Deep 6 FaWtL

[Freehold DM]

Banjo the Puppet wrote:

I'm sick and tired of hearing about Lovecraftian horror. Can we not get some motherf$&%in' Lovecraftian ROMANCE up in here?!?

Finally. My time to shine.

I have several comics, tankobon, and videos on the subject. Where would you like to begin?

Finally naked at the right time.

[NobodysHome]

So, for the record, so far the reaction to the Pfizer vaccine is exactly what they told us to expect: There's a bit of soreness in the arm, similar to a tetanus vaccine but not as bad, and otherwise neither of us are seeing any symptoms.

We've both been warned that shot #2 will be much, much worse, but considering this is barely an inconvenience, I'm not particularly concerned. I'd rather be safe and uncomfortable than spending more months avoiding major box stores... I needs my Costco!

[Freehold DM]

captain yesterday wrote:

Me (on cutting pavers and such): It's not THAT hard, all it takes is repetition. You don't think I was born with a saw in my hand do you?

High Schooler #1: Yes

High Schooler #2: I was also going to say yes

Coworker: I might have told some people that.

for those who don't know, there is a mech in battletech that I named after captain yesterday because its right hand is a gigantic chainsaw. Its not the most badass mech, but melee combat is no joke.

[Freehold DM]

Negachaotic Teenage Slaadhead wrote:

captain yesterday wrote:

The patio is almost finished, just got to lay out, mark, and then cut the sun out of stone, finish cutting the sun rays, mix up the concrete edging, sweep in about 1,200 pounds of polymeric sand, blow it off and then compact it and sweep another 200 pounds of polymeric sand into it, blow it off again, and then gently spray it with water.

{mentally pictures co-workers Captain Yesterday & Flint Marko in reboot of Marvel's Damage Control comic}

I LOVE DAMAGE CONTROL! The 80s version is superior, but I like the movie version.

[Freehold DM]

Petyr Gabryl, Steampowered Bard wrote:

gran rey de los mono wrote:

Can I go home yet? I've been here for 90 minutes, surely that's good enough, right?

{tunes up guitar for unplugged version of "Hotel Rey de los Mono"} ♩♫ "...Plenty of laundry at the Hotel Rey de los Mono..." ♩♫

gran rey de los mono wrote:

Me: "So, the bread represents Christ's body?"

Priest: "That is correct."
Me: "And he was crucified, died, and was buried?"
Priest: "Yes, and then three days later he rose from the dead."
Me: "... Because of the yeast?"
Priest: "Get out."

Time for some math...

opens fire

[Drejk]

*grumble-grumble*

Big F-you to Ubisoft at the moment. Get your s*!& together when you are making a spring sale...

I wanted to get Assassin's Creed: Odyssey for 75% off (because 75% off, duh)... Except when I reached the point of paying, I couldn't use my current $60-something balance (my default payment method set in PayPal system) instead having only option of setting a card as a payment method. If I wanted to pay with card, I wouldn't be using PayPal, would I?

I removed the purchase, added the purchase again, checking if maybe something glitched... Oh, boy... Now the Ubisoft shop stopped working—each time I hit "add to cart" I was instead moved to an empty shopping cart.

F-you and the trireme you sailed on.

[NobodysHome]

Woooooow... speaking of Albany Unified School District:

Impus Minor is in 5 classes this year. Spring Break is next week, after which they're returning to a "hybrid" learning model (which Impus Minor declined to participate in, calling it, "The worst of both worlds").

Teacher #1 stopped all classes last week, so for that class he'll go 3 weeks with no live instruction at all, and instead a few reading assignments and quizzes. Because apparently taking an extra 2 weeks off is "just fine" as long as the students have homework.

Not exactly a "choice", but Teacher #2 was put on administrative leave, so again, so classes all last week, and just a couple of student meetings this week, so 3 weeks with no instruction in that class as well.

Teachers #3, 4, and 5 all decided to stop all in-person classes this week so that they could work on their hybrid learning plans, so as of today Impus Minor has an extra 3 days off (plus Spring Break next week) because his teachers don't feel like teaching for the rest of the week.

I know I've repeated it ad nauseam, but this is a "top 10%" school?!?!?!

[Drejk]

NobodysHome wrote:

Not exactly a "choice", but Teacher #2 was put on administrative leave, so again, so classes all last week, and just a couple of student meetings this week, so 3 weeks with no instruction in that class as well.

What have they done? Should we assume that administrative leave is some sort of punishment?

Quote:

I know I've repeated it ad nauseam, but this is a "top 10%" school?!?!?!

