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.

@mycya4me @pmarin lol it’s cold. Was 45 last night. I had to close windows.

Granted two weeks ago it was 90. I’m just glad I don’t live in the desert. Good luck

@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.

@ExtraMedium @Kidsandliz

@pakopako its unpinned. I was wondering why as well!!

Maybe @narfcake or @wehatrack can explain or assist?

@narfcake @pakopako @tinamarie1974
It was addressed above: https://meh.com/forum/topics/autumnal-goatquinox-september-2024-scapegoat-blame-thread#66d933dd3a4a37a879789203

@narfcake @pakopako @tinamarie1974 A. I. explains it 2 posts down. Goat power! What are they going to do? Shear us? Actually need a haircut.

@unksol
https://meh.com/forum/topics/autumnal-goatquinox-september-2024-scapegoat-blame-thread#66d933dd3a4a37a879789203

@mediocrebot Bot might be my friend after all!

EDIT A.I. getting too good. Straw seemed weird, but then without opposing paw thumb hands couldn’t pick up the beverage. So it solved it.

@werehatrack but it would be a serious time commitment for those of us that are employed (not retired) It would be easier if the powers that be would allow the thread to just be pinned like we have done in the past.

Change for the sake of change is not always good.

@werehatrack Hey please pin this thread during the meh-rathon so it doesn’t get buried 50+ threads down.

@pmarin I like that version better than the original:

@pmarin I can relate with this video!

@Kyeh @pmarin This is the version that I first heard, due to its constant repetition on a cartoon show my kids watched.

@mycya4me sorry goat life was busy for a while. I didn’t know anyone was still here what with the being unpinned and stuff…,

Was thinking of proposing 10 best movies and starting that discussion. Note that “best” might not mean best by normal standards, just ones that influenced you / messed you up the most.

@pmarin @mycya4me Are you kidding? We’ve had a LOT of communication from this goat! Not just in this thread, either!

@pmarin Good to hear from your Baaaaaadness. OH BTW I am blaming you my cat got sick!

@pmarin
/image Dr Strangelove James Earl Jones

@pmarin That was one of the darker bits to come from what was, in truth, a dark era. I was in elementary school in Miami during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and unfortunately for some of those around me, I was able (and willing) to spend the time in the library to discover just how screwed we would really be if those missiles headed our way. We were just close enough to Cuba that they might have been able to accurately target the airport, in which case we’d have been part of the gas plasma expanding away from the crater. “Duck and Cover” wasn’t going to help.

Peter Sellers played a dramatic role for once, and did it very well.

Five years earlier, he’d played multiple parts in The Mouse That Roared, a very different kind of anti-war movie.

@werehatrack in similar era we had the same “duck and cover” that was supposed to protect us from Russian bombs. I think in later years same thing became earthquake drills, at least in California. Now across the country it’s active-shooter drills. Honestly wish we could just go back to worrying about the Russian bombs.

@pmarin @werehatrack Yep the “duck and cover” was just a exercise to put your mind at ease, of course as young kids you don’t realize that it is useless. Hey if close enough, you would be a vapor within a second of it hitting! Yes I live near a couple military bases. you would not even have a chance to kiss your rump goodbye or even the Cat!

@pmarin Keeping with Stanley Kubrick, one of my all time favorites is 2001: A Space Odyssey. Amazing special effects for the time (without benefit of computer animation).

@macromeh Honestly that is the next one I was going to propose today, maybe because of the Kubrick theme, maybe because I watched the spacewalk early this morning. Also because as you say the film-making was amazing in a (thankfully) pre-CGI era, incorporation of mostly classical music. And plot-wise messes you up especially since I was an early teen when I saw it first. What is with the monkeys? What is with the big black things? What the heck does the ending mean? (50 years later still struggling with the last question) Also it was a long movie which was not fashion of the time (until now, Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon anybody?)

Also the dangers (or maybe not) of A.I. at the time I did a lot of reading so also read the Arthur C Clarke books for 2001, 2010, and 2061. 2010 was made into a movie, not bad but not nearly a cinematic masterpiece like 2001. 2010 explains a bit about the “why” of HALs actions. It was a classic AI quandary about tough choices and in a way could say it violated one of the rules of robotics because of harming humans, but essentially the “mission” was given higher priority in the software so it had no choice. Got to watch that again.
/youtube 2001 Open the pod bay doors

Yeah watching just that scene again reminds me of what you said about the amazing sets and effects at the time. Also in something unusual, captures the silence of space in the pauses. Space is silent. As we saw this morning, live.

