Meh. exChange 4.01.a v2 assignment thread

@Yoda_Daenerys done

@Thumperchick Благодаря

@studerc maybe it was your reputation that got more people to join.

@RiotDemon now my name is mud, i wonder if that user name is taken?

@Yoda_Daenerys you’re fine. Maybe people just didn’t know what to expect since @studerc always did them before.

@RiotDemon if only i had known

@boredashell yep!

@boredashell this is exciting! I get to clear out some of these boxes I have stacked up and replace it with different stuff! I am a little nervous though

@Confusedkitty I’m hoping I can put the items to use, whatever they may be.

@ELUNO yes and yes, if by you, you mean me, still not sure if i have the final address clarification, hold please…

@connorbush did you get a “roger that” from y_d?

@Yoda_Daenerys I think it’s pretty safe to say that we all went wrong somehwere. Thanks for all the work you’ve put into this exchange!

@therealjrn thx for noticing

@Yoda_Daenerys ummmm I don’t seem to have received said email… I need a name for all these things Yoda

@therealjrn I’m about to go scour the profile of my recipient to try and figure out some stuff besides the completely random things I’ve already assembled.

And that didn’t help much, lol

@RiotDemon yea, too bad you can’t see purchase history…

@Yoda_Daenerys it only goes back 30 days… So unless they’re really active, in everything, it only helps so much.

I even looked at my own profile, to see polls I voted on, and that’s probably not helpful.

@RiotDemon oh my. This is more complete than an okcupid profile.

@ELUNO lol, then it might be helpful?

@RiotDemon Definitely!

@ELUNO Wouldn’t it be great if everybody posted a helpful profile like this?

@therealjrn Definitely!

@RiotDemon

You made a mistake on your profile.

@therealjrn unless they want truly random stuff, I suppose.

@PlacidPenguin oops, where?

@RiotDemon

Under Fantasy you put unicorns.

They’re real.

https://shirt.woot.com/offers/fat-unicorn

Also, there was this Derby entry which I really liked:

Canned unicorn:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/e5a7/

And finally, I have certain “things” with unicorns on them. (And no, I’m not sharing pictures.)

@PlacidPenguin ah, indeed. What a terrible mistake.

My newest T-shirt purchase:

@RiotDemon

Don’t forget this song:

@PlacidPenguin I want a marshmallow laser.
/youtube unicorn invasion of dundee

@RiotDemon

@sammydog01 oh yes, shiny things!
/giphy shiny

/giphy fluffy

@RiotDemon That shiny makes me nauseous. Love the fluffy though.

@Confusedkitty I got my email as well as the one for you.

@zachdecker D’Oh! Bart! i thought it was a secret

@Confusedkitty checking, hold please

@zachdecker guess I’ll have to wait for Y_D to resend. Thank you for letting me know

@Yoda_Daenerys got it! No worries - my whole week has been like that. I’m just glad I can finish packing this box now

@Confusedkitty yea, not sure how i messed that up, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, oops, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, copy/paste, finished?

@PlacidPenguin So the subscription to the bacon of the month club is out?

@therealjrn

I know you jest, but yeah, that would be out.

Although it WOULD fulfill the requirement of being something useful to the sender, but worthless to the recipient.

@PlacidPenguin i’m kinda confused on how the PP knows who is their sender? did i make a goof?

/giphy dumb shit

/image oh yea, that

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@Yoda_Daenerys did not make a goof. @PlacidPenguin still finds stuff out though.

@ELUNO break the rules

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@ELUNO I just grabbed one as well and was also rather shocked that this is what they call ‘large’.

@brhfl Exactly. It is a medium at most. Oh well, there goes my plan to get rid of my rock pillows.

@ELUNO oh…rock pillows…nevermind.

@eluno they have this flatter long box, with game pieces on it…think monopoly game size…it holds lots, but is very limited by the shallow depth. It is also considered “large” flat rate. I like to use those.

Penguins are cool

@PlacidPenguin
You aren’t sentimental. Hmmm.

Are you more “tickled” or more “placid”?

