Useless Conversation

[Samwise]

If you want real Nerf level tough love hack your brothers MMO account and give it to a gold seller.

This is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for.   

Move him to Oakland.

If the whining from my Oakland friends is any indication, the ship has sailed on Oakland being the affordable version of SF.  Basically anything within reach of a BART station is stupidly expensive now (if you're looking at full on apartments rather than illegal in-laws like most people I know in their 20s who actually live on their own).

[WayAbvPar]

I am sure Bubb Rubb and Lil Sis could spare a room.

[schild]

Let's talk about getting me 35GB of Boston Legal. This manchild from the No Future Generation living in one of the most expensive cities in the world isn't interesting anymore. </decree>

[Samwise]

Are we allowed to post links to Pirate Bay here?

[schild]

Let's call that link .4kbps.

[WayAbvPar]

You should like a more popular show.

[schild]

You should like a more popular show.

Wife hasn't seen it. It's an exceptional show, so you just shut your sore loser whore mouth.

[WayAbvPar]

I will add it to my list of shit I need to watch some day. I should finish a few eons after the heat death of the universe. Unless I win the lottery or something. Stupid working for a living.

[Lantyssa]

Getting independent confirmation that he's not getting his ass kicked hard enough is good, because obviously everyone else in the family thinks I'm being heartless by charging him to live with me.

Uh, then why aren't they offering to take him in?

[Samwise]

Getting independent confirmation that he's not getting his ass kicked hard enough is good, because obviously everyone else in the family thinks I'm being heartless by charging him to live with me.

Uh, then why aren't they offering to take him in?

Cognitive dissonance?

[Viin]

Nerf-level solution to a guy dicking around on the internet all day is cut-off the internet & cable.  At the least he'll probably have to get out of the house to dick around.

I agree with this. Just turn it off during the day.  On 6pm to midnight. At least he might get bored and go do something outside. Nothing easier than playng games all day to suck away time without trying. And of course that other stuff: school or job or rent starts going up.

[Lantyssa]

I will say when my roommate when into a passive-aggressive depressive episode and decided to disconnect the PS3 because we had the audacity to be playing it while he was out and I unplugged the ethernet in retaliation, he had moved out within the week.

[Samwise]

Nerf-level solution to a guy dicking around on the internet all day is cut-off the internet & cable.  At the least he'll probably have to get out of the house to dick around.

I agree with this. Just turn it off during the day.  On 6pm to midnight.

This has now happened.  Brave new world over here.   

[Cyrrex]

OMG I can't wait to hear what happens next!  Also, I hope you brother isn't the stabby type.

[Ironwood]

Nerf-level solution to a guy dicking around on the internet all day is cut-off the internet & cable.  At the least he'll probably have to get out of the house to dick around.

I agree with this. Just turn it off during the day.  On 6pm to midnight.

This has now happened.  Brave new world over here.   

Does he have any battle pets he now doesn't need ?

[Teleku]

If the whining from my Oakland friends is any indication, the ship has sailed on Oakland being the affordable version of SF.  Basically anything within reach of a BART station is stupidly expensive now (if you're looking at full on apartments rather than illegal in-laws like most people I know in their 20s who actually live on their own).

Really?  That moved pretty quick (though it did start to boom when I was living there).  I moved out of Oakland in 2012, but back then you could rent out a new 2 bedroom/2 bath condo in downtown for about $1600 ($800 a month for me).  Also plenty of other cheaper options if you just want to rent a room in a house somewhere.  Pretty afordable, and it was a 3 minute walk to the nearest BART station out the front door of the building.  Guess it was inevitable with how popular Oakland was becoming though.

[Paelos]

Nerf-level solution to a guy dicking around on the internet all day is cut-off the internet & cable.  At the least he'll probably have to get out of the house to dick around.

I agree with this. Just turn it off during the day.  On 6pm to midnight.

This has now happened.  Brave new world over here.   

I for one welcome our new confrontational Samwise.

[Lantyssa]

I welcome our updates to come.

[Yegolev]

You get that I was totally weirded out by the wife thing, right ?

Me too, bro.

[Samwise]

OMG I can't wait to hear what happens next!  Also, I hope you brother isn't the stabby type.

I discussed it with him beforehand and he didn't put up a fight -- he's also not the confrontational type, and I think intellectually he realizes that wasting time on the Internet is counterproductive, so there was no argument to be made.  I fully expect him to eventually start doing stuff like driving his PC over to our mom's house and doing his time wasting there while she's at work, though.  That's why I'm going to tell her that either she takes the car back or she takes him back.

