Autumnal Goatquinox (September 2024 scapegoat blame thread)

@mycya4me that wasn’t me, I don’t think. If so I made it 99°F for myself yesterday and no way I would have done that intentionally.

Last I bought any fossil fuel was April for truck. Since then car plugs in and refill with solar, wind, and some hydroelectric.

@Kyeh @ExtraMedium Honestly have no idea why I am here. The best way to win something is to not know you are in the running or what the requirements are. Or lack thereof.

And yes I like that goat image, including the “goatee” (for this we can say “literally” and use it correctly!) And a very nice knit sweater. Was wondering if alpaca was related but internetz says alpaca are related to camels, not goats. Definitely not polyester. If I could only live up to that goat’s style of hair grooming and fashion…

EDIT also nice horns!

@pmarin
Cashmere is from goats!

@Kyeh @pmarin It’s goats all the way down

@ExtraMedium @Kyeh Yeah, that works for me. Might not make the nice chain-knit (I think you call it) in my goat portrait, but cashmere would be soft and comfy. I’m becoming strangely attached to my goat image.

Waiting for the message that a prince in Nigeria needs me to send $50,000 so that he can release a large flock of goats to me, and millions of dollars, also share of his harem, but first of all I need to wire $50,000 to an offshore account.

@DLPanther @Kyeh

@Kyeh @pmarin I was surprised when I petted a camel with just how soft they were. I was expecting more a cow level of coarseness.

@ExtraMedium @Kyeh @pmarin

but first of all I need to wire $50,000 to an offshore account.

Give me a minute or two. I’ll create and offshore account. Years ago on this list we had a Nigerian Prince (per his designation) giving gifts to list members. No money needed sent at all. Oh wait. That sort of ruins my get rich quick scheme.

@Kyeh @pmarin
PS here is that older Nigerian Prince thread. The short version is that someone (the Nigerian Prince, Prince gave someone in an exchange a lovely bracelet he made. Others were envious. He offered to give away more. In the end he gave away 20 of them (but wanted to remain anonymous so since I had run the exchange asked me to be the go between). In return a number of people sent Prince X (and his kids) a thank you box.

Summary
https://meh.com/forum/topics/from-prince-x?sort=most-likes

Other threads I can find (there might be more).

https://meh.com/forum/topics/important-message-from-the-magnanimous-nigerian-prince-x-concerning-bracelets

https://meh.com/forum/topics/nigerian-prince-xs-bracelet-good-faith-reveal-thread?sort=most-likes

@Kyeh @pmarin

Honestly have no idea why I am here

@Kyeh @macromeh heard of this group but don’t know much about them. Kind-of reminds me of TMBG (They Might be Giants) which had entertaining fun songs, often musically pretty catchy, with often bizarre lyrics.

@Kidsandliz @pmarin I guess that’s why they make camel hair coats, huh?

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @pmarin I dont remember this at all. Wonder how I missed it.

@Kyeh @pmarin Perhaps you might know them better as Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention?

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @tinamarie1974 Come to think of it, yeah, from my parent’s generation that was a thing. And now my recently-started “bucket list” has

• pet a soft camel

Also can check one off

• Become scapegoat of the month, something I didn’t even know existed (wait, do I really exist? this must all be a dream – consult your therapist or philosopher for answer – if they exist.)

@DLPanther @Kyeh @pmarin That’s Baaaaaaaaaad!

@Kyeh @macromeh On the Frank Zappa theme an old fried named his son Dweezil and got to introduce them to each other on a stage at a Zappa performance.

Thlnk they are doing OK, but that’s dedication, Man!

Also how did (heavy?} petting soft camel become a topic?

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh Think I’m already approved for offshore transfers. What currency would the Prince like? Will need details on goat flock and harem first – can’t be too careful.

EDIT will the private plane just have the harem or the harem and the goats? That could be weird.

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @pmarin I suspect the goats are the harem.

@Kyeh @pmarin OK that is weird. When I typed Prince X in my earlier message there was an emoji that showed up instead of the X. I wonder if it will happen again. He was named Prince X for privacy reasons.

