Posts made by Sockmonkey

This thread should be renamed 'Repository of PBs that I will Snick for Future Characters'

Keep them coming, guys.

@Jaded His portrayal was uncanny and he got his accent spot on. It was crazy at the end when they did the side by side takes along with actual scenes from the movie; my husband and I were howling.

The Disaster Artist was awesome. I lol'd lots and lots and James Franco was amazing.

Late Saturday night, I signed up for a Tuesday evening Meetup event for beginner-level tennis players. At the time, it seemed like a great idea but when today rolled around, I was like:

Everything about this seemed like a bad idea; I'm an introvert who loves her couch and being toasty-cuddly-warm and --

• It is a physical activity
• It is with a bunch of strangers
• It is going to be cold AF

In the afternoon, I went to cancel my RSVP but someone else had already canceled and if I did so as well, it would have put the entire event in jeopardy because there wouldn't have been enough people. So I decided to go ahead with it but I was freaking out about it for the rest of the day. What if I sucked? What if no one liked me? What if it was awkward? Whhhhhhy did I sign up for this why why why?!

YOU GUYS. I HAD SO MUCH FUN.

I'm going to go back next Tuesday and do this again.

@darinelle said in RL Anger:

@Sockmonkey

I empathize with your story, but I thought of you. Perhaps this is your time to shine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IRB0sxw-YU

Haha, I love this clip. I am sure this is how my downstairs neighbors imagine me. Except in place of rolling around bowling balls, I keep them up with my incessant drawing. I am, truly, a monster.

As an artist, I implore you: don't ask artists to devalue their work. I am sympathetic to the fact that you might not have a lot of cash right now but rather than asking for a discount, it would be better to scale back what you are asking for so it fits your budget.

What you are asking for sounds like a fairly big deal from a work standpoint. So many people -- sooooo many -- treat art as something artists just love to do and that they are fine taking on commissions for free/low cost because of that love. But work is work and when people don't pay what art is worth? It just reinforces the notion that art isn't worth much.

Also: giving the artist credit? That should not be a bonus or something to offer in lieu of payment. Giving them credit goes without saying.

I don't doubt that you'll be able to find someone, somewhere, who will be able to give you what you want for the amount you want to pay. Unfortunately, there is always someone out there who is willing to devalue themselves. But come on. Don't be that person. The reason that there is a 'starving artist' stereotype is because people don't pay artists what their art is worth.

Don't make artists starve.

@surreality Yeah, I think it's gotten to the point where mentioning something to my landlord is warranted -- if for no other reason than to just to get their behavior on record.

I'm not sure if it will amount to anything (California laws favor the renter over the landlord and they strike me as the sort of people who wouldn't go down without a fight, kicking and screaming all the way) but it felt so nice to bond with my neighbor today about them; I can only imagine how much better it will feel to share their shenanigans with my landlord as well (who I suspect already views them as PITAs for other community related requests they have made).

@Aria Ha! Yeah, I get you. But at the same time, I just don't want to invite conversation with her at all anymore. When she tries to engage with me in the courtyard or garage when our paths cross, I peace out ASAP because I know it will invariably lead to: Oh, by the way, could you please [make some kind of unreasonable adjustment to my life because of her poor, poor ears]

Nope, lady. Nope, nope, nope.

@Aria Oh, they will never move. We dropped some subtle hints in the beginning, before we got REALLY annoyed with them, that maybe an old creaky building wasn't the ideal place for them to live. And they pointed out that they couldn't afford to move to anywhere else in the neighborhood and still be close to their daughter and grandchildren. Rent prices have only gone up since then so ..

Passive-aggressively stomps around her apartment wearing boots

Ahahahahaha! So, an addendum to my downstairs neighbor rant:

Today, I got a FB message from my across the alley neighbor that my cat was on her back landing. He's an indoor cat, he wiggled out of a hole in one of our window screens that we hadn't noticed and took a flying leap off our second story window sill to have his Big Adventure that, judging from the picture she sent me, he immediately regretted.

