The Thread Of Complete Randomness

    😆 Reminds me of the scene in The Snapper where they were talking about weight of a new born baby compared to that of a turkey.


    In other news, I found the below headline about Lithuania attached to an article I read, and made me think the world is just full of ridiculous noise these days (it also made me laugh, just a little). Maybe it has been ever so but it seems noisier and stupider to me than it used to. Maybe I'm just getting old!


    There was mention in another thread of Christmassy things arriving in shops etc as early as September. At the end of August I was in Edinburgh, idly strolling around an affluent area of Southside. In the big bay window of one handsome property I could see a living room with a big lit-up christmas tree, silver stars, tinsel and other decorations.


    Any advance on August, anyone?

    Abandon all reason

    Quote from Backdrifter

    There was mention in another thread of Christmassy things arriving in shops etc as early as September. At the end of August I was in Edinburgh, idly strolling around an affluent area of Southside. In the big bay window of one handsome property I could see a living room with a big lit-up christmas tree, silver stars, tinsel and other decorations.


    Any advance on August, anyone?

    No... But I took this picture on Aug 24th in Costco!


    I can't help feeling that the upcoming series of "Big Brother" on Channel 4 is going to be very disappointing. The trailers show lots of clips involving cute little Guinea Pigs, and that looks like something I'd be happy to watch for up to an hour, but I've just got this sneaking feeling that the actual programme will just involve the usual bunch of entitled, self-centred, irritating 20 somethings it usually does.


    I might complain to Ofcom if it does!

    Ian


    Putting the old-fashioned Staffordshire plate in the dishwasher!

    Knowing the majority of this forum community is not keen on facebook, this might give some of you a good laugh.


    I have been active on facebook since 2007. Now, after some 17 years, it won't let me log in any longer. When I try to log in, it shows me a "checkpoint" page that says it needs to verify I am who I am. It claims to send a notification to my windows pc, however nothing happens. Nothing in my mail account either. When I click 'send to another device', still nothing happens. There's no way to get past that checkpoint. Now, I do have a second account I never used. That one I can log in, it's just not of any use because I never used it, I have no friends on there, nothing at all. I tried to use it to contact the facebook help centre. Filled a form, typed in a detailed description of the problem, agreed to them to use all my data etc. - it lets me wait half a minute, then it tells me "Unable to submit feedback". I tried several times, nothing works.


    Ain't that fine. Maybe it's time for the final goodbye. It just sucks because besides all the bullcrap I have some nice connections there too, friends I don't have any other contact of or not any longer.

    Quote from Schrottrocker

    Knowing the majority of this forum community is not keen on facebook, this might give some of you a good laugh.


    I have been active on facebook since 2007. Now, after some 17 years, it won't let me log in any longer. When I try to log in, it shows me a "checkpoint" page that says it needs to verify I am who I am. It claims to send a notification to my windows pc, however nothing happens. Nothing in my mail account either. When I click 'send to another device', still nothing happens. There's no way to get past that checkpoint. Now, I do have a second account I never used. That one I can log in, it's just not of any use because I never used it, I have no friends on there, nothing at all. I tried to use it to contact the facebook help centre. Filled a form, typed in a detailed description of the problem, agreed to them to use all my data etc. - it lets me wait half a minute, then it tells me "Unable to submit feedback". I tried several times, nothing works.


    Ain't that fine. Maybe it's time for the final goodbye. It just sucks because besides all the bullcrap I have some nice connections there too, friends I don't have any other contact of or not any longer.

    Sure you haven't been hacked? The person who has taken it over is likely getting all the notifications, etc.

    Ian


    Putting the old-fashioned Staffordshire plate in the dishwasher!

    They dug up 3,600 year old cheese in China. (Maybe I should have put this in Food & Drink?). It's the oldest known example of cheese in the world. It was buried with a woman, who is of course now a skeleton but still fully clothed, with the pieces of cheese scattered around her neck area. No sign of any crackers.


    As they removed the cheese the skeleton complained "Oy! I was still eating that." It didn't really, I made that up but the rest of it is true.

