus side, my birthday was relatively calm this year, even if it involved my sister and my parents not meeting each other.
Last year the drama hit on my birthday and I'd made a decision to just work during my birthday this year. Then work crap happened and we got forced to take vacation off, so I'd been dreading my birthday (and isn't that just the peachiest?) and was happy when there was no drama.
Silly me, it was just waiting for the morning after.
But at least I wasn't left depressed as hell on my birthday this year, so there's that.
I can't win the family holiday drama game. I just can't.
FML, I try to broker peace and now everything is worse. Should have stayed in my own home and played something online.
(https://coinffeineproject.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/comprendiendocoinffeine_ii-foto2.jpg)
Ending the year off with a BANG!
Oh well, may 2016 be better for you, Mercury.
That shits. Let's hang out some tomorrow. Have a better day than that. *pats*
Yes Drac, run all the boardgames for Merc.
Vertigo sucks. I've been laid up in bed all day. Can't get up without the whole ground spinning around me. Was hoping it would get better over the course of the day but still stuck horizontal. Definitely need to see a doctor tomorrow bah.
Ew. Hope that gets better quickly for you.
I would like to program in F#.
I would like to program in F# using Emacs, but Emacs's fsharp-mode doesn't let me create projects easily.
I would like to program in F# using Visual Studio, but Visual Studio's Emacs mode can't be customized as thoroughly. Also, I hate Visual Studio in general.
I would like to program in F# using the Atom text editor which has Emacs keybinding, customization, and Ionide for F# development, but Ionide project building requires Ionide-Yeoman.
Ionide-Yeoman requires generator-fsharp.
Generator-fsharp requires npm. Npm requires node.js.
Generator-fsharp also requires node-gyp. Node-gyp requires Python 2.7. Not even the newest Python (3.5), an old one.
Generator-fsharp also requires CL.exe. Which is available in Visual C++.
Generator-fsharp is finally installed, and all I had to do to make F# a project for maybe doing some text processing was install Python, C++, and a web-app programming framework. So can I finally create F# projects in my new text editor?
Nope! (https://github.com/ionide/ionide-yeoman/issues/3)
ლಠ益ಠ)ლ
Also, Github projects have a notable tendency to not include information on how to start using the feature your project provides. (Like so (https://atom.io/packages/ionide-yeoman))
back to work on monday. Bah.
Redskins melted down in the playoffs. Ugh.
Quote from: Anastasia on January 10, 2016, 09:04:04 PM
Redskins melted down in the playoffs. Ugh.
Go Pack Go!
I was driving to work today on the interstate in the middle lane on a three lane highway, on my hands-free car system on a work phone call, and three cars in front of me suddenly swerved two lanes to try to get to a off ramp that they missed. They lost control of their car on the icy roads, went across the ramp, car doing donuts, and slammed at about 60 mph into a light pole. That light pole crashed down on the car. I hung up my meeting, called 911, got a operator, got the state police within 15 seconds, and told them the location (adrenaline spiking making me talk super fast), and then they hung up and sent police and ambulances.
Took me till mid-morning to get the adrenaline out of my system. Geez.
That'll do it. At least you were only a spectator and not a victim.
How'd your job take hanging up on them?
Wow, yeah, glad you weren't part of that outside of spectating.
It's sad how a part of your life so often taken for granted is suddenly just... gone. This morning my family's dog Oreo was acting lethargic and wasn't eating anything. Then he had a seizure and we decided to take him to the animal hospital. Turns out he was suffering of anemia, which was nothing good for a dog his age (13).
In the end, options were discussed, and it was settled that he was to be put down.
Rest in peace my friend.
Condolences. I lost my childhood dog nearly a decade ago and I still miss her. Heck, my current dog's getting up there and I dread the day she dies. Hang in there.
Thanks.
Aww, that's sad Ruk. I feel for you.
I'm way too attached to my cat, so I'm gonna be heartbroken when she goes. On the plus side, we're there for our pets for their whole lives. Not everybody has that. Only thing we can do is enjoy the time we have with them, I suppose.
Quote from: Merc on January 12, 2016, 06:02:10 PM
Wow, yeah, glad you weren't part of that outside of spectating.
Seconded. Glad you're safe, 007!
Quote from: Anastasia on January 12, 2016, 05:30:26 PM
That'll do it. At least you were only a spectator and not a victim.
How'd your job take hanging up on them?
No concerns. I'm at a point where if I say "I have to drop" people are cool with it.
Also, thanks Dracos (and Merc).
And I just read that Alan Rickman died. :( :( :(
Yup, and David Bowie a few days ago as well.
Upset stomach the last three days. Blah.
Hope ye feel better, Merc.
I think not watching my dog be put down is going to be one of the biggest regrets of my life.
Getting hammered at work by requests :(
Planes delayed 3.5 hours suck. That is all.
*prepares for post 1 am arrival time
Quote from: Dracos on January 23, 2016, 04:03:37 AM
Planes delayed 3.5 hours suck. That is all.
*prepares for post 1 am arrival time
Eeew. Where's work sending you this time?
Wasn't work, I had this wonderful idea: "Hey, go catch up with friend you haven't seen in forever for a weekend".
Like a 1 hour flight each way.
Total Delay over the weekend: 8 hours.
Seriously, it actually would've been almost as fast to drive there directly as it was to fly. Delta had both legs of the trip having both multi-hour delays followed by issues with actually launching or returning the plane, resulting in long waits outside the gate. They never gave much of an explanation. I've never quite had non-weather or hardware malfunction delays like this. Like really, not 'we are fifteen minutes delayed' or 'go to another gate', but 'we're going to do 2-3 flights out of this gate before your actual scheduled flight.
First time flying delta in a while and possibly the last for a while too. That was just ridiculous.
The Power Rangers Curse (http://www.cracked.com/blog/creepiest-where-are-they-now-ever-power-rangers-curse/)
Quote from: KLSymph on January 26, 2016, 12:54:46 PM
The Power Rangers Curse (http://www.cracked.com/blog/creepiest-where-are-they-now-ever-power-rangers-curse/)
By the same token, I guess someone could say there's a Doctor Who curse. I bet you'll find even more obituary entries there!
More seriously, it does suck that a lot of people died young, I remember when Thuy Trang died and as someone who'd grown up watching the series, I felt about that death much like I did when Alan Rickman died.
However, outside of her and Erik Frank, I can't recognize most of the other mentioned younger deaths. A lot of them are pretty much what I'd just attribute to old age and lifestyle choices, which is what brought up the Doctor Who comment.
I was surprised to read the bit about Medina though.
Also surprised that as long as they were mentioning terrible things people did, nobody mentioned Samuel Benta (power ranger from Overdrive). In the first Power Morphicon, staff was circulating banners for guest power rangers to sign, the banners would be auctioned/sold for charity. He stole one of the banners 'as a souvenir' and refused repeated requests to return it from staff, former rangers, and convention guests. Quickly went from a popular actor to absolutely despised in that fandom.
And there was David Yost, the original blue ranger, who was harrassed by the crew (though not his fellow cast members I believe) for being gay, to the point of nervous breakdown/considering suicide at one point. For a long time he refused invites to Morphicon and other reunions, though I believe he finally went to one of the Morphicon conventions in recent years.
Sunnava - http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/27/464566551/forget-chess-ai-masters-wickedly-complex-chinese-game-of-go and https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2016/01/alphago-machine-learning-game-go.html
Damnit, I thought that this was years away. Damnit. IGO was one of the holdouts where humans could still claim a advantage.
Don't worry 007. One of these days we will manage to drag you to a hang out again and you can dominate the chess and go games :3
I think I found pictures from the very first SR gathering. They're somewhere in my office, I should scan and post them. :)
4 days off in a row? Perfect time to get a chest cold, right guys?
Then suddenly, hives.
Whimper.
No dying, Kotono.
It got worse, I woke up with stomach cramps and being massively sick. Fortunately I'm fine now, but what the hell was with last night?
Food poisoning, maybe?
It was laughably mild if it was real food poisoning. Maybe dinner didn't settle right, since I'm fine now. I'm inclined to just chalk it up as my weekend sucking and leave it at that.
What you described didn't sound all that mild to me, but maybe I've just been lucky I guess. Anyway, glad you're feeling better.
Quote from: Kaldrak on February 02, 2016, 01:19:17 AM
What you described didn't sound all that mild to me, but maybe I've just been lucky I guess. Anyway, glad you're feeling better.
Thanks. I tend to have stomach problems, so yeah, maybe my standards are off.
Signed up for Weight Watchers.
Gotta tough it out so you can be lean and mean.
A bit sick lately. Boo that.
My dad is getting overstressed and depressed with his job and I have no idea how to help or even contextualize.
I just spent 300 dollars on a nice new monitor. Guess what it doesn't come with? If you said HDMI cords, you'd be right.
Considering I run on DVI and VGA until now, and it doesn't have inputs for those? Argh.
Horrible...deep cough settling into my lungs. Hate SO MUCH. Why germs? WHHHHYYYYYY????
Because germs aren't happy if they don't get you at least once per winter.
I CANT FIND MY CHECKBOOK AGRLEFLARGLE
Bleh weakness.
Also bleh people that DROP THE BALL even after I send staff to help them ensure it doesn't get dropped.
*stays late dealing with builds not being shippable from it*
Today I was guiding children about. I know they were 30-60 years old, and paid commensurate to their experience...
But damn goddamn children everywhere today. "We want weekly reports, but its not goddamn obvious we want them on the whole set of data." "Oh, they don't have access to x, they have access to y, which grants access to ALL."
Also my commute has lengthened by a bit over 20 minutes, all walking. No more company parking lot for a bit.
A great way to start the morning is....having your oven die. Argh.
That sucks hard. :(
It's February and I just saw a commercial for Easter. C'mon now.
Well Lent just started. It's not that unreasonable. Not like, say Christmas stuff. That gets absurd.
Pretty much. I like Christmas but come on.
Yeah, if you want stuff to go 'long', just do it after >_>
My workplace is still playing Christmas music.
On the bright side, I work graveyard and I'm the only one there, so my workplace doesn't play Christmas music for any longer than it takes me to shut it off.
Quote from: Empyrean on February 29, 2016, 01:11:40 AM
My workplace is still playing Christmas music.
On the bright side, I work graveyard and I'm the only one there, so my workplace doesn't play Christmas music for any longer than it takes me to shut it off.
I gotta ask though, why are they still playing Christmas music?
Stormy weather outside. Power's crashed five times already.
Words for fics should appear out of the ether faster.
Someone in my neighborhood, probably a punk ass kid, shattered the driver side window on my car this morning. Shot it with a pellet gun or some such, which hit the window, shattered it, then ricocheted into my driver's side mirror.
Whatever it was didn't exit the side mirror fixture, so when I get the replacement mirror for it and replace it, I should find the pellet/stone/round.
Replacing the window is $150 out of my pocket.
That fucking sucks :(
New apartment. Dude across from me has been binge watching a show for over a week. I hear the same baseline every 24-28 minutes as the opening plays. It vibrates fully from one room to the next, shaking things hanging on the walls like a cartoon. This goes on until roughly 1am each night, and has done so since I moved in. Last night I had a very spirited conversation with him at half past midnight after spending five minutes bashing against his door. We have come to an understanding. He turns off his bass after 11pm and I don't break into his home while he is at work and throw flayed animal carcasses everywhere.
I was somewhat upset.
Sorry you had to deal with that. Just out of curiosity (if you even know), what show was it?
Some sort of western something
Quote from: Yuthirin on March 15, 2016, 03:47:53 PM
New apartment. Dude across from me has been binge watching a show for over a week. I hear the same baseline every 24-28 minutes as the opening plays. It vibrates fully from one room to the next, shaking things hanging on the walls like a cartoon. This goes on until roughly 1am each night, and has done so since I moved in. Last night I had a very spirited conversation with him at half past midnight after spending five minutes bashing against his door. We have come to an understanding. He turns off his bass after 11pm and I don't break into his home while he is at work and throw flayed animal carcasses everywhere.
I was somewhat upset.
Just for awareness (Because I've done it): There are noise ordnances in most neighborhoods (and apartment complexes) that allow for fines and eviction for that. In case he keeps driving you nuts and you feel like siccing the cops on him.
I got my point across. Things are very quiet now.
Go yuth.
Epilepsy sucks. Even as a minor case as mine, dropping shit everywhere while you're trying to clean up the shit you've already dropped is really frustrating.
The cost of moving vans once you get out of your city is criminal
The fucking rear passenger window on my car just broke. Need new motor.
I just f'n replaced the driver's side window.
Steering column and computer in my car is fried. Costs more to fix than the car is worth.
My brother's cat just had to be put to sleep. I've known her since she was a kitten. Her name was Zoe and she was fifteen years old. She is survived by her younger sister, Tsunami, who is my cat.
Quote from: Kaldrak on April 02, 2016, 03:10:43 AM
My brother's cat just had to be put to sleep. I've known her since she was a kitten. Her name was Zoe and she was fifteen years old. She is survived by her younger sister, Tsunami, who is my cat.
Ah geez, that sucks. Sorry man.
Sorry to hear that, Kal.
Thanks, guys.
We buried Zoe beneath a plum tree in the back yard. I don't really think Tsunami understands that her sister is gone, but she seems anxious. The house feels emptier now.
Yeah, I remember it being like that when my childhood dog died. It's tough and takes awhile to really adapt to.
Flash floods here in Houston this week (the worst was on Monday), though they seem to have mostly passed now.
I didn't get hit that hard, but I know others that did. A friend's coworked died in the flash flood on Monday too. Nobody I knew, but still sucks.
On my end...well, I made it home alive and safe, my house didn't leak...but my car had to go through a semi-flooded intersection at one point and now it seems it's not working.
Motor turns on fine, steering wheel turns fine, but it's like the wheels are locked. When I switch from Park to Reverse/Drive, car doesn't move, and it squeals/drags when I press the accelerator, though it does move. I don't know jack about cars, but it feels like the axle might have rusted/locked or if the tires were flat (they're not).
Pulled it out of the garage (wincing at every squealing screech) and left it in the sun, hopefully that helps a bit, but right now it looks like a "Yay for incoming car repair bill!" event.
And I -just- did car maintenance a week and a half ago.
At least I'm still alive, my family and friends are all safe, none of our houses are leaking, and all the other cars work fine, nobody else I know has directly had problems. At the end of the day, I got off lightly.
Glad to hear it. A car repair bill's getting off lightly, Houston really got hammered.
It really, really did.
Quote from: Merc on April 22, 2016, 11:55:29 AM
Motor turns on fine, steering wheel turns fine, but it's like the wheels are locked. When I switch from Park to Reverse/Drive, car doesn't move, and it squeals/drags when I press the accelerator, though it does move. I don't know jack about cars, but it feels like the axle might have rusted/locked or if the tires were flat (they're not).
I'll talk to my mechanic buddies and see if I can't get you an answer for this before you have to take it out to be repaired.
Okay, so after checking and consulting, this is what I've come up with as causes.
First, crawl under your car and make sure nothing wrapped around your axel.
Second, look at your break pads. They could have gotten gunked up and are fighting your engine.
Third, do an oil change. Immediately. Water is almost certain to have gotten into your intake and exhaust, and if it gets into your cylinders, it doesn't compress and will cause your cylinders to explode. Bad. New engine.
Fourth, water could have jacked up your belts or tensioner.
Fifth, transmission. It's unlikely that water got into your tranny, but not impossible. If it did, your tranny fluid needs to be changed. Unfortunately that usually leads to the entire tranny going out a few weeks later. Unfortunately this seems to be mist likely for what you're describing. It's also really expensive and tends to lead to follow on problems.
Can't seem to get into any fanfiction lately. The last few things I've tried had me gritting my teeth a few chapters in. The kind of fics that Tell for 10 pages, have two lines of dialogue, and then another ten pages of telling you what you should feel.
https://www.instagram.com/powerrangersmovie/?hl=en
Everyone remember that 'dark and edgy' power rangers short that was absolute crap, but various media called it the reboot we needed?
Yeah, someone decided to listen to that garbage and chose to design in a similar style for the new Power Rangers movie. Actually, I'd even say worse, since that short at least kept some homage to the original costumes.
Blegh, those new costumes are terrible.
The Rita Repulsa costume isn't terrible, I guess, but it doesn't make me think of Rita, makes me think of Camille. Or maybe the Green Goblin?
I dunno what exactly they're trying to go with the new designs.
To be fair, it wasn't a movie I was thinking of watching before it shows up on redbox and I can get it as a 50 cent movie or something, so I know I'm not anywhere near the intended audience. Just wondering who the hell the intended audience -is- from those designs. There doesn't feel like there's a coherent message to them.
Quote from: thepanda on May 06, 2016, 02:55:01 AM
Can't seem to get into any fanfiction lately. The last few things I've tried had me gritting my teeth a few chapters in. The kind of fics that Tell for 10 pages, have two lines of dialogue, and then another ten pages of telling you what you should feel.
*nods* Sadness.
Quote from: thepanda on May 06, 2016, 02:55:01 AM
Can't seem to get into any fanfiction lately. The last few things I've tried had me gritting my teeth a few chapters in. The kind of fics that Tell for 10 pages, have two lines of dialogue, and then another ten pages of telling you what you should feel.
That's just bad writing, fanfiction or no. You might be surprised how many non-fanfiction works do this ALL THE TIME. Drives me crazy.
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/tourists-put-baby-bison-in-car-fearing-it-was-cold/67820/
...
We still do not know if bison veal is tasty.
Also stupid people.
*pats* Someday the important questions will be answered, Drac. Someday!
Gah, just spent an hour trying to get past a certain point in uncharted 4. Enemies attacking from above and from all sides, no ammo drops, no cover, and all while an elevator slowly rises. Most frustrating part of the game so far, got so angry I had to give or I'd end up breaking something. Bah.
Burning tears suck. Stupid eye problems.
Quote from: DY on May 19, 2016, 12:48:30 AM
Gah, just spent an hour trying to get past a certain point in uncharted 4. Enemies attacking from above and from all sides, no ammo drops, no cover, and all while an elevator slowly rises. Most frustrating part of the game so far, got so angry I had to give or I'd end up breaking something. Bah.
I was playing (and enjoying) freedom planet on Easy. I basically gave up on the last boss in similar vein. Was just going for a casual afternoon and wasn't interested in finetuning my sonic-spinoff play, especially with 15 second run to the boss sections.
All it takes is a bad moment to really put a halt in a game. Oddly those moments are usually meant to be invigorating.
Well, it appears that the water in the employee breakroom, bathroom, and drinking fountains has been tested and they've found ridiculously high levels of lead and iron in it. Some old galvanized pipe from 1985, they say. They've shut off the water on our side of the building and have put in water coolers till they get the pipe replaced.
Nothing like being inadvertently poisoned at work from the drinking water to put your other problems in perspective, I suppose.
Quote from: Kaldrak on May 23, 2016, 04:47:57 PM
Well, it appears that the water in the employee breakroom, bathroom, and drinking fountains has been tested and they've found ridiculously high levels of lead and iron in it. Some old galvanized pipe from 1985, they say. They've shut off the water on our side of the building and have put in water coolers till they get the pipe replaced.
Nothing like being inadvertently poisoned at work from the drinking water to put your other problems in perspective, I suppose.
Good Lord, that's terrifying. You aren't in Flint, are you?
Quote from: Anastasia on May 23, 2016, 05:25:10 PMGood Lord, that's terrifying. You aren't in Flint, are you?
No. Our water never looked quite that bad. And I only work there part time, so I think my exposure levels are less than the full time people, plus I usually brought my own water from home, though I did refill from the drinking fountain pretty regularly when I ran out. I also drink a lot of tea from that water as well.
They're offering free testing to find out the level of lead we've been exposed to this week. Guess I'll do that and see what's what.
Quote from: Kaldrak on May 23, 2016, 07:40:53 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on May 23, 2016, 05:25:10 PMGood Lord, that's terrifying. You aren't in Flint, are you?
No. Our water never looked quite that bad. And I only work there part time, so I think my exposure levels are less than the full time people, plus I usually brought my own water from home, though I did refill from the drinking fountain pretty regularly when I ran out. I also drink a lot of tea from that water as well.
They're offering free testing to find out the level of lead we've been exposed to this week. Guess I'll do that and see what's what.
Good luck. About all I can say.
I'm so tired. I don't want to adult today. I want to lie in bed and look at golden retriever puppies on the Internet. I don't want to be at work. :(
Quote from: Yuthirin on May 24, 2016, 01:46:19 PM
I'm so tired. I don't want to adult today. I want to lie in bed and look at golden retriever puppies on the Internet. I don't want to be at work. :(
Do you need an adultier adult? Don't worry. We all do.
Yes, I never feel like I'm an adult.
Endless stormy weather, as far as the eye can see.
My left eyelash is crooked and interferes in my vision. Annoying.
It's a heat indexnof 104 degrees and I work in an un-air conditioned warehouse. I've burned over 2200 calories just walking today. And I still have two hours of work.
Quote from: Iron Dragoon on June 18, 2016, 10:16:09 PM
It's a heat indexnof 104 degrees and I work in an un-air conditioned warehouse. I've burned over 2200 calories just walking today. And I still have two hours of work.
You should hazard pay for that, because fucking hell. Ugly, draining, exhausting work.
Looks like the Anime Addventure finally croaked. Man, I remember hearing about that site back in the day. Another little piece of history's gone.
Quote from: Anastasia on June 21, 2016, 11:00:08 PM
Looks like the Anime Addventure finally croaked. Man, I remember hearing about that site back in the day. Another little piece of history's gone.
<_<
>_>
*glances at his download script on the other monitor as it crawls the Addventure, saving everything into JSON*
If it's going, I'm not letting it go gentle.
Any chance it'll spring back up now that it's kaput?
Hard to say at this point. I don't think the Addventure's functionality would be hard to duplicate independently if it comes to that, but I don't have the resources to host it.
It's 109 outside, and I am pleased that it's so low. What is wrong with me why did I move to the surface of the Sun.
Cheap rent?
Masochism?
Okay, so my internet goes out last week.
I think, no big deal, I'll just call my ISP and they'll help me fix it. This...did not go well. First I'm stuck on hold for a long period, which I was expecting, then the guy I'm talking to can't find my account. Well, two transfers (and two more long hold sessions later) we figure out that my account is part of a different database, owned by the same company. Why? Because it used to be a different company that this one bought out a couple years back, but they still haven't integrated the database for some reason. Another transfer/hold session later and then I'm talking to the right support person with the right database with the right information.
For those of you following this it went like this: Call support, get transferred to customer care cause they can't find my account, get transferred to a different customer care person with the right database, then get transferred to the right customer support person. So I'm starting to get real annoyed with repeating all of my information to different people over and over and over again. Maybe I get a little snippy and short tempered, but I've been on the phone over an hour and I'm hungry and I had wanted to go out and eat and now I'm stuck here repeating myself to different people who all seem like they can't help me, when I can understand them, anyway. Some real heavy accents on some of these folks.
