Little things that cheer you up.

[Sarah K]

I made it past the first round for a two year, salaried fellowship through the city for policy analysis and program evaluation. The next round is a group project where we go in and are presented with a case study and have to work as a group to answer questions and provide solutions. Then the final round is specific agencies select people for individual interviews based on their observations of our performance during the group round.

This is a huuuuge opportunity, and I'm actually fairly shocked that I'm going on to the next round. During the fellowship, you take the civil service exam and unless you're a total fuck-up or fail the exam, you then transition into a leadership role in a city agency.

Kind of shitting myself?

[eversonpoe]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

the shrug emoji is maybe my favorite thing i've ever seen on the internet. i use it all the time (i made a keyboard shortcut on my phone so if i type the word "shrug" it auto-corrects to the emoji) and i feel like i've started to embody it in real life (which is a good thing; i used to be crazy anxious all the time). i just...i love it.

[MrLobster]

Watching those YouTube compilations of TV show intros from yesteryear.

[MrLobster]

After pulling books that I'm just never going to read again, I re-arranged the remaining books on the shelves and made a lot more room to acquire more books (comics included).

[Haysey_Draws]

For the first time in...must be nearly 10 years, i have ACTUAL plans for my birthday...WITH PEOPLE! I normally just book a day off and spend it in the cinema on my own as most people i know have moved on and have little time to spare for me, but this year i Have Comic-con with a friend and then a meal after (though she is moving to Canada soon so it might be the last time i see her) Then i have a playoff final at Wembley with one of my closest friends from work (and i finally get to meet her fiance) i have Godzilla out so i'll defiantly be seeing that when i can book a ticket and finally a meal with my family (something i've been asking to do one year for fucking years)...so the next few weeks should be good

[allegro]

Lori Lightfoot was inaugurated as Mayor of Chicago today; the 1st black female Chicago Mayor, and the 1st LGBTQ+ Chicago Mayor. I shed many tears.

[klyrish]

Today's my last day at my shitty, soul-crushing agency job. I could spend hours ranting about all the things wrong with this place but it's not worth it anymore. I'm free and I hope to watch this place quickly crumble without me, the other developer who left a month ago, and the third developer leaving in 2 more weeks. It's a 12-person company. So far, we've been "replaced" with a hack who can only work 16 hours/week and a 45 year old intern who spent 20 years doing mainframe development so he's a newborn baby when it comes to app development, API development, and front end development. The CEO is a malignant narcissist who thinks his job is berating his team because we can't read his mind and he won't take notes for the many client meetings he holds without anyone else from the company involved and then spends as much time as possible being a childish cunt on Twitter to Republican politicians. He lies (to us and clients), he's a hypocrite, he's passive-aggressive, and most importantly: he's nowhere near as smart/crafty as he thinks he is. It's seriously going to be so satisfying watching this company go out of business.

[Sarah K]

I made it past the first round for a two year, salaried fellowship through the city for policy analysis and program evaluation. The next round is a group project where we go in and are presented with a case study and have to work as a group to answer questions and provide solutions. Then the final round is specific agencies select people for individual interviews based on their observations of our performance during the group round.

This is a huuuuge opportunity, and I'm actually fairly shocked that I'm going on to the next round. During the fellowship, you take the civil service exam and unless you're a total fuck-up or fail the exam, you then transition into a leadership role in a city agency.

Kind of shitting myself?

I am a F I N A L I S T.

Last round of interviewing next week. The group round was intense as fuck. There were about 16 semifinalists and they split us up into two groups and had us seated around tables in the center of the room. On the edges of the room were about 20 representatives from city agencies. They then gave us a case study and questions that we needed to answer. We had 15 minutes to discuss and strategize and then had to give a 10 minute pitch... With folks we had never met before. And the entire time we were working, all of the agency reps were walking around and leaning in super close to hear what we were saying and were taking notes the whole time. After our presentation, we each had 60 seconds to say why we should be picked, and that was it. I think this next one will be more of a traditional panel-style interview.

[tony.parente]

My girlfriend is possibly the most beautiful, kind, loving, caring, understanding woman I have ever known in my entire life and she is making me complete rethink everything I ever thought I knew about love.

[Halo Infinity]

Listening to this interview Joe Rogan had with Paul Stanley. I actually prefer listening to this side of KISS after looking up Gene Simmons so many times. I also had absolutely no idea how much I'd be able to relate to Paul Stanley, especially in terms finding your self-worth and figuring out what you'd want out of life or how what really matters or what's important to you right now, just might change in the future a lot more than you'd even dare to imagine, which is still very much a part of living and learning. I've heard it before, but it's just the way he put it in his own words that really grabbed my attention and piqued my interest. Eddie Trunk interviews/shows, and Ace Frehley and Peter Criss (As I got/ought to see the whole picture anyway.) aside, it certainly helped me gain a much better perspective/dimension and appreciation for KISS that I otherwise wouldn't have considered, as opposed to just listening to Gene Simmons every single time I looked up anything KISS related.

