George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
The things you lean on / are things that don't last
User ID: 107
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
27d ago
Now that's a car part I've not seen for a long time.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
27d ago
Interesting. Wifey also poo-poos the A13? My own wife is blasé about scents in general (and at one point in our relationship I realized she actually likes certain odors I may have after exertion that I would characterize as stink) but she didn't have anything negative to say about Another 13.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
27d ago
I feel River should have grown a bit. It annoyed me in season 4 (where I stopped) that the writers were keeping him in a kind of development stasis. In particular after some of the wild shit that had gone down in the previous season.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
27d ago
I got through season 1 because I like Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas, though the same issues bothering you bothered me. It was jarring how blatantly Bizzarro world that was. The setup in general of the Slough House is a little reminiscent of something LeCarré might have written as a novel, without some of the vulgarities. And I liked LeCarré.
To respond, season 2 I remember as better, season 3 has more action but really goes off the rails plotwise (not necessarilyin a culture war way). I had to stop at season 4 because it seemed to me one of the leads (Jack Lowden's character) seemed to have been written by someone who only read the first pages of season 1's script, decided they didn't like River at all or men generally, and dropped any other possible character development. But maybe it got better. I think there are 5 or 6 seasons now.
I often wonder whether these shows are bound by diversity riders but also characterization clauses (e.g. the female black character must be smarter than the white male) or similar. Or maybe the writers are pandering. Or, of course, true believers.
In season 1 episode one I was thinking "Wait she said Asian male, that guy looks Indian." Then I realized.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
27d ago
America is one long humiliation ritual
Care to elaborate?
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
28d ago
Got it, thanks for the clarification. I still carry the banner for face-to-face interactions but I'm perhaps in a country where that is more a pleasurable experience than many others.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
28d ago
Damn. Reading that blog I am reminded of Christopher Hitchens' bon mot: "I believe everyone does have a novel inside them. In most cases that's where it should stay." At least she know (or says she knows) she's neurotic.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
28d ago
Yes, I saw the Simpsons episode years and years ago. Thank god people don't use sonder uninronically here (different origin, I know.)
I don't doubt the other terms are genuine words and not simply inventions, I'm just suggesting that I only see them used online.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
28d ago
I won't say no to the accusation that I only spend time with oldies, at least as far as English speakers, but I find many terms often used online are almost never spoken (except by people who are, perhaps, very often online). Overton Window, Dunbar number, etc. In particular in these virtual pages I regularly encounter terms that seem shibolleth-like. Every culture (even an online culture) develops its own sociolect, I suppose.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
28d ago
In Japan online activation is of course possible, but at least for me dealing with a person is considerably less arduous as little, if anything, (at least the last time I checked) is in English, and for me asking questions and maneuvering bureaucy is almost always easier done face-to-face. My wife also finagled two discounts via her charm, unused on me for many years.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
28d ago
I have seen cromulent used many times on this very forum without comment.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
28d ago
Interesting, this and other comments suggest that this is the norm. In Japan, phones stores and sitting there working out your plan with the Softbank or Docomo girl or guy is the norm. I recently had to get a new phone and was sitting there two hours, to which my wife's reaction was an encouraging, "Not so long."
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
28d ago
In Japan nearly everyone goes to a phone shop. I recently went to a phone shop. What's odd about going to a phone shop? Also I'd like to pour one out for in-person interactions, which may be well on the way out, but which I far prefer to QR codes, touch screens, and robot maître d's.
Also what's a "wagie"? A person who works minimum wage I assume. Or retail. Are we pouring our extra wine over the balcony on these people's heads now? I worked for wages in many jobs for years and years. Granted the twat in this story was infuriating, but I wouldn't consider him a lesser being simply because of his employment.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
29d ago
At the moment he corrected me I would have gone full Karen and asked to see his manager, then corrected him in front of his manager, then explained why I would never be returning to his store (presumptuous assholery by staff). Then left. Fuck that asshole. Maybe I've been in Japan too long where the service is almost always exemplary. What an insufferable twat.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
30d ago
No doubt. I just have an aversion to certain types of ironic posting, which make various assumptions about the audience in a way that is reminiscent (to me) of reddit.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
30d ago
Speak plainly.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
30d ago
General male (coded) competence doing/fixing has become a long lost art in some quarters. My dad built a motorcycle out of a bicycle in his teens. He could pretty much repair or at least find the problem and learn to repair anything--or so it seemed to me at the time. Computers would of course be his undoing and late in life he'd end up having ordered a bunch of stuff online, or acquiring viruses, and so on and so forth. But in his day he was the definition of a competent male, taught of course by the model of his own father. I am far less handy but I'm surprised by the phenomena you describe here, particularly noticeable in Japan, where sometimes it seems general maintenance and repair goes the way of just hire someone to replace anything that one has allowed entropy to destroy.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1mo ago
About fifteen or so years ago, on my trips back stateside, my own father, who died at ninety in 2020, would always ask on the drive home from the airport: "What's the price of a gallon of gas in Japan?"
Very little, if anything, did he ask about my family, my job, my free time, what my opinions were on anything. It annoyed me then. It annoyed me even more when he'd ask the same question a day or so later. "George, what's the price of a gallon ah gas in Japan?" As if unlocking this truth (which, even then, would have been trivially easy to search for online) would also unlock some gulf between us, throw open a door, pull back the veil of Isis. Or, the uncomfortable possibility: maybe he just never had much to say to me.
The answer to the gas question, if I could remember, was always prefaced by a didactic explanation on my part of liters and gallons and trying to sort out the conversion. It made me seem pedantic and foolish, and he'd get quiet again.
And now as I sit here in our living room staring at the light patterning the floor through the blinds I would give quite a bit to have him asking me that question, or any question.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1mo ago
This seemed improbable to me but it's documented.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1mo ago
I don't know why exactly that this surprises me coming from you in particular.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1mo ago
Thank you for your diligence
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1mo ago
I was using the term as Hormone Replacement Therapy, where the hormone involved is testosterone. I wasn't aware the terms were so distinct.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1mo ago
Ha. No he isn't. I'm not sure how that would even work given my description of older male now chasing girls the way an 18 year old would. Part of me wants to read your comment as trolling but to respond sincerely no, he isn't trans.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1mo ago
As a boy we did early church, had lunch at Red Lobster or a cafeteria, and/or visited my grandparent's places in the countryside. All very iced tea leisurely. My dad forbade even yardwork. You couldn't buy beer in stores.
It's interesting, my read on you (and I try to keep Mottizens sorted in my head) is a Christian who takes his faith seriously. I associate that (perhaps wrongly) with goodwill toward one's fellow human, love one another, if he hath all this yet hath not charity, etc. So... that, but you also have this other, angry, intolerant, legalistic, pessimistic side. I don't think you're as old as I am but maybe you've personally had many negative experiences? None of ny business. We all contain multitudes, to misquote Whitman.
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