Here’s an open thread for personal stuff, continued from here. You know the drill: No trolls, no MRAs/PUAs/MGTOWs etc, be nice. Email the mods/me if shit gets weird.
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We Hunted The MammothWe Hunted The Mammoth
Ah! To provide a cheerier start-off, I found some good books for my in-laws at the local library sale (I like gifting them with books, especially since we don’t get to see them very often; it’s another way of connecting) and I think I’ve found a good pre-sewn book block for my next bookbinding project (someone liked what I’d done well enough to ask me to make them a journal…).
Oh, and I met a big good-natured Newfoundland pup today. Emphasis on BIG. 7 months old and already close to 3′ at the shoulder…
Well, I’m headed down to Arizona to help out the woman I mentioned at the top of the last thread. Not sure when I’ll be able to get out of town – my hope is this week, but that might not happen.
Things are going quite a bit better on her end than they were a month ago. She has a place to live, and the soon-to-be-ex has been leaving her alone for the most part. However, between caring for an infant and the fact that she can’t drive, she’s having a hard time taking care of her day-to-day business. She does know a foreign-born couple in the neighborhood (they apparently attend the same Mandarin-language church as the ex, but haven’t been taking his side, fortunately), but they have their own lives and there’s not too much they can do for her.
So I’m off to help. Right now, I’m working out the practical issues – transportation from here to there isn’t easy, and I need to make sure that I don’t run through my budget before the paychecks start coming in. In the meantime, I’ve spoken with her quite a bit and I’m over the fact that she was married before, but I’m still not sure what’s going to happen when we meet in person this time. I have a tendency to build these things up in my head.
Yesterday I had occasion to visit a business acquaintance. She has stables where she keeps horses. I went to say hello to one I’d met last time I was up there. His owner was with him.
“Oh he likes you! Would you mind leading him to the paddock?”
“Well, I’m not really good with….”
“Oh you’ll be fine”
*Gallop*
“Er, he’ll probably come back when he’s hungry”
Anyway, this is the escapee in question….
http://s1122.photobucket.com/user/Alan_Robertshaw/media/DSC_0735_zpsan0efw4w.jpg.html?filters%5Buser%5D=142504534&filters%5Brecent%5D=1&sort=1&o=0
The knitting needles are being polished up.
Daughter informs me I’m going to be a granny. Yay!
Congratulations, mildlymagnificent! I’ve been told that grandbabies are a pure delight.
@Andrew I hope everything goes according to planned and you have a safe trip.
@nequam I love to see pics of your bookbinding work.
@Alan I hope you were not hurt. Horses do tend to have a mind of their own, don’t they?
I am happy to say that the last 2 days have been a little less stressful than the last 2 weeks have been. Everything seemed to go wrong at once it seemed.
Made some homemade laundry detergent from a recipe I found on line (after I took the washer apart, put the new part in and put it all back together again. Does that win me some misandry points for doing manly-man work? 😉
I hope everyone else is doing well.
Apropos of nothing…
Got hit on by a 16yo girl online today. I’m 52. A little creepy and very depressing. What must this girls life be like that she has to come on to (grand)father figure? I’m not cut out to handle this kind of thing.
Just wanted to get that off my chest.
My dad’s been living in my apartment for the past few months and will, thankfully, get a break from it for a while until he comes back in May. He used to live inbetween the homes of his friends up in NorCal and his girlfriend’s place in SoCal – but they had a falling out with the earlier and he’s been looking for a place since then.
It’s been difficult because I like having the place to myself and, with him and his stuff there, it’s become more constricting. I try to be accommodating as best as I can but it makes me weary as I’ve let him have my bed (due to his back problems) while I’m barely able to get sleep on the couch. It doesn’t help he’s incredibly picky about the place he wants to move into – he refuses to consider any place that requires a year lease, for example – that leaves me feeling a bit disgruntled.
@ Myriad
Nope, just a little embarrassed. I do have a few bruises where he’d been banging his head into me previously, but that’s a sign of affection apparently.
He’s been cooped up for a while with a poorly leg, which has now been sorted, so maybe he just wanted a bit of a frolic?
