Bad beat/Moaning/Venting thread - Mammy told me not to come.

[Lazare]

Thinking a lot about the reaction I got in here the other day, and have gotten and read elsewhere. Took me by real surprise. Lloyd said my biggest mistake was opening my mouth, thought that, but retrospectively it was good craic. I liked the way it made me think.

Brought me phone with me this morning to film a run and maybe shed a bit of light..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fhY5cb573o&feature=youtu.be

[CHDad]

If we all chipped in we could get the treadmill and save Lazare from thinking too much.

[Guest]

Who had Laz in the First to crack comp?

[Opr]

This is an interesting thread on Irish Reddit board which has only started but I think should make good reading over the next few days. It mirrors something I have been thinking about recently. I order a few beers online (Thanks, Lloyd), a coffee grinder, some mundane tasks, etc while having moments of WTF. The enormity of all that is going on hits me at intervals when I get lost in thought. Conversation flows through friends with eerie normality towards how we have all adjusted to the new normal. Some people mention it in that thread about how our brains have a way of protecting us from really bad stuff by just not allowing us to understand or fully comprehend what is going on.

I had a conversation with my brother earlier in which he was quite heated towards how countries like Brazil are going to cope where he has many friends whom I know he is talking with plenty. He raises some points about how we don't come together to solve other problems with such venom in the world which affects us as a human race the world over mainly from his point of view because of the hear no evil see no evil and it doesn't affect people who matter. The choice for many in those countries is going to come down to whether they eat or self-isolate. I'll be honest emotionally driven or not it is hard not to feel that pain. They won't get help. Truth be told many countries are going to get destroyed. Look at these scenes in India. Little emotional and rambling. Leave with some quotes from that thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6439aOtzEWs

It's like you know it's happening, but there are still moments when it suddenly dawns on you that you're watching history unfold.

it's the repetitive radio announcements that always get me, like something out of a post-apocalypse movie/game.

I'm absolutely fine for the most part and then it comes raining down on me like a pile of fucking bricks. It's heartbreaking and terrifying and too insanely huge a situation for my brain to comprehend all at once. I think that's maybe why it hits us at random intervals. The sheer magnitude of the situation is a movie plot and impossible. Yet, here we are. Our brains manage to wrap itself around it for a little while, we have a bit of a panic and then it blocks it out again.

I think we’re completely desensitized because of all of the fiction we consume. I’m not sure any of us fully grasp how massive this is in our world’s history.

Finish with something light

Shopping is like something out of a survival game. Tension in the air as we go out to restock our base.

My homemade mask is giving 7 per cent protection, better than nothing so I equip it.

So I enter Dunnes.

A nod to fellow scavengers, theres enough for us all.

Get to the check out but there is an old biddy in the way, we're patient but on edge.

Fill the belt, greet the checkout girl... the perspex divide, my makeshift mask, shits got real.

Awkwardly open up my wallet, give her my clubcard and 10yoyo off voucher.

The social paid me into the post office so I have to pay by cash, I feel like I'm putting her under more risk but I have no choice.

Transaction over, I thank her for her service to the country.

I spin my trolley and head for the nearest exit.

And I'm free.

Opr

[Mellor]

that sounds like you are basically dipping in soup, dead skin and sweat soup

They would have a built in filter. And you add chemicals every few days to clean and sterilise the water. Basically no different to a swimming pool.

How long would an electric element take?

3kW will heat 1 litre by 2 degrees, every 3 seconds or so. So 1200L from 10degrees to 36-38 degrees, will take 13-14 hours.


Assumed the heater output after efficiency losses were 2.8 for convenience. Max draw on a 15amp circuit, is 3.4kW, so not much scope to overpower that.

[Hectorjelly]

Good post OPR, it's a good moment to reflect on how lucky we are to be living in Ireland. Even the UK and the US, who have clearly botched their response to a certain extent are a million miles advanced from a lot of the poorer countries. I'm terrified of what will happen to Brazil, Mexico... most of Africa.


Brazil's Bolsonaro says no more quarantine measures can be imposed

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-brazil-bolsonaro/brazils-bolsonaro-says-no-more-quarantine-measures-can-be-imposed-idUSKBN21H3I3

Coronavirus: Africa prepares for surge in cases and mass casualties

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/africa/coronavirus-africa-prepares-for-surge-in-cases-and-mass-casualties-1.4216220

"One aspect of the data focused on how many ICU beds there are. In Malawi, a country of nearly 19 million people, there are around 20, according to the WHO figures."

