It's Personal...

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Sat Jun 20, 2015 12:59 am

RobbyPants wrote: [*]Bees will not kill her.
[*]Bees prefer to leave her alone.
[*]Fire ants will not kill her.

Actually, bees are the largest killer of humans directly caused by animals in the US. And fire ants can totally kill people, although since you don't live near any, that's not as big a problem.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Sat Jun 20, 2015 1:20 am

Has she actually been stung before? While it's hardly actionable advice, she might get over it once she gets stung and realizes that yes, it sucks, but you get better and it's not a huge deal.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Sat Jun 20, 2015 1:28 am

Is she actually entomophobic, or is she just freaked out by biting and stinging insects?

erik · Post by **erik** » Sat Jun 20, 2015 3:36 am

RobbyPants wrote: I have spent the last two weeks trying to convince my three-year-old daughter that:

Bees will not kill her.

Bees prefer to leave her alone.

Not all flying insects are bees.

Fire ants will not kill her.

Fire ants do not live by us.

Not all ants are fire ants.

This is getting emotionally draining, and I'm tempted to turn this to my advantage.

"Alice, the bees will leave you alone if you make your bed in the morning and don't complain when asked to put your dishes in the dishwasher."

I don't really see this as less ethical than my wife telling her Santa is real.

I still give my mom a hard time about a bee-related incident. Bees had a hard-on for stinging me as a kid, with no provocation needed.

I recall vividly one day when she was holding my hand and we were looking at her flowers and I was freaking out because a bee kept moving from flower to flower, getting closer.
closer
"It won't bother you Erik."
closer
"Just ignore it"
it lands on my ugly brown sock with even uglier orange and yellow zig-zag bands
"Oh. Just stand still and it won't sting you"
standing still *OW!*
the fucker stings me through the sock and we go inside to pull the stinger out of my tender flesh with tweezers. the bee goes off to die its hero's death and meet a dozen virgin larvae in paradise.

Or the time that I was bicycling with family and out of our pack, a random fuzzy-wuzzy bumble bee started chasing me until it caught up and landed on the tip of my nose and stung me.

Oh, those fucking bees. I killed hives and hives as a tween in revenge, and never got stung once in retaliation (not counting incidental stingers to the hand while I'm swatting them). Only as an innocent. Nowadays I'll swat bees down with my hand since I'd rather take a stinger to my palm.

I won't judge on using myths and tall-tales to get obedience from children. It was fun while it lasted, but now my eldest has caught on and will say stuff like "You're wrong daddy. Thor isn't in this world" (as opposed to the imaginary world of movies).

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Sat Jun 20, 2015 4:09 pm

So, I go to scratch me but, and my hand bruses against a zipper. I look down and I've been unwittingly wearing my pants backwards all day.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Sun Jun 21, 2015 1:27 am

so, yesterday was my birthday.
yesterday as in june 20th.
31 years old now. i got a pillow.
i had barbeque with some friends.
weather was mostly agreeable.
food was grilled very thoroughly.
could have been worse i guess.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Sun Jun 21, 2015 10:16 pm

Happy Birthday. It's all downhill from here.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 2:14 am

Stahlseele wrote:31 years old now. i got a pillow.

I shudder to think what kind of pillow a 31 year old gets for his birthday.

Count Arioch the 28th · Mon Jun 22, 2015 6:51 am

Shrapnel wrote:
Stahlseele wrote:31 years old now. i got a pillow.
I shudder to think what kind of pillow a 31 year old gets for his birthday.

A friend got me a My Little Pony body pillow for my 35th birthday. It was literally the first birthday present I got since I was a kid...

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 7:57 am

Shrapnel wrote:
Stahlseele wrote:31 years old now. i got a pillow.
I shudder to think what kind of pillow a 31 year old gets for his birthday.

(maybe NSFW?)

maglag · Post by **maglag** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 9:54 am

erik wrote: Oh, those fucking bees. I killed hives and hives as a tween in revenge, and never got stung once in retaliation (not counting incidental stingers to the hand while I'm swatting them). Only as an innocent. Nowadays I'll swat bees down with my hand since I'd rather take a stinger to my palm.

I never got stung by a bee or wasp, despite living several years in a small village, but mosquitoes seem to think my blood is chateau or something, because they'll travel from all around the surrounding area to drain me at every opportunity.

A couple years ago I was finishing an urgent uni report during early summer, too hot to close the windows, mosquitoes swarming all over my exposed legs, arms and neck. I was all "zero fucks given" and managed to keep working while ignoring the urge to scratch the itches or try to hunt down the mosquitoes. Next day I was covered in mosquito bites but the report was finished and I got a good grade, so worth it.

Count Arioch the 28th · Mon Jun 22, 2015 10:34 am

A wasp got into my shirt one time and stung me 4-5 times before I realized what had happened (I thought something in my clothing was scratching me.)

I seem to be mostly resistant to wasp venom.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 12:24 pm

@Ancient History
Thank you. That's what i figured.

@Shrapnel
Normal Pillow for the head to rest on while in bed.

