I am on a self-imposed staycation for the next week. Done with some stuff I had to take care of, so I am just goingto garden and blog and play computer games and try to harness Thurston’s energy into something productive.
Speaking of games, there are just too many out there to keep up with. I have Pillars of Eternity and the Witcher which need my attention, and expansion for Dragon Age Inquisition, and I am still sucked in hard to World of Tanks. My clan in World of Tanks is all 11th ACR guys, some of whom I served with and many others throughout the ages. We range in age from active duty guys to old Viet Nam vets. We have a teamspeak server, shoot the shit, do clan matches and battles, tell war stories, and just joke around. We have an organized chain of command and clan officers who we elect, and we have clan practices twice a week and scheduled battles twice a week. I spend most of my time in game platooning with a crusty old Sergeant Major from the brown boot era and a guy about my age in Colorado who I met in game, and we work on tanks and joke around.
It’s really a cool thing- part time waster, part rehab, part club, part advice group, etc.
JPL
Didn’t you mention that you would be posting pup pictures? I need something to erase the Christie pic that you posted earlier.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
I had to confess to my spouse the other night that the reason I came to bed at 2:30 am was because I had foolishly downloaded SimCity BuildIt to my iPad.
His response: “Why did you even do that? You know those sim games are like digital crack for you!”
Yes. Yes they are. It’s probably best for all concerned that I never got into more immersive gaming, because I would probably be one of those people who died of DVT because I sat in front of the game for 48+ hours.
dmsilev
My current massive time sink is Kerbal Space Program. Design and build rockets, send adorable little green creatures to their screaming deaths because you forgot to put a parachute on the capsule returning from orbit. Good clean nerdy fun.
elmo
Just like here, then!
JPL
Rachel is now doing a segment about the Christie picture… I need puppy pictures, please.
TaMara (BHF)
@Mnemosyne (tablet): SimCity was the reason I knew I would never be able to delve into video games. Same reason.
raven
“Old Vietnam Vets” Sheeeeet.
raven
Hey, I asked earlier but since this is just a dopey ass thread. Anyone have experience with hernia surgery? I had my annual physical and she said I was in great shape except for 3 a-symptomatic hernia’s.
TaMara (BHF)
Oh, and we just had a tornado touch down north of town. No damage, but a bit surreal. I’m in an area that gets very few (re: almost never) tornadoes and we’ve had three already.
NCSteve
11th ACR Vietnam vets? Do you know if David Drake is in your clan? Because that would rock.
JPL
@efgoldman: It has been years since I dined at Red Lobster but there is no way you can have only one biscuit.
Felonius Monk
@efgoldman: Saw another article about this earlier. I’ve got nothing against sex shops, but this does leave one sort of speechless.
raven
And this final’s is going to be awesome!
raven
@efgoldman: Actually, at 65 I am on the young end. All those guys from Providence were at least 5 years older.
Mike in NC
Seems like all the cabins around Lake Tahoe are already booked for this summer, and our friends now have work conflicts, so it might be a staycation for us this year. Still hoping for a trip to Seattle-Victoria-Vancouver in 2016.
Renie
Pup pictures please!! and Steve picture!!
Valdivia
Staycations can be great. I feel I frittered mine away and now with classes starting on Monday I’ll have to wait til July to really get some vacation plans going.
Crashman
Single dad-ing it this weekend. Gonna fire up Pillars of Eternity for the first time tomorrow night after the kiddo’s in bed. Really can’t wait; I desperately hope it’s the spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate, like everyone says.
Ruviana
@raven: What kind of hernias? I had an umbilical one and had it fixed in March. Did it between semesters with my theory being that I’d have the week to recuperate. But surgery was on Friday of break! Still, I went to same-day surgery, was home by 1:30 and was in class the following Monday. I felt a little like I’d done way too many sit-ups for about a week and then felt fine. I did generally follow the advice not to lift over 10 pounds but now it’s fine. Hope this helps.
Culture of Truth
This entire post is straight out of a William Gibson novel.
Culture of Truth
I have a personal reason I can never go near a Red Lobster
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: dietary sodium has little to do with blood pressure, and blood pressure in the Medicare crowd has little to do with longevity. Science!
raven
@Ruviana: That’s good, one is umbilical and two are, uh, lower. Very helpful. I’m reluctant to do it when we are in the middle of this renovation since I’ll have to be moving stuff around quite a bit. thanks
jl
@JPL:
” Didn’t you mention that you would be posting pup pictures? I need something to erase the Christie pic that you posted earlier. ”
Yeah.