[Closed_Account]

This is an interesting thread on Irish Reddit board which has only started but I think should make good reading over the next few days. It mirrors something I have been thinking about recently. I order a few beers online (Thanks, Lloyd), a coffee grinder, some mundane tasks, etc while having moments of WTF. The enormity of all that is going on hits me at intervals when I get lost in thought. Conversation flows through friends with eerie normality towards how we have all adjusted to the new normal. Some people mention it in that thread about how our brains have a way of protecting us from really bad stuff by just not allowing us to understand or fully comprehend what is going on.

I had a conversation with my brother earlier in which he was quite heated towards how countries like Brazil are going to cope where he has many friends whom I know he is talking with plenty. He raises some points about how we don't come together to solve other problems with such venom in the world which affects us as a human race the world over mainly from his point of view because of the hear no evil see no evil and it doesn't affect people who matter. The choice for many in those countries is going to come down to whether they eat or self-isolate. I'll be honest emotionally driven or not it is hard not to feel that pain. They won't get help. Truth be told many countries are going to get destroyed. Look at these scenes in India. Little emotional and rambling. Leave with some quotes from that thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6439aOtzEWs

Finish with something light



Opr

This is what I was getting at earlier. For these people, law and order, society, broken as it was for them has properly fractured. We are lucky. It is very very unlikely to happen here But could it, I think so, given we have no idea about the virus, how long it will define our lives and if it is seasonal, if you get it a second time is it much much worse etc etc etc etc. We know nothing about it.

@ Keane I dont think that is yawn at all and I think, like a lot of my freinds, the comfort and sedation we all have in our lives, somehow seems to personally offend people to the point they cant even imagine the thought.

[CHDad]

Good post OPR, it's a good moment to reflect on how lucky we are to be living in Ireland. Even the UK and the US, who have clearly botched their response to a certain extent are a million miles advanced from a lot of the poorer countries. I'm terrified of what will happen to Brazil, Mexico... most of Africa.


Brazil's Bolsonaro says no more quarantine measures can be imposed

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-brazil-bolsonaro/brazils-bolsonaro-says-no-more-quarantine-measures-can-be-imposed-idUSKBN21H3I3

Coronavirus: Africa prepares for surge in cases and mass casualties

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/africa/coronavirus-africa-prepares-for-surge-in-cases-and-mass-casualties-1.4216220

"One aspect of the data focused on how many ICU beds there are. In Malawi, a country of nearly 19 million people, there are around 20, according to the WHO figures."

Terrified? Why only now.


HEALTH

3,202,318
Communicable disease deaths this year

119,927
Seasonal flu deaths this year

1,875,021
Deaths of children under 5 this year

10,484,916
Abortions this year

76,246
Deaths of mothers during birth this year

41,676,010
HIV/AIDS infected people

414,683
Deaths caused by HIV/AIDS this year

2,025,956
Deaths caused by cancer this year

241,963
Deaths caused by malaria this year

1,363,786,781
Cigarettes smoked today

1,233,157
Deaths caused by smoking this year

616,968
Deaths caused by alcohol this year

264,526
Suicides this year

$ 98,683,679,388
Money spent on illegal drugs this year

332,991
Road traffic accident fatalities this year

[Hectorjelly]

Terrified? Why only now.


HEALTH

3,202,318
Communicable disease deaths this year

119,927
Seasonal flu deaths this year

yadda yadda yadda

You know everyone eventually dies right? It's just a little scarier when everyone does it at once.

[Raoul Duke III]

That is delusional, Reagan didn't do any harm to the process but mostly he just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Well, do feel free to contribute yourself sir.

An educated opinion from a man who was old enough to remember these times is always welcome.

[ComradeCollie]

An educated opinion from a man who was old enough to remember these times is always welcome.

I'm sure you'd love to hear me go off on a rant about Gorby (I'm in no mood for providing cheap laughs atm). I'd be surprised if anyone else here even read Perestroika.

[LuckyLloyd]

Well, do feel free to contribute yourself sir.

An educated opinion from a man who was old enough to remember these times is always welcome.

What’s your counter to the criticism of his economic policies, noted by both HJ and I? Genuinely interested.

