[Tiste Simeon]

Maggie Smith dead at 89.

McGonagall but not McForgottenall

[Abyss]

Tiste Simeon, on 27 September 2024 - 01:59 PM, said:

Maggie Smith dead at 89.

McGonagall but not McForgottenall

A life well lived, she was legend.

[Cause]

Okay this is kinda silly but it bothers me enough that I’m googling bar mixes on Amazon right now.

Was in Toronto this week at the King Edward Hotel. Had dinner at the hotel restaurant and they bring you a bowl of bar mix instead of bread while you peruse the menu. It was delicious, savory and exactly the snack I need to stock in my apartment for when I want to snack on something but don’t want candy. Turns out it’s a special mix made especially for the hotel and you can buy it for home.

I can’t identify all the prices but it had:
Wasabi peanuts (who knew this was so delicious)
Caramelized peanuts and almonds I think
Corn (this can go)
Some kind of pepper shaped cracker
More

I can’t find anything that seems to match. Stopping putting cheddar cheese powder on everything America.

[Abyss]

Cause, on 28 September 2024 - 12:54 AM, said:

Okay this is kinda silly but it bothers me enough that I’m googling bar mixes on Amazon right now.

Was in Toronto this week at the King Edward Hotel. Had dinner at the hotel restaurant and they bring you a bowl of bar mix instead of bread while you peruse the menu. It was delicious, savory and exactly the snack I need to stock in my apartment for when I want to snack on something but don’t want candy. Turns out it’s a special mix made especially for the hotel and you can buy it for home.

I can’t identify all the prices but it had:
Wasabi peanuts (who knew this was so delicious)
Caramelized peanuts and almonds I think
Corn (this can go)
Some kind of pepper shaped cracker
More

I can’t find anything that seems to match. Stopping putting cheddar cheese powder on everything America.

Been there, ate that, can confirm.

[worry]

Was that literal corn -- or like Corn Nuts?

[Abyss]

worry, on 28 September 2024 - 10:07 AM, said:

Was that literal corn -- or like Corn Nuts?

Yes

[Cause]

Abyss, on 29 September 2024 - 03:13 AM, said:

worry, on 28 September 2024 - 10:07 AM, said:

Was that literal corn -- or like Corn Nuts?

Abyss, you have skills and means! Can you break down all the components, we can replicate it on our own.

Yes

[Slow Ben]

Kris Kristoffersom dead at 88. One of my favorites. Wrote some great songs and was a damn good man.

“Don’t let the bastards get you down”.

[worry]

I just watched Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore not long ago. He was a real charming actor. Also great in Lone Star, playing very much against type.

[Maark Abbott]

More weirdness next door. Fuckass dealer landlord was there five minutes on Monday last week, and then Friday a van stops over, sneakily opens the gate and leaves a rug by the door which has just sat there all weekend.

I'm worried we're going to have more shitheads in there and with work stress so high I can't cope. I'm seeking advice from my GP.

[Maark Abbott]

The bad: signed off of work because the stress of everything was bringing me precariously close to a menty b.

Signed off until the 16th; I'm off that week anyway so effectively it's a three-week break away from the job. I feel bad for it happening but I am one bad call away from putting my head into a mirror lately.

[Mezla PigDog]

Bad luck Maark. Take the time to decompress, now you have it.

My street has been on national news due to floods. We have what is usually a very small river down the bottom of our street. Fortunately we're up an incline so you'd need biblical volumes of rain for our house to be got, but it sucks what neighbours have to deal with. It's really harsh how just a couple of centimetres elevation saves a property while one next door succumbs. Also, we're set a bit back from the road and I work from home so the first day of flood i didn't realise until many hours later via Facebook. If I took 3 paces outside my front door, I would have seen the new lake that formed but bloody social media gave me the news half a day late.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Ugh. My driver's license expired a while ago. If I wait more than two years to get a new one I'll have to retake the driving tests... and I haven't driven a car in decades. In a rational society that cared about health, there would be an option for people who don't want to get exposed to covid or other airborne pathogens to either submit their own photo (as they're now allowing with US passport renewals but not driver's licenses---as if a driver's license were more of a security threat than a passport, smh) or have their photo taken outside (or in a separate small building or chamber with the air flushed out after each individual and no one else inside it, etc.). But of course there isn't. So I'm going to have to take off my mask and expose myself to covid. I'll try to hold my breath, and use Epothex nasal spray...

OTOH I did pay for the renewal online and receive my camera card, so I'm not sure if the two years thing even applies to me. Unfortunately my passport is my only other un-expired form of government photo ID.

It's been just over a month since I got my latest booster, and it's supposed to be a good match for the strains currently circulating in the United States, so I decided to go today around 2:15 PM, thinking it wouldn't be crowded because most people would be at work (and that they'd arrange to go either before work or---more likely---during their lunch hour sometime between 11 AM and 2 PM).

And there's a ballot drop box a short walk from the driver's license photo center. But when I went to put my ballot in the secrecy envelope... the envelope was already sealed in one section. Around a cm wide. Wouldn't come off without getting torn there. But it sealed fine on either side of it, so hopefully it won't be an issue. Couldn't see the ballot through it. Still some Trump partisan might claim it's evidence of potential tampering and grounds for invalidation. Considered requesting another ballot, but decided it would probably be fine.

