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- Ianbolton7
I've just eaten a hog-roast sausage roll. Fuck me it was delightful. I'll send a photo next time, but for now, use your creative faculties to imagine how great it was.
Hope we've all had great weekends and NBQ stops being such a teary, emotional rollercoaster.
- Thanks Ian; Weekend was great, now comes penance. Even my eyelashes hurt ;)OBBTKN
- https://www.theguard…BuddhaHat
- searched the name and that does look freaking delightfulBuddhaHat
- ^ that's totally the vibe :-)Ianbolton
- bainbridge-4
Real G's move in silence like lasagna.
- Saw the video too but the g is not silent.
Akshually, "gn" makes a /nj/ sound not an /n/. Nobody says lasana.palimpsest - I've been shown this on IG too. Very clever.HAYZ1LLLA
- bArSpalimpsest
- Saw the video too but the g is not silent.
- NBQ00-3
I am so hyper-sensitive right now. I can listen to a moody or beautifully ambient/ epic audio track and start crying. It's mostly tears of joy. Being so close to the universe is vulnerable.
- Sometimes one is open.jagara
- TAKE OUT OUT OF YOUR WINDOW MAN. IT'S ALL FUCKING BURNING.Horp
- erm, take a *look* out, was what I meant to type
*exasperated face emoji*Horp - I have the same “condition.” Look up info about being an emotionally sensitive person. It’s not a bad thing.mg33
- I have the opposite condition. Totally dead inside. Nothing moves me. My GF declares "OH! A SWAN! HOW SERENDIPITOUS" and I'm all "eh so fucking what".Horp
- She's dying slowly like Artax in a swamp of sadness, except I'm not tugging her reigns and saying "DON'T GO" I'm just watching, saying "eh so fucking what".Horp
- @Horp there's no known cure, I'm afraid: https://www.youtube.…jagara
- @mg33 +1jagara
- Pussies.crazyprick
- Emotionally sensitive person + being an empath has so many benefits but just as many downsides. When anxiety is bad these things collide like a car crash.mg33
- As a musician the emotionally sensitive part can be amazing. As a music listener it can be intense joyous emotion or intense dark emotion.mg33
- I get triggered at the oddest times by music especially when related to a happy memory in conjunction with a song. It's an amazing phenomenon.mg33
- Just curious. Microdosing lately?monospaced
- lolNBQ00
- Horp1
*sigh*
I worry that a chunky percentage of younger people just really don't get nuance and irony anymore. No big deal in some ways, but in other ways, it does imply that everything could increasingly need to be very literal and descriptive and thoroughly unambiguous.
It's quite an important layer of the communication cake to remove and discard.
I've noticed this a lot with people I've worked with here and there. Something said in allegory is taken literally leading to a lost half day stressing about it, when it doesn't even exist (whatever it was), and I've had to explain what I meant by "a needle in a haystack" or "the seed of an idea".
"So I'm not meant to be looking for a real actual seed then?"
I just had an example now, on a BMX forum. We're getting a new, quite extensive BMX/Skate playground built right by my house. For the UK it's pretty large. A multi-level / multi-object ramps and rails area and then flowing from that a fairly wild looking pump track in asphalt that in parts is like a skate bowl.
So it's quite impressive.
I decide to ride past it today on my BMX and shoot a vid over the railing on my phone. I wanted to post it to show everyone what's being built.
I needed to ride standing up, and pedal, hold a video camera in one hand, up high, and maintain a straight line down the path next to the building sight.
So I start off narrating this video and I begin pedalling.
Literally 10ft later - before the new BMX park has even made it into frame, I lost my balance, made a god awful "old man yowling" noise as though my long saggy nuts had become trapped in the hinged lid of a school desk, and I came clean off my bike face down on the ground. Camera up in the air, the sound of my skull smacking down on hard tarmac, some impeachments made in earnest to a higher force and of a blasphemous nature, plus a few sexual swears on the audio.
A stupidly old man who should not be riding a BMX anymore, crowing proudly about the new skate park as though he's going to boss it when it opens, and yet he can't even trundle along a perfectly flat, smooth, obstacle free surface for more than 10ft before falling off for no known reason and breaking his hip. (I haven't actually broken my hip but you know what I mean)
"They'll love this" I thought. So I posted it on the forum.
"Dude, we can't see the skate park"
"Dude your video sucks there's nothing in it"
"Dude, I think you uploaded the wrong video?"
"Dude, it's just a shaky bit of sky"
I had to *walk them through* the reason why I posted the video and the irony of its concept, context and content, and the slapstick, and the hubris, and the ridiculousness.
After I had explained it, they said "ahhhh okay, I get it now, but you should have said it was about you falling off, not that is was a video about your new skate park because we can't see the skate park".
