blackspot WhiteGhost Enters the Beyond Times

[KB Girl]

3 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

 

You mean, besides every mother who is aware of and believes in the pandemic that's going on right now? 😛 

fixed that for you. 

 

On 9/18/2020 at 10:10 AM, Mad Hatter said:

Even if I often found school boring I still believe the diversity I was exposed to have highly coloured my experiences in a very positive way. If I'd been brought up with my dad's point of view then OOF, I don't even want to think about what kind of person I'd be. Similarly, school provides exposure to many different subjects and no single parent can provide that. Sure you can fork out to buy equipment and hire a lot of teachers to teach art and music, and literature and history, and maths, and physics, and PE. But that's extremely unrealistic for the vast vast majority. Even if it's not taught in an ideal way, it's still exposure which I think is positive. For example even if I hated PE because it was all about team sports, for many kids team sports is extremely valuable and positive. And I also disagree that school kills creativity by default. It really depends on the kid. For example even if I wasn't challenged by the lessons, I still spent a large amount of time designing my reports, making them look pretty and unique, co-writing an absolute trash novella together with a physical model to supplement a history essay. Of course these examples are n=1, but I wanted to bring them up to show that a school experience has many layers even if the system fails in one way. Also where would you get all the draaaama from?  

 

Homeschooling can be a great alternative for a few select people, but let's be real, for most people that would mean very poor schooling, or even NO schooling. And we all know what that does to the world.

I really do think that for the first 8-10 years parents can provide more than a school possibly could, in broad exposure but especially in depth. Schools lack depth and substance, it's just not compatible with having 30 something children in the current system. Keep in mind that homeschooling doesn't mean they can't go and sign up for team sports or music lessons or boy/Girl Scouts or local theater hobby club.. in fact they'll have more time and energy left over for those things.

And just think about how many more of these n=1 examples you could give me if you didn't have to spend the majority of your time in/working on lessons that weren't challenging (and thus probably not interesting) for you. For a different n=1 example, Billie Eillish was homeschooled. 

 

But yes, I'm fully aware that it's probably not a good idea for most families.. (some people really shouldn't have kids anyway) you have to be really interested in doing this for your children.. hooray for schools, I wish they were better, but thank god they're there, right? 

ETA: I don't mean for that to read like you're not good parents if you don't want to do that, I just mean you need to be really really committed because it's not an easy thing to do well

[Scaly Freak]

25 minutes ago, KB Girl said:

fixed that for you. 

 

Fair enough.

 

25 minutes ago, KB Girl said:

ETA: I don't mean for that to read like you're not good parents if you don't want to do that, I just mean you need to be really really committed because it's not an easy thing to do well

 

I would go so far as to say that to get better results than what the school system can offer, takes as much time and energy as a full-time job. And most parents already have two: Their actual job, and full-time parenting. Add in the challenge of home schooling kids of different ages and... based on what I have observed from parents here and in other social circles since the aforementioned pandemic started most of them are just not interested or capable of doing that. That doesn't make them bad parents, obviously. It just means that there are practical reasons making it difficult and exhausting, that in turn can drive even the most committed parents to give up eventually.

[KB Girl]

16 minutes ago, Scaly Freak said:

I would go so far as to say that to get better results than what the school system can offer, takes as much time and energy as a full-time job. And most parents already have two: Their actual job, and full-time parenting. Add in the challenge of home schooling kids of different ages and... based on what I have observed from parents here and in other social circles since the aforementioned pandemic started most of them are just not interested or capable of doing that. That doesn't make them bad parents, obviously. It just means that there are practical reasons making it difficult and exhausting, that in turn can drive even the most committed parents to give up eventually.

I think that also really depends on wether you're trying to do school at home, or wether you're homeschooling... because ideally the job of full-time parenting isn't any different from home schooling them. (I don't think homeschooling should be anything like school at all, or anything like what parents are forced into doing right now). 

But you're right- it doesn't make anyone bad parents- it's an absolutely impossible situation if you havent arranged your life around doing that and are thrown into it without it being a choice and with zero preparation. 

[@mu]

On 9/14/2020 at 4:31 PM, WhiteGhost said:

Wraith has bee meowling constantly for a couple of days now and is always flopping around at my feet.  It was cute at first, but I has become tiresome, especially when I am trying to sleep.

