Orthos's page

Walgreens appears to be having supply issues. Keep calling me to say the estradiol is delayed due to being out of stock "but we should have some more in a few days". Then two or three days later, another call with the same message. Yurgh.

Opinion Time: Meatballs.

Over the decades of my life, I have been assailed with literally dozens of different meatball recipes, from the traditional ("mix ground beef and pork, some oregano, thyme, salt, pepper, and garlic powder, then put in an egg and some oatmeal for firmness") to the truly bizarre (one used cardamom and mint).

To this day, I have yet to find a meatball I prefer over plain (15% fat) ground beef.

This appalls and offends people. Even Shiro had at me, telling me I at least had to add some lamb, I couldn't possibly serve a plain beef meatball. Impus Major's friend demanded, "It's going to be incredibly bland! Don't you want to add some oregano?" to which he responded with the brilliant, "Do you add oregano to your hamburgers, or do you use plain ground beef?"

So, what do people think of plain ground beef meatballs? I'm frankly astonished at how much they offend people. And yet I've never had anything better. What does that say?

I certainly prefer hamburgers and meatballs with added herbs and spices but I'll eat one that's made plain as long as I'm not expected to eat it plain - ie, it'll be in something with sauce or on a burger with other ingredients.

Orthos wrote:

Waterhammer wrote:

Rain. In June. So confusing.

Going to be the norm for Scint and I going forward. Summer is the Rainy Season in Chengdu, primarily June and July.

K look forward to you teaching us all to swear in Chinese.

Since I won't be working I probably won't get a ton of exposure compared to Scint. She on the other hand has repeatedly stated that she'll need to learn all the bad words in Chinese so she'll know when her students are using them.

Rain. In June. So confusing.

Going to be the norm for Scint and I going forward. Summer is the Rainy Season in Chengdu, primarily June and July.

I wish Tacticslion was here for this, I have noone to celebrate with.

I sent it to him yesterday!

I love that you're using this as an opportunity to get in touch with family, Orthos! Especially family that doesn't get much opportunity for that, it sounds like.

It's been a really good experience. We've spent two days together now seeing the sites, getting food and travel recommendations, and getting to commiserate over our mutual frustrations with the rest of the family - which I've since learned is pretty much exclusive to my immediate relatives these days. Seems I drew the short end of the stick in life.

We made it to Chicago! Sunday was hell, the plane was delayed two hours due to a missing screw and when we did finally arrive it was almost 11 PM.

We got up early Monday morning, had to go back to the airport as it was the closest place to get bus/tram passes, then take the tram to downtown and wander around to find the consulate... only to find it was closed June 2 for a Chinese holiday. A closure that was not mentioned on their website at any point.

We wandered a bit more, grabbed some food, and headed back to the hotel then crashed for a few hours. Got up, got dinner, headed back and vegged for the evening.

Today went MUCH better. Other than a minor hiccup with the paperwork we were able to get in, get done, and get out of the consulate with instructions to return Friday to pick up our stuff. We then met up with my uncle and his family - fellow black sheep of my extended family who I haven't seen in years or ever in the case of their son/my cousin - and went to the Lincoln Park Zoo, grabbed lunch at a nearby sandwich and burger place, did more zoo, then drove back to the apartment.

Tomorrow is planned to do the museum, aquarium, astronomical society, and some other stuff that's all indoors as we're expecting rain, once again alongside the uncle and family.

How far away is he?

Sorry I missed this reply!

He would've double-moved, so 60 ft from where he started.

We're going to Chicago tomorrow to get our Chinese visas - Scint's for work, mine spousal.

I have an uncle who lives in Chicago with his family. To keep a VERY long story short, he's a fellow black sheep of the family, essentially kicked out back when I was in my teens in the late 90s for getting divorced and remarrying. He lives there now with his (second) wife and their son, who'd be in his late teens or early twenties now, I don't know precisely.

I haven't spoken with him in over twenty years.

I have no idea how he's going to be, whether he's going to be safe to talk to about Stuff, etc. He didn't flinch when we talked on the phone and I mentioned I wasn't on speaking terms with my parents (just said "Well welcome to the Black Sheep side" and laughed at a joke Scint made), so that's definitely a plus.

We'll be seeing him first Tuesday and spending a decent chunk of next week with him and his family. So here's hoping it goes well.

ONLY THREE MORE DAYS until the flight to Chicago. We'll be spending the whole first week of June there. Some of two of the days will be spent at the Chinese embassy getting paperwork done for our visas, but the rest is all to ourselves.

