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It's nice that teenaged transients always look the same.
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I started to write a letter to my kid, but Tala won't let me deliver them.
I told her as a former mailman I can get it in any slot, and that didn't go over well.
She knew what she was getting into when romancing you. You didnt choose the mailing life, the mailing life chose you.
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At my CPR and first aid refresher today, the instructor said that climate change has led to a spike in mosquito-borne pathogens, and likened going outdoors without serious insect repellent to habitual drug users sharing dirty needles.
So... that's cheery.
On the plus side, I got to work with Israeli pressure bandages for the first time, and they are awesome.
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At my CPR and first aid refresher today, the instructor said that climate change has led to a spike in mosquito-borne pathogens, and likened going outdoors without serious insect repellent to habitual drug users sharing dirty needles.
So... that's cheery.
On the plus side, I got to work with Israeli pressure bandages for the first time, and they are awesome.
insect repellent is just that. The insects will still bite you when they are hungry...
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Finished Season 1 of The Umbrella Academy. Never before have I so thoroughly enjoyed such an amazingly predictable series. You say, “OK, now she’s going to do this...” and she does it and you still love it.
I highly recommend it. But the dysfunctionality of virtually ALL the characters is appalling. It IS based on a Darh Horse comic, after all...
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I loved it, even though, yes, it was very predictable.
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The aunt on the General's side of the family that previously told Crookshanks she'd "Have to cut her hair if she wanted to have kids" decided she'd have another go at Crookshanks (because evidently she didn't learn from her first experience) and asked Crookshanks what she was planning to go to college for, and Crookshanks replied honestly "I'm not planning on going to college, I want to learn a skilled trade like carpentry or something" so the aunt says "but, don't you want to be successful?" Crookshanks shoots back "my dad's really successful and HE never went to college" so the aunt says "Yeah, but don't you want to make money?" By this time you can see the steam rising from her ears and Crookshanks says "He makes more money than you, hag!" And stomps out. The aunt, looking at us, shocked, says "What!?!" So I reply "It's true, you are a hag, also I DO make more money than you" at which point the General's mom couldn't contain her laughter anymore.
Your child is awesome and I applaud her.
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We got Ted (which came shackled to Ted 2) should be f++!ing hilarious.
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Through Paris and on to Amsterdam with our first Woran sighting, though good luck picking her out 'til I do the next set!
On the other hand, it's getting "hot" today (barely 11:00 am and already a blistering 73˚F), so working outside is getting unpleasant so I may spend more time indoors sorting another batch.
I'm really hoping to get the 11-second video of the Impii versus the swan up today.
In fact...
...I just added the kids' Amsterdam canal travelogue. They use their real names and a couple of obscenities, but... worth it!!!
(Gotta get Impus Minor's phone for the swan attack, apparently)
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You know, when they happily exclaim that they are saved because they found you, I almost expected you to turn away and leave them on the river alone again...
Also, they didn't seem to be truly lost yet - I haven't heard them considering hunting the ducks for food.
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You know, when happily exclaim that they are saved because they found you, I almost expected you to turn away and leave them on the river alone again...
Also, they didn't seem to be truly lost yet - I haven't heard them considering hunting the ducks for food.
LOL. At that point I was just trying to avoid having to pay for another hour. The woman at the booth was very understanding about my stoopid kids getting lost, but I could tell she was starting to think, "OK, this is getting beyond my comfort zone."
So my rescue of them was for purely financial reasons.
But if you look at the map of Amsterdam (and hopefully my zoom level works with that link), the outermost canals that they could have been in are only around 3 km in diameter, so finding them was pretty much a given; it was just, "How much am I going to have to shell out before I find those two idiots?"
And yeah, I know, Impus Minor reads this thread, but he knows how ecstatic I was with them for getting LOST IN A CANAL!!!!
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Ah, eBay! I left you nearly 20 years ago and haven't looked back, and you haven't changed a bit!
NobodysHome: Well, I don't want to have to sell every single part of my old camera separately, so I'll sell the body and first lens together.
eBay: The body alone typically sells for $17.30, so that's where we'll set your initial price.
NobodysHome: Whatever.
eBay Buyer: Hey! I'm in a hurry! Can I just buy your camera for $17.30?
