Has anything of interest happened to you recently?

Congrats! I hope you enjoy petty politics, infighting, rage and backstabbing. Actually, I'm being silly. You like Warhammer, of course you like that stuff too. :P

Really though, I once spent a night listening to Irish team politics and bitching. Shit gets real yo.

The first time I played at the ETC was for Team Ireland. I believe my picture with the team is still on display in Gamers World.

Do you know Mal, Gareth, Nigel and the rest of them?

Ok, today I purchased my archery equipment. Truly, I am a man today. Perhaps I should point out that the fact that I also got Farcry 3, and actually got to spend enough time in there to get the bow will in no way influence my feelings towards my equipment. Does anyone know if there are komodo dragons running free somewhere in central europe ?

I know some of the Cork/Warpcon/WAC guys, I'm not too sure who has been on which teams though. (And this may be narcissistic paranoia but only one wargamer I know, knows I'm trans. So I'd appreciate if you don't mention you know a girl who knows them who is posting on the internet on forums you're on (see, narcissistic paranoia.)

I also know the story of your profile pic (and yes I know the poster on Qt3 who has a remarkably similar amount of knowledge as me, as that's me too.)

I'd love to do archery. I did a bit on holidays years ago and it was a blast. I'd go for the field archery style, less doodads on the bow, and shooting in forests. It's on my list of things to do after I learn to drive. Although if I had my way I could combine my desire for people to ride horses for day-to-day transport with archery and go Mongolian on them there foam animals.

Looking forward to your reply in the Post Pictures of Yourself thread.

Picture fat, red bearded nerd with bow and arrow. There you go.

To me it is amazing - nowadays I mainly sit in my office, and the archery even after the few months I trained now has given me more back strength, severely reducing my daily pain. Also, since I need to concentrate so much when shooting it is a bit easier to let go of work, and I have a stress management problem. So I sleep better, I feel better and the fact that the guys in training are funny, likeable people is a plus of course. Perhaps I should point out that I am barely competent - last week I crashed at work and had to go home to sleep for a few hours. Like the idiot I am I went to training afterwards. At one point I needed to apologize to the girl beside me since I hit her target instead of mine a few times in a row. Truly, Robin Hood I am not.

My brother is a complete ditz (he was also very young at the time.) Not noticing people were just about to walk down to check their arrows and falling behind them, he was about to leave his last arrow off. I spotted this, and grabbed his arrow from the bow. This was probably stupid, considering I could have had my hand ripped to pieces. Fortunately I didn't and fortunately my brother didn't maim anyone.

And I totally get what you're saying about the benefits of it. Field archery is high on my list of things to do eventually.

By the way - which movie is that from ?

The Weatherman

The short answer is that I'm an idiot.

The long answer is that the unique topography of Seattle, in that it is the hilliest urban area in the US, presented some very extreme planning challenges that city engineers apparently continue to fail to rise to meet. Google, on the other hand, only half-fails to meet the challenges presented by the topography and the poor planning, and therefore the directions Maps gives you only resembles hipster Mapsquest throwsbacks half of the time. The other half it simply has you making turns onto streets you can't go down from streets you can't turn off of. How a company based in San Francisco deals so poorly with hilly terrain and badly designed infrastructure is beyond me, but they do it. Add into the mix someone who is (1) used to city designs making relative sense and (2) has largely lived in cities where "treacherous backroad" equals "hick with a shotgun" and you can see how all of this was a disaster in the making. King County, more and less shitty mass transit, please.

But, it wasn't bad, it was just STRESSFUL, as I was trying to denote by the "Not Truly Bad" part. No one was hurt, nothing was damaged. The cop was really great, probably the best I've ever had any interaction with (had this been Dallas PD they'd have harassed or ticketed me for it instead of helping), and the tow driver only charged me for hooking me up and not for the tow. The cop came out because I called the police AFTER (1) Kendra went around to a dozen or so houses knocking to ask if anyone had any chocks to put behind the trailer wheels so we would stop slipping and not only did the majority not answer but a couple of them actually yelled at her - including the guy who she was trying to inform about his impending property damage, and (2) a handful of cars tried going either way along this one-car road, all of whom got that they couldn't except for one guy who started flashing his lights and honking his horn. Rich entitled assholes can all go fuck themselves, which was the shared sentiment among the four of us.

