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UpperWestside

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by UpperWestside

  1. 2 hours ago, Braff Zacklin said:

    It doesn't have to be a "vast conspiracy." Just a simple matter of bias/star treatment.

    This is ironic.

    There is no irony here. Just a whole lot of exceptionally laughable conspiratorial claims. It’s fun to read more than anything because of the sheer silliness in the belief that the refs are in the bag for one team, a team barely holding onto a play-in spot that won’t do a thing of note for the rest of this season.

  2. 4 hours ago, Braff Zacklin said:

    I don’t think they are in the bag for anyone. Conspiracy theories on this are nonsense. Nothing more and nothing less. The human mind, when the truth does not satisfy what it is looking for in the way of an answer, turns to whatever sounds the best.

    Officials can be bad at their job and that’s fine. The older I get the harder it is to imagine trying to call a game with the skill and athleticism on display and how fast the game is played. I do not necessarily care much for officials, but it is a tough job. Thinking there is a vast conspiracy to benefit one team that is going nowhere this year is beyond laughable. 

  3. The new season of Vera has been wonderful! Having David Leon return after almost a decade away in his new role is pretty cool. Brenda Blethyn said she would have ended the show if the producers had brought in a new core instead of getting Leon to return. The synergy between the two is just so good. Blethyn is still full of energy at 78, but whenever she is done I kinda hope Leon’s character can have his own show. He really excels at his role as the now DI Ashworth.

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  4. Went after work since there is an AMC a block away. I liked it and the nostalgia was cool since I frequent that library before work 2-3 times a week to just sit and read. It was a cool movie and man Ernie looks 30 years younger than his age. He has aged incredibly well and I love the role they gave him. He deserved it. 

  5. On 3/23/2024 at 12:35 AM, OWLVIS said:

    so  very true... Ive had nothing but time to reflect on my life these 4 years and Ive had a lot of arguments with, but most of the hurt was a reselt God haven't managed to win one of them

     

    its humbling but its allowing me to let go of so many things recognizing that  I  did a lot of damage to ,y own happiness,, yes I did have some tough situations but much of the hurt was a result of my choices my vanity, arrogance hubris

     

    and I lost so many times I  don't know why I tried to live beyond my talents or abilities in a meaningless endeavor

    I was so stupid, but at least Im realizing that 

    This is one of the best introspective things I have ever read someone say here or anywhere else. Thank you so very much for opening up to us like this man. Just awesome to read your honesty. 

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  6. Sometimes we meet people in passing that we were not really expecting and Saturday night at work counts as one of those moments. If I took an inventory of all the chance meetings I have had I could probably write a book about it. 
     

    Tonght I thought my night would end a little early, but I wound up having three more tables and one in particular stood out. I wear a name badge around my neck at work to help folks to see my name and make them feel more comfortable. I have a typical German name that was passed down from my dad to me. Well this table of three was from Cologne. The husband and wife just returned from a motorcycle ride from LA to San Francisco. It was delayed a year because of the snowstorm last year. Anyhow they had their teenage daughter fly over to meet them once her school break started. I tell them my dad was from a small town called Eschwege. To the astonishment of the man he tells me he lived in Eschwege in his childhood and has never met someone in his travels that had ever mentioned it or knew where it was. He invited me to make a trip to Germany to see Eschwege. 
     

    I have never been, but this man has not been back to Eschwege since he left in 1974 and this year marks since 60 years I believe since my dad left with his stepfather (US Army) and mother for America. He never returned to Germany. I don’t believe in chance meetings. This man gave me his contact information as he was leaving and I am going to take him up on this. I want to see my father’s hometown and where he grew up starting in January of 1946. Time to do a little research and find out what I can about where he may have resided and anything else about his family history during his 18 years there. Man meeting that man tonight was such a cool experience. I had another awesome chance meeting earlier in the night where I made some new friends as well.’ Sometimes you get completely blindsided with a wonderful surprise like this when you aren’t expecting it.

    I mention this because sometimes when you are really going through it you just have to look for and hope for the positives to come your way. I always tell folks that no matter how rough things seem there will be an end point and things will get better. Just always keep pushing forward bit by bit and sometimes you’ll have a cool day like this one.