Edit must have been the quote marks I originally put around Prince X maybe since this time it is fine?

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh well Elon controls the X which was Twitter so he might have done that. Creepy as he might be his cars are pretty good and apparently rockets can fly to space station and back, which Boeing cannot do. I listened to his biography driving last year and no matter what you think politically he goes his own way and is a maybe-evil genius. Also he seems to always tell the truth which rules him out of politics. He is like “F all that, I am going to Mars!” Definitely the smartest guy in the room whatever room or capitol it might be. Not great people skills.

On that topic (smartest guy in the room) there is a story at one of the early companies he was with where there was some engineering meeting and he basically walked by and heard discussion and told them the answer. Could be a fake legend but I’d bet there is some truth to it. Also he lived on a rented office floor for a few months when couldn’t afford a place.

But then I’d ask who here hasn’t slept on an office/lab floor overnight with equipment fans running all around you.

@pmarin Yes! You have the honor of the goat icon. Next month it flips upside down and dies. Kinda anticlimactic

Still grateful. And in a month will be Grateful Dead I guess. Not a bad way to end up though.

@pmarin reply to myself if you can get this on a service like Apple Music the lyrics are amazing. Still troubles me 35 years later.
Now it’s over I’m dead and I haven’t done anything that I want,
or I’m still alive and there’s nothing I want to do.

I’ll never see myself in the mirror with my eyes closed.

@mycya4me I feel ya man (woman?) (not in a creepy way) but was 99 in PNW yesterday but mild humidity unlike South. Today seems cooler. Have a house in Asheville NC and monitor temp and humidity because first year I didn’t use AC and got mildew issues. So now remotely controlling AC there mostly to remove humidity. Usually set around 76-78.

@pmarin Yea you did. You’re a goat… I understand… I love to keep my places around 78-80, during the Warmer months! But during the colder months it is 68-70 to save energy & I will wear more clothes!

@mycya4me yeah it seems weird using a bit of AC even when I am not there. I monitor it remotely and it does not run that much most of the time. Got a new super-efficient Trane system.
Also talked my friend on same street into getting solar on his roof so unless he uses too much AC I’m using his surplus clean power, but still have to pay Duke energy bastards full price for it. This Winter hope to add some solar for me. It’s a seasonal situation with me being there just in Winters but might change. Winters usually 65-68 but turn off overnight. Sweaters made from camel or goat highly-recommended.

@pmarin Again replying to myself, the Eddard Stark image (pretty sure that’s who it is) does not bode well for the upright-status of my goat icon in a few weeks.

@pmarin what subject area did/do you teach?

@tinamarie1974 tech stuff. In college it was computer science which was both math and engineering dept at the time; they didn’t know where to put it. That was not an official teacher just an assistant doing small sessions because you had to be a grad student to do that and I was undergrad. My first “real” job I was at their training course 1st week and next month was asked to teach it myself. No better way to reallly learn something than to have to teach it. This was semiconductor equipment tech stuff; primarily writing software for a specific application. That was 40 yrs ago; retired last year. Teaching wasn’t the main job but I was good at it and was often “volunteered” by my manager to go teach in remote areas. Sometimes to just 2 or 3 people, or up to about 12. I enjoyed it, especially the international ones: Places like Japan, Korea, France (Aix-en-Provence, Grenoble, Nantes — probably my favorite assignments,) Italy(OK that was a favorite too), Munich.
But didn’t do any of that recently and yeah things became more boring, basically. Which I guess is normal. Overall I don’t regret any of it because I think it was positive and made the most of everything, but of course still the bit of “roads not taken” thoughts which is inevitable, if you analyze things too much (goat hint for happy living: don’t do that, or if you do, look back on it and say “that would have been fine too, but also fine the way things worked out for me”)

@tinamarie1974 Also, “amateur therapy hour continued” in those countries, people who were on “salary” had to clock-in and out using badges to make sure they did NOT work too many hours a week. I think limit was 35 hours a week and that was in year 2000.