@f00l

What about froody?

@PlacidPenguin what about fruity?

@PlacidPenguin
"Froody" is (to me) kinda an assumed attribute in your case.

(I had forgotten that word came from Douglas Adams.)

Still wondering about “placid” vs “tickled”.

@Yoda_Daenerys

That’s not me. I told you that already.

@PlacidPenguin
I assumed “Fruity” was simply an alt account for you. Is that wrong?

PS don’t answer if you don’t want to yada yada

@f00l

It’s not me.

It’s someone who sort of has a connection to me. And no, I’m not a Siamese twin.

@PlacidPenguin
Was there person using it posting as a kind of sweetly humorous doppelgänger? I don’t recall it being used in a hostile manner.

@PlacidPenguin

@PlacidPenguin your alter ego then?

@Kidsandliz

Please see.

@baqui63 this post made all the Meh.change effort worth it, nice reveal!

@baqui63
Yeah, that sounds like a pretty cool life. Am a bit envious. Am curious about which college, but I suspect you should decline to answer. In fact I insist you not reveal that unless there’s no way you could be tracked from that info.

By “head server guy” does that mean you are in charge of all the servers? That could be a bit of work. Most colleges have bucketloads of servers for various porpoises.

@ELUNO is this even more of a filled out OK Cupid profile?

@RiotDemon Definitely!

@ELUNO
Do you know anyone who got anything that lasted at least, say, three months, from OK Cupid?

@f00l Yup. Myself included.

@ELUNO
Interesting that it works, or kinda works. I don’t know anyone who connected that way. Although some v long terms friends were first found on the net.

Most people I know met thru f2f stuff. A lot of them met in college, or thru college friends.

@f00l Well, to be fair, there are plenty of f2f started relationships that don’t last longer than 3 months as well…

@ELUNO
Too true. It’s just that, f2f, esp with friends in common, you have a much better idea about the other person.

But 3 of my very best friends were met online. Just got lucky.

@f00l @ELUNO @RiotDemon (not sure all of this is for all of you, but… meh)

I met my gf via match.com over 10 years ago. Match isn’t ok cupid–hell match today probably isn’t what it was 10+ years ago–but I know several other couples who first met online.

Relationships IRL are frequently a function of things that are chosen for us: working together; siblings, cousins, etc. of our in-laws; people who sit in the same section at the stadium; people taking the same class; etc. Online relationships tend to be based on things that we choose: forums for a given hobby or a particular mental illness (meh.com is a perfect example), online meet-ups to support a cause, etc. Most of my closer friends are people I met online and some of those people I have never met IRL.

I believe it is almost impossible to participate in multiple things over long periods on the interwebz and remain completely private. My online presense goes back to the 1980s and trying to hide is not worth the effort, plus for me, it would be silly. Anyone with even marginal google-fu can easily find me IRL. (I acknowledge that some people have good reasons to stay private for their own safety.)

@baqui63 I met my current partner online on a forum, and afterwards I stumbled across him on okcupid. We had something like a 96% match rate there.
I would of probably never met him in person even though we live close… He actually lived two doors down, but moved out shortly before I moved here. We never went to the same places at the same time.

@f00l I forgot to answer this above…

Not all the servers on campus, and it isn’t just me (I have four guys working for me), but all of the servers that are funded by the college as a whole, like email, web, main file shares, infrastructure systems (DHCP, DNS, AD, Shibboleth, etc.). We also run most of the servers funded by departments and grants. I honestly don’t know the current count, but it is upwards of 150 Windows servers plus a couple of handfuls of Linux and OS-X things (it is hard to call anything Apple sells a real server). About 2/3 of the above are virtual in VMWare. We also maintain several SANs (~200 TB) and things like the F5 load balancers and Barracuda appliances.

@baqui63
Several of my very best friends - f2f friends - were met online.

But online is full of players, manipulators, and the emotionally deeply troubled. And also people who are not either not ready from for, or not entirely sure that they want to be in f2f relationships or genuine online relationships - whether friendship or something more.