Oh well. If Trump wins by one vote and destroys the world, I guess it's my fault.

"From wrong to wrong the exasperated spirit / Moves, unless restored by that refining fire / Where you must move in measure, like a dancer"... the instructions for the Epothex spray were terribly vague and incomplete---I ended up having to watch a video, and then even that didn't explain that there's a ring you have to remove before you can pump it properly.

When I saw the line of people standing a bit of a distance apart from each other outside the driver's license center (DMV), I was happy to see them being allowed to wait outside and socially distancing. There was an official-looking guy right in front of the line helping someone fill out a form. Wow, wonderful, I thought---doing the DMV paperwork and photo ID verification outside.

But this is America, so of course not. The guy with the paperwork had nothing to do with the DMV. The line stretched outside because the DMV was completely packed with people inside. Someone walking nearby said that it's better if you come early in the morning---it opens at 8:30 AM. The website did warn, "Customer demand for photo services is greatest the first and last 2 days of each month. Customer wait times are shorter on all other days"; and while this was technically the third day of the month, it's probably more of a continuous dropping off... hopefully. So I decided to try again next week.

On to drop off my ballot. Government website said the dropbox is at (in?) the Independence (government) library. Wrote down the address, streets it's between, and side of the street it should be on... ended up walking back and forth between the two streets unable to find it. No numbers on the buildings. Finally I looked again at the building with the big sign in Chinese characters, which I'd assumed was a restaurant or something, but no, it turns out that was Chinese for "Independence Library" or whatever. Which was also written in English in tiny letters. Because even though it's center city, it's a few blocks south of Chinatown. No signage whatsoever directing people towards the dropbox, which was actually outside the library. Bland nondescript design with tiny lettering---had to get up close to it to see what it was.

How much would it cost to put up a goddamn sign or two directing people to the ballot drop box?...

Now back to reviewing the branches of the complex logarithm...

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 03 October 2024 - 08:40 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Forgot to add---when my passport expires I can't just renew it online (and upload a photo) unless I have another form of unexpired government photo ID... so I'll need to renew my driver's license for that.

And only having one form of government photo ID is perilous, especially when you're carrying it around with you---if it gets lost or stolen you're screwed. Huge PItA getting a photo ID if you don't have a photo ID.

Also: by "hold my breath" I mean---for as long as I can without being on the verge of passing out (because if I were on the floor unconscious I'd probably be breathing in a shit ton---like a movie boxer on the mat, coach's shouts echoing through your mind (through your wobby brain) "Get up, get up"---before you breath in too much more of the infected air...), only removing my mask when they're ready to actually take my photo---possibly viable if they're not assholes (anti-mask or otherwise) who try to stretch it out out of spite or just to feel empowered or whatever... I don't think I can continue holding my breath all the way from there to the exit, because it's a considerable distance. But if I put my mask back on it will have trapped some of the contaminated air. Still probably the best option, since the mask should limit my exposure to the small amount of air initially trapped between it and my face.

Mezla PigDog, on 02 October 2024 - 09:22 PM, said:

My street has been on national news due to floods. We have what is usually a very small river down the bottom of our street. Fortunately we're up an incline so you'd need biblical volumes of rain for our house to be got, but it sucks what neighbours have to deal with. It's really harsh how just a couple of centimetres elevation saves a property while one next door succumbs. Also, we're set a bit back from the road and I work from home so the first day of flood i didn't realise until many hours later via Facebook. If I took 3 paces outside my front door, I would have seen the new lake that formed but bloody social media gave me the news half a day late.

From an old acquaintance in the high country of western North Carolina (far from the coast) which flooded during hurricane Helene:

Quote

I wanted to let the internet know that last Friday morning I was caught up in a landslide during Helene and very nearly died [...] I was pinned under 1000 lbs of debris and mud drowning holding onto a twig as my entire house got swept into the ravine.

[...] I watched my neighbor and best friend perish in front of me.

Spoiler

They found her body 2 miles down river. My brother didn't hear from me for days, so he assembled a search and rescue team [and] managed to get myself and a dozen friends out with offroad equipment. [...]

[...] where I lived, was truly one of the most beautiful places on earth. I was there to witness it at its most beautiful, at the end of a millenias long cycle of regeneration. You can't even imagine how beautiful it was. In the mornings I would go outside and simply pray to God and thank him for creating such a beautiful place as the sun came through the trees. Rolling pastures, pristine forests, perfect waterfalls. Black bear and wildlife would visit my home daily to say hello. It was literally a heaven on earth. [...] my friend who died, was a perfect stranger who became truly my best friend. She and her husband reached out to me by fate, and invited me to live in the cottage on their property when my soul needed it the most. She touched so many people's lives, was truly a beautiful person, and the best friend one could ever ask for. Too good for this earth. Crying just typing these words.

