What's everyone up to right now?

[*Deidre*]

Going to a middle eastern market today, after my workout. Hope ya'll are doing well.

[Cod]

Going to a middle eastern market today, after my workout. Hope ya'll are doing well.

Yeah doing great thanks for asking

Just sorting out my garden after the high wind... My Gnomes are looking a bit sorry for themselves. Joking of course, my Gnomes are fine.

[Angrboda]

Sad. I borrowed the DVD set of season one of Westworld, and went to rip it to disk in preparation for transcoding the individual episodes and making them available for watching on one of my devices. Unfortunately, the first DVD is scratched, and I can't get a good rip. Sometimes you can watch such discs as the player isn't always as sensitive to glitches as the computer disk drive, but I'll be busy with reading the next 2-3 weeks, and so I don't really have time for it. Best thing is to return the set and put it on hold again, hoping to get a different copy next time.

(And for some reason, searching on the web site of the library isn't working. I tried to log in on Friday and it didn't recognize my credentials. Something is messed up somewhere.)

[Rev. Rye]

Went to Half-Price Books.

I got:

• Novels and Memoirs of Vladimir Nabokov (1941-1951) (A Library of America classic for $3 with some of the transitional books that led to Lolita. No Vane Sisters though.)
  
• The Poems of Paul Celan (Holocaust poetry in hardback. YAASS)
  
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid (a Mumkey Jones recommendation)
  
• Laurel and Hardy (the classic reference book of the films of the famous comic duo, with stills, reference material, and ratings of all their films. A bit redundant in the days of DVD, but still a classic I've looked for years.)
  
• Essence of the Heart Sutra by The Dalai Lama (because I'm being chased by what Churchill called the Black Dog at the moment.)
  
• The Truman Show
  
• Dark City
  

And I came home to find that we got a second optical disc drive to replace the dying one in my computer. The first one didn't fit, and the second one that came today looked a bit more similar, but it still failed. because the little flange that keeps the screw in place is in a different place and it still doesn't fit.

[*Deidre*]

Going to a middle eastern market today, after my workout. Hope ya'll are doing well.

Yeah doing great thanks for asking

Just sorting out my garden after the high wind... My Gnomes are looking a bit sorry for themselves. Joking of course, my Gnomes are fine.

Glad to hear.

My adventure to the middle eastern market was awesome. As it always is. 

Went hiking deep in the woods today. It was a conservation that was made into a camp ground. Really cool.

I don't want this vacation to end. 

---

Sad.  I borrowed the DVD set of season one of Westworld, and went to rip it to disk in preparation for transcoding the individual episodes and making them available for watching on one of my devices.  Unfortunately, the first DVD is scratched, and I can't get a good rip.  Sometimes you can watch such discs as the player isn't always as sensitive to glitches as the computer disk drive, but I'll be busy with reading the next 2-3 weeks, and so I don't really have time for it.  Best thing is to return the set and put it on hold again, hoping to get a different copy next time.

(And for some reason, searching on the web site of the library isn't working.  I tried to log in on Friday and it didn't recognize my credentials.  Something is messed up somewhere.)

I've been wanting to see Westworld. Too bad that all happened. :/

[Angrboda]

Drinking coffee and reading the forum. I was going through a bunch of Christmas gifts from prior years, as they were still in the bags that I carried them home in, and I needed the bags in anticipation of this year's gifts. That may sound callous, but unfortunately, probably like a lot of people, my family gives me a lot of gifts that I can't use or are otherwise not of use to me. It's sad, but I hate to disappoint, so every year, I make a show of being excited about every gift, and every year, many of those gifts end up in the closet, never to be used. Well, that's an unfortunate truth, but as noted, I needed the bags, so I was going through and sorting the gifts from last year and I found another prepaid Visa gift card that I had been given and didn't know I had. I found another one earlier this week. I'm a couple hundred dollars short of my savings goals, but the $25 and $50 gift cards I found this past week will help me get closer to my goal.

I don't know whether I reported as much here or not, but today, me and my family will be celebrating Christmas and opening gifts. Sadly, about ten days ago, my brother-in-law's father died. And just last night, my sister informed me that her refrigerator had gone out. So there are several things that may put a damper on this year's celebration. Fortunately for me, the only problems I've been having are first world problems and nothing to be concerned about. Unfortunately I can't say the same for the rest of my family. My sisters, both four years older than me, are both still working, and both are struggling financially. This is nothing new for one of them, and is just a fact of life for her. Unfortunately, in spite of a hefty inheritance a few years back when my father died, the other is struggling to make ends meet. I hope that things work out for her, but it has me worried.

[Angrboda]

I'm done reading the forums and the news, and am sitting on my ass listening to music. I suppose I could put this time to good use to get some reading done, but for now I'm content to sit and drink coffee.

[Rev. Rye]

A while back, at a restorative yoga class, I noticed that the lenses of my glasses were starting to pop out, and we decided to get them replaced after Christmas. I managed to get another pair from Pearle Vision (Modern brand) and they look much better. And now I have another pair of Buddy Holly glasses with the plus that the lenses of these ones aren’t bulging out at an awkward angle.

[Rev. Rye]

72 Hours ago, I was terrified at the prospect of trying to review Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. Now, I have a 2761-word Anglotopia column about it ready for Jonathan to post, hopefully tomorrow. If three days after release isn't my best turnaround time on a review article, it's certainly the best for a Black Mirror review.

[Mr.Obvious]

Donating plasmids.