It's Personal...

erik · Post by **erik** » Mon Jan 06, 2014 4:18 am

It's been snowing like the dickens today, I had to shovel my driveway twice (and now it could use a third go, but fuck it), and I suspect I moved over a ton of snow with a shitty broken plastic shovel.

More interesting is that our big ol' weeping willow tree has finally succumbed to the weather and it split in half down to the base, and has basically gone *splat* in our yard. I'm looking forward to hacking that up, probably come next weekend.

After about a foot of snow, wind chill is supposed to be taking it down to -40 or -50 tomorrow. I'm still planning to go on in to work unless the county imposes a "emergency personnel only" driving limitations on travel for Indianapolis just almost the entire northern half of Indiana has.

If I'm off work, maybe I'll try my hand at some snow men. I woulda made some yesterday, but it was a full day of shoveling since our driveway is a bit longish. Maybe we will make a funereal gathering of snowmen around the weeping willow.

[edit: Whoops. Marion County (aka Indianapolis) is now also under those aforementioned travel restrictions. I'll still plan for work tomorrow since it may update in the mornin. Hrmmm.]

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Mon Jan 06, 2014 6:17 am

Holy shit. Wow. It dropped to just below freezing here today. We don't have snow. This winter has been particularly cold, though.

codeGlaze · Post by **codeGlaze** » Mon Jan 06, 2014 7:30 am

We've been cold for a week, warm for a week... and on.

Just waiting for rain to melt the foot of snow away like it did a week after last time. xD

TiaC · Post by **TiaC** » Mon Jan 06, 2014 9:10 am

I'm just going to be smug about our recent colder weather having highs in the 60s.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Mon Jan 06, 2014 9:21 am

we still don't even have temperatures of below 0 degree celsius over here O.o

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Tue Jan 07, 2014 5:32 pm

Today is supposed to have a low of 7 Fahrenheit. I'm not sure we've ever dropped to single digits in my lifetime before. Public schools have been cancelled due to cold, despite not having any snow on the ground.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Tue Jan 07, 2014 6:44 pm

Where do you live? Single digit weather isn't too uncommon up here in New England, especially in the coastal areas (like Boston).

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Tue Jan 07, 2014 7:00 pm

Near DC. Apparently the average temperature for Jan 7 is 28.7.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Tue Jan 07, 2014 7:22 pm

I'm on the Gulf Coast. It's actually below freezing at 1 o'clock in the afternoon.

I can't remember when this happened last. Usually, if it's freezing, it's at night and the wee hours of the morning.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Wed Jan 22, 2014 5:13 pm

Woohoo! Another victim of the Target hack! I've been wondering when it would hit.

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Also, ingrown eyelashes suck.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 6:05 pm

Holy shit.

It snowed here.

This is bizarre as far south as I am

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Sat Jan 25, 2014 4:05 am

Wow. I'm sorry.

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I had no idea how much commercials melted children's brains. Because we ditched cable TV before Giovanni was conscious, the only thing he's ever been exposed to is on-demand programming. Many of the channels my son likes to watch on YouTube, however, have started showing commercials. So now I hear about McDonald's, Oscar Meyer Wienermobile 2014, Chase bank, Arco/AMPM, Applebee's, HP printers, and half-a-dozen other things I don't recall offhand. It's unnerving.

I drive by an Arco and now have to explain why - if it's "the cheapest gas in town" - I'm buying my gas at Costco. Or why I don't buy Oscar Meyer hotdogs. Or why we'll never take him to McDonald's. Or why our printer is a Brother. Or why I refuse to bank at Chase.

I'm so adblocking that shit.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sat Jan 25, 2014 8:24 am

I think it might be because he's never seen them before and hasn't yet gained the ability to shrug them off. He believes the commercials because no one's told him not to.

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Sat Jan 25, 2014 8:41 am

I had a phase like that. I'd ask my parents to get me some brand of cheese I saw on TV which had some offer where you could win a lot of free toys, watches, game consoles, etc. They got me the cheese, and I was kind of disappointed that I didn't win anything and just got some cheese. The cheese was alright, but not too different from the brands my parents got anyway.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Sun Jan 26, 2014 5:07 am

It's so fun! "Mommy?! What's the special kind of beer called? Can we buy some?!"