And didn’t John Cole used to do some John Cole garden blogging? That was fun. If Cole is on a week staycation, he has time to start some paw paw trees.
Pawpaw Journey: Into The Fall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvTvu4PB-As
I for one, don’t need any more bathroom remodeling pics, if that is still going on.
Ruviana
@raven: If you’re asymptomatic you’re probably ok (though IANAD). The biggest possibility is if they twist which can cause big problems. You could do them after the reno–again, not a physician but the umbilical one would probably be the one most likely to forbid lifting. You could ask your doc about the others. Good luck, with the remodeling and everything else.
raven
@Ruviana: I think the umbilical is congenital. I’ve known about it for years and I’m pretty sure that’s what I was told. The other tow I had no idea.
jl
I see Huck now says he is confused about when women should go topless. Is he out and about trying out very low probability, very skeevy, but high payoff when they work pick up lines? Or what?
I guess I should try it, in emulation of Huck But I am not Godly enough, probably, and I would be just sinful if I tried it.
Huck’s sex prude kick is disturbing at this point.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@raven: I read that and thought, “aren’t WWII vets the old ones?” Damn, man.
raven
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Hell Cole is old. The first Gulf War was an eternity ago.
Villago Delenda Est
I would say that overall World of Tanks is a far better way for former military guys to socialize than, say, shooting up restaurants in Texas.
PsiFighter37
I haven’t gotten hooked on a video game in a long time. Last time was Diablo III, until my carpal tunnel started kicking in and they devalued everything in the game. I have yet to encounter a super-compelling game that really makes me commit (I blow through the SC2 campaign and then play multiplayer very infrequently). I feel like I’ve grown out of that phase – unfortunately and fortunately.
Valdivia
@jl: in what context would one even ask this question? Obviously if anyone has been to a european beach one would never ask this question.
Villago Delenda Est
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): WWII vets are rapidly dying off. It’s been 70 years since the end of WWII, and if you were 18 at the end, you’d be 88 now.
Felonius Monk
@jl:
Huck is a god-bothering asshole and attention whore who is only worthy of derision.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: it’s what my doctors and public health/insurance friends tell me. Dueling experts is never a good conversation though.
BrotherMaynard
Any other WOT players out there? If so, what are you grinding?
Pogonip
@efgoldman: Get the flounder with crab-flavor surimi stuffing. Tastes good, won’t make you too fat for your baseball photo-op.
Villago Delenda Est
@efgoldman: Right now much of the right wing media reaction to the Duggar mess is a pure case of Cleek’s law in action. Circle the wagons.
However Huck has apparently sought to cleanse his site of all Duggar references or endorsements or photographs. Too bad the Internet is forever.
Pogonip
Cole, train Thurston to post all those pictures of his sister that Geg6 sent you.
raven
@Pogonip: And walk to get it. With no RL within 100 miles that will burn some calories.
Steve
John, would you mind sharing your WOT handle?
Villago Delenda Est
@jl:
The entire fundigelical crowd’s prudery is being exposed for what it is in the Duggar case. Their repression of sex only leads to activity that permanently scars young people, requiring years of therapy to undo the damage, assuming they’re every allowed to get legit therapy and not cult- approved “counseling” that exists to make sure the programming is not disturbed. Heaven forefend that these young people ever learn to think for themselves, because that’s the way of Satan himself.
Valdivia
@jl: I should add that if that is a pick up line I have obviously not been out on a date in so long that I don’t recognize it as one.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Villago Delenda Est: @efgoldman:
I forget things like that. My old man was WWII and Korea and would have been 100 in December, so I see how lots of them did stop aging. It’s just that the (younger) vets from the Nam are in my cohort and I’m. not. old.
MomSense
@TaMara (BHF):
Remember when you mentioned casually that I might be in for a testing phase with the pup?
Wow were you right. She has been nuts.
Tomorrow I have to dope her up on Benadryl (she gets really car sick) and take a long drive to pick up my son at school. Should be fun.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: this is a good read though from the AHA if you’re curious: http://m.hyper.ahajournals.org/content/43/5/932.full
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: I didn’t say universally, I said generally. And that may have been the wrong language. But “high sodium == high blood pressure” is definitely not universally true.
