start a victory garden and ration your IRRATIONALLY ANGRY feelings, part 3

my uncle died of cjd am I off the hook

KIds spending the summer holiday breaking all the trees along the paths through the local woods. Obviously not bad enough trying to break all the ones around the park.
Oh well, it's nature, I'm sure it will grow back, or since it isn't man made by them it can't count or something.

Oh yeah, as a kid I spent a ton of time in the woods. There was a local swimming hole and we all used to climb trees and jump into the water and stuff. Personally, I was personally inspired and awestruck by the beauty of nature, but some kids just liked tearing the branches off and eventually all the wonderful trees died and fell in the water and no one swims there anymore. I fucking hated those kids.

- when husband's write Amazon reviews for their wives

And IA I've Been Watching A Lot of Nail Polish Videos on Youtube Edition
- when people put rainbow colors out of order (ROYGBIV, motherfuckers)
- when people are trying to be "nail vloggers" (oh god shoot me) and their shit is just filthy dirty and gross. Like, if I want to see some weird, dirty tweezers and a discount paper towel covered in old nail polish spatters and a disgusting water marbling cup, I'll just look down at my desk, okay? Ugh.

There's also a lot of nail vlogger (arg)/beauty vlogger (arg arg) crossover and there's this whole subgenre of "Get Ready With Me" videos and I can't tell whether their existence makes me IA or my fascination makes me IA but something in there is giving me a headache.

who has the best nail game on youtube?

WELL it depends on what you're looking for, and I'm a little IE about this and it makes me feel like an insane person that I even have these opinions but:

Lady for what's called "live swatching" aka "watching someone paint her nails and talk about the nail polish" - http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm2xivpFV73dnQRxmUBGBrQ
For nail art and voiceovers so soothing I'll be she's on at least a few ASMR playlists - http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAB7Lx8dbFBzNYcO9DyBhvQ
For nail art and the second most soothing voiceover - http://www.youtube.com/user/SimpleLittlePleasues
For charismatic Canadian nail art humor - http://www.youtube.com/user/simplynailogical

in orbit probably has better formed opinions than I do on this issue, as she is a long-standing expert and I am a mere dilettante.

no, dont' be ie. thank you.

I know we discussed being too mentally drained/tired to read as much as we used to on the parenting thread, but honestly there have been nights where the most soothing thing I found to do before bed was curl up and watch "jessface90" paint her nails for 20 minutes.

lol

i get mad when i hit the button to remotely unlock my car and it only unlocks the driver's side and i'm trying to put something in the passenger side

This subdivision in Texas:

http://i.imgur.com/F4Dn4ie.png

I mean, leave politics aside for a moment, though I'm not even sure a Texan would want to live on Richard Nixon St. How come it goes LBJ, JFK, to RMN? Is it because LBJ was a Texan and needs to be on the outside to give room to his rattlesnake to stretch out?

If you go to the map and hit Satellite view, you can see why there are two Dwight Eisenhower Streets (they're eventually going to connect.) And if you visit the Realtor.com page, you'll even see that the little nub next to Ike's is going to be Ulysses Grant St. (Maybe a more hated president in Texas than Nixon?) Grant was a big time general like Ike, but who's going to go in after him? You see Garfield over there, so you'd think Hayes would slide in there, but no. He's already out there connecting all these little cul-de-sacs. Abraham Lincoln maybe? Lincoln and Garfield, side-by-side at last.

I like ol' William Harrison St., since no one past or present ever called him that.

http://i.imgur.com/oKxS6Hf.png

I would find it entertaining as heck to live on Nixon St.

needs a bar on hayes street called 'lemonade lucy's'

John Tyler St. is made up exclusively of his living grandchildren.

Taft Court; 100% cul de sac

I figured your anger was from the fact there's only one street that connects to the rest of the city.

They just have a George Bush st not a sr and a jr.

NOt sure how much sense order of Presidents makes anyway and are they going to expand the network until they have all the Presidents covered? Still quite a few missing. Are there going to be Gerald Ford and James Carters there?
NOt seeing one for the current president there either. Or is it standard protocol not to name things like that after the current one?

pixies in the grunge section of a local record shop.

i have no idea at all why i give a shit about that but

totally 1st world problems but: my family ask for what I want for my birthday. I give them a list of stuff I want/need - CDs, baby equipment, whatever. They then tell me my presents are on their way, they'll give me something when I see them next, etc etc. So I hold off buying the CDs I want or equipment I need in case they're getting it for me. But this goes on for months and I don't even know which things they're getting! I'd really rather just buy this stuff myself but then they nag me about what I want, and if I don't tell them anything they buy me random stuff that I'd rather not fill the house up with.

