Random Thoughts

[Ironclad Alibi]

A random thought: has anyone tried hooking up the old Laser Tag gear to a couple of remote control drones and had an aerial dogfight?

If not, they soon will.

[Food Lady]

Living with a bitter, angry, depressed person steals my joy.

[drunkenwildmage]

I'm part of a forum for the model of Dodge I drive. Someone missed the perfect opportunity to name it 'The Dart Board'.

[Ceir]

How are the names for medication decided? At least the stuff they advertise on US TV (a whole other rant itself), every single name looks like they shook up a Scrabble bag and dumped it, then added a random ending from some list of "-pin, -clon, -pan, -zol" etc..

[Nunavut Pants]

They have committees that come up with names. Many of them contain parts of the names of other medications that are similar in function. They also have to come up with two names: The brand name, and the generic. There are research firms that check to see if prospective names have meanings in any known language, or at least in any that exist in countries that might someday be markets for the medication. It's apparently a pretty involved process!!

[Ceir]

They have committees that come up with names. Many of them contain parts of the names of other medications that are similar in function. They also have to come up with two names: The brand name, and the generic. There are research firms that check to see if prospective names have meanings in any known language, or at least in any that exist in countries that might someday be markets for the medication. It's apparently a pretty involved process!!

Still looks like a well-shaken Boggle box to me!

Thought tax: new television ramble. So one of the channels I use for background noise is a rerun station that does old History/Discovery channel leftovers. It includes a couple of the pawn shop shows and a few different iterations of the storage locker resellers and 'weird item shipping' shows. Somehow I always manage to catch the bits where they're dealing with 'nerd stuff' like props or action figure collections, and the focal...person of the episode always winds up being a disparaging jerk about it. Why you gotta be snarky about the old lady who collects wrestling merch or someone shipping Star Wars props? These are nigh decade-old reruns, and it still rubs me the wrong way.

[Food Lady]

I don't know why I schedule time off, except I have to. I took vacation in September and got Covid. I took a road trip with Mom last weekend and everything that could go wrong did. Everything. I have tomorrow and Tuesday off and we were going to go up north to look at the leaves and wouldn't you know it? Mom and I got in an argument today. Now I have a migraine. It was a stupid thing but brought up a LOT of stuff that she denies responsibility for.

I guess I'll take my time but I'm not going on any trips nor having visitors.

[Dreamstalker]

Any phrase that mentally translates to "funbags" does not belong in an in-store snacks ad...

[El Pollo Guerrera]

I'm watching an old movie, and it has that bit where the bad guys 'fix' the brakes on the car and it can't stop on a highway and is putting everyone in danger...

Couldn't you just throw the car in Neutral and coast to a stop?

[Nunavut Pants]

You can, unless you're going downhill. Or need to stop in a shorter distance than just coasting to a stop. You can leave the car in gear and take your foot off the gas to stop sooner than in neutral. Downshift for slightly better slowing.

The handbrake or parking brake may very well still work, as well. Usually it's not as effective as the regular driving brakes, but it will work to some extent. Especially once the above gets you moving fairly slowly.

[Ironclad Alibi]

You can, unless you're going downhill. Or need to stop in a shorter distance than just coasting to a stop. You can leave the car in gear and take your foot off the gas to stop sooner than in neutral. Downshift for slightly better slowing.

The handbrake or parking brake may very well still work, as well. Usually it's not as effective as the regular driving brakes, but it will work to some extent. Especially once the above gets you moving fairly slowly.

There are several ways to slow/stop a car with no brakes. But if they are not written into the script, you're out of luck.

[Nunavut Pants]

Oh, good point! Reality is always secondary to The Plot!

[Food Lady]

I just realized I might be experiencing gaslighting* in one of my family relationships. Happened last night. The goal (conscious or unconscious) is to make me feel like I am less than because I don't have as much knowledge on a particular area of study as the other person. I don't have much more than basic instruction we got in high school which is what most people have and that's fine. This person just really likes to study that stuff and feels everyone should. I gave a fact that I knew on the subject and they said "That's really all you know about that?" then just kept repeating "interesting" in that tone of voice that tells you they think you're stupid or derelict in studies or something. The repetition was because I didn't give the desired reaction; they didn't get a protest out of me so that they could tell me I'm wrong. *Maybe that's not the right term; it's hard for me to define. But it's some kind of mind game an insecure family member plays with me and another all the time. It makes me mad but ultimatel I feel sorry for them. I'm not perfect, but I'm OK with me and how I'm growing. They're definitely not.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Hey, the Google Doodle Halloween game is still working! Anyone else play?

[Ceir]

I know I'm being nitpicky here, but I hate when websites, applications, and other software make seemingly random cosmetic changes for no good %*#@%_)$ reason. Whether it's Windows slightly altering the logon screen, my phone sucking down an updates, fricking Youtube changing the highlight color on videos in a playlist...what is the ping-ponging point? Great, you changed a highlight color from grey to...slightly brown? You spent X amount of time in an update to round the corners of icons? You make the logon screen a slightly different shade of blue? I know it's nitpicking, I know I'm seemingly the only person to notice or even care, but...for fhtagn's sake why?