Customer support guy runs me through all the usual rigamarole about shutting down my modem and turning it back on and resetting the damn thing which I've already told him I've done multiple times. He keeps telling me everything is fine on their end, which does ME bugger all good, as I can't get any internet at ALL. So he asks me about my POS modem, which is super old and then he consults someone and tells me that I need an upgraded one, as mine is no longer compatible with my internet service. So I ask him if they've upgraded something recently, because it was working fine till just that morning, when it up and stopped getting any signals from my ISP.
So...SO, I get off the phone, declining another transfer to the billing department so I can order a modem from them, because I'm super cheesed off at that point and I just want to go get food. My brother and I try to find a modem that's compatible with our ISP provider and it turns out that they don't sell them from the stores nearby.
Great.
The next day I order a replacement modem for a hundred bucks, plus fifteen dollars S&H. It'll arrive in three days. I'm not super happy about anything, but my modem is pretty old, so I figure the darn thing just broke. I mention the whole story to a friend of mine afterwards and he offers to give me a modem/router that he has as an early birthday present, which was pretty awesome of him. So I call back my ISP not two hours after I make the order for the modem and cancel it. I make sure they tell me it's cancelled and that I will not be billed. Alright, I figure that's done with and my friend comes over with his replacement modem.
After some shenanigans wherein he needs to rewire the power cord due to it not fitting (he ordered it online and they sent him the wrong cord, SMH) we hook it up and...the...same...damn...problem is happening with that one. No signal. So now he thinks it might be something wrong with the wiring. We check outside to make sure the wire hasn't been cut and after a bit we give up, because it's too dark. He comes back over the next day and after some more digging he tells me he thinks they've accidentally cut my service somewhere, when they meant to cut someone else's.
So I call them and have them send a technician, who they'll send over by Friday (today). So guess what arrived via UPS yesterday?
Yep, the expensive modem/router I no longer need or want and definitely don't want to pay for. So I call them back and ask them to double check my account and make sure I'm not going to be billed for the thing, but of course I am, because it wasn't actually cancelled. The person I was talking to before said they cancelled it, but they screwed the pooch somehow and it didn't get cancelled. So the guy tells me that they won't charge me so long as I get them their modem back, which I can do by refusing delivery from the UPS guy...who left it on my porch and is no longer there. So in order to not get billed for something I definitely cancelled the order on, I have to head over to a UPS store and tell them to return it to the sender.
I'm just...ugh.
So I get a call today from the technician dude who's supposed to come over, telling me that "everything seems fine on their end" (AGAIN! Rrrrrghhhh!!!) and wondering if I still need him to come over. I call him back and tell him that yes I DO in fact need him to come over and check things out, because I'm paying for a service I'm not getting and I don't know what he's looking at, but it definitely doesn't work on MY END. I mention my friend's theory that they accidentally disconnected us and then I have to get off the phone cause I need to go to work.
He heads over to check it out. Guess what? Turns out they did in fact disconnect us when they meant to disconnect someone else. Probably some newbie unplugged the wrong house at the switchbox or whatever the hell it is. So now my internet is on again and I am seriously considering cancelling my service as soon as my contract with them is up and finding a company that isn't staffed by and run by freaking idiots.
My guess is that the blame falls on the call center. I'm guessing from the accent comment it's some offshore deal? They're cheaper from what I understand, but you also get what you pay for. It's like they're trying to make you use the automated systems whenever possible. A language barrier when you're trying to get help is maddening.
Correct on most counts. That stuff didn't help, but the fact is that the major mistakes were made by the fluent English speakers who probably work here in America and whoever they had disconnect the wrong house.
Spent six hours reconstructing the Anime Addventure's author aliases table by hand. Ah, the nostalgia of so many old familiar names, along with a decade's memories of cleaning up after those people.
Them days.
Does anyone here remember if Sgt. Chibi de`Ohki is Brian Randall? Or am I mixing people together?
Quote from: KLSymph on June 26, 2016, 02:02:03 PM
Spent six hours reconstructing the Anime Addventure's author aliases table by hand. Ah, the nostalgia of so many old familiar names, along with a decade's memories of cleaning up after those people.
Them days.
Does anyone here remember if Sgt. Chibi de`Ohki is Brian Randall? Or am I mixing people together?
That sounds like it might've been one of his, but I dunno for sure. Drac, you remember?
I think so as well. It was either him or one of those who hung out in void, and pretty sure he was the only Ohki there.
I think it's sort of sad that for you guys, an era is ending. I've been here what, 2 years? Three? Yet you all have a history that spans back a decade at least.
The Addventure is only a part of it, but yeah. This group goes back to Delphi at around 2000, 2001. Seeds of it formed earlier on the FFML back in the '90s, too.
Quote from: Rukatin on June 27, 2016, 02:13:48 PMI've been here what, 2 years? Three? Yet you all have a history that spans back a decade at least.
It wasn't so long ago that I was the new guy around here. The years fly past quickly. Try to get as much done as you can.
*works past midnight forcing 44,000 episodes of malformed HTML code into a single SQL table*
Sounds thrilling. How bad was the Addventure's coding, anyway?
We let people enter whatever HTML code they want, and what most people want to enter is apparently <font> tags.
<font> was deprecated in HTML four years before the Addventure began.
You must be having a blast and surely there's no way that went wrong.
Mostly not, by virtue of me having fixed them back when they were posted. But oh boy are the stuff I missed coming back to bite me now.
Meh, even smoothly, surgery sucks.
Ew. Everything okay, Drac?
Quote from: KLSymph on June 28, 2016, 10:51:20 AM
We let people enter whatever HTML code they want, and what most people want to enter is apparently <font> tags.
Surely, for online publishing there has to be some happy medium between <font> tags vs. the insane formatting restrictions of ff.net. Maybe someday someone will even discover it.
I had many learning experiences this year, few of them pleasant.
I knew in advance that Grad School would take up a lot of my time, but I just had to go and attempt Grad School and Romance at the same time. That did not end pleasantly, and took up a lot of time that could have been spent more productively on fanfiction.
Romance is on hold for the foreseeable future.
Grad School is still happening, as all the difficulties I've encountered so far are ones that I foresaw, and am better equipped to handle than other incoming students with less experience. They mostly revolve around the fact that a supervisor (in CS, unlike -- say -- physics, there are no multi-thousand-dollar pricetags attached to deciding to try something new and crazy) has very little formal say over what the students will do, so in practice they use psychological tactics to motivate them in the 'correct' direction. Philip Guo's The PhD Grind (http://www.pgbovine.net/PhD-memoir/pguo-PhD-grind.pdf) gives some idea.
TAing was also fun. The system of using overworked researchers who mostly care about publications for teaching critical introductory courses is pretty broken and I got to be a part of that problem :-P.
I now know what acute exhaustion feels like.
Quote from: Yuthirin on July 04, 2016, 01:04:22 PM
I now know what acute exhaustion feels like.
Care to share with the class?
It feels unpleasantly like being drunk.
No I meant how. I've gotten to that point through a combination of summer camp, sleepless nights and having to walk everywhere.
Oh. Inability to sleep for a week straight + 'mandatory' overtime + mega stress.
Fell asleep super early, slept for 4-5 hours and now I'm up. It's 6 30 AM and I'm seeing the sun rise. Fuck.
At least watching the sun rise is pretty awesome no?
Not really, I have eye problems that make dark+light difficult for me.
Aw man, that must suck.
Well Turkey is exploding in half.
Looks like the coup's failed or at least lost most of its steam.
Sheesh, o_O Glad I'm not over there at the moment.
I was completely useless all weekend, watching the world go to hell. Today will be better.
Quote from: Yuthirin on July 18, 2016, 02:35:49 PM
I was completely useless all weekend, watching the world go to hell. Today will be better.
Nope. Today was not better.
For me, anyway.
Maybe tomorrow will be better.
I've gotten too forum quiet lately. That sucks. :P
You know what'll fix that? You can start an all new play by post forum game! :-p
Yeah, I guess :)
I really just gotta break the habit first of being quiet.
Today was the last day to pick up Windows 10. Seeing as later we would end up getting forced into it anyway, just that I'd have to pay then, finally made the transition.
I dislike it.
Quote from: Merc on July 29, 2016, 06:17:19 PM
Today was the last day to pick up Windows 10. Seeing as later we would end up getting forced into it anyway, just that I'd have to pay then, finally made the transition.
I dislike it.
Forced into it? Windows is supporting 7 until 2020. I have no plans to upgrade right now.
I have 8. I don't like it, but it's bearable with windows classic. I just don't want to go through the hassle of an upgrade and by the time 8 isn't supported anymore, I'll be on a new computer anyway. So why sweat it, Merc?
Mostly was feeling like my eyesight gets more strained by the W10 theme or something, which has been annoying me. Have spent the last few hours adjusting settings (and figuring out how or even IF I can adjust some) to not be as bothered by it.
Gotten most of it resolved I think, but the lack of contrast still bugs me. I liked having contrast between things, and W10 is pushing the minimalist crap look where you can't tell where something ends/begins and I haven't figured out how to re-theme it yet. I imagine there are re-themes available, just have to find something I can work with.
I could have waited 4 more years like Kaldrak, but having to deal with the notifications to upgrade (or figuring out what 'updates' to remove so they wouldn't push it) and concerns over what level of support will actually be offered pushed me to go ahead and upgrade.
Of course, didn't expect that W10 would -keep- trying to peddle junk at me after installing (seriously, microsoft? you had to keep doing that shit?), or I actually might have said fuck it and waited. No, W10, I don't care about what Cortana is, I don't care to try out your 'new' Microsoft Edge, thank you very much for these notifications about how you're keeping me safe, oh for the love of god shut the fuck up with the stupid pinging and window pop ups!!!!
I'll get used to it eventually, or at least figure out how to get my contrast themed in. Hopefully. At least I haven't heard the little ping sound or had a window pop up in the last few hours, so maybe microsoft was just getting the peddling out of its system at the start after I ignored its windows 10 requests for the last couple of months.
For anyone who really wants to get rid of the annoying 'get windows ten' upgrade icon in the lower right hand corner of their desktop, the answer isn't too complicated. I opened the task manager, found the GWX process and right clicked on it to open the file location. Then I just deleted the GWX folder. This requires administrator privileges and an annoying bit of security kerfluffle, wherein you have to take ownership of the folder, but it's entirely possible.
Edit: Oh, and of course you have to end the GWX process before you do this.
Been on 10 for ages. Theming could be better and it does do nagging but largely is ignored. Just haven't had trouble.
I still owe samuez a game and I KEEP FORGETTING TO SEND IT AND I AM SO SORRY
*Finishes coding Anime Addventure archive on Aug. 2nd.*
*Redhat OpenShift withdraws free indefinite website hosting on Aug. 1st*
(╬ಠ益ಠ)
Sleepy start of a week. Not really that bad, but what can ya do :)
post-nasal drip sucks @_@ Being sick also sucks.
I fell asleep at the computer so hard I don't even remember nodding off. I wake up several hours later in a horrible position and aching. Bleh.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 11, 2016, 11:56:30 AM
I fell asleep at the computer so hard I don't even remember nodding off. I wake up several hours later in a horrible position and aching. Bleh.
That's really bad for you. You should consider buying a bed or something.
Quote from: Yuthirin on August 11, 2016, 05:04:39 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on August 11, 2016, 11:56:30 AM
I fell asleep at the computer so hard I don't even remember nodding off. I wake up several hours later in a horrible position and aching. Bleh.
That's really bad for you. You should consider buying a bed or something.
The bed belongs to the dread canine. If Dune tries to get on the bed, the dog just looks at him. Balefully.
Family's going to Puerto Rico from tomorrow to Sunday. I ended up not making plans to go because I knew I had deliverables at work due this week.
Which I have been on the client's case all of the last three weeks to make sure we can issue per schedule.
Which today the client is all "What do you mean you're issuing this thursday? We're not ready to issue, we're still reviewing all the changes!"
All of the changes which I sent documentation on two and a half weeks ago and said I wanted a response on last week (and didn't get).
Amazing what the client forgets until it's two days before deadline and then they want to shift the schedule. And afterwards forget they're the ones who pushed the schedule.
Coulda been in Puerto Rico most of this week.
Alas.
For fuck's sake. This goddamn project...
Really should have gone to Puerto Rico with the family.
There there. At least you're getting paid?
There's that. Hopefully.
The problem with the damn project is that they just sent an email earlier saying to cut all work on the next phase of the project. Which I was going to start on next week. So...not exactly sure what I'll be doing next week, if I have a project, or what's going on and just have a lot of questions for tomorrow.
That shit would stress me out. *pats*
Another season, another painful Redskins game.
I'm bitching that there hasn't been much bitching lately. Step it up, Drac. Bitch bitch bitch away!
Such migraine. Very bad. Much ow.
I don't want to go back to work tomorrow.
I forgot to cash in my paycheck. Again.
Quote from: Anastasia on September 26, 2016, 01:56:14 AM
I'm bitching that there hasn't been much bitching lately. Step it up, Drac. Bitch bitch bitch away!
Flying from barcelona to the usa is tiringly long.
Jetlag sucks.
um...Have an extra mini-sandwich? :P
Sure, that's something. Go Drac!
Jetlag fucked destroyed me this week. Monday was fine. Tuesday I collapsed end of day. Wendesday I was like 'DAY OF THE LIVING DEAD'. Thursday I kinda made it through.
Fell asleep super early last night and got nothing done. Ugh.
Quote from: Merc on October 09, 2016, 10:13:14 PM
I'll focus on it this week again, should have some extra time since FFd6 seems to be canceled for Tuesday evenings from the look of things until we figure rescheduling for that.
*eyes time and whimpers* Why the hell did I not get home until nine-fucking-o'clock?
Because time-space hates you?
Kinda been sleeping poorly this week. That sucks.
Also Gloomweaver brought the gloom hard last night. No damage crushing of Kal and I.
We were summarily crushed, though we played a great game, from my point of view.
As for me, I'm sick again. Hopefully I'll be well enough to go to work next week, otherwise I'll be delving into my savings to pay rent.
>_<
Guessing you don't get paid sick leave at your job?
What is this 'paid sick leave' that you speak of? Such a thing is not for the dregs of capitalism, as I am. Why, I've barely had health insurance for two years now, and already future president Trump wants to take it away from me.
Woke up to six puddles of dog poop and a nicely sized pile of dog vomit at six am.
Right before a 12 hour shift.
Gonna be one of those days, Yuth. Hope it clears up for ya.
Quote from: Kaldrak on October 13, 2016, 12:42:10 AM
What is this 'paid sick leave' that you speak of? Such a thing is not for the dregs of capitalism, as I am. Why, I've barely had health insurance for two years now, and already future president Trump wants to take it away from me.
Yeah, I feel ya on that one. I don't get paid sick leave either (or vacation) and it blows. The joys of being stuck in a minimum wage job.
Today I've dealt with more internal company politics than I think I ever have before. Man, it is nice to sit down, pretend that doesn't exist and do some basic coding.
Amen to that (with the caveat that you replace coding for engineering for my case, of course!).
Woke up this morning feeling like crap, and then puked after breakfast. Been laying on the couch all day.
WHY THE FUCK DOES MY LEG HURT SO MUCH
HOLY SHIT GOD DAMN
Muscle in my foot is throbbing and twitching. No idea why, but it's miserable with on weight on it and sitting down.
Ugh.
Horrible crick in the back of my neck the last couple of days. Methinks it's definitely time for a new pillow.
Muscle relaxers continue to knock me out, mess up my sleep cycle.
Grandfather isn't doing very well. Mom just passed on that he might have some sort of cancer.
Quote from: Merc on October 21, 2016, 04:28:02 PM
Grandfather isn't doing very well. Mom just passed on that he might have some sort of cancer.
Good luck, man.
Fever dreams + sweating + cool weather = little sleep.
Blargh.
ALLERGIES OH MUH GAWD
Everyone is sick.
Even you, person reading this message.
What is with this week?
Horrible sickness.
Can't shake this awful cough, though I have more energy now than I've had the last couple of weeks. I get on the bus to work and it's like being sealed in a tube of coughing, sneezing sick awfulness. I can only hope that since I've already caught the plague, it gives me some immunity to whatever else everyone else has around me.
Cause y'know, we can't stay at HOME and not SPREAD THIS EVERYWHERE. No, no...that would be too simple. Also that would require some pretty stringent labor laws that gave everyone sick pay, including part timers like myself, which is just plain insane. It's much better that we have to be forced to come to our jobs and forcibly convert the heathens to our germy overlords. Much MUCH better.
The joy of the flu season.
Work sucks. A lot more than I was expecting it to around this time of the year.
Had a scare after I spilled juice on my laptop. It's fine now, just needed to dry out.
Glad your comp is alright.
Electricity is dead in my neighborhood. Houston is fucking hot without AC. And humid. Can't forget that.
So tired.
Cubs.
Unable to log into IRC this morning. Can't figure out why. Frustrating.
Also Trump got elected.
Yeah, last night really sucked.
Hey, Trump is heading to the whit..... DEAR GOD WHAT HAVE WE DONE!
Ensured that the division in this country between the two sides solidifies into out and out hatred? I don't know about the rest of us, but I for one will NEVER accept that man or listen to another thing he says in any way, shape or form.
He may lead the country, but he doesn't represent me and I sure as hell didn't vote for him.
Edit: Things you say when you're not thinking clearly. Burying my head in the sand and not paying any attention to what's going on in the world isn't going to help anything. And being SUPER pissed off at people doesn't help either, believe me. I'm trying to understand what happened and learn why people voted for him in the first place. This...hasn't been easy. Though honestly, I've been sorely tempted to delete my facebook account.
Think I got some food poisoning from dinner. Been throwing up all night and have a massive headache from lack of sleep.
Ick :( Hope you feel better Merc.
I think more things at work could be on fire, but I can't tell because all the things that are on fire. :( Bleh.
Holiday hours are starting early at my job this year, so it means I work later. Boo.
I dislike the early darkness :(
Diet is suffering.
Hey where's my birthday thread? For I am officially no longer a teen!
I FIXED IT
Alrighty... Here goes.
Life has taken a turn on my lately. I'm 20 now, but to be honest I've never really been 'adult' as I still live with my parents and work a part time job. I still don't have my driver's licence for crying out loud. (which should be fixed with my fifth and hopefully final test coming up soon)
But now... okay. Almost seven or six years back, my Dad worked for General Electric. But he got laid off along with a bunch of other people. He was... understandably less than pleased and made the admittedly stupid decision of not getting another job right away and taking money from our house's mortgage... plan... thing. I don't now the specifics. Anyways, that's how my parents made ends meet until the time came that my Dad was employed again.
This ended up creating a large amount of debt tied to our house, and recently the allotted time came and now that debt is due. My parents can't afford that, so they're selling the house we've lived in for the past decade.
Which means I need to find my own place. Which means I need to get a better paying job, or go to school, or...
Yeah. End of an era for me. Anyways, rant done.
That's always tough. G'luck man, it's hard moving on. Still, once you do it, you'll feel stronger.
Hey Ruk, that feeling of not being an adult? Yeah, I'm 32 and I still have that. Hell, I don't have a drivers license either. Three and a half years back I spun out on the freeway going 75mph and ended up staring down the headlights of an oncoming semi right before I went off the road and smashed my car, rear first into a tree. Strangely enough, I haven't been too keen on driving myself again, since then.
I will give you this bit of advice, which I've ignored in the past and still continue to ignore to this day. You should probably get a four year degree. Two years of college isn't worth what it used to be anymore. If you know what major you want, you should go for it. Alternatively, my two best friends went into the military right out of high school (in noncombat positions) and when they got out both had investments, significant savings accounts, and waaay more money than me.
It's worth thinking about.
Eleven years ago I was sick of college, so I thought I'd take a break and work retail for a while. This...was a terrible idea. You can barely make it in retail, these days. No one wants to hire you full time or pay benefits unless the government makes it illegal for them not to, so you might need to work more than one job. Also, you may come to hate humanity, if you do that. The customer service industry is soul sucking. And the pay is usually shit.
So take it from someone who's walked that road. It doesn't really go anywhere. If you can avoid it, you probably should.
Excuse my presumptions if they're out of place. Just trying to give you some of the benefit of my experience. Hope everything works out alright with your family and living situations.
Quote from: Kaldrak on December 06, 2016, 11:27:50 PM
Hey Ruk, that feeling of not being an adult? Yeah, I'm 32 and I still have that. Hell, I don't have a drivers license either. Three and a half years back I spun out on the freeway going 75mph and ended up staring down the headlights of an oncoming semi right before I went off the road and smashed my car, rear first into a tree. Strangely enough, I haven't been too keen on driving myself again, since then.
I will give you this bit of advice, which I've ignored in the past and still continue to ignore to this day. You should probably get a four year degree. Two years of college isn't worth what it used to be anymore. If you know what major you want, you should go for it. Alternatively, my two best friends went into the military right out of high school (in noncombat positions) and when they got out both had investments, significant savings accounts, and waaay more money than me.
It's worth thinking about.
Eleven years ago I was sick of college, so I thought I'd take a break and work retail for a while. This...was a terrible idea. You can barely make it in retail, these days. No one wants to hire you full time or pay benefits unless the government makes it illegal for them not to, so you might need to work more than one job. Also, you may come to hate humanity, if you do that. The customer service industry is soul sucking. And the pay is usually shit.
So take it from someone who's walked that road. It doesn't really go anywhere. If you can avoid it, you probably should.
Excuse my presumptions if they're out of place. Just trying to give you some of the benefit of my experience. Hope everything works out alright with your family and living situations.
*gives virtual hug*
:( Survive you two.
College can screw one over...but it is still the most consistent way to the other side. Military is still a reliable way of getting someone else to foot the ridiculous bill.
Really sorry to hear about your family home, Ruk.
Two people I know got let go/fired, learned both by bounced emails. Lots of craziness this morning on work. Know I have it good, but bleh, rattlely.
Quote from: Dracos on December 08, 2016, 05:15:49 PM
:( Survive you two.
College can screw one over...but it is still the most consistent way to the other side. Military is still a reliable way of getting someone else to foot the ridiculous bill.
Really sorry to hear about your family home, Ruk.
My family moved around a lot early on, my dad was in the navy. This is the longest time we've stayed in one place
Forgot to pay my Internet bill for two months because my card was replaced and I failed to notice that the charges weren't coming in.
Now I have no Internet.
Whoops.
Oops. *pats*
Appears my internet is ALSO BROKEN. What timely coincidences.
SSSSSNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!
Cold dry weather is making my lip bleed repeatedly. Lip balm does absolutely nothing.
Hello sickness my old frieeend. I've come to talk with you agaiiiin.
It would be nice if I had managed to fully get over whatever plague I had last time before getting hit with new upper respiratory symptoms, but whatever.
They tend to go like that :(
PRINCESS LEIA DIED
RIP Carrie Fisher, may the force be with you =(
How sad. I'd heard she'd gone into cardiac arrest, but later also heard she'd stabilized. Was surprised to see you guys say she died.
Quote from: Merc on December 27, 2016, 03:56:25 PM
How sad. I'd heard she'd gone into cardiac arrest, but later also heard she'd stabilized. Was surprised to see you guys say she died.
