RhaenysBee

On the topic of the pill - it can and should be used to regulate periods, ie hormones and handle bad period symptoms. The doctor’s viewing it as a contraception only is ridiculous. 

There are however also herbal hormone regulators which may be worth looking into, not sure if this was mentioned as I only skimmed through, but chasteberry pills are also a common over the counter option for period relief. 
 

I’m trying to purchase a cordless vacuum cleaner that doesn’t cost €500+ but say stays within a reasonable 250-350 range. It appears that Tesla produces a cordless vacuum cleaner at a reasonable price. Anybody ever tried this or owned other Tesla household appliance? 

I finished The Scarlet Letter which seemed like it was going to be incredibly dull and predictable because it was so obvious who everybody was at the very moment they were introduced. Turns out (once again, not that shockingly) that stories have a way of working without compulsive subversion as well if one digs deep enough into the human psyche. It was an amazing, enriching and thought provoking read, highly recommend to anybody who hasn’t yet read this classic. 

I also finished two installments of Carline Taggart’s Her Ladyship’s Guide books that I’ve been missing from the collection for several years. These two little books, HLG to the Art of Conversation and HLG to Modern Manners were my last book depository order. RIP book depository. The former one was the more interesting, Modern Manners just screamed it was written by someone of an older generation as it was technologically outdated. Which is not a problem, but still made the otherwise super short read a bit tedious. Still, I’m glad that I have all the volumes. (Yes, etiquette is has been one of my obscure interests, I have an entire shelf of my bookcase dedicated to it) 

I do read other books too (beside the ones I post here) and even though local contemporary authors’ works are not  relevant to the vast majority of this thread, I do want to mention one. This book reached so deep into my soul and squeezed my heart so tightly as no other has in quite a few years, I still think about it weeks and weeks later. The title is Szívhang (which would translate to (fetal) Heartbeat) by Czako, Zsofia. I would say you do have to be a woman and from Hungary to fully appreciate the soul gripping ingenuity of this book, but I also hope it will one day be translated because the author would just deserve that kinda recognition in my opinion. I did immediately buy her other book as well. 

After all this I wanted something lighter so I read the first volume of Anthony Horowitz’s adult crime series, The Word is Murder. I quite forgot how much I absolutely adore his style of storytelling. (the Alex Rider series was probably my most favorite adolescent read after Harry Potter, I reread and purchased the whole thing in English as an adult). The Word is Murder is narrated in the most fascinating way, I loved the pacing, the characters, the tension. I’m anxiously waiting for the rest of the novels to be in stock at any of the local retailers because well… my heart still bleeds for bookdepository. 

Then, I listened to a thing titled Stolen Focus which is about how we lose the ability to focus due to technology, more specifically constant internet access and dependability via mobile phones.  It was okay. I had the feeling that this book tried to shoehorn the focus into anything and everything it touched. Certainly there are takeaways and Insightful observations, but narratively it didn’t do much for me. 

And then. I listened to this. 
 

On 4/22/2023 at 10:00 PM, Zorral said:

Jack Weatherford's work on the Mongols is terrific.   Plus, he can read, speak and write Mongolian!

You would love his Mongolian Queens . . . .

I did prefer the first book, because I found it a bit easier to follow due to the linear structure and smaller time period and the stronger storytelling. But The Secret History of the Mongol Queens was a great listen, incredibly solid on piecing together the stories, but also fair and transparent about what was ambiguous and provided more (or even more, I’m not sure) insight into mongol culture and society, which I enjoyed a lot. Footnote for HBO: If expertly written, it would also make for a successful several season historical series. 

I’m starting the latest (and possibly last, though we had thought this a couple times before) Alex Rider book. Haven’t picked a new listen yet, I always find it difficult to pick from my audible wishlist. 

I watched season 3 of The Great. It’s getting a bit tired in spite of the big plot event. Overall it’s still enjoyable but definitely a tad cruder than previous seasons with less nuance and layers.

