[Mentalist]

27th anniversary of Ukraine's independence from the USSR.

Subway is prime reading time.

[Gintokian]

Mentalist, on 24 August 2018 - 10:36 PM, said:

27th anniversary of Ukraine's independence from the USSR.

Subway is prime reading time.

Ah gotcha.
Yes but I'd have to take the go for an hour, then the subway for 20 or so minutes, then walk for 10-15 minutes. So it's a bunch of different things, if it was just a straight shot on the train or subway I wouldn't mind, but breaking it all up is pain.
Wouldn't be so bad in the morning but getting up at 6 and getting home at 7 will suck

[Mentalist]

Gintokian, on 24 August 2018 - 10:41 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 24 August 2018 - 10:36 PM, said:

27th anniversary of Ukraine's independence from the USSR.

Subway is prime reading time.

Ah gotcha.
Yes but I'd have to take the go for an hour, then the subway for 20 or so minutes, then walk for 10-15 minutes. So it's a bunch of different things, if it was just a straight shot on the train or subway I wouldn't mind, but breaking it all up is pain.
Wouldn't be so bad in the morning but getting up at 6 and getting home at 7 will suck

Try bus, two subways and a streetcar. It's survivable (and I negotiated about 3k extra to my salary when I took the job with such a commute), but for sure, it can be a real pain.

GO is gonna be pricey, but if you switch to presto, you'll get discounts for frequent use. Unfortunately, I don't get much benefit from presto, so I have to buy weekly GTA passes (since I use both TTC and Miway in my commute). It kinda works out, since I usually also commute to soccer a few times a week so it pays for itself. It was definitely better when those were tax deductible, though

[Gintokian]

Mentalist, on 24 August 2018 - 11:37 PM, said:

Gintokian, on 24 August 2018 - 10:41 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 24 August 2018 - 10:36 PM, said:

27th anniversary of Ukraine's independence from the USSR.

Subway is prime reading time.

Ah gotcha.
Yes but I'd have to take the go for an hour, then the subway for 20 or so minutes, then walk for 10-15 minutes. So it's a bunch of different things, if it was just a straight shot on the train or subway I wouldn't mind, but breaking it all up is pain.
Wouldn't be so bad in the morning but getting up at 6 and getting home at 7 will suck

Try bus, two subways and a streetcar. It's survivable (and I negotiated about 3k extra to my salary when I took the job with such a commute), but for sure, it can be a real pain.

GO is gonna be pricey, but if you switch to presto, you'll get discounts for frequent use. Unfortunately, I don't get much benefit from presto, so I have to buy weekly GTA passes (since I use both TTC and Miway in my commute). It kinda works out, since I usually also commute to soccer a few times a week so it pays for itself. It was definitely better when those were tax deductible, though

I take the go train now from oakville to union so I'm already using presto. They got rid of the tax deduction right before I started working downtown so that sucked.
My office now is at the corner of York and adelaide so like a 5 minute walk from the station but they're looking at offices in the young and shephard area, like 1/3 the rent but much further

[Mentalist]

Gintokian, on 25 August 2018 - 12:52 AM, said:

Mentalist, on 24 August 2018 - 11:37 PM, said:

Gintokian, on 24 August 2018 - 10:41 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 24 August 2018 - 10:36 PM, said:

27th anniversary of Ukraine's independence from the USSR.

Subway is prime reading time.

Ah gotcha.
Yes but I'd have to take the go for an hour, then the subway for 20 or so minutes, then walk for 10-15 minutes. So it's a bunch of different things, if it was just a straight shot on the train or subway I wouldn't mind, but breaking it all up is pain.
Wouldn't be so bad in the morning but getting up at 6 and getting home at 7 will suck

Try bus, two subways and a streetcar. It's survivable (and I negotiated about 3k extra to my salary when I took the job with such a commute), but for sure, it can be a real pain.

GO is gonna be pricey, but if you switch to presto, you'll get discounts for frequent use. Unfortunately, I don't get much benefit from presto, so I have to buy weekly GTA passes (since I use both TTC and Miway in my commute). It kinda works out, since I usually also commute to soccer a few times a week so it pays for itself. It was definitely better when those were tax deductible, though

I take the go train now from oakville to union so I'm already using presto. They got rid of the tax deduction right before I started working downtown so that sucked.
My office now is at the corner of York and adelaide so like a 5 minute walk from the station but they're looking at offices in the young and shephard area, like 1/3 the rent but much further

Ouch. I go from 5 and 10 to St Clair West every day. The commute is maybe 5-10 min longer then driving, and there's no parking, so commuting was a no brainer

[Slow Ben]

Another f'ing shooting.

At a Madden 19 gaming convention.


Thoughts and fucking prayers.

[Andorion]

Booking train tickets online is like pulling teeth. I honestly think they power their servers with hamster wheels

[Morgoth]

Macros, on 24 August 2018 - 09:10 PM, said:

ITS EVERY LAWYER EVER.