In several of the places there was a Camaraderie (which I’ve enjoyed but is rare in the US) where the lunch was a joyful experience of celebration just among co-workers (as it should be) and of course, even though from cafeteria, French Food, yes, good! And the tradition on some places was that one person bought the bottle of wine to share among everyone at their work lunch. I think I bought it once or twice. So French. Split among 5-7 people not a lot of wine. Also time to walk around very nice gardened grounds, not just cement tilt-up block buildings as you see in San Jose. At one time I even used the local electric tram to get to work even though I had a rental car. Dropped me off right outside the company property. What are we doing wrong?? apparently, everything.
Sorry goat out for tonight Apple told me it’s bedtime.

@pmarin I just talked to myself and made threads with funny memes I thought people might reply to. It worked out fine.

@pmarin Ive had similar experiences. My co-workers in Germany have to swipe their badge to enter the campus. Campus is huge and when I first visited I thought it was to keep thr general public out. Nope, its to make sure no one works too many hours. If you are there more than X hours in one day your boss gets a call from HR. My co workers were shocked to learn we did not have something similar.

Same comapny, public tram has something like three stops at our campus. So I can easilybwalk a block or two to grab the tram and rode in peace on a safe, clean vehicle atraighr to the office.

When I worked in Mexico everyone would get a hug and kiss on the cheek every day upon arrival and when leaving to go home. I remmeber my first day down there. I was freaked out that someone invaded my personal space. After my time ended and Inwas back in the US office full time I missed my morning hug! It was a nice way to start the day!

As far as lunch, yes fully agree, every where but the US. Great food, great company. People celebrating each other and fully enjoying their break and decompressing. Now, back to DE and their huge campus. They have multiple cafeteria buildings that have muliple floors each + small cafe’ (like Panera Bread or starbucks w food) + a fancy sit down service option. Cafeterias are similar, but slightly different and each floor has a different cuisine. It is unbelievabe and so inexpensive. Cafe has panera type salads and sandwiches and the sit down place is like steak, lobster, salmon, etc.

We in the US are clearly doing something wrong.

@tinamarie1974 glad you got to experience that. Most people here (US) don’t and don’t even know it’s in a spectrum of possibility. Also the sometimes hug and kiss on the cheek thing, probably get you to H.R. if not prison here.

It is kind of funny the new-gen “kids” seem to be like “screw this” and aren’t willing to slave their life away for “the Man” but just expect to have things provided for them, don’t want to drive ‘cause Uber. But honestly knowing some of my friend’s “kids” (not really kids about 20+) I like to think they’ll be OK and figure it out.

@tinamarie1974 Funny company lunch story: in Korea, this was a while back, at Samsung cafeteria, Korean guys I worked with would take me to the cafeteria and we all got in a line with stainless-steel trays and you could choose line A or B. Of course I couldn’t read the letters and one of them would tell me which line because they figured I’d have American tastes. Honestly either would have been fine. One time there was a small squishy thing not sure if it was animal or vegetable. I think some sort of sea creature. I could use chopsticks pretty well. The Korean guys were all looking at me to see what would happen if I tried it, and I did and there was great laughter and chatter wish I could have understood it.

Also, going out eating and drinking with Japanese guys.

@pmarin Ive seen insta videos on the samsung cafeterias somewhere in apac, looks good. Did you figure out what the squishy thing was?

In Mexico there was always one line, but if something looked sus, I could always say, una hamborguesa por favor! I would get the biggest hamburger you have ever seen with the thinnest slice of tomato. You could literally see through the tomato. But it was good in a pinch

@pmarin I told the Meh photographers (they were creepy and ate all my food and I never figured out where they peed) to wait till makeup was finished, but there ya go.

@pmarin Oh, don’t worry - the blame will start showing up soon, I’m sure! Maybe people are chilling out on their 3-day weekends right now but … blame awaits!

