Off-Topic / Dumping Thread

[xabin]

Ah, dang, the IRS decided to schedule my check for snail mail before I got the chance to get my new account and routing numbers to give them for direct deposit. Ah, well...

[xabin]

Oh, goddamnit, the convention my boyfriend was saving up to go to has been canceled due to the pandemic. This is utterly freaking stupid and sad, and I feel like I need to do something to help him out...

[Omega-TI]

2 minutes ago, xabin said:

Oh, goddamnit, the convention my boyfriend was saving up to go to has been canceled due to the pandemic. This is utterly freaking stupid and sad, and I feel like I need to do something to help him out...

... spend the money he was saving on something else? ?

[xabin]

3 minutes ago, INVISIBLE said:

... spend the money he was saving on something else? ?

It's not that simple; it was a convention that a mutual friend of ours goes to every year, and this was the year he managed to save up enough money to go out and see him there. Now, because of the pandemic, he can't.

[+OLD CS1]

20 minutes ago, xabin said:

It's not that simple; it was a convention that a mutual friend of ours goes to every year, and this was the year he managed to save up enough money to go out and see him there. Now, because of the pandemic, he can't.

I assume, then, like a few other con's which are currently getting bad press, no refunds are being offered?

[xabin]

Refunds are being offered, but it's more that he's not going to be able to go to his first convention of this type (it's a fantasy convention), and especially he's not going to be able to see his friend IRL.

[+OLD CS1]

45 minutes ago, xabin said:

Refunds are being offered, but it's more that he's not going to be able to go to his first convention of this type (it's a fantasy convention), and especially he's not going to be able to see his friend IRL.

Gonna tell you like I tell my own kid: there are much, much worse things in life, and we make sacrifices today which look trivial tomorrow.

[xabin]

3 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:

Gonna tell you like I tell my own kid: there are much, much worse things in life, and we make sacrifices today which look trivial tomorrow.

Possibly, but it feels like we've been cursed to make these big plans that would help our lives and social connections with people, only for something out of our control to come in at the last minute and say "NO! You don't get to have this happy thing! Screw you!"

[+OLD CS1]

Just now, xabin said:

Possibly, but it feels like we've been cursed to make these big plans that would help our lives and social connections with people, only for something out of our control to come in at the last minute and say "NO! You don't get to have this happy thing! Screw you!"

While this sounds dismissive, that, my friend, is life.  Life is not personal, so try not to take it so.  The only thing life does that is personal against you is repercussions for your poor decisions.  Other than that, you will never suffer anything no one else suffers.

 

While I was out today I had to urinate but kept missing my chance to do so.  A couple of hours later I was on my way home and was held up in traffic for a good half-hour more in an area usually light on traffic.  I finally passed an intersection managed by six police vehicles to see a motorcycle laying on the ground, smashed all to hell, and a car sitting close by with its front corner smashed in.  The ambulance which passed me minutes earlier must have taken the motorcyclist from the scene.  Having to pee very badly is uncomfortable and if let to go too long can be painful, and in the very extreme cause damage.  Seeing this made my situation, while no less urgent, much less taxing.

 

Fear, hurt, pain, suffering, loss, death; all these and more every one of the over seven billion people on this planet must cope.

[xabin]

...no offense, but being mildly inconvenienced to do a bodily function by a horrific injury to someone else isn't exactly the same as being prevented from meeting a friend for the first time IRL and going to a once-in-a-lifetime experience due to a freaking virus.

[+OLD CS1]

43 minutes ago, xabin said:

no offense, but

Yup.

[xabin]

Let me try to elaborate on this: This friend we've known for years online, he's possibly the second online friend my boyfriend's had after me. They are very close, almost like brothers, and he's done us a solid by buying souvenirs from the convention for us each year for the last couple of years. Also, this was the biggest convention of its kind in the world, and my boyfriend had sold off and sacrificed a LOT to try and get the money for a hotel room and a pass into the con. Together, he would've been the friend's costume handler there, mainly at a cosplay parade they have, every year - that's a lot of pressure and responsibility on him, and a lot of trust from the friend for him. So, this is the equivalent of you saving up to go to Disney World for once in your entire life, finding out that a long-lost friend or relative you wanted to meet for decades would be there and would hire you as an assistant during the trip... only to have to scrap it all, because there was a contamination of the water fountains at the Disney World you two were going to meet at, and it had to shut down for the year, as a result. And there was NO WAY to get the money raised for another try, because of both a limited budget AND a witch of a landlady (or, in our case, HUD official) that wants to wring you dry of any money you have, to the point of raising your rent twice for selling off a few things in the past few years, and who considers a candy bar given to your kid by a neighbor each month to be income you NEED to report.

 

That's the situation we're stuck in, right now. It's not a matter of "oh, he can spend the money elsewhere", or "oh, he can just visit the friend next year", because this is it; this is the only shot they had to do this, and it's now not possible.

[xabin]

Just now, OLD CS1 said:

Yup.

Yup? Yup what? Yup, you expected me to take it as dismissive? Well, sorry, but you don't seem to get how important this trip was to both my boyfriend and his friend. Both of them are furious and distraught over this, and all you can do is say "Well, that's like being kept form the bathroom for a few more minutes, because of a car accident"; I'm sorry, but that doesn't parse with me, at all.

[+OLD CS1]

Just now, xabin said:

that doesn't parse with me, at all.

You missed the bigger picture of what I was saying.

[xabin]

No, I think you're just being insensitive and not getting how important this was to both my boyfriend and his friend. Seriously, comparing their loss of this to you being mildly inconvenienced from peeing because of a road accident? There is no comparison at all with that. I'm sorry, but you're ignored. I am not going to have this kind of dismissive BS given to someone close to me at this juncture. Good day, sir.

