Octopus Overlords

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 2:35 am**

You know how I mentioned a ways back about how after losing my wife Lil'D this year I started noticing the world seems to be based on and made for couples? I was thinking about food mainly then. Like the deals you can find..buy one get one burger, 10 sliders for $6. Heck even things like watermellons are made for at least 2 as I cant eat one alone even over a few days. Hams are are for two..even small shank ones.Then theres family pack chips and tons of it all.

Today is the first time I really noticed it about music. Before Lil'Ds loss I would have said music was 90% normal and 10% love songs for couples and love. But I turn on the radio or a 70s / 80s / 90s / 00s streaming music and its 90% love songs about couple stuff and 10% non love. Surely it must be me and my view...or me just noticing it due to lifes change. Weird how perception can be so different.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 7:56 am**

Just drives me crazy that most Christens seem to believe their dead goes to heaven. Don't these people ever read their own bible?
According to he bible only three people born of this earth are in heaven. Elijah,Jesus, and Moses.
I mean come on people, I'm a pagan and I know this. Of course unlike most Christens I have actually read the whole bible.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 9:19 am**

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 7:56 am Just drives me crazy that most Christens seem to believe their dead goes to heaven. Don't these people ever read their own bible?
According to he bible only three people born of this earth are in heaven. Elijah,Jesus, and Moses.
I mean come on people, I'm a pagan and I know this. Of course unlike most Christens I have actually read the whole bible.

Aren't most of the devout waiting for the rapture? Or worse, too many vocally devout seem to be trying to facilitate the rapture as if they know God's plan, are Elect PseudoCalvinists, and are helping to bring it about while they search for Jesus? So you have fear on one side and zealotry on the other. I'm a bit too much of a heathen to understand but that's the way it appears from without.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 9:22 am**

LordMortis wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 9:19 amAren't most of the devout waiting for the rapture?

Bonus points: My wife has family that are part of a cult that claims the rapture is almost upon us regularly. So much so that the church advocates not bothering to save for retirement and giving them that money instead. So they do. They are now in their 70's with no retirement plan or savings and working full time while still supporting the church. Any day now is their life's motto.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 9:45 am**

Daehawk wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 2:35 am You know how I mentioned a ways back about how after losing my wife Lil'D this year I started noticing the world seems to be based on and made for couples? I was thinking about food mainly then. Like the deals you can find..buy one get one burger, 10 sliders for $6. Heck even things like watermellons are made for at least 2 as I cant eat one alone even over a few days. Hams are are for two..even small shank ones.Then theres family pack chips and tons of it all.

.
It's not made for couples, it's just a way to move product. In many cases you get a better margin selling a lot for a little less.

I notice it too, being the only omnivore in a household (excluding chicken fingers as meat).

Today is the first time I really noticed it about music. Before Lil'Ds loss I would have said music was 90% normal and 10% love songs for couples and love. But I turn on the radio or a 70s / 80s / 90s / 00s streaming music and its 90% love songs about couple stuff and 10% non love. Surely it must be me and my view...or me just noticing it due to lifes change. Weird how perception can be so different.

That's an age old thing. The cliche about when you break up/lose someone that every sound on the radio is a love song isn't far off the mark. But then I don't listen to the radio so about 20% of what I listen to is about couples/love.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 9:52 am**

As we all eagerly await news of what gift day four brought, I'd just like to share that I popped out to the dollar store and bought a Slim Jim. It's disgusting. Like, I wanted to snap into one in memory of ol' Randy, but it's just horrible. It's probably not the first one I've ever had, but the more common pepperoni stick brands around here are so much better.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 9:55 am**

Sudy wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 9:52 am As we all eagerly await news of what gift day four brought, I'd just like to share that I popped out to the dollar store and bought a Slim Jim. It's disgusting. Like, I wanted to snap into one in memory of ol' Randy, but it's just horrible. It's probably not the first one I've ever had, but the more common pepperoni stick brands around here are so much better.

Nothing. Nada. Zip. Nothing left last night.

I even had my corpse paint and giant sword at the ready!

