Octopus Overlords

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 1:41 pm So I get this phone call today. The guy said he was (typical American name) with PCH. He spoke very slowly and pronounced his words very precisely and had a slight accent.
So I said "Are you Indian?" Silence on the line and then the phone hangs up.
Scammers are gong to do better than that to catch me.

The giveaway may have been when he said he was with Pacific Coast Highway.

My wife and I were out at a fancy restaurant celebrating our "Life, the Universe and Everything" anniversary when this very nice young lady approached our table. She said she had seen our server bringing over a fancy dessert and asked about us and the server told her we were celebrating our anniversary. The young lady had come over to congratulate us, then she took out a couple of brand new two dollar bills and gave us each one. She said that this was a tradition to wish us happiness and luck. We hadn't heard about that before. We thanked her and each put a bill in our wallet. It's nice when nice things happen

Daehawk wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 2:42 pm New and refurb buggies at Walmart dont last but about a year.

I honestly didn't realize that anybody outside of the UK called shopping carts 'buggies.' Google tells me it's a southern thing.

What? You mean its not just Coke and Pop and Soda its Buggies and Carts and things?...neat. <--- put that in to show I was being silly not mean.

I have never heard the term "buggies" referring to shopping carts before.

Queso pork skins...no...no!..Dont do it. They're not bad they're just strange. Its like sour cream and onion with lime. Or something. Im just not sure what. Its not chemical taste or anything.

I dont recommend though. Stick to BBQ and Hot'n Spicy

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 7:20 pm I have never heard the term "buggies" referring to shopping carts before.

You're too far west young man. And I think the Brits call it a shopping trolley. Crazy Brits.

Daehawk wrote:Queso pork skins...no...no!..Dont do it. They're not bad they're just strange. Its like sour cream and onion with lime. Or something. Im just not sure what. Its not chemical taste or anything.

I dont recommend though. Stick to BBQ and Hot'n Spicy

That can't be as bad as what my wife brought into our house. Talk about sacrilege...

i do like these: https://snacklins.com/

pigs are as smart as your average dog, btw

hitbyambulance wrote:i do like these: https://snacklins.com/

pigs are as smart as your average dog, btw

She's tried those too, but at least they don't actually say "porkless rinds" on the bag

Kasey Chang wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 3:36 am I need to move my room so I need to get some of those giant plastic totes...

Picked up the vehicle at my local garage, ZipCar, easy-peasy. Except... It's down to 1/8th fuel. Immediately sent a "low fuel" report to ZipCar (they are supposed to guarantee 1/4 tank at least), then go for a gas station. They do include a fuel card in the visor.

Went to a local Chevron/Standard. Not the lowest, not the highest either, but it's on the way.

Card won't work at the pump.

Went to cashier. Kept asking me for an amount. I said $50, as gas is expensive in California.

Card was declined. WTF?!

Went to consult the card, nothing. Help in the app, just have "report non-functional card". Then there's talk about the reimbursement.

I say F*** that, pulled out my own card for $50 gas, made sure to get the receipt. Happens to just filled the tank.

Pickup at location 1 was pretty simple. Call them and they bring it out to you. Except I opened the trunk and found not only the inside of trunk was scratched to hell on one side, the carpet has a hole in it. Quick took photos of damage and sent that off too. I'm NOT paying for that.

Pickup at location 2 was a slight hassle. I guess I was supposed to use the Target app, THEN they would bring it out to me. Else, I have to go inside. Fine. Except it's on the 2nd floor, and I parked in the first floor lot. Had to go up to second floor for the order pickup desk.

Got it, but they just hand it to you, didn't even put it in a cart. Had to grab one myself.

Planned for 1.5 hour rental, turned out I had to extend it by 30 minutes, and still ended with only 3 minutes to spare.

Got home and file for reimbursement from the app. Take photos of receipt.

It's only in the help screen that it mentioned something about Shell stations. There's nothing on the card that says you're restricted to a particular brand.

Great, now I'm not even sure they'll reimburse me.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 6:38 pm

Daehawk wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 2:42 pm New and refurb buggies at Walmart dont last but about a year.

I honestly didn't realize that anybody outside of the UK called shopping carts 'buggies.' Google tells me it's a southern thing.

