Desiderius Price

@BronxWench  Sounds like a better location than the one I’ve gone to.  I mean, yes, the county is next to water, but the restaurant I’m referring to is at a shopping mall, not particularly scenic.

@Desiderius Price This one was right on the beach in Negril, Jamaica. Going out at night in Jamaica is sort of a walk on the wild side, and we mostly stayed at the resort, but we had to go for a sunset burger just to say we’d done it.

@BronxWench  Yeah, need to get a passport…. (my old one’s way past expired)

Sorry to hear. .  I know the feeling all too well.  .

I’m going to try to focus a bit on writing, see if that helps at all.  I did visit a friend last night on the way home, simply because I knew I couldn’t hold it together.  That did help.  But then, get home, and, well, cat’s no longer here.  I generally don’t cry, rarely get emotional, but this time … it’s a very raw, very real wound

btw, the next Jefferey episode might start off a bit dark….

Any “foolproof” plan just hasn’t met a big enough fool.

Absolutely, @GeorgeGlass!

Also, the ability to make a plan “foolproof” is always outstripped by the Universe’s evolution of fools.

Now, AFF policies are a bit more stringent than the other sites.  In addition to plagiarism, AFF doesn’t allow fanfic of fanfic (unless credited with permission of that other author); FFN is silent, AO3 has an “inspired by” annotation.  I make the distinction given that’s how I caught the writing-as-a-hobby bug; I was inspired by another fanfic, and I do credit that other author in the relevant fanfic (not posted here).

Does that mean there're no 50 Shades of Grey fics?  Since that's already Twilight fan fiction??  And how do you have more tags than stories?  That doesn't sound mathematically possible.  Anyways, thanks for the support peoples, I didn't know how much I needed that.

50 shades “filed the serial numbers off”, removed the elements that made it fanfic.  For my sequel to the fanfic of a fanfic, I could’ve done the same to bring it to AFF, but it didn’t feel right IMO and that’s why it remains on FFN & AO3 instead (or track down that other author two decades later...).

AO3 has 16M tags, 8M stories (according to their search engine).  As authors can freeform tags, they obviously got creative, like each story is required to create two tags, on average.  It’s so many that I check the “Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings” box to cover my arse. 

But yeah, you’re welcome.  Supporting authors is a nice thing here, the forums, being able to whine or stick up for others, and have a shoulder to lean on when needed.

Then there’s getting the LOTR fans with “Say, did you ever read Celebrían?”

Ah.. you can’t get me there. One does not simply forget Celebrian.

And honestly? Given the choice between that and Legolas by Laura… ? Compared to that Celebrian was actually kind of well-written, and in some ways much easier to stomach, as it were. I know which one would make me scream first if put on constant repeat, and it’d be the one without proper use of full stops and commas…

If only Celebrian had been written withoutthe endless bucketloads of semen, unrealistic horse and warg rape, and with just a little bit more attention to the elements of psychological torture and horror elements… wait, what am I saying?!

Sorry. Yes. *dutifully falls into line*

Still wonders if it could be saved, privately.

Though, for a halloween fic, I’ll keep it shorter, obviously, but yeah, this has potential.  (I’ve already trashed like three or four starts to it.)

Some teflon tape and some sealant around the “plug” in a port, I’m testing it now.  (This pump, I’m guessing, is designed to be able to feed more than a single hose, it was seeping around the plug of a disused port, and water was seeping, a slow trickle, but I could notice it.)

Let’s hope that works!

Seems to now be leak free…. though I may consider putting some redesign into this setup, maybe go for a bigger pump?

… What cream if I may ask? I’m not allergic to aloe but I’d rather have a backup option.

Vaseline’s “Advance Repair” for skin, sort of helps, for a couple of hours.   (It’s what I had in the cabinet w/o having to go anywhere.)

Yeah, that summer I went windsurfing, every day afterwards I had sunburn in places I didn’t know the sun could even fall. Once I got home I’d just cover myself in whatever aloe vera or skin-care remedies were to hand and then flop down onto my bed for an hour or so until I stopped feeling like I’d been in the oven for too long.

What started this was a youtube video on the subject.  A quirk in the legality is that technically, it’s legal in most jurisdictions to consume human flesh, though the acquisition can be rather dicey.  Kinda like illegal drugs; it’s generally legal to consume said drugs, just illegal to possess, make, sell, buy, etc….

That’s actually really interesting. And made me totally ignore the cannibalism part and glom onto ‘oh maybe my MC didn’t commit a crime in that last scene. Good on ‘em.’ 

Figure dthat’s a good tidbit with the halloween stories right around the corner….

Link please?!

http://original.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600108774

Thanks!

