Chat Thread

Tetsuro · Post by **Tetsuro** » Sun Jan 15, 2017 8:01 am

So my grandfather's funeral is next weekend, and I'm really not looking forward to it. I'd honestly rather not want to attend at all, but if I just told my parents that, they'd probably just assume it's because I'd rather spend my time at my computer instead. Which I guess isn't too far from the truth, because I do use it to distract me from the much worse alternative of being alone with my own thoughts.

The reason I don't want to tell them the truth is because they probably wouldn't understand, but more than that, I don't want to give them the extra emotional baggage of having to live with my emotional state. Truth is, I've been constantly preoccupied with the thought of death and dying pretty much ever since I had to move out of my parents' place, and especially once my grandparents started dying. With both of my siblings married with several children and jobs and pretty much exactly the kind of lives you'd expect from an average person, being stuck on a disability pension and living alone has made me feel like a failure as a person, and knowing everyone I love is going to die and then I'm going to die too and the little life I had will amount to absolutely nothing...

...well, going to a church where the whole theme of the event is going to be death and dying and loss of loved ones. Not a thrilling concept.

Last week, we went to look at my gandpa's place since they actually thought of it as a potential apartment for me since there's a strong possibility I'm going to have to move for bureucratic reasons, but I found the whole experience more morbid than anything. The place wasn't even close to being cleared out of all his stuff so it looked very much lived in, so being there with the place looking like he could still come back, but knowing it wasn't going to happen for obvious reasons made me uneasy more than anything.

Yeah, I'm a blast at parties.

Post by **Sades** » Sun Jan 15, 2017 10:18 am

Skyquake87 wrote:I've really been enjoying Charli XCX's last album 'Sucker' which I picked up last week. Not had it off the old stereo system since. Its brash modern pop music. Chrvches last one 'Every Open Eye' is similarly quite a funky dance work out, which makes a change from the moping on their debut.

I've also been revisiting the B-52's - 'Moon83' off of 'Whammy!' might be my favourite of theirs. Would love to dance to this...oh, look! I am!

Yay, thank you!

I'll have a listen when I'm not half asleep.

Tetsuro- Are you able to live with family or get roommates? Or maybe pick up a hobby that involves hanging out with other people (or animals if you like animals) on a regular basis?

In my experience (and this is just me, not saying it's the same for everyone but I can only speak from mine), being alone makes those types of thoughts worse.

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Sun Jan 15, 2017 4:05 pm

Its been a while since I've been to a funeral (my old boss in 2010, I think...and before that, my mate in 2006). Depends on the type of service, who's leading it and wishes of the family etc, but the ones I've been to have been largely positive - focusing on that person's life and achievements, and less about being overly morbid. Celebratory is always my preferred option. Not too keen on focusing on the morbid.

It is sad when people die, and we miss them, but don't go thinking its all for nothing Tetsuro. I certainly can't lay claim to be a terrific success in my life, I spent much of my 20s making comically bad decisions and its only really in the last 5 years things have started to even out and I feel happier about where I am and what I'm doing (in terms of work, that's certainly started to come together in the last 2 years). What's made it easier is having a couple of really close friends and getting out and about where possible.

The other thing that I've found important, and its a massive cliche, is not to worry about whether anyone else thinks you're successful or be worried about measuring up to where other people are in their life, so long as you're happy doing whatever. And if you're not, what things would help start to improve things? That's what I did. Small steps, and one thing at a time.

I hope the funeral goes okay and that its not too hard on you.

Tetsuro · Post by **Tetsuro** » Mon Jan 16, 2017 3:02 am

Well, shameless materialism makes me happy, so I'll just continue to surround myself with plastic crack

Selkadoom · Post by **Selkadoom** » Thu Feb 02, 2017 1:01 am

Weathers been cold but otherwise been in high spirits here myself

Brendocon 2.0 · Post by **Brendocon 2.0** » Wed Mar 15, 2017 1:53 pm

Ebay's ****ing fun at times isn't it?

Listed something last month. Two days before it ended the high bidder cancelled his bid ("entered the wrong amount" though no new bid was placed, so presumably just found it cheaper elsewhere) and the price dropped by about fifteen quid.

So the auction closes and I get a message from the winner that basically said "er, sorry what, how what how?" because he'd had a message telling him he'd been outbid, so he'd done what you'd normally do in this situation and bought it from someone else instead.

So I send a second-chance offer to the next highest bidder, who messages me saying "oh yes please that's great" but doesn't actually click buy to seal the transaction and then never messages me again.

I bang my head against the wall for a day or so, give it a few weeks and then list the item again.

It's now sold for more than I was originally going to get for it (pre bid cancellation) to... wait for it... the guy who cancelled his bid in the first place.

I feel like I'm living in a bad episode of Only Fools & Horses over here.

Post by **Clay** » Wed Mar 15, 2017 11:51 pm

Step 1: list item on ebay.
Steps 2-5: ????
Step 6: profit

Yeah, you have some superfluous points in this iteration.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 7:53 am

I've so much crap thst should go on Ebay, but the effort seems ridiculous.