Paul Stanley also seemed to be very down to Earth, very much in contrast with the excess, indulgent, larger than life attributes/status of KISS, which I also very much appreciated to see/hear.



As for this video, I just found it awesome to see a fan really give it his all on guitar at a Foo Fighter's concert on Monkey Wrench. I stumbled upon it because I kept searching for KISS and Nirvana as I learned that Kurt Cobain was a KISS fan (And also finding out that Nirvana also covered KISS before.), and so was Dave Grohl, and this caught my attention. Seeing KISS Guy (Yayo Sanchez) shred is like a very happy ending to a film based on rock music. It also cheers me up to see musicians being extremely cool with/to their fans doing certain things in cases where they clearly didn't have to. (I mean, it's best to be cool to your fans at all times, but knowing they didn't have to invite Yayo Sanchez up there just simply made it all the better. For whatever reason, it also comes across as very inspirational and hopeful too.

[eversonpoe]

paul stanley is the best <3

[MrLobster]

Sorting my White Wolf RPG books for the first time in four or so years since moving...

[eversonpoe]

Number Six • The Endless

really super excited about this...
new project from me & my friend mac (also formerly of the elizabeth dane)
this is our first release, a 6-track EP inspired by the first installment of neil gaiman's sandman series
we're getting 50 cassettes printed, if that's your thing, and it'll be up on streaming services soon, but for right now it's just on bandcamp

(cross-posted in the artistic expression section)

[M1ke]

I had been in some financial trouble recently, and I've managed to turn things around.

This month my car decided to break down and it's costing me $1,000. But somehow I've worked myself to a position where a $1,000 unexpected car repair isn't going to make my debts worse. Or even slow down my repayment of my debts. I have money in savings for car repairs that I add to every month, and there's enough there to cover my car repair.

It seems strange to celebrate a car failure, but it feels unreal that it's not going to cause me to go further into debt, and my mind is just spinning here.

It seems absolutely unbelievable somehow. My entire adult life has been spent getting by just barely and hoping that I didn't have a disaster strike to throw me into further debt, and I'm now at a point where I can weather this without it being a huge blow. This feels amazing.

[eversonpoe]

yesterday, i had to drive from home to oak park (12 miles through chicago, no highway available to take) in the morning, then from oak park to barrington hills (northwest suburb, 38 miles from oak park) for work. when i got to barrington hills at 3:20pm, i found out that what i was there to do couldn't be done because the comcast guy would have had to run a new drop from a pedestal to the house, which was 800 feet of distance. but at least i got this hilarious dictation mishap on my phone trying to tell my wife i'd rather be going to ikea with her. still laughing about it today.

[Haysey_Draws]

So a day of good and bad...

The bad is my bosses funeral is tomorrow and we're not allowed to wear black...and i only own black clothes

Good news is we just got our performance bonus...£1200 after tax...that's the biggest bonus i've ever got, pretty fucking chuffed with that (and i can actually afford all these games coming out...and a different coloured shirt!)

[allegro]

So a day of good and bad...

The bad is my bosses funeral is tomorrow

Your BOSS DIED?!?!

That’s gotta be really weird.

[Haysey_Draws]

Your BOSS DIED?!?!

That’s gotta be really weird.

Well technically he was my line manager, but the only person above him was is the director (who is the real boss) so i just called him that.

Truth is he was a really nice guy and got a lot of stuff done, nobody ever had a bad word to say about him, and he was only 50 so it'll be quite sad.

Fun* Fact : i've only been to 3 funerals, 2 of which were for bosses of mine...i might be somewhat unlucky for management.

*that's really not fun

[allegro]

Truth is he was a really nice guy and got a lot of stuff done, nobody ever had a bad word to say about him, and he was only 50 so it'll be quite sad.

Yeah, that’s sad.


(Boss killer. Heh.) :P

[Sarah K]

I initially got an A and an A- this semester, which I was a bit bummed about. I reached out to the A- professor to get some guidance on where I could have improved. We got to design our own final project and I chose a grant proposal, which I had never done before, so I figured I went wrong in a few places. I am also taking another course with her in the fall so want to be sure I know what she looks for. But she emailed back and said that sometimes our system does a sort of auto-correct, so if an earlier student on the roster got an A-, it might switch my A to an A- (think of Excel), and I did indeed get an A.

