superpeeve Oh my Gawd! - Totally unOfficial Pet Peeve Thread.

[Love Zhaoying]

6 hours ago, Akane Nacht said:

Protests in my country are illegal, unless we first have permission from the police, even if it's just one person silently holding a sign in public view.

We get [redacted] "protesters" here in the US, holding 20ft high signs about politics on busy traffic intersections. Smiling big as can be. No way they have a permit.

Edited July 16, 2022 by Love Zhaoying

[Da5id Weatherwax]

6 hours ago, Akane Nacht said:

Protests in my country are illegal, unless we first have permission from the police, even if it's just one person silently holding a sign in public view. This policy is overwhelmingly supported by the locals. Instead, when we have issues (and we are champion complainers!), we talk directly to our MPs, and they do their very best to help. We must however, always remember we can't always have exactly what we want - we have to consider how our wants impact others, and the country as a whole. Of course that isn't always easy when you really want something.

We know from bitter experience how protests can lead to chaos, and chaos gets people hurt, so our "consensus not conflict" approach is how we choose to settle differences instead. I'm not criticising the social norms of other countries, just sharing another way of looking at sacrificing one's own needs for others.

I'll tack on a peeve I have observed: social media influencing young people to think that protesting is ok as a first resort. Here, at any rate, that will just get you into trouble!

Language has burred in recent years, it seems, with "protest" being considered equivalent to what, back in the day, we used to call "a demo"

To protest is to make one's objections known. Going to your MP is every bit as much a "protest" as taking to the streets in a noisy demonstration. You're showing up and making your position clear to those in power which is the mission of every activist ever. Traditionally, taking to the streets to demonstrate has always been the last resort. Other routes were followed first. Sometimes, those other routes were pre-emptively closed and things simmered to the point that demos exploded as the first outward sign of a protest movement. Today, I think, several governments (with enough history behind them to really know better) have either been pre-emptively closing off protest avenues other than the public demonstration, or paying only lip-service to protests received through those other channels - smile, nod, say something nice and then forget about it. Maybe dust it off in the form of a campaign promise sufficiently vague that it can be cleanly discarded right after the election. This always happened, of course. However, in our highly connected societies of today it's a lot harder for governments or other power structures to make it happen without being publicly caught at it.

I think this is more the reason why "social media" seems to be "influencing young people to think that protesting is ok as a first resort." - and I'm reading your "protesting" as "demonstrating"because that seems to be how you meant it, if I'm wrong I apologise in advance. When social media makes it clear that other avenues of protest have been rendered ineffective, the demonstration is all that remains.

[Da5id Weatherwax]

1 hour ago, Love Zhaoying said:

We get [redacted] "protesters" here in the US, holding 20ft high signs about politics on busy traffic intersections. Smiling big as can be. No way they have a permit.

They are exercising their right under the first amendment to say publicly whatever they want to. The rest of us have the right to say "that's disgusting" or "what a kook" or - as happens quite often in the USA - turn up and "counterprotest." In a moderately sane society the relative numbers involved would usually make the kooks and extremists back down and go away. Some geological and political areas of the USA, I'm afraid, aint quite that sane and things can get ugly. The various rights and freedoms enjoyed by US citizens and lawful residents are enviable around the world, but in exercising them so many people forget that they are also free to take the consequences of doing so and scream "oppression!" when those consequences land.

Edited July 16, 2022 by Da5id Weatherwax

[Silent Mistwalker]

Peeve: Sacrificing my health and my life so that others can have and never getting any kind of recognition. I'm supposed to just give, give, give while everyone else just takes, takes, takes. 

[Cinnamon Mistwood]

7 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Peeve: Sleeping in on a Saturday, only to find no Forum posts..wake up, y'all!

/me yawns and stretches slowly in her warm cocoon of blankets.  She usually wakes with a slight smile and a low, happy purr.  Today is no different.  This morning there is no sense of urgency.  As she slides out of bed she enjoys the luxury of another long, slow stretch and makes her way to the coffee maker. 

 

As acutely aware as I am of having the choice of a morning like this, free of fearand pain, I know not everyone does.  I will enjoy this moment and not take it for granted.  The peeves can wait until after the coffee.

Edited July 16, 2022 by Cinnamon Mistwood

[Rolig Loon]

1 hour ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

Peeve: Sacrificing my health and my life so that others can have and never getting any kind of recognition. I'm supposed to just give, give, give while everyone else just takes, takes, takes. 

Go tackle @Cinnamon Mistwood, grab her coffee, and lock yourself in a quiet place.  The world can wait.  ☕

And have a donut.  🍩

[Da5id Weatherwax]

/me grins at @Rolig Loon, cranks the espresso machine to 11 then refills @Cinnamon Mistwood's and @Silent Mistwalker's coffee cups with the high-octane stuff.