@Kyeh @pmarin OK, here’s a rather specific w̶h̶i̶n̶e̶
blame:
All summer long, the Equipment Maintenance Fairies have refused to come in the night and sharpen the blades of my brush hog mower tractor implement. (Nor, I should note, have they skipped that step and just done the cleanup on my woodlot’s trails themselves. Lazy bastards!) So now I have to do it all myself, which is a PITA: disconnect the mower from the tractor, chain it to the tractor bucket and lift it to get access to the blades, then spend what will subjectively seem like an inordinate amount of time grinding the blades to some semblance of sharpness. Then reverse the procedure to remount the mower to the tractor and go mow for a few hours. So that’s how I’m spending a chunk of my Labor Day.
(Hey, maybe you know a few hundred goats that would do the cleanup for me?)

@Kyeh @macromeh always wanted a “real” tractor (diesel, hydraulics, PTO) it’s on bucket list but as you say a lot of stuff is hard to do especially if alone. Borderline age where I have to admit it’s not worth it (old goat?). I wish I had Equipment Maintenance Fairies.

@Kyeh @pmarin Well, the task turned out to be easier than I expected so I guess Unblame. I think the last time I sharpened the mower blades, I just used a hand file. But I remembered that I bought a small angle grinder for another project and that made quick work of sharpening the blades.
But yeah, the tractor makes dealing with my 30 acres (20 acres of it is timber lot) much more manageable.

@mycya4me appreciate it (? )

@pmarin also since some sites like this one sell a lot of “tactical” stuff really hoping for “tactical goat-squirrel vest.” ($20 extra with lasers)

My goat would need at least something like that to have a chance against robot murder goat squirrel. That I didn’t design and don’t know anything about.

@pmarin You should print that handsome goat image and frame it. You’re lucky - the image for my goat month wasn’t anywhere near that attractive. We didn’t have AI images then so I was some random goat they found online.

@pmarin I think the Borg may have taken over our AI. Try a variable frequency when you try to stop the goatsquirrel revolution.

@DLPanther forgot the variable frequency trick.
Was trying to get good “ Picard out” meme but bot not co-operating

@DLPanther you’d think the Borg would have figured that out by now.

@Kidsandliz Let me start by saying that comcast/xfinity is the worst. However, I have had a lot of luck with their “speak to an agent” text messaging system. It sounds stupid, but texting a barely intelligible script bot vs. trying to do it on the phone is way better, somehow.

@DLPanther I was forced into the bot system because if I didn’t agree I was hung up on. The bot said they’d contact a live agent to call me and that never happened.

@DLPanther @Kidsandliz I have that here and just been lucky it mostly works. It seems to often go offline for a bit overnight I guess it’s unannounced server maintenance but seems to happen pretty often if I am up in very early AM.

Other house East has evil AT&T probably the most evil (historically) of EvilCorps.

Unfortunately it seems you need a backup mobile internet service if you have an urgent work meeting or something, or just want to check your service status online if you can’t get online.

@DLPanther Here is an idea for you : Come to where I live and deal with my storage unit, help me find a place I can have a garage sale (everyone I know has an HMO who says no or lives in an apartment building where one can’t - as I do), help me organize it and then donate what doesn’t sell. Overwhelming to think about (although the biggest issue is no place to have the garage sale).

@Kidsandliz Can you do the sale directly from the storage unit? (I’ve seen that done around here.)

@DLPanther if you are on vacation you’ve already accomplished it! Easy goat-to-goat advice! Graze. Sleep standing up. Maybe a wee bit of frolicking.

@Kidsandliz @macromeh good idea depends on the unit; there is a place near me on a busy road and it’s basically a strip of mini-units. I’ve seen outdoor sales and maybe they had specific weekends. But a lot of storage units are tucked away on backroads even if you could do it.

My honest answer depending on what you have to sell is either sell the better stuff online if you can, or donate/recycle. Selling online has a lot of fees and shipping costs which are very high now. And managing it is quite a bit of work. I’m in the same boat (Titanic?) and deciding just, Meh, not this year.

@pmarin human Kevin Bacon talking about Pig Kevin Bacon no less!!!¡!

@tinamarie1974 yup. That was danger of WFH during Covid, and now retirement. Not even sure which show it was, but saw it. Might have been a re-run though they sometimes trick us with old clips mixed in. Cause the lost pig story pretty sure I heard before. Either way yes love my daytime TV but don’t do Soaps. Yet. Wish someone could find a better master of the original “Soap” was such a great show messed me up for the rest of my life. What I found so far looks like VHS tape in the worst 6-hour mode through the 1 yellow RCA cable.

