Pattern Ghost

Applicant: Niles Caulder, AKA The Chief (Doom Patrol TV Series, HBO Max) He has long sought immortality, at any cost. This is Niles from his Project Immortus days at the Bureau of Normalcy.

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Institution: Library of the Neitherlands (The Magicians TV Series, Netflix) "The Library of the Neitherlands, or simply the Library, is a multiversal archive that contains all knowledge in the multiverse. There are books about magic and books about entire lives; what has been and what will be. Travelers founded The Library and filled it with knowledge from across the universe. Librarians formed the Order of the Library of the Neitherlands, a group that guards and protects the knowledge in the Library" This is the Library before they took control of the magic of the Wellspring.

Also dumbass Walter Mitty fantasy gear. I'm very familiar with the product. I've put plenty of people in them. Civilians have no need of them, because civilians shouldn't be taking prisoners. Anyone wasting money on them for prepping instead of buying more useful gear has some weird ideas rattling around in their head.

No, that's nutjob militia gear.

Uh, just do it in the usual spot. If the insurrectionists show up, deal with them. Flamethrowers come to mind, but if you prefer a less toasty approach, you could also go with tear gas, LRAD (sonics), and water cannons.

At least one photo showed someone with flexi-cuffs. Those are far from simple zip ties. They're purpose made restraints, with one loop for each wrist, extremely heavy-duty and reinforced with wire. Not really prepper gear, unless your preparations include taking prisoners.

DT, glad your cousin is doing better and hope you are too. TKDGuy, hope your cat is OK. I get very attached to my pet critters, so I know it's a rough time. Wishing you and her the best. I've got a (probably) benign tumor that's pretty large sitting between my spine (and growing out of it) and my aorta. Not looking forward to getting it cut out. Especially disturbed by the idea of collapsing one lung to do the work, even though that's routine. Since I developed asthma in the Army, I've had a slight fear of death by asphyxiation.

Well, I think Death Tribble would be an OK president, though I would hesitate to give him the launch codes . . .

Just finished the first two seasons of both Doom Patrol and Titans. Both were good. Whoever put together the Titans trailers didn't do the show any favors.

It turns out she did die after the second announcement. She was great on That 70's Show as Midge.

It's two shots, but it would likley be 500 doses. My hospital got one shipment for the first round, and will get a second for the next.

Woot! 🥳

Thanks for the update, still pulling for you, BoneDaddy.

In that case, I hope your Boxing Day is better, Hermit!

I felt much the same about WW84. I think the movie had a pretty simple throughline, and all the broad beats of a heartfelt Wonder Woman story, including the resolution . . . but they had no real plan on how to get there. There was a lack of internal consistency that kicked in hard near the end that completely threw me out of the story. They set up expectations on how the world worked, rules for the McGuffin, and then said . . . it's magic! and just tossed out the established rules by the end. They also could have set up Diana and Barbara's friendship better, had them working more shoulder to shoulder in the investigatory scenes, etc. I also thought Steve was used poorly. Not so much the concept, but the execution could have been better. I'll give it a C-.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good fright!

Level 3 Human Bureaucrat.

From one of my favorite music YouTubers, the same young lady who brought us Google Translate Sings:

Ublock Origin kills the YouTube ads. Unfortunately, it's a desktop browser extension, so no Android option.

I work in a Seattle hospital. A lot of local restaurants have been generous in bringing literal truckloads of food in for the hospital staff, mostly of the higher end variety. The community support is actually very heartwarming sometimes. Good call out that 2020 isn't a complete s**t show, and adversity still brings out the best in some people.

As far as the financial side goes: Explain your situation and see what resources are available. I work at a hospital. We have funds set up to help people in your situation. So, even if it's a bit of an awkward conversation, it's worth having for your health. We're the same age, and I can tell you you aren't going to suddenly have less issues as you age. Take care of yourself, I enjoy your presence in our little community here.

It's usually a laparoscopic procedure, so at least the incisions are small.

My gallbladder tried to murder me back in August. The surgeon told my wife I had a "verrry angry gallbladder." They described it as basically a spiky ball of hardened death. I'd been having abdominal issues for years. Couldn't stand a friendly poke in the belly. Had been diagnosed with everything except gallbladder issues. One weekend, I felt some abdominal pain after eating, as I often did, and wrote it off as gas as I usually did. By day four, I said "Time for an ER visit!" (I have a fairly high pain tolerance, and tend to put things off until they're reaching fatal proportions.) So, they went in and yanked it out. I got not three, but . . . count 'em . . . five laparoscopy holes. And I felt GREAT afterward. I didn't even take the prescribed painkillers when I was recovering, just some Ibuprofen to help with the swelling once a day. I did have some post-surgical pain and swelling, but barely noticeable after four days of Murder Ball rocking out on my liver. The surgery is one of the most common, if not the most common, performed in the US. My doctor had done so many, that he even removed his own gallbladder! (OK, that last part isn't true.) So, surgery-wise, not too bad, really. Very routine, relatively un-scary. As for the after effects: The doctor said that you can avoid fatty foods afterward if they bother you, but that in the long run, dietary restrictions really didn't matter. Your bile ducts will kind of stretch to expand their capacity and compensate. I haven't had any trouble unless I eat way too much dairy, but other fatty foods don't send me rushing to the bathroom. In fact, I have less issues now than I did before, with the malfunctioning gallbladder intact. I'm not saying that there isn't a possibility of side effects, just that I was told that they were low and that it proved to be the case for me. I can't speak to the other issues, but if the gallbladder has to go, chances are you'll barely miss it.

Probably simple human error. Most doctors aren't employees of the hospital, they have privileges to practice at the hospital. The list was likely generated off the employee roster and someone forgot to include the roster for the doctors.