Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

Legend says one of my overly religious aunts had (perhaps still has) an infamous “gay list”, which allegedly included basically every bachelor in the family.

Let's leave it up to interpretation for the sake of the thread.

@NintendoByNature - That’s a great grandma gag! I’m sure she loves playing her part in it. My FB grandma used to answer the phones at my grandpa’s shop, and I prank called her all the time. My other grandma had the same list. I was lucky to never be on it. I was one of the good grandkids, and could have committed a felony right in front of her, and she would have just looked the other way.

@Eel - My mom has six sisters, and every one of them has their own unique list, as well as the list NBN mentioned above. They’re always keeping track of everyone, making judgements, and adjusting their rankings. I love them, but it’s suuuuper petty. One of the many reasons I’ve never joined FB. That’s where all the pageantry and judgement occurs.

@bimmy-lee Haha prank calls to your grandparents is classic for sure. As long as it's nothing too serious lol. It's good being the favored grandkid in the family, always get that extra bit of slack. My grandma is now doing the same for my children. I feel bad now that I'm older and can see how she's favoring mine over my cousins, but we also take the time to see her more, and I call her at least once a week which she tells me every time, " you're the only one who calls me." So I guess it makes sense.

One time when I was tiny, my great gramma took out her dentures and spooked me. I went running away bawling to my mom and gg was just cackling away having a riot 😂. She was awesome.

@bimmy-lee I am going to mention the pump or regulator to the shop later. And possibly camshaft position sensor. I mean, the think is 20 years old with over 190k, so it’s one of those wear parts. Gonna be annoyed if I broke that IAC though.
With the new labor statute for exempt employees in effect Jan 1, I’m hoping to get a significant pay bump and get a 5 year plan rolling that includes replacing the truck in two years.

@Eel @Link-Hero Traditional Mexican Roman Catholic? Yeah....gonna go with against on that one.

@ThanosReXXX Hah, you give me too much credit. I certainly don't think I'll ever change the thinking of the argumentative types I end up debating. Sometimes some of them, at first, I at least think they might see reason. Occasionally they actually do, and consider the other side of the arguments. Others show quickly, in a first response they might pretend to be actually debating viewpoints, but within another reply or two they usually show that their idea of "understanding" means "making sure everyone agrees with my views." No, it's the lurkers not participating I hope to affect. The web is filled with one-sided diatribes from the "my view is the only right view" zealots, with little alternate viewpoint. Adding to their response another way of seeing it and a deeper look into all the aspects that aren't considered by the shallow talking points won't change the opinion of the zealots, but the other people reading, lurking, etc, that might eventually just accept all those rants as absolute truth ("If the lie is big enough, and you repeat it often enough, eventually it will be accepted as truth." - One of the wisest quotes ever stated, even if it was stated by one of ill intent) also get exposed to that deeper look into different angles of the problem and can quietly evaluate things for themselves by reading the exchange. On a small degree it's effective, you can see in that thread, he was unchallenged in his politically correct viewpoint until that exchange happened, then a few other people that may have been silent chimed in, questioning his absolutism as well. Sometimes people are silent until they see others are thinking what they're thinking. That accounts for the posters, but there's probably 100 lurkers for every poster who also got some brain wheels turning.

Can't fix the world, but at least it's something!

And for reference, that poster is Canadian, so we're all on equal footing of being raised with the adversarial legal system. Although inquisitional systems sidestep that issue more significantly via different means - mainly buy not even filing charges until the prosecutors believe they have sufficient evidence in hand for conviction (where adversarial systems allow pressing charges based on accusation and then hashing out the evidence to render a verdict), so it tends to be "guilty until proven innocent because we're already sitting on more than enough evidence to prove it, unless you can prove that this mountain of evidence is in fact flawed." - at least in societies with that system that aim for actual blind justice, much of Europe, Japan, etc. "Tin pot" countries are a different thing. Both systems are derived from the Roman Code of Justinian - so both tend to just use different mechanisms for the same overall results.

Although tech is going to mess with the courts in disastrous ways. nVidia keeps hyping that photo editor that can take any picture and change the season completely and realistically to the same scene in another season. They're working on one that can put anyone into any picture. They're working on one that can create completely imaginary people from scratch (imagine how that can be used - build-a-criminal and associate real people with him/her.) And I know there is at least one (or more) Chinese company with pretty sophisticated software that can edit ANYONE'S face VERY believably without some extreme forensics atop anyone else's face into a video. They keep demoing it as a novelty, but it works disturbingly well, and you KNOW they're not using it simply as a novelty. We can see where this is going. I can have video proof of you inciting protests in Beijing as evidence of your crime just by having some other video of you in any other situation and a video of some other random person inciting protests. I can have photo or video proof of you being in a restricted area during a particular time after a snowstorm, based on video or photos of you having been there in autumn 5 years earlier. I'm not sure how valid evidence is even going to become in the future when you can create evidence out of thin air. Sure deep forensics can probably expose the frauds (for now), but how long can court forensics keep up with every bit of evidence and tech enhancements - particularly when military grade software is in play. The world does get ever bleaker.