NobodysHome: Er, the lens alone is worth $62 right here on eBay, so... no.
eBay Buyer: You're a monster! I'm reporting you and giving you a one star rating!
*SIGH*
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Gothbard in a cemetery in Paris.
The heck you say.
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Ah, eBay! I left you nearly 20 years ago and haven't looked back, and you haven't changed a bit!
NobodysHome: Well, I don't want to have to sell every single part of my old camera separately, so I'll sell the body and first lens together.
eBay: The body alone typically sells for $17.30, so that's where we'll set your initial price.
NobodysHome: Whatever.
eBay Buyer: Hey! I'm in a hurry! Can I just buy your camera for $17.30?
NobodysHome: Er, the lens alone is worth $62 right here on eBay, so... no.
eBay Buyer: You're a monster! I'm reporting you and giving you a one star rating!*SIGH*
We were rebuilding a collapsed wall this summer and the guy comes out and asks us if we were also rebuilding the wall above it that hadn't collapsed and I said "our work order doesn't mention rebuilding it" so he says back "I'd hate for you to get a bad review online after you've put in all that hard work on the lower wall because the the upper wall didn't look as nice!" "I gave him my best Crookshanks patented look of disgust and said "we get more than enough good reviews, I won't lose sleep over ONE vindictive review".
We rebuilt the wall we were contracted to build and got the f*#% out of there.
Edit: Yes, I texted the boss to ask if we were also supposed to rebuild the upper wall, he said no.
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Ah, eBay! I left you nearly 20 years ago and haven't looked back, and you haven't changed a bit!
NobodysHome: Well, I don't want to have to sell every single part of my old camera separately, so I'll sell the body and first lens together.
eBay: The body alone typically sells for $17.30, so that's where we'll set your initial price.
NobodysHome: Whatever.
eBay Buyer: Hey! I'm in a hurry! Can I just buy your camera for $17.30?
NobodysHome: Er, the lens alone is worth $62 right here on eBay, so... no.
eBay Buyer: You're a monster! I'm reporting you and giving you a one star rating!*SIGH*
We were rebuilding a collapsed wall this summer and the guy comes out and asks us if we were also rebuilding the wall above it that hadn't collapsed and I said "our work order doesn't mention rebuilding it" so he says back "I'd hate for you to get a bad review online after you've put in all that hard work on the lower wall because the the upper wall didn't look as nice!" "I gave him my best Crookshanks patented look of disgust and said "we get more than enough good reviews, I won't lose sleep over ONE vindictive review".
We rebuilt the wall we were contracted to build and got the f+~# out of there.
Edit: Yes, I texted the boss to ask if we were also supposed to rebuild the upper wall, he said no.
Oh, I should be absolutely clear: At the moment, we've hit the "I'm in a hurry" line and I responded.
The threat of a bad review is just my astonishing ability to predict the future when I meet such people (and every past such interaction).
(S)He still has an opportunity to astonish me by being polite.
In which case I'll just chalk it up to another member of Impus Major's generation being a decent person. They seem to have a lot of those...
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Ah, eBay! I left you nearly 20 years ago and haven't looked back, and you haven't changed a bit!
NobodysHome: Well, I don't want to have to sell every single part of my old camera separately, so I'll sell the body and first lens together.
eBay: The body alone typically sells for $17.30, so that's where we'll set your initial price.
NobodysHome: Whatever.
eBay Buyer: Hey! I'm in a hurry! Can I just buy your camera for $17.30?
NobodysHome: Er, the lens alone is worth $62 right here on eBay, so... no.
eBay Buyer: You're a monster! I'm reporting you and giving you a one star rating!*SIGH*
We were rebuilding a collapsed wall this summer and the guy comes out and asks us if we were also rebuilding the wall above it that hadn't collapsed and I said "our work order doesn't mention rebuilding it" so he says back "I'd hate for you to get a bad review online after you've put in all that hard work on the lower wall because the the upper wall didn't look as nice!" "I gave him my best Crookshanks patented look of disgust and said "we get more than enough good reviews, I won't lose sleep over ONE vindictive review".
We rebuilt the wall we were contracted to build and got the f+~# out of there.
Edit: Yes, I texted the boss to ask if we were also supposed to rebuild the upper wall, he said no.
Oh, I should be absolutely clear: At the moment, we've hit the "I'm in a hurry" line and I responded.
