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

After 10 days of having some horrible non covid virus I am starting to feel better.

Yeah I still remember the "summer cold of 2016" . Sick for July basically WTF.

Feel better!

First episode of the new season of Taskmaster tonight.

Also, a friend was summoned for jury duty recently. She started Monday and was anxious she’d end up in a multi week or month trial. Yesterday, due to a lack of cases, she was dismissed as a potential juror and doesn’t need to return.

Higgledy wrote:

First episode of the new season of Taskmaster tonight.

Also, a friend was summoned for jury duty recently. She started Monday and was anxious she’d end up in a multi week or month trial. Yesterday, due to a lack of cases, she was dismissed asa potential juror and doesn’t need to return.

I know that Frankie Boyle won't be in his brutal Mock The Week mode, and will possibly be in the David Baddiel bumbling idiot role, but I'll never forget his vicious bit about Mrs Thatcher's funeral (which isn't the right vibe for this channel at all).

My neighbor is currently cutting his lawn with a chainsaw. To be fair, it has gotten overgrown with razer grass, but a weedwhacker would still probably be more appropriate and quicker.

In a way, this is the exact opposite of the guy on the street where I grew up who used to do his lawn with a ruler and scissors.

James Ernest, the owner and lead designer of CheapAss Games, responded personally to a question I submitted to the new company that owns all that old IP and a follow up e-mail I sent him. What a nice guy!

Higgledy wrote:

First episode of the new season of Taskmaster tonight.

Does this mean season 14 will start showing up on Youtube soon? Youtube has been recommending me videos with Fern Brady lately and I'm absolutely captivated by her... I've been avoiding tasks/footage from Taskmaster as I want to watch the whole season in order.

Tscott wrote:
Higgledy wrote:

First episode of the new season of Taskmaster tonight.

Does this mean season 14 will start showing up on Youtube soon? Youtube has been recommending me videos with Fern Brady lately and I'm absolutely captivated by her... I've been avoiding tasks/footage from Taskmaster as I want to watch the whole season in order.

Should start next week. Last episode of 13 just went up today.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/2aCiy5e.jpg) Saw my first dogsled race today!

Beautiful BushPilot!

Whilst working our way through ice caves in our D&D campaign last night I was volunteered, by other members of the party, (who have each done hazardous or foolhardy things in the name of science/loot /checking for traps) to touch a mysterious object and I am now twenty foot tall.

Concertgoer lets out a ‘loud full body orgasm’ while L.A. Phil plays Tchaikovsky’s 5th

No better way to get rid of the Sunday Scaries with one of the funniest headlines/articles you've ever read.

(There's audio.)

I had a wave of nostalgia for the first manga I read. Midori days. Remembering one scene that I remembered being great. Decided to read that scene again but also worried it wouldn't hold up without nostalgia.

Still great and skimming other great bits I forgot. Finding a lost love and seeing it still hold up is such a nice feeling.

"-I ever tell y'all about how I started collecting protection money in elementary school?"

In the early onset of mourning for Waypoint Radio, I've returned to the well of my favorite episodes from over the years. Namely, "Waypoints 11: Don Zacny", where around the 44-minute mark, Rob relays the tale of how, as a young big boy, he was given lunch money by other kids (without realizing why) to stand with them in line. An all-time favorite anecdote, made infinitely better by Austin & Patrick's incredulity.

The whole episode is great, but if nothing else, I'll always recommend the Tale of Don Zacny.

Yesterday I had boba tea for the first time. It was good. I felt like I was an influencer.

Boba tea is one of the things I'll bust my blood sugar for. Sooooo delicious when properly made. (Pearls cooked in sugar solution and then kept in it, cooked all the way through so they are gelatinous, and a generous portion added to the drink.) I love the stuff.

I went to see it on the back of the trailer, which effectively used Dies Irae and O Fortuna.

Damn it was on local antenna station the other night late and I sat through it all. Hadn't seen it in 15 or 20 years probably. Just a silly action flick. John Lithgow elevates it.

John Lithgow elevated Buckaroo Banzai. The man is a lifter.

Who was the bad guy in that one, again?

Robear wrote:

John Lithgow elevated Buckaroo Banzai. The man is a lifter.

In this weeks art group we heard that Cheryl and Cynth had been spotted trying to do the splits outside ‘The Bridge’ in the middle of the village. Flustered, Cynth addressed the class, giving some much needed context.

She explained that she’d spent an evening with her older sister (who is 83) and they had drunk far too much wine. Whilst chatting they got onto the subject of her grand daughter who was keen on gymnastics. From there, as you may have guessed, they started talking about the splits, which the grand daughter could easily do. The older sister said she could still do the splits and, before Cynth could dissuade her, she had promptly demonstrated.