And you're right about short-term thinking - in many ways, not just social matters. It's been a plague, world-wide in very deep ways. Has the "retail apocalypse" hit EU and NED yet? It was known for the US, but I know it's ravaging the UK and likely many other places as well. You're an S&M guy ( ) so I figure you're probably onto that. I've been following it all too heavily, and it's the brilliant case of 40 years of short-term thinking in every way. Building tons of retail on cheap 60's & 70's real-estate. A commercial real-estate bubble caused by borrowing against imaginary rents, that were possible only because big chains were willing to bet ever rising spending, leveraged buyouts that never made any sense at all finally coming to roost, obsessing over quarterlies at the cost of the functioning of the whole store. Short term, short term, short term...the entirety of society has been built on short-term thinking since the 80's with 2019's money having already been spent in 1985 on the assumption it would have octupled by 2019. Short-term thinking isn't just a social media ill, it seems to be the central operating principle of post WWII Western society (including Japan, which is, economically, Western.)

Hey kid....you want a ditto?

My dittos bring all the trainers to the nursery

And they're like "you're better than taurus"

@bimmy-lee Truck fixed. It was that IAC valve I waranteed out yesterday (and subsequently dropped). Went to a totally different parts chain and bought a more durable brand, immediately noticed the spring worked better in my hand. Popped in on the truck, let it settle back down to normal idle, and was able to drive around a few blocks. Stopping suddenly, moving foward suddenly, gunning it, reverse turning while stopped and under a load. Perfect. It's almost like wearing glasses the first time.

@NEStalgia It actually wasn't so much about giving you credit, but more about my view on things, in that regard, that I don't feel like it serves any purpose to try and convince and/or persuade any person to think otherwise, much less trying to "enlighten" them...

Not saying that this is what you're trying to do, just elaborating on my own view on things.

As for justice systems: we're not all on the same side, because as mentioned, I go by the local system, which is the exact opposite of the American system. A system that is more prone to convict and lock up innocent people than the system that's used here. And of course, that's also due to the difference of how the respective media handles things. Over here, the accused are anonymous, and there's no pictures or video of them on national news, which is another measure to prevent that people will suffer needless damage, if it turns out that they're actually not guilty. Now, obviously, no single system is perfect, because they each have their pros and cons, but from an innocently accused person's perspective, I'd say that the system we use over here is far preferable than the American version...

As for the short-term thinkers: I've come to suspect, not too surprisingly, that they're using the whole "where there's smoke, there's fire" mentality, except my specific suspicion is that they're using it the wrong way, also because of peer pressure and/or media pressure.

And besides: nowadays, what with all the modern technology at our disposal, a lot of smoke is fake, because it can easily be generated without any kind of actual fire being in the vicinity...

As for the whole retail-building thing: not really interested in or up to date with that, but I do know that there's a MASSIVE difference between American builds and European. Especially, or probably primarily in the commercial/private sector. What we often see over here, is that a lot of your houses are still built largely out of wood, with just some stone strips applied to give it a solid look, where over here REAL brick and mortar, often dual-walled (for insulation) is used.

And if it's more modern or high-rise, then it's all rebar mesh reinforced concrete, so few if any currently built houses would suffer massive damage or need a lot of protection when in a storm. Accidents do still happen, but the worst I've seen is parts of the roof flying off of buildings, but nothing even remotely close as what we see in the States, where houses are completely destroyed. Even over there, a rebar mesh reinforced concrete house should at least have its walls still standing after a tornado.

@Link-Hero Mine typically consist of giving a long, overly detailed explanation or reason for something, before stopping halfway and just trailing off.

@NintendoByNature - Yeah, you have to keep it simple and good natured when it comes to tricking grandmas. I’d say it’s natural for your grandma to show a little preference towards your kids since you go out of your way to see her, check in, and foster the relationship. It’s not easy to find time. My kids just have one great grandparent left, and I wish they could spend more time with her.

@HobbitGamer - Sweet! Even though it was a big inconvenience, at least you could get it fixed easily and cheaply/free. In my service experience, I’ve seen people drop them. In a retail setting, I could just get it exchanged with the supplier as defective and install a new one. Glad your pony is running again. I had a dead battery a couple weeks ago. Messed up my entire morning.

Omg I found out you can actually pair the 8bitdo lite to an iPad via the accessibility settings menu.

And it works perfectly! It’s officially my favorite controller now.

@bimmy-lee I spoke too soon. Shut off 3 times near the tail end of my drive home from work. Still loads better than yesterday, but also had some missing after the first shut off. Taking it to shop tomorrow. It’s something with the air fuel mix I’m sure, and at this point my handy man skills are tapped. Time for the pros.

@HobbitGamer - Horrible, good luck dude. Hope it’s something small. Maybe the replacement to the replacement IAC was one I once returned after someone dropped it on the floor.

Elite Beat Agents 2 when?

@bimmy-lee Haha, yeah maybe. I’m not to fussed over it in the grand scheme. Probably a camshaft sensor or something cheap yet significant. I’ve got transpo sorted tomorrow and Friday so they can take their time.

@Vinny I’d love another EBA. That finale on Elite was nuts!!

The agents were arrested for trespassing and disorderly conduct

Don’t forget the excessive celebrations in the end zone.

I just paid over 299.99 pieces of eight and Bayou Billy isn’t here.