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Todaye we did chanel ye spirits of ye Antient Plastique Romains by bateling with ye synthetique sheilds and Gladioli swerds, whych do sting like Buggerie when they hitteth thou upon ye bare legge.
Really weird phenomenon going on around here since roughly mid-January: A manyfold increase in the number of cars parked facing the wrong way on the local streets.
It used to be unusual enough that you might see it once or twice a month. In the last few weeks we've seen more than two dozen cars parked facing the wrong way, all over Albany.
It's just... weird...
You sure you haven't accidentally phased into a mirror universe?
That is how Rome built their empire: by stinging people's legs.
That is what motivated Roman soldiers to build Roman empire, not letting others sting their legs.
Tried the new Harry Potter game yesterday. Turns out it's camera is so unwieldy as to be completely unplayable.
Clearly I'm going to have to tweak some settings (or just throw it away).
Also, the acting isn't much better than the acting on the old after school specials.
Overall, first impression is not good.
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Yesterday's Valheim hijinks:
(1) I tried building a storage chest over my bed labeled, "Ma Stuf". I went to sleep. In the morning I woke up standing on my bed with my head firmly implanted in "Ma Stuf" and it was impossible to get out. I had to call to the others for aid. Who promptly lost it entirely on seeing me standing with my head stuck up Ma Stuf. So the group was in a rather jolly mood when I signed off.
(2) A new-ish player, who shall remain nameless to protect his ignominy, joined the game. The other players came home in the evening to find a grave marker in their indoor cook fire. The player had somehow managed to move into the fireplace (no small feat, since the opening is only waist-high), then get trapped there and burn to death.
(3) The next day he went out to gather wood. Shiro warned him, "Watch out! If you haven't eaten enough food the trees can fall on you and kill you!"
The response was a terse, "Oh, can they now?"
Shiro wandered over and found another grave marker underneath a pair of downed trees.
Not a great night for dignity, it was.
EDIT: GothBard felt it necessary to point out that we'd gone through two full evenings without a player death, including kiting trolls at a level low enough that a single hit from them would kill you, and then in a single evening we had two player deaths totally unrelated to monsters.
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Why do trees fall on you if you haven't eaten enough food?
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Why do trees fall on you if you haven't eaten enough food?
It's a Viking survival game, I'd be disappointed if they didn't.
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Yesterday's Valheim hijinks:
(1) I tried building a storage chest over my bed labeled, "Ma Stuf". I went to sleep. In the morning I woke up standing on my bed with my head firmly implanted in "Ma Stuf" and it was impossible to get out. I had to call to the others for aid. Who promptly lost it entirely on seeing me standing with my head stuck up Ma Stuf. So the group was in a rather jolly mood when I signed off.
I did it on the first day in Valheim.
(3) The next day he went out to gather wood. Shiro warned him, "Watch out! If you haven't eaten enough food the trees can fall on you and kill you!"
The response was a terse, "Oh, can they now?"
Shiro wandered over and found another grave marker underneath a pair of downed trees.
I never managed to do that. Yeah, I got a bit of damage from falling trees here and there (usually rolling into me because I brilliantly decided to cut them while standing downhill), but getting two trees on myself at angles that wouldn't push me out of the way of being squashed? Nope.
I presume it wasn't Hi (who you mentioned to be too much experienced to be called new-ish), and obviously it wasn't Shiro, you (I assume you would revel in hilarity of your failures), or GothBard.
Lara Croft guy? One of the Imps?
(2) A new-ish player, who shall remain nameless to protect his ignominy, joined the game. The other players came home in the evening to find a grave marker in their indoor cook fire. The player had somehow managed to move into the fireplace (no small feat, since the opening is only waist-high), then get trapped there and burn to death.
My fireplace is easily accessible so I occasionally scorched on the flames, but at the same time it is easy to escape.
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Why do trees fall on you if you haven't eaten enough food?
I swear, I've had hours to come up with a clever response, and I haven't managed to come up with some horrific pun involving trees (bark, branches, wood, leaves, burls, twigs, sticks, roots, etc.) and hunger (starvation, growls, stomach, lean, thin).
FaWtL, I choose you for this battle!
What does it say about modern robodialing that just today I've blocked the numbers for both my credit union's fraud department and my online pharmacy?
NobodysHome: Invincible is a great show! I'm amazed you haven't seen it.
