@reay@mastodon.social
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

reay

@reay@mastodon.social

Dad. Writer. Amateur photographer. Dabbler in tabletop game design. Fan of books, tabletop/video games, comics, music and movies. Neutral Good. He/him.
Thoughts and opinions are my own.
https://pixelfed.social/reay
https://www.reayjespersen.com/

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reay, (edited ) to random
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

My commute to my second job (ahem currently my main) job is unfortunately close to as far as I can get from my house while still being in the same city.

Adding to catching rush hour traffic both ways, the city has started what will be years of bottlenecking repairs on the routes I usually take. So a 27-minute drive on the weekend took me close to hour and a half last night.

I could literally have driven to London, Ontario in the time it took me to drive home from work across Toronto.

1/2

reay,
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

Sometimes it’s not terrible, though. One weekday morning will take over an hour and the next day will be 40 minutes.

All of which means that now on weekdays I’m keeping half an eye on the GPS to gauge the time I need to head to work.

Today we’re already having some fun-sounding downpour and wicked wind. Which means I should maybe head to work… now-ish? Give it a good 3.5 hours to get there? 🙄

reay, to random
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

Yesterday I learned that vultures are birds of prey. Somehow I’d thought they were scavengers, maybe confusing them with buzzards? (He says, making a mental note to check if buzzards are birds of prey to maybe edit that out.)

So the several turkey vultures I’ve been seeing swooping around the Ontario Science Centre for months — and the wingspan of these things gets up to about my height, so they’re not subtle — are actively hunting, not just looking for carrion, or whatever.

1/2

reay,
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

Related: They’ve started hanging out over the Science Centre itself, and a couple of days ago were jostling around with some Canada Geese.

Guess that was them after some lunch.

Which, by the way, gives you some idea of their size. Much like when I heard that Great Horned Owls will take down a Canada Goose to eat?
Listen, Canada Geese are no joke. If they come at you snapping and hissing, even as an adult, you’ve got a problem.
And to know that THAT thing is a meal for a BIGGER bird?
Crazy.

dangillmor, to random
@dangillmor@mastodon.social avatar

Elon Musk controls Twitter. He is a right-wing extremist who actively engages in and promotes lies and loathing. He has made it clear, again and again, that he hates the press (unless it's favorable to him). As NBC News explains, his site welcomes Nazis. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/x-twitter-elon-musk-nazi-extremist-white-nationalist-accounts-rcna145020

All of which makes me ask again, with growing despair, why journalists continue -- by actively participating on Musk's site -- to actively support this evil man's business.

reay,
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

@cygnusx11 @dangillmor Hear hear.

I said much the same thing in a recent post on my site: https://www.reayjespersen.com/blog-1/2024/04/11/need-even-more-reason-to-leave-all-meta-platforms-for-good-here-you-go/

reay, to books
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

I finally finished The Three Body Problem.

It’s good, absolutely, but not my style of writing (or maybe translation?), which made for quite an ebb and flow of interest.

Definitely looking forward to the mini-series on Netflix.

Meanwhile, I just started Triptych, the first book of the Will Trent series. That had me from the start and I didn’t want to have to put it down to go to bed.

What are you reading?
What have you read lately you’d recommend?


AlarminglyBad, to memes
@AlarminglyBad@mstdn.social avatar

COMIC VIDEO: Tupperware

Nothing he does phases her anymore

Alarmingly Bad comic video where a man opens a Tupperware cabinet

reay,
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

@AlarminglyBad I’m approaching this stage.

Alice, to random
@Alice@beige.party avatar

Whenever I'm embarrassed about something that I said, I remind myself that Kid Rock released an entire song that largely centered around repeating "Bawitdaba, da bang, da dang diggy diggy."

reay,
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

@Alice I recall that one of those lines ended with something that sounded like “upchuck the cookie”.

No clue what the original words were, but damn if that’s not what it will always be to me.

BethanyBlack, to random
@BethanyBlack@mastodon.social avatar

I figured it out, so long as my car stays costing me less than £250 per month in repairs it’s cheaper for me to keep it on the road than trying to buy a new second hand one. And as the engine is a diesel and has done 120,000 miles it should last a while longer yet. The car’s done nearly 230,000 miles, but it got a new engine at 110,000 due to a factory recall

reay,
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

@BethanyBlack I’m in a similar situation: We paid $1000 for what was intended to be a winter beater that we ended up finding was more convenient to keep, and it’s helping me get to a second job that more than earns me its original value per month, soooo… 🤷‍♂️

reay,
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

@BethanyBlack We were told recently that we could easily get double, maybe even triple, what we paid for it if we were to sell ours again, rough appearance notwithstanding.

Well… I cleaned it up and took bunch of nice shots and it was for sale on one of the most popular used car sites, and over MONTHS and a number of price reductions there were only half a dozen expressions of interest but only one serious one, and by that point I’d gotten this other work that the car was handy to get to, so… 🤷‍♂️

GottaLaff, to legal
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Via Klasfeld:

Breaking:

An appellate court judge REJECTS yet another attempt by 's team to delay the start of his New York criminal trial.

Between lower and appellate court attempts, that's more than 10 attempts, by the DA's count.

reay,
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

@GottaLaff @lisamelton Tomorrow:
“How about now?”
“No.”

Friday:
“How about now?”
“No.”

TodayInTwitter, to random
@TodayInTwitter@mastodon.social avatar

X rolled out a change that automatically converts all links that have the string “twitter” anywhere in them to “X.”

For example, if someone tweets the link setwitter.com, the X client application will change that link to sex.com.

This is not a joke.

https://mashable.com/article/twitter-dot-com-posts-change-to-x-dot-com-ios

reay,
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

@TodayInTwitter @mhoye What?