From what I heard, there were complications caused by the time between the heart attack and resuscitation. I heard somewhere that she was unconscious and/or not breathing on her own for about 10 minutes.
Then her mom died like two days later, too.
Redskins lose in Week 17, miss the playoffs. What a shame, this team was talented but dreadfully uneven.
Ravens missed the playoffs and fell apart.
17 hour plane ride. On low sleep now for dealing with work that is going to be stupid today.
That's a long plane flight. Oversesa?
I have become one with the sickness. Indeed, I might have 'gotten down' with it, as they say.
Ugh. I really wish these plague microbes would leave me alone.
There is no escape, only sickness. Sucks man, hope you kick it off.
Frozen shoulder. Ow.
Hate my shoulder so damn much right now.
Want to sleep so badly, but every time I try lying down, pain shoots through my side regardless of the position I try taking. Probably going to be like last few days where I won't fall asleep until I'm just too exhausted to care about pain and then feel sleep deprived for the rest of the day. Not sure how I'm gonna manage once work starts up on monday.
Don't recall it being this bad the last time I had to deal with a frozen shoulder (I think it was 7-8 years back), though it might be because this time it's my left shoulder and I'm a lefty, so I'm feeling it a lot more.
It's actually been tolerable during the day for the most part since the first chiropractor visit, it's just when I want to lie down that I'm -really- noticing it.
*sigh* Not off to a good start, 2017.
Quote from: Merc on January 15, 2017, 04:08:03 AM
Hate my shoulder so damn much right now.
Want to sleep so badly, but every time I try lying down, pain shoots through my side regardless of the position I try taking. Probably going to be like last few days where I won't fall asleep until I'm just too exhausted to care about pain and then feel sleep deprived for the rest of the day. Not sure how I'm gonna manage once work starts up on monday.
Don't recall it being this bad the last time I had to deal with a frozen shoulder (I think it was 7-8 years back), though it might be because this time it's my left shoulder and I'm a lefty, so I'm feeling it a lot more.
It's actually been tolerable during the day for the most part since the first chiropractor visit, it's just when I want to lie down that I'm -really- noticing it.
*sigh* Not off to a good start, 2017.
Mine freezes up every once in a while. Usually I grab my brother and a stick from outside. Bite down on stick, have brother wrench shoulder around until I get my full range of motion back.
Does it hurt? Like you wouldn't believe.
Does it work? You betcha. Relief is near instant.
Pretty sure I'd somehow manage to just screw my arm up more if I tried that (I have very little faith in my luck to such things), so I'll stick to the more time consuming and expensive way. If nothing else, I haven't had the problem again with my right shoulder since that time 7-8 years ago so that'd be encouraging.
I'll be over here with my money and lack of pain, waiting for you to change your mind.
THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH MY LEFT EYE
Quote from: Yuthirin on January 18, 2017, 12:49:56 PM
THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH MY LEFT EYE
Go to the fucking doctor ASAP. I speak from experience.
Quote from: Anastasia on January 18, 2017, 02:05:18 PM
Quote from: Yuthirin on January 18, 2017, 12:49:56 PM
THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH MY LEFT EYE
Go to the fucking doctor ASAP. I speak from experience.
I went to work instead. Scheduling appointment.
So much rain. Tired of dealing with it.
Glad I am not having body fail *eyes above*
We're having much rain here too to pair up with the body fail. >_>
Body fall? There are in fact bodies of small to medium mammals falling from the sky here in Phoenix.
All hail our new orange skinned overlord! May his tiny hands tweet all of his enemies into glorious submission.
Ye gods, I HATE UTI's. Seems like after I got off the antibiotics my body was all, 'hey, howzabout a bladder infection?' and my immune system was like, 'sweet! when do we start?'
Paaaain.
Bad pain bad pain baaaaaaaaaaaaad. Condolences, I've heard horror stories.
Aren't you supposed to drink cranberry juice?
I have cranberry pills, which work a bit better unless you have the horrible tasting concentrated stuff, plus less sugar than the juice cocktails. Also I have painkillers and apple cider vinegar. The pain is down a bit, but I feel like was punched in the kidneys and it burns when I pee, so tonight is horrible and I have work in the morning. Hopefully I'll be better by then, but for now I'm drinking a LOT of water, which compounds the misery but is the only way to get better.
I know, I know, TMI. Sorry.
For reasons unknown, I also have a splitting headache.
Eh, at worst, that just means someone can make a post in this thread bitching about TMI.
Violently sick at 2am. :(
That sucks. Something you ate, maybe?
As long as it's not food poisoning. That's when it all gets horribly miserable.
Been pretty flu-sick all week. Feeling better today at least.
New sickness strikes. First stomach flu, now other end nastyness
Sounds like a norovirus.
Yep. At least those work through you and are done, nasty as they are.
I shouldn't have trusted that fart.
Tax season. Though hey, actually have all of my stuff now it seems.
My uncle died on Friday. This is okay.
My brother flew back to Chicago for the funeral. While there, he learned that my aunt took several hundred (!) selfies with my very recently-deceased uncle's corpse, posing him in various ways.
I have no idea what emotion I'm supposed to feel here.
My gut hunch is maybe it's just coping and trying to make some last memories? Hard to say without knowing the people involved.
The Patriots won. :(
Also, Yuth, I agree with Ana on that.
Nope, was wrong. They weren't selfies. Just random poses around the nursing home. She also told my father that she wished he was also dead at the funeral. She said she wants the inheritance money all for herself. Woo.
Ugh.
Well, that's horrible.
Yeah it's something.
Knives are sharp as my arm finds out unfortunately.
Well I've been added to my family's car insurance, so my rent has gone up $100. time to find a new job!
Quote from: Rukatin on February 25, 2017, 04:51:03 PM
Well I've been added to my family's car insurance, so my rent has gone up $100. time to find a new job!
...but on the plus side, you passed your driver's test a few days ago! You can drive yourself to your potential new jobs!
My work life balance has been kinda crap lately. Also, contractors are fucking pushy. Seriously, "if you don't accept us for the job this second, we will never accept your job" "Alright, goodbye."
They cold call, they bitch when they're over here, they suggest tearing out my entire back wall and replacing the entire deck area (Because that won't be much more expensive), and then do a 'hey we'll send a designer over, but only if you sign with us right now'. Fuckers.
Also hate writing reviews. I suck at it.
Quote from: Dracos on February 25, 2017, 05:12:47 PM
My work life balance has been kinda crap lately. Also, contractors are fucking pushy. Seriously, "if you don't accept us for the job this second, we will never accept your job" "Alright, goodbye."
They cold call, they bitch when they're over here, they suggest tearing out my entire back wall and replacing the entire deck area (Because that won't be much more expensive), and then do a 'hey we'll send a designer over, but only if you sign with us right now'. Fuckers.
Also hate writing reviews. I suck at it.
I dunno, all you needed to do was put a name in there for reference and that would have been a pretty solid review.
Quote from: Dracos on February 25, 2017, 05:12:47 PM
My work life balance has been kinda crap lately. Also, contractors are fucking pushy. Seriously, "if you don't accept us for the job this second, we will never accept your job" "Alright, goodbye."
They cold call, they bitch when they're over here, they suggest tearing out my entire back wall and replacing the entire deck area (Because that won't be much more expensive), and then do a 'hey we'll send a designer over, but only if you sign with us right now'. Fuckers.
Also hate writing reviews. I suck at it.
Ahaha, contractors. They are satan.
Quote from: Dracos on February 25, 2017, 05:12:47 PMAlso hate writing reviews. I suck at it.
I really like your reviews.
Write your reviews of people ECB style, Drac. What could go wrong?
Quote from: Merc on February 26, 2017, 11:19:28 AM
Write your reviews of people ECB style, Drac. What could go wrong?
Quote from: Yuthirin on February 25, 2017, 07:01:24 PM
Quote from: Dracos on February 25, 2017, 05:12:47 PM
My work life balance has been kinda crap lately. Also, contractors are fucking pushy. Seriously, "if you don't accept us for the job this second, we will never accept your job" "Alright, goodbye."
They cold call, they bitch when they're over here, they suggest tearing out my entire back wall and replacing the entire deck area (Because that won't be much more expensive), and then do a 'hey we'll send a designer over, but only if you sign with us right now'. Fuckers.
Also hate writing reviews. I suck at it.
Ahaha, contractors. They are satan.
Also almost every one of them decides at some point to repeatedly ask what I do in order to make shitty analogies and indicate 'they know construction' and so I should trust them to handle the details. Of course they do, if they didn't why would I be wasting time even talking with them? That doesn't mean I don't want to know what the details are.
Quote from: Dracos on February 27, 2017, 06:54:53 PM
Quote from: Yuthirin on February 25, 2017, 07:01:24 PM
Quote from: Dracos on February 25, 2017, 05:12:47 PM
My work life balance has been kinda crap lately. Also, contractors are fucking pushy. Seriously, "if you don't accept us for the job this second, we will never accept your job" "Alright, goodbye."
They cold call, they bitch when they're over here, they suggest tearing out my entire back wall and replacing the entire deck area (Because that won't be much more expensive), and then do a 'hey we'll send a designer over, but only if you sign with us right now'. Fuckers.
Also hate writing reviews. I suck at it.
Ahaha, contractors. They are satan.
Also almost every one of them decides at some point to repeatedly ask what I do in order to make shitty analogies and indicate 'they know construction' and so I should trust them to handle the details. Of course they do, if they didn't why would I be wasting time even talking with them? That doesn't mean I don't want to know what the details are.
They also want to know how much money you can make so they can inflate prices. This is a known thing that I deal with every day.
Yeah, saying 'my budget is this' still results in people repeatedly going 'ah, don't worry about that. It'll be (Number less than budget)... (number closer) (budget) (above budget)..."
Or variations on casually talking about numbers above my budget. I presume its an assumption that since I'm a programmer, my budget is fake, and I have magically have tremendous amounts of money to show up.
Or that as soon as they speak well above my budget without a "This project won't work, because it will cost this much" included, I stop listening and want to show them the door :(
Quote from: Yuthirin on February 27, 2017, 05:19:19 PM
Quote from: Merc on February 26, 2017, 11:19:28 AM
Write your reviews of people ECB style, Drac. What could go wrong?
I almost did this to a doc writer today. I probably need to chill out.
And toss that guy through a wall.
Maybe a bit of both!
Man today sucked. Another engineer had been making 'improvements' to the git hooks which had introduced subtle issues throughout the whole workforce over the last couple of weeks since his last one. Last night they got to the point that they were taking down all of production. I was kinda exhausted, so after staying a bit late getting tech ops in front of things, I headed out... to find this morning that they decided the hooks were the problem. Alright, that's our area... I look at it... and fiddle, and suddenly it's way faster. So put it in. Yay. Then there's more issues. Over the day the script sped up around 1000ish times from sometimes going tens of minutes to .3 seconds. The original culprit (who doesn't report to me so I have to have someone else smack him) was on vacation the whole week of course.
Where the stupid thing had been the last time I looked at it. So much for taking care of the work I needed to today...oh wait, had to make sure that happened too ...Naw, just kidding. Instead I had a sudden release have to get built and ready to go out because a bug was in our current testing one and our business partner needed to see a demo. On friday. "Yes, wednesday afternoon is plenty of notice you fucktards."
Half my team is on vacation. A major conference is going on in town. Of course people are excessively troublesome now.
So yeah, chill out :)
You should smite them ECB-style! Professionally, of course.
Welp, I think my nexus 5x is bricked. It froze, restarted, and kept restarting. I can't get past the google logo =/
Quote from: DY on March 06, 2017, 04:21:08 PM
Welp, I think my nexus 5x is bricked. It froze, restarted, and kept restarting. I can't get past the google logo =/
Sucks. My brother's Nexus did that. It also overheated constantly.
I'm hoping I can somehow fix it but it's not looking too likely. Time to place a call to google customer service I think.
Did you do a hard reset?
Yea, tried all the possible solutions. I could get into the recovery menu a few times to do a cache wipe and then a factory reset but still no dice. Now I can't even get into the recovery menu. I talked to customer service a couple days ago and they're sending me a new phone even though I'm out of the warranty period by a few months, which I really appreciate.
Bleh interviewing folks that don't really cut it.
*still needs to hire a couple more people. His PM is already booking out 2018 on the current rate of work for the team*
I think I'm becoming an ideologue...and I have no idea if I should try to prevent it or not.
How so, Kaldrak? What's gotten you there?
Quote from: Anastasia on March 17, 2017, 02:58:38 PM
How so, Kaldrak? What's gotten you there?
You really want to know? Okay, long post incoming.
For most of my life I've been almost completely apolitical. I didn't really care who was in the White House or which party was in the majority in congress or the senate. I was peripherally aware of who was the president and actively avoided reading the news most of the time. I figured that life was depressing enough without reading a bunch of shit that was only going to make me feel worse about everything. And then...then about two years ago I started watching comedians in an attempt to battle my chronic depression. Most of them weren't political pundits, but one of them....
Yeah, I started watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart right near the end of his run. It was like magic, I swear. He was hilarious, but more than that, he informed me of so many things that I had no idea were really going on. I looked up the information I watched on the show and started reading two Newspapers every day. USA Today and the Washington Post. This was right when the presidential primaries were starting to heat up in the summer of 2015. God, I STILL can't believe how long that shit campaign ran for. Almost year and a half before the actual election? Madness....
This has been one of the worst experiences of my life, honestly. Becoming politically aware during one of the most divisive presidential campaigns we've ever had? And I suddenly realized I was a liberal? Ye gods. I was raised getting spoonfed right wing conservative ideals from my church every weekend. Ridding myself of the right wing programming has taken years and shaken my faith until it almost broke, but here I am, unsure of almost everything except what I HATE.
Anyway, that whole 'election' thing happened and I realized that I was in an ideological bubble. I said to myself, 'they must not see him the way I do, or else no one would've voted for him.' So I tried to find out what the other side believes. Tried to understand. I entered the conservative ideological bubble online and looked around. It's...alien there. Some mix of libertarianism/conservatism and what I can only call worship of capitalism. Whatever religion they profess to believe in, it is Christianity in name only. How can people who so loudly claim to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, proclaim greed for the sake of greed as righteous, holy, and inviolable? Of course, they don't
say this, but it's the end result of what they do, so it really doesn't matter at all what they say.
And the seething hatred directed towards the Left and liberals in particular seems endless. No one wants to reach out to the other side and I feel like I'm caught between a rock and a hard place. On the Left you have the Social Justice Warriors who refuse to allow opposing opinions and who condemn everyone who challenges them as racist and bigoted. On the Right you have a legion of people who loudly support Republican politicians who seem to me to be an almost comical level of mustache twirling evil.
The contempt burns.
And the president? The president is a goddamn Captain Planet villain. Other than my unhappiness with his personality and character, there's almost no issue that I agree with Trump on, or, for that matter, almost any other Republican politician today. He's not really doing anything all that strange. It's a standard Right Wing agenda that will boost the rich and squeeze the poor and middle class, just like Republican presidents in the past, leading back to the insane idea that 'trickle down economics' somehow works and benefits the poor in some goddamn way.
So...so here I am. I can agree with no man or woman on the other side with the little 'R' next to their name. Which...I have to figure is how some of them got to be where they are, only with the side's flipped.
Fuck me, this sucks.
The collective will of the USA has stated that they don't want a politician in charge of the nation. Now we're finding out what that means! The good news is that this probably will never happen again, and that we've only got like 3.75 more years of it.
Did it really? meh, I don't like it here but we added another to the rare collection of those that won more of the vote and lost the election anyway. An event that's only happened twice in the last 20+ elections, both in my lifetime and both to the same group. Oddly enough it's a group that was founded a couple hundred years ago precisely because that happened (Andrew Jackson having had that basically happen there).
Either way, most people don't vote on principle, though we'll all lie about it. We vote on Team. The team that those around us vote for and that our parents voted for for the most part. The team that reached out and gave a first good impression and villainized the other. We vote on stories of monsters, we keep crooks in charge, we politely entertain folks that screw people over. The US of today is a pretty Tribal place.
But most of the time that doesn't matter. I mean excepting those who want to show off really repugnant beliefs and when really monsterous political action happens...we're largely resilient against massive changes and most people can be perfectly friendly, good natured, polite, and funny while voting for other team.
Sure, many of 'em like living in an echo chamber. Internet is great for that. But outside of a few tens of thousands of rabid animals, most are quite civilized. So why think of them as monsters? They're neighbors. And most the time, they really aren't all that bad.
My problem isn't really with the voters, though you're probably right about them. It's with the politicians.
Anyway, I'm done ranting. Talk with you all later.
Yeah, that's fairly heavy stuff and I've been debating how to reply to it.
Best advice I can give you is to hang in there and talk to people. It's better to relate to others than bottling it all up.
Thanks. Sorry for all the politics.
Got tired of Firefox getting stally lately. Something they probably screwed up in the last dozen updates or so but it has always had the problem. It's also been piece by piece destroying features that I like that chrome doesn't have.
Trying chrome again, which uses 3-4 times as much memory, but so far doesn't pull a 'hey, I know we're running on a massively powerful hardware, but we're gonna have framerate problems showing a youtube video while we sputter around 2 GB of ram'.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASTRESS
Yeah, firefox has been having issues for me lately, but I don't like changing browsers.
Quote from: Yuthirin on April 14, 2017, 07:44:51 PM
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASTRESS
I think about you as a person, writing this, and feel a great deal of sympathy for you.
I think about your avatar saying this, and think it's freaking hilarious.
I'm so conflicted.
I appear to have contracted strep throat.
My last week has sucked majorly.
Alright. I have been in the process of getting my own car, and was lucky enough to have my older brother give me his old one.
Unfortunately it had a myriad of problems. I had to pay 800 to get a fuel pump to the engine fixed, and it ran fine for a couple of days.
But just now when I tried to take it out to go to work, it started swerving all over the place. I got out and took a look, and both the front wheels were pointed inwards. The turning do-hickey that kept the wheels aligned broke. More money to spend.
And now the fucking transmission broke.
Ouch :(
Double ouch. Cars, the money pit.
It so fucking frustrating too. I don't want to rely on my parents to give me rides to work on constantly borrow their cars. I was even starting to look at schools so I could get a better paying job than the one I have.
Woke up in screaming pain from sleeping on my lower back wrong. Again. I need a new mattress.
Quote from: Jason_Miao on April 15, 2017, 12:19:06 AM
Quote from: Yuthirin on April 14, 2017, 07:44:51 PM
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASTRESS
I think about you as a person, writing this, and feel a great deal of sympathy for you.
I think about your avatar saying this, and think it's freaking hilarious.
I'm so conflicted.
Legit made me laugh, thanks Jason.
Quote from: Anastasia on April 22, 2017, 07:08:06 AM
Woke up in screaming pain from sleeping on my lower back wrong. Again. I need a new mattress.
Uhhhhhhhh did it feel like you were being stabbed? Like right in the small of your back, offset from your spine? Cuz if so, that's a kidney stone dude. Especially if it won't go away.
Quote from: Yuthirin on April 22, 2017, 06:25:07 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on April 22, 2017, 07:08:06 AM
Woke up in screaming pain from sleeping on my lower back wrong. Again. I need a new mattress.
Uhhhhhhhh did it feel like you were being stabbed? Like right in the small of your back, offset from your spine? Cuz if so, that's a kidney stone dude. Especially if it won't go away.
That, or there's a pea underneath the mattress.
Nah, it's not that. One aspect of my pain problems is that sometimes part of my body just goes crazy. It's more muscular than anything else. Like back around Election Day, one my hamstrings went bad for a few weeks. Getting up was absolute agony, though it wasn't so bad once I loosened it up. In this case it's a mix of my bed being bad hitting one of those flare ups on my side.
First major step towards ultimately losing my health insurance got voted through today.
Think I'm going to go lay down.
:(
Aand my graduate school research experience will end this September. Time to climb out of the radioactive ashes of academic pipe dreams and find a job and social life.
*trepidation*
It's not that the past two years have been bad, on paper, but somehow they have managed to be far more painful than the prior four years.
Didn't work out? Tough break man, but at least you have a degree and a career lined up. (I hope.)
Degree yes, career lined up is half-and-half. I'll definitely find some job, question is -- will I find a better job than what I had before, or was the two years spent on this just a pointless detour? I did learn useful stuff by-the-by and expand my horizons about cloud computing issues, which would have significantly increased the range of things I could have done at Previous Workplace (turning it into a much much better job for me). Previous Workplace was not at all a bad place, especially when I contrast it to nonsensical academic goals/politics. Though it's not clear if they are willing/able to have me back at this point. Old team lead would be delighted but is not the final decider on it.
By and large, grad school was definitely a "how the sausage gets made" experience. The trajectory was rather in line with the first year of this guy's epic PhD quest: http://pgbovine.net/PhD-memoir/pguo-PhD-grind.pdf The difference is that the professor was far less of a slave driver and I was pulling my weight from Day 1 instead of being relegated to busy-work (when that guy was told "get our extravagantly buggy software to run on 100 kernel drivers!"... *shudder*). The project was still bollocks though and they were still trying to brute force their way past an exponential-scale problem, almost exactly like the KLEE project in PhD Grind. (We were even working on a related problem area as the KLEE guys!) Then I came up with their breakthrough idea, which the supervisor had a different student to use as the centerpiece of his PhD proposal presentation. That succeeded in pissing me off.
(Incidentally, my breakthrough idea didn't make the project stop being bollocks, only made it feasible enough to write a paper about. Not to use in the real world.)
For the second year I was splitting my time between the professor's bollocks project, and my own project (which I will defend my thesis on and release as open source this fall), but which I had almost no support on. Such huge huge values disconnect, such misjudgment on my part of what I was getting into.
Anyways, that's my rant.
Damn.
Daaaaamn.
I thought basic, entry level college was bad enough for stupid stuff, but there you go.
I basically abandoned grad school midway. Still got the degree but decided I preferred work politics to school ones. And the pay. Pay was better than theory. It sounds like you got screwed, but screwed for two years rather than five or seven.
Hopefully you get your footing again and move onwards.
Car buying sucks. It is seriously stressing me out. Not being ripped off for thousands... argh! Any tips from anybody?
Sorry. I only have done it once ever. It sucks :(
Carmax.
I moved to the desert to get away from my allergies.
Little did I know that stupid people decided to move here and, thinking there were not enough green things, PLANTED A BUNCH OF PLANTS THAT CAUSE ALLERGIES. Millions of dollars are spent each year keeping these plants alive in the desert.
It's unbelievable.
Nothing like falling asleep soon after work and waking up sore. Grumble, grumble.
Allergies are getting me this year. Gotta make sure to take medicine.
Had quite the scare this morning. It was raining hard and was going down a (gradual) hill at a speed that might've been over the limit, and came to an intersection just as the light turned yellow. So I braked hard, and experienced what hydro-planing was! Luckily there was only one other car at the intersection.
Holiday over. Back to work.
Well, my rent just increased.
