Jump to content
gdf

Life

Recommended Posts

I'm moving back to England in a week, and for the first time in my life I'm renting a place of my own. It's exciting and nerve-wrecking in equal parts.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

My dad had a heart attack today and will be having bypass surgery tonight or tomorrow. I don't know how to feel about it. My mom keeps calling me and telling me how scared she is and I just have to comfort her, and I'm doing the same with both of my sisters and it's exhausting, even from 700 miles away.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Sorry to hear about that, Mangela. I had a pretty similar situation with my dad while I was also way too far away to do anything about it. I hope everything goes well - for the record it seems like heart surgery is something western medicine has gotten really good at.

 

I just put down the administration & application fee on a new flat, which is pleasing because before now I had no idea where I was going to live. On the other hand, I now get to worry about whether they'll say my finances aren't good enough and refuse me, and even if I get it I have to worry about the cost of moving and then the cost of actually living there. I really don't know how I'm going to pay for it now, let alone in September when I (hopefully) become a student again.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I was reminded of a friend of mine as today he made a post implying he was a transgender male. Now I'm just reminiscing about how much of an awesome team we were while working as ecology project partners.

The only bummer is that he works at UC Santa Cruz so I doubt we'll get to hang for a few years still.

Also it's a really nice day out. So I'm going to go outside and work on a new art thing I've finally been inspired to do.

Plus my brain is finally co-operating with me to design the looming episode in my long delayed t-Rpg episode. After feeling hemmed in narratively I'm finally drawing the connections for the party to progress.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Sorry to hear about that, Mangela. I had a pretty similar situation with my dad while I was also way too far away to do anything about it. I hope everything goes well - for the record it seems like heart surgery is something western medicine has gotten really good at.

 

On the bright side, I talked to my dad today and he sounds like the coolest conspiracy movie villain ever.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

On the bright side, I talked to my dad today and he sounds like the coolest conspiracy movie villain ever.

 

So things went well-ish and you came out of it with an Illuminati dad? 

I hope things continue to improve :)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hope your dad is doing good Mangela.

 

 

I get on really well with my parents and i feel very close to them. I talk to my my mum 2-5 times a week, and usually shout hello to dad in the background a bit (he is famously bad on phones). I see them in person around every 2-3 weeks on average throughout the year, but that can be very variable month to month. That said, prolonged exposure will slowly erode my sanity:P

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

My job operates on a clock upon which we enter a code to punch in, out, and to enter lunch breaks.

 

When trying to punch out for the night, which is after midnight, it informed me that my ID is "invalid."

 

I've probably been secretly shitcanned from the job without any warning it was coming, on top of my requiring this employment (a transfer) for the move I have scheduled in exactly one month.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

maybe they're locking you out for Good Friday?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It seems like it'd be beyond shit to do that considering the circumstances and also without any warning. I'd agree that it sounds more likely to be a public holiday type thing or some ghastly glitch. Who'd shitcan a lovely, lovable Hendroid?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Blowing most of my tax refund treating myself to a mini-vacation in Chicago next weekend. Staying in a nice hotel, getting room service, going to the French Market, seeing friends, going to eat some great food and drink some amazing wine. I have no other ideas as to what I should do though. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Apparently the school board was not taking enough off of my taxes for what they were paying me last year. Thanks to a build up of tuition credits from 7 years of university that it took to get the job, I didn't come out owing, but only by the skin of my teeth. I was really counting on that refund to finally and properly dig me out of the hole that I'd been clawing up out of since last summer when I had no contract and lived on my credit card for two months. Shit.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

My job operates on a clock upon which we enter a code to punch in, out, and to enter lunch breaks.

 

When trying to punch out for the night, which is after midnight, it informed me that my ID is "invalid."

 

I've probably been secretly shitcanned from the job without any warning it was coming, on top of my requiring this employment (a transfer) for the move I have scheduled in exactly one month.

 

computer error? already transfer you within the system maybe? I hope everything turns out ok, moves are stressful.

 

 

Blowing most of my tax refund treating myself to a mini-vacation in Chicago next weekend. Staying in a nice hotel, getting room service, going to the French Market, seeing friends, going to eat some great food and drink some amazing wine. I have no other ideas as to what I should do though. 

 

You could check out The Field Museum. I've never been but it looks pretty damn cool. Have fun!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

You could check out The Field Museum. I've never been but it looks pretty damn cool. Have fun!

 

Man, I haven't been to the Field Museum in years.  I have family in Chicago (Naperville technically) and I used to spend summers there as a kid.  We went to the Field Museum several times.  I also remember playing in the fountain and getting the car seats all wet.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

So, this is happening in a few weeks.