SWEEPING GENERALISATIONS AHOY!

I am superior, this is true!

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

The son of one of the other staff at the centre is in my new D&D group that I just joined - largely because his mother asked me to send him the link when we spoke about it. She has since bombarded me with messages about him suffering from depression and needing to get out more an what have you. I've no issue with that, but I'm feeling very pressured to be his new best friend come babysitter and that's a hell of a lot of small print I was unaware of in just handing him the group link.

That's a minor grumble.... now I've got him messaging all the time (including at bizarre early hours of the morning) and to cut a long story short let's just say he's clearly crushing VERY hard. The family live near the falconry centre and called in on Saturday on what was very clearly a contrived reason for him to talk to me (I was in the middle of flight training for some of the newer folks, so was polite but distant and busy). Another round of messages from both - mother about "he was so happy to see you" and him with the whole "You looked really nice today" stuff.

No, I looked tired, hot and bothered and one of the chicks we use to feed the birds had burst earlier in the day so I had gunk everywhere on me. Thanks for trying I guess?

This culminated this morning in a message out of the blue "It'd be lovely to do another Hawk Walk sometime". Hawk Walks are one of the private experiences we offer - you go out with one of the falconers and a Harris Hawk and have the bird flown to you. I am definitely having a word with the owner (who's a friend) about if he books one in to make sure I am inescapably busy with something else!

This makes me sound horribly harsh, but 1) The answer would be no to literally anyone, I'm not long out of my trauma counselling for the past abusive relationship. To say I need time to myself is an understatement. And 2) If I wanted a puppy I'd go see the Dogs Trust.

This post has been edited by TheRetiredBridgeburner: 27 August 2018 - 10:51 AM

[Morgoth]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 27 August 2018 - 10:46 AM, said:

The son of one of the other staff at the centre is in my new D&D group that I just joined - largely because his mother asked me to send him the link when we spoke about it. She has since bombarded me with messages about him suffering from depression and needing to get out more an what have you. I've no issue with that, but I'm feeling very pressured to be his new best friend come babysitter and that's a hell of a lot of small print I was unaware of in just handing him the group link.

That's a minor grumble.... now I've got him messaging all the time (including at bizarre early hours of the morning) and to cut a long story short let's just say he's clearly crushing VERY hard. The family live near the falconry centre and called in on Saturday on what was very clearly a contrived reason for him to talk to me (I was in the middle of flight training for some of the newer folks, so was polite but distant and busy). Another round of messages from both - mother about "he was so happy to see you" and him with the whole "You looked really nice today" stuff.

No, I looked tired, hot and bothered and one of the chicks we use to feed the birds had burst earlier in the day so I had gunk everywhere on me. Thanks for trying I guess?

This makes me sound horribly harsh, but 1) The answer would be no to literally anyone, I'm not long out of my trauma counselling for the past abusive relationship. To say I need time to myself is an understatement. And 2) If I wanted a puppy I'd go see the Dogs Trust.

That sounds really frustrating. Especially as that falconry center sounds like a place of escape for you.

If you want any advice I'd suggest making your rejection of the whole thing clear and absolute right away, and to cut the DnD ties too. It'll be a pain short term, but a relief soon enough I think.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

I really don't want to leave the group - getting back into it was quite a big positive thing for me. I do think I need to find a way to gently stamp on it though. At least in the confines of the group there are eight other people. I'm adopting a policy of not responding to any messages for now. It's the group again tomorrow evening so I'll see how it goes.

[Morgoth]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 27 August 2018 - 11:01 AM, said:

I really don't want to leave the group - getting back into it was quite a big positive thing for me. I do think I need to find a way to gently stamp on it though. At least in the confines of the group there are eight other people. I'm adopting a policy of not responding to any messages for now. It's the group again tomorrow evening so I'll see how it goes.

Oh, I meant to cut him from the group!

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Morgoth, on 27 August 2018 - 11:10 AM, said:

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 27 August 2018 - 11:01 AM, said:

I really don't want to leave the group - getting back into it was quite a big positive thing for me. I do think I need to find a way to gently stamp on it though. At least in the confines of the group there are eight other people. I'm adopting a policy of not responding to any messages for now. It's the group again tomorrow evening so I'll see how it goes.

Oh, I meant to cut him from the group!

Oh, apologies! Unfortunately it's not my decision, I'm not running it and it was an open invite within a local tabletop gaming group (about a hundred or so people in the group in all).

I will give it some thought how to gently but firmly knock it on the head and preempt any nonsense. I do not understand how people read being polite and friendly in the context of a wider group of people (where I was acting exactly the same with everyone) as an invitation.... sigh!

[Tiste Simeon]

Just tell him your heart belongs to a man called Dassem Ultor (or Anomander Rake/Karsa Orlong/Mallick Rel etc.)

