What's up with you?

[Ari]

I’ve been feeding the local ravens and crows. I was giving them peanuts leftover from a friends visit but those ran out and they don’t clean up their mess, so have switched to almonds. I’ve been going for nuts over bird seed specifically so smaller birds aren’t as interested.

I think three medium calls is “There might be food here!” They also do the same call in 4’s and 5s but I haven’t worked out what those might mean. Anyway when I hear it, I’ve been making three tongue clucks and then tossing almonds in the general direction. I’m hoping the three clucks will keep them from swarming me when I don’t have any treats, but we’ll see who trains who.

They’ve gone from being suspicious and gathering multiple lookouts before swooping down to gather the nuts to flocking as soon as I start to walk away, so I still have some ways to go before they really trust me.

[specious_reasons]

My eldest does printing as a hobby - she took a class in college and does it once in a while. Quite a while back, she came up with a bookmark sized design and printed out 25 or so, then laminated them. She gave them to family as holiday gifts.

When I came back from my last trip, I thought I had lost it - it wasn't in the last book I thought I put it in, and that book had gotten knocked about a bit, so I guessed it had fallen out and was gone forever. I profusely apologized and asked for another.

I found the original today in another book.

[specious_reasons]

Went to the Dragula show last night. It was enjoyable, but next time I'm not going to sleep on tickets and get a seat on the main floor. I'm not sure if I was the straightest, whitest, most middle aged man there, but it was probably close.

[ShottleBop]

In 2016, my ophthalmologist noticed a pterygium growing on my left eye, and started watching it. By the time the pandemic started, it had grown enough that my left eye was useless for reading--I could see nothing but black splotches too blurry to make out, no matter how close I got.

In early 2021, I went in for an eye exam, and they started arranging surgery to remove the growth. Then I got COVID, had a heart attack, and was on Plavix for a year, which delayed surgery. Finally, near the end of January this year, I had my surgery, and I could see through the eye again, but my eyeglass prescription had become so inadequate I still couldn't read with that eye--I had to be right on top of whatever I was reading.

I had to wait three months to get a new eyeglass prescription. I went in a couple of weeks ago and got tested. The best they can do with that eye is 20/40, which my optometrist was very happy with.

Late last week, I was able to pick up my new glasses. For the first time in many years, I can see with both eyes. Because of the difference in correction, however, it's as if I'd had cataract surgery and asked them to adjust one lens for near work and the other for distance--I can read things with my left eye at a normal distance, but not well at all with my right eye.

So I'm training myself to rely on my left eye for computer work, as opposed to having used my right eye for everything. There's a bit of a learning curve, but: for the first time in 4 or 5 years, I can see the left side of my face while shaving without getting right up to the mirror, and for the first time in 30 years I'm not using my flip-up reading lenses. (Yeah, I could probably have gotten bifocals, or even progressives, that would have accommodated the difference between my eyes, but I tried them years ago and never got used to them--which is why I started wearing flip-ups in the first place.)

[lisarea]

Oh, hooray!

With all the adapting you've had to do over the years, I'm sure you'll train yourself in no time. You're good at that sort of thing.

[maddog]

Personally, I have never seen with both eyes at the same time. I have anomalous retinal correspondence (ARC), i.e., the images on my retinas don't match. If I saw with both eyes, I'd see double overlapping images. The brain suppresses one image, so I only see with one eye at a time. I can switch consciously from one eye to the other, but most of the time it happens automatically. Plays havoc with depth perception. I'm not good at estimating distances, and I'm terrible at aim games. So naturally I picked baseball/softball ⚾🥎 as my favorite sport.

Anyhow, all by way of saying that you will probably be able to adapt readily to one-eye seeing, and switching between them. Brains are remarkable things.

[specious_reasons]

I am a hero today.

I was outside my mother's house and I saw a young dog running wild in the streets. If you've ever seen a dog that looks like they've just got loose from somewhere, you know how he was acting. I tossed the stuff I was carrying inside and called to the dog. Being young and stupid he came right up to me. I said "hi" and casually grabbed his collar with the hope of reading his tags and letting his people know.

Just then, a car pulled up to the house. He tried to pull away a bit once he realized he was caught, but didn't put up much of a fight. The driver came up to me and said "Thank you!" as another person ran up and helped put the dog in the car. I chatted at them a bit, but they were pretty frazzled. I waved goodbye and told them to have a nice day.

Normally, if I saw a dog just out on the street I wouldn't approach it, but the dog looked like it was still a puppy (a big puppy, but still a puppy), and he was behaving like a puppy who just got away with something. He also looked like he wasn't paying attention to the street, so I felt the dog was probably going to get itself hit if someone didn't catch him. Besides, it was just as likely the dog would stay away rather than come up, so I wasn't going to make the situation any worse.

