The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Apr 29, 2020 7:52:34 GMT -5
@mrp - yup, Pulpfest is in the Greater Pittsburgh area now, although not downtown. It is in Cranberry Township, which is about the same distance from Pittsburgh as Troy is from Dayton.
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Apr 27, 2020 17:03:30 GMT -5
Pony
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Post by The Captain on Apr 27, 2020 8:25:15 GMT -5
Just peatnut butter. Or just Jam (Jelly). Never the twain shall meet. You Americans are nuts! "Peatnut"? I'm assuming that's a UK thing, with all your bogs and whatnot This is a tough one for me, but I have to go with Peanut Butter & Jelly (jam, preserves). It's classic comfort food, taking me back to when I was a little kid and that's what we had for lunch every day in the summer. Even now, I have a PB&J 2-3 times per week as a change of pace from lunchmeat or soup for lunch.
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Apr 26, 2020 11:16:21 GMT -5
Icctrombone - so sorry for your loss. Your dad sounds like he was a wonderful husband and father. I'll be putting you and yours on my prayer list.
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Apr 24, 2020 11:40:01 GMT -5
Light
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Post by The Captain on Apr 24, 2020 8:19:35 GMT -5
Poor
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Post by The Captain on Apr 23, 2020 18:50:51 GMT -5
Your problem? You asked the question that students are generally brought up not to want to answer: "Why?" They can spout/ copy/ spew the shite that answers questions like Who? What? When? and Where? till the cows come home or until you run out of pens. But "Why?" Sorry, no. Asking "why?" mean that they'll have to actually think. No fair, teach. An accurate analysis, I’m afraid! I should have stuck to True or False and multiple choice questions. They can even be automated online, so I wouldn’t have to do any correction work! My older daughter (8th grader) had to do an assignment for her Social Studies class earlier this week where she researched a battle fought on North American soil and give at least five details about it. The teacher assigned a battle to each student and hers was a somewhat obscure one: The Battle of the River Raisin. She searched all over the internet and was having a hard time finding five details about it, so she came to me and asked for help. Having been a history ed major, I have a decent library of historical texts, one of which is American Military History (from a class with the same name), which I went down and got for her. She looked at it and asked "what am I supposed to do with that?" I told her that there was a write-up about the battle in that book and she could pull details from it. She scrunched up her face and told me that the teacher only wanted "online sources" so he could verify if they were real or not. I haven't seen either of my kids read a book for school, other than for English class, in years, and it bugs me to no end. She has no idea how to do research other than Googling everything, and she seems to think Wikipedia is a better source than a book produced for ROTC students about American military history because it is "online, so everyone knows about it". Sigh.
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Post by The Captain on Apr 23, 2020 16:09:09 GMT -5
I feel really bad about this, but this past Wednesday was likely the last time I will see my parents face-to-face for a long while. They just got cloth facemasks and now think they are invincible, so they are leaving their home because "they're bored". Today it was a trip to the grocery store, in part to pick up a prescription for my mom (which I would have been OK with if my dad had just run in, gone straight to the pharmacy, and then returned to their car), but they also decided to walk around the store for "something to do".
Both my sister and I tried to explain to them, within the past 24 hours, that this was not what stores wanted and that their underlying health issues put them at higher risk, to which we were told that "they don't care". My father went on an extended rant about how bad the governor of Pennsylvania (a Democrat) is and how this is unconstitutional, how we're listening to a bunch of "egghead scientists and doctors" who don't care if the economy collapses since it will let the Democrats institute communism/socialism, and that the only person whose opinion on this matters is Donald Trump's. Even when my sister told him that she, as a healthcare professional, is at extremely high risk and that they are putting her at risk by not following the rules, he was defiant and told her that she didn't know what she was talking about.
I love my parents, but I think I'm going to have to start just dropping off their groceries on their front porch and leaving instead of going in and talking with them. They just aren't taking this seriously and I can't risk getting myself, but more importantly my wife or daughters, sick because they are "bored" being stuck in the house.
I'm very sad, because I know my mom, in her current mental state, won't understand why I'm not coming inside any more at their house or why I won't have her over to celebrate Mother's Day. It really isn't her fault, as she is not able to comprehend what is going on or able to synthesize information to make a decision, so she's taking my father's uneducated and partisan-colored opinion as fact to guide her, but I don't know how else to make either of them realize that I am taking this far more seriously than they are.