Got in touch with an uncle I haven't seen in twenty years - a mutual black sheep of our family - and we'll be spending at least some of the week with him and his family, seeing the sights and getting toured around.

Vanykrye wrote:

NobodysHome wrote:

Scintillae wrote:

Yeah, I've already looked into the tax brackets, and if I've done my math right, we're still coming out ahead. My retirement was never going to be secure, even starting on my investing as early as I did. I really hate that my generation was raised with hope only to have it ripped away right as our careers were beginning.

You're talking to an early Gen Xer:

(1) "Social Security? It will be bankrupt well before you retire. And pensions were phased out in the 1970s. You're on your own."

(2) "Medicare? Don't make me laugh!"

(3) "Oh, you think we're doing a terrible job as your leaders? Well, just try to vote us out! Oh, look at that! There are too few of you! You'll *never* have leadership positions!"

And at least #3 has come true in spades. Check for Gen Xers at any level of government and we are grossly underrepresented. An article I saw last week was titled, "GenX: The biggest loser generation" and I was wondering how someone was going to shift the blame onto us, but the entire article was, "Before you complain about your generation, this is all the ways in which GenX was screwed over."

So yep. We're legendarily bitter.

You do not summon The Latchkey Kids unless you have no other choice. We live on the edge of the woods for a reason.

TRUTH. I knew three different ways to break into my mom's house without causing damage if I forgot my key.

Technically a Millennial (born 1985) but definitely a Latchkey Kid growing up. Well, in the sense that we were used to coming home to an empty house a few hours before the parents would be home for work. We lived out in the country and often just didn't bother locking our doors.

Hey there folks, in the process of our preparations for the Big Move, we have a bunch of books we need to get rid of. We're not really interested in making a profit or anything, but if you'd be so kind as to reimburse us for shipping, it'd make things much easier. Reply or PM me if you're interested in anything in particular! First come first serve.

Well that was quick. All books are spoken for! Thanks those who expressed interest - see your PMs for responses!

Well that was quick. All books are spoken for! Thanks those who expressed interest - see your PMs for responses!

Well that was quick. All books are spoken for! Thanks those who expressed interest - see your PMs for responses!

Hey there folks, in the process of our preparations for the Big Move, we have a bunch of books we need to get rid of. We're not really interested in making a profit or anything, but if you'd be so kind as to reimburse us for shipping, it'd make things much easier. Reply or PM me if you're interested in anything in particular! First come first serve.

Hey there folks, in the process of our preparations for the Big Move, we have a bunch of books we need to get rid of. We're not really interested in making a profit or anything, but if you'd be so kind as to reimburse us for shipping, it'd make things much easier. Reply or PM me if you're interested in anything in particular! First come first serve.

Hey there folks, in the process of our preparations for the Big Move, we have a bunch of books we need to get rid of. We're not really interested in making a profit or anything, but if you'd be so kind as to reimburse us for shipping, it'd make things much easier. Reply or PM me if you're interested in anything in particular! First come first serve.

Elaborating a bit, it's, "Too many anchors, too much financial pain, not enough upside."

** spoiler omitted **...

Yeah, that's respectable. Completely understand. We're definitely in a much less stable situation and much more vulnerable demographics.

Scintillae wrote:

And it's over. I've turned in my keys, cleaned my classroom, took down everything. It hurt more than I expected.

I am truly terrified of everything I'm going to have to say goodbye to when we leave the country. But at the rate health care costs are rising, we see no alternative other than to emigrate as soon as we retire.

If you could reasonably do so sooner I'd encourage it, but I completely understand the issues of work being a hangup until then.

She went to her favorite pizza place - they allow dogs around the outdoor seating - and had a nice long walk around the city downtown.

Tomorrow we're going to "Toto's Tacos", an Oz-themed Mexican place here in town.

All other plans for the week have been scrapped or postponed. We are spending time with Sophie this week.

Saturday will be her last day with us, as we're taking her to her new family that evening. The days between now and then will be spent (outside of work) doing all the things she loves, walking to all her favorite places, taking her to her favorite restaurants, and spoiling her rotten the last opportunities we have to do so.

My eyes hurt.

Busy weekend leading into a busy week. Had a Sophie visit with prospective adopters on Friday. Farmer's market visit and NWN quest today. Another NWN quest tomorrow. Errand to get our phone situation sorted out again on Monday. Another adopter visit on Tuesday. Therapy Wednesday. Another NWN quest Thursday. Another adopter visit next Friday. All of this on top of normal weekday work schedule.