(In before cool story, bro.)

Elyscape I don't in fact have an xray on me, but I'm sure my parents have one. It's not digital and I'm not even sure how I'd do that.

If you're curious you could google boxer's fracture, as that's what I had. None of the pictures on the first couple pages are as severe as mine. I basically shattered the 4th and 5th metacarpals in multiple places, most people get one break in the 4 or 5. When I shatter my hand, I go all out.

Fun bonus note, the day I shattered my hand due to poor form on a punch was the day I was supposed to receive prizes for academic performance in a few classes. Obviously it was all a sneaky plot to escape having to go to a boring ceremony.

X-rays of plates and screws are the only cool thing about that kind of injury. I just hit the two-year anniversary of receiving a cyborg ankle (one plate, six screws). The before and after x-rays do not much resemble each other.

No kidding! Wrist position, man! It's all about proper wrist position when you're hitting a (mostly) immovable rigid object. Were you trying to punch out the Colossus of Rhodes?

That reminds me that when I go in for my dental exam next month I should see if I can get a copy of the panoramic x-rays. My skull looks awesome.

No, he was dumpy. It was many punches in, I was tired and fired off a lazy one with way more force than was necessary against his skull. I only discovered my fun and exciting new source of pain after several minutes had passed.

He, of course, was fine (if woozy) almost immediately.

For future reference, only punch people in their doughy bits. The face is a hilarious target but holy fuck is it well armored.

Man, here I was ready to go off on a dissertation of how interesting the architecture of the skull is and how to punch it - but then I realized that'd invite dozens of "side suto" comments.

"They tell you, never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is on occasion hilarious."

On a whim, while walking home yesterday (yeah, exercise!), I stopped by a liquor store and bought this adorable little bottle of liquor.
it's so cute and tiny and i love it.

But I am afraid to drink it because I feel like I need to be in a totally perfect mindset or else something will happen. Dunno what, but something. So now I've placed it on my dresser, awaiting the moment when I'll be "good" enough to drink it.

also i washed the dog and cleaned out his ears and he ran around everywhere afterwards. why do dogs like to run around everywhere after getting baths augh

There's a reason professional fighters wear gloves, and no matter how big they seem they're there so you can hit people harder, not softer.

Tomorrow, buy another one. Better yet, buy two. Drink those. Then you'll feel good enough and you can drink the first one.

Bryce, West Seattle is totally F-ed up with crazy little one way streets with impossible hills. Or crazy little 1 1/2 lane streets on steep hills. Also, sensible city planning seemed to happen to other cities/counties.

Little known fact, Seattle is actually hillier than San Francisco.

Thanks !

I just got to check out Google Glasses at the reddit meetup worn by a girl named by Penny. HOLY FUCKING COOL.

Respectfully,
-Krise Madsen's dad

Oh awesome! I know a guy from Boston who played on the Canadian team last year. Sounded like a really great experience.

Jenny, not Penny. Guuuuuuesss what I got!

the clap?

Does it start with 867 and end with 5309?

Google is omnipresent so I will say that I got her card, that we walked together alone for a while and that I did not get to try the glasses on (but did not ask).

I did however ask if her thing was a marketing ploy. She said not, which I believe enough.

So those of you who relied on ASSUMPTIONS to ASSUME what happened, I'm sorry to disappoint you. Very. Very sorry. To disappoint. Especially in this instance.

Ain't no hills here in Mt. View, man!

I work in a bowling alley. A huge, corporate owned one that's been in business for over 50 years. Full kitchen and bar, 48 lanes.

At work today, our bartender called out so we were a man down. The desk girl isn't old enough to handle alcohol, so that leaves me and our manager to handle that, on top of the rest of our work. (Good news is, she IS cross trained on kitchen, so I had help.)

