A Wild Lurker Appears! Hyoi's Random Banter #232

[enderlord99]

My computer is now doing occasional severe glitches (such as "typing mostly doesn't register but pressing spacebar opens a dialogue asking if you want to close or minimize the current program") to force me to restart it as an excuse to set my default browser to Edge and pin a bunch of worthless crap to the taskbar.

[Bartmanhomer]

My computer is now doing occasional severe glitches (such as "typing mostly doesn't register but pressing spacebar opens a dialogue asking if you want to close or minimize the current program") to force me to restart it as an excuse to set my default browser to Edge and pin a bunch of worthless crap to the taskbar.

Is it possible that it might be a virus?

[enderlord99]

Is it possible that it might be a virus?

No .

[Keltest]

How old is your keyboard? Similar nonsense happened to me when my mechanical keyboard was damaged by a cat puking on it. Except for the Edge stuff, but thats just Windows being Windows.

[enderlord99]

How old is your keyboard?

The external one is pretty old, but the built-in one that exhibited the exact same issue at the exact same time is much newer. Only a few years.

[Anonymouswizard]

Can't help with computer issues, but yeah I have it when things yet to change my default programs.

Finally moved into my new place! Mostly, I need to upgrade to a double bed, get a TV cabinet, the actual wardrobe won't be here for a week, and I'm one bookcase short of unpacking all the boxes. But it's a liveable half state, so I'm happy.

[Keltest]

The external one is pretty old, but the built-in one that exhibited the exact same issue at the exact same time is much newer. Only a few years.

If theyre plugged in at the same time, the older one may still be giving phantom inputs that the computer is recognizing, even if you arent touching a key.

[Peelee]

Can't help with computer issues, but yeah I have it when things yet to change my default programs.

Finally moved into my new place! Mostly, I need to upgrade to a double bed, get a TV cabinet, the actual wardrobe won't be here for a week, and I'm one bookcase short of unpacking all the boxes. But it's a liveable half state, so I'm happy.

HUZZAH! Hope it brings you happiness!

In other home-related news, my wife and I now own our house free and clear. It is a good day.

[factotum]

My computer is now doing occasional severe glitches (such as "typing mostly doesn't register but pressing spacebar opens a dialogue asking if you want to close or minimize the current program") to force me to restart it as an excuse to set my default browser to Edge and pin a bunch of worthless crap to the taskbar.

If it's popping up the Minimise/Close etc. menu when you're just pressing Space then Windows thinks the ALT key is being held down. One thing to try is to tap the Alt key a couple of times and see if the problem goes away for a bit (e.g. Windows detected the key being pressed but for some reason didn't detect it being released again).

[Bartmanhomer]

So anyway a few hours ago I start my Discord account and so far it turns out to be a big gathering.

[Anonymouswizard]

HUZZAH! Hope it brings you happiness!

Thank you. It feels weird, but that's just my autism playing up, I'll be fine in a couple of weeks

Which is also roughly when the internet gets here, so if I'm bored of Streets of Take, Stardew Valley, and Kerbal Explosion Program I can download some new games.

In other home-related news, my wife and I now own our house free and clear. It is a good day.

Beef sausages! That's amazing news.

I'm assuming you're doing the traditional American and taking it with you to Cool City ^TM. At least I think it's the traditional American thing, am I just remembering a Stilton-fueled dream?

[enderlord99]

There's this product I drink called "V8 Fusion" that's half fruit-juice and have vegetable-juice, and my mother insists that I drink less of it because it has too much sugar... which would make some sense if she didn't also insist that I eat (rather than give away) the peaches canned in heavy syrup that I bought by accident several years ago.

I tell her "it's half fruit juice and half vegetable juice" and she says "yes, but the other half is artifical junk, right?" as if she thinks there are always three halves in a bottle.

[Rater202]

There's this product I drink called "V8 Fusion" that's half fruit-juice and have vegetable-juice, and my mother insists that I drink less of it because it has too much sugar... which would make some sense if she didn't also insist that I eat (rather than give away) the peaches canned in heavy syrup that I bought by accident several years ago.

