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Of course, it doesn't help that one half of the people here are ditzy Valley folk, and the other half crazy-ambitious power players.

If you haven't been up here before, you'll be amazed at the difference in culture between northern and southern California. :yep:

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And a well-hearted thanks to you, Thunderpeel, for the kind words. The difference in culture was actually quite surprising. Despite growing up watching American culture on tv, it was quite a shock nonetheless to find myself suddenly in it. For some reason I had a larger culture shock here than I had when visiting Turkey. Perhaps part of that is because I'm really trying to blend in here, making all the little differences rather big.

I'm amazed you noticed the differences in culture so quickly, a lot of people don't notice them even after months of being there. In fact, they say the biggest mistake people make when they go to America is forgetting that it's a different culture (or maybe it's just British people?), so well done.

Also, as I've said, LA is famously tough on the newbs (it's not a very welcoming place), but that's perfectly normal and to be expected. The trick is finding the people and places that reflect the things you like (they do exist). That might be a little difficult to do in three months, but you're off to a good start.

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I'm amazed you noticed the differences in culture so quickly, a lot of people don't notice them even after months of being there. In fact, they say the biggest mistake people make when they go to America is forgetting that it's a different culture (or maybe it's just British people?

I've never been to England, so I'm curious: what's different about it?

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I've never been to England, so I'm curious: what's different about it?

They look at you funny and laugh at you if you say "garbage" instead of "rubbish."

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Bleh, I caused a minor accident today fucking with the radio in traffic and not paying attention, and even though I just sort of cracked a plastic bumper, apparently the lady I hit was personally injured according to my insurance company.

She said she was okay after we pulled into a parking lot and I made no qualms admitting it was my fault. I was hoping it would go smoother because I always feel like every mistake I make snowballs into something that will leave everyone disappointed in me. I really hope I'm not going to be sued or put through the cleaners for money. There's a lot of incentive in Texas (going by the commercials) to sue for large sums of money in injury accidents and I've never trusted any insurance company.

If she's really hurt, by all means I think my insurance company should pay and raise my rates insanely, but I feel like it wasn't really that bad and now I'm really worried. I guess I would seem like a jerk even for feeling this way. I probably am. Maybe I'll delete this later.

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ffs... ok, so I finally "fixed" my network setup at home (i.e. I have a cable from my router to my workstation). But something weird is going on which I can not figure out. Certain sites won't load, it's usually a CDN that the site is using that is causing problems. When I hook up my laptop to the same cable it does work. So the cable seems fine, and it must be something else. My workstation has Vista, my laptop has XP.... but I don't know where to look for...

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Checked the DNS servers? If so, can you flush the DNS cache manually with Vista? Also, make sure that the vista machine isn't blocking port 53, as that is the one DNS uses to connect.

A quick way to make sure if it the DNS server is to get on the machine that works, and write down the IP address that the URL resolves to, then type that directly into the non-working machine's URL namespace. If the site works, you have a DNS problem.

Also you could try RELEASE-ing the IP address and RENEW-ing it.

Double check vista firewall settings.

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The DNS is working correctly. Pretty much everything works, except for a select few hosts.

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Is your internet provider doing weird things with your packages? I guess not, since the other computer connects fine? I've been having similar internety woes. I upgraded to the newest ubuntu the other day and now my wifi doesn't work. They keep breaking the wifi more and more with each upgrade.

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I had a similar problem once, there was no reason for some websites being inaccessible and it was solved by rebooting the router.

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Bleh, I caused a minor accident today fucking with the radio in traffic and not paying attention, and even though I just sort of cracked a plastic bumper, apparently the lady I hit was personally injured according to my insurance company.

I pulled out of a driveway and accidentally tapped a lady's rear right fender leaving a small dent. (I was going 5 mph at absolute most.) I did the same thing you did, openly admitted fault and felt pretty badly about it. The woman flew into hysterics, started flinging creative obscenities at me and threatening to sue... for a 3 inch wide dent that didn't so much as scratch the paint. (She kept repeating over and over how "significant" the damage looked, reminding me that you never know what kind of internal damage has been done to the frame... :blink:) I have no idea what she ended up reporting, since I was on my dad's insurance at the time, but that woman was clearly all set to take me to task about it.

It's wise to choose carefully when deciding who to run into, I find. :finger:

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It's wise to choose carefully when deciding who to run into, I find. :finger:

Haha, if only you could decide. I still haven't heard anything from my insurance company. They did say on their initial call, "the less you hear from us the better."

I always hoped maybe I'd have gained enough karma points since I've let people go a few times for dinging me, telling them not to worry about it and getting no insurance info, but maybe I can cash those out at a later karmic date if I don't gain more in the meantime.

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Midterms time, Yeah! a little annoying that one of them is either today or tomorrow and I cannot find out which.

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Ok, this new city I live sucks. It doesn't even have a single computer shop. Really... wtf... The previous city I lived in was twice as large, but it had infinitely more computer shops.

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I went on a date the other night with a cute girl who does martial arts, rides a motorbike, and enjoys programming. It feels like something out of a Scott Pilgrim comic ¬¬

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I went on a date the other night with a cute girl who does martial arts, rides a motorbike, and enjoys programming. It feels like something out of a Scott Pilgrim comic ¬¬

:yep: Hope it went well!

My life has been pretty dreary and stressful of late. Currently everything is overshadowed by the first assignment for my MA being in on Friday.

I did, however, have a funny Thumbs-in-RL moment, at the Modern Warfare 2 Launch. I was pretty bored, and was writing up my article about it in the cloakroom area, which was well-lit and quite quiet. It was also near the bathroom, so a very drunk guy who worked in game security came over to me, and tried to spill all sorts of beans at me - inside secrets about leaks and the like. Then at the end, he paused, let out a cackle, and said:

'You're looking for hot scoops! Near the toilets!'

