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[Carl-E]

I know some toxic people.  I'm not too worried about the animals as a result.  They're cuddly by comparison! 

[Lines]

Also it's not just the bugs, I'm pretty sure that every single animal in Australia is there to fuck up your shit.

Not all of them! We have some cuddly ones, too! Pretty much all our marsupials are adorable! and our birds!

Oh yes, your koalas are very cute. They've also got daggers for fingernails. Kangaroos are cute, too, but they can kick you apart. You can keep them!

Although I will totally trade you a possum for an opossum. Yours are much cuter.

Cute:



Not very cute:

[ev4n]

If I was the type to be condescending, I'd make some snarky remark about people here thinking THEIR countries are big.  But that's just silly.

I feel like most of you are SERIOUSLY underestimating the size of Alaska.

Well, if any thing, Mercator's projection makes most people think its bigger than it is.  According to wiki, it's only marginally bigger than Quebec.  Western Australia is much bigger.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_country_subdivisions_by_area

[GarandMarine]

Some 200,000 (roughly) square kilometers is "marginal" to you? Alaska is Marginally bigger then the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. It is  larger than the province of Quebec by a fair margin. Which will hopefully be cut down significantly after the rest of Canada parcels out the province to other territories and maybe a new one after the failed Quebecois Revolution. Western Australia is significantly larger.

Two thoughts from that link. Brazil must be insanely distorted on most maps, and I didn't know Greenland wasn't it's own country.



The National Museum of the Marine Corps had a new monument delivered today, girders from the towers on 9/11. Of the three hundred and forty three firefighters who died in the line of duty that day, seventeen were also Marines.

[Pilchard123]

Also it's not just the bugs, I'm pretty sure that every single animal in Australia is there to fuck up your shit.

Not all of them! We have some cuddly ones, too! Pretty much all our marsupials are adorable! and our birds!

Oh yes, your koalas are very cute. They've also got daggers for fingernails. Kangaroos are cute, too, but they can kick you apart. You can keep them!

Although I will totally trade you a possum for an opossum. Yours are much cuter.

Cute:
PIC
Not very cute:
PIC

And then there are platypuses. I don't get platypuses. I think they might be made of spare parts.

[BeoPuppy]

I see what you did there.

At least I hope you did it on purpose.

But I assume you did.

Because I think you are that intelligent.

[GarandMarine]

Get in an argument with someone on Facebook "Wait. Who the fuck are you?" *defriend*

[ev4n]

Some 200,000 (roughly) square kilometers is "marginal" to you?

There's easily 200,000 square kilometers of sparsely inhabited land around Quebec.  Besides, I was looking more at percentages...

Two thoughts from that link. Brazil must be insanely distorted on most maps, and I didn't know Greenland wasn't it's own country.

Again, Mercator's projection.  Equatorial areas are bigger than people think they are, and polar areas are smaller.

[GarandMarine]

Some 200,000 (roughly) square kilometers is "marginal" to you?

There's easily 200,000 square kilometers of sparsely inhabited land around Quebec.  Besides, I was looking more at percentages...

Ah yes, but it's 200,000 square klicks more then the French Canadians have, and therein lies the victory

[ev4n]

Labrador is more than 200.000 square kilometers, and less than 30,000 people.  Geographically, it's more unto Quebec than anything else.

The notion that there are only french canadians in Quebec is a myth, albeit one they seem to embrace.  Northern Ontario is 800,000km, adjacent to Quebec, and broad stretches are more french than english.   Plus, New Brunswick is 1/3 French.  /shrug

It's all just idle talk, though.  The main point is that there are some HUGE, sparsely populated areas in this world.

[cesium133]

Two thoughts from that link. Brazil must be insanely distorted on most maps, and I didn't know Greenland wasn't it's own country.

Brazil is larger than it looks like on many map projections. One interesting thing about it is that east-to-west, Brazil is about 2/3 the size of the U.S., but the whole country uses one time zone. That means that the eastern parts are about two hours behind where they should be. I've been noticing that in Recife, since it means the sun rises at 4 AM and sets at 4 PM (year round, since it's near the equator).

[Akima]

All of China is officially one time-zone (Beijing time, of course). This is inconvenient in the western parts of the country, so an unofficial time two hours behind is used. Yes, I think this is silly too.

[Metope]

Grenland is not its own country, it's ruled by Denmark, which is funny since Denmark is such a tiny country.

