Posts made by Aria

@Auspice Right? And the thing that kills me is that every week, Monday is my worst day. I have at least four meetings every Monday, forever.

Meanwhile, I have literally nothing on Wednesdays. Pretty much ever.

Whyyyyyyyyyy?

Back to back meetings from 9:30am until 3:00pm today, followed by an unexpected phone call that was 30+ minutes of me talking someone off a proverbial ledge.

And now a message from a co-worker asking why I hadn't scheduled six weeks of team retrospectives yet.

Dude. It 4:45pm and I am just now eating my "lunch". Go away.

Lizzo's Tiny Desk Concert at NPR. You're welcome.

@Auspice I think the fact that I figured out what his name was based on background convo was what really made it sink in. Definitely the best part.

Dear IT Help Rep --

I don't mind you calling over one of your co-workers to help you with my ticket even though I have to sit on hold while you figure out where he, and half his team, went. I realize it's a weird problem and a pain in the ass, which is why I had to call you instead of being able to fix it myself using the available tools. However, please inform him that your microphone does not have an immutable sound barrier on it blocking out everyone's voice but yours, and I can in fact hear him talking about me in the background. Including when he insisted that I was "calling about nothing and just keeping you from lunch", right up until this supposedly "impossible" issue happened for the sixth time as he was looking over your shoulder at the remote view of my desktop.

Sincerely,
Aria

PS -- Thank you again for repeating the message when I said, "Please tell Noel that I can hear him, and also that I said I told you so." I hope the look on his face was as priceless as the gagging noise I heard. By the sounds of your muffled laughter, it was.

...I kind of just want to watch some kinda sweeping fantasy with elves in it that is not LoTR or the Shannara Chronicles again. Whatcha got for me re: recommendations, interwebs?

@Admiral Fortunately, my husband plays, so he completely understood -- but also laughed at -- my rant about how I'm supposed to get rid of my horrible heir who got caught murdering one of his brothers after they went and disabled it so you can't plot to murder your own kids. Like, maybe lock him in a dungeon and hope with the health modifier, he dies?

I insisted this was totally fine given the remarkable amount of religious tolerance I've implemented despite the number of times I've had holy war declared on me by my one neighbor.

It's not murder. It's justice. Look at me, the fair and righteous ruler. >.>

Fact: The things that playing half a day of CKII makes you mutter under your breath are not things you should ever, ever, EVER say out loud in front of other people. Especially when you are playing as Catholic Asturias.

@Aria said in How to use Potato MU Client:

@Thenomain said in How to use Potato MU Client:

^(\w+ pages: .+|From afar, .+|Long distance to .+: .+|You paged .+ with .+|To (.+), \w+ pages: .+)$

Arggh. New laptop in hand, trying to set up Potato. I've used the above code, set it to 'regexp' instead of wildcard, have "Continue?" checked, along with "Omit from Display" and "Spawn" set so that it should be spawning to a new window just called Pages.

It is not.

Help??

I managed to fix it. For reference for anyone setting this up in the future, all I did was remove the $ at the end of the line, which seems to have been the issue.

@Thenomain said in How to use Potato MU Client:

^(\w+ pages: .+|From afar, .+|Long distance to .+: .+|You paged .+ with .+|To (.+), \w+ pages: .+)$

Arggh. New laptop in hand, trying to set up Potato. I've used the above code, set it to 'regexp' instead of wildcard, have "Continue?" checked, along with "Omit from Display" and "Spawn" set so that it should be spawning to a new window just called Pages.

It is not.

Help??

@Groth said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

@Aria said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

forged my signature,

Isn't that part a major spend actual time in prison level crime? Fuck him

I don't know, but honestly? That was the worst part. If he had shown up outside the delivery window and left it with my husband or with my neighbor? Whatever, dude. I paid extra for specifically-not-that, but at least it would've been secure and traceable. If he had shown up during the delivery window and not knocked? I would've gotten the delivery alert on my phone and popped outside to go get it. Those things would've been annoying, but I could live with it.

Instead, it seems like he was pretty much being as absolutely lazy as possible while also doing everything he could to ensure that I'd have little recourse -- or at least a really difficult time -- getting a replacement from Dell if it was stolen or trashed in a downpour. Because "I" signed for it (while also somehow misspelling my entire last name).

That was what really drove me to call FedEx and be like, "Sooooooo, I'd like my $6 back and also your driver violated every single delivery instruction which he was provided by me and by the shipper and that could've left me, you, or Dell on the hook for a whole lotta money. This is me making extra frowny-face that I would like conveyed to that guy's boss."

Ron Swanson also has opinions on the subject.

I think I may have just gotten a FedEx driver in really deep shit and while I always feel bad about putting someone's job at risk, this time I'm kind of fine with that.

My new laptop was scheduled to arrive today. Since FedEx tends to hit my neighborhood way earlier than UPS or the postal service, I was worried I wouldn't be home in time to sign for it, so I shelled out an extra $6 to pick a three hour delivery window between 5PM and 8PM and was going to leave work early.

