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General Chat Thread - Come to #spp-misc on Discord! https://discord.gg/3u9nKEa

GrizzlyB

Confused and Dazed
Oh, dead sppf. I've hit the sweet spot of "not essential enough to need to go to work" and "not expendable enough to fire," so I just work from home now. ow that I don't go as much, though, I've saved a bunch of money and have really caught up n my reading and learning. Another positive is that I get to be here all day. Woo!


It's been so long since I've watched sports. I can't really stand watching them anymore. I guess.

I use Sptofiy to dosvocer music these days. I never use YouTube to listen to new songs, and the only time I hear the radio is when I get into an Uber. Naturally,it's blocked right out once I put my headphones in.

Nice! I for one look forward to your expanded SPPf contributions, even if they are all made while you are drunk like this one obviously was. And why would an Uber driver be playing their own radio? Zero stars!

I'm in spot where im not essential but my overall deparment is so like 80 percent of people got laid off and my job is enough of being "grunt work" that managers would rather lie about my position than lay me off and do it themselves

Yeah, it seems like there's almost no way of enforcing any laws enacted, so anyone who feels like it can find some way to slip through the cracks. Are you glad you kept your job, or would you rather have gotten laid off and collect unemployment until this blows over?

Gonna give you a trans-Atlantic take on this one - answer's obviously football being the most exciting with Formula One being the least. Golf is also pretty terrible to watch live, we all just wait for the highlights right?

Sounds like we have the same idea here -- football = good, cars racing = bad. I think my biggest hangup with football (soccer), though, is that it revolves around what is essentially a broken play, by letting the other team score. Hockey is the same way, where like... I dunno, there's not enough deliberateness to it, if that makes any sense. When a team is advancing, they either score or they don't, and there's not really any way to gain an advantage otherwise (afaik. Maybe I'm just clueless). It's like if baseball only scored with homeruns, instead of having the strategies to advance baserunners like bunting or intentional walks and all that jazz (... I'm not so good with baseball, but I understand it's I-N-T-R-I-C-A-T-E).

Good info with the music stuff, too. Though it kinda makes me realize that my listening habits are pretty abnormal. I tend to stick with what I know, and any time I find a new song I like, I tend to run it into the ground, after which I'll either forget about it or it goes into the "stick with what I know" pile. I also mostly go on a song-by-song basis, rather than being able to find an artist where I like enough of their stuff to do a deeper dive.



Anyway, I just had a mildly freaky experience. I've been trying to get out on early morning walks while all this COVID BS is going on, in the interest of avoiding people -- usually in the 4 to 5 AM range. So today, when I'm about a block and a half from getting back to my apartment, some guy crosses the street behind me. I don't think anything of it, because there were sprinklers hitting the sidewalk on the side he was on, so fair enough if he crosses to avoid them, and it just so happened to be exactly when I walked by -- there aren't many people out at this time, but there are a few, obviously.

So I hear this dude walking behind me. He's laughing every few seconds, I figure he's probably on his phone with somebody very funny, or something. Out of an abundance of self-consciousness or paranoia or whatever you want to call it, I check my shadow, to make sure I'm not holding him up, plus social distancing and all that. I can't see his, while mine is extended several feet, so he's not that close... but close enough that I can hear him walking very well. I cross the street, to the side he was on when I first saw him, because it's the side of the road my building is on. He crosses, too, still laughing periodically. Still fair, on account of the sprinklers, but at this point I'm more cognizant of him -- I try to not mind the behavior of strangers, but it does seem weird that he crossed behind me twice.

So I turn onto the street my building is on, off of the bigger street we'd been walking on, and sure enough, he's still behind me. At this point, I just have to cross the intersecting road to get back to my building, which I should note, is very well-lit, probably the brightest spot for at least a mile around. So I think, if he really was following me, no way he pursues me up to this ****ing APARTMENT building swathed in light and filled with people. On my way up the walk (about 20 feet from sidewalk to door), I, for the first time, turn around to look, and he is ****ing following me up the walk to my building. Luckily, when I left earlier, I had propped the main door open (indoor apartments), so the second I get to the door, I push it open and let it slam right behind me. It's got a keypad lock, so I figure, offhand chance it's a neighbor I haven't seen before (well, not that I'd recognize more than 1 or 2 of them)... well, it'd be a bit rude to just slam the door in his face like that, but a simple matter for him to get it open. But no, this crazy **********er knocks on the door. And to be honest, it's not until this point that I'm well and truly freaked out.