Anyway, a moderately large group of people walks in, because murphey's law said this kind of thing would happen on the day we're short staffed. Even better, without calling ahead or making any plans, they order a TRUCKLOAD of food. Mostly all fried snacks. Our frier is the size of a shoebox and can only handle small loads at a time.

Of course, I'm backed up with a half-hour's worth of frying at LEAST, with only intermittant help when the other two employees aren't stuck bartending/desk tending.* And this is the day everyone on our league, and several open-bowlers want to order more food. Every time I have to go to the register, I have to take off my foodsafe gloves and waste MORE time, and possibly burn stuff.

Eventually, we DID get everything taken care of well, with no complaints. We were all dead tired and had a mountain of dishes and clean up to tend to. By this time, I ended up in the bar doing dishes and occational drink duty. We had been struggling for a while to get some empty glasses back into the bar to clean and use for new orders. We kept getting sidelined by other duties, or people were still using them. After a while, the league starts finishing up and leaving their stuff behind, and things calm down even more. I'm surprised when the side (employee) door opens and someone sets a handful of glasses on the counter for me.

Expecting to see my boss or the desk gal, I'm surprised to see one of the leaguers, a little old man called Pineapple.** A jolly old guy who's life is bowling on various house leagues these days, though he's a veteran in the military and was once on the pro bowling circuit. Anyway, without so much as a word, he sets a bunch of glassware on the counter, I'm quick to thank him in my surprise, he just chuckles and heads back out. I felt so bad that I was so thankful and relieved for his help after that day we had. I felt bad because it was MY job, and we pride ourselves on handling that, sort of.

It occured to me for the first time as I was dealing with these mixed feelings, that it wan't the first time he'd done it. He'd brought glasses in for us before, and brought things bowlers left behind on the lanes to us at the desk, like rented shoes. Later in the same night, before he left, I saw him near the desk, rearranging all the shoes from the group who had come in to all face the same way so they would be easier to for us to carry to the spot where we tie and disinfect them and put them away. He just stood there for a good ten minutes, reaching over the high desk to sort all the shoes the way he wanted them.

I'm not sure what to say about this story. He's just a really sweet guy. I'm the kind of person who appriciates little details and effort like that, so I was oddly touched when it sunk in today... Pineapple's in his 80's and has the begining stages of dementia, so I can't help wondering sometimes how much longer he'll be able to keep coming to bowl. I wonder if it has to do with the things he does to help us, or if that's his own personality shinning through despite it. I didn't meet him until after he was diagnosed, so I'll never know for sure...

Anyway, my life's not that interesting, so this little introspection is what stood out to me about my day...


*The front desk not only checks in customers but has the computers that control all the lanes when soemthing goes wrong or you need a score correction, etc. It also it the way to call the mechanic if there's a mechanical problem with th elane. There are a fair number of mundane problems that happen every day lanes are in use.

**Apparently, he's Hawaiian. Legend around the alley says it's his real name. It's the one all his doccuments for bowling, labelled with the first name 'Pineapple.'

Sorry for such a long post! Feel freeto disregard!

This isn't really random since it's nearly two months in the making now, and it's not me specifically so I figured I'd scoot out of the find work thread.

Quick recap: Hubby was headhunted by an HR recruiter for another company. He wasn't looking for another job. He currently has two jobs, one as a networking engineer (his "day job") and one as a stage technician at the college theatre. This new job would require us to move, and for him to quit his current jobs. He received a verbal offer over the phone last week.

Hubby is finally (maybe) telling his boss about his job offer. We asked for a written offer from the new company, which apparently is being sent via snail-mail and went out today. He's getting anxious though (as am I) and he caved and told one of his coworkers yesterday, which he says he already regrets doing. It's not in his nature to keep secrets from people so it's really been eating him up.

The nice thing is that he has a flexible start date with the new company, should he choose to accept that position (he isn't giving the new company a yes until he sees what his day job employer has to say). If he accepts the offer, we're aiming to have his last day before the end of the year, just to make taxes easy, but this continues to seem less and less likely.