.....the driver showed up at 12:39PM when my husband was still home, didn't knock on my door or our neighbors (it was indirect signature required), forged my signature, and left a $900 computer sitting on our porch in a box clearly marked as containing a computer, in an urban neighborhood on a day it's supposed to rain.

Fuck that guy.

LastPass, my dudes. It's pretty sexy.

@Ghost said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

Sigh. Moms, yanno?

Actual phone conversation I just had with my mom.

Mom: I just had a holy shit moment.

Me: Oh? What happened?

(Brain read everything my mom says from this point forward in a conspiratorial whisper voice)

Mom: I just went into the bedroom and you wont believe what I saw.

Me: (Strung along) Oh? What?

Mom: Your father was in there on the bed alone...

Me: (PleaseDontSayHeWasJerkingIt) Oh? Is everything okay?

Mom: He was on the bed and when I went in there he immediately hid something under the sheets.

Me: (Still...please god no) Oh? I mean, is everything okay?

Mom: He had a boxcutter that he was hiding from me. When I went in there he really quickly hid it so I couldn't see.

Me: (New version of OhGodNoWhat? because alone+boxcutter) Uhm...thats not good. Is everything okay? Do I need to step away from my desk.

Mom: He was...CUTTING UP A CARDBOARD BOX ON TOP OF MY EXPENSIVE EGYPTIAN SHEETS AND BEDCOVER. HE RUINED MY EXPENSIVE BEDROOM SET AND NOW I HAVE TO REPLACE IT BECAUSE HE CUT THROUGH TO THE MATTRESS.

God damn it, Mom.

Whew. Sigh of relief. I love my mom forever but god damn it her storytelling style freaks me out like this at least once every other month. She doesn't do this on purpose for fun, either. It'll be like:

Mom: Oh. My. God. The craziest thing happened you'll never guess...

Me: Hit me. What happened?

Mom: So I turn down this aisle and I'm all alone, and I see this big guy with tattoos and this pretty girl ALL ALONE IN THE AISLE...

Me: Oh no, what were they doing?

Mom: ...it was BOB AND JEAN'S SON, BARRY. HE'S BACK FROM SERVING OVERSEAS. HE'S COVERED IN TATTOOS, HAS A BEAUTIFUL GIRLFRIEND, AND THEY INVITED US ALL TO A BARBECUE NEXT WEEK.

AAAAAAAAUGHFJEOEI3U38...

I'll trade you yours with her weird Christopher Walken-esque story pauses for mine with her regular text messages about some sad or tragic thing that should be making me miserable today.

Like, every year on March 14th she texts me to remind me how many years it's been since my grandfather died.

I need to know, in detail, about the tragic medical circumstances of her neighbors that I don't particularly like.

Do I want to hear, at great length, the latest sad story coming out of the dog rescue she works with? Of course I do.

If there is a sad/bad/tragic thing happening in the world, she will find it. And then she will contact me to tell me all about it, even if it's about people I don't know. Or she doesn't know. But it's vaguely local and there's possibly some very tenuous thread of connection between it and anything she is remotely connected to in any way whatsoever, and therefore I'm connected to it, and so it needs to just be a part of my day now.

WTF, Mom?

@Cupcake said in Re-Igniting Playspiration:

How does one do it? I hate that I've become ambivalent toward a game/character I love and can neither pinpoint the reason for my ambivalence nor figure out a way to reverse the feeling and become passionate about playing again. Should I be Kondo-ing, or grit my teeth and keep trying? Is there some other tactic to consider?

Advice appreciated.

What did you used to like so much?

Do that. Ignore the other stuff.

My current laptop is in its final phases after 5+ years of service, as evidenced by its newest failure -- deciding I don't need to right-click anything ever again, I guess.

So I used some of my annual bonus to take advantage of the flurry of back to school and "We're trying to compete with Prime Day" sales, all without actually succumbing to Prime Day while Amazon workers are on strike.

Sale for a nice discount. An extra 10% off using my nearly-forgotten UniDays account. An extra 12% off with eBates triple cash-back day.

All in all, I shaved $400 off the price and will be getting a $102 check in the mail in a few months on top of that, by which point I will have likely forgotten about it and get excited that I suddenly have more money that I didn't expect.

....I may or may not have just spent the last several minutes making cartoon cackling noises and walking around my house announcing "I am a coupon witch!"

I realize that the 4th of July holiday is upon us and that, given that I live in a densely populated neighborhood, there's going to be a lot of people setting off fireworks....

Except you assholes have been setting them off every night since Monday. And tonight, you started setting them off three hours before it even got dark outside.

Stop scaring my dog.

@Auspice said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

@Aria said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

@Selira said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

I really, really wish I knew what to do about my reaction to summer. The heat goes up, the day stretches long, and suddenly my sleep is on the fritz, my anxiety ramps up, and I start to mentally shut down. Yesterday was sunny and hot - I slept until 3 PM and couldn't drag myself out of bed for another hour, I couldn't even motivate myself to make caffeine, and I had no desire to do anything at all.

