totm aug 2023 What funny/interesting thing happened in your life today?

[cubinator]

4 hours ago, Nuke said:

is that what it takes to have an actual job in 2025?

Yep. I'm at 500 something.

[AlamoVampire]

9 hours ago, Nuke said:

is that what it takes to have an actual job in 2025? no wonder there are so many homeless people.

The way things are headed its only going to get worse and then criminal. 001902162025

[Ultimate Steve]

On 1/31/2025 at 9:12 PM, Kimera Industries said:

I don't have high hopes for it, but I'm excited that I've been able to write so much. I've had a lot of story ideas, done a lot of world-building, but not a whole lot of writing.

Best of luck! I can relate to that - I'll go around daydreaming all the worldbuilding and story, spend hours writing a python script to verify the expected performance of a fictional starship, and then sit down to write and nothing comes out. It has gotten to the point where I have another promising KSP story in progress, but I dare not start posting it until I have several chapters done to ensure there is a decent chance I will actually finish it. I hope you continue! It is a very interesting concept.

12 hours ago, Nuke said:

is that what it takes to have an actual job in 2025? no wonder there are so many homeless people.

To be fair to the global economy, I did graduate into an oversaturated market with a mediocre GPA, no internships, pretty much no preparation, and with the only notable thing I did being a failed CubeSat. But yeah, it is quite rough in general now.

[Kimera Industries]

On 2/16/2025 at 2:20 AM, Ultimate Steve said:

I hope you continue! It is a very interesting concept.

Thank you! I have indeed continued, to the point where I am getting a bit of peer review from some friends. Great suggestions all around, and I've not run out of words to say yet!  

Edited February 17 by Kimera Industries

[AlamoVampire]

Ive been taking a break from Elite Dangerous because the grind for a certain engineer to get to unlock status was sucking the fun out. But last night I tripped over a video that grabbed my attention. There is an “expedited” path of sorts. Only 1 problem. I must travel across 22,000 light years to get to where this “expedited” path is. My ship as i currently have it is capable of nearly 72 light years in a single jump. Boosted by a white dwarf i can hit nearly 110 +-, and boosted by a neutron star i can hit around 300. Im looking at north of 300 jumps to reach Colonia (Shirarta Dezhra >>> Colonia) or a bit less by way of the Neutron Highway but that damages my ship every single boosted jump. Im thinking of heading out to Colonia to do the engineer thing. Wont be until tonight as sleep calls to me atm lol. Wish me luck not going mad along the way lol. 112902232025

[AstroWolfie]

My friend's dog turned on his stove. they're all fine, thankfully.

[DDE]

Headhunter.ru assigns auto-generated names to CVs that haven't been unlocked (for a fee?) yet.

This means one of our candidates is PEACH WOLVERINE

[Nuke]

trying to level up gunhead in the forever winter is really hard. being a robot, he is the only character who cant use medkits. he has the highest base health but no way to re-generate during a run. only thing that works is combat avoidant runs to the evac point, and then camping anything that comes by. meanwhile old man hit level 21 just recovering gunhead's stuff. the 20mm anti tank gun is awesome.

also i think i gave lordoss lung cancer, though im not sure if lordoss has lungs.

On 2/24/2025 at 7:41 AM, AstroWolfie said:

My friend's dog turned on his stove. they're all fine, thankfully.

this is why we are cat people. mom always likes to leave loaves of bread and pot holders on the burners. i finally got her to remove her dolls and dollhouses from the counter space but she replaced them with a really nifty convection oven. i still want for counter space. now if i can convince her that pills go in the medicine cabinet and not next to the coffee. she always uses the walker/wheelchair excuse, but she is just being lazy.

Edited February 26 by Nuke

[Ultimate Steve]

I visited the Houston space center today. I have now seen all three remaining Saturn V rockets!

[Kimera Industries]

Today definitely counts as "funny/interesting" for me because it's my birthday! Don't worry, none of you are obligated to get me anything.  

