Small Talk: Chili's

[Kalliste]

I'm buying a new phone.. right now. I'm clicking on the cart right now. It's costing me $578AUD ($408USD) which is actually a good price, the cheapest I've ever seen. On the google store they're charging $739AUD/$522USD so it's a good discount. What if I hate it though.. I was waiting for this phone for months before its release and I don't feel as excited about it as expected.

 

But.. I need a new phone, it's the only one that I have been looking at (that I like) in the right price range with all the good stuff. So here goes.

[Babalu]

What kind of phone, Kalliste? I bet you'll love it when you get it and can play with all its features.

I have a Samsung Galaxy 5 and really like it. I don't use it a huge amount, but when I do, it's invaluable. My favorite things are (1) directions (especially in New York - it tells you exactly what train or bus to catch, where to catch it, walking directions, how long it will take - so handy!), (2) texting - I'm not a big texter, but useful when you're meeting friends and especially with my mom, who's very hard of hearing; (3) looking up reviews of restaurants if you're trying to decide where to eat on the run; and (4) wasting time in a dr's office or something.

I just sent myself a link about how to get rid of all those pesky pre-loaded apps you don't want, so that's a small project for this week.

[Kalliste]

It's the Nexus 5x Babalu. So on the plus side that means none of those pesky pre-loaded apps :)

 

my current one is the older Nexus 5 which I really like, I don't think I'll like the 5x as much but it is still a decent phone and I'm glad to have gotten it for that price. At least I know i got it at a comparable price to the USD listed price.

 

I use it mostly for Hangouts, Instagram, gmail and texting, sometimes Twitter too and the maps are very good. It's great when they're set up with your local public transport.

[King of Birds]

I think Kalliste is a fan, and perhaps possibilities? Maybe more?  But- you can enter to be an "alien overlord voice" on Rick and Morty.

[possibilities]

I've never watched "Rick and Morty" (who are they?) but I'm already an alien overlord. How did everyone not know that?

 

I used to eat my brussels sprouts boiled-- loved them. I'm currently allergic to everything in that botanical family (brassicas)-- who knew histamines could be so militant in the face of cabbage?

[Kalliste]

Rick and  Morty are awesome! That's who they are! #RickAndMorty100Years! Ahem.. It's a Dan Harmon (of Community fame) and Justin Roiland animated show about drunk mad scientist Rick and his less smart grandson Morty and their adventures through space! It's an Adult Swim show (which I assume will warn you) and full of obscenities and offensive jokes.

 

As a reference in one episode (maybe even the first episode I can't remember) their dog Snowball (as he likes to call himself but they named him Snuffles) becomes an evil overlord and questions granddaughter Summer on the whereabouts of his testicles:

[sacrebleu]

I know KoB and I are eagerly anticipating our Powerball winnings, is anyone else playing?

 

And if you do win, how quickly would you leave your job? Would you tell your boss/annoying colleague off before you left, or escape quietly before anyone could hit you up for money?

[possibilities]

Enjoyed the Rick and Morty clip. The only animated show I watch these days is Steven universe, but I am beginning to see that my anti-animation aesthetic does seem to be causing me to miss out on some good stuff.

 

If I came into a windfall on the order of Powerball, I would change my life immediately, but I'd probably go as quietly as possible so as to minimize the need to discuss it with the People and Places I am eager to leave behind.

[MichelleAK]

I know KoB and I are eagerly anticipating our Powerball winnings, is anyone else playing?

 

And if you do win, how quickly would you leave your job? Would you tell your boss/annoying colleague off before you left, or escape quietly before anyone could hit you up for money?

 

No Powerball (or other lotteries) up here.  I have played a couple of times when visiting my mom in Arizona, but (obviously) no winners.

 

I actually work with a pretty good group of people, so I would give formal notice so they could find a replacement without being left in the lurch.  I'd only tell my immediate boss the reason for leaving, though, and try to keep it quiet if I did win.