The threat of a bad review is just my astonishing ability to predict the future when I meet such people (and every past such interaction).
(S)He still has an opportunity to astonish me by being polite.
In which case I'll just chalk it up to another member of Impus Major's generation being a decent person. They seem to have a lot of those...
Well it's been almost four weeks and still no vindictive review.
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I sincerely doubt that people who aren't parents can understand the truly appalling nature of crap accumulation over the years.
NobodysHome: OK, we're going camping again this year. Where are your flashlights?
Impii: We lost them. Again!
NobodysHome::
So yeah, now that I'm going through boxes and unpacking everything we've ever owned, I've found more than a dozen LED flashlights, roughly 6 of which are still in good enough shape that I've put them on our flashlight shelf. Which is suddenly getting crowded.
Ah, well. We do live in earthquake country...
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Well, my Elven Magus is dead. Very, very dead. Wet and asquish came death, in the form of a giant owlbear in a studded leather harness, so kinda like Rob Halford, only with a smaller beak.
As to what to play next, either the mysterious alchemist, Dr Zarangu, an annoying paladin, or the cleric the group's in desperate need of.
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Well it's been almost four weeks and still no vindictive review.We were rebuilding a collapsed wall this summer and the guy comes out and asks us if we were also rebuilding the wall above it that hadn't collapsed and I said "our work order doesn't mention rebuilding it" so he says back "I'd hate for you to get a bad review online after you've put in all that hard work on the lower wall because the the upper wall didn't look as nice!" "I gave him my best Crookshanks patented look of disgust and said "we get more than enough good reviews, I won't lose sleep over ONE vindictive review".
We rebuilt the wall we were contracted to build and got the f+~# out of there.
Edit: Yes, I texted the boss to ask if we were also supposed to rebuild the upper wall, he said no.
{sits down on half-empty bag of lime next to wall} Yep. No vindictive review. Isn't that right, Fortunato? {pours self another glass of amontillado}
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I sincerely doubt that people who aren't parents can understand the truly appalling nature of crap accumulation over the years.
Being a child of a family that lived through communism is enough, I think. I still find stashes containing household chemistry, cosmetics, and other small utility items that were produced somewhere between Berlin Wall erection and late Vietnam War. Less so at home now, after a few purges, but the basement is still full of those in various corners.
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So, on the trip I read Simon Singh's excellent The Big Bang, and got the general impression that Fred Hoyle was, to avoid any obscenities, a big jerk.
During this weekend's cleaning I found, "Of Men and Galaxies", transcripts of three lectures by Hoyle in the 1960s.
And I can cheerfully say his own lectures remove all doubt...
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Screw amsterdam. Remember that cycling video I posted a while back? Utrecht is where its at.Get thee to Amsterdam, and ye will know Heaven.Yes! More cycling!Congratulations to Cap and the General!
Today was Teensy Valeros's first day of orientation, and therefore my first voluntary half-day of work.
Since Montessori kids stay in each classroom for three years (preschool to K, 1st-3rd, 4th-6th), our school does a half-day orientation week for the three-year-olds, 1st-graders, and 4th-graders. Not all the teachers have to work that week. My teaching partner and I are both off the hook, because the other two Primary teachers really wanted to do it and we really didn't. But her daughter is starting 4th grade and Val is starting 1st, so we agreed to work half-days together so we can get a jump on things and not be stressed next week during our one week of teacher inservice. And that was good, because we cleaned, organized, and reset half the classroom. Val, meanwhile, likes his new classroom and had a really good day.
And, since we only live 2 3/4 miles from school, Val and I bicycled there and back, which was pretty nice, but sweaty, because it is humid this week.
Woran, the things you say...
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ALL (DE) and I went to see the brother's band in Leeds. It was great.
We had pies beforehand; ALL (DE)'s pie was called 'Heidi', which raises all sorts of uncomfortable questions in my mind.
I take it, it wasn't at the Brudenell Social Club?
Is this it here?
“Freehold... what did you... get...?”
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Long-winded coding gripe I'm not going to spoiler 'cause TacticsLion:
Don’t know why, but okay!
Also: hahahahahahahahah (I laugh because it explains why all the tears; that’s it for sure).
Something just seems wrong about using the words "modern" and "groovy" in the same sentence.