Impus Major:
NH: If you use your profile, you're going to have to search for it.
IM: If it's invincible, why can I see it?
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While I normally mislike linking YouTube videos here, this epic chess match between ChatGPT and StockFish has given everyone who's watched it the giggles, so I'll go ahead and share it.
It's 16 minutes long and you need a rudimentary knowledge of chess rules, but otherwise it's a hoot.
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Graght.
Day make brain hurt.
Brafnrbt.
Guengrhtb.
Brakdhtu.
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You might think about the sort of day I've had before summoning me like that.
While I normally mislike linking YouTube videos here, this epic chess match between ChatGPT and StockFish has given everyone who's watched it the giggles, so I'll go ahead and share it.
It's 16 minutes long and you need a rudimentary knowledge of chess rules, but otherwise it's a hoot.
Have you seen the second video when the same guy is playing against ChatGPT afterwards? It's even more hilarious.
Have you the second video when the same guy is playing against ChatGPT afterwards? It's even more hilarious.While I normally mislike linking YouTube videos here, this epic chess match between ChatGPT and StockFish has given everyone who's watched it the giggles, so I'll go ahead and share it.
It's 16 minutes long and you need a rudimentary knowledge of chess rules, but otherwise it's a hoot.
Thanks! We'll have to check it out!
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Government at its most typical: GothBard had to notify the unemployment office that she now has a job and no longer needs money from them.
And the form to stop receiving unemployment was far more intrusive and intimidating than the one to start it.
The only reason she finished filling it out was because she was sure that if she accidentally took that extra $150, they'd come after her with a vengeance.
Government at its most typical: GothBard had to notify the unemployment office that she now has a job and no longer needs money from them.
And the form to stop receiving unemployment was far more intrusive and intimidating than the one to start it.
The only reason she finished filling it out was because she was sure that if she accidentally took that extra $150, they'd come after her with a vengeance.
Oh I don't doubt it.
Government at its most typical: GothBard had to notify the unemployment office that she now has a job and no longer needs money from them.
And the form to stop receiving unemployment was far more intrusive and intimidating than the one to start it.
The only reason she finished filling it out was because she was sure that if she accidentally took that extra $150, they'd come after her with a vengeance.
Oh they'll hunt you down for far less than that.
There's a reason I don't declare unemployment during the winter even though I totally can. It's just not worth the money with all the other bullshit that goes with it.
We were supposed to get a few inches of snow on Friday but now it looks like it's hitting Chicago and Milwaukee instead.
On the one hand, I make a lot of money every time it snows, on the other hand a full week off from snow does sound pretty sweet.
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Aaand... GothBard's first paycheck has been deposited!
I'm not sure what it's like in other sectors, but in tech it's quite possible to sign an offer only to have it rescinded at the very last minute because of reorgs. (Look up stories of, "I showed up to work my first day and found out I didn't have a job," and I'm sure you'll find quite a few.)
Getting through the first day at work is the big milestone -- once they've done all the paperwork to hire you and bring you in, they're far less likely to pull a reversal
And then the first paycheck is the final, "Wow, I'm really employed!" moment.
Woo hoo!
Ways to Drive NobodysHome Crazy, #328:
(1) Announce a 30-minute technical deep dive on a topic with time for Q&A at the end.
(2) Don't start until 5 minutes late "to let everybody get here"
(3) Do a 25-minute presentation as scheduled
(4) Note that since it's the end of the 30 minutes, you don't have time for Q&A after all.
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What a day!
- It's bright and sunny with pretty wisps of clouds and the air washed out by weeks of rain, but the high is a pleasant 57°F so you can hike up a hill without getting too hot.
- Not only did GothBard's first paycheck come in, but our federal tax refund and her final unemployment check, making me feel financially secure for the first time in months.
- At work, every demo I tried to do worked the first time, putting me hours ahead of schedule.
I'll take it!
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Grand!
In other good news, the Purrbarian Brothers have recovered from their misadventure and are back to being furry pests (leaving us a couple of hundred quid out for vet bills, but them's the breaks sometimes)
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Me; Melania isn't so tough!
Elden Ring: Hold on, she's got two phases, hold my beer!
I then proceed to get my face stomped in, repeatedly.
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This week begins the long-awaited "organize the shop" project. Which, in practice, has ended up largely being my foreman and I listening to our boss (the landscaping manager) arguing with his brother (the lawn care manager) about what is and is not going into the dumpster.
