Random Rants 76: Argh! Augh! Ahhh!

[Valka D'Ur]

-50c... Canada

Hope you get the heat, Valka

I did, thanks!

Good thing, too; I just checked the Weather Network. It's not going to warm up until next week. Next Thursday is forecast to be -11C (-14C with wind chill), so that's downright balmy compared to how it has been.

The last time I had to endure weather like this was years ago, at my first apartment (basement suite; not much sunlight other than in the morning). I was actually able to make myself go outside and walk over to the cat shelter where I volunteered, in -30C (couldn't let the cats down). But any lower than that and I do not go outside. Period. When it eventually warmed up to -12C with sunshine and no wind, I decided to take the garbage out, and it seemed so warm, I didn't even bother with a coat. One of the neighbors had the same thought, and we exchanged a "Nice day!" greeting.

If I ever existed in the same local space as -50C I would be wearing as many pairs of socks as physically possible.

How would you get your shoes/boots on?

I would cease to exist.

Male penguins exist at colder temperatures, through the worst of the Antarctic winter, incubating their eggs/chicks on their bare feet. They all huddle together for warmth, each penguin shuffling around so everyone has a turn on the inside (and the outside).

 

[Arakhor]

Presumably he'd wear as many socks as he could within said footwear.

 

[MaryKB]

You've posted about your sockophobia. What's up with that? If you wore socks you might need to wear one fewer layer.

Two prunes every day for lunch? That's neither healthful nor healthy.

Don't socks feel gross to you? I'm really uncomfortable, my feet get all sweaty and I feel like they can't breathe. Plus walking around just feels weird when all I can feel are my socks.

Oh dear, you think eating two prunes a day is too much? I've been having regularity problems for a couple months now, I don't know what else to do. I'll talk to my doctor next time I go in for my physical.

It's freezing here today, like it looks like the White Walkers are coming. I'm wearing a new sweater dress I bought with leggings (but no socks) I've got my fireplace on and I brewed myself a pot of hot tea.

My rant for today is annoying middle-managers. I've got this task I hate doing that's really pointless for me, but another team needs it. So I built everything and I can pass it to them, and they really want to take it over, but their boss is balking, even though they'd only need like ten minutes a day. So they're working on trying to convince him to just let them do it, but sheesh like what a silly thing for him to cause strife over, you know?

 

[Lexicus]

I love socks, they warm you up a lot more than their humble appearance would suggest, and are generally awesome

Oh dear, you think eating two prunes a day is too much?

No, it's nowhere near enough.

 

[Arakhor]

Besides, since prunes are apt to make you regular, it's probably better to eat them for breakfast instead.

 

[MaryKB]

I love socks, they warm you up a lot more than their humble appearance would suggest, and are generally awesome

No, it's nowhere near enough.

You think they're not working because I'm only eating two? I'm concerned about how many calories they have ... should I instead skip lunch and just eat like a cup of prunes to replace my dinner?

Socks keep you too warm .. would you wear gloves indoors? Because that's what socks are, gloves for your feet. I think my longest stretch of never wearing socks was my last two years in Georgia, when you can get by wearing sandals year round (as long as you're tough enough to handle freezing temperatures, lol) In Michigan your toes will fall off if you don't wear socks while snow shoveling, and I had to wear socks when going to the gym.

 

[CKS]

No. Eat more at lunch - more prunes if you like and other stuff, and eat your dinner.

 

[Lexicus]

You think they're not working because I'm only eating two?

I think you should be eating an actual meal for lunch instead of two prunes.

I'm concerned about how many calories they have ... should I instead skip lunch and just eat like a cup of prunes to replace my dinner?

I would guess that there are better options out there than prunes as far as fiber/calories ratio.

Socks keep you too warm .. would you wear gloves indoors? Because that's what socks are, gloves for your feet.

My room can get pretty cold in the winter, and I might wear gloves indoors sometimes if gloves didn't mess with my hand function. I doubt I would be able to type anything with my gloves on for example. But socks really give you a lot of bang for your buck, I got all these thick woolen socks to wear with my hiking boots and they're just great.

"I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks." Harry stared. "One can never have enough socks," said Dumbledore.