The subverted tropes and the themes are terribly tired and flat as are nearly all 2020s themes and subverted tropes. The characters are overacted more often than not at this point and for me this has surpassed the comic relief proportion and stepped into the annoying and secondary stress inducing territory. 

the did however do a good job of weaving new agendas for some characters, whose previous roles ran out. For other characters it’s more like trying to make fetch happen, and it’s really not happening. I also enjoyed the grace with which they handled the main event of the season. The pacing and the structure of the season was good, they had time to resolve the main event. The costume design is still beautiful, especially Catherine’s and Elle Fanning acted the stars down from the sky. I hope she wins the Emmy for this season.

9 hours ago, Teng Ai Hui said:

One of my supervisees is quitting. I heard that the main reason is because she asked for a Friday off in order to have a 3-day weekday to celebrate her birthday and was refused. Not only was the reason ridiculous but also she tried to skip on the day when we all had to judge our annual speech contest. So entitled, good riddance.

 I know a school environment is different from corporate, but I would 100% take one day, especially a Friday off with one day notice, and not give a reason. I would also resign on the spot if anybody ever denied my request for taking a paid holiday day. Then again, this is the common practice in my field, and wouldn’t be out of the norm for any company I would be willing to work for. My job can also totally wait one day and doesn’t need substitution and I’m workaholic enough that I would (re)arrange my work in way that the day off doesn’t negatively impact it. But I can see that this would be problematic if the person didn’t consider the requirements for the business to run as usual in her absence or if it’s  contrary to the norms of the workplace (though I agree with DMC that they sound awful and I wouldn’t sign up for them   ) .  /entitled millennial opinion

I’m so hungry. Trying to do a reflux relief diet, I don’t know how people are vegans and vegetarians, I need to eat every two hours and I’m still hangry all day. Boy I want some Shepards pie or lasagne or something with nutritional value  

My radiation therapy concluded. It feels weird because now they are like ‘Kay, see you in November. And I have all this anxiety about what if something goes wrong in the meanwhile. I hate my brain. It will be fine. As soon as my reflux symptoms go away I will celebrate this milestone with a nice drink and a nice cake. 

In other news, I’m on such a reading roll. I have finished 7 books that I had piled up over the past months. I may actually finish all the books waiting to be read on my shelf and I can greenlight my buying more books! Lovely. 

18 hours ago, Madame deVenoge said:

My view of people in general is extremely dark.

I really feel this right about now. I lost a lot of faith in humanity yesterday and since.

Well… that entirely depends on the field, the time, the location of the university education. Some university educations in the world will get your a $500 hourly income. Others will get you a $10 hourly income. Some will get you knowledge, understanding, scientific method, critical thinking, applied skill, sophistication. Others will get you a piece of paper. Some will get you social respectability and status and power. Others will get you McDonald’s job offers and snarky opinions and absolute doormat treatment from society. Some will make you happy, others will burn you out. What is the value of higher education even measured in? 

I went to university because it was never even a real option for me not to. It’s the done thing. It’s a class thing. I can tell you that my labor market economics class lied: postponed employment and the sacrificing of present income for future larger income is not necessarily and always an investment that financially returns. My parents also lied: my market compatible university education didn’t set me up with financial comfort and/or success . I could do the same job and earn the same income with a different degree, and I could have three to ten times my income with the same degree and a differnt personality. Motivational leaflets and education fairs also lied: my university education wasn’t an enjoyable or fulfilling experience and I did not find the meaning of life in my field.
So what did my university education give me? I’d like to believe that it gave me structured and methodical and critical thinking, a sense of nuance, relativity and openmindedness, a respect and appreciation for knowledge and the scientific method, but also for varying opinions, the ability and drive and look at everything from a 360 degree angle, communication skills and the ability to write or speak infinite amount of meaningless bullshit about virtually anything in the world.  Did my secondary school also lay the foundations for that? 100%. Did my upbringing also lay the foundation for that? 100%. Did I enjoy university education? Not really. Would I have rather worked a full time job for those 5 years? God no. Would I do it all over again? 100%. Why? Because regardless of external indicators and measurements of value, the things listed above are valuable to me and make me value myself as a person. 