Feelin’ groovyyyyyyy~!
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Long-winded coding gripe I'm not going to spoiler 'cause TacticsLion:
Don’t know why, but okay!
Also: hahahahahahahahah (I laugh because it explains why all the tears; that’s it for sure).
I will say, the idea has merit, but in math, programming, and language, there is abso-daggum-lutely a tendency toward errors based off of simple mistakes leading to large scale communication issues (and sometimes making these communication issues systemic: see, also, ModernPolitics(tm), forums, etc.) and the idea that anything can just “figure it out” without some level of clarity is... well, I’ll believe it when I see it consistently.
Then again, I’m strongly of the opinion that the “Daemon Sultan at the center of the universe” was probably just a big ol’ poorly-programmed Matrioshka brain and the “monotonous piping’s” just the control protocol satellites working to make sure it doesn’t “wake up” and fire its laser beam solar laser beam at the rest of reality. What I’m saying is that Lovecraft could have been avoided if programmers just used their daggum commas semicolons correctly. Dang it.
EDIT: the joys of irony. On the other hand, I’m not programming a matrioska brain, so.
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I take it, it wasn't at the Brudenell Social Club?ALL (DE) and I went to see the brother's band in Leeds. It was great.
We had pies beforehand; ALL (DE)'s pie was called 'Heidi', which raises all sorts of uncomfortable questions in my mind.
It was at the Brudenell, in the new room on the side.
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Has it been 18 years already! Wow, that went by quick!
Congrats, my dude! WOO!
I have a love/hate relationship with Win10. It is better in a number of regards, but it also tries to install or update itself at the most inconvenient times (such as automatically updating then restarting and telling me, “do not turn off computer” during an electrical storm when I’d gone to my computer for the purpose of turning it off), turns off all of my privacy settings at random pints, invalidates half of my older games, and even caused some sort of irreparable badness with my old Word program (I don’t know - I had techs remote controlling my computer, and the best they could do was shrug, go, “our bad, have this free suckier version instead” that runs advertisements for various Microsoft products - including Word - in a box on the bottom right; all I want is a daggum word document that allows formatting).
Then again, when it updates right, my computer runs smoothly and quickly (at least comparatively), so. Also, they seem to have removed Cortana, so that’s nice.
I want to PbP so badly . . . . and I just haven't yet found a game!
We should do a DaWtL.
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Speaking of programming and sadism (which always go hand in hand), my sprinkler system amuses me.
We have ONE non-drought year. So I figure I'll run the sprinklers in August and September to let my lawn, y'know, actually grow instead of its usual horrific dead patchy appearance during most summers (in fact, ALL of them since we put it in).
I read the manual. I programmed the sprinklers according to the instructions in the manual, following them step-by-step. Our particular sprinkler system has 3 valves: Valve A is the north side of the "lawn", Valve B is the south side, and Valve C is the soaking hose for the flower beds. So I set Valve A to start at 5:00 am, Valve B to start at 5:15 am, and Valve C to start at 5:30 am. (Yes, 10 minute cycles each, 3 days a week, because we still live in California and water is still precious.)
And yes, a Ph.D. in mathematics with 20 years' experience in computer science failed to program the sprinkler correctly, and it ran Valve A three times in a row.
Color me impressed. It's pretty hard to make something's programming so opaque that I didn't even know I'd made a mistake.
Should be fun trying to figure it out later today...
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Chainsaw!!!
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I have GothBard's permission: Her newly-launched game is Vineyard Valley.
Have at!
Quotes to look into it later!
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Now this is how celebrities SHOULD behave...
Though this is much more awesome, it reminds me of when the Lonely Island nearly got beat up by a passing actor (Dennis Quaid, maybe?) for stealing their own purse.
(One was in a “grandmother” outfit, and they filmed themselves stealing from that guy; Quaid pulled over, hopped out of the car, and ran down the runner, before they could explain it was a video. They worked it out, with no issues. But he would have been a hero if they were actually robbing anyone other than themselves!)
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It's probably for the best. That couch sounds like it was right out of a Junji Ito manga (link is for non-gory but very unsettling horror manga; read panels right to left)This example is fifteen years ago, but it perfectly encapsulates how my family doesn't listen to me.