It's something I find particularly puzzling. The house hasn't really gotten any better, it's not suddenly a nicer place to live, but it now costs more to rent, which probably means the taxes increased or something and it's worth more.
So it goes with costs. They always increase and if they go down people start screaming about how something is terribly wrong and that the economy is crashing down around our ears or an industry is going belly up or somesuch.
Somewhere, people are making a lot of money, but I'm sure as hell not. I don't really understand these things.
Got rear ended today. Well, my parents were, I was just in the car with them.
Three car chain. We were stopped because a car with a boat on a trailer was pulling out into the lake-front and a teen washing paying attention and slammed into the SUV behind us, which pushed it into us enough to create a big dent in the trunk.
Everyone was fine though, the teen's car got totaled though.
Man, both of the last two suck. At least no one was hurt in that car crash.
From my own corner of the world, I have a friction burn on the back of my foot, just above my heel. My sock apparently clung wrong and owwww.
Glad everyone's okay Ruk. Car crashes terrify me.
Quote from: Kaldrak on June 03, 2017, 06:27:39 PM
Glad everyone's okay Ruk. Car crashes terrify me.
It's funny, because this was the second time I've been the passenger in a rear-end collision, and as I have the tendancy of 'checking out' during car rides, all I feel is a harsh jerk and then I'm wondering why's everyone getting out of the car.
Guess who got a ticket on their way to work? This guy...
Damn dude, that is rough!
Some weeks just suck, yeah. How bad a ticket?
Quote from: Anastasia on June 05, 2017, 09:06:14 PM
Some weeks just suck, yeah. How bad a ticket?
Eh, not too bad I don't think? I didn't get rung up for a speeding ticket because the cop noted that it was my first time ever getting pulled over, and the fact that I was polite and honest about the fact I was speeding. So I think I got 'disorderly conduct with a vehicle' no point off my license, just 187 dollar fine.
Rolling software out to people that have been living on a bunch of hacks forever and want to keep them is a pain. Sure many of them are grateful, but the ones that whiiine.... "I am trying...trying hard to give a shit about what's coming out of your mouth. It's so hard. Oh wait, the people being nice have a problem? Let me go help *them*."
Burned my thumb pretty badly in a smores/campfire incident which involved me trying to move an unburned log.
WOE! SADNESS! ANGUISH!
I'm rapidly getting sick.
Would explain why I saw you online at 5 AM your time, was wondering. Hope you shake it off, man. Sick sucks.
So does burning your hand. Owwww.
The 5 am thing is because I am ALSO working 12 hour shifts this week.
Nothing like greeting 5 AM by being stomach sick in the bathroom.
My Comcast wireless connection is causing 80% of URLs to timeout before pageload.
For example, I can connect to Google, but not any Google search results.
Why.
Oh! Almost forgot to mention. I had my wisdom teeth taken out today! I had three on them.
The only problem I have so far that I can only eat soft foods and no soda. Thus far I have subsided on pudding, gatorade and Mac & Cheese.
Quote from: KLSymph on June 16, 2017, 11:19:20 PM
My Comcast wireless connection is causing 80% of URLs to timeout before pageload.
Unsurprisingly, there are even further infinite degrees of internet badness:
https://danluu.com/web-bloat/ (https://danluu.com/web-bloat/)
Why oh why did I add red pepper to spaghetti sauce when I know it bothers my stomach? Ugh.
HE'S ALIVE
Quote from: Yuthirin on June 30, 2017, 08:02:57 PM
HE'S ALIVE
I also forgot to post today is a B5 make up day, my bad. If you see this any time soon, I'll do some evening posting at the normal time.
We have 40 guests. That's kinda bs. Guess the bots are out in force today.
I kinda whammied myself running about yesterday. Probably good for me but feel like crap at the moment. Bleeeh.
I have spent most of the last week packing and moving all of my worldly possessions.
Am tired.
Hot Italian sausage potato chips = stomach pain and burning in the middle of the night. I should have seen this one coming.
Quote from: Anastasia on July 14, 2017, 05:24:29 AM
Hot Italian sausage potato chips = stomach pain and burning in the middle of the night. I should have seen this one coming.
The combination of the disparate elements in what you just described sounds terribly unappealing to me, but I hope you feel better, man.
Somedays I feel like I've forgotten how to yammer.
Quote from: Kaldrak on July 15, 2017, 04:18:15 AM
Quote from: Anastasia on July 14, 2017, 05:24:29 AM
Hot Italian sausage potato chips = stomach pain and burning in the middle of the night. I should have seen this one coming.
The combination of the disparate elements in what you just described sounds terribly unappealing to me, but I hope you feel better, man.
They were far better than they had any right to be, too. Go figure that one.
My toe is infected and doing anything hurts. Including doing nothing.
Ew. At least you live in a world with anti biotics.
my wrist is still sore from falling off my bike and it bothers me, since everything in life was great until that moment
Clearly Rat's problems are without equal. A new epoch has begun for Carthrat, the 'post wrist injury' era, where all becomes grimmer and sadder.
Did you like sprain it or something? I think you did this a week or two ago? That sort of lingering pain can mean a doc visit's a good idea, in case something went really wrong.
Was it just me or was the forum not available yesterday? Couldn't load it at all.
Quote from: Kaldrak on July 19, 2017, 12:27:26 AM
Was it just me or was the forum not available yesterday? Couldn't load it at all.
Server issues, Drac and Rez got them fixed.
Quote from: Anastasia on July 19, 2017, 12:27:47 AMServer issues, Drac and Rez got them fixed.
Oh, that's good. Was concerned for a bit, there.
Quote from: Kaldrak on July 19, 2017, 12:27:26 AM
Was it just me or was the forum not available yesterday? Couldn't load it at all.
servers fall down go boom
Moved the washing machine and dryer out of the old place. During the process, I must have put the full weight of the washer on my left arm somehow.
Hurts now.
A lot.
Stuffed steak pizza was a mistake. A MISTAKE.
My air conditioner stopped working just now. It made a very loud noise, and then stopped blowing cold air. It's 11:54 PM. I live in Phoenix Arizona. I no longer have air conditioning.
Quote from: Yuthirin on July 25, 2017, 03:55:37 AM
My air conditioner stopped working just now. It made a very loud noise, and then stopped blowing cold air. It's 11:54 PM. I live in Phoenix Arizona. I no longer have air conditioning.
I replaced mine recently. You have one of those big window units or a portable one with an attachable hose?
I have neither of those. I'm pretty sure those are what you sell to people who don't live in the desert.
Quote from: Yuthirin on July 26, 2017, 01:55:51 PM
I have neither of those. I'm pretty sure those are what you sell to people who don't live in the desert.
I'll bite, what do you have?
An actual air conditioner. Condenser mounted outside on a concrete block, cooling unit inside. Permanently installed in the walls.
Do you guys not have those? O-o
AC in the window. We used to have central air, but it broke in the 90s and we could never afford to fix it.
I live in a place where it's unnecessary most the year, so most houses don't have them.
Quote from: Anastasia on July 27, 2017, 01:42:35 PM
AC in the window. We used to have central air, but it broke in the 90s and we could never afford to fix it.
That's awful.
Quote from: Dracos on July 28, 2017, 12:31:04 AM
I live in a place where it's unnecessary most the year, so most houses don't have them.
Yeah but you also live in the most expensive state in the union.
Half awake at one AM to take the dog out, Mom also is up and mentions 'ooops, family's coming in the morning need to clean up'. 1 AM cleanigyupso9ghnew gju3ne 90ige80hg33g9h3g3g 'ge
AGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHH.
Was on my way to getting a perfect 12-0 arena run on Hearthstone, my very first one if I managed it. Just needed to win one more game...
So of course, the last game despite me completely controlling the match, a random generation effect summoned a Bittertide Hydra on my side. That's hearthstone for you. You roll the dice, and anything can happen.
For clarity, that's a 5-mana 8/8 minion that's overstatted for its cost...at the price of doing 3 damage to your hero each time it takes damage. The opponent immediately played Volcano, a spell that does 15 damage total...1 damage at a time. Which of course kills it, doing 24 damage to me. And it put me at 2 health.
I had a fairly aggressive deck and had to turn my gameplan into a control game to try and recover. Somehow I still managed to mostly recover getting back up to 12 health, him down to 11 health, and seemingly turn things around so I cleared his board while having small minions on my side and him not having any cards in hand.
Would have been fantastic turn around to win on...except I ALSO didn't have any cards in hand.
And quite unfortunately the heart of the cards was with the other guy. He got the better draws and took back control of the game after seven exhausting turns where I was just praying for my finisher card which I didn't draw.
For all that, it was still a fantastic and exhausting game. Would have been nice to get that 12-0 dream for me, but oh well.
Though seriously, fuck Bittertide Hydra.
Quote from: Merc on July 29, 2017, 05:30:28 PM
Was on my way to getting a perfect 12-0 arena run on Hearthstone, my very first one if I managed it. Just needed to win one more game...
So of course, the last game despite me completely controlling the match, a random generation effect summoned a Bittertide Hydra on my side. That's hearthstone for you. You roll the dice, and anything can happen.
For clarity, that's a 5-mana 8/8 minion that's overstatted for its cost...at the price of doing 3 damage to your hero each time it takes damage. The opponent immediately played Volcano, a spell that does 15 damage total...1 damage at a time. Which of course kills it, doing 24 damage to me. And it put me at 2 health.
I had a fairly aggressive deck and had to turn my gameplan into a control game to try and recover. Somehow I still managed to mostly recover getting back up to 12 health, him down to 11 health, and seemingly turn things around so I cleared his board while having small minions on my side and him not having any cards in hand.
Would have been fantastic turn around to win on...except I ALSO didn't have any cards in hand.
And quite unfortunately the heart of the cards was with the other guy. He got the better draws and took back control of the game after seven exhausting turns where I was just praying for my finisher card which I didn't draw.
For all that, it was still a fantastic and exhausting game. Would have been nice to get that 12-0 dream for me, but oh well.
Though seriously, fuck Bittertide Hydra.
Never got into Hearthstone. Is it similar to MtG?
Yeah its like pretty much just another TCG. It has its own variations and takes advantage of the digital format to do things you can't do with a physical TCG or that would be cumbersome in that format, but generally tries to be a simpler card game barring allowances from the digital format. Rather than lands, it has a fixed mana resource that starts at 1 and increases by 1 each turn up to 10, for example.
It does also have a more humorous or at least non-serious feel to it. Its why it emphasizes a lot of RNG effects compared to other games, so you can get absurd swings like the one I mentioned above.
I'm not entirely sure how or why they have an esport for it given the sheer randomness that can occur honestly. There's definitely a strategy to it, but I've seen people screwed over horribly/saved by RNG in tournaments and having that happen with a ton of money on the line is weird to me.
Sounds interesting. Maybe I'll check it out.
It's also free! Ish!
Last expansion was kinda bad about the free'ish aspect since it had a lot of Legendaries and a really crappy rate on them.
For the next expansion they're promising to do a lot better and it comes out in about 2-3 weeks. Now's a good time to start as well as there's that arena promotion to get free packs from next expansion.
Expansion tomorrow! Hope it doesn't suck!
It'll be like any expansion. Exciting for a month, occasionally amusing/interesting the next month, and stale for two until the next expansion comes out.
I like that you'll be gauranteed at least 1 legendary death knight and one more within ten packs so it should be more interesting from a free-to-play player's perspective. Hopefully.
More grad school stupidity:
"Oh, you were under the impression you were going to get co-first author credit based on the thing I said last summer about getting co-first author credit? I'm very sorry.
Well, I agree you played an absolutely pivotal role in making it possible to finish this paper (indeed, we wouldn't have been able to make it into Conference X without your idea that replaced our entire old approach with something else), but I just don't see how you merit co-first-author. Second author is more appropriate. Your participation in the final push lacked leadership and commitment; it's clear your heart wasn't in it. Frankly, I'm very disappointed that you even brought up the question of authorship credit. Really, I don't like politics, and I think of myself as a very generous person. But only stupid and/or uncreative people fight about author credit. You should be bigger and more ambitious than this! Look at Wall {gestures to a whiteboard labeled "wall of real world impact" listing open source projects cajoled into using research group's prior software} -- pretty sure {new project, which I'm currently finishing up alone} will be up on Wall long before {the paper we just published} yields real-world results. You are extremely talented and creative, and you will be able to publish lots more papers, much more significant than this paper. I definitely think you are potential faculty material. Hope you decide to continue PhD with me."
Note: the significant part isn't the author credit (the difference between second author and co-first author [in the second position] is a glorified gold star as far as academia is concerned), it's the manner in which the supervisor handles being questioned about it. (FWIW, the actual conversation had a lot more refusal-to-be-pinned-down-to-a-straight-answer.)
My attitude for the next couple months (that I will need to defend Masters thesis) has been upgraded from "maybe my temperament isn't suited for handling this environment" to "don't make any sudden motions that might anger the bear, but prepare to run the **** away".
So, Saturday night my beloved little cat, Tsunami, has an allergy attack. This usually consists of her throwing up, then drooling a bunch, then sneezing and being unable to breathe through her nose. Though this used to cause me a great deal of concern, they usually only happen when the weather changes and she gets over it after a day or so.
But this time, she started sneezing up blood.
This is...disconcerting, to say the least. I became rather alarmed, but as it's Saturday/Sunday, there's not a damn vet open except the stupid pet emergency place that charges three to four times the amount of any other vet in town, because fuck weekends, vets don't work weekends. So every time her nosebleed stops, she sneezes and then sprays blood all over the place in a nice little sneeze pattern on my floor, bedcovers, PS3,(she has a little hidey hole down where it's hooked up) you name it. And then it starts bleeding slowly again.
Gross. And alarming. Very very alarming.
Now, Tsunami is fifteen years old. I understand that she's not going to be around forever, but I would really like to keep my animal companion that I've had with me for the last seven years. I consult the internet, which tells me that it could be all kinds of horrible, potentially life threatening illnesses...or just dry air/some kind of blockage in her nose.
As my cat is a Persian/Himalayan mix, she has kind of a squished face, though it's not completely flat due to her odd genetics, which as a purebred, she should not be the unique combination of colors that she is. But anyway, due to the structure of their face that means they usually have breathing problems. Mostly she's okay, but when your cat can't breathe out of its nose, it's an absolutely pathetic, wretched creature.
So I was going to take her to the vet today, till my ride came down with diarrhea at the last minute and suddenly that wasn't happening.
Her nose seems to have stopped bleeding now and she's not sneezing anymore, plus she's still eating, drinking, has energy, and is purring again, so I'm cautiously optimistic that she won't wake me up at three in the morning with her nose bleeding again, making heart wrenching 'help me I can't breathe' noises and sneezing at me.
I do however, have a lot of bloody snot spatter to clean up now.
Quote from: Arakawa on August 09, 2017, 10:55:40 PM
More grad school stupidity:
"Oh, you were under the impression you were going to get co-first author credit based on the thing I said last summer about getting co-first author credit? I'm very sorry.
Well, I agree you played an absolutely pivotal role in making it possible to finish this paper (indeed, we wouldn't have been able to make it into Conference X without your idea that replaced our entire old approach with something else), but I just don't see how you merit co-first-author. Second author is more appropriate. Your participation in the final push lacked leadership and commitment; it's clear your heart wasn't in it. Frankly, I'm very disappointed that you even brought up the question of authorship credit. Really, I don't like politics, and I think of myself as a very generous person. But only stupid and/or uncreative people fight about author credit. You should be bigger and more ambitious than this! Look at Wall {gestures to a whiteboard labeled "wall of real world impact" listing open source projects cajoled into using research group's prior software} -- pretty sure {new project, which I'm currently finishing up alone} will be up on Wall long before {the paper we just published} yields real-world results. You are extremely talented and creative, and you will be able to publish lots more papers, much more significant than this paper. I definitely think you are potential faculty material. Hope you decide to continue PhD with me."
Note: the significant part isn't the author credit (the difference between second author and co-first author [in the second position] is a glorified gold star as far as academia is concerned), it's the manner in which the supervisor handles being questioned about it. (FWIW, the actual conversation had a lot more refusal-to-be-pinned-down-to-a-straight-answer.)
My attitude for the next couple months (that I will need to defend Masters thesis) has been upgraded from "maybe my temperament isn't suited for handling this environment" to "don't make any sudden motions that might anger the bear, but prepare to run the **** away".
There just seems to be so much pettiness involved. I don't really get why there is. Is it just the environment?
Quote from: Kaldrak on August 14, 2017, 08:48:09 PM
So, Saturday night my beloved little cat, Tsunami, has an allergy attack. This usually consists of her throwing up, then drooling a bunch, then sneezing and being unable to breathe through her nose. Though this used to cause me a great deal of concern, they usually only happen when the weather changes and she gets over it after a day or so.
But this time, she started sneezing up blood.
This is...disconcerting, to say the least. I became rather alarmed, but as it's Saturday/Sunday, there's not a damn vet open except the stupid pet emergency place that charges three to four times the amount of any other vet in town, because fuck weekends, vets don't work weekends. So every time her nosebleed stops, she sneezes and then sprays blood all over the place in a nice little sneeze pattern on my floor, bedcovers, PS3,(she has a little hidey hole down where it's hooked up) you name it. And then it starts bleeding slowly again.
Gross. And alarming. Very very alarming.
Now, Tsunami is fifteen years old. I understand that she's not going to be around forever, but I would really like to keep my animal companion that I've had with me for the last seven years. I consult the internet, which tells me that it could be all kinds of horrible, potentially life threatening illnesses...or just dry air/some kind of blockage in her nose.
As my cat is a Persian/Himalayan mix, she has kind of a squished face, though it's not completely flat due to her odd genetics, which as a purebred, she should not be the unique combination of colors that she is. But anyway, due to the structure of their face that means they usually have breathing problems. Mostly she's okay, but when your cat can't breathe out of its nose, it's an absolutely pathetic, wretched creature.
So I was going to take her to the vet today, till my ride came down with diarrhea at the last minute and suddenly that wasn't happening.
Her nose seems to have stopped bleeding now and she's not sneezing anymore, plus she's still eating, drinking, has energy, and is purring again, so I'm cautiously optimistic that she won't wake me up at three in the morning with her nose bleeding again, making heart wrenching 'help me I can't breathe' noises and sneezing at me.
I do however, have a lot of bloody snot spatter to clean up now.
Good luck and prayers to you, man. Having a sick animal you care about is a gut wrenching thing, I've gone through it with my dogs. Just hope it's not your cat's time yet and see how it goes.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 14, 2017, 09:56:36 PMGood luck and prayers to you, man. Having a sick animal you care about is a gut wrenching thing, I've gone through it with my dogs. Just hope it's not your cat's time yet and see how it goes.
Thank you. That means a lot.
As of right now, there's no more blood coming from her nose and she seems to be doing fine. She's in good spirits and begging me for treats at the moment.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 14, 2017, 09:55:09 PM
There just seems to be so much pettiness involved. I don't really get why there is. Is it just the environment?
Eh, the advisor is using my work to prop up the more senior student (who, to be fair, was out of commission for a year due to depression and hasn't had a first author paper after 4 years -- worrying for his PhD progress) and he doesn't want to lose face by admitting this. Hence the weirdness of the conversation. If I think of it as research, it's BS; on the other hand if I think of working on that paper as a contract gig, it's interesting work (if not very useful to real people), but I could be
way better paid. The graduate student stipend at this particular university amounts to less than $15,000USD/yr (the flipside of Canadian undergrad tuition being much cheaper than the US), which further reduces the incentive to tolerate being patronized.
In general, I don't think people in graduate school are worse than people in industry, but graduate school is very effective at creating subtle conflicts of interest and have people forced to treat them as business as usual.
I really wish people would keep politics out of sports. I watch them for escapism, not to be drawn yet again into political bickering.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 20, 2017, 10:10:36 AM
I really wish people would keep politics out of sports. I watch them for escapism, not to be drawn yet again into political bickering.
The Colin Kaepernick thing or...?
Quote from: Kaldrak on August 20, 2017, 03:56:17 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on August 20, 2017, 10:10:36 AM
I really wish people would keep politics out of sports. I watch them for escapism, not to be drawn yet again into political bickering.
The Colin Kaepernick thing or...?
That, yeah.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 20, 2017, 04:42:59 PMThat, yeah.
Ah. I don't watch football, but I've heard of that.
In regards to avoiding politics...well, you can't watch late night comedians these days to do that anymore. I mean, as much as I love Colbert, Trump is pretty much almost all he ever talks about anymore. It's a ratings bonanza, so I understand why, but it just wears on you after a while. Can't seem to go anywhere or read anything without seeing Trump's face plastered all over the damn place.
Anime and video games are about it as far as I can see, for avoiding politics. Dunno about TV shows cause I watch everything online.
Yeah. It's a thing. Sometimes you want to disconnect and relax, y'know? Escapism.
(I can't really go further, SR generally has a no politics rule and most of my replies boil down to political opinions. My own fault for posting and bitching before I thought about it.)
Quote from: Anastasia on August 20, 2017, 07:44:00 PM
Yeah. It's a thing. Sometimes you want to disconnect and relax, y'know? Escapism.
(I can't really go further, SR generally has a no politics rule and most of my replies boil down to political opinions. My own fault for posting and bitching before I thought about it.)
There's a no politics rule?
Well, find me in the alps....
Had that long post all about politics a while back. Sorry again.
It's pretty informal and last came up like a decade+ ago in regards to...abortion, I think. The point of it boils down to that this is supposed to be a friendly place and politics seldom fit that.
So no harm, no foul.
Wow.
I can see how that would be a hot button topic. Anyway, you helped give me some perspective and I appreciate it.
it's not a complaint, so I'm not sure it belongs in this thread, but I have to say that this place is like an oasis of sanity and kindness on the internet.
I know I don't really do fanfiction or a lot of the other stuff you guys do around here, but I like it here a lot.
I'm glad to hear that. :)
Yeah, Drac deserves the credit for it, too. It was always his idea and he's done a good job with that vision.
Though I have to ask, if you don't do fanfiction or our other hobbies, how'd you end up here? I want to say it was Brian related but I could be wrong.
---
In other news, I'm job hunting. BLARGHDKSGJWKLGJEGKEJ. That really sums it up. It's a pleasant change of pace when I at least get a rejection email instead of nothing at all.
Politics generally tends to turn people into enemies that might otherwise be talking to each other about interesting stuff, so it's nice to have a safe space. Especially since the overall trend on the Internet is increasingly "let's push the latest controversy out to all the forums so everyone can have flame wars about it".
Passed out from stomach pain on the toilet, fell off and put my head through the wall. Messed up glasses, bloodied myself up good, terrified I provoked another retinal bleed.
I want the last hour or so back.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 21, 2017, 12:37:29 PM
Yeah, Drac deserves the credit for it, too. It was always his idea and he's done a good job with that vision.
Though I have to ask, if you don't do fanfiction or our other hobbies, how'd you end up here? I want to say it was Brian related but I could be wrong.
---
In other news, I'm job hunting. BLARGHDKSGJWKLGJEGKEJ. That really sums it up. It's a pleasant change of pace when I at least get a rejection email instead of nothing at all.
