The Syndicate

And this?

Long Con wrote:
And this?

Yes, I see this - looks good!

Quiet in here tonight.

Too many COOKS.

I'm taking my daughter to her first minor league fight tomorrow night. Hopefully a hockey game will break out.

"BOOK"

You know that house we just bought?

It almost burned to the ground.

I'm not kidding.

You see, I bought a propane grill for the first time this weekend, and used it Saturday night. It went well, although the food could've been better I guess.

The next morning we went to church. I had to play the bass and fill in for the pastor. Busy morning.

On the drive back, we encountered fire trucks at the entrance of our cul-de-sac.

"Oh dear God, I've only been here a few months and I've already taken out part of the neighborhood."

I held my breath as I turned the corner.

The house was still standing (I'm in it right now). There were two trucks blocking our driveway. I had to get out and find out what was the matter.

"Are you Mr. Brown?"

"Aw shit..." "Yes."

Turns out a nearby neighbor decided to burn a tree stump with cooking oil and, since it's been dry and windy lately, the wind carried the flames into all the neighbors' yards. We are on a cul-de-sac that is inside a circular street, so we have neighbors and then we have neighbors roundabout us. The fence behind us is charcoal. The trees are scorched. The grass is black.

The fire came within five feet of our home.

Our backyard looks like Mordor.

Shit Epi, I'm glad it wasn't as bad as it could've been. Still, your neighbour needs a...talking to.

Epignosis wrote:You know that house we just bought?

It almost burned to the ground.

I'm not kidding.

You see, I bought a propane grill for the first time this weekend, and used it Saturday night. It went well, although the food could've been better I guess.

The next morning we went to church. I had to play the bass and fill in for the pastor. Busy morning.

On the drive back, we encountered fire trucks at the entrance of our cul-de-sac.

"Oh dear God, I've only been here a few months and I've already taken out part of the neighborhood."

I held my breath as I turned the corner.

The house was still standing (I'm in it right now). There were two trucks blocking our driveway. I had to get out and find out what was the matter.

"Are you Mr. Brown?"

"Aw shit..." "Yes."

Turns out a nearby neighbor decided to burn a tree stump with cooking oil and, since it's been dry and windy lately, the wind carried the flames into all the neighbors' yards. We are on a cul-de-sac that is inside a circular street, so we have neighbors and then we have neighbors roundabout us. The fence behind us is charcoal. The trees are scorched. The grass is black.

The fire came within five feet of our home.

Our backyard looks like Mordor.

My dad almost blew our propane grill up the first time he used it so... thank God for the little metal sheet shield/guard thing that's now had a dent in it for ~4 years.

Epignosis wrote:Turns out a nearby neighbor decided to burn a tree stump with cooking oil...

Sounds like the Fire Department did their job admirably. I'm very glad to hear that all is well in the house (and Mordor is a decent memento).

Golden wrote:Sounds like the Fire Department did their job admirably. I'm very glad to hear that all is well in the house (and Mordor is a decent memento).

Fire departments around here kick ass. They are filled with guys who from childhood aspired to be nothing else but firemen. I grew up with several of them.

Quin wrote:Shit Epi, I'm glad it wasn't as bad as it could've been. Still, your neighbour needs a...talking to.

The policeman said she said this: "Well, at least their grass will grow back greener."

Thanks for your services, lady.

She better make the fence grow back sturdier too.

Netflix & Nyquil, the new cool thing

S~V~S wrote:Netflix & Nyquil, the new cool thing

Nyquil is better than chill anyway?

Epignosis wrote:

Quin wrote:Shit Epi, I'm glad it wasn't as bad as it could've been. Still, your neighbour needs a...talking to.

The policeman said she said this: "Well, at least their grass will grow back greener."

Thanks for your services, lady.

For now, just pretend your backyard went and got a great tan.

Epignosis wrote:

Quin wrote:Shit Epi, I'm glad it wasn't as bad as it could've been. Still, your neighbour needs a...talking to.

The policeman said she said this: "Well, at least their grass will grow back greener."

Thanks for your services, lady.

Epi will the grass really grow back or will the neighbor have to sod your yard? And I take it they are going to rebuild your fence?

juliets wrote:

Epignosis wrote:

Quin wrote:Shit Epi, I'm glad it wasn't as bad as it could've been. Still, your neighbour needs a...talking to.

The policeman said she said this: "Well, at least their grass will grow back greener."

Thanks for your services, lady.

Epi will the grass really grow back or will the neighbor have to sod your yard? And I take it they are going to rebuild your fence?

I don't want sodding anything from a neighbor who burns stumps with cooking oil on a dry windy day.

And no, the grass should be fine.

And it's not our fence. Belongs to the people behind us.

Elon Musk has a company who's goal is to create an interface between computers and the human brain.

>me: we need to find some study rooms at music schools in Bucharest to keep rehearsing for the competition
>Mom A: I'll make some phone calls, maybe we can find a restaurant that has a piano

If you don't hear from me ever again, it means I didn't make it mentally through this upcoming trip.

Ricochet wrote:>me: we need to find some study rooms at music schools in Bucharest to keep rehearsing for the competition
>Mom A: I'll make some phone calls, maybe we can find a restaurant that has a piano

If you don't hear from me ever again, it means I didn't make it mentally through this upcoming trip.

Hahaha I wouldn't trust Mom A, not for a minute. And I guess she thinks the diners would enjoy listening to you coach Kid A while he plays the same thing over and over. Good luck!

juliets wrote:

Ricochet wrote:>me: we need to find some study rooms at music schools in Bucharest to keep rehearsing for the competition
>Mom A: I'll make some phone calls, maybe we can find a restaurant that has a piano

If you don't hear from me ever again, it means I didn't make it mentally through this upcoming trip.

