Dude outed himself when he told Janice his birthday was the 35th of March.

I was the tech director of a small video game start-up. Our investment dried up but I didn’t want to lay off our employees so I kept the company going, burning through my savings, and not taking a salary myself, while hoping the finance director could sort out new investment.

He couldn’t. We had to wind the company up anyway and I had nothing left. That lead to some hard times.

Misread this as “technically started the Korean War.”

Of course! I’m not going to let a fucking oven tell me when my food is ready. Fuck you, Skynet, this is how the rebellion against the machines starts!

Welcome to Fallout.

Hrrrm. But, going Dutch and Dutch courage don’t have any specifically anti-Dutch connotation in modern usage and I’ve never heard of a Dutch treat or a Dutch uncle. At least you chaps aren’t French!

Palid McHaggis, hoots, mon, och aye the noo!

Nobody does anti Dutch racism quite like the English.

Really? I don’t know many Brits who have a bad opinion of the Dutch. I certainly don’t; I’ve never met a Dutch person I didn’t like.

Comes of them being conquered by William of Orange back in the day.

Billy the who now?

Well no they discourage fast driving

Not really, or at least not with the fixed cameras. They encourage speeding as normal then harsh braking just before the camera then speeding again. Just watch traffic on the motorways when a temporary speed limit is imposed. People slow down for the gantries where there might be cameras mounted then floor it to the next gantry.

Average speed cameras are a better bet if you want to control speeding, but perhaps don’t make as much money.

I’m an old bastard and mostly play patience, sudoku, and cryptic crosswords on my phone. And maybe Bloons TD 6 to get the dailies if I’m away from home without my laptop.

On console I play mostly single-player RPGs but I also play PUBG. Tried that on mobile (how my kids play it) but fuck that shit!

Also, what the hell is going on with that cloud? Isn’t it cold? What’s for pudding? Why do policemen look so young these days? Everything was better when I was a youngster!

One of my kids once emptied the dishwasher without bitching about it. I have no fucking clue what was going on there.

Never piss on your camp fire if it’s upwind of your tent. - source, was in the scouts, we did this to another patrol. Man, their tent stank.

Being a Brit, for years I’ve jokingly referred to the 4th of July as ‘Rebellion Day’ to my USian friends. Not sure I’m joking any more, just hopeful. Go on. Rebel!

One night a week of mandatory, free, tabletop RPGs hosted in libraries, council buildings, etc. D&D (or even a good roleplaying game) for everyone! Player groups are mixed up every two months to ensure multiple opportunities for bonding with new people.

Buffy.

It was just a big sloppy plateful of Beverly Hills, 90210 with a small side salad of weird shit.

TIL I’d be a big man in Thailand.

Jesus’ head is being used to transmit porn

I’ll take ‘sentences I never thought I’d read today’. please.

My GP surgery was the same (except 8:30 not 8:00), but moved to an app a couple of months ago. Given that I suspect the point of it is to allow an AI to triage appointment requests I wouldn’t be surprised if yours ‘upgrades’ as well.

UK.

Until recently, if I wanted an appointment I had to phone the GP surgery the moment it opened at 8:30 in the morning, wait in a phone queue for ten minutes or so before I got to speak to a receptionist who’d give me an appointment with which ever GP had some free time that day. It wasn’t usually possible to book an appointment several days in advance.

A couple of months back they switched to an app which gives much more flexibility, allows you to choose which doctor you want to see and allows you to book appointments in advance. I do worry that they’re going to push everyone to use that since old gippers are likely to struggle with the app unless they’re semi-tech savvy. Also, it’s obvious to me that they’re setting this up to use AI to triage requests if they’re not already doing that.

Appointments always used to be face to face but since covid they’re increasingly phone consultations especially for follow-ups. If it’s a first, diagnostic appointment it’s still likely to be face to face though.

For face to face, the wait time is generally less than half an hour from the point I get to the GP surgery.

Obv. it’s free at the point of use. I’ve paid my taxes.

Edit to add: if you’re on low income, or are a child, old, etc you get your prescriptions free. Otherwise you have to pay for them at £9.90 per 2 month prescription. I’m on a shitload of medication and that would normally cost me well over £500 a year, but I get a prepayment certificate which costs me £114.50 a year and covers all medication.

Hulk’s brain is a smaller Hulk.