FrankL

If I can get the data in, I'll be glad to do stats for anyone. I'm sorry, I want to, but I am just catching up at all. RL issues.

If I said everything about how I feel about myself this morning, the adjectives and colorful metaphors would get me banned. I feel like I've been on the losing side of a war of attrition for years. I can't win, and I'm tired. I am tired. I am so tired. I feel like everything I've put my hand to has crumbled to dust. The more important it is to me that it succeed, the more likely it is to collapse. If I don't let on that it's important, it's not any less likely to fail. I feel like life's punching bag, like I've been repeatedly kicked in the teeth, and I'm expected to just get up and smile, that is, show more targets. I'm low today, guys and gals. Very low. I am so glad I have an appointment with my counselor today. If I didn't, I'd be calling to beg for an emergency work in.

Hermit -> <-Bazza

Three couples, friends, die together in a big car crash. Shortly, they stand before the Pearly Gates. St. Peter looks at them over his glasses. "Will the Jones family step forward." The first couple does. "Mr. Jones," St. Peter says, "you have spent your entire adult life obsessed with money. Acquiring more money has obsessed your every waking moment and most of your sleeping ones. In fact, you married a woman named 'Penny.' No, you will not be entering." Blinking, the two step back and go over to the side to await their friends. "Will the Browns step forward." The second couple does so. "Mr. Brown," St. Peter says, "you have spent your entire adult life obsessed with alcohol. Acquiring more drink has obsessed your every waking moment and most of your sleeping ones. In fact, you married a woman named 'Sherry.' No, you will not be entering." They step back and join the first couple. Before St. Peter can say anything else, the third man says, "Well, no use of us standing around here. Let's join the others, Fanny."

No. If I keep thinking about the bad, the bad is all I will see. I refuse to let it beat me.

This has been in the works for months and official since late January/early February, but I have to say it here as it is bugging me today. My grandfather and great uncle built a company from the ground up. It ran from 1962 to 2015. 50+ years. This was a family business. A majority of the employees throughout the decades have been family. The plan of both owners was to pass it on to my father and uncle or a specific cousin when the time came as my father and uncle are approaching retirement age themselves now. My grandfather died more than 10 years ago. My great uncle died last November. My uncle has wanted nothing to do with the business since shortly after my grandfather died due to arguments with his sister and mother. Beginning in the summer, my father (working as general manager) and cousin (working as manager of the liquid fuel side of the business) offered to buy controlling interest from my grandmother. During negotiations, she flat out refused to sell (even though they were offering more money than any other prospective buyer). Just weeks before my great uncle died, he was talking to my uncle (they're neighbors). He was too ill to be part of the negotiations and assumed family would have preference. Bub (with a grin): Did Lance [cousin] get the business bought, yet? Uncle: Nope. She sold the whole thing to [competitor].* Bub [grin fades. Shoulders stiffen. Walks away.]** Why wouldn't she sell to my dad and cousin? Because they refused to agree that certain employees would be immune to termination. She didn't get that agreement from the new buyer, either, but out of spite she would not sell the family business to family who would keep it going. *This is a competitor the company has always gotten along with, so that could have been worse. **That's how he flips the table. Where other would swear and break things, he goes quiet.

If Love's diapers were bought out by Hewlitt-Packard, who also acquired Kraft Foods, the new company would be called HP LoveKraft.

Me to wife: Do I need to go to the store tonight for that pork sale? Wife: No. I'll go tomorrow to get it for last night's soup. [Pause as she realized what she said] Me: Umm... Wife: I meant that, you know. I'm really Lady Flash. I'll just run through time to get it. Me (while thinking, you would look incredibly hot in red spandex but knowing not to say it): Aren't you worried about wrecking the timeline? Wife: It's pork and it's already dead. Whether it's in last night's soup or tomorrow's sandwich doesn't matter. Me: The timeline is a tricky thing. You never know what could set it off.

Couple Suing Sperm Bank for Wrongful Birth (Child is Obviously Biracial and not from the Requested Donor) The whole thing is behind a paywall, but this is what I can see from elsewhere.

Never watched Gotham or Daredevil. Saw a few episodes of Smallville and Arrow. Decided I wasn't missing anything there. Flash; however, has become must-see-tv for me. I highly recommend it.