Hahaha I wouldn't trust Mom A, not for a minute. And I guess she thinks the diners would enjoy listening to you coach Kid A while he plays the same thing over and over. Good luck!

20 minutes in
Mom A already makes pics of me lying in my sleeping car bed, the size of a coffin

IT
HAS
BEGUN

Is this real life

Ricochet wrote:

juliets wrote:

Ricochet wrote:>me: we need to find some study rooms at music schools in Bucharest to keep rehearsing for the competition
>Mom A: I'll make some phone calls, maybe we can find a restaurant that has a piano

If you don't hear from me ever again, it means I didn't make it mentally through this upcoming trip.

Hahaha I wouldn't trust Mom A, not for a minute. And I guess she thinks the diners would enjoy listening to you coach Kid A while he plays the same thing over and over. Good luck!

20 minutes in
Mom A already makes pics of me lying in my sleeping car bed, the size of a coffin

IT
HAS
BEGUN

Is this real life

No escape from reality.

Yay, the adventure has begun! I hope you can stream some movies. And maybe Mom A will send you the pics and you can show them to us! Good luck!

Rico, report in on your trip! Or come to chatzy today and report in.

Weirdness in the Sockface household. We received a package yesterday addressed to Alex and Annie Browne. It contained a board game. But... we didn't order any board games. And as of yet I have not had anyone confess to sending it to us. We're going to try it out this afternoon. It would be nice to know who sent it and why so that we can at least say thanks. Talk about random...

Spacedaisy wrote:Weirdness in the Sockface household. We received a package yesterday addressed to Alex and Annie Browne. It contained a board game. But... we didn't order any board games. And as of yet I have not had anyone confess to sending it to us. We're going to try it out this afternoon. It would be nice to know who sent it and why so that we can at least say thanks. Talk about random...

If you hear African drums emanating from the board game, DON'T PLAY IT!

LOL, someone else made a Jumanji reference on my fb when I posted about it there.

Spacedaisy wrote:Weirdness in the Sockface household. We received a package yesterday addressed to Alex and Annie Browne. It contained a board game. But... we didn't order any board games. And as of yet I have not had anyone confess to sending it to us. We're going to try it out this afternoon. It would be nice to know who sent it and why so that we can at least say thanks. Talk about random...

What game is it?

Vast: the Crystal Caverns

Never heard of it but I looked it up and it sounds like a lot of fun.

Is this a slow period for the syndicate right now? A lot of the games are slow moving, though I'm not helping too much myself

Our fun little mystery was solved. Russtifinko and his lovely lady were behind it.

8am. get texted. jump out of the bed, could be important contest stuff

BOOK

seeing if I can post here, to test if it's a thread issue or a site issue.

Ricochet wrote:8am. get texted. jump out of the bed, could be important contest stuff

BOOK

It's 6:58, almost noon your time, and I haven't seen anything about how it went! Let us know!

And haha on the tweet!

Imma copypasta what I wrote in the Shred FB group, I dont have computer access till tomorrow nor much desire to go in more detail

~~

Kid A played the meh-est he could have played. He was also more anxious all of a sudden.

Third prize. Best prize was a mile ahead, and yet it only received second prize, which was wyrd.

I should view stuff in a positive light, but since I am kaiju nervy Richorse, I feel pretty frustrated by my inability to make Kid A receptive, inspired, able to play richly and expressively.

I made him study this last stretch as intensely as I've been taught myself. I kinda feel these days were all a waste.

Mom A now suddenly thinks "it's ok, Kid A won't ever be a concert pianist. We can just let him be and he'll become a composer, since he likes to write and stuff." One trial itsy-bitsy concert and she's jumping already to this verdict.

Mkay.

I once entered a piano competition.

I won.

Instead of spurring me on to greatness, it scared me away from ever doing anything like that again, lol.

It's ok, I liked percussion better anyway.

I was also in a piano competition and came in second. Scared the living daylights out of me. Never did it again and quit piano soon after.

juliets wrote:I was also in a piano competition and came in second. Scared the living daylights out of me. Never did it again and quit piano soon after.

Haha, see, you get where I'm coming from!

juliets wrote:I was also in a piano competition and came in second. Scared the living daylights out of me. Never did it again and quit piano soon after.

Why would you quit?

I love playing the piano. I think in some respects I like it more than the guitar (shh, don't tell my guitars). However, I do have a problem playing in front of people, but it isn't related to nervousness: I am used to my damned keyboard at home, so a real piano feels substantially different to me, and I tend to make mistakes.

"I don't do anything commonly"

Epignosis wrote:

juliets wrote:I was also in a piano competition and came in second. Scared the living daylights out of me. Never did it again and quit piano soon after.

Why would you quit?

I love playing the piano. I think in some respects I like it more than the guitar (shh, don't tell my guitars). However, I do have a problem playing in front of people, but it isn't related to nervousness: I am used to my damned keyboard at home, so a real piano feels substantially different to me, and I tend to make mistakes.

I quit because I didn't like the way my teacher was teaching and I didn't like practicing. And I didn't have good reach. I just didn't enjoy playing and I sure didn't want to do another competition which I would have had to do.

It sucks when bad teachers and the pressure of competition ruin an otherwise fun hobby. I'm fortunate that I was never pressured into competing, or I might have soured on music.

Some people should not be teachers, so true. I used to go for sculpture lessons, and the teacher hated kids, or so it seems in retrospect. I had a talent for it and enjoyed it but she made it into something I dreaded.

Sorry, didn't mean to awaken feels with my sighs.

Feels are good, feels mean you are still alive.

Long Con wrote:"I don't do anything commonly"

Whatever this means, I'm in the same boat.