Sorry to hear that Ko, that's always unpleasant.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 21, 2017, 12:37:29 PM
Though I have to ask, if you don't do fanfiction or our other hobbies, how'd you end up here? I want to say it was Brian related but I could be wrong.
---
In other news, I'm job hunting. BLARGHDKSGJWKLGJEGKEJ. That really sums it up. It's a pleasant change of pace when I at least get a rejection email instead of nothing at all.
Yeah, Brian invited me. He wanted me to try some online roleplaying games, but it never seemed to work out. Got some other stuff in common with you guys though, I'd say.
As far as the job hunting, I'm of the firm opinion that job hunting is pure torture. When you are chronically depressed, one of the most unbearable, horrific things you can try to do is try to explain your worth to another individual. Hate doesn't even come close to the feeling I have for job hunting. Good luck to you.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 24, 2017, 06:06:20 AM
Passed out from stomach pain on the toilet, fell off and put my head through the wall. Messed up glasses, bloodied myself up good, terrified I provoked another retinal bleed.
I want the last hour or so back.
Good God, man! Are you alright?
Yeah, thanks all. Job hunting just sucks, no two ways about it.
Also yeah, I'm okay. Fluke accident all around but no permanent damage seems to have been done.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 25, 2017, 10:51:54 AMAlso yeah, I'm okay. Fluke accident all around but no permanent damage seems to have been done.
That's good. It had sounded pretty terrible at first.
It was, I may just have gotten off relatively lucky.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 25, 2017, 11:58:52 PM
Quote from: Dracos on August 25, 2017, 11:53:48 PMAnd secret of mana is getting a remake.
Wonder when that one's gonna end up in bitching.
I'm unhappy because I want Legend of Mana instead.
Rain, rain, rain, flood, flood, flood.
Quote from: Merc on August 27, 2017, 06:00:02 PM
Rain, rain, rain, flood, flood, flood.
Oh goodness.
You in Texas?
Quote from: Kaldrak on August 27, 2017, 11:22:47 PM
Oh goodness.
You in Texas?
A-yup. Houston, TX. Water level's gone up badly, can't travel anywhere. Certainly not goi g to work tomorrow.
At least haven't had tornadoes here even with some of the area warnings.
Quote from: Merc on August 28, 2017, 12:38:55 AM
A-yup. Houston, TX. Water level's gone up badly, can't travel anywhere. Certainly not goi g to work tomorrow.
At least haven't had tornadoes here even with some of the area warnings.
Aww man. That whole mess is shaping up to be worse than Katrina was. The news was saying the storm is going to stay where it is till Friday.
Good luck to you. Hope everything works out okay.
Hope your place is on high ground, Merc. Glad to see you're okay, too.
I have family in Houston. They're not doing great, but it could be worse. Stay safe, Merc.
Will do. Good luck to your family as well and hope they stay safe too.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 28, 2017, 02:01:03 AM
Hope your place is on high ground, Merc. Glad to see you're okay, too.
Not high enough from what I'm hearing on news and from neighbors.
I chatted with Hal briefly a while ago so to give an update/clarification for those concerned for me (thanks for that) - My family and I left Houston and holed up in Bellville which is halfway to Austin, so we're in relatively high ground and safe HERE as far as I can tell. We're getting hit by some bad rain and water has gotten up scarily high but not quite what Houston is getting at least.
Our homes in Houston... well I don't look forward to going home. I know some friends got a bit of water inside their homes yesterday though thankfully not much. I'm honestly more worried for the friends and family. From everything we hear, there is no way out of those areas except via boat. If they fare well and so does my family, we'll manage on any home damage and call it a win.
Got into a low speed car accident. I rear ended a person going 10 to my 25
Quote from: Rukatin on August 31, 2017, 07:40:37 PM
Got into a low speed car accident. I rear ended a person going 10 to my 25
Geez, everyone okay? What happened?
Quote from: Anastasia on September 01, 2017, 01:56:24 PM
Quote from: Rukatin on August 31, 2017, 07:40:37 PM
Got into a low speed car accident. I rear ended a person going 10 to my 25
Geez, everyone okay? What happened?
I looked to my mirror and looked back in time to see the dude in front of me had slowed down and didn't brake enough in time. No injures, just a few dents on either side and I got a 'following too close' ticket
That's gonna suck on your insurance, but at least no one was hurt.
Everywhere, there is smoke.
I do not care for this.
The Redskins start with a loss yet again.
Irma.
Also 5:30 am panicked family calls.
I worked 9 hour days on Saturday/Sunday because of project crunch time, put in a 30 hour overtime request yesterday for the week because I was fully expecting to work on friday as well.
Overtime request was rejected. I warn them that I already have 18 hours, almost half of my 40 hours complete and there's shit ton to do.
Management: "Do not work overtime."
Okay! I stayed until 10:30pm in the office today, because fuck if I'm going to spend 2+ hours driving to work just 2 hours tomorrow. I completed my 40 hours and I'm not going into the office until monday.
If something blows up...well, I stuck a very clear message on my computer screen stating that my OT was rejected, that I completed my 40 hours, and that if they need to talk to a process engineer they can talk to my coworkers.
I did send an email with my cellphone to coworkers because fuck, it's not their fault management is garbage, but I don't plan to be in the office again until Monday. I'm going to despise my email inbox come monday, but I guess I got a five day weekend ahead of me.
Quote from: Merc on September 13, 2017, 12:56:07 AM
I worked 9 hour days on Saturday/Sunday because of project crunch time, put in a 30 hour overtime request yesterday for the week because I was fully expecting to work on friday as well.
Overtime request was rejected. I warn them that I already have 18 hours, almost half of my 40 hours complete and there's shit ton to do.
Management: "Do not work overtime."
Okay! I stayed until 10:30pm in the office today, because fuck if I'm going to spend 2+ hours driving to work just 2 hours tomorrow. I completed my 40 hours and I'm not going into the office until monday.
If something blows up...well, I stuck a very clear message on my computer screen stating that my OT was rejected, that I completed my 40 hours, and that if they need to talk to a process engineer they can talk to my coworkers.
I did send an email with my cellphone to coworkers because fuck, it's not their fault management is garbage, but I don't plan to be in the office again until Monday. I'm going to despise my email inbox come monday, but I guess I got a five day weekend ahead of me.
Wow that's just...wow.
I got a phone call at 7:30am from people I'd left my cellphone to, telling me that my OT was going to get paid and to come into the office quickly.
It's 9:30am now.
I'll go to the office, but goddamn it, I'm taking my time to get there. I'm still sleepy as fuck.
More of that OT fun today at the office.
[11:02] <Kotono> Indeed. HIya Merc. No overtime today?
[11:02] <Merc> Same bullshit, yeah.
[11:02] <Merc> I'm absolutely not answering my phone today.
[11:05] <Merc> I'm glad I went into the office yesterday, because the guy that wasn't approving my OT was apparently not going to give any budget to our India office and I had to send him emails explaining a lot of the shit they do. But today? Fuck the project, I already drove into work today and they asked me what I was doing there. If they try to call me in again, I'm just going to say I'm unavailable and I'll see them monday.
Wow, that's total shit :(
A friend tried to contact me in April, after vanishing for several months. For some reason, they did it by sending a message in Skype, and I didn't open up my Skype acct for months after that. By that time the message has been deleted from 'recent' messages, and I can't figure out how to get the UI to display not recent messages (on Linux . The only way I can even tell there was a message is a quirk of the UI where the contacts list shows the date they tried to contact me.
Just sent a frantic message to try to get back in touch.
!@#$ Skype and !@#$ me.
Well, several days back I noticed a slight pain in my left leg right about knee-thigh area and checked it to see some sensitive red skin. I assumed I had twisted or pulled a muscle in my sleep, and proceeded to try an walk it off.
Fast forward to now the whole thing is swollen and I'm taking painkillers to walk. Going to the doctor first thing in the morning.
Oooow. What the doc say?
Quote from: Anastasia on September 18, 2017, 11:31:58 PM
Oooow. What the doc say?
Turns out it's a skin infection. Already on antibiotics and yogurt flavored pro-biotic gummies.
Good, glad it's nothing more serious.
Quote from: Rukatin on September 19, 2017, 02:55:44 AMTurns out it's a skin infection. Already on antibiotics and yogurt flavored pro-biotic gummies.
If it's staph and it doesn't go away, PM me. I know of some stuff that might help.
Quote from: Kaldrak on September 19, 2017, 10:37:05 PM
Quote from: Rukatin on September 19, 2017, 02:55:44 AMTurns out it's a skin infection. Already on antibiotics and yogurt flavored pro-biotic gummies.
If it's staph and it doesn't go away, PM me. I know of some stuff that might help.
I have a sheet right here from tehg ood doc that says it's cellulitus.
oh jeezus cellulitis
My mom had that once and near lost her damn leg
Quote from: Yuthirin on September 20, 2017, 07:46:17 PM
oh jeezus cellulitis
My mom had that once and near lost her damn leg
Well good news my meds are working and it just a mess of peeling skin now.
Quote from: Anastasia on August 20, 2017, 10:10:36 AM
I really wish people would keep politics out of sports. I watch them for escapism, not to be drawn yet again into political bickering.
This got about about a thousand percent worse, from what I've been reading lately.
Quote from: Kaldrak on September 27, 2017, 01:00:48 AM
Quote from: Anastasia on August 20, 2017, 10:10:36 AM
I really wish people would keep politics out of sports. I watch them for escapism, not to be drawn yet again into political bickering.
This got about about a thousand percent worse, from what I've been reading lately.
Unfortunately so.
Hopefully it blows over soon.
Quote from: Anastasia on September 27, 2017, 01:35:20 AM
Unfortunately so.
Hopefully it blows over soon.
This feels distressingly like the new normal.
Protests, protests everywhere.
Of course, it would help if a certain someone wouldn't say crazy things to make all this stuff worse, but he's never going to change, so I guess the rest of us have to in some way.
My house expansion is starting to look like it'll end up being more 170-190 than 150. My pocketbook scretches.
Also bill rush is agh.
OH BOY LAS VEGAS WHOA
Is Liddo alright? Didn't realize in time to reach out this morning.
Mwargh.
Helpful family wants to give advice and then argue about how I'm not taking it... WITHIN FIVE MINUTES WHILE THE PHONE CALL HASN'T FINISHED. They get these illusions about what's going on and spit out fine details and expect them to be relevant in the least bit. "have sub-contractors come by your house to get paid, so you can have them sign reciepts". Nobody's going to do that. Stop acting like it's a brilliant thing to ask.
Ah, family. What else can be said?
This day is over. Seriously. @_@
Today was a tweleve hour day. It is over now.
Tomorrow may be better.
I hope so, that's always miserable.
Today I kinda was snarky/rude to folks. I should do better.
Quote from: Dracos on October 10, 2017, 03:26:59 AM
Today I kinda was snarky/rude to folks. I should do better.
Me too.
It is wacky that we still generally have 60 bots sitting around a day.
Once Skynet cracks Captcha, the bot uprising shall begin. Until then, they wait.
More tales from grad school. Supervisor's politics triggering backlash from other students. I don't have a stake in it at this point (got an opening to wrangle a job for myself) but damn is it hard to watch this go down with other students who were more passive in doing what they were told.
Tomorrow I go in and fire someone to start the day.
After that message I had 3 hours of 'someone screwed up, we can't deploy, let's call build to save us'.
I picked the wrong day to apparently try to get back into Hearthstone and doing some arena.
Holy shit, what the hell were those decks I faced? And who at blizzard thought it was a good idea to make Bonemare a common card?
I thought I drafted a really nice deck, the sort that if not go 12 wins, at least get 5+ wins. But it tanked really quickly at 0-3 which I've never had happen to me before.
0-3 Arena runs REALLY suck to have happen.
My mom is in the hospital. Again. Ambulance on Thursday. Goes home friday. Ambulance again today.
I'm on the other side of the country, so a bit hard to get information, but hope they take care of her :(
Dang, sorry to hear that Dracos =(. It's never easy when a family member is hospitalized, even more so when you're so far away. I hope it all goes well.
I'm so sorry. I hope she turns out okay, Drac.
Agreed, hope everything turns out okay.
Got in touch with her again today.
This has been a not fun end of week. But she's in a hospital room and lively at least.
Going to a hospital sucks, but it sucks less than the alternative.
Waking up to use the bathroom at 4 AM? Annoying.
Tripping over the dog and bashing your elbow hard as hell? Really annoying.
Way to start the weekend.
My dog now wakes me up so that I can turn the fan on for her.
Hour and a half late to work today. Thankfully my dog woke me up.
Still worried about mother.
Interview today went poorly, despite lots of technical chops. Unfortunate.
Every time I think I'm catching up and on schedule...NOPE. This project is such a fucking roller coaster.
I can thankfully say "just 6 more weeks" at least.
Send Bowser to eat the clients?
Worked Thanksgiving. On top of it, I worked it with stomach problems, so I spend a segment of it in the bathroom. Bad times, man, bad times.
Sorry to hear that Ko.
That sucks Ko
Net neutrality died.
Yeah. It now costs 2 tears to read soulriders.
Hopefully it's not as bad as hyperbole says it is. We'll see. I think there's at least some hyperbole involved in it, but at the same time, I think losing net neutrality is an overall bad thing.
Also, yeah, I'm sure it'll be challenged in court so we'll see.
It'll go back toward the early 2010s where providers were silently shutting out disruptive/improvementontheirproduct businesses, but hey it's america. We never promised things were fair? Go rich or get smooshed :(
It's a complicated issue, but it seems like most people didn't want it to go away and don't believe the chairman's reasoning for getting rid of it.
(I put the rest in spoiler tags for politics.)
I don't fully understand it myself, but it kind of goes along with my other questions, like:
Why are we weakening the Consumer Protection Bureau?
Because MAGA!
Why are we trying to get rid of the ACA?
MAGA!
Why don't we like the clean power, clean air, and clean water regulations?
MAAAAAAAGGGGGAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!
Why don't we like Net Neutrality again?
MAGAMAGAMAGAMAGAMAGAMAGA!!!!
Alright. I now loathe you with almost every fiber of my being. Was that your intention?
Suck it Libtard!
And now I hate you with EVERYTHING THAT I AM.
I assume that 'great' is defined as a corporate controlled hellscape wherein we are all going to be processed as soylent green at some point in the future, and I will fight you to the death to prevent America from becoming such 'greatness'.
I...I need to calm down. I'm going to go back to watching gaming videos.
Was doing a tune up last night and broke a spark plug. I have no idea how to get this out.
Merry Xmas!
I just realized that I posted in the wrong thread. Darn it.
Quote from: Ranma_007 on January 01, 2018, 06:25:42 PM
I just realized that I posted in the wrong thread. Darn it.
That's worth bitching about. :P
That emotional roller coaster of receiving a rave review on an incomplete fanfic you haven't updated for five years...................................
So for anyone that uses Batoto to read manga...be aware that it is shutting down as of 1/18 (next week).
https://bato.to/forums/topic/28840-batoto-will-be-closing-permanently/page-2#entry1853018
Quote from: Arakawa on January 11, 2018, 08:19:49 PM
That emotional roller coaster of receiving a rave review on an incomplete fanfic you haven't updated for five years...................................
Guess it's time to start updating again!
So I take the day off from most things because I have a new computer coming, I need to sign for the delivery. Okay, no big deal and it should be a nice day on account of that.
So around lunchtime it's not here yet and I'm in a fairly good mood, so I decide to go order something. I check my bank account to see how it's doing, purely automatic more than anything else. Turns out I have nine bucks in there. The computer purchase finally got posted today...twice. They billed me for it twice, the exact same charge. Cue rather frantic calls to Dell and my bank, which naturally means overseas call centers, a lot of empty words and a promise of something within '10 business days'. Yeah. So I'm basically broke and have no idea when I'll actually get my money back.
What's worse? I spent all day killing time and keeping an eye on the front door for the package. It never comes. Now Fed Ex is saying delivery is 'pending' instead of giving a date, so who knows there.
Quote from: Anastasia on January 12, 2018, 10:44:41 PM
So I take the day off from most things because I have a new computer coming, I need to sign for the delivery. Okay, no big deal and it should be a nice day on account of that.
So around lunchtime it's not here yet and I'm in a fairly good mood, so I decide to go order something. I check my bank account to see how it's doing, purely automatic more than anything else. Turns out I have nine bucks in there. The computer purchase finally got posted today...twice. They billed me for it twice, the exact same charge. Cue rather frantic calls to Dell and my bank, which naturally means overseas call centers, a lot of empty words and a promise of something within '10 business days'. Yeah. So I'm basically broke and have no idea when I'll actually get my money back.
What's worse? I spent all day killing time and keeping an eye on the front door for the package. It never comes. Now Fed Ex is saying delivery is 'pending' instead of giving a date, so who knows there.
Ouch. It's funny how companies can take your money instantly, but it takes almost two weeks to get it back to you. >_<
Pretty much. It's like people need the money you took accidentally, imagine that.
Also there's still no delivery date available now, Fed Ex says that no scheduled delivery date is possible at this time.
I hope it gets resolved quickly, sorry that happened and nearing a weekend too. Because I'm suuure they're ceasely working to fix it over the weekend. :/
Ouch. That kind of stuff is one of the reasons I go through credit cards pretty much always. Having a company in the middle to reverse charges on folks seems just safe :(
Quote from: Merc on January 13, 2018, 02:15:42 PM
I hope it gets resolved quickly, sorry that happened and nearing a weekend too. Because I'm suuure they're ceasely working to fix it over the weekend. :/
Bank says 10 business days (I talked to them again today) and Dell isn't even open for customer support until Monday. I now have more money on the gift card to Wendy's from work than I do in my checking account. Ugh.
Quote from: Dracos on January 13, 2018, 03:06:18 PM
Ouch. That kind of stuff is one of the reasons I go through credit cards pretty much always. Having a company in the middle to reverse charges on folks seems just safe :(
Funny story, I don't have a credit card. Days like this make me wonder.
1. Still don't have my money back or much movement there.
2. Got a (almost certainly in error) bill from my doctor's office. As I'm on charity care I shouldn't get this and the bill's not a trivial amount. Hopefully I can get this cleared up or I'm going even further downhill financially.
3. Trying to to do my taxes for the refund I really need and the internet isn't cooperating.
Bleh.
Ursula K. Le Guin passed away.
Sad news.
I have the flu.
Quote from: Ranma_007 on January 30, 2018, 07:16:50 PM
I have the flu.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s
I don't want either team to win the Super Bowl.
got in a car accident yesterday morning. That damn left turn onto middlefield. Thankfully nobody was hurt and I barely dinged the other car. Still bleh.
Oh wow, glad it was nothing first of all.
Sounds like you were at fault, though? Correct me if I'm wrong.
My eyes are bad enough, but I could really do without tinnitus messing with my hearing.
Sick and miserable. Took today off work, probably the same for tomorrow. This of course while my old project is breathing down my neck to finish.
Stomach 1, Sleep 0.
Gonna be a day.
Anastasia: Yeah. I mean I curse the left turn, but yeah.
Computer broke today :( I'm gonna be mostly offline until further notice.
Ah geez. Sucks man, any idea what died?
Well, tonight's tests seem to say: Most likely not the power supply.
So 80% chance of it being the motherboard, following chance of it having taken the CPU with it.
Watched The Cloverfield Paradox. While the acting and the visuals were good, the story not.
Bombed talking to someone pretty hard, managed to find all the wrong words. Sucks when that happens.
Quote from: Anastasia on February 25, 2018, 06:53:15 PM
Bombed talking to someone pretty hard, managed to find all the wrong words. Sucks when that happens.
Always sucks when that happens. And then spending time to convince that the motives behind the words weren't what they thought....
Quote from: Arakawa on February 25, 2018, 09:15:49 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on February 25, 2018, 06:53:15 PM
Bombed talking to someone pretty hard, managed to find all the wrong words. Sucks when that happens.
Always sucks when that happens. And then spending time to convince that the motives behind the words weren't what they thought....
Yeah, bad times all around. Rolled a few nat 1s and here we are.
My computer died. I was playing a game and then I heard this 'vrrt' noise and it shuts off. Smells like burnt electronics. I think it might be the power supply, or rather, I hope it's just the power supply. Don't have a replacement lying around, so I'm on my laptop.
Ah geez, that's horrible. Hope it is just that, man.
Quote from: Anastasia on February 25, 2018, 10:12:27 PM
Ah geez, that's horrible. Hope it is just that, man.
My computer was a gift from Brian. I am a bit upset.
I still can't get the damn thing to work. Replaced the power supply with one I borrowed from my brother, but I either hooked it up incorrectly, it's not powerful enough to power the computer, or there was a power surge when the power supply died and it fried the CPU, motherboard, or both.
And I don't have enough money to replace all these expensive custom gaming PC parts, of course, though they are much less expensive now than they must have been originally.
I'm so sorry, that sucks.
Was it an older rig? Maybe something was just shot, it happens.
Okay so, after more research, I found that the motherboard has some kind of surge protection switch that was tripped when the power supply died. Took a bit of searching, but I found it and was able to switch it back on. So I'll just order a replacement power supply and give my brother back his. I think I found a decent one on newegg within my price range.
I was getting pretty stressed out for bit there. Glad it's a relatively simple fix.
Glad to hear it, man. Let us know when it gets there if everything works okay?
Quote from: Anastasia on February 26, 2018, 05:37:56 PM
Glad to hear it, man. Let us know when it gets there if everything works okay?
Will do, thanks.
Quote from: Anastasia on February 25, 2018, 09:40:14 PM
Quote from: Arakawa on February 25, 2018, 09:15:49 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on February 25, 2018, 06:53:15 PM
Bombed talking to someone pretty hard, managed to find all the wrong words. Sucks when that happens.
Always sucks when that happens. And then spending time to convince that the motives behind the words weren't what they thought....
Yeah, bad times all around. Rolled a few nat 1s and here we are.
It's good to realize that. Have another friend I chat with who did that and didn't quite click that well: Sometimes things don't smoothly recover from that. When one fucks up, sometimes you gotta just own it and carry on.
Hope things work out, Kal!
Quote from: Dracos on February 27, 2018, 02:32:08 AM
Hope things work out, Kal!
Due to my general ineptitude at hooking up all the cables inside a PC to their prospective places and the very cramped conditions inside said case, it took me a while to figure out which one made the power button work and right now I have no case fans that work, but other than that, the computer is on and working with a borrowed power supply while I wait till next week for the replacement to arrive. I'll take another crack at 'why won't things go on' later, but I'm just happy it's not dead.
Good, good. Computers frying suuuuuck.
Quote from: Dracos on February 27, 2018, 02:32:08 AMIt's good to realize that. Have another friend I chat with who did that and didn't quite click that well: Sometimes things don't smoothly recover from that. When one fucks up, sometimes you gotta just own it and carry on.
Hope things work out, Kal!
Yeah, this one isn't going to recover, but it wasn't any huge deal either. Sometimes when that happens the best thing is to move on for everyone.