Living there wasn't easy as it was very remote, but having a beautiful waterfall right outside my doorstep and watching the seasons change there was truly the source of all my joy and contentment. Now, it's gone, replaced by destruction, trauma, and death. The landscape is deeply scarred by a once in a thousand years storm and won't heal for many lifetimes. Mother nature had to just remind us all it doesn't want us up there in her paradise, building houses and roads.

Those once a in thousand year storms are, of course, almost certainly going to keep becoming more frequent... unless we can actually implement solutions to climate change in time.

The area was expected to be a relative safe haven from climate change because of the high elevation...

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 04 October 2024 - 12:18 PM

[Mentalist]

4 years ago, I got up on my birthday (it was a Saturday) to go to the pool (it was lockdown, but you could still come swim, as long as you pre-registered).

I came downstairs, only to have dad tell me that my grandmother passed away.

Ever since, it's always such a weird feeling. This day that people (at least some) try to make such a big deal of. Can I ever stop reliving that moment?
Intellectually, I realize that she's wasn't the same person anymore. She's been overcome by Alzheimer's and the last time I saw her prior to that (about 3 year earlier) I spent a week living with her, and during that time she recognized me once. Back then I said that I won't be travelling back home again until she passes, b/c I couldn't go home and not visit; but I also couldn't bear seeing her like that.
I get all that, I get the fact that since my grandfather passed away she's been living her life, but waiting to see him again, and when it happened, it was a relief.

And yet... it still hurts. And there's nothing I can do about it.

[Abyss]

Mentalist, on 11 October 2024 - 02:37 AM, said:

4 years ago, I got up on my birthday (it was a Saturday) to go to the pool (it was lockdown, but you could still come swim, as long as you pre-registered).

I came downstairs, only to have dad tell me that my grandmother passed away.

Ever since, it's always such a weird feeling. This day that people (at least some) try to make such a big deal of. Can I ever stop reliving that moment?
Intellectually, I realize that she's wasn't the same person anymore. She's been overcome by Alzheimer's and the last time I saw her prior to that (about 3 year earlier) I spent a week living with her, and during that time she recognized me once. Back then I said that I won't be travelling back home again until she passes, b/c I couldn't go home and not visit; but I also couldn't bear seeing her like that.
I get all that, I get the fact that since my grandfather passed away she's been living her life, but waiting to see him again, and when it happened, it was a relief.

And yet... it still hurts. And there's nothing I can do about it.

Four years isn't that long for a loss.
Eventually, better memories can replace the feeling, sometimes, somewhat, but it takes time and there's no rule for how long.

[Cause]

Todays first world problem:

My new apartment is lovely, and my bathroom is pretty decent. I thought it was time to upgrade to a modern Japanese like bidet toilet. Life’s too short not to poop in luxury. I have realized though that there is no way to get a power outlet anywhere near my toilet and as a renter I probably can’t get one out it. Frustrating.

There are models that don’t use power but I feel the drop off in luxury is probably quite large.

[Abyss]

Cause, on 15 October 2024 - 06:56 PM, said:

Todays first world problem:

My new apartment is lovely, and my bathroom is pretty decent. I thought it was time to upgrade to a modern Japanese like bidet toilet. Life's too short not to poop in luxury. I have realized though that there is no way to get a power outlet anywhere near my toilet and as a renter I probably can't get one out it. Frustrating.

There are models that don't use power but I feel the drop off in luxury is probably quite large.

diesel fueled generator.

[Tiste Simeon]

Abyss, on 15 October 2024 - 08:04 PM, said:

Cause, on 15 October 2024 - 06:56 PM, said:

Todays first world problem:

My new apartment is lovely, and my bathroom is pretty decent. I thought it was time to upgrade to a modern Japanese like bidet toilet. Life's too short not to poop in luxury. I have realized though that there is no way to get a power outlet anywhere near my toilet and as a renter I probably can't get one out it. Frustrating.

There are models that don't use power but I feel the drop off in luxury is probably quite large.

diesel fueled generator.

Indeed there is nothing that says pooping in peace quite like the noise and smell of a diesel generator!

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Cause, on 15 October 2024 - 06:56 PM, said:

Todays first world problem:

My new apartment is lovely, and my bathroom is pretty decent. I thought it was time to upgrade to a modern Japanese like bidet toilet. Life's too short not to poop in luxury. I have realized though that there is no way to get a power outlet anywhere near my toilet and as a renter I probably can't get one out it. Frustrating.

There are models that don't use power but I feel the drop off in luxury is probably quite large.

Why wouldn't an extension cord suffice? Is your apartment longer than the longest technologically viable extension cord? Does a bidet use far more power than any extension cord could safely provide?

If your building doesn't have an emergency backup generator it might be good to have two large portable backup batteries. They'd probably be enough to power your bidet (perhaps depending on how much you use it...). Two so you can poop continuously without interruption, and let the fountains flow.... (Incidentally: one of my favorite things about Duchamp's famous urinal is that he titled it "Fountain" and signed it R. Mutt---as if humans and dogs going around pissing all over the world where spewing monumental public (pubic) fountains... to wash away the wastes (to the tune of "Black Hole Sun"---"to wash away the rain"...).)

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 16 October 2024 - 02:17 PM