Random Raves 54: You will succeed. It is inevitable.

[warpus]

I've been gutting out 2 rooms in my house, my old home office and my roommate's old room (he's moved into the basement), ripped out carpets, underpadding, unscrewed everything that's not needed.. One of them just needs a vacuuming and the walls cleaned, and I can finally paint the ceiling! And then the walls! I'm getting excited.

One of the rooms will be converted into a library. I have already bought the paint as well as the flooring (12 years ago mind you, it's been sitting around)

Here's the mockup for the library, so far.. although I am not 100% that I can have 3 large bookcases there, there's a vent there that I'll have to measure.. It might get in the way.. That loveseat is also going to be a comfy 1 person reading chair/seat of some kind... yet to be determined. The closet is also going to have a storage system that doesn't quite look like that.. but it's close. I did the best I could given IKEA's flawed home planning tool. Working with custom walls using their software is super frustrating.. but it sort of works. They also don't let you insert furniture into the office planner that they have filed under bedroom furniture.. which is annoying too.. and which is why I had to use something else for the closet storage system.. but ah well. I mainly did this to see that the main pieces of furniture would fit. Getting excited about this! But we are likely not installing the flooring in both rooms until July, when I'm back from Portugal. The office is also getting completely redone, although most of the furniture is staying.. just being installed in other parts of the room. All is a work in progress, but step by step my vision is turning into reality.

Spoiler :

 

[Birdjaguar]

I am not 100% that I can have 3 large bookcases there, there's a vent there that I'll have to measure..

Raise the bookcase over the vent by 6 to 8". Bricks can do that.

 

[warpus]

Raise the bookcase over the vent by 6 to 8". Bricks can do that.

Hmm then the top of the bookcase won't line up with the others. There's shorter bookcases exactly like this in every other way, but they are a lot shorter. Not a bad idea, but not sure if workable. I will measure the vent first and go from there

 

[Birdjaguar]

Hmm then the top of the bookcase won't line up with the others. There's shorter bookcases exactly like this in every other way, but they are a lot shorter. Not a bad idea, but not sure if workable. I will measure the vent first and go from there

Top edge alignment should not trump utility. If one is 6" higher, then add a few knick knacks to the tops of the others to fill the space; or even a few books!

 

[Birdjaguar]

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[Birdjaguar]

During an outdoor breakfast with friends we had a visitor.

 

[Gori the Grey]

there's a vent there that I'll have to measure

cut a hole in the back of the bookcase. Buy a 1" (30.5cm) extension of duct. Bring the vent through the bookcase.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I've been gutting out 2 rooms in my house, my old home office and my roommate's old room (he's moved into the basement), ripped out carpets, underpadding, unscrewed everything that's not needed.. One of them just needs a vacuuming and the walls cleaned, and I can finally paint the ceiling! And then the walls! I'm getting excited.

One of the rooms will be converted into a library. I have already bought the paint as well as the flooring (12 years ago mind you, it's been sitting around)

Here's the mockup for the library, so far.. although I am not 100% that I can have 3 large bookcases there, there's a vent there that I'll have to measure.. It might get in the way.. That loveseat is also going to be a comfy 1 person reading chair/seat of some kind... yet to be determined. The closet is also going to have a storage system that doesn't quite look like that.. but it's close. I did the best I could given IKEA's flawed home planning tool. Working with custom walls using their software is super frustrating.. but it sort of works. They also don't let you insert furniture into the office planner that they have filed under bedroom furniture.. which is annoying too.. and which is why I had to use something else for the closet storage system.. but ah well. I mainly did this to see that the main pieces of furniture would fit. Getting excited about this! But we are likely not installing the flooring in both rooms until July, when I'm back from Portugal. The office is also getting completely redone, although most of the furniture is staying.. just being installed in other parts of the room. All is a work in progress, but step by step my vision is turning into reality.

Spoiler :

How big is that table? 'Cause you know what would be cool in that room?

A globe. You travel so many places, that a globe would be nice to remind you of where you've been and give you ideas of where you'd like to go in the future. And if you're reading about some place and aren't sure where it is... you've got a reference source right there.

I used to have one in my living room when I still lived in a house. I remember one time when a typing client came over and zeroed in on it. His eyes went wide and he said, "I've only ever seen this on TV, and didn't know people really had globes in their living rooms - this is SO COOL!"

 

[Snerk]

Just planted some raspberry bushes along the front side of my house. Here's hoping they'll eventually give some berries. Sunlight is not quite optimal there.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I hope you really like raspberries and have no plans for that area for the next half-century. Speaking from experience, those things grow like weeds, and no matter how much my dad tried to dig them out once they'd overgrown the part of the garden where we were only intending to have a few, they just would not leave - they kept growing back!

Raspberry juice is good. I love raspberry flavor in general. But there's something sinister about the bushes themselves. They have an agenda.

 

[Snerk]

Yeah under the right conditions raspberries can spread like wildfires. I very much doubt that will be the case here though. I have a small hill on the other side of the driveway I don't use for anything where they might thrive and spread. Perhaps I should try to plant some there too.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Yeah under the right conditions raspberries can spread like wildfires. I very much doubt that will be the case here though. I have a small hill on the other side of the driveway I don't use for anything where they might thrive and spread. Perhaps I should try to plant some there too.