It was grilled chicken on Friday, likely have some of that leftover tonight

I’ll think of you both while I make beef stew and grumble about finding parking for baseball practice with needs to be indoors because it’s freaking COLD here…

I did go out into it ala natural, so burr!

It’s not just the forums; I’ve been getting a lot of spam “reviews” in the archives, too.

But yeah, the wicker man solution sounds valid.

Cross my fingers, not an issue in my reviews, yet.  But yeah, tar & feathering’s too good for them.

Not even spammers review my stories, so I’m fine. lol

Final goodbye is always the bit that sucks.  I know, he couldn’t move without it hurting, and it was only going to get worse; nothing short of torture would delay the inevitable.  No, it was time to let go, let him join his brothers & sister(s) across the rainbow bridge.

Of the original six in the litter, I finalized on the three brothers after two sisters were adopted out and a third sister was killed in the road at a very young age.  I’ve not kept track of those two sisters, so they might still be alive, but also possible they have the kidney disease too.

so sorry for your loss Des. Hes in a better place now! *hugs*

It’s the little things that one starts to really miss.  Going into the bedroom, still expecting him to be on the bed or in the laundry.  Or, wanting to go to the back door to see if he’s on the deck waiting to be let inside (I never installed a cat door).  Or, even him knocking my chair’s lever so it’s locked back into it upright position.

Well shit… So imaginary presents and lots of hot showers/baths? Or maybe this is a good year to start embracing the grinch within and start stealing shit under the guise of teaching people a lesson about materialism?! Yes, I just watched the grinch...

The Grinch, such a hero, helping people learn about the true sin of gluttony and greed, and inspiring all of us to be fiscally responsible.  That, and protecting children from old men bent on giving them gifts, that’s rather suspicious behavior.

I know, right? I dunno why people act like being a grinch is a bad thing. That dude was a friggin anti-consumerism hero + an introvert icon

Off the top of my head, several ideas might help.

1. A swamp cooler – basically uses evaporation cooling, useful in a desert-like environment, not sure if it’d be enough for the 46C case.
2. Geothermal heating/cooling – though installation would cost

Now, wish this one was commercialized, it’d be perfect. Heard about it being demo’d in a DC science fair from a friend who went.  Solar based A/C, uses bromine as the working fluid, and sunlight to drive the cycle instead of the usual electric compressor.  It’d be perfect for your case, TBH, and for lots of people.  (I mean, if the sun’s not shining, you generally don’t need the A/C as much.)

I’ve looked into evaporative coolers.  They can work well if you live in desert-like levels of low humidity.  It does get like that here sometimes, but it also gets humid here as well, and evaporative coolers massively add to the humidity levels in your home. 

I’ve never heard of geothermal heating/cooling even being available anywhere here, nor could I find evidence of it being available here, so my guess it’s not really an option here.

I appreciate the effort though!  But I’ve lived through 40-odd years of stupidly hot summers so I can make it though a few more.  It sure makes you appreciate the other seasons more! lol

I fear with climate change, the temperatures are only going to get worse.  (Want 56C?)  That’s where the solar A/C idea is better, wish somebody commercialized it.  See, all cooling takes energy to drive, which gets released as heat in addition to the heat it’s driving out of the box  – this is why the net effect of leaving the refrigerator open (as the Simpsons showed) is to raise the temperature, not reduce it.  The solar A/C I heard about, it was solar heat (not electricity) that was going to heat us up anyways, so capture it and use it to cool a box while we’re at it – way better than burning fossil fuels!  Not sure if it was more efficient than solar electric panel → conventional A/C or not, I’d need numbers to know.

Geothermal, see no reason why it shouldn’t work, efficiency depends on how stable the temperature underground is.  Energy for any heat pump (which A/C is, a heat pump in reverse) is dependent on the temperature difference, greater that difference, the more energy it takes to accomplish.  Thus, if the below ground is at, say 36C, it’d be way better to use that as a heat sink than the 46C air.

See, I paid (some) attention in my thermodynamics class eons ago! 

One unspoken option is to relocate...feel like building an underground bunker in the back garden?  There’s this video on youtube showing a guy doing just that.

No.  I hate DST.  

not really but i have monday off to recover the lack of sleep i am going to have sunday!

I decided to have my Saturday dinner an hour early … you know, just to get used to it. 

Most people I know who’ve had the immunization didn’t have much reaction to their first shot. Reaction to the second shot varied substantially; I felt a little off for a day, my wife had a fever for 3 days.

Part of me wants the strong response, and the sane part of me knows that I don’t get sick days.

My first shot just left me with a sore arm. With relatives dead from covid now I have zero tolerance for the anti-vaxx anti-mask bullshit.