Keith P
Get an emulator and retrogame…it’s a blast
SiubhanDuinne
@Culture of Truth:
Yes, and? No need to be so coy.
TaMara (BHF)
@MomSense: Good luck. I bought Bixby a gentle leader today, I need backup. His surgery went well, now hoping neutering will solve a bit of the problem.
NotMax
@efgoldman
Heh. Beat ya to it.
:)
bk
I take staycations once a year or so. I live in Las Vegas, and last August I took three days at the Mirage. Played tourist. Fun.
Howard Beale IV
OK, riddle me this: here we have one arm of the government demanding that corporations prevent encryption at all costs, and at the same time another arm of the government who is charged with keeping our own systems protected was asleep at the switch and allegedly let the Chinese do a massive dump on 4 million current and former Federal employees-and this isn’t even their first tine in the rodeo..
I think it’s time the NSA needs to answer some questions as to how they let this happen.
esc
My husband tried to get me into World of Tanks, but PvP oriented games are just not for me. I’m still do play WoW and am greatly looking forward to picking up the Borderlands pre sequel in the next Steam sale.
NotMax
@efgoldman
Some time back, Red Lobster opened what was then the largest location of the entire company here on Maui, with seating for over 800.
Took a nosedive and folded up right quick. Memory fuzzy, but fairly sure it was under a year from opening to shuttering.
A massive seating Sizzler lasted longer (totally different town than where Red Lobster was), but they also shut down. (Lots to say not in praise of Sizzler’s food, but on the plus side this particular location often had fresh oysters on the half shell among their salad bar offerings.) That location has since had success as a sports bar.
Gin & Tonic
@efgoldman: Amen.
Culture of Truth
@SiubhanDuinne: Very early in the morning I must walk behind the back (garbage) of a Red Lobster. It’s…. off putting.
jl
@Valdivia:
” I should add that if that is a pick up line I have obviously not been out on a date in so long that I don’t recognize it as one. ”
Should not be recognized as one, regardless of how much out and about anyone has done. I was just trying to find some rhyme or reason to Huck’s offensive babbling.
Valdivia
@jl: Whew for a second there I started to get worried :)
I think he’s been in the Fox news bubble for so long he thinks he can say anything. They get spoiled in that circuit, forget what it is like to talk in public when everyone can hear you.
PurpleGirl
@JPL: Oh yes you can have just one biscuit — if you don’t like cheddar biscuits. I’ve eaten at Red Lobster only once and wasn’t impressed. I had a gift card it was only good for one meal.
JCT
@raven: main issue with hernias has to do with the risk for strangulation (bowel) – largely determined by size and position of the abdominal wall weakness . There are other factors, but those are the main contributors. In general, the surgeons are pretty good about only recommending surgery when it is really necessary . If it’s asymptomatic you may escape surgery (esp for the umbilical one)- but make sure they tell you what symptoms to look for.
Hah, I have tons of travel coming up so I loaded the new enhanced version of Baldurs Gate on my iPad. Great for long flights when I’m sick of working !
SiubhanDuinne
@Culture of Truth:
Oh yuuch. Sorry I asked. (Although that’s not nearly as salacious as I half-expected.)
Valdivia
@SiubhanDuinne: I also was thinking it would be salacious.
Sorry that you have to experience that @Culture of Truth
NotMax
So, broke down and finally ordered some things from Amazon which had been dithering over for a while.
Order placed right around Memorial Day. Amazon said to expect delivery between June 8 and June 12. Box got here June 3! Kind of flabbergasted at that.
Corner Stone
This first game of the NBA finals is actually pretty F’ng entertaining.
Sorry to interrupt any ongoing dumpster diving in the thread.
MomSense
@TaMara (BHF):
I hope it gets better and I’m sorry to hear about the tornado.
PurpleGirl
@JCT: My father had a hiatal hernia. It was diagnosed sometime in his 30s or so; my father didn’t like medical stuff and he didn’t see a doctor again about it until it nearly killed him in his 70s. (It strangulated and he had to be rushed to an ER.)
Just a comment on his experience, Raven. You seem to be much more involved with your health issues and, I’d say, already have done more than my father did.
stickler
@BrotherMaynard: WoT player here. My son and I have a bunch of Tier IX and X tanks. Currently grinding the Conqueror to get the 105mm gun. Awful grind so far.
stickler
@stickler: And by WoT I mean the XBox360 version.
