Heartland

remember starting this thread back in the good old days when i had reached slight overbomber.

today having had some rain in the early morning was refreshing although we need so much more. we are having one of the driest years since the recordings and our water levels are exceptionally low.
the heat wave is hopefully almost over too.

Lovely, Debs ... ...

And as to the heat I couldn't agree more ... early in the morning it started to cool down remarkably, so eventually I could find some deep and relaxing sleep. No rain though here yet, but it's definitely coming this week....

Slightly happy since my car eventually passed the technical revision ... *sigh ...

Today I moved into my new apartment. For almost 20 years I've been living in a place - well, there's nothing wrong with it, per se. When I was 30 it was fine, I could afford it without putting myself into the poorhouse or agonising over interest rates, it was small, handy for transport, and when I was going out to work every day and going out to party every night it served very well as "a place to store my stuff". It wasn't ever home, and that's ok. I had a job I hated which paid well, and I thought that was enough.
But since this lockdown, work-from-home, thing, I've become aware that my mental health was suffering from not having anywhere to go outdoors. There were places I could have gone, but they were Full Of People (and I'm not really a people person) and it required a force of will to actually put on clothes and go outside.
But today I moved into a new place. That has Outside. That doesn't face onto one of the busiest streets in this city. Where there isn't a streetlight right outside the bedroom window that threatened to turn me into a giant moth. Where the previous people who lived in it planted a ton of containers full of trees and flowers and vines and things. Where I had lunch on the terrace and watched hummingbirds and bees flit from flower to flower like overly-hormonal teenagers at a school disco. And tomorrow I shall have my coffee outside and talk to my engineers on our standup if I can locate the box that has the coffee-making things in it.

And for the first time in ages I thought "here is something that makes me happy".

Good to hear your move went well @EvilBastard

EvilBastard wrote: ↑22 Sep 2022, 00:02 But today I moved into a new place. That has Outside. That doesn't face onto one of the busiest streets in this city. Where there isn't a streetlight right outside the bedroom window that threatened to turn me into a giant moth. Where the previous people who lived in it planted a ton of containers full of trees and flowers and vines and things. Where I had lunch on the terrace and watched hummingbirds and bees flit from flower to flower like overly-hormonal teenagers at a school disco. And tomorrow I shall have my coffee outside and talk to my engineers on our standup if I can locate the box that has the coffee-making things in it.

And for the first time in ages I thought "here is something that makes me happy".

That sounds lovely.

I had Lasik 6 days ago, and I am still elated at my ability to do things like read a clock from across the room without wearing glasses. It's been difficult to read since then, but even that seems to be improving. I'm typing this on my laptop and can actually see what I'm writing which hasn't been the case for the last few days.

I should have done this years ago.

Some weeks after jack hammering the floor out of my new house (so the underfloor heating doesn't heat the basement & garage), laying down insulation, covering with plastic sheeting, & cutting & fitting steel re-enforcement mesh to the "naked" concrete base, I handed off to the experts who today poured the new cement floor

been slightly happy since the arrival of our little four pawed tiny little ieny weny kitten Mia into our lives and home. she is such a delight
Dusky had to get used to her and her to him but the hissing has stopped and noses have been touched so the love is getting there! we have found getting used to a girl cat to be different so close after losing Simba who Mia is called when not thinking properly...we obviously still miss him so much but having this tiny little crazy girl has put so many smiles on our faces and reminded me how much work it is to have a baby in the house again

New 'pooter!

Was lovely meeting up with @sziamiau earlier today

Pista wrote: ↑29 Jul 2024, 17:01 Was lovely meeting up with @sziamiau earlier today

nice!

ive just come to the end of another 12 months contract with my ISP & my renewal was as dull and predictable as always. i cant upgrade from line-rental broadband to full fibre as they haven't installed fibre optic here yet. or rather, they have but it belongs to virgin media who own the monopoly on the equipment installations etc. the guy on the phone said ''you must live right in the back of beyond eh mate?''
"i'm 2 miles from the city centre" i replied.
however what had been a fairly unturbulent albeit tedious relationship with my ISP brroke into a million pieces forever last night. my connection went down for a good 30 minutes in 2 seperate stages right in the middle of a live Liverpool match. i had to watch the last 15 mins tethred to my smartphone using mobile data. not best pleased. however Virgin seem to have forgotten all about our disputes of a few years back and even went through the fraudulent rigmarole of pretending to have done a successful credit check on me (there is more chance of Von Avocado/Avocadont releasing an orchard full of organic albums DVDs and 12" singles whilst dancing round to the merry thoughts in a crimson lined cape going "oooh, i'm a scary scary wampire i am" than me passing a credit check.)
so boss. and for some reason, once you take off the extortionate monthly add-on of £3 for a paper bill, its only £3 a month more.

eastmidswhizzkid wrote: ↑01 Aug 2024, 08:43 Von Avocado

Well that made me laugh anyway

ruffers wrote: ↑01 Aug 2024, 10:20

eastmidswhizzkid wrote: ↑01 Aug 2024, 08:43 Von Avocado

Well that made me laugh anyway

Made me laugh too, whilst of course observing that Lee's old ISP was clearly trying to do both him and the world a favour by switching itself off during a bindippers match

Very happy today because two weeks ago she said yes, and now we're deep in the weeds on wedding planning and it's all nice and bourgeoise in a way my life never has been, but I like it.

sultan2075 wrote: ↑01 Aug 2024, 14:08 Very happy today because two weeks ago she said yes, and now we're deep in the weeds on wedding planning and it's all nice and bourgeoise in a way my life never has been, but I like it.

