Looking on the Brighter Side, Things that are good

Discussion, in general

Re: Looking on the Brighter Side, Things that are good

Postby Anglerphobe » Tue Nov 06, 2018 7:12 pm

There are feral parakeets even in Britain. They haven't made it far out of London, but they seem to be thriving there. So much so that they will probably have to be killed off in large numbers at some point soon for the benefit of native birds.
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Re: Looking on the Brighter Side, Things that are good

Postby CarrieVS » Tue Nov 06, 2018 8:19 pm

Anglerphobe wrote:There are feral parakeets even in Britain. They haven't made it far out of London.


I keep hearing an unusual bird sound and looking up just in time to catch a glimpse of a flock of about five birds with long tails, definitely not magpies or anything else native that I know of, and about that size. I keep on seeing them in silhouette against the light so I can't see the colour, and only for a moment, but I have a strong suspicion that if not ringnecks they're some sort of feral parrot.

They may not be from the same population as the ones in London, even if they're the same species, but it looks like some sort of feral parrot has begun to establish itself in the North East.
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Re: Looking on the Brighter Side, Things that are good

Postby cmsellers » Tue Nov 06, 2018 9:02 pm

In Europe (except for Spain), the most common feral parrot populations are ringneck/rose-ringed parrots, though I've seen references to Alexandrine parrots and in googling found that the BBC reports sightings of three other species: the Alexandrine parakeet, the Quaker parakeet, and the "orange-winged parakeet," which I assume is a reference to the canary-winged parakeet.

Actually, the first time I managed to see parrots in the wild was ringnecks in Istanbul. Izmir also has a population of feral parrots, which I believe are also ringnecks but I never managed to see or even hear.
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Re: Looking on the Brighter Side, Things that are good

Postby AsamiSato » Tue Nov 06, 2018 9:11 pm

I have no idea how these midterms are going to turn out BUT at least I can draw comfort from the fact that Idris Elba has (rightfully) been named "Sexiest Man Alive" by People magazine. Has there ever been a more deserving winner? Doubtful!
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Re: Looking on the Brighter Side, Things that are good

Postby Anglerphobe » Tue Nov 06, 2018 9:20 pm

CarrieVS wrote:They may not be from the same population as the ones in London, even if they're the same species, but it looks like some sort of feral parrot has begun to establish itself in the North East.


Interesting. I have never seen them up north myself, or anywhere outside the home counties. They could end up being the UK's next grey squirrel.
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"Tusser, they tell me, when thou wert alive,
Thou, teaching thrift, thyselfe couldst never thrive.
So, like the whetstone, many men are wont
To sharpen others, when themselves are blunt."

Anyone who has any kind of opinion fucking disgusts me.
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Re: Looking on the Brighter Side, Things that are good

Postby cmsellers » Tue Nov 06, 2018 9:25 pm

That won't happen. There are exactly zero cases where a parrot species has become invasive, and I am not aware of any cases where introduced parrots have become established outside of urban areas. Feral parrots are highly dependent on human-created habitats for their survival.
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Re: Looking on the Brighter Side, Things that are good

Postby Anglerphobe » Tue Nov 06, 2018 9:36 pm

That would explain why I never saw them. The Yorkshire Dales are not very parakeet friendly.
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"Tusser, they tell me, when thou wert alive,
Thou, teaching thrift, thyselfe couldst never thrive.
So, like the whetstone, many men are wont
To sharpen others, when themselves are blunt."

Anyone who has any kind of opinion fucking disgusts me.
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Re: Looking on the Brighter Side, Things that are good

Postby CarrieVS » Tue Nov 06, 2018 10:54 pm

Whereas I live in the biggest city in the North East.
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Re: Looking on the Brighter Side, Things that are good

Postby Tesseracts » Sun Nov 11, 2018 8:46 pm

Someone on Reddit asked what's going well in our lives so I made a list of everything that has gone well in my life recently.

With the help of Reddit I've gotten really into a skincare routine and for the first time in my life I'm taking good physical care of myself.

I got a new puppy this year I have put a lot of effort into raising and training him which is paying off.

I got my first job which is a big deal for me because I have a history of dysfunction and mental illness and somehow made it into my late 20s without being employed before. The job not bad and my boss is good.

I'm doing a lot to tackle depression and anxiety such as switching therapists/psychiatrists after years of stagnation with people who did not understand my issues.

My Dad gave me a great deal of money which will help me be independent but it was kind of my money since it's a result of my investments. It's a bit complicated but the point is I have the money.

After a lifelong struggle with obesity I am finally working out sustainable weight loss and I have dropped about 30 pounds recently.
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Re: Looking on the Brighter Side, Things that are good

Postby iMURDAu » Wed Nov 14, 2018 12:13 am

AsamiSato wrote:I have no idea how these midterms are going to turn out BUT at least I can draw comfort from the fact that Idris Elba has (rightfully) been named "Sexiest Man Alive" by People magazine. Has there ever been a more deserving winner? Doubtful!


Idris Elba 15 years ago? I could see my wife easily leaving me for Stringer Bell back in the day.

