Exchanges with People that Make Your Brain Hurt

[Pen^2]

I had a brain straining conversation today.

Have you even had one of those conversations where, for most of it, you are struggling to keep up and can't quite follow what the other person says, and you assume it's because they're smarter than you? And then they say something and you realise that it's the opposite: you were having trouble because they're not smart at all, and they're making all sorts of nonsense statements, which is why it's hard to understand--just for a different reason!

I saw a comic somewhere once that said the word for this moment should be 'dumbpifany' or something like that. I like that word.

I was in a fossil shop (ohhh how I love fossils) and went to buy a trilobite from an order I had no samples of yet; a shipment had come in recently and I was hoping they'd have a few of the type I wanted. The lady at the counter was very nice and, because it's a small shop where the staff and customers are generally very friendly with each other, we started up a bit of a conversation. I had nowhere to be urgently, after all. But quickly I realised that I could hardly keep up with what she was saying. I was reduced to "mmm" and "ah" and "oh really?" as she said all sorts of profound-sounding things which seemed just beyond me. It was getting frustrating and distressing. At one point early on she had mentioned that she was a cancarian, and I had stupidly assumed that it was like a piscarian (a person who limits their meat consumption to fish only) except she ate crustaceans ('cancer' meaning crab in Latin, just as 'piscis' means fish). After five minutes, it clicked for me: she meant that she was of the star sign cancer, and all her gibberish was cliched new age stuff mixed with misinterpreted quantum theory. My brain was hurting so badly until I realised what was going on...

[Jocelyn]

I really felt for this lady, but after explaining 50 times and apologizing 100 more times that there was NOTHING I could do to help her, I was sort of feeling less sympathetic by the moment.

You might want to refer her to BookBub and Pixel of Ink. They are the reason that I now have over 1200 books on my Kindle, and no hope of ever reading them all. But they're freeeeeeeee. And I enjoy the option of trying a book and if I can't get into it, just deleting it and moving on. Every so often I pick up a bunch of 99 cent books.
Anyone who is going to Europe can surely spend $10 to get some bargain Kindle books to take with them.
Anything that costs, I add to my wish list, print it off, and go to the library.

[VorFemme]

If you can use Windows XP, then Windows 7 will be easy (says a 55 year old grandmother of one).  ...

...   If you want a NEW computer with Windows 7, buy now.  If you don't mind a used computer with Windows 7 - there's always eBay.

I only have a PC.  What I have been thinking of doing would be get myself a laptop with Windows 7 (if I can still get one) and hope my PC lasts until something more appropriate for my needs than Windows 8 becomes available as a PC.  That would give me time to 'adjust' to a newer if not newest system and would also tide me over for awhile if the PC does actually eventually just give out so I wouldn't be entirely computerless in the interim. 

What do you think of that idea?

It should work.  Although laptops today can do as much or more than an older desktop - so you no longer need one of each.

The netbook (without an optical drive) is the one that is most portable and more limited in what it can do than a laptop, any more.  It usually has a smaller amount of RAM, the hard drive space may compare to a laptop, but you have to download anything either to the netbook or to a USB drive to transfer it to the netbook's hard drive - since there is no optical drive for installing programs directly.

[nutraxfornerves]

From the St. Joseph News-Press (Missouri). It's an online comment from someone who is opposed to hunting:

"This is to all of the hunters who kill animals for food. Shame on you. You ought to just go to the store and buy meat that was made there where no animals were harmed."

Source

[violinp]

From the St. Joseph News-Press (Missouri). It's an online comment from someone who is opposed to hunting:

"This is to all of the hunters who kill animals for food. Shame on you. You ought to just go to the store and buy meat that was made there where no animals were harmed."

Source

Oh for...I always heard about people like that, but I didn't actually think people were so naive that they actually believed meat appeared at the supermarket through no method of harm whatsoever. What do these people think happens? That the cow is taken up to heaven like Elijah and the meat is mystically taken from the animal and sent back down to Earth fully packaged for the supermarket?

That distant banging you hear is my head on a desk.

[jpcher]

I'm really embarrassed to ask this, but what's OSX?  I've never heard of it.

