Useless Conversation

[Strazos]

Holy hell. And I get annoyed when I have anything besides the Menu , Navigation, and Status bars showing.

[HaemishM]

Whatever happened to minimalist browsing? Shit, I want to see MORE of web pages than what I'm currently seeing on a 20" monitor at 1280x1024.

[NiX]

You're just greedy, Haem.

Is that really someones browser? That's disgusting. I have 1 extra bar (that facebook one) and that alone is too much.

[Strazos]

I hate when I refresh the boards and see nothing new. 

[Trippy]

You're just greedy, Haem.

Is that really someones browser? That's disgusting. I have 1 extra bar (that facebook one) and that alone is too much.

That was from a spyware test, I believe. Somebody wanted to compare how easily it was to have spyware installed through those toolbars between IE and Firefox.

Edit: actually if you read the article (duh) it's from some guy who wanted to see if he could get 200 extensions running on Firefox.

[Righ]

I bet Bruce would like to get his extension on a fire fox.

[WayAbvPar]

And now I get to live with that mental image all day. Happy holidays to you too, Righ.

[Lantyssa]

I bet Bruce would like to get his extension on a fire fox.

Absolutely not!  I am totally off limits.

[Furiously]

/shudders

[Merusk]

My avatar doesn't appear on this page yet.  That's a crime.

Really, I think I found one that's entirely too hot. I enjoy seeing it quite more than reading posts.  Hrm.

[NiX]

I do too, post more please!

[Sky]

This page needs a Darth Cheney.



Oops, thought this was the NGE thread. Aren't they all, though, really?

[Llava]

Today so far:

I woke up to my cell phone ringing at about 10 in the morning.  It was my dad.  He said, "I just wanted to let you know your grandmother passed away.  Your mom's pretty messed up right now."

I put on some clothes and drank something, then drove over to my parents' place.  My dad was still at the office, my mom was there already packing stuff to go over to California (where my grandma and grandpa live) to take care of things.  She gave me about 6 meals' worth of food to take home and was already talking about needing to read up on the estate stuff on the drive over.  Her method of dealing with stress is not really the best.  I stayed there for a while to help until she and my dad got in their cars to start the drive over.  They'll be flying me out later this week.

I drive home and as I'm turning into my complex, a lifted black pickup truck with a shattered windshield being driven by three laughing teenage boys pulls out of the large grassy area we have, after ripping it up with tires and ramming down a tree.  It swerves onto the road and zooms into the complex across the street.  I make a U-turn and follow, recording the license number on my cell phone as I pass it.  I return to my complex where there are now 4 or so people standing around looking at the damage.  I tell them I got the license number and call the police.  We stand around outside for a bit to talk and wait for the police.  Eventually we filter back to our places, until the cops come and knock on my door (since I'm the one who called).  The guy who saw the whole thing sees me standing outside showing the damage to the cops and comes out to relate what he witnessed.  The police leave to check out the vehicle, but warn that unless they can place the driver behind the wheel there may not be anything they can do.  They called me back later to say that they found the car parked where I described and knocked on the apartment door to which the space is assigned, but there is no answer.

I've been awake for three hours.

I'm watching my back.

[Cheddar]

Today so far:

I woke up to my cell phone ringing at about 10 in the morning.  It was my dad.  He said, "I just wanted to let you know your grandmother passed away.  Your mom's pretty messed up right now."

I put on some clothes and drank something, then drove over to my parents' place.  My dad was still at the office, my mom was there already packing stuff to go over to California (where my grandma and grandpa live) to take care of things.  She gave me about 6 meals' worth of food to take home and was already talking about needing to read up on the estate stuff on the drive over.  Her method of dealing with stress is not really the best.  I stayed there for a while to help until she and my dad got in their cars to start the drive over.  They'll be flying me out later this week.