@pmarin Yeah, for 2001: A Space Odyssey it definitely helped to have read the book before watching the film. Especially for the ending.

@macromeh @pmarin The film used the most current tech & info they could get hold of. the Projected from that!

@macromeh @pmarin I had read the seminal short story, “The Sentinel”, but it didn’t help me make sense of the ending. OTOH, I later read the screen adaptation novel, and was pleased to find out that my interpretation was pretty close to the mark.

@pmarin incredible images. What will be a famous quote looking down at Earth:
Back at home we have a lot of work to do, but from up here, looks like a perfect world.

@pmarin My Dad was part of the crew that built the Space center in Fla. I was told I got my 1st haircut in Titusville, Fla. a few years laters we was on the crew building that Airport in Northern Va, called Dulles.
I also was at/on the Cape with my family & we watched a Shuttle lift off… So Yes I am a Huge Space/ SciFi fan!

@mycya4me cool you got to experience all that. Went to see a shuttle launch from that coastal road coming up from Miami area, people hanging out everywhere, and listening to updates on radio since there was no internetz yet. But launch scrubbed so never got to see the actual launch. Toured center in 1990s with the bus tour out to the launch pad area. Hard to imagine what would be happening 30 years later on same pads. Sometimes SpaceX launch from Florida and on same night another one from another site. Also loved this on the elevator they use on the new pad; apparently it’s a real thing.

@pmarin We had a Base pass, So we could get on to the caption Launch day. Without it you are turned around at the gate.
There was back then (don’t know about now, But I guess it is still the same)
The closest is reserved for Video, Photo hardware remotely operated ONLY- No humans allowed It is about 1 miles from the Pad.
2) VIPs ect. 2+ miles away.
3) Regular people that have a Base pass (free) or bought an early pass from visitors center days earlier. They have their own viewing area.

Yes, it was delayed about an hour or so, But the issue was corrected & it still launched!

@pmarin That is get on the Cape on Launch day. Spell check got me!

@Star2236 I engaged the services of the hospice people less than 72 hours before the end for Lee, and I don’t regret that. I don’t know what the situation is for your Dad. If you have not already gone there, it may be a bit late to do that in your case. It’s just a suggestion. It might get him back home in time.

The end is never easy.

@Star2236 @werehatrack went through that this Summer with my mother at age 95. She had a cancer for a few years but with was able to have an active independent life until the month she died. Luckily when things went bad they did so quickly. Were still planning home hospice and nursing care, drinking through a tube. she went home for a day and said in pain now, she took an ambulance back to hospital. Luckily, and I do have to say luckily, because she never wanted to live without her independence, that was her last night. They put her on the comfort drugs and next morning got call from hospital of “barely responsive” and shortly after that “unresponsive” (nice term for dead).

She had a good friend that was a nurse associated with the hospital system, and gave me a lot of advice and support. She could access the computer for updated medical info and said I’m not supposed to do this because she is not my patient, but I don’t care because I care more about your mother than my job. Anyway we talked about how Oregon is an assisted-suicide state and we discussed that. There is a waiting period. In any case we didn’t have to start that.

Topics got deep here but goats live and die like all living things.

@Star2236 @werehatrack to your point about wanting to go back home, reading my story above, it surely seems like it was a mistake for her to go back to her house. But maybe she needed to be there one last time. Then finally came to terms with “this is it, isn’t it?” and realized the nice hospital place with the good nurses and the IVs was where she was comfortable at the end.

@werehatrack
We tried to do home hospice but he couldn’t go home (bc of to high oxygen) and then we were getting pushed by everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) to sign up for hospice on our 3rd day in the hospital and that didn’t seem right to us. After 3 days you’re just gonna give up and stop treating him. He didn’t have pneumonia before he came in, he got it bc he aspirated so it’s not your topical case (not having throat muscles to cough the stuff up doesn’t help either). It’s just doesn’t seem right that they want to terminate a man’s life (and that’s what they were talking about, they wanted to take him off oxygen) when he’s still fully conscious and coherent. So now we don’t want any part of hospice or “comfort care”. We’ll ask for the morphine when WE know he’s uncomfortable bc he keeps saying he’s fine besides being uncomfortable bc of being in a bed for so many days. And our main priority is his comfort and him not gasping for breath.