10% is a very subjective depending on the criteria used and the pool...

After all, I am in, or at least at the borderline of the top 10% of people in the world in the matters of wealth, just by owning a 49 square meter flat in one of the major cities of a not particulalrly major EU country.

[The Vagrant Erudite]

In other words, being one of the tallest halflings doesn't make you tall. You're still a halfling.

This is still American public education.

[NobodysHome]

Drejk wrote:

NobodysHome wrote:

Not exactly a "choice", but Teacher #2 was put on administrative leave, so again, so classes all last week, and just a couple of student meetings this week, so 3 weeks with no instruction in that class as well.

What have they done? Should we assume that administrative leave is some sort of punishment?

Amazingly enough, both the administration and student gossip have been dead silent on this issue, so I really have no idea. While "paid administrative leave" is typically a situation where the teacher has done something so bad they need to be removed while they are investigated (embezzlement, sexual misconduct, physical abuse, hate speech), it can also be at the teacher's request (bereavement, jury duty, psychological distress, physical injury, etc.).

Given the complete lack of public information (no police record, no scheduled administrative hearing, etc.), I'm "hopeful" that it was something personal. The one statement from her students ("We don't want her to come back until she's ready,") reinforces this idea that it was an emergency request for personal leave that was granted by the administration.

Beyond that, I have no guesses.

Drejk wrote:

Quote:

I know I've repeated it ad nauseam, but this is a "top 10%" school?!?!?!

10% is a very subjective depending on the criteria used and the pool...

After all, I am in, or at least at the borderline of the top 10% of people in the world in the matters of wealth, just by owning a 49 square meter flat in one of the major cities of a not particulalrly major EU country.

As usual, it's "top 10% of schools in California in terms of standardized test scores and college admissions". Which is kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy: Parents who want the "best" public education for their kids pay through the nose to move to Albany, and then are highly motivated to be involved in their kids' education. The school building could likely be an empty shell with no teachers at all, yet the students, taught/pushed/paid for by their parents would excel, and the school district would be top-rated.

Which, unfortunately, seems to be what's happening.

A quick example? A 1,493 square foot, 2 bedroom, 2 bath house in a perfectly decent area of El Cerrito (just 1.9 miles north of us) is posted on Zillow at $675k. Zillow lists our house as just under 1400 square feet, 2 bedrooms, and 1.5 baths at just under $1.4 million. Why is my house worth twice as much as a slightly larger house in an area with a similar crime rate, walking distance to shopping, etc? The school district.

So motivated parents who want well-educated kids drive up home prices in Albany, then work hard to make sure their kids get good test scores and get into "good" colleges, and the school district gets the credit, deserved or not.

[Vanessa Pablovovitch Shachtman]

gran rey de los mono wrote:

Vanessa Pablovovitch Shachtman wrote:

Harold turned, the lamp behind him highlighting his chiselled cheekbones and mirroring the smouldering embers in the depths of his smoky grey eyes.

"Janet", he said, in his deep, resonant, husky voice. "Janet - I WANT you"

"N'gthagn iirm n'an'an'okul'luu pthalogn!"

"Janet!" Howard's face showed clearly the rage and misery warring within him. "Janet - don't you care? Can't you see I'm dying inside because you won't have me?!"

"Ghathrgnuuuk! Tekeli-li!"

The shoggoth squelched towards the door and slowly squeezed itself through the keyhole and out into the night, never once looking back at Howard with its myriad of eye-like appendages. Howard watched her go, lips tight, a single tear glistening on his manly cheek, then went off to pen a letter to the editor of Weird Tales blaming the whole thing on the Jews.

I must admit, I am intrigued by this love triangle of Harold, Howard, and Janet.

For more great content like this, why not subscribe to my Pantreon?

[captain yesterday]

This is one of those rare weeks where it feels like it's going by quickly.

[captain yesterday]

The boss (to another crew leader): When you get out to the job do whatever Yesterday tells you, he's in charge

Other Crew Leader: Why does he get seniority, I've been here twice as long as he has!

The boss (matter of factly): Because he knows what he's doing and HE didn't call me when I was on vacation last week.

[Woran]

Had more hail/snow today.

[Freehold DM]

You're welcome.

[captain yesterday]

I had a spectacular day at work.

[The Vagrant Erudite]

captain yesterday wrote:

I had a spectacular day at work.

Those words in that order don't make sense.

[captain yesterday]

I am pretty weird, yes.

I had a pretty great day cutting, coworker even tried fitting a piece of paper between two pavers and couldn't do it, which is even more impressive because it was a circle.