When we moved back to Wisconsin we left our couch in Washington because I hate couches, so my brother helps us move our stuff into our new home and he notices we don't have a couch.
Brother: Hey, I noticed you don't have a couch, we have an old one, i̷͙͍̳̾͛̓ẗ̶̺̕ ̶̙̹͂h̵͉͙͒ȁ̷̧̠͈̏ś̴̹ͅ ̸̨͍̋̓͘á̶̡̖̳̈́ ̴̘͂͆̈h̴͉͇͑̚o̵͎͎̅̉̊l̵̩͈̻͝ȩ̸̠̇̇͑ on one side and it's kind of ratty because the cats use it for scratching, but you can have it, if you want.
Me: No thanks, we don't need it, but thank you for offering!
Brother: Are you sure? It's kind of beat up but it's still good!
Me: No thanks, but thank you!
Brother: Are you REALLY sure? It's only been sitting in the garage for a few months!
Me: That's okay, we've got a chair so we don't need a couch right now
Brother (getting irritated): But, it's only got ONE h̴̺̬̻͂̆̊ó̷̧̝̙͌͂l̶̳̲̈́e̶͈̪̦̾̈ in it, so it's no problem!
Me: No, we're good, that's really nice though, thanks for offering!
Brother (getting more irritated): I can bring it down for you,, it's no problem, and it only has the one h̷̠̹͈͉̝̩͔̞̜͗̅̄̆̽́̀͜͠ͅo̷̢̩̱̳̼̩̮͎͘ļ̷͈͓̮͈̩͊́̌͑̑̄͐̍͑̎́͝͝ē̸͇̲͙͇͍̂̉̒̈́̓̀͐̀̕͘͘͠
Me: I don't want your ratty f!#*ing couch, okay!
Brother: Well, you don't have to be a dick about it!
I remember that one! Been a while.
What is it with Japanese horror and holes?
“This is my hole! It was made for me!”
“There was a hole here. It’s gone now.”
Solid, creepy stories. Very different.
(Probably Western stuff with them, too, I just don’t know them.)
Hello, John!
You know, I should REALLY know NOT to click on a Ted talk called, "Why Societies Collapse", but of course I did. And yes, it's as depressing as you'd expect it to be...
Oh, hey, Jared Diamond! I enjoyed his book, even if several history aficionados (usually folks with degrees and actual, you know, educations, far above mine) appeared almost as if summoned to explain in great detail why he was a no good horrible person who was “glib with the facts” and wasn’t reliable. Reminds me of commentary on Wikipedia.
Still a good book.
I thought the show was okay. I certainly didn't think it was as amazing as some of my friends did.Finished Season 1 of The Umbrella Academy. Never before have I so thoroughly enjoyed such an amazingly predictable series. You say, “OK, now she’s going to do this...” and she does it and you still love it.
I highly recommend it. But the dysfunctionality of virtually ALL the characters is appalling. It IS based on a Darh Horse comic, after all...
I actually enjoyed it, but was frustrated with their dysfunction. Kind of on purpose. I also kiiiiinda felt like at least one thing they bashed a character for was... dumb. “Oh no, she got her child to sleep well at night! Slippery slooooooooope-!” Yeah, sure, okay. That want the thing she should feel guilty about.
But I really enjoyed it despite its flaws. At least I think I did. Weirdly uncertain at preset!
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Its if f#~~ing griday yet? Gtraasrthdtth.
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At my CPR and first aid refresher today, the instructor said that climate change has led to a spike in mosquito-borne pathogens, and likened going outdoors without serious insect repellent to habitual drug users sharing dirty needles.
That's... unfoundedly fear mongery as far as I know. It IS a good idea to wear bug repellent to lower your chances of getting West Nile virus and Zika virus, and of course crucial in countries where things like Yellow Fever, Dengue Fever, and/or Malaria are major risks.
But other diseases like hepatitis do not convey from a mosquito bite. Mainly because they are bloodborne illnesses and mosquitos inject their own saliva into you, not someone else's blood.
I've kept forgetting to wear insect repellent this year (even though I've got a frickin' flask of picardin in my purse at all times), and have giant mosquito bites on my arms. My inner hypochondriac, Spleeny McWhiny, is certain I'm about to get West Nile induced encephalitis as I type this, but even Spleeny isn't concerned about exposure to hepatitis or other "sharing needles" sort of risks.
