Something Random

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
22,234
Location
I am omnipresent
IIRC they were some degenerates back then always doing something nasty. I guess the new crews are more mellow?

The Temptations still exit as some Brand, but originals are mostly long dead.


As I understand it, it's a giant joke for them and for their fans. But they're working stiffs who go out and tour in their... orc costumes?


In 2019, I accidentally wound up seeing Hu at a show in Las Vegas. I just happened to be out wandering around with my camera and some dude offered me a $10 ticket to see "Chinese Heavy Metal" (as Mongolians, they'd probably be pretty pissed at that description). Normally, not my thing at all but Vegas is a place where you can see a lot of weird and great stuff, so I chose to go. They couldn't fill a ~300 seat venue, but the show actually ended up being really fun. 2019 was actually the year they sort of broke out internationally, as this Youtube video with 125M views can kind of demonstrate.


Turns out that their music is kind of problematic, but in the pretty normal way that Asians all hate each other. Most of their music is about how their ancestors ruled everything a horse could get to for centuries and now they would look at their descendants in shame. But that sounds pretty badass on an electric Tovshuur and some backing throat-chanting.
 

jtr1962

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Jan 25, 2002
Messages
4,365
Location
Flushing, New York
Oh yeah, you are in Queens so a natural Mets supporter?
No preference for me. I'm happy if either the Yankees or Mets reach the World Series. Both would have been great. The Mets have a longer drought though (last WS win was 1986).

My dad was a rabid Yankees fan. He also played ball for a while (in some neighborhood league). He was approached by a scout from the Red Sox once, but as a Yankees fan wan't interested.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
17,460
Location
USA
No preference for me. I'm happy if either the Yankees or Mets reach the World Series. Both would have been great. The Mets have a longer drought though (last WS win was 1986).

My dad was a rabid Yankees fan. He also played ball for a while (in some neighborhood league). He was approached by a scout from the Red Sox once, but as a Yankees fan wan't interested.
He probably saw the Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers way back when.

I remember 1986 as a sucky year because the Angels had a great chance at their first World Series, but Donnie Moore came in for relief and gave up that home run in the 5th game when they were up 3-1. He killed himself a year or so later by suicide. :(

I was glad that Buckner f'ed up that grounder because I was so annoyed with Boston, not that I liked NY Mets in particular. At the time I had no idea that error would be so famous, even on the usual lists up there with Merkle's boner.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
17,460
Location
USA
Maybe they just don't like the Wallpapers, or do they mean the LCD itself?
 
Last edited:

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
17,460
Location
USA
No preference for me. I'm happy if either the Yankees or Mets reach the World Series. Both would have been great. The Mets have a longer drought though (last WS win was 1986).

My dad was a rabid Yankees fan. He also played ball for a while (in some neighborhood league). He was approached by a scout from the Red Sox once, but as a Yankees fan wan't interested.
Regardless of who wins the series that ending in Game 1 was remarkable. Freeman's walk-off Grand Slam in the bootom of the 10th was a first in world Series History (nearly 700 games) and very reminiscent of Dodger Kirk Gibson's walk-off HR in 1988 since they both had leg injuries. The announcer Joe Davis immediately said "Gibby meet Freddie" and we were all thinking it. Vin Scully would have approved.
 

jtr1962

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Jan 25, 2002
Messages
4,365
Location
Flushing, New York
I saw games 1 and 2 from the hospital. On October 24 around 6:05PM I driver making a left turn without looking ended up right in front of me as I was passing through an intersection. I always check intersections, even when I have the light, as a precaution. It was clear as I started going through it. It appears she gunned it while starting her turn. No time to react, just boom. 5 broken ribs, two of them are broken in two places. Thankfully no head or spinal injuries. I got back from the hospital Sunday afternoon. Not much they could do for me there that I can't do at home. Hospitals are unpleasant places to be. Too hot, too noisy, constant poking and prodding, no privacy.

Now it's a long road back. The ribs will take a while to completely heal. The handlebars were sheared the bike but it looks fixable. Needness to see it'll be at least a few months before I get on a bike again. I think I'll go back to my old routine of riding late nights. The less traffic the safer I am. NYC drivers were bad to start with but post-pandemic they're sociopathic. The lastest thing is bullying your way through left turns, even if there's oncoming traffic.

Hopefully I'll get a decent settlement out of this also.

First time in my life with broken bones, first time in a hospital.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
22,234
Location
I am omnipresent
I am glad that you will be OK. Broken ribs are awful, but there's next to nothing to be done. You just have to wait until they don't hurt any more. I do hope you get something out of this asshole but I've never been that lucky.

I have been hit by a car 11 times in my life. Not my car, me, the singular person.
Most of them have not been serious and almost all of them happened while the car in question was backing out of a parking space or driveway. My partner has witnessed this happen to me twice, so she no longer thinks I'm making it up. People just just start driving without checking behind them. Usually it just means getting knocked over and some bruises, but it also means that I now pound on the backs of cars as I walk past them if I see someone in the driver's seat.