He wasn't a tiny guy, but I'm easily bigger than him, so if he attacked me unarmed, I wouldn't be that worried about fighting him off. But... what was his endgame here? I'm wearing a sweatshirt and gym shorts, so I don't look like I'd be carrying anything valuable (didn't have my wallet, just my low-end phone and keys). It's early, but it's still almost 5 AM, some people are up and about (in fact, a cop on patrol passed me not three blocks and five minutes before he started following me), and he followed me up to a well-lit building surrounded by other homes and apartments. Lastly, what was the ****ing point in knocking on the door? I wouldn't open it for any rando if they weren't wearing a FedEx uniform, never mind the laughing maniac who followed me in the dark for a block and a half. Even if, in the biggest lapse of judgment in my life, I did let him in, then we're indoors with several residents just footsteps away. So, it's not so much that I'm like, "I think I almost got mugged in my neighborhood," (which is already pretty bad tbh). It's more, "What the **** was this guy planning?"
 

Jb

Tsun in the streets
I mean, in my state they offer 600 bucks on top of unemployment weekly so if I were to get fired i'd actually make more sitting home safe than going to work but the sheer amount of Un claims is causing payments to be delayed so I guess it's good that I still have a job.
 

Peter Quill

star-lord
Hi sppf! Also been furloughed. Thankfully work is continuing my benefits until I return to work. Taking some summer courses and going into my last year of my bachelors. Baseball is the most boring sport to watch and I'm half convinced it's just an excuse to get people day drunk.

Alright time to **** off for another year.
 

Hunter Zolomon

Into the Shadows
Staff member
Moderator
Oh wow. There's a tad bit of life in this thread.

I've been busy adulting. I returned to work about two weeks ago, so now I'm significantly more busy again.

Earlier this month I started looking at new apartments as well and I moved in last week finally. This is a nice neighborhood and my rent is good. I can't complain. Now I live on the top floor and I have a balcony as well.

Life is good for me. Well, back to the old grind.
 

Vernikova

Champion
Nice! I for one look forward to your expanded SPPf contributions, even if they are all made while you are drunk like this one obviously was. And why would an Uber driver be playing their own radio? Zero stars!
Too much pressure for me.

He wasn't a tiny guy, but I'm easily bigger than him, so if he attacked me unarmed, I wouldn't be that worried about fighting him off. But... what was his endgame here? I'm wearing a sweatshirt and gym shorts, so I don't look like I'd be carrying anything valuable (didn't have my wallet, just my low-end phone and keys). It's early, but it's still almost 5 AM, some people are up and about (in fact, a cop on patrol passed me not three blocks and five minutes before he started following me), and he followed me up to a well-lit building surrounded by other homes and apartments. Lastly, what was the ****ing point in knocking on the door? I wouldn't open it for any rando if they weren't wearing a FedEx uniform, never mind the laughing maniac who followed me in the dark for a block and a half. Even if, in the biggest lapse of judgment in my life, I did let him in, then we're indoors with several residents just footsteps away. So, it's not so much that I'm like, "I think I almost got mugged in my neighborhood," (which is already pretty bad tbh). It's more, "What the **** was this guy planning?"
People usually carry their phones even when they seemingly have no other valuables, so it's a safe to assume that with any random person you meet that they will have their phones. Phones are expensive these days. I bought my phone for $1600 - $1700, so phones are slowly becoming expensive to the point where it may make sense to steal them more often (whereas before most people could afford the same phone). Some people also like to start trouble because they're crazy. That guy just seemed like a crazy.

