Small Talk: Ughngnggh! Ugghhnnn!

[AngelaHunter]

36 minutes ago, OoohMaggie said:

Not wishing in any way to lower the tone here

Considering the topics that have been discussed here, including dick cakes and the colour of Daryl's pubic hair, I'm not sure that's possible.

[nachomama]

Honestly, seeing footage of Beetles or Elvis fans is so bizarre to me. No one has ever caused me to pee or pass out or any other number of things.

[nachomama]

How's this for scintillating conversation, the most "activity" Ive gotten on facebook was when I posted that Sun Chips suck. Hahaha Come on! they're just the red headed step-brother your mom made you take to the picnic.

[Mr. Sparkle]

I can't stand Sun Chips. If I see them at a party, I'll have one, and then remember that I hate them. I like when my wife buys them because then I don't eat them. 

[nachomama]

I don't like Bugles either, they're the cone shaped things? I used to stick them on my fingers to make sharp pointy claws. I honestly don't like them because my sister liked them.

I know what I "thought" was the meaning behind girlfriend in a coma but then what I googled. I'm not a fan of Morrisey, dude seriously needs to chillax. But my impressions at the time that girlfriend came out were that he's gay and he used girlfriend in a coma as a "beard" situation. Kinda like dudes who have girlfriends in "canada" no one ever sees them and he's gay so he just conveniently made himself unavailable or no one is going to ask questions. Supposedly it's about AIDS which makes sense as well. Basically about all the "lovers" being sick with unknown ailments and no one wanted to talk about it.

[madmax]

So, I need a bit of help.

My husband's boss invited us to his autistic son's high school graduation party.  My husband and his boss are pretty close.  I've never gone to graduation parties for people outside of family.  I don't know what the appropriate gift is.  Any ideas?

[Mr. Sparkle]

It used to be a briefcase or a pen, something scholarly like that. Gift card or check? That's an easy way out. 

A friend of mine had a college graduation party and got 4 briefcases. 

Edited May 4, 2021 by Superclam

[OoohMaggie]

For all those that think a stressful day at work involves being told your favourite lunchtime sandwich filling has sold out, 

This dude is awesome 🥵

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

6 hours ago, OoohMaggie said:

For all those that think a stressful day at work involves being told your favourite lunchtime sandwich filling has sold out

I don't think you appreciate how stressful this can be. 

[AngelaHunter]

On 5/4/2021 at 4:01 PM, madmax said:

So, I need a bit of help.

My husband's boss invited us to his autistic son's high school graduation party.  My husband and his boss are pretty close.  I've never gone to graduation parties for people outside of family.  I don't know what the appropriate gift is.  Any ideas?

IME, money is always appropriate and welcomed. These days, when 11-year-olds go to school with 700$ phones in their pockets, all kids already have every single gadget under the sun. You can't buy them clothes, so money is always a safe bet.

[madmax]

thanks @superclam and @angelahunter.

We decided on cash, now to determine the amount.  😬

[AngelaHunter]

27 minutes ago, madmax said:

thanks @superclam and @angelahunter.

We decided on cash, now to determine the amount.  😬

Maybe I'm living in the past - actually I know I am - but we're not talking graduating Harvard here, but high school. In my obsolete opinion and especially during these terrible times 100$ seems plenty to me.

[Mr. Sparkle]

We're giving my niece $250 for graduating from college. $100 for a friend graduating from high school seems appropriate. 

[madmax]

Whew!  You guys rock!  I was thinking $100 for a non-family member.  We gave both of our nieces and our god-children $200 for high school graduation and $300 for college graduation.  

Now, I get to go to a socially distant graduation party where I'll only know four people besides my husband, and two of them are the hosts. 😄

[Mr. Sparkle]

3 minutes ago, madmax said:

Now, I get to go to a socially distant graduation party where I'll only know four people besides my husband, and two of them are the hosts. 

Don't double-dip! 

[Nashville]

In other news: Wednesday I paid off the balance on the truck I bought last year AND cleaned off our only credit cards with any kind of balance - so I am officially debt-free.

[OoohMaggie]

13 hours ago, AngelaHunter said:

In my obsolete opinion and especially during these terrible times 100$ seems plenty to me.

Yup, I am officially cheap 😔

[OoohMaggie]

12 hours ago, Nashville said:

so I am officially debt-free.

Managing that with a Wife and Children? You’re a credit to Men around the world Sir 👏
I wonder if I should have added the words  ‘despite having’ somewhere in that sentence 🤔 😁

Edited May 7, 2021 by OoohMaggie

[Mr. Sparkle]

5 hours ago, Nashville said:

In other news: Wednesday I paid off the balance on the truck I bought last year AND cleaned off our only credit cards with any kind of balance - so I am officially debt-free.