I grew up in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. I've never once heard them called "buggies."

Never heard the term in Texas either.

I’ve heard it back in Ohio. Not a lot, but it was used.

kasey's post made me consider that I dont actually read English.

I honestly thought it was just the lyrics from a song.

disarm wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 8:47 pm That can't be as bad as what my wife brought into our house. Talk about sacrilege...

I read that as paint based at first. Spicy latex rinds!

Porkless rinds sounds awful to begin with.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 7:24 pm

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 7:20 pm I have never heard the term "buggies" referring to shopping carts before.

You're too far west young man. And I think the Brits call it a shopping trolley. Crazy Brits.

They're carts to most people around here, but native Bostonians are known to call them "baskets" or "wagons."

Daehawk wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 7:24 pm

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 7:20 pm I have never heard the term "buggies" referring to shopping carts before.

You're too far west young man. And I think the Brits call it a shopping trolley. Crazy Brits.

Yousa right. According to Wikipedia:

The names of a shopping cart vary by region. The following names are region specific names for shopping carts. Many of these names may be used alone or in descriptive phrases such as grocery ____, shopping ____, or supermarket _____ :[35]

cart, or basket – The United States, Canada and the Philippines
buggy – Used by some in Southeast Michigan, Western Pennsylvania (where it is considered part of the region's dialect), in the Southern United States and parts of Canada
trolley – the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, South Africa and some regions of Canada. Was also used in the Philippines.
carriage – Used by some in the New England region of the United States.
barrae or coohudder - Some places in Scotland.
bascart – various regions.
wagon – New York, Hawaii.
trundler - some places in New Zealand.

I shall henceforth refer to them as a "supermarket coohudder."

If I actually heard someone refer to it as anything other than a shopping cart, I would assume I just discovered a sleeper agent spy that screwed up.

If someone in Scotland told me to go get a coohudder Id come back with either a girl or a calf.

They're 100% called buggies in my part of north cackalacky. I refuse to call them that. Where I grew up, buggies were strictly for the Amish.

Kraken wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 10:48 pm

Daehawk wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 7:24 pm

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 7:20 pm I have never heard the term "buggies" referring to shopping carts before.

You're too far west young man. And I think the Brits call it a shopping trolley. Crazy Brits.

They're carts to most people around here, but native Bostonians are known to call them "baskets" or "wagons."

Mostly we say carts, but I hear basket enough and buggy seldom but enough to recognize the term. Wagon? Nope.

buggy – Used by some in Southeast Michigan, Western Pennsylvania (where it is considered part of the region's dialect), in the Southern United States and parts of Canada

SE Michigan is enough of a surprise to me because it's rare.

LordMortis wrote: ↑Fri Nov 19, 2021 8:16 am

buggy – Used by some in Southeast Michigan, Western Pennsylvania (where it is considered part of the region's dialect), in the Southern United States and parts of Canada

SE Michigan is enough of a surprise to me because it's rare.

I do not recall hearing the term in my 3.5 years of residence in SE Michigan (A2 is considered SE Michigan, right?).

I forget exactly now but it might have been used in New Orleans.

Is "suck my bayonet" suggestive? I've been asked to help write the church bulletin this week.

Sudy wrote: ↑Fri Nov 19, 2021 9:27 pm Is "suck my bayonet" suggestive? I've been asked to help write the church bulletin this week.

Depends if that is your response to the church or your draft of the bulletin.

Yep, I'm (over)doing it again. Public brainstorming ahead!

I'm reading one novel
Reading one comic series (The Walking Dead - I'm on #41)
Playing two VR games
Playing one PC game
Learning German (just for the hell of it)
Building models
Watching two movie series that have some upcoming tie-in I want to 'prep' for
Watching three TV series
And I'm getting the urge to paint miniatures again for the first time in almost a year

That's 12 simultaneous activities, with one more that keeps tapping me on the shoulder. Net result: I'm not getting anywhere with any of them. There's no satisfying sense of accomplishment, as I don't have the time to devote to any of them to accomplish anything.

Time to start pruning.
Reading stays. It is its own 'time slot' that doesn't really interfere with anything else anyway.

The games stay. Two of them are longer games, which I probably shouldn't have started at the same time, but I'm there now.