And for the record, I love Slim Jims. I can only eat one once or twice a year though, as I swear the heartburn lasts for weeks.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 10:04 am**

Well that's weird. You can't stop after C-H-R! Unless that was the message...? What does C.H.R. stand for? Contemporary hit radio? Are you being lobbied by the radio industry?

I don't remember seeing Slim Jims in southern Ontario recently, but now they seem to be being imported/distributed en masse. Shopsy's and the ubiquitous Jack Link's are more common. There are also a couple smaller Canadian brands you see in gas stations, and they're all pretty good. But the Slim Jim I just had was so... mushy. I guess it's not technically a pepperoni stick, it's a "sausage snack". I suppose the spices weren't bad.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 10:29 am**

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 9:45 am
Daehawk wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 2:35 am You know how I mentioned a ways back about how after losing my wife Lil'D this year I started noticing the world seems to be based on and made for couples? I was thinking about food mainly then. Like the deals you can find..buy one get one burger, 10 sliders for $6. Heck even things like watermellons are made for at least 2 as I cant eat one alone even over a few days. Hams are are for two..even small shank ones.Then theres family pack chips and tons of it all.
.
It's not made for couples, it's just a way to move product. In many cases you get a better margin selling a lot for a little less.

I notice it too, being the only omnivore in a household (excluding chicken fingers as meat).

Today is the first time I really noticed it about music. Before Lil'Ds loss I would have said music was 90% normal and 10% love songs for couples and love. But I turn on the radio or a 70s / 80s / 90s / 00s streaming music and its 90% love songs about couple stuff and 10% non love. Surely it must be me and my view...or me just noticing it due to lifes change. Weird how perception can be so different.
That's an age old thing. The cliche about when you break up/lose someone that every sound on the radio is a love song isn't far off the mark. But then I don't listen to the radio so about 20% of what I listen to is about couples/love.

The modern nation is made for not being alone. I don't know that coupling is necessary but you simply don't see people dining alone, going to the movies alone, concerts, parks, etc... Pretty much the only thing people do publicly in solitude is grocery shop. Though the groceries they purchase are rarely for one. Produce goes bad so quickly and prepackaged food outside of modern TV dinners is designed to be part of a meal. I have long since stopped preparing meals but rather eat an item as a meal. Perhaps that's part of why I love pizza so much. It is all the parts of a meal. Veggies, bread, meat, etc... Bars are about the only place you go alone and when you do it is inevitably to be part of the Billy Joel song.

Lyrics have always seemed to me to be primarily about "love" songs but that really our mate is our obsession, and mating even more so when we're young and living an aesthetic life, so why wouldn't it be that way? I also moved from the radio which removed me from much of that music, mainly because it doesn't interest me much unless the lyricist is particularly creative, a la, Peter Gabriel or Paul Simon or the music is so overwhelming the lyrics a la Donna Summer (and Giorgio Moroder as example)

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 10:30 am**

What came first, the music or the misery?

People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss.

Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 11:17 am**

We always see everything through the lens of our own life. It's likely related to confirmation bias. Once your brain notices that lots of things are for couples or families, you start noticing it everywhere. Not because there are more than there were before, but because your brain has been tricked into noticing that while ignoring the rest. Same with the music. It's the same psychology where if you start dating someone who drives a white two-door with a sunroof, you'll suddenly see white two-doors with sun roofs everywhere.

In each case, it was that way all along, and it isn't more common. It's just what your brain lets you see. The human brain is terrible at discerning reality.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 12:04 pm**

^ Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 12:23 pm**

Sudy wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 10:04 am Well that's weird. You can't stop after C-H-R! Unless that was the message...? What does C.H.R. stand for? Contemporary hit radio? Are you being lobbied by the radio industry?

Initials of the Secret Santa?

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 12:55 pm**

Paingod wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 9:22 am
LordMortis wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 9:19 amAren't most of the devout waiting for the rapture?
Bonus points: My wife has family that are part of a cult that claims the rapture is almost upon us regularly. So much so that the church advocates not bothering to save for retirement and giving them that money instead. So they do. They are now in their 70's with no retirement plan or savings and working full time while still supporting the church. Any day now is their life's motto.

