How was your experience? I'd like to go hopefully at some point in the future, so I'm curious.Quote:
Originally Posted by a completely inoffensive name
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How was your experience? I'd like to go hopefully at some point in the future, so I'm curious.Quote:
Originally Posted by a completely inoffensive name
Did you visit the countryside?Quote:
Originally Posted by a completely inoffensive name
I have a lot to say, it was quite a lot to take in. Absolutely worth it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Csargo
If you are new to traveling, I would say Seoul is a good place to start in East Asia because it felt very Westernized compared to Taipei and Tokyo. I saw just as many French style cafes and restaurants putting cheese on everything as I did for the more traditional Korean food. I had the best breakfast sandwich of my life at a chain called Isaac. If you visit SK, please eat there. I spent five days there and that was enough for the city, but you could go further out to other cities like Busan and extend the trip. unfortunately, tours at the DMZ are not allowed at the moment, don't know why but I guess that's fine. Venturing in the countryside/DMZ puts you at higher risk for malaria vectors.
Tokyo is much more forgiving than even recent years because they are building the city for the Olympics and have encouraged more english signage and credit card transactions (although many places still operate under cash only).
But it still helps tremendously to understand common Japanese words or have google translate handy. Osaka was boring. Kyoto was fun for a day, and is great for day trips to neighboring areas (hiroshima, nara, etc).
Japanese baseball is a blast and you should experience it at least once. I could do a whole write up if you are interested. I spent about 16 days in Japan and I feel like I will need another two weeks in a future trip to see the rest.
In Tokyo I got severe food poisoning and ended up having simultaneous vomiting and diarrhea for 12 hours, followed by 24 hours of extreme fatigue. All I can say is don't eat the food at the Tokyo Skytree.
Not in Korea. But I did a little bit north of Mount Fuji. Tried to focus on hitting up more cities for my first time. Also, being in the countryside meant (per CDC recommendations) I had to bring malaria pills and get an expensive vaccine for Japanese Encephalitis. I didn't do either, so I limited my exposure.Quote:
Originally Posted by Montmorency
I will say however, that while the cities are crowded, there are tons of side allys and streets where it can be very sparse and quiet. Felt almost like suburbs except all the buildings are 3+ stories tall.
Hmm, I've never thought about health recommendations when in rural areas of the United States. :sweatdrop:Quote:
Originally Posted by a completely inoffensive name
You might like the Youtube channel Asian Boss, which is mostly street interviews with young people in Korea, Japan, China, Philippines, India, and others. I see it as an alternative to actually traveling!
Yeah, I would be interested in a full write-up if you wanted to write one, I'd definitely read it. Thanks for the info.Quote:
Originally Posted by a completely inoffensive name
I read this restaurateur's blog series on why tipping should be abolished or even banned: the psychology and economics of tipping in the hospitality industry, especially restaurants.
This was one of those reads. You know what I mean, an affecting Good Read.
Reading be like:
Attachment 22752
Attachment 22753
Unfortunately, the No-Tip model has not taken off in the past decade - not necessarily because its promise failed but because a huge proportion of customers turn out to be viscerally repulsed by the perception of loss of control over waiters. Also, high-earning waiters lose money (and quit) if their chance at tip earnings is cut off for more equalized wages with the whole staff. :/
The People have lost my confidence, throw them out and elect a new People!
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
@ACIN Please take your time. :yes:
I LIVE!!!!
I may have never thought of inserting or removing hangers from buttoned shirts from the bottom before today.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/...mation/498965/Quote:
In the immediate term, Medzhitov’s takeaway is to follow our cravings when we’re sick, because they may reflect evolutionary mechanisms that evolved to be protective: “So, for example, when you have the flu, you kind of feel like having some tea and honey. That may be the body’s way of telling us that we need some glucose. I suspect we have these mechanisms that tell us what we prefer to eat (or not to eat) when we’re sick. Those are the mechanisms we should probably listen to.”
Interesting..
I'll eat that chocolate.
"Sleepers get stupefied"? That's the original English? Definitely makes no sense.