It’s true that online you can, in theory, match yourself well according to interests, hobbies, quirks. But it often doesn’t give you social or emotional context, or whether the person had issues that, no matter how deep the bond, would either create emotional hell, or limit the depth of a relationship.

I suspect that once a checklist of enough surface compatibilty is satisfied, the success of a relationship depends on the two parties shareable POVs - which is one reason compatible humor is so important - and on the ability to develop a profound level trust between the parties appropriate to the relationship.

And those last two take a lot of time, and are somewhat more difficult to achieve online - which creates an apparent paradox: after age 25-30, one’s social life, and time and energy for new relationships really drops off for many of us - we’re less open to investing in new relationships due to other commitments - yet, curiously, we are more open online, because that dovetails with activities we’d be doing anyway. Within my family, after a spate of marriages and serious commitments, all of them met in person. That surprises me a little, but these people say it’s also true for their friends. Few met online. I wonder if that ratio will change for those relationships that start after age 30 or 35.

One of the nice things about meeting someone thru a local social connection is the amount of social context info available. Also I have found deep compatibility in friendships that had nothing to do with the stuff that goes into a profile. A real friendship or relationship, however achieved, is always unexpected.

@f00l Should we get you male or female sized/targeted products?!?

@ELUNO
Does that mean your are my selected tormentor?

@f00l

@ELUNO is not your tormentor.

Or at least not your designated one.

@ELUNO
I suppose I favor “cool” items in just whatever size happens.

@PlacidPenguin
I suppose either you are my designated box - shipper - tormentor, or perhaps you simply Know All.

I would not be surprised, either way.

I would love to know exactly how you know who your designated - box - shipper - tormentor is, but I’m betting you won’t tell.

@f00l

Actually, I’m not your tormentor in this case.

It’s just that considering there are 38 mehtizens participating in this exchange, there’s only a 0.02702702702% chance that @ELUNO is shipping to you.

@PlacidPenguin
In that modeling, any given individual in the exchange, including @ELUNO (except you), has an equal low-prob shot of being my sender. But when I receive the box (assuming I do receive one), all those possibilities in my head will collapse. I will know who the sender is, assuming the sender has not gone to great lengths to conceal this info.

One person out there has a 100% prob of being my sender, assuming that the assigning went properly. I simply lack the info to narrow it down. No hurries.

(If you meant to use the % sign, I think your decimal point may be 2 places off.)

I just hope I don’t fuck up the sending part. Am addicted to procrastination.

@f00l I may or may not be your giver.
I am just asking the hard questions everyone would like to know.

@ELUNO
I am entirely agnostic about such things.

@f00l

Math was checked.

@PlacidPenguin

I knew the division was correct. There appeared to be a failure to convert the decimal result of division to a percentage.

Btw most people forget this quickly if they grew up in the age of computers and scientific calculators in a classroom. And it doesn’t matter and I hope not being a jerk. If I am a jerk, apologies.

@f00l

I normally solve division the way that my paper showed.
I used a different method and forgot multiply by 100.

Conflicted by the nav bars of the browser you’re using, as well as the top bar.

@PlacidPenguin
Firefox on iPhone. It kinda sux. They should go be you much more control.

My Dad could do a lot of arithmetic in his head. He could add up our restaurant bill before he got the check. He used to drill us on this stuff in elementary school, he knew it cold.

I can’t calculate anywhere near as well as he unless I use paper. To me, we have smartphones for that. But thanks to him, and to my pencil l and paper years in school, I still remember a few things.

Pencil and paper is not better. (Well, it might be better for writing and spelling and essays and grammar, not sure.)
In math etc, pencil/paper just drills you into different areas apart from those you drill into, while having processors handy.

The older and middle and younger generations do not think or speak using quite the same algorithms. They were just steeped in different waters in childhood.

@PlacidPenguin Damn, the WWF sends out real live stuffed animals? That’s completely different from who I thought they were. I wonder if Ducks Unlimited sends out ducks?

@therealjrn

I got paid to get this penguin.