 

PS. You trying to tell me this crap by saying you're "explaining it to me like you would your child" is insulting. I'm almost 38 years old, I'm not a freaking toddler, nor is he. Maybe it's you who need to be talked down to like a child.

Edited April 28, 2020 by xabin

[+OLD CS1]

Or, perhaps I am trying to be helpful.  My daughter is not that much younger than you, but your age is irrelevant.  If you feel I have been condescending or have spoken down to you, that is your feeling.  If it makes you feel better to be condescending and speak down to me, please feel free.  Just know you are doing so to someone who has several times, including tonight, tried to be helpful to your plights.  No, you are neither a child nor my "child," (what are you supposed to call your adult offspring?) but I do like to think we are all friends around here.  Some of us just not the type who will commiserate but will push to pull together and move on.

 

When my daughter wants someone to commiserate with, she calls her mom.  If she wants a plan of action and when she is ready to march on, she calls me.

 

I have nothing more to say.  This situation is extremely emotional and devastating for you, I get it, and I am sympathetic to your situation (I have a similar one myself.)  I cannot, however, empathize as, as we sit here typing anonymously across a few thousand miles, we are still alive.

[digdugnate]

So, from an outside perspective, this exceeds the scope of this thread, even tho it's 'off-topic'. 

 

You're clearly invested in this situation emotionally, and that's fine- however, folks out of respect will try to give advice and offer a different viewpoint.

 

*My* advice is to politely accept it, say 'thank you', and go on.  if that's not possible, that's fine, too, but please understand that you may not get the reaction you're expecting or hoping for.

 

My two cents, adjusted for inflation, from a random stranger-nerd.

[digdugnate]

In other news, Mrs. Digdug and I are watching 'Empire Strikes Back' on Disney Plus.  

 

I sure miss the editions that dont have all the digital hooey on them- i still have original trilogy VHS tapes somewhere.  ?

[+Schmitzi]

On 4/25/2020 at 4:26 PM, atrax27407 said:

You realize that the "Foster's" sold in the US is brewed in Canada - it doesn't taste anything the much superior real Aussie brew. Foster's in Oz isn't even the best of the lot. I rate Toohey's much better. Victoria Bitter isn't a "bad drop" either. I spent some memorable afternoons on Lake Macquarie with a tub of prawns and a cooler (Eskie) full of VB. Of course, having a couple of good "mates" along for company helped as well.

 

Was trinken wir ? 

 

 

[+OLD CS1]

6 minutes ago, digdugnate said:

In other news, Mrs. Digdug and I are watching 'Empire Strikes Back' on Disney Plus.  

 

I sure miss the editions that dont have all the digital hooey on them- i still have original trilogy VHS tapes somewhere.  ?

You need to check out the Despecialized Editions

 

 

[xabin]

9 minutes ago, digdugnate said:

So, from an outside perspective, this exceeds the scope of this thread, even tho it's 'off-topic'. 

 

You're clearly invested in this situation emotionally, and that's fine- however, folks out of respect will try to give advice and offer a different viewpoint.

 

*My* advice is to politely accept it, say 'thank you', and go on.  if that's not possible, that's fine, too, but please understand that you may not get the reaction you're expecting or hoping for.

 

My two cents, adjusted for inflation, from a random stranger-nerd.

Okay, sorry, didn't mean to bring up trouble here.

[xabin]

17 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:

Or, perhaps I am trying to be helpful.  My daughter is not that much younger than you, but your age is irrelevant.  If you feel I have been condescending or have spoken down to you, that is your feeling.  If it makes you feel better to be condescending and speak down to me, please feel free.  Just know you are doing so to someone who has several times, including tonight, tried to be helpful to your plights.  No, you are neither a child nor my "child," (what are you supposed to call your adult offspring?) but I do like to think we are all friends around here.  Some of us just not the type who will commiserate but will push to pull together and move on.

 

When my daughter wants some to commiserate with, she calls her mom.  If she wants a plan of action and when she is ready to march on, she calls me.

 

I have nothing more to say.  This situation is extremely emotional and devastating for you, I get it, and I am sympathetic to your situation (I have a similar one myself.)  I cannot, however, empathize as, as we site here typing anonymously across a few thousand miles, we are still alive.

My apologies. I am very emotionally invested in this, and I didn't mean to turn it into a mess. I have a big problem with not being able to get my point across without it being misconstrued, and I think that was the problem, here. So accept my apologies, for whatever worth they have.

[xabin]

So, to rerail this discussion back on the normal OT, my boyfriend has been playing the new Animal Crossing game, and has encountered a unique bug: he got some sort of cosmic flower that grows next two two different colored flowers under some circumstances I don't know of, but it was in a color that, according to the charts for the game, shouldn't be possible with the combination of colored flowers he had: he had red and yellow flowers, yet the cosmo flower spawned from them is pink.

 

This isn't the first time something like this happened in his games; one time, he had a shiny female Shinx from Pokemon Gen 4 that he transferred to a Pokemon Ranch app for the Wii at the time. When he got it back out, though, much later on, it had inexplicably changed gender to male. We have no explanation for it.

[digdugnate]

16 minutes ago, xabin said:

Okay, sorry, didn't mean to bring up trouble here.

Don't sweat it- we're all in this together ultimately.

[+OLD CS1]

38 minutes ago, xabin said:

So accept my apologies, for whatever worth they have.

To me, words have meaning and one should always try to use the right words.  We all fail at that, which is why the word "try" is paramount.  I am certainly not exempt.  All that you have said has meaning to me, including your apology.  I would hope my words have meaning to you, in particular as I apologize for making it appear I was minimizing your situation.  As @digdugnate said, we are all in this together, and I suspect you would not bring your troubles here if you did not already feel comfortable in that notion.