The two serious times happened because a guy was having a terrible argument with his girlfriend. He hit me hard enough to toss me about a dozen feet. I wound up with terrible bruising and road rash. I wound up with a big, nasty cut on my leg from something on his bumper. Of course ,this guy had nothing like insurance, but he did at least pay for my trip to urgent care.

Second serious incident was only around four years ago. I was walking in an area with no sidewalks and a steep incline that was also only about 100m from a grade school and someone clipped me with their passenger's side rear view mirror. They came up from behind me and in any case there wasn't anyplace for me to be except the edge of the road. I took a spill about 30 feet down the hill and wound up with a massive hematoma on my side that wound up about the size of a basketball and turned about a quarter of my body purple-black. If my arm had been there, I'm sure it would've been broken. Since it was a hit and run, the only care I got came from being friends with an ER surgeon, who walked me through draining the wound. I've since been to city council meetings about the lack of sidewalks near a school but it's been years and they still haven't done anything.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
17,460
Location
USA
Oh, that is terrible! I hope the driver was insured and there is some video of the incident.
Do you have some family or friends to help you out during recovery?
There is no way in the world that I would ride a bike in the city as a senior.
 

jtr1962

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Jan 25, 2002
Messages
4,365
Location
Flushing, New York
Yeah, the driver has insurance and fortunately remained at the scene, unlike many other assholes who just hit and run.

I love cycling too much to give it up but I think I'll start riding only at times with little or no traffic. 3AM riding is great. I'm the only one on the road for blocks. This is the first time I collided with a car in 46 years of riding. Last fall was in 2018 but minor bruising. The fall before that one was in excess of 20 years prior. I got most of my falls out of the way during the first five years of riding. After that I knew how to avoid most things.

Merc, that hematoma thing sounds awful. The mirror definitely would have broken your arm. Her mirror hitting me on the left side of my back is what broke the ribs. My handlebars cracked her windshield also. Considering it was bike vs. car, I did a good amount of damage to her vehicle.

My brother fell on his e-bike in February. Solo incident, muddy trail. His hand swelled up and some other bruising, but nothing needing hospital care.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
17,460
Location
USA
I have been hit by a car 11 times in my life. Not my car, me, the singular person.
Most of them have not been serious and almost all of them happened while the car in question was backing out of a parking space or driveway. My partner has witnessed this happen to me twice, so she no longer thinks I'm making it up. People just just start driving without checking behind them. Usually it just means getting knocked over and some bruises, but it also means that I now pound on the backs of cars as I walk past them if I see someone in the driver's seat.
11 times!? Maybe review your lifestyle or at least get insurance that will cover your injuries from uninsured. Most cars now will detect peds behind the vehicle, though that does not help if people drive like fools.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
22,234
Location
I am omnipresent
Funny thing about having the middle of my body turn purple was that I at least got some jokes out of it. I'm not gonna repeat any of them but stuff was looking pretty weird there for a couple weeks.

11 times!? Maybe review your lifestyle or at least get insurance that will cover your injuries from uninsured. Most cars now will detect peds behind the vehicle, though that does not help if people drive like fools.

Affordable, worthwhile insurance does not exist for me.
My employer is exempt from offering anything and Indiana does not participate in the national healthcare marketplace. For literal pennies less than 10% of my annual income, I can get a "silver" plan here that has a $15,000 deductible and absolutely no other benefit. And that's the best choice among the plans available to me. I don't hate the ACA, but Indiana implemented it in such a way that it is as unappealing as possible because the people we elect to run this state think doing anything for anyone but a corporation is socialism. I can't justify giving 10% of everything I make to Anthem for literally nothing unless I'm already well on my way to medical bankruptcy.

I work with a lot of insurance agents. In most cases, they tell people in my boat to put money in an HSA. They're often in the same place I am. Even worse, I'm aware that employer-provided plans keep demanding higher and higher premiums at absolutely unsustainable rates. At some point, we're either going to choose nationalize, subsidized healthcare like every other Western Democracy or we're going to have an entirely new set of reasons to set up gallows in front of the capitol building.
 

sedrosken

Florida Man
Joined
Nov 20, 2013
Messages
1,787
Location
Eglin AFB Area
Website
sedrosken.xyz
Yeah, I cancelled my health insurance when I realized I was paying all of my premiums... then paying everything out of pocket anyway because even with my relative health and youth my deductibles were insane. I have no recourse but bankruptcy or (more likely) death if I wind up in a terrible accident or some such, but if I'm in such a predicament I'll likely prefer to have died anyway, so...

