Continuing the discussion from Happy Cranks-giving! (November mini-rants):
…When all through the board,
Not a poster deserving the trolls they ignored;
The memes were posted with GIFs animated,
Beside nightmare fuel, AI-generated.
I wish you all great joy over the holidays, but we know they will be shitty, so gripe about it here.
I’m anticipating an, um, interesting Christmas this year. My youngest sister tends to be a drama queen, and it’s intensified of late. She skipped family Thanksgiving to stay home in her jammies and watch TV. Then she blasted a rather nasty FB post which she took down shortly after (not entirely sure what/who prompted the removal. I didn’t want to engage.)
She’s 60 years old - is it too late to tell her to grow up??
Very clever and well worded! Had a wonderful week off, and I hope you had a joyous holiday with family and friends!
Pluto did a Houdini escape last night, sneaking out of the bedroom in spite of two closed/locked doors, went downstairs and tore the Zingerman’s catalog into dozens of shreds strewn across the living room floor, also hurling the cushions off the couch before coming back upstairs in the morning to sniff at the door like nothing had happened.
Pluto is in the doghouse. We are thinking of trading him for a shelter dog and a bag of rawhide chews to be named later.
Would like to state, for the record, that I hate it when I call some organization… like a bank… get placed on hold, only to have the hold music interrupted every 10 seconds for some blather about “if you want to check your account balance, please go online” or “your security is our #1 job” or whatever. JUST LET THE MUSIC PLAY UNTIL ONE OF YOUR AGENTS IS AVAILABLE, AS I DON’T NEED YOUR STUPID MESSAGES, K? THANKS, BAI!
It is annoying when you’re calling about website issues and they’re nagging you to do stuff online and not bother the human staff, isn’t it?
I also hate the one about “your call is very important to us”. If my call’s so important, ANSWER IT.
I used to get that when I was calling my ISP. I’m like, if I could go to the website then my internet would be working and I wouldn’t be calling you.
Co-signed. If you’re gonna make me wait, at least let me “enjoy” the music uninterrupted.
I woke up this morning with a nosebleed and remembered my friend was dead. (“This just in: Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.” ) It sucks. Everyone in the writers group has been informed by now, but nobody has talked about it as a group yet, and I want to talk about it. I shared with my mutual friend that I felt like I didn’t do enough for him, and she kind of talked me down, assuring me that he knew we had his back. We did have a good Discord chat with him shortly before he died, a sort of virtual group hug. But I didn’t see him for months before his death. I can’t even remember the last time I saw him in person. I didn’t know it was the last time.
I’ve had allergies all morning which have enhanced the sad to make me a bit teary.
Returning from a break so naturally I have a mountain of email and administrative tasks to complete rather than do the task that’s stressing me out the most. I have an incredibly tedious week ahead of me. Putting information from 450 folders into a spreadsheet and praying like hell it’s all done by Friday. I have meetings and appointments and a bunch of other bullshit this week.
And I’m sad. And I’m scared, like genuinely stressed. I get like this sometimes, where I worry I’m going to fail at everything.
I may take the afternoon off and just work on a puzzle. Or in the very least work on a bunch of little shit to get it all out of the way for tomorrow. I don’t know how long it’s going to take to feel better about this.
I was trying to figure out a song for him and I think it’s this one. He would like it for the creep factor.
It’s somewhat natural to feel that way, when something traumatic happens that shatters your sense of security. You expect that the people you know will always be there, and then suddenly someone you’re close to is gone forever. You feel the same thing if you get unexpectedly terminated from a job, or dumped by a partner, or become a crime victim.
I went through something very similar last year. I used to play Diablo: Immortal on my mobile device. (I know you’ve played Diablo IV, there are a lot of similarities, but trust me after a long time playing D:I, I can tell you, don’t play it. It’s very pay-to-win, manipulative about money and monopolizing your real life time, it’s not a healthy game to play.) Anyway, I was really into it, because the game itself plays relatively well for a mobile game, but more importantly the social aspects were very well-done. I’d gotten into a clan that was dominant, which was a big deal because PVP was core to that game. Being literally someone part of the top of an entire server is a rush. And they really set it up so that there are incentives to be an active member of your clan; participating in events, doing group content, and so on.
The game also introduced a social aspect I’ve never seen before. So, you had a clan, which functioned in an identical way to guilds in most online games. And you have parties, which are temporary groups of people working together, sharing rewards and challenges (again, pretty standard for an online game). But they had a new social construct called a “Warband” which didn’t make sense at first, but I grew to love it, and I wish other (better) online games had the system. See, a Warband is like a miniature guild; the maximum size is 8 people, like a large party, but permanent, like a guild. And Warbands got names, and banners you can design, and shared goals, and leadership roles, and so on. Really, it’s a tiny guild. Usually everyone in a Warband was in the same clan, but you didn’t have to be.