I drive home and as I'm turning into my complex, a lifted black pickup truck with a shattered windshield being driven by three laughing teenage boys pulls out of the large grassy area we have, after ripping it up with tires and ramming down a tree.  It swerves onto the road and zooms into the complex across the street.  I make a U-turn and follow, recording the license number on my cell phone as I pass it.  I return to my complex where there are now 4 or so people standing around looking at the damage.  I tell them I got the license number and call the police.  We stand around outside for a bit to talk and wait for the police.  Eventually we filter back to our places, until the cops come and knock on my door (since I'm the one who called).  The guy who saw the whole thing sees me standing outside showing the damage to the cops and comes out to relate what he witnessed.  The police leave to check out the vehicle, but warn that unless they can place the driver behind the wheel there may not be anything they can do.  They called me back later to say that they found the car parked where I described and knocked on the apartment door to which the space is assigned, but there is no answer.

I've been awake for three hours.

I'm watching my back.

My girlfriends mother died this week.  The funeral is going to be on her (my girlfriends) birthday.  Its been a fun month.

[Lantyssa]

*hugs* to both of you.

[Engels]

Christmas in the hinterland.

My relatives experience Christmas pageantry in rural Indiana.

Copied from a recent email, the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Somehow we have started spending every evening after dinner driving around looking at Christmas lights.  (Somehow being the way we end up doing most things lately)  Becky, our 3 year old, has her favorites and demands to see them "See the polar bear!  See the Santa baking bread!  See the Ganesh with the snowflake on top!"  Of course, these are all on opposite sides of town, which problem Becky deals with by saying "Just jump there!"  No, we have never shown her Star Trek, she somehow just knows...

So last night, while my spouse was at a boring office party, I found myself driving by a local megachurch.   And I found myself turning into the parking lot by some flashing police lights, remembering I'd seen in the paper there was a drive-though Christmas display this weekend.  Partly I was bored of driving by the same houses over and over again, and partly I had this fear that my parents would show up at Christmas and realize that Becky could identify Santa, Ganesh, and a menorah, but had never heard of Jesus.  The fact that my mother in law had given us an advent calendar that featured a nativity scene of animals in a barn with Santa (and an angel, for some reason) was also lurking in the back of my mind...

And then I found myself driving through one of the most bizarre, surreal midwestern expressions of car culture I'd ever seen -- drive-though live actor Life of Jesus tableaus.    Following the trail of buring oil pots, we first saw Mary and Jesus with a live donkey, then some kids with some real sheep (the sheep we in a pen, pigging out on hay.  The kids were wearing snowsuits under their robes and standing outside the pen, but you got the idea).    The actual nativity scene had a live cow, donkey, and some more sheep.  Even more spectacular, three live camels with the Magi -- where they found those in southern Indiana, I have no idea.  My story:  "So the babay Jesus was born in the barn and all the animals came around to see him.  Then the wise men saw a star in the sky and came to see the baby too."  Becky says "I want to see the star in the sky!  I want to see it!"

Then I turned the corner of the mega-church and discovered that the story went on.  My explainations got weaker as we went along, as I started to have this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach about there being an impending cruxifiction scene on the horizon.  We drove by scenes from Jesus' boyhood:  "And there is Jesus making things out of wood.  And here he is reading a book with some men with funny hats"  And the baptism by John the Baptist:  "And here he is swimming with his cousin, who for some reason is wearing a teddy bear suit."  The marriage of Caanan: "And here they are having a party"  Becky's main comment on everything was "I want to see the star in the sky!  I want to go back and see it!"  My comment back:  "See all these cars in front of us and behind us?  That means Mommy HAS NO WAY OF GETTING OUT OF HERE." 

We came to the dreaded Holy Week section, which thankfully was at least on the driver's side of the car.  I hoped that maybe the giant cross I could see up ahead would be cut off from her line of vision.  Drving by Pilate, Becky was very excited about the painting of the chicken in the scenery.   Then we drove by the scene of Chirst stumbing with the cross, inexplicably accesorized with a small potted Christmas tree with an orange sale tag on its top branch.  And then there were were, by the 20 foot high cross bearing a rubbery looking mannequin and lit by a flashing strobe light.  Relieved that it was not a real half-naked person up there in the 34 degree weather, I was at a complete loss for an explaination.   "I WANT TO SEE THE STAR!!!"  said Becky.   "Um," I said, "I think there's an angel up ahead."   

