Real Life and What's Happening...

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This summer I got a package that I think was keel hauled all the way from China. The box was just barely intact with several large holes torn in it, and the card board had obviously been soaked. I'm honestly surprised it was even delivered because the address was badly faded and blurred by water damage. Luckily it was a large weather resistant item sealed in a plastic pouch.

Definitely one of those cases where I'm sure it would be quite the tale if only the box could talk.



I'm sure it is getting tough to find employees certified to ride bears.

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Unfortunately there seem to have been a lot of people abusing Amazons easy returns. It was meant to deal with real issues, but I've heard lots of people were buying multiple items then just keeping the one they liked best, and sending the rest back.

Typical example of why we can't have nice things, and why you don't answer a knock at the door during a zombie infestation.
God I miss those old Rumplemintz ads.
 
They're little ninjas sent by insurance companies to raise your rates.
In this particular case, I'd turned off my brights because another car was passing and didn't see it until the last minute. I hit the brakes and had a bare bit of momentum and was about 6 feet from it, so seeing there was no one on the other lane, I took my foot off the brake and swerved around it. FUCKER JUMPED IN FRONT OF THE CAR
 
Unfortunately there seem to have been a lot of people abusing Amazons easy returns. It was meant to deal with real issues, but I've heard lots of people were buying multiple items then just keeping the one they liked best, and sending the rest back.
They actually encourage this, TBH. I've had a CSRep tell me to do this, and Prime Clothing is exactly this.
 
Today is the birthday of a member of my gaming group, young Mr. N. He started gaming with my group when he was around 10 years old, as a tag along with his father. And with the exception of the pandemic, I got to see a shy kid grow up to be a high school graduate, an Eagle Scout, and a heck of a young man over dozens of Saturdays.

As of this summer he's going to some fancy university where I'm sure he'll finish his graduate degree in software engineering, become a tech billionaire, and maybe do me, his old GM, a solid by paying off my mortgage. Maybe the last part about the mortgage is a stretch, but the rest is well within the realm of possibilities.

And I have this goofy hobby to thank for turning a group of decent human beings intro friends, and Mr. N is one of them.

Happy birthday, Mr N, wherever you are!
 
Guys I'm going to strangle JetBlue if I can't figure out information on the flight that the cruiseline booked for me for my vacation. Their site is a cacophony of errors and infinite loops, and their support staff is... underwhelming.
 
For twenty years Christmas has been the annual festival of my family blatantly ignoring my express wishes, trampling my boundaries, and insisting that I do things I resent and enjoy them. I hate it with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns.

It is always miserable and often contentious. Can't we just stop doing it?
 
Yeah, I occasionally meet people like this.

So, yeah, I have to go now. Kind of a family crisis, my grandmother dropped a tab of acid and hijacked a bus full of penguins...
Yeah, I've got some family members that occasionally drop really weird ideas like death cult witches casting spells to make people commit murder and such.
 
I really don't like it but I've come to truly dislike the holidays. It's like someone drops a social minefield in what supposed to be a time for happiness and thanks.
I'm not quite there, but I get close.

My wife and I are both estranged from our parents and siblings, so Thanksgiving is always just the kids and us.

Christmas is a little better in that pre-Covid we hosted an annual holiday party. That may return someday... On the other hand, my wife's childhood sucked, especially for Christmas, so there's a LOT of baggage. Top it off with me hating to try and buy gifts for people (other than kids)...
 
I don't actually dislike anyone in either my wife or my families. It's mostly the disappointing of expectations that sound reasonable except everyone has them and the just conflict. That and some people just over stressing /complicating things. Throw in sort of non stop illness due to kids not getting exposed to anything for a few year and now it's catch-up time. Mostly I'd just like a little while where things just flow smooth.
 
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My wife's parents are crazy fundamentalist Christians (this is nothing against Christians in general, they are the "told us we are terrible people who are corrupting our children because my 21 year old older son is trans" types, we also had to hide that my wife played D&D back when we were teenagers cause you know, EVIL), so we literally have cut them off completely and the only person on my wife's entire side of the family that we even talk to is her brother, who is a cool guy.

My side of the family outside of my brothers and my parents is also crazy, just in different ways. And my mom finally got so tired of them herself (after her dad said some horrendous things to her) that she doesn't expect me to ever show up for anything except stuff just with my mom/dad/brothers. So holidays aren't so bad.

But yeah, back before my wife finally just cut off her parents entirely and before my mom finally agreed with me about her family, I had many a set of holidays that were absolute shit because of gettogethers where the only people I liked there were people I came with.
 
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I’m super-lucky that I really like my wife’s family (with a couple of exceptions that they don’t interact with anymore so I don’t ever see them). So the holidays are a bit stressful because of aligning schedules and driving some distances, but we do it because we actually want to see them.
 
When this happened to me (not porch pirates, but the pirates literally tore apart the community mailbox), I just told Amazon I never received the package. They said to wait a couple days, so I did, then I told them again that I didn't receive the package. After that, they refunded my money, and I re-ordered it.

And I'm happy to say that this is what seems to have happened for me. I contacted Amazon support, this morning I got a gift balance for the missing items, and I've reordered them. The Blu Ray pack had gone down noticeably in price, so I even get a little bit extra.

I'm currently watching my shipments like a hawk.
 
For twenty years Christmas has been the annual festival of my family blatantly ignoring my express wishes, trampling my boundaries, and insisting that I do things I resent and enjoy them. I hate it with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns.

It is always miserable and often contentious. Can't we just stop doing it?
Just stop doing it! It's like establishing radical boundaries. I haven't celebrated the holiday season with family since 1998(?), and I absolutely intend to keep it this way. They're mostly perfectly decent people, but I'm just not like them.
 