Can't wait for the December cinnamon tea while outside it's 0 degrees.
Answered a question from an Asian tourist today. Wish me luck.
It's 2020. A hundred years ago was 1920. Everyone who grew up prior to WW2, who had a full experience of the 1930s, is pretty much a centenarian by now.
I think we still have one person left receiving a Civil War pension check.Quote:
Originally Posted by Montmorency
Her Dad was 83 when she was born. Age difference of at least 50 years between her Dad and Mother.Quote:
Originally Posted by Seamus Fermanagh
Crazy.
I have actually read of some 20th century ACW marriages arranged in order to keep the pension coming to the family. As Franklin said...Quote:
Originally Posted by Beskar
"There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government."
Which is why there were thousands of such late marriages, currently receiving short of a $1000 a year.Quote:
Originally Posted by Seamus Fermanagh
*checks notes*
I'm reading here that may have not happened...
Right about now is where one of those cryo sleep chambers as seen in Interstellar/The Martian/Passengers would be handy.
Saw this a little while ago:
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52350082
Negative oil prices? Negative oil prices??
I suppose it might be a bit much to ask that the gas station pays me to fill up my tank...~DQuote:
The price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the benchmark for US oil, fell as low as minus $37.63 a barrel.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/e...e-an-explainer
Maybe we can chip in to rent a hundred acres of land in Wyoming, a lot of tarpaulin, and call it the Org Strategic Oil Reserve?
Edit: I figure, what, 250000 barrels should be a good start. Figure out a way to time these things so that the millions credited from accepting those barrels will offset the land, shipping, brokerage, and other costs.
Or....we could've bought an oil tanker for $17 million US, renamed it The ORG, and been PAID $41 million to take delivery of just over a million barrels of Texas light, sweet crude.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/5...gejn&site=vice
Damn! There probably would've been enough money to hire a crew and rent a dock in New York harbor somewhere, yes?Quote:
If you were very smart and perceptive, and bought in at the market’s lowest point yesterday ($-37.63), you would have been paid $40,969,323.83 to take the oil. That means you would have made enough to have bought the tanker and would have had roughly $24 million left over to figure out the logistics of getting all of the oil from Oklahoma onto the boat. Unfortunately we did not do this, and neither did you, and the moment has passed.
:bounce:
https://i.imgur.com/jb0IIcG.jpg
:thinking:
I accidentally bought an $80 e-book series on Amazon kindle because I tapped "order now with 1-click" when I was trying to scroll down on my smartphone. I was able to get a refund, but I found out that Amazon won't let you disable 1-click ordering, which is bull crap. I wouldn't be surprised if they did that on purpose to take advantage of people.
11.000 posts. :sweatdrop:
Quite a long list.
:medievalcheers:
Its a long yet rewarding road! Or so I tell myself.
:creep:
foul fowl foul fowl foul foul foul fowl in Buffalo
Good morning.
...are you ok
Water buffaloes? :bounce:
Maybe he's referring to this?
https://books.google.com/books?id=oM...B41R0tCjMxraCW
:shrug:
~D
How in the world did you manage to find that? 1904 review of the Buffalo City council, wow. ~:eek:
Somewhat shockingly, I woke up at around 4 due to a wolf spider walking on my face. :inquisitive:
I'm getting real tired of websites blocking my access to their site, by saying I need to disable my adblocker when I don't have an ad blocker active. I'm getting super annoyed and not sure why this is a thing...
well since its random i sometimes think about the concept of age and how ridiculously meaningless it is ! i mean why would someone celebrate the day they started spinning around the sun and why does it matter and more importantly why keep track of your age ? and some people even use things like age calculator . its like you are gettin closer and closer to your death every hour !
All this time I was using the participle "enjoined" when "to injunct" is a legitimate back-formation.
If you're going for chain fast food, please don't forget that there are usually coupons floating around that will let you double your money (or save half).