 

Beyond that, though, I'd be out of Alaska like lightning after leaving my job.  Head south for the rest of the winter, and then spend the next year just traveling and being a tourist, before relocating permanently. None of that "my lifestyle won't change at all" for me!

[Kalliste]

Enjoyed the Rick and Morty clip. The only animated show I watch these days is Steven universe, but I am beginning to see that my anti-animation aesthetic does seem to be causing me to miss out on some good stuff.

You might like Gravity Falls then. A lot of people have suggested Steven Universe to me because I watch Gravity Falls. I've watched a few episodes but not hooked yet.

 

An intro to Gravity Falls:

 

If I were to win a bunch of money (not that I ever actually play any of the lotteries) it would really depend on how big of a win it was. I'd probably go out slowly, pay off my house and eventually give notice to my job. I wouldn't want to cause suspicion.

 

I was thinking I'd put my house up for sale but I guess if you've won a massive amount of cash you odn't really need to do that so I'd probably keep it, employ some caretakers and the like :P then go somewhere coastal and buy a place, probably also buy a city apartment in Melbourne and then also travel overseas and see what other places I can buy/live :P And then rotate around all my new houses depending on where the climate is best at the time.

 

Maybe I should also buy my own get :D I have no idea how much jets cost though.

[King of Birds]

No Powerball (or other lotteries) up here. 

Whaaaat?  No PB up in the AK? Palins but no Powerball. Damn, that's just cruel.

 

Why should I watch Gravity Falls?

 

(ahem)

 

"I will watch The Wire, when I watch The Wire!"  - myspace blog, December 2006  - you need to go about halfway down the linked page to get the joke.

 

And if you do win, how quickly would you leave your job? Would you tell your boss/annoying colleague off before you left, or escape quietly before anyone could hit you up for money?

As I'm running my own small biz with one employee, I'd probably see through the current projects, help the employee find a new job, and then tell my clients I'm taking an extended vacation. A very long, extended vacation. WITHOUT MY CELLPHONE.

 

And then? JETPACK CITY!!!

Edited January 9, 2016 by King of Birds

[Kalliste]

That is pretty accurate of me about Gravity Falls.. and I DID tell people LOST was good they just can't skip every episode and well, I said The Sopranos was ok.. I've never actually watched The Wire, I have no idea what it's about. I guess I don't have any obsessive TV types telling me to do it yet :P Mostly because I am the annoying obsessive type.

[possibilities]

Heh. I actually did watch The Wire (eventually) and I did wind up thinking it was one of the most brilliant shows ever made. But it took me about half a season before I started to like it. I was so bored and annoyed by it for such a long time, and only kept going because of all the people promising me I would wind up loving it. And then, finally, I saw the genius of it and they were right. But it's the only show I've kept watching so long before I began liking it.

 

There is too much great TV nowadays, to watch all the good stuff. My methods of choosing are not strictly based on genius, though. Sometimes I just want easy crap to occupy me when I can't sleep, not something to blow my mind and keep me awake.

 

I do have an employee, but if I won enough money to quit everything and just live off the balance, I'd give her a huge severance paycheck of her own to retire on. She's retirement age anyway, but keeps working because she can't make ends meet otherwise. So she wouldn't mind being out of a job. Since this is a fantasy, I can take care of her family as well as my own. Win-win. Or maybe I'd hire her to do my bookkeeping or something. I'd need someone to keep track of my windfall, right? Nothing like endless cash to create a feeling of options. Too bad it's just a fantasy.

[Babalu]

We don't have PowerBall - or any kind of lottery or legal gambling here - but I had my brother buy me a couple of draws and promised him 20% of my millions + a whale-watching excursion when he comes to visit me next month. Since I'm retiring at the end of next month AND am already paralyzed with indecision on where to end up AND can't imagine living a lavish lifestyle, being obscenely wealthy might not make a huge difference. I'd probably just go to New York more often and see more plays. And get a daily massage until I got sick of them, which would be never.

[smrou]

And if you do win, how quickly would you leave your job? Would you tell your boss/annoying colleague off before you left, or escape quietly before anyone could hit you up for money?

