Useless Conversation

[Yegolev]

It's fun, enjoy.

Also, try and get a left-handed smoke shifter. They work better than the right-handed ones which are mass-produced crap.

not sure if serious

[Paelos]

They're important for snipe hunts.

[Yegolev]

I thought so but I really could have used a battery-powered smoke shifter last weekend, of any orientation.  Not sure when I last saw smoke rise straight up.

Also, the organizers humorously avoided telling me I needed to bring my own plates and utensils.

[Yegolev]

Unrelated: my Varidesk just arrived and I'm feeling all hipster.

[RhyssaFireheart]

So I'm wondering if I should be disturbed by our Compliance manager asking me if there would be a problem having a vendor onsite working without a valid PO yet AND without actually being entered as a valid supplier in the system. 

This is an end result of how getting said new supplier added has taken almost a full month because of changes to the system, getting the right information and oh yeah, the Purchasing agent who reviewed the work order (gotta do a WO instead of a statement of work because no MSA on file) sort of neglected to mention that the supplier wasn't in the system.  When I asked him about finding the supplier ID, he said "Oh yeah, they're probably a new vendor..." 

[Yegolev]

Short answer?  Yes.

[Signe]

Good news! (depending on whether you like me or hate me)  The thyroid meds are working and my heart rate is normal!  This means I'm out of afib but it also means that I don't get that awesome sounding shock procedure which I was rather looking forward to.  Oh well.  Now, where can I get some good old meth to really test out the old ticker!! 

Also... dry roasted sunflower kernels are the shit diggity!

[Merusk]

Also, the organizers humorously avoided telling me I needed to bring my own plates and utensils.

So you didn't scout as a child, eh.

http://www.amazon.com/ALLOVE-Cookware-Backpacking-Ultralight-ALLOVE1507/dp/B00SYRYFHK/ref=sr_1_1?s=outdoor-recreation&ie=UTF8&qid=1438201946&sr=1-1&keywords=camp+pan
http://www.amazon.com/3pc-Camping-Eating-Utensil-Clip-Together/dp/B005CWCQBC

Also see if you can get a nice 1" foam eggcrate. It makes a world of difference vs. small rocks and isn't nearly as heavy as air mattresses

[Khaldun]

Being a new Boy Scout dad, and never having been a scout myself, it's an interesting semi-world to enter into.  Especially with the non-standard dads in our troop.  Slept in the woods again this past weekend, which was my hottest sleep since I was a kid with no air conditioning in South Bama.

I'm reading the schedule today and now I see something called Cohutta Death March and I'm starting to wonder what sort of thing I've gotten myself into.

We like camping in the summer in the East. If we're up high in the mountains or way north. Like the White Mountains or the Maine coast.

Camping down here in the mid-Atlantic or Southeast in July or August? Fuck that shit. Even the highest places feel like fetid swamps unless we're having a rare bit of moderate weather. The only time I'd ever sleep outdoors anywhere around here would be in October or May, and then only in some places.

[HaemishM]

Glad your heart is normal again, Signe! Or normal considering it's in your body which thirsts after brains. 

[Morat20]

Being a new Boy Scout dad, and never having been a scout myself, it's an interesting semi-world to enter into.  Especially with the non-standard dads in our troop.  Slept in the woods again this past weekend, which was my hottest sleep since I was a kid with no air conditioning in South Bama.

I'm reading the schedule today and now I see something called Cohutta Death March and I'm starting to wonder what sort of thing I've gotten myself into.

We like camping in the summer in the East. If we're up high in the mountains or way north. Like the White Mountains or the Maine coast.

Camping down here in the mid-Atlantic or Southeast in July or August? Fuck that shit. Even the highest places feel like fetid swamps unless we're having a rare bit of moderate weather. The only time I'd ever sleep outdoors anywhere around here would be in October or May, and then only in some places.

Yeah, I don't like camping to begin with. If it's over 80 or under 60, fuck that shit. which means in my area, there's approximately 10 days per yer during which camping can happen. :)

Today I had the joy of a thyroid biopsy. While pretty much entirely painless (and the parts that were weren't exactly painful, just oddly unpleasant) I can state for the record that getting needles jabbed into your throat is something I could have gone without.