 

Dr.Girlfriend and I will be in attendance and loving every second of it. She got me into bird watching a year ago and it's completely changed how I approach backpacking, biking and pretty much everything else. Last summer on a solo trip in the Emigrant Wilderness I spent most of an afternoon watching a Western Tanager tending it's nest. I sat down, pulled out my flask and proceeded to have a full on John Muir-style beauty-of-the-wilderness moment, while, in my head, my simulation of David Attenborough narrated what I was seeing. There was a time I would have looked up, seen a pretty yellow bird and kept walking. I've been backpacking most of my life, so it came a such a surprise to notice something new, or, rather, to see something that had been there all along in a new way.

 

If you get a chance to go birding (or backpacking for that matter) with someone who knows a little about what they are doing, I highly recommend it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I grew up 2 1/2 hours from Chicago, so 100% of my experiences are what you take little kids to on day trips, but the Shedd Aquarium is pretty amazing if 8 year old me is to be trusted. You can do the cheesiest tourist thing and take a selfie in the Bean's reflection. Thirded on the Field Museum. Do they still have Sue the T. Rex? I remember liking the Museum of Science and Industry while there too. (My other Chicago experiences are Brookfield Zoo, seeing the Blue Man Group and going to Six Flags in Gurnee out in the 'burbs.)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Sue is definitely at the Field Museum, and while she's a way in from everyone, she's still an incredible, incredible thing to see. Those are the actual fossils on display there, and she's over 90% complete. Just a marvel. I'd definitely go see her at the Field Museum. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

You can also do the other super touristy thing and visit the Sears Willis Tower.  If you're not afraid of heights you can stand in a glass box that juts out the side of the building on the 103rd floor.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I grew up 2 1/2 hours from Chicago, so 100% of my experiences are what you take little kids to on day trips, but the Shedd Aquarium is pretty amazing if 8 year old me is to be trusted. You can do the cheesiest tourist thing and take a selfie in the Bean's reflection. Thirded on the Field Museum. Do they still have Sue the T. Rex? I remember liking the Museum of Science and Industry while there too. (My other Chicago experiences are Brookfield Zoo, seeing the Blue Man Group and going to Six Flags in Gurnee out in the 'burbs.)

 

Blowing most of my tax refund treating myself to a mini-vacation in Chicago next weekend. Staying in a nice hotel, getting room service, going to the French Market, seeing friends, going to eat some great food and drink some amazing wine. I have no other ideas as to what I should do though. 

 

So my wife is from New Zealand so I play tour guide a lot, places I take people:

 

1. Sears Tower (glass observation platform is awesome) - try to go in the early evening do you get both day and night views

2. The Field Museum - It's great.

3. A walk in millennium park/grant park/ The Bean.

4. There are walking/running/biking tracks around the shedd aquarium/Addler Planetarium area that give great views of the city if you are looking for some skyline photos (would not recommend going to the planetarium)

5. Shedd Aquarium - Really great

 

( You can do #2, #4 and #5 in the same day as they are pretty much right next to eachother)

 

There are a million other awesome things to do but require more time/travel, this has been a great program to have a busy weekend with visiting family/friends who are new to Chicago.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Lincoln Park zoo was a highlight of my Chicago trip. Headquarters and Emporium are two barcades I enjoyed very much. Pizza.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I went out for an Easter walk with some of my family today, and we saw a river otter in the (ocean) water. I've lived next to the ocean (and this part of the city) for over 20 years and never seen an otter before.

Our dog was very interested:

 

 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I created a Word document, wrote a hundred words, and saved it as "Dissertation.doc." It's a big step that I'm having trouble processing.

 

Bonus! My first footnote, which is a hundred and forty-eight words and hence outnumbers what I've written in the body:

1: For the famous document from 967, in which the German emperor Otto the Great gives the first clear picture of the extent of Aleram’s holdings in northwest Italy by confirming them in full: Conradi I, Heinrici I, et Ottonis I, Diplomata, ed. Theodor Sickel, Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Diplomatum regum et imperatorum Germaniae vol. 1 (Hanover: Hahn, 1879–1884), 462–64; however, Aleram had already been using the title of marquis for at least a half-dozen years: Luigi Schiaparelli, “Diploma di Berengario II e Adalberto per il marchese Aleramo (958–961) 25 marzo, Pavia,” Bollettino storico-bibliografico Subalpino 24 (1922), 337–341; therefore, Aleram’s elevation from comital to marchesal dignity may have accompanied his marriage to the daughter of Berengar II, king of Italy, in 950: Benvenuto Sangiorgio, Chronicon de Montisferrato, ed. Gustavo Avogadro, Historiae Patriae Monumenta: Scriptores vol. 3 (Turin: Regio Typographeo, 1848), 1307.

 

Just looking at that mess there, I feel like I'm already in trouble, but it also feels a little good?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×