I do not play the lottery so I will obviously never win. But if I did win a huge amount of money I would definitely leave my job, but I'm pretty sure I'd finish out the school year in progress so that I wouldn't leave my school and students in the lurch. And thankfully there are no coworkers/bosses I feel the need to tell off. 

 

But the thought of leaving my job is a little weird. I'm definitely not the sort of person who lives for my job and I'd always choose not working over working...but I love having students and interacting with them. I find it genuinely difficult to say goodbye to my students who are graduating, but at least there's always another group of students to look forward to. I look forward to retiring, but the idea of never having any more students is tough to wrap my head around and is not a happy thought.

[Kalliste]

I think your students are lucky to have you as a teacher then smrou! I wish many of my teachers in school had cared enough about their students to consider things like that.

[sacrebleu]

*sigh*

I didn't win Powerball OR Starbucks "win for life," today is tough.

[Kalliste]

rough day :P

 

My phone arrived, it's actually pretty goood. Plus.. led, I never thought I'd miss a little pulsing light so much. I don't know how iphone users do it.

[King of Birds]

I yanked a (hopefully lucky) $20 bill out of the vault and splurged on the Powerball while at lunch.

 

Supposedly the 1.5bil only comes out to $930 mil cash payout. I REALLY need you guys to step up and bump it up, so I can win a cool Billion. OK? 

 

Am I asking for too much? This, plus jetpacks?  Yeah. You see, I can hear it. I'm asking for too much.  SO LET ME START DEMANDING!!! GET OUT THERE! MAKE ME A BILLIONAIRE!!!   MWAHhahahahahahaa!!!!!!

[possibilities]

Only 930 mil? Pshaw! How can we possibly retire on that kind of scratch?

[King of Birds]

^^  EXACTLY!  How?

 

I'm doing my research, reading all these articles today: What to do with the money if you actually win tonight's powerball, the 10 dumbest things you can do if you win the 1.5bil powerball,  taking the lump sum vs annuity, the "sudden wealth solution" etc.  ... It's homework!

 

I'm very upset with the "10 dumbest things you can do" - it doesn't even mention one or two of the dumb things I've thought about!  (Yes, INVESTING IN JETPACKS is not mentioned!)

[King of Birds]

 

 

I refuse to look at my tickets. I want this feeling to last a bit more....

 

eta2: Dammit.

 

I got ONE powerball # so I think that means $2.  So I contributed $18 to a billionaire. This is like buying a cheap lunch for Mark Cuban.

Edited January 14, 2016 by King of Birds

[Kalliste]

I suppose $2 is better than $0 :P

 

Today I purchased a Fitbit Flex.. I remember someone else had one in the thread. The lack of documentation is a bit sad but I think I've got it now.

[sacrebleu]

I won nothing, but the place where I bought my tickets actually sold a $50K winner, to someone other than me!

 

The nerve.

[Glory]

I won $8! But I spent $30... soo..... I'll trade it in for some scratchers. 

[Pixel]

I played Keno once for hours in Vegas and won nothing. It pretty much made me realize playing the Lotto is futile.

[Kalliste]

I think this is one of those "only in Australia" news stories.. A woman had her arm bitten off by a 'rogue croc'. I can't imagine that any croc would be ok with you to get close to it and not consider biting your arm off:

The death of the problematic croc

[King of Birds]

A woman had her arm bitten off by a 'rogue croc'.

Soon to be a SyFy movie!

And then the sequel- Good Croc / Bad Croc

Coming to terms to just being "regular King of Birds" and not "Gazillionaire King of Birds." And OH YES, I was ready to change my PTV name tout de suite on Thursday.

[Kalliste]

You could change it and just pretend. You can be anything you want to be on PTV :P I mean the whole forum is about things that are make believe :D

[Too Late Kev]

I bought 3 Powerball tickets, quick pick. I think one of the picks had 2 numbers the same as the winning number...I'm assuming that doesn't get me any money.