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I got my 23andMe DNA results back this week (my Mom bought me and Ess the tests for Christmas). Man... It's some fascinating stuff. I wish my dad were in the system so that I could get a better view of my ancestry, but still... Way cool. And we were in before the FDA letter, so I got to see the results of my genetic testing. Not a carrier of any of the 53 major diseases they test for!

Surgo · Post by **Surgo** » Sun Jan 26, 2014 6:13 am

I think Maxus is right and you might be better off explaining why commercials are bullshit rather than just blocking them straight up, because he's going to run into them later on.

Then again, I'm not a parent and I'm bad with kids so you might want to ignore what I say.

tussock · Post by **tussock** » Sun Jan 26, 2014 7:40 am

What age does that concept, that there's huge numbers of people spending a fortune to hurt you because they profit from it, when does that stop being nightmare material?

Because Coca-Cola Amatil kills an awful lot of people every year. Like, way more than guns and drugs and terrorists or whatever stupid shit tv tells you to worry about. And those adds are absolutely targeting children who find the very concept of hurting that many people difficult to grasp.

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Sun Jan 26, 2014 8:36 am

I don't think most people of any age are bothered by this sort of thing. It's one of those things people don't usually think about. Even if it's brought up, you might get a "Oh yeah, that's bad" from people, but they'll probably stop thinking about it a few seconds later. I think the mind has a way of shutting down thoughts that seem headed towards uncomfortable places (usually). If you do get the concept, I think it stops being nightmare material whenever you accept that it's beyond your power to do much about it. Or, you could realize that's not really true, and that you can at least influence it (however little), but that it would take away from your video game time and/or money.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Sun Jan 26, 2014 3:41 pm

Giovanni doesn't really have a good grasp on the concept of people lying to him so they can take his money. His concept of deceit is currently, "If I answer Mom with I-Don't-Know then I won't get in trouble."

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Sun Jan 26, 2014 6:23 pm

The winter finally came - it's -20 outside ^_^

fectin · Post by **fectin** » Sun Jan 26, 2014 8:43 pm

radthemad4 wrote:I don't think most people of any age are bothered by this sort of thing. It's one of those things people don't usually think about. Even if it's brought up, you might get a "Oh yeah, that's bad" from people, but they'll probably stop thinking about it a few seconds later. I think the mind has a way of shutting down thoughts that seem headed towards uncomfortable places (usually). If you do get the concept, I think it stops being nightmare material whenever you accept that it's beyond your power to do much about it. Or, you could realize that's not really true, and that you can at least influence it (however little), but that it would take away from your video game time and/or money.

I think most people are just okay with the idea that hyperbole is not inherently evil.

erik · Post by **erik** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 6:47 am

Longes wrote:The winter finally came - it's -20 outside ^_^

It was supposed to get to -20F Monday but looks like forecasts have changed to only -10 instead. The 30+ mph winds (now with what must be stronger gusts) right now are a bit creepy tho since they are loud and I can see fairly large branches bouncing like crazy.

http://hint.fm/wind/

I guess most of the Midwest is getting this juice

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 12:47 am

Welp, looks like the school will not be offering me paid work. Now that I've volunteered here for over a year. (Meanwhile one of the others is being dropped to part time here, part time in another section.) This in the same year that our Prime Minister has decided to reduce spending on all welfare except corporate welfare (mining billionaires still get millions of dollars in fuel subsidies, don't worry).

I really hope he does go that little bit further and provoke Indonesia into declaring war on us. That way he'll go down in history as "the PM who managed to go out of his way to get us invaded within his first year", and probably will be forced to stand down by the populace. And also because then Australia won't just be a shithole, it will be a war-torn shithole so I'll be able to claim refugee status in Scandiwegia.

Blasted · Post by **Blasted** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 12:58 am

Pffft. Old people who tend to vote right wing aren't having their pensions cut. It's only the unemployed and disabled.

But still, sucks that they are just sucking up your voluntary labour. Something for the cv, I guess.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 1:12 am

Yeah, something that says "I'm a sucker who works for free!"

Fuck it, if my support agency can't provide me with a real paid desk job in an air-conditioned office after all this, I'm going to do whatever is necessary to be put on permanent disability pension. The injuries required would still be less painful than putting up with the continued bullshit.