@BronxWench  I decided to not google search for that at work… looks lovely!  (Too bad my passport’s expired….)

We were at Hedo II. Really, really nice place…

A quick google search, yeah, seems nice.   Hmmm… lemme find a passport application (eww,  they’ll want pictures).

Wow...a button here on AFF to remove reviews on AO3!

As a software developer I am suitably impressed by the dragons that runs this place...

*sticks tongue out at @Thundercloud*  We have the ability to delete reviews here, which is not the most obvious feature, sadly. I just thought I’d do that educate folks thing we mods are supposed to do from time to time, to earn our, well, nothing, but you know…  

@Thundercloud They know the secret handshake.

After four years on AFF, it’s nice to finally see a story breach the 10k mark.  Next goal, maybe 20k?  50?  100k?  

Glad I decided to return to this story, breathe life back into it.  (It was at 5k at the start of the year.)

Four years? Jesus, I’ve been here since the Mesozoic era and yet for some reason I don’t remember AFF without @Desiderius Price. Good luck on that 100k mark! 

I didn’t register until I wanted to post my stories.   And while I might have heard of AFF many, many, years ago, it took a google search to find.  But, yeah, thanks.  I’m finding that hanging out on AFF kinda fills a niche in life … better than other “social media”.

It wasn’t something I could definitively put my finger on, just a sense that something is off, know what that’s like?  Like the episodes needed more focus or clarity, and be able to weave in the extra fluff that I want.

I absolutely know what it’s like. The muddled feeling. More recently I can catch it sometimes before I post, but back in the day I didn’t have an eye for it and would get them ‘wtf’ reviews lol. I guess that’s a mark of skill to be able to say WTF to yourself about your own writing.

Suppose it is.  I did violate a rule I had set for myself ages ago, not to post until after the next episode had a complete first draft.   I’m guessing that for this little bit, I’ll wait until I get it completely drafted before I start posting.  (The *next* little episode after this is already done, with a minor tweak needed due this episode’s material.)

Tuesday *does* mean Monday’s over with.

Please, lets not involve poor Bob in this, he’s innocent   

That’s why I’ve stopped associating lawyers with sharks, cause I don’t want to defame the sharks.

Aw, here in AZ you have to make do with the desert or the long list of abandoned mines.

So, you’d say you’d stand out in AZ if you started a garden featuring endangered plants?

Related (from FB), two ladies in a kitchen

Lady 1> Where’s your husband?
Lady 2> In the garden
Lady 1> I didn’t see him
Lady 2> You need to dig a little

@Avaloyuru  Don’t forget to hug your dogs. 

In this case, the vet did mention that his teeth needed to be cleaned, so I knew that needed attention.  I even managed to get that scheduled for this Tuesday...but then I obviously had to cancel.

Yep!  Hug them all the time!  They are all I have.  My dogs sleep with me at night and when I take naps.  They have medical conditions and the meds are costly, thankfully there are human meds that work just as good and cost half the price.

I love it when it’s a human med.  My vet, actually with this one, at one point recommended that, go to the local store, get it OTC, and cut the pill in half.  But really, the only difference is probably quality and more stringent testing for the human stuff.

On the bright side, chapter posted a short bit earlier on “the repair guy”.

Aww! Buuuut that means you get a day off to spend more time writing dirty things and playing with us. Soo… Yay?

I didn’t take a full day, simply left early because I wasn’t up to doing the job as I wasn’t feeling well.  Don’t worry, got plenty of time off this month to work on dirty things (and research said dirty things, well, most of it, with all those … erm … “nature” documentaries)!

Overall, this machine has been very stable, rock solid, to the point that I’d only have to reboot due to power outages (ie not on battery backup) or kernel/driver updates.  That’s why it was odd to be in a position to have to reboot daily/hourly when I was used to 60/90 days.  Fingers crossed the driver downgrade works, lets me defer pricey upgrades.

If your computer started acting up without you doing some other change to it first, I wouldn’t have my hopes raised too high.  And if the problem stuck around on your main computer after a card swap, especially if the removed card worked on your other machine (you never said,) then I would be looking at something on the main system board.

If you did a software patch or driver update to the O/S recently, rolling that back will hopefully roll the problem away.  Otherwise, hope for something “cheap and stupid,” like a memory module or different accessory card starting to go bad and impinging on system resources needed by the video card for the video to work correctly.

Good luck, whatever it turns out to be.

Luckily, it did start acting up after an update (which IIRC included video drivers).  As the notes mentioned g-sync, and my issues had sync issues in them when piped through my KVM, my shrewd guess is that it was a bad driver (or something not properly configured).  So, downgrading the drivers back to the old ones will likely fix it (at least for now).