Real Life and What's Happening...

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We have to put down our cat, Chevy, tomorrow. Strangely close to the death of Grumpy Cat, who I loved as a meme largely because of Chevy. She did not have such on overt frown, but nonetheless seemed to share her personality. Until bedtime, and for some reason suddenly she was cuddly and purring like a motorboat.

Anyways, I don't need any condolences or anything - I'm sad about it, but I grew up on a farm (sorta), and have had manymany pets over the years. But this is only the second cat my GF has lost in her life, so I've needed to spend time consoling.

Raising a glass to Chevy tonight.
 
Ice-hockey results: FIN 5 - SWE 4!!! (overtime)

I'm not much of a hockey fan myself, but it always feels good to see victory over the neighbours, especially in a match as close as this!
I couldn't care less about soccer, but everytime our neighbours win puts me in a good mood.

Here's to our pets - past and present :drink:
Cheers! :drink:
 
My week has been fucking awful. I've been on jury service.

But today I went on a march, and that was good, and tonight I'm going out for a friend's birthday, so that should be fun.
Am I the only person who likes jury duty? I've only ever been on civil property cases so nothing horrible is being discussed. .
 
Am I the only person who likes jury duty? I've only ever been on civil property cases so nothing horrible is being discussed. .
This was a horrible case and horrible things were discussed.

I liked it in theory - it was very interesting to see the process, and how carefully it's managed to make it as fair as possible. But there were a lot of delays - we lost pretty much a full day as the judge and the court staff were debating a point of law, frex, and we were just told to... go away... while they debated - and everything just takes so long; like, I had expected the closing statements to go...

Prosecution : The defendant is a bad 'un.
Defence : No, they're innocent, guv.
Judge : Well this is a pickle, glad it's not my problem.

But no.

Prosecution : An hour, going over the case and the legal concepts involved.
Break
Defence : An hour and a half, going over the case and the legal concepts involved.
Break
Judge : Half an hour discussing the case and the legal concepts involved.
Lunch
Judge : An hour discussing the case and the legal concepts involved.
Judge tells everybody to go home because it's break time, he's still not done, and it would be too late to send us to deliberate afterwards.

The next day...


Judge : Half an hour discussing the case and the legal concepts involved.
Deliberation
Everyone goes back to the court room because we need to clarify a point of law
Further Deliberation
Lunch
Further Further Deliberation

Jury : Giving our verdict, ten minutes, all go home around mid-afternoon

It was an experience, but one I would be happy not to do again.
 
Our youngest graduated yesterday.

Her older sister freaked the hell out last night, well really early this morning.
Why do you ask.
Because she had to swerve to miss the alligator crossing the road. Said alligator was chasing after some ducks, gave up and went back to the retention pond. She has some real shitty video of it. She came home woke us up and proceeded to tell us all about it.
I was not pleased.
 
Our youngest graduated yesterday.

Her older sister freaked the hell out last night, well really early this morning.
Why do you ask.
Because she had to swerve to miss the alligator crossing the road. Said alligator was chasing after some ducks, gave up and went back to the retention pond. She has some real shitty video of it. She came home woke us up and proceeded to tell us all about it.
I was not pleased.
Are you sure it wasn't geese the gator was chasing?
 
This was a horrible case and horrible things were discussed.

I liked it in theory - it was very interesting to see the process, and how carefully it's managed to make it as fair as possible. But there were a lot of delays - we lost pretty much a full day as the judge and the court staff were debating a point of law, frex, and we were just told to... go away... while they debated - and everything just takes so long; like, I had expected the closing statements to go...

Prosecution : The defendant is a bad 'un.
Defence : No, they're innocent, guv.
Judge : Well this is a pickle, glad it's not my problem.

But no.

Prosecution : An hour, going over the case and the legal concepts involved.
Break
Defence : An hour and a half, going over the case and the legal concepts involved.
Break
Judge : Half an hour discussing the case and the legal concepts involved.
Lunch
Judge : An hour discussing the case and the legal concepts involved.
Judge tells everybody to go home because it's break time, he's still not done, and it would be too late to send us to deliberate afterwards.

The next day...