Would I do another degree with higher market value to be in a better paying field? No way in hell. Would I do another degree out of interest and desire for knowledge regardless of its market value as a hobby alongside my full time job? Still no. Would I do another degree out of interest and desire for knowledge if I could retain my current living standard via passive income rather than my full time job? 100% yes. Yes, I know, I’m a spoiled and entitled millennial, who is unaware of her privilege and managed to make the OG question about herself.  

I’m watching Bones. Still. Heaven only knows why… this show has zero self reflection. Like its self reflection is in the negative. Don’t you realize how absolutely nonsensical and stupid what you are doing is? 

this show retcons itself to then go ahead and NOT change the plot.

this show will have a flashback episode to let you know that there’s NO background for this or that relationship. 

this show will play every plot contrivance known to the human brain and then backtrack and NOT do the plot line they contrived. 

who does that?  I can’t even. Soaps at least actually spin the plot, they don’t just pretend to spin it then back out of it. 

Uuuuuuugh I hate Angela so much. which was the last character I hated to this extent? I can’t remember. I can’t stand Angela, she is the wooooooooooooorst. 

Potato salad is basically potatoes and red onion floating in some vinegary juice, no? 

10 hours ago, Zorral said:

If I'm still battling them in a week, I probably will too.  

I kept a close, constant eye on everything today, and constantly refreshed the vinegar, and laid out pads soaked in vinegar.  There are lot more of them this year than in 2021 so, I dunno if I'll win with this.

Once I discovered their new headquarters in the waste basket, I removed them and everything else outside.  Then I swabbed out the container (it has as step level lid) with vinegar, as well as the top.  For the next few days we aren't using any of these receptacles, putting all waste into disposable bags and taking them out right after preparing meals and so on.

Tonight I'm going to set out shallow plates of vinegar before we go to bed, as well as soaked pads, at spots where they might be entering.  

There were so many other things I'd expected to occupy myself with these last two day, today, and the next few.  Ugh.

Yes, exactly the reason why I gave up, I had a dedicated ant treatment time inserted in both my morning and evening routine, and that was just ridiculous. Hope your ants go away!!!! 
 

12 hours ago, maarsen said:

20% white vinegar? Glacial acetic acid is that concentrated and what I use to make photo stop bath, with dilution. Regular vinegar here in Canada is 5%, 10% if you are doing pickling. 

We have 10% and 20% vinegar in grocery stores. I usually buy 20% because I only ever use it for lime scale removal. For the occasional cooking I do I use apple cider vinegar. 
 

@Cas Stark

Quote

Yes.  I waged a 'natural' war on ants using every remedy out there for a few years...vinegar, bleach, coffee grounds, hot pepper, tea tree oil, you name it, no success.  I came home one day and the kitchen looked like a horror film, crawling with ants on the walls the cabinet the floor.  I gave up on co existance and a non pesticide rememdy then and there.  Bombed the house and put out a product called 'terro' that the ants eat and go back to their HQ and it kills everyone. It's poison, so has to kept away from the cats, but it works very well.  Also have diomateous earth as a back up but use that sparingly since it kills other things besides ants.   I haven't killed a bee or a spinder in decades, so the ants can fuck off.

I like to coexist with spiders too though I have a feeling I have been bitten by them on occasion. Still, they are useful creatures that eat fruit flies and don’t bother anybody in a dark corner. No issue with them or bees either. I don’t even kill wasps. But I do religiously kill flies, ants and mosquitoes because they annoy the shit out of me. In return I empower any invading alien or returning dinosaur to squash me if I annoy them too. And I have a serious tick phobia and nobody will ever convince me that those vile fuckers have use and should be allowed to exist. 