Do wear repellent if you think of it. The natural stuff is effective and safer if you're only outdoors for a short period of time (it repels as effectively as chemical repellents, but only lasts about 30 minutes). Use the environmental and clothes-melting DEET if you're camping or hiking for long periods of time. Picaridin is a good in between--less potentially toxic and environmentally safe than DEET but stays on your skin much longer than the natural stuff.
insect repellent is just that. The insects will still bite you when they are hungry...
Mosquitos don't feed on you, the females are collecting blood for their babies. So their own hunger is not a factor.
This might be true to an extent for ticks, fleas, bedbugs, and the like, but even they would only try to fight past the icky harmful smell if you're the only source of blood in the area, which is highly unlikely.
DEET and most other repellents can be highly effective. Last year I went camping in a very wet area (it had been raining all summer) so mosquitoes were EVERYWHERE. I liberally sprayed DEET on myself as I was going to be there all night. While trying to (fruitlessly, in the dampness) start a campfire, I tripped and scraped myself on something suitably questionably icky, so I wiped off the scrape with an antiseptic wipe. And then I realized I had wiped off my insect repellent with it, and couldn't reapply because DEET shouldn't be sprayed on broken skin. (I didn't have any of the natural stuff with me).
While I tried to keep the ankle protected, I got EIGHTEEN MOSQUITO BITES... all on the area I wiped off. Everywhere else I was completely bite free. That was a miserable 2 f@&$in' weeks it took for all the bites to die down. The scrape healed quickly... somehow the swelling seemed to accelerate the skin knitting back together.
On the plus side, I got to work with Israeli pressure bandages for the first time, and they are awesome.
The aunt on the General's side of the family that previously told Crookshanks she'd "Have to cut her hair if she wanted to have kids" decided she'd have another go at Crookshanks (because evidently she didn't learn from her first experience) and asked Crookshanks what she was planning to go to college for, and Crookshanks replied honestly "I'm not planning on going to college, I want to learn a skilled trade like carpentry or something" so the aunt says "but, don't you want to be successful?" Crookshanks shoots back "my dad's really successful and HE never went to college" so the aunt says "Yeah, but don't you want to make money?" By this time you can see the steam rising from her ears and Crookshanks says "He makes more money than you, hag!" And stomps out. The aunt, looking at us, shocked, says "What!?!" So I reply "It's true, you are a hag, also I DO make more money than you" at which point the General's mom couldn't contain her laughter anymore.Your child is awesome and I applaud her.
She is awesome.
And I gotta say, as someone who was pushed HARD toward the so called "Academic Track" and away from the "practical arts" track... I desperately wish the well meaning a&%#~$!s who did that, hadn't, including my parents, who I am realizing as I get older were far more classist than I ever could see when I was younger (bizarre, as mom's dad's first job was as a coal miner and dad originally grew up on a farm... but somehow I think they felt ashamed of those origins rather than proud. Baby Boomers are f~*#ed up, man.) I mean, I am glad for the academic courses and life that I had access to, but it shouldn't have been either/or and to this day I desperately wish I had taken some carpentry courses (outside of 7th grade Industrial Arts class). I had always from a young age wanted to learn to fix up furniture and houses but was never encouraged in that way. I'd still love to be able to do a lot of home repairs and simple builds more than I can. I've tried to find courses for adults and have found nothing that seems suitable.
===========
Speaking of home care woes...
When I returned, a new person was at the customer service desk, who was entirely FAR more cheery and helpful, and probably if I had begun the transaction with her I would have had better results to begin with. I also found the manager and thanked her for her help earlier. (I assume the cranky terrible lady was about to go off shift and that's why she didn't want to wait for me... but she could have just said to a co-worker, "Hey, my shift's about to end, can you help this lady";hell even if she had just politely asked me to wait for the next person to come along I would have done it. She was really unpleasant throughout, and given some of the looks from her co-workers, she was considered an unreasonable individual.)
