Whats the haps?

[Rook]

Guess my time in gigging bands (especially Pool of Thorns) left me jaded, but that is how I felt during gigs when I saw some of those "midlife crisis/dad bands" on stage trying to be cool/look cool and just coming off like a bunch of man-children still stuck in 1987.  Also, no one was there to see them (because everyone they know is adulting and can't come out to shows), people at the show didn't care to see them (since they were mostly folks in their 20s who wanted to see cool bands with people their age and not "dad bands"), and I don't know... it just felt like I was watching a plant wilting.  Perhaps, objectively speaking, that's "wrong" but that is how I gut-felt. 

Maybe I'm turning into that very thing I despise and becoming a grumpy old man. 

This thing is hilarious: http://www.metalsucks.net/2011/03/03/being-in-a-band-is-for-losers-scientific-proof/

A very underrated good time: go see a tribute band of one of your favorite bands. For the most part Tribute bands >>>>>> the actual band when said band is over 50.

[Goblin Shark]

Ehhh... that's not for me.  I'm not into tribute bands or cover bands at all.  I only like to go see original bands who compose and perform their own music.  Nothing against tribute or cover bands (or original bands busting out a cover or two to hook an audience), but I'm more interested in what music is and could be rather than what was. 

EDIT:  I had a rollicking good time going to a bunch of comic book stores for Free Comic Book Day dressed up as a Team Rocket grunt.  Even had random people take photos with me.  Some of the freebies are really good, like Stephan Franck's "Silver." 

And I have a new favorite meme:

I'm too old to begin my Jedi training

I didn't find a wardrobe to Narnia when I was 8

I never got my acceptance letter from Hogwarts when I was 11

I managed to reach age 19 without getting reaped

...So Gandalf better come knocking on my door when I'm 50!

Either that, or I encounter The Doctor. 

[Rucks]

went golfing this morning.  I stink but I had a lot of fun.  One of the guys in my group played poorly and was furious about it. Throwing clubs and swearing and acting like a tool.  I never understood why people pay $30 a pop so they can be angry for 3 hours. Just enjoy that you're outside with your friends on a beautiful day.

[ironmage]

Did you know:

• 5% of people get kidney stones.
• 50% of people with kidney stones get more than one.
• When a doctor says "this might make you a bit loopy", she really means "these IV painkillers are going to make the dots on the ceiling flow continuously in a north-south direction".
• If I watch a heart-rate monitor, and focus on relaxing, I can reduce my heartrate by 10 bpm, but it jumps back up when I get distracted.
• ER doctors at teaching hospitals are so much in the habit of giving verbal quizzes, that they do it even to patients.
• IV drips now have electric pumps with backup batteries, so when you get bored out of your mind, you can unplug them from the wall, and have a little whirring friend accompany you on your rambling through the ER hallway.

Anyway, I woke up yesterday at 2:20 am, drove myself to the ER around 3:00, and was mostly okay by 5:30.  Then I waited for two-and-a-half hours to be discharged.  I got to work by 9:30, but didn't get much done.  Four hours of sleep isn't enough for a job that expects you to think.

I guess I should drink more water, because that really hurt.

[Starmongoose]

I can feel my kidney's after reading that.

[Tomara]

Anyway, I woke up yesterday at 2:20 am, drove myself to the ER around 3:00, and was mostly okay by 5:30.  Then I waited for two-and-a-half hours to be discharged.  I got to work by 9:30, but didn't get much done.  Four hours of sleep isn't enough for a job that expects you to think.

I sound... weirdly efficient? I'm glad you're okay.

[Kevadu]

You had to go to the ER in the middle of the night and still went to work that day?  I think that might have warranted using a sick day...

[Electricb7]

You missed a perfect opportunity to stay at home, rub your tummy and play rpg's.

[Goblin Shark]

FIFA World Cup is almost upon us!  Yay!  It's the only time you can go into an American sports bar and no one is rooting for America.  It's surreal. 

Netherlands failed to qualify.  Boo!  (I root for Netherlands since that's where I was born.) 

I guess I'll have to root for Japan since I'm Indian and Japan is my favorite Asian team. 

[Tomara]

It's okay. We aren't fans of Russia anyway. MH17 and all that...

[Goblin Shark]

Fair point. 

I still feel like we're back in the 60s-80s when Russia was the global villain and every movie's bad guy was a Russian spy.  And I'm like, "Wait, haven't we been all buddy-buddy with Russia since 1985?  You know, Glasnost and all that?  We all work together on the International Space Station, right?"

As for haps...

Last Friday, I gave a speech at a conference for Special Education Advocacy.  It went very well, I've been invited to speak at the conference next year, and some people involved with other student advocacy and exceptionality organizations want to try and bring me in for more speaking engagements.  I just may have to put speaking engagements as another one of my side hustles. 

My new musical project is recording an album this summer and I'm really looking forward to getting back in the studio.  Our first studio date is later this month. 

[Rucks]

I've been going kayaking every week for the last 4 weeks.   It hasn't disappointed.

[Arvis]

Haps:

I was in Canada.

Now I am not.

It was pretty awesome.

[ironmage]

You remember that bit in FF4 where Yang's wife describes defending herself from a soldier with a frying pan?  Funny scene, huh?  Well, yesterday I got out my grandmother's cast-iron skillet to try cooking some teriyaki steak.

I no longer find that scene funny.

This frying pan is two-hand wield, requires 45 STR, and is as black as Walt Disney's heart.  This is not a joke weapon; you land a clean hit with this, it's going to shatter bone.

The teriyaki turned out well.  The pan was a pain to clean.

[Arvis]

The pan was a pain to clean.

You didn't use soap, did you??  :concern: