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It's interesting how your brain works.
Yesterday, I learned "Kaczka je chleb", "The duck is eating bread," and I got so upset that now I won't be right in my mind until I learn how to say "What f@#$ing moron gave the duck bread?!"Probably half the population of Poland. The other half probably is not interacting with ducks in the first place.
Only in recent years (10-15?) various ponds and lakes where ducks and other water fowl gather started getting warning tables against feeding bread to ducks, geese, and swans.
Also, "Kaczka je chleb" may also mean "A/the duck eats bread" in more general (if erroneous) sense.
And for the sake of Lisamarlene's peace of mind.
The first is sort-a choice between what an idiot and sort-of-more specific which idiot. The second is choice between two alternate words for fu**ing (masculine person) derived from two alternate F-verbs.
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Today's Oglaf strip must be very difficult for Freehold...
it is.
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I love Oglaf. So much.
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I swear, my brother is on some spectrum somewhereorother.
As briefly as possible, growing up we did all of our backpacking and skiing trips with another family. The father passed away some years ago (15-20). (He's the one I always talk about who brought everyone in from around the country to tell him stories about how he affected their lives before he chose to end it.)
The mother passed away this morning and I got a text from Elder Brother to let me know.
The literal exchange:
NobodysHome: Oh! Sorry to hear that! Let me know if I should come up for a wake.
Older Brother: I don't think there'll be a memorial since she outlived everyone she knew :-) but will keep you posted.
Yes. Somehow he believes that if you live so long you outlast all members of your generation, then you don't get a memorial service. Somehow I think her son, daughter-in-law, granddaughters, and those of us who grew up with her would beg to differ. Plus my mother, who's only two years younger so counts as "someone she knew" of that generation.
So I'm fairly sure I'll be heading up to Seattle within the next week or two. I'm sure younger brother'd appreciate the visit...
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OMG. My mother is in the ER today as well!
For what, you might ask?
Getting a black eye while working out at the gym.
At 92.
Yep. That's my mom.
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Everybody was kung fu fighting…
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But you should see the other guy?
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There is nothing quite so cruel as a life on hold not because of sadism or malice, but out of sheer bureaucratic indifference.
It's been 5 weeks since Progressive notified the DMV that totaling the Celica was an error. I've heard *nothing* from the DMV, and even when the Impii went in, the agents said that they have no visibility into the Total Loss department. It's a black box that provides individuals no mechanism for even contacting them. So they expect me to wait and hope and do nothing until my insurance comes due in June. I am helpless against a government wall of indifference.
Even worse is GothBard's situation. Her employer has made it abundantly clear that he plans to fire her whole department at the end of March. The gaming industry is in a shambles right now, so without a lead GothBard would be in serious trouble. Fortunately, her former manager is trying to do a direct hire of her. Unfortunately, that hire is bogged down in corporate bureaucracy and there is nothing she can do but wait to hear the final outcome.
On the "bright" side, I expect two different outcomes: For the Celica, I expect I'm finally going to have to get a lawyer or the local media involved to get anything to happen. The DMV is far too huge of a monolith to do anything out of the ordinary for any reason, even a good one. For GothBard, direct hires are usually just getting a high-level executive to sign off on them, so it's waiting for the executive to have the time and inclination to do it. I doubt GothBard's former manager would have given her such hope if she weren't fairly sure she could get the sign-off, so it's just waiting for that signature to come through.
We'll see how things play out...
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Fantasy Monster: Tooth Gremlin.
I am spawning too many gremlins...
I know each of those words, but that sentence has no meaning for me...
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NH here's hoping things work out. If GothBard needs help let me know. I will move into the company's presidents office and simply take over.
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Well, I *finally* got in touch with someone at the DMV who knew what the heck she was talking about. It turns out the original agent's 2-4 weeks estimate was a work of optimistic fiction; this agent said it would take at least 90 days and probably longer.
She did say it sounds like the letter was correctly worded so once they process it it should all work out, but right now the letter is most likely in a massive Inbox that was being worked through on a "first come, first served" basis so I shouldn't expect to hear anything until May or June.