 

I hadn't done any homework about what to do if I won such an enormous amount of money, but my general plan was: 1) tell my hubby; 2) find a money person and a lawyer to figure out what to do before coming forward; and 3) give each of my family members a certain amount of money (yearly, if I took the yearly thing instead of lump-sum). That's as far as I got before the number came out and I knew I didn't have to give it any more thought.

 

I've been absent since Christmas or so. I have 2 seniors in high school, and most of the college applications were due in early January. So...that's what I've been doing. All the applications are in now and it's a waiting game to see who wants these mangy children.

[Pixel]

I always have a problem with the killing of wild animals because they did what they were born to do.

[Kalliste]

I always have a problem with the killing of wild animals because they did what they were born to do.

And in this case to call it a 'problematic' animal. I wonder what they call the other crocodiles who just kill other animals..

[Pixel]

And in this case to call it a 'problematic' animal. I wonder what they call the other crocodiles who just kill other animals..

Exactly. We encroach on their habitats and then we kill them when they do the only thing they know how to do to survive. It doesn't quite seem fair.

Edited January 16, 2016 by Pixel

[Kalliste]

So I tried to buy something online today and was having issues so figured I might try sign up for paypal and do it that way. It informed me I already had an account so I did the password reset thing and was able to login to a super old account and find out that my exboyfriend had continued to use it for 12 months after we broke up and it had my bank account details and potentially a credit card (until it expired) on there. I don't think he took any money out of my account but it's a bit annoying that he wouldn't update it to his own information.

 

Anyway, too bad I guess. I deleted the account and created a new one just in case.

[Pixel]

So I tried to buy something online today and was having issues so figured I might try sign up for paypal and do it that way. It informed me I already had an account so I did the password reset thing and was able to login to a super old account and find out that my exboyfriend had continued to use it for 12 months after we broke up and it had my bank account details and potentially a credit card (until it expired) on there. I don't think he took any money out of my account but it's a bit annoying that he wouldn't update it to his own information.

 

Anyway, too bad I guess. I deleted the account and created a new one just in case.

Wow. You're very lucky he wasn't the sort to do way more damage than that!  

[Kalliste]

Yeah. I'm surprised actually. He is actually the sort that would have slowly taken little bits of money out and hoped I didn't notice. It is a bit hard to track payments on paypal for things that are so old but from what I could see it didn't appear as though any money had been put into the account from my bank.

 

Potentially it needed confirmation or something before being able to although he could have updated the phone number and removed my email address altogether.

 

So lucky me that he didn't think about it or wasn't smart enough to work out how to do it. He stole enough from me over the years as it was.

[King of Birds]

It was a long con. Now it's broken up all to heck.  Way to go, K.

 

'Twas a madcap movie weekend for me.  Saturday I saw The Big Short. Sunday I saw Brooklyn.  Today I saw The Revenant.  Plus I caught some of the Angie Tribeca binge.  We need more 3 day long weekends. Wait-should I have started to do tax stuff?

 

.....  Nah.

[smrou]

I watched the first two episodes of Angie Tribeca but I think that show's not for me. I did see The Revenant last week, which is one of those movies that I can appreciate for being extremely well made and I enjoyed it for that reason, but...man, it's just so grim. However, I saw it immediately after The Force Awakens, which I think was probably a bad idea. Because TFA is just so much fun and then The Revenant is a real downer. 

 

How was The Big Short? That's one I'm interested in seeing.

[sacrebleu]

Everybody should go see Brooklyn, it's seriously very good. I took my parents to see it last weekend-- my dad was second gen Irish American who grew up in Brooklyn in the 40's-50's, and both my parents loved the book. (Plus, I'm pretty sure the last time my dad went to the movies it was to see the first Pirates of the Caribbean). 

 

and I seriously coveted most of Saoirse Ronan's wardrobe-- can we make peter pan collar blouses a thing again?

[Glory]

I bought a new car! My 16 year old Trail Blazer finally bit the dust and I was forced to replace it. Luckily, I found a steal of a deal at a Hyundai dealership my dad happened to know a guy at. So, I'm now the proud owner of a 2015 Hyundai Tuscon. It's very fancy. Like, too, fancy. My dogs are going to destroy it. 