There. I said it.
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Post by The Captain on Apr 23, 2020 9:49:08 GMT -5
@md62 - yeah, Pennsylvania has had a crappy April. I did get my bike out for a 10-mile ride this past Sunday, and I'm hoping to do the same this afternoon if I can log off work early, but doing outside things has been completely hit or miss. Slam_Bradley- completely agree. We'd visit my grandmother in Memphis in the summer when I was growing up, and that was brutal, with 90 degree temps AND 90+% humidity. She always wondered why my sister and I didn't want to go outside, and we had to explain that we rarely if ever had that mix in Pittsburgh. Phoenix? No fluffing way, not for any amount of money. I've done Bakersfield, CA in August for work, with days driving around the oil fields reaching 110+, and that is nothing I would ever consider living in.
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Post by The Captain on Apr 22, 2020 10:34:06 GMT -5
We're in the midst of a pandemic, with the economy in freefall and unemployment at ridiculous levels, and I've gotten contacted by five recruiters in the past two weeks about open Supply Chain jobs in the Pittsburgh area, including three in just the past 24 hours.
It's a very weird time right now, and I can't even begin to explain it.
There. I said it.
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Post by The Captain on Apr 21, 2020 16:21:23 GMT -5
That was 37 flavors of awesome! Between this and the Renault commercial using the D&D cartoon as real-life characters, I'm really happy.
And for the record, Penelope Pitstop was my first crush. I'm comfortable enough with this group to admit that.
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Apr 21, 2020 14:25:20 GMT -5
Couple of things I have enjoyed that use characters you already know but in a more "light-hearted" way:
1. Daughters of the Dragon mini-series, from Marvel. It's Misty Knight and Colleen Wing, a little Iron Fist, a bunch of Z-Level villains (8-Ball, Humbug, and Freezer Burn, to name three), an office temp named Otis, and a lot of kung fu fighting. Done by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, there's always a little cheesecake in each issue as well as some double (and even some single) entendre, and it is a breezy little six-issue mini.
2. Super-Villain Team-Up: M.O.D.O.K.'s 11, also from Marvel. Yup, it's a caper comic starring the giant head in a chair himself, M.O.D.O.K., as one last heist before retirement goes wrong. Beyond that, it's got even more Z-Listers than DotD (Armadillo, Living Laser, Mentallo, Nightshade, Rocket Racer, and Spot, just to name a few). I read this every couple of years and it never ceases to amuse me.
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Post by The Captain on Apr 21, 2020 10:46:59 GMT -5
My wife and I have started watching some British comedies on Netflix and Hulu, as we've pretty much hit the end of our interest in US shows. Right now, we're working our way through The IT Crowd. It's an oddball office comedy about the misfits who work in a company's IT department. Not every episode is a gem, but we find ourselves routinely literally laughing out loud at the show. Lastly, if any of our UK members could recommend other comedies for us, it would be greatly appreciated. One thing I will note is that neither of us likes "uncomfortable comedy" (think The Office, either US or UK). Cheers! The IT Crowd is bloody hilarious. "A fire? At a Sea Parks?" I don't think we've gotten that far, but I'll be on the lookout for it. Our favorite episodes thus far have been The Haunting of Bill Crouse, The Work Outing ("I'm disabled, in the legs"), and The Dinner Party, all of which made us laugh so much that we woke up our older daughter, whose bedroom is done the hall.
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Post by The Captain on Apr 21, 2020 10:09:15 GMT -5
My wife and I have started watching some British comedies on Netflix and Hulu, as we've pretty much hit the end of our interest in US shows.
Right now, we're working our way through The IT Crowd. It's an oddball office comedy about the misfits who work in a company's IT department. Not every episode is a gem, but we find ourselves routinely literally laughing out loud at the show.
Lastly, if any of our UK members could recommend other comedies for us, it would be greatly appreciated. One thing I will note is that neither of us likes "uncomfortable comedy" (think The Office, either US or UK).
Cheers!
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Schwans
Apr 20, 2020 14:26:34 GMT -5
Post by The Captain on Apr 20, 2020 14:26:34 GMT -5
There's one that comes up and down my street on occasion. I know they stop at a couple of my neighbors' homes to deliver.
My parents bought stuff from them when I was growing up, but my wife and I never have. Just not something that has ever appealed to me.
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