Judge : Half an hour discussing the case and the legal concepts involved.
Deliberation
Everyone goes back to the court room because we need to clarify a point of law
Further Deliberation
Lunch
Further Further Deliberation

Jury : Giving our verdict, ten minutes, all go home around mid-afternoon

It was an experience, but one I would be happy not to do again.
I once had to sit through about 3-4 hours of a guy droning on about some tires a guy left on his property before the Judge said that to get to the other people in the courtroom he was going to delay Tire guys case.
 
Are you sure it wasn't geese the gator was chasing?
If it was geese, they would have been chasing the gator.
I once had to sit through about 3-4 hours of a guy droning on about some tires a guy left on his property before the Judge said that to get to the other people in the courtroom he was going to delay Tire guys case.
I live in the US on a green card, which means sadly that I am in ineligible to perform jury duty and have these kind of fascinating experiences.
 
Are you sure it wasn't geese the gator was chasing?
Yes I'm sure.
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Restructure at work means we all have to re-apply for our own jobs. Mine is 99% safe, but there's a lot of people who aren't.
I find that silly. Not surprising but silly. I'm assuming it's just a cover for letting them fire people they find annoying or in their opinion are underperforming without having to go through a performance plan to get rid of undesired employees.
 
I find that silly. Not surprising but silly. I'm assuming it's just a cover for letting them fire people they find annoying or in their opinion are underperforming without having to go through a performance plan to get rid of undesired employees.

I work at a college that has campuses throughout the state. They're restructuring my department so that we're a "shared service" where we work for the central campus rather than where we're physically located and each campus "pays" the central office for the service I provide.

In addition, the number of people in my position at each campus is changing for some locations. They're giving priority to anybody who already has the position and I'm the only person at my campus, so as I said - my position is safe. But there's some locations where two people are now competing for one job.

Ugly all around.
 
Yesterday my girlfriend's sister (we're long-term. Does that make her my sister-in-law?) left her SO. She took the kids and went into hiding because she expected him to react badly. Today he's in a mental ward because when he found out he sent her a photo of his head in a noose and threatened to end it unless she came back.

This is a side of him I wasn't aware of.

Sis-by-proxy has the support of SO's sisters, because they've seen him lose it when a relationship ended before. The older generation of the family are both oblivious and interfering (in an 'essential-oils-will-cure-your-children-of-autism' way) and are sure the whole thing's been blown out of proportion. Except for his mother, who's only surprised it didn't happen sooner. This is all going on over the sea in Australia.

The family is safe, but it's worrying and frustrating.
 
Yesterday my girlfriend's sister (we're long-term. Does that make her my sister-in-law?) left her SO.

The family is safe, but it's worrying and frustrating.
IMO it totally does:smile:.

Also, keep the family safe, and let the things sort themselves out. /Unwanted Advice Machine
 
It's got two faces!
And for some... reason they are supposedly 'protected'. You have to stop when they meander across the road. I mean meander like "oh you humans want us to walk across this road with some semblance of urgency? Fuck you! Now you get to watch us do nothing right here in the road all 14 of us. Muhahahahaha"
What's worse is these fuckers are not good to eat.
 
Anyone else here back the Fantasy Grounds Unity Kickstarter? Tempted to try running a game using it when the beta is released.

Yes I'm a backer too. I bought the ultimate license and D&D Essentials bundle last year. I've played it several times, but not run as the GM yet. I'd be interested in anything you get going. I also have the SWADE ruleset.
 
Going to a new comic con tomorrow. I have mixed feelings about going. I was supposed to be going as a helper for my buddy and his dad, who were going to have a dealer's booth, but now buddy & buddy's dad have to go to a funeral tomorrow, so I'm just going as a fan. I do enjoy comic cons, and since this is a brand new one I'm curious to see what it's like, but I'm not that stoked on going by myself. Maybe I will meet new people there :smile:. If anyone's curious, it's Comic Con Revolution, just outside of Chicago in Rosemont.
 
Going to a new comic con tomorrow. I have mixed feelings about going. I was supposed to be going as a helper for my buddy and his dad, who were going to have a dealer's booth, but now buddy & buddy's dad have to go to a funeral tomorrow, so I'm just going as a fan. I do enjoy comic cons, and since this is a brand new one I'm curious to see what it's like, but I'm not that stoked on going by myself. Maybe I will meet new people there :smile:. If anyone's curious, it's Comic Con Revolution, just outside of Chicago in Rosemont.

