The Vent and Rant Thread

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Everybody hopes that. Just like everyone--women particularly--want to "age gracefully." (Note: that's a moronic phrase. Know what it means? It means, NOT aging. Looking younger than your chronological age. Utter B*.) We all hope that of course, we won't turn into slobbering, doddering wrecks. And surprise! Guess what? Most of us don't get that. Welcome to adulthood.

Hitch

This always makes me think of the Star Trek episode Half a Life, in which a scientist turns 60. It is expected of him that he undergoes the "Resolution", a ritual suicide, "to avoid old age, infirmity, indignity, dependence on others, and the cruel uncertainty about when the end would come."

It is one of the very few, maybe even the only episode featuring Lwaxana Troi that I actually like. Normally I hate episodes featuring her, as she is an extremely annoying character. (Which, actually, is the entire point.)

[Katsunami]

Update on the Brother label printer: after customer service contacted me last week, I sent the label printer back to them last Tuesday. Yesterday they contacted me again asking if I wanted a replacement, or a refund. I chose the replacement, which I received today.

It functions as intended.

It's a pity that I had to threaten with filing a complaint to the consumer authorities to wake up customer service (it's probably an outsourced help desk, as this is a very big company), but once they did come awake, everything was handled quickly and efficiently.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

This always makes me think of the Star Trek episode Half a Life, in which a scientist turns 60. It is expected of him that he undergoes the "Resolution", a ritual suicide, "to avoid old age, infirmity, indignity, dependence on others, and the cruel uncertainty about when the end would come."

One of the volumes in my library is "My life in Judo" by J. Koizumi. He was a 7th degree black belt in Judo, and founder of the British Judo Federation, as well as coach of the British Judo team.

When he reached a point where his faculties were beginning to degrade, he bathed, shaved, dressed in his best suit, and put his head in the oven and turned on the gas. He had had a full life doing what he loved and introducing the sport of Judo to the UK. He left a note stating that he chose to go before he became a burden on others, and his friends would understand.
______
Dennis

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

One of the volumes in my library is "My life in Judo" by J. Koizumi. He was a 7th degree black belt in Judo, and founder of the British Judo Federation, as well as coach of the British Judo team.

When he reached a point where his faculties were beginning to degrade, he bathed, shaved, dressed in his best suit, and put his head in the oven and turned on the gas. He had had a full life doing what he loved and introducing the sport of Judo to the UK. He left a note stating that he chose to go before he became a burden on others, and his friends would understand.

While I can understand his sentiment, I think he could have chosen a more dignified way to go.

I'm an advocate regarding euthanasia; if people decide they don't want to live any longer, for whatever reason, they should have that choice. Especially in Japan it was a custom in times past. But, I feel that a discussion about a subject such as this may need to be moved to the political forum.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

While I can understand his sentiment, I think he could have chosen a more dignified way to go.

It was painless and doable from resources at hand. Would an overdose of sleeping pills have been more dignified?

I'm an advocate regarding euthanasia; if people decide they don't want to live any longer, for whatever reason, they should have that choice. Especially in Japan it was a custom in times past. But, I feel that a discussion about a subject such as this may need to be moved to the political forum.

I'm an advocate, too. We don't have a choice about when we're born, but do have a choice about when we leave.

My exemplar these days is the late Terry Pratchett, who made arrangements to go on his own terms after being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimers, and publicly campaigned for the right of people to do so. As it happened, death took him before he could decide it was time, but he was prepared to take the step if his condition worsened enough.

This can move to a political forum if need be, but I won't follow it. The underlying beliefs live on an emotional level, not a rational one. I don't expect someone whose gut-level belief is "That's wrong!" to have their opinions changed by any comments I might make, and decline to waste time trying.
______
Dennis

[Katsunami]

Parents can have bad influences on their children with regard to food.

Today, my sister and niece were over to pick up the laptop (the one of which I 'recovered' the lost pictures on the external drive).

I thought: let's see if my niece (4,5 years old) eats ginger, sort of a prelude to having her try sushi some time in the future. I had good hopens, because sometimes she's closer to a trashcan than a little girl. If you give her something and say "Try this", she just eats it and mostly likes it. She isn't picky. The only exception are sprouts. (Are they called like that in English? This stuff right here, hated by most young kids across the planet.)

So I give her a piece of ginger, and as expected, she just eats it. Her entire face lights up in a big grin. "I like that!" she says, and immediately grabs another piece and proceeds to eat it as well.

Then mom eats a piece as well, and pretends to be choking and says she can't eat something like that. And instantly, my niece, with a pout, also says: "I didn't like it either."

I understand, she doesn't want to betray mom, but I think my sister isn't smart behaving like that. I wouldn't be surprised if my sister (and her boyfriend, who are both very picky) ruin my niece's palate eventually, just because *they* don't want to eat lots of stuff and thus my niece never gets to eat it either.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Parents can have bad influences on their children with regard to food.

Today, my sister and niece were over to pick up the laptop (the one of which I 'recovered' the lost pictures on the external drive).

I thought: let's see if my niece (4,5 years old) eats ginger. Sometimes she's closer to a trashcan than a little girl. If you give her something and say "Try this", she just eats it and likes it. The only exception are sprouts. (Are they called like that in English? This, hated by most young kids across the planet.)

Sprouts, indeed, on both sides of the pond. Or Brussels sprouts, in full.

I love sprouts myself, but I'd never try to give 'em to a kid. Or lima beans. (Full disclosure: I still don't like lima beans.)

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Parents can have bad influences on their children with regard to food.