Today I cooked for the first time in months    Vegan borscht. Well, vegan as long as you don’t dump two table spoons of sour cream in your plate like I do. It turned out nice because for once I didn’t skip any ingredients. will have to freeze like two litres of it because I forgot to halve the recipe.

17 hours ago, Zorral said:

For the second of three spring seasons we have been invaded by hordes of teeeny tiny brown ants.  Spring 2021 for reasons only these ants can know it was my computer desk that had them swarming all over it.  Now the thing is this is a normal sighting at this time of the year for these invasions -- for some reason they are in search of moisture, not crumbs and that sort of thing.  Google told me white distilled vinegar is the non toxic remedy for us humans to make them go away.  The vinegar totally scrambles their scent smarts so they can't go back to the nest and tell everyone GO THERE MOISTURE. Ants do all their navigation/communication via scent.

(There is no moisture on my computer desk of course - so why did they choose that place?)  It took about 5 days once I understood what was going to rid us of them with constant white vinegar spraying and putting white vinegar soaked Bounty towels in strategic places such as the windows, but we never saw them there, but nevermind we thought.

They didn't come back last spring.

Yesterday they showed up at the wall of the bathtub where there IS moisture, i.e. bathtub!.  Began spraying immediately.  Yesterday afternoon and night our apartment smelled like potato salad, but nevermind.  By this morning they were gone.  Sprayed some more anyway in the morning.  No more until this evening, when we spied a few.  Spraying some more.  Expect to do this again for another few days.

Until about two weekends ago we were in drought.  The rains may have waked them up from their desiccated ant hive or something like.

But it seems to work.  If one actually likes potato salad this is a remedy that is just fine.

And it isn't Raid or anything like that which isn't so good for we human beings' systems either.

Wow! I’m so impressed to hear the vinegar truck worked for you. What kinda vinegar did you use? Regular household 20% white vinegar?
 

The other year I had ants too, and I was adamant to get rid of them in a “natural” way. Tried the peppermint, tried tea tree oil, killed the “scouts”, bathed the base boards and door frames in vinegar for weeks. The things just wouldn’t go away. After four weeks in a stinking home, I caved and bought ant repellent. Two hockey puck sized metal boxes that you had to pluck two holes in and place in the ants’ path for them to walk through like a miniature tunnel. I think the idea was that they would march the chemicals back to the nest. It’s chemical and cruel, but after 4 weeks of struggle, my place was ant free in two days, so I guess I’ll just live with this on my conscience. 

16 hours ago, Zorral said:

This so particularly resonates with me: yesterday a person near and dear underwent a 12-hour surgery for rectal cancer, after a year of chemo, that included getting covid in the treatment unit with her first dose, an eye operation due to a side effect of chemo treatment that kept her unable to see/read for weeks as it healed.  What she's going through ... you are so right I cannot understand, no matter how much I care about what she's enduring.  Thank you for posting that.

Take comfort in knowing that she knows you care and support her as best as you can even if you can’t understand, which gives just as much strength as talking to people who do understand. The warmest wishes for healing and recovery and strength to your friend <3 even from across the globe we who are in some form of this plight stand by her in spirit. 

here’s a positive bit of mental health story, because once in a blue moon I’m capable of generating those in my life too.

I made friends with the elderly gentlemen at radiation therapy. The way to make friends with elderly gentlemen, I find, is to be able to give directions to lost patients better than them. They are really adorable people and since we started chatting they no longer look at me like I have two heads. Because the first time I walk through a hospital door and meet new patients, especially male patients, there’s always this disbelieving shock on their face which morphs into pain and then into discomfort. But now we made friends I can chat to them and be cheerful and nice and they don’t feel bad for me and we are just people in the same boat. And that’s beautiful and it gives me life and I hope it gives all of us life. My most favorite and comforting activity at this point is making friends with fellow patients. Because nobody understands the way we understand one another. 
 