[Raoul Duke III]

I'm sure you'd love to hear me go off on a rant about Gorby (I'm in no mood for providing cheap laughs atm). I'd be surprised if anyone else here even read Perestroika.

Sure, go ahead. Some actual considered content would be nice.

[Raoul Duke III]

What’s your counter to the criticism of his economic policies, noted by both HJ and I? Genuinely interested.

Winning the Cold War >>>> running up the debt. In short.

[Denny Crane]

The Chinese conspiracy theories started in 2016 when Trump was elected. This is just the latest in a long line of such theories.

What conspiracy theories?

[ComradeCollie]

Sure, go ahead. Some actual considered content would be nice.

There really is no basis to have a discussion as far as I'm concerned.

By way of explanation I think you'd consider yourself slightly right of centre. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you would think of Lenin as quite a bit to the left of you. Now, I'm about as far to the left of Lenin as he was to you.

Obviously that logic falls down if, like me, you consider Lenin to have been a populist abberation in the history of Marxism.

[Raoul Duke III]

There really is no basis to have a discussion as far as I'm concerned.

By way of explanation I think you'd consider yourself slightly right of centre. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you would think of Lenin as quite a bit to the left of you. Now, I'm about as far to the left of Lenin as he was to you.

Obviously that logic falls down if, like me, you consider Lenin to have been a populist abberation in the history of Marxism.

I don't really think about Lenin much at all.

[ArmaniJeans]

The war started because of the vile Hun and his villainous empire-building.

Dave King?

Nah, Blackadder.

https://www.johndclare.net/causes_WWI1_Blackadderversion.htm

George:
The war started because of the vile Hun and his villainous empire-building.

Edmund:
George, the British Empire at present covers a quarter of the globe, while the German Empire consists of a small sausage factory in Tanganyika. I hardly think that we can be entirely absolved of blame on the imperialistic front.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

...

[LuckyLloyd]

There's always a tweet.

[Denny Crane]

Ah they didn't create it. But it's definitely been good for Chinese manufacturing.

[pgodkin]

This is an interesting thread on Irish Reddit board which has only started but I think should make good reading over the next few days. It mirrors something I have been thinking about recently. I order a few beers online (Thanks, Lloyd), a coffee grinder, some mundane tasks, etc while having moments of WTF. The enormity of all that is going on hits me at intervals when I get lost in thought. Conversation flows through friends with eerie normality towards how we have all adjusted to the new normal. Some people mention it in that thread about how our brains have a way of protecting us from really bad stuff by just not allowing us to understand or fully comprehend what is going on.

I had a conversation with my brother earlier in which he was quite heated towards how countries like Brazil are going to cope where he has many friends whom I know he is talking with plenty. He raises some points about how we don't come together to solve other problems with such venom in the world which affects us as a human race the world over mainly from his point of view because of the hear no evil see no evil and it doesn't affect people who matter. The choice for many in those countries is going to come down to whether they eat or self-isolate. I'll be honest emotionally driven or not it is hard not to feel that pain. They won't get help. Truth be told many countries are going to get destroyed. Look at these scenes in India. Little emotional and rambling. Leave with some quotes from that thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6439aOtzEWs

Finish with something light

Opr

I'm more worried about the above, how people are not able to see this and have to process it in chunks... Yes it is scary, Life in general is Scary, this just show's how sheltered our first world has really become, but we have gotten some look at how the other half live... We only get to do it in First world surroundings, with first world tools, like Amazon and the internet... What do you think it is like for the 20 or 30 something African with Ebola sweeping through there country???

We need to make Massive changes in how we live but I don't think we will, this is why I think the conspiracy theory's are gaining such traction, if we can blame someone or a body of people we can tell ourselves it wont happen again it is easy to do this than tactical the real problem... this was also going to happen in some way shape or form

[Guest]

[pgodkin]

Ah they didn't create it. But it's definitely been good for Chinese manufacturing.

any major disaster is good for Chinese Manufacturing... all our shit is made there, they are able to take advantage now of it due to the extreme measures it took (yes it was covered up blah blah blah but this was done on a local level more than a national level)

If this was an industry and China was a company that made a massive shift in order to survive we would be holding it up as a beacon of how companies should act in times of uncertainty

[rounders123]

Coffee snob / craft beer whankers take note

[Tar.Aldarion]

https://bored.solutions/

Brothers girlfriend launched this site yesterday, might find it useful. It's a digital hub that helps you find ideas of things to make, learn or do while self-isolating.
Anything you'd think would be good to add, let me know.