@f00l Never been an issue for me in the past. I always required some sort of name. Even if its a first name and a last name initial. If a person is willing to participate they should also be willing to divulge this information.

@yoda_daenerys shoot this person an email. Get some sort of name variation or it likely wont be accepted to a PO box. If they dont want to comply with the expectation you can always pair them up with me or one of the people that offered to send but not receive.

Just my two cents.

@studerc
Thx

@yoda_daenerys
You had prob better send whoever my “sender” is a last name for me. That should do it.

Perhaps recipients should post in this thread as to whether they are willing to have their last names or similar mailing name released to the sender, to placate the post office.

If you live in a house, I done know how necessary this would be.

@f00l your registration included what i assume was a name, so that went to your sender.

if the username of your recipient isn’t good enough for uncle sam, a.k.a. USPS, i have no ability to supplement it, since you received all the deets i have…

i’ve sent things to addresses with “mom and dad” in the first line, no name, without issue.

hopefully all packages get to their intended

/youtube if i were a rich man

@Yoda_Daenerys as long as there is some kind of name, it should go to the address. I’ve put fake names in forms for catalogs… As long as the address was right, I got it.

@RiotDemon What kind of “catalogs?” hmm?

@Yoda_Daenerys
I guess some people didn’t give you an IRL name on the form then? I didn’t get one for my recipient. Or did that info simply not make it into the email?

@RiotDemon
Commercial mail drops and PO boxes will sometimes only handle mail for the designated recipients. I think to minimize mailfraud. So if someone with a box wants to add someone else to the box as a recipient, there has to be a lot of form-filling, and the new recipient has to appear in person w an ID.

I have no idea what the PO would do with a “username address”, particularly on a package.

@Yoda_Daenerys I will have the same problem. I live in an apartment building and it needs my real name on it to be delivered, not just the apt number. FYI in the past we got real names which is how I knew one of my recipients wanted some of the things I sent (beyond the things I figured out by meh stalking in these forums).

@therealjrn shopping catalogs. Things like knives, horse supplies when I owned a horse, Gothic jewelry catalogs. You know, normal stuff.

@f00l is IRL “in real life”? your email had a Meh. username in it, right? that’s all I got

@Yoda_Daenerys did you send my person my name as it is unlikely I will get the box in this apartment building without that.

@Kidsandliz yes, at least if you included it, i did. but if you didn’t include it, i didn’t.

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i am honoring your request.

@Yoda_Daenerys thanks. I included it. yes I remember the other stuff you told me so I know I will be a late recipient.

@f00l

Passport/original birth certificate.

Along with Meh login details.

@f00l What - from you or to you?

@Kidsandliz
Either. I suppose. I was more concerned with putting proper info into the box I send. Whoever sends to me can put whatever info they want, although at least as username would be nice.

@PlacidPenguin
I’ll get right on that. Need to get DNA, family tree, bank accounts, etc. plus how to stalk me on the net and IRL.

This part sounds like it will take more effort than getting the box together will.

@f00l In the past we have gotten the real name of the person so we can address the box correctly. In my personal opinion that needs to continue so that some people don’t get their boxes back as undeliverable.

@ELUNO “last to post thread” - world dominance will not be yours LOL

@Kidsandliz

@Kidsandliz
I’m glad you’re in the never ending thread.

You prob already said, but I forgot: What do you teach?

Is grading - esp papers as opposed to multiple choice, single word answer, etc - as bad as I think it would be? Do the students whine endlessly and really can’t be bothered to fix stuff?

I knew a math prof who had the above problems. For a calculus class. And he had students and parents showing up at his office all the time - not for tutoring (extensive tutoring hours existed, the troublesome students didn’t show up for tutoring) - but to complain. About the assignments, the workload, the grades, everything.

He developed a pat speech about how it was his job to make sure than anyone who passed was actually ready for the next course. Anyone who got a B or better understood most of the material, and anyone who got a C or better could at least deal with it in a pinch at that moment.