[Welu]

Even though I've felt off since last night and almost fainted three times I really want to go for a walk/jog but just standing makes me faint. I may be being contrary with myself for the sake of it.

Edit: I've just made the connection that I haven't been taking my meds since Friday night and I've felt shitty the last couple days. Hopefully when I get more tomorrow I'll feel better. Another reason I want off these things is I can't seem to remember when I'm running out even though I regularly check and added the doctor's number to my phone to make sure I don't do that.

[Masterpiece]

I have to film "Introduction to Computer Science" this semester and it's the first lecture.

It feels like I'm watching "baby's first program"...

(click to show/hide)

[Barmymoo]

We had a lecture on using the law to assist decision-making in complex midwifery and I felt the same way; I had to refrain from correcting the lecturer several times, reminding myself that it doesn't really matter if the other students don't understand the finer details of the system of binding precedent, or why some cases have dates in square brackets and some in rounded ones. I didn't get much out of that hour, anyway...

[Redball]

Another reason I want off these things is I can't seem to remember when I'm running out even though I regularly check and added the doctor's number to my phone to make sure I don't do that.

I take enough meds that I've used pill organizers for years. I'm currently using two one-week organizers, each with AM and PM bins. My meds are delivered in 90-day supplies. As I fill them every two weeks, I check the pill bottles to see if I have a month or most of a month left.

[pwhodges]

My 12-weekly prescription is requested from the doctor's surgery automatically on schedule by the chemist/pharmacy's computer system, and when it's dispensed I get a text to my phone telling me; it is available about ten days before I would run out.  I take all my pills together once a day, so my pill container that has four pockets a day for a week actually lasts me four weeks.

[Welu]

I only take two prescription tablets a day and I take them before bed. One is my pill which which is ordered annually and I only have to go in and pick it up every three months when I'm out, plus the pharmacy warns me when I get my last one of the year. The other I have to reorder every few weeks and I'm bad for seeing I'm running low, thinking I should order them in the morning and then forgetting about it, even if I leave myself a note. A lot of this is caused by self-sabotaging avoidance of life though.

I'm actually supposed to go to the doctor to update him on how the meds are going but I'm sick of feeling dismissed by him so I avoid going to him.

[lepetitfromage]

Speaking of drugs.....this week I've started every morning with a Zantac, a Xanax and a cigarette. I've ended the evenings with Ibuprofen and Valium.

Although, my job hasn't killed me yet so I guess that's a good sign.
Too busy to catch up on here but wanted to throw an update out there. Miss you all lots. 

[Welu]

Hugs for you Little Cheese!

[nekowafer]

All the little cheese hugs <3

[Barmymoo]

I wish my medication could be put on repeat prescription that's delivered to the pharmacy. The anti-baby pills aren't allowed to be on repeat (every six months I am required to put in an appearance and... um, well that's it really, they don't even take my blood pressure) and the sanity pills are limited to two or three months' supply at a time because otherwise "you might fall off the radar". I find this quite patronising, to be honest.

[Welu]

I have added loads of information to my CV and made it look really pretty and reworded anything was underselling my abilities, so pretty much the whole thing, and it was really hard to write, "Hell yeah I'm good at doing stuff!" but I did it! I have now sent off four applications and I'm cautiously optimistic I'll get at least one interview out of them.

[Papersatan]

o/

I know it can be tough confidently asserting "I have skills and you wish I worked for you" and I'm glad you pushed yourself to do it.

[Aimless]

This past week has been an unsettling mix of wonderful and just so incredibly shitty. I've decided to spend the weekend hiding out at home. We've made some changes to the apartment, everything is kinda clean and I've surrendered to the holy triumvirate of rainymood+ludovico einaudi+soft cosy lighting. The ginger's curled up on the couch reading Codex Born and I'm slowly beginning to feel at peace again trevlig helg everyone

[Masterpiece]

Una Mattina <3

[Metope]

I guess I haven't talked much about my life lately, so this is what's going on right now. I'm home in Norway, applying for jobs and spending my days in my new studio at the Oslo Art Academy (I got my bursary as a result of when my school burnt down, if anyone remembers that. So I got a huge sum of money and a studio paid for by the UK government so that I can make work, and next year we'll have an exhibition to replace the Degree Show we lost). I sold four paintings to a school in Oslo where they'll be on permanent display, and my best friend bought a house and has commissioned a huge painting from me which is great since I was worried about the logistics of storing any big paintings I make from now. I'm missing my boyfriend a lot, but he'll come over to visit in February, and I am keeping myself busy, so it's fine. Knowing that I'm going to move to the states next year and marry him helps a lot too, I just need to get a job here first so I can earn enough money to support myself while job searching and getting settled there. Life is pretty good!