Alan, as a person who formerly did a lot of work with horses and been missing my goofball…
Yep. He’ll be back. Hoses are usually a little frisky after long stall hauls. My sister got clipped once by the sweetest little filly (seriously, the horse was usually an absolute dear who’d put up with everything including getting people overalls put over her front legs).
Same deal for her, she was being taken for her first walk after being stall bound by an abscess, and she just wanted to GO!
It’s good to hear mostly good news from the thread! Sympathy a for the online weirdness with the kiddo…
I just got done with the first big burn day for my fire class, and I have decided to never buy a couch.
I’m attempting to do an April art challenge to motivate myself to draw more, and I’m participating in a fun tarot game on tumblr called Tarotocolypse.
I’m still looking for work though, and it’s been almost a year since I graduated college. : /
It’s also inhumanely hot here, and that doesn’t help my depression or stress at all.
And they’re still working on the kitchen at my house. The cabinets are all mounted and the like, but my cousin’s putting on the countertops and will install the sink hopefully tonight. I’m tired of trying to wash dishes with the hose. : /
@Alan. Oh good. Yeah, horses can be a little enthusiastic with their affection. Hope the bruises heal quickly.
Well, on a light hearted, irreverent note; here’s a nod to a thread a while back about MGTOW’s cooking.
In this video a man going his own way shows you how to bake a super manly fudge pie.
My new computer got here! Yay! After UPS lost the first one! Boo!
Windows won’t recognize my monitor! Boo! Calls it a Generic Non-PnP Monitor and insists its drivers are up to date when i try to get it to update! Also there are no Windows 8 drivers for my monitor! Yay!
Also, been avoiding Facebook because a dude I hardly know sent me some messages and apparently wouldn’t be averse to a relationship, but I’m very averse to a relationship, especially with someone I hardly know, and especially a relationship of that kind.
I’ve said “thanks, but no thanks” nicely, but he still seems to be holding out hope…
… Which is a bad idea, because not going to happen.
I’ve considered just all out saying “Look, it’s literally me and not you. I’m ace. It’s not going to happen, and if you legit want to be friends and not have this whole relationship that could have been spectre looming over you, we can do that… But back off a bit for now, please?”
… But I’ve only really admitted I’m ace to my folks, my sister, and my two closest friends (as far as folks who know me in person), and that just seems like way too personal information to give to someone whose judgement I already question.
I’m not really worried about any social repercussions, and if this dude is going to be holding a torch out in the rain, he’d be better off knowing he should just go back to his place because all he’s going to accomplish is getting soaking wet, but…
… It doesn’t really feel like someone I’ve only met 2 times in real space and who I barely know really deserves that level of personal information.
So, yeah. To nip firmly in the bud with a never going to happen because ace, or to nip firmly in the bud with just a “this is not a happening thing. Ever.”
I’m glad I missed all of this in high school, but trying to figure this stuff out at 22 is not a picnic.
🙁
On the bright side, fire-1 is really, really fun! We burned things and it was fun. And we talked about not dying, and what to look for to avoid backdraft and flashover, and we watched rollovers in a safe environment and it’s so gorgeous.
It’s like a mini-orange aurora dancing just above a really thin cloud layer, and the smoke just flows and it’s beautiful.
Also, hot. My PPE did a very good job, but hot. Hot-hot.
Back to school with spring quarter! I didn’t do as well last term as I would’ve liked, but I’m actually pretty happy with my schedule and courses this time around and am keeping up with my work quite well.
I was having a rough time at the beginning of my first year in college, and I found that the free individual counseling my school offers was actually really helpful. I’m looking into joining group counseling. I was interested in the Women’s Group but it turned out to conflict with class, and since one of the things I’d been hoping to work on was getting better at opening up to people I signed up to be screened for the Building Social Confidence group.
My Camp NaNoWriMo project is also going well. I wish my cabin would talk a bit more, though.
@suffrajitsu: They’re never very chatty in Camp NNWM. It’s always easier to get a conversation going if you have geography in common, or at least that’s what I’ve found.