Last night I read a Rolling Stone article that claims "41 percent of the country — and 58 percent of white evangelicals — believe that Jesus definitely or probably will return to Earth by 2050." It turns out that this is why we can't have nice things. (Linked article is political in nature.)

LordMortis wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 10:29 am Pretty much the only thing people do publicly in solitude is grocery shop.

And a large percentage of them are on their phones the whole time.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 1:01 pm**

Kraken wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 12:55 pm And a large percentage of them are on their phones the whole time.

My rage for people milling about the grocery store while narrating their experiences to someone on the other end of their phone is off the charts. They're oblivious to the world around them and completely engrossed in discussing whatever it is they're looking at. Worse are those that do it while the cashier is ringing everything up at the register. My faith in humanity overall has taken a major hit and I don't see it getting better. I've moved back into semi-civilization and interact with people much more frequently than I had been for over a decade. As a species, I think we're in big trouble.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 1:05 pm**

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 1:01 pm
Kraken wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 12:55 pm And a large percentage of them are on their phones the whole time.
My rage for people milling about the grocery store while narrating their experiences to someone on the other end of their phone is off the charts. They're oblivious to the world around them and completely engrossed in discussing whatever it is they're looking at. Worse are those that do it while the cashier is ringing everything up at the register. My faith in humanity overall has taken a major hit and I don't see it getting better. I've moved back into semi-civilization and interact with people much more frequently than I had been for over a decade. As a species, I think we're in big trouble.

I gave up on humanity when they installed cup holders on grocery carts.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 1:07 pm**

Package pickup in San Francisco at the post office is a PITA.

I live in Chinatown, but my package pickup is NOT in my local post office, but way off near Fishermen's Wharf.

The pickup notice says the place is open from 11AM to 2AM.

The online lookup says the place is open from 11AM to 10PM

So I got there at 9;45PM, after work.

The sign on the door says "package pickup open from 9AM to 5PM"

WTF?!?!

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 3:00 pm**

Kraken wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 12:55 pm And a large percentage of them are on their phones the whole time.

So work finally made getting with 2009 non negotiable and I have a company (and therefor "smart") phone. (which I hate BTW) and so my local grocer does all kinds a electronic coupons at checkout if you use their ap. And so I set up the ap and did the coupon shopping with an electronic shopping list and, well, nope. Never again. Instead of having a sheet of paper I just puruse as I shop, where in the sheet is something intuitively organize by aisle, now have a tiny font phone I have to keep breaking out and touching the screen for and figure out how the coupon finding organizer wants to list my stuff.

A lot of the quality of life aps I've played with have been that way, taking something incredibly simple and deciding that just allowing my to contain that simple process on a phone isn't good enough. I'm so not a post millennial. Who wants to spend 10 minutes or more futzing with a electronic touch screen to grocery shop from a list that may or may not save you a couple of bucks? Or spend time getting on a trusted WiFi and touchscreening through along 1000s of other people at the same time so you can access an E Wallet with an E Ticket?

Fuck that shit, I'm out.

.... My only problem with a cup holder on the cart is that it has no base for the cup to sit on, so it's ability to hold and ease of accessibility is wholly dependent on where the ID of the holder meets the OD of the cup. Otherwise I'm all Homer Simpson about said cup holder. I often enjoy a weekend morning cup of coffee doing a leisurely grocery shop at 07:00 before the crowds rush in or will go to CostCo and get a dog and soda before shopping and then drink my Pepsi while I'm shopping and partaking in free samples.... The fact that CostCo's cupholder fits the Pepsi cup so terribly is a testament to how said cup holder needs improvement.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 3:14 pm**

Hey Boomer, it's "app" now.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 3:22 pm**

I love those rare occasions where I get to hit the grocery store by myself. Usually I'm accompanied by 1-4 others. And having an app on my phone for the grocery list is the bestest. When I'm planning a list, I can with a couple of presses add the ingredients from one of the dozens of recipes I've put on the app, which makes putting the list together a snap. Plus, my list automatically syncs with my wife's. If she's shopping with me, we can split up and cover ground more quickly, checking items off the list to prevent double-purchasing. If she's not with me, but she remembers she wants to get something, she can just pop it onto her list and it'll show up on my list.