No One of Consequence
Dwarf Fortress.
It is similar to the professor who once said:
“The only real science is physics. Everything else is just masturbation.”
It is not for everyone, but for anyone who likes management-type games, fortress mode is bottomless as far as depth is concerned. Makes Sim games look like pong, and Civilization games look like tic-tac-toe. This coming from an old-school player, who regularly dropped his allowance in the arcade.
IMHO.
– NOoC
Corner Stone
That was a crazy ass block by Kyrie.
Bill Arnold
@Howard Beale IV:
That is also one of the NSA’s jobs.
I have zero patience for arguments that governments (plural; there will be master key sharing, warrants in various countries, spying, etc) should be able to read all encrypted communications and stored data. If somebody else can easily decrypt it without my explicit enablement, then it is insecure, period. The internet is very unforgiving of known security flaws, of any sort.
Corner Stone
Overtime!
jl
@Corner Stone: Warriors should have held off to avoid OT, but they’ve come to life. Hope they can protect 7 point lead for 2 minutes.
DemJayhawks
Former (or maybe just in hiatus) WoT player here. Started at the end of open beta. Initially, I was a filthy casual, then I got the competition bug. Played clan wars and the campaigns for about 1.5 years straight. Decided to take a break after the end of the third campaign last year.
JCT
@PurpleGirl: Yup- your dad’s experience is surprisingly common. Strangulations are bad because they can go south very fast . One minute the patient feels OK or some minimal discomfort and within a day or even hours all hell can break loose. I’ll bet your dad mistook the early signs for indigestion. Happens.
So yeah – raven , quiz your doc about warning signs.
Hill Dweller
We’ll see how the rest of the series progresses, but this game could be a killer for Cleveland. The Warriors were tight as a drum in the 1st quarter, and spotted Cleveland 10+ points. GS started to loosen up as the game progressed, but they still weren’t playing well for stretches of the game. Cleveland had the shot to win, but couldn’t do it. That said, all credit to GS. They were onions in OT, while Cleveland wilted. I think GS is, much like the Houston series, OK with Lebron scoring a lot, as long as the rest of the team has mediocre games. The Kyrie injury looms large going forward.
Rick Taylor
I’m still playing Baldur’s Gate I. That and Everquest II.
Tree With Water
Crook and Liars took note of this mad dog of a diseased human mind, who unfortunately sits in the U.S. Senate:
“”Graham was bullish on his foreign policy credentials leading him to victory over a crowded GOP field. “It’s a tough message,” co-host Steve Doocy said. “A lot of people are just worn out by war”………”Then don’t vote for me,” Graham responded. “Because I’m telling you what’s coming”.
“I’m telling you what’s coming”.
Fucking right he is. He’s as serious as a heart attack. Lindsey Graham is also mocking those who still refuse to publicly acknowledge the Bush-Cheney administration plot to wage war in Iraq. He is daring them to utter a terrible truth, one perceived as so terrible as to have remained unspoken for 12 straight years. He is taunting the democratic party rank and file for the silence of their party’s “leadership”. He holds them all in no uncertain contempt, and wants them to know it. He digs them knowing it, because he likes to watch them squirm and eat shit. He’s getting his rocks off all over those people, and strange to say they don’t seem to mind.
“I’m telling you what’s coming”
Damn straight he’s telling us. He’s telling us all, and I take him at his word. Those who don’t are fools. But until the day comes when democratic party politicians place country before their own cheap political calculations, and publicly acknowledge what everyone already knows, Graham will continue to mock them.. What kind of chicken-shit party permits that state of affairs to happen in the first place, much less to continue for over a decade? (the question is rhetorical). The Bush-Cheney administration plotted to wage war on Iraq with treacherous, deliberate, bare faced lies and evasions of fact. The American people are not made of sugar candy. We can handle that truth. Come the day it’s publicly acknowledged as a simple, if horrible, fact (by someone other than me, apparently), the sun will still rise in the east and set in the west, just like always. So why not do it?
mikej
@JosephScrimshaw:
When I see someone’s name trending on twitter, I used to be afraid they died. Now I’m afraid they’re a Republican presidential candidate
Omnes Omnibus
World of Tanks? Shit. Where’s World of Artillery? Some of us know who actually wins wars.