Congrats! I don't carry any credit card debt, but I have 10 years left on my mortgage, and the kids will start college in 4 years, so.... 

[madmax]

10 hours ago, Nashville said:

In other news: Wednesday I paid off the balance on the truck I bought last year AND cleaned off our only credit cards with any kind of balance - so I am officially debt-free.

Awesome!!!!!

Such a great feeling when you have no debt.  We paid off our mortgage last year so the only debt we have now is Rugrat #1's school loans.  I've been paying them through last year, even when payments weren't expected due to COVID, plus I put a little more on each time.  Hoping to get that done soon.

At least the military will pay for Rugrat #2's schooling.  I really was kidding when I told him when he was a kid to join the military to pay for his college.

[madmax]

6 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

You mean your mere presence isn't enough of a gift?

I graduated from high school in the 80s and the most I received in dollar amounts were $20.00.  That may not seem like much to some, but people give out what they can afford, so I appreciated that they were willing to give anything at all.

Also, gift giving sets a precedent.  If you give a high school graduate a certain amount of money, if that person goes off to college and graduates, prepare to give a bigger financial gift.

Cash is a better option than gift cards.  If people want to give a gift and and not cash as a gift, and the recipient is going to college, it ought to be an item that they can use in college. 

I wish it was.  I think I'm a gift to some...

I, too, graduated in the 80s and I didn't even have a party.  A few relatives gave me some money, but not a lot.  Not a wealthy family by any means.

We just need to remember what we give this kid so that when his boss invites us to the next kid's graduation, we can give the same amount.

When we had the graduation parties for our kids, we only invited family and one set of super close friends (honorary Aunt and Uncle).  Then my SIL asked if we were having a party when my oldest graduated college.  Uh, no, we're buying him a vehicle and that's more important.  Then, of course, my husband bowed to her peer pressure and thought we should have a party for his college graduation.  so we had a dinner at a local hibatchi place.

The kids did make out, tho...

[AngelaHunter]

2 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

You are not alone.  I think spending a $100.00 for a high school graduation gift is a bit much, especially for a non-family member. 

As do I, but it seems these days high school proms are being treated like royal weddings, with limos, 1K dresses, red carpets, 150 guests, and replicas of amusement parks for the hotel reception. This will be done by many even if the parents can't afford it and have to beg, borrow, to go into deep CC debt@24% interest to do it.

All this makes me wonder what how these blow-out high school parties will be topped when daughter gets married.

I was trying to remember what I got for the amazing feat of getting through high school. Oh, yeah - now I recall. Nothing.😄 We had a dance at the high school gym with crepe paper streamers and I think there may have been some sandwiches but I'm not sure. I'm fine with all that.

[Mr. Sparkle]

53 minutes ago, icemiser69 said:

Out of the ten kids that family had, only one of those kids had a successful marriage.  The rest of the children were so self-absorbed, that they had no capacity to put anyone else first.  And as anyone who is in any successful relationship knows, is that the only way that any relationship is going to work is if there is a lot of give and take.  Which means, putting others first, and none of those neighbor kids (now adults) understood that.

I watched Willy Wonka yesterday, and I'm reminded of the refrain: "Who do you blame when your kid is a - BRAT!" 

[nachomama]

On 5/6/2021 at 8:25 PM, madmax said:

Whew!  You guys rock!  I was thinking $100 for a non-family member.  We gave both of our nieces and our god-children $200 for high school graduation and $300 for college graduation. 

Now I feel like I graduated in the middle ages. I was getting $20! Awesomely awkward as well because they were handing me graduation money at my mother's funeral. Cheap bastards can't even mail a card with the money, they're like "we are here might as well shove some money at the girl"

I have made the egregious error of agreeing to babysit my friends cat. Here's the deal, the house-sits every year for a wealthy family in Hilton Head, I think it's kind of a lucrative deal for her. She gets to hang out in fancy schmancy and walk the dog or dogs, few times a day and they pay well for this. She recently acquired a cat. Why she can't take the cat with her or even leave the premises once or twice a day to go home and feed the cat, I don't know. Perhaps she feels the cat can't be alone. Not only do I not want the thing in my house, it's a pain to close off my office for when I'm working at night but also just ....CAT! I don't want to face time the cat with her or leave it alone in my house, I haven't cat proofed in a while. My cat used to dig through my bathroom trash for qtips, my cat was odd. I don't want this cat in my stuff. My cat used to love to go into my closet and just sit in the dark, my closet door is broken and I can't close it. I don't want to hunt for the cat if it goes under a bed. I have a porch, not the most escape proof, but also can't leave it all day out there. I have a cat "gymboree" which is basically a cage. I got it for my cat with ladders and a hammock swing but essentially it's a cage, my cat I left the door open and he could go in and out the cat door. I aint got time to teach that to the new kid. She may think it's child abuse if I leave her in the cage when I'm out. She sends me pictures several times a day of her cat and quite frankly I don't want to send them to her while it's in my custody. (I shall not be getting paid the way she gets paid for the housesitting)

