The Update for Everybody Else

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

They also hired this smoking hot girl to be a secretary yesterday. I'm super angry that it happened to be on my second to last day.

[CatoMinor]

My mom has been in hospice care for the last 3ish weeks. Luckily we have been able to keep her home at comfortable, out of pain. But looks like she is entering the final hours now. At least all the family made it out to see her a last time. The most energetic I saw her this past 2 weeks was when a bunch of family came to see her.

As hard as this is, I am comforted knowing she will be better off soon and will still be with us.

[anvi]

Very sorry to hear, JBrase.  It's wonderful your family made it out to see her.  That always means the most.

[H. Ross Peron]

It's holiday season and I had a free day so I decided to visit parts of my hometown that I am not very familiar with. I focused on the west of the city and went from the neighborhoods where urban hipsters live and meet to a district which is largely inhabited by people of the working and lower middle classes. In other words (and since this is a politics forum), I travelled from a place with the following voting patterns

Social Democrats: 34%
Swiss People's Party: 11%
Free Democratic Party: 6.5%
Green Party: 16%
Green Liberal Party: 12%
Christian Democratic Party: 4.5%
(Left) Alternative Party: 13%
Evangelical People's Party: 1%
Swiss Democrats: 1.5%
(approximate ratio between center left and center right: 2:1)

to a part of town which votes this way:

Social Democrats: 29%
Swiss People's Party: 25.5%
Free Democratic Party: 11%
Green Party: 8%
Green Liberal Party: 8%
Christian Democratic Party: 7%
(Left) Alternative Party: 2.5%
Evangelical People's Party: 5%
Swiss Democrats: 3.5%
(approximate ratio between center left and center right: 1:1)

Source: Results of the 2010 municipal elections

So the 2nd part of town is more working class/religious and the 1st part is more urban professional?

Yes, that summarizes it nicely. People with a comparatively low income tend to support the right-leaning parties to a greater extent.

How come the FDP is stronger in the latter? While it is a right-leaning party, I'd expect a European liberal party like that to appeal more to wealthy professional types or the young/educated vote than working class voters.

[CatoMinor]

A couple hours ago my mother passed away. So I am probably going to be off for a little while. While this is the saddest I've ever felt, I am still greatly comforted knowing that her suffering is over and that she is in a better place now.

[bballrox4717]

I'm no longer unemployed! It's not much of a job, but it allows me to save up some cash so an internship outside my area (DC perhaps? ) next summer becomes much more realistic.

[anvi]

A couple hours ago my mother passed away. So I am probably going to be off for a little while. While this is the saddest I've ever felt, I am still greatly comforted knowing that her suffering is over and that she is in a better place now.

Take good care, JBrase.  Hope you and your family can keep your mother with you always. 

[King]

I accidentally got relaxation on my shirt.  I hate when that happens.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

A couple hours ago my mother passed away. So I am probably going to be off for a little while. While this is the saddest I've ever felt, I am still greatly comforted knowing that her suffering is over and that she is in a better place now.

Very sorry to hear this. You'll be in my prayers. I had to go through losing a parent three years ago, and it is one of the most emotionally painful experiences someone young can go through. Though you're quite a bit older than I was, and still older than I am now, this is still an early age for that to happen. Very sorry.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I got a drink with my supervisor and her friend after work today. She told me if we just said goodbye at the office that she would get sentimental. Probably a bad move but I made it out alive.

[traininthedistance]

I went into Manhattan with the GF to go see a friend of hers, who was having a party at some Irish pub.

We ended up watching some X Games on ESPN (that's what happened to be on the TV in front of us) and talking about how there were no competitors from outside the US... except of course for the one dude from Australia.  Not the sort of thing I'd normally watch but actually really impressive.  It kinda felt like gymnastics... FOR MEN.

Then on the way back she insisted on taking a detour to get on the R train instead of waiting for the Q, because the Montague Tube is going to be closed for fourteen months to repair damage from Sandy starting tomorrow and she thought it might be nice to give it a going-away ride.  Obviously, I thought this was a fine idea.

Goddamn it we really need to do something to make our infrastructure more resilient.  We need to do a lot of things.

[H. Ross Peron]

Very sorry to hear, JBrase.  It's wonderful your family made it out to see her.  That always means the most.

[Antonio the Sixth]

A couple hours ago my mother passed away. So I am probably going to be off for a little while. While this is the saddest I've ever felt, I am still greatly comforted knowing that her suffering is over and that she is in a better place now.