[captain yesterday]

The patio is completely laid out, I just need to fix a few areas that are low because people walked on it (one of them was the boss so I didn't get mad) and mix up the concrete-recycled tinsel stuff we use for edging and then sweep the 1,000+ pounds of polymeric sand into it and compact it and then blow it off and spray it down.

Then it's on to the next patio, which we just had 32 pallets of pavers delivered today. With another 32 pallets being delivered next week (it is That Big).

[gran rey de los mono]

Okay, I know I've harped on this before, so I'll try to keep it brief. To be clear, this all applies to work.

1). Don't lie to me. If I ask if you've done something, just tell me the truth. Don't say "Yep, I did it" and then when I check (which is trivially easy) I see that you haven't and it makes me mad. If you haven't done it, just say no. I might still be annoyed that you didn't do it, but at least I won't be angry that you lied to me.

2). The laundry. The mother f'n laundry. You don't get to tell me that "There was absolutely nothing to do today, I was soooooo bored for the whole shift" when there is laundry to do. It hasn't even been sorted yet. You saw the laundry, said "f*$+ that", and ignored it. You don't get to complain about being bored. True, there isn't that much, but it is still there and it is your job to do it.

[gran rey de los mono]

Huh. Don't know why, but I decided to do some reading on truffles, and learned something surprising. See, pretty much every tv show, movie, whatever, that I've seen that dealt with truffles says that one of the reasons they are so expensive is that you can't cultivate them. That they have to be found in the wild. And yet, people were cultivating truffles as far back as the early 1800s in carefully planted and managed woodlands. They were so successful that truffles were more or less a regular part of French people's diet. But the two world wars destroyed pretty much all the forests, killed most of the farmers, and then people started moving out of the country and into the cities, so production basically halted. This drove up the prices and made them "gourmet" and "high-class" foods. Even now, cultivation is relatively uncommon because of the expense of maintaining the woods, and especially of keeping wild hogs out. There was a US producer of truffles, but a blight wiped out is trees in 2013, and since it takes up to 10 years for the fungus to start producing harvestable truffles, he hasn't been able to really start selling again.

It kind of reminds me of how lobsters in the northeast used to be considered peasant food, and that house servants once held mass protests to demand that they couldn't be fed lobster more than 5 times a week, but overfishing made them rare, which made them expensive, which turned them into a "luxury" food. I think the same thing has more or less happened with some tuna. They were cheap and plentiful, but demand for them skyrocketed as sushi spread around the world, so now they are rare and expensive.

[gran rey de los mono]

Alright, these Grogu figures are kinda cute.

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

[Woran]

captain yesterday wrote:

I am pretty weird, yes.

I had a pretty great day cutting, coworker even tried fitting a piece of paper between two pavers and couldn't do it, which is even more impressive because it was a circle.

Oh dang yes

That is super impressive!

[Mark Hoover 330]

gran rey de los mono wrote:

Okay, I know I've harped on this before, so I'll try to keep it brief. To be clear, this all applies to work.

1). Don't lie to me.

Not just for work. I get that your context from your original post is more work related, but this statement should be a law or something.

Just in the past week

A. outright lies almost ended a budding relationship in my life

B. lies of omission strained my older daughter's 2 year friendship with her bestie

C. my younger daughter lying to me led to yet another co-parenting fight that initially painted ME as the "inferior" parent

Signed, Mr Sensitive Pants.

[captain yesterday]

How do you know you've done a good job?

When they add on more.

Looks like I get to put in a full sunrise.

[NobodysHome]

Yeah, I'm getting a little frustrated with the Irish Tsarina for the same thing. She's working her heart out (still) to try to get the kids vaccine appointments, but if someone sends her a partial article she's perfectly happy to send it on to us.

First was the whole Tulare vaccination site thing, where, "You don't have to be a resident of the county," was surrounded by text of, "In order to increase the number of residents in nearby rural areas who get vaccinated, the county restriction is being waived."
In other words, it was still for locals, but they didn't have to be residents of the county to get vaccinated.

Yesterday we got a text from her that Children's Hospital in Oakland had a hotline to set up appointments for kids 16-21. I went to their website and found the quote verbatim. Yet again, the preceding paragraph read, "As of March 15, Children's Hospital is opening up vaccinations to patients 16-21 with underlying health conditions."

I'm not the type to play lawyer just to cut to the front of the line. "Oh, you had the restriction in the previous paragraph, but not this paragraph, so legally you have to give me an appointment," doesn't cut it for me.