I mean, in my state they offer 600 bucks on top of unemployment weekly so if I were to get fired i'd actually make more sitting home safe than going to work but the sheer amount of Un claims is causing payments to be delayed so I guess it's good that I still have a job.
My friend who teaches at some nearby community college said that she would make more sitting on her ass with unemployment than she would working. I think they're cutting her contract, so she will be making more money this summer, I guess.
 

GrizzlyB

Confused and Dazed
Hi sppf! Also been furloughed. Thankfully work is continuing my benefits until I return to work. Taking some summer courses and going into my last year of my bachelors. Baseball is the most boring sport to watch and I'm half convinced it's just an excuse to get people day drunk.

Alright time to **** off for another year.

wait no

Oh wow. There's a tad bit of life in this thread.

I've been busy adulting. I returned to work about two weeks ago, so now I'm significantly more busy again.

You had to jinx it, didn't you?!

And adulting sucks, when do we get to go back to kidding?

Too much pressure for me.

People usually carry their phones even when they seemingly have no other valuables, so it's a safe to assume that with any random person you meet that they will have their phones. Phones are expensive these days. I bought my phone for $1600 - $1700, so phones are slowly becoming expensive to the point where it may make sense to steal them more often (whereas before most people could afford the same phone). Some people also like to start trouble because they're crazy. That guy just seemed like a crazy.

Wow, you let me down without even trying. Well played.

I guess that's true about phones, but I had no idea they were THAT expensive. I thought people were mocking the iPhone X for being $1000 or something? Was this long ago? Am I out of touch? Mine was like $200 new and it's years old by now, so the joke's on them if anybody tries to mug me for it. I hate smartphones. Agree that this dude was crazy; fortunately, I haven't seen him since.



I can't think of much else to contribute, and nobody's posted in a month. I've been extra into One Piece for the past few weeks, I guess -- some good chapters recently. Anyway, this surprisingly worked OK last time, so here's another conversation starter I've pulled off a list at random:

What piece of technology would look like magic or a miracle to people in medieval Europe?

I'm gonna go with boomstick. It's well-documented. Dumb question, let's try another:

What was the worst book you had to read for school? How about the best book you had to read for school?

Oh, this one is easy! The worst book I ever had to read was Ayn Rand's Anthem, which was assigned to me as a freshman in honor's English by this absolute sad-sack dingus excuse of a teacher, who giggled about phallic imagery in A Midsummer Night's Dream and made us read his shitty poetry. Anyway, like probably all of Rand's work, Anthem is plotbare, uninspired thinly-veiled propaganda, where the main character lives in a ridiculously over-the-top communist structure, but he's so smart and so individualistic that he just doesn't understand how the society works, even though he also doesn't conceive of the pronoun 'I'. Anyway, he invents electricity, runs off into the forest, some girl he looked at earlier also breaks every societal convention for some reason and follows him out there, they bang, and that's the book. We also had to write essays or something on it and send them in to the Ayn Rand Society or something like that, and they mailed us all copies of The Fountainhead, which makes an excellent paperweight.

Best book... sticking to high school (I feel like that's where this question is angling), I'm going to say The Catcher in the Rye. I know it catches a lot of heat because Holden is such an edgelord, but it's still a goddam good book. My class actually had a lot of fun reading it, as I recall. J.D. Salinger has such a flair for voice, characterization, and theme, which I think are the most important parts of writing, if you want to know the truth. And even though it's a short story, For Esmé--with Love and Squalor might be his best work in this department. Actually, I still haven't read Franny and Zooey... I often save stuff like that, because usually, once you've gone through everything an author's made, that's it, but in Salinger's case, apparently he kept writing throughout his life but never published, so supposedly there's going to be new stuff released posthumously at some point.
 

Hunter Zolomon

Into the Shadows
Staff member
Moderator
You had to jinx it, didn't you?!

And adulting sucks, when do we get to go back to kidding?

Ugh, I totally did jinx us haha. I miss the days when this thread was a waterfall of conversation.

I would love to be a kid again. Especially after working these dreaded 12 hour shifts that they have me doing some of these days.