[LuckyLloyd]

Coffee snob / craft beer whankers take note

I’ll give you a response to that in two parts rounders.

Regarding beer:

I love a pint of Guinness in Grogan’s. It has its place. But the lads sitting in Bowes or Mulligans or Grogan’s getting misty eyed about pints of cream and being Spartan about ‘eating is cheating’ is just sad to me now, you know? It screams of ‘ah the rare aul times were the best aul times’. It’s just Guinness and it’s just a pub and it’s nice to be able to have a choice of a few beers to drink and maybe get a burger halfway through the day.

The reality is that Guinness is a fine drink, but in the landscape of beers it’s hardly elite. There is a reverence around it that is entirely manufactured and practiced. The other reality is that the quality of Guinness is pretty even across the city. Guinness have spent a fortune making that the case.

I mean the only “regulars” in places like Grogan’s or the Long Hall are aul alcos in their 60’s who fancy themselves as a poet. The rest of us going mad about places like that for years are part of a faceless shifting mass that the establishments themselves couldn’t give two fiddlers about.


Regarding coffee:

I think, yeah, people go too far on the coffee thing. As discussed with Glyn last week, if you like a certain type of bean, buy the biggest cheapest bag of it you can get; get yourself a drip filter machine and a grinder and off you go. It needn’t ever be more complicated than that. You’ll have a decent pot of coffee you like every day.

But let’s be real here: if you drink coffee let’s not pretend Maxwell house is getting the job done. I grew up in a Maxwell house...house and I’m okay with abandoning my ‘roots’ on this one. Ireland in the 80’s was a backwards and uncultured place, let’s be frank about it. A half decent cup of coffee being more ubiquitous around the place is hardly a bad thing.

[Solksjaer!]

For us non eggheads .

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=54XLXg4fYsc

[Keane]

This is what I was getting at earlier. For these people, law and order, society, broken as it was for them has properly fractured. We are lucky. It is very very unlikely to happen here But could it, I think so, given we have no idea about the virus, how long it will define our lives and if it is seasonal, if you get it a second time is it much much worse etc etc etc etc. We know nothing about it.

@ Keane I dont think that is yawn at all and I think, like a lot of my freinds, the comfort and sedation we all have in our lives, somehow seems to personally offend people to the point they cant even imagine the thought.

I'm in comfort and sedation probably true, I find it sort of, IDK, almost contemptible that we're all supposed to be pearl clutching just now about the poor brown people now all of a sudden spurred on by a disease that happens to be affecting whiteys.

There haven't been too many posts about gang-rapes in India, Bolsonaro burning down the Amazon, Duterte's death squads in police uniforms and all this concern about the 10% chance of society breaking down prior to people getting short of breath and fevers here.

Personally, all I've seen amongst my family and peer group is people pulling together. As RD3 already pointed out, the lived experience (as well as the studies I've seen pop-sci summaries of) seem to suggest that times of crisis inspire more collectivism and pulling together, not less. Trump's support is up, so is Bojo's, so is Leo's. Three different styles of dealing with crisis, some more fucking risible than others, but everyone ploughs in behind the jersey.

And I don't personally put much stock in what a poker player thinks about it whether he went to Harvard or not. I'm not at all convinced an American poker-playing Harvard economist is the person I'd trust to gauge the motivations and emotional response to crisis of the common man.

So yeah, Brandon Adams or Doug Polk or whoever thinks there's a 10% chance that society will break down and I think there's a 99.99% chance that they're a pair of gobshites with too much time on their hands who should stick to poker.

[The Situation]

I feel out of the wine/tea/coffee/beer wanker debates coffee is genuinely the one with greatest taste disparity between cheap and a bit pricier. I'd certainly fancy myself to accurately distinguish between the lower and higher quality stuff in a blind test more with coffee than the others. That's not to say there isnt some rank expensive coffees but generally the price to quality correlation is strong.

[Strewelpeter]

https://bored.solutions/

Brothers girlfriend launched this site yesterday, might find it useful. It's a digital hub that helps you find ideas of things to make, learn or do while self-isolating.
Anything you'd think would be good to add, let me know.