They're not technically allowed to give me an operating permit until then, but she wrote up a case on my behalf and is asking the field office to make an exception for me.
So at least progress has been made.
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It is over 50 degrees, which is shorts and t-shirt weather.
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Well, other than the, "It takes us 5 months to process physical mail" part of it, the California DMV's phone system is impressing me. I've gotten callbacks from three different agents so far, one of whom was actually able to help me, and I should be getting a fourth call today or tomorrow about sneaking me an operating permit. They're not legally allowed to issue one as long as the car is marked as totaled, but given that I have letters from both the insurance company and the state insurance board that it's not actually totaled, they're willing to look into whether or not they can make an exception.
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Your whole odyssey regarding that car continues to blow my mind... Cali really DOES have and do a lot of things right but in SOOO many ways they're basically bureaucratic caricatures of themselves to the point where it's completely laughable to think that any reasonable person who isn't either already incredibly wealthy or entirely consumed and brainwashed by the corporate dystopian culture of it all would EVER want to live there for any reason other than the really nice year-round weather.
Here in the Mitten, if a vehicle has a VIN number, and a clear and lien-free title while having not ACTUALLY and FACTUALLY been turned into scrap metal at a junkyard or recycling plant then you could buy it, registere it, drive it home, insure it, register it, crash it, repair it, give up, trade/gift it, and the next person could do exactly the same before giving up and deciding to just let it rust out on their lawn in less time that it sounds like it takes just to cut through HALF of the red tape you're dealing with just to figure out if your insurance agency decided it was totaled on your behalf which is, to me, the craziest thing of all, if you can drive it and it's not already been signed over/sold to a scapper (or a state repo company if the owner happens to be in BIG legal trouble) while sitting in their lot it's not totaled.
The fact you're dealing with all that after having spent more on mere REPAIRS for one car than I've ever spent - IN TOTAL - across - EVERY - vehicle I've ever owned and the law still states it's an unrecoverable wreck is just MADNESS.
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Setting up the garden show exhibit today! Garden show is this weekend. Always exciting to see it all come together!
Your whole odyssey regarding that car continues to blow my mind... Cali really DOES have and do a lot of things right but in SOOO many ways they're basically bureaucratic caricatures of themselves to the point where it's completely laughable to think that any reasonable person who isn't either already incredibly wealthy or entirely consumed and brainwashed by the corporate dystopian culture of it all would EVER want to live there for any reason other than the really nice year-round weather.
Here in the Mitten, if a vehicle has a VIN number, and a clear and lien-free title while having not ACTUALLY and FACTUALLY been turned into scrap metal at a junkyard or recycling plant then you could buy it, registere it, drive it home, insure it, register it, crash it, repair it, give up, trade/gift it, and the next person could do exactly the same before giving up and deciding to just let it rust out on their lawn in less time that it sounds like it takes just to cut through HALF of the red tape you're dealing with just to figure out if your insurance agency decided it was totaled on your behalf which is, to me, the craziest thing of all, if you can drive it and it's not already been signed over/sold to a scapper (or a state repo company if the owner happens to be in BIG legal trouble) while sitting in their lot it's not totaled.
The fact you're dealing with all that after having spent more on mere REPAIRS for one car than I've ever spent - IN TOTAL - across - EVERY - vehicle I've ever owned and the law still states it's an unrecoverable wreck is just MADNESS.
It all has to do with population density.
Put 30 million people into a state and you're going to have thousands of so-and-sos who abuse any leniency provided. Throw in a reactive government and a ridiculously-easy proposition system and everything is regulated to within an inch of its life. Shiro pointed out the same thing in his new state -- on his 20 acres of land, he can do pretty much anything he pleases. Why can't we do it in California? Because at some point someone started a meth lab and burned down 1000 square miles of our state because they were too stupid to help themselves, and our reactive government creates a new law every time there's a tragedy.