Barely slept and yet not tired at all. Odd.
Quote from: Anastasia on March 03, 2018, 06:26:10 AM
Barely slept and yet not tired at all. Odd.
Just wait. It'll hit you when you least expect it. Or when you most need to be fully awake.
Yeah, I work this evening so I'm expecting that to suck.
I am so tired why do I do this to myself I'm so dumb
Stayed up too late?
Evil Time. It is my nemesis. Forever pluto, I spite at ye!
Terrifying!
Sigh, more restructing. It was kinda a nasty scene wandering by art tonight.
Stephen Hawking just died.
Toys R Us is going out of business. This isn't a huge deal to me, but I do feel it right in my nostalgias.
Going to Toys R Us with my Christmas money when I was a kid was one of the highlights of the year for me.
Yeah, it just stings. All things pass but it sucks.
No kidding :( Is an end of an era.
I remember buying Hero Quest from Toys R Us. Good times.
Quote from: Ranma_007 on March 25, 2018, 08:14:39 PM
I remember buying Hero Quest from Toys R Us. Good times.
I remember Fireball Island there maybe, along with a lot of running around and playing the demo NES/SNES. Good times.
Yeah I remember that too.
Tomorrow is 4th day that includes a couple of hours of boardgaming in a row.
Also had to go in early today and do a ten hour day.
Quote from: Dracos on March 28, 2018, 03:05:03 AM
Tomorrow is 4th day that includes a couple of hours of boardgaming in a row.
Also had to go in early today and do a ten hour day.
Does this spell doom for our Cthulhu themed board game session on Sunday?
Right, kinda...have to provide a timeline for that. This sunday is gate hangout.
I need RAM to not be so expensive.
Everyone, shake your fist at bitcoin and it's inflation of such things.
Woke up at 5 30 AM or so on a Sunday.
Today I moved all of the things from one house to another...in the rain.
Today sucked.
Oof, I'll bet. Sorry you had that, Kal.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, I have come down with the horrible sickness germs and I'm missing a week of work. I think I have the strep/flu/cold/whatever else there is, but it's kicking my ass.
Eeeeeew. Hope you rebound soon. This is the worst time of year to get sick, since it's Spring and everyone thinks cold/flu season is over.
Quote from: Merc on January 11, 2018, 09:45:59 PM
Quote from: Arakawa on January 11, 2018, 08:19:49 PM
That emotional roller coaster of receiving a rave review on an incomplete fanfic you haven't updated for five years...................................
Guess it's time to start updating again!
I found my old drafts and succumbed to the temptation to finish and post some old drafts of my old fic.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6995057/7/Ten-Percent-Worth-Dying-For
In retrospect, I always knew exactly what I was going for with this fic (modulo writing style improvements), but I remain baffled that it has a target audience. I also really need to go back to the earlier chapters and fix the egregious punctuation abuse....
(Among other mistakes, my earlier self was under the delusion that 'short ellipsis' as in '..' was an actual thing.)
Hahah. *pats*
Today and last few days have been sick days. Bleeh sick days.
Everything hurts tonight. Forgot to take a pain killer before work and I'm paying for it.
Finally replaced my motherboard.
Of course the new board is faulty and won't POST.
Of course.
Aw crud. That blows like a hurricane.
Overslept by a few hours when I wanted to get up and be productive. Bleh.
Kaldrak is in the hospital. Hopefully to get out later today. Hope he is better soon.
Oh wow, is he okay? I mean I know he isn't if he's in the hospital and it's his private business, but I hope he's on the rebound and it's not serious.
He seemed hopeful of being released this afternoon so not super critical.
Less hopeful about my cousin Joey who is also in the hospital with a serious back infection. :(
It's not been a good weekend for friends/family in hospital. At least no 'aunt or uncle so and so has passed on' calls yet.
Thoughts and prayers for everyone, man. That's horrible.
Well I've had a rough couple of weeks.
I can't say much for hospital food, but they took good care of me. First time I've ever been to the ER or spent the night at the hospital. I had a serious infection that went sepsis, which, as it was explained to me by the doctor, is a condition where your immune system has a massive reaction to an infection. Your white blood cell count goes way up, you can get fevers/chills, and you have elevated heart rate and breathing. Pretty much all of which I had on Saturday.
They stuck an IV into my left arm, and I almost passed out, which was not a fun experience. The whole room went dim, I couldn't hear very well, and it felt like I couldn't breathe. I have a very visceral reaction to the sight of my own blood even at the best of times, but this was the worst ever. Apparently I completely panicked and it took me a while to calm down to the point where I could see, hear, and breath normally again.
So they stick me in a wheelchair after I calmed down and gave me a room where they hooked up an IV line with a saline bag and liquid antibiotics. I give them all the samples they want (blood, urine, etc) and they do tests to make sure I don't have a kidney stone or some other serious thing (I don't and my appendix is fine, thankfully). I then spent the next two nights at the hospital, the first of which I couldn't really sleep at all during, due to sharing the room with a snoring roommate and all the other noise from the machines and nurses coming in to take vitals and more blood and whatnot.
And I improved pretty rapidly. Feel almost normal today and I've got a new train of antibiotics that they say the bacteria is sensitive to. I'm exhausted and apparently clear to go to work tomorrow.
Woo.
It's been a pretty stressful couple of days/nights and it's not an experience I would want to ever have again. I also almost got sick to my stomach when they finally removed the IV post thing they had in my arm.
So that's what's going on with me. Hopefully everyone else had a better weekend than I did.
Glad to hear you're better, man. Doubly relieved that you went when you did and it didn't have a chance to get worse. Sepsis is no joke.
Indeed, sepsis can be terrifying. Good to hear you're doing well, Kaldrak.
Well is a bit of a stretch here. Unless you can avoid it, I would advise against taking an antibiotic called Cipro. It's a heavy duty one with a large laundry list of side effects, most of which I seem to have. So, the antibiotics have likely killed the infection by now and are liberally kicking my ass. Can't wait to go off of it next week.
Totalbiscuit just died.
For those not familiar with him, he was a game reviewer and youtuber. He had a lot of people who didn't like him for one reason or another, but no one deserves to go out like that. I loved his reviews of terrible, terrible simulator games.
Fuck cancer.
That's unfortunate. Didn't even know he'd been battling cancer, as I'd stopped following him ages ago since he tended to prefer different games than I liked (shooters and such) and he didn't put enough videos of the stuff I did find interesting.
I do still remember watching him play hearthstone and terraria and his steam deal videos, along with quite a few interesting videos on sponsorships, video game reviews and publisher tactics.
Sorry to hear that.
My mom isn't picking up the phone for anyone. For a couple days. Getting a neighbor to check on her at this point :(
Kinda want a longer weekend.
My mom passed away this weekend.
Quote from: Dracos on May 27, 2018, 10:22:49 PM
My mom passed away this weekend.
Ah shit, Drac. I'm so so so sorry.
Quote from: Dracos on May 27, 2018, 10:22:49 PM
My mom passed away this weekend.
Jesus Christ Drac, I'm so sorry. Are you alright?
Sorry to hear that, Drac.
Quote from: Dracos on May 27, 2018, 10:22:49 PM
My mom passed away this weekend.
Condolences man. We're here if you wanna vent about it or anything.
My condolences, Dracos.
I'm so sorry to hear that, Drac. If you ever want to talk, throw us a line.
Three calls, 5 people, 25 dollars.
This is what it took to get electric company to send me a bill for my mom's account so I can pay things. I did not start swearing at them. So tempting despite it just being really entirely obnoxious company policies.
Large utility conglomerates can be a pain in the ass.
Aches and pains are flaring up the last few days.
Hope you feel better.
I hate waking up in pain so much. Stupid back...shoulder...everything, really.
Found out that I won't get severance pay or qualify for unemployment benefits in my state. Bleh.
Did you just lose your job? o_o Bleh.
And here I was gonna just bemoan midweek 4th of july.
Not yet, but I will in a few months.
The severance pay is one thing - ugly, but I wasn't expecting anything else. The worse part is the lack of unemployment coverage. A very long story short, my state has a minimum amount of money you need to make to get anything. If you don't make enough, you don't get any unemployment benefit. It's a rough state on it - only about approximately 20% of people qualify for any payout at all.
Kotono:
Yeah :( Generally I look around and find there's a lot of protections in place for people on the middle (assets of 300k+) and above (Getting stronger actually as it goes higher), but frankly by virtue of that they're the folks more likely to be able to survive not having that. :( It is not good being on the other side of that line.
--
I'm now trying to break a modest addiction to playing an idling game. Knew that would not go well when I started. So far a day not checked :P
Yeah. I'm at the bottom of the ladder and knew I wouldn't get anything. My state being bad on unemployment coverage is just bad luck on top of it.
Quote from: Anastasia on July 05, 2018, 03:47:09 PM
Yeah. I'm at the bottom of the ladder and knew I wouldn't get anything. My state being bad on unemployment coverage is just bad luck on top of it.
Sorry to hear about your misfortune. :(
Which state is this, if you don't mind me asking?
Whoops. Virginia, meant to reply to this and I forgot.
Car accident. Collision with 18-wheeler. Bigger vehicle won.
My car got wrecked.
I thankfully had two witnesses step up that I was in the right even though other guy claimed otherwise and had camera. Cops said I was in the right before they checked footage and didn't say otherwise afterwards, so I can see only assume footage agreed with me and witnesses as well.
Feeling physically okay, though obviously frazzled, but going to doctor to get checked just to make sure.
Quote from: Merc on July 18, 2018, 11:58:11 AM
Car accident. Collision with 18-wheeler. Bigger vehicle won.
My car got wrecked.
I thankfully had two witnesses step up that I was in the right even though other guy claimed otherwise and had camera. Cops said I was in the right before they checked footage and didn't say otherwise afterwards, so I can see only assume footage agreed with me and witnesses as well.
Feeling physically okay, though obviously frazzled, but going to doctor to get checked just to make sure.
Geez, glad to hear you're okay. Hope you're fine and the doc gives you a clean bill of health, that's scary.
Glad you're okay, Merc.
I'm back at work today.
Quote from: Merc on July 18, 2018, 11:58:11 AM
Car accident. Collision with 18-wheeler. Bigger vehicle won.
My car got wrecked.
I thankfully had two witnesses step up that I was in the right even though other guy claimed otherwise and had camera. Cops said I was in the right before they checked footage and didn't say otherwise afterwards, so I can see only assume footage agreed with me and witnesses as well.
Feeling physically okay, though obviously frazzled, but going to doctor to get checked just to make sure.
Car accidents are terrifying.
I'm glad you're all right, Merc.
So how's all the car wreck stuff shake out, Merc?
Car is a total loss, I've been in a rental this whole week. Insurance did their investigations and fully found other guy at fault. Need to sign paperwork and pick up checks on Friday, and then go car shopping this weekend.
Physically, I'm doing alright and started going to gym again. I can't quite do as much as I used to, but that's more soreness than anything, I think. Mentally...doing okay, just feel uncomfortable driving for the time being but I'll get used to it again.
It doesn't help that the rental is a much smaller car than what I've gotten used to and lacks a lot of the technology/safety features I've come to take for granted (reverse/side cameras, warning beeps, etc).
But overall, doing okay and as far as I can tell, insurance gave me a reasonable shake for my car's worth (they priced it at about what the car would have been worth in excellent condition on average by KBB).
Good, good. Sounds about as well as it could've gone.
That sounds frightening. I am glad you are alright, Merc.
------------
Tropical storms drove us back across the pacific a day early. I am back.
Welcome home and thanks
Why Monday? Sunday was so nice.
Quote from: Dracos on August 06, 2018, 04:04:24 PM
Sunday was so nice.
Even with all those naughty tentacles?
No chips. NO CHIPS!
Yeah, that's not a big deal at all.
Termites. :(
No energy tonight for some reason. Hate when that happens, may go to bed early.
Dreamed of strange and alien things.
Itchy and awake at 6 AM.
Rainy as hell and I want to do absolutely nothing today.
It's nice I didn't have to go work at least, so yay Labor Day, just wish I actually felt motivation to do anything.
Lazy day, huh? That rain probably has something to do with it. Isn't a hurricane coming to your neck of the woods?
Dunno? There's Gordon, but I think that's supposed to go north'ish before it gets to Texas. But who really knows until it gets closer. Haven't heard of other storms coming this way yet.
That's the one I was thinking of, yeah.
A dark day for my perceptions as I have learned that the self-insert genre is apparently quite popular in Russia. Upon investigation, I fear this does not bode well for the psychological state of ancestral country.
Even encountered a theory that the genre obsession originated with some lower ranked FSB agents who were upset by how history turned out, so they wrote wish fulfillment fic about stuff like getting thrown back in time into the body of old Czar so they can invent tanks and conquer the world.
Read one Russian self-insert fic of tamer kind written by (I hope to god) not FSB agent, and it made me mildly mad. It has fanbase and fanfics of itself and a Patreon-style shame begging money to write new updates. For something slightly below Skysaber quality. May rant later.
Isn't the SI genre popular here as well?
For evidence: 99.9% of all one piece fanfics?
Quote from: Dracos on September 05, 2018, 09:54:12 PM
For evidence: 99.9% of all one piece fanfics?
You made me look deeper into the rabbit hole >_>;;; it makes the fic I read seem reasonable.
Here is a rabbit hole: http://popadanec.info/ (http://popadanec.info/) / google translate (https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fpopadanec.info%2F)
It seems the difference is that one piece fanfics are generally not sold commercially, nor do they come with professionally produced yet somehow extremely cringey cover art. Here is "Three Arms and Six Eyes" by "Alexander Rudazov":
(http://popadanec.info/uploads/img1/aleksandr_rudazov_jachen_tri_glaza_i_shest_ruk.jpg)
Warning: not kidding about the cringe.
Also, under "Disturbed Labels" (WTF, Google Translate!) please observe some of the numbers:
- Tag - Gnomes: 130
- Tag - Dragons: 113 (source of above cringy cover art)
- Tag - Stalin: 92
(To be fair, probably at least some of the 'Stalin' fics might explore the "let's do Stalin but with less genocide" route.)In case you read 'Gnomes' and imagine that people are fantasizing about becoming lawn gnomes, here is part of the very first book description that comes up under "Gnomes":
Quote
Yatzhen #3. Demons in the Vatican!
I am still alive. Probably no one cares but I'm really still alive. My name is Oleg Britva [means 'Razor' in Russian]. I am a yatzhen. I have three eyes and six arms [AGAIN?!!!!], I'm able to fly and spit acid, my claws can cut through steel and concrete, and my skin can withstand machine-gun fire. Yes. I am a yatzhen. I am very kind and capable of many things. I'm especially good at feeling like crap.
My translation muscles atrophied at this point.
WTF
To be fair, it turns out that translating 'Popadanec' as 'Self-Insert' is kind of inaccurate. I'd assumed that's what it meant because all the examples I'd been told about were about Author Avatar being reincarnated into Random Historical Figure X and running amok in self-insert style. Turns out it's more like the general "bland audience-identification character is thrown into unfamiliar situation through contrived means for wish-fulfilment purposes" trope.
Still, "Gnomes".
WTFFFFFFFF
More sober analysis:
Russia has historically been bad with over-producing printed literature. In the Soviet Union thanks to Gosplan, every random book ("introductory textbook in cybernetic control systems", "Tasty Romanian cooking", etc.) got the kind of print run that more frugal western publishers only do for bestselling novels. On the upside, university textbook prices stay low.
But this habit seems to have persisted since the fall of the Soviet Union, except the print shops have switched to various mutations of Tom Clancy type novels. It's still financially weird because at least half the people reading these books are pirating them in FictionBook format off sites like the one linked above.
But whereas the Western fic writer is stuck uploading to ff.net or ao3, in Russia you have people getting their fantasies about turning into a three-eyed six-armed killer emo lawn gnome published in hardcover. (And seriously, why does that seem to be a genre??)
The remaining unknown is whether this is open to literally anyone that can string a coherent story together, or if you need to have a cool uncle in the publishing mafia.
Your analysis amuses me.
The world is full of terrible writing, a bunch of it even gets published. A step above the terrible is the truly epic pile of bland, uninteresting writing, and above that, a much smaller slice of decent writing, then above that, an even smaller amount that is actually 'good,' and if you are truly lucky, you occasionally stumble across something that qualifies as 'great.'
The terrible writing has always inspired me however. It reinvigorates my sense of self worth as a writer.
Quote from: Arakawa on September 05, 2018, 11:36:50 PMThe remaining unknown is whether this is open to literally anyone that can string a coherent story together, or if you need to have a cool uncle in the publishing mafia.
Anyone.
http://samlib.ru/rating/publish/index_izd.shtml
Quote from: Korsar13 on September 07, 2018, 06:00:01 AM
Anyone.
http://samlib.ru/rating/publish/index_izd.shtml
From what I can tell, samlib.ru is just an ff.net-equivalent. It doesn't actually print your book. (With my earlier question, I was speculating more about the fics that seem to be getting picked up by publishers of pulp literature, with cover art and an actual print run on paper.)
Hmm... just remembered the Russian 'Alice in Space' pulps (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kir_Bulychev). Now that was some imaginative pulp literature. None of this 'Tom Clancy, Six-Armed Killer Gnome'.
Albeit I'm not 100% sure which of these books are on paper. But the cover art I linked looks a lot more like a paper book cover rather than the kind of designs used for ebook-only publication.
Steam has arbitrarily decided to censor community content without asking. If you care about such things and wish to disable it, the following path will lead you to the setting change.
Go to Steam, settings, account, view account details, preferences, then community content preferences and enable/disable whatever you want.
Censorship irks me, and activating censors without even asking me irks me even more.
What precisely are they censoring?
Quote from: Anastasia on September 12, 2018, 04:12:03 PM
What precisely are they censoring?
Images, from what I noticed. Screenshots that people post to the boards on steam.
"We are going to establish a special small strike group to go after *objectives*"
*eyes current working objectives that are identical and team that has been working against that for months*
"Well, I guess today is gonna be an angry day."
Got sleepy, split up sleep. Bleh.
Ever since I got back from the hospital in May, I've found that eating dairy stuff produces the most horrendous problems in my digestive tract. Goodbye milk, ice cream, mac and cheese, and cream based sauces of all kinds. Also cereal, cause I am not a savage and refuse to eat it dry or with other stuff in it.
Interestingly enough, I can still eat cheese with no real problems. Must be something in how they prepare it.
Is it lactose stuff by any chance? Have you tried lactose-free products, or substitutes like goat milk (or even fake not-milk like almond/soy milk)?
When I got hit with the thyroid problems some years back, I started to have similar problems with regular milk. I still have a bit of problems with lactose free milk on occasion but it's more of an occasional thing rather than all the time like I did with regular milk.
I never really picked up a taste for milk substitutes, but those seemed to not cause me problems either.
I'm not sure. It took me a while to figure out what was causing the problems in the first place. I can try to experiment with that lactase stuff and see if that works.
Worth a shot. I've heard lactose intolerance sometimes hits someone like that. Don't supposed you've mentioned it to your doctor?
I have not, no. That's not a bad idea, thanks. Once things quiet down at work I should make an appointment.
We used to have a dollar cinema here in Houston. Been around for something like 40 years supposedly and while new movies didn't play there, they'd often play just before they got DVD releases, and I honestly liked the non-IMAX style of cinema where my eardrums didn't burst.
Unfortunately, it's now closed down. There's supposedly another location still open but that one is way out of my way, so I'll just have to say bye to it. Alas.
Guess I'll have to settle for burst eardrums when I do want to see a movie on big screen again.
Quote from: Merc on September 21, 2018, 07:02:16 PM
We used to have a dollar cinema here in Houston. Been around for something like 40 years supposedly and while new movies didn't play there, they'd often play just before they got DVD releases, and I honestly liked the non-IMAX style of cinema where my eardrums didn't burst.
Unfortunately, it's now closed down. There's supposedly another location still open but that one is way out of my way, so I'll just have to say bye to it. Alas.
Guess I'll have to settle for burst eardrums when I do want to see a movie on big screen again.
Or don't see movies in the theaters. I haven't seen one in a theater in like two decades.
Admittedly, that's mostly due to vision problems and having problems with sustained loud noises, but I find I don't miss it at all.
I usually don't go to cinemas actually, mostly because of the sound problem, but every once in a while I do get the urge to do so. Problem is that the movies I like to see in cinemas tend to be the action/adventure types which is what ends up hurting my ears because cinemas are set too loud typically, especially the modern kind. I have no clue why people think its awesome if the room shakes when the bass at the start occurs, but I just fucking hate that.
I liked this one because it had the sound just perfect, and I often waited for that period betwen a movie finishing its theatrical run and dvd run, which is often when those movies showed up in this place.
I found out it closed because I was passing by waiting to see Antman and Wasp show up in there and suddenly the billboard was just noticeably empty. Oh well, I can just rent/watch it in redbox when it comes out there.
Probably will be going a lot less to cinema unless I find one that has a reasonable sound setting.
Bleh aging. And mortality and all that.
Quote from: Anastasia on September 21, 2018, 07:21:47 PM
Or don't see movies in the theaters. I haven't seen one in a theater in like two decades.
Admittedly, that's mostly due to vision problems and having problems with sustained loud noises, but I find I don't miss it at all.
Watching any 3D movie destroys my branes for the entire next day. There is a Scientific Reason.
See, what happens is that there is the convincing illusion of a 3D object. So my eyes want to look around it and focus on different things in the scene. But none of my muscle motions actually change the focus. Instead the cameraman decides which part of the scene to focus on, and my muscles strain to match. This causes all of the lovely headach of someone jamming an imaginary fishhook into my visual cortex and pulling it around.
You must focus your eyes at THIS thing now because the filmmaker commands it! After which I feel like the guy in Clockwork Orange getting force-fed with movies, after which my branes stop working.
This happens even with well-thought out 3D movies where the cameraman thought carefully about where to jerk the fishhook next for optimal 3D headach. For 3D movies where they took a 2D movie and did some lazy post-processing it's even worse.
And most movies at the cinema are 3D. Going to a not-3D movie is like having to ask for the vegan option now.
I guess the Hollywood theory is that no one uses their branes for anything important anyways. And if they happen to do use their branes, it Must Be Stopped lest they happen to brane in ways that are Not Conducive to Hollywood.
Also, when you watch 3D gimmicks in not-3D afterwards, it just looks foolish. Why did
Frozen, a movie about Disney Princesses, start with the guy jabbing a jagged saw at the camera through the ice? Wut even?? Then you realize it was because the filmmakers thought having your eye nearly stabbed is exciting in 3D somehow. Why filmmakers hurt eye? Do filmmakers subconsciously hate eye because audience having eye means filmmakers must work hard to make film visually pleasing?
I could mock this filmmaking trend endlessly........
Quote from: Arakawa on September 24, 2018, 06:46:42 PM
And most movies at the cinema are 3D. Going to a not-3D movie is like having to ask for the vegan option now.
Oof, that sucks. I actually didn't think Rogue One was too bad in 3D, but that's the only one out of three movies I've seen in 3D that was alright. I totally agree with your comments for the other two movies though. I don't recall the movies but I do recall the headache.