Did everyone that lives in the States have a pretty good 4th of July?
 

Hunter Zolomon

Into the Shadows
Staff member
Moderator
In the current state of things, it's hard to celebrate without fireworks, but then again, you aren't trapped in traffic watching drunk people pass you.

The city I live in didn't do their fireworks this year because of Covid-19.

Instead I spent the day outside grilling, and shooting off my own fireworks.
 

GrizzlyB

Confused and Dazed
I would love to be a kid again. Especially after working these dreaded 12 hour shifts that they have me doing some of these days.

Did everyone that lives in the States have a pretty good 4th of July?

It is weird, because I never thought of school as being a massive timesink like work feels. I mean, I guess school was more of a 7-hour day, but it seems crazy that it's that big of a difference. I guess the bigger reason is that in school you're always changing classes and moving around and (probably) have friends, so it's not the same as being chained to a workstation and/or dealing with miserable customers/coworkers all day. Then again, in my school days, I did probably 10% of the homework assigned to me, so maybe I did have more free time than others, strictly speaking.

Yeah, I didn't really do anything for the 4th of July, but apparently half of the people in my neighborhood decided to take it upon themselves to put on a fireworks show, so I was treated(?) to, like, five hours of intermittent fireworks that I could easily see (and hear!) from my living room.
 

Auraninja

Eh, ragazzo!
I must admit that I am very privileged to not be currently working but not have to worry about money (I want to fix the former), but I don't miss being a kid.

I miss the 90s/early 2000's era of culture a tad bit, even though I think it gets blown up to be better than it really was. However, my childhood has been rocky with a bad divorce between my parents. My dad took custody and he was stricter than my mom in a lot of regards. He married someone who was addicted to certain pain pills, and well, that got interesting. Some of the stories that come out of that I wouldn't even mention here on these forums. Let's just say it was very dysfunctional. When I first went to college, it ended it total failure due to the toxic dorm environment I was in, and I had to work on getting over my tramautic situation after I went to live with my mom.

Plus, being an adult means I can do more of what I actually want. I do miss being a lot thinner though.
 

bobjr

You ask too many questions
Staff member
Moderator
Don't get too thin, you'll pass out on National Trails and get assaulted by horseflys, and they suck. I'll take wolverines compared to them, and they're much nicer
 

Hunter Zolomon

Into the Shadows
Staff member
Moderator
It is weird, because I never thought of school as being a massive timesink like work feels. I mean, I guess school was more of a 7-hour day, but it seems crazy that it's that big of a difference. I guess the bigger reason is that in school you're always changing classes and moving around and (probably) have friends, so it's not the same as being chained to a workstation and/or dealing with miserable customers/coworkers all day. Then again, in my school days, I did probably 10% of the homework assigned to me, so maybe I did have more free time than others, strictly speaking.

Yeah, I didn't really do anything for the 4th of July, but apparently half of the people in my neighborhood decided to take it upon themselves to put on a fireworks show, so I was treated(?) to, like, five hours of intermittent fireworks that I could easily see (and hear!) from my living room.

I know when I was in school I was the student that did projects at the last minute. What's funny is I would still get an A haha. I always did my best work at the last minute. School never felt like a massive timesink to me either. It was rather enjoyable at times. For many agreeable reasons that you mentioned above.

Honestly, if I could go back to those days I would. It's better than dealing with "Karens" all day and two face backstabbers that swing by the bosses jockstrap like a Chimpanzee. Elementary students act more mature than most adults. Sad, but true.

Such is life I guess. Especially life in an auto plant.
 

AuraChannelerChris

Easygoing Luxray.
It seems my seemingly dead writing skills have suddenly reawakened, because now I'm back to being a fan fic writer. Just yesterday, I managed to finish a full chapter of The Bond of Aura, and I can't wait to finish that and jump over to my long *** Smash Bros. fan fic, which has been dormant for 2 years. Caaaaaan't wait to write for the many Nintendo characters I have at my disposal.

I LIVE!
 

Vernikova

Champion
Are you going to catch up to the current pace of the November writing activirty going on?
 
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