Some of the laws are good. *I* remember Los Angeles in the 1970s. It had Mexico City levels of pollution. State emissions laws have done an incredible job of cleaning up our air. The fact that we can have significant earthquakes with relatively few deaths is a testament to our building codes. But, as you say, some of the laws are overzealous; because of California's ludicrous car culture, our car laws are among the strictest in the nation. Which, combined with our now nearly 40 million people and eternally-underfunded DMV leads to situations like mine. But if you lived here, you'd see the kind of crap people try to drive on major interstates, and you'd at least understand some of the reasoning behind all the laws.
The bureaucracy? That's incompetence. The laws? They're well-meaning but usually poorly thought out and even more poorly-written.
EDIT: In fact, one of my biggest gripes about living in California is the whole, "Everybody or nobody" approach to everything caused by our lax litigation laws. Back in the early aughts, I convinced my manager to let our team work from home on Fridays. Of the 18 of us who took advantage of it, ONE GUY totally abused it and binge-watched NetFlix at home every Friday. So she shut down the program for everyone, because somehow disciplining a single person would open the company up to lawsuits. And THAT is what I hate about living in California.
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Speaking of despairing for humanity, it's time for my quinquennial colonoscopy, which involves over 40 hours of fasting. So a natural question is, "How long do I have to wait to eat after my colonoscopy?"
I forget my original Google phrasing, but it was similar to that and two of the top five hits were, "Can I have a hamburger after my colonoscopy?" and, "Can I eat McDonald's after my colonoscopy?"
The fact that those questions are so prevalent kind of indicates why we're expected to get these things.
Shaper of Worlds proposal:
an Azorius-style bureaucromancer from California -- high taxes, high regulation, massive penalties for infractions . . . .
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Shaper of Worlds proposal:
an Azorius-style bureaucromancer from California -- high taxes, high regulation,
massivevirtually no penalties for infractions . . . .
FIFY. Only Lawful people suffer under California law.
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Forensics Coach from Other School: Here are League tournament invites! Also if anyone has any extra prompts for Extemporaneous or Impromptu, I would really appreciate it!
I wonder how long til she notices.
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workers comp once held up my life for 6 months because the log fell on my foot and the doctor wanted to operate on my toe.
The judge game them the sideeye at that one once we finally had the hearing. But no reason for them not to do it I suppose.
FIFY. Only Lawful people suffer under California law.Shaper of Worlds proposal:
an Azorius-style bureaucromancer from California -- high taxes, high regulation,
massivevirtually no penalties for infractions . . . .
Yeah, Chaos rules!
Philophsphophsy time.
If chaos rules, can it really be called chaos?
Hm hm hm.
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Who tells Freehold that chaos is a mathematical concept?
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A private detective talking about PI scenes from movies and TV: "we are using cars that can blend in (...) there is a lot of Priuses in Los Angeles"
Can you make a private eye LG Paladin actually work?
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First day of garden show exhibit assembly went well, it always cracks me up how surprised our crew is at how quickly it goes up.
And it's ALWAYS fun rolling into the convention center with a 7 truck caravan and start setting up an hour before everyone else is allowed to (I used to work with the people in charge of the convention center at a different convention center, and we're always super nice to them and never make demands).
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First day of garden show exhibit assembly went well, it always cracks me up how surprised our crew is at how quickly it goes up.
And it's ALWAYS fun rolling into the convention center with a 7 truck caravan and start setting up an hour before everyone else is allowed to (I used to work with the people in charge of the convention center at a different convention center, and we're always super nice to them and never make demands).
Niceness always wins.
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FIFY. Only Lawful people suffer under California law.Shaper of Worlds proposal:
an Azorius-style bureaucromancer from California -- high taxes, high regulation,
massivevirtually no penalties for infractions . . . .
fair enough. i think the first two components i mentioned suffice, generally speaking. lol
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You need to send us the original documents to re apply. Just like when you applied.
I actually said the words "pause pause pause" out-loud and they got it on their own.
