Little things that make you happy

[smittykins]

As I mentioned before, we can't get Spectrum cable here due to a financial dispute with the town(although we can get internet and phone through them). I had internet hooked up about a week after I moved in, then DirecTV a week or so later. As it turned out, when Spectrum installed the internet, they used DirecTV's hookups, so when I finally got TV, I lost the internet. I was told I would have to call Spectrum again and have them run a separate line. Due to phone anxiety and a fear of Spectrum's notoriously crappy customer service, I put off calling until Tuesday, and as I expected, it took about twenty minutes of runaround trying to explain the situation (and me hanging up in frustration at one point)before we got on the same page. This morning, the technician showed up and installed the line.

TL, DR: I now have TV and internet at the same time.

[NorthernLite]

I made my wife very happy.

On Sunday she was sitting on the couch looking through her Facebook. She saw an ad for animal foot socks. They are basically socks printed like an animal's leg and paws with the claws at the toes, pads on the sole, and the fur of various animals like a cat, fox, or tiger. They really caught her eye and she looked at me and said, "I want these. I really want these! You should get them for me!"

I said "OK" and got up, went to my dresser, pulled out three pair, and brought them back to the living room and handed them to her.

I had seen them a while back and ordered them as a surprise gift. I was just waiting for the right time to give them to her. I couldn't have planned it better myself. The look on her face was priceless and she loves them. That made me very happy.

[GenYus234]

Got an email from Amazon with recommended products. Since I buy things like bulk sandpaper and similar, Amazon thinks I have a machine shop. The product was truncated so Amazon recommends "5 Pounds of Industry Standard..." and more.

I guess the "and more" is a gallon of prop wash and 100 feet of flight line.

[Hans Off]

This video of an 8 year old girl absolutley nailing John Bonham’s drum line for “Good Times Bad Times” by Led Zeppelin

Watch her do the fast bass drum triplets with ONE PEDAL!

https://vimeo.com/263985244

[musicgeek]

That is awesome. Even more impressive than her chops (the triplets, the fast tom fills) is how well she knows the arrangement - the isolated hi-hat hits, the cymbal grabs... and even better than that is the pure joy on her face. Thanks for sharing!

[Hans Off]

Originally Posted by musicgeek

That is awesome. Even more impressive than her chops (the triplets, the fast tom fills) is how well she knows the arrangement - the isolated hi-hat hits, the cymbal grabs... and even better than that is the pure joy on her face. Thanks for sharing!

Oh yes. It far from a repetition by rote, she has the soul of the peice flowing through her.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

The Seattle City Council repealed the hated employee head tax. On the down side (sorry), they weren't willing to admit it was a mistake. They blamed the public for making them back down to the evil employers.

At least they repealed it.

Seaboe

[TallGeekyGirl]

I watch a tabletop RPG actual-play stream on Twitch. One of the perks of watching is that you build up points that you can use to actually influence the GM or players. For example, you can 'buy' an NPC. The GM has the final say on whether or not to even use a viewer created NPC, and in what capacity.

With that setup, I bought an NPC and the GM is using her in a big way as part of the main plot. It's so cool!

[thorny locust]

Originally Posted by Seaboe Muffinchucker

The Seattle City Council repealed the hated employee head tax. On the down side (sorry), they weren't willing to admit it was a mistake. They blamed the public for making them back down to the evil employers.

At least they repealed it.

Somewhat different take on what I assume is the same issue:

Seattle Repeals Tax On Big Business After Opposition From Amazon, Starbucks

I haven't been following this, and haven't formed an opinion on it myself one way or the other.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

Not that different a take, really, Thorny.

The position to which I was taking exception is

However, a campaign from business groups including the Chamber of Commerce had convinced most Seattle residents to oppose the tax

. This implies the residents would not have objected if the business groups hadn't stepped in, whereas in actuality, much of the population objected from the get go.

Danny Westneat, a Seattle Times columnist who probably stands, politically, a lot closer to the author of the article you linked to than he does to me, had this to say:

“The Chamber of Commerce has convinced the vast majority of Seattleites of the old, conservative trope, that the increased level of human suffering in this city is caused by government inefficiency,” railed Councilmember Lisa Herbold.


She added she had pushed for a head tax on Seattle companies in 2016, 2017 and now again in 2018, and seemed perplexed that none of these three efforts worked.


Possible simple explanation: Maybe it’s just not a good idea?

Seaboe

[WildaBeast]

Originally Posted by Seaboe Muffinchucker

The Seattle City Council repealed the hated employee head tax. On the down side (sorry), they weren't willing to admit it was a mistake. They blamed the public for making them back down to the evil employers.

At least they repealed it.

Seaboe

You probably heard more about it then me, but from what I heard on NPR this morning it sounded more like they blamed the employers for using their "big money" to fund a campaign to trick the public into thinking the tax was bad.

ETA: Which I see you already addressed. I should have read the rest of the thread before posting...