Elon Musk did a dumb thing?

Good thing I’m sitting because the room is spinning from my shock.

(Sarcasm aside, HOW MANY DUMB THINGS MUST HE DO before his supporters finally admit the emperor has no clothes?)

reay, to random
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

Ontario government 2023: We’re getting rid of LCBO paper bags to save the planet. (But planet aside, you can buy reusable, branded plastic totes there starting at $1.25.)

much wailing and gnashing of teeth at the staff there for months before the public finally, reluctantly gets used to the change

8 MONTHS LATER

Same government: Wow, doesn’t having to pay less than the cost of a decent beer for a reusable bag suck? We’re bringing back paper bags for YOU, little guy!

LCBO staff: 😬

reay, to random
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

Watch/listen when you get a chance. New young guitar talent I hadn’t heard of before.
Great song.

And I love the simple but gorgeous shooting style of the video. Who would’ve thought that “Sit and play on a train” would’ve worked so brilliantly?

https://youtu.be/z0pzzkp85-Q?si=rvFTWdKWwjX5A1UL

reay, to random
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

Probably the best shot of the eclipse I managed to snag. Juuuust after totality.

Waited about 45 minutes of my hand cramping to discover my timelapse video didn’t work. 🙁

Still really cool to see it all happen.

reay, to random
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

If you think being on your feet for 23 hours over three shifts, ending with also doing a quick cleaning and sweeping out of four shuttle buses, isn't enough to make you sore, my back and hips and knees would like a word with you.

mikewise, to random
@mikewise@humber.news avatar

Glad to see Kingston, On has thought of the moments after today’s

reay,
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

@mikewise Very well thought out.

I mean, there's no way in hell that ONLY those will be thrown in -- there's going to be everything else from fast food wrappers to doggie poop bags, because god forbid you have to carry something for maybe whole minutes to an appropriate place to throw it out -- but I sincerely applaud the effort.

charlotteclymer, to random
@charlotteclymer@mastodon.social avatar

Don't make today about yourselves. It's not about you.

Today is the moon's moment in the sun.

reay,
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

@charlotteclymer @Saltssaltgirl

knittingknots2, to random
@knittingknots2@mstdn.social avatar

"Christians opposed to infidelity and immorality have embraced a thrice-married man who can’t name a single Bible verse"

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/07/christian-nationalists-embrace-trump-as-their-savior-will-they-be-his

reay,
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

@knittingknots2 "thrice-married" tidily skirts around the fact that what ended each of the previous marriages was him cheating on his then-current wife with the woman who became his new wife.

He cheated on Melania while she was pregnant with his child, then had the other woman paid to keep it quiet.

There's zero Christian about that man, be it the more modern iteration or in the more true-to-Christ sense.

Why he's easily the go-to pick for any Christian group boggles the mind.

gwensnyder, to random
@gwensnyder@mstdn.party avatar

Remember last eclipse when everyone spent weeks being like "remember not to stare into the sun without special glasses" and then Trump stomped out onto the White House balcony and showed what a strong man he was by standing there defiantly burning out his corneas

reay,
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

@gwensnyder And now he has plenty of supporters in that (because of course he does), particularly after his COVID defiance that snubbed all scientific insights and advice.

So now I guess ALL science must be challenged by anyone who's 'done their own research' and reached other conclusions.

I saw an article about it citing social media posts hyping not wearing solar-safe glasses, the most bizarre of which was because watching the eclipse without them will prove the Earth is flat.

Insanity.

stux, to random
@stux@mstdn.social avatar

Again I'm calling with #PayPal and the suckers keep saying this is totally normal :flan_laugh:

Getting locked out your account is part of te process now

Another guy just told me it was my fault because I was using the PayPal iOS app and that should only be done for "checking real quick" not daily use :nkoFacepalm2:

"You should use the browser'"

What a clown company lol

reay,
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

@stux I stopped using PayPal a while back anywhere I could avoid it, because I wanted to change bank accounts it was connected to, and it adamantly refuses to let me do so.
Every time I try, it basically says that I already have an account listed for that bank, and what OTHER bank did I want to have an account listed with. Which isn't what I need to do.

There may be an option I'm not seeing to do this, but free or paid call, I still don't want to sit on the phone with them to figure it out.

gerrymcgovern, to random
@gerrymcgovern@mastodon.green avatar

In a city called The Dalles, in Oregon, USA, local people were worried that Google’s water use was soaring. As is so often the case, the city officials, who had given Google hundreds of millions in tax breaks, had no intention of letting anyone know how much water Google was using. It was up to a local paper, The Oregonian, to try and find out. They were forced to bring a case to court. City officials were ordered by Google to claim that Google’s use of scarce pubic water was a “trade secret”.

reay,
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

@gerrymcgovern @mhoye Wondering if I could get away with that at a job. Just do something totally unexpected and with zero regard for anyone around me and if anyone starts to ask questions, just tell them that no one had been told previously because it was my trade secret.

reay,
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

@mhoye @gerrymcgovern Just reminded that this is almost always the start of people with crazy wealth: First, get some seed money of $1,000,000-$100,000,000 from your family.

Next, be lauded years later by the media as being a self-made billionaire.

reay, to random
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

PLEASE BOOST

Does anyone know of any language learning programs for learning European Portuguese (vs. Brazilian Portuguese)?

reay,
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

@o_andras Thanks!

tk, to random
@tk@bbs.kawa-kun.com avatar
reay,
@reay@mastodon.social avatar

@tk
@FirewallDragons
As with so much of this stuff, I wonder why anyone needs a “smart” version anyway. We contentiously don’t have our “smart” fridge or oven connected online, why the hell would a toothbrush need to be?

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