And what's wrong with cupholders? If you've got a coffee (or a beer) and need to put it down to bag up some produce, it's incredibly convenient.

You people are all weirdos.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 3:29 pm**

stessier wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 3:14 pm Hey Boomer, it's "app" now.

I feel horribly for the post millennial who have the same aversion to high availability and too many things competing for their attention that I have. Whatever term you use. Spectrum, introvert, snowflake, I find a pocket computer full of "app"s exhausting to my core. Hell, I hated (and still hate) any SMS (OK boomer, insert pop texting word here) that makes it to three messages. With any luck and enough hard work I've only got so many years left of it. Few enough that I can formulate a plan. As a kid or young adult? Ugh. One can only fight that need for (I used to call it a need for decompression before Internet age) so long before it takes a toll.

ImLawBoy wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 3:22 pm I love those rare occasions where I get to hit the grocery store by myself. Usually I'm accompanied by 1-4 others. And having an app on my phone for the grocery list is the bestest. When I'm planning a list, I can with a couple of presses add the ingredients from one of the dozens of recipes I've put on the app, which makes putting the list together a snap. Plus, my list automatically syncs with my wife's. If she's shopping with me, we can split up and cover ground more quickly, checking items off the list to prevent double-purchasing. If she's not with me, but she remembers she wants to get something, she can just pop it onto her list and it'll show up on my list.

And what's wrong with cupholders? If you've got a coffee (or a beer) and need to put it down to bag up some produce, it's incredibly convenient.

You people are all weirdos.

I have nothing against grocery shopping alone. It's really the only place where I am surrounded by other solitary figures.

We all know you are wrong about, well, everything, so... I guess I'm surprised you appreciate the cart cupholder. Maybe somehow, someway, somewhere, there's a hope buried for you?

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 3:57 pm**

So, for those of you who like shopping with an app for the list, what do you use? I've considered setting up OneNote for that purpose, which has the advantage of my being able to enter things via PC. Most of the dedicated apps I've looked at has seemed like overkill, though.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 4:02 pm**

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 3:57 pm So, for those of you who like shopping with an app for the list, what do you use? I've considered setting up OneNote for that purpose, which has the advantage of my being able to enter things via PC. Most of the dedicated apps I've looked at has seemed like overkill, though.

We use something called "OurGroceries". I selected this after an exhaustive search of finding the first app I stumbled across that let us easily sync our lists.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 4:39 pm**

Samuel L Jackson is the first Alexa celebrity voice

Amazon has chosen a new voice for Alexa, and it's none other than Samuel L. Jackson. The Hollywood legend will be the first celebrity voice featured on Alexa and will offer both clean and explicit versions.

Man now Im sad I dont have one for the explicit version.Sam cussing at ya all day ...Im sad.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 5:09 pm**

I dont like grocery shopping alone. D was with me 100% of the time all these years and pushed the cart herself so she could hang onto it. It feels so off with it just me and Im using the cart. I still use our old method of writing everything down before I go and I try to eat something too because going to a food store hungry is bad as we learned. I just get out my list and kinda meander around until I get it all. I no longer have that feeling that people look at me funny with a big cart now because back then I did. I dont think they really did but I felt people looked at me funny having my little 4'8" wife pushing the cart instead of 6'0" me. But she wanted to.

Sudy wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 9:52 am As we all eagerly await news of what gift day four brought, I'd just like to share that I popped out to the dollar store and bought a Slim Jim. It's disgusting. Like, I wanted to snap into one in memory of ol' Randy, but it's just horrible. It's probably not the first one I've ever had, but the more common pepperoni stick brands around here are so much better.

Try these. They are AMAZING.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 5:30 pm**

ImLawBoy wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 3:22 pm And what's wrong with cupholders? If you've got a coffee (or a beer) and need to put it down to bag up some produce, it's incredibly convenient.