[LTK]

I just had dental surgery number two out of three, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank modern medicine for painkillers. This one already hurts more on the outside of my face but as long as I don't move too much I feel okay. The upper pain limit (what I feel when I clench my jaws hard) isn't too bad either. The surgeon said I should wait another year and a half or so before making an appointment for the final one - the one he just removed was the lower left wisdom tooth. I would have preferred him to take out the other one as well, as the previous surgeon took out the right upper and lower one in one go, and I didn't have to spend a lot of time recovering from that at all.

[Carl-E]

I'm working part time at the local Macy's loading dock, unloading trucks.  Mornings, once or twice a week.  It will pick up more as the holiday season winds on.  I'm still working two or three evenings a week at the beer barn, which means I get to restock the cooler during closing for the next day.  Both pay close to minimum.  Some days (usually a Wednesday) I do both, with two hours in between.  It's a 14 hour day of lifting and throwing heavy shit around.  I get tired. 

I'm still teaching math online, the pay from that is erratic.  Depends on the number of students in my classes.  Tutoring about 5 or so students on the side.  My mom's helping with some of the bills. 

Before I got the Macy's job, and my mom started helping, things got super tight.  I couldn't pay the premiums, so I got dropped by my Obamacare provider.  yes, I couldn't afford my affordable care, but I make too much for medicare. 

Ma's offered to support us if I go back to school for something I can get a decent job in.  I'm seriously thinking accounting.  None of this is new news, I think, it's just ... ongoing. 

---------------------------------------------------

Last winter, my ARCO (American Radiator Company) coal fired boiler gave up the ghost.  It's not the main furnace, but it's still tied into the system as a backup.  It's the original boiler, and gave 113 years of continuous service before cracking last winter and leaking.  I put a bucket from a humidifier with a drain hose under the leak, and we finished the winter with a leaking hot water system. 

It's a convection system, through the old boiler.  The "new" boiler (gas fired, 50 years old this year) has a pump.  Couldn't keep up with the system to save its life, so I'm disconnecting the boiler and putting in loops where it had been connected so that there's still convection to circulate the hot water.  About $150 worth of parts.  I have it halfway disassembled, but I need a bigger wrench.  Going to check the rental places tomorrow. 

OK, I know this is going to sound stupid, but I'm really going to miss the old boiler.  The big pressure and temperature gauges that told me in an instant what was up, the warmth it threw off into my workbench area, the knowledge that, even in a winter power failure I could still build a fire in it and heat the house - just the fact that it still worked, and worked well, and I just couldn't save it.  I go down, and work on taking it apart, and I weep.  Rest in peace, my friend; ARCO model 58B, No. W-2905. 



Maybe I'm just tired.  Yeah, that's it.  I'm fucking tired.  I'm tired of being broke, I'm tired of not being able to find a real job with my Ph.D, I'm tired that I can't just move away from my problems, I'm tired, just so damn fucking tired of throwing around cases of beer and crates of holiday dresses and cookware and not being able to keep gas in my 17 year old van that's misfiring and leaking oil.  I see my old colleagues on campus when I go and tutor, and smile, and chat, and fuck it all, they have no idea. 

Thirty years ago when I was in grad school, one of the guys in our class withdrew from the program.  Didn't see him for weeks.  Then one evening, a few of us went to lunch at a local bar. 

He was waiting tables.  Including ours. 

We were polite, until later.  The people I was with were merciless about him not being able to cut it.  It always bothered me.  He disappeared, probably went home. 

My wife likes to say that I'm a good teacher, but a lousy academic.  I've been through all the major universities' local branches, and got slaughtered by politics in almost every case.  I could/should have gotten a lawyer in at least three of those cases - I'd still have a job, but I'm too much of a wuss / too nice a guy to want to work somewhere that I had to sue to keep a job.  Turns out it's not unusual in academia in this country.  So no, I'm not a good academic, I don't think I have the stomach for it.  And my research died a loooooong time ago.  I can't even work at the local community college - got bad student reviews.  I wasn't easy enough, it seems.  Not sure I want to work where the inmates run the asylum. 