Orthos wrote:

Kobold Catgirl wrote:

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

The internet may have gotten us into this mess in at least some part, probably a large part, but it also is providing an open view of the absolute idiocy of everything that's going on, as well as giving us all a clearer understanding of the stupidity and malice of many of the people around us that, in person, used to be concealed behind a veneer of civility.

** spoiler omitted **

I hope they're enjoying watching their little "angel" spend his life in prison.

I would be willing to wager almost everything I own that they're sitting at home ranting about how the justice system was "weaponized" against their innocent child and how he's still not responsible/not to blame.

I've seen waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many people in similar or the exact same situations who demand even to the judge's face that there's no way they or their kid could have been responsible and some ludicrous conspiracy is more "likely" and how it's a failure of justice and the meddling of (insert political, social, racial, LGBT, etc. group they don't like here) who are the REAL criminals here.

Um... I can't name a mother who likes Mother's Day.

Basically every mother in my family except (at least to my knowledge) my sister and SIL.

... yeah that got away from me a bit, apologies.

To make this less about me, I'll just say that my family has always been super traditional and it doesn't matter that the tradition is less than a century old, it's tradition and you're expected to adhere. And if they weren't as jazzed for it as they gave the impression they were, they're all really good actors.

Student A: I think letter 1 is number A.

Student B: Oh, don't start that again!

Please tell me they at least tried to do the vulture voice.

Some small-scale NWN stuff, possibly some errand running. Will be a rather quiet weekend all things considered. May take the opportunity for a Goodwill run to get some of this stuff out of my office.

** spoiler omitted **

The internet may have gotten us into this mess in at least some part, probably a large part, but it also is providing an open view of the absolute idiocy of everything that's going on, as well as giving us all a clearer understanding of the stupidity and malice of many of the people around us that, in person, used to be concealed behind a veneer of civility.

Margola Xenth, Warrior of Light wrote:

Freehold DM wrote:

Waterhammer wrote:

Take your sword to the grocery store. If you can toss the pineapple into the air and slash it in two, before it hits the ground; the pineapple is ripe.

Ah.

While others were studying produce, you were studying the blade.

Hilarious side note- autocorrect originally changed had this as "While Orthos was studying produce, you were studying the blade."

Now I want a picture of Orthos just looking at a tomato or something, concentrating intently.

Mission Accomplished

Is it bad that not only do I know you're in Ul'dah, but I'm pretty sure i know which aetheryte?

I mean, it's the market obviously, where else would one find veggies just sitting out to be pondered? ;D

So, the honest question: Is FaWtL better with or without me? I feel like I get people upset, then I want to argue with them (yes, Orthos, I nearly killed myself holding in a response to your post, but that is not FaWtL's purpose nor place), and I feel like I detract from the overall vibe of the place.

I absolutely want you to stick around. I'm basically exactly the same myself, to the point where I have to step away from various threads on a regular basis to avoid getting into long drawn-out arguments all the time.

Sure, we disagree about things. That's life. The things we disagree about aren't things like whether people should have rights based on their skin color, sexuality, identity, or nationality. So everything else can be water under the bridge.

Even when I don't agree with you, I tend to find your posts some mixture of amusing, intriguing, and enlightening. I think we as a community here in FAWTL would be less for your absence.

I'll be the first to argue and disagree if I feel like you've put your foot in your mouth, but I wouldn't ever wish you to leave over it.

If there's anyone in Kansas or near enough, or if you know someone in that area, and they happen to be looking for or interested in adopting a dog, please share this link with them. Our baby girl needs a home.

If there's anyone in Kansas or near enough, or if you know someone in that area, and they happen to be looking for or interested in adopting a dog, please share this link with them. Our baby girl needs a home.

Orthos wrote:

Scintillae wrote:

Orthos wrote:

NobodysHome wrote:

I am... bemused.

I'm old enough and cynical enough to laugh at/scorn Tik Tok "life hacks" as only a Gen Xer can. "Really? You call that a 'hack'? Did you parents give you a trophy when you learned to tie your own shoes? Or can you do that yet?"

In seriousness: No, their parents didn't, because their parents probably never taught them that. They're young adults and late teens learning all this stuff on their own from the collective work of their peers and/or from doing research on the internet, and sharing what they discover back into that collective work.