7 years. 4H and FFA. Suffolks, Hampshires, and crosses. My middle sister raised a few Dorsets. She named her first one "Tony."

Did you raise lambs?

Never trust an atom, they make up everything. Biologists take a lot of cellfies I lost an electron, and yes I am positive. we make horrible science puns but only periodically I'm trying to think of an electricity pun, but my head hertz. I can't organize a space party. I'm too scatter brained to planet. My sons wanted to bring home a penguin from the zoo, but I told them it wouldn't fly. All the good science puns argon. And finally, I told a chemistry joke but there was no reaction.

When it was discovered that my middle sister's first husband had been having an affair, he almost got a lesson in theological differences. As a Pentecostal, I am Arminian. The rest of my family are Calvinists. Family discussions can be interesting, to say the least. I wanted to tell him, "See, those guys over there are Calvinists. They believe this beating you are about to receive was predestined from the beginning of time.* I'm Arminian and believe this beating you are about to receive is the result of choices made under your own free will.** However, from your perspective, it really doesn't matter, does it?" Before it came to the come-to-Jesus meeting, he agreed to get out of her life. *A gross oversimplification of Calvinist Theology **A gross oversimplification of Arminian Theology

Oh, yes. My wife is enjoying it, too. I've been thinking about the absence of Wells from the show and noticed that Cavanaugh hasn't been hiding his suspicious actions the way he used to. His expressions now just say that he is not one to be trusted. This is my only must-see-TV in a while. Probably since DS9 went off the air.

I like lamb. My mother refuses to eat for part of the same reason that I like it. We used to raise the smelly things. She still thinks of lambs as the cute clouds in the pasture. Eating lamb now is payback for the times I got drug through the mud, knocked over into the mud, and the times I just wound up smelly. There was a place in town here that just closed a couple of months ago. Best gyros I've ever had. The owner, chef, and most of the staff (family run restaurant) were Greek immigrants. I was very sad when they closed.

And contrary to what most people think, there is a difference between country music and western music.

Last night I dreamed I was an employee of Monster Hunter International. Though usually a research man (down in the archives, looking through tomes), I was on a field rotation (to keep my senses sharp). We didn't know what we were tracking, but we were loaded for bear and then some. Earl, Owen, Julie, and I were in formation going through a large basement with a lot of boxes. Earl was on point, Julie was back guard, Owen and I were side-by-side and between them (a diamond formation). My specific task was to figure out what we were up against. We knew it was big trouble. "Find anything yet, Luke?" Earl asked. "Not yet. It's not a vampire or werewolf, but there's still a lot it could be." "That doesn't help much," Julie said. "I'm still looking. They always leave clues somewhere." "Like that?" Owen pointed at a scrap of paper on the floor. The rest of the basement had no litter anywhere. Everything was in boxes, so this stood out like a sore thumb. "Good eye, Z," I said, picking up the paper. It was torn in half, and when I saw what I could, I was glad of that. "Nobody move. Keep calm. I know what we're up against." "That being?" Earl and Julie asked at the same time. I showed Julie the paper with half a yellow sigil. "Hastur. The King in Yellow."

Okay, that's good. I expected they were going to be going on and on with their shared stories and then they get in a fight because they like different soccer teams.

Been there. Not fun. Whoever said "getting there is half the fun" wasn't talking about the wait between job interview and job offer.

Read a story yesterday that Arizona governor has just signed a law that will make it so that assets seized will not remain the police department's property unless a guilty verdict. I can still see ways to abuse, but that should have been the way all along.

And apparently, no one designing the system we are migrating out of ever said, "you know, using employee names as the data's primary key instead of their employee id number, which is guaranteed to be unique in the company, is a bad idea." No, this is not a program we wrote.

What is the age of majority?

My mother, a retired elementary school teacher, has a penance stare that still works. At a recent high school basketball game, some kid behind her was kicking the seat of her best friend (also an elem teacher). The friend turned and stared at the kid. He laughed and kept going. My mother turned and gave him the full "teacher's look" she calls it. He gulped, stopped kicking, and then pulled his feet up under himself.

The photographer's religion says that he should not take part in the activity in any way. He refuses. If it makes you feel better, have it be a lesbian couple go to the photographer for the wedding. He refuses based on his religious belief that their marriage is wrong. Should they sue or be adults and go elsewhere?