Most annoying encounter recently was as a buyer when I picked up a couple of Very Expensive Marvel UK latter dsy specials. Asked about combined postage, but they pointed me to the T&C that said they only do that for three items or more. But as it was Christmas they'd knock a pound off. Of course they both came in one reused envelope so they'd basically overcharged me on that.

Which wouldn't be so bad (if you're going to spend silly money on comics reprinting comics you already own, you can cope with that), but as I didn't have chance to leave feedback right away, they sent me about five "YOU'RE GOING TO LEAVE FEEDBACK RIGHT??!!!" messages in a week. Which became a self fulfilling prophecy in terms of me not leaving them any feedback.

Tetsuro · Post by **Tetsuro** » Fri Mar 17, 2017 7:02 pm

Well I ended up with a free betamax recorder so I got that going on for me.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Fri Mar 17, 2017 7:16 pm

I now own more copies of The War Within than is strictly sane.

Post by **Warcry** » Fri Mar 17, 2017 7:52 pm

So more than zero, then?

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Fri Mar 17, 2017 8:03 pm

Warcry wrote:So more than zero, then?

Post by **Sades** » Wed Mar 29, 2017 8:40 pm

If anyone is boring in the same way that I am, the Okeanos Explorer team are currently partway through their exploration in the waters of American Samoa. Livecam here (currently in-port; remote dives begin again on April 27th):

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/m ... tream.html

Highlight videos here:

https://www.youtube.com/user/oceanexplorergov/videos

Brendocon 2.0 · Post by **Brendocon 2.0** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 3:35 pm

"Yeah hi I know I won this item for £60 but my son bid on it and that's far too much for a toy. But if you knock £3 off it I'll pay?"

Or howsabout I cancel the sale and just offer it to the next bidder? Actually don't answer, I'm doing that.

No answer from the second chance offer. Fine.

Wait.

Wait.

Relist.

Original buyer bids. I cancel the bid because **** off. Block him from bidding on any of my auctions. Explain that he didn't complete the purchase the previous time in the reason for bid cancellation.

"Hi mate I don't appear able to bid on this?"

Yeah. I ****ing wonder why.

ganon578 · Post by **ganon578** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 4:11 pm

ebay can be such a pisser sometimes. OK, not eBay, the people on eBay.

Much like that, I had a buyer respond to a Mega Bloks set I sold off. Twas for her son. Apparently a couple of key pieces were missing.

I'm a thorough seller. What's in the photos goes in the box. I pack immediately after snapping photos. It's all there. I make some recommendations (namely, checking the box and whatnot) and mention that if it's truly my fault, I need the exact part numbers to replace them...

A few days later I finally get a response. The pieces were 'miraculously' found within her son's Mega Bloks bin. Go figure.

Post by **Sades** » Fri Apr 14, 2017 2:44 am

Aaaaaaargggghhhh #@!$#&^*&

I hate being caught in the middle of shit.

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Fri Apr 14, 2017 7:45 am

I went to see Hellyeah in Leeds on Monday. They were amazing. Best gig I've been to for sometime. I went with a friend from work who I've only ever chatted to via email and text, plus the odd call, so that was cool. Nice to finally meet her in person! We had big sticks of meat and silly drinks and did moshing

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Fri Apr 14, 2017 1:22 pm

Sades wrote:Aaaaaaargggghhhh #@!$#&^*&

I hate being caught in the middle of shit.

Caught by what?

I've recently been given a trophy for 15 years at work. I knew where to put it:

https://twitter.com/InflatableDalek/sta ... 4889298949

Tetsuro · Post by **Tetsuro** » Fri Apr 14, 2017 9:33 pm

I've been considering getting a Laserdisc player.

Yes, a Laserdisc player. In 2017.

And the reason for that is...turns out there's quite a few titles out there I want that still haven't been released on DVD. And in a few cases they have been, but the LD still somehow manages to be better. Sure, all of them are probably available on VHS too, but that's really not a collector friendly format.

Only problem is that since there hasn't been any players manufactured since like 2001, the ones out there are either costly, falling apart or both. I mentioned the betamax machine on teamspeak to some friends and eventually the conversation moved to me mentioned I want an LD player for above reasons and one of them offered to give me theirs for free if I just pay the shipping - but since it's from the US and it's a big, heavy device, I'm looking at shipping costs of around 100 dollars - and since it's some kind of an educational model and really basic in terms of specifications, I'd be better off buying an old karaoke machine locally, and you can bet none of them have optical audio out.

Post by **Sades** » Fri Apr 14, 2017 10:20 pm

Ahhhhh. Nothing big, just one of those situations where no matter what I do someone is going to be upset, and I hate that. It's been resolved, in predictable fashion and now I feel JUST GREAT* but eh. Pardon my grr.

*but opposite

inflatable dalek wrote:
I've recently been given a trophy for 15 years at work