Since the unit was out of stock, they offered me store credit, which included not just the value of the A/C but the value of the "insurance" I had purchased. Which was fine. I decided not to repurchase a new one in-store because the remaining units they have are heavier than the one I had and I would have trouble getting them up the apartment stairs. I'm going to see what I can have shipped, and/or buy a lighter unit from Amazon and use my Best Buy store credit for a new laptop. The downside is that since I chose to walk away without an A/C unit, my bedroom for the time being is un airconditioned and I am relying on the old window unit in my living room for any cooling. Weather's been (unseasonably) good but it's going to be hot today and tomorrow.
And that's DeathQuaker on First World Problems Today.
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It's probably for the best. That couch sounds like it was right out of a Junji Ito manga (link is for non-gory but very unsettling horror manga; read panels right to left)This example is fifteen years ago, but it perfectly encapsulates how my family doesn't listen to me.
When we moved back to Wisconsin we left our couch in Washington because I hate couches, so my brother helps us move our stuff into our new home and he notices we don't have a couch.
Brother: Hey, I noticed you don't have a couch, we have an old one, i̷͙͍̳̾͛̓ẗ̶̺̕ ̶̙̹͂h̵͉͙͒ȁ̷̧̠͈̏ś̴̹ͅ ̸̨͍̋̓͘á̶̡̖̳̈́ ̴̘͂͆̈h̴͉͇͑̚o̵͎͎̅̉̊l̵̩͈̻͝ȩ̸̠̇̇͑ on one side and it's kind of ratty because the cats use it for scratching, but you can have it, if you want.
Me: No thanks, we don't need it, but thank you for offering!
Brother: Are you sure? It's kind of beat up but it's still good!
Me: No thanks, but thank you!
Brother: Are you REALLY sure? It's only been sitting in the garage for a few months!
Me: That's okay, we've got a chair so we don't need a couch right now
Brother (getting irritated): But, it's only got ONE h̴̺̬̻͂̆̊ó̷̧̝̙͌͂l̶̳̲̈́e̶͈̪̦̾̈ in it, so it's no problem!
Me: No, we're good, that's really nice though, thanks for offering!
Brother (getting more irritated): I can bring it down for you,, it's no problem, and it only has the one h̷̠̹͈͉̝̩͔̞̜͗̅̄̆̽́̀͜͠ͅo̷̢̩̱̳̼̩̮͎͘ļ̷͈͓̮͈̩͊́̌͑̑̄͐̍͑̎́͝͝ē̸͇̲͙͇͍̂̉̒̈́̓̀͐̀̕͘͘͠
Me: I don't want your ratty f!#*ing couch, okay!
Brother: Well, you don't have to be a dick about it!
I remember that one! Been a while.
What is it with Japanese horror and holes?
“This is my hole! It was made for me!”
“There was a hole here. It’s gone now.”Solid, creepy stories. Very different.
(Probably Western stuff with them, too, I just don’t know them.)
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At my CPR and first aid refresher today, the instructor said that climate change has led to a spike in mosquito-borne pathogens, and likened going outdoors without serious insect repellent to habitual drug users sharing dirty needles.That's... unfoundedly fear mongery as far as I know. It IS a good idea to wear bug repellent to lower your chances of getting West Nile virus and Zika virus, and of course crucial in countries where things like Yellow Fever, Dengue Fever, and/or Malaria are major risks.
But other diseases like hepatitis do not convey from a mosquito bite. Mainly because they are bloodborne illnesses and mosquitos inject their own saliva into you, not someone else's blood.
I've kept forgetting to wear insect repellent this year (even though I've got a frickin' flask of picardin in my purse at all times), and have giant mosquito bites on my arms. My inner hypochondriac, Spleeny McWhiny, is certain I'm about to get West Nile induced encephalitis as I type this, but even Spleeny isn't concerned about exposure to hepatitis or other "sharing needles" sort of risks.
Do wear repellent if you think of it. The natural stuff is effective and safer if you're only outdoors for a short period of time (it repels as effectively as chemical repellents, but only lasts about 30 minutes). Use the environmental and clothes-melting DEET if you're camping or hiking for long periods of time. Picaridin is a good in between--less potentially toxic and environmentally safe than DEET but stays on your skin much longer than the natural stuff.
insect repellent is just that. The insects will still bite you when they are hungry...Mosquitos don't feed on you, the females are collecting blood for their babies. So their own hunger is not a factor.
This might be true to an extent for ticks, fleas, bedbugs, and the like, but even they would only try to fight past the...
a fair and patient rebuttal, as usual.