- At work, every demo I tried to do worked the first time, putting me hours ahead of schedule.
At work, every single weird thing that we've never heard of has happened. I've had one 8a-4:40a stretch and one 8am-2:30a stretch this week. Today I'll be going until about 10p, as long as there are no more bizarre events.
Aaand... GothBard's first paycheck has been deposited!
Strangely, mine has not. I usually get paid on Thursday.
Me; Melania isn't so tough!Dear god, please tell me that this character was written into the story before 2016.
I'm unfamiliar with Elden Ring's development.
I do know she's the last shardbearer I have to defeat.
First time I fought her I used pretty much every resource and beat her and felt pretty good about myself. Then the cutscene for phase two triggered and I knew I was going to die.
This week begins the long-awaited "organize the shop" project. Which, in practice, has ended up largely being my foreman and I listening to our boss (the landscaping manager) arguing with his brother (the lawn care manager) about what is and is not going into the dumpster.
I call it purge and consolidate.
Also getting all the nice tools before everyone else.
I think we're doing that next week.
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- At work, every demo I tried to do worked the first time, putting me hours ahead of schedule.
You know it will crash and burn later?
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Counting today, six school days remaining until Spring Break, and our family trip to take Teensy Valeros to the Nasa Johnson Space Center for his tenth birthday.
How crazy is figuring out your paycheck in the U.S.?
GothBard's net pay was 32.6% of what we expected her gross pay to be. Compare that to my 66.3% and you think, "Hmm... something must be wrong here."
My guess is that their pay cycle runs a week behind, so she was only paid for the week of February 20, and since she started on the 21st her first paycheck represents only 4/10 of a regular paycheck.
But U.S. withholding being what it is, we have to wait for today's payslip to find out what's actually going on.
- 6.2% for Social Security
- 1.45% for Medicare
- 1.1% for California unemployment and state disability
- 12.3% California income tax (maximum rate)
So if you make enough in California, your tax rate is "technically" 45.05%, and on top of that you have to pay for your own medical insurance and retirement. (There's an entire industry dedicated to deductions, so no one pays the full rate.)
I always find it amusing that Americans are appalled at Denmark's 52.07% tax rate, yet if you do a percentage-by-percentage, dollar-by-dollar comparison, Californians pay just about as much and get FAR fewer services for their money.
Ah, well... at least we have nice weather. When it's not fiery.
To be fair, for a lot of us, we don't pay anywhere near the 45% you mentioned on account of making much less money, and thus being in a lower bracket. For instance, taking a quick look at my forms for this year, I paid roughly 17% tax for social security, Medicare, federal, and state combined. So telling me that I would have to pay 52% is a HUGE increase. Admittedly, I don't know if Denmark has different brackets, but still it is not something I could handle. As for health insurance, I have the cheapest plan my employer offers (I pay about $75 a month to cover only myself), but I haven't been to a doctor/ER/whatever (other than the COVID vax, which was free) since 2003. So, while I would like to have the security to know that if I did have a health problem it wouldn't bankrupt me, I haven't had any need for it for 20 years, so paying all that extra would feel "wasted" to me. (I know it wouldn't actually be wasted, but it would feel like it because I would have paid all of that money and not used it.)
Yeah, I was comparing top rates to top rates just to try to get in an apples-to-apples comparison. And even then the stated values don't remotely compare to what you actually pay at the end of the year.
I just so happen to have my 2022 returns here, so:
15.80% Federal
4.95% State
6.20% Social Security
1.10% CA disability
======
28.05% in reality. Just over half of Denmark's stated rate. But I suspect if we had any Danes here and they did the same thing, they'd be nowhere near the stated 52%.
It'd be interesting to do a side-by-side comparison of total taxes paid vs. total services rendered, because just like California, Denmark has sales taxes, property taxes, income taxes, etc., so the total tax burden is incredibly complex to figure out.
Not something I'm looking to do this morning for some reason...
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Impus Minor: I'm tired. I'm going to take a nap.
Impus Major: I'm tired. I'm going to make some coffee.
I am definitely an Impus Minor.
Impus Minor: I'm tired. I'm going to take a nap.
Impus Major: I'm tired. I'm going to make some coffee.I am definitely an Impus Minor.
Then there is me: I'm tired, I should do something!
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Coffee is overrated anyway.