Random Comments that don't warrant a thread

[ChinaBuck]

Sheâ€s Chinese, sheâ€s not into dog porn (just acknowledging the rivalry is all   )

Sheâ€s a big time dog lover, hates cats. We have two dogs (Happy and Dude - guess which one is the Pit Mix), and every two weeks sheâ€s wants to adopt 2 or 3 more.

[ChinaBuck]

Birthdays, are you happy, depressed, forget your birthday? How do you react?

Iâ€m usually fairly happy. But once I passed 60, I have had the sense that at some point it all ends. I donâ€t fear death, but I do wonder what my purpose in life was supposed to be. I start looking for signs, and at the same time, I know thatâ€s not how it works.

Anyway, what got me on the topic was a couple of others birthdays. My FIL has his birthday today. Itâ€s cool, heâ€ll want to go to a BBQ place and have a couple of beers. Young lady in our office turns 30 in a few days. She told me yesterday this is the arrival of the day she has always feared. In China, you are hugely expected to be married before your 30th birthday. And she hasnâ€t had a boyfriend for 3 or 4 years. I donâ€t get it, guys should be lined up down the street to meet her. Sheâ€s very nice, smart, funny, hardworking, diligent and pretty cute to boot. I donâ€t get it.

[ChinaBuck]

Birthdays, are you happy, depressed, forget your birthday? How do you react?

Iâ€m usually fairly happy. But once I passed 60, I have had the sense that at some point it all ends. I donâ€t fear death, but I do wonder what my purpose in life was supposed to be. I start looking for signs, and at the same time, I know thatâ€s not how it works.

Anyway, what got me on the topic was a couple of others birthdays. My FIL has his birthday today. Itâ€s cool, heâ€ll want to go to a BBQ place and have a couple of beers. Young lady in our office turns 30 in a few days. She told me yesterday this is the arrival of the day she has always feared. In China, you are hugely expected to be married before your 30th birthday. And she hasnâ€t had a boyfriend for 3 or 4 years. I donâ€t get it, guys should be lined up down the street to meet her. Sheâ€s very nice, smart, funny, hardworking, diligent and pretty cute to boot. I donâ€t get it.

So Friday night we had the FIL bday dinner. Went to the Korean/Japanese BBQ joint in the mall next door to my office. Good gawd we ate way too much. FIL very happy. I was happy he was happy. Heâ€s a good dude. Even my wife ate some meat, slowly, ever so slowly, Iâ€m getting her back to the dark side. Before you know it, sheâ€ll be going to Burger King with me. That said, the three ladies mostly focused on grilled veggies and hot pot, the husbands ate meat like cave men.

[stxbuck]

A birthday is just an excuse to buy a friend a beer, or have them buy one for you!

[stxbuck]

Went to the Celtic Festival yesterday, good Irish bands. My buddy works for the beer distributor, so I got free beer. They were serving Boddngtonâ€s, which I thought was ironic for a Celtic festival.

[lrrps21]

Birthdays, are you happy, depressed, forget your birthday? How do you react?

Iâ€m usually fairly happy. But once I passed 60, I have had the sense that at some point it all ends. I donâ€t fear death, but I do wonder what my purpose in life was supposed to be. I start looking for signs, and at the same time, I know thatâ€s not how it works.

Anyway, what got me on the topic was a couple of others birthdays. My FIL has his birthday today. Itâ€s cool, heâ€ll want to go to a BBQ place and have a couple of beers. Young lady in our office turns 30 in a few days. She told me yesterday this is the arrival of the day she has always feared. In China, you are hugely expected to be married before your 30th birthday. And she hasnâ€t had a boyfriend for 3 or 4 years. I donâ€t get it, guys should be lined up down the street to meet her. Sheâ€s very nice, smart, funny, hardworking, diligent and pretty cute to boot. I donâ€t get it.

With 10 million excess males many women in China have become like the Women in the West - unrealistic and unreasonable. She's probably a nice woman, but she definitely has been around other women who think they should be with Elon Musk wealth not ordinary man wealth. She's now officially in the 'leftover' category. Unfortunately, she'll be herding cats from this point on unless she finds a dude outside of China.

I often get reminders of why I was put on this earth. On Friday I was contacted by the VA (D.C.) to go over the 26+ years of research and evidence gathering I participated in regards to burn pit exposure. Recently the VFW, and other groups, took credit for getting several illnesses linked to burn pits service connected. I was there from day one and none of the groups were anywhere at all. They always swoop in and take both credit and monthly donations though.

Anyway, I was wondering if I even wanted to continue helping Veterans these days. I was thinking this very thought when I was driving to Philly to meet up with my PSU buddies. We are making up for lost time due to covid lockdowns. It was just passed midnight when I was driving Southbound on a major road. Just ahead I saw several police cruisers with their lights flashing and out of nowhere a driver of a vehicle the police were chasing decided to take a big chance by driving up the off ramp to enter the traffic going the opposite direction. It was a split second not a moment more when the vehicle was heading towards me doing 50+ while I was doing 65+. My training kicked in and it felt like slow motion where I saw the entire moment play out while I relied on my training. I managed to avoid entering eternity by about 5 feet. The driver of the other vehicle hit the side of the concrete barrier and bounced into what is the right lane in the Southbound direction which allowed him to avoid the vehicle several car lengths behind me. He continued to accelerate going North on the Southbound lane.

My exit was the next one. As I drove down the ramp the police were out of their vehicles. One of them motioned to me as he came to the driver's side of the vehicle. He told me they watched the entire event. They thought they were going to be hauling off ground beef and could not believe I avoided the vehicle. I told him "Trust your training". He nodded in agreement. I went on my way.

Earlier, I left for Philly, but turned around to get my phone. I almost never bring it because the lovely Emiko is with me. This time she was not with me. As I walked back to the vehicle I decided to take the Porsche not the F-150. I have no doubts I would not have been able to avoid being hit if I had the F-150. Some force in the galaxy - probably far, far away - intervened. 

I've decided to continue to help - at least with the burn pit research.

[ChinaBuck]

The size of the gender imbalance is closer to 30,000,