How did we get from thermonuclear war to TV sitcoms from the 70s? Easy. Because it’s better to think about than global thermonuclear war. Which I have to admit has haunted me since high school.

/youtube wargames 3/11 movie clip shall we play a game

Also yes TMI still have a crush on Ally Sheedy.

@pmarin @tinamarie1974 Are you talking about Soap, the TV sitcom with (among others) Billy Crystal? If so, it’s available (for free) on Tubi.
https://tubitv.com/series/300007078/soap

@macromeh @tinamarie1974
Edit to my top post. I meant Oppenheimer movie. Manhattan was a TV series for 2 seasons and actually I enjoyed it. It covers the same crazy time, a bit more “historical fiction” where there was a bit more license to create characters and relationships that might not have been 100% based on history. Was surprised that Oppenheimer which was intended to be more accurate had some very similar storylines including some family drama which no doubt went on given the situation and secrecy of the site.

Honestly thought about the Oppenheimer movie today because of seeing something about the Barbie movie, and as a pop-culture mix can’t forget the whole Barbenheimer thing where people tried to see both in one day. Maybe in my younger days, but nah, not now. Haven’t been to a theatre since long before Covid days. The only way I would have been at a theatre for Oppenheimer was when it was at some IMAX theatres and apparently those tix sold out almost immediately and nearest IMAX showing it was almost 1000 mi away.

And in other great cinema, yes the 1970s sitcom “Soap” in a way was a parody of all the TV “soap operas” that came before it. Great scripts and acting including as you say Billy Crystal. By great scripts remember this is not Masterpiece Theatre. It would take everything that was in existing “soapopers” as I heard them called, and any dysfunction family situation you can imagine thrown in. And remember no binging possible then, you had to “tune in next week” as they would remind you. For the “kids these days” tune meant getting up and moving a big channel selector dial on the CRT TV and in some cases there was a fine-tune button for each channel you might need to adjust for best signal.

@pmarin
/showme a wall of goats

@mediocrebot That was less horrifying than I was afraid of.

@DLPanther @mediocrebot kind of like the art style. Norman Rockwell? This should be fun. Or tragic.
/showme Norman Rockwell in a rocking chair on a 1920s-era house porch with a goat next to him, in style of Norman Rockwell.

@mediocrebot damn we humans are doomed that A.I. is getting too good. I didn’t specify age of Norman Rockwell so guess I got an old one; and a young goat it seems. But pretty much what I asked for. In a few seconds. All from that TRS-80 and Commodore PET in the “Meh server room” aka closet behind the Meh coffee room.

@heartny I particularly like the panel at the bottom with the two children and their nanny.

@heartny @macromeh
Nanny granny goat?

@heartny Hey @extramedium you are falling down on the job. ^^^^ (because of course this is one of your more important jobs besides putting in irk orders ).

@heartny @Kidsandliz We’re reserving broadcasts for specific types of topics and set amounts of time going forward. Popular topics like goat threads and IRK reveals already rise to the top so there’s no need to broadcast them.

@ExtraMedium @heartny The first irk reveal thread posted needs initially broadcast as we often end up with several of them (Or the one with the most reveals). Once it is up there for a couple of days then that one should be the one rising to the top on it’s own. Otherwise there will be chaos and multiple threads rising to the top.

And hey this is meh. We will tell you what to do and how to do it. Right? Of course this is meh and you can proceed to ignore us too and do what meh tells you to do and not the customers. Of course that won’t stop us.

@Kidsandliz Already part of the plan. Broadcasts really should need to be up for more than 3 days at a time in most cases. Goat voting will get some time, new goats will get a day (just like this one did) and IRK reveals will get a bit of time to drive interaction, but we really don’t want people to pass over them because “they’re always the same stuff.” They should stand out as worth a click because they’re not so common. That’s the hope at least.

Of course, if you feel the need to blame anyone for this, I’m sure there’s a thread around here for that as well.