[Tapper]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 27 August 2018 - 11:14 AM, said:

Morgoth, on 27 August 2018 - 11:10 AM, said:

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 27 August 2018 - 11:01 AM, said:

I really don't want to leave the group - getting back into it was quite a big positive thing for me. I do think I need to find a way to gently stamp on it though. At least in the confines of the group there are eight other people. I'm adopting a policy of not responding to any messages for now. It's the group again tomorrow evening so I'll see how it goes.

Oh, I meant to cut him from the group!

Oh, apologies! Unfortunately it's not my decision, I'm not running it and it was an open invite within a local tabletop gaming group (about a hundred or so people in the group in all).

I will give it some thought how to gently but firmly knock it on the head and preempt any nonsense. I do not understand how people read being polite and friendly in the context of a wider group of people (where I was acting exactly the same with everyone) as an invitation.... sigh!

Well, in case a polite but firm stamp does not work, hopefully (some of) the other regulars in the group will recognize that him being there because you're there rather than because he enjoys DnD is unhealthy, both for you and (if they need that kind of motivation) for the long term health of the game.

--

Minor complaint of my own compared to everything on the last few pages: our contractor had promised on multiple occassions to be finished with our renovation on the 24th. He just told me he aims for wrapping up on wednesday evening instead. The job could have been finished before the summer break if the contractor hadn't repeatedly pulled guys away from our project to work on other jobs. He knew we had a strict deadline: my wife starts her pre-birth maternity leave tomorrow. She wants to get some rest and start decorating the baby room, instead of coordinating three carpenters and a plumber.

[Cause]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 27 August 2018 - 10:46 AM, said:

The son of one of the other staff at the centre is in my new D&D group that I just joined - largely because his mother asked me to send him the link when we spoke about it. She has since bombarded me with messages about him suffering from depression and needing to get out more an what have you. I've no issue with that, but I'm feeling very pressured to be his new best friend come babysitter and that's a hell of a lot of small print I was unaware of in just handing him the group link.

That's a minor grumble.... now I've got him messaging all the time (including at bizarre early hours of the morning) and to cut a long story short let's just say he's clearly crushing VERY hard. The family live near the falconry centre and called in on Saturday on what was very clearly a contrived reason for him to talk to me (I was in the middle of flight training for some of the newer folks, so was polite but distant and busy). Another round of messages from both - mother about "he was so happy to see you" and him with the whole "You looked really nice today" stuff.

No, I looked tired, hot and bothered and one of the chicks we use to feed the birds had burst earlier in the day so I had gunk everywhere on me. Thanks for trying I guess?

This culminated this morning in a message out of the blue "It'd be lovely to do another Hawk Walk sometime". Hawk Walks are one of the private experiences we offer - you go out with one of the falconers and a Harris Hawk and have the bird flown to you. I am definitely having a word with the owner (who's a friend) about if he books one in to make sure I am inescapably busy with something else!

This makes me sound horribly harsh, but 1) The answer would be no to literally anyone, I'm not long out of my trauma counselling for the past abusive relationship. To say I need time to myself is an understatement. And 2) If I wanted a puppy I'd go see the Dogs Trust.

I don't know. You must be pretty sexy hawk in hand because I swear if I were to go back in this very thread this problem has popped up before. I am too lazy to actually do that. I def seem to recall an unwanted crush at the hawk centre was a thing.

[Morgoth]

All those hot birds driving men crazy.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

It's definitely the hawks... trust me, by the time we've done three flying shows a day and fed all the residents, every single one of the people is hot and bothered, generally a little grumpy and covered in unspeakable gunk hardly a recipe for romance!

This post has been edited by TheRetiredBridgeburner: 27 August 2018 - 02:36 PM

[Cause]

This reminds me of an excellent advert by Nandos (chicken restaurant) in my country when Bill Clinton was here on a visit. You see him in a Nandos ordering chicken surrounded by a circle of secret service. You then realise he is not ordering chicken but trying to break away from the secret service who are holding him back as he tries to grabs the breasts and thighs of a nearby female chicken restaurant patron. Must try see if they have it on youtube.

This post has been edited by Cause: 27 August 2018 - 02:35 PM

[Gorefest]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 27 August 2018 - 11:14 AM, said:

Morgoth, on 27 August 2018 - 11:10 AM, said:

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 27 August 2018 - 11:01 AM, said:

I really don't want to leave the group - getting back into it was quite a big positive thing for me. I do think I need to find a way to gently stamp on it though. At least in the confines of the group there are eight other people. I'm adopting a policy of not responding to any messages for now. It's the group again tomorrow evening so I'll see how it goes.

Oh, I meant to cut him from the group!

Oh, apologies! Unfortunately it's not my decision, I'm not running it and it was an open invite within a local tabletop gaming group (about a hundred or so people in the group in all).

I will give it some thought how to gently but firmly knock it on the head and preempt any nonsense. I do not understand how people read being polite and friendly in the context of a wider group of people (where I was acting exactly the same with everyone) as an invitation.... sigh!

Ooh, where is this tabletop gaming group? Me and my wife and maybe Maark could join and make the guy’s life miserable