Today? Overcast and in the 60's-70's. I'm up early, moving around, thinking clearly, happy and laughing and getting things done.

This is a yearly problem and I have yet to find a solution. It builds up, too, until the weather finally cools down and I hit my stride again. It's exhausting, literally the largest problem in my life, and I know it can't be healthy, but I really don't think there's anything that I can do about it. I'll be trying out blackout curtains once I have some income again, but AC isn't an option.

So, just venting.

I was actually just reading an article about how Seasonal Affective Disorder also hits people in the summer, too, just in a much smaller portion of the population than those affected by winter. The theory is basically that the high levels of light fucks with natural circadian rhythms and heat disrupts sleep, making brains and body hormones go haywire. I definitely recommend trying out the blackout curtains ASAP, for both heat and light reasons.

In the meantime, if there's any consolation in having company in the face of your misery, well.... at least you know you're not the only one?

ETA: Try Target for the curtains if money is tight. I just went to check prices on their website because I remember getting the old ones for our apartment, which had single-pane glass windows older than my parents and was therefore always freezing, really cheap. We got ours at JCPenney for something like $12 on clearance. The ones I just saw are Target are $8-$10.

Thank you for the Target suggestion. I've just got a blanket over my window rn and I totally need to upgrade it.

All I did was poke around Google for a bit, since I could honestly use some in my bedroom. I don't know what your 'decor' is like, but these seem pretty unoffensively neutral, have a 3-4 star rating, and are $8 a panel -- so $16 if you buy two. They don't look like the best blackout curtains, but they look okay-enough for that price.

@Selira said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

I really, really wish I knew what to do about my reaction to summer. The heat goes up, the day stretches long, and suddenly my sleep is on the fritz, my anxiety ramps up, and I start to mentally shut down. Yesterday was sunny and hot - I slept until 3 PM and couldn't drag myself out of bed for another hour, I couldn't even motivate myself to make caffeine, and I had no desire to do anything at all.

Today? Overcast and in the 60's-70's. I'm up early, moving around, thinking clearly, happy and laughing and getting things done.

This is a yearly problem and I have yet to find a solution. It builds up, too, until the weather finally cools down and I hit my stride again. It's exhausting, literally the largest problem in my life, and I know it can't be healthy, but I really don't think there's anything that I can do about it. I'll be trying out blackout curtains once I have some income again, but AC isn't an option.

So, just venting.

I was actually just reading an article about how Seasonal Affective Disorder also hits people in the summer, too, just in a much smaller portion of the population than those affected by winter. The theory is basically that the high levels of light fucks with natural circadian rhythms and heat disrupts sleep, making brains and body hormones go haywire. I definitely recommend trying out the blackout curtains ASAP, for both heat and light reasons.

In the meantime, if there's any consolation in having company in the face of your misery, well.... at least you know you're not the only one?

ETA: Try Target for the curtains if money is tight. I just went to check prices on their website because I remember getting the old ones for our apartment, which had single-pane glass windows older than my parents and was therefore always freezing, really cheap. We got ours at JCPenney for something like $12 on clearance. The ones I just saw at Target are $8-$10.

@Sparks said in RL things I love:

@mietze said in RL things I love:

And we didnt put a dent in the problem I know, but it was nice to see those people breathe just a little easier.

I do a thing which the homeless folks downtown around my office call 'playing sandwich fairy'. When I leave the office for lunch, if I'm going to go grab a sandwich, I'll make a quick circuit around the area, and any of the homeless folks I see, I ask if there's a sandwich I can get them at Subway. If they say yes, I get their order, then I walk over to Subway, get my sandwich and all the others, and then I retrace my steps, handing out the sandwiches before returning to the office to eat my own.

One of my co-workers asked me why the heck I do it, because "You realize you're not actually fixing the problem by getting sandwiches for five or six people, right? No matter what any one person does, it won't make a dent." To which my reply was, "Yeah, but it makes a difference to those five or six people. And if everyone did little acts of kindness like that, then in aggregate, it would make a huge difference."

It's like the quote from The Adventure Zone: "Do good recklessly."

@mietze said in RL things I love:

And I can't believe I have an employer that gave me the day off to help and paid me my usual wage too.

It's so nice when a company is supportive like that.

There's a shelter for homeless youth about 10 minutes walk from my office. My company has, for years now, staffed the shelter during lunches; a bunch of folks will walk over and spend an hour helping make lunch, and then another batch will show up and spend an hour serving food (while the first group heads back to the office). It's not just allowed but encouraged to pitch in.

One of the homeless women I did this for ended up being my friend on Facebook.
After a bit more talking, I got her a seasonal gig at the haunted house that @insomniac7809 and I used to work at.
It made her enough money for her to fix the van she was living out of and make it back home to her chosen-family in Texas.
Two months ago, she got a job at a tattoo parlor.
Last week, she married her girlfriend.

Fuck those people who think that one person can't make a difference. Rae has a totally different life 10 months later. All I did was give her $30 and make two phone calls.