She eventually pointed us to the Curative folk, and we got vaccinated 5 days after we became eligible. I'm going to use them again for the kids, and if the pattern holds I'll be able to get them vaccinated by the 20th. Without having to lie or play lawyer or anything else.

(And yeah, we're frustrating the Fake Russian because his wife is working really hard for us and we keep saying, "No, we won't do that," but she's good-spirited about it and understands our misgivings, and keeps right on trying. Which is why we love her.)

[Vanykrye]

I'm very confused. I have nothing to complain about at the moment. This is a new experience for me.

[Syrus Terrigan]

Truffles <--> Rarity <--> Gourmet

There are sooooo many things that could be said about this. Simplest and best? "uncommon" =/= "good"

Fungi. Gross.

The Styrofoam Cup of Jesus:

Going back to the institution of the Passover feast in the Exodus account, I recall the King James Version stating that the unleavened bread of the feast was prepared with "bitter herbs" (in my opinion, this was intended to make the Hebrews mindful of the horrible cost for their liberty -- for both themselves, and their oppressors). For the longest time, I thought the unleavened bread was made in similar fashion -- a holdover from the Mosaic tradition that preceded the Christian tradition. But, of course: in my particular corner of Christendom, the only functional descriptor of that bread is "unleavened", and naught else matters. Therefore, that bread is robbed of everything that makes bread enjoyable for most people.

Maybe that piece of information adds another facet to the matter.

[captain yesterday]

I got to watch as one of the college kids tried starting a chainsaw with the plastic sheath still on.

And then the other one decided the chain was on backwards (it wasn't) so he put it on backwards.

Needless to say, it wasn't my project so I basically just stood there with coworker, Kurt, and the boss and laughing at them.

[Feros]

captain yesterday wrote:

I got to watch as one of the college kids tried starting a chainsaw with the plastic sheath still on.

And then the other one decided the chain was on backwards (it wasn't) so he put it on backwards.

Needless to say, it wasn't my project so I basically just stood there with coworker, Kurt, and the boss and laughing at them.

This made me laugh out loud! :D

[John Napier 698]

Hello, everyone.

[Drejk]

Vanykrye wrote:

I'm very confused. I have nothing to complain about at the moment. This is a new experience for me.

Awww...

[Freehold DM]

Syrus Terrigan wrote:

Truffles <--> Rarity <--> Gourmet

There are sooooo many things that could be said about this. Simplest and best? "uncommon" =/= "good"

Fungi. Gross.

** spoiler omitted **

Rarity is my number 2 pony.

[John Napier 698]

About to go home. Good night, everyone.

[gran rey de los mono]

I just gave my neighbor a jar of raw honey in exchange for his dead parakeet. I got the honey for making a dress for a beekeeper's daughter. I need the parakeet's bones to make a necklace to give to a woman because she is fixing my antique cello. I got the cello as payment for juggling at a child's birthday party.

My life is a never-ending sidequest.

[gran rey de los mono]

Freehold DM wrote:

Syrus Terrigan wrote:

Truffles <--> Rarity <--> Gourmet

There are sooooo many things that could be said about this. Simplest and best? "uncommon" =/= "good"

Fungi. Gross.

** spoiler omitted **

Rarity is my number 2 pony.

Do you think anyone would notice if NH used "everypony" instead of "everyone" in one of the training modules he writes?

[Capt. Gherk-Lick Picklard]

gran rey de los mono wrote:

I just gave my neighbor a jar of raw honey in exchange for his dead parakeet. I got the honey for making a dress for a beekeeper's daughter. I need the parakeet's bones to make a necklace to give to a woman because she is fixing my antique cello. I got the cello as payment for juggling at a child's birthday party.

My life is a never-ending sidequest.

Say, you wouldn't know anyone needing a hundred gross of self-sealing stembolts, would you?

[gran rey de los mono]

Capt. Gherk-Lick Picklard wrote:

gran rey de los mono wrote:

I just gave my neighbor a jar of raw honey in exchange for his dead parakeet. I got the honey for making a dress for a beekeeper's daughter. I need the parakeet's bones to make a necklace to give to a woman because she is fixing my antique cello. I got the cello as payment for juggling at a child's birthday party.

My life is a never-ending sidequest.

Say, you wouldn't know anyone needing a hundred gross of self-sealing stembolts, would you?

No, but I do know 100 gross people who each need one elf-stealing fembrat.

(That's brat, as in bratwurst. Not a spoiled kid.)

[captain yesterday]

The Playstation 5 is supposed to arrive today.

Needless to say I have the family on high alert for porch pirates and mail grifters.