No. No, you can't see the skatepark I promised but you did get to see an old cunt falling off a BMX for no apparent reason at all.
But they don't like surprises. They can't process what wasn't expected. It needs to be presented as what it is, and it needs to stay true to that.
Then somebody posts a video of a one legged BMX rider. Julian Molina. Seriously good rider. Can't pedal, obviously... he only has one leg, but he's right up there in the skills stakes and fearless as hell with it. Attempts and fails a 20ft drop and lands face first. Gets up, grins. Ready for more.
It's seriously impressive stuff.
I comment "Pfffft.... try doing that with *two* legs and then we'll see how good you are" adding "Goddam freeloaders with their cheat codes"
The next thing I know I'm getting DMs from people telling me he can't try it with two legs because he only has one leg... and actually it's much *easier* with two legs, not harder... and I shouldn't mention that he only has one leg anyway because I'm othering him... and it's all very well saying what I said on the internet but they bet I couldn't even ride as good as he does with my two legs... and by the way he *isn't* using a cheat code his friend just gives him a push to get him up to speed but that's not classed as cheating if you can't pedal.
Seriously guys, come on. I'm joking. They may not be *FUNNY* jokes and I'm not suggesting anyone ought to be amused by them, but, we mustn't forget how to recognise jokes and abstractions, even really shit ones.
It's like communicating with a crowd of 1st generation helper bots.
I don't know what's caused this but the trajectory we're on, we're going to end up in a VERY literal world where people can only say, and process, information that fits a template.
And I worry about the poets. It's going to be a struggle for them in this new paradigm.
- "memories like summer clouds passing through me, softening my heart in rain" Dude this poem sucks! if a cloud rained inside you you'd basically drown instantly.Horp
- Here's Julian Molina...
https://youtu.be/UxR…Horp - In the interests of balance, here is Alfred Molina...
https://youtu.be/WnL…Horp - This is King Alfred....
https://youtu.be/YSC…Horp - This is King Julien...
https://youtu.be/vYH…Horp - Dude the poets will be finenb
- Internet is just chock full of this shit. It’s mind numbing.monospaced
- I thought ‘cheat codes’ was fucking funny! I wonder if it’s something to do with how sarcasm doesn’t translate to text...monNom
- The 90s was the era of irony and sarcasm in comedy. But then email came along. You can’t do that kind of comedy over email, so comedy changed.monNom
- The younger generation grew up in a world of email. They were oblivious they were missing the joke. They just thought people were being mean.monNom
- That explains so much. What if the special snowflakes are all triggered because they don’t ‘get’ sarcasm? What does it look like when you aren’t in on the joke?monNom
- next level is when the helper bots start calling you a NPC.uan
- That would never happen on QBN.palimpsest
- I feel youSimonFFM
- It's their world now, evolve or die.robthelad
- how big is the chunk ? did u run any numbers on this compared to the previous generation or is this just fantasy talk ...neverscared
- the boomer and his far out generalisations ....C'est la vieneverscared
- ^ hahahaHorp
- Ooh, rub 'the lack of nuance genie' and neverscared appears. how odd.Nairn
- It's a generation cosplaying autistic.i_monk
- Horp0
Ehhh fuck it. Still logged in so I'm going to post again. It's going to be long and boring though. I'll log out again soon and go back to watching you all through the soundproofed one way mirror.
I've always loved writing. Typing really, rather than writing. I like to violently shart the contents of my brain into different places, in unmanageable splatterings that hit a large circumference in disorganised patterns. A hot wet mess of thinking, transcribed hastily by my pulsating epileptic sphincter. I have done this for years across a lot of platforms.
As a result, I do get people saying "write a book, I'd read it" quite a lot. However this sort of comment, whilst frequently offered, needs to be tempered by a few things:
1. I cannot write a book to save my fucking life. I've tried. Sharting your mind-mucus is not the same thing as structuring and telling a complex story with realism and well-grounded characters. It's completely different.
2. People see you doing something and feel compelled to offer encouragement. I think of this as the Moonwalk Effect.
Over the course of my life I have seen many many people do a Michael Jackson moonwalk and their gathered friends and family all applaud and cheer and clap wildly and say how very good that person is at doing that.
However, that person wasn't actually doing a moonwalk, they were merely walking backwards with draggy feet, T-Rex arms and a stupid look on their face. People cannot discern between a technically well executed moonwalk (the illusion of travelling opposite to locomotion) and just walking backwards in a party setting for entertainment.
Similarly people cannot discern between 'lots of words on a page' and 'a skilled writer'. They just see the words and think "oh look he's a writer! He's good at that... he should write a book!". My fat arse should I write a book. Ridiculous.
