Minor victory thread

Squidleybits

Squidleybits

The lady who adopted Pudding's brother reached out to me today and we chatted via Facebook messages for a while.

Pudding's brother is also huge for his age and has tufts behind his ears. He has a mane as well but it's smaller than Pud's. He is all gray including his tufts and mane.

They came from a hoarding situation and were bottle fed from three weeks old. Her cat hasn't claimed a stuffed bear, but he does try to nurse on pillows.

She actually went to the shelter for Pud based on his profile but ended up choosing his brother instead. Pud and I were meant to be!!
 
fade

fade

Staff member
Tinwhistler said:
Minor victory: I went and picked up my son from his mom's. It's 105 miles, and should take about 2 hours. With traffic, it always takes 3.5-5 hours each way. I usually leave at 7am, and after chatting time with the ex, I usually am not back until close to 5pm.

I figured people would be back to work today, and I was driving right in the middle of morning rush hour. That usually means back at around 8pm.

2 hours 15 minutes there there, 2 hours 15 minutes back.

woot :)
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There's not much traffic here in Houston today. It's New Year's Observed, so a lot of people (including yours truly) have the day off.
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

fade said:
There's not much traffic here in Houston today. It's New Year's Observed, so a lot of people (including yours truly) have the day off.
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Yeah, but I figured enough people would be working to make the drive a pain. Guess not.

The only holidays my company observes are Thanksgiving and Christmas. I had to take PTO to go pick up my son. But that's ok. I have like 5 weeks of it built up now. ;P
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

Don't normally buy scratch-off lottery tickets. But the store had this neat "treasure island" scratch off. Instead of just scratching everything, you follow a ship path, scratching squares until you get to the treasure or until you get to a "game over". That sounded fun, and a I had a $20 in my pocket, so I said why not?

Bought 4 scratch offs (3 treasure island, one "all cash no taxes" scratch off) for $14. Won 3 out of four for $78.00, or a net of $64.00. :aaah:
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Wasn't sure if I should put this in the Epic Win because, well, it doesn't feel like an "epic" win to me.

I got approved for income assistance. About $500 a month, though $200 goes to my parents for room & board. Plus, there are medical benefits, so my medications will only cost about $5, which will definitely help. So I at least have some income while I struggle to get a job.

I don't call it an "epic win" only because I hate having to rely on this, even if it might only be for a short time.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Considering things like income assistance or social security "slacker paradise" or a teat for people who "don't want to work" to suck off all their lives is a filthy way if thinking, it's very American and it's sadly infiltrated large parts of the population's mind here as well.

Look, I've known people who unapologetically said "I can live off of €700 a month, I don't need to go ski or go on holidays, I can lie in my couch all day, watch cartoons and get enough money to get by". They exist, sure. And, frankly, fuck'em. But also - there'll be more and more people like that, because frankly, we need less and less people to work.
On the other hand, the whole system's in place to help people. It doesn't matter why. Maybe you've fallen sick. Maybe you've got mental problems. Maybe your last job place went bankrupt. Maybe you got fired because you were a jackass towards your boss. Maybe a whole host of possible stuff. The system's supposed to be there to help you. Get back on your feet, find another job, get yourself upright again.
We've somehow taught ourselves that having to "rely on" welfare is something to be ashamed of. It isn't. Choosing to mooch off of society while you don't need it is something else.
 
Squidleybits

Squidleybits

I went to Walmart to get a pot roast, various birthday cards etc etc and found:

- Pokemon valentines for each kid in a big enough set that they can ruin a bunch and still have enough for their class
- Poke-ball pyjama pants for me! How can I not do super well at Moon while wearing them?
- super thin shirt for drawing on. The ones at Michaels are actually too nicely made for what I'm trying to do

And

- a few super old Pokemon booster packs!

This plus having a date for my next SI block and I'm in such a good mood that I didn't get mad at Pud for this afternoon's foolishness. (He tried to get inside the slow cooker WITH the roast and nearly toppled it all onto our tile floor).
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

In Taiwan, there's a tradition where companies have a year-end banquet before the Chinese New Year (which means that, rather ironically, the year-end banquet usually takes place in January). It's meant to reward the company's employees' for their hard work over the year.

We had our banquet last weekend. It was at a Hooters.

Better yet, the theme of the banquet was "superheroes", so you could dress up. Several female coworkers dressed up as Black Widow. A few others dressed up as "female" versions of comic book characters. And yes I put female in quotes, so you know exactly what I mean there.