Thankfully here in Houston, every cinema seems to always offer 2 or more rooms with a new movie and there is always a 2D offering. But we do have a significant amount of vegan restaurants too so you may be on to something with the comparison!
My dad's uncle and aunt were in a car wreck yesterday, their car got sandwiched between two others, and the uncle died at the hospital.
So far, all I've really gotten out of my parents is that his ribs cracked, and one actually punctured a lung, and between his age and injuries, things didn't work out.
My dad's aunt is physically okay as far I know. Distraught, obviously, but physically okay from what I've heard.
I admittedly don't have the strongest recollection of them, as it's been well over a decade since I last met them. Most of my memories are of my dad's cousin. Still saddened that he didn't have the chance to pass on painlessly.
Haven't really found out what led to the accident either, if the guy that sandwiched them was drunk, speeding/tailgaiting, a side collision from someone running a light, or what.
Condolences, Merc. That's terrible.
Same. :( Life remains immensely fragile.
Itchy mosquito bite on my foot. ARGHARGHARGH.
That is truly one of the most human posts.
Murder the insect horde.
Doubles as an FYI/warning if people want to pass this on in IRC to those that don't frequent the board:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/9qigub/warning_do_not_check_user_profiles_on_ffn/
Basically message in link is: Don't visit ff.net for a while.
Edit: mostly only matters if you're logged in supposedly, but why take chances?
I was bitten by a zombie on the weekend, and have been feeling woozy. Anxious about turning into a zombie. However the doctors reassure me that I will be good as new with some bed rest.
Ten thousand other people have been bitten by the same zombie today.
Fingers crossed, man. That's some scary stuff. I remember when my Mom got the zombie plague, worst week of my life. Fortunately she fought it off, but all you can think about are the news stories about those who didn't make it and went zombie.
Woken up at 5 30 AM and find the dog had an accident. Again.
Quote from: Anastasia on November 17, 2018, 07:05:28 AM
Woken up at 5 30 AM and find the dog had an accident. Again.
That's annoying. I think I speak for cat owners everywhere when I say that we've trained ourselves to wake up at that distinctive hairball/puke noise cats make right before they ralph on the bed.
Yeah, helps if you can manage it.
In today sucks news: Furnace is dying, will require a 1300 or so repair or a 2700 replacement. There goes Christmas.
Oh, and the dog likely has a bladder infection now, too. This weekend has been the worst in years.
That sucks, Ko. Hope you stumble onto some sort of lucky break or something.
:( That's tough to turn around.
Then the Redskins lost, just to rub it in. What a weekend. I need a weekend to recover from my weekend.
Just ran out of energy and had to leave work early yesterday. Still sneezing a lot. ANnoying.
Hope you feel better, DRac.
---
Nothing like yet another 'thanks, but no thanks' email after a job interview.
Better than no response at all? :( Sorry to hear you're still struggling there.
Working kind of sucks. The only thing worse than it is not working.
Thanks, Drac. And yeah, the only thing that sucks about it is the no money part. I generally don't make enough money as it is, but not enough is better than none by a lot.
Aww man, I feel you there. That is me in a nutshell.
Yeah, work's rough like that. I spent 4+ years doing physical labor in a warehouse for minimum wage. Not getting paid enough is really the cherry on top of it all.
Today's annoyance: I can't drive due to vision problems. You'd be amazed about how many jobs require a driver's license, even if the job doesn't require driving.
That sucks, Ko. Really hope you manage to find something soon even with extra difficulty of vision stuff.
Thanks. Still trying. I'm not trying super hard at the moment since the holidays are coming up, but even if I slack a bit, I'm hitting it super hard once the New Year starts.
Still no job, bleh.
Job hunting continues to suck.
Good luck, Ko.
Thanks. All I can do is keep trying.
This week included:
A half power outage
A broken power pole
A gas leak
A full power outage
"And you must be there or we won't fix things"
All on the same couple days.
Sooooo...I'm guessing they're just not helping, huh? Seriously, was it individual things or one thing that kept going wrong?
Being woken up early remains the worst.
Quote from: Anastasia on January 19, 2019, 12:40:50 AM
Sooooo...I'm guessing they're just not helping, huh? Seriously, was it individual things or one thing that kept going wrong?
Individual. What really made it a pain was shitty notifications. They effectively gave a 2 day window for showing up, when they totally have 'we can text you when we're gonna actually be there to fix things'.
What fun.
That can run two days, that's worse than usual.
Been watching a streamer LaserBelch (https://www.twitch.tv/laserbelch/) play Grand Poo World 2, a super mario world hack that just came out on...thursday I think?
He was playing it blind, pretty awesome stream overall, and he's actually been playing it for close to 12 hours today. Mods have been on point in chat either deleting messages and/or giving people timeouts when they've been backseating and/or spoiling, and he'd gotten a good milestone in the game being the second or third person to get any% completion on it, and he was working towards 100% now.
Dude just wants to complete a secret exit route he just found before he crashes for the night, and he was a bit down because he'd had a false finish - got a kaizo trap ending (https://clips.twitch.tv/FrozenBelovedGrasshopper4Head) (link shows the kaizo trap, in case you care about spoilers) and he was looking to figure out how to difuse it since he didn't really want to go to bed without finishing the level. There was admittedly a bit of schadenfreude in watching that, but I did figure he'd solve it and then go to well deserved sleep and all that jazz.
No such luck. Even with all of the mods active on chat and giving repeated warnings...someone finds a way to spoil. Most streamers have it set up so when you make a cash donation over stream labs, there will be an announcement on stream with voice reading out any message you attach.
So someone gives a $1 donation spoiling the kaizo trap solution. (https://clips.twitch.tv/RamshackleTallNewtDeIlluminati)
That really was a pretty downer thing to watch, and whomever did it KNEW they were being a dick. They made the donation anonymously.
Small world, I was watching his stream when that happened. Definitely agree with what you said.
On a related note, what do you think of GPW2?
Small world indeed. It didn't happen at a time either of us is normally still up either, I think.
Without spoilers, it looks pretty cool and it's super difficult.
I can't believe it's categorized as "Kaizo: light" difficulty in SMW central though and I'm left wondering what "Kaizo: hard" must be like.
Even having watched a number of his design streams, there's tons of surprises and easter eggs like that one fight that was completely coded by kaizoman (that boss is super neat and better than typical boo/reznor/wendy) and the funny portraits of other members in the mario hack community.
I dunno if the players just naturally miss most kaizo blocks too or if Barb was very tasteful with the usage, but I don't see them getting hit very often and whenever I do it doesn't feel like it's at a frustrating point. Just like, it's a natural gate in the level, and... "okay lesson learned, try not to hit it next time and shit I hit it again, dammit!"
So those didn't actually feel like trolls for the most part. Most of the trolls have been pretty funny though, I still crack up whenever a streamer triggers that fall with the scream (mortal kombat fall, I think?) in the water level. And people are purposely triggering some of them trying to find the portraits and trying to see if they can find one of themselves too.
I am still wondering what that one puzzle/cypher/anagram/whatever in that one orb level is about though. Don't think anybody has given solution for that on stream yet and I've certainly not been able to figure it out myself.
There's some mechanics that I really dig like the clocks and the modified mecha koopas, or the castlevania themed stage flavoring, but others like the tar pits and the rapid pokeys really felt meh and seeing other people play it did highlight the meh'ness too.
I do appreciate both the flavoring, trollishness and design of hanzo's castle though, and think that's probably my favorite level overall. So much effort into that last level too with the multiple routes, so that's also a really cool level.
Levels that I'd want to try myself though would probably be the clock level, mt moon, and sewer secret exit, which are primarily about platforming without really looking super tight or requiring a specific tech.
Edit: I'll note that overall I like Invictus more, but that's because that looks more playable in terms of difficulty level and in terms of what it throws at you, even though I like many aspects of GPW2 more.
Bleh trying to get chores done today. I'm gonna make a hit at getting through at least ten pages of my mom's tax preparer (bleh) and do some revising for my talk. I wanna just laze instead.
Quote from: Merc on February 10, 2019, 03:03:22 PM
Small world indeed. It didn't happen at a time either of us is normally still up either, I think.
Yeah, I just happened to wake up from a computer nap and watched at the right time.
Basically agree with your take on Grand Poo World 2, with the proviso I feel like it's at times suboptimal for play in favor of creating good stream moments. Some of the obvious and frankly unavoidable deaths come to mind here, the sort that only get you once or twice, but no way you avoid them short of the purest luck. Considering how it's set up and how they're playing up the mystery to solve, it feels designed for streaming as much as actual gameplay. I definitely think the gameplay sacrifices itself at times for this.
On the other hand, seeing how active and prosperous streams have been on account of this, I certainly don't fault the design decisions in GPW2.
I've been pretty disappointed with the community in general when it comes to the last two exits in particular. I'm perfectly happy for everyone that had a blast with the combined streams of Panga, GlitchCat, Logic and Mitch to solve path to ending but fuck everyone wanting to ruin the experience for the blind players.
Did they get spoiled? I haven't been able to watch today.
Not successfully that I've noted (I'm at work so not seeing full news on everything), but definitely not for a lack of trying. Laser actually changed his chat to emote only because of it. There's that ass I messaged you about yesterday. Also in discord I've seen mentions of some failed attempts.
Two dentists in one mouth is too many dentists.
My mistake. Will insert one dentist next time.
(I exercised Medical Initiative and went to a specialist dentist that has a laser machine for some fillings, which didn't require anaesthetic. I hate local anaesthetic, it makes me feel woozy for the entire next day. The laser machine was a cool machine, reminded me of a miniature cutting torch. At the next appointment with my ordinary dentist for the remaining fillings, it was a headache coordinating what had been done and what was left to do. Especially since the two dentists turned out to have given conflicting recommendations on which cavities to fill and which to leave alone for now.)
Being sick sucks. Been in and out of sickness all week.
Trying to build a computer on my own was a terrible choice.
*pats* It can make great rigs but ...don't enjoy. :(
I hate hives. That really says it all: For some reason over the past few weeks I've been getting hives. Had 'em before, they suck, hoping they go away. Full body hives are no one's idea of a good time.
Second cat just died, we are now out of cats. Last cat had a rough final year -- allergy swelling in one eye, followed by some kind of undiagnosable inflammatory thing where the vet shrugged and gave us an armful of opioids, followed by a broken hip with amputation and the really powerful opioids, followed by a bout of dentistry with nasty dissolvable stitches, nausea-inducing antibiotics that we had to quickly stop, and more opioids. Always the damn opioids. Soon after that she said "if you're getting dentists involved now, I give up" and stopped eating.
Albeit these veterinary adventures were interspersed with periods of quite normal cat-functioning, on both four and three legs.
To preside over a cat unto the bitter end is educational.
More sobering thing: when I Google to double-check if the vet is having me on and how much opioids it's safe to put in one cat, I find no useful information because the Google is clogged with hand-wringing about people who are fraudulently buying veterinary opioids to feed to themselves.
Quote from: Arakawa on March 25, 2019, 12:20:19 AM
Second cat just died, we are now out of cats. Last cat had a rough final year -- allergy swelling in one eye, followed by some kind of undiagnosable inflammatory thing where the vet shrugged and gave us an armful of opioids, followed by a broken hip with amputation and the really powerful opioids, followed by a bout of dentistry with nasty dissolvable stitches, nausea-inducing antibiotics that we had to quickly stop, and more opioids. Always the damn opioids. Soon after that she said "if you're getting dentists involved now, I give up" and stopped eating.
Albeit these veterinary adventures were interspersed with periods of quite normal cat-functioning, on both four and three legs.
To preside over a cat unto the bitter end is educational.
More sobering thing: when I Google to double-check if the vet is having me on and how much opioids it's safe to put in one cat, I find no useful information because the Google is clogged with hand-wringing about people who are fraudulently buying veterinary opioids to feed to themselves.
I'm so sorry to hear that, Ara.
How old was your kitty?
Condolences, losing a pet sucks. Wish there was more I could do than that.
Don't have an exact age, as they were adopted middle-aged without good records. Probably close to 16 years old for the one that just died? A fairly respectable age.
I can't even get my foot in the door anywhere for a job after six months. Ugh. Not even in a field I have nearly a decade of experience in.
*pats* that sucks Ko :-/
I woke up, found out the faucet is leaking. Okay, no big deal, that's not too hard to - wait, it's really pouring after trying to turn it back and it's not stopping.
Craaaaaaap.
Cue $475 plumber's bill. Needed a new faucet and pipes under the sink, ugh.
Also, the job interview today didn't work out plus it was pouring rain when I got out of it. Some days just suck.
Ick, that's some pouring bad luck :( I really hope things start turning around for you at some point.
It's the prickly itches phase of the allergy season. Ugh.
I can't go see my grandfather in the ICU because I'm sick. Bleh.
Feeling any better? Any news on your grandpa too?
Hope things have taken a turn for the better on both since your last post!
Slowly getting better and nothing good, respectively. I'll know more in a few days, hopefully.
Fingers crossed and thanks, Mercury.
Searching for places/people to help a friend under "must find accommodation for $X by June Y or become homeless" constraint. $X is mostly sketchy online ads that you'd ideally want to take extra time to verify.
Really sucks to deal with this even by proxy. A lot of the nasty things being said about finding housing in US boomtowns are very much applicable in Canada too.
Extra rant
Oh, look, my old university college issued an alumni magazine with most of it being a single panic filled article about how their students' housing options are really limited and there's not enough residence space for the upper years that want it. As an example of solution, they relate how in British Columbia they've invented an innovative new student residence type called the 'nano suite', a 140 sq ft. apartment where your bed folds down in place of your desk. Only $700CAD/month!
https://vancouver.housing.ubc.ca/rooms/nano/ (https://vancouver.housing.ubc.ca/rooms/nano/)
This would make sense if the surrounding terrain was like Japan with lots of un-buildable sacred mountains, but from my observation much of an American city's space is devoted to lawns and parking.
Yeah, that's horrible all the way around.
I've heard vancouver's super expensive to live in, that reminds me of things like you'd see in other places with vastly distorted costs of living.
Had a job interview today.
Today's also the day where my Dad's car, which I was relying on to get to the interview, decided to have its transmission and engine die.
Didn't even make it to the interview.
:( That's terrible. Did you call?
Yeah, I did. They said they'd call back but they never did.
blegh, hate dealing with Comcast.
Their whole business model and that of that industry is shady as fuck and I wish it wasn't what it was just to get internet.
Quote from: Merc on May 20, 2019, 10:39:08 PM
blegh, hate dealing with Comcast.
Their whole business model and that of that industry is shady as fuck and I wish it wasn't what it was just to get internet.
Owwww. What happened? I saw you log off IRC and I was wondering if it was Comcast being Comcast.
Nah, that wasn't related. I just forgot to relog on there.
The comcast thing is just the usual annoyance with not being able to have one steady price with small ocassional increases for inflation, instead of the nonsense where you regularly have to call them about their latest idiotic bundle or finding a way to get cheaper deal or just swapping service for a year or so with the competitor.
That's an idiotic practice and I don't see why the only options are suck it up, or give up the internet.
That sounds ughworthy, yes. Glad I don't have to deal with Comcast ever.
A good friend and another employee is likely leaving. :(
/me pats.
Sucks losing friends at work, they make each day more bearable.
Precisely.
Been sick most the week. My team also has. Been just a barrel of monkeys :(
Ah, work bugs. Those are the worst. It's like work, only with more misery attached.
I also just did a two week bronchitis thing.
Slacker posted this over on discord: https://www.reddit.com/r/manga/comments/bzg753/a_ton_of_scanlators_leaving_mangadex/
Lame that scanlators are abandoning the one aggregator site that tries to respect scanlators by giving them their "wait X days before posting here" or generally letting them handle their own releases, giving links to their sites, no watermarks for their aggregator site onto pages...all so they can push people to their own sites/patreon/readers.
As Slacker also put it: I just... have to appreciate the sheer balls it takes to go "HOW DARE YOU TRY TO (maybe) MAKE MONEY OFF THIS (one day)!" and follow it with "By the way, our Patreon is right over here and did you know some of us get things out and translated before the actual manga is published in Japan?"
Speaking as someone who translates for three manga groups, two of which having been with and then left MangaDex, my understanding that there may be individual reasons why groups leave MangaDex besides the money complaint. At least that's what the two groups I'm familiar with have said. I see pros and cons after looking at the arguments being discussed, so I don't have a strong position, since I use MangaDex and don't balk at my translations being posted there, but I'm not offended by groups like my own choosing not to aggregate there either.
Still seems unfortunate.
Another work week. Here's going.
Fingers crossed for ya.
Steady issues with my PC have resulted in severe frustration.
/me pats.
Any closer to figuring out the problem, Yuth? Hope you get back soon regardless, sucks that you're stuck in this.
How old is it? Maybe parts are just going :(
Quote from: Dracos on June 26, 2019, 12:30:33 PM
How old is it? Maybe parts are just going :(
Motherboard is just outside of factory warranty.
New board arrived DOA.
Did you run over a leprechaun or something? Geez.
Seems to happen every time.
You are running dreadful with those. Condolences, hope the RMA's quick.
Still stuck in RMA land, Yuth?
Possible arson at Kyoto Animation, with 33 currently confirmed dead. (https://kotaku.com/fire-at-kyoto-animation-sixteen-confirmed-dead-and-sus-1836473998)
It's up to 33 dead? Good Lord.
Spammers just don't stop, annoying.
Quote from: Anastasia on July 16, 2019, 12:23:17 PM
Still stuck in RMA land, Yuth?
My RMA has been approved.
I don't mind making dinner for people when it comes up, but I hate when it's timed poorly and becomes more of a time sink than I wanted. Ugh.
Hurricanes continues to suck massively, that is all.
The Redskins season is looking terrible, 0-2 already with no light at the end of the tunnel as of now.
I feel I kinda screwed up a bit with netflix yesterday. Oh well. Talking with activision next week. Dislike giving myself uncertainty. Maybe better just to work till this place collapses.
Nah, keep plugging at it. You got this sooner or later, persistence matters a lot in the job hunt.
---
Woke up a bit before 4 AM a sweaty, overheated mess. I turned off the AC overnight since it was supposed to get cool.
It didn't, not really.
Uuuuugh. The worst part is that it's one of those times when you wake up and you're up.
Woke up at 1 am, started barfing. It's now 2, am still barfing.
Owwww.
That's pretty much a day ruiner. Hope you feel better, Yuth.
The Redskins are 0-5. What a waste of a season.
My plans for the day fell through abruptly and by pure bad luck. It's nothing serious really, but there's a special annoyance to things going wrong through no fault of your own.
Ah, the dreaded 6 30 AM wake up call from dog. It's okay, sleep's optional.
Back aches and shoulder aches and stomach aches, oh my.
Pounding headaches suck.
They really suck.
Quote from: Anastasia on November 18, 2019, 12:48:12 PM
Pounding headaches suck.
They really suck.
They really do.
Any history of migraines or anything like that? Usually if I'm having a lot of headaches, I take a look at my caffeine intake. For me, the more irregular it is, the more headaches I have.
No, it's probably vision related. I have really terrible vision, multiple vision problems and poor vision correction. I think that got to me is all.
ITCHY. ITCHY. IIIIITCHY.
Argh.
Today I got no sleep. well almost none. I woke up at 4 am. I answered work questions. I hit things in Maj'eyal without dying. I drove and got groceries.
I stumbled through work. I took point at talking at all the engineering managers. I got to end of workday. A grit happened. Whee. I left work a half hour later. I grilled steaks. I ate 75 of a dinner.
Work called. They needed heroic saving. Boo heroic saving. They had enormously fucked up tonight's go-live for the product. The big one that the board was looking at numbers for. So why not, of course that wasn't getting a no. And now it is eleven thirty and they are saved and I am going to mind sear orcs until high peak falls over.
For extra fun, when they screwed up. They then put a screw up on top of their screw up. And another one on top of that. So people weren't able to reason about what had happened and because they so often suddenly make left turns, they presumed that they couldn't trust what they saw.
The Redskins finished 3-13, a total disaster of a season top to bottom. Ugh.
The net-gods seem to want to burn the forum down.
Also been sneezing my head off and dealing with nasal/mucus colds for five days now. I haaate that.
Bathroom renovations in winter=emergency hose showers are a lot less fun. Brrrrrrrrrrrr.
6 AM trips into the cold, driving rain sucks.
https://kotaku.com/dragon-ball-z-abridged-comes-to-an-abrupt-end-1841522850/
Well that's a darn shame. Ending of cell saga was fantastic, hopefully they change their mind at some point but if not at least they picked a really good stopping stop and it was on their end, not because of a cease and desist.
It is a shame, no two ways about it. I suspect once the pressure dies down a bit they'll at least dabble in it, but who can say?
More analytically, I noticed they never did much towards the Buu Saga unlike others, and it always felt like they didn't have the same passion for it as the other arcs. Combine that with the fact that the end of Cell was such an emotional high point and I can see why they'd cash out.
It was fucking them over professionally since Toei hates their guts and they get a lot of shit from the industry. I don't know if they can really go anywhere from it since none of their other projects have gotten nearly the same traction, but it might at least help them get more voice work in dubbing now.
Things that suck: Morning back spasms. Owwwwwww.
Stomach bugs suck. -_-
Also yeah, sorry to see 'em go. Have no idea what they've really been up to aside from it but appreciate the years of fun.
Owww. Pulled muscles suck.
Being up at 4 30 AM is always the special extra fun.
Falling asleep at 7 something PM wrecks the sleep cycle something fierce.
Bleh, time shifts.
I still miss Brian.
Indeed :(
Yeah.
Happy Birthday, Brian.
The bad thing of getting older is losing people you care about. Well, one of the bad things, anyway.
Life needs more chances to exploit glitches for easy cash. Like seriously, why can't I clone something worthwhile 255 times and sell it for a huge profit?
I've sadly found being a Jovial Jerk sorta works in that regard. But yeah, lotto ticket for the life breakin' win.
Hang in there Dune.
So I need to go out for about 10 minutes to the pharmacy to pick something up, forgot to and it won't wait another day. Fine, whatever. I go with my Mom since she has a prescription to drop off. Sure, fine, that takes 30 seconds so no big deal.
Cue waiting on her for a hour after I'm done, because she runs into someone she knows and will not shut up. Absolutely infuriating. I'm even like when we go, 'this needs to be quick, I have someone waiting on me and I want to be here and back ASAP'. Like screaming, black fury infuriating. Why do some people think it's perfectly okay to waste someone else's time by the bucketful?
I'd love to know how anyone can type on one of these laptop keyboards.
Aren't you a fairy? isn't a laptop keyboard huge?
Sorry to hear that Kotono.
Testing the captchas and various anti spam measures is a thing.
It's sad that you need all of this to register for a forum anymore.
It is what it is.
All it takes is a few jerks to ruin something for everyone.
Part of the problem is I haven't figured out how to get https going on this. I really should get back to trying. :(
Indeed.
Dracos nagging engaged!