3. As frequent as the encouragements to write are, statistically, they are almost zero on a data chart against all the people who saw any given post and *didn't* make that comment.
It probably sits at 1 in 5000 people who reply with a "Write a book" comment. Those are not encouraging odds but we as humans tend to use selective bias when it makes us feel good. I don't though.
But I do also dabble in writing things that are just for me. Stored on my hard drives, not published anywhere. They are my projects and a few of them have been things I've picked up and put down over decades. The Planetarians, The Dolsda Figures, Frank Dandyhand (a wordplay parody of the old timey detective noir genre), All The Ham In Halifax (a deliberately stupid parody of romance fiction); a stupid fucking thing about a mad painting that's honestly the lamest piece of crap that wouldn't even make it onto a fucking blog post. It's all shit. All of it.
But, when down time is enforced by the economic climate, and I can't land my next contract or a job, I get really stuck into one or more of these things and start pushing it towards completion.
This time around it's The Planetarians. I'm at around 30,000 words and I've become excited by different format. It's not a book, it's a sequence of transcribed notes and interviews spanning decades, detailing the weird life of my Uncle Gerald and what happened to him. A mailshot series of documents that form the idea of a mystery, loosely, with the reader needing to fill in the gaps and reach their own conclusions.
I am now *SERIOUSLY FUCKING OBSESSED* with completing The Planetarians. I am *GENUINELY VERY EXCITED* about it and work on it every day between other tasks. I stay up late smashing the shit out of my keyboard, working out the structure, adjusting the timeline, working out how each mail-out would be packaged in something that relates to the particular aspect of the story being covered.
A kind of deconstructed book that you maybe would subscribe to and receive each new part in the post across months. Official documents from various sources across decades.
I'm almost ready to admit that I could start sending this thing out to people.
That's VERY important. It is important because whenever I get to that point... the point of maximum self-belief and enthusiasm, I get offered work and have to stop thinking about it. Then it sinks back into the soup of hard drive storage and I forget about it until next time I'm between projects.
Probably nobody here recalls the time back in around 2009 when I was in a similar difficult situation and I rustled up a mail-out art project and a whole bunch of you sent me $20 by post (as specified) to receive a bunch of artworks over the course of the following year.
Well, the "rescued by a job offer" phenomenon happened then. I got all the cash... $20s / £20s from QBN people in the post, and I never sent a single fucking thing out. Not fucking one person got anything in return.
Unintentionally, a grift. The thing was, I was suffering a very severe depression back in 2009 and that project was how I got through every day. But as soon as I decided "Fuck it, hit the launch button and share this project" the cosmic order said "hey, here's a much needed full time job, and you start tomorrow, and you'll be busy".
So nobody got their artwork, but to be fair I never spent that money either. It's all still cash in an envelope somewhere in my loft, mentally noted as "must be returned to senders". I found it a few years ago and thought "I must return all of this", and then I put it back and didn't do that.
(about 10 people sent me cash, just for scale. It wasn't a major scam heist... just a few friends being bilked by a manic depressive Brit on QBN)
So, ya know.... sign up for my latest writing project The Planetarians. You won't receive anything, it's another unintentional grift, but it gets me back into paid work by operating the standard cosmic mechanisms of "infuriatingly inconvenient timing" and "creative ambition thwarting".
Okay I'm done. Time to log out.
- I never said a book. I don't even know how people accomplish such a thing, but there're a lot more uses for written words outside of books. Or podcasts :)Nairn
- Oh hello! noI didn't specifically mean you Nairn. Sorry. I'd actually forgotten you made that comment...Horp
- It's actually more a thing on LinkedIn (lately). I get DMs from people saying "I love your posts you should write a book", and I always answer "no".Horp
- Nor did I mean to presume you were talking alone to me, but I was serious about my comment. You have a knack, but how you wrangle it, I dunno.Nairn
- I do believe that some things are more important to us and than mere fincancial transaction anyway. I've lost every other passion to commercialism...Horp
- across a long, varied career. Typing out a load of shit remains impervious to cash, and therefore remains highly valuable, therapeutically, spiritually, maaan.Horp
- My knack is really just the moonwalk at the party. It appears to be a decent enough approximation that it passes as entertainment, briefly. Sometimes.Horp
- Aye, the thing is - that's how most Creative is. It just needs to fool enough of the people, enough of the time :)Nairn
- See, I do LOVE fooling people. That kind of thing motivates me.Horp
- so don't write a book. write a column instead.hans_glib
- Eh, columns, books, blogs. I just like to take a big shit in different people's boudoirs.Horp
- http://concep3.com/d…Nairn
- ^Horp
- For mobile users...
