The GF made mimosas for breakfast yesterday. She has these huge stemmed wine glasses that hold a half bottle of wine each. At 10am I started prepping for Thanksgiving dinner. I was already wine drunk by that point. We snacked and drank all day. We ended up going through 5 bottles of wine between us.
I have a wine hangover this morning which means that since I'm over 40, I feel like I have one foot in the grave.
Ugh 💀
I have watched Ronin so many times, that when my GPS says "Right at the fork", I mentally add "Maréchal Foch"
I just submitted my course evaluation for my Information Ethics course. You'd think that since I earned a 97% for the semester that I would be giving the professor high marks, but I left a somewhat negative impression since I thought the class was way too easy. It's a 300-level course dealing with topics like the rise of AI, hate speech versus free speech protections, privacy and the erosion thereof, with Kant, Rawls, Plato, and Aristotle watching in the background. There should have been discussion board assignments to discuss and at least one, if not two or three, papers to write. This is significant and heady stuff that should be treated more importantly than having two multiple-choice tests for the whole semester. I was really looking forward to getting a chance to play with some of these topics, but instead it was just a series of reading assignments.
20-year-old me would hate that I've become the student that complains that there wasn't enough homework....
In reply to wae :
I wish that had been an optional course when I was in University (my concentration was in applied ethical theory, such as in medical ethics); I'd love to delve deep into the ethics around AI and publishers/platforms, etc.
Plato and Aristotle can get stuffed but I'd be interested in viewing some of these arguments from the lens of Rawls and Nozick.
I confess my first thought is I need to start selling lift kits for Nissans.
I might possibly be the luckiest SOB on earth, well at least in the greater Boston area.
No details for now for now (just in case!) but yesterday morning a door closed on the past and another opened almost immediately to an opportunity to what I consider a more than minor win after nearly 6 months of having to sit on my hands waiting for closure.
All would have worked out regardless but let's just say I'm taking the win and savoring it. In less than 24 hours I've gone from "it's done" to reaching out to a former coworker to "welcome, we're happy to have you". It's been a process but it seems that personal reputation and good contacts in the industry still mean something. I'm humbled and far more excited than someone my age should be to be jumping back into the game.
I live by myself, I'm single, and I'm forced to host family Christmas at my house. I'm really tempted to order an exhaust for my MR2 Spyder, wrap it and put a "From: Santa" tag on it, and put it under the tree and then open it in front of my family and go "I don't know where it came from, must've been Santa."
I now own six Subarus,
Two of them are operational, insured and have plates.
One is a flipper, and should be operational tomorrow so I can work on the Challenge project.
Two are getting smashed together for the Challenge.
And the latest is another Forester XT that's getting used for parts (leather interior, etc.) for my Forester.
Of all the months I struggle with, December is certainly the current one.
In reply to DarkMonohue :
Our outdoor Christmas lights are on a sensor. They came on at 3:17 PM yesterday so yeah.
The CEO thread made it about twice as long as I thought it would before getting locked.
DarkMonohue said:Of all the months I struggle with, December is certainly the current one.
I go running every other morning at about 4:30AM.
I'm inordinately bothered by all the E36 M3ty headlights out there, so instead of doing the right thing and changing my route so they illuminate my back, I amazon'd the "brightest berkeleying LED flashlight for sale" and ordered it, now I just give all of 'em a blast of "990000 lumen" afterburner.
In reply to 11GTCS :
I don't mind the dark. I don't mind the cold and the rain and the fog. What gets me is the rush to complete task after task, both at and away from work, so everyone can hurry up and rush somewhere else, against the backdrop of holiday cheer that cannot be turned off. I'm not a holiday person, not a celebratory type, and cannot return the cheer. My choice is between faking it and being a cruel shiny happy person. I have a birthday this month and make a point of not sharing the date because I don't know how to be gracious, let alone happy, when someone with the warmest of intentions says something about it. This month, more than most, reinforces how out of step with the entirety of society I really am.
Humbug, and so on.
NickD said:The CEO thread made it about twice as long as I thought it would before getting locked.
I didn't even bother looking.
I was scrolling through the Lego sets available on target.com and thought they had one that was a giant poo.
DarkMonohue said:In reply to 11GTCS :
I don't mind the dark. I don't mind the cold and the rain and the fog. What gets me is the rush to complete task after task, both at and away from work, so everyone can hurry up and rush somewhere else, against the backdrop of holiday cheer that cannot be turned off.
I'm totally with you this far, and I can understand the rest.
Duke said:NickD said:The CEO thread made it about twice as long as I thought it would before getting locked.
I didn't even bother looking.
I didn't even enter the thread but I saw it and went, "I bet that gets locked in three pages." It made it to six.
In reply to Jehannum :
Awesome!
In reply to DarkMonohue :
I feel you. End of year in my business has always been a E36 M3show too, well except for this year. 
My worst months are March and April. I'm ready for winter to be done and another trip around the sun is completed in that timeframe as well so I can relate. Then again I don't have to deal with the "Glad Tidings of the Season" bullE36 M3 while doing so condolences and points to your argument. Chins up, etc. 
I have a coworker who overanalyzes everything, and can't stop talking about anything. We are on opposite shifts. He constantly sends me texts on my day off.
I have no interest in thinking about work when I'm not there.
This morning (Sunday) when he texted me, I responded with, "Not now. In church".
I haven't been to church in years, but I'm perfectly willing to let this guy believe that I'm in church every day, and at whatever time he tries to contact me.
In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :
Is this guy new? That behavior is tedious at the best of times. I don't know how your mind works, but I'd be working up a script for him.
"Sorry, out with family today, can't really talk."
"Elbow deep in a sewer pipe ATM"
"Let's talk about that Monday afternoon after I get some stuff out of the way."
Pro tip: if you normally capitalize and punctuate your texts, failing to do so will give the appearance of haste and stress. If he's perceptive, he might reach the conclusion that this isn't a great time. Something tells me this guy isn't perceptive.
And when you are back at the office - wait you're a firefighter, right? When you are back at the chili factory, and he comes at you bouncing off the rev limiter about this or that, tell him you try not to worry about work when you're at home. Tell him you find it necessary to separate work and home life. Tell him your wife is starting to suspect you're having an affair. Tell him she's starting to feel neglected. Tell him she's suffering from RBF and really needs your time right now. Tell him your goldfish died. If you have to, come right out and tell him you need to keep work at work and that means no more non-emergency texts.
Good luck.
In reply to DarkMonohue :
No. He's been there almost 20 years.
In reply to DarkMonohue :
You're underestimating life in the firehouse.
Sometimes, we work together for 48 hours straight. We're not afraid of hurting each other's feelings. In fact, it's encouraged.
In reply to DarkMonohue :
Sorry, had to take family rabbit to vet. We think it ate a dreidl.
Sorry, dog caught a squirrel and brought it in the house. Now the squirrel is up the Christmas tree and we have chaos.
Bad news, Basil Stag Rabbit didn't make it. As you can imagine, we're all terribly upset. He was a Mensch.
Sorry, can't talk - Shivas
Sorry, we're trying to potty train the squirrel.
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