Getting that 'right role' is so awesome! I'm happy for ya, Face!

As for me...
For reasons I won't go into, my brother is in charge of a travel budget I have, and my brother is... To put it lightly.. A huge pain in the behind. He has actively blocked things because he just wants to be petty and vicious in the past.

Well, after two months of struggle, my trip to GenCon has finally cleared the last hurdle! I've been nervous about it for weeks, and now I'm sure I'm going and I have a great hotel! I'm so excited!

My Dad's vision is making a slow recovery. He's adhering to his new med schedules. His labs came back and he's not as terrible as we thought he was (a surprise to us all: apparently he has a very minor anemia). He's even using his glucose monitor like he's supposed to!

I'm not as much debt as I thought I would be over this whole ordeal. As a jumping off point, we're not in as bad a shape as I thought we were.

Right now, this is all I can ask for.

Just passed my Occupational First Aid level 2 exam. With all the stress that's been lifted off of me, I feel 10 lbs lighter. Also, I now get an extra week of paid vacation per year. I'm a tad exhausted (a 4 hour exam where ~2.5 hours are practical will do that), but I'm so relived and happy that it doesn't matter.

My mom, who has been allergic to cats for four+ decades, inherited her boyfriend's cat when he passed away last year.  Since then, she's been virtually inseparable from The Boss (as he's known), with only very minor symptoms of her allergies.  The Boss has proven to be a cuddly companion and good lapcat.  He also travels very well, being super chill in the car, strange houses, or even just the basket of a shopping cart.  And he doesn't mind visiting the vet.

(His only "flaw" is he has no real hunting instinct - bats got into the house twice and he was like, "What? Not my problem. I'm gonna go take a nap.")

Somehow my mom ended up with the perfect "starter cat" and best possible pet out of what had been a sad time in her life, and The Boss brings her so much joy.

My workplace benefits include access to mental health help (quite substantial, too). It used to just be for those who received benefits, but apparently the company is now expanding access to our staff. Big boss has to specifically request it, but I’m impressed that they’re doing it.

Here's to opening new doors in life...I'm in dress rehearsals this week for my first musical role (I've been in a musical before...but with a strictly non-singing part.)  I spent most of my life thinking that I couldn't sing...and as a result, I never did, so it was kind of a vicious cycle.

Several years ago, some friends of mine convinced me to try singing at a karaoke party.  It was at another friend's place, relatively small crowd, I knew almost everyone there, and most of them were drunk, so I figured it was a good time to give it a try, because if I was terrible, it would be in front of friends who knew I didn't sing, and most of them wouldn't remember it, anyway.

Turns out, I wasn't terrible.  And I enjoyed it.  I don't consider myself a great singer, by any means...but I'm at least mediocre, and on a good night, I'm actually pretty good (as long as I stick to stuff in my vocal range).  So, when some friends from another show told me about this one, I decided I'd audition...nothing ventured, nothing gained, and all that.  And I was initially auditioning for a non-singing part...but the director decided that my voice was good enough to gamble on.  And it's been a lot of fun (more fun than I expected, considering the show, itself, is one of my less-preferred musicals...fun enough that my opinion of the show has been tempered somewhat).

I still think I'm a lousy dancer, though...but not bad enough to take me out of any of the numbers (although I'm only in two where I have to dance at all, and that's only briefly)...but I've gone from 'I don't do musicals' to 'I'd audition for one that interests me' (or for one with a lot of people I enjoy working with involved in the production).

Fifty years old, and I'm still trying stuff that scares me...and discovering how much fun it can be.

Yay, Annabelle (my cat) ate all the last dish of food I put out for her!  She recently developed diabetes, and is (supposedly) eating a different food in double the quantity of her previous more varied diet.  Her BG has been pretty good, but I'm afraid that's more because she hasn't been eating much of anything, and because she's been losing weight.  Have to see how her next test goes, may have to give her insulin again, but I guess that beats seeing her waste away.

I just found out this morning that I have an extra 3-ish days to study for my exam. I have been stressed about it so the extra time means I should do quite a bit better than I was originally thinking I would do, assuming I spend it correctly.