<Horp
- doggydoggdog0
Randomly browsed Nordstrom today.
First, the store is huge, do they really sell enough to pay rent?
Lots of random brands, some cool, but mostly trying too hard
The clothes are very expensive. Many random shirts for $300+
- bainbridge-1
AI is the worst quality it will ever be, right now
- OBBTKN9
Tomorrow I have lunch at a cider house with "lifelong" friends whom I have not been with in about 15 years!
At the very least, it's going to be fun...
- "So, do you have any pets?"bainbridge
- Txotx!!!Miesfan
- The cider was too sour for my taste, but it didn't stop me from drinking liters of it, lol. But the meat was realy bad, badly cooked and bad quality in origin..OBBTKN
- Enjoyed a lot, but don't remember how I've come back home. Now I'm going to check it with my wife...OBBTKN
- imbecile-4
I can't help but ponder the broader implications of this growing trend towards literalism and the diminishing appreciation for irony and nuance. It feels like we're witnessing a gradual erosion of a crucial layer of human communication, one that adds depth, color, and texture to our interactions.
In a world where everything must be explicit and unambiguous, where allegory is mistaken for fact and irony is lost in translation, we risk losing not just the art of wit but also the ability to navigate complexity with grace. The incident with the BMX video serves as a microcosm of this phenomenon, where a simple act of slapstick humor is met with confusion and criticism instead of appreciation for its satirical essence.
It's disheartening to witness the struggle to convey and comprehend anything beyond the surface level. What was once the domain of poets and comedians now seems like a foreign language to many, as if we're communicating with a generation raised on binary code rather than the rich tapestry of human expression.
And yet, amidst this concern, there are glimmers of hope. Individuals like Julian Molina, with his fearless resilience and ability to defy expectations despite physical limitations, remind us of the power of human spirit and the potential for transcendence beyond the confines of literal interpretation.
But as we march towards a future where algorithms dictate our understanding and expression, we mustn't forget the poets, the artists, the jesters—the custodians of ambiguity and champions of complexity. For theirs is the voice that whispers truths beyond the surface, the beacon guiding us through the fog of literalism towards a horizon where irony dances freely and nuance reigns supreme.
- crazyprick4
"About 50 people have died in Angola after being forced to drink an herbal potion to prove they were not sorcerers".
All cultures are equal!
- They would have been fine had they eaten an albino beforehandGnash
- Psshhh, that’s nothing. More than half of the US died in 2020 after forced to get vaccinated. Oh, wait. Pr2 is a fucking retard.monospaced
- Fuck off, losercrazyprick
- @Gnash furiously taking notesskinny_puppy
- Witchesbainbridge
- lol prickmonospaced
- mg33-4
Bubble Tea
Love or Hate?
- Indifferent, tbh.Continuity
- I've refused to have anything to do with the stuff. It's a milk-based sweet drink stuffed with tapioca balls, right? No thanks.Nairn
- Refuse because it's sweet and has dairy? Do you also refuse ice cream? :) I think boba is yummy, but I only have it once every couple years.monospaced
- used to love that shit 25 years ago, I just don't do sugar anymoreYakuZoku
- I much prefer sorbet, if that helps?Nairn
- You do you man ;)monospaced
- Had it for the first time ever, In Thailand in 2015. Never heard of it then. It was a wonderfully completely alien treat. Absolutely delightful.jagara
- I rarely have it, though. I'm 47, I don't need the comments.jagara
- refuse only because it's over priced!pango
- and cold.sted
- Horp21
Thought I'd log back in to add a comment.
While I'm here, I'm going to write some shite that nobody needs to read.
It's a weird world out there, for a million different reasons. But in one specific aspect it is quite worryingly weird. Work.
My dad became finally, properly terminally ill last April and we were told he really didn't have long to go. Like, days or *maaaybe* weeks.
I was just finishing a long fixed term contract (FTC), so I made the quite difficult decision to delay looking for my next FTC as my dad dying would probably take up about 3 months of time. My mum has been married to him since she was 16 (Now mid 80s) and he was the man of the house who controlled everything. So it felt like there would be lots to do to get my mum settled and set up for life on her own.
Curiously, I saw absolutely no FTC positions being advertised anyway, so back in May-July 2023, it seemed my break nicely coincided with an industry lull. I've had 3 month breaks many times in the past between contracts and I'm ok with that. It's a perk if you budget for it.
My dad, despite being to all intents and purposes a perished cadaver in a hospital bed at my parents home, just didn't die. He wasn't able to do anything, and remained asleep for a lot of the time. There was nothing left of him at all because he stopped eating and only sipped water of the occasional cup of watery soup. But he just kept living, which frustrated him immensely.