German... may have to go. It's a ton of work (more than most languages, German has a ton of rote memorization due to the way it handles genders.) I'm really enjoying it, but it doesn't really serve much of a purpose, and to keep going I'd need to devote a lot more time to it than I am. I'm enjoying myself. I enjoy the sound of German, and have always wanted to learn it, but the real reason I picked it up when I did was that I wanted a better handle on the pronunciations of the German words I keep seeing. Likewise, at some point I want to spend a couple of months with French, as French words really throw me, and a basic understanding of the pronunciation would go a long way.

Models stays, at least until I finish the one I'm working on and use them to polish up my airbrushing skills. Then I can alternate with mini painting as the mood strikes (which was the plan all along.)

I need to finish one of the film series and scratch it off my list rather than jumping around and mixing in other genres. Or maybe I can stop being an idiot and skip the middle ones (I'm talking Star Wars here - I rewatched the prequels, rewatched Rogue One, and watched Solo (which I hadn't seen.) I still only seen VII and VII once each, and haven't seen VIII. I wanted to watch the whole series in order - but hell, I've seen eps IV, V, an VI so many times that they really don't hold any surprises. The other film series is Spider-Man. With the new movie apparently featuring both McGuire's and Garfield's versions, I want to watch them again, as I have only seen most of them once, and none in a long time.

I can cross off one TV series now (Fear the Walking Dead), as I know it goes south. Another (Wheel of Time) is releasing on a staggered schedule, so that's not a big concern. The other is 20 minute episodes, and I do want something to watch from time to time.

Just be happy that you have the luxury of spare time to contemplate "too many hobbies". Now picture that with a full-time job.

I'm reading two books (in the 1/2 hour or so before falling asleep)
Playing 2 PS4 games (found my son's console in the garage)
Watching Wheel of Time (now only one episode dropping per week)
Watching the Chargers blow another season
Writing my second novel
In a week I will be watching Magnus Carlsen defend his World Chess Championship title

All in all I have it pretty much honed down to essentials.

I do still have a fairly busy schedule. I don't work, but I take my son to school every morning and pick him up every afternoon (that's about 90 minutes of driving time), work out almost every day, deal with my oldest son's appointments (special needs related), which are usually three or four days a week, deal with my other son's appointment and school band schedule (including all home games for multiple sports, and including the driving), and do the biggest share of maintaining the house.

It's not eight straight hours per day, but it's not unusual for me not to have more than a few minutes of free time between having to jump in the car or get non-optional stuff done over a ten-hour period each day. Having pure 'free time' that lasts more than an hour is rare.

FWIW, I'm really, really looking forward to June. When June hits my youngest graduates. When that happens I am retiring from a 22 year career in full-time parenting, although I'll remain available as a Parent Consultant.

I wish I could retire from my current job. Of course I've only been doing it for 13 years. But on the bright side it looks to continue until I die.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sat Nov 20, 2021 12:39 pm
German... may have to go. It's a ton of work (more than most languages, German has a ton of rote memorization due to the way it handles genders.) I'm really enjoying it, but it doesn't really serve much of a purpose, and to keep going I'd need to devote a lot more time to it than I am. I'm enjoying myself. I enjoy the sound of German, and have always wanted to learn it, but the real reason I picked it up when I did was that I wanted a better handle on the pronunciations of the German words I keep seeing. Likewise, at some point I want to spend a couple of months with French, as French words really throw me, and a basic understanding of the pronunciation would go a long way.

i have found if i have no one to speak the language with, my knowledge scrivels up pretty quickly. i have learned German, Norwegian and Swedish formally, but i've regressed to a bare beginner level in each because of that. however, my Mexi-Spanish (which i have never had formal learning with) is pretty functional because i do get almost daily exposure to it.

for a 'dabbling around learning' language, Latin is extremely well-suited for that as you pick up on soooo many ancestral roots of everyday English words.

and if you like the sound of German, i can highly recommend trying out Russian. it's just fun to speak it (tho significantly tougher to learn)