We’re really afraid to now bc of how the hospital handled it. And that’s really shitty.

@Star2236 I feel your pain! truly I do!
You see my Mom’s PCP, said that they could NOT do any thing more for her. So they signed her up for for hospice, 1st at home then they just started coming to the medical place she was in.
She was quite independent, I was her caregiver, Driver ect.
I was just days before Halloween 2023. had to go to the last place she wanted to be a medical facility. A Group Home, then to Nursing Home (the last place she wanted to be)
Mom just passed July 10, 2024, less than 30 days from her 94th birthday.
Mom had dementia & a few other medical issue.

So as I said I know how you feel! my Dad passed on May 17, 2016. So I am here.

@mycya4me @Star2236 It’s too bad your dad’s experience with this has been so horrible. Three of my aunts died in in home hospice which went reasonably well. With how my dad died (he had respirator assisted breathing due to post polio syndrome and was on O2) I do know that his doctors and nurses told us to make sure he gets enough pain meds and morphine as dying due to be unable to breath (and he died gasping for breath - we knew he would die as he had antibiotic resistant pneumonia he got while in the hospital for something else and only had 1/3 of his long capacity to begin with anyway due to polio; that was why he was on the vent fully conscious and not even remotely cognitively impaired - had he not gotten that he wouldn’t have died so soon) is really uncomfortable and stressful.

Maybe it might be worth switching doctors to someone who behaves in a way that is more in line with what your dad and your family want? That way he could get the positive side of hospice without dealing/fighting with people who essentially want him to commit passive assisted suicide by stopping everything when he isn’t ready to do that? It isn’t, after all, an all or none choice even though it sounds like his medical team is treating it that way.

I wish you and your family and dad strength as you deal with his end of life issues and hopefully can find a way where he dies in peace on his terms where you and your family don’t have to add to your grief and stress dealing with assholes to get to that point.

@Kidsandliz @Star2236 Both of my parents have “Gone Home” I visit their Earth suit in the graveyard. So am all that is left of my family.
My sister (younger) has been acting like the North end of a Mule walking South! the Same goes with her two kids. I have not had ANY contact with them since the Service. I highly doubt I will in the Future, I am find with that, sadly. Better quit than All heck loose!

/youtube Repo Man you don’t want to look in the trunk

@Kidsandliz All scapegoat threads have “month year scapegoat” in the name, so a search for “September 2024 scapegoat” pulls it right up.

@ExtraMedium Puff… You expect me to remember more than “goat” (as in goat thread)? Thanks for letting me know even though I likely won’t remember to use the find function for more than the word goat since mostly it only gets buried in mehrathons and the odds of me wanting to post in it then isn’t all that high. This time is was because of the damn ants I wasn’t expecting to find.

@ExtraMedium @Kidsandliz though I would not want to squander a top movie nomination on this, it can’t be avoided in this case
/image Them! (1954)

The earliest atomic tests in New Mexico cause common ants to mutate into giant man-eating monsters that threaten civilization.

@Kidsandliz Since they seem to be actively trying to attract new people to the forum, it makes sense to me that they wouldn’t want this to be the first thing people see; it’s so full of sad and depressing things that if I’d jumped right into it as a newbie I might have thought okay, I don’t need THIS. Those of us who’ve been around for a while get it, but it can be pretty heavy in here at times.

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh You mean they let new customers in! I thought it was just us!

It seems like it was a year of various losses for a number of people, relating to parents or spouses or pets. (Of course that is true any year, but their seemed to be a lot) Actually I think the Amateur Therapy sessions already were happening on another page but because of the blame something theme, it kind-of migrated here.

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh sorry either I did the their thing or maybe missed a letter and it auto corrected. (Incorrected?) Hate that I can’t fix it since time elapsed. Anyway “there seemed to be a lot of events affecting people”

@werehatrack nope

@tinamarie1974 @werehatrack maybe?

@Star2236 I’m very sorry. I’ve been wondering how you were doing.