The owner of the beer barn just let me know that the building they're in was just sold out from under them by the landlord.  Don't know where that's going to go, I may wind up without the one job where I like the people. 

Halloween is coming.  We usually have 400-500 kids - it's a big, spooky house on a corner.  Don't think we can afford candy this year, though. 

Sorry, just need to vent.  So much is going on, and I feel like it's completely out of my control.  I've defaulted on my student loans several times over, I'm two years behind on my taxes, I just.... god, I don't know.  I just want to bury my head and make it all go away.  I like beer, but I don't like drinking much, and it's a damn good thing or I'd be nursing a case or two every night. 

It's late, and the demon of late night's evil misery has taken over, I'm sorry.  I need to get up early for the beer store in the morning.  I've been avoiding this thread because I didn't want to spill all this.  And it's only half of what's going on.  I'm sorry.  I'm sorry for making you read this, though I doubt you have, I don't think I would.  I'm sorry, I'm failing, I'm flailing, I'm falling and I can't seem to get up.  Misery loves company, and I know I have plenty of it, but I have no one to talk to about this.  Well, there's you guys, but I don't know if you count.  Did I mention I can't afford therapy?  No insurance, don't you know.  Even if I had insurance, it was bottom-of-the-barrel, with $50 copays ($90 for a specialist) and a really high deductible.  So I still couldn't afford anything medical. 

There's so much more to tell.  So much more that I can't even begin to get out.  I have trouble even keeping track of all of it.  Freedom sounds so good.  Twice a week - Sunday in church (of a religion I don't believe) and Monday nights for a chorale rehearsal, I get to sing.  It's pretty close to my only joy, and the only social life I have.  And it's not a social life, because I don't really get a chance to talk to people.  I know it's trite, but I don't really have any friends.  I've never really been able to get close to people, even my wife and I have had problems with me being ... cold, for a better word.  I get along great with people, form "friendships" easily, but am never really able to get close to anyone.  Not even my family. 

Blah, blah, blah, me, me, me.  Well, you chose to read the blog thread. 

TL;DR - my life sucks, but it's mostly my own fault and I don't know how to fix it.  I'm not looking for help, but I probably should be. 

Thanks for listening.  Don't bother with suggestions, I'll just shoot them down.  It's part of my charm.   

[Loki]

Carl: Hugs offered.

[The Seldom Killer]

I'm not looking for help, but I probably should be. 

Almost all the way through reading that I was thinking, Carl should look for help.

No suggestions, I just hope you can get yourself to look for the help you need. Your a great person and I suspect you would have a lot to offer if you had the right outlet for it.

Also, hugs. I know it's difficult to stop isolating yourself. It's a comfortable if damaging habit.

[BeoPuppy]

Paypal?

[GarandMarine]

Hugs and a picture of a kitten required.
Shot over.




Splash over.

[Carl-E]

Thanks guys.  Hugs accepted, and returned.  Many times over. 

And GM, we actually have a new kitten.  The mother put it out of the litter, so my daughter - the one with the neurological issues - has bottle raised it.  It's finally weaned and plays for hours with absolutely everything, including he dogs and other cats. 

It generally attacks me when I pick it up, with its tiny kitten fangs.  I predict this will be a bad habit that lasts into adulthood...

[Patrick]

sup y'all

[Pilchard123]

Yay, Patrick!

[Akima]

The dude abides!

[Masterpiece]

Patrick!

[jwhouk]

sup y'all

Sup.

You managed to touch the ground yet after Ishikawa-san's home run yet?

[Welu]

Hey there, Patrick.

[Carl-E]

Hit a little snag in my heating system repairs...

Don't know my own strength...

I was using a 3 foot piece of pipe as an extension for leverage.  When the wrench snapped, I went flying across the basement, landed on the stairs.  My butt, two spots in my back, my right shoulder and left knee are all in considerable pain. 

The pipe didn't budge. 


I'm gonna need a bigger wrench.

[Grognard]

I'm gonna need a bigger wrench.

spoken like a true redneck.  :thumbsup:

[94ssd]

So I spent entirely too much money this weekend, which was actually a wonderful four-day weekend thanks to Fall Break. I know these numbers aren't going to sound huge to you adults with your real-world jobs, but imagine them in the context of a college student with a part-time minimum-wage job.