We absolutely could have worked out healthcare, you know, some twenty plus years ago, but now if we were to nationalize it it'd destroy an entire industry overnight and we'd have the largest net loss of jobs and the highest unemployment figures in decades. No president wants to preside over that. There's also no bribes lobbying money to be made if they actually fix problems, so they'll simply never be fixed. Politicians will find a way to make people feel good about things getting worse or staying the same, like they always somehow manage to do, but the time for actual progress has passed.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
17,460
Location
USA
Funny thing about having the middle of my body turn purple was that I at least got some jokes out of it. I'm not gonna repeat any of them but stuff was looking pretty weird there for a couple weeks.
I don't mean medical insurance. Some general insurance that covers bad stuff happening to you or if you get sued. There is usually a threshhold and also it is secondary to any other insurance.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
17,460
Location
USA
If your dates are correct and you are actually over 60, that is amazing to never have been in the hospital for any surgeries at all. I suppose you just did outpatient at other facilities.
 

jtr1962

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Jan 25, 2002
Messages
4,365
Location
Flushing, New York
If your dates are correct and you are actually over 60, that is amazing to never have been in the hospital for any surgeries at all. I suppose you just did outpatient at other facilities.
Nope. Never had any kind of surgeries unless you count stitches as a passenger in a car accident. 1 month to go until I'm 62.

The CAT scan from the hospital did have two incidental findings. One was a hiatal hernia. Both my parents had this. The other was an aortic aneurysm, which at this point needs monitoring but no surgery.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
17,460
Location
USA
Yankees completely collapsed in the top of the 5th. Freeman was the easy choice for MVP with multiple all-time records. Buehler coming in for the save after starting Game 3 on Monday was wild. Dave Roberts deserves a lot of credit for 2024.
 

Newtun

Storage is nice, especially if it doesn't rotate
Joined
Nov 21, 2002
Messages
482
Location
Virginia
Gesundheit.
Danke schön. Du auch.

It's a royal pain to hear about our members' health-care-coverage issues, in this Great Nation. Other countries have national plans for their citizens' medical needs. But, of course, that's "socialist medicine", so it has to be bad/evil. (For the bottom line$, anyway.)

Luckily, when the MAGA-ots 🪱 take over, all of our health care problems will be taken care of. Or at least, for the physician/pharmacological/hospital mega-corporations. Actual patients - be patient, take a number, go to the back of the line.
 

ddrueding

Fixture
Joined
Feb 4, 2002
Messages
19,719
Location
Horsens, Denmark
Yup, when I tell people here about the basic cost of living in the US (healthcare, daycare/school) they simply can't believe it. We were able to cut our cost of living massively while increasing the quality.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
22,234
Location
I am omnipresent
You are a Yankee fan?

I've been offered the chance to visit the broadcasting booth at Wrigley Field several times because of people in my social orbit, but baseball is like watching paint dry to me. I doubt there's 90 seconds of action in a whole game. If I have to watch a sport I'd rather see someone seek individual perfection in something like diving or figure skating. Or, you know, pole dancing.

Newtun, I've never even been offered insurance by an employer. I probably could've gotten some for the time I was interning in college, but as an adult I have always been a contractor or worked for a small business. There are a shocking number of people in the same donut hole I'm in and honestly I fully expect this to be a major contributor to a shortened lifespan compared to the gold-plated "medicine costs money?!?"options available to my parents. I have accepted this but I do see it as a tremendous injustice for around 10% of the American public, but we don't even see availability of drinkable water as a basic right here, so why would we go the extra mile of making sure people don't die from toothaches or diseases we thought we eradicated 50 years ago?
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
22,234
Location
I am omnipresent
My partner likes American football but her team is Cincinnati for some reason, so she has to go to a sports bar to watch it and she's usually not THAT motivated. Football makes very little sense. Play starts and stops all the time and there's a timer and sometimes it's timing and sometimes it isn't.

To their credit, basketball and hockey are a lot easier to understand and have very few breaks in the action. If I'm longing for the simple rules of an Avalon Hill board game while you're telling me how your sport works, I definitely don't want to hear any more about it.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
17,460
Location
USA
Not sure what happened, but the ANDROIDs are fickle.

I found something online that indicated baseball was about 18 minutes and NFL football was only 11 minutes. Soccer was about 50 minutes and basketball was the full 48 minutes. What team sports did you like to play as a youth, or were you more into tennis/golf/individual sports?
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
22,234
Location
I am omnipresent
I never played any. My town was so small there were only a dozen kids plus or minus two years of me. I wasn't related to anybody and didn't go to their weirdo church. PE was mostly just walking around a track as far as I remember. It wasn't exactly a highlight of my childhood.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
17,460
Location
USA
That's too bad on both counts. Fortunately I was fairly sporty until 11 or 12. Team sports are good if done right.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
22,234
Location
I am omnipresent
My family was more about chess and board games. None of us can see for shit and we're all endomorphs who are, shall we say, built for love and not for speed. Not playing those team sports was probably the one positive contribution we could've made.
 
Top