 

[MaryKB]

Well Albus Dumbledore's a very well known oddball.

I didn't cut out my lunch for prunes, I wasn't eating lunch at all and I started eating those prunes at midday as an extra thing I'm eating, to help me get more fiber. And you're talking to someone who sometimes eats only a cup of steamed broccoli for dinner, lol. What alternatives to prunes do you feel are a good idea? I've considered fig newtons, but those seem too much like cookies to me. I miss my grandmother's fig trees in Georgia, you just can't seem to find figs anywhere here.

Your gloves mess with your hand function? I bought a pair of gloves you can use with touch screens, so I can use my phone when I'm out of doors in the freezing cold and I need to keep my gloves on. I could still type with those if I needed to, like if I had a laptop outside or something for some unknown reason. I could never wear wool socks, lol. Don't you like being able to feel your shoes? My boots are very soft inside.

 

[Arakhor]

I wear leather shoes and have flat feet. I could do with feeling my shoes less.

 

[Lexicus]

What alternatives to prunes do you feel are a good idea? I've considered fig newtons, but those seem too much like cookies to me. I miss my grandmother's fig trees in Georgia, you just can't seem to find figs anywhere here.

I dunno, I'm not a good eater. I'm just saying if you're worried about calories there are probably options out there for very fibrous (so would help with bowel movements) foods that have fewer calories than prunes. @yung.carl.jung would probably know.

Your gloves mess with your hand function? I bought a pair of gloves you can use with touch screens, so I can use my phone when I'm out of doors in the freezing cold and I need to keep my gloves on.

I dunno, I've had gloves that were branded as this but they didn't work for me at all.

Don't you like being able to feel your shoes?

Absolutely not. I have a pair of work shoes and a pair of hiking boots, and neither is designed to be worn with bare feet. The work shoes are leather and I imagine they'd feel very uncomfortable without socks. The hiking boots are less uncomfortable but if I wear them with bare feet my feet pull the soles right out of the shoes when I take them off. If I actually hiked in them without socks my feet would probably end up with more blisters than skin.

 

[Synobun]

By far one of the worst developments in my health is that I started getting conventionally sick again early last year. It just makes everything so much worse for 7-14 days at a time, and I've gotten sick four times in less than a year. It's not even that the sickness itself is bad, it just completely wipes me out because of my other health issues. I saw it as a "minor blessing" that I spent so many years just never getting sick because I knew it'd be so much worse if I did.

Anyways, I'm sick again. I'm fortunate that I finished all of my work a day before it hit, but I'm still not looking forward to just floundering around aimlessly as I wait for it to pass. I had plans for next week.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

Male penguins exist at colder temperatures, through the worst of the Antarctic winter, incubating their eggs/chicks on their bare feet. They all huddle together for warmth, each penguin shuffling around so everyone has a turn on the inside (and the outside).

But I am a puny human used to warm Mediterranean climate. I used to get small chillblains in my right hand fingers when I was younger for playing videogames for too long at night in winter, and the minimum temps here are around 5-10 °C above zero. At -50 I would turn into a bunch of little ice cubes.

(In my defense, houses are not ready for winter here. We have not any calefaction, parquet or carpets, but nude stone floors and not very well isolated brick walls)

 

[BenitoChavez]

I didn't cut out my lunch for prunes, I wasn't eating lunch at all and I started eating those prunes at midday as an extra thing I'm eating, to help me get more fiber. And you're talking to someone who sometimes eats only a cup of steamed broccoli for dinner, lol. What alternatives to prunes do you feel are a good idea? I've considered fig newtons, but those seem too much like cookies to me. I miss my grandmother's fig trees in Georgia, you just can't seem to find figs anywhere here.

If what you say is true, that you only have 2 prunes for lunch and a cup of broccoli for dinner, that's about 80 calories between lunch and dinner. That is like starvation levels of calories. Broccoli and prunes are good for you but you need to eat more. Losing weight is fine if you want to look good for your wedding but you are going to have health issues if you keep that diet long term.

If you want a healthy diet to lose weight just keep it simple. Eat a variety of things (not just broccoli and prunes), mostly plants, and not too much (or too little).