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Speaking of despising the stock market (aren't we always?), GothBard has been informed that her potential new position is "stuck in finance", which translates directly to, "If we hire her this quarter it will affect this quarter's stock prices, so push her off 'til next quarter when it'll (somehow) be someone else's problem."
So at this point any hope of a new position is almost certainly pushed off 'til the new quarter (April), and the most frustrating thing is that Shiro called it almost exactly. But of course, as he said himself, EVERY time he's been hired it's been as a direct hire, so he's far more familiar with the process than we are.
The silver lining is that the fact that it's in finance means the higher-ups have already approved it, so as long as neither the stock market nor the company tank in the next month and a half, she should be golden.
But it *is* more waiting, and more hoping that the company's finances hold out well for the quarter.
GothBard is still working her old, unstable, set-up to fire anybody the boss doesn't like enough to keep in near future through the power of Not-Up-To-Boss-Standards (TM)?
Yes, it's Mr. "Wow! Elon Musk's handling of Twitter was a stroke of executive genius! I need to emulate exactly what he did there!"
It's not a good place to work.
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Yes, it's Mr. "Wow! Elon Musk's handling of Twitter was a stroke of executive genius! I need to emulate exactly what he did there!"
It's not a good place to work.
You need to be a real e-genius to lose more money that I will ever see, never mind owning...
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The truly depressing thing is that the video game industry is laying off employees as fast as they can, yet virtually every single game we've bought in the last year has suffered from terrible design...
...with the notable exception of Baldur's Gate 3, which may just be because Larian is privately-owned and doesn't answer to shareholders.
Redfall? An unmitigated disaster -- not only was it bug-ridden in ways only Bethesda can achieve, but game balance was terrible (even on its hardest mode it was ludicrously easy) and the save system out-and-out sucked.
V Rising was a really interesting concept, but just plain got boring.
Enshrouded *might* have been fun if not for incredibly terrible UI design and controls that make no sense.
...and Shiro just bought Nightengale and strongly recommended against it, once again because the UI and controls were impossibly bad.
The common theme? All of these are fundamentally design problems with the game, and the industry is in the process of laying off all its designers.
Coincidence? I think not...
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Don't worry! We'll put it on the blockchain! That'll solve everything!
o wait
Don't worry! We'll just use AI! That'll solve everything!
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The truly depressing thing is that the video game industry is laying off employees as fast as they can, yet virtually every single game we've bought in the last year has suffered from terrible design...
...with the notable exception of Baldur's Gate 3, which may just be because Larian is privately-owned and doesn't answer to shareholders.Redfall? An unmitigated disaster -- not only was it bug-ridden in ways only Bethesda can achieve, but game balance was terrible (even on its hardest mode it was ludicrously easy) and the save system out-and-out sucked.
V Rising was a really interesting concept, but just plain got boring.
Enshrouded *might* have been fun if not for incredibly terrible UI design and controls that make no sense.
...and Shiro just bought Nightengale and strongly recommended against it, once again because the UI and controls were impossibly bad.
The common theme? All of these are fundamentally design problems with the game, and the industry is in the process of laying off all its designers.
Coincidence? I think not...
Play Elden Ring.
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Garden show exhibit is all set up I just have to go in this morning for a bit to look everything over and double check all the water feature connections.
And since this is our 3rd show with basically the same crew we have set up down pat!
...and Shiro just bought Nightengale and strongly recommended against it, once again because the UI and controls were impossibly bad.
Awww, it looked promising in the gameplay video...
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Play Elden Ring.The truly depressing thing is that the video game industry is laying off employees as fast as they can, yet virtually every single game we've bought in the last year has suffered from terrible design...
...with the notable exception of Baldur's Gate 3, which may just be because Larian is privately-owned and doesn't answer to shareholders.Redfall? An unmitigated disaster -- not only was it bug-ridden in ways only Bethesda can achieve, but game balance was terrible (even on its hardest mode it was ludicrously easy) and the save system out-and-out sucked.
V Rising was a really interesting concept, but just plain got boring.
