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Post a bad thing that happened in your life today


Ed Rooney

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Yesterday, my dog knocked my helper's phone out of his hands and broke it.  Today, I heard from my friend who also employs him that the phone fell on the floor in front of her and basically had the same damage on Friday.   This was after I gave him my Huawei Y7 2018 phone and brought a Huawei Y7 2019 (on sale) for myself and spent the better part of the evening setting the new phone up.. 

 

My friend and I reconstructed what had happened.  She saw it fall and saw the damage on Friday.  I saw my dog knock it out of his hands on Saturday, but hadn't seen it before he showed me the damage.   Since the helper had offered two weeks of free dog walking (more than I would have asked for the phone as a used sale), I settled for one week to pay part of the phone and some stern glances.  He didn't quibble.   He'd done a lot for me on Saturday so wasn't hurting for money, and did a number of errands for my friend today.   Both of us are hiring his father to do some metal work for us. 

 

I was able to get an open box for less than the sale price, 7500 Cordobas, which is $214.0617 in US money.   I had looked at the phone a few days earlier, and the regular price was around $230 US on discount for a sealed box.  The saleman said they were identical phones, just that one was discounted a bit more.   Nothing appears to be wrong with it after some bad moments with a micro SD memory card that needed to have the contacts cleaned.   My British friend even wondered if it was repossessed since the store sells items with weekly or monthly payments.  Glad I got the stimulus money deposited. 

 

So, not fun, and he knows we talk about him, so....   Hard to be really angry though.  

 

It is amazing how good cell phone cameras are these days.   They don't replace full frame cameras, but they do replace point and shoots.   Next step is to set it up to share messages with my Windows 10 laptop and Phone Companion.

Edited by MizBrown
phones, not cameras. :)
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On 01/08/2020 at 16:26, Mr Standfast said:

So, anybody taking any pictures?

 

A few, had some time waiting for a train in Newcastle and was able to get some shots of Grainger Town stone buildings without the customary crowds, still had to clone out a few  folk however.

 

The Mrs, forever restless, organised a couple of pre-booked trips to English Heritage properties. One I had not previously visited, the Roman fort at Corbridge, and I have some photos to upload. It's amazing what they have uncovered there. The other was a small castle in Northumberland, but I've snapped it in the past and couldn't find any inspiration for new photos. One good thing, it tanked down with rain, but just after as we made it to the shelter of the building.

Edited by Bryan
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On 01/08/2020 at 22:57, wiskerke said:

 

Ooops. I have (among other things) a couple of these to remove broken or worn screws. Your local ferragens will have it. Always worth a try before getting the drillbits out.

Google remove a damaged screw from wood and you'll see how it should work and if there are any alternatives in your case.

 

wim

Many thanks Wim, I will investigate 
Jenny

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Cats can be fussy over their food, and this morning Brán wouldn't eat any of the multiple variations of tinned cat food we keep for these occasions. Luckily he will always eat his biscuits. I suspect it will be a day or too before he accepts a particular tinned food again. I just hate the waste.

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A bookcase shelf collapsed last night. I just watched it go, watcha gonna do? Get in the way?

The books didn't mind much, they transitioned to a stable 2 configuration after all. The worst thing was the dust.

It had happened about 10 years ago, same shelf, same books, except that time I lost a lot of 78s. A plastic support peg sheared. You 'd think I'd have repaired it properly with screws, but no. Just more pegs.

It's screwed on now. And quite a few books aren't going back, it's the recycling bin for them

Unless anyone wants a copy of "Children on a Farm", Encyclopedia Britannica, 1962, or a 1959 edition of Vogel's Inorganic Analysis. And a cat calendar.

Edited by spacecadet
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5 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

A bookcase shelf collapsed last night. I just watched it go, watcha gonna do? Get in the way?

The books didn't mind much, they transitioned to a stable 2 configuration after all. The worst thing was the dust.

It had happened about 10 years ago, same shelf, same books, except that time I lost a lot of 78s. A plastic support peg sheared. You 'd think I'd have repaired it properly with screws, but no. Just more pegs.

It's screwed on now. And quite a few books aren't going back, it's the recycling bin for them

Unless anyone wants a copy of "Children on a Farm", Encyclopedia Britannica, 1962, or a 1959 edition of Vogel's Inorganic Analysis. And a cat calendar.

 

I would take a couple of pictures: books on a pile; in the bin; in the trunk; pile of books in front of local charity; maybe even burning one or two.

Shredding the cat calendar for cat litter would also be an option. Or a dog chewing on a portrait of a cat.