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 12:43 pm

RelentlessImp wrote:I hear therapists calling right now to set up future sessions for when exploiting the kid's fear rather than dispelling it fucks her up later in life. Fear is a much more vicious emotion to utilize against someone than belief is.

That was tongue in cheek. I'm not planning on actually lying to her to get her to do her chores. I'm just more frustrated by the sudden irrationality of the whole thing.

Shrapnel wrote:
RobbyPants wrote: [*]Bees will not kill her.
[*]Bees prefer to leave her alone.
[*]Fire ants will not kill her.
Actually, bees are the largest killer of humans directly caused by animals in the US. And fire ants can totally kill people, although since you don't live near any, that's not as big a problem.

While bees may kill more people than sharks, most bee stings aren't fatal. I'd rather not give her technically accurate, yet super misleading factoids to further fuel the situation.

Chamomile wrote:Has she actually been stung before? While it's hardly actionable advice, she might get over it once she gets stung and realizes that yes, it sucks, but you get better and it's not a huge deal.

No, not that I know of. Her older sister was stung maybe a week after this paranoia started. I don't know if that had any real effect one way or the other.

Shrapnel wrote:Is she actually entomophobic, or is she just freaked out by biting and stinging insects?

Who knows. She's three. This all started very suddenly. Based on what she says (about being stung), I'm assuming she's just worried that she will be stung.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 2:07 pm

Stahlseele wrote:@Shrapnel
Normal Pillow for the head to rest on while in bed.

Alas! reality proves to be far more disappointing than my expectations.

RobbyPants wrote:While bees may kill more people than sharks, most bee stings aren't fatal. I'd rather not give her technically accurate, yet super misleading factoids to further fuel the situation.

I know, I just felt the need to be pedantic.

So, last night I couldn't get any sleep. Why? Because every time I closed my eyes, I kept thinking about making goddamn coffee and fetching goddamn donuts. I think my new job is slowly driving me insane.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 4:20 pm

How IS that going, by the way? Apart from the invading your head at night.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 11:33 pm

Maxus wrote:How IS that going, by the way? Apart from the invading your head at night.

Pretty well, actually. I've definitely getting the hang of how things work. I know how to make coffee and fetch donuts and such, I know where most of the supplies are, and today I learned the ins-and-outs of the cash register.

Lemme tell ya, I felt like a real man when I learned how to punch up a medium iced coffee with two donuts and a wake-up wrap and give change for a twenty*.

The only real problem is standing on my arthritic feet for six hours...

*Fortunately, I don't have to do no maths since the machine says how much to give back. Convenient!

Ice9 · Post by **Ice9** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 12:26 am

Shrapnel wrote:
Stahlseele wrote:@Shrapnel
Normal Pillow for the head to rest on while in bed.
Alas! reality proves to be far more disappointing than my expectations.

You say that, but somebody fairly recently gave me a (normal) high-quality pillow for - some gift occasion, birthday maybe - and it's greatly improved my sleep; definitely the MVP of the presents.

Related, I think I realized why hotel beds tend to be crap (mattress too firm, pillows not firm enough) - they're designed for back-sleepers, and I sleep mostly on my side. That or they just suck, but I'm assuming there's a reason.

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 12:16 pm

Shrapnel wrote: The only real problem is standing on my arthritic feet for six hours...

No anti-fatigue mats?

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 3:51 pm

RobbyPants wrote:
Shrapnel wrote: The only real problem is standing on my arthritic feet for six hours...
No anti-fatigue mats?

Not even a good counter to lean on or give as a TM. Getting free meals (somewhat) makes up for the pain, though*. That and money. Money is always good. Speaking of, I made like $11 in tips yesterday. This being my first tipping job, I'm not really sure if that's good or not, but it certainly feels it.

* That being said, I still have to stay off feet for like the whole day when I get home from work.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 8:33 pm

You'll work up to the standing, but yeah, retail jobs kick your ass.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sat Jun 27, 2015 2:00 am

Following on the heels of the same-sex marriage announcement, I am now a minister and, apparently, officially licensed to perform marriages should the occasion arise.

I'm not announcing it to family yet, and I'll certainly allow an actual clergy member with some modicum of more articulated faith than I possess first crack at the proceedings, but I went on and did the process to ensure that if it came up...I'll do it.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Wed Jul 01, 2015 9:44 pm

ok
i have had enough of summer
i say we go for some months of autumn now
then some weeks of winter
and then some months of spring <.<

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Thu Jul 02, 2015 5:03 pm

I just fielded a call from a lawyer named Andrus Wagstaff.

Now I'm missing Terry Pratchett all over again. That's an Ankh-Morpork name right there...

MisterDee · Post by **MisterDee** » Thu Jul 02, 2015 5:41 pm

So, I had some free time and said, "what the hell, my laptop has been noisy for a while, let's do that temp test thing and clean the vents and stuff."

HOLY. EFFIN. BARREL. OF. COCK.

The GPU is now running 30C colder. Everything else is also cooler. The fan is literally whispering instead of screaming. And I think I just unleashed a Greater Dust Elemental on the rest of my condo.

Gotta bring out the Ghosttouch Vacuum Cleaner now I think.