And I'll pre-emptively peeve on myself for "folks who ignite chaos just to see what will happen"

[Love Zhaoying]

Just now, Da5id Weatherwax said:

/me grins at @Rolig Loon, cranks the espresso machine to 11 then refills @Cinnamon Mistwood's and @Silent Mistwalker's coffee cups with the high-octane stuff.

And I'll pre-emptively peeve on myself for "folks who ignite chaos just to see what will happen"

Peeve: Haven't made espresso in more than a year, while the machine gathers dust!

Current coffee method: Automatic pour-over machine.

[Da5id Weatherwax]

19 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Peeve: Haven't made espresso in more than a year, while the machine gathers dust!

Current coffee method: Automatic pour-over machine.

It's the cafetiere that gathers dust in my place unless my mother's visiting and needs to brew some of her disgusting decaf. Otherwise the deLonghi "fountain of bean-to-cup wakefulness" gets the water tank refilled and the tray full of spent coffee plugs  emptied every morning... and rarely lasts long enough between brews to shut itself off. It just so happens that the button for a "double long" will just about fill the average coffee mug.

My previous 'spro machine died right around the time everything was being locked down in the first COVID wave and a local department store flogged off all their ex-display stuff at a monstrous discount. I got this one for about 20% of list price

Edited July 16, 2022 by Da5id Weatherwax
typos, as usual

[Love Zhaoying]

6 minutes ago, Da5id Weatherwax said:

It's the cafetiere that gathers dust in my place unless my mother's visiting and needs to brew some of her disgusting decaf. Otherwise the deLoghi "fountain of bean-to-cup wakefulness" gets the water tank refilled and the tray full of spent coffee plugs  emptied every morning... and rarely lasts long enough between brews to shut itself off. It just so happens that the button for a "double long" will just about fill the average coffee mug.

My previous 'spro machine died right around the time everything was being locked down in the first COVID wave and a local department store flogged off all their ex-display stuff at a monstrous discount. I got this one for about 20% of list price

I could write about different types of coffee machines all day.

I like coffee!

Peeve: I can now take naps just fine after my morning coffee.

[Da5id Weatherwax]

1 hour ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

Peeve: Sacrificing my health and my life so that others can have and never getting any kind of recognition. I'm supposed to just give, give, give while everyone else just takes, takes, takes. 

Peeve: Forum reaction buttons dont include a "hug" option.

[Rolig Loon]

My morning routine involves a short trip to the coffee shop down by the river. They roast and grind their beans at least twice a week, alternating between Kenyan, Colombian and Hawaiian beans.  I fill my insulated mug with 20 ounces of black coffee, leave a healthy tip, and spend the next hour walking and letting my brain wake up. (Or, if it's raining, sit in a corner and do the NYT crossword puzzle.) I discovered several years ago that nothing I do at home will beat their coffee, so I have given up trying. Besides, the trip is an incentive to get up and moving.  If life intervenes and I miss my daily trip ... major peeve.

Edited July 16, 2022 by Rolig Loon

[Da5id Weatherwax]

1 minute ago, Rolig Loon said:

sit in a corner and do the NYT crossword puzzle

One of my occasional pleasures when I lived in the USA too.

Back here in the UK it's back to The Times cryptic that used to be the mutual amusement in the "cabal of London commuters" on my regular morning train to the office. (woe betide the n00b who wandered into that carriage and took one of the "regulars" seats) There were guys in that crew who would solve the whole thing in five minutes and spend the rest of the journey looking insufferably smug at the rest of us. Their penance was to be the designated runners for the coffee supply at a particular station.

[Rolig Loon]

3 minutes ago, Da5id Weatherwax said:

There were guys in that crew who would solve the whole thing in five minutes and spend the rest of the journey looking insufferably smug at the rest of us.

Anyone who can finish the Times cryptic in five minutes has my admiration.  I recently re-watched The Imitation Game, the dramatization of Alan Turing's work on the Enigma challenge, and was skeptical about how Keira Knightly's character could possibly have solved her cryptic in under 6 minutes.  My best time on those is significantly -- embarrassingly -- longer.

 

[Da5id Weatherwax]

20 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

Anyone who can finish the Times cryptic in five minutes has my admiration.  I recently re-watched The Imitation Game, the dramatization of Alan Turing's work on the Enigma challenge, and was skeptical about how Keira Knightly's character could possibly have solved her cryptic in under 6 minutes.  My best time on those is significantly -- embarrassingly -- longer.