The notion that you can't go an hour without a double mocha frappucino latte.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 5:50 pm**

I dont usually drink and shop but when I do I simply sit it in the seat where kids butts are all the time. Ok rethinking drinking and shopping ew.

I dislike the cup holders because they are metal and right in the way of my hands and my stomach. Im always hitting it. I also have always hated those useless nylon seatbelts on buggies. They catch on everything especially when trying to pull a buggy out to use. As a kid I sat in the front of the buggy and lay in the bottom.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 5:56 pm**

Joyful Friday 13th all

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 6:19 pm**

Kraken wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 5:30 pm
ImLawBoy wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 3:22 pm And what's wrong with cupholders? If you've got a coffee (or a beer) and need to put it down to bag up some produce, it's incredibly convenient.
The notion that you can't go an hour without a double mocha frappucino latte.

I've gone my entire life without a double mocha frappucino latte - I certainly wouldn't get my first one at the grocery store. I drink regular old black coffee, and given how little sleep I sometimes get, yes, I do occasionally need one while shopping.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 10:28 pm**

stessier wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 12:23 pm
Sudy wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 10:04 am Well that's weird. You can't stop after C-H-R! Unless that was the message...? What does C.H.R. stand for? Contemporary hit radio? Are you being lobbied by the radio industry?
Initials of the Secret Santa?

Quite possibly they are bad at spelling and were trying to give them a nice and subtle hint that their house is dirty. They need CLR

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 10:35 pm**

Whelp...they're back.

No sappy note tonight, just a box containing a small ceramic Jesus in a manger, and a thumb drive. With a handwritten Post-It note that says "please follow the instructions on the thumb drive. With love."

Because the first thing I'm going to do with a random thumb drive that I get from an unknown stranger is put it in my computer, obviously.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 10:42 pm**

Well, you're not running uranium centrifuges in your basement. What's the worst that can happen?

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 10:44 pm**

You don't know that.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 10:45 pm**

You're right. I'm just playing the odds.

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 10:45 pm**

Daehawk wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 4:39 pm Samuel L Jackson is the first Alexa celebrity voice

I don't know if it good or bad that I'd like a Samuel L. Jackson voice but not enough to pay $0.99.

Posted: **Sat Dec 14, 2019 12:26 pm**

Ahhh... today officially starts that sweet, sweet time when one contract job ends and I get a whole 9 days before the next contract job begins.

Posted: **Sat Dec 14, 2019 2:43 pm**

Stupid fucking church run college here in town. My wife attended in the 70s or 80s and she hates them..or hated them and the place. They thought they were better than anyone and stuff. But for 31 years Ive been here they've begged money off everyone. Every month theres mail..."plz send us money. Plz donate $100. Plz give us this and that and money money money. Greedy sonofabitches. They take up a huge portion of the historic area of the town and get their way in everything. They close roads and make them walking areas or put so many speedhumps in you cant get through. Worst of all is they take what people 'gift' them and turn it into giant gaudy ass buildings. They are like a cancer that just grows. Recently they took over and tore down the old Woolworths store where my wife went as a kid and I went as a kid too. Built a fancy smancy church looking building. These idiots are so far from Christians its sickening. Greedy bastards will all go to hell Im sure.

Today there was another letter in the mailbox for my dead wife from them wanting $100. Tempted to use their self address envelope to tell them to stop begging and go on to hell ya geedy shits. And stop building your f'n ugly as buildings everywhere. Man I hate that place. beg beg beg and off the dead to boot. Sickening.

Posted: **Sat Dec 14, 2019 2:48 pm**

Homer wrote:Still, we will let all this be a thing of the past, though it hurts us, and beat down by constraint the anger that rises inside us. Now I am making an end of my anger. It does not become me unrelentingly to rage on.

Posted: **Sat Dec 14, 2019 3:09 pm**

I know after my dad died my mom was constantly getting bombarded with junk mail trying to get money out of him. She chose to ignore it.
Ignore it or add another item to your unhappiness. It's up to you.

Posted: **Sat Dec 14, 2019 3:16 pm**

I used the shredder. It makes a nice sound.

Octopus Overlords

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