Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

Dammit! I'm so pissed!

I work night shift. I have an appointment at the dentist in the afternoon and it's going to cut in my sleep time. So I had to leave work 2 hours early (unpaid!) so I could get some sleep.

I get home and go to sleep. Then an hour later surprise! The uneducated, ill-washed plumber who's supposed to fix the room decided he'd drop by and start working on it without warning. So I'm trying to sleep and every 20 minutes I'm woken up by banging noises and what feel like an elephant walking on the roof. After about 2 hours of this I pretty much give up trying to sleep and just lay in bed. It couldn't get any worse right?

Wrong! The guy then knock on my window to wake me up (He knows I work night) so he can borrow a frikkin extension cord. Apparently he doesn't have one. So I have to take my computer room's and my bedroom's small cords and put them together (now I have to set the clock on everything!) just so it could reach the room.

And then he call me from the roof two minutes later. Do I have a slotted screwdriver? So I dig around for one and throw it to him on the roof.

It's 4 o clock and my appointment is in two hours. I decide I might as well get something to eat and get ready. I put something in the microwave but what's that I hear? Yeah. Him calling me again.

Now he wants help operating his machinery on the roof. He live the next town over 90 miles away and if I can't help he won't be able to do anything today. So here I go on the roof of the duplex (I'm afraid of height) and spend the next three quarter of an hour helping him do his unannounced job.

So I slept two hours. I have an appointment at the dentist, and then I have to go to work from midnight to 8:30 am. Polite words can not describe how I feel.

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

He isn't the only plumber in 90 miles is he?

On the subject of gardening, we have aphids on one of our rose plants. Well, so far, only on one part of it, which I cut off and disposed of (it was a blossom due for removal anyway). Found some plants that we can add to the garden that are said to discourage their presence.

I've also read that a strong spray of water helps to knock them off the plants.

Now I have to find out if dwarf pentas are vulnerable.

It's been difficult finding time to pay attention to the garden with daily thunderstorms finally showing up.

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

Ok, would some spiderweb like material coupled with small barely visible red brown creepy crawlies be a good indicator of spider mite infestation on a plant? If so, do you recommend the rubbing alcohol/ water mixture, prescribed on many sites?

Moved a small plant to a pot and it took a little while to rebound (gotta keep more dirt around the roots next time) then it took another turn for the worse. On closer examination, I discovered the above symptoms. I've also heard using a 10:1 water, dishsoap mixture works as well.

Still working on managing the aphid population on the roses and hybiscus. So far I've been sticking with the stiff water shots to push them off. It doesn't kill 'em, or remove them completely, but the plants are doing well all the same. Wishing the ants were eating the aphids instead of sucking the dew from their hind-quarters.

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

Your dishsoap home remedy should work - i'd use it regardless (can't hurt). Add some hydrogen peroxide in there if you like...around the same amount as you would the dishsoap.

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

Man it's hot here. Almost 10pm and it is still 90 Degrees F.

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

Yikes, friend of mine spent his vacation at Cedar Point and it was 102F when he got off the plane. Meanwhile, down here in sunny South Florida, I don't think we've gone over 95F.

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

Ahhh, cooler front came in, so a relief at least for a few days, yay! Weather is so up and down here (for all seasons).

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

Electric keeps popping off tonight. Storms about but nothing major here so no idea why. All I have to say is Yay for Coleman lanterns. I have three and they are way better than candles. I get just the same light as a regular lamp with them. Plus now that I am caught up with technology finally, I have a phone that gets the net, and a battery powered TV. So it's not so bad if the electric goes out. :) Well, cept for no air conditioning doh!

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

It's official, Facebook is behaving worse than Myspace ever did. Can't seem to log-in right now. every time I try it says I "need to be logged in to view this page". I get the same thing when I click the forgot password link. Something is royally screwed up. On top of that, on the rare occasion that it almost works, it tells me that my browser has cookies disabled and can't log me in without cookies. I went so far as to add facebook to the always allow cookies list with no changes. Whatevers wrong, it's gotta be on their end.

On the bright side, I have about a dozen apps out, over the past 3 days. Seriously hoping I get hired in the very near future, but I know there are people who have been looking longer than I have.


On a whim, I decided to try logging in with a wrong password. It told me I had entered an incorrect password. So why when I enter a correct password, would still tell me I need to login?

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

Well off to the hospital we go, daughter's water broke - 1st grandchild is on her way! I hope her husband doesn't drive like maniac getting her there.

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

Dang - very early labor, won't happen till sometime early in the morning. Home for now.

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

D'oh

Well, congrats all the same.

The battle against pests in the garden continues. Red mites making return visits to plants I have yet to identify (one of my neighbors gave them to me). The aphids seem to have given up on the rose bushes for the moment, but they're still making themselves known on the hybiscus. Also, something has been nibbling holes in the affore mentioned unknown plants. I'm thinking it may be snails, but I'm not sure...any ideas?

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

MH you're leaving us hanging bro. :D

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

Sorry about that. :D For some reason labor almost came to a stand still and they sent her home??? She has an appointment today with her Dr. and they might induce labor to get her going again. I'll post some pictures after she is born.