Holy Swiss Cheese on onion bagels! Mmmmmm...oh yeah! the dice roller has...MAGIC EIGHTBALL? OMG! jase! Man every December I find cool stuff I didn't know I wanted and now can't live out. My face to face group threatens to use the dice roller (a big no non  without board support) and I must never divulge that they have systems like "Magic Eight Ball". They will ruin my IP record of good behavior! Anyway, that is SO cool that you have magic eight ball. That made my day! I wish I had an onion bagel though. :( *Shakes Magic Eightball* auh..."Concentrate and Ask Again" sad catface. Ooooooooooooh "My reply is no" q:< FINE! I'M GOING TO EAT YOU THEN! And if you taste bad it's your fault.
This message was last edited by the user at 17:37, Tue 04 Dec 2018.

I have some really awesome friends.  I agreed to build a prop gondola, for a corporate event (because a friend asked me to). It's winter.  I have a 1br apartment that's ridiculously overstuffed from a little over two decades of theater and entertainment work, on top of my 'stuff-intensive' hobbies.

So I hit Facebook to see if any of my friends had a space I could work in.  A couple of new friends I made over the past year responded, and let me use a third of their garage, their table saw, their propane space heater and their propane, and even fed me a couple of times.  They let me work there all day while they were at work, let me keep working after they'd gone to bed, and even made a hardware store run with me to pick up some supplies that didn't fit in my car.  Thanks to them, the project is done, in less than a week.  Saved my sanity, and likely my health, as well.

I'm alive.

And contrary to popular belief, looking death in the eye doesn't cause your past to go flashing through your mind... sometimes, there just isn't that much time.

I was turning left off the SR on my way home last night, blinker on, slowed, with a car right on my tail. I'd already turned across the center line when there were suddenly headlights in my left side mirror as a car came barreling around me. I had an instant to realize what was happening, yank the wheel to the right, and pray the guy on my tail hadn't decided to whip around me on the right rather be bothered with slowing down.

Thankfully, he didn't, he was still behind me and somehow, I didn't end up dead in the center of a 3-car pile of crumpled steel. I had a brief glimpse of a white or silver sedan similar in size to my car right outside my door, and then the psycho was past.

I've seen a lot of stupid driving, having an hour+ commute, with half of it on one of the state's deadliest highways, but I've never seen a stunt like that.

My external windscreen cover is a miracle.  When I put it on my car, I haven't had to worry about scraping my windscreen from frost, snow, or ice this winter, and at the end of a 12-hour shift that is such a relief to know I can get home just that much sooner, because I can actually see out of my car instead of having to scrape.
This message was last edited by the user at 17:52, Wed 23 Jan 2019.

So, I just had my brain tickled and exercised (so to speak) at the same time.

I was watching a video on Youtube (which was dry and technical) in which the voiceover said (in an excerpt) "...the error cost the company 150 million dollars, which is more than the average average American makes in a year" and I was just O_O wait, what?! I felt somehow, for a good minute really pathetic. I tried to rationalize it by the super rich and then it dawned on me. I felt really dumb for about the next ten seconds and then had a great laugh.

Another excerpt, which I'm sad to say I saw as only an excerpt and not into the context of its entirety, was talking about (I'll insert an example to make it coherent) the fact every person that ever lived had more ancestors than the number of stars in the solar system. That one, sadly, I also was baffled at, and also made me crack up when I caught the nuance. This was in CONTEXT to the above. I was still taken for a ride. I am an astro physics enthusiast...and I still fell for the deadpan joke.

I won't assume that people need this, but just in case I'll explain it. I'm sleep deprived from taking care of a sick friend. So maybe it was just that fact, or maybe others might have fallen for the trick.

---

Spoiler for the blunt truth: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

1. Even if the average American made $365 a year (which obviously they make more than), 150 million is still more than that. ALOT more...but still more.
   
2. The solar system only has one star in it. The Milky way and other galaxies are what contain the vast array of stars.

---

It made me smile. No, grin in fact. I needed that! I like that kind of humor. Especially when the content is otherwise dry, and it makes you pause and your common sense fights with this esoteric suspicion.

My oldest game still open just reached 3,000th posts!

