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Post by Farrar on Jun 5, 2017 13:13:26 GMT -5
^^^^ Glad to hear you're on the mend, hondo. And congratulations, Confessor!
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Post by Mormel on Jun 6, 2017 15:23:41 GMT -5
So today my childhood town -otherwise an unknown speck on the map of the Netherlands- made it into the national news. Apparently, during the parliament elections a couple months ago, my old municipality's voting office only entered the votes into the system for four political parties (out of twenty-plus parties that were in the running). This means that 7,600 votes have not been counted. It's been determined that these votes ultimately would not have affected the election results, but still, this must sting so much for the folks who cast their vote on any party other than those four.
If I had not moved to my current town last year, and instead had found a house in my old municipality, my vote would likewise have been lost.
Incidentally, the winning political parties have thus far failed to forge a coalition, three months after the elections.
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Post by Spike-X on Jun 7, 2017 4:09:36 GMT -5
I set a new mountain biking distance record for myself today. 33.6 km.
My legs are very sore.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2017 23:37:38 GMT -5
About five years ago I decided I'd watched enough television and got rid of mine. I'd read more and listen to the radio, according to my plan. And that's what happened. Now I've been thinking of getting a tv again, as I'm not reading as much as I was and it's boring at home. Money is tight though and I'm finding I may have a choice between buying a tv and an omnibus I really need to virtually complete my Stan Lee Amazing Spider-Man run in all hardback reprints. Now THAT'S a tough choice!
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Post by Mormel on Jun 9, 2017 14:57:50 GMT -5
^I would go for the omnibus. I stopped watching T.V. regularly in '06, and have only had cable/digital intermittently since. I often go with alternatives like DVD box sets and Netflix. I like getting my news from talk radio. As years go by, television seems more and more outdated as a medium.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2017 15:17:58 GMT -5
I made the move to buy the omnibus. I also get my news from the radio.
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Post by hondobrode on Jun 9, 2017 17:56:16 GMT -5
I get most of mine from the internet.
You did what any good fanboy would do mfd1
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Post by Prince Hal on Jun 10, 2017 14:47:38 GMT -5
Congratulations, Lord and Lady Confessor!
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Jun 11, 2017 18:14:12 GMT -5
My 10 year old son comes in the room while I'm watching The Avengers and he's like "wow dad this is so old it's still black and white on a color TV".
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Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2017 18:19:18 GMT -5
Ugh back to the real world. Just spent the last 8 days with my wife on our first cruise.
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Post by Mormel on Jun 12, 2017 0:19:50 GMT -5
Ugh back to the real world. Just spent the last 8 days with my wife on our first cruise. Oh, where did the cruise take you? Caribbean?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2017 6:22:54 GMT -5
Ugh back to the real world. Just spent the last 8 days with my wife on our first cruise. Oh, where did the cruise take you? Caribbean? Yes. Left from Baltimore Harbor & went to the Bahamas. It was a great week. Now back to reality.
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Post by Icctrombone on Jun 12, 2017 19:18:08 GMT -5
Cruises are great. My best vacations were on a cruise.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 13, 2017 17:40:20 GMT -5
I'm finally getting around to writing about this: I was there with my wife for about the last hour of the event. Those who recall when we've discussed newspaper comic strips here or back on CBR will not be surprised that the first people I spoke with were Greg Evans and his daughter Karen, who originally inspired his strip Luann and who now co-writes it with him. I told them how real the characters feel to me. They grow and change, not in real time but close enough that it feels like I'm seeing their lives happen. Not many strips do that. Since Luann was based on Karen, I asked if Luann's friends were based on Karen's real friends, and she told me they are not. Most of the characters started with a simple archetypal idea and then developed individuality. Greg gave us a signed Luann sketch, and I offered them a pun to use if they wanted - Luann's last name is DeGroot, so she could have a distant relative who's a criminal, known as "the DeGroot of all evil." If you see that in the strip, you'll know where it came from. Then I spoke briefly with the host of a local radio show about comics - kboo.fm/program/words-and-picturesHe'd just finished talking with Jan Eliot of Stone Soup, and I then talked with her for a while. Her strip has also had the characters grow and change, but she told me that she now had them all at an age that she liked writing and drawing, so they were going to stay static for the foreseeable future. She lives nearby in Eugene, and we talked about how the strip started out weekly in the Eugene newspaper for several years before the syndicate took it worldwide in 1995, just after I moved to Oregon. While I was talking with Jan, my wife met the artist at the next table, Barbara Dale. She has her own line of greeting cards, which range from slightly risque to very explicit - but just the words; the pictures are safe for work. Of course my wife the sexologist ended up with one of the explicit ones. I'll spoiler-tag the line that's on the inside of the card: Roses are red Violets are blue I want to put My penis in you Gets right to the point, doesn't it? Time was running short after that. I spoke briefly with Brian Walker and thanked him and his family for all the entertainment over the years, and he gave me a Hi & Lois book. On the way out of the room I chatted with historian R.C. Harvey and cartoonist Bob Foster, who did all those Moosekind comics in the 70s. He's retired now and living in Silverton, Oregon, and wanted to know how to find local comic cons. I hope I helped him but it sounded like he wasn't online much, and I don't know any other way of finding out about cons. There were others there whose work I like but didn't get a chance to talk to, but we left smiling anyway.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2017 8:23:40 GMT -5
Update:
Now that our son is with us full time he has really been acting out, testing limits, pushing his boundaries.
Some of his behaviors I find amusing. Some are annoying. A few are frustrating. So far none have pushed my buttons...
I have had to dust off some of my old dad lectures.
His go to routine is being a victim. I acknowledge that he has had bad things in his past. But I keep telling him this is a new start. Kids at school won't know his past. He can "remake" himself. So he can choose his ID going forward. Good or bad - it's his choice.
I told him the Apollo 13 line "Failure is not an option." I told him to use that to push thru the hard days.
I also told him I will do everything I can to help him succeed but he has to put in the effort. And despite what he was told in the past he can & he will be a success.
He seems to do all right with adults but he lacks social skills with his peers. He needs some good & decent friends....
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