    Abandon all reason

    Like 2

    slightly random..although Genesis related. I had a recent memory of going to a Twelfth Night gig back in the 80s. At the time they were linked to Genesis management and were using some of their kit. Side stage, i could see some of the flight cases...which had Mike Rutherford written on in the Trick style font

    For most of the show I remember thinking how cool this must have been for the guitarist....

    I saw someone propose in public before a large crowd this evening. It was my first time witnessing such a thing and I was surprisingly moved. Good fortune young couple! And well done man. I would have shit my britches at the thought.

    Quote from thewatcher

    I saw someone propose in public before a large crowd this evening. It was my first time witnessing such a thing and I was surprisingly moved. Good fortune young couple! And well done man. I would have shit my britches at the thought.

    What where the circumstances, what was this crowd?


    I kind of get what you mean... but when I hear about this happening it makes me cringe a bit and feel for the proposee. Surely, in public and more so in front of a large crowd the proposee feels obliged to say 'yes' even if they don't want to? It feels to me something that has to be done as a special, private, intimate moment between two people.


    I heard of a bizarre opposite example of this involving a woman who hired one of those scrolling advertising screens in a petrol station shop to display the message she was dumping her fiancé.

    Abandon all reason

    Quote from Backdrifter

    What where the circumstances, what was this crowd?


    I kind of get what you mean... but when I hear about this happening it makes me cringe a bit and feel for the proposee. Surely, in public and more so in front of a large crowd the proposee feels obliged to say 'yes' even if they don't want to? It feels to me something that has to be done as a special, private, intimate moment between two people.

    Yes, I totally agree and was surprised at myself that apart from feeling a bit mortified for the woman, it was moreover just a hugely happy and positive thing to witness. Maybe it was the energy of the crowd. It happened in front of a tourist attraction - the witch house - in Salem, MA. The Saturday evening before Halloween, meaning thousands upon thousands of people milling about the streets in costume. It's not to say thousands of people saw this particular event, but there was a gaggle of probably a hundred or so around the front of the house and lots more walking by. People line up to take photos in front of the house, and when they went up he dropped to his knee prompting a huge cheer. We happened to be walking by at the time.

    Oh yes, the perils of proposing in public. Might get watered down a little bit if you're not careful.


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    I actually saw a public proposal a couple years ago when I was being on stage as a musician accompanying an improv theatre group: unusually, the husband to be of one of the actresses was guesting in a scene (he was an amateur actor, no big ambitions though) and he wove the real proposal perfectly into the scene. He went down on his knees, took the ring out of his pocket and asked 'will you marry me' at a point it was basically part of the improvised story they showed. The woman, as she later told us, was close to say 'No!' as that would be something you would do in a stage scene - as opposed to reality - but she saw the ring and realised this was a breaking the fourth wall moment. She was genuinely surprised and excited about it. It was a really touching and joyful moment for everybody involved, and all of us guys admired the guts that man had.

    Mrs B's last day of work tomorrow, she's retiring. Yesterday a local artist called round with a wrapped package (clearly a framed picture) and card, and said it was a gift from Mrs B's colleagues, not to be opened until the big day. What a lovely gesture, and very kind of them.


    But... art is kind of a dicey present to give isn't it? It's quite a personal thing and indeed she has very specific tastes, as I'm sure we all do. Plus she's seen some of this artist's work and finds it okay-ish at best, it's mainly local landscapes around the region where we live so I can see how they thought it'd be a nice thing to mark her retirement. As I said, it's a really well-meant gift and they've been saying how much they're going to miss her, it's definitely heartfelt.


    It makes me think of xmas and birthdays in our family, we each send out a list of anything we specifically want and everyone else decides what they're going to get from it so there's little or no 'jeopardy'. Nowadays everyone mainly wants different brands of gift vouchers. In my case, specifically vouchers for the local arts centre and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I've reached an age where I just don't really want any more stuff in the house. As it is, before moving here last year we did a major cull of STUFF - books, cds, dvds, clothes, crockery, utensils, various other household items, all significantly trimmed down. We don't want to start building it up again!


    EDIT - just remembered, some people we know have eliminated present-giving altogether. A married couple we're close with decided a while ago to simply do away with the annual ritual of gifts to each other. They both agreed to it and seem perfectly happy.

    Abandon all reason