 

There is something you can do to give her some relief. (it does not involve any internal manipulation!) We did it to ours when she was in heat (now she has been sterilized). Let me know if you haven't heard of it yet,  I'll try to find the video on how to do it. It's a little push near the tail (again it's all EXTERNAL ). It relieved her for about 2 hours. Which is not bad when you want to sleep... It's however a little disturbing to have your cat gaze at you with a look of intense sexual satisfaction.

[Mr_Willes]

[WhiteGhost]

22 hours ago, raptron said:

You are going to be SO SORE. 😂

 

Your prediction was spot on!

 

22 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Your loony workouts are the best. 😄

They are certainly the looniest  

 

21 hours ago, Manarelle said:

 

I mean, I've heard of altitude sickness, but not it continuing after the fact. I'm somewhat curious how this dynamic would work in a very multi-generational family... like if the mom says x but HER mom says y...... is just everyone unhappy? 

Apparently it was something in which the altitude sickness was just a complicating factor, and the person got a cold and ended up with permanent heart damage.  I don't understand the details of it.

 

As for the multi-generational issue, it is a very common issue.  Here's a common example in our house: Ghostlet is a terrible eater.  Like he just doesn't do it well.  He can sit there for 10 minutes with the same mouthful of food and chew it like cud without ever swallowing, and he does this as a tactical move so he doesn't have to eat foods he doesn't like.  Ghostess used to get on him about it would yell at him to swallow his food and finish what's on his plate.  Ghostess's mother, on the other hand believes that scolding children while they eat is bad for their digestion and would always yell at Ghostess to lay off and talk to him about it after dinner when it isn't going to impact his digestion.  The end result - everyone is unhappy as you guessed.  I think our family gets it even worse because everybody is used be in charge at work and having everyone kowtow to our demands, so when we get home and get ignored it really rubs people wrong.

 

20 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

My exact thoughts.

Your thoughts were also accurate  

 

20 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

 

You mean, besides every mother who is aware of the pandemic that's going on right now? 😛 

Haha, ok, fair point.  Now you all know how it feels  

 

17 hours ago, KB Girl said:

fixed that for you. 

This is incredible to me. Just..   how???

 

17 hours ago, KB Girl said:

But yes, I'm fully aware that it's probably not a good idea for most families.. (some people really shouldn't have kids anyway) you have to be really interested in doing this for your children.. hooray for schools, I wish they were better, but thank god they're there, right? 

My mom tried home schooling when I was in 4th grade but she called it quits after a couple of months because it just wasn't working.  I have mad respect for anyone that can successfully home school because it is no easy task.

 

16 hours ago, KB Girl said:

I don't think homeschooling should be anything like school at all, or anything like what parents are forced into doing right now

I get what you are saying, but with mandatory primary education laws in most countries, the parents don't really have a whole lot of choice to stray too far from the curriculum.  Even if they could, it would mean they are stuck on that track because if they tried putting the kids back into a regular school they would have an almost impossible task of trying to get on the same page as everyone else. 

 

9 hours ago, @mu said:

 

There is something you can do to give her some relief. (it does not involve any internal manipulation!) We did it to ours when she was in heat (now she has been sterilized). Let me know if you haven't heard of it yet,  I'll try to find the video on how to do it. It's a little push near the tail (again it's all EXTERNAL ). It relieved her for about 2 hours. Which is not bad when you want to sleep... It's however a little disturbing to have your cat gaze at you with a look of intense sexual satisfaction.

I had never heard of anything like this, but I honestly don't really know much about pets in general never having had one growing up.  Ghostess apparently must have known about this, because she was doing something similar to what you describe.

 

7 hours ago, Mr_Willes said:

 

 

-------------------------------------------

I did not go to the park to workout today.  Although I am extremely sore and can barely walk, that is not the reason.  Ghostlet's school was having the first portion of this year's High School Entrance Exam today (Geography). In order to give the 3rd years some peace and quiet for their exams, they sent all of the 1st and 2nd year student home around noon.  I spent most of the morning trying to get caught up on NF and then spent the afternoon overseeing Ghostlet as he tried to get caught up on all of his homework for the week.

 

Dinner was pizza, but it was not very photogenic so I didn't take a picture.  It tasted a lot better than it looked at least  

 

Tomorrow I get to sleep in for the first time since school started because the 3rd years will be finishing their geography exams  tomorrow morning so Ghostlet doesn't need to be to school until 1pm.

[WhiteGhost]

I slept in this morning and it was wonderful.  I slept until about 9:30 as Ghostess was getting ready for work.  I had a relaxing breakfast and then made sure Ghostlet was set for school.  I spent most of the afternoon playing Skyrim and then when Ghostlet came home I made some Pork & bok choy stir fry for dinner.  Ghostlet didn't have much homework, so we watched an F1 race on TV together. 