I finished The Hobbit. I do appreciate it and the style has sort of grown on me, but I still stand by my previous statement that the ideal age to read this book for the first time is 10-14. What was interesting to me is the difference to the movies which I had seen ten years ago when they came out. At times it felt like the movies colored in the pages with details, other times it felt like “oh so that was fanfiction”. Either way, I do appreciate The Hobbit and if and when I have a child of my own, I will be sure to read it to/with them. 

3 season late, but Bones the series finally asked the question I’ve been asking since season 2: how are Angela and Brennan even friends? 

of course they didn’t answer the question just glossed over it with a lofty gesture. Oh well. 

I wouldn’t be so sure of that. We anticipated the same last September  

On 5/3/2023 at 11:03 AM, DMC said:

It's a fairly common practice.  I do it because I refuse to lower the quality of my tests but I still don't want to fail a bunch of community college students that are unprepared due to the iniquity of the educational system.

I had been telling my mother to do this for 20 years because if she flunks them she’s only making extra work for herself. Not sure if it was age or lockdown that softened her eventually, but she curves tests now too. And I learned a new expression. 

Starting radiation therapy today, can’t wait to have two heads and go on a vacation when the 4 weeks are up. This is also an excuse for me to have breakfast and coffee at an artisan bakery every. single. day. for 4 weeks because I deserve a reward system. And I also deserve new athleisure clothing items because who wants to commute to radiation therapy early in the morning dressed ugly OR uncomfortable? It’s only the simplest yet purest logic. 

About two tablespoons of leftover dal tadka, and inch of leftover Camembert cheese, an apple, two slices of leftover Gouda cheese and four pieces of Manner Neapolitaner. I guess it’s all going to the same place.
 

I’ve got back to Bones season 5 after the Last Kingdom detour. 

I’m quite pleased with my facial recognition and face memory as google promptly proved that the Russian villainess is, as I within 30 seconds of screentime thought, played by Jane the Virgin’s Justin Baldoni’s wife Emily Baldoni who went by a different surname at the time of Bones. 

Aside from that, 

@Jez Bell thank you so much for hosting the game and coming up with so many creative ideas for rounds and even bonus rounds! We really really appreciate you!!!!  

Anytime anybody asked me what was my pet peeve I could never really give a proper answer because I thought I didn’t have one. No particular thing annoyed me in a way that stood out from other things that annoyed me. Until now. This one thing always annoyed me, per we, but with my social circle aging to late 20s-early 30s my level of annoyance at it quadrupled. 

I know what my pet peeve is now. It’s when an adult, a grown-ass woman approaching or just past 30 years of age is unable to run her life and entertain herself for 5 goddamn days on her own without a partner/spouse, who’s away for business or leisure without her. STOHP IT. You can take the trash down on your own, you can get to work on your own, you can spend your free time on your own, your life makes sense if you eat a meal alone or step out of your apartment alone. And trust me, believe me, neither the thunderstorm, nor the emergency repairman you have to call yourself is going to kill you. 

I realize that my level of hyper independence is also not in the healthy range of the gauss curve but dude no adult should break down in hysterics when they have to manage without their partner for days, not even weeks, day-yz that I can count on one hand. FFS.

The Last Kingdom 

for all the shortcomings of season 5, the series finale delivered. Battle choreography was glorious, characterization was strong, there’s nothing like a fine after battle celebration as we know since Star Wars, and overall I was left happy for the protagonist. It was a worthy end to Uhtred’s journey and a believably positive ending to the web of plot they have woven over 5 seasons. 

a few minor complaints 

On 4/16/2023 at 8:03 PM, Buckwheat said:

Uhhhh ... not really. The plan for now is to go to the boring town in Germany to write my dissertation.

The rest of my plans are as uncertain as yours seem to be. Maybe you should visit a neighbouring country?  

Sh good luck with the dissertation, you can do it, you can do it!  

haha, you’re right I should! I might as well