That means I finished my first year of graduate school with a perfect 4.0. Which. Is. Wild. My first semester in college I got myself on academic probation, and now I've achieved this. I have never had a 4.0 in my life, and to have it happen for the first time in an advanced degree program just seems impossible!

[MrLobster]

Swedish Berries Maynard's ice pops.

Mmmm.......

[allegro]

As a former girl drummer (in the 70s when it was really hard being a girl drummer), this kid really makes me smile. Those fucking bass rolls, omg

[Haysey_Draws]

Good news is we just got our performance bonus...£1200 after tax...that's the biggest bonus i've ever got, pretty fucking chuffed with that (and i can actually afford all these games coming out...and a different coloured shirt!)

So i got taxed to fuck on my bonus lol. The bonus was £1500 and i, stupidly, assumed i'd get at least £1200 of that...turns out i got just under £1000 of it. A third went on tax

Still i shouldn't complain, a bonus is a bonus.

[eversonpoe]

had a...really bad day thursday, rough work day today (fell off a ladder, into/onto a very hard bush, and that wasn't even the worst thing that happened), and a weird evening. but it's my friend's birthday and he was doing a thing at a bar and i decided i should go. i don't even remember the last time i went to a regular bar, and i don't remember the last time i went out that late (got there at 9:30), but i ended up having a ton of fun. it was 80s night so they were playing some great 80s music videos and i spent most of the evening dancing. didn't even get drunk. definitely need to go out dancing more often, i forgot how good it feels (even though i'm terrible at it! )

[ryanmcfly]

Just had my first job interview for our move to Colorado in August. I think it went well. Fingers crossed.

Update: Got the job!!!!!

[elevenism]

Hearing from my reclusive friend @Halo Infinity . Holler at your homeboy, man. It's been a while.

[eversonpoe]

my best friend justine was in town for two weeks. we did a lot of fun stuff, including playing a shit ton of super smash bros haha

we also got to play some of the songs we had recorded almost three years ago (that are finally finding life with my main musical collaborator mac adding lyrics/vocals to them) all together in my music room and it was amazing to feel like i was really in a band again

no amount of time ever feels like enough when one of us visits the other, but i'm always thankful for it no matter how short it is



the highlight of her visit, though, was finding the grave of a woman that she likely was in a past life (you can check out her story in this book)

[high def ultra-realism]

NIN on KEXP




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MrLobster]

"Hey Earl."
"Hey Crabman."

(why yes I am re-watching My Name Is Earl... however did you guess?)

[Halo Infinity]

Hearing from my reclusive friend @Halo Infinity . Holler at your homeboy, man. It's been a while.

I'm still around. It's just that I sometimes want and need to get away from it all, as you've already known. For a moment there, I also thought that this was posted in The Love List. Thanks for the compliment though, and I still appreciate just knowing that.

Anyway, I still have a few more threads in mind for the rest of the year, but they're mostly TV and movie related, and perhaps just one more for literature some day. And as always, I'd still gravitate towards the Random Stupidity thread, especially on holidays. Aside from that, I've been relating more and more to Rowan Atkinson and Jerry Seinfeld when it came to being reclusive, even in terms of being more of a lurker on the Internet altogether. (More specifically in regard to social media and forums, and yes I still live on YouTube, which is still one of the greatest time killers of all time.)







And for real, there is something actually relaxing about not having to keep up/put up with this or that on a regular basis when surfing the Internet. This still isn't to say that I'd absolutely rid myself of forums and social media altogether, but it's still rather pleasant to just not have to always fuss around and be concerned with either type of site. Lurking will almost never get old though, but that hardly takes any effort. And on top of that, as I've said several times before, as long as I'm still a fan of Nine Inch Nails, I'll always have a reason to return to Echoing the Sound, even if to just read about Nine Inch Nails in general, since this is unequivocally the best source of everything Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor. (No matter which forum I'm on, I still can't/won't detach myself from the main topic.)

Speaking of Rowan Atkinson, and to keep up with this thread, I've got to say Mr. Bean. (Both the live action series and the animated series.) It's even perfect for the travel vibe, especially in hotels. And when the hotels are like a home a way from home as if it were a very cozy apartment, even better, especially with cable Internet and TV. I just went to the Philippines and the vacation/family home I had was lacking Wi-Fi and cable, among some other places, and it certainly helped remind me to not take cable TV and Internet for granted. It also made me realize just how spoiled I was with it, since it's extremely easy to kill time with cable TV and Internet. Now, I just pretend I'm chilling in a very sweet hotel set-up at home now and even that also cheers me up too.