Scintillae's page

And obligatory Grumpy Old Man complaint of the morning: Non-receipts.

Ever since I moved out of my parents' house in 1991, I've carefully tracked expenses, including categorizing them so I know where I can cut and where I can't. This requires itemized receipts for all purchases. GothBard is fundamentally terrible at remembering to get receipts for her purchases, and it's been an eternal source of (mild) friction between us.

Along comes Square. GothBard pays with her phone, the app shoots me a receipt, and everything's golden, right?

Um, no. Their "receipts" are simply, "You spent $29.12 at Rando Shop today. Thank you." No breakdown of what was bought, taxes, tips, nothing. And y'know, since this app goes through credit cards, I already see that total on my credit card's site. It is fundamentally useless if you're not paying with cash, and if you are paying with cash it doesn't work because the cash isn't linked to an email address.

So, useless and frustrating, and now GothBard gets to say, "But I did get you a receipt! See?"

*SIGH*

My new approach to receipts:

sees detailed breakdown in pinyin
S%%%, I can't read.

Mephisto Z. Meatball is a confirmed barbarian.

It's almost like the gig economy is a slapdash bandaid over a broken system leaving desperate people behind in a world where the people in power don't benefit from fixing it.

Our plane tickets have been bought. Official departure date is set.

** spoiler omitted **

I would like to say that whoever decided that our passwords at work have to be at least 12 characters long can drown in a burning sewer. Do they not realize how often we have to type this f&%%ers in? Like, on an average night, I have to type it in at least 12 to 15 times. I would hate to be 2nd shift, because every check-in you gotta type your password. Plus, about half the paperwork we print out, you gotta type your password. It doesn't even have the little stars or whatever to show how many characters you've typed, so if the computer is being stupid slow (fairly common) you don't know that it didn't register all the keystrokes.

In short, it f&*!ing sucks.

F*ckP4$$w0rdz! would qualify under most metrics.

Sophie is at her new home.

Orthos and I are not doing well.

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

Playing Scattergories:
Me: Terms of endearment, letter G.
Student A: Grandma!
everyone stares
Student A: What's a term of endearment?

Student A:What's her name again? The one Nick's in love with.
don't say Gatsby don't say Gatsby
Me: ...you mean Jordan?
Student A: Yeah!

D&D kiddos gave me a little bear one of them had sewn. "Take Sir Bearington with you to protect you on your travels."

So I'm sitting here sobbing while they play...

Orthos and I are planning a room party when we visit Chicago.

...okay, it's more accurate to say "I'm not letting going out of town stop us from gaming, fire up the ol' Discord." But a D&D party is a party, and it is gonna be in the room...

Quizlet review
Student A:WOOOOOOOOO! Tigers win!
Student B:Yeah if this was a boxing match, the T-Rexes woulda killed ya.
Me: That...seems like a boxing match gone wrong.
Student B: No, cause we're the T-Rexes!
Me: How is a T-Rex with its tiny arms winning a boxing match?
[beat]
Student B: Headbutts.

It's the same energy as "I didn't plagiarize." "Then why does the document history show the paper went from blank to 3 pages in 2 seconds, and why does the text match the Wikipedia article word-for-word?"

Yep, that tracks.

Scintillae wrote:

I'm dreading school being out partly as the end of an era and partly because I'm going to lack distractions from getting wrapped up in my own head and the catastrophizing that always happens when I am left to my own devices. Especially because this is a huge life change coming up - there's a whole lot of worst case to scenario.

The false vacuum could spontaneously collapse into a lower energy state, unmaking the universe as we know it...

Uh...

I am not helping, am I?

That would literally solve every problem I have.

Also all the capitalization quirks are giving me some Homestuck flashbacks, and I'm not sure I'm ready for the PTSD.

Capitalization has been my bane lately solely because I'm having a rough adjustment to APA for my communications degree. Using sentence case rather than title case for a title is just...

my gamer in Christ, the word title is in "title case" for a smurfing reason.

I would also like to rewrite the rules of English punctuation.

Rule 1: I'm allowed to 3-D print a giant interrobang to beat people with.

I was going to post a bunch of stuff about the problems caused by youth teams this weekend, but, frankly, it's so much that I feel like y'all might not believe me. Suffice to say, it really sucked and I'm glad that I didn't have to deal with it.

I work with high schoolers and didn't take my team to State this year because the only kid who qualified has the impulse control of a hummingbird, and I did not have the energy to explain to him that you have to behave like a human even at the theatre kid convention. I would believe you.

Student A: I think letter 1 is number A.
Student B: Oh, don't start that again!

In better news, the stars finally aligned so we could actually play our frickin pnp game. I'm really enjoying my airheaded tarot reader oracle.

Seniors' last day. One of my TAs gave me a note saying how much she'll miss me and looks up to me.

So I'm sitting here trying not to bawl while the kiddos take their Gatsby tests...

NobodysHome wrote:

** spoiler omitted **

See? At least trying to keep the griping behind spoilers.

So, how many fake diseases are going to have the kids come up with they absolutely should get their cat tested for?