 

loved that movie

First thing I look at is the pseudonym of the puzzle author. One or two of them I have learned how they think and can gain a (slightly) quicker insight into how their clues break down and where each individual piece might be going.

[Rolig Loon]

4 minutes ago, Da5id Weatherwax said:

First thing I look at is the pseudonym of the puzzle author. One or two of them I have learned how they think and can gain a (slightly) quicker insight into how their clues break down and where each individual piece might be going.

As I do with some authors of NYT crosswords, and with the fact that the editors have a tendency to re-use clues, especially for some of the easier fills. That's gaming the puzzle, which is fair but a bit of a cheat. It robs me of the satisfaction of actually solving the thing. I much prefer a puzzle that is a stiff challenge from start to finish.  When my dad died several years ago, he left a book of cryptics that he had barely started on. I hoard those carefully, treating myself to one every few months to make them last longer. The NYT crosswords, by comparison, are a snap.

[Rowan Amore]

Texas hospitals fearing abortion law delay pregnant women’s care, medical association says (dallasnews.com)

[Da5id Weatherwax]

50 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

As I do with some authors of NYT crosswords, and with the fact that the editors have a tendency to re-use clues, especially for some of the easier fills. That's gaming the puzzle, which is fair but a bit of a cheat. It robs me of the satisfaction of actually solving the thing.

There's where we differ a little I think. For me, each puzzle is a battle of wits with the person who compiled it. The ones I love most are where I'm pitting my wits against a puzzle author I've battled before, sometimes victorious, sometimes defeated, but I know their style, I'm starting to read their "tells" and discovering the chinks in their armor. When I catch a re-used clue (VERY rare for a good puzzle author) my only thought is "Gotcha!"

[Persephone Emerald]

4 hours ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

Peeve: Sacrificing my health and my life so that others can have and never getting any kind of recognition. I'm supposed to just give, give, give while everyone else just takes, takes, takes. 

You are not supposed to set yourself on fire so others can be warm.  You are supposed to value your own needs and feelings as much as you value the needs and feelings of others. An exception might be for young children who are dependent on us and not capable of taking care of themselves, but even then you have to take care of yourself too.

I understand how you're feeling because I feel this way too sometimes. I've gotten better at protecting myself from being totally drained or hurt by those I want to help, but it's a continuing battle. I think some of us have been conditioned to believe our needs and feelings don't matter, or that we have to help the other person in order to protect our own safety and peace of mind. We have to keep reminding ourselves that we don't have to earn the right to exist or to be valued as a human being by sacrificing ourselves to everyone else.

Sends virtual *Hugs* and cookies to you.

Edited July 16, 2022 by Persephone Emerald

[Da5id Weatherwax]

@Rowan Amore - without getting into deep waters that might get our toes nibbled on by the moderators that lurk in the depths, let me simply say that if anyone apart from the patient and their doctor is involved in a medical decision, or if the doctor involved is considering any factor other than their clinical knowledge and judgement, then something is badly wrong and stinking like yesterday's fish.

[Love Zhaoying]

4 hours ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

Peeve: Sacrificing my health and my life so that others can have and never getting any kind of recognition. I'm supposed to just give, give, give while everyone else just takes, takes, takes. 

 

2 hours ago, Da5id Weatherwax said:

Peeve: Forum reaction buttons dont include a "hug" option.

 

[Love Zhaoying]

1 minute ago, Da5id Weatherwax said:

@Rowan Amore - without getting into deep waters that might get our toes nibbled on by the moderators that lurk in the depths, let me simply say that if anyone apart from the patient and their doctor is involved in a medical decision, or if the doctor involved is considering any factor other than their clinical knowledge and judgement, then something is badly wrong and stinking like yesterday's fish.

The "medical surrogate" has a valid role here..basically they have medical "power of attorney" to help with decisions. 

[Da5id Weatherwax]

4 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

The "medical surrogate" has a valid role here..basically they have medical "power of attorney" to help with decisions. 

Indeed. Nothing in anything I said should be construed to preclude the involvement of a person with the duty to speak for the patient in the best interests of their health. They are required to "stand in the patients shoes" and separate any of their own wishes and judgements from their advocacy.

[Silent Mistwalker]

3 hours ago, Rolig Loon said:

Go tackle @Cinnamon Mistwood, grab her coffee, and lock yourself in a quiet place.  The world can wait.  ☕

And have a donut.  🍩

French toast. 🍞

Fridge isn't dead (yet) but now we have backups. Next time the fridge decides to defrost for 2 or 3 days we won't lose everything. We now have a small deep freeze chest and one of these for $199USD.

 

Magic Chef 10.1 cu fridge/freezer

[Silent Mistwalker]

3 hours ago, Rolig Loon said:

Kenyan, Colombian

👍👍