A low-risk hero, but still a hero.

[vremya]

You are a hero!

[Pan Narrans]

Originally Posted by vremya

Who's a hero? You are!

[Miss Shelby]

I just purchased 2 tickets to David Sedaris coming to town Oct 29. Now I have to break it to my husband. And it was like 250 quid for two tickets and that’s the nosebleed section. He’s having a book signing at the end and I’ve heard he doesn’t leave till all books are signed. But that’s in rinky dink bookstores. I’m gonna tell my husband it’s my Christmas present 🎁

[Ensign Steve]

I couldn't sleep last night because of anxiety about work so I took a Klonapin and shopped for art supplies online.

[ceptimus]

I added a roaming + data plan to my phone before flying to Cyprus. But it didn't work, and I wasted hours yesterday arguing with the morons at 3.co.uk via text chat (using a cafe's WiFi), and then voice chat on a borrowed phone. Gave up on them today, and bought a cheap 2nd SIM card and data package from a beachfront kiosk. That was also not a completely smooth ride, but the phone is working with at the moment, from a village 500 metres up in the hills above Pafos.

[JoeP]

is life.

Also, mobile operators are out to fleece you and a local SIM card is always the answer.

[michio]

My family is being annoying with the baby coming up. My sister and brother-in-law keep asking me if I'm going to baptize the baby. I have no idea how to answer that. I just keep dodging the question because those discussions make me uncomfortable, "Uhh... we haven't even thought about that yet." *awkwardly changes conversation topic*

My wife and I are so completely unalike our families. Both of us come from predominantly conservative, religious families. We're not religious. Since we moved near a big city, we started occasionally visiting a Mahayana Buddhist temple for Sunday service. It's a lovely, welcoming, no-pressure, all beings welcome atmosphere. If I walk into a Christian church, it's a cool kids club, and I'm not part of it.

My wife and I wouldn't describe ourselves as Buddhist, but we like Thich Nhat Hahn's books and we discuss the teachings together and meditate together. It's made us feel slightly happier, and slightly less angry, and we do genuinely make an effort to be more empathetic of everyone, including people we dislike, as impossibly difficult as that is.

My wife and I are both weird, introverted, and socially awkward, which is really tough because everyone is super excited about this baby and people are starting to get nosey. I don't know how to handle nosey family members. I need to learn to enforce boundaries on certain things.

Random thing I'm fine admitting anonymously on the internet... I've grown close to my mother-in-law, but distant from my actual mom. She immigrated from the Philippines at age 30, and I was born here in America. There's a huge cultural rift between us. I consider myself American through and through with no connection to my Filipino or Chinese ancestry. I always felt like she never understood me, and I never wanted to take her advice on anything. I know she's always meant well, but I always felt like she never wanted to let me become my own person, and to this day, she doesn't understand you need to cut the umbilical cord at some point and let your kid become an adult.

I love my mother-in-law because she's not religious, doesn't talk about politics, and she's always been very sweet to me. I feel kinda weird and guilty about that.

The first time I called her mom was over text, and she got super-excited about that and immediately texted my wife saying how happy she is that I called her mom lol. She's sooo fucking cute, and not once has she ever lectured me or criticized me about anything or told me I can't do this or that because "that's not who I am". My actual mother on the other hand...

I think the last time I told my own mother I loved her was around 9 years old, just before my parents got divorced, which is no coincidence I'm sure. I've told my MIL I love her multiple times, I've told her I appreciate her, I've told her she's sweet and pretty, I've texted her just to check on her and see how she's doing. I feel gross and guilty about it.

Shit's complicated man.

[michio]

Originally Posted by ShottleBop

In early 2021, I went in for an eye exam, and they started arranging surgery to remove the growth. Then I got COVID, had a heart attack, and was on Plavix for a year, which delayed surgery.

How are you doing now? Any lingering covid symptoms? Are you treating the cause of the heart attack?

[ShottleBop]

Originally Posted by michio

How are you doing now? Any lingering covid symptoms? Are you treating the cause of the heart attack?

I'm doing well, now, thanks. Within two months after my heart attack, my atrial evacuation factor (30% just after the attack) was back into "normal" (52%-74%) range. (I was at 57%.)

My daughter-in-law (a doctor) believes the heart attack was triggered by the COVID, which is thrombogenic. But I am taking medicine to control my cholesterol, which has always been high. I don't tolerate statins well at all, but they've got new medicines, now, that don't work by blocking your body's production substances, like Coenzyme Q10, that are antecedents of cholesterol but which independently serve important roles in your body's metabolism. I inject Repatha every two weeks. It works by retarding apoptosis of cells in the liver that clear LDL from your blood, and has worked well, without causing the side effects I experienced on the more potent statins.