Watching all for the Sopranos is a one week task and reading all of Shakespeare is a two week task, hmmmm

[Guest]

I feel out of the wine/tea/coffee/beer wanker debates coffee is genuinely the one with greatest taste disparity between cheap and a bit pricier. I'd certainly fancy myself to accurately distinguish between the lower and higher quality stuff in a blind test more with coffee than the others.

I agree, coffee is the biggest disparity for me. I'd probably fancy myself to distinguish between decent beer and complete shite but I'd definitely distinguish between decent coffees.

Absolutely no idea about Wine & Whiskey but I wouldn't mind knowing enough to know when something is decent value even for gifts.

[Raoul Duke III]

Coffee snob / craft beer whankers take note

This reminds me of a passage from a book I am currently reading. The Count has been under house arrest in the Metropole Hotel in Moscow since the Revolution. He is still resolved to live as a good a life as he can within his confinement..
He dines in the great Boyarsky dining room every night and chooses carfully from the wine menu. But tonight, he is told there is no longer a wine menu - there is only two choices; red or white.

Comrade Collie - would you approve of this??????

Worth a read:

Having followed Andrey across the dining room, through the kitchen, and down a long, winding stair, the Count found himself in a place that even Nina had never been: the wine cellar of the Metropol.

With its archways of brick and its cool, dark climate, the Metropol’s wine cellar recalled the somber beauty of a catacomb. Only, instead of sarcophagi bearing the likenesses of saints, receding into the far reaches of the chamber were rows of racks laden with bottles of wine. Here was assembled a staggering collection of Cabernets and Chardonnays, Rieslings and Syrahs, ports and Madeiras—a century of vintages from across the continent of Europe.
All told, there were almost ten thousand cases. More than a hundred thousand bottles. And every one of them without a label.

“What has happened!” gasped the Count.

Andrey nodded in grim acknowledgment.

“A complaint was filed with comrade Teodorov, the Commissar of Food, claiming that the existence of our wine list runs counter to the ideals of the Revolution. That it is a monument to the privilege of the nobility, the effeteness of the intelligentsia, and the predatory pricing of speculators.”

“But that’s preposterous.”

For the second time in an hour, the unshrugging Andrey shrugged.

“A meeting was held, a vote was taken, an order was handed down. . . . Henceforth, the Boyarsky shall sell only red and white wine with every bottle at a single price.”

With a hand that was never meant to serve such a purpose, Andrey gestured to the corner, where beside five barrels of water a confusion of labels lay on the floor. “It took ten men ten days to complete the task,” he said sadly.

“But who on earth would file such a complaint?”

“I am not certain; though I have been told it may have originated with your friend. . . .”

“My friend?”

“Your waiter from downstairs.”

The Count looked at Andrey in amazement. But then a memory presented itself—a memory of a Christmas past when the Count had leaned from his chair to correct a certain waiter’s recommendation of a Rioja to accompany a Latvian stew. How smugly the Count had observed at the time that there was no substitute for experience.

Well, thought the Count, here is your substitute.

With Andrey a few paces behind him, the Count began walking the cellar’s center aisle, much as a commander and his lieutenant might walk through a field hospital in the aftermath of battle. Near the end of the aisle, the Count turned down one of the rows. With a quick accounting of columns and shelves, the Count determined that in this row alone, there were over a thousand bottles—a thousand bottles virtually identical in shape and weight.

Picking up one at random, he reflected how perfectly the curve of the glass fit in the palm of the hand, how perfectly its volume weighed upon the arm. But inside? Inside this dark green glass was what exactly? A Chardonnay to complement a Camembert? A Sauvignon Blanc to go with some chèvre?

Whichever wine was within, it was decidedly not identical to its neighbors. On the contrary, the contents of the bottle in his hand was the product of a history as unique and complex as that of a nation, or a man. In its color, aroma, and taste, it would certainly express the idiosyncratic geology and prevailing climate of its home terrain. But in addition, it would express all the natural phenomena of its vintage. In a sip, it would evoke the timing of that winter’s thaw, the extent of that summer’s rain, the prevailing winds, and the frequency of clouds.

Yes, a bottle of wine was the ultimate distillation of time and place; a poetic expression of individuality itself. Yet here it was, cast back into the sea of anonymity, that realm of averages and unknowns.