"But today is my birthday. And it's a special one, because you told me... you once told me that by the time you came back we might be the same age. And today I'm the same age you were when you left."

Of course, I'm not that old, yet.

Edited March 1 by Kimera Industries

[AlamoVampire]

Im at renfaire right now. Been here since like 0730. I just watched the Washing Well Wenches. Ive seen their act many times over. Today we the audience got to see a proposal! The lass who received said proposal said yes. Was nice to see! 135403012025

[AlamoVampire]

I had something interesting occur to me around 4am. Yesterday as you I went to renfaire. This morning i woke up at 4am and had this overwhelming feeling that i had to go back to the faire today. I have a season pass to the renfaire so its not a problem to go again. I intend to go at least once each weekend all season. With 2 exceptions. Im wanting to go twice during the spring break week where faire is open friday, saturday, and sunday and then twice on closing weekend. So back to this morning. I had no intention last night when i went to bed of going back today. Then this overwhelming feeling that i had to. The only other time i felt this kind of overwhelming need to go somewhere was the day my mother died. I had this inexplicable need to go one more time that day to see her. Had i not gone when i did id had never would have either seen her again or been able to forgive myself for ignoring that feeling. So here i sit waiting for the gates to open in just over an hour. 084103022025

[AlamoVampire]

So while at renfaire yesterday i shot a 30 pound draw weight recurve (about 25 arrows worth) and my fingertips still feel messed up lol. They are recovering, but for now its a funky sensation. 093503032025

[DDE]

Today is Writer's Day, apparently.

Is that why I've had Writer's Block at work?

[AlamoVampire]

I am fairly certain everyone knows who Metallica are and their song Nothing Else Matters. I am sure everyone has heard a myriad of covers for it. Id like to add one more cover to your listening pleasure. Just tripped over:

Very haunting. Very beautiful.

113203042025

[Nuke]

obligatory "haven't been a metallica fan since puppets". i used to think highly of the band until they released garage inc and clued me in to all the bands that they stole their style from. now i got mercyful fate's melissa stuck on repeat and i quote motorhead lyrics as scripture.

Edited Tuesday at 07:16 PM by Nuke

[Ultimate Steve]

Past week or two has been a whirlwind. I went on a road trip with Dad, we saw the Houston space center (I have now seen all 3 remaining Saturn Vs!), the Starship launch site, and the Alamo. I have partially relocated to Texas (I'm in a company provided hotel room, I have ~6 weeks or so to figure out a more permanent solution). I saw some of the oil fields recently - It didn't hit me until now just how massive the drilling operations are down here until I was driven through it, and saw the never ending pumpjacks, and looked on google maps to see how, well, scarred is probably the wrong world - But how much infrastructure was all over the land. Reminds me of a significantly less aesthetically pleasing version of viewing cornfields from an airliner.

I thought two years of bus driving would prepare me a little for city driving. And yeah it prepared me a little bit compared to my hometown of ~3,000ish, but the roads are more confusing, the drivers are more impatient, speeds are faster, you have to turn/merge in less space, and in general you have far more information coming in and far less time to make a decision. There have been a number of close calls already. In Texas, I find that there are (only somewhat, and location dependent) more people following the speed limit than up in Iowa, but the limits are also much higher down here.

I had my first experiences with dust storms. It is quite the shift going from six inches of snow to dust storms. I also had one moment that hammered it in "Oh, I'm in the south now!" when I saw a tumbleweed blow by for the first time.

I'm going to miss (honestly I already miss) the snow and the rain and the greenness of home. I'm not going to miss the humid summers, but we'll see how I'll feel when we start getting extreme (though dry) summer heat in a few months.

There's a lot of trash everywhere here. Makes me want to just grab a bag and start picking up, but with the scale of the issue I don't foresee it making much of a difference, though I might be able to eventually clear out the land immediately surrounding the hotel.