I tell her "it's half fruit juice and half vegetable juice" and she says "yes, but the other half is artificial junk, right?" as if she thinks there are always three halves in a bottle.

No offense intended but your mother sounds obnoxious.

Looking at the nutrition facts for a randomly determined flavor of V8 fusion(the strawberry banana one) it does have a lot of sugar, but is also has more complex carbohydrates and a gram of protein. The fruit juice is "reconstituted" but is otherwise "natural" for what that's worth.

Now, in terms of calories, it's 160 a bottle, which is more than the equivalent amount of most sodas, but the more complex carbs and the protein mean that it probably satisfies hunger more than a soda, which is basically just empty sugar water, and a single bottle also has a quite a lot of vitamin a and vitamin c. A single 12 oz bottle is also the equipment of 3/4 of a cup each of fruit and vegetables, so if you're trying to follow the "standardized diet" of 2000 calories divided among approved servings per day of proteins, fruits, vegetables, dairy, and grain, it's a good way to get your servings in while keeping each serving relatively low calory

It's probably not as good as just eating fruits and vegetables, but as a beverage, it's better than the alternatives as long as you you're smart about drinking it

Of course, if you only care about the flavor and/or want to cheese off your mother you can switch to V8 fusion light, which is only 50 calories a serving... But has Sucralose, an artificial sweetener. No added sugar and only12 total grams of carbs, but also no protein and significantly fewer vitamins.

So less sugar, but t's also objectively less good for you and actually does have "artificial junk" in it, a pure troll move.

(Be warned, sucralose is an artificial sweetener and while I don't know the exact facts of it I know that some artificial sweeteners have been linked to increased appetite or the body extracting more sugars from certain foods than they otherwise would.)

[enderlord99]

No offense intended but your mother sounds obnoxious.

I... may have been mis-remembering a couple things when I posted that. I was in an upset mood and also half-asleep.

[Rater202]

In high school history, a student-teacher who'd basically taken over the class gave a very good lecture regarding a certain historical travesty. I'm not gonna say which one, but it was a big one.

In particular, each student was given a card with a picture and short biography of a real person who was known to be a victim and you had to wait until the very end to see if your person survived or not.

The descriptions were not graphic by any means, but I cried thinking about it.

No one else did. This might be my memory playing tricks on me but I think at least one person seemed... Bored by it.

I don't know if that means that there's something wrong with me or if there was something wrong with everyone else.

[DavidSh]

I don't know if that means that there's something wrong with me or if there was something wrong with everyone else.

Not necessarily something wrong with any of you.

[Fyraltari]

People react differently to things. From what I gather of your description, you got invested in a teaching game/exercise and your classmate didn't. This isn't a failure on either of you.

[Rater202]

People react differently to things. From what I gather of your description, you got invested in a teaching game/exercise and your classmate didn't. This isn't a failure on either of you.

It wasn't the exercise. It was th lecture we had to listen to after getting our card, which to remind you told the stories of real people, and finding out wo loved and who died.

A half-hour description, non-graphic but detailed, with pictures, of human evil and pointless death and cruelty. And I was the only one who reacted.

[Tvtyrant]

It wasn't the exercise. It was th lecture we had to listen to after getting our card, which to remind you told the stories of real people, and finding out wo loved and who died.

A half-hour description, non-graphic but detailed, with pictures, of human evil and pointless death and cruelty. And I was the only one who reacted.

You know there have been 107 billion people? They all live, love and die.

Generally speaking you need to have a reason to care, or all you would do is sit around crying about the people who die every minute. The teacher wove a narrative that you bought into and they didn't, nothing weird there.

[Anonymouswizard]

Only 107 billion? Come on humans, start reproducing, we can hit 2x10¹¹.

[Beeftank]

You said you had a date tonight so I hope you’re ready to do your part.