[UEL]

Originally Posted by Hans Off

This video of an 8 year old girl absolutley nailing John Bonham’s drum line for “Good Times Bad Times” by Led Zeppelin

Watch her do the fast bass drum triplets with ONE PEDAL!

https://vimeo.com/263985244

Originally Posted by musicgeek

That is awesome. Even more impressive than her chops (the triplets, the fast tom fills) is how well she knows the arrangement - the isolated hi-hat hits, the cymbal grabs... and even better than that is the pure joy on her face. Thanks for sharing!

Originally Posted by Hans Off

Oh yes. It far from a repetition by rote, she has the soul of the peice flowing through her.

Nothing musical to add. But her playing is on fire. She looks like she really enjoys playing drums! I'm not musical, but I could appreciate her skill. 2 hands and a foot seemingly all doing their own things, but synched up nicely.

WOW

[Richard W]

Originally Posted by Hans Off

This video of an 8 year old girl absolutley nailing John Bonham’s drum line for “Good Times Bad Times” by Led Zeppelin

Watch her do the fast bass drum triplets with ONE PEDAL!

https://vimeo.com/263985244

It's a great video and I've watched it a couple of times now but there is one thing about it that annoys me - the sound isn't quite synched with the image... they start off together, but by the end, the sound is a fraction of a second ahead, as though it's not quite been playing at the same speed.

Which probably wouldn't usually be noticeable, but on a video of somebody playing the drums, is just noticeable enough to be jarring, especially on the last few cymbal clashes! The first time I wondered if I'd imagined it, but I specifically paid attention this time and I didn't.

[Sooeygun]

This video made me happy today. Cass Elliot for voter registration. Then I got sad because they have such beautiful voices and are no longer with us.

[Richard W]

This is an odd one that's going to take some explanation, and that also might sound as though I've made it up, because it almost feels that way to me too. I drew a very quick sketch, and it turned out to have captured an important moment in somebody's life, and they were surprisingly happy to be given it.

I met some friends (for a work-related project) in the garden of one of my local pubs earlier. We finished our business, and my friends left. I still had a drink, and nothing else to do, and annoyingly I'd left the book I was reading at home, so I decided to do some sketching. (I have a small sketch pad and pencils in my bag, which I'm less likely to forget than my book, as it's always in there). Because my drawing style tends to be rather cramped and pedantic, I've been trying to practice spontaneous sketches, especially of people, since I can't usually draw people.

So I drew a few very quick, scribbly sketches of people on nearby tables, trying to get shapes and body language, before becoming embarrassed that they might have noticed me drawing them and going back to drawing some clouds and my beer bottle as usual.

The pub rang last orders surprisingly early - it was only 9.30 pm or so, I think. They don't usually ring that early. I didn't want to go home, so I went to another local bar, which has a similar clientele to the pub. I got a beer and was sitting at the bar; had a chat with the staff but still didn't have my book with me so I got my sketch pad out again and started planning a drawing I'd thought of that I could do with my pens.

Then a couple came in who'd been sitting on a table near me in the pub garden previously. I recognised them because I'd done a quick sketch, and they'd had interesting body language. She'd been quite expansive and had been gesturing to the sky; he'd been staring at the table. But nothing to suggest anything wrong between them. They seemed happy enough.

This couple sat at the corner of the bar a couple of stools away from me. After a while I got bored with my sketch planning, there was nobody to talk to, and the couple looked as though they were at some sort of pause in their conversation, so (having had a few beers) I turned to the page with the sketch I'd done of them, and slid it along the bar towards them. (This is one of the details that sounds as though I've made it up. There aren't many times when you get to slide things along the bar to people; but this was one of them.)

I wasn't even sure they'd recognise themselves - I'm crap at drawing - but to cut an already too long story short, they did, and seemed happy. The guy came and asked me whether I was an artist or whether I drew much and what sort of drawings and paintings I did and so on; I was answering his questions when his girlfriend came up to talk to me as well.

She told me that I'd captured the exact moment when they'd "decided to have children". (I'm not sure what that means... given my study of their body language earlier, I think it might have meant the moment when she'd told him she was pregnant, and they'd decided to keep it). She gave me a huge hug. I said that if the sketch meant that much to them, they could have it, and tore it out of my sketch pad to give to her. (I'd seen her photographing it when I'd slid it along the table). They got me to "sign" (I only ever initial things) and date it... and a while later, when I left, they both thanked me again and I got another hug...

As I said, this sounds as though I made it up. Even writing it down makes it sound that way to me. But it happened... a spontaneous scribbled sketch of mine ended up being important to somebody and being a part of their happiness, which makes me happy too.

[ganzfeld]

Hannibal Buress said something on Seth Meyers's show I've been saying for years: (paraphrasing) When it's white people, they call them "expats" and not what they are - immigrants.

[Gutter Monkey]

That's a great story Richard

[schumichick]

What a neat experience, Richard.
& You told the story well.

[ganzfeld]

Yes, that was cool Richard! (I was a little afraid the story would take a strange turn when they 'decided to have children'. I think I would have blurted out "Here? Now??" Or perhaps, I thought, they may ask you to be the surrogate mother...)

[Hans Off]

Richard has won the thread.

If that was a plot point or detail in a story it would seem so contrived!