So you're currently dwelling in one of those more rare quarters of joy ... ... all the best ... ...

Being645 wrote: ↑01 Aug 2024, 15:33

sultan2075 wrote: ↑01 Aug 2024, 14:08 Very happy today because two weeks ago she said yes, and now we're deep in the weeds on wedding planning and it's all nice and bourgeoise in a way my life never has been, but I like it.

So you're currently dwelling in one of those more rare quarters of joy ... ... all the best ... ...

Thanks! I never thought I'd get married again. I assumed I'd live alone in the mountains with a big dog and my books, coming into town twice a week to teach. Life's funny.

Planet Dave wrote: ↑01 Aug 2024, 12:38

ruffers wrote: ↑01 Aug 2024, 10:20

eastmidswhizzkid wrote: ↑01 Aug 2024, 08:43 Von Avocado

Well that made me laugh anyway

Made me laugh too, whilst of course observing that Lee's old ISP was clearly trying to do both him and the world a favour by switching itself off during a bindippers match

you wait til saturday when we're showing you which piece of sporting equipment the ball actually is.

sultan2075 wrote: ↑01 Aug 2024, 14:08 Very happy today because two weeks ago she said yes, and now we're deep in the weeds on wedding planning and it's all nice and bourgeoise in a way my life never has been, but I like it.

congratulations & a happy anniversary bro.

eastmidswhizzkid wrote: ↑01 Aug 2024, 18:41

sultan2075 wrote: ↑01 Aug 2024, 14:08 Very happy today because two weeks ago she said yes, and now we're deep in the weeds on wedding planning and it's all nice and bourgeoise in a way my life never has been, but I like it.

congratulations & a happy anniversary bro.

Thanks. After my divorce I really thought I'd be done with the ladies, but I met a good one. A great one actually, with very poor taste in men

sultan2075 wrote: ↑01 Aug 2024, 14:08 Very happy today because two weeks ago she said yes, and now we're deep in the weeds on wedding planning and it's all nice and bourgeoise in a way my life never has been, but I like it.

Bless yer, congrats mate

Trying not to jinx it, but it looks like I might have a new job. The last one? Well, it was lovely until the guy who hired me left and the guy who replaced him (whose previous team told management "Either you get rid of him or we're all quitting") turned out to be a toxic turd tortilla, alienated pretty much everyone, and whined like a maggot because he hadn't read Shakespeare. Let me explain:
He told me to create a catalogue of dummy products in my own personal private account within our system. This account was only accessible to me and him (as an admin), not to customers. It being 2 in the morning, and having come off a marathon movie session of various versions of Macbeth (I wanted to see which of them had left the Porter's role intact), I created some dummy products:
- babe from its mother's womb untimely ripp'd
- birth-strangled babe
- severed head
and the like.
He didn't take well to this, and reported me to HR. HR reasonably said "Ok, well it's not the way we would have done it, but he did what you asked, and these are Shakespeare references."
"Well," says boss, "I don't read Shakespeare and I think these are inappropriate."
Me: "So, you're unhappy because you're willfully ignorant and don't get literary references, is that right?"
After that we really didn't get along, and he PIP'd me out of a job.

Joke's on him, though. After I left he took over my role and was fired 4 months later when management realised that all of the product team had been performing and making him look good. Once they started quitting, mgmt. noticed that he couldn't manage his way out of a wet paper bag, and fired him and his boss. They're both still unemployed. Sucks for him - he lives in Michigan (him: My town was the inspiration for the Wizard of Oz. Me: Is that because they don't have courage, or they don't have heart? Their lack of brains is already self-evident) and (at his wife's insistence) sent his kid to a private faith school (him: I'm leaving early today, I have to take my kid for an interview at his new faith-based school. Me: What faith's that - Cthulhu? Him: That's not funny. Me: Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn).

New place sounds fun - there's a new VP of Product on board who wants to shake things up culture and process-wise, and wants me to help.

Planet Dave wrote: ↑01 Aug 2024, 20:47

sultan2075 wrote: ↑01 Aug 2024, 14:08 Very happy today because two weeks ago she said yes, and now we're deep in the weeds on wedding planning and it's all nice and bourgeoise in a way my life never has been, but I like it.

Bless yer, congrats mate

What he said.

By the way I asked ai to draw Von Avocado in the style of an Andrew Eldritch style mafia Don in his Gothic avocado farm which was what it meant to me. AI failed.

EvilBastard wrote: ↑01 Aug 2024, 22:42 [...]
Him: I'm leaving early today, I have to take my kid for an interview at his new faith-based school. Me: What faith's that - Cthulhu?
Him: That's not funny. Me: Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

... ...


Congrats and best for your new job! ... ...

sultan2075 wrote: ↑01 Aug 2024, 14:08 Very happy today because two weeks ago she said yes, and now we're deep in the weeds on wedding planning and it's all nice and bourgeoise in a way my life never has been, but I like it.

Congratulations