Because it was small, it was pretty intimate. With a group of 8 compared to a group of up to 100 for a clan, you got to know people. And I got to know my Warband really well. We would chat all the time on Discord, and were constantly getting together in game for content, and we’d also chat outside of the game. Even when I quit playing Diablo: Immortal, I stayed in contact with this group of people, and in fact I still talk to a couple of them years later on rare occasion.
Anyway, the leader of our Warband, and the glue who held us together, his name was Matt and he was a very charismatic guy. A very troubled guy too. He was brilliant; his background was as a chemical engineer, and he’d had a long career working for major companies, but he was now unemployed and living off a mix of government assistance and savings. He wasn’t quite old enough to draw retirement of any kind, but he got by okay, and he spent most of the day drinking, doing drugs, and playing video games.
Our group was pretty close. We knew each other well. Matt got into a long-distance relationship of sorts (a rocky one) with another member of our Warband. Matt’s brother was also a member, and his brother has his own issues, as he’d broke his back many years before while on the job and was paralyzed, so like his brother he was unemployed but living off disability (and also doing drugs on and off, though I got the impression it wasn’t as bad as Matt).
Anyway, I think you can see where we’re going with this. We stopped hearing from Matt at one point, which was odd because we talked all the time. Finally, one of us asked for a welfare check, as we were geographically scattered all over the US (and a couple even lived outside of the country; one guy lived in Germany) but we were so close we had each others’ phone numbers and addresses. And sure enough, the cops found him dead in his living room. We had thought that if he had passed away, it would be a drug overdose and/or suicide (as he dealt with depression often) but it was worse. The autopsy said he’d died of cirrhosis. Basically, he had killed his liver by drinking so heavily for so many years. It’s an absolutely agonizing way to go, and he died all alone in an empty house. Such a sad end to such a warm, fun-loving guy who was always full of imagination and energy and excitement, who encouraged and motivated people and above all loved chatting with friends, even if they’re people he never met in-person.
It has been a bit over a year and it’s still hard to believe he’s gone. The pain never goes away completely but it becomes tolerable. You never stop missing a person you care about, but after a while it’s okay.
I’m really sorry and thank you for sharing your story. I’m probably going to feel a little out of sorts for a while, I guess.
Its okay to feel out of sorts. I had no clue my guy was going to pass at the age of 39.
A neighbor said, you look sad.
Yes. I dont want to be but nothing to do to fix that.
) for 10¢. Except sweats are bulky; likewise with winter jackets & suits which are both sold right next to the sweats. They used to have big plastic bags, & plastic garment bags for suits/sports coats/dresses. Charging or not, how do you not have any bags for bigger/bulkier items of clothing???LOL - I had a long, enjoyable hold a few years ago and actually asked the person who answered the call what the name of the music was.
Of course they did not know and now it is lost in the sounds of time.
Oh, that’s so awful. I’ve got it easy by comparison.
I finally cried. I’m not on Facebook so I tried to find him on Facebook to, I don’t know, feel like part of something, but I’d have to create a new account and I don’t think he’d want that for me, lol, Besides, I’m not bugging his bereaved wife with a friend request right now. But that feeling of being separated was very strong and that’s kind of when the dam broke.
I have very little experience with the death of close loved ones, but I’m experienced with grief of other sorts, so I know crying is good. It means feelings are being processed.
Oh, deer!
I went hiking on a mountain on Saturday. I was about 70% up the trail when I fell and damaged my (non-dominant) elbow.
So I returned to the car (better damaging an arm than a leg in this case) and drove to the nearest urgent care place.
Where I was seen and x-rayed. There’s a clear break at the joint. Was given a sling and told to do the orthopedist thing first thing Monday morning.
Orthopedist wasn’t sure of the extent of the damage by looking at the x-rays, other than “broken,” so ordered some more. These new ones were just as unclear.
So I now have an MRI scheduled tomorrow morning. Am told the problem could be anything from “simple break, wear a brace for a couple of weeks” to “surgery will be required.”
I can’t get in to see the doctor for an interpretation of the imaging till the eleventh.
I hate uncertainty. I also hate broken bones.
At least it wasn’t a leg, or the dominant arm. And it was a great hike, until it wasn’t.
That is almost absurdly looking on the bright side. Hope you get through it all soon.
I had my first MRI yesterday. I took the first available, which was a month after I called to schedule it. Both the doc & receptionist told me, in no uncertain terms, do not leave w/o CD of images.
10 days or so ago I called the doc to schedule a follow up. They informed me they won’t do such until they get the results from said MRI. I didn’t understand why it was sooo important for me to get the CD if they’re getting the results sent to them anyway; what-ever. Left the hospital & did an errand on the way home; doc called while I was in the checkout line; ½ hr after I left. If it’s that quick why couldn’t they schedule in advance?
A month? Geez.
It’s all ridiculous. Sorry you’re going through it!