[Signe]

You're lucky you have a spiky Mohawk.  You have a yummy sounding brain.  Thanks.  I was kinda almost very nearly ascurred.

Also, good luck with the scouts.  When I was 17, my neighbour who was also a very good friend even though she was old asked me to help her with her girl scout troop one summer.  I did and it was good fun even though the girls made me crazy sometimes.  She actually did it because she wanted to see how her daughter interacted with other kids because she was a bit socially awkward.  It gave her a lot of insight and was very helpful in sorting out the issues.

I didn't camp out, though, because, well... you know... like dirt and stuff.  Mosquitoes.  Smelly kids.  Stuff.

[rattran]

I spend 10 months a year in what most people consider camping. You can do it by sleeping in the dirt, or in style with sat tv.

Fuck sleeping in tents or dirt. That shit sucks.

[Signe]

If you don't sleep in a tent and you don't sleep in the dirt, where do you sleep? 

[Morat20]

If you don't sleep in a tent and you don't sleep in the dirt, where do you sleep?  

RV probably. Or a trailer of some sort. Something like that, I'd imagine.

They're pretty nice, but only worth it if you go camping regularly. (Most of the trailers are towed and fairly small. Have real beds, are completely waterproof, and perfectly acceptable anywhere your car or truck can go -- even if RV's aren't. A lot of camping is done at big parks and camp-sites where you basically drive into your area. Not terribly useful if you have to hike to your spot, but for Scouts and stuff? Ideal.)

[Signe]

There's a word but I can't remember it.  Like glamour camping or something but all one word.  Anyway, if there's a spa, I'm in.  I once hiked (Hard.  Boring.  Too many rocks.) to a hot spring because of how much I love mineral baths.  Now you can drive to it and there's a nice resort.  With a spa.  Hooray!

[IainC]

There's a word but I can't remember it.  Like glamour camping or something but all one word.  Anyway, if there's a spa, I'm in.  I once hiked (Hard.  Boring.  Too many rocks.) to a hot spring because of how much I love mineral baths.  Now you can drive to it and there's a nice resort.  With a spa.  Hooray!

Glamping.

I used to do a lot of LARP which involved camping in a field below a castle for four nights. You could tell how long someone had been playing or staffing by the evolution of their camping equipment. Noobs turned up in something small and cheap they'd got from an outdoors store. This would get traded in for a dome tent big enough to stand up in and with room for storing boxes of kit off the floor. Eventually the old-guard would have these huge Burgundian tents that had multiple wings and needed a medium sized van to transport. Inside there would be carpets and hides and all kinds of comfortable things to sit, lounge or sleep on.

[NowhereMan]

I have done it a few times now and decided camping and SCUBA diving don't mix very well. Especially not in Wales in Spring.

[Yegolev]

Too hot to do anything inside a tent for Georgia Boy Scouts.  It's for keeping things off of you while you sleep.  I slept under a canvas tent over a metal frame twice already, and that's good for keep water off of you but not at all sufficient for keeping spiders out of your sleeping bag (true story).  I had a dream that something crawled into my nose, and later decided that it probably wasn't a dream.  I like the enclosed tents.

Easy-mode is "car camping" which just means that your vehicle is within a few hundred yards and packed with all of your shit.  In this case I'll be packing pretty much everything with no consideration for weight or bulk.  Also I have an inverter for use of most 120V electric equipment.  When I end up doing Philmont, things will be far different.

[Merusk]

Shit son, you're actually thinking of doing Philmont? Get used to stuff crawling on your face because even the minor 10# for the tent gets heavy after a few days carrying it on your back.

[Yegolev]

It's almost a 100% guarantee that I'm doing Philmont once.  It's the most talked-about High Adventure among the troop.  Northern Tier is also a possibility but I can't swim.

[MahrinSkel]

I've done camping in every mode from survival training (a knife, fire-starting equipment, and the clothes you're wearing, now travel 80 miles through wilderness and call us when you reach town, we'll notify your NOK if we don't hear from you in a month) to tricked-out RV's with better amenities than most houses.