@Star2236 I am sure you made him happy, feel loved, and feel cared for. And of course he would want you to be happy but I am also sure he knew that grieving happens first. Grief is like an emotional earthquake with so many aftershocks over a long period of time even if you are expecting someone’s death (and grieve in advance). As I am sure you also know grieving is a process and not an event; it’s a road full of bumps, train wrecks… emotional earthquakes and aftershocks. And eventually on that road you will find periods of peace, pleasure and happiness.

Happiness does come again… eventually… but that takes time… .a lot of time… It takes a lot of time for you to get to the point where you feel like you can function again. To laugh again. To get to the point where can think about something else again, even if you spend a significant number of times/hours that same day thinking about him, missing him, crying, thinking about your grief and sadness… And you can be triggered even years later, even if just briefly.

Don’t put yourself down for grieving and not being happy. How you are feeling is part of the natural process of grieving. Painful, horrible, overwhelming, and incredibly sad…I wish you the strength to travel this road, to put one foot in front of the other even when you don’t want to; to cope with this tragedy in your life.

@Star2236 I’ve posted this previously for others, I think it bears repeating here. I composed this variation on a well-known bit almost six years ago, not long after I lost my partner of 20 years to cancer. I hope it helps.

I will not deny grief; denial is the soul-killer. Denial of grief is a denial of love; I will embrace my grief, and in time it will flow past me and through me. And when the grief is gone, all that will remain is the love that no longer has a place to go - and I will cherish it, because it is what I have left.

@Star2236 @werehatrack @Kidsandliz @Kyeh As goat this month I feel these stories as well, especially for @Star2236 — you are in the peak of it right now. That moment is never easy. And yes, it will get better, but moments and memories will continue to affect you sometimes at unexpected times. That is OK.
This Summer I faced the death of my mother at age 95, and before that a few days before last Christmas, the death of my mother-in-law at age 88. And in each case they had long full lives and love and care till the end.
So though it may seem strange to be involved in this discussion but sometimes talking about it to people you only know by @ usernames still helps you (and the rest of us in a way) to remind us we are not alone and there are always friends and connections, even if not nearby.

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @pmarin @werehatrack
Yes it does. And I’m sorry for your loss.

@Star2236 so very sorry.

/giphy comforting hug

@pmarin Ive never seen it!

@pmarin @tinamarie1974
yeah… that was back in the day that humor could be funny and you didn’t have to worry about ‘triggering’ someone.
See: “Able to hit tall buildings at a single bound”

@chienfou @tinamarie1974 yeah was surprised to see that in the movie poster—of course had different meaning a few decades later. A lot of the “comedy” would not be acceptable now. “I speak Jive,” “Have you ever seen a grown man naked?,” the small pamphlet of “famous Jewish sports legends.” And of course inflating the autopilot using the hose provided for that purpose.

@werehatrack Had to look them up. Found their site on bandcamp and listened to a song. Seems good. And troubling:
On ‘Pleasure in a Fast Void’, Mister Data presents songs detailing turbulent relationships, neurodivergence, ego, anxiety dreams, and the importance of communication and understanding - all while navigating the joys of living through late stage capitalism.

So now I know about Mister Data, but I need to look up neurodivergence. No end to stuff we can learn… at any age! Keep on learning!

@pmarin around here, neurodivergence is just one of many features of modern Life.

@werehatrack Looked it up and yup, makes sense. I’m not used to all the new terms. I’m sure I have a bit of that, as well as most of the people I worked with before I retired. I don’t see any way we could have achieved the stuff we did without some level of that, in particular I think engineers tend to be this way (or people this way tend to be engineers…)

It seems to be a very broad term encompassing many things so hard to generalize on it. Reminds me of a sticker (bumper sticker, remember those?) my friend had on a Datsun (pre-Nissan?) about 40 years ago:

/image why be normal sticker

@pmarin @werehatrack My first job right out of college (ca. 1980) was at a major tech firm. The group I was in, mostly 20-something men, was designing a new OS. As you might imagine, there were a lot of strong opinions among the development teams. The semiweekly project meetings were often quite animated and became known as “Bloodbaths”. We even had tee shirts printed - I still have mine:

@macromeh @werehatrack glad you got to experience that. All those “.com weenies” from the year 2000 don’t know what they missed. Aside from the “company BMW” (was a thing for a while) they just got stock options that were either going to be worth a lot of $$$$ or else, in most cases, /dev/null. It was a fun ride, though.