Enshrouded *might* have been fun if not for incredibly terrible UI design and controls that make no sense.
...and Shiro just bought Nightengale and strongly recommended against it, once again because the UI and controls were impossibly bad.
The common theme? All of these are fundamentally design problems with the game, and the industry is in the process of laying off all its designers.
Coincidence? I think not...
Hmm... once again, FromSoftware is a privately-owned, rather than a publicly-traded company. Beginning to see a pattern here about where great games come from?
Play Elden Ring.Hmm... once again, FromSoftware is a privately-owned, rather than a publicly-traded company. Beginning to see a pattern here about where great games come from?
I have just checked, and it seems that CD Project Red went from privately owned Limited Liability company to a publicly-traded stock company after release of Witcher 1.
Witcher 3 was considered an excellent game. Cyberpunk 2077 had serious technical issues on release which might or might not be caused by push for timely release instead of taking more time to make it right. Though at least after the initial fiasco, they did take their time to fix issues and the game is really great afterwards.
Hmm... once again, FromSoftware is a privately-owned, rather than a publicly-traded company. Beginning to see a pattern here about where great games come from?Play Elden Ring.The truly depressing thing is that the video game industry is laying off employees as fast as they can, yet virtually every single game we've bought in the last year has suffered from terrible design...
...with the notable exception of Baldur's Gate 3, which may just be because Larian is privately-owned and doesn't answer to shareholders.Redfall? An unmitigated disaster -- not only was it bug-ridden in ways only Bethesda can achieve, but game balance was terrible (even on its hardest mode it was ludicrously easy) and the save system out-and-out sucked.
V Rising was a really interesting concept, but just plain got boring.
Enshrouded *might* have been fun if not for incredibly terrible UI design and controls that make no sense.
...and Shiro just bought Nightengale and strongly recommended against it, once again because the UI and controls were impossibly bad.
The common theme? All of these are fundamentally design problems with the game, and the industry is in the process of laying off all its designers.
Coincidence? I think not...
You should still play Elden Ring.
You should still play Elden Ring.Hmm... once again, FromSoftware is a privately-owned, rather than a publicly-traded company. Beginning to see a pattern here about where great games come from?Play Elden Ring.The truly depressing thing is that the video game industry is laying off employees as fast as they can, yet virtually every single game we've bought in the last year has suffered from terrible design...
...with the notable exception of Baldur's Gate 3, which may just be because Larian is privately-owned and doesn't answer to shareholders.Redfall? An unmitigated disaster -- not only was it bug-ridden in ways only Bethesda can achieve, but game balance was terrible (even on its hardest mode it was ludicrously easy) and the save system out-and-out sucked.
V Rising was a really interesting concept, but just plain got boring.
Enshrouded *might* have been fun if not for incredibly terrible UI design and controls that make no sense.
...and Shiro just bought Nightengale and strongly recommended against it, once again because the UI and controls were impossibly bad.
The common theme? All of these are fundamentally design problems with the game, and the industry is in the process of laying off all its designers.
Coincidence? I think not...
I just play Mechwarrior 5 and Super Robot Wars and Blaster Master.
Speaking of sad things, last night our corner store put the final nail in its coffin of us giving up on it.
We needed three ingredients for the chicken soup: Yukon gold potatoes, green beans, and a loaf of sourdough bread to go with.
Impus Major did his best to go through the potatoes and try to pick out some that weren't partially rotten or dotted with eyes, but we still lost about 20% of the bag cutting out rotten bits and eyes. He got a prepackaged bag of green beans that was date stamped and clear so he could see them, but of course the green beans in the middle of the bag were rotten and we lost about 33% of them. The bread was OK.
But yet again, you cannot get decent fresh fruits or vegetables there, and considering that's the staple of our family diet, it makes the store useless to us.
So every time we need to shop we're driving a mile instead of walking two blocks because the new owners can't seem to comprehend that decent produce is a foundation of a grocery store.
(And yes, I've mentioned it to the new owners, and nothing has changed.)