The not-so-nice thing is that his coworker told him that he thinks his current employer will provide a counter-offer. If the offer is sufficient (which I doubt will happen, considering his products haven't sold well (not that it's his fault)), it means we'll be staying. Or rather, he'll be staying. I still might move, because the jobs I qualify for locally (~60-mile radius) are very few and far between (a good month would be about three applications), and it's recently been brought to my attention that I might be depressed because I feel pretty worthless not having a career, so being employed would directly positively impact my mental health. Staying jobless here is just not an option I can consider anymore.

So, hopefully we'll have something conclusive by the end of today, about whether or not his current company can provide enough incentive for him to stay.

Life is hard.

What the hell did you have a trailer for? And yeah....Seattle proper seems to have been designed by people that think Americans drive little tiny European cars, and not gigantic SUV's.

This is why the Suburbs are better - slightly better infrastructure design. Just slightly though.

Moving stuff out of uboxes and into our storage unit. Instead of suggesting we rent a truck and haul the uboxes' trailer behind it because Seattle is hilly and whatnot, the UHaul guys were all, hurf durf, you drive a vintage vehicle and are new to town, I don't see how this could possibly go wrong.

And yeah, I also did get lost in one of those megarich terraced cliff "they probably think I'm after their stuff" parts of Shoreline. Whoops. But, I'm looking for places in the suburbs. I resigned myself to that even before we moved here. Really, it wouldn't be a big deal if we stayed in the city because I wouldn't be driving the van once we get settled, it'd be going in the garage near permanently, but I'm trying to keep my options open and the suburbs definitely have more garages. The problem is finding areas that aren't as expensive (or more expensive) than Seattle while still being serviced by transit. Compromises. :(

So, hubby did tell his boss today. Apparently his boss has counter-offered with higher wages of a currently indeterminate amount (since he can't get better benefits), putting me onto hubby's health insurance for free (which I don't really want at all since that plan is a piece of garbage, especially compared to my current one which is also free), an expense account for hubby that he can do whatever he wants with as long as it's work related (which means I'd get to go on business trips with him if I wanted to) and hiring a headhunter for me.

The headhunter thing is the wild card for me. I wasn't expecting it at all, and I suppose the idea is that I'd have a much better chance at getting a job here, but I'm just not sure what a headhunter can do that I can't since the number of jobs available here that I'm qualified for are just scant. It's simply a function of where we live. I'm not bothered by doing the legwork in job hunting, but I understand that headhunters are much better at it.

Unfortunately, hubby's industry is extremely spread out, and for him to ever change jobs would almost guarantee a move (unless we lived in Vegas I guess?). He doesn't see himself staying at his current company for more than five more years (there is literally nowhere for him to be promoted to; the company is made up of seven people), and the next closest company he could possibly work for while staying in his industry would require us to move at least four hours from where we are currently (which is in LA, where I have exactly zero interest in ever living). The best case scenario is us moving to SF in five years, where it's raining jobs that he's qualified to do but aren't necessarily in his industry of preference.

Life is hard.

Coworker just now: "the consistency is different, so I have to suck harder to get more."

WHAT IS HE TALKING ABOUT?!

My favorite days are the days where a customer dares to get all mouthy with me. Then I get to whip out lines like this one!

"Respectfully, sir, we're not contractually obligated to reduce the price of your service simply because you fucked up on the due diligence. I wish you the best of luck sucking on that."

Sometimes sales is the best thing ever.

HAHHA. Context. I love telling people I'm throwing my balls in their face when we clean up at night.

We also get prank calls asking us how big and heavy our balls are.

I found out yesterday that Dr. Christopher Erhardt passed away. Kind of sad, I just had lunch with him what seems like not that long ago, but was actually two years ago. I had him as an instructor at DigiPen, and while he could be a bit snarky at times, it's understandable when you have to deal with one hundred new freshmen every year, and a good percentage of them think they are god's gift to the game industry. He was a smart guy and he'll be missed.

So, despite a reasonable and tempting counter-offer from hubby's current employer (which has made me mostly in favor of staying here), his employer has apparently told him that he should take the offer from the other company.

Now I'm even more confused. We're aiming to have a final decision by tomorrow.