@pmarin UPDATE funny story about checks. I went to meet with a C.P.A. that my mother used, to help with some stuff for her estate and also I realized years ago I should have a C.P.A. myself but thought I could do it on my own. Bad idea. Anyway at the end of an initial meeting his credit card machine was not working and I said maybe I’ll write a check instead and we agreed that was best.

@pmarin Hmm, looking back through our check register, it looks like these days we mostly use checks to pay taxes (fed + state) and the housekeeper (semi-monthly). Plus one really big check a few months ago when we replaced my wife’s car.
Most everything else goes on cards featuring cash-back perks, paid off every month via online payments through the credit union.

@macromeh Still need checks for a few things like you say. Roofer project, Electrical project, Gardener and Tree crew. And for some strange reason when I retired from what I thought was a “tech” company their H.R. department only accepts COBRA payment by a paper checked mailed monthly. Such a pain!
When I bought a car from creepy guy, no check needed, just enter ABA & bank acct number, Driver Lic and Insurance info, said “come in to pick up your car” and it was the most pleasant and least stressful car purchase experience I’ve ever had.

@pmarin When we bought my wife’s car, we went to a dealership with a “no haggle” policy. The price quoted was the price you pay and it seemed fair (I did a lot of research before going in). However, there was still an attempt to sell various add-on accessories and service packages, but no pressure when we declined. And they were happy with a paper check. So, all in all, a pretty low stress experience.

@macromeh @pmarin I use “electronic checks” for a number of things these days; like paying property taxes online - they add a fee if you pay with a credit card but for the “e-check” (really a transfer) they don’t.
Buying a car - my current car, the only brand new car I’ve ever had (now 12 years old) was bought through AAA. Fantastic experience - I didn’t even have to go to the dealership!

@pmarin Careful, I once mentioned this movie in the forum and got chided for its politically incorrect content.

@pmarin Reflecting on this, my unintended honor of being (scape)goat has been fun but also “real” in that I got to share many of your losses and disappointments, be it from losing family members or dealing with cell phone providers.

I propose we now need a Llama of the month to protect us from all the Baaahd stuff out there.

@pmarin When our kids were younger, they kept a couple of goats for 4H. We have a lot of blackberry vines here (NW Oregon), but unfortunately two little pygmy goats could barely manage to annoy them let alone eradicate them.
(Our dog did a fair job of keeping the coyotes away. Never lost a goat, but have lost a few chickens - and at least one cat - to them.)

@pmarin Goats are being used quite often around here for weed control: https://www.kdnk.org/rocky-mountain-community-radio/2024-01-30/goats-can-replace-herbicides-and-machinery-in-weed-management.

@pmarin So much cuteness!

@narfcake There will be blame, oh yes.

@narfcake @werehatrack Why?
(I want one.)

@Kyeh @narfcake @werehatrack it would definitely clash and look out of place next to my Snap-on chests and cart

@Kyeh @lonocat @narfcake @werehatrack Oh yes, so much purpleness! If I have to take blame for this, I will gladly do so. Provided I get a free sample unit for my services.

@Kyeh @lonocat @narfcake @werehatrack

it would definitely clash and look out of place next to my Snap-on chests and cart

I think that is the point. Interesting to see how HF evolves in next decade or so.

@Kyeh @narfcake Purchase would happen, and then I would need to make room for it.

@lonocat Clash? It’s purple!

My current boxes were from Home Depot (Husky) and Montgomery Wards (Powr-Kraft).

@pmarin Over the decades, they’ve pivoted from surplus/overstock/refurbs to discount bin grade to adequate grade and nowadays, offering professional grade tools. Yes, prices have gone up, but on the most part, they’re still cheaper than the alternatives.

@Kyeh @werehatrack I would actually have to make room first, then purchase.

@narfcake Currently, only two items in the tool-box-with-wheels line are supplied in purple, and neither is particularly enticing. If the 42" roll cab gets added, I will have a problem.

@werehatrack Yep – currently just the two service carts, hence the reddit post citing it as “unofficial”.