New Yorkers are just....well....squirrelly:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ghborhood-fear
Anti-squirrel weaponry?:creep:Quote:
At least three people in Rego Park, in the borough of Queens, have been jumped upon and bitten by the possibly deranged squirrel in recent weeks. The tree-based rodent’s reign of terror has made some people in the area afraid to go outside without being armed with pepper spray or other anti-squirrel weaponry.
Pretty sure you are at risk for rabies there, sweetheart, not COVID-19:laugh4:Quote:
“I came out of the house with a shovel after the first few days but now I think ‘I have the vaccine, I’m wearing heavy gloves, bring it on,’” she said.
I just realized --- all those old-timey allusions from the Bible, poetry, literature, or the Classics, that people tended to pepper into their speech and writing up to the early 20th century are pretty much the equivalent of contemporary Internet memes.
You know the sort I mean, 'And here am I as Laocoön before the very Hesperides on the night the poet saw Jericho' or some such :daisy:
Those allusions, often recurring as stock phrases, had a specific evocative content that is categorically similar to memes.
https://i.imgur.com/8NDvTlK.jpg
Today's random thought... I hope $GME goes to the moon!
Anyone else on this ride? :rolleyes4:
I never thought the madness of GME would hit this place but there we go!
GME to the moon!
I am aware of at least 5 shows about rural South Asian people trying things launching within the past year.
Hello, is this argument sound and valid?
Sharks have fins.
Sharks are fish.
Therefore, all fish must have fins.
No that would be a logical fallacy.
Thought 1: The problem with jars of capers is that, unless one intends to eat a spoonful with every meal...
Thought 2: What is Hollywood going to do when mass-market internal-combustion vehicles are no longer available to order?
I think it's rather telling that one advances in age when Justin Bieber is actually good pop music. Oh dear.
I find it disturbing how so many regular posters (and not just this forum) suddenly stopped posting. It happened during this pandemic and when so many people lost their jobs. I worry about them.
I’m alive.
Married, but alive.
With the announcement of the remaster of RTW, I've been looking through the old posts in the forum, and man does the nostalgia hit hard. The days of hundreds of users visiting every day may be gone, but the fond memories live on.
:bow:
Edit: I did the math, Ive been on here for nearly 14 years. Thats wild.
Nostalgia is hitting all of us rather hard...Quote:
Originally Posted by Hooahguy
And I've been here for 16 years now. 2005.
Last night I spent an hour or so just looking through old threads from like 2010 and you just see all the users who I used to chat with every day and now have moved on with their lives one way or another. Which makes me wonder why the hell we are still here. :laugh4:Quote:
Originally Posted by edyzmedieval
I kid, I kid. This place has a weird hold on me that keeps me coming back, even after all this time.
I'm old enough to remember when Hooah was an Israeli patriot.
Some of us grew up here - like me - joining when we were young and now we're kinda... well, not old, but we're not getting younger either.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hooahguy
TW Org for me is pure nostalgia and I'm perfectly fine with that. Glad to keep this old little place running.
Excellent way of putting it! I joined when I was just 15 years old, and did a lot of growing up on here. I vividly remember when I first joined I was arguing about something and another Orgah told me "you would be taken a lot more seriously if you used proper punctuation." Never made that mistake again.Quote:
Originally Posted by edyzmedieval
:book2:
I have been here for some time as well. But started in my 40s so not the same experience as ya'll.
So this evening I found out that the dog who I initially applied to adopt got euthanized for severely attacking his owner just a month after being adopted. But because that dog was adopted before I could, I went with another dog, who I have had for almost two years now and adore. I'm completely floored- had that other person not adopted that dog, things would have been very different. Crazy how things work out like this, isn't it?
Dog tax:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Doggo! Love dogs, glad you adopted a little canine to keep company. Pets make everything much nicer.
They really do! Except when they are shedding over everything, which my dog Annie doing is right now as she sheds her winter coat for the summer months. :no:
Regardless, I was living alone for the first 7 months of the pandemic, so having a companion during the isolation was a life saver. She has a fascinating backstory too, she was rescued from wandering the woods of North Carolina after being shot by a farmer for going after his chickens. Now she lives a much happier life where the only terrorizing she does is the local rodent population (she is an avid ratter).