Edited May 10, 2021 by nachomama

[OoohMaggie]

Way to go Ginger Whinger, that’s the way to make yourself welcome, I hope you guys Chuck him in the back of a truck and deposit him south of the border, sorry Mexicans but the Canadians have already had their turn 😁

[OoohMaggie]

They say they do things bigger and better in the US, I’m kinda getting that 😲

 

[AngelaHunter]

On 5/11/2021 at 3:59 PM, icemiser69 said:

The problem you have is with your friend, not the cat. 

It is never the animal's fault. Ever. Nothing wrong with not wanting a pet. I just wish people who don't want pets wouldn't get one and then neglect or dump it. I did cat rescue for years, not because I wanted my house filled with foster cats and litters of kittens making messes but because I felt sorry for them so often being seen as disposible trash and worthless because owners got them for free. Cats don't like being alone, but no one should feel obligated to unwillingly take in someone else's cat if they refer to it as "the thing". It sounds like this cat has gone through enough and If the owner can't or won't care for it properly - spend a few bucks and hire a petsitter to come in -  she might contact a rescue to see if they will take it and rehome it with someone who will care for it.  Our rescue would not take cats from owners looking to dump them because they've become inconvenient or they're tired of them or because their black fur shows up on new white carpets, but some rescues will.

2 hours ago, OoohMaggie said:

Way to go Ginger Whinger, that’s the way to make yourself welcome,

What imbecilic thing has the poor Ginger Cuck done now?😏

[OoohMaggie]

16 hours ago, AngelaHunter said:

What imbecilic thing has the poor Ginger Cuck done now?😏

Apparently his comments about the 1st Amendment have upset a great many 🤐

[nachomama]

I don't quite get why you would think I'd harm the cat or the cat is being neglected. The cat will be with me for 4 days. She's not neglecting it and I'm not neglecting it. Jesus. All I'm saying is that while I'm working (a 4 hour shift) it will have to entertain itself in a freaking cat gymboree in the kitchen. This is not 6 months where I'm locking the cat in a dark closet with no food and water. Sheesh.

Sarcasm is my thing. I harm no animals. The gymboree is literally a plaything for cats, yes you can close a door but they have activities. I get fired if the cat is in the room with me and meows or walks over my keyboard. I don't actually think she will want to facetime with the cat but if she did I would find it silly. I think she is probably super cat mom and its new for her. She could literally spend all day with the cat, she's less than 3 miles from the house sitting gig, she is allowed to leave. 3-4 days, not a lifetime.

Edited May 17, 2021 by nachomama

[Mr. Sparkle]

I'm not saying I check out mentally in the last 45 minutes or so of work at the office, but I'm kind of saying exactly that. 

[nachomama]

Dude if I get much done after lunch it's a miracle.

I did go see "Army of the Dead" I liked it. Carnage and violence to soothe my soul. Not that I have stress or anything. #hardpants

[madmax]

Speaking of hard pants, this is the time of year that I swap out my winter clothes for summer clothes.  I had to donate about 10 pairs of hard pants that no longer fit over my pandemic-inducted chubbiness.  Including my favorites.  ☹️

But in good news, my son is home on leave for a week!  His license was expiring, so even tho our state doesn't require him to have an updated license while on active duty, he decided to come home and get his picture redone, plus spend his 21st birthday at home. 😁

[nachomama]

How far away is your son? My friend's son is in Idaho and they are planning to go there after christmas for some weird snow mobiling trip. Like snowmobiling I can do, she says it's super cheap. Skiing? I'd be dead in 4.2 seconds. I might last 10 seconds on the snowmobile. She says it's super cheap with some national park pass (military discount maybe?) but it includes your cabin and having snowmobiles for your stay.

[OoohMaggie]

On 5/19/2021 at 3:24 PM, nachomama said:

Carnage and violence to soothe my soul.