Giftbuying should be restricted for kids only or maybe close romantic partners.
I have a whole other rant about aggressive gift-giving in my family but I will sound crazy.

Yes, yes, yes, you are not alone.

In fact, I feel like we may be kindered spirits.

Gosh yes. Well, the second part especially. I really don't see the need for friends to invest in gifts or cards on my birthday/Christmas but some insist on it and then I feel guilty if I don't do the same in return and it just escalates from there. I don't need a card from someone I see once a week - just get me a pint or something FFS.

Oh lord there are more of you

it's a circle of obligation and guilt and can't we just all have a pint and forget it all

Yeah, see Sunny? It's me and kinder and dog latin and possibly mh if he's not really taking the piss with that last post.

I would rather go out for a nice meal than get a present 99% of the time. Especially for my birthday. Really don't get it when people make their birthday into an extended celebration, but that's their prerogative.

fuck presents

I will take all of your presents. Problem solved.

My version of this is: 'Mom, you don't have much money and you want to get me a birthday present? Don't waste cash on stuff I neither want nor need.'

I don't want to give people merchandise and I don't want people giving me merchandise.

I agree despite the fact most of my human interactions are merchandise-based

it keeps us in line

it's a non-optional social convention </bigbangtheory>

Pints for everybody!

ty for pints carl

i got in a big fight with my friend in high school bcz she hated her birthday & got super pissed at me for giving her presents/cards every year when she would say she didnt want anything

we reached a detente

I feel like my mom struck a good balance the year she texted me "happy birthday" at 11pm one year, an hour before my birthday was over

I like presents but
1. I never really actually want anything specific so I just end up asking for books which I never read because I'm reading ILX instead
2. generic present from people other than family/partner = chocolates, which is great, I love chocolate buuuut I am supposed to be on a diet so I don't really want to receive more than one set of chocolates on any occasion (sigh)
3. certain people seem to do a weird present oneupmanship where they buy you ALL THE PRESENTS, and hey, just one or two would be great, that would be plenty thanks, buy me a drink or put some money towards dinner at the same time if you really feel like two books isn't enough of a present

tbh I am guilty of this myself too but it gets quite hard to de-escalate for fear of conspicuously buying someone less than they got you

in other news I just spent £35 on some new in-ear headphones in the hope that more money = superior sound isolation (the box promised sound isolation) = less getting IA at the guy behind me who sniffs all. day. but they sound way less good than my previous £12 headphones so I'm vaguely annoyed right now

(new: Sennheiser CX 1.00; old: some cheapo Maxell Metallics or sth, I dunno, think they're discontinued. new ones may just suck because none of the earbud sizes form the magical "seal" I am apparently supposed to be aiming for)

feeling you, VG

don't get me wrong, I love a thoughtful present. It's just in our family the whole thing is very transactional. I feel a bit awful because I 'owe' my brother about 4 bday/Christmas presents - he always says he doesn't want anything, but one year he was going to learn to drive so I said I'd get him some lessons, then that got put off and no idea if he still wants to, then he was going to go to the Grand Prix so I would chip in for that, but he didn't go, etc etc. He has no money whatsoever and his wife is the OTT gift giver which I won't even go into so I feel doubly bad. Maybe I'll just add it all up and buy him 100 scratch cards

but karma made it so that I have another friend who now gives birthday presents laden with meaning AND she keeps score so if you dont measure up she gets all pass/agg

they are always lovely presents & i love her to death but it can get a little exhausting

so yeah, i'm doing my penance now

I have a group of friends now that kind of gifts occasionally without it being a holiday. Hearing about or seeing something that you know your friend would like, or something that has come to you that you know they'd appreciate more.

That brand of casual and unplanned cross-gifting sans expectation is pretty much my platonic gift ideal.

Birthdays can suck.

I'm not sure if this is IA or justified, but curerntly its school holidays so my other half has been staying up way late cos his kids are as well. I'm the only one working right now, so I need to go to bed at 10-11pm. I just dont cope on reduced sleep.

He keeps coming to bed way later, like at midnight, turning the lamp on and reading. This is *after* Ive already drifeted off to sleep so it wakes me back up.

I tried to gently bring this up last night and he goes "well its my bed too!". Gah. >:(

Not IA. Reading can be done on the sofa iirc.