@surreality Ohh, tell him to stop being such a baby.
If I win the PowerBall, Imma buy it and you guys can have the 3BDR carriage house and then you can come over and we can play Umbrella Academy meets CAOS whenever we want. It'll be totally fine as long as no one lets the fireplaces go out at midnight and if it gets really bad, we'll just let the ghosts eat one of the neighborhood kids.
It sounds like now is a really good time for your friend to learn that in healthy relationships, you don't need to Do Exactly All of the Things Always and Forever with your partner. Like, it's legitimately better for both of you if you don't share all of the same interests/hobbies/social circles and that you don't necessarily have to be forced to choose between your boo and your besties.
Example:
@insomniac7809 has a super shitty, unpredictable calendar because he works retail. It is often difficult for him to make plans in advance, so scheduling social activities is hard. I have some things where if he's off that night and going out -- SCA events, bowling league -- I will include him every time, because he knows those people, gets along with them, and it's a group event.
I also have my two best girls, who both adore him. But. But! When we go out, it's frequently a "ladies night" kind of vibe. I will only invite my husband along after asking my friends if its okay and even then, it's when we're doing things like going to the movies or going to one friend's house when I know her husband will also be there for him to chill with. When we're getting together for our annual Christmas dinner, grabbing drinks, having a life event gossip/vent session, or celebrating our strangely close birthdays.... he doesn't need to be there. At all. It would be awkward and weird.
It should be okay for your DM to be able to have TT nights with his just his friends. It should be okay for you to ask. It is not okay to be ass about it or frame it as "her or us" when you have the option of going with, "Hey, man. I noticed your girlfriend seems pretty uncomfortable with some of our views, some of us have been uncomfortable with her behavior, and you're left in this awkward in-the-middle position that must feel awful. Since we don't all gel, maybe we can do our TT with just us and you can do X, Y, or Z with just her?"
That's not a comment on her being a shitty person, pressure to sever a relationship, or being melodramatic. It's just acknowledging that you guys don't mesh and that probably sucks for him, so you want to find a solution that leaves no one feeling strained and uncomfortable. You never know. He might even be relieved to have someone give him a reasonable out without anybody bailing, crying, or shooting each other awkward looks.
@Auspice said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:
@reimesu said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:
@Auspice Clearly, what she wants is for everyone to beg her to keep control. Be aware that if someone recommends that A should run it instead, she is going to throw a shitfit.
Oh, I'm sure. I am absolutely sure.
During steotch, another gal made it clear that next year, she was gonna run her own team. I've come to understand why.
I was gonna say that I'm pretty sure this is the point where someone is supposed to shout "But with blackjack and hookers!", then make their own group.
@Sunny said in Covid-19 Gallows Humor:
Look, if they hadn't shot James Cole in the airport in 1996, we'd all be fine.
@silverfox said in Good TV:
I've watched it all the way though twice, and I'm going on my third.
West Wing. I imagine for a bit we have a president who gives a fuck.
Oh, God. I did a full West Wing watch a couple of months ago and when I was finished, I literally sat there and cried.
Poor insomniac asked me what was wrong and I just wailed that I wanted Jed Bartlet.
Seeeeeee, the joke is that's a scene with Lieutenant Aldo Raine from Inglorious Basterds. As in "One hun'red Nazi scalps!" Aldo Raine, specifically the line where he gets excited that the Nazi they're interrogating is refusing to answer questions and would rather die for his country, so he lets one of his men beat a Nazi to death.
Get it? Haircuts. Scalps.
I had my MBA interview today. That meant I had to put on a blazer and makeup for the first time in two months. And wore a bra and real pants for several hours.
I was physically uncomfortable and looked all tarted up. And at some point they're going to expect me to go back to doing this shit for 9+ hours a day, every day? Whose fucking idea was this? I do not approve.
I can always tell when my neighbors are fucking in the middle of the day because of the music they play.
And frankly, whatever, dude. I live in a rowhome. Sometimes overhearing whatever is happening nextdoor, whether it's sex or renovations or someone cheering at the game they're watching, is just part of daily life. You get used to it.
Except they play R&B the whole time - before, during, and for a substantial time after. And not just R&B, but really, really bad R&B that's been run through too much auto-tune.
Please just fuck to better music, guys. This is unbearable.
@GreenFlashlight said in Dead Celebrities 2020:
@Waller said in Dead Celebrities 2020:
No. I don't like it. Send it back.
All of 2020 in ten words or less.
@surreality said in Good TV:
there's still, like, five or six books worth of material to cover
...how is his name not Job already
hahahaha
I binged through whatever seasons were on prior to this last one a while ago, so obviously it hooked me enough to keep me watching, but definitely in a sort of 'this is so bad its amazing' sense at times. How many times can you do 'Uhtred literally saves your entire fucking Kingdom' -> 'Uhtred makes some small social gaff' -> 'UHTRED IS A VILLAINOUS HEATHEN AND BANISHED'? HOW MANY?
