Random thing you love right now that doesn't deserve its own thread

doubtingthomas396 wrote:

And the less said about roast beef sandwiches made outside of Bills country the better the better. If you can even get horseradish it’s mixed with mayonnaise, and you might was well ask for Martian Ambergris as order a kimmelweck roll.

I may have to go find myself a Beef on Weck sandwich this weekend, now.

Katy wrote:
doubtingthomas396 wrote:

And the less said about roast beef sandwiches made outside of Bills country the better the better. If you can even get horseradish it’s mixed with mayonnaise, and you might was well ask for Martian Ambergris as order a kimmelweck roll.

I may have to go find myself a Beef on Weck sandwich this weekend, now.

If you live someplace where they can make them, I envy you.

staygold wrote:

Random Thing I Love: No Notifications

Last week I turned all the notifications off on my phone. All the popups. All the numbers over tiles showing unread notifications. Everything.

Pardon my language.

HOLY sh*t. Life changing. I check email, texts, phone calls, social media, etc, when I want. No more pressure. No more tiny red notification or banner popup compelling me to do something, respond, or get back to someone. It's been so liberating and awesome. I keep the important people (family) on for notifications but everyone else can wait till I have the time or will to respond. It's the epitome of a random thing I love and I would encourage anyone and everyone else to give it a try.

LTTP, but THIS!!! THIS sooooooooOOOOOOoooo much. I’ve been cutting back and my life has measurably improved because of it. I only kept important, major stuff, but all social media has been dialed down.
Listen to Staygold. He speaks the truth.

Eleima wrote:
staygold wrote:

Random Thing I Love: No Notifications

Last week I turned all the notifications off on my phone. All the popups. All the numbers over tiles showing unread notifications. Everything.

Pardon my language.

HOLY sh*t. Life changing. I check email, texts, phone calls, social media, etc, when I want. No more pressure. No more tiny red notification or banner popup compelling me to do something, respond, or get back to someone. It's been so liberating and awesome. I keep the important people (family) on for notifications but everyone else can wait till I have the time or will to respond. It's the epitome of a random thing I love and I would encourage anyone and everyone else to give it a try.

LTTP, but THIS!!! THIS sooooooooOOOOOOoooo much. I’ve been cutting back and my life has measurably improved because of it. I only kept important, major stuff, but all social media has been dialed down.
Listen to Staygold. He speaks the truth.

Try it for work emails too. I use Outlook at work and can’t stand the default notifications. Now I only check email once in the morning when I get in, and then again after lunch. (I’ll also triage some email before I leave sometimes too.)

The downside is that it may take a loooong time to train coworkers that you don’t use email like instant messaging anymore.

I've found a line in my email signature saying that I check email three times a day works nicely, along with encouragement to come and actually speak to me if something can't wait a couple of hours. Helps to promote a less always-on culture where you work too.

PaladinTom wrote:
Eleima wrote:

LTTP, but THIS!!! THIS sooooooooOOOOOOoooo much. I’ve been cutting back and my life has measurably improved because of it. I only kept important, major stuff, but all social media has been dialed down.
Listen to Staygold. He speaks the truth.

Try it for work emails too. I use Outlook at work and can’t stand the default notifications. Now I only check email once in the morning when I get in, and then again after lunch. (I’ll also triage some email before I leave sometimes too.)

The downside is that it may take a loooong time to train coworkers that you don’t use email like instant messaging anymore.

Oh, that's not an issue for me anymore. I have Outlook at work, and close when I leave it. And I took it off my personal phone back in spring which literally saved my life. So unless people actually call me for the urgent business, I just go through what I can as best I can.

doubtingthomas396 wrote:
Katy wrote:
doubtingthomas396 wrote:

And the less said about roast beef sandwiches made outside of Bills country the better the better. If you can even get horseradish it’s mixed with mayonnaise, and you might was well ask for Martian Ambergris as order a kimmelweck roll.

I may have to go find myself a Beef on Weck sandwich this weekend, now.

If you live someplace where they can make them, I envy you.

I'm in a suburb of Rochester, which is definitely Bills country. (I'm sure I could get a better sandwich in Buffalo, but they do have them around here.)

"Couldn't lead a lemming off a cliff without a map."

My short had a fantastic screening and got an additional screening date on Saturday at 5:30, which is a primo slot! I'm really excited - we had some people in the house who are tough critics and they all raved.

I put a tix link above (in the "Saturday") if anyone is NYC based and wants to check it out. I'd love to say hello, and I've seen a couple of the other shorts that have gotten an extra screening in that block and they are fantastic as well. So, if you are around, come hang out and see this thing and we can grab beverages afterward!

I can't be there, but I *can* recommend the Holiday Cocktail Lounge, 75 St. Marks Place, in the East Village. St. Marks is the continuation of Eighth St, so it's just up from where it hits 1st Ave. Two blocks from the Astor Place subway. Fantastic dive bar with good pours, great cocktails and delicious food. Used to be a real dive bar, with lots of counter-culture types in its history, and it retains that community spirit, but has been made over quite well. My favorite NYC bar.