I forgot the banquet was last weekend, so I didn't have a chance to get a costume. Instead I dressed as myself and claimed my costume was "Steve Trevor". No one got it.
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

Here in Taiwan we generally receive a year-end bonus from our employers, which (confusingly again) is usually handed out in January, right before the Chinese New Year. My company determines the size of your bonus based on the results of your year-end evaluation. I've just learned that my supervisor gave me a glowing evaluation, acknowledging the extra duties I've been asked to cover over the last six months, and recognizing that I always try to help the company however I can. Consequently, I'm probably going to get a pretty fat bonus.

More money is good. Recognition and affirmation for the stuff I do is good.

Also my supervisor is kinda cute.
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

Bubble181 said:
Shame she's leaving the company, with the evaluation she gave you. Perhaps you can try for her job?
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It's ok, she has an underling who'll probably take over her role if (when?) she leaves. :D

The underling is not unattractive. But she doesn't make my Bhamv Sense tingle, so she'll probably stay for quite a while.
 
Eriol

Eriol

Got the Internet at home back today!


As many of you know, I have moved recently, and my house didn't have internet... until today! So I had to miss a bit of work in the morning, but other than that, I'll finally have internet back tonight.

Fibre, and will have full Gigabit (supposedly), but I won't be able to make full use of it for about 3-4 weeks when my Dad and I start the installation of the Cat 6 throughout the house. Until then I'm on the wireless network, which is still fine (120+ Mbps by a test) enough in the meantime.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Succesfully replaced the fridge here. Which is not a huge American freestanding thing but a small integrated thingie. Bonus: it turned out the ones who installed the old one, cut off the plug and connected the wires directly in the wall socket, and I managed to untangle that mess and get both the old one working with a newly-added plug, and the new one working through the old socket.

Yes, I know, very minor works, but my experience with electrical chores is somewhere around 0, so I'm happy I managed to do both without screwing something up :p
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

stienman said:
:aaah:
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I understand why they did, though. The space actually isn't quite deep enough - the socket is right behind the place where the fridge has to go. A (European, earthed) plug means the whol fridge has to come 5cm further to the front and it doesn't look as nice. I may actually do the same thing once I've finished with all the other crap that has to go past behind there.
 
Denbrought

Denbrought

Bubble181 said:
I understand why they did, though. The space actually isn't quite deep enough - the socket is right behind the place where the fridge has to go. A (European, earthed) plug means the whol fridge has to come 5cm further to the front and it doesn't look as nice. I may actually do the same thing once I've finished with all the other crap that has to go past behind there.
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That's what recessed sockets are for, AFAIK. They grant you that extra clearance so you don't do dumb stuff. Are they not sold at your hardware store?
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Ehh, possibly. it's the divider wall with the apartment next door though, I'm not sure how much deeper I can put the cables witohut ending up in their kitchen.
 
fade

fade

Staff member
Usually I'm not very "Murica", but I do prefer US plugs over EU and especially UK. Those are so huge, and attempt to solve safety issues that don't really happen enough to matter (like shocking yourself on a partially ejected plug).
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
fade said:
Usually I'm not very "Murica", but I do prefer US plugs over EU and especially UK. Those are so huge, and attempt to solve safety issues that don't really happen enough to matter (like shocking yourself on a partially ejected plug).
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At least they have ground pins, unlike those crazy japs that make you screw on a spade connector for things that "need" ground.
 
Eriol

Eriol

GasBandit said:
At least they have ground pins, unlike those crazy japs that make you screw on a spade connector for things that "need" ground.
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I was "more than freaked out" that most of the people (ie: electricians, and/or handymen) weren't freaked out that at least some of the grounds in my old house were just cross-wired to neutral, instead of being actual ground. *shudder*

Now that I think about it, I need to check my new house out. One province over, but that water gap matters for many things. Hopefully it's fine... :(
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Eriol said:
I was "more than freaked out" that most of the people (ie: electricians, and/or handymen) weren't freaked out that at least some of the grounds in my old house were just cross-wired to neutral, instead of being actual ground. *shudder*
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It may not be code, but it's better than nothing when you can't pull all new cable.
...unless the previous owner has switched neutral and hot, which I ran into a few times.

--Patrick
 
Squidleybits

Squidleybits

Our daughter asked me to stop by Toys R Us on my way home from my infusion yesterday and I couldn't help but grab a few booster packs. I kept falling asleep on them and dropping them and forgetting about them. I finally got into them now and look who was waiting for me:

IMG_9683.JPG
 
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