It's the operating system used by Apple computers. They give "cat" names to different versions: Panther, Cheetah, Mountain Lion, Snow Leopard, etc.

Ah, like Android uses dessert names for their OS like jellybean, ice cream sandwich, etc.

It hurt my brain a bit when I saw the iPhone covers that look like food--that are available only for iPhones--and one looked like an ice cream sandwich 

Technically, the "X" stands for 10.

Mac went from OS9 to OSX. I'm thinking that if they used OS10 they thought people might confuse it with the first OS (1.0) -- that's just a logical assumption on my part.

Cheetah was version 10.0 . . . Mountain Lion is v10.8.



eta: I'm wondering what they're going to do when they get to version 11.0!

[Diane AKA Traska]

From the St. Joseph News-Press (Missouri). It's an online comment from someone who is opposed to hunting:

"This is to all of the hunters who kill animals for food. Shame on you. You ought to just go to the store and buy meat that was made there where no animals were harmed."

Source

Amusingly, being shot is probably less traumatic than what slaughterhouses usually do.

[Hmmmmm]

lowspark wrote:

"I just saw this today on a restaurant sign: Field of Green's -- is the name of the eatery. Now, they can call it anything they want, it's their place. But the name implies that it belongs to Field of Green, not that it is a field of greens. Oh well, whatever."

To me, that name is the same as saying Green's Field.  That is, a field that belongs to someone named Green.  I agree that it's probably not what they meant, though.

Virg

I went to this restaurant a few weeks ago with my DD and her vegan friend. I think they figured out their mistake because their website just has Field of Green but their sign still has Field of Green's.  Honestly, I didn't think much of it, but DD and her friend were both highly amused by that errant appostrophe.  They wanted to ask to meet Mr or Mrs Green.

Off topic, but... was it any good? It's pretty close to my office but I've never eaten there. It doesn't sound tempting.

It was OK. We were with a vegan soma good choice for vegan friendly. I had their veggie barley soup and it was fine.

[Kimblee]

We had a neighbour who had plastic over everything, furniture, plastic runners on the floor, her kids were not allowed in the house except to eat and sleep, because they could make a mess.

Then she always wondered why they left home so early in life and never came back to see her. 

Lady, YOU pushed them out, don't complain now.

That's quite possibly the worst thing I have ever heard.

Pretty bad.

Reminds me of a friend though. Her house is utterly beautiful, soft beige carpet, ivory upholstered furniture and everything is just so. It looks like a magazine.

She has five kids(three under age 2) and number six on the way. And three dogs, two cats, a guinea pig and a quite impressively sized tortoise. All on farm land so there's lots of mud to track in. Yet her home is still pristine. I jokingly asked her if she keeps the kids in the barn and she laughed at me and replied: "Oh no. I have a industrial carpet cleaner in the hall closet. That sucker could clean up a serial killer's crime scene!"

Which is probably helpful, considering I know for a fact her husband and oldest daughter have transported dead deer and wild hogs through the kitchen into the basement.  The basement bathroom shower stall is NASTY. All its used for is hanging meat to butcher.

[Kimblee]

Joan Crawford, as in "Mommie Dearest"? "No wire hangers" Joan Crawford?

Ah....Joan....well, we gotta figure - we gotta *know* that wasn't the first time she'd told them?  It was probably the 100,006,745th time.  So yeah, she mighta been cranky at that point.   

That always made me wonder.... If "No Wire Hangers" was the rule... WHY were there ANY wire hangers at all?

[Nuala]

Joan Crawford, as in "Mommie Dearest"? "No wire hangers" Joan Crawford?

Ah....Joan....well, we gotta figure - we gotta *know* that wasn't the first time she'd told them?  It was probably the 100,006,745th time.  So yeah, she mighta been cranky at that point.   

That always made me wonder.... If "No Wire Hangers" was the rule... WHY were there ANY wire hangers at all?

Clothing would come back from the dry cleaner on wire hangers and were supposed to be rehung on the nice hangers.

[Jocelyn]

From the St. Joseph News-Press (Missouri). It's an online comment from someone who is opposed to hunting:

"This is to all of the hunters who kill animals for food. Shame on you. You ought to just go to the store and buy meat that was made there where no animals were harmed."