Robear wrote:

I can't be there, but I *can* recommend the Holiday Cocktail Lounge, 75 St. Marks Place, in the East Village. St. Marks is the continuation of Eighth St, so it's just up from where it hits 1st Ave. Two blocks from the Astor Place subway. Fantastic dive bar with good pours, great cocktails and delicious food. Used to be a real dive bar, with lots of counter-culture types in its history, and it retains that community spirit, but has been made over quite well. My favorite NYC bar.

Next time I'm up in the city seeing the little brother may have to check this place out. He's a regular up the street from this at Professor Thoms. A good local spot with a sports bar feel. Roomy for a NYC bar. Thoms is only a 8 min walk from Holiday. The other spot that I go to (again near Thoms) is Standings. Standings is a tiny tiny bar and sports bar. Always has the Mets. Intimate and very cool. But was crazy crowded during hockey playoffs.

Holiday retained the old bar itself, and has dive-y accoutrements, while they also brought in one of NYC's leading cocktail wizards (Michael Neff) to design their house cocktails. The bartenders are incredibly knowledgeable but the prices are a notch below the more tony cocktail places nearby. AND, they have generous pours. No 90% soda Tom Collins here (not that I'd order one here). Go for the classic cocktails and variants, customize it with the bartender to your exact tastes, and grab an incredible burger while you are there. Chat with the other folks there, take pics for the people on dates or celebrating something, and just talk about life. Such a welcoming place. Sit where Allen Ginsburg and WH Auden and Leon Trotsky drank and enjoy life.

Come to think of it, it could be a great scene location...

This post about my short brought me to tears. Vince's own work is beautiful and I've long been a fan, so this just makes me feel all sorts of things. I'm quite jazzed for the next screening on Saturday now!

Bonus Eruptus. Just such a good dude.

Halloween.

Holiday or The Shape?

Historical fact of the week (from a 2015 Mental Floss article):

For their 1804 expedition, Lewis and Clark were given packs of "thunderclappers" to cure constipation. These purgative pills contained a massive dose of mercury ("calomel" was a popular medical ingredient for a number of remedies). Modern archaeologists can track the expedition's route by following the trail of mercury deposits in latrine pits.

Supposedly, early archaeologists located the path Alexander took through South Asia by noting that date palms tended to grow most commonly on top of hills with views to other hills in the distance... Just where you'd station troops to pass signals and watch for enemy movements, and they'd munch on dates and throw away the pits.

Supposedly. Anyone know if it's true?

SallyNasty wrote:

Bonus Eruptus. Just such a good dude.

TRUTH.

Went to the dog park this morning and noticed a gentleman with a t-shirt of England, along with a date ending in "32 AD". I thought about it for a bit, without being able to stare at him, then had to ask him what it was, because I could not think of any significant events. He straightened it out - 932 AD, the timeframe of Monty Python's Holy Grail movie, and indeed the shirt had drawings of scenes from the movie. I told him I thought perhaps it was something from Total War or CK2, and he knew what they were. We had a delightful conversation about games for half an hour or so while the dogs romped. Great fun.

It does sound good. Little meeting of minds with strangers like that are invigorating.

Performing a fun show in front of a sell out audience 3 nights in a row.

It has been amazingly energising for me.

If you are in Melbourne Australia, Boeing Boeing runs until the end of the month at The Basin Theatre.

Grenn wrote:

Holiday or The Shape?

Holiday, but seeing as it's only August, it doesn't deserve it's own thread right now.

I've finally found a game in which I can compete with teenagers. I've got myself into the top 1% in nearly all the street races in The Crew 2. Take that, punks!

This article about diversity and game design from someone who designs for M:tG is fantastic.

So I recently made a new friend in a new gaming group that I just kinda wound up in on discord. I was discussing the origin of my username and I found out he also had Bi-Polar Disorder. We both are able to talk about aspects of the illness that most people would probably find weird or are just hard to understand, and based on the topics brought up in our initial conversations he really does have the illness (some coping mechanisms are common, and some are a bit weird and we both brought up a fair bit of them). Being able to relate to someone, and vent to someone who intrinsically understands the illness not just from a scholarly POV but from a trying to live and cope with it is just a wonderful feeling. Ever since I cut ties with a toxic former "friend" years ago, I lost almost my entire circle of friends as well, so being able to relate and open up about this for the first time in almost 4 years in depth is just a feeling that I forgot about. So happy.

Sharpies.

MaxShrek wrote:

Sharpies.

Especially the silver ones that can write on black plastic.

Just remember to store them tip-side down.

The golden silence acheived when the cats, baby, and wife all have food in their mouths.

My son leaves in 48 hours for a semester in Valencia, Spain. Sad to see him go but so excited for him. Are there any Goodjers in Valencia?