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Post by carllove on Jan 1, 2024 5:27:48 GMT
In typical Boomer fashion, I made some awesome cheese dip (Thanks Gummie!) for tortilla chips and decided to venture to my Shed to bring up the ornament boxes so I can take down the tree tomorrow. Made it back twice. Needed to work off some of those calories. I have at least two more trips in me before the neighborhood fireworks go off.
Anyone see the Lynyrd Skynrd performance tonight? Since Gary Rossington passed away, there are no original members. Is this the future of The Beach Boys?
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Post by kds on Jan 2, 2024 4:36:32 GMT
The late football game ran right into the Nashville NYE program. The first "country" artist was Thomas Rhett. I'm by no means an expert on country music, but whatever the heck this Rhett guy was playing was definitely not country.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 2, 2024 11:57:05 GMT
I am not a regular country music listener--I don't watch their video channels or listen to their radio stations or anything--but most music branded as country that I hear sounds to me like mixtures of country with hair metal with 00s production styles, or country with hip hop with 00 production styles if from men; and country with either a subtle electronic psychedelia or 00s pop if from women.
It's funny, but a lot of the more country-sounding country I hear comes from indie acts that don't necessarily call themselves country.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 3, 2024 14:01:43 GMT
Last night I had a dream that I was at some wedding reception. I don't recall a lot about it, except that at one point while I was in one room, I heard a little commotion in the other room. I went in there, and a circa mid-late 1970s Brian Wilson was playing the piano, leading the wedding band in a kind of after-hours, impromptu jam. It turned out the wedding was for one of Brian's daughters, and I hadn't known it. Someone had initially tried to boot Wilson from the piano, too, not realizing this was Brian D. Wilson of the Beach Boys, but was eventually stopped from making that mistake.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jan 3, 2024 14:39:12 GMT
Last night I had a dream that I was at some wedding reception. I don't recall a lot about it, except that at one point while I was in one room, I heard a little commotion in the other room. I went in there, and a circa mid-late 1970s Brian Wilson was playing the piano, leading the wedding band in a kind of after-hours, impromptu jam. It turned out the wedding was for one of Brian's daughters, and I hadn't known it. Someone had initially tried to boot Wilson from the piano, too, not realizing this was Brian D. Wilson of the Beach Boys, but was eventually stopped from making that mistake.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 3, 2024 14:43:00 GMT
He looked exactly like that. In fact, while I don't consciously remember those pictures, I wonder if I subconsciously did, because I think he may have even been wearing those clothes in the dream. The second picture, if you flipped it so he faced to the right and removed the other guys, is almost precisely what I saw in the dream.
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Post by B.E. on Jan 7, 2024 14:46:55 GMT
I recently started playing chess. I had learned the basics when I was a kid but was "too cool" to join the chess club, which I now regret. I nearly started playing about 10 years ago. I created an account on chess.com but after playing a few games (on my computer) I stopped. Then a couple years ago (like thousands, if not millions of other people) I watched the show The Queen's Gambit and that got me interested again. Well, I lasted a little longer that time, but not much. Then last summer I started up again and finally stuck with it. It turns out, I didn't even know all the rules! Like most games, it's quite addicting. I started out playing against a bot, and thinking I was better than I was based on the rating of the bot, but I've been playing against real people for about 4 months, almost daily, and it's really fun (on my phone). It's funny, because the competitiveness I had as an athlete comes out, but losing is worse in chess because it's an intellectual game! I realize that you really need to study to get good at chess...to achieve a high rating, but I'm not in it for that. Maybe if I had time, I would, but I just like playing games. (Although, I would like to get my rating to a respectable number someday. I am very much still in the beginner range.)
So, anyone else have any sort of history with chess?
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 10, 2024 19:26:15 GMT
I read today that UK regulators banned a new Calvin Klein ad featuring musician/dancer FKA Twigs because it "is likely to cause serious offence" and "overly sexualised" her as "a stereotypical sexual object." (Spelling a few of those words with typical British spelling almost killed me. But I'm being true to the quotes!) Interestingly, a) FKA Twigs has said she's proud of the ad from an artistic standpoint and "would want to show the pictures to her grandchildren" (per Pitchfork's story); and b) the same regulatory body approved similar ads featuring a partially undressed Kendall Jenner with her hands strategically placed to avoid nudity. The advertising industry generally, and Calvin Klein specifically, has used sexuality for decades to sell products. There is obviously some kind of a line as to what should be acceptable in public, but I think if you're not dealing with actual nudity, it's probably regulatory overreach to decide what is or isn't likely to cause offense or display someone as a stereotypical sexual object--especially if the person in question is an adult and doesn't feel objectified. There are, what, 70 million people in the UK? I'm sure some would be offended by the ad ... but some would be offended by literally anything. You ought not worry that you might offend someone, but that you might go beyond common standards. It's hard to argue that this ad goes beyond typical standards, in my opinion. It's not like this is the late 70s or early 80s when Jordache jeans (I think it was?) portrayed an adolescent Brooke Shields with basically the same message: "Nothing comes between me and my Jordache." Now THAT was inappropriate, in that it oversexualized a barely pubescent girl. This is a grown woman. Plus, the UK has long been more tolerant of nudity than the US. I find it funny that this non-nude image crosses the line. Basically, I'm not a fan of having overreaching Morality Police. We're not Saudi Arabia or Iran.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 15, 2024 12:28:14 GMT
In the U.S., it's Martin Luther King Day, and I will be ... working. My company is one of those increasingly rare corporate jobs that doesn't get the day off. We're in that boat for a few of the more minor holidays.