Carnage and violence certainly does it for me, I watched ‘Manhunter’ last night for the 153rd time, I slept like a baby with half a bottle of vodka in its bottle 😴

[madmax]

11 hours ago, nachomama said:

How far away is your son? My friend's son is in Idaho and they are planning to go there after christmas for some weird snow mobiling trip. Like snowmobiling I can do, she says it's super cheap. Skiing? I'd be dead in 4.2 seconds. I might last 10 seconds on the snowmobile. She says it's super cheap with some national park pass (military discount maybe?) but it includes your cabin and having snowmobiles for your stay.

He's at Camp Lejeune, NC, I'm in PA.  About a 10-11 hour drive, depending on traffic.  It's been really difficult, tho, to get leave during the pandemic.  They've just started allowing them to go just anywhere.  We had trouble last year because COVID cases were really high in our area and they weren't allowing trips here, so he went to my SIL's camp in a different county with very low case numbers.

We met up half way last year, in VA.  We went to some park where they charge per car and we got in totally free due to his military discount.  Probably the same type of thing.

I sucked at skiing.  I couldn't even snowplow properly.  Snowmobile might not be so bad; I've driven an ATV and I would think it's similar.  I wouldn't say I was good at it, but I probably wouldn't die.

5 hours ago, OoohMaggie said:

Carnage and violence certainly does it for me, I watched ‘Manhunter’ last night for the 153rd time, I slept like a baby with half a bottle of vodka in its bottle 😴

Manhunter, the Michael Mann movie?  With the original Hannibal Lecter?  Awesome movie.

Edited May 21, 2021 by madmax

[OoohMaggie]

 

10 hours ago, madmax said:

Manhunter, the Michael Mann movie?  With the original Hannibal Lecter?  Awesome movie.

Everything that followed just couldn’t compete, even though I know it’s coming the squeak of the wheelchair still scares the s**t out of me 😱

[madmax]

On 5/19/2021 at 10:24 AM, nachomama said:

I did go see "Army of the Dead" I liked it. Carnage and violence to soothe my soul. Not that I have stress or anything. #hardpants

We watched that tonight on Netflix and I thought it was awful.  Obviously, I give zombie movies some serious leeway, but it used up all of it about a third of the way thru.

[OoohMaggie]

17 hours ago, madmax said:

We watched that tonight on Netflix and I thought it was awful.  Obviously, I give zombie movies some serious leeway, but it used up all of it about a third of the way thru

I was going to watch it tomorrow night, I can recommend a decent zombie movie, Train To Busan, it’s a South Korean movie, no seriously, if you can handle the English subtitles it’s well worth the effort, I don’t know if it’s on US Netflix, it’s not over here, as per usual, but if you can you should give it a go.

Edited May 23, 2021 by OoohMaggie

[madmax]

1 hour ago, OoohMaggie said:

I was going to watch it tomorrow night, I can recommend a decent zombie movie, Train To Busan, it’s a South Korean movie, no seriously, if you can handle the English subtitles it’s well worth the effort, I don’t know if it’s on US Netflix, it’s not over here, as per usual, but if you can you should give it a go.

It was on Netflix here, not sure if it still is.  I tried to watch it but it was all in Korean and I couldn't figure out how to turn the subtitles on.  I don't know if I'm that stupid, or Netflix is just that bad.  I managed to get them on Amazon Prime when I was watching The Boys.

I really do want to see that one; I've heard great things about it.

[OoohMaggie]

18 hours ago, madmax said:

I don't know if I'm that stupid, or Netflix is just that bad. 

Well I’m saying nothing 🤐,  I had a spell a while back when I watched loads of foreign language shows on Netflix, there are some really good things to watch, there was a Turkish show about their equivalent to your ‘SWAT’ teams which was fantastic, a modern Italian gangster show, many,many shows about the Mexican cartels, none of which I would normally have considered watching.If you can put up with subtitles there’s so much good stuff out there to discover, especially when English language offerings seem to be getting worse as time goes by. 

Edited May 24, 2021 by OoohMaggie

[madmax]

33 minutes ago, OoohMaggie said:

If you can put up with subtitles there’s so much good stuff out there to discover, especially when English language offerings seem to be getting worse as time goes by. 

I don't have a problem with subtitles, Mr. Max does.  but I have convinced him to watch a few things with subtitles.

I'll have to try again on Netflix.  I do think I was just that stupid...

[nachomama]

There is some Spanish series on Netflix that is supposed to be very good about a crew of like 5-6 female bank robbers. Money Heist. I have a friend who won't shut up about it but I don't necesarily always listen to her but then I saw some article about the 10 greatest things on netflix that aint in english.