There was an angel, by the tomb.  And then.... can I even describe this?  There was an acension scene with a Christ figure on top of a 40 or 50 foot high evergreen tree, lit by multiple spotlights so it was almost too bright too look at.  Below it stood several women with their arms raised in halleluliahs.  I wondered if they were really able to hold them like like for the entire three hours of the show.  The ski gloves made them look like stuffed animals in costume, but it was still an impressive dedication (or complete craziness, I am not sure which) to stand out there in the freezing cold.

On our way out there was a kiosk, with more police cars (our tax dollars at work!) handing out free hot chocolate to each car.  Which I thought was really odd, since the people in the cars were in the heat.   Dazzled by lights, I didn't realize that I was leaving by a different entrace than I had entered by.  I turned the wrong way and suddenly found myself completely lost.  In the dark and with all the Christmas lights on, everything looked completely different.  Becky was in the back seat whining "I want to see the STAR!" over and over and I started to panic that we were lost in some crazy small town in southern Indiana filled with wacko religious fanatics.  Oh wait, that has nothing to do with being lost.  Eventually we found our way home (but not before taking a small detour to see Ganesh.) 

Today Becky was grocery shopping with my spouse when she annouced "Tonight I want to see Baby Cheezus and girl Cheezus making things out of wood and grown up girl Cheezus going in a boat."  At dinner tonight Becky got down from the table, took an ornament off the Christmas tree and wrapped it in a newspaper.  She put that in a plastic bin, and then the bin in a cardboard box and brought it back to the table, plopping it into my spouse's food and saying proudly "I made a present for Baby Cheezus!"  My spouse looked at me with an expression that said "What have you done???"

So we had to back again, with my spouse.

[Yegolev]

Coincidentally, my wife lost both her grandfathers within four weeks of each other, second one the week before Thanksgiving.  At least being a pallbearer meant I didn't have to stand around awkwardly the whole time.  And now my wife has a Cadillac Deville.

[Yegolev]

I recently watched Silent Hill, V for Vendetta and Old Boy.  I thought they were all great.  I would not suggest Old Boy to the squeamish.

[Cheddar]

Just got home from the funeral/after party.  Christ, having a loved one die is pretty tough.  I will say things seem a little better now that mother is laid to rest; it was pretty untimely and caught all of us offguard.  Family seems to be better, but we all know there will be good days and bad days.  I am worried though, my GF has not actually had a breakdown/sob thingy yet. 

[Signe]

So sorry, Cheddar.  It's hard to lose any one you love, but it's especially tough when it's your mother.  My mother died very suddenly almost 18 years ago and it was awful.  She wasn't old.  My sister didn't break down (I did) but she recently told me that she thinks about her every single day.

[Lantyssa]

It may take a while, Chedder.  It was over a week before I broke down after my best friend died.  "Broke" being a severe understatement.  She may be made of more resilient stuff than me, it isn't hard, just be prepared to be there if it happens and since the holidays are rapidly approaching.

[Sky]

This thread is becoming too useful!

http://www.xylonets.com/index.html

(my condolences Ched)

[Llava]

Funeral was pretty rough.  Was about 10 of us in the room.  The two people who spoke were... not great, but no one else could get up there and talk without breaking down.  I thought I was fine, but actually being in the room I knew that if I got up there to try and talk I would've cracked.  Plus I had nothing prepared, I didn't realize it was going to be that sort of funeral.

There was a lighter moment when one of the two people who spoke said, "And now that I think about it, I don't think I ever once heard her complain about anything."  At that moment I thought to myself, "Oh shit. I'm going to laugh at that.  I hope to god someone laughs before me.  Please don't let me laugh first."  Then my aunt laughed.  Then my dad laughed.  Then I laughed.  Since my aunt laughed, and it was her mother we were burying, that made it okay for anyone else.  Cause jesus christ I don't think I heard anything from that lady's mouth in the last 10 years of her life that wasn't a complaint.

But it's over and done with.  My grandfather is going to be a basket case.  Can tell he's already obsessing over the "what if"s.  Went over to his place to pick him up for the funeral, and he said, "See that thing there on  the phone, to the right of the receiver?  If she'd pushed that, she might've been okay."  This was the first time I ever saw how much he really loved her.  So the whole thing was pretty rough.