On the occasions where he was awake and able to speak, he would talk about how much he wanted to die and how infuriating it was that he was just still here every single day.
He lost all sense of time and reality and would have the weirdest conversations (instructions for us, mostly) in short spurts before drifting back into the fog.
Over many months I got called up to my parents place countless times because "This is the end now. He's fallen into a coma and he's got hours left". But I'd arrive and he'd open his eyes, greet me, and request some weird food item he'd never eaten before in his life. Over and over this happened. I've done thousands of miles.
The longer it went on, the more certain it was he'd go any minute, and there were zero opportunities being advertised anyway. So I just focussed on my parents, and started getting into the all the admin of death so we were ready once he finally passed.
LinkedIn started filling up with "Open to work" profile pics, and posts about there being no work. The narrative kicke doff that A.I. was destroying the creative industries already. Copywriters, translators and strategists were all out of work. Creatives were out of work. People were becoming desperate. But my mum and dad were my priority, so I stayed out of it.
My dad finally passed on February 15th. His funeral is next Tuesday.
With regards to work though, by October last year I needed to try and do something. I'd been offered 2 freelance consultancy pieces by old clients and that helped, but I was not seeing any long term opportunities to start pursuing. I applied to some full time jobs, but there weren't many, and I didn't hear back from most.
One of the consultancy pieces was for a major UK delivery company, and I did some immersion research as part of the consultancy work - understanding how their business works from the ground up. I had asked to be placed on payroll inside IR35 and taxed at source for the work, because I no longer have a LTD company and companies rarely work with sole trader freelancers these days.
So after that project finished I asked if I could return to the ground level and do some pre-Christmas delivery work whilst on payroll. A really weird request for a senior level consultant to ask about van driving work, but I explained my situation, and they needed people before Christmas, so I did three months of delivery driving from October to January.
Weak pay, hard work, but oddly very enjoyable. I really liked it. Good physical fitness, fresh air, working by yourself with no ambiguous problems to solve. There's just one way to do it right, and it's not hard to do that.
I figured it might just be time to quit my career and take a form of retirement that puts me in the basic jobs market as opposed to the high paid career market. It was dooable. We paid off our mortgage last year and earning much less becomes manageable without a mortgage commitment.
I got spooked though. Over those three months, talking to many of my colleagues in that delivery role, I learned that many had opted to do that work as a stop gap during industry lulls. These were highly skilled people from high paid career roles. Very senior, very specialist. Some of them were C-Suite level people from globally operating UK brands - household name brands.
But they said they found that the stop gap job went on for too long and after six months of being a delivery driver, nobody would take them seriously in their career anymore. Nobody wants to entrust the future of an organisation to a van driver. So they got ensnared, and stuck there. Some of them had been there for 20 years by this point. Their former careers a distant memory.
So I decided not to risk that just yet, and I pulled out after three months of working as a delivery driver. I can bury three months given the consultancy work connection, but six months... I'd be cast in stone.
In December, before I quit that work, I had applied to a bunch of full time roles that came up on LinkedIn. Not many of them were 100% suitable, but I could bend in to them with a bit of effort.
I got two responses out of maybe 30 CV/Resume slingshots.
One was for a stalwart UK design company seeking a strategist, the other was for a global PR firm.
Both started the process at the beginning of December with an initial videocall interview. Both said they wanted to progress to the next stage.
The next stage was in January and both were keen to progress to the final stage.
Design company arranged for me to meet the ECD and the head of client services (HCS) as the final stage before making a decision. They had whittled down to just me and one other candidate. Final two.
ECD just didn't take to me is my best guess, and the HCS seemed to want more of a project manager than a brand strategist.
Almost exactly 3 months to the day they told me they'd gone for the other candidate. Lots of puffery about how much they loved me and thought I was fantastic blah blah blah but the other candidate had assured them more of their capabilities around the basic project management stuff and the mechanics of campaign anatomy and process. I was, they felt, a "wonderful creative strategist" but their immediate needs were more prosaic.
As much as I really needed to land a job and be back at work, I really didn't mind being passed over. They were a bit like an eccentric aristocratic and slightly inbred family; cut off from society and operating along their own rules and behaviours cultivated over decades in isolation. I had already sensed it would be wonky and weird, and largely about navigating big eccentric personalities that didn't run on contemporary rails.
The global PR job took me all the way to meeting 5 senior people and then on to the CEO for a final meeting. That meeting happened the day after my dad died and I should have cancelled, but I chose instead to crack on given the short notice. I did advise them I had not been able to prepare due to my dad's death, but I felt disoriented and unfocussed. I felt like I may have come across as drunk or addled, but I made my decision to attend so that's on me.