@lonocat Starting tomorrow you’ll have no one else to blame but yourself. You do realize you could have nominated some and then campaigned for them to be goated. Right? You could have posted/campaigned for them to win the election on all threads bribing encouraging people to vote.

@Kidsandliz yes, I am aware of how this works.
I have been avoiding it for over a year, after being threatened with being nominated a few times, I haven’t posted in the blame thread and avoiding posting in any threads towards the end of the months. I guess it finally caught up with me, and I couldn’t think of anyone else deserved the dubious distinction.

@Kidsandliz @lonocat Could have been worse. I got goated for an October because of my username.

@Kidsandliz @werehatrack I haven’t been goated yet!
@ExtaMedoum is being slow, I guess

@lonocat @werehatrack You expect him to be up at this hour??? I doubt he works from his bed.

@pmarin Welcome to the club of no water. We had about 4 months total of no water or boiled water including nearly a month with none then 12/23/23 at 1:30pm through 1/1/24 late evening with no water at all (and the obligatory boil water notice after that) which is just what families want over christmas. We had other weeks here and there with none too along with weeks and weeks of boil water notices with exceedingly low water pressure, lovely brown water, and water I forgot to empty out of a container that grew lovely green algae. Not much fun. In fact no fun at all. Hope you get your water, phone and internet back soon. Hey wait - if you don’t have those things how the heck are you posting???

@Kidsandliz (ex)-Goat trick: Be on the other coast! I am gradually moving from West to East areas, but right now I’m PNW Goat (well, no longer Goat after last night when goatdom expired). So that is the West and East Goat reference. Had to stay West this Summer to deal with my mother’s estate, and other stuff. (see, it was a big goat season of blame, and sorry to all that also experienced losses of family members and acquaintances this last year)

But a bunch of friends all live in Asheville and I have a house there I am moving to, gradually. Hence my “virtual” East goat. Closely following how everybody is doing because most of my closest friends are there. They are resourceful and one has a natural-gas hardwired generator and nat gas is still working there. On a hillside area so no flooding danger. Other than trees down across roads and power lines, they fared pretty well. Athletic guy rode bike downtown to emergency outpost where they had internet tower and support services, and he could send images and videos on Sunday. As of yesterday there was limited texting but no voice or high-speed data working on phones, and not in all areas. But after a few days the water thing seems to be the biggest immediate concern.

I’m confident my friends will fare through it pretty well but eager to hear about water updates. I was going to travel that way in a few weeks anyway, and I really would like to be there now. Apparently a lot of major highway damage too including bridges out, so not sure how that will be possible.

To wrap up goatdom, it seems they needed a guard Llama to fend off coyotes and big storms.

@Kidsandliz Oh yeah on that topic all of us experienced the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake in California and 2 closest friends (now in Asheville) were my housemates in Santa Cruz CA at the time. So we’ve kind-of been through this. It’s the only thing I can imagine that was similar to what they are going through now.

@Kidsandliz @lonocat as they say,
keep your friends close and your Llama closer.

@lonocat @pmarin I am not sure you want to keep your llama closer. They can spit a big wad of spit and spit pretty far. They took out a radio in the barn with spit within 10 min one day (not to mention their spit stinks really badly. Years abo I ran a 5th grade school camp and we had llamas, a albino skunk, Quackster the attack duck that couldn’t swim (he sunk) and a variety of other creatures along with 5th graders (5 day sleepover). The ones who were out of control we had carry around heavy rocks (so they couldn’t hit others as their hands were occupied), clean the barn (one llama tried to mount one kid ) - the teachers sort of checked out and let us handle discipline issues. Some saw it as badge of honor to carry a big rock and clean the barn though.

@pmarin I contrived to be at ground zero when Andrew hit Florida in 1992; that trip was planned a year in advance. The damage was the worst widespread destruction I’d ever encountered, and that was despite the hurricane-ready building codes that applied to most South Florida homes of the era. What had previously been regarded as the most hurricane-proof roofing material, heavy ceramic flat or barrel tile, got stripped and blown through neighbors’ windows. Garage doors were blown in, resulting in the roofs blowing off (if they’d lasted that long). Nearly every house in my parents’ neighborhood took severe damage, and only a handful remained habitable after the storm.