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    • Like 1
  7. 46 minutes ago, Helobious said:

    A well coached tennesse team wins tonight’s game by 15+ easily 

    The next time that happens on Rocky Top will be the first. That game was just, well, something. I put it on at work and regret doing so. That was a slap fight and the winner is going to get a beat down next week. I give UT credit for their effort though. They played hard when I was watching. They just are lacking in high level talent.

  8. 25 minutes ago, SKJ said:

    Yeah,  I think the news here is that there is a viable program that this guy,  and his horrid, terrible voice and personality,  host

    Just remember all of the people that share his horrid views on life that willingly listen to him and think he’s a great senator.

  9. 2 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

    If I’m talking to someone I’m close to and care about I’ll let them stage set and then ask: “tell me what you most need from me— are you needing my support, are you looking for my best objective advice, or do you just need to vent?”  It’s a useful way to frame things and people will admit they just want to vent or want to hear support more often than you’d think. If they choose “advice” and then immediately start telling me why I’m wrong or the advice won’t work, then I tell them that no one knows their own situation and what they are able to live with better than they do and stop giving advice. 
     

    With work randos I’ll run through the “wow, dang, that’s really tough” cycle. And at the end say something like “sounds like you’ve got some hard decisions, what do you think is the best choice?” Then affirm whatever they say and send them on their way. 
     

    I find people are rarely grateful for, or seeking actual insight. 

    Thank you for this response. I have found that for whatever reason the entirety of my adult life people will spill out their guts to me whether they know me well or not. Sometimes I hear hours worth of the life of a stranger, but it’s cool. I will truly listen to most anyone because it allows them to get out what bothers them and I in turn learn more about people, which for me is pretty interesting. 
     

    The advice I give is usually taken pretty well, but I frame it in a way to where I do not say something that I haven’t been through myself. I always tells folks don’t fall on your face as many times as I did before you get it right. 

  10. 1 hour ago, Biff Tannen said:

     

    Lol, I completely missed the reference to god here.  I literally thought he meant his father.

    Yeah this is not the place for that, but the religious gonna religious no matter what. I steer completely clear of people who put out their religious beliefs constantly about every situation. If I need to consider how my own beliefs cause me to think of a situation I can easily keep that to myself because there is no need to share it over and over.
     

    When people I work with want to talk to me about life the first thing I do is listen and let them describe their life and what they want to change. I never bring my beliefs into what they should do in order to feel better. I just tell them you have one life and that the best thing to do is take each day as a gift and do better today than the day before. From there it’s easier to talk about life.

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  11. On 3/20/2024 at 7:47 PM, Captainant said:

    A large portion of that is that there's nowhere else for them to go but online. The third place is dead. 

    But also, this whole thing is much larger than one singularly addressable ill. It's not something where just putting the phone down fixes everything else 

    I read a study addressing this and how horrific the consequences are of detaching from the natural world and spending too much time on social media and electronics in general. Nature is a natural soothing agent for us and we have largely abandoned “putting our feet in the dirt” in favor of spending all of our time indoors or in concrete jungles. We have to find ways to connect with real people in outdoor spaces as well as time alone in nature. These are steps we have the capability of pursuing and doing.
     

    This is something I learned on my own. Living in New York is cool, but the lack of nature and free space to roam and be one with the natural world has been detrimental in certain ways for me personally. 

    • Like 2
  12. 8 hours ago, fattyflattie said:

    This is entirely on the individual. No one can force you to be satisfied you aren’t rich/successful/whatever goal you’ve set except yourself.    Trying to place blame on you tubers or govt or whatever is just scapegoating.  This is an individual problem. 

    I spend a decent amount of time listening to younger folks vent about their issues in life. I do think that these social media outlets are a net negative on them because so many of these folks watch this stuff and think that it is something to strive for. Cognitively they cannot yet comprehend that there is peace and joy in just being content. Some of that comes with age, but some also comes from not being as exposed to these social media loops constantly. 
     

    Also I think people could stand to put down their electronics for awhile and just go out and experience life, especially if it can be in a place where you can take in nature.

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  13. Pretty fun country we live in at the moment. Once I get off the mainland at year’s end I sincerely hope to never set foot in the continental US ever again.

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  14. 2 hours ago, Hook1997 said:

    What are those?  Pretty cute.

    Ali is a full blooded Shih Tzu and the pup Heiani is a mix of Shih Tzu and it seems a little terrier. She looks so much different with all her hair. I cut probably 90 percent of hers off. Ali is getting the same cut hopefully tonight when I get home.