For me I want to get together even with the folks I don't agree with on politics or religion. I'd just prefer if we focus on the things we have in common. Some of it is little personality quirks that we fine initially but now have grown to annoy me. I think the best way to describe it is i used to have a deep reservoir of Accomidation. People have pulled from that well without regard for future needs. Now even what what might have been things I would have tried to accommodate I don't care to because the well is dry and people haven't tried to refill it. Sorry folks the river is dry. You get nada. I don't like it but Its all i got for some folks.
 
On a side note on the whole thing of disconnecting from toxic family. I will say the weirdest part is that I'm about to go on a vacation. That vacation is a cruise and it is a big trip with myself, my wife, my kids, my parents, my youngest of my brothers (I'm the youngest out of all of us so he is 3 years older than me), and his girlfriend.

We had to put down an emergency contact for someone who wasn't on the ship. I just kind of stared at it because I was like... look if you can't contact the other people on the ship in my party, it is because the whole ship went down, and honestly if that happens it doesn't really matter who you call because all my responsibilities and people that my death would impact in a material way are going down on the ship with me.

I ended up putting down my oldest friend for me (I've known him since we were 5) and I was like. well if they call you and we are all dead, send an email to this email it is my boss. Also go by my house and grab whatever board games and RPG books you want, cause I'd rather they go to someone I know will enjoy them rather than whatever is probably happening because I have a will but it doesn't extend to what to do if literally all the closest people in my family all go down with me. (The will is like, all my stuff goes to my wife, or split between my kids if both of us are dead, or it goes to my parents if all 4 of us are dead, and if my parents are also not alive it goes to my brother... after that you are getting into "well who cares at this point" because while I have a lot of friends, none are THAT close).
 
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On a side note on the whole thing of disconnecting from toxic family. I will say the weirdest part is that I'm about to go on a vacation. That vacation is a cruise and it is a big trip with myself, my wife, my kids, my parents, my youngest brother (I'm the youngest so he is 3 years older than me), and his girlfriend.

We had to put down an emergency contact for someone who wasn't on the ship. I just kind of stared at it because I was like... look if you can't contact the other people on the ship in my party, it is because the whole ship went down, and honestly if that happens it doesn't really matter who you call because all my responsibilities and people that my death would impact in a material way are going down on the ship with me.

I ended up putting down my oldest friend for me (I've known him since we were 5) and I was like. well if they call you and we are all dead, send an email to this email it is my boss. Also go by my house and grab whatever board games and RPG books you want, cause I'd rather they go to someone I know will enjoy them rather than whatever is probably happening because I have a will but it doesn't extend to what to do if literally all the closest people in my family all go down with me. (The will is like, all my stuff goes to my wife, or split between my kids if both of us are dead, or it goes to my parents if all 4 of us are dead, and if my parents are also not alive it goes to my brother... after that you are getting into "well who cares at this point" because while I have a lot of friends, none are THAT close).
That's an interesting dilemma. At some point I suppose one could put one's boss (or at least someone in HR) as the emergency contact.

We're always sort of scrambling to figure out who to put as an emergency contact, though usually it's for the kids (otherwise we just put each other). We've been asked for emergency contacts for the kids that are in a different geography because who do you contact when the earthquake fucks up Portland... or the West Coast... Sometimes they even want to have someone listed who is on the same side of the river as the school. I'm inclined to think though that if things are that fucked up, no one is calling the emergency contacts anyway... And the school is going into a shelter in place mode...
 
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That's an interesting dilemma. At some point I suppose one could put one's boss (or at least someone in HR) as the emergency contact.
Aha yeah, my boss lives in Tokyo as I work remote, so I'm not sure I could have even put him down at all. My wife did put someone from her work as the emergency contact for herself. And the one for our kids is her brother.
 
Please spay and neuter your pets, for my sake.

My neighbours have an un-spayed female cat who's currently in heat and fixated on my boy cat. He hasn't had his balls in ten years, so he sees her as an intruder to be fought. Three nights this week I've had to escort a confused and frightened animal out while my cats hiss and growl at her. I keep telling her "Girl, that man's not right for you. Have some self-respect. Don't lower yourself to be with someone who's going to treat you like that." but I guess it's true hormones love.
 
IMO, Christmas is better when the whole family gets together more often. If you and that cousin you hate have decided to stop kicking the shit out of each other because you got bored with it every other weekend barbecue, you're less likely to do it at holidays.

My prediction is family holiday blowouts will increase as most people don't have all the members of their family in their immediate social media bubble. As a result, they may as well be strangers and may possibly be their cult's current Existential Threat to All Mankind.
 
I went in for a haircut and asked for a short fringe. The barber somehow made my fringe longer while shortening the rest of my hair. I got a reverse-mullet. I look like Cousin It, but only when I'm facing you. This isn't what I wanted!
 
I went in for a haircut and asked for a short fringe. The barber somehow made my fringe longer while shortening the rest of my hair. I got a reverse-mullet. I look like Cousin It, but only when I'm facing you. This isn't what I wanted!
But it's what we needed! Pics or it didn't happen!
 
Yo, BTW, I have HIV, and have had it for more than half of my life, so yeah..
In the 80's I'd have been scared to death to find that out. Now I have no clue how I'd feel. If you're cool answering questions is it just a mild nuisance now(regular medication and assuming more frequent checkups) or is it more of an impact on your life? Answer or don't any way you want.
 
In the 80's I'd have been scared to death to find that out. Now I have no clue how I'd feel. If you're cool answering questions is it just a mild nuisance now(regular medication and assuming more frequent checkups) or is it more of an impact on your life? Answer or don't any way you want.
Yah, a mild nuisance, thanks to taxpayer monies that keep me alive (I'd never have enough liquidity for that otherwise. Probably due to price-gouging), and a massive stigma
 
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