Today I was a hoopy frood who knew where her towel was!

Did you round the day off with breakfast at Milliways?

Alas no, but I did help corral a dog who had escaped his owners, and bundle him up in said towel to keep him safe and warm until the police could come to get him to the shelter (and he was reunited with his owners later that day).

Yay happy safe dog! Good job, you!

In two and a half weeks, my second book comes out. I honestly... I never thought I'd even get -one- published, let alone two. I continuously think of how my parents regularly stifled my hopes in that direction, and how the first book was partially inspired by the 3-year-lingering death of my dad due to ALS. But now I've got not one, but two. I did what my parents told me was impossible, and I'm still doing it. I'm excited. I can't wait to get a physical copy of the second novel. I'm just... Kinda stoked.

Congrats Ivan - twice!

Never let anyone tell you what's possible and what isn't.

Nobody knows what you're capable of - not even you, until you try.

Another of my games reached the 2,000 posts mark!
I came back to GMing on RPoL after long years to run just a one-off memorial adventure (targeting a few weeks or perhaps a couple of months of gaming) and... weeks became months, then years, and the number of games I run or play grew... very unplanned...

A co-worker put in a request for me that basically gives me two days off of work. There are some tasks that we do that are super easy and low effort but take a long time. I covered for him while he was on vacation and in response he made the request for me to do it for a couple of days. It is helpful to the company but I always feel kinda guilty requesting it myself but he went to bat for me and now I get to
have two days working that is mostly me monitoring diagnostics while watching TV.

Wow...look like a good comment might be overdue.

I'm really glad I FINALLY got our stuff moved out of our storage unit. I had a fire in late Feburary, and our stuff was there (apparently to save for OTHER people). So that's a couple hundred to save for the November to Feburary to save for the next
move.

In other good news, which is what prompted me to make this post, I discovered the colored text and strikethrough option. Wherein you can color the strike-line the surrounded color See here! or you can have the stricken out text be marked over by the same color. Like this!

I know I'm middle-aged, and typically the type to be amazed, but I REALLY appreciate that level of care jase took. It's little gems like this that renew the delight when I find them. :D

P.S. if you don't have colored text enabled, just do a faux-post and quote it, it'll make more sense that way to see the coding difference. It's just a seeding order. Still! I love it!
This message was last edited by the user at 22:40, Tue 01 Oct 2019.

Holy schnickies, that colored/not-colored strikethrough option is spectacular! I had no idea you could do that, either. Thanks for pointing that out, V_V! :)

In reply to SunRuanEr (msg # 844):

Yeah! I thought someone, or a maybe a group of people, might not know that already either.

I love end user coding! Like this--not actual production coding [the real work]).

I'm slow to catch on, but once I know a trick on RPoL, or in spreadsheet, I'm quick to add it to my creative toolbox.

I took a year of college for a programming degree, at the height of the Dot-com bubble and html razor's edge. I, sadly, couldn't quite grasp base 12, and confused it with base 13. So flunked out, solely because of that small fallacy and similar ones, essentially adding an erroneous numeral. During that first semester though, I was a golden child, and was great for my fellow schoolmates to debug their code. Having OCD, I was like a monkey grooming for that single pesky bug and not content until I found it. I loved it!

I still enjoy being able to help friends with spreadsheet coding, and things like this. I know I'm far behind the curve, as the digital age demands horizon walking, but I kindle the flame of that young adult V's passion in little end user appreciation. :) It's like when I worked in my school cafeteria for a year, and served the whole district's faculty. Once you're/I'm behind the code/counter, you're/I'm always quick to recognize, appreciate, and complement the work done to bring the product to you/me. :)

I bet you are glad of that.  I have a storage unit to go through very soon, and I'm not looking forward to it, but gotta get that thing off the books!



A similar thing occurs with underlined text.  Let me see if I can demonstrate:

This goofy sample text is colored first, then underlined.

This goofy sample text is underlined first, then colored.



I'm getting to be rather old, and it amazes me to see the level of care being taken, not only in the coding, but in listening to users and attempting to incorporate their feedback into the new site and the old.  Yep, I agree, jase has got this thing under power.