Honestly, I don't expect my grandfather to last long after this.  I was surprised he outlived her, actually, but now that she's gone and he's going to be alone most of the time he'll likely succumb to one thing or another fairly soon.  Awful to think, but they've both had long, good lives, so it could be worse.  It's going to be a tough year.

[HaemishM]

Honestly, I don't expect my grandfather to last long after this.  I was surprised he outlived her, actually, but now that she's gone and he's going to be alone most of the time he'll likely succumb to one thing or another fairly soon.  Awful to think, but they've both had long, good lives, so it could be worse.  It's going to be a tough year.

Those are better than you think. Better of course being a relative term. But generally speaking, when you just KNOW someone's going to go and it's just a matter of time, it makes the dealing with it easier.

My grandmother on my mom's side passed away first. She was the head of that relationship without a doubt, and no one expected my grandad to be able to do anything without her. We all expected him to go first, because he was older and just more dependent on her. But she went. It took 5 years of deteriorating health before he went, and when he did, I was a lot more calm about it than with his wife. It was more of a "he's finally with her" kind of calm as well as having already felt the first blow and having toughened up. It was harder to see him in his last stroke-addled years barely able to hold a conversation than it was to bury him.

[Yegolev]

I am now confusing Sky and Cheddar, thanks to the holiday avatars.

[Merusk]

I am now confusing Sky and Cheddar, thanks to the holiday avatars.

I looked, just to see how.  All I can come up with is when you think of Sky you think of a buff well-oiled beefcake of a man.

[stray]

When I *used* to think of Sky, it was an image of C.C. Deville. Hehe.

Now after seeing his pic, I think of Grizzly Adams and Willy Nelson.

[Llava]

Honestly, I don't expect my grandfather to last long after this.  I was surprised he outlived her, actually, but now that she's gone and he's going to be alone most of the time he'll likely succumb to one thing or another fairly soon.  Awful to think, but they've both had long, good lives, so it could be worse.  It's going to be a tough year.

Those are better than you think. Better of course being a relative term. But generally speaking, when you just KNOW someone's going to go and it's just a matter of time, it makes the dealing with it easier.

My grandmother on my mom's side passed away first. She was the head of that relationship without a doubt, and no one expected my grandad to be able to do anything without her. We all expected him to go first, because he was older and just more dependent on her. But she went. It took 5 years of deteriorating health before he went, and when he did, I was a lot more calm about it than with his wife. It was more of a "he's finally with her" kind of calm as well as having already felt the first blow and having toughened up. It was harder to see him in his last stroke-addled years barely able to hold a conversation than it was to bury him.

That's actually what I mean.  When he dies, it won't be so bad.  It'll be the time until then that it gets harder and harder, as whatever he has (we think alzheimer's) eats at his brain and he becomes less coherent.  Meanwhile, he doesn't have her or the stability she provided, and I just know that he's going to come to the realization over and over that his wife is dead, and every time will be like the first.  It didn't hit me that hard when she died just because she died, it's hard because I know how that's going to affect him in his remaining years.

[Cheddar]

Icing on the cake?  My Grandmother has bone cancer.  I vote 2006 as shitiest year ever. 

[HaemishM]

Icing on the cake?  My Grandmother has bone cancer.  I vote 2006 as shitiest year ever. 

Seconded.

[Yegolev]

I thought my wife was crazy.  Well, more crazy.  She predicted 2006 would suck ass, and it has.  Mostly the tail-end.  I have to tell her that she was right.  It actually does suck to varying degrees for most people I know.

[Ironwood]

It has had its good bits.

[Cheddar]

It has had its good bits.

True that.  Rumsfeld resigned and the voters within the US showed the were more aware then Republicans thought.  And Ironwood became a daddy.

[Lantyssa]

It was a tough year.  I've certainly been crazy through half of it and some really unpleasant things have happened, but on the whole I have to say it has been good.  My stuff is straightened out or in motion to be there, I have gotten off my ass to do something for others, I have made some wonderful and dear friends, and I am starting to really enjoy my life.  All the crappy parts be damned, I have learned to not let it hold me back any longer.

[WayAbvPar]

It has had its good bits.

I thought Elena was conceived in 2005?  :-D