Today, my sister and niece were over to pick up the laptop (the one of which I 'recovered' the lost pictures on the external drive).

I thought: let's see if my niece (4,5 years old) eats ginger, sort of a prelude to having er try sushi some time in the future. I had good hopens, because sometimes she's closer to a trashcan than a little girl. If you give her something and say "Try this", she just eats it and mostly likes it. She isn't picky. The only exception are sprouts. (Are they called like that in English? This stuff right here, hated by most young kids across the planet.)

So I give her a piece of ginger, and as expected, she just eats it. Her entire face lights up in a big grin. "I like that!" she says, and immediately grabs another piece and proceeds to eat it as well.

Then mom eats a piece as well, and pretends to be choking and says she can't eat something like that. And instantly, my niece, with a pout, also says: "I didn't like it either."

I understand, she doesn't want to betray mom, but I think my sister isn't smart behaving like that. I wouldn't be surprised if my sister (and her boyfriend, who are both very picky) ruin my niece's palate eventually, just because *they* don't want to eat lots of stuff and thus my niece never gets to eat it either.

Agreeing, your sister isn't smart.
Might I suggest calf fries next but just tell your sister they are small pieces of beef.

[Katsunami]

Jesus... my typing is atrocious. I have missed and unintended letters everywhere in my posts since I have this laptop. Maybe they should start to make 3 inch thick laptops with a mechanical keyboard again, like in the 80's.

Uh... on second thoughts... better they don't. That thing is huge.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Jesus... my typing is atrocious. I have missed and unintended letters everywhere in my posts since I have this laptop. Maybe they should start to make 3 inch thick laptops with a mechanical keyboard again, like in the 80's.

Uh... on second thoughts... better they don't. That thing is huge.

Huge and heavy.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Jesus... my typing is atrocious. I have missed and unintended letters everywhere in my posts since I have this laptop. Maybe they should start to make 3 inch thick laptops with a mechanical keyboard again, like in the 80's.

Uh... on second thoughts... better they don't. That thing is huge.

No thank you. Instead, just get a decent external keyboard. It doesn't have to be one of my beloved. ancient, 5 Lb. monsters from Northgate (would sort of defeat the purpose of a light laptop, wouldn't it?), but there are quite good wireless solutions from multiple sources, including Logitech. Some with USB dongle, some doing Bluetooth. Find one that works for you and add it to the travel bag. Or buy a laptop with a decent keyboard built in, such as the HP I've been using for some years. The bad keyboard on a recent Asus laptop I had has completely put me off Asus laptops forever.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by issybird

Sprouts, indeed, on both sides of the pond. Or Brussels sprouts, in full.

I love sprouts myself, but I'd never try to give 'em to a kid. Or lima beans. (Full disclosure: I still don't like lima beans.)

Weirdly, my youngest son loves sprouts. Has done since he was about 6 years old. My wife and eldest son hate them, but I often buy just a dozen for youngest and I to share with our Sunday lunch.

He must be the exception that proves the rule

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by issybird

Sprouts, indeed, on both sides of the pond. Or Brussels sprouts, in full.

I love sprouts myself, but I'd never try to give 'em to a kid. Or lima beans. (Full disclosure: I still don't like lima beans.)

Lima beans! Sometimes we call them "butter beans" here, and I love them. I've been criticized for including them in dishes where they, according to my critics, have no business being, but here are three words in my defense: Damn they tasty!

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by CRussel

No thank you. Instead, just get a decent external keyboard. It doesn't have to be one of my beloved. ancient, 5 Lb. monsters from Northgate (would sort of defeat the purpose of a light laptop, wouldn't it?), but there are quite good wireless solutions from multiple sources, including Logitech. Some with USB dongle, some doing Bluetooth. Find one that works for you and add it to the travel bag. Or buy a laptop with a decent keyboard built in, such as the HP I've been using for some years. The bad keyboard on a recent Asus laptop I had has completely put me off Asus laptops forever.

The keyboard on this laptop is OK-ish, although DELL is following the horrendous trend of combining keys. The arrow keys are now half-height, and they also contain the HOME/END keys, which can only be used in combination with FN. Several other keys (volume, lighting) halve been removed and combined with FN.

On my previous laptop the keyboard basically had a desktop layout. I could move from any desktop to that notebook (or a Thinkpad) without ever missing a key. As this notebook now uses a different layout for that block of keys (INS/DEL, Home/End, PgUp/PgDn) I'm always either missing keys, or octopussing to get stuff selected using CTRL+SHIFT+HOME.

Maybe I should finally take a look into Vim, although most software does not use that paradigm...

The laptop is also flatter, which is why it's not possible anymore to stack two USB-ports on top of each other, so now they are along the sides, next to one another. My previous laptop had two pairs, one left, one right, at the far end of the laptop, which is more ergonomic; they are not in the way.

Flatter, smaller and thinner is causing a lot of usability issues in many current-day laptops. In my laptop's case, they're somewhat mild yet, but I have seen laptops that are near impossible to use.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Lima beans! Sometimes we call them "butter beans" here, and I love them. I've been criticized for including them in dishes where they, according to my critics, have no business being, but here are three words in my defense: Damn they tasty!

+1. I love Limas. A little cooking, a wee bit of butter...awesome.

Confession: I bought a lovely round bread, Sunflower Seed/Honey, and THEN bought a pound of Kerry (imported Irish Grass-fed) butter to slather on it. I restrained myself from gorging, but I could hear my arteries screaming for mercy. {sigh}. Ah, for the good old days, when I could eat things in blissful ignorance.

Hitch