The Encyclopedia Britannica could lend itself to lots of visual fun as well: a paper plane from a Wright brothers page; all sorts of images on a pin stuck into a map; on a bamboo skewer stuck into a modern version of the illustrated thing. Just held in front of the camera with the modern thing in the background. In the hand; on a skewer; held by someone else in Michael Portillo style. Wrap your sandwich; fish; fish and chips; flower bulbs in a page. Have fun with a funnel and pages being poured into someone's head; ear-in ear-out; the bin. Illustrate mansplaining with pages; whole book; the entire Encyclopedia coming out of a man's mouth. Oops. Good you're a man too. Cheers!

 

wim

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Just now, wiskerke said:

 

I would take a couple of pictures: books on a pile; in the bin; in the trunk; pile of books in front of local charity; maybe even burning one or two.

Shredding the cat calendar for cat litter would also be an option. Or a dog chewing on a portrait of a cat.

The Encyclopedia Britannica could lend itself to lots of visual fun as well: a paper plane from a Wright brothers page; all sorts of images on a pin stuck into a map; on a bamboo skewer stuck into a modern version of the illustrated thing. Just held in front of the camera with the modern thing in the background. In the hand; on a skewer; held by someone else in Michael Portillo style. Wrap your sandwich; fish; fish and chips; flower bulbs in a page. Have fun with a funnel and pages being poured into someone's head; ear-in ear-out; the bin. Illustrate mansplaining with pages; whole book; the entire Encyclopedia coming out of a man's mouth. Oops. Good you're a man too. Cheers!

 

wim

Not one picture. Didn't think of it. It's that bad.

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4 minutes ago, wiskerke said:

 

I would take a couple of pictures: books on a pile; in the bin; in the trunk; pile of books in front of local charity; maybe even burning one or two.

Shredding the cat calendar for cat litter would also be an option. Or a dog chewing on a portrait of a cat.

The Encyclopedia Britannica could lend itself to lots of visual fun as well: a paper plane from a Wright brothers page; all sorts of images on a pin stuck into a map; on a bamboo skewer stuck into a modern version of the illustrated thing. Just held in front of the camera with the modern thing in the background. In the hand; on a skewer; held by someone else in Michael Portillo style. Wrap your sandwich; fish; fish and chips; flower bulbs in a page. Have fun with a funnel and pages being poured into someone's head; ear-in ear-out; the bin. Illustrate mansplaining with pages; whole book; the entire Encyclopedia coming out of a man's mouth. Oops. Good you're a man too. Cheers!

 

wim

 

But . . . but . . . I read virtual books these days. ??? I got an exciting image yesterday: a guy looking at his smartphone. 

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1 hour ago, spacecadet said:

A bookcase shelf collapsed last night. I just watched it go, watcha gonna do? Get in the way?

The books didn't mind much, they transitioned to a stable 2 configuration after all. The worst thing was the dust.

 


Yes. I wear a high grade dust mask if I go to dig out one of the few remaining, exposed physical books on my book cases. Most of my fairly large collection of books lives in boxes and most only very rarely if ever see the light any more apart from a few Photoshop and Lightroom books although these have been superseded by later Kindle versions that I read on my iPad. If I don’t wear a dust mask then I pay dearly. 
 

Except for a few really high quality photo books dating way back, I do not miss physical books at all really. So here I am lying on my couch, iPad in one hand, reading about the demise of the high street and the incredible growth of Amazon (who own Kindle needless to say). The pandemic is of course hastening the decline of the high street. What to do? I am very happy having my entire current library in my hand. Should I but another Kindle book? A new pair of shoes? Take a selfie? We are living in extraordinary times. 

 

Edited by MDM
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On 01/08/2020 at 13:51, Ed Rooney said:

I was born in Brooklyn, NY, but all my ancestors were all Irish. And I have an Irish passport in my pocket. Potato problems make me nervous. 

 

I do hope you are not saying that being born in Brooklyn NY was a bad thing.😰

 

Allan

 

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24 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

 

I do hope you are not saying that being born in Brooklyn NY was a bad thing.😰

 

Allan

 

 

No Allan,  Edo is clearly referring to the Irish Potato Famine. While it might seem oversensitive on my part, I think jokes about disasters where over a million people died of starvation, primarily because of the greed of the ruling classes, are in bad taste. Similarly jokes about Irish stone walls do not go down too well with me as you might remember. Why stone walls one might ask? Well many of the stone walls in Ireland were built during the famine as relief projects in order that the starving native men who built them could be paid a pittance to keep them alive. Some would consider this to be the next step up from slavery. As a rich land-owning laird once said to me in all seriousness, there was no famine relief in those days (the 1840s).