A lawnmower can easily contain a raspbery patch to the confines of your desired space.

 

[JohannaK]

I am filled with love.

 

[Snerk]

I'll have what JK is having.

 

[JohannaK]

Polyamory, it's polyamory.

Not polyarmory, that's what the US does.

 

[Snerk]

Ok gimme one of those then. Or several I guess..

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Rant: I thought I'd eaten all the pizza in the freezer.

Rave: Then I happened to glance at the door compartment and realized that I still had another 10 slices.

That's enough for the rest of the month.

 

[Narz]

My first daughter's mom claimed she filled out the paperwork to get her passport reissued, hopefully she's telling the truth & my elder daughter can visit this summer

 

[warpus]

How big is that table? 'Cause you know what would be cool in that room?

A globe.

You know what, one of my friends told me to get a globe for that room too. It's def happening!

 

[dusters]

"The Art of being alone"

My acquaintance turns 40 today.

I taught her chess when she was 13-14. We trained with the same coach at the chess school. But since I wanted to chat with someone older than me, I played with her, even if she played much weaker than me at first.

She studied at the best school in country, programmed, went to gymnastics. After that, she herself worked as a lecturer for young programmers.

I had my first somewhat normal relationship with her. We were students of the same chess coach, but I accompanied her home, we talked about almost everything.Those were fantastic times. I was 10-12 years old, she was 13-15. I was very interested in what she found valuable and exciting in the world. She was a person of mind.

Me - much more emotional. I bought her gifts for the holidays, tried to behave like a gentleman and see how she would react to it. She liked me because I was not like other boys. Well, how much can a girl like a boy 3 years younger?! She is one of the few people I keep in touch after 25 years.


In some ways, we had more contact than classmates, although we didn't have anything romantic. We met once or a few times separately (in a non-chess related way) in three years. She did not introduce me to her parents.

I remember so much and exactly what we talked about. If you think about it - she was always near me, both when I was 12 and when I was 16-19, but it never occurred to me that I might like her as a woman. Maybe because she programmed like me. Played chess like me. And dressed androgynous like me.

Since then, and until now, I value meaningful and long conversations in the other person a lot.

When I left the chess school, much later - in high school, I also had such a relationship. A classmate who liked to talk about a lot of things, but who was much more feminine than the girl from chess school, walked with me after school, we just talked. And I really liked it. We were already 17 years old then. But she was like that - painted nails, styled hair, interested in fashion and clothes. Same as me. And I didn't see a woman in her either. Cool chick! So we hung out. She introduced me to her friends and they were also friendly towards me.

Back in high school there were a couple of girls who fell in love with me, but they drank or smoked, and since well-behaved girls don't do that, I didn't see them as women either.

At the university, there was this four year program for English teachers of six girls and me (in a small town), in which I, as a piece of furniture, was usually about 10m away from them in order to hear less about which drugstores have discounts. I was used to the company of girls, I was not afraid of being in a group of three, five or even all six, and I was no longer embarrassed by it.



Maybe something had changed at that very moment. If a boy doesn't mind being in the company of six normal-looking girls as they discuss things on a girls' locker room level, then maybe something had already happened to me.

Then I joined another program and there were 3 guys, 46 girls and me. An even greater concentration of girls. And even more, I got used to it all.

Somewhere in the middle between the first and the second University (I was 22 and 24 years old), I still thought of myself as an ordinary, agender student, but for Baltic philology (program with 46 females and 4 males) students it was a reality. Plus, I studied toegteher with my friend, and we behaved like brother and sister in front of everyone.

**

Where were the guys in the meantime?

In elementary school, I still went to the computer room with the boys, we played Runescape. Then we played Counter-Strike. However, when I moved to study 215 km away, all the guys disappeared. I didn't have such a relationship with any guy that someone from another city would write to me on Facebook.. Female friends - yes. I corresponded with girls from several towns.

While studying in a new city, I tried to make friends with guys while living on campus, but I got away. Because one of roommates distributed drugs, the other drank wine at night. Well-bred boys don't do that.


After that I lived alone in a rented apartment. When I came back to Riga from the town 215km away, my older childhood friends had already moved abroad. Two to the US, one to the UK. The third, a little later, to Scotland.

In most of my studies - pedagogy, Baltic philologists, classical philologists - 70 - 90% of students were girls in all courses.

I've made it my mission this fall to get to know the one or two guys who will be in the mathematics teacher's program that I will join (second year).

**
I think I always have had such an energy coming from me that women just find it easy to talk to me. I talk a lot, emotionally, empathetically. I'm interested in the details. I want people to be happy, not rich.

I have lived with all this until the age of 36 when many of my peers have married, had children and are building their first house.

I have little to talk about with a 30-40 year old man, but a lot with a woman. Why? Because the inner world, the world of emotions, interests me, as long as a person lives a little consciously.

**

At the beginning of June, I will participate in a darts tournament, there will also be an opportunity to meet men. I hope I can make some friends there.


Ps. To see someone as a woman means being attracted sexually in this text. It is a saying in Latvia. Might sound rude in English without context.