[sacrebleu]

Hey Mid-Atlantic Chilli-ites, hope everyone is ready for this earth-ending blizzard. Stay warm and safe!

[King of Birds]

Jonas huh?  Batten the hatches! ... except, when they start hyping these storms, don't some of them just fail at "end of the world-itis"?  Some of the storms need some viagra or something.

 

As of Thursday morning, just over 73 million people – or roughly one in every four Americans – were covered by either a blizzard watch, winter storm watch, winter storm warning, winter weather advisory, or freezing rain advisory from southeast Nebraska to the Carolinas to the New York City area.

This storm coming just in time to act as a promo for You Me and the Apocalypse!

 

Everybody should go see Brooklyn, it's seriously very good.

 

I second this!

 

Also, sacrebleu- you're a tennis fan, right? What do you think of the current scandal?

[sacrebleu]

 

Also, sacrebleu- you're a tennis fan, right? What do you think of the current scandal?

I'm with Fed and Murray, name names and tournaments. There can't be any action if people accuse 'some' of throwing matches and don't give specifics. All it does is fuel gossip and doesn't fix anything. (but secretly, I'm totally blaming Djokovic because I just. don't. like. him.)

 

But what I love most about this story, is that there is a thing called the Tennis Integrity Unit, and it's headed by a man named Nigel Willerton. and quite rightly.

Edited January 21, 2016 by sacrebleu

[MichelleAK]

Woah!  Big earthquake here last night (162 miles SW), about 1:30am.  It was 7.1, and knocked a bunch of small stuff over.  One of my resin dolls fell over, but fortunately didn't break.  My large resin dolls shifted on their stands but I ran over and held them in place.  I felt it beginning, since I had a bit of insomnia and was just starting to doze off.  Locally, there were some isolated power outages, and a couple of normally 24-hour groceries had to close due to items falling.

 

Link to a news report:  7.1 earthquake rocks Southcentral Alaska

 

Closer to the epicenter, they had gas line breaks and leaks, and a road in Soldotna was cracked so badly they had to close it off.  

 

This was the first one in a long time that got my heart racing!

[King of Birds]

Glad you're okay Michelle!

 

eta- I checked out my fb and finally saw some pix of the storm. Did you all survive? The worst I saw wasn't snow but the terrible flooding along the Jersey shore.  sacrebleu- you ok in DC?  Not sure if the 2015 beleaguered New Englanders got any of this storm.

Edited January 24, 2016 by King of Birds

[frenchtoast]

We were thankfully spared--only about 5-6 inches by me. Yay! It's gotta be tough for DC/VA/WV/MD--even with all the snow moving equipment, it takes a lot of time to move that much snow.

[sacrebleu]

I survived, even made it outside yesterday to get some pictures of the snow. (the wind was brutal). 

 

We got about 20 inches- we'll see how long it will take to clean up. The mayor will score major points if things get back to normal by Wednesday.

 

The subway will only be partially operational tomorrow, so I suspect we won't have work. Well, we won't have to go to work, but my office has a big board meeting planned, so I still have plenty of stuff to do.

[Kalliste]

Happy Australia Day all. Now go eat some lamb, or something:

 

For some reason Lamb on Australia Day is a thing now.. I don't eat it at all though :P

 

Some people got quite upset about the vegan part. Take a joke vegans!

 

Now time to go off and be racist and disguise it as patriotism*, because THAT is what Australia Day is really all about in recent years.

 

 

*I'm actually just sitting at home enjoying a public holiday.

[sacrebleu]

Heh. Is lamb the new death chicken? 

[King of Birds]

Hope you enjoyed Australia Day, mate!

 

But TODAY is/ was NATIONAL CHOCOLATE CAKE DAY.  Which day would YOU rather celebrate? It's almost 7pm, I may need to head to the store to bring balance to the force and get some chocolate cake. Dammit!