 

[MaryKB]

Oh really, your gloves didn't work? I'm so sorry, mine work just perfectly

Oh dear, I'm sorry your shoes are uncomfortable! I've always loved wearing leather shoes, that's weird though your feet would pull your soles out? My shoes and boots all have soles that are like completely attached, and are very comfortable with bare feet. I've bought a number of pairs from a brand called Dexflex Comfort, and they're really affordable but also really comfy to wear. And I've never had my shoes' soles sticking to my feet. Here are my dress shoes, these were only like $30 and are some of my favorites:

By far one of the worst developments in my health is that I started getting conventionally sick again early last year. It just makes everything so much worse for 7-14 days at a time, and I've gotten sick four times in less than a year. It's not even that the sickness itself is bad, it just completely wipes me out because of my other health issues. I saw it as a "minor blessing" that I spent so many years just never getting sick because I knew it'd be so much worse if I did.

Anyways, I'm sick again. I'm fortunate that I finished all of my work a day before it hit, but I'm still not looking forward to just floundering around aimlessly as I wait for it to pass. I had plans for next week.

Oh I'm so sorry you're not feeling well! I wish there was something I could do for you to help you feel better.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Student loan servicers are the worst. My student loan servicer (Navient) is currently being sued due to fraud and I can attest that even when they are not committing outright fraud, they are bilking the crap out of everyone. They do not allow you to set up custom autopay amounts and instead attempt to force you to pay the absolute minimum or make manual payments every month to keep you on the hook longer. In addition, they do not allow you apply payments to the principal and instead funnel all of your payment money into interest first, again to keep you on the hook longer. Their website is a master course on how to obfuscate information to make it impossible to make rational repayment choices.

I have a bunch of loans with varying interests amounts and guess how the autopay is structured? They take my monthly payment and only use it to pay off the interest on the loans and they are only paying down the principal on the lowest-interest loans. That's right, they purposefully funnel my money to the lowest interest loans to keep me on the hook longer for the higher interest loans. If I want to pay more or apply my payments differently, I have to manually calculate it out myself every single month.

Oh and if you make manual payments on top of your minimum autopayment, the software is set up to automatically skip the next month's autopayment in hopes that you'll be caught off guard and make an underpayment the next month to rack up fees and interest.

If you are one of the tens of thousands who are trying to get through the public service loan forgiveness programs, good luck. The government decided to let loan servicers administer the programs and they in turn have pulled out every trick in the book to prevent people from qualifying. Less than 100 people have qualified out of tens or hundreds of thousands. The loan servicers purposefully obfuscate information you need to stay on the program, send the wrong forms to funnel people into non-qualifying repayment plans and generally go out of their way to make sure no one actually has their loans written off.

 

[Synobun]

It Just Works™

 

[MaryKB]

If what you say is true, that you only have 2 prunes for lunch and a cup of broccoli for dinner, that's about 80 calories between lunch and dinner. That is like starvation levels of calories. Broccoli and prunes are good for you but you need to eat more. Losing weight is fine if you want to look good for your wedding but you are going to have health issues if you keep that diet long term.

If you want a healthy diet to lose weight just keep it simple. Eat a variety of things (not just broccoli and prunes), mostly plants, and not too much (or too little).

Oh I'm sorry, I only do that with broccoli sometimes, like if I ate too much the previous day or something. I try to keep my diet to less than 1,000 calories a day, but like today for example I'm going to have pizza for dinner, so I'll eat less tomorrow.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Socks vary greatly by material & thickness. They can be fantastic or unfortunate.

 

[Lexicus]

Oh dear, I'm sorry your shoes are uncomfortable! I've always loved wearing leather shoes, that's weird though your feet would pull your soles out? My shoes and boots all have soles that are like completely attached, and are very comfortable with bare feet. I've bought a number of pairs from a brand called Dexflex Comfort, and they're really affordable but also really comfy to wear. And I've never had my shoes' soles sticking to my feet. Here are my dress shoes, these were only like $30 and are some of my favorites:

In theory I'd like a pair of legit moccasins, those things are apparently the bomb and perfectly comfortable with bare feet.

I would guess that my feet sweat a lot more than yours, I have hyperhydrosis so I sweat a lot generally and the sweaty feet are the reason they stick to and pull out soles.