I rolled out an improvement a bit ago to our prep for building. It was tough and significant, thoroughly tested by people and machines and soaked for a good while.
And is now the magic blame magnet in exhausting incidents. Fuck all -_-
Sounds like you got scapegoated hard.
I miss proper sleep.
Bleh summer.
Summer is several months of roasting. At least it's progressing.
Fannnnns.
I hate sleepy, sore mornings.
Something I ate on friday has done unwell by me for the last couple days ;_;
Owwww. Food poisoning is the worst.
Off to a root canal. Boo. Yay?
Update: OW OW OW OW OW.
From personal experience, a root canal is more painful than wisdom tooth extraction.
Source: root canal twenty years ago, quadruple wisdom tooth removal last month.
Yes. Either way it's still no fun.
Take care of ones teeth ;_;
Yep. Gonna pay another grand for a crown in a week and a half. What fun.
Rats and the dealing with them. Net cost, a bit shy of 5k.
5k for rodent extermination? What happened there, Drac?
Rodents + damage to dishwasher + replacing garage door with something they can't get through + clearing out custom work last owner did that prevents a reasonable garage door + sealing spots they can get in around the property.
Hey at least I had been meaning to replace that garage door for years. But yeah ouch.
politics:
Anyhow, the *shake fist* of the moment is the current distortions in politics. Even touching base with very old family members, none of them can recall seeing something like it in their lifetimes. I'm honestly hoping the next six months goes without vast violence and civil unrest. Folks with differing views on values in the country have kind of moved through reading different opinions, to different facts, to tribal beliefs in The Enemy where crime largely is defined as 'whatever those who don't believe like me do' versus 'this is what I believe is right and wrong', whether it's different from where you stand or not. There's regular 'we cannot possibly have legitimate elections' in the US of all places coming not from fringe crazies but from direct messages from our executive branch and long tenured news outlets. It's honestly giving me trouble recognizing where I'm living anymore for all that it's phenomenially easy to just turtle at home with isolation instead. It saddens me terribly seeing the sheer tolerance for treating our neighbors as enemies or fools, whichever way one stands.
Ugh, that's a horrible chain of events. At least you hopefully got them all now.
Funny story and a bitch rolled into one: I wrote a long reply to your political comments, but chose not to bring politics onto SR. Ah well, it was fun to write and mentally clarifying.
Nothing good happens at 4 AM, especially when you wake up in stomach distress.
I've been stress sick lately. It sucks. Stupid work.
Mornings should not start with 3 AM wake ups and desperate sprints to the bathroom.
My voice is a hoarse croak. Bleh.
Feel better, Anastasia.
Yeah, it only lasted a few days. Could've been way worse.
I dread the response I will find in the morning to my tweet (https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1srfphr) on the Dode controversy.
For EXTREMELY quick and dirty highlights on the subject, a streamer named Dode who is a major part of the SMW community, was called out publicly on his lack of response to the trans community about allowing a transphobe in his stream that actively harrassed trans streamers/members elsewhere, and on top of that auto-hosting that person (this despite many attempts at private discussion). No adequate response was given for a period of time, an 'apology' was later made, other things were brought up that put into question sincerity, Dode deletes his twitter account, closes down his discord, takes a sabbatical from twitch for a bit over a month. Trans community continues to get harrassed, now with people crying for justice for Dode. Dode returns this week, carefully granting manual approval to certain members to his discord, and banning anybody that asked for better from Dode from his stream. All vocal members of the LGBTQ community and supporters were just...banned. His stream has over 1k people show up for his return stream. He makes well over $2000 in subscriptions/bits/donations and receives well wishes all in the first 30 minutes of stream consisting of nothing but a "Starting Soon" screen, and then he comes online...and doesn't address anything about the trans community. If anything he appears very cheekily dismissive of it all.
And I have friends, both those who reject dode and those who welcomed him back. I'm in many ways somehow still very centrist in all of this for all that I think Dode's handling is absolutely atrocious/disgusting, and potentially going to draw fire from both sides for my thoughts. I dunno, we'll see what twitter shitstorm I wake up to for expressing my thoughts.
/me pats Merc. It seems that once again the internet makes people jerks.
Personally I think most gaming streams are better off with a 'no politics or social issues' rule because generally, those issues isn't germane to gaming. I know the main streamer I watch right now has one and cultivates a friendly atmosphere in the chat, which does wonders for the stream. No one wins when you bring thing sort of thing into your entertainment product.
Good luck enduring all of this, Merc. I hope it gets better for you.
I have no idea who any of the people mentioned are, but Dode sounds like a piece of shit who's clearly courting a specific audience so doesn't deserve any benefit of the doubt. Dismissing trans lives as 'just a political issue to avoid' feels very unfriendly to me, but I prefer to watch streamers/youtubers who're explicitly inclusive about that stuff, and I've had to drop a few I've otherwise enjoyed because they've shown their true colours over social issues.
There's so much content available though, it's not really a loss to drop one for actually being shitty regardless of how otherwise informative or entertaining they might be.
Well, I woke up to my little corner of twitter being pretty quiet, either due to a mix of not being noticed or me being peanuts. I'm okay with that, I guess. I got some of my feelings off my chest.
The rest of the SMW corner is still on fire though.
Dune - Almost all gaming streams DO have that 'no politics or social issues', some make a bit of minor allowance for a quick comment here and there, or asking people to go to discord for example, but generally, that does apply. A big problem in all of this was the fact that the reason for those policies is that most streamers additionally claim they want to foster said friendly atmosphere and one that can serve as a safe space for viewers, and people were feeling unsafe seeing toxic people in spots they had thought were safe and then being ignored when they tried to ask quietly for action.
The SMW community always had felt like a safe space for the trans community, and many are speaking up of how friendly/welcoming the community was to them when they first came upon it, how many got into kaizo/speedrunning/level creating/etc. Quite a few streamers have openly identified as trans (as well as gay/lesbian/etc on LGBTQ spectrum), because of that, and phobic sentiment always seemed to get rooted out and banned rapidly through the community via word of mouth. And then somehow one phobic person found an audience and found support. And at least two big streamers seemed okay with that person, or at least 'to not take sides, and to keep their stream safe for everyone as long as they behave there'. It was a matter of people using the safe space thing to excuse the presence of uncomfortable elements...and then other phobic people slowly seemed to find their voice. It's just jokes! Don't take it seriously! It didn't happen on my stream! Dode would get PMs over things that happened...and nothing. Then he was publically called out on it, asked to indeed make his space safe. Suddenly everyone had a thing to scream, for/against Dode and many others. Trolls muddying the waters on both sides. Dode remained quiet as other friends admitted to trying to reach out to him.
Everything that follows has had a carefully crafted feel to it that has made it clear to many where he drew the line he stands on, and left many of us shocked at where that line was. Many people gave up friendship with him over it, either back in September when his lack of action first came up, or now with his return.
The problem with that carefully crafted feel to his behavior is...it's becoming apparent just how carefully crafted it was, that while many have denounced him, so many are happy to just have him back and are seeing everything else as twitter extremists and people that are harrassing Dode. Dode does have members of his community still that are LGBTQ, including in his mod team. He's made his token attempts to response, and oh no he was crucified for it, and he was driven into self-exile, oh no, oh no...
Right now the division in the community is that so many people that everyone thinks is inclusive in their communities were still supporting Dode and people fearing a Dode 2.0 moment with these additional streamers. There's these talks of lists of banning people for chatting in Dode's return stream, just like Dode banned people from his stream. And people talking similarly about banning people that ban Dode.
And this, with promises of safe spaces, of no politics, no social issues.
It's just a shitshow all around.
My dog died.
It always hurts to lose a pet, especially a beloved one.
Sorry for your loss, Dune. =(
Thanks, Merc. It just sucks, I had that dog nearly 18 years and I miss her.
You had a lot of good years :( Hope she went peacefully.
About as much as possible. Thanks Drac.
Sick. Hope it's just allergies plus a head cold.
Sickness sucks -_-. Have had something minor for a bit.
So many doctor appointments. Annoying but needed.
I hate that feeling of something being missing when you look over and your dog's no longer there.
Internet has been spotty as fuck and water pressure comes and goes since weekend. Been lucky enough to have power at least, though I've heard horror stories from others in texas, particularly in Austin. I sincerely hope Hal is doing okay.
Whelp... as of 9pm or so last night got hit by the 'rolling blackouts' that are supposed to last 40 min or so, went to bed, woke up just now and still no power and water seems to be out too and looked at weather report on phone (phone internet's surprisingly good at the moment, small favors I guess), and sleet warning in next hour with 80-90% chance of more snowing through morning. I'm grabbing two extra sets of blankets to cover myself with and hoping the morning is better. Hurrah for ash wednesday.
Also, didn't mention in last post since it's not even relevant to weather stuff - more SMW community drama, now between thedragonfeeney and grandpoobear, most of which feels like friendship spat stuff where poo has been a bad friend, if it wasn't for the little nugget of some sexual harrasment at the end of feen's accusation which is a fair bit more serious. A lot of people have blamed Poo regarding 'betraying' Dode too and taking a leading role against him, so you know that mess is also simmering waiting to explode again.
Texas?
Texas, yeah. Hang in there, Merc, I worried when I saw you peer out of IRC since I figured it was ice related.
Also a giant wince at the second part. How bad is the drama, anyway?
We're doing okay here, we have gas fireplace to help keep warm, and water is still running if at low pressure. Boiling water before using it to keep safe since there were some reports of contaminated water too before we lost power. Still no power and internet connection via phone comes and goes.
As for SMW the two relevant tweets are here:
https://twitter.com/thedragonfeeney/status/1361784347016183809
https://twitter.com/grandpoobear/status/1361865301881577473
Anything else so far has been speculation and the internet being the internet. A couple of people publically have said not to message them on the situation so of course everyone is turning to them (or turning on them). As was suspected, definitely some people chiming in and comparing this to Dode and calling people hypocrites for how they're reacting even though the two situations are nothing alike.
Glad you're hanging in there.
At least this drama doesn't seem to be as ugly as last time's, at least on a casual glance.
22 hours after, I have power and internet back. I also texted Hal and he's doing okayish. He hasn't had power or water for 60+ hours (since sunday evening), but they have a gas fireplace as well, so at least have a source of heat.
Brutal. Glad y'all are getting through it, at least.
It looks like an early spring here. Booooooo.
...Boo?
*eyes the chill factor going on around where he is*
Windfalls and Life changes both come with remarkable goodness and... tons and tons of stress points.
*hires tax consultants and attorneys*
Quote from: Dracos on March 21, 2021, 02:22:42 PM
Windfalls and Life changes both come with remarkable goodness and... tons and tons of stress points.
*hires tax consultants and attorneys*
That sounds like one heck of a mixed bag.
Is it me or are like half of the Wonder Egg Priority videos on youtube just titled with spoilers? So-and-so's death, whats-its-face sucide, blah is trans, this person's rape, ect
I don't even watch the show and its pissing me off.
I dunno what that is, but spoilers do suck.
Coronavirus vaccine does leave you a bit under the weather. And by a bit, I mean ARGHBLARGHFUCKLE.
Your first or second?
First. It hit me pretty good.
Company IPO happened and tanked massively. Oh well, still in the black myself with it.
Quote from: Dracos on April 19, 2021, 12:59:08 PM
Company IPO happened and tanked massively. Oh well, still in the black myself with it.
Could be a lot worse, and maybe it rebounds?
Yup and yup.
Got trapped in a barbershop and had to listen to the worst conversation I've heard since the beginning of the pandemic. I think I may actually be dumber for having to experience that. Like having someone rub shit in your ear.
That's impressively bad. What was it even about?
Allergy season and hives.
Whimper.
Quote from: Anastasia on May 24, 2021, 12:39:29 AM
That's impressively bad. What was it even about?
Two misogynist start going into anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about money, then turn on each other when one reveals he's deeply religious and the other is your basic internet atheist.
I was already in the chair getting my hair cut when they started up. The religious one was the guy
cutting my hair. He kept stopping to argue with the other guy.
Yeaaaaah, that's gonna suck.
Well, at least you know a barbershop that doesn't need your patronage anymore.
If they're more interested in arguing with customers than cutting your hair, I'm sure there's other places glad to have their business.
Quote from: Dracos on May 30, 2021, 10:08:10 PM
Well, at least you know a barbershop that doesn't need your patronage anymore.
If they're more interested in arguing with customers than cutting your hair, I'm sure there's other places glad to have their business.
Pretty much. Some of the better barbers I've been to are good talkers and know how to make things enjoyable, but they don't sabotage the actual haircut to argue with someone else.
Hurt everywhere. Tremors continue to get worse.
I miss when I was 20 and didn't have half a dozen things broken with me.
First day of PT hurts. Expected but still.
Been a month of PT and everything still hurts. It helps some, but ow.
It's been seven and a half years now. I don't miss Brian in the sense that I feel it, but at this point it's more an intellectual sense that he should be here. Like a solid part of things is missing in action and due back any day, but that day never comes. It's an emptiness that I struggle to really explain, that sense that some fundamental fact of how SR should be is wrong.
Loss is felt in different ways. When you share things, or look at gatherings where there's a clear gap.
Yeah, there is. Best we can do is keep remembering him.
I think of him any time Haruhi pops up in my view.
I never cared for the anime and I had zero interest to watch it in its entirety. Brian, on the other hand, always seemed very involved in its fandom.
Now any time someone chats about the show, or it pops up in media/streaming, or as a purchase recommendation, I think about him.
Yeah, same here, particularly when I come on a Haruhi fanfic. That's an instant trip back for me.
---
(Also being awake at 5 AM is seldom a fun time.)
Those nights with a gap in your sleep suck. I was up for a good two hours there.
They truly do :(
Question for childhood me: Why did you decide to follow a football team destined for 30 years of futility?
Quote from: Anastasia on September 27, 2021, 04:19:00 PM
Question for childhood me: Why did you decide to follow a football team destined for 30 years of futility?
I'm gonna guess nobody told childhood you about Gambler's Fallacy. =p
Ah man, little physical nusiances have been driving me nuts this weekend.
Quote from: Merc on September 27, 2021, 06:31:32 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on September 27, 2021, 04:19:00 PM
Question for childhood me: Why did you decide to follow a football team destined for 30 years of futility?
I'm gonna guess nobody told childhood you about Gambler's Fallacy. =p
Childhood me was clearly deprived of important information of all kinds.
Quote from: Dracos on October 05, 2021, 12:53:25 AM
Ah man, little physical nusiances have been driving me nuts this weekend.
Bit delayed but yeah. Suuuucks.
Today's complaint? Still having Thanksgiving leftovers the Monday after.
Fell asleep hard at 8 30, slept straight through until 3 30 AM. Ugh. Sleep cycle wrecked.
Quote from: Anastasia on December 05, 2021, 05:12:11 AM
Fell asleep hard at 8 30, slept straight through until 3 30 AM. Ugh. Sleep cycle wrecked.
My Taichi Sifu wakes up at 4:30 AM and I envy him.
Quote from: Anastasia on November 29, 2021, 10:33:36 AM
Today's complaint? Still having Thanksgiving leftovers the Monday after.
That is a good complaint to have.
It's bittersweet to come back to a writing project abandoned a long time ago (or, really, any kind of project) and actually make some progress. I'll post it to Writing Section for old times' sake then try to see if I can upload at least part1 to Spacebattles or Sufficientvelocity or something around Christmas time.
On the one hand I see what I've learned since then, on the other hand I think...
how much time has passed...(999th post; I mentioned I might post something for the 1000th so here goes)
It is but at the same time, I've found that time can be more effective for progress than anything else.
I'd suggest more than SB/SV. It's easy for original fiction to get lost in the noise there.
Quote from: Anastasia on December 08, 2021, 06:38:00 PM
I'd suggest more than SB/SV. It's easy for original fiction to get lost in the noise there.
Yeah. I'd put it on a personal site too, but I'm open to suggestions where to actually
publicize or
promote it.
My great uncle got quarentined while we were down there for family holidays.
That's horrible. Is he okay, at least?
Yeah, he and his wife are fine. Was a nurse at their facility who'd gotten sick, but being an elderly care place and having a nurse that went by everyone sick, they went on high alert.
That's a big relief.
I need to stop eating Taco Bell. My stomach often regrets it.
Had a new employee get sniped with a much higher offer 2 days before their start date. Negotiating but so-so on counteroffering/matching. The offer they got originally was basically just exactly what they had asked for because it'd been easily in range.
Saying for the general thing: Yeah that's kind of an ass thing to do. It happens. At least dignify the offer you've already signed by discussing if they'll match. I honestly get burning the bridge for a big payday. It's not like it's stupid. But you also already have some group that decided they'd be glad to have you. They may not counteroffer and yes they might reasonably be pissed, but it's still at the end of the day, part of the negotiation.
Yeah, that just sucks. I don't blame the guy either, but I do think it's bad form if they've already accepted your offer. It's not about the money or the job, it's about keeping your word.
Still don't blame them in this economy, though. I get going for the cash.
My head is killing me this morning and I have meetings the whole day.
I have like 1.5 hours free in three 30 min chunks across the day, otherwise it's back to back meetings today.
And then tomorrow I have to drive across town again for an all-day meeting.
At the very least I'm primarily work from home, so they're just Teams meetings mostly, but I've been hit with a slew of drive down to office between last week (week-long safety hazard meeting) and this week (new project kick-off).
And the office is across town, so about 2.5-3 hours between drive there and back.
Your week is just boned, huh? Sucks.
New controller I bought died in two weeks. Boo.
Forum updates can be rough. Poor Drac.
Oh, that's why stuff is so yeah. I thought that was just me.
Nah, it's in progress. Feel free to speak up if you think something's broken.
My theme changed and I can't remember how to change it back.
Need my dark theme back.
Edit: Figured out how to change themes. Seem to be missing my old one, though.
Yeah, not all themes are updated for 2.1 yet. We grabbed a few and I want to add a few more. I'm using the alien one for now.
https://custom.simplemachines.org/index.php?action=themes
Feel free to look through here and see if there's any 2.1 compatible ones you like.
Consider this a vote for Potato and Blue Evolution 2.1.
Sure, I'll pass them on to the fearless leader.
Lunarfall (https://custom.simplemachines.org/index.php?theme=2919) looks decent to me. I'm using the alien one which at least is dark but I'm not in love with the green.
Yeah I couldn't find ones that really clicked great.
My job is very straining these days. Added Lunarfell.
Haven't been too chatty in a lot of ways the last few months.
Lunarfell works, just FYI.
I got the impression, Drac. Work business and troubles sucks, I feel ya.
Summer sucks, that is all. Stupid heat.
Cannot read Death Mage anymore. I give up. It's just bad.
What finally put it over the edge for you?
Hadn't read it since January. Figured I'd catch up on it.
Right after catching up on another isekai I find shockingly good.
It isn't like I didn't know Death Mage was bad. I did. But you can still enjoy bad stories.
But time away from it, coupled with an example in the same genre fresh in my mind, really hammered home the two major problems I just cannot look past.
The power level stuff they focus so heavily on means nothing, and the story doesn't move.
Pretty much the same reason I gave up on Wheels of Time. >_>
5 AM breakfasts suck. That is all.
That it does :(
Not as bad as 4 AM breakfasts, but hey, progress.
I hate those days when you wake up and you immediately can tell what's primed to start hurting.
day 2 after trip - jetlag still kicking ass. Work tomorrow. Bleeeeh.
I have to wait 4 or so months for the next game in the game series I'm playing. Ugh.
Lazy weekend about to end. Work returning. Worse, hybrid work. After years of remote. Go away physical sites. Seriously.
Finally back to the office, huh? Good luck.
How is this (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B9GXNQWG?notRedirectToSDP=1&ref_=dbs_mng_calw_1&storeType=ebooks) book so bad? The first book wasn't like this.
The curse of sequels?
It does suck when a sequel doesn't live up to the previous book(s) in the series. It always lets you down and makes you wonder what could've been.
Man, this don't even feel like the same author. Or character.
Brutal. Did a different author pick it up or something?
Nope, same author.
He killed off almost every character he'd developed and the setting everything happened in at the end of the first book.
The second book takes place three years later. The new setting is underdeveloped. The new characters have little to no personally. He starts with triplet catgirl adventures as new companions. Then he gives them names so similar you'll have difficulty distinguishing between them. Or you would, if you had any reason to try. How he managed to give them zero personally between the three of them is beyond me. The author doesn't even bother calling them by name most of the time. They are just the triplets. And slapping a couple annoying tropes(Oh ho, they have a fan club that gets jealous that the protag is working with them! ... and who are ignored by them and the protag without issue) on them doesn't help.
The protag is so overpowered for the setting that the narrative doesn't even pretend to challenge him in any way, shape, or form. Which wouldn't be so bad if the people around him weren't written to be idiots.
No one can fight him. Grown ass people who are supposed to be professionals in whatever they're doing continuously are shocked and amazed by the simplest things he does. He can bake sweets? Literally every woman in the story starts acting like they have two brain cells. I was waiting for him to start breaking the the massages.
If the enemies he fights were called one dimensional that would be giving them an entire dimension they don't have. Like, who was this written for? It can't be kids. You have a whole plotline about bandits that murdered all the menfolk in a village and were raping the women before planning to sell them into slavery. So why does every antagonist sound like a Saturday morning cartoon villain?
And this is just the major stuff. I haven't even touched the numbers thing or the endless parade of tropes that serve no purpose and seem to be thrown in for no reason at all.
The first book wasn't perfect but it wasn't this. I wanted to find out what came next after reading that one. This one is like "Well I already spent the money, may as well finish it."
Nothing like Saturday night pizza being bad to make Sunday an adventure in stomach fun.
Week be startin'. It be like that. My sleep schedule is very early again.
That's rough, I'm in an up late pattern right now and having trouble dropping off. That part's rare for me, for some reason sleep's been elusive.
That up early pattern at least usually makes it easy to drop off (for me at least), though it's rare and against the grain. When I get up early, I tend to be tired no matter how much sleep I got. I hope it's not the same for you.
Yeah, basically the evening becomes just tired time.
Yeah, and that really sucks since that's the free time.
Short sleep today and I have short sleep tomorrow, most likely. Gonna be a long week.
Bleh long weeks.
You know it's a bad day when stretching is almost too much.
The new(ish) dog we have likes to hide food for later, all over the house. For some reason she likes my bed's pillows as a hiding spot.
Half eaten chicken is not a fun thing to find at bedtime.
My Christmas present is a second cold this month, and this one comes with shivering fevers and wooziness.
Hope this one doesn't linger and ruin NYE on top of it.
Bank problems suck, that is all.
*attempts new anti-spam*
*levels the forum*
*deletes new anti-spam*
One step forward, twenty seven back, huh?
Yes. Forever back -_-
At least it's progress, right? That's what I tell myself, anyway.
We try things! Sometimes they even work :)
Things that suck: Waking up in the middle of the night to broken eye glasses.
15+ hour travel time.
multiple hours of broken plane.
Home now. Begrudge all.
What happened? Sounds like a crap way to end a vacation.