Source

I've seen that quote handed around the internet...I vote for a troll. I used to live in St. Joe, and  not even there are people so stupid they don't know where meat comes from. 
Although I do have a friend who likes to PRETEND that by buying meat, she's somehow morally superior to people who kill and butcher their own. I give her a bad time about it...but really, I think a lot of people are that way. It's easy to get disconnected from where our food is coming from if you aren't engaged in food production, yourself.

Oh for...I always heard about people like that, but I didn't actually think people were so naive that they actually believed meat appeared at the supermarket through no method of harm whatsoever. What do these people think happens? That the cow is taken up to heaven like Elijah and the meat is mystically taken from the animal and sent back down to Earth fully packaged for the supermarket?

That distant banging you hear is my head on a desk.

[turtleIScream]

Our church had a clean up day today - about 12 people were there helping pull junk out of closets, toss stuff, organize the rest, and getting the building nicer looking. One woman brought about 40 matching bins in a few sizes to help organize, and just dove right into sorting the closets. I was working with her, and asked, "how do we accumulate so much junk?" She answered that some people (big eye roll and sigh) like to bring stuff in, just in case we can use it for something, or find a great deal on something and stock up. That's kind of brain-hurty for me, because I am a big believer in buying what you need when you need it, and only rarely in stocking up for later. When I do stock up, I put like with like, and in an easily accessible place. But what really made my brain hurt was discovering that she was the one who donated most of the stuff in the first place!

[PeterM]

Her: "Change the following verbiage on the website's Pink Tulips Page from 'this' to 'that'." [And notice the lack of a 'please" in that sentence.]
Me: "I don't see the verbiage 'this'. In fact, the website does not even have a Pink Tulips  Page!"
Her: "I know. I'm writing the copy for it now."
Me: "What the what? How can I change the verbiage on a page that doesn't exist yet!"
Her: "I don't understand why you can't do this! You're so unhelpful."

"If you're writing the page, why doesn't it already say what you want it to?"

You dolt.

[Snooks]

I had a brain straining conversation today.

Have you even had one of those conversations where, for most of it, you are struggling to keep up and can't quite follow what the other person says, and you assume it's because they're smarter than you? And then they say something and you realise that it's the opposite: you were having trouble because they're not smart at all, and they're making all sorts of nonsense statements, which is why it's hard to understand--just for a different reason!

I saw a comic somewhere once that said the word for this moment should be 'dumbpifany' or something like that. I like that word.

I was in a fossil shop (ohhh how I love fossils) and went to buy a trilobite from an order I had no samples of yet; a shipment had come in recently and I was hoping they'd have a few of the type I wanted. The lady at the counter was very nice and, because it's a small shop where the staff and customers are generally very friendly with each other, we started up a bit of a conversation. I had nowhere to be urgently, after all. But quickly I realised that I could hardly keep up with what she was saying. I was reduced to "mmm" and "ah" and "oh really?" as she said all sorts of profound-sounding things which seemed just beyond me. It was getting frustrating and distressing. At one point early on she had mentioned that she was a cancarian, and I had stupidly assumed that it was like a piscarian (a person who limits their meat consumption to fish only) except she ate crustaceans ('cancer' meaning crab in Latin, just as 'piscis' means fish). After five minutes, it clicked for me: she meant that she was of the star sign cancer, and all her gibberish was cliched new age stuff mixed with misinterpreted quantum theory. My brain was hurting so badly until I realised what was going on...

I had a similar one where I went around in circles for 45 minutes with someone, all they needed to say to me was "The code requires the folder to have this name".  Now I'm not great with code but I had looked at it and followed the instructions in the comments but I guess by the time he got to this bit of code he'd got a bit bored because there were no comments at all.  The problem was he could see my screen and see what I had called the folder but he just kept saying "You need this file structure".  As far as I was concerned I had that file structure because I had two sub folders inside another folder.  The even more brain hurty part of it was that he complained it was late at night for him but he was logged onto the messenger system which as far as I'm concerned means you're at work (and also he's supposed to work a shift that matches the timezone I work in).