Random Thoughts

[AnaKhouri]

Reading a book that mentions a yacht.

Son: "I know what a yacht is! It's a big, really expensive boat that has its own swimming pool even though it's in the middle of the ocean and like a big enclosed space with lots of couches."

[Dreamstalker]

Mouse, our building was built in the 1950's and I think they did the minimum when it came to updating everything for new building codes. The units above ours have been fully renovated (they're charging $4200/month for those), and those renovations cause us all sorts of headaches mainly to do with plumbing and electrical.

[Mental_Mouse]

Mouse, our building was built in the 1950's and I think they did the minimum when it came to updating everything for new building codes. The units above ours have been fully renovated (they're charging $4200/month for those), and those renovations cause us all sorts of headaches mainly to do with plumbing and electrical.

Tell me about it -- the store I work in is 40+ years old, and you can guess what kind of maintenance budget a used-book store has. We still have a fusebox! And don't get me started on the fluorescent fixtures....

[Dreamstalker]

My old job's infrastructure hadn't been upgraded since it first became a grocery store back in the 70s. Of course then you didn't have touchscreen registers, self-checkouts, giant freezer cases and all that fun. AFAIK the refrigeration system still fails occasionally in the summer.

[AnaKhouri]

NaNoWriMo is so fixated on word count, if I type "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy' over and over until I hit 50,000, does that mean I win?

[dalesys]

NaNoWriMo is so fixated on word count, if I type "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy' over and over until I hit 50,000, does that mean I win?

Only if you spell and punctuate it perfectly every time on the first pass. No cut-n-paste!

[Dreamstalker]

So I found out the hard way I'm weirdly sensitive to DXM in cold medicine...even though I took one pill, I wonder if the drugstore will let me exchange this stuff for a Mucinex variant that doesn't have it? I cannot function normally if I take this stuff.

[dalesys]

When baking pies in store-bought graham cracker crusts... be sure to remove the clear plastic liner before baking!

One of my Dad's friends was gripning and grumping to his date about "... this restaurant is supposed to be the best in town but their cheesecake's crust is so tough it's almost inedible!"

"Clyde. Clyde! CLYDE! You're eating the doily."

[Pixelated]

Got a warning sent through FB PM about "Fabrizio" Somebody-or-Other and how you shouldn't accept a friend request from this person because he will hack into your computer and bring about the Apocalypse (okay, I made up that last bit ...)

A quick Google search turned up (not surprisingly) that this warning is a hoax, so I posted a response saying merely, "It's a hoax" and posting the link to Hoax-Busters.

Only to have the initial poster reply, "Well, I'd rather be safe than sorry." Okay, but now you just look STUPID because a quick Google search would've prevented you from sending this thing along in the first place.

[Dreamstalker]

I have a few friends/relatives who will do that, so I've given up trying to explain to them that the latest computer hoax is in fact a hoax. Let them figure it out...or not, and hose their computer trying something stupid to 'fix' it.

[MoonCat]

Got a warning sent through FB PM about "Fabrizio" Somebody-or-Other and how you shouldn't accept a friend request from this person because he will hack into your computer and bring about the Apocalypse (okay, I made up that last bit ...)

A quick Google search turned up (not surprisingly) that this warning is a hoax, so I posted a response saying merely, "It's a hoax" and posting the link to Hoax-Busters.

Only to have the initial poster reply, "Well, I'd rather be safe than sorry." Okay, but now you just look STUPID because a quick Google search would've prevented you from sending this thing along in the first place.

I have relatives who used to send me stuff like that. Ten seconds on snopes would have informed them that the crap they sent me was fake, but they would send things "just in case." NO! There IS NO "just in case", these things never happened! *sigh* You can't educate some people.

[gerund]

Ten seconds on snopes would have informed them that the crap they sent me was fake,

An ex-next door neighbour used to send this crap to my Mother. I would show her (again) how to get to Snopes. I would show her how every message from the stupid neighbour was a fake, I would tell her to just ignore her and the next week there was another one that had her in an uproar.

The worst one was the constant never-ending relentless messages about Sharia Law taking over the councils in England and how we were all doomed if this continued. (All religious arguments to Fratching please).

I tried. I tried explaining to my Mother. When that failed, I suggested she ignore the messages. When that failed I tried getting her to explain to the distant and no longer next door neighbour. When that failed I tried ignoring it all. When that failed I tried to calm myself and just keep debunking it. Then my Mother passed away and it stopped.

I imagine that the messages are still going round and round in the cloud, but I no longer see them. I think I would rather have my Mother back (even with the fake warnings) but I have neither.

[AnaKhouri]

There must be something wrong with me. I'm writing a supernatural-ish Gothic romance-y story and the scene I am most excited to write is the grave-robbing scene.

[Ironclad Alibi]

There must be something wrong with me. I'm writing a supernatural-ish Gothic romance-y story and the scene I am most excited to write is the grave-robbing scene.

That could be an exciting scene, especially if the grave robbers find something they don't expect in the grave.

[MoonCat]

There's only so many "encouraging" comments you can listen to before "you'll be fine" and "you can do it" and "I'm sure you're doing great" start to sound like "don't complain, don't worry, don't be negative, blah blah blah...."

Bit of advice: If someone you know is going through a major change and is really scared that they can't handle it, let them vent if they need to! The more you say "you'll be fine", the more you negate their (often valid) fears and concerns.