The feedback was that the CEO thought I was really great, and that it was uncommon of her to speak so favourably of a candidate... however she also didn't feel the role I had applied for was quite right - I was way more senior and had skills that wouldn't often be called upon for that role (and she was right about that). So they said they wanted to talk to me about other possibilities in their vast global org, and they would set up a meeting to discuss other possibilities.
Since then, I got ghosted. Totally ghosted. It was a 'no' dressed up as a shmooze.
I'm now in the stage 1 running for three other jobs. The job market is picking up I think. However, the clock is ticking for me.
I'm 54, I've been away from the coal face of my sector for 8 months now. I have two/three meaty freelance projects to show for that time, but that's all. They were all upstream analysis and consultancy projects so I can't even use them as case studies because there is no outcome (yet) and nothing was finalised.
This might be the end of my career, after all. It feels like it all hangs on a very fine thread right now.
If I could, I'd go back to studying for a few years but I cannot decide what I would study, and I don't know how I'd support my family while I did that.
So I'm in a limbo state for the time being. I have no idea where this story goes next.
You don't need to read this. I'd skip it, if I were you.
- LOL 18 not 16Horp
- ^ My dad wasn't Elvis.Horp
- These side notes are unrepresentative of the post, which is a good read. Good luck with the search, Horp.Fax_Benson
- Thanks Fax. It's a bit of a brain dump waffle. Therapeutic typing. I appreciate you reading it xHorp
- Best of luck Horp. I once suggested a former colleague for a writing job, he got it and said he wasn't sure he'd ever get one in the industry again...Nutter
- last I checked on LinkedIn he had become a creative director of a ad agency. So sometimes its just one recommendation that gets the ball rolling.Nutter
- Good reading Horp. I share with you the "vertigo" that is felt right now in our sector. Good luck in your search ;)OBBTKN
- Cheers Nutter. I feel like this is a Mickey Rourke moment for me. A wilderness period where I learn gratitude and humility and whatever comes next I grab it ...Horp
- ... and give it my absolute all for whatever years remain of my career, then I can slip gracefully into service job world and waddle into retirement age.Horp
- Thanks OBBTKN. Yeah, it's sobering stuff seeing it all getting hollowed out with no sense of what replaces it. I mostly worry about my two kids working futuresHorp
- The gruesomely weird thing about my dad was he kind of embodied the jump scare with the emaciated man in the movie Se7en...Horp
- He actually looked very similar, and we'd all be in the room with him, silently, all wondering if he'd now gone and we were just looking at his corpse...Horp
- and then suddenly he'd open his eyes and say, in a panic-stricken way "Don't let the nurses steal my record player!" and we'd all be "OH FUCK" and then...Horp
- laughing hysterically at the fact that he JUST KEPT DOING THAT. He'd leap up and demand a baguette, or order me to protect his antique ink well at all costs...Horp
- or make me promise to donate his cricket bat to a museum.
It was comedy horror, every day.Horp - "shhhhh, he's gone. He's finally gone"
(silence) (Respectful silence and reflection)
"I NEED A DIGITAL WATCH"Horp - Good read, Horp. Although we might not be going through the same specific things there is a shared feeling. We're with you!palimpsest
- ha ha Horp on those commentsNutter
- Sorry to read your plight, but I'm feeling this very same situation right now creeping up on me. I'm 47 and get a distinct feeling that by the time im 54....Ianbolton
- my mum won't be around much longer and my career is already stagnant and I'm thinking where the hell am I going. Like existential meltdown is coming.Ianbolton
- Make QBN your journal if you want?! I'd be interested in seeing how you find your way through Horp. Thanks for sharing buddy and sorry for your loss. xIanbolton
- Cheers Ian. Sorry you're going through it, but I personally take some solace from knowing that *everyone* (not *absolutely everyone, obvs) is going through it..Horp
- with regards to careers, and age, and especially the creative industries. I might pop back in at certain milestones to drop a log on the blog.Horp
- Studying? Are you high? Fuck that shit.crazyprick
- Dude, start writing. This post is really well written. Hope some new doors open for you soon, Horpstoplying
- I'll keep reading. Sorry about your Pa.garbage
- Yikes. What a ride.
