Orthos's page

Um... that's not how it works...

And the worst part is, that not being how it works is fuel for their beliefs. Instead of recognizing that reality doesn't work the way they think it does and that their methods of proof are incorrect, they just point at the rebuttal and say "See how much I'm being opposed? That means I'm on the right track! THEY wouldn't fight against me so hard if I wasn't right!"

Orthos wrote:

It was "whatever version he had", I didn't look at the box or anything for details since he was hosting and handling all the "here's how to play" introduction that I had to focus all my attention on.

Did you enjoy it?

Yeah, it was fun. We're hoping to be able to have another game night as well as starting a PnP group here soonish.

We also got invited to join an existing group that wanted some new players, playing a 5e Ravenloft game.

It was "whatever version he had", I didn't look at the box or anything for details since he was hosting and handling all the "here's how to play" introduction that I had to focus all my attention on.

I had a boardgame night with a couple friends last night. We played a game called Too Many Bones, and it was a lot of fun. I'm not a boardgame hobbyist like my friend is; I do enjoy them, but I go to his boardgame nights to catch up with him and other friends, first, and dig into a game's strategy second. This game, while complex, was pretty fun. We played far too late into the night, but it didn't feel like it.

On Sunday we are stopping by a going away party for some friends moving out of town, and this week, my kids are with my mom and sister for the last week of summer before school starts.

Funny enough, we had a boardgame night this past Saturday as well. Played a round of Wyrmspan and a round of Paperback, then grabbed dinner together. Hoping to get a gaming group together here for in-person gaming after years of only playing online - we've had several of Scint's new coworkers express interest, so it's just a matter of getting together and working out the plans.

Will likely not be this week, as all the teachers are out of town the whole week for training and onboarding, but maybe next weekend.

One of the first fellow expats we met over here invited us (and several others, but we were the only bites) to his place for a game night. Played a round of Wyrmspan and a round of Paperback, then grabbed dinner together. Scint explained my whole situation re: pronouns, etc. to him at one point and he was really chill about the whole thing. Hoping to get a gaming group together here for in-person gaming after years of only playing online.

lisamarlene wrote:

NobodysHome wrote:

Speaking of swearing, there's a d**ned good reason Spotify is crushing Pandora.

NobodysHome: OK, I admit it. The sound track to K-Pop Demon Hunters is really catchy. I'll add Golden to my Pandora seed.
Pandora: What's that? You like techno dance mixes! Ok! We'll blend in a techno dance mix every other song forever!
NH: WTF? Golden isn't even a techno dance mix!
Pandora: Too bad! It's what our algorithm says it is!

So, so far three days of hitting thumbs-down every time a techno mix comes on. I must have disliked 30-40 "songs" so far already.

And Pandora just. Can't. Get. The. Hint.

"OK. We just played How it's Done. You must now be in the mood for a dance mix!"

WTF, Pandora? No. Just no!

My kids LOVE that show.

When I asked Hermione about it, Reason #1 was the music.
Reason #2 was the plot/writing.
I almost felt her forehead to see if she was feverish. If she gushes about something, it's *always* about the writing.

Have you NOT seen it? It is worth your time.

The writing is trope-y as f***, because K-Pop formulas. I mean, it's perfectly watchable, but not a single thing surprised me or came across as fresh. But as far as I can tell, a poor woman who spent 10 years as a K-Pop trainee because her voice was da bomb but she was lacking in some other required area (beauty? Coordination?) was like, "OK, f*** you. I'm going to write a music track that only *I* can sing!"

And f***. She wrote a top 10 WORLD hit. Not top 10 in any one country. But yes, it's top 10 in the U.S. It's top 10 in Korea. And it's top 10 in the world.

Girl can write songs. And sing 'em. And more power to her.

The one recurring bit of praise I keep hearing about this show is that lots of other shows about musicians say that their characters wrote chart-topping hits in-universe, but leave it at that. KPDH released their songs in the real world and they hit the tops of multiple charts.

Gives the characters some sincere cred, I'll give them that.

Absolutely note it. Make it clear to the newcomer that continuing their predecessor's failures is unacceptable.

Envy.....

Anyway, aren't you required to use Chinese version of Steam anyway? Or can you access your original account?

I'm not having any trouble accessing my accounts, yeah.

Thanks everyone for your patience this past week! We are moved and settled and have internet access. I'll be getting the game moving again ASAP, and should be able to resume normal posting pace going forward.

Hope things work out well for you two.

We have moved! Mostly settled in at the new apartment, though more orientation and move-related stuff to do on Monday and beyond. For the weekend though, we're pretty set and can just relax.

To add insult to the injury, Steam suddenly doesn't accept PayPal (specifically) payments, so I can't get a game on a sale that I - after watching a review or two - decided to buy.

And no, I was not convinced by the game's shameless fan service. It was combination of promising combat system and being 88% off...

That's so annoying, as I put money in my PayPal specifically for covering Steam purchases (among other things) until my new accounts could be all set up over here.

Off to Oz?

