Useless Conversation

[WayAbvPar]

My 12 year old mused tonight at dinner about what the "relative political demographics" (his words) would be if the North and South separated.

I think we might talk about politics too much around him.

Is "backward ass sister fucking shitlord" a political demographic?

[rattran]

My 12 year old mused tonight at dinner about what the "relative political demographics" (his words) would be if the North and South separated.

I think we might talk about politics too much around him.

Is "backward ass sister fucking shitlord" a political demographic?

It's usually abbreviated "Red Stater"

[Merusk]

The Ex moved out of my house and to AZ last week.. She continues to text me and say how little money she has as if this is my problem. I feel like a bad person for taking a bit of enjoyment in this as I ignore the obvious pleas for me to rescue her.

[Samwise]

The Ex moved out of my house and to AZ last week.. She continues to text me and say how little money she has as if this is my problem. I feel like a bad person for taking a bit of enjoyment in this as I ignore the obvious pleas for me to rescue her.

My mom still gets long rambling oh-poor-me phone calls from my ex-stepdad (who is currently living in another state, thank God) after more than ten years, and is constantly worried that he'll show up on her doorstep one day and she won't know how to get rid of him.

He reached a sufficient level of desperation a couple of years ago to call me (having made no secret over the years of how much he hates my guts) to see if I wanted to have him come move in with me for a while, "just for a few months" while he found a new job and his own place in SF (read: he wanted to use my basement as a permanent base of operations from which to stalk my mom and/or run some sort of illegal business).


Anyway, be very careful to keep her at arm's length and anticipate any crazy shit she might potentially do that will make your life difficult. 

[schild]

The Ex moved out of my house and to AZ last week.. She continues to text me and say how little money she has as if this is my problem. I feel like a bad person for taking a bit of enjoyment in this as I ignore the obvious pleas for me to rescue her.

Block her number.

[Merusk]

Can’t do that when kids are involved. I also don’t have to respond, however.

[Cyrrex]

I've been under the false impression there were no kids involved.  Dang.

[schild]

Also did not realize there are kids.

Get a pager. Tell her its your new number and tell her to only text you.

[Ironwood]

Better yet, get a pager and pretend you're an 80's man.

Fax some shit while you're at it.

[Selby]

Can’t do that when kids are involved. I also don’t have to respond, however.

My ex and her many money woes this last decade constantly get sent my way. Because of kids I listen but mostly I just shake my head at how bad someone can make a situation sometimes. Don't respond and sure as hell don't bail her out!

[Paelos]

My experience is that people don't change financial habits. It's unfortunate, but most people learn their financial habits early from their parents and for good or bad they are that way from college to the grave.

Which means if you're dealing with people who constantly have to get bailed out only to get into trouble again? That's never changing. They were likely bailed out by their parents numerous times, and are now going to coast through life thinking that's how the world is going to work.

[schild]

My experience is that people don't change financial habits. It's unfortunate, but most people learn their financial habits early from their parents and for good or bad they are that way from college to the grave.

Which means if you're dealing with people who constantly have to get bailed out only to get into trouble again? That's never changing. They were likely bailed out by their parents numerous times, and are now going to coast through life thinking that's how the world is going to work.

Go into enough credit debt when you're a teenager and you'll change your financial habits assuming you aren't a barely sentient blob. Boy, that was a harsh lesson.

Edit: Constant bailouts not withstanding of course. That's a history of not having to learn lessons.

[Paelos]

People do learn lessons, no doubt. I'm just saying that after about 25, you're pretty set in what you understand about financial matters and how you approach them, for better or worse. Turning it around later in adulthood gets harder and harder.

[Sky]

Better yet, get a pager and pretend you're an 80's man.

Fax some shit while you're at it.

Fax is the tech that won't die. We have queues daily for our fax copier and have a lot of pressure to add a second fax line.

The copier which can scan to email to send straight scans of documents. I'd love to ditch the fax line, but so many companies (and really, the bulk of it is governmental) still /require/ fax. It's like hearing 'please send us a 5 1/4" floppy with your documents via pony express'.

[Paelos]

Can deal with this IRS at all without a fax machine. As long as the government uses it we're all stuck with it.

[01101010]

My experience is that people don't change financial habits. It's unfortunate, but most people learn their financial habits early from their parents and for good or bad they are that way from college to the grave.

Which means if you're dealing with people who constantly have to get bailed out only to get into trouble again? That's never changing. They were likely bailed out by their parents numerous times, and are now going to coast through life thinking that's how the world is going to work.

Go into enough credit debt when you're a teenager and you'll change your financial habits assuming you aren't a barely sentient blob. Boy, that was a harsh lesson.

Edit: Constant bailouts not withstanding of course. That's a history of not having to learn lessons.

Amen. Out of graduate school and in $10k+ credit card debt plus odd medical/dental bills and defaulted on all my student loans, I had a credit score about 480 and a shit job. I was ~35 at the time and made the decision to figure my shit out or end up homeless. First thing was paying off the credit card debt. Consolidated that and got a second job at a big box store to pay it off in 2 years. Was horrible, but manageable. Working two jobs is grueling most of the time.

Once I cleared up that CC mess... I consolidated my student loans and got on the income contingent plan - got a less shitty job and quit the parttime one. Got a CC approved by the bank I direct deposit into and put a limit of $1k on it and made sure to touch it only for things I could pay off in 2 months.  Been doing that faithfully for the past 6 years.The credit score got pulled for the car loan my wife and I applied for 2 weeks ago and I am now sitting at 848.

Like schild said... harsh lesson indeed.