Did you ever get in touch with that connection in introed you to at Hofstede?Continuity - Hey Continuity. We said hi. He and I. I wasn't really in a place to do anything more. I'm only just really gearing back up to normality and need now, in fact.Horp
- Crazyprick... hahaha
I'd love to just go and fuck around at university. Good times.Horp - You have a house and two wonderful kids. If you want to, you can just duck out from now on. You made it anyway. But do start writing :)Nairn
- ...or a podcast. They're all the rage, I hear.Nairn
- Sorry, I just read that back and it sounded a bit defeatist. It wasn't intended so.Nairn
- Family first.crazyprick
- ^OBBTKN
- People sometimes say to me "Start writing" but I'm no writer... what the fuck would I write about? Nobody is going to pay to read my mind-clearouts, and...Horp
- ... I've got nothin' else.Horp
- "If you want to, you can just duck out from now on" Honestly Nairn I would if I could find the right thing. Just enough money and easy and simple work. Elusive!Horp
- Less or more we are all a bit there. Probs we are one of the first generations aging socially online. Not sure yet if is better or worse.maikel
- Also not sure on that Maikel. In some ways it's reassuring to know it's not just you, but equally it's a gaping cavern of darkness right there in your hand.Horp
- Awesome read Horp! Yeh the industry seems a little funny at the mo, but in the last month it seems to have picked up a little or is that just me?Projectile
- Please remember, when you're old and on your death bed... it is your god given right to fuck with your kids. I NEED A 2032 MODEL APPLE WATCH!!Projectile
- Hahahaha, he definitely did that Projectile.Horp
- And yeah, in a way it seems to be picking up in as much as there are recruitment ads for (in my case) strategy. But, the interview process is about 3 months...Horp
- and honestly to me it feels like nobody knows what they want or if they can *actually* take somebody on...Horp
- I'm quite a marmite candidate. People are either going to feel I am right or know I am wrong, instantly. To me it's clear in the first meeting, but I get...Horp
- dragged through the entire process and at the end I get told "ehhhh, we're not sure. You offer some great stuff, but we don't know if it's the stuff we need...Horp
- right now. We need to have a meeting"... and then, ghosted. I actually know very quickly if it's not for me, but I have to keep shtum: I'll try anything RNHorp
- crazyprick1
H3H3 and their subscribers are some faggot ass bitches.
- "family"YakuZoku
- L3L3, bunch of fucking loserscrazyprick
- sums-a-bitchesYakuZoku
- Nutter2
Been gathering photos and information about a lot of paintings, furniture and other stuff I want to auction off. Turns out googles photo album starts bugging out after a certain amount of images are added. Finally sent it off to a auctioneer last night.
Will be a relief to leave some of the old memories associated with it behind and move forward.
- canoe5
What are some English colloquialisms that Americans don't know, don't use? I want to surprise my client from time to time. Disclaimer: Nairn, you're on the sus. ha!
- Innitpalimpsest
- pretty sure I heard Innit from gullah geecheecanoe
- Under the coshContinuity
- What part of England?kingsteven
- BruvRamanisky2
- used to work at an agency where the CEO was English..he used to say 'gordon benett' a lot...exador1
- When you want to express that your calm, all good: “man’s not hawt... man’s never hawt...”prophetone
- Piss off.Wordsworth
- Leeds, the lad is from Leedscanoe
- aye, 'mon then.monNom
- 'how you doing mate?'Nutter
- "Put the shrimp on the Barbie"dmay
- Aye up luv! How’s it going?!Ianbolton
- Probably sounds weird to an American, but that’s all I hear in LeedsIanbolton
- Ay up me duck.kalkal
- Smoking a fagdee-dubs
- ^ does that mean sucking someone's cock?oey_oey
- Give em gypgarbage
- Ello guvnuhmonospaced
- But seriously, “have a go” is one we do not use. Also brilliant in the USA means very smart, that’s it.monospaced
- Or very shiny, like a brilliant diamond. It doesn’t mean good.monospaced
- "I need a dentist but I'm not gonna bloody go!"YakuZoku
- Ask to see his fanny pack!sab
- Aye up luv - is a definitecanoe
- aye ya cuntautoflavour
- The Kings bussy is bussin gyatt!!hydro74
- Everyone’s and thase moms is packin round ere...prophetone
- Yeah like who?prophetone
- farmersprophetone
- ...farmer’s momsprophetone
- Slag wellies – knee high boots. Just mansplained this to MrsT shortly before getting into trouble.MrT
- Might be dated. Cheers = Thanks. Fit = attractive (eg. She looks fit). Depending on the type of client, this might be useful: Pants = Underwear.skinny_puppy
- I’ll tell ya what really champs my gibletprophetone
- Also: Toodle pip! Frightfully sorry old chap. That's not cricket.skinny_puppy
- I couldn't care less. That'll confuse most Americans won't it?MrT
- lol @ MrT Yup!