Sort of, sort of not. China! My partner is an English teacher and got a job overseas.

Orthos wrote:

Awesome!

I'm planning to get back into roller skating after the Big Move. One of our PnP group had her BDay get together at a local roller rink, and I discovered I still have most of the muscle memory to get back into skating... provided I have skates that fit. (The rink did not have skates in my size, sadly, and it was painful to wear one size down.)

So going to buy skates after the move and see about getting into the groove again. There's a skate park in the city we're moving to so that'll be an opportunity.

I had no idea skating rinks were big out there. That's awesome.

I have no idea how big they are, but it exists! So taking advantage of that.

Awesome!

I'm planning to get back into roller skating after the Big Move. One of our PnP group had her BDay get together at a local roller rink, and I discovered I still have most of the muscle memory to get back into skating... provided I have skates that fit. (The rink did not have skates in my size, sadly, and it was painful to wear one size down.)

So going to buy skates after the move and see about getting into the groove again. There's a skate park in the city we're moving to so that'll be an opportunity.

So a heads-up in advance!

This is my and my partner's final week in the States, and thus IRL is going to be extremely busy with the last-minute necessities of finishing packing, hauling off and giving away furniture, closing accounts, and all that other fun stuff associated with large-scale moves.

I'll still have internet access up to the 21st, and will make an effort to post when I can, but I might be a bit slower on the draw than usual, as you've no doubt noticed from the past couple days of similar responsibilities.

The moving day is the 22nd, and since the flight is all the way to the other side of the world I'll be offline pretty much that whole day and likely the one to follow.

After that I'm not 100% sure what our internet situation will be, but I'll be back online as soon as I can and will endeavor to resume posting as soon as possible.

Thanks!

Impus Minor pointed out one of the unspoken benefits of living in a stupid-rich area: "One man's trash is another man's treasure" takes on a whole new level of stupid.

Three or four weeks ago he found a fully-functional 42" nearly-new Samsung TV set that the owners discarded because the batteries in the remote had leaked and ruined the remote. "Honey, the remote won't work any more!" "Oh, I guess we'll need to buy a new TV, then."

Around that time he declared that he needed a work table and co-opted one of our TV tables.

Yesterday GothBard and I were walking and found a fully-intact drafting table on the curb for disposal. And not a crappy one: Powdered steel base, laminated top; probably a $300-$400 table. Thrown out because the plastic cupholders on the side were bent a bit.

So Impus Minor is furnishing his entire room using other people's throwaways of top-tier items with trivial flaws.

He is pleased.

Envy, I remember the days of furnishing my apartment with discarded actual-trash furniture ("if we turn the cushions upside-down they're intact enough and we can ignore the wear/cuts") and emptied cable spools for tables.

Freehold DM wrote:

Cindy Robertson wrote:

With Pride Month coming to a close, did anyone do anything to celebrate? I was going to head out to Seattle Pride on Sunday, but I may not be able to go.

I worked.

And I hope I made a difference somewhere.

You have made a difference in my life. It may not seem like a lot, but I look forward to your commentary whenever I come online.

I wasn't able to go unfortunately. My friend had to put her cat down and needed some support.

Thank you for being there. I guarantee it's made an enormous difference for them.

That's about all most of us really ask for, to be honest.

So, posting here because I'm hoping some FaWtL folk will be able to shed some light for this old cis White male.

** spoiler omitted **

Hiding from the fireworks and playing video games.

Thursday was my final day of work so I am completely free for the next two weeks. The Big Move is on the 22nd.

Last Friday of work. NWN thing tomorrow. PnP game IRL on Sunday. Last week of work starts Monday and last day is Thurs the 3rd.

And we did it! Got little three-pronged stud earrings with a mix of our birthstones, aquamarine and alexandrite, both in our left ear. \o/

Squakowk, if you could send me your character sheet again, or put a link to it in your character profile please! I seem to have lost track of it after moving to a new computer. Apologies!

Yeah I'm absolutely going to have to find or make some catproof area in our apartment after the Big Move to store all my trinkets when/if we get a cat. I was lucky that my cats back in my old apartment were good about never knocking that stuff around.

Found a place that does piercings that's open on Sundays, apparently the commonplace schedule is Tues-Sat but this place is Thurs-Mon. Reasonable prices and good people who were fun to chat with while they worked.

Piercings done and new studs in. Considering going back with Scint sometime soonish to get another, as a wedding pair in place of rings.

That's so incredibly stupid.

Yeah I can understand that. It's thankfully not going to be much of an issue, as the realtor's going to block out daytime visits while I'm working.

Our house is now officially on the market - sign in the yard and everything.

Our first showing is this afternoon.

Apparently it's considered super uncomfortable for the owners/residents to be present during a showing, so we've been asked to vacate when people come around. So we'll be going to do stuff this evening, probably go bowling and grab dinner somewhere, along with me seeing if I can find a place to get my ears pierced at a reasonable price.

It's almost like a Certain Someone is targeting vulnerable groups, among which you often find people working in shipping, trucking, and other similar jobs. -_-

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.