Will Svengoolie be there? I've always thought it'd be cool to meet him.
 
No, which is somewhat surprising, as it seems like he attends every Chicagoland nerd convention.
 
Sent away for a few military dolls for use with mercenary/special ops roleplaying. G.I. Joes cost too much so I got some "Elite Force" dolls on the same scale. They should arrive in the next few days. The only problem is they don't seem to make any women.
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The dog is cool.
Yeah, I predict someone will immediately claim the figure who has a dog. I believe that's the Army Rangers set, which hasn't arrived yet. The Navy SEALS and Delta Force figure/vehicle were here when we got home:
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They all have removable weapons and helmets and apparently the equipment is realistic, which is a leg up on G.I. Joe in my books even though it's a bit more drab (pun intended). Far left sucker doesn't come with a codename, but he has the cool assault buggy and two weapons as well to make up for it. The other guys are Spectre (removable H.A.L.O. gear on the table behind him), Radar (sniper), Hammer (bipod assault rifle), Maverick (recon), and Trigger (demolitions). Not the most interesting names, but no worse than many G.I. Joes (Zap, Flash, Bazooka, etc.). I think having a badass realistic military doll to represent their PCs will make the players get more into it. Six figures, a vehicle, and accoutrements for about $25 or so.
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"Let's go kick some ass!"
My kids will probably enjoy playing with them--they haven't seen them yet since they went to bed before I opened the box. They just discovered the 1980s G.I. Joe cartoon after they saw me reading the comics. I told them the comics are 5000% superior to the cartoons. I did catch my son reading my reprint books the other night so there's hope they will realize I'm right.

Anyway, I think they're pretty cool dolls. Added bonus: unlike many dolls, they stand up without any problems. I'm giving Elite Force the rare Dumarest endorsement. They are a great low-price substitute for G.I. Joes and actually more suitable for my mercenary/military game purposes due to their greater realism. The only issue I have right now is I haven't yet found any female dolls in the line. Anybody know any other 3 3/4" military-type dolls that include women?
 
This week I have mostly been in Cornwall, with a side trip to Dorset last weekend to go to an Austin A35 rally. Where my partner's mum's A35 restoration won Best in Class!

And then it was pasties, cream tea and cider all the way!

Only I can't upload pics from my phone for some reason.
 
My kids, using dice rules invented by my son, improvised a G.I. Joe versus Cobra battle using little plastic Army men. The green side is G.I. Joe (my daughter) and the beige side is Cobra (my son).
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The battle lines are drawn!
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Cobra suffers early setbacks due to tactical errors and bad luck with the dice!
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Cobra is routed and their surviving units flee. Yo Joe!
 
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Gave my kids the Elite Force dolls and vehicles this morning after they watched another G.I. Joe cartoon. I explained they don't really make the Joes from the cartoon anymore, but they didn't care anyway and were excitedly deciding "this is Flint," "this is Roadblock," etc. Now I need to find something to sub for Cobra. In the meantime they're differentiating good guys and bad guys by the different-color cammies they wear, but I think maybe some Nazis or something would be good if I can find them inexpensive and at the correct 1:18 scale. Or maybe The Corps toys could be the bad guys. Yo Joe!
 
So, if you're willing to accept damaged packaging but intact toys, you can get stuff for pennies on the dollar that I guess they can't sell in stores. Got a cool Navy gunboat (with launchable drone and speedboat plus 2 crewmen) and an armored Humvee for a few bucks each! Kids are over the moon with all these cool vehicles and dolls.
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Dumarest Dumarest , have you seen G.I. Joe: Resolute? It was originally done as a series of shorts (5 minutes each, with a 10 minute concluding episode) back in 2009, and later shown as a one-hour movie. It's PG-13 and has a more realistic approach to both violence and technology, while not straying too far from the basic concept, and is closer to the original comics in feel. It's not available on YouTube (beyond some individual clips), but it was released on DVD, and you might be able to find a copy for cheap. I think it might be up your alley.
 
Okay, G.I. Joe: Resolute is available on both Tubi and Dailymotion.
 
The kids are both getting awards at school this week so I left work early to take them for ice cream and now we are waiting for our pizza from a place hidden in a nondescript strip mall. From the outside you can barely tell it's there, but they make tasty food for takeout. No dining area.
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