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2 hours ago, MDM said:

 

No Allan,  Edo is clearly referring to the Irish Potato Famine. While it might seem oversensitive on my part, I think jokes about disasters where over a million people died of starvation, primarily because of the greed of the ruling classes, are in bad taste. Similarly jokes about Irish stone walls do not go down too well with me as you might remember. Why stone walls one might ask? Well many of the stone walls in Ireland were built during the famine as relief projects in order that the starving native men who built them could be paid a pittance to keep them alive. Some would consider this to be the next step up from slavery. As a rich land-owning laird once said to me in all seriousness, there was no famine relief in those days (the 1840s).

We still have one of those English Families (there are several others near here with the same attitude) living in my village. The land they have was given by Cromwell for "suppressing" the local population. The house is surrounded with a large stone wall (even got an electric gate fitted), they have no interaction with the village as such, sent their children away to private school (the local primary is renowned for being excellent). They come in my local pub about once a year when the daughter is home on school holiday and pretend to be "local", basically ignored by everybody, that them and us attitude still goes in here.   

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3 hours ago, aphperspective said:

We still have one of those English Families (there are several others near here with the same attitude) living in my village. The land they have was given by Cromwell for "suppressing" the local population. The house is surrounded with a large stone wall (even got an electric gate fitted), they have no interaction with the village as such, sent their children away to private school (the local primary is renowned for being excellent). They come in my local pub about once a year when the daughter is home on school holiday and pretend to be "local", basically ignored by everybody, that them and us attitude still goes in here.   


It’s everywhere. It is not really about nationalism but about society and the class system. These old ruling classes continue to rule but they use the banners of nationalism to divide and conquer. Nowadays it is done in the guise of democracy through populism. Rewrite history- no problem. 😎. Fake news - eeezy.  If there is any upside to Covid-19, then perhaps it will see the demise of the populist liars. 

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On 03/08/2020 at 15:34, spacecadet said:

A bookcase shelf collapsed last night. I just watched it go, watcha gonna do? Get in the way?

The books didn't mind much, they transitioned to a stable 2 configuration after all. The worst thing was the dust.

It had happened about 10 years ago, same shelf, same books, except that time I lost a lot of 78s. A plastic support peg sheared. You 'd think I'd have repaired it properly with screws, but no. Just more pegs.

It's screwed on now. And quite a few books aren't going back, it's the recycling bin for them

Unless anyone wants a copy of "Children on a Farm", Encyclopedia Britannica, 1962, or a 1959 edition of Vogel's Inorganic Analysis. And a cat calendar.

 

I'm under constant pressure to sort out my room, which probably means throwing out my large collection of books which, in truth, are very rarely, if ever referred to. In the past I have been quite good, I discarded all of my University lecture notes years ago but still retain the textbooks. All of my personal work related stuff went soon after I retired, but again the books remain - Formulas For Stress and Strain by Roark, I was presented with on leaving my first proper job, and signed by my design office colleagues, I can't let it go. Books on programming a Z80 microprocessor have no further use, but, nerdily, they bring back happy memories. Lots of books on photography, mainly from the film era and never looked at. I don't think that there is a single  fiction book in my personal collection, which is a bit sad. Will I ever need to look again at Mathematics for Engineers, volumes 1and 2, well the grandson occasionally asks for help with his school maths, so maybe hang on to them etc. Two volumes of Engineering Thermodynamics one in imperial units and the other updated to SI, used to be my Bible, but not opened for years. They will all continue to gather dust until either they or I fall off the wall and cease to exist..

Edited by Bryan
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15 hours ago, MDM said:

 

No Allan,  Edo is clearly referring to the Irish Potato Famine. While it might seem oversensitive on my part, I think jokes about disasters where over a million people died of starvation, primarily because of the greed of the ruling classes, are in bad taste. Similarly jokes about Irish stone walls do not go down too well with me as you might remember. Why stone walls one might ask? Well many of the stone walls in Ireland were built during the famine as relief projects in order that the starving native men who built them could be paid a pittance to keep them alive. Some would consider this to be the next step up from slavery. As a rich land-owning laird once said to me in all seriousness, there was no famine relief in those days (the 1840s).

 

I did not mention the potato famine.

 

Allan

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13 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

Yes, The Great Hunger. I've read the books. I'm sure Allan meant no harm, but it's a very dark subject for the Irish. 

 

Quite right Edo it was a light hearted remark and no mention was made on my part about the potato famine. Which incidentally I do know about and this is not the first time Mick has had a go at me about it.

 

Allan

 

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12 hours ago, aphperspective said:

We still have one of those English Families (there are several others near here with the same attitude) living in my village. The land they have was given by Cromwell for "suppressing" the local population. The house is surrounded with a large stone wall (even got an electric gate fitted), they have no interaction with the village as such, sent their children away to private school (the local primary is renowned for being excellent). They come in my local pub about once a year when the daughter is home on school holiday and pretend to be "local", basically ignored by everybody, that them and us attitude still goes in here.   

 

I agree it was a terrible time and an even worse thing for one nation to impose on another nation.