Also, it's a good thing it's raining off and on today, I don't think I can work a full day with that distraction hanging over my head.

[Freehold DM]

gran rey de los mono wrote:

Freehold DM wrote:

Syrus Terrigan wrote:

Truffles <--> Rarity <--> Gourmet

There are sooooo many things that could be said about this. Simplest and best? "uncommon" =/= "good"

Fungi. Gross.

** spoiler omitted **

Rarity is my number 2 pony.

Do you think anyone would notice if NH used "everypony" instead of "everyone" in one of the training modules he writes?

you mean he doesnt?

[Limeylongears]

Isn't that Global Megacorp protocol?

[captain yesterday]

Wait, The Lost Boys was by Joel Schumacher?!

It's true, every director has at least one good movie or episode in them somewhere.

Also, because fashion is cyclical it's aged surprisingly well.

[Mark Hoover 330]

captain yesterday wrote:

Wait, The Lost Boys was by Joel Schumacher?!

It's true, every director has at least one good movie or episode in them somewhere.

Also, because fashion is cyclical it's aged surprisingly well.

Are you saying Joel Schumacher only made one good movie, or are you saying he made AT LEAST one?

[Drejk]

Mark Hoover 330 wrote:

captain yesterday wrote:

Wait, The Lost Boys was by Joel Schumacher?!

It's true, every director has at least one good movie or episode in them somewhere.

Also, because fashion is cyclical it's aged surprisingly well.

Are you saying Joel Schumacher only made one good movie, or are you saying he made AT LEAST one?

Taking into account that he directed Flatliners, it's definitely at least two.

Coincidentally, both of them have Kiefer Sutherland being a bad boy...

[captain yesterday]

Drejk wrote:

Mark Hoover 330 wrote:

captain yesterday wrote:

Wait, The Lost Boys was by Joel Schumacher?!

It's true, every director has at least one good movie or episode in them somewhere.

Also, because fashion is cyclical it's aged surprisingly well.

Are you saying Joel Schumacher only made one good movie, or are you saying he made AT LEAST one?

Taking into account that he directed Flatliners, it's definitely at least two.

Coincidentally, both of them have Kiefer Sutherland being a bad boy...

Flatliners too?!

[Mark Hoover 330]

St. Elmo's Fire? Falling Down? 13MM (if you're into that sort of thing)? I don't know, I guess I'm just a Schumacher-Stan. Who can deny the awesome power of DC Cab? Also he's credited as the screenwriter for The Wiz. The WIZ! That's gotta count for somethin, right?

[Woran]

Bad headache day today

[NobodysHome]

Reasons We're Trapped in a Global Pandemic, Episode #393

(Yesterday afternoon)
Impus Minor: Hey, Dad! Can High School Friend (HSF) come over?
NobodysHome: As long as he wears a mask and you guys maintain social distancing, I don't see why not.

(A few minutes later)
NobodysHome: Wait a minute! Didn't HSF move to Georgia?
IM: Yeah, but he's visiting for Spring Break! See ya later, Dad!

And yes. This idiot kid's idiot parents flew an unvaccinated kid from Georgia to California to visit all his friends for Spring Break.

We're now quarantined for two weeks.

And this, my friends, is how pandemics perpetuate themselves.

In fairness, the kids were extremely careful around him, keeping their masks on at all times, staying at least 6' away from him, and doing all their socializing outdoors. They even bought lunch and then took it with them instead of eating it because they didn't want to lower their masks anywhere near each other. So the chances of transmission are minimal. But what kind of parent takes that kind of risk, when vaccines are rolling out nationwide right now!?!?!?!? And now we can't visit Shiro for the next two weeks because of his cancer, so thanks, idiot kid and parents.

EDIT: And yes, my kids already got the riot act about socializing with anyone from out-of-area without verifying vaccinations first.

[Freehold DM]

Mark Hoover 330 wrote:

St. Elmo's Fire? Falling Down? 13MM (if you're into that sort of thing)? I don't know, I guess I'm just a Schumacher-Stan. Who can deny the awesome power of DC Cab? Also he's credited as the screenwriter for The Wiz. The WIZ! That's gotta count for somethin, right?

THE WIZ!

[Drejk]

Mark Hoover 330 wrote:

St. Elmo's Fire? Falling Down? 13MM (if you're into that sort of thing)? I don't know, I guess I'm just a Schumacher-Stan. Who can deny the awesome power of DC Cab? Also he's credited as the screenwriter for The Wiz. The WIZ! That's gotta count for somethin, right?

Oooh, Falling Down was great as well.