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

Congrats on the impending arrival, Machinehead! Hope everything goes smoothly... even with being sent home :)

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

Ok, just beat System Shock 2 for the first time ever. The ending was somewhat more of a let down for me than most other people. For some reason the indeo codec's don't work correctly on Vista, so no cutscenes and consequently no end clip either. But then I watched the end sequence on youtube. And I have to say, I was almost convinced that it was a fan made spoof. I'm rather disappointed, but slightly amused at the same time. On the whole it was a great experience though.

Recently, I've been eyeing the original System Shock. Has there ever been a version released that doesn't need to run on DoS, or will I need to track down DoSbox(or similar)?

And at the same time I've been lamenting the likelyhood that a System Shock 3 will never occurr. (who knows, though, it could be for the best)

Also, if anyone has any ideas on how to get the indeo codecs to work properly on Vista, or some other kind of workaround, it would be very helpful.
The issue is keeping mission briefings for Thief:TDP, and System Shock cutscenes from playing. Thief 2: MA, seems to play them perfectly, so I have no idea what the issue may be.

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

Savannah Rose and mom looking a little worn out.

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

YAY! Congrats Grandpa!!! :D

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

Congrats, Ed! And best wishes to Savannah Rose, her parents, and grandparents! A day worth celebrating... :thumbsup:

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

In other news my church is hosting a reality show in our new auditorium (which is apparently being marketed as Glades Theater, I suppose to avoid scaring off potential attendees who think they might try to sneak in a sermon or something) Anywho, the show is called "Recreating a Legend", they're auditioning 11 ladies from around the world. Celebrity judges to include Olivia Newton-John, Betty Wright, and Roy Anthony. Special guest this week is Kevin Rudolf. http://www.recreatingalegend.com/show.html

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

Hope I'm not necroing this thread too badly. :) Thought it had been a while since I was last here (February) and I should pop back and say hi.

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

Nah, it's only been 8 days since it was last posted in. Greetings, welcome back. What's new with you? I'm still looking for work, though more actively now. And I now have a nephew in addition to my niece.

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

Hi again Firestormalpha. Congrats to your family :) Hope the job search goes well for you, what field are you looking in?

Things have been a bit up and down with me, but mainly up. I had to suspend my final year studies back in early March or so because my anti-depression medication was messing me up so badly I couldn't work. After having my dosage pinged back and forth like a yoyo for a year (it has seen been shown that the dosages I was on have been linked to severe irregular heartbeats in some people, among other things, thankfully I seem to have got away unharmed and actually better off) I got told a few weeks back to try and take myself off them, as they were no longer working, and I would benefit from being on something else. However, while I'm having some rather nasty side effects from having stopped (my brain isn't used to the lack of serotonin floating around) I've started wondering if, now things which were making my life bad (people causing me mental, emotional and physical abuse) have gone, might I be able to cope without said pills? So I think I'm going to try and get by for at least a few months, with regular checkups. See if I can get by.

And I start back for the second go at my final year in two or three weeks. I've already finished my dissertation as I had several months where I had nothing else to do, and I did the first semester field work last year, and my marks for it are being held until this year. Just as well, I don't want to redo it - I nearly got buried under a rock fall and broke a couple of fingers in a German quarry.

I ended a four year relationship back in November last year. I'd changed too much, he hadn't, and I wasn't happy any more. Since then, I've started seeing someone else, we semi-moved in together for a couple of months when I was homeless (I have my own place with a couple of friends now), and we've been going along pretty well for over six months now.

So yeah, things are going fairly well. I've decided that I've been being too passive in my life, and there is no point me sitting around and whining about things and then not going out and doing anything about them. Yeah, I still get badly depressed some days and I probably always will, but I'm just going to have to do my best to work round it and make the most of the days that I'm happy.

And I managed to stay out of the way of the riots that were all over England a few weeks back. They got pretty close to my parent's house, but they never really took off where I live - Probably because I'm in a city with a very active naval base, and they don't take too kindly to that sort of nonsense.

And being off my pills and coming back to all you lovely chaps seems to have made me a darn sight more talkative than I used to be :D

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

My particular field of preference is one of the hardest to get into right now. Retail. Ok, so it's not like you have to be a genious, but with the economy being what it is, most of them are pretty scared of hiring. So, yeah, it gets kinda frustrating.

Also, celebrating hurricane Irene completely missing us here, praying that it doesn't do too much damage wherever it lands. It's down to a CAT2, (maybe lower as I type this) with no major prospects for strengthening, so I'm thinking it shouldn't be too bad.

Glad to hear you're doing well, and managed to avoid the rioting.

Re: Cloudy's Cafe-a conversation zone- January 2, 2011
 

Well it has been quite dramatic weather wise here in Virginia lately - first the earthquake (which we NEVER get), the hurrican Irene skimmed our area (luckily I did not lose power, just cable and internet for awhile with the heavy rains and high winds), now hurricane Lee gave us pretty much an entire week of heavy rains. Roads were flooded, houses were flooded, bridges broke apart, even a sinkhole. And 4 people lost their lives very nearby where I live trying to walk through the flooding. FINALLY the rain has stopped! So I hope things calm down now and get back to normal. Although now all the local news is talking about potential terrorist attacks this weekend because of the 911 anniversary. Hopefully the beefed up security will be able to make sure that does not happen.