 

Allan

 

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19 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

 

I did not mention the potato famine.

 

Allan

 

14 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Quite right Edo it was a light hearted remark and no mention was made on my part about the potato famine. Which incidentally I do know about and this is not the first time Mick has had a go at me about it.

 

Allan

 


I know you didn’t mention the famine. I was explaining to you what Edo meant. It seemed clear to me but you obviously did not understand what was meant. 
 

The previous incident when I had a go at you as you put it is when you made a stupid Irish joke about stone walls. I expect you know what I mean when I say stupid Irish  joke but in case you don’t then I mean the type of joke that implies the Irish are stupid. Well that genre of joke is no longer socially or politically acceptable. It leads to a form of national stereotyping that can be very upsetting for the recipients at the lighter end and can have far more serious consequences if taken as reality. I don’t think anyone who knows me will accuse me of being stupid (in the IQ sense) so it is not a personal thing for me but I do find this type of national stereotyping offensive.
 

I had a go at you because you were displaying a high degree of ignorance about this and if you think I was being over the top then you have learned nothing. If you have not come across the term unconscious bias then I recommend you check it out. This is an excellent example. I know there was no malice intended but that is not the point here. 

 

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34 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

 

I agree it was a terrible time and an even worse thing for one nation to impose on another nation.

 

Allan

 

 

To the Irish, what happened during The Hunger, was not so different from what happened to the Jews in Nazi Germany. These are big, prickly subjects to those involved. But I know you didn't mean anything bad in your remark, Allan.

 

Let's move on, shall we?

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2 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

To the Irish, what happened during The Hunger, was not so different from what happened to the Jews in Nazi Germany. These are big, prickly subjects to those involved. But I know you didn't mean anything bad in your remark, Allan.

 

Let's move on, shall we?


Sure thing Edo. I know there was no malice intended at all but as I explained in my last post the issue of unconscious bias remains as a hangover from the past. I have experienced this many times over the years. So yes let’s move on. 

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6 hours ago, MDM said:


Sure thing Edo. I know there was no malice intended at all but as I explained in my last post the issue of unconscious bias remains as a hangover from the past. I have experienced this many times over the years. So yes let’s move on. 

On a last footnote next year I qualify for my Irish passport, already got the forms partially filled ready to go on the day. 

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20 minutes ago, aphperspective said:

On a last footnote next year I qualify for my Irish passport, already got the forms partially filled ready to go on the day. 

 

Goodonya. Maybe we could meet for a coffee and a chat next time I'm in West Cork. It's been 5 years since I've been so once it becomes easy to travel it is high on my agenda of places to visit again. I miss the mountains of Beara. 

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8 hours ago, MDM said:

 


I know you didn’t mention the famine. I was explaining to you what Edo meant. It seemed clear to me but you obviously did not understand what was meant. 
 

The previous incident when I had a go at you as you put it is when you made a stupid Irish joke about stone walls. I expect you know what I mean when I say stupid Irish  joke but in case you don’t then I mean the type of joke that implies the Irish are stupid. Well that genre of joke is no longer socially or politically acceptable. It leads to a form of national stereotyping that can be very upsetting for the recipients at the lighter end and can have far more serious consequences if taken as reality. I don’t think anyone who knows me will accuse me of being stupid (in the IQ sense) so it is not a personal thing for me but I do find this type of national stereotyping offensive.
 

I had a go at you because you were displaying a high degree of ignorance about this and if you think I was being over the top then you have learned nothing. If you have not come across the term unconscious bias then I recommend you check it out. This is an excellent example. I know there was no malice intended but that is not the point here. 

 

 

Hi Mick I fully understood what Edo meant. I was just having a bit of fun with Edo in my post which he seems to have taken as it was meant.

 

I hope I have never or will ever imply that the Irish are stupid. I have a few Irish friends, you included, and I hope our friendship is not damaged by this discussion.

 

I know you enough from our meetings to know you are certainly NOT stupid. The first time this was discussed with you I hope you did not think I was stupid, naive maybe, But I am much more enlightened now since that point in time. That is why I say that I knew what Edo was talking about.

 

I am now finished replying to any other posts regarding this subject. Thank you for listening.

 

Best wishes my friend and I hope you are progressing more to full health after your brush with the virus. I do miss our meetings.

 

Allan

 

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1 hour ago, MDM said:

 

Goodonya. Maybe we could meet for a coffee and a chat next time I'm in West Cork. It's been 5 years since I've been so once it becomes easy to travel it is high on my agenda of places to visit again. I miss the mountains of Beara. 

Absolutely next time your down near Skibbereen give me a shout. (Castletownshend is my village) But Skib is the nearest town. This area was devastated by the famine, there is a very good museum dedicated to it. 

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