ETA: Alternative (and probably better) answer to who wins wars is no one.
NotMax
@efgoldman
Even so, less than 10 days at USPS parcel rate to Hawaii is kind of incredible,. when normal parcel rate stuff from the mainland takes 4 – 6 weeks at a minimum as a rule.
Cigars I order from the mainland are sent priority USPS and never take less than 4 days (sometimes a week) to arrive.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tree With Water: Sorry, lad, you aren’t the only person who called bullshit on the Iraq War. And votes on that AUMF do and did factor into the decisions about votes by a lot of us. OTOH, a lot of people are not one issue voters.
Steeplejack
I’m in a foul mood. Got a horrible haircut today (Thursday), maybe one of the five worst ever. My usual barber was out, I didn’t see either of the other two I have used, so I took whoever was next in the rotation. Complete fucking mess: way too short on the sides and no transition to the top, which sort of looks plopped on. It’s dangerously close to Gibbs on NCIS. I’m joking, but only slightly. Salt in the wound is that (I think) my haircut requirements are extremely modest, so how do you fuck that up?!
Silver lining is that I’m off on a mini-road trip in the morning. Driving to Philadelphia to have lunch at Nick’s and hit the Italian Market, then over to Cape May for the evening. My playwright friend is having a performance and some other activities there. Will spend the night there, then drive back through Philadelphia and down to Washington on Saturday. My friend got me a ticket to the Investigative Reporters and Editors awards luncheon Saturday in Philadelphia. James Risen of the New York Times will be the speaker. Should be interesting. Also might hit the panel discussion just ahead of that with Laura Poitras talking about “her work on a trilogy of films about post-9/11 America.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Weren’t you one of those who was a bit dismissive of those of us who get “particular” about our haircuts?
Katy
@Major Major Major Major: Um. Did you actually read that article? Because I did … what I understood it to say was “multiple confounding variables, controversy, but reducing sodium intake over a population generally reduces blood pressure and reduces the population mortality rate.” A few decades ago I was a biomedical researcher and read the new issues on the library table every morning – maybe I’m more used to the language than you are.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Heavens, no. If anything, I was ruefully frustrated about my own problems in the past. I think my only comment about your problem getting your Bryan Ferry ’do was that maybe it’s hard to cut it without making it look (too) short.
ETA: Feel free to check the record. My comments were almost uniformly high-toned, as usual.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Okay then. I shan’t schaden my freude at your expense. You have my empathy and sympathy. Fucking butchers with scissors.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: I take you at your word; you don’t seem like the type who would lie about hair related topics. There are some around here, though….
::side eye at more than a few::
Timurid
@Omnes Omnibus:
World of Quartermasters!
Omnes Omnibus
@Timurid: Aha, we are both students of Bonaparte.
Steeplejack
@Timurid:
I like Call of KP: Black Recipes III.
Lurker
If you think you are going to harness the energy of a puppy, you are delusional.
Speaking of critters, where are the promised pictures of Thurston and Steve? And what about poor Ginger? She does not deserve pics? Are you ignoring her instead of loving on her like you do with the other two furry members of your household? If that’s the case, shame on you.
WaterGirl
@Lurker: i thought Ginger went to a new foster home quite some time ago. ??
Sean
@BrotherMaynard: currently grinding ISU-152 in WOT Blitz. Haven’t played on a console or PC, but totally addicted. Have M46 and T-54 as highest tiers, and love my IS-3.
polyorchnid octopunch
@dmsilev: Yeah, that game is awesome. Awesome. I love it… enough that it can be a bit of a problem, as the three hours of sleep I got the other night can attest from staying up too late trying to get that tier 2 Mun lander down without killing the kerbalnaut. I got her down on the surface eventually, but I blew through too much fuel on the landing and now she’s stuck in orbit around the Mun and I’m going to have to send a rescue mission to rendezvous with her in orbit and pick her up to return to Kerbin. This is going to be seriously entertaining because there’s a LOT of science equipment and I’m going to have to EVA her to recover all the data before I can send her across to the rescue craft… and it’s EVA all the way, this is early in career and I’ve not yet unlocked the docking ports. Her capsule’s going to be in orbit around the Mun forever, basically.
Such a great game.
tones
@SiubhanDuinne: the restraining order?
Leland
What games? Also MWO > World of Tanks.