[Abyss]

This is silly.... The eclipse is not death-from-above. You can still go outside. Just try not to stare at the sun. Y'know... like you usually do.

No, the flying saucers are not using this as a perfect opportunity to deploy across the world. You just imagined that.

[Malankazooie]

The interstate on the way up to view the total solar eclipse was so clogged with traffic. I now know what it will be like when the zombie apocalypse hits and infrastructure collapses and humanity spills out onto the roadways to flee. I'm just glad we left early enough to make it. Consider my groove messed with earlier this morning. grrrrr <grumble grumble grumble>

This post has been edited by Malankazooie: 22 August 2017 - 12:27 AM

[Puck]

It's impossible to get a call through into Ukraine. I mean, that's nothing new, but this past week I've managed to get through once (out of, I dunno, 25 tries). The call either cuts off while dialing, doesn't even go through at all or - the kicker - I get waiting music. I'm trying to call my mom on her mobile, by the way (which is on a German contract). It's ridiculous.

[Mentalist]

Puck, on 22 August 2017 - 12:13 PM, said:

It's impossible to get a call through into Ukraine. I mean, that's nothing new, but this past week I've managed to get through once (out of, I dunno, 25 tries). The call either cuts off while dialing, doesn't even go through at all or - the kicker - I get waiting music. I'm trying to call my mom on her mobile, by the way (which is on a German contract). It's ridiculous.

The answer is Skype

[Macros]

I thought the answer was to blame brood

[Mentalist]

Yeah, but blaming Brood doesn't get results.

[Abyss]

Wolverine. The answer is Wolverine.



...what were we talking about?

[Puck]

Mentalist, on 22 August 2017 - 01:30 PM, said:

Puck, on 22 August 2017 - 12:13 PM, said:

It's impossible to get a call through into Ukraine. I mean, that's nothing new, but this past week I've managed to get through once (out of, I dunno, 25 tries). The call either cuts off while dialing, doesn't even go through at all or - the kicker - I get waiting music. I'm trying to call my mom on her mobile, by the way (which is on a German contract). It's ridiculous.

The answer is Skype

I'm too cheap to pay for Skype, especially when I already have two working phones at my disposal, one of which has a contract to allow cheap call into Ukraine

[Macros]

WhatsApp calls are free

[Puck]

This is actually funny, but yes, if you are trying to call someone who both has a phone that can run WhatsApp AND knows how to use it, they yes, they are free. My mother can/does neither.

I'm loving this assumption that everyone has a smartphone running Skype and WhatsApp. No, not everyone does, especially not people catching up on their seventies/late in their sixties. If I hadn't gotten one for Christmas I wouldn't have one either, tbh.

This post has been edited by Puck: 22 August 2017 - 02:04 PM

[Mentalist]

My 80 y.o. grandparents in UA have Skype on their PCs. I use my smartphone to make skype calls to them, for free (as long as I have the data, or if I get WiFi signal). My other grandmother out in the village that has no plumbing/centralized sewage had Skype installed for her in her house. Pretty much everyone I know back home has Skype for (free) PC-to-PC calls.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 22 August 2017 - 02:56 PM

[Abyss]

See also Facetime on the iphone/ipad side of things. Dear god how i dread that ringy sound now.

[Puck]

Mentalist, on 22 August 2017 - 02:55 PM, said:

My 80 y.o. grandparents in UA have Skype on their PCs. I use my smartphone to make skype calls to them, for free (as long as I have the data, or if I get WiFi signal). My other grandmother out in the village that has no plumbing/centralized sewage had Skype installed for her in her house. Pretty much everyone I know back home has Skype for (free) PC-to-PC calls.

It's great that your grandparents manage to get their head around using Skype, my mother doesn't. Not everyone is the same, maybe? It's not like I don't use Skype to Skype to talk to people in Ukraine, but when I have to urgently talk to my mom I'm not Skype calling my brother who's on the other side of the country from her atm. I get it that there are smart, sophisticated modern ways to communicate which even old people get, but that's not every single older person on the planet. Some don't. Some don't want to. I don't like that either, but that's how it is.

[Mentalist]

Fair enough. Hell, I still remember the days when we'd have to go 4 streets over to one of the few families in the village that had phones to call to the city, once a week.

It's unfortunate, but not surprising that UA continues to have spotty phone service.

[Loki]

I have a friend who is in a horrible situation and there's nothing I can do to help them.

It's awful. I hate it.

[Andorion]

Got roped into doing a presentation at very short notice, and going through with it simply to ensure that I don't piss off some very influential people.

[Gorefest]

Down South, on 23 August 2017 - 01:12 PM, said:

7:50am woken up by hammering. House construction repairs begun. 10 days projected.

That's nothing. Someone bought the house attached to ours, then decided to completely gut it (and I mean completely, at one point you could look straight at the underside of the roof from the front door) and restructure the inside. They did all this work themselves and with some friends, which meant that they only did it on evenings and weekends, often starting at 7:30 in the morning. For nearly a year. Right next door. With drills. And hammers. And power tools.

And then they effing sold it again after barely living in it for six months....

[QuickTidal]

My daughter starts daycare in less than a month...and my wife and I are dealing with severe anxiety about the typical things: Someone else looking after our kid, whether she will be well looked after (she'd better be, with the price we are paying for fancy-dancy daycare), how will she take to it or not.

They do a 9 day integration process (I'm on my vacation during that time from work so this will be my process to cover while my wife goes back to work after her Mat Leave ends) where she stays a little longer each day, and I pick her up and take her home for the rest of the day....with the 9th day she stays from 7-5.

My heart is absolutely breaking at the thought of it. I don't want her to feel abandoned during the day by us.

I'm sure we will all be fine...but it's turning out to be a really tough thing to go through as a parent.

[QuickTidal]

Down South, on 23 August 2017 - 01:44 PM, said:

As cruel as it feels when you are leaving do not look back at her if she is fussy.

Taking her up there to be introduced for 25 30 mins 2-3 times would help her.

I've been through it before trust me don't look back you ll stop dead in your tracks. Then the staffs job is that much harder as they to shoo the parent away.

Yeah, they've been very clear with us that once we say goodbye, we leave the room and don't look back.

Ugh, this is going to absolutely GUT me.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 23 August 2017 - 02:12 PM

[Traveller]

It's difficult, no doubt, and worse if they're upset when you leave. They're often fine after 5 minutes while we go to work feeling awful!