And I've been exercising regularly.

[specious_reasons]

Amazon just sent me this:

You've been invited into our exclusive Amazon Vine program!


Amazon Vine is an invitation-only program for Amazon's most insightful reviewers. You have been selected because you have consistently written helpful reviews over the course of your Amazon membership.

As a member of Vine, you will have the unique opportunity to request and receive FREE products in exchange for your honest and unbiased product reviews. You will have access to new items across hundreds of product categories, providing you the chance to try out different items. We encourage you to continue to write detailed and insightful reviews that reflect your opinion, regardless of whether or not you like the product you received, so that you can help millions of Amazon customers make informed buying decisions.

I have been an amazon customer for fucking ever, and I may have written a few dozen reviews, According to Amazon, I have more than 3,000 views on those reviews and 28 "hearts" - I presume people who have liked or found a review helpful. I'm hardly an influencer, and I wonder if this is more hassle than it's worth.

I suppose I should also check to make sure it's not a phishing email...

[viscousmemories]

That's interesting. I don't think I've ever written a review, but now I'm considering it. Free stuff!

[LarsMac]

seems legit.
I got an invite a while back, but it sounded like it could end up being rather time consuming, and we were on the road. Not a lifestyle that encourages gathering a lot of do-dads.

[specious_reasons]

I signed up. So far, I see a few "problems":

1. I'd be required to write a review for everything I get through this program. Considering I only reviewed a few dozen things in 20+ years, this is more effort than I typically am willing to exert.

2. The selection of things are limited to whatever is in the program. I scanned through the list of things and didn't find anything I wanted badly enough to write a review for.

3. The "pay rate" for this is negligible. Sure I get the item for free, but I will have to spend some amount of time to use and review it. I will probably only get things I was already inclined to use and review.

4. Anything I get through this program is considered taxable income. The income I get from this either needs to be small enough to be "noise" or offset some other way.

I don't see this radically altering my behavior.

[Ari]

My iPad went into a boot loop and my laptop is too old for the web, so at the moment I’m accessing the internets through the hilarious method of a bluetooth keyboard and iPhone, which works amazingly well for typing to a screen a fourth the size of the keyboard.

I’ve been planning on buying a new basic mac mini in the next month to rejoin the modern computing world anyway, so the iPad picked the right time to freak out, then I’ll see if I can fix it with the Mac Mini or if it needs to go into apple. It, like everything else has somehow gotten old.

[michio]

My baby is due in 9 weeks and I'm starting to freak out a little bit.

I was writing in my journal today and analyzing this. I think the anxiety isn't just the new parent anxiety people talk about, for me I think it goes back to a self-esteem issue I've struggled with for a long time, and probably always will to a degree. I'm worried about letting myself down, again, and in turn letting my wife and son down.

This issue started when I dropped out of college. It wasn't the dropping out of college that made me feel like a worthless piece of shit, it was knowing that I could have done better, but I chose not to. I chose to skip class. I chose to play video games. I chose to not do my homework.

Dr. K on youtube (HealthyGamerGG), who is a very good psych & therapist that caters to young people and terminally online people, had a good take on this. When we fail, it's not the failure itself that makes us feel bad, it's knowing we could have done better, but we chose not to. You can always find peace if you can look in the mirror and say, "I really did do my best, and I'm looking at the best possible version of myself and my reality right now." The outcome is almost irrelevant if you can sincerely do that without lying to yourself.

I'm working on some things right now + with the baby coming, it's overwhelming. I'm balancing being strict with my time management and not being too harsh on myself.

[ceptimus]

I don't believe anybody who claims they did the best they could in all aspects of their life. It's only human to be lazy, disinterested, or negligent about some things, at least some of the time.

If it's already happened, don't beat yourself up over it, and move on. If it's happening now, then you can try to do better, but be realistic and accept that you may fail to do so.

[specious_reasons]

I did notice that, while it didn't cure me of some of my worst habits, having a child entirely dependent on me made me more cognizant of things I couldn't choose not to do anymore. I still had bad days, but no one's perfect, and my kids never lacked for things they needed.

You seem like the kind of person who prepares, so I'm sure you've at least read one of the "what to expect" kind of books. Even if you haven't, trust your instincts. You have them, and they mostly work, and generally only fail in edge cases. Talk to your partner and work shit out. You'll get it.

[LarsMac]

When the kid gets here, you'll find a sense of wonder that will boll you over.
Hang on to that, keep it next to your heart, and everything else will work out.