"I was told my kittens might be low on blinker fluid? It's apparently related to a condition where cats just stare at you out of the darkness."

The proper response is "New phone, who dis?"

And lying. "Inconclusive. You need to take them in."

I'm just waiting to hear the Cardinals hit a home run.

Student A: Okay, senior prank. We steal all the ceiling tiles.
Student B: How?
Student A: There's access from the ag shop. We go there, and-
Me: ...and the Mission: Impossible theme plays on a kazoo.

I'm sorry. I'm trying not to turn this thread into my dumping ground. I just don't know what else to do. I have next-to-no support system to rely on for any of this relocation nonsense...Sophie, selling the house, getting the visa paperwork, everything. I feel like I'm flailing through it all.

And I feel so guilty about Sophie. If I hadn't accepted this offer, she wouldn't be in this position, but I feel like refusing it would have been far, far worse for so many reasons Paizo doesn't let us discuss.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Innocents caught in the crossfire as always.

I just want life to stop hurting.

Wishing everyone a happy N*Sync day: it's gonna be May.

half a page of poorly-formatted rambly writing that ends with "thank u for reading have a nice day :)"

...I can't give you more points for politeness, but I appreciate it?

Scintillae wrote:

Not doing well. Writing up Sophie's profile for adoption hurt. Seeing her happy face demanding pets after posting it twisted the knife.

I feel like a monster, and it's going to hurt just as much when we finally give her away, either to a family or back to the shelter.

I hate this so much.

I am so, so sorry.

Where are you guys again? I may know someone in the area who might have room.

Topeka-Manhattan area. Orthos has the link a few posts up.

Not doing well. Writing up Sophie's profile for adoption hurt. Seeing her happy face demanding pets after posting it twisted the knife.

I feel like a monster, and it's going to hurt just as much when we finally give her away, either to a family or back to the shelter.

I hate this so much.

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...

Uh, they're clearly related to horseshoes.

The fun thing about the cat being out of the bag is getting kids to admit that they're gonna miss the puns.

On the one hand, trying not to post gripefests any more. On the other, FFS:

I get paid identity theft protection from my company. This year, they said I could add my kids. I just tried. Nope. The identity theft protection company does not accept hyphens in last names.

So apparently roughly 10% of the U.S. population isn't eligible for identity protection, 'cause the protection bots use exact string matches.

Oh, well...

This looks like a job for Little Bobby Tables.

Ahh, explaining minor word differences to children.

"Google was founded in the 90s" vs. "Google was found in the 90s." Apparently, we just picked up a rock or something.

I've been offered a position teaching English and Debate in China.

"Why doesn't Victor just kill the monster?"
"Do you honestly think he could?"
"I mean, yeah, it's possible."
"I didn't ask if it was possible. I asked if you thought Victor could do it."
"Oh. Not really."

I am 3 for 3 on classes that thought a toy poodle meant a toy that was a poodle and not just a tiny dog.

All I asked was if the sentence Geoff gave his dog—a toy poodle—a Viking helmet to make her look intimidating. was punctuated correctly.

"Why would he give his dog a toy poodle?"
"No, he's putting a hat on a toy."
"That makes even less sense!"

hissssssss

I am losing the ability to keep time zones straight with all these interviews.

"The problem with calling the creature 'Frankenstein' is that it means Victor accepted him. He doesn't."

"Got it. So do we call Victor Dr. Frankenstein, then?"
"No, we call him College Dropout Frankenstein. Dr Pepper has more claim to the title."

So...they thought I was serious and turned in a paper with the phrase "When College dropout Frankenstein brought the Creature to life," and I almost choked.

Let's see if I can knock out these writing prompts over plan. They're short, so I can probably make good progress.

first paper is titled 'Frenkenstine'

Nope. Time to do literally anything else.

I don't know. When your research project on bringing back the dead is itself qualified to sit on the review board, I think you've earned that doctorate.

Undergrad: Can you memorize information spoon fed from a text book?

Grad: Can you figure out what people on the forefront of a subject are telling each other in research papers?

Doctor: Can you wretch new information out of the universe itself ?

TA: Um, sorry to interrupt, Professors, but the dissertation has taken one of the secretaries hostage and is screaming, "Why can't I know love?"

"The problem with calling the creature 'Frankenstein' is that it means Victor accepted him. He doesn't."
"Got it. So do we call Victor Dr. Frankenstein, then?"
"No, we call him College Dropout Frankenstein. Dr Pepper has more claim to the title."

Yeah, I'm pretty amazed I didn't get some horrific spore-borne brain disease between the ages of 11 and 15. I guess that which does not kill us just makes our mothers really mad and nauseous.

That which does not kill us will be cited as mitigating circumstances for the defendant in their trial for our murder.

There is nothing half so demoralizing as "helping" my son clean out his room.

The missing silverware behind his desk.
The dirty plates in drawers.
The food stashed underneath the mattress.
Are all tween boys this feral, or am I lucky?

Every junior high scholars bowl meet this year included at least one request from me that they stop talking about cannibalism. So.....

"If APA had existed then, Frankenstein might not have had a plot" may be the strangest sentence I've ever uttered.