 

I haven't followed F1 since about the turn of the century, at which time it was all Ferrari all the time.  They were winning everything so consistently it was getting a little boring.  Today's race couldn't be further from that.  The Ferrari team and the Aston Martin team (Which uses Ferrari engines) didn't have a single driver finish in the top 10, and one of the Ferrari cars was a hot mess, with parts falling off and it even burned out its brake system after only about 10 laps.  Ghostlet was telling me that their reputation in the F1 circles these days is so bad that it is poplar to denigrate other cars by comparing them to Ferraris.  Oh how the mighty have fallen. 

 

Our wedding pictures finally arrived (If anyone was following 2-3 challenges ago we finally went and got some wedding pictures taken) so I spent some time getting them unpacked and organized and then when Ghostess got home from work we planned how we want to display them.  The planning is finished so tomorrow I will get them all hung on the walls.  

[KB Girl]

Are you happy with the second editing of the pictures?

 

5 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I haven't followed F1 since about the turn of the century, at which time it was all Ferrari all the time.  They were winning everything so consistently it was getting a little boring.  Today's race couldn't be further from that.  The Ferrari team and the Aston Martin team (Which uses Ferrari engines) didn't have a single driver finish in the top 10, and one of the Ferrari cars was a hot mess, with parts falling off and it even burned out its brake system after only about 10 laps.  Ghostlet was telling me that their reputation in the F1 circles these days is so bad that it is poplar to denigrate other cars by comparing them to Ferraris.  Oh how the mighty have fallen. 

 

Ugh Jaap and my brother and brother in law all watch F1 together and ugh. ugh. ugh. x) so boring. 

[Sloth the Enduring]

 
Ugh Jaap and my brother and brother in law all watch F1 together and ugh. ugh. ugh. x) so boring. 

I grew up in a household that watched NASCAR go round and round in circles.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

35 minutes ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

 

I grew up in a household that watched NASCAR go round and round in circles.

 

My father used NASCAR to help him take a nap on Sundays.

[Sloth the Enduring]

My father used NASCAR to help him take a nap on Sundays.

Hah! Maybe that’s why it was on. It sure isn’t fun to watch.

[Scaly Freak]

2 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Ugh Jaap and my brother and brother in law all watch F1 together and ugh. ugh. ugh. x) so boring. 

 

1 hour ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

I grew up in a household that watched NASCAR go round and round in circles.

 

 

F1 and NASCAR both seem to me to be bad spectator sports, but lots of fun to participate in.

 

Though I suspect that it's like any other sport... there are a lot of layers underneath the boring surface that make it exciting to watch for the ones who can see them. The final table at the World Series of Poker never fails to grab my full attention.  

[WhiteGhost]

17 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Are you happy with the second editing of the pictures?

Nope, and we weren't happy with the third or fourth rounds either.  Ultimately we had to go 8 rounds with them before we finally had something we were happy with.

 

17 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Ugh Jaap and my brother and brother in law all watch F1 together and ugh. ugh. ugh. x) so boring.

It isn't really much different from soccer.  You spent hours watching for a just a few seconds of real excitement.  Most of it is all about positioning and strategy to facilitate those few moments of excitement.  The sport that I can't understand people getting excited about is cricket, because those matches go for weeks on end.  I think you have to REALLY committed to get enjoyment out of that.

 

16 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

I grew up in a household that watched NASCAR go round and round in circles.

 

I looked for a long time to find a GIF of the joke from Cars about how Nascar is all "Left Turn, Left Turn, oh no, what do I do, Left Turn"  

 

15 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

My father used NASCAR to help him take a nap on Sundays.

I know quite a few people who only watch it for the crashes

 

14 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Hah! Maybe that’s why it was on. It sure isn’t fun to watch.

I don't mind watching it, but playing it on the x-box is seriously dull.  Ghostlet seems to think it is the best game ever, though...

 

14 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

 

 

F1 and NASCAR both seem to me to be bad spectator sports, but lots of fun to participate in.

 

Though I suspect that it's like any other sport... there are a lot of layers underneath the boring surface that make it exciting to watch for the ones who can see them. The final table at the World Series of Poker never fails to grab my full attention.  

This.  There is certainly a lot that happens under the top layer which makes it really, super boring for the casual viewer.  Once you understand the nuts and bolts it is can be quite interesting.