It is doable... but you really have to completely adjust your spending and micromanage your budget.

[Xanthippe]

My experience is that people don't change financial habits. It's unfortunate, but most people learn their financial habits early from their parents and for good or bad they are that way from college to the grave.

Which means if you're dealing with people who constantly have to get bailed out only to get into trouble again? That's never changing. They were likely bailed out by their parents numerous times, and are now going to coast through life thinking that's how the world is going to work.

My experience has taught me the same.

A relationship can work when one person is shitty with money but only if the other person is the money handler, and the shitty-with-money person is honest (doesn't lie or hide things). Otherwise, it will never work.

Merusk, you're not a bad person. Schadenfreude is to be enjoyed.

[ghost]

My 12 year old mused tonight at dinner about what the "relative political demographics" (his words) would be if the North and South separated.

I think we might talk about politics too much around him.

Is "backward ass sister fucking shitlord" a political demographic?

You should take him to Shreveport for a field trip.

[calapine]

So, I finally managed to to record this...after years of forgetting and missing the moment:


Zivilschutzprobealarm!

Edit: I sort of messed up with the location. As it showed the siren on the house opposite of me was not working/connected anymore, so you can only hear the ones farther away. Second video has below has better sound.

Weeeeeeeeooooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeeeoooooooooooo

[calapine]

And due to popular request

Here is the Early Warning signal - 3 Minutes of Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!


WARNUNG!


I would be really sad if no one watches that, had to hurry to find a good spot!    

[Signe]

I watched it.  ALL of it.  And the other one, too.  I was riveted.   

[calapine]

And it was totally worth it, right?  Not everyone has such exciting lives as we do!

[Abagadro]

Uhhhh, what are the warning about?

[calapine]

Uhhhh, what are the warning about?

As you can see on the pictograms below it's about how close Trump is to a TV camera or Twitterstation. 

[rattran]

I just got told that the nuclear power plant disaster alert/alarm near here will be tested on Wednesday, 10 minutes of 67 alarms going off midday.

[Selby]

I just got told that the nuclear power plant disaster alert/alarm near here will be tested on Wednesday, 10 minutes of 67 alarms going off midday.

We test those once a month where I work. It's... loud.

[Rendakor]

I just got told that the nuclear power plant disaster alert/alarm near here will be tested on Wednesday, 10 minutes of 67 alarms going off midday.

The one in my area is doing that test Tuesday.

[IainC]

Emergency sirens are tested on the first Wednesday of the month at 12 noon in Paris. Scared the shit out of us the first time we heard it.

[Polysorbate80]

Seoul's drills were done at night, and required a full blackout of the city.  They were serious about that too--you tried to leave a light on, and you'd have the wardens at your door plenty quick to enforce it

[Chimpy]

Emergency sirens are tested on the first Wednesday of the month at 12 noon in Paris. Scared the shit out of us the first time we heard it.

First Tuesday, 10AM here for the tornado sirens. Siren is a block away from my office and at the same level vertically, shit be noisy as hell.

[schild]

i have never heard any type of warning alarm in austin or phoenix

[RhyssaFireheart]

Emergency sirens are tested on the first Wednesday of the month at 12 noon in Paris. Scared the shit out of us the first time we heard it.

First Tuesday, 10AM here for the tornado sirens. Siren is a block away from my office and at the same level vertically, shit be noisy as hell.

Yeah, all of Illinois is first Tuesday 10am club.  It'm not sure where the sirens are located around my office building, but I didn't even hear the test for October. 

[rattran]

Tornado sirens I'm used to, just never got to hear the nuke alarm tests. Even when I lived near a plant it was never put into operation, so no tests.

[Merusk]

Tornado alarms at Noon the 1st Wednesday of every month in the SW Ohio/ NKY area of Cincinnati. It's always made me laugh because we get tornadoes so infrequently they also blow them for "Severe thunderstorms" to justify the expense of maintenance which means nobody takes them seriously.  

My experience is that people don't change financial habits. It's unfortunate, but most people learn their financial habits early from their parents and for good or bad they are that way from college to the grave.

Which means if you're dealing with people who constantly have to get bailed out only to get into trouble again? That's never changing. They were likely bailed out by their parents numerous times, and are now going to coast through life thinking that's how the world is going to work.

My experience has taught me the same.

A relationship can work when one person is shitty with money but only if the other person is the money handler, and the shitty-with-money person is honest (doesn't lie or hide things). Otherwise, it will never work.

Merusk, you're not a bad person. Schadenfreude is to be enjoyed.

Thanks, Xanth. I've been enjoying a number of very angry texts about how I'm spending my own money over this last weekend.  I gave her $3,200 of the eventual ~$12,000 I owe her so she could move out to AZ and all that money is already gone. I don't believe a U-haul and car carrier cost nearly that much so hearing her complain she can't pay her phone bill is somewhat amusing.

Yeah, Paelos. That, plus the dawning realization that Divorce didn't mean I was a failure were what made me finally run. I'd never known divorced people and divorced kids who weren't pure fuckups until the last 2 years, and it gave me some much needed perspective. I'd been - wrongly - sticking around to give the kids some sort of stable environment, even as shitty as it was.  Well, yeah, in hindsight that was dumb.

[HaemishM]

My company sprung for pizza for the office today, just because. GREAT. Unfortunately, it was Papa John's. It's been years since I've had Papa John's so maybe things have changed, but it was objectively terrible on every level, much worse than I ever remember it being. What the fuck are they using for sauce these days, paint thinner? Holy fuck. Just goddamn bad.

But at least it was free.