Octopus Overlords

The Meal wrote:

MHS wrote:

Kraken wrote:It's shaping up as an early and severe flu season this year. I know MA has diagnosed thousands of cases already compared to just 20-some at this time last year. I'm glad I got my shot...hope it works.

I can attest for the severe part. I wouldn't wish the flu I had over Christmas on my worst enemy- it was the sickest I'd been in years, I think.

Sickest I had been since my 2-week pneumonia bout back in middle school. Protip: don't get the same strain of flu MHS and I had this season. (Also, flu shot fail, though maybe my body-ache symptoms were reduced from MHS's non-flu shot symptoms.)

Yeah, I heard on television that the flu shot this year was a pretty good match but that this was a particularly virulent strain that was breaking through. My flu shot and yours, I believe, kept us from the severity of what MHS experienced, and perhaps shortened the duration a bit. Still, sickest I've been since the year I forgot to get a flu shot and got hit by the same kind of Mack Truck that hit her this time. And that was some time in the late '80s.

The flu shot is still available and I would advise anyone to get it.

You remember the Fallout manual with those taped-in sections? Turns out when they're converted to PDF, you can highlight the text underneath them and copy it out.

Progressive trailers mostly noisily perused umpteen botulisms. One
chrysanthemum extremely annoyingly marries quixotic Klingons.
Five putrid Macintoshes gossips, because two televisions grew up.
One irascible sheep easily sacrificed five Klingons, and the trailers
perused Tokyo. Poisons grew up.

Five televisions gossips. Umpteen partly putrid elephants
tastes one almost silly sheep, because chrysanthemums abused five

very quixotic botulisms, and Quark incinerated two tickets, even
though one orifice partly lamely towed pawnbrokers, yet Santa Claus
you can move many llamas into arranging all of the primary statistics.

If you want more character points, you can reduce a statistic
below five, gaining one character point for every point you lower the
statistic. No

Feel free to verify my work.

In the back of my head I always thought Paul Ryan looked like someone else. My brain finally figured it out but the internet beat me to the punch.

That's awesome.

One of everybody's secret pleasures; picking one's nose in private.

Ha, ha, ha, in private, that's a good one, ha!

Nothing like straining your wrist wrestling with the front case cover while replacing the case fan that's going bad.

Buzz Aldrin just got divorced for the third time.

The famed astronaut and wife number three ... officially divorced on Dec. 28, TMZ.com reported.



The out-of-this world settlement leaves Aldrin’s ex, Lois Driggs Cannon, with nearly half of the 82-year-old spaceman’s fortune.

 She’s set to pocket half of his $475,000 bank account and 50 percent of any profit he makes from his businesses.

 On top of that, she’ll receive $9,500 a month in spousal support and 30 percent of Aldrin’s annual income, which tops about $600,000.

 Cannon even gets to keep her 1988 Mercedes, which bears the ironic “Moon Gal” plates.

Aldrin, the second man to set foot on the moon, filed for divorce from Cannon in June 2011 after 23 years of marriage. The couple does not have any kids.



At least I'm in good company. I had my wife served on Friday. Too bad that I don't have squat in the bank.


Too bad for her, anyway.

Sorry to hear that you're having to go through the process. Here's hoping you come through it with a brighter future ahead of you.

Fucking snow, man.

Isgrimnur wrote:Sorry to hear that you're having to go through the process. Here's hoping you come through it with a brighter future ahead of you.

Things are looking brighter already!

Creepiest gallery of 70's photos ever! There's nothing inherently wrong with the pictures, aside from the fact that some of them, from the cropping, appear to be of topless women. The real creepiness comes in from the caption:

Convicted serial killer Rodney Alcala was found guilty in 2010 of killing four women and a 12-year-old girl in Southern California in the 1970s. Alcala, 69, is a former photographer and a one-time dating-show contestant who has been behind bars since 1979. Police in California previously released dozens of photos, including the ones seen here, taken from a storage space rented to Alcala. Recognize the people in this photo? Please contact Huntington Beach, Calif., Police Det. Patrick Ellis at 714-375-5066 or pellis@hbpd.org.

I left Huntington Beach in the mid 70s. Did all the kidnappings stop then?

Physics goes after Roald Dahl:

Four students from the University of Leicester Department of Physics and Astronomy have calculated that it would take 2,425,907 seagulls, rather than the 501 described in Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach, to airlift the giant peach across the Atlantic Ocean.

The students used the famous novel from the 1960s and Henry Selick's 1996 film adaptation to determine the buoyancy of the giant peach. The physics of aircraft was later applied to calculate the number of seagulls it would have taken for the giant peach to be lifted.

Next thing you know they're going to tell me there is no Oompa Loompa island, pygmies can't grow green hair, and there is no such thing as a Vermicious Knid.

Harumph.

And while I'm harumphing. When did oil changes go up to $40 a pop? Damn you ObamaCare! I may have to start changing my oil again myself... Assuming Oil isn't up to $5 a quart. I haven't changed my own oil since my early 20s. So I have exactly no idea how much a quart of oil costs anymore.

LordMortis wrote:And while I'm harumphing. When did oil changes go up to $40 a pop? Damn you ObamaCare! I may have to start changing my oil again myself... Assuming Oil isn't up to $5 a quart. I haven't changed my own oil since my early 20s. So I have exactly no idea how much a quart of oil costs anymore.

There's a coupon/groupon/livingsocial/whatever for that.

There's also other coupon methods. I routinely print the coupon off from NTB's website before going in and making them change it for cheap.

Yep. Next time I will comb the value packs and such for coupons/discounted rates. Lesson learned. Unless it's still crazy expensive after discount shopping. Then, it's off to learn how much a quart of oil costs again. (The last time I bought a quart of oil was nearly ten years ago when I bought my lawn mower.)