Terribly sorry to hear that. I can't imagine your pain, but hope you can find comfort with the rest of your family. Deepest condolences.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I feel a bit silly now, but I had come here to say that I apparently sleepwalked last night. For the first time in my life. I feel a bit creeped out.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I'm in a Japanese rest stop with internet access fading in and out and an Oricon Top 40-type station playing, so, you know. I'm all right.

I'm so sorry, Jbrase. I can't even imagine losing my mother. Take all the time you need; you'll be in our thoughts and prayers.

Details, Antonio?

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

My condolences, jbrase.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

I hope Torie and Don are enjoying their little getaway.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Details, Antonio?

From my mom's account, I walked into her room bringing my pillow, said something along the lines of "there's something strange with this house" (it's a long story, but I'm not currently living in our usual house in Savoie), and then went back to my room. I have no memory of the event at all. I don't know if I should laugh or be afraid.

[anvi]

After I first moved out of my parents' house, the guy I rented the main floor of a house with used to sleepwalk all the time.  Sometimes he would talk to me while asleep.  Once, he even put his clothes in the washer, went back to bed, got up when the buzzer went off, put them in the dryer, and went back to bed.  The next morning he got up, and the first thing he said to me when he came out of his room was; "damn, I forgot to do my laundry last night."  Yep, did an entire load of laundry while sleeping.  Actually, I wasn't freaked out at all by that--on the contrary, I was pretty impressed! 

At the moment, I'm procrastinating from working on an assessment plan for my department's graduate program.  Doing these things just depresses and irritates me--they're a waste of time, and they show just how little school administrators trust faculty members and vice-versa.  Boo.

[tmthforu94]

A couple hours ago my mother passed away. So I am probably going to be off for a little while. While this is the saddest I've ever felt, I am still greatly comforted knowing that her suffering is over and that she is in a better place now.

Your family is in my thoughts and prayers, JBrase. So sorry to hear this, though it's good that you're seeing the positive side.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Went kayaking today and yesterday at a lake that has an island on which, according to legend, Chief Pontiac was buried. Been to the island both days. No Indian ghosts, but there were the ruins of a house, steps, pipes, and some sort of wall/railing. Has a "No Trespassing" sign, which we of course ignored. I've been hangin' with the same group of people too much outside of grad parties (over), so I should probably try to branch out, though I have little time to do so before college.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I was the victim of a HORRIBLE prank Saturday night. My brothers asshole friend decided to pull up a fake porn site invented by 4chan. Before I could stop him, he searched “Lolita” which I knew was a tern bound to pull up illegal content. Sure enough, a warning came up saying my IP was logged and that the FBI would be notified. Not knowing what to do, I panicked, went into IRC chat to explain the situation (hoping that a government agent would be watching the conversation) and spent all Sunday waiting nervously for the police to raid my house. Nothing happened, and I later found out that this was not a real website. I was and am furious; I almost had a complete breakdown to the point that among the many, many options I was considering was voluntarily committing myself to a psychiatric hospital to preempt the police, who were obviously NOT looking for me.

I recently got an AX-22 brother electric typewriter; about two weeks ago, I got new ribbon for it. Than the Daisy Wheel fell apart as I typed with it….so after weeks of looking, I discovered that a local office supply store in West Palm Beach that has been in business since 1922 carries them. So I got $40 from the bank, and was dropped off at the train station. The train was 45 minutes late, and once I got on board, it took another 30 minutes because they were changing crews. Finally, the short train ride to WPB gets underway. I walked about two miles into downtown WPB in the 91 degree heat, still paranoid about the previous days prank, and got to the store….and it was closed-apparently it randomly moved to Lake Worth without mentioning ANYTHING on its website. So I ate at Jimmy Johns, and walked to the train station, noticing that this homeless man who I first saw at the Boynton Station started appearing everywhere I went. I assumed I was being followed and zig-zagged my way across town to shake him. I eventually did. I got on the train, got back home to Boynton, and walked another two miles to my house.

Safe to say that this has been the worst part of the worst summer of my life, and that I cannot wait for 2013 to end. 2013 began to suck in November 2012.

[opebo]

I search for Lolita all the time - I think its OK.

[Morning in Atlas]

Last therapist appointment. Bill paid today. Watch out Pennsylvania, I'm coming in hot.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Have had two days off in a row. My bastard boss has been like "F#ck it, I'll take the day off", leaving my friend and I to deal with that. In any case, the weight room was closed today, not leaving much to do. Feeling too lazy to try to hang out with some folks, so it's like whatever, bro.