He did not grade on a curve, nor by percentages This course was a gateway to all sorts of science and engineering and medical paths. He simply gave C’s to people who could possibly get by, B’s to people were kinda comfortable, and A’s to people who mastered the material. You could tell by the homework and tests which were which.

He said that, fortunately for math profs, calculus and diff eq knock out the students that shouldn’t be there at all. in upper level courses if a student is doing badly, there are almost always social, financial, medical, or emotional issues.

He said it pleased him to be able to grade that way. He empathized with his lib arts colleagues who could not grade by absolutes and who were subjected to endless grade politicking by the students. Not to mention having to teach college students the basics of grammar again and again and again, even at upper levels.

@ELUNO i sent an email to your sender re:your travel

@Yoda_Daenerys Perfect. Thanks!

@f00l i assign every usernames exchange with a random number on a google sheets page. Then i sort the sheet in numerical order based on the random number column.

Sometimes it takes a bit of finesse and modification but in the end it always worked out.

The google form automatically dumps all the information into a raw data spreadsheet which helps as well.

Before that i had to copy and paste everyone’s info they would send through email.

@f00l almost identical method to @studerc. i mentioned somewhere here that it took about 20 spins of the dial (assign random number, sort, check for self senders, rinse, repeat) to get an acceptable order/pairing.

i then built the non-sensical emails y’all received using concatentation of fields from the google form spreadsheet that is created by the responses received.

my older brother, who is a techno-phobe, asked:

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@f00l you are welcome, the fire is extinguished, the baby is delivered and the damsel in distress has been saved from the ogre

@Yoda_Daenerys
I guess you level up!

@RiotDemon 12x12x5.5″

@brhfl well, that’s disappointing. $18+ to send that small of a box?

@RiotDemon I think a regular bigger box with regular shipping might be better.
The point of these “flat-rate” is that you can ship heavy stuff and not worry about it being more expensive. So they limit the size instead of the weight.

@RiotDemon I already got my box, but I think I might just flip it inside out and mail it normal-style. Will be the same size box (of course) but run about $10 less to ship (because my recipient is relatively close).

@brhfl I thought they printed on the inside of the boxes now so people couldn’t do that?

@RiotDemon

Whatever, I have Sharpies. And time.

@brhfl yeah, I just checked. The entire box is covered in priority mail print.

I’m pretty sure I’m going to ship mine standard ground.

Sorry to my recipient. Mighty take a couple of extra days.

@RiotDemon Guess I’ll be taking another late-night trip to the PO to look for normal Priority Mail boxes.

@RiotDemon Just spray paint the box if you have any and then put a mailing label on it.

@Kidsandliz lol, I thought about that, but the box is too small.

@brhfl

Whatever, I have Sharpies. And time.

made me chuckle

@brhfl here’s something that’ll be just as useful as someone sending ice through the mail:
/image frozen ice cube

@RiotDemon Worked perfectly, thanks!

@brhfl that reminds me, i think i told sokmeone i would send them a couple of those silicone ice ball thingys, i gotta stop making unkept promises…

/giphy liar, liar, pants on fire

@mehbee I think so, yes, if you want. Some have posted they like random quirky boxes. Others have posted more along the lines of interests and such.

@therealjrn I know you or someone mentioned searching for my recipient’s user name to try to see their likes and dislikes but I don’t see a search button. Do you have to be on a computer? I’m on a tablet.

@mehbee There’s two ways. One is you can click/tap on the username to see their profile, which may show their posts for the last 30 days depending on your own profile settings. The other is under the “community” tab, enter the username in the search box there and it will open up to a google search of meh.com for times that name comes up.

@therealjrn Ok then I did do it correctly. Google came up and kinda confused me…lol. Thanks again for the help.

@Confusedkitty You can just post it here. We’ll keep it a secret.