I'm not sure exactly where in between it stops being "camping" and might as well just be a vacation at a wilderness lodge, but it's somewhere around the time you can take showers without hypothermia.

--Dave (I cheated a little on the survival training, I had a chain-saw blade hidden inside my belt)

[Chimpy]

So I got a dental implant put in this morning, it is quite disturbing to have someone cranking away on a mini-socket wrench inside your mouth.

[Morat20]

So I got a dental implant put in this morning, it is quite disturbing to have someone cranking away on a mini-socket wrench inside your mouth.

Modern medicine is creepy as fuck sometimes.

I am eagerly awaiting the nanotech revolution, so such shit can be done on the molecular level which i don't have to see.

of course, then anonymous would start hacking people's nanites and giving them sex changes or growing them another dick, but whatever.

[Yegolev]

but whatever.

I haven't yet dialed in on what worries you and what doesn't.

[Ironwood]

Fuck off, Zuckerberg, just FUCK OFFFFFF.

[Chimpy]

Did he do something new to encite this rage, or is this just a routine outburst?

[Ironwood]

Hey, I now know the pain and awfulness of real people.  Surprisingly, there's biological shit that money can't buy and pain that Billions doesn't assuage and now I want to talk about it to you, the little people.

FUCK OFF YOU CUNT.

[Trippy]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10102276573729791&set=a.529237706231.2034669.4&type=1&theater

Expand the text.

[HaemishM]

Why has he wrapped that cute dog in mops?

[Ironwood]

It's offensive shite, is what it is.

"We need to talk about this more".

"We" talk about it quite enough, douchenozzle.  Because it fucking happens all the fucking time to fucking everyone.  Fuck you.  Oh, you started to talk to your friends, did you ?  When you run Facebook ?  The premier worldwide communication tool ?  You Utter Fucking Cunt.  And are you going to change your mind about fucking boobs pics when your fucking hag starts lactating too ?  I bet you do.  I bet you post more fucking mammary glands than Aria Fucking Giovanni, you utter, utter, utter vile prick.

Sorry to go all Bob on this one, but he's REALLY fucked me off.

[Morat20]

Why has he wrapped that cute dog in mops?

I once spoke at length to the owner of one of those dogs. When you bathe them, they apparently take a zillion years to dry. Says that's the biggest hassle of owning them. They surprisingly don't shed, they're pretty easily trained, but grooming and bathing is a pain.

I can't remember what they're bred for.

I've got a beagle, whom I love, and they're apparently bred for farting and barking at anything that moves at a pitch designed to delivery maximum irritation to everyone that hears it.

Also bred for ignoring commands when it smells something interesting, which is ALL THE TIME.

[Merusk]

That's a hell of a nerve there, IW. Afraid I can't relate but sorry he's jumped up and down on it.

Also expect all kinds of shit to change as his sprog is a girl. ALL KINDS. "OH, suddenly I'm aware and uncomfortable with people harassing women using my platform and how much dirt young men have been able to dig up on her using it. Here's the list of things that are going to change to make this more woman-friendly and happy."

Yeah, "Omg I'm human and people miscarry" is the melt water of this iceberg.

[rattran]

So I got married last night. Somewhat spur of the moment, but it was time.

[Morat20]

Also expect all kinds of shit to change as his sprog is a girl. ALL KINDS. "OH, suddenly I'm aware and uncomfortable with people harassing women using my platform and how much dirt young men have been able to dig up on her using it. Here's the list of things that are going to change to make this more woman-friendly and happy."

My brother had a little girl (she just turned one) and had that sort of revelation. He wasn't ever sexist or anything, he just.....like it never occurred to him what life as a woman would be like. I think the example he used was "It just didn't occur to me that stuff like "walking to your car" or "meeting a guy for drinks" is just, well, potentially dangerous to you. Like, you can just be living life and there's always this potential threat even if you're just being normal".

Rattran: Congrats. :) Eloping like that has it's benefits.