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 14, 2024 13:20:20 GMT
I had to share this little work story, as I found it so funny. I do marketing for my company, and yesterday was talking to a couple of sales guys about an email campaign they wanted me to run. I'd preliminarily reviewed the lists they provided, and said that "obviously I'll remove those that don't have email addresses." (There were quite a few records without addresses." One of the sales guys, who is in his latter 60s but seems older in many ways, said "I say we leave 'em in. Why not give it a try?" Think about what he was saying: let's try to email to records that do not have email addresses to which to email...
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Post by carllove on Feb 21, 2024 3:35:34 GMT
I had a good day at work, meeting the new lab director who complemented me on my organization as she signed paperwork, yet my boss wasn’t there because his son was in the ER and I’m still not able to get face to face with him to tell him how burnt out I am. My job is literally on my mind all of the time. There has been an open full time position to help me out for 16 months now and our volume has increased three fold since then. I am not a “Manager”, yet I do the same stuff the “Managers” do at three locations, instead of one, and the lab staff consists of nurses, paramedics and rad techs instead of lab educated employees (which is a special challenge) and is five times the usual lab staff number of a main hospital, and I have to attend all of the manager meetings. I am literally on call 24/7, even though I’m not supposed to be on call after hours. No one has lasted longer in this job than I have. I’m am well compensated, but wondering about my quality of life. I’ve worked two other jobs where they replaced me with two people when I left, and am trying to figure out how to get it across to my boss that I need help before I up and quit. He doesn’t take hints, so I guess I need to be really direct. Everything is hitting at once - there are some unexpected very extra validations I have to do now at all three locations just before inspections and annual lab competencies, and I just don’t know how I’m going to do it all. I’m exhausted. Guess I didn’t learn my lesson on the two other jobs I had that took two people to replace me.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Feb 21, 2024 12:14:42 GMT
I can empathize with you, carllove. My job has started to get the best of me, and I'm too old to start a new (full-time) job or career. I'm already getting a small pension from a previous job, and I'm fast approaching collecting social security. I wanted to continue working at my job for a few years yet, but, seriously, I can see myself calling it a day in the next few months. I already talked to my boss about staying with the company but reducing my hours significantly and just working very part-time. I want to stay productive and still get up and around and out in the world each day...
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 21, 2024 13:11:03 GMT
He doesn’t take hints, so I guess I need to be really direct. If I were to give any advice, that would be it. As a rule, I don't think hints work. Either people don't get them (too busy themselves, mind in a different space, etc.) or they do, but also don't want to have the discussion, and so they intentionally "miss" them in the hopes you won't bring it up again. Direct is the way to go. Because let's be serious, they wouldn't want to replace you with two people: that's more expensive on their part.
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Post by carllove on Feb 21, 2024 13:51:47 GMT
I can empathize with you, carllove. My job has started to get the best of me, and I'm too old to start a new (full-time) job or career. I'm already getting a small pension from a previous job, and I'm fast approaching collecting social security. I wanted to continue working at my job for a few years yet, but, seriously, I can see myself calling it a day in the next few months. I already talked to my boss about staying with the company but reducing my hours significantly and just working very part-time. I want to stay productive and still get up and around and out in the world each day... This year I will start receiving a pension myself from a previous job and I have so much vacation and extended sick leave accumulated, I’d hate to leave my employer. Sounds like I’m about five years younger than you, but I also would like to work part time after I reach full retirement age. I just don’t have the energy I did when I was younger and often wonder what it would be like to leave my work, at work and actually be “off” when I’m on vacation. I’d also love to take vacation in longer than three day increments. I had help two days a week for about five months last year, but the employee was a disaster who was unable to self manage and prioritize. I think my boss pawned her off to me because she had attendance issues and couldn’t follow a set schedule at the main hospital. Still - even though she only seemed to do the stuff she liked doing, she high tailed it out the door at the end of last Summer. It made me a bit hesitant to ask for help again. She was actually more work than help for me.
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 24, 2024 14:55:55 GMT
Last night I had a dream that was mostly typical for me--I'm in college, can't even find my dorm room much less my class schedule or classrooms, etc.--but it included one thing I thought was funny enough to mention.
I was looking at some encyclopedia or something and it listed Dennis Wilson as having been adopted, not the child or Murry and Audree Wilson. It's not as if this was secret knowledge, it was just published everywhere (as I learned once I found it), but for some reason nobody had ever realized it or taken it into account when talking about the Wilsons. I felt triumphant in toppling any myth of some kind of magical "family vocal blend," because Dennis was not actually family. It was an "I knew it!" kind of feeling.
(The other semi-funny thing was I'd written and recorded what I thought was an absolutely brilliant song, but as I was playing it for somebody else, I realized it was really just a couple of other recordings that I'd put together. I literally wasn't even playing or singing. And it wasn't even really a remix or serious production, but more like I took half of one song and half of another and put them side by side. So no more triumphant feelings...I felt like an idiot.)
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