The other part of my conversation with my bro is that I'm going to be finding him job applications/opportunities (I'm aiming for one a week) and he will be expected to follow through on all of them, with me helping him keep track of interview dates etc since he tends to "forget" appointments.

[Sky]

Some people just need to learn the hard way and all the 'help' is screwing him in the long run. The assistance getting interviews and stuff is good, because that can be a bleak prospect if you're on your own. But the living situation? I was kicked out of the house at 18 because I was in a band and didn't want to get a 'real job' that would interfere with my music (in my defense, we actually were writing and gigging and serious about it, not just sitting around like you bro seems to be). Being homeless isn't the worst thing in the world, for some people it teaches valuable survival skills.

Especially in SF, I've been poor enough in Hayward to utilize the various soup kitchen-type outlets and you can eat pretty good if you need to. As long as he isn't into any bad drugs, the streets would probably be a good lesson. Drop him off at the shelter if you want to be a bit more caring about it.

I wouldn't want to have to relive that era, but I've learned that what white america tends to think is the bottom, isn't; that I'm a hell of a fighter and resourceful; and most importantly it's given me a life-long perspective on, err, life. Hard times in my current situations hardly seem hard at all, and the fear of failure isn't so fearful when you've built up from nothing a couple times.

Sounds like this kid needs a heavy dose of all that.

[Ironwood]

 Drop him off at the shelter if you want to be a bit more caring about it.

 

[Trippy]

[Paelos]

I like Sky's plan. Give him an ax and a can of beans and release him into the woods.

[Samwise]

Making him be homeless for a while if he continues to fuck around has crossed my mind.  That's going to be another agenda item for my conversation with my mother -- cutting off his means of retreat and accepting that this might literally mean he's sleeping in doorways for a little while.  Cuz if that's what it takes she needs to be on board with it or he'll wind up living with her forever.

[pxib]

Girl (10) to her mother, earnestly: "I heard that there is a suit you can wear that lets you experience the emotions of the characters in the book you're reading. So, like, you would know exactly how Katniss really feels when she is separated from Peeta, you can feel what she feels in the book. I want one for my birthday."

Her sister (8): "That's a bad technology. The person who invented that suit did it for a bad purpose, I know it."

[bhodi]

Soooo Ironwood. What's there to do in Edinburgh the last week in July? I'll be over there for a wedding - a few days in Newcastle, a few days in Edinburgh and I'm planning to make it a vacation so I've got a week+ to fool around the area by myself.

[rattran]

I hear drinking until you fall over is popular...

[bhodi]

I've got back to back bar crawls, Newcastle -> Edinburg already scheduled by the groom (who grew up in newcastle)

[IainC]

Eat at The Witchery. Amazing restaurant.

[Ingmar]

Sounds like someone that needs to move to North Dakota and make $100k a year working in the oil sector.

We used to have an office in Fargo and we were losing senior software engineers to fucking oil truck driving.

I'm not sure how those jobs are doing right now with oil/gas prices as they currently stand though.

[Nebu]

Maybe they wanted to drive oil trucks because the work was more satisfying?   

[Ironwood]

Soooo Ironwood. What's there to do in Edinburgh the last week in July? I'll be over there for a wedding - a few days in Newcastle, a few days in Edinburgh and I'm planning to make it a vacation so I've got a week+ to fool around the area by myself.

Christ, there's tons to do, especially given the timeline.  Ironically, Sam might be better advice than I (since I live here and it's all shite), but we can drag some stuff out for you.

I really recommend getting pished with me, however, as I've heard it's morose.

[schild]

Sounds like someone that needs to move to North Dakota and make $100k a year working in the oil sector.

We used to have an office in Fargo and we were losing senior software engineers to fucking oil truck driving.

I'm not sure how those jobs are doing right now with oil/gas prices as they currently stand though.

Still making an absolute batch fuck of money.

[murdoc]

The Canadian dollar is woeful, oil prices are a disaster and they are still throwing money around up here like nothing. One company laying people off just means that they can be scooped up. The O&G company I was at was struggling since they primarily drilled in the shale zones which is expensive.

My old company called and was like 'we heard your company is struggling, want a job?' and I left for a higher wage and better position. I wish I had held off for a week since there was a decent chance I could have gotten a 4 month severance package (i didn't know layoffs were that close) and then started a new higher paying job the next week.

So yay O&G?