 

---------------------------

 

I started out this morning with a massively long D&D session after dropping Ghostlet off for school.  When I left them last time, they had hinted at a couple of ways they would want to go next so I prepared for those.  So obviously first thing when we get started is to pick an entirely new direction from way later in the module and head straight for that.  I was completely unprepared but I think I was able to wing it ok.  Normally we only go for 3 hours, but today we ended up going for almost 4 and a half because we were in some serious fighting with a boss character.  Amazingly nobody died.

 

I spent the whole afternoon hanging up pictures around our house and now it looks really nice.  We invited my inlaws to come over and look at the pictures and it made for a nice evening. 

 

 

Dinner was Okinawa Tacos, which is an interesting food.  It was invented by a missionary there in the late 80s when he wanted to have tacos but didn't know how to make tortillas.  He just took all of the meat, cheese and vegetables and dumped then on top of a rice bowl and Okinawa Tacos (aka Taco Rice) was born.  It became such a favorite among the locals that it was officially picked up as a local cuisine by the Okinawa Tourism Board and now if you go there you can buy "Official Taco Rice Meal Kits" at pretty much every souvenir place (even though they are nothing more than ground beef seasoned with taco seasoning )

 

 

   

 

 

[deftona]

The pictures look so lovely! 

[darkfoxx]

Nice picture wall!

 

I can 100% support Okinawa tacos. Not only are taco bowls over rice something we’ve had for dinner this week, living bereft of tacos is no bueno. 

[Manarelle]

On 9/24/2020 at 11:20 AM, WhiteGhost said:

ope, and we weren't happy with the third or fourth rounds either.  Ultimately we had to go 8 rounds with them before we finally had something we were happy with.

 

Wowza. Worth it though, your picture wall looks amazing, as do both of you. 

[Jupiter]

On 9/24/2020 at 8:20 AM, WhiteGhost said:

I spent the whole afternoon hanging up pictures around our house and now it looks really nice.  We invited my inlaws to come over and look at the pictures and it made for a nice evening. 

 

Wow, the pictures look great! And the Okinawa tacos look delicious.

[WhiteGhost]

On 9/25/2020 at 12:56 AM, deftona said:

The pictures look so lovely! 

Thanks we were happy with them.  It took a bit of work to get the picture frames all lined up on the wall.

 

19 hours ago, darkfoxx said:

Nice picture wall!

 

I can 100% support Okinawa tacos. Not only are taco bowls over rice something we’ve had for dinner this week, living bereft of tacos is no bueno. 

No taco; no bueno!  I think this is a universal truth.

 

6 hours ago, Manarelle said:

 

Wowza. Worth it though, your picture wall looks amazing, as do both of you. 

Thanks, I think so too.  The reason why we decided to get these pictures now (many years after the fact) is that we both have been getting into shape during the pandemic and were both feeling like we were in good enough shape to finally do it  

 

58 minutes ago, Jupiter said:

 

Wow, the pictures look great! And the Okinawa tacos look delicious.

Thanks, we sure like them   The tacos were not only delicious but very easy as well

 

-----------------------

 

Yesterday was another gymnastics day at the park.  I brought along my gymnastics rings and hung them from the monkey bars and then proceeded to spend almost my entire time there messing around with them.  Levers and dips were fine, but when I was working on muscle ups I think I may have janked my left tricep.  I took it easy after that so as to not make it worse, but overall was a pretty good workout.

 

Mot of the rest of the day was sitting in front of the xbox relaxing.  Lunch was another adventure meal, this time with a couple of Kiwifruits.

 

@Hazard, that thing on the left is just a Harbin sausage, nothing super exciting  

 

For dinner I just grilled up a couple of burgers, but I didn't take a picture of them.

 

When Ghostess got home, we spent the remainder of the evening getting all of the other pictures into their places and now our home is all finished up.  For now anyway  

[Hazard]

24 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

Hazard, that thing on the left is just a Harbin sausage, nothing super exciting

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

9 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

No taco; no bueno!  I think this is a universal truth.

 

Easily proven:

[Sloth the Enduring]

Cars is a damn fine movie.

 

[WhiteGhost]

On 9/26/2020 at 1:12 PM, Hazard said:

 

That GIF always cracks me up

 

16 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Easily proven:

This reminds me that Taco Bell just opened up a franchise in Beijing.  I should go check it out one of these days.

 

15 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Cars is a damn fine movie.