I started work yesterday. Lots of information really fast. There's apparently a housing stipend I didn't hear about, so it was nice getting what was effectively sort of like a surprise raise on the first day haha. Haven't done any actual non onboarding stuff yet, so jury's out on whether or not I'll like it.

Thus far everything seems quite, well, scary is the wrong word. But traffic at a pace I'm not used to, weather I'm not used to, a standard of cleanliness I'm not used to, and well, having a real job that I'm not used to, missing home and the weather of home. Too much highway facing infrastructure, not enough trees. At least on the surface, not enough to do that isn't alcohol based (I don't drink). And in an area of the country/state that might not be super receptive to my sibling if they ever decide to visit. This is just about the last place in the country I expected to end up, but I suppose after 192 job applications I don't really have the luxury of choice. Barring something either extremely unfortunate or extremely fortunate, I am going to be here for at least a few years.

But I guess it wouldn't be an adventure if there weren't scary parts. Here goes nothing.

[Kimera Industries]

13 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

I have partially relocated to Texas (I'm in a company provided hotel room, I have ~6 weeks or so to figure out a more permanent solution). I saw some of the oil fields recently - It didn't hit me until now just how massive the drilling operations are down here until I was driven through it, and saw the never ending pumpjacks, and looked on google maps to see how, well, scarred is probably the wrong world - But how much infrastructure was all over the land. Reminds me of a significantly less aesthetically pleasing version of viewing cornfields from an airliner.

I used to live in Texas for a few years, though not in as urban an environment as you now. One of the first things I learned about Texas is that it's so, so big. Anyway, I wish you luck! 

I checked this morning to be sure, and I have now seen all 5 planets visible to the eye! At last, Mercury has been added to the collection. If the weather is good today, I'll try to check it out in my telescope. Recently, I saw the crescent of Venus, though badly obscured by glare. 

Edited Wednesday at 04:02 PM by Kimera Industries

[cubinator]

4 hours ago, Kimera Industries said:

I checked this morning to be sure, and I have now seen all 5 planets visible to the eye! At last, Mercury has been added to the collection. If the weather is good today, I'll try to check it out in my telescope. Recently, I saw the crescent of Venus, though badly obscured by glare. 

You should find a dark sky and get the 6th one down 

[Kimera Industries]

45 minutes ago, cubinator said:

You should find a dark sky and get the 6th one down 

I remember an experience where I got to camp in the middle of nowhere and the sky was amazing. But that was before I learned that the sky is full of interesting things to look at...

[magnemoe]

Its some sort of weird  drider like statue outside our lunch room. 


Its on a roof in an backyard so it can only been seen from some offices. 
An serious weird place for an statue, suspect it ended up there after getting rejected from an better position.

And not an drider, only 6 legs and some part going down past the hip.

[RKunze]

17 hours ago, cubinator said:

21 hours ago, Kimera Industries said:

 

You should find a dark sky and get the 6th one down 

That is a bit difficult at the moment, given that Saturn is almost directly beside the Sun right now (even nearer than Mercury and Venus).

[Kimera Industries]

3 hours ago, RKunze said:

That is a bit difficult at the moment, given that Saturn is almost directly beside the Sun right now (even nearer than Mercury and Venus).

I've already seen Saturn, I think @cubinator is referring to Uranus, which is visible at certain times of year in very, very dark skies. So's the asteroid Vesta, I've heard.

[magnemoe]

1 hour ago, Kimera Industries said:

I've already seen Saturn, I think @cubinator is referring to Uranus, which is visible at certain times of year in very, very dark skies. So's the asteroid Vesta, I've heard.

Yes, Uranus is is visible with the naked eye if you have good eyesight. But its very dim and moves slowly so even if described it was seen as an dim star. 

[cubinator]

1 hour ago, Kimera Industries said:

I've already seen Saturn, I think @cubinator is referring to Uranus, which is visible at certain times of year in very, very dark skies. So's the asteroid Vesta, I've heard.

Interesting, I should try for Vesta and Ceres.