I wasn't looking for any kind of quality out of Army of the Dead, There were a couple plot lines that were instant "stfu" for me. I like Tig Notaro and I liked Dieter.

[Nashville]

On 5/20/2021 at 7:52 PM, madmax said:

Manhunter, the Michael Mann movie?  With the original Hannibal Lecter?  Awesome movie.

This may be an unpopular opinion here, but I’ve always felt Brian Cox’s Hannibal Lecter was SO much more disturbing than Anthony Hopkins’ take on the character - the very embodiment of “unsettling”.

Also: in most cases when there are multiple versions of a movie, I prefer the version which follows its original source material - Thomas Harris’ novel “Red Dragon” in this case - but Manhunter is one of those rare exceptions.  The ending of the later-released Red Dragon was significantly closer to that of the book than Manhunter, but IMHO Red Dragon comes up WAY short in the comparison.  Action, pacing, cinematography, soundtrack even - Manhunter wins hands down.

A long while back I came to the conclusion Red Dragon was made solely to cash in on Anthony Hopkins’ acclamations from Silence of the Lambs - and not taking anything away from Hopkins, but remaking an entire movie simply to reprise one relatively incidental supporting character is rarely a good idea.

[madmax]

3 hours ago, Nashville said:

This may be an unpopular opinion here, but I’ve always felt Brian Cox’s Hannibal Lecter was SO much more disturbing than Anthony Hopkins’ take on the character - the very embodiment of “unsettling”.

Also: in most cases when there are multiple versions of a movie, I prefer the version which follows its original source material - Thomas Harris’ novel “Red Dragon” in this case - but Manhunter is one of those rare exceptions.  The ending of the later-released Red Dragon was significantly closer to that of the book than Manhunter, but IMHO Red Dragon comes up WAY short in the comparison.  Action, pacing, cinematography, soundtrack even - Manhunter wins hands down.

A long while back I came to the conclusion Red Dragon was made solely to cash in on Anthony Hopkins’ acclamations from Silence of the Lambs - and not taking anything away from Hopkins, but remaking an entire movie simply to reprise one relatively incidental supporting character is rarely a good idea.

I agree with everything you've said.

The movie was recommended to us by a video store clerk (remember those?).  I absolutely loved it and thought Brian Cox was excellent in just a few scenes.  I found the book and read it and loved it despite the differences.  .

I wasn't as fond of Red Dragon, even though I love both Edward Norton and Ralph Fiennes.  It was just lacking.

Since Harris wrote Hannibal to cash in on the popularity of Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal was one of only two books that I literally threw against the wall) and totally ruined Starling, it wouldn't surprise me that the movie was made solely to cash in on Hopkins' acclamations.  

[OoohMaggie]

14 hours ago, Nashville said:

This may be an unpopular opinion here, but I’ve always felt Brian Cox’s Hannibal Lecter was SO much more disturbing than Anthony Hopkins’ take on the character - the very embodiment of “unsettling”.

 

Couldn’t agree more.

[Nashville]

On 5/24/2021 at 7:50 PM, madmax said:

I found the book and read it and loved it despite the differences.

I did the same thing back in the ‘80s, and liked the book Red Dragon as well - but did you get the same impression I did that the ending of the book seemed... rushed?  I always had half a notion Harris still had a significant amount of story in mind to tell, but his publisher was pushing him hard to meet a manuscript deadline.  The last 2-3 chapters had a real “he does this, then this, then this, and we’re done” feel to them - at least, I thought so; totally off-pace from the rest of the book.

[madmax]

1 hour ago, Nashville said:

I did the same thing back in the ‘80s, and liked the book Red Dragon as well - but did you get the same impression I did that the ending of the book seemed... rushed?  I always had half a notion Harris still had a significant amount of story in mind to tell, but his publisher was pushing him hard to meet a manuscript deadline.  The last 2-3 chapters had a real “he does this, then this, then this, and we’re done” feel to them - at least, I thought so; totally off-pace from the rest of the book.

I seem to remember it winding up rather quickly.  But I read that so long ago.  Even my re-read was about 15 years ago.

[OoohMaggie]

My favourite scene in Manhunter was when Dolarhyde took Reba to experience the Tiger at the Zoo, was that scene in the book?

Edited May 27, 2021 by OoohMaggie

[Mr. Sparkle]

Anyone else in North America freezing their ass off? It is frigid here in NYC. 

[OoohMaggie]

14 hours ago, Superclam said:

Anyone else in North America freezing their ass off? It is frigid here in NYC. 

New artwork, is that you in your 70’s clubbing days? 😁