@therealjrn lolol

@Confusedkitty i am not wise in the waze of the postal community.

i get packages delivered all the time addressed to papa or d***head, or the like, so it’s not a concern to me.

if anyone is concerned their friendly postal carrier won’t deliver to the info you provided me, like your username, or whatever, then send me your real name.

i’ll immediately google you and facebook stalk you

i’ll be happy to send the deets on to your sender.

do you know your postal carriers name? mine is amber. she would defs deliver something to my house addressed to Yoda_Daenerys, and then probably not sleep at night wondering

WTF

as i’ve claimed before, i’m toats mcgoats not into secrets, so i’d also be happy for y’all to say “i want my recipient to get in touch with me before i send this box of junk.”

i’ll pass along any messages, emails, whatever - it’s up to you individually if you don’t care for the surprise of santa.

reminds me, there’s a great TAL about the tooth fairy, and one young girl (a.k.a. sally) catches her dad replacing her tooth with a silver dollar and tells her friend. said friend goes home and reveals to her mother she knows who the tooth fairy REALLY is. it’s sally’s dad - LOL.

@f00l I have over 20 boxes of varying size (9"x9"x9" up to ~20"x20"x36") that are v densely packed with random stuff received in BOC, fuku|o and stuff I’ve ordered to use for various projects that I’ve not completed (or even started).

Part of my reason for participating in this Mehxchange is to generate motivation for creating a photo inventory of the contents of these boxes, so that I can find shit I’m looking for without having to go thru a half-dozen or more boxes. Perhaps I’ll post some pix (after packing up the boxes for the Mehxchange so as not to give any hints) so that all of you can see into the depths of my insanity.

@baqui63 sounds like that will put my desk pics to shame, i’m jelly

@f00l When I was looking online, they were still listed but described as being unavailable retail. I’m guessing you can order them online, but POs don’t stock them…

@brhfl I just ordered three (3) of the long “boardgame” boxes from the USPS. I’ll take a look at them but I still think a regular box & ground shipping is the way to go.

@tinamarie1974 but… This is meh.

@RiotDemon silly me, what was I thinking!!! I was going for Meh-ceptional lol.

@Yoda_Daenerys I frequently find myself feeling that way.

@Yoda_Daenerys me too yd, me too.

@Yoda_Daenerys Is there still time for me to join? I’m confused.

@Yoda_Daenerys

If you allow more people at this point, then I’ll have to hire someone to feel sad for me.

@PlacidPenguin A cuppa coffee always perks me right on up.

@christinewas well, technically it will be Meh. exChange 4.01.a v2b or Meh. exChange 4.01.b v2 or Meh. exChange 4.02.a v2, but sure, go to the registration form and sign up.

a cupla other stragglers have signed up, so y’all won’t be in the original mix, but i’ll facilitate it.

who ever has @placidpenguin, please feel sad for him(er) so (s)he can spare the expense.

if you think you are confused now, go read the inaugural thread for even more of the same.

@Yoda_Daenerys

1. Thank you.

2. If someone wanted to get confused on the forums, they could just look at ANY thread really.

@PlacidPenguin
Which thread is the ANY THREAD?

I am so very sad for you. Are you insufficiently placid today?

/giphy any thread

@christinewas see above

@christinewas the gene pool will naturally be a little shallower

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@Yoda_Daenerys I started reading more of the original posts last night, all the while feeling like I should get back to things I needed to do. Finally, I realized I didn’t know where everything was or really have the time or energy to throw any boxes together in the next week or so. So… I appreciate the opportunity to come to the party a little late, but I will have to pass this time.

@christinewas We miss seeing you on these forums. Bee well

@christinewas thx for the update, i was just about to pose a really creative post/question to prompt your reply, but alas, no need…

here’s a clue of the direction my brain was going…

/youtube Paradise By the Dashboard Light

@Yoda_Daenerys Ooo! I LOVE baseball!

@christinewas
We hope you’re doing ok.

@f00l oh, i missed that in the mehcronomicon as noted here:

Libor 15, page 72, paragraph E states: only retroactive rules can have no exceptions

@f00l so pretty much everyone?!?

@ELUNO
I’ll get you for that.

Just wait.

@f00l I’m pretty sure you will send me something completely amazing!

@PlacidPenguin Did you run out of chairs.

@juststephen I hope you get back on the road soon.

@juststephen send scooter