 

Yes it is.  My little sister and her family are HUGE Nascar fans and I remember at one point they were explaining to me just how much detail the Pixar people put into that in terms of Nascar related Easter eggs.  From the voice actors, to the names of various characters, to designs and logos on specific cars, etc.  They really did their homework when they made that movie, even though it didn't really need it to be a just a great flick.

 

---------------------------------

 

Yesterday was an interesting day.  It started out with our Salt Marsh D&D campaign which is always a great way to spend a Saturday morning.  I was a little bit disappointed as it went along, because in the beginning we somehow ended up with my no intelligence, no charisma barbarian representing the party in parlay with a group of Lizard People and it was surprisingly not going terribly.  I think they were about to invite me to address their queen when another party member thought I was in danger and summoned a construct to protect me in case things went south.  Unfortunately, the unexpected arrival of the construct was understandably seen as an aggressive move and we were suddenly in overwhelming combat.  My barbarian went down before he even had a change to go into a rage and if it weren't for a timely healing spell from our bard as she ran away he would have been a goner.  A well placed darkness spell created enough confusion for us to escape with our lives, but I was really hoping to see what would have happened if they had let me talk to the queen.  

 

In the afternoon spent a bunch of time helping Ghostess get her stuff organized for her Tibet trip and then we made dinner together.  For dinner we pulled out some preserved meat (turkey leg and a whole chicken) out of the freezer and warmed those up in the air fryer.  Meanwhile I made some shrimp & egg stir fry and Ghostess made some boiled lettuce.  That lettuce probably doesn't sound all that great, but it really was.   I bet even @PaulG wold have liked it.  We paired it all with some ready made fried bread dough which we also puled out of the freezer and fried up.

In the evening I found out that our Saltmarsh game will be ending.  I will miss my poor stupid barbarian, but it was a pleasure playing together with everyone.  Special thanks to @Strickland5 for graciously DMing for us. 

 

 

[WhiteGhost]

Apparently I forgot to update yesterday.

 

Sunday was a work/school day here to make up for extra holiday during the upcoming national day holiday here.  IN the morning I walked Ghostlet to school and then came back for church which was our first in-person session since January.  It was kid of weird being back meeting in person again, but it was nice to be able to see some folks I have only seen online for a long time.  The place was pretty empty compared to our usual congregations because half of them left the country to avoid the pandemic and then couldn't come back when the pandemic caught up to them.  Another third of so of the folks still here did not feel comfortable meeting in person so we streamed the services for them so they could join by Zoom.  

 

In the afternoon a friend dropped off a bunch of farm supplies (A crate of eggs, a few boxes of fruit, and some freshly slaughtered poultry.  I spent pretty much the rest of the day carving up the birds (a few chickens and a goose) so they could fit in the freezer.  I think I should get proficiency on survival checks for being able to convert carcasses into the basic meat products you can buy from the store.  I didn't feel like cooking dinner, though, so I just ordered some pizza. 

 

 

Today started out with dropping Ghostlet off at school again and then a trip out to the new airport to drop Ghostess off for her Tibet trip.  She and her friends will be there for the next 10 days so it is just going to be me and Ghostlet holding down the fort for a bit.  I didn't do a whole lot of anything for the rest of the day, mostly just surfing the internet and chatting with various folks online.  I made some more shrimp & eggs for dinner because I still had half a bag of thawed shrimp in the fridge from Saturday that needed to be used.  I am going to go to bed early tonight because I don't need to wait up for Ghostess to come home.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

5 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

I didn't feel like cooking dinner

I would imagine most people wouldn't want to be a chef after being a butcher.

[Manarelle]

1 hour ago, WhiteGhost said:

In the afternoon a friend dropped off a bunch of farm supplies (A crate of eggs, a few boxes of fruit, and some freshly slaughtered poultry.  I spent pretty much the rest of the day carving up the birds (a few chickens and a goose) so they could fit in the freezer.  I think I should get proficiency on survival checks for being able to convert carcasses into the basic meat products you can buy from the store.  I didn't feel like cooking dinner, though, so I just ordered some pizza. 

 

1 hour ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

I would imagine most people wouldn't want to be a chef after being a butcher.

 

Agreed. The (very few) times I've helped render whole animals, I didn't want to bother with cooking for a while afterwards. Anything more complex than "stick it in a spit and throw it over a fire" was right out. 

 

1 hour ago, WhiteGhost said:

She and her friends will be there for the next 10 days so it is just going to be me and Ghostlet holding down the fort for a bit. 

 

Any plans for the male-only week?