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Sun Nov 21, 2021 4:51 am

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sat Nov 20, 2021 12:39 pm
German... may have to go. It's a ton of work (more than most languages, German has a ton of rote memorization due to the way it handles genders.) I'm really enjoying it, but it doesn't really serve much of a purpose, and to keep going I'd need to devote a lot more time to it than I am. I'm enjoying myself. I enjoy the sound of German, and have always wanted to learn it, but the real reason I picked it up when I did was that I wanted a better handle on the pronunciations of the German words I keep seeing. Likewise, at some point I want to spend a couple of months with French, as French words really throw me, and a basic understanding of the pronunciation would go a long way.

i have found if i have no one to speak the language with, my knowledge scrivels up pretty quickly. i have learned German, Norwegian and Swedish formally, but i've regressed to a bare beginner level in each because of that. however, my Mexi-Spanish (which i have never had formal learning with) is pretty functional because i do get almost daily exposure to it.

for a 'dabbling around learning' language, Latin is extremely well-suited for that as you pick up on soooo many ancestral roots of everyday English words.

and if you like the sound of German, i can highly recommend trying out Russian. it's just fun to speak it (tho significantly tougher to learn)

I took a semester of Spanish in junior high, a year of Latin in high school, and a semester of ancient Greek (5th century) in college. I do agree about Latin (and ancient Greek) being great for understanding our own language, especially if you're in any medical, scientific, or musical field.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sun Nov 21, 2021 10:09 am

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Sun Nov 21, 2021 4:51 am

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sat Nov 20, 2021 12:39 pm
German... may have to go. It's a ton of work (more than most languages, German has a ton of rote memorization due to the way it handles genders.) I'm really enjoying it, but it doesn't really serve much of a purpose, and to keep going I'd need to devote a lot more time to it than I am. I'm enjoying myself. I enjoy the sound of German, and have always wanted to learn it, but the real reason I picked it up when I did was that I wanted a better handle on the pronunciations of the German words I keep seeing. Likewise, at some point I want to spend a couple of months with French, as French words really throw me, and a basic understanding of the pronunciation would go a long way.

i have found if i have no one to speak the language with, my knowledge scrivels up pretty quickly. i have learned German, Norwegian and Swedish formally, but i've regressed to a bare beginner level in each because of that. however, my Mexi-Spanish (which i have never had formal learning with) is pretty functional because i do get almost daily exposure to it.

for a 'dabbling around learning' language, Latin is extremely well-suited for that as you pick up on soooo many ancestral roots of everyday English words.

and if you like the sound of German, i can highly recommend trying out Russian. it's just fun to speak it (tho significantly tougher to learn)

I took a semester of Spanish in junior high, a year of Latin in high school, and a semester of ancient Greek (5th century) in college. I do agree about Latin (and ancient Greek) being great for understanding our own language, especially if you're in any medical, scientific, or musical field.

I've studied French, Spanish, and Latin. I guess I can also claim to be familiar with "wargame German."

For a modern American adult with limited time, Spanish is probably the most useful, especially if you're pursuing conversational fluency. It's also a very logical system with few of the complexities that make northern/eastern European languages more difficult.

Like Spanish, French is fun because it opens up so much cultural material (movies, literature) and because (like Spanish) it's very logical, with fewer irregularities than English. French and Spanish are mutually reinforcing as long as you don't try to study both at the same time.

Latin is a study in logical systems because we approach it in its formal complexity rather than it was probably spoken by regular people. I've mostly learned "Church Latin," the medieval form that trended towards the subject-verb-object structure in imitation of later European languages, but this doesn't really prepare you for the complexities of ancient/classical Latin literature.

I've always been curious about German and Russian, but if I were to pursue a very unfamiliar language now I would probably look into Chinese or Japanese.

I took German in school. Promptly forgot it out of school. Then a few years later I found myself in the army stationed in Germany. My gang learned I had taken it in high school and I became the interpreter for the group. Eventually by the time I left Germany I could hold conversations in it.
Now, I have forgotten it again except in my dreams. My wife tells me I'm always speaking it in my sleep.

Yeah, language is a very, very perishable skill if not reinforced. I remember something about Spanish because of all the time I've spent in regions with a large Hispanic population. I remember a little Latin vocabulary, but practically no usage. From the semester of ancient Greek I can... remember a couple of specific sentences directly from the book, and could probably come up with a dozen other words. That's it.

I'm not really learning it for any particular purpose, just the experience of learning it, and, in the case of German and French, the ability to pronounce their words when I see them in the wild.