We shouldn't be mocking and jeering them. We should be pointing at them and saying "They're doing what their parents should have done years ago - educating and improving themselves and learning new things - and choosing to share it with others rather than keep it to themselves."

GenX, and some of the older Millennials, are the ones failing to teach them these things in the first place - the TikTok self-educated "hack" trends are happening because someone in those older brackets failed to pass that education along somewhere earlier in their lives, and they had to learn it for themselves somehow.

The number of times my dad has made fun of me for not knowing how to do something he never taught me...

SAME.

I got beaten once because I asked him what cleaning product I could use on a task he'd assigned me. He told me to try elbow grease. I'd never heard that idiom before (I think I was seven or eight), so I pulled every product out of the cupboard one by one trying to find it.

Yep, sounds like a lot of the situations I was in as a kid.

Ask a sincere question the adult thinks is stupid but never actually explained before.
Adult gives a sarcastic or rhetorical answer.
Kid, not knowing better, takes it seriously.
Adult gets angry the kid took it seriously - or, more often, says the kid is "being a brat" or "being a smartass" in families that are okay with cursing - and punishes the kid.

With exemplars like this, is it any wonder I decided early in my life I didn't want kids? Even before understanding I was ace or the entire Everything of modern American society, economy, and culture.

Orthos wrote:

NobodysHome wrote:

I am... bemused.

I'm old enough and cynical enough to laugh at/scorn Tik Tok "life hacks" as only a Gen Xer can. "Really? You call that a 'hack'? Did you parents give you a trophy when you learned to tie your own shoes? Or can you do that yet?"

In seriousness: No, their parents didn't, because their parents probably never taught them that. They're young adults and late teens learning all this stuff on their own from the collective work of their peers and/or from doing research on the internet, and sharing what they discover back into that collective work.

We shouldn't be mocking and jeering them. We should be pointing at them and saying "They're doing what their parents should have done years ago - educating and improving themselves and learning new things - and choosing to share it with others rather than keep it to themselves."

GenX, and some of the older Millennials, are the ones failing to teach them these things in the first place - the TikTok self-educated "hack" trends are happening because someone in those older brackets failed to pass that education along somewhere earlier in their lives, and they had to learn it for themselves somehow.

The number of times my dad has made fun of me for not knowing how to do something he never taught me...

SAME.

So it's been a while since I posted here so I should probably do an update.

Scint and I got married back in February (on Valentine's Day no less, that was a complete accident), she accepted a job offer in March, and we are moving to Chengdu in China in the summer.

So the past several weeks have been one roller coaster after another of the various things we need to do before moving away. Last two weeks were getting a handyman to repair the damaged walls downstairs, including repainting and installing new drywall and all that fun stuff. Next is removing and replacing all the carpets down there.

On top of that we're in talks to sell the house, looking for a new home or foster care surrender for Sophie (she's not a breed allowed in China, and probably wouldn't survive the flight even if she was, due to the way boxers' and pits' respiration is structured and her being large enough she would have to ride in the unpressurized cargo hold), needing to get new phones (Androids don't work as well over there as iPhones apparently and we're both on separate plans so we'll be getting new iPhones on new plans), setting up VPNs (because China), making arrangements to mail/ship what stuff we can't pack and bring on the plane with us, having to schedule and then make the trip to Chicago to get our visas from the Chinese Embassy, and a host of other things I've no doubt forgotten or haven't gotten to yet.

The next month is going to be busy as hell.

I am... bemused.

I'm old enough and cynical enough to laugh at/scorn Tik Tok "life hacks" as only a Gen Xer can. "Really? You call that a 'hack'? Did you parents give you a trophy when you learned to tie your own shoes? Or can you do that yet?"

In seriousness: No, their parents didn't, because their parents probably never taught them that. They're young adults and late teens learning all this stuff on their own from the collective work of their peers and/or from doing research on the internet, and sharing what they discover back into that collective work.

We shouldn't be mocking and jeering them. We should be pointing at them and saying "They're doing what their parents should have done years ago - educating and improving themselves and learning new things - and choosing to share it with others rather than keep it to themselves."

GenX, and some of the older Millennials, are the ones failing to teach them these things in the first place - the TikTok self-educated "hack" trends are happening because someone in those older brackets failed to pass that education along somewhere earlier in their lives, and they had to learn it for themselves somehow.

Yep. This checks out.