And suddenly, the Count had his own moment of lucidity. Just as Mishka had come to understand the present as the natural by-product of the past, and could see with perfect clarity how it would shape the future, the Count now understood his place in the passage of time.

As we age, we are bound to find comfort from the notion that it takes generations for a way of life to fade. We are familiar with the songs our grandparents favored, after all, even though we never danced to them ourselves. At festive holidays, the recipes we pull from the drawer are routinely decades old, and in some cases even written in the hand of a relative long since dead. And the objects in our homes? The oriental coffee tables and well-worn desks that have been handed down from generation to generation? Despite being “out of fashion,” not only do they add beauty to our daily lives, they lend material credibility to our presumption that the passing of an era will be glacial.

But under certain circumstances, the Count finally acknowledged, this process can occur in the comparative blink of an eye. Popular upheaval, political turmoil, industrial progress—any combination of these can cause the evolution of a society to leapfrog generations, sweeping aside aspects of the past that might otherwise have lingered for decades. And this must be especially so, when those with newfound power are men who distrust any form of hesitation or nuance, and who prize self-assurance above all.

For years now, with a bit of a smile, the Count had remarked that this or that was behind him—like his days of poetry or travel or romance. But in so doing, he had never really believed it. In his heart of hearts, he had imagined that, even if unattended to, these aspects of his life were lingering somewhere on the periphery, waiting to be recalled. But looking at the bottle in his hand, the Count was struck by the realization that, in fact, it was all behind him. Because the Bolsheviks, who were so intent upon recasting the future from a mold of their own making, would not rest until every last vestige of his Russia had been uprooted, shattered, or erased.

Returning the bottle to its slot, the Count went to join Andrey at the foot of the stairs. But as he passed among the shelves, it occurred to him that it was almost all behind him. For he had one last duty to attend to.

“Just a moment, Andrey.”

Starting at the end of the cellar, the Count began weaving back and forth through the rows systematically, scanning the racks from top to bottom, until Andrey must have thought he’d lost his reason. But in the sixth row he came to a stop. Reaching down to a shelf at the height of his knee, the Count carefully took a bottle from among the thousands. Holding it up with a wistful smile, he ran his thumb over the insignia of the two crossed keys that was embossed on the glass.

On the twenty-second of June 1926—the tenth anniversary of Helena’s death—Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov would drink to his sister’s memory. Then he would shed this mortal coil, once and for all.

[Denny Crane]

Watching all for the Sopranos is a one week task and reading all of Shakespeare is a two week task, hmmmm

I find the idea of being stuck for things to do kinda mad tbh.

[Keane]

This reminds me of a passage from a book I am currently reading. The Count has been under house arrest in the Metropole Hotel in Moscow since the Revolution. He is still resolved to live as a good a life as he can within his confinement..
He dines in the great Boyarsky dining room every night and chooses carfully from the wine menu. But tonight, he is told there is no longer a wine menu - there is only two choices; red or white.

Comrade Collie - would you approve of this??????

Worth a read:

That's been on my shelf for a while but reading that little snippet moves it well up the queue. Sounds like something I would enjoy a lot.

[Tar.Aldarion]

Watching all for the Sopranos is a one week task and reading all of Shakespeare is a two week task, hmmmm

10 hour binge a day on sopranos and then just 91 pages of reading a day, are you up to the challenge or not?

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

...

[Guest]

Colombian supreme or one of the other SuperValu signature pregrounds with a drop of cream all you need for the morning coffee, I’ve done the paying 7 or 8 euro more for a bag of 3FE and don’t think it’s worth it for the daily grind, though it is nice
Your man Colin harmons self published book on running a coffee shop is actually a really good read, Will certainly make whoever was thinking of setting up Coffee or GTFO glad they didn’t bother

[Tar.Aldarion]

I find the idea of being stuck for things to do kinda mad tbh.

Same, hell I'd read every book that exists if I had the time. I've put like 10000 hours into just playing counter strike, if I lived forever I'd still have things to do.
I do outside hobbies 7 nights a week usually, so now is a time to catch up on other things.

Yet some people are just weird, have no hobbies, no interests.
Best I got was on a tinder date when a girl did like... nothing, her only hobby was... gossiping.

[Raoul Duke III]

That's been on my shelf for a while but reading that little snippet moves it well up the queue. Sounds like something I would enjoy a lot.