So will 'Holding the fort.'Continuity - Aye ye drunk ye drunk ya silly old fool
Seems like a good startercanoe - Cor....BLIMEY!CyBrainX
- Setup an auto responder that says:
Brill, cheers.slappy - Bob's Yer Unclecanoe
- Jolly good instead of Okay. That’s what auntie Baba taught me.dasohr
- bainbridge1
My hands feel puffy or numb now.
Day to day, I don't notice it, but if I make a fist to pick something up, something is different.
I don't get it.
- Talk to a doctor, take care!OBBTKN
- It happened to me with my left hand, it turned out to be osteoarthritis. sometimes it comes and goes. It hasn't gotten worse yet ¯|_(ツ)_/¯OBBTKN
- Did you cover your hands in chili for a danger wank recently?Nairn
- flol @ 'danger wank'Continuity
- PonyBoy9
Got a crazy distressed call from my Mom about an hour ago. Her husband is supposed to be in the hospital resting... something is very wrong with him that he needs to be on a ton of pain meds and monitored (he can barely move without crying out in pain... horrid shoulder / back / arm injury).
He called my Mom probably just over an hour ago saying some woman is "trying to kill him"... he has ripped all the wires / tubes from his body, left the hospital and is wandering in the middle of fucking nowhere, Alaska at the moment.
My Mom's heart has her bed ridden... she has zero energy to deal with this and has been calling her children in a panic.
I just got off the phone with police up there... they're out looking for the guy... all I can do is sit on my ass as I'm 6,000 miles east... FUUCK
- Not your Dad, presumably?
Does he suffer from dementia?
A horrid situation, I'm sorry for you and your Mom.Nairn - Fuck man!!! I wish everything goes well, that they find him soon and safe!oey_oey
- damn!YakuZoku
- That's rough. Dementia, I'm guessing. Two of my grandfathers did the same thing, and I get feeling of the mileage and helplessness. Stay strong bro.garbage
- Woaaa! Sorry for your mom (and you too...) hope they find him, but, I think it's time to "check" this man. My father's dad used to make these types of...OBBTKN
- "getaways". An extra job for your mom, keeping an eye on whether he escapes or not... Hugs, man!OBBTKN
- It can also be a bad reaction to pain medication, hallucination combined with waking up somewhere you don't know.Nutter
- He's back in the hospital. Took a few hours but friends found him. Nutter may be right—the guy's not know for dementia and has been on a morphine drip 3 days :/PonyBoy
- I'm glad he's been found. Fucking terrifying. Nothing about this is easy. Hopefully, your mom isn't in a panic, at the minimum. :(kaiyohtee
- Alaska?!?!?pango
- Yep :)PonyBoy
- My dad got super paranoid from pain killers while in ICU after a heart bypass. It’s common enough I believe but very scary.mort_
- We found this out from some of his friends who he had called from his hospital bed to explain how ISIS had infiltrated the hospital :-/mort_
- Damn Pony that’s crazy.
Hope it all turns out for the best.
Keep us postedRamanisky2 - Glad they found him Pony, must have been a stressful time being so far away.PhanLo
- Not your Dad, presumably?
- SimonFFM37
Half of my books are sold. With the help of my wife, I managed to pack 500 parcels in the past 6 days. It was such an amount of work. Unwrapping, signing, bubble foil, book box, labels and then bringing all this with my Peugeot 208 to the post office which basically does not exist in Germany anymore. I brought the parcels to a 10sqm supermarket "Official DHL store". They were medium delighted, but I am so stoked to have half of the circulation gone. Had been impossible without my wife.
- Your wife is golden, man. If one day you divorce, ask me for my number ;)OBBTKN
- Now, being serious... Congrats Simon! Hard work done...OBBTKN
- I love a good plan with a happy ending Simon! Well done brother!Wordsworth
- you owe her a lot :) moving fresh prints is an absolutely good workout :)sted
- LOL.. i read that whole post thinking it was someone talking about decluttering.. then i saw who posted it.. kudosautoflavour
- am curious what your wife thinks about your profession?autoflavour
- Do you ever draw / photograph your wife like one of your French / German girls? Lolz.ideaist
- Awesome team!stewart
- Thank you, guys!SimonFFM
- jagara4
The old trick of using VPN to get cheaper prices online apparently still works.
Evernote yearly subscription:
Denmark: 759 DKK (102 EUR)
Turkey: 1000 TRY (29 EUR)
- YakuZoku0
So there was a paid post on Facebook on access to OpenAI's SORA, had a few hundred comments but they were hidden for some reason, downloaded the install file they linked, did a virus scan on that bitch right quick and bam, was a Trojan. I never go on Facebook and today, I almost got fucked, what a sess pool, see you in another year Facebook.
- been thinking of starting a facebook page but friending no one. just for marketplace finds. but maybe i shouldn't?capn_ron