I should have something to post here tomorrow but spoilers are that I'm getting a position with the new company at the same store. I hope for many things but have incredibly low expectations. Nobody I've talked to thinks I should quote the movie Ted at the interview.
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Re: Looking on the Brighter Side, Things that are good

Postby NathanLoiselle » Wed Nov 14, 2018 12:55 am

iMURDAu wrote:
AsamiSato wrote:I have no idea how these midterms are going to turn out BUT at least I can draw comfort from the fact that Idris Elba has (rightfully) been named "Sexiest Man Alive" by People magazine. Has there ever been a more deserving winner? Doubtful!


Idris Elba 15 years ago? I could see my wife easily leaving me for Stringer Bell back in the day.

I should have something to post here tomorrow but spoilers are that I'm getting a position with the new company at the same store. I hope for many things but have incredibly low expectations. Nobody I've talked to thinks I should quote the movie Ted at the interview.


I think you should quote the movie Ted at the interview. Something about Flash Gordon and "Take Me Home" weed.
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Re: Looking on the Brighter Side, Things that are good

Postby iMURDAu » Thu Nov 15, 2018 3:48 am

I probably should have.

Negative rant that harshes the topic:
Spoiler: show
I mean, since they already filled my equivalent position with someone else during a "closed hiring" for my store in which people off the street were also interviewed. My consolation prize is I, allegedly, will be interviewed by a panel for something, idk a management position in some random department other than the cash office. I really doubt they'll call me to set it up.

Nothing better than working all day then going directly to interview for the job you've been doing for almost 7 years at the location you're currently employed at and find out it's already been filled. That's bigger fuckery imo than PNC filling the position they were going to interview me for the day prior.

Don't worry they all said.
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“This is going to become a bad meme,” Todd observed.
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Re: Looking on the Brighter Side, Things that are good

Postby iMURDAu » Sat Nov 17, 2018 7:34 pm

Okay so now the deal is that I do have a full time position. No panel interview. Which is fine since that's one less thing to dread. They offered me receiver which is checking in vendors and scanning destroyed items for credit in a nutshell.

My wife isn't happy that I'm no longer doing the cash office and that I'm no longer in management but I wasn't getting paid anything to be a keycarrier and honestly I'm over dealing with customers. I'd rather war with vendors and their bosses than take verbal abuse from people who can't read. I'm also sick of stacking cans and jars that weren't designed to stack. I mentioned that was the worst part of the job when asked during the interview.

The hours suck because it's 4 am to noon. But that's better than 10 pm to 6:30 am imo. And I'll have every Sunday off so I'm still here on a weekend day. Pluuus it'll give me dockworking experience I can hopefully transfer to one of these warehouses nearby and get a better paying gig one day that's closer to home.

We also got Dougie a Nintendo Switch with the exclusive Fortnite pack for his birthday next week. He won't stfu about the game and he doesn't think we'll get it for him because other than this laptop that dies inexplicably when not plugged in we don't have a means to play it. We also got him an eShop card so he can get Minecraft for it. Pluuus using the Gamestop reward points doled out from buying the Switch and eShop card I saved $25 on Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate which was reduced to $40 from $60 during the Gamestop Pro Day sale. It ended up being roughly $16 after tax, shipping was free. That'll be a Christmas present and he can transfer his 3DS save file over.
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“This is going to become a bad meme,” Todd observed.
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Re: Looking on the Brighter Side, Things that are good

Postby IamNotCreepy » Tue Nov 20, 2018 9:23 pm

So, my in-laws live in Clay County, which is right next to Jacksonville. This is the area where the members of Lynyrd Skynyrd are from. Johnny Van Zant, brother of original band member Ronnie Van Zant and .38 Special founder Donnie Van Zant (geez, who named these guys?), and current lead singer of Lynyrd Skynyrd, goes to their church, where my father-in-law is the music director.

Johnny invited the church pastor to come to a show in Nashville and get the whole VIP treatment. He was able to bring one person along, and he brought my father-in-law, who is a big classic rock fan. Everything was paid for, from flights to hotels, and they got backstage access and got to meet a bunch of famous musicians.

At one point, my father-in-law was in a famous local guitar shop just looking around, and when Johnny found out he was there, he was like, "Don't buy anything! I get a great discount."

A couple of weeks later, my father-in-law got a call out of the blue asking where he wanted his guitars shipped. They bought him an acoustic and an electric guitar.
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Re: Looking on the Brighter Side, Things that are good

Postby jbobsully11 » Wed Nov 21, 2018 3:21 am

There was a local Democratic Club meeting tonight, and my brother and I got awards for how much we campaigned during this last election (which I didn’t think was as much as a lot of people, but whatever). I also talked to someone who knew of a local job board where he said I should post my resume.

The meeting went fairly well until someone made a motion to go through the minutes from the last meeting (which were e-mailed to everyone a while ago) and no one seconded it, and then somehow the whole thing devolved into a screaming match (which is somewhat typical for them).
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Crimson847 wrote:In other words, transgender-friendly privacy laws don't molest people, people molest people.

(Presumably, the only way to stop a bad guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law is a good guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law, and thus transgender-friendly privacy law rights need to be enshrined in the Constitution as well)
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