I am enjoying it more than any book I have read for a long time. Great antidote to the current miasma.

[Keane]

I am enjoying it more than any book I have read for a long time. Great antidote to the current miasma.

I actually hadn't noticed just how amazingly well-rated it is. 4.35/5 across quarter of a million ratings.

[Dice75]

Same, hell I'd read every book that exists if I had the time. I've put like 10000 hours into just playing counter strike, if I lived forever I'd still have things to do.
I do outside hobbies 7 nights a week usually, so now is a time to catch up on other things.

Yet some people are just weird, have no hobbies, no interests.
Best I got was on a tinder date when a girl did like... nothing, her only hobby was... gossiping.

Just be glad this has hit in your pre-kids stage of life (if that's ever a plan). There's hundreds of things i'd love to be doing now but thems the breaks.

[DeadParrot]

I am enjoying it more than any book I have read for a long time. Great antidote to the current miasma.

being grabbed immediately. I enjoyed that snippet like a lemonade wanker taking that first sharp sip of San Pelligrino Lemon.

[Guest]

I am enjoying it more than any book I have read for a long time. Great antidote to the current miasma.

Currently reading about the Great Terror, nothing like a few chapters on Soviet Ukraine during the 1930's to add some perspective to the current predicament.

[tylerdurden94]

I love the smell of coffee but the taste is just dire to me.

[ComradeCollie]

Comrade Collie - would you approve of this??????

Worth a read:

Never should have happened. Under my watch anyone who referred to themselves as 'the Count' would have already been executed. And anyone who insisted on writing in such flowery lannguage would be in a re-education labour camp.

[Tar.Aldarion]

Just be glad this has hit in your pre-kids stage of life (if that's ever a plan). There's hundreds of things i'd love to be doing now but thems the breaks.

Yeah, a lot of people have no time with kids, I don't envy that but I'm sure the kids are fulfilling when they don't piss you off.

I doubt I'll ever want kids, if I did I'd probably adopt one. For now life plan is cats + free time + money. Current gf aligns. Hopefully do something more worthwhile with my time as it goes on, to help the world and all that jazz.

[Raoul Duke III]

Currently reading about the Great Terror, nothing like a few chapters on Soviet Ukraine during the 1930's to add some perspective to the current predicament.

I think one of them sentences from Bloodlands that stuck with me on that period will always be:

roving bands of cannibals roamed the countryside

so; quit whining snowflakes.

[Raoul Duke III]

Never should have happened. Under my watch anyone who referred to themselves as 'the Count' would have already been executed. And anyone who insisted on writing in such flowery lannguage would be in a re-education labour camp.

Indeed. The poor Count was actually forced to suffer such indignities:

Passing through the lobby, the Count returned the friendly wave from the new fellow at the mail window and hailed Vasily, who was hanging up his phone (having undoubtedly secured another two tickets for some sold-out performance).

“Good afternoon, my friend. Hard at work I see.”

In acknowledgment, the concierge gestured to the lobby, which bustled almost as much as it had in its prewar prime. As if on cue, the telephone on his desk began to ring, the bellhop’s bell triple-chimed, and someone called out, “Comrade! Comrade!”

Ah, comrade, thought the Count. Now, there was a word for the ages. . . .

When the Count was a boy in St. Petersburg, one rarely bumped into it. It was always prowling at the back of a mill or under the table in a tavern, occasionally leaving its paw marks on the freshly printed pamphlets that were drying on a basement floor. Now, thirty years later, it was the most commonly heard word in the Russian language.

A wonder of semantic efficiency, comrade could be used as a greeting, or a word of parting. As a congratulations, or a caution. As a call to action, or a remonstrance. Or it could simply be the means of securing someone’s attention in the crowded lobby of a grand hotel. And thanks to the word’s versatility, the Russian people had finally been able to dispense with tired formalities, antiquated titles, bothersome idioms—even names! Where else in all of Europe could one shout a single word to hail any of one’s countrymen be they male or female, young or old, friend or foe?

“Comrade!” someone called again—this time with a little more urgency. And then he tugged on the Count’s sleeve.

Startled, the Count turned to find the new fellow from the mail window at his elbow.

“Well, hello there. How can I be of service to you, young man?”

The fellow looked perplexed at the Count’s question, having assumed that it was his position to be of service to someone else.