Pain

You create from pain. It's the deep, overwhelming agony that builds up over a lifetime of suffering. Sometimes you can't tell where your scars ends and you begin. You pour out your pains into your art because you can't bear to hurt this much and have nothing to show for it. Your suffering will be pointless if you can't make something of it, so you make it into art. This is how you reclaim everything you'd otherwise regret, by making those painful experiences into something of worth. Art is a battle to conquer your suffering, to make your agony into something you can take pride in. Every piece is a hard fought victory over something that would have only eaten away at you otherwise. It's proof of your desire to live and heal, to be more than just your wounds.

... welp. I... can't argue with that.

So I took one of those silly internet quizzes; this one claiming to provide a single word for the emotion or motivation at the heart of the quiz-taker's creative drive. I clicked through the multiple-choice questions, scoffing the whole while, like Hannibal Lecter handed the psychological testing ("Agent Starling, you think you can dissect me with this blunt little tool...?")

The result:

Discontent

You create from discontent. Most of your life has been spent being uncomfortable in your own skin. This body is just another house that's never felt like home. You don't know how to be at ease in this world or this life. Art is a way of running away, of forgetting yourself and escaping to a more comfortable place. To cope with an unhospitable reality, you create more welcoming worlds to consume your work and your waking hours. But the foundation of your art has always been your discontent with the real world and your life within it. Lurking behind the inviting scenery you dream of is the desperate desire to be anywhere but here. It is a world constructed as a respite from this one. Such vivid fantasies are the dream of one who considers reality a prison.

...

Well played, internet. Well. Played.

Well now you have to share it.

Drejk wrote:

I don't want to steal NobodysHome shtick and be the cranky old man complaining on things getting worse, but why do the designers insist on making things worse and less functional?

In older Windows you could easily check time at other places by clicking clock, and selecting different time zone. For the last few iterations that functionality is gone. You need to use a browser to check or dig deep in the setting functions...

I am convinced the modern generation of UI designers doesn't actually work with computers.

"Scroll bars are ugly! Let's auto-hide them so they don't mess up the feel of the page!"

"That page full of critical data is too crowded! Let's make the cells bigger and add a bunch of white space so the page doesn't look so cluttered!"

"Only really technical people ever use this, so let's hide it all so the only way to discover it is using a Google search."

"People don't need to save any more and they can just use the browser's Back functionality, so let's remove all those buttons from the page!"

Working in a data-intensive field with such <unmentionable> people designing your UI is... painful...

So, to be blunt, you're mostly correct. They don't work with computers.

They work with SMARTPHONES.

SO MUCH of the current change in branding, iconography, and functionality has been centered around making everything best function with smartphones, in particular iPhones. It's why every logo is hypersimplistic and hyperminimalistic now - it needs to still be recognizable when compressed down into a 30x30-pixels sprite on your phone.

The side effect of this is that designing primarily for phones makes everything wonky and awkward on desktops, but that's considered a secondary priority if it's one at all.

I hope it works out well for you. I fear I've already crossed that point of no return myself a few years ago, outside of some nasty letters.

I haven't had fried okra in forever. That may need to go on my bucket list before we leave the US.

IIRC they were originally bred as hunting dogs - I want to say specifically birdhunting?

To Google!

Glad to hear you're doing better.

Speaking of which, payday is tomorrow! And we're likely gonna be in the city anyway on a grocery run....

Better make it count soon, Joann's is closing pretty much everywhere as the company shuts down.

Scint and I spent way too much there this last week, and are planning to go back after our next paychecks. >.>

Yay!

I might have to borrow that for one of the campaigns I'm writing, plants and fungi are a big part of the bad guys' themes.

If y'all will indulge me in a moment of mamabragging, after five weeks of waiting on tenterhooks after her audition, we finally found out tonight that Hermione got into Booker T Washington High School for the Performing Arts!

The audition process took four hours and was intense... they had to do movement improv, mask work, design a set, write a monologue, perform a prepared monologue, do a cold-reading, and then a formal interview.

Her plan is to audition for the musical theater track at the end of her freshman year, which will allow her to take voice and dance electives along with all the theater core classes.

I am sooooo excited for her.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

For what it's worth, I was only properly introduced to Tom Lehrer this past week. I knew of "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" and "We will All Go Together when We Go" but couldn't have told you who sang them, and I hadn't heard any of his other work until the past few days.

I reiterate, holy hells. Glad you made it out.

Keep in touch through your recovery man, as best you can. We care about you here.