Anita said she was just glad to hear that the pair had attempted the splits in close proximity to the doctor’s surgery, just incase.

It's only 7AM and yet:
* It's Friday
* I slept like a log, woke up about 15 minutes before the alarm went off.
* I opened a GIC account with a 4.65% interest rate and put $10k in it
* It's sunny outside and, while it's not Summer yet, the weather today will be nice enough for me to go jogging outside rather than on the treadmill. The weekend will be even nicer. (Which is good, I'm going hiking tomorrow.)
* The only two systems I can use to do my job are down for maintenance most of the day, which means I can't do anything at work. I should charge my iPad and my Apple Pencil so I can work on my art while I wait.

Life in Canada, that's what's happening to you. Enjoy!

Last Christmas I posted in this thread about worrying that I was spoiling my kids too much and this exchange happened. The last sentence on Robears post really changed my perspective on the idea of 'spoiling' kids.

halfwaywrong wrote:

It's late Christmas Eve here, so I'm getting a little introspective. I think I might have posted something like this last year, but each Christmas I feel a little bad about how much we spoil the kids. I don't know how much of it is us actually spoiling the kids or just me comparing my poverty childhood with their relatively well-off childhood.

But at the same time, my kids are rad as hell, and my eldest especially has had a huge year and has somehow managed to not only do well, but thrive in it.

Robear wrote:

Part of the meaning of life is to enjoy it, to squeeze the last drops of joy from the fruit. Never feel shame for helping your kids do that. Spoiled is an attitude of expectation, not a state of having or lacking things.

Well, my eldest had her 5th birthday yesterday. She did have to go to pre-school, but we did what we could to try to make her day special. She had a cupcake with her breakfast, playground with friends after pre-school, dinner at maccas (as an aside, never thought I'd be that parent ), ending with her favourite movie and a slightly later bed time. And presents, of course. What really makes me feel good is that she spent the whole time thanking us for it. Like, constantly and spontaneously. She was just giving back the love and gratitude we tried our best to give to her. That was some real life-affirming stuff for me. I might be a big ol' f*ck-up in a lot of ways, but I seem to be doing at least something right.

Her party is tomorrow and I can't wait!

When a music service plays banger after banger. It doesn’t happen often, but today I asked for one song in Apple Music and the rest of the songs were great.

Halfwaywrong, so glad to hear it! Life looks different when you give yourself permission to enjoy it, even if it's just now an then. Making your kids happy is a joy of its own. Your daughter does not sound spoiled and giving her a special day won't make her expect special treatment. Her gratitude is your reward.

I love playing this piano piece so much.

You know when you randomly find a $20 bill in the wash or in a pocket of your pants? I had the modern day equivalent of that today. I forgot about a $211 purchase I made with paypal earlier in the week (it was a trailer hitch for my wife's van). Login to find out what it was and I see that there is $450 waiting in my paypal account that I didn't claim. Check my history because I have no idea what's going on and it's a bike I sold last summer that's just sitting in paypal waiting for me to transfer it to my bank account or my paypal balance.

Been MIA for a little while, darn life keeping me busy! So howdy GWJers, missed ya!

I was thinking back to all the encouragement I received on these boards when I decided to give up my full-time job and return to study. It really meant a lot to me, and I'm glad I received some backup during that scary time!

I realised yesterday how much I've grown into my place in academia. I used to struggle to give presentations. Public speaking was always a big issue for me (which I now know was being exacerbated by anxiety and ADHD; both of these being diagnosed in the last 2 years). I've gone from fumbling my way through 10 minutes of public speaking to teaching multiple university classes with minimal preparation. Whereas before, I'd rehearse my script for hours on end, now I go into a full room and just talk. This week I took on some extra classes to cover for a colleague, and while I was still quite nervous, I just settled in and did my job. It went well.

And I've had some amazing moments doing so. I had a student come to me in tears over some of the content. She was on the verge of dropping out of university because nobody would help her understand statistics. After a few 1 on 1 consultations, she ended up producing one of the clearest and most logical interpretations of the major assessment for that class, I was so proud! I almost teared up myself! Similarly, receiving e-mails of appreciation and overhearing little bits of conversation about me in communal study areas makes all the effort, anxiety, and time so worth it.

I'm running behind on my personal PhD work, and I need to find a better balance rather than giving 110% to these students, but the payoff is great. I definitely have some areas I want to improve upon next semester (time management between personal work and class work being a major one), but I learn a little bit each day. Overall, this session has been wonderful and a huge improvement over the last class I taught (which was my first!). My subject coordinator is so much more supportive, and I think that's helped me learn to be more comfortable as a teacher.

Anyways, excuse the content-rambling Just a positive little update from down-under!