Speaking of which, I’m trying to sell my books on my own again. I won’t post links because that seems on the spammy side, so I’ll just say that they’re pay-what-you-choose (including zero, I won’t be offended) and you can find them on my blog. I wouldn’t have gone back to this, but the agent search is…not as bad as last time, but still not great.
*waves* Hello! Sorry that I haven’t posted in a while. Turns out that I’ve been busy looking for a job.
And now it turns out that I have an interview this Wednesday afternoon. I’m so nervous about this. Just trying to calm my nerves and hoping that I don’t sound like a giant mess when I answer questions.
Today is the first day of my Spring Break. I work as a Transitional Kindergarten teacher and it’s my first year teaching. I’ve been having some sleep issues with waking up too early, but without the stress of work for a week, I should do better. My anxiety that first started with this job is subsiding for the most part.
I get to spend the next week hanging out with my S.O. and dog. We don’t quite have everything planned out yet, but I know I want to get out of town, even if just for a day trip. So far we went grocery shopping and visited the dog park. I’ve spent a lot of the day reading interesting things online, like a somewhat lengthy article on the history of condom making: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2015/04/latex_condoms_are_the_worst_why_after_all_these_years_don_t_we_have_a_better.html
Job finding/privacy-regaining/anxiety-reducing/bruise-healing vibes for everyone.
I’m getting a little frustrated. I’ve decided to pursue grad school and the first application is due on the 15th. I’m almost done with it, except for some technical questions. Last week I emailed the person designated by the website for such questions and…no response. There’s no phone number listed for this person, and I’m getting antsy because the application is due so soon. I’ve decided that on Monday I’m going to call the number listed on the website, even thought it’s not the officially designated “Call this person for technical questions” number, just to see if I can connect with someone who can help me.
Also, I’m like 80% sure I won’t even get accepted by any of the programs I’m applying for, but I’ve decided to just try. Why not?
So, every year I go to the San Diego Comic Con International, and I get webcomic artists to draw sketches for me. I have a sketch book that I bought six years ago and wrote a prompt atop every page.
The prompts range widely in content from “Maxine was attempting to get the band back together, or so she told the officer” and “Standing there, package in hand, Lou wonder if it had been worth all the effort” to “Aha! A challenge!” or “Bouncy, Bouncy, Boucy!”
But this books is nearly full. It’s got maybe twenty pages left, so this is probably the last SDCCI it’ll see use in. I’ve already purchased a new sketch book, but I’m not sure how to progress with this.
I have a couple options:
1) Write 200 new prompts
2) Use the exact same prompts again
3) Use a selection of the previous prompts and some new prompts
4) Take the pictures, print them out, affix them to the new sketch book and have webcomic people write new prompts for the pictures.
5) Take the pictures, upload them to the internet and get internet denizens to write the new prompts.
6) Take the pictures, burn them in a summoning circle, get denizens of the plane of chaos to write new prompts.
7) Randomly generate new prompts with some sort of random prompt generator.
8) Fill my pockets with chicken fat and pretend to be a dumpling for the rest of my life.
Newcomer here. This looks fascinating and possibly useful in my work (I teach high school: you’d be amazed – or wait, no, maybe you wouldn’t – at the level of casual misogyny in “today’s youth”.).
I read through the last few entries, and there’s a term I’m hoping someone can define for me: what are “red pillers” or the like? I assume it has something to do with the (execrable, IMO) “Matrix” films? It might be a worthwhile entry in the glossary page, I’m thinking.
Anyway, happy to be here, although I expect to largely lurk. Cheers, all!
So…apparently an AVfM writer tried to go to kickstarter to make an antifeminist gaming website?
Don’t worry, it didn’t get funded.
This is a snippet from the description:
Pfffft~
Yeah right. Because AVfM is totes known for being “neutral” and “free from dishonesty and bullying language”.
This seems like the best option to me. If an artist has already done the prompt, you can encourage them to move to another page if they want, while still getting new artists to do their sketches on the old prompts.
Josh:
Yep, it’s a Matrix reference. MRA:s believe that we’re all brainwashed by feminists, so we can’t really see how oppressed men really are and how the world really works. If you manage to see through the feminist lies and discover the actual oppression of men and tyranny of women, you have “taken the red pill”.