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Climate change is having a significant impact already. It's almost May and the temperature over here is barely over 10 degrees. Way too cold for this period.
My first egg-dying attempt for the Easter:
https://i.imgur.com/LRxf70m.jpeg
I attended a Revolutionary War reenactment this weekend. I got pretty badly sunburned, but the photos I got were pretty great!
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Loved the Hessian soldiers! Is that colonel Tarleton on the last pic? What was your role in the reenactment? There are a few battle reenactments in Greece as well, but the majority of the participants is right-wing nutjobs, so I avoid them unfortunately.
I think so! I was just there taking pictures. I don't have the money for those uniforms, which costs about $2,000 to assemble. I had a chat with the unit of Hessians and they are a group of local history teachers/former students, with the unit being founded by the original teacher of all those teachers. It was a really interesting story.
https://i.imgur.com/VWCxlXQ.png
Huh, that function worked much better than anticipated. Great stuff. Need to tweak my intuition to better match mathematical reality, it seems.
Edit:
https://i.imgur.com/012vzAt.png
beautiful..
Is that the equation for the value of Bitcoin?Quote:
Originally Posted by Viking
I suppose that to the fans of Bitcoin, the first function is a good approximation of its future value, while to the detractors of the valuta, the second function is (negative conversion rates might be a little optimistic).
'Why are you giving me this?'
'I don't need it.'
'Why did you buy it?'
'I thought I needed it!'
So I did something pretty cool this weekend:
https://youtu.be/M6YsGg11ttU
For a long time I was in a job that at best I was neutral about, and at worst I hated. But today that changes as I got an offer for a job I genuinely care about and can make a real difference in this world (cancer advocacy)! Its going to feel good looking forward to going into work.
:bounce:
"Bonified" is a cromulent misspelling of "bona fide." Bonified ~ incarnate ~ in the flesh ~ substantial ~ veritable ~ bona fide.
I remember being able to hold my breath for a minute or two in elementary school, but I can't seem to get past 20 seconds now. What's up with that?
Physical exercises and particularly swimming, Monty?
Swimming improves breathing capacity.
Seen at a CVS.
Flyer on the exterior wall: Covid-19 vaccine available. Appointment only.
Sign posted to the automatic doors: Walk-in Covid vaccine available.
:thinking2:
It's getting unpleasant that it's November and we had over here 25 degrees. Climate change is impacting already.
I want to see fog, rain, dim lights... you know, November. Not late August.
hello everyone
Say "Did we do the due diligence though?" three times fast.
Happy New Year everyone. :bow:
A late Happy New Year to you all too! May 2022 be better than the last two!
Last fall I bought my first-ever bulk sack of rice. As I went to prepare some of it yesterday, the level finally running low, I figured out the cause of a few problems of mine.
Transfer grains and legumes to an airtight container immediately upon opening, dry rations may come pre-infested.
I had been having an escalating problem with moths, almost as bad as I'd ever seen in my life. Well, now I know. Rice may carry moth eggs, which hatch when exposed to air. Why have I never seen this information on any packaging?!?>
The trigger to the realization was noticing a couple of maggots crawling around in my measure of dry rice, with who knows how many more among the grains. There were even a couple of those small ants in there.
In a recipe I call "The Old-fashioned", I soldiered on with my rations as-is, because if it was more often than not good enough for our ancestors, it would be transitorily acceptable for me.
But it's kind of a miserable experience eating this, *knowing* that your food is contaminated with vermin. The knowledge haunts you with every bite as you ponder the nature of every firmness under the teeth and every sheerness the tongue laps. Also, slightly burned and mushy - because I cooked 6 cups of rice at once so I wouldn't feel bad about trashing the remainder. I forgot that you can't fill up a pot near-limit, the food in contact with the metal is overpressured and loses all its mositure faster than usual.
At least I learned my lesson before I opened my second sack of rice, which I just bought...