ANYWAY.

I go over there, thank her and her husband profusely and get Disco into his cat carrier. Then we chit-chatted a little bit and they are like:

Them: By the way, is our AC better? [our apartments have wall units]
Me: ??
Them: We recently got it fixed. Your downstairs neighbor told us that it was making a really loud noise that was keeping her up.
Me: .....
Me: Listen, she complains about a lot of things.

And then we bonded over this woman's ridiculousness.

But DUDE! She is complaining about buildings outside of our complex! They have the second floor apartment in the next door building. There is an alley between our buildings that is wide enough for a truck to drive along. Their AC unit faces their dining room and is no where near this woman's bedroom. Ahahahahahaha!

@Ganymede They come to our door sometimes. Also, it's a small complex with a central courtyard -- when they see us around, they pull out the 'Oh hey, could you...' all sweet as can be. They wrap it all up in nice but it doesn't change the fact that their requests are unreasonable.

I struggle because I am working against a lifetime of conditioning to be nice and accommodating forever and always. Luckily, my husband is good at telling them NO. He's not mean about it; just super firm.

@Misadventure I doubt they will ever move. LA rental prices have gotten crazy and this complex is ridiculously cheap for the area it is in because it's owned by an old guy rather than a management company. I'm sure even if they were invited to move out, they wouldn't. But I will dream anyway.

@arkandel said in Random links:

When I went to this Slashdot thread this morning I expected to read about dish-washing robots: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/11/23/1723256/googles-eric-schmidt-says-people-want-dish-washing-robots-to-clean-up-the-kitchen-more-than-any-other-kind

Instead I learned way, way more than I wanted about sex dolls and how they are modular enough to have 'removable parts' so you can share your sex doll with your friends without it 'feeling gross'.

Yeeeah that boat sailed.

In no world is sharing your sex doll with your friends not gross, removable parts or not.

WTF.

My downstairs neighbor. Goddammit.

For a little bit of context: my husband and I live in a two-story, 50s era apartment building in SoCal. This means that there's not much in the way of insulation. The building also has hardwood floors. We've lived here for over 10 years and we're a generally quiet couple -- when we socialize, we go out rather than have people over (because it's harder to bounce early from a social situation when the social situation is gathered in your own space; GO AWAY). The complex overall is pretty chill; no one really parties, folks just keep to themselves. 12 units of introverts, apparently. We have all been living in peace and harmony for years.

Anyway.

A year ago or so, an older couple moved into the apartment below ours. They're in their 60s and, on the surface, they are very nice. But they do not seem to understand that with apartment living comes an expected tolerance of a reasonable level of noise; plus, she is a ridiculously light sleeper to the point where I think even our breathing bothers her. She, apparently, cannot wear earplugs because they hurt her ears. Our apartment layouts are exactly the same, right on top of each other; the bedroom that they use as their master is the bedroom we use as my office. These are some of the things we've done to accommodate this woman:

• Move the litterbox from the office to the dining room (we don't actually dine in there, don't worry)
• Put down rugs everywhere
• Kick the cats out of the office by 9p
• Stop using the office by 9p
• Don't go into the office before 9a

We do it because we're decent neighbors and not a couple of dicks. But she still complains. About everything. 'I heard your cat jump down onto the floor at 10p and it woke me up and I couldn't get back to sleep for the rest of the night.' and 'Your floor fan makes our entire apartment vibrate. I would appreciate it if you don't use it (on the hottest day of the summer. on a Saturday. in the middle of the afternoon when she wasn't even sleeping. even though our crappy wall-unit AC doesn't really work).' and 'I heard you in your office the other night (I had an illustration deadline and was QUIETLY DRAWING and taking great pains to NOT MOVE AROUND in my chair)so I was unable to get ANY sleep.' She and her husband have actually asked to come into our apartment so they can make 'recommendations' as to how we can further muffle the sound between our apartments; we have declined because fuck that noise at this point.