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  15. I have people ask me regularly if I will ever move back to Texas once they find out I grew up there. I have the same one word answer for everyone. No. I likely will never set foot in the state again for more than a day or to have to catch a connecting flight and I’m cool with that.

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  16. Hope the Johnnies make the tourney now that they beat Seton Hall. A couple of UConn fans came through where I work when they came here to play and they thought Pitino had them playing hard and that they were going to be good. The Garden is going to be a really awesome place to be tonight with NYC’s favorite college team taking on UConn again. If I wasn’t working I’d go down the street to watch it. 

  17. On 3/10/2024 at 10:37 PM, DixonHur said:

    Watching it now.  I find it fascinating.

    At first I thought like you, but then I realized that was the point and power of the story.

    How people can live "normal", seemingly boring lives while unspeakable horrors are being carried out, literally next door.

    It's an amazing character study, IMO.

    I am sure it is a well done movie. I had several chances to watch it, but decided not to. I have had my fill of movies about nazi Germany. I want to see movies that are uplifting in nature. Again I am sure it is well done, but I prefer to not see films like that one. Perfect Days was and is what I hope to see in a film and it is who I would have voted for in that category. 

  18. My other friend from work was there today. I asked him how he’s doing and if the funeral plans had been finalized for his grandmother. He said he was okay (he was lying) and that things are a mess for his family. I told him it’s okay to say he’s not okay. It’s a normal human emotion to be greatly saddened at the passing of someone he loved and cared about.

    I told him to just let out his feelings and if he has to just text me his thoughts to do so because he’ll feel better just getting it out. He couldn’t understand why I told him to do this because very few people have asked how he is doing and I have only known him a few months. I said that I know pain like his and that when you see that kind of pain you do what you can to help. I hope he will reach out when he is ready. At least he knows there is someone willing to listen at any time of day or night. 

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  19. I have a friend that I used to work with here that joined the Air Force and has been stationed in Okinawa for most of the last two years. He called today and we always have great conversations. Today when he called he told me that a member of his unit committed suicide last week. He was 28 years old, a loner and an alcoholic. He said that his commanding officer found him in his room after they got the door unlocked. He told me on Friday they had a ceremony as they boarded his remains back to the states.
     

    He said it was like what you see in the movies and guys were crying as they saluted him. My friend is a little older than many of them as he is 30 and married. He can talk about this easier than they can. He said you could see signs he was unhappy. They try to talk peer-to-peer as much as they can to help folks through things, but him being such a loner made it hard. He said he looked at this young man’s social media and saw someone who was really close to his family. That probably weighed heavily on his mind being so far away in Okinawa. I guess the thing to take from a tragedy like this is to just remember to check on your friends and family more often and see how they are really doing before it gets to this point. Just so sad to know this young man felt this sad on the inside and left this world way too early.

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  20. 36 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

    Actually, it's a fucking BRILLIANT idea.....so long as you're on the front half of the scheme.  Lots of people have made LOTS of money in Ponzi schemes.  They are great at making a good number of folks rich.  

    Now, staying in the Ponzi scheme until the music stops and it all falls down?  THAT'S a bad idea.  But no worries.  All you have to know is the exact moment the music will stop.  Easy peasy.

    "Investing" in bitcoin should be about like investing in a restaurant: do it because you think it's interesting and fun, do it on the bet that maybe, long term, it DOES turn out to be brilliant, and you make lots of money.  But don't invest anything you aren't prepared to lose completely, because there is a much higher probability of that happening than if you invested in Coca Cola or Microsoft or somesuch.

    So you’re telling me that that Brisketbucks idea you wanted me to invest in might be bad idea jeans?

    • Like 1
  21. 34 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

    So what you're saying is that if I told enough lies to enough people to convince them that wildcatcoin was actually worth a lot, then you'd be interested.

    I'm personally angry about Bitcoin because we're letting bitcoin miners waste absurd amounts of energy that would be reckless even if we didn't have a shitty electric grid, we fucking pay them to stop when we need the power they're otherwise using, its markets are controlled by fraudulent actors that exploit vulnerable people, and it enables human trafficking and child exploitation on an otherwise-impossible scale. All for something that is not actually useful as a currency and has no inherent value whatsoever.

    No because it’s all blatant fraud. What is happening needs to be punishable with serious prison time. I have zero sympathy for people trying to lie about the value of fake money. They all need to be sent to Snake Island.

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