After... I am not sure how many hours, but many, probably somewhere between two and five, I have finally managed to finish White Palace section of Hollow Knight. I am mentally exhausted. I read many people saying they found it hard but were very satisfied with it afterwards... I am simply elated that it is over.
If I haven't read an advice to equip a charm that gives you a limited regeneration that basically permits you unlimited tries as long as you don't rush too much, I would quite this game already.
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My family has the oddest conversations.
GothBard: Did it! We have tickets to Babymetal!
Impus Major: Woooooo!
GB: We need to make your dad wear cat ears!
IM: And his old French maid outfit!
NobodysHome: So, you want an overweight, middle-aged white guy to dress up in a French maid outfit and cat ears and go out in San Francisco at night? I have one word for you: "Nope!"
IM: Fair point, Dad, but...
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And proof positive that Mozilla has no concept who I am: On its Recommended by Pocket page: "Chicken Madeira Recipe -- A Cheesecake Factory Copycat".
Erm... suuuuure. If it comes out exactly like the Cheesecake Factory's version, why would I ever make it?
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Just how cheap is GothBard's company? She's now doing development work in Unreal Engine, which has a minimum RAM recommendation of 32GB. They sent her a "development" machine with 16 GB. When she complained, they upped her to the bare minimum of 32 GB.
In comparison, I'm running Global Megacorporation's generic cheap-a$$ craptop that they give to all of us run-of-the-mill non-developer types. It came with 32 GB of RAM.
So GothBard's current company expects her to transition from being a game designer to being a full-blown designer/artist/engineer, but are reluctant to shell out for the basic levels of equipment needed to do that job.
Yet another reason she needs to get the flock out of there.
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My family has the oddest conversations.
GothBard: Did it! We have tickets to Babymetal!
Impus Major: Woooooo!
GB: We need to make your dad wear cat ears!
IM: And his old French maid outfit!
NobodysHome: So, you want an overweight, middle-aged white guy to dress up in a French maid outfit and cat ears and go out in San Francisco at night? I have one word for you: "Nope!"
IM: Fair point, Dad, but...
So, you don't want to blend in with the crowd?
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Just how cheap is GothBard's company? She's now doing development work in Unreal Engine, which has a minimum RAM recommendation of 32GB. They sent her a "development" machine with 16 GB. When she complained, they upped her to the bare minimum of 32 GB.
In comparison, I'm running Global Megacorporation's generic cheap-a$$ craptop that they give to all of us run-of-the-mill non-developer types. It came with 32 GB of RAM.
So GothBard's current company expects her to transition from being a game designer to being a full-blown designer/artist/engineer, but are reluctant to shell out for the basic levels of equipment needed to do that job.
Yet another reason she needs to get the flock out of there.
One of the reasons we're one of the most efficient companies in the area is because the boss buys us top line tools.
I just play Mechwarrior 5 and Super Robot Wars and Blaster Master.You should still play Elden Ring.Hmm... once again, FromSoftware is a privately-owned, rather than a publicly-traded company. Beginning to see a pattern here about where great games come from?Play Elden Ring.The truly depressing thing is that the video game industry is laying off employees as fast as they can, yet virtually every single game we've bought in the last year has suffered from terrible design...
...with the notable exception of Baldur's Gate 3, which may just be because Larian is privately-owned and doesn't answer to shareholders.Redfall? An unmitigated disaster -- not only was it bug-ridden in ways only Bethesda can achieve, but game balance was terrible (even on its hardest mode it was ludicrously easy) and the save system out-and-out sucked.
V Rising was a really interesting concept, but just plain got boring.
Enshrouded *might* have been fun if not for incredibly terrible UI design and controls that make no sense.
...and Shiro just bought Nightengale and strongly recommended against it, once again because the UI and controls were impossibly bad.
The common theme? All of these are fundamentally design problems with the game, and the industry is in the process of laying off all its designers.
Coincidence? I think not...
C'mon! Join the tarnished! You don't want to be maidenless forever do you?