“There is a letter for you,” he explained.

“For me?”

“Yes, comrade. It came yesterday.”

The young fellow pointed back toward the window to indicate where the letter remained.

“Well, in that case, after you,” said the Count.

Civil servant and customer proceeded to their appropriate stations on either side of that small window which separates the written from the read.

“Here it is,” he said, after a moment of sorting.

“Thank you, my good man.”

[Guest]

I think one of them sentences from Bloodlands that stuck with me on that period will always be:



so; quit whining snowflakes.

Following smoke coming from houses as a sign they were cooking human meat.

Truly chilling stuff.

I haven't even got beyond 1939 yet

[Hectorjelly]

I'm in comfort and sedation probably true, I find it sort of, IDK, almost contemptible that we're all supposed to be pearl clutching just now about the poor brown people now all of a sudden spurred on by a disease that happens to be affecting whiteys.

There haven't been too many posts about gang-rapes in India, Bolsonaro burning down the Amazon, Duterte's death squads in police uniforms and all this concern about the 10% chance of society breaking down prior to people getting short of breath and fevers here.

Personally, all I've seen amongst my family and peer group is people pulling together. As RD3 already pointed out, the lived experience (as well as the studies I've seen pop-sci summaries of) seem to suggest that times of crisis inspire more collectivism and pulling together, not less. Trump's support is up, so is Bojo's, so is Leo's. Three different styles of dealing with crisis, some more fucking risible than others, but everyone ploughs in behind the jersey.

I don't understand this at all, and I really can't see why so many people thanked it. Maybe I'm misunderstanding it, or maybe people only read the last few lines, but this seems to be saying that as long as your family, and your immediate peer group are ok ,which consists solely of people in Ireland, the UK and the US then to hell with the rest of the world.

[Keane]

I don't understand this at all, and I really can't see why so many people thanked it. Maybe I'm misunderstanding it, or maybe people only read the last few lines, but this seems to be saying that as long as your family, and your immediate peer group are ok ,which consists solely of people in Ireland, the UK and the US then to hell with the rest of the world.

Yeah you misunderstood it.

[Iago]

Pay close attention children

Ireland has issued guidelines on safe sex during the coronavirus pandemic, writes Rory Carroll in Dublin.

Only be sexually active with someone you live with and who does not have the virus or symptoms of the virus, and avoid kissing anyone outside your household or who has symptoms, say the Health Service Executive guidelines.

“Taking a break from physical and face-to-face interactions is worth considering, especially if you meet your sex partners online or make a living by having sex. Consider using video dates, sexting or chat rooms. Make sure to disinfect keyboards and touch screens that you share with others.”

Masturbation will not spread coronavirus, it adds. “Especially if you wash your hands (and any sex toys) with soap and water for at least 20 seconds before and after.”

[KevIRL]

103 people in ICU with covid19, only 37% of this number over 65. Stay the fuck at home unless its absolutely essential people.

[Guest]

I'm fussy about coffee but its a threshold thing for me. So long as it comes from fresh ground beans that are fairly recently roasted I'd drink anything. My standard is Tesco Finest Sumatra and its very nice.

[eamonhonda]

Anyone have any idea about a place that would deliver art supplies, maybe somewhere from UK that uses anpost may work?

[TheJiggaman]

Anyone know of a decent subreddit where I could pay people (Freelancers) to build XML file templates for me?

Or indeed if anyone knows of anyone here that'd be a help too.

It involves Sport if that interests people any bit more.

[Strewelpeter]

WFH is not so great when you have an absolute cliff edge deadline for next week, nothing is working, everything is taking 2x or 3x the time to do basic stuff, you can't get past square 1 playing snakes and ladders with only snakes and there is no one around who can help.

I am very grateful to be still working but feck I could do with it being just a bit easier right now

[DeadParrot]

this is really good

https://aatishb.com/covidtrends/?country=China&country=India&country=Ireland&country=Italy&country=US&country=United+Kingdom

[Guest]

103 people in ICU with covid19, only 37% of this number over 65. Stay the fuck at home unless its absolutely essential people.

I'm on day 13 of the one room lockdown

Had a chest infection so first week went quick enough

Going for my 3rd walk today, looking forward to being able to wander as far as the kitchen on Thursday

Thinking of moving into a tent in the back garden if weather holds up