[Rater202]

Allegedly, the practice of declawing cats started in dogfighting rings where a declawed cat would be throw to the fighting dogs to "blood them" and get them good and ready for a fight to the death.

If true... That would say interesting but disturbing things about the veterinary profession, that something that was intended for horrific animal abuse would become standard practices.

[Anonymouswizard]

You said you had a date tonight so I hope you’re ready to do your part.

We've tried, but apparently there's issues with us creating new humans. Disappointing, but if she's ever okay with raising some kids we can ask the government of there's any little girls looking for a parent or four.

[enderlord99]

Allegedly, the practice of declawing cats started in dogfighting rings where a declawed cat would be throw to the fighting dogs to "blood them" and get them good and ready for a fight to the death.

If true... That would say interesting but disturbing things about the veterinary profession, that something that was intended for horrific animal abuse would become standard practices.

Declawing cats is not "standard practice."

It's cruel in and of itself, and most vets refuse to do it for that very reason.

[Anonymouswizard]

Declawing cats is not "standard practice."

It's cruel in and of itself, and most vets refuse to do it for that very reason.

This. While I get the desire to declaw cats, it's as horrific as removing whiskers. Yes it means you have to train your cat to scratch the scratching post instead of the furniture, but you should train your cat anyway.

I sadly don't own a cat, but everybody I know who owns cats likes their claws, and the only reason my girlfriend's family hasn't trained their cat to use a scratching post is because she was a rescue moggy and they became willing to have a scratched sofa.

Now I don't know any vets, and standard practice probably differs from place to place, but from what I know they tend to recommend learning how to handle your pet over declawing. It's literally illegal* over here, although I believe trimming claws isn't (although I'm still uncomfortable with claw clipping). If you don't want your cat scratching trim their nails, don't remove the tip of their finger.

* It might be allowed in 'claw or paw' situations, I'm not certain.

[Rater202]

Declawing cats is not "standard practice."

It's cruel in and of itself, and most vets refuse to do it for that very reason.

1: I am fully aware that it is cruel and hurtful.

2: It might not be anymore, but it was standard practice within living memory to the point that my cat owners would get it done without a second thought.

The first pair of cats we owned my family was considered weird because we only declawed the front(we did not know what the process entailed at the time) and the declawing was thrown in when we got them fixed.

Granted, that was over 20 years ago.

See also, the practice of docking the ears and amputating the tails of certain breeds of dogs simply because people think that's how they're supposed to look. Now tha'ts considered abusive, but it was ridiculously common practice not that long ago and still happens often enough to be notable.

[LaZodiac]

One fun thing about being geninely very unwell is that sometimes you get to experience yourself at the most delirious.

Last night I had convinced myself my 2litre water bottle was full of helpful ice children who would protect me, and that I wold protect them/ Also I spoke exclusively in a Russian accent, up until the point I noticed what time it is after which I immediately switched to Canadian for a "god ****ing damnit" before slipping back into Russian.

[enderlord99]

I had pneumonia as a kid (twice) and I agree being really sick makes people delirious. The funny is not anywhere near enough to redeem the experience.

[LaZodiac]

I had pneumonia as a kid (twice) and I agree being really sick makes people delirious. The funny is not anywhere near enough to redeem the experience.

Oh yeah no I agree entirely I'd like to sleep properly please.

Or at the very least be delirious on line so it'll amuse my friends.

[Fyraltari]

One fun thing about being geninely very unwell is that sometimes you get to experience yourself at the most delirious.

Last night I had convinced myself my 2litre water bottle was full of helpful ice children who would protect me, and that I wold protect them/ Also I spoke exclusively in a Russian accent, up until the point I noticed what time it is after which I immediately switched to Canadian for a "god ****ing damnit" before slipping back into Russian.

You okay, Zodi?

I had pneumonia as a kid (twice) and I agree being really sick makes people delirious. The funny is not anywhere near enough to redeem the experience.

I'm kinda jealous, my migraines don't give me any funny, just a desire for the sweet relief of death.