He could be a listener!

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Back after a two week break from the internet. I'm the type of person that always has his PC on and is always connected. Besides that, I don't use the phone a lot and I don't watch TV. I thought it would be interesting, so I gave my modem to someone for safe keeping and thus, without internet for two weeks.

Now I'm back; it was a very therapeutical experience. When you step away from internet for a bit, it's a lot easier to see what is important to you, in terms of internet use, and what isn't. I used to check for gaming news headlines all the time and now I just don't care. Tried to keep up to date on everything, but now I feel that... If I actually feel like it, I will. A very strange feeling, but it seems a bit more "normal".

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Back after a two week break from the internet. I'm the type of person that always has his PC on and is always connected. Besides that, I don't use the phone a lot and I don't watch TV. I thought it would be interesting, so I gave my modem to someone for safe keeping and thus, without internet for two weeks.

Now I'm back; it was a very therapeutical experience. When you step away from internet for a bit, it's a lot easier to see what is important to you, in terms of internet use, and what isn't. I used to check for gaming news headlines all the time and now I just don't care. Tried to keep up to date on everything, but now I feel that... If I actually feel like it, I will. A very strange feeling, but it seems a bit more "normal".

That sounds like quite an interesting experiment.

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Dear Life,

I'm getting married in December. We didn't want it to be a huge mess of a thing, and ultimately it will likely, hopefully not be. I think by American standards this will be a free wedding, even though there will likely be a hundred people. Initially we planned to elope and throw three equally low-key parties: one in San Antoan for our US friends, one in Monterrey for the Mexico peeps and her family, and one in Belgrade for my family. But then the first party exploded in scope and somehow became the wedding proper.

My parents have been surprisingly eager to let us do whatever we want and are helping in tangible ways. My mother will do some of the cooking for the buffet. She says she has the experience in cooking for huge parties, and I choose to trust her. They pitched in for the dress we ended up getting (which is totally not something one would imagine wearing to one's wedding, but is quite fancy all the same and will probably be a lot easier to repurpose down the line). They didn't demand we invite anyone in particular. We're not following any Serbian traditions because fuck that. The only thing they wanted was not to put my name at the top of the invitation, which I complied with readily, 'cause fuck the patriarchy, let's go alphabetical.

And then her parents. Oh jesus, wtf. They've been popping monocles at every decision we've made, as if they have a say. Her father asked us to print an extra 20 invitations (we screen printed them ourselves, in three languages, they look quite rad) for random acquaintances he doesn't expect to come, but whom he absolutely HAS TO INVITE! The invitations weren't enough and the RSVP website we put together was a BIZARRE THING normal people shouldn't be expected to comprehend (plan was, you RSVP online, and before the wedding if you are invited for the ceremony at the Justice of the Peace, we email you the directions and time, since we want it to be a small affair. Otherwise you get the directions and time for the reception, simple as that!), so he made a written addendum to the invitations proper, explaining to these people who are not even expected to come to anything, where the Justice of the Peace is, what is his name and where the subsequent reception is going to take place. These mysterious people we don't give two shits about currently know more about the wedding than the closest of our friends. The buffet idea was UNCONVENTIONAL and a cause for confusion, as was my name not being at the top of the invitation. All the Serbian traditions (that we're actively ignoring) are odd, but I get the feeling all the Mexican ones are taken for granted as not negotiable. Her mother initially wanted to come to San Antoan two weeks early and crash at our place, and stay through our wedding night. She doesn't approve of the dress choice. She also volunteered to make something, but there is some uncertainty in the air about that and asdghfhgrewuihqwelhnsadkjfnxcmnvioajxcoiedf... :(:(:(

It is an annoying mess. A rogue mother-in-law and a conservative father-in-law with EXPECTATIONS about how things are supposed to happen. Plus, to make things more annoying, for the most part they are not actively being obstructionist. They're just being passively aggressive. And to top it off, I don't really have a complete picture of all that is going on. I just see wifey-to-be grinding her teeth as she sends a wall of allcaps text in the latest email exchange, and I feel like defending her, but I have no power over them. :deranged:

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Congratulations Kingz, all the best ;)

Be sure to have a Best Man, and then HE can be the one to distract the in-laws at important points on the day itself. It is his job to take bullets for you after all.

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Congratulations Kingzjester, and sorry to hear the parents are driving you mental.

PiratePoo, excellent idea. I tend to leave the internet alone over Christmas, and some digital artists/designers I know make sure to have at least one day a week without any computer/net time. It does wonders to not look at a screen for a prolonged period.

---

I have had an incredible couple of days underlined by general lack of sleep. A report that was due on Monday was really stressing me out and I thought I was going to get a bollocking at work despite putting in extra hours over the weekend to get it into a better state. It turned out I'd misunderstood the amount of work that needed to be produced, and thought it had to be a lot bigger than it actually needs to be. The whole 15 pages came back with just two minor corrections, a couple of suggestions, and a "Fucking excellent!" attached to it.

Things are going well with martial arts girl, who I saw last night, and today I was in a long meeting with another company to discuss future plans, except the 8 or so of us had the meeting walking around Derbyshire hills, woods and streams with dogs for company. Tonight, played the new Dominion expansion and Pandemic at a local comic shop games night, and then GTA with you guys. Sweet :)

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Congrats Jester, and that's rad Nachimir.

Well pretty much I haven't been up to much, just midterms at Uni (half finished). Just sort of pushing through it all at the moment.

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