Also keep in mind: their bedroom faces the street. A street that routinely has cars racing up and down it noisily and homeless people periodically screaming at the sky because fuck the sky! But it's my drawing that is keeping her up. Okay, lady.

While I myself am a very heavy, sound sleeper, I am sympathetic to her situation. HOWEVER. I doubt this is a suddenly new condition soooo ... why on Earth, knowing that she apparently cannot sleep unless she is ensconced in a sound vacuum, would they elect to move into a first-floor apartment in an old building with hardfloor floors? This is HER problem, not mine.

I'm half tempted for my husband and I to switch our bedroom so that it is right over their bedroom just to invite the inevitable complaint of 'I heard you guys having sex and it kept me up all night'.

TL;DR: My downstairs neighbor complains about every single little noise and I am sick of it.

Anyway. Happy Thanksgiving.

@theonceler said in Celebrities that are Dead To Us:

Goddammit, John Lasseter.

Honestly? I'm surprised but I'm not. I went to CalArts for character animation and while I didn't end up going into the field, I have a lot of former classmates who are. Animation is a hardcore boy's club and I've heard countless stories of women having to deal with harassment of all sorts.

So yeah, I hadn't heard anything specifically about John Lasseter but it fits the narrative of the animation industry that I have been hearing about for yeeeeeears.

@auspice said in RL Anger:

@faceless said in RL Anger:

Update: she didn't even bother to ask my advice. She's already decided on the pay cut, #1 ranked place.

So much for daddy getting some new guns.

Thanks, Obama.

Happy momma = more sexy times.

Quoted for truth.

Does anyone have some really really reeeeeeally intro stuff about retirement planning? Not just the planning part but how to actually get the money into those funds? Do I..just go to the bank? Can I do it online? Aaaaaargh getting old noooooo.

I have some money I need to invest but I have no idea how to do this. I know that for my needs, I do not need to waste money on a financial advisor to manage my cash -- I should just park it somewhere. But financial matters seriously make my eyes cross and I have trouble even using the retirement calculator on Vanguard. My retirement plan at this point is to get dementia so I don't realize that I'm living in a dumpster.

@faceless said in RL Anger:

@kanye-qwest said in RL Anger:

@faceless I know you weren't asking for advice at all but...if the lower paying job with the award winning employer culture won't put you in dire straits? That one, all the way. A company that respects work/life balance and takes care of employees is so, so nice to have.

I do appreciate the advice, regardless. There's where I've personally leaned myself in terms of suggestions. Her previous employer was ranked third or fourth; there was a reason that she loved it. I want her to love what she does. So going from 3rd or 4th place to 1st? That seems like a great thing to me.

That pay increase from the other place though... it's just so tempting. More toys!

Never pick money over happiness if both choices will fulfill your needs. As someone who is making good money in a job that is making her miserable, I can say that the extra money isn't worth it. Sure, you can buy more toys but you don't end up playing with them because all you do when you come home from work is curl up in a ball of depressed numbness and spend your non-working hours dreading going back into work. It'll kill you to see your wife that way and is not sustainable.

Fuck. I really need to find a new job.

@dontpanda said in Celebrities that are Dead To Us:

@arkandel said in Celebrities that are Dead To Us:

@dontpanda said in Celebrities that are Dead To Us:

And here's the kicker: That's not even the end of the list of stories that couldn't possibly be true except it's Mr Rogers and they totally all are.

Exactly right.

There's a great twitter thread of a dude who ran into Mr Rogers in an elevator. You can read the thread here.

Beware of dusty rooms when you read it, though.

Oh my heart! cries forever

The Good Place has been renewed for a third season. YES!!

@arkandel said in Good TV:

I don't know why I continue to watch The Walking Dead. At some point I need to admit I have a problem.

I am still watching because I am hoping that someday they will kill off Carl. Or at least his stupid hat. (Have you noticed that he is ten million times more bratty and stupid when he's wearing that fucking thing? Maybe if the hat gets destroyed, he will be a hallway decent character. Fuck you, hat)