(Runner up: how many times can you hand him a random new love interest and then kill/otherwise remove her? that fridge must be getting crowded)
It is not my fault that the word for "year" (anno) and the word for "anus" (ano) are almost identical.
Jesus Christ, 365 dni makes Twilight look like fucking Shakespeare. Just save yourself the trouble and hop on PornHub. You can probably find something with a better plot.
Kids' shows are getting so good.
I laugh so hard at this clip all the damn time.
"You have bunk beds" was the line that did me in.
Playing "Amazing Grace" at a funeral is practically cheating.
We're all already crying, you monsters.
@Ghost said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:
@Ganymede I have a friend who says "supposably" and it drives me up the wall.
My mom says 'libary'. I cringe every time.
@Tributary said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):
When I took Bupropion in my 20s, I loved how effective it was and hated that it tended to sing-song into my brain, "It's time to kill yourself!"
Now, I'm in my 40s, and I can take it with NO side effects, and it's fantastic.
(I should note, as an ADD person, I do occasionally recommend that people buy themselves a planner to use as a tracker. Not for planning. For journaling things. For keeping track of adulting and health changes, so that when I do talk to my doctors, I can be like, "I had 2 migraine days and 8 depression days in the month of November. I lost 10 pounds and worked as a paid freelancer between 5 and 10 hours a week, plus some spec freelancing. I have an entry where I was unbearably sad because I ran out of apples. Oh, and I had a serious anxiety attack on the 18th, and mild fever on the 9th.")
I have legit recommended bullet-journaling to some people with ADD not to "bE moAr oRganIZed!!1!1!!!", but because if you use the bare bones method of it instead of getting sucked into the Instagrammy art spreads and washi tape and colors.....
Part of the point is scribbling down that random idea, the thing you suddenly remembered, or an observation you had. Not to take you more productive, but so that shit isn't rattling around in your head anymore and neither is the repetitive chorus of "Mustn't forget not to forget the thing I don't want to forget!" It's supposed to be a brain dump in one place so you can unclench your jaw for a friggin' minute.
I actually recommend this video, where she talks about what not to do in a bullet journal over most other content that gets super artsy-fartsy about it. The Instagrammers legit stress me out about my stuff not being pretty enough, at which point the thing that's supposed to be helpful just becomes another to do that overwhelms me.
@Ganymede said in RL things I love:
Oh dear.
Well, we’re here for you.
I am going to remind you that you said that when I need survey responses for my marketing classes. 
@Auspice You get an upvote for the recruiter bit, not the ouchy bit. 
In the meantime, if things get really bad, check into dental schools near you. Texas is fucking huge, so there may not be any right in your city, but...
I thought I needed a root canal once when I didn't have insurance and ended up at UPenn's dental clinic. The wait was an absolute pain in the ass, the appointment ridiculously long, and I fortunately only needed a filling. (Technically two, as I had somehow gotten a cavity in the crevice between two molars that spread to both?)
All in all, I went through their endodontic clinic, got a round of X-rays, passed through the regular clinic for the fillings, and got a cleaning. With a sliding scale based on my low-but-not-poverty salary? ~ $90.
I paid more than that last year for a fucking mouthguard with the "enhanced" level dental plan I have with my employer.
Worth the time to make the drive if things get urgent, IMO.
@auspice said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:
Who provided a cut-and-dry syllabus (really, there is no need for cutesy shit with a syllabus: there's a reason there's a formula. it works and people understand it).
That's pretty much exactly what's going wrong in my class - not so much the syllabus specifically, as ours are standardized for each course in my program, so much as just setting clear guidelines.
Based on the commentary we receive back on our work, it's abundantly clear that our TA has very set expectations for how they want us to address items in various assignments. The thing is, he doesn't communicate that to us.
This is especially problematic for qualitative topics where the instructions are essentially, "Here is a case study. Read the case study, consider the problem they're having, and draw a conclusion. Support your conclusion with evidence from the case." That seems like an entirely reasonable assignment, save that what he really means is "Consider the problem they're having with X but which is not at all the highlight of the case study and which you've not been provided the data for. Analyze it using this methodology. Draw this very specific conclusion I have outlined in my rubric provided to my fellow assistants but not to you, then use assumptions that you have nothing to back up to prove this specific conclusion is correct."
The majority of the questions posted in our course forums are requests for clarifications on how we're supposed to even approach the assignment, because the class has figured out that if we don't harangue him for more specifics, answering the question as asked will invariably be marked as wrong.
If you ask open-ended questions, then you need to expect variability in the answers and grade based on whether they've presented logical, well-supported arguments. If you want your students to approach a problem using a specific lens, then just tell them that.