List price on amazon is about $6/quart, but they have deals on 6-packs as low as $19 for Valvoline NextGen 10W-30.

My dealer does free oil changes for the life of my car.

"Attempting repairs..." going on 6 hours now. I wonder how long one should wait before giving up.

Remus West wrote:My dealer does free oil changes for the life of my car.

Free oil changes for a set period was actually part of the negotiations for my current car. The manager told me that he couldn't do the price with the oil changes, the first time they'd been brought up in the negotiations after being mentioned shortly after I walked on the lot.

I was kinda shocked and blurted out, "You can keep the oil changes," and he agreed to the offer on the spot. Given that the dealer is over 10 miles from my place, and I've got several places a lot closer, I wasn't worried about the long-term cost of getting the job done on my own.

Remus West wrote:My dealer does free oil changes for the life of my car.

Mine too, plus all scheduled maintenance for the first 5 years.

All my dealer does is leave stems and seeds on the upholstery.

Took 400 mg of ibuprofen to hopefully cut some of pain in my neck and back. Big mistake. I am sooo ready to fall asleep and I got an hour an'a half more to work followed by what I can only hope will be only a half an hour commute home. No es bueno.

LordMortis wrote:Took 400 mg of ibuprofen to hopefully cut some of pain in my neck and back. Big mistake. I am sooo ready to fall asleep and I got an hour an'a half more to work followed by what I can only hope will be only a half an hour commute home. No es bueno.

Advil makes me start to speak in Spanish too.

Oil changes have been over $40 for awhile now. Between the cost of oil and the fee to recycle the costs go nowhere but up.

Phillip Phillips may be the first American Idol that I actually like. It's certainly the first album I've bought from any contestant attached to it. He goes from sounding like Mark Mumford to Dave Matthews to his own voice in his debut album.

LordMortis wrote:Took 400 mg of ibuprofen to hopefully cut some of pain in my neck and back. Big mistake. I am sooo ready to fall asleep and I got an hour an'a half more to work followed by what I can only hope will be only a half an hour commute home. No es bueno.

Why would you get sleepy after taking Ibuprofen?

The tension and pain is the only thing keeping him functioning. It's like an old beater where changing the oil makes it fall apart.

Buzz: To alimony and beyond!
Default: To the moon, Alice!

Ughhhhh. Why are people such downers? Try to do something just random and fun and get lectured. Thanks! I love feeling judged.

-not aimed at anyone here

its year end review time again. This year its a brand new acronym for the same old BS.

I hate having to put people on PIP's.

Just found out my son's choice of college is going to run 35K a year. OMGGGGG!!!!!!!

Cortilian wrote:Just found out my son's choice of college is going to run 35K a year. OMGGGGG!!!!!!!

Is that just tuition? DOn't forget about books, fees, food, housing. Hmmm... I'm probably not making it better, am I?

Isgrimnur wrote:Phillip Phillips may be the first American Idol that I actually like. It's certainly the first album I've bought from any contestant attached to it. He goes from sounding like Mark Mumford to Dave Matthews to his own voice in his debut album.

I thought his radio song, "blah blah Home" was another Mumford & Sons songs off the new M&S album. That actually doesn't speak well for him IMO as that what I've heard off that album feels like they've taken their sound and turned it into a schtick (for lack of a better concept).

godhugh wrote:Why would you get sleepy after taking Ibuprofen?

That's a damned good question. Why doesn't caffeine keep me awake? Why does alchohol make me wired? Why don't pain blockers work on me? I'm broken?

MHS wrote:Ughhhhh. Why are people such downers? Try to do something just random and fun and get lectured. Thanks! I love feeling judged.

-not aimed at anyone here

That's a damned good question. Was this about your FB chain post? If so, that's a shame. I was excited to participate when I saw a friend post the same thing a week or so ago, knowing how cool some of the stuff she makes is. Then I realized I would have to make five things unique to five people and then I just thought to myself how lucky the first five to respond to her were going to be and slunk on.

bb2112 wrote:I hate having to put people on PIP's.

Private Internet Protocol circuits?

Cortilian wrote:Just found out my son's choice of college is going to run 35K a year. OMGGGGG!!!!!!!

I hear those stories and they terrify me. EMU cost me $700 a semester when I started. When I graduated it was $2500 a semester and I was fuming piss about that.

And on topic, the weather outside like lovers past. After the misery of the last few weeks, anything not ice cold feels like warmth. So now my emotions are convincing that the joy of spring is right around the corner when I know in reality this is just building me up for a bitter storm brewing that I can't even see coming.

LordMortis wrote:

bb2112 wrote:I hate having to put people on PIP's.

Private Internet Protocol circuits?

Performance Improvement Plan - ie get your shit together or you are getting fired.

coopasonic wrote:

LordMortis wrote:

bb2112 wrote:I hate having to put people on PIP's.

Private Internet Protocol circuits?

Performance Improvement Plan - ie get your shit together or you are getting fired.

Forgive my brain. The words it came up with were "PIP PIP or Cheerio, bitch."

coopasonic wrote:

Cortilian wrote:Just found out my son's choice of college is going to run 35K a year. OMGGGGG!!!!!!!

Is that just tuition? DOn't forget about books, fees, food, housing. Hmmm... I'm probably not making it better, am I?

That includes almost all fees. I'm sure misc stuff will creep up but we are looking at 70K for the 1st 2 years. I graduated from the University of Florida in 1996 and my 4 year degree cost me a grand total of $9,000.00 and change. my son is an excellent student with great grades and very good test scores which means, in Florida, he qualifies for 75% of his tuition to be covered by the state. However, this does not include fees. Tuition is approximately $3200 of that $70,000 figure for 2 years. I am absolutely floored.

Off to search for scholarships.