The previous weekend I unfortunately had to contribute a good bit of my own money in order to get condoms and batteries (yes, I did get a strange look from the CVS cashier) for the wireless microphones used in our student-produced musical. It was one of my favorite shows, Urinetown. The supplies ended up being almost $200, mostly thanks to the batteries, and I can only be partially reimbursed. In fairness the costume designer spent her own money on clothes and fabric and the set designer spent his own money on paint and lumber, so it's not like I'm alone in this boat.

This weekend I decided to go to two plays (one with friends and one all by my lonesome) at two different cities, each about an hour away. Tickets for each were about $30, plus about $20 of gas for my solo trip. I ate almost my meals out. Yesterday I bought about $200 of groceries. As part of my ongoing "I was so busy the past two weeks that I had no time to do normal people things" saga I had absolutely no food in my apartment except ramen and poptarts. And as I mentioned in another thread, I was sick on Thursday and slept instead of having the 12-hour workday I planned upon, but decided not to cancel my plans and live it up as if I had that extra money anyway. So this upcoming week I plan to hopefully make up for some of it by trying to spend no money. No meals out, no tickets. I'll make my own coffee in the morning and bring my own lunch to campus. We'll see how it goes.

On a slightly related note: one of the plays I saw was called Duck Hunter Shoots Angel (yes, all my favorite plays have dumbshit titles). It was an okay production but one thing was really pissing me off the whole show: If a script has constant references to a character being from New York City and having a "Yankee accent," you could make SOME kind of attempt to mask the actor's extremely obvious southern drawl. I'm not a dialects coach and I wasn't expecting a perfect New York accent, but for fuck's sake the play is set in Alabama and that guy had the thickest accent on the stage.

[Carl-E]

[explain hat]

For those wondering, the point of the condoms is to cover the transmitter pack for the actor's microphone, which is usually strapped to the small of their back under their costume.  The amount of sweat worked up in a musical (heck, in almost any play) will short out the transmitter pack in pretty short order; covering it with a condom (water-tight, yet stretchy enough to fit) is actually one of the cheapest solutions. 

[/explain hat]

[94ssd]

See, I preferred when people thought it would be for all the wild sex a group of people who sacrificed an entire weekend to produce a show called Urinetown: The Musical would be guaranteed to have.

[Akima]

Don't know my own strength...

You. Broke. A. Stilson.   I showed my Dad your pic. He didn't believe it either.

My father always insists that, whenever a family member takes on a new-to-us motor vehicle, we test to make sure the jack works, the wheel-brace fits the wheel nuts (don't laugh, I've seen a brand new vehicle where it didn't), and the fastenings have not been tightened by a mad gorilla with a spider spanner (I don't know what they're called in America) so that they're impossible to undo. When I was in my first year at uni, he bought a used Subaru wagon, and since he expected me to be driving it, he insisted I be able to change a wheel, so he dragged me into his testing process.

We went out into the driveway and put the wheel-brace on the first nut. I couldn't shift it, and nor could my Dad. So he got out a spider. Still no joy. Next came a ring-spanner. Nope. Thumping on the end of the spanner with a rubber mallet? Nope. Put a roughly metre-long length of scaffold-pole over the ring spanner, and pull on that as a lever? Nope. Holding onto the roof-rack, I climbed on the pole and shuffled to the end. Nope. I bounced up and down on the pole. BANG! The nut finally surrendered. My Dad thought we might have sheared off the stud, but luckily we got away with it. After that, he put releasing fluid on all the nuts and we left it overnight before trying them again. Which is what we should have done in the first place, but sometimes city folk are just as hillbilly as hillbillies.

[pwhodges]

a mad gorilla with a spider spanner (I don't know what they're called in America) so that they're impossible to undo.

Well, of course (as you tell below) the first thing is to have your own spider.  But the problem is not those, where you "only" have to be as strong as them, but the pneumatic hammer nut-tighteners that they use at the tyre-changing places.

[GarandMarine]

We call a spider spanner a tire iron in the U.S.

I am not surprised Carl broke his Stilson, I have seen tools of every manufacturer shatter before, especially after years of service.

[jwhouk]

Funny, when Kugai jokes about lug wrenches, that image is what I imagine.

I bet what happened, Akima, is that whomever sold the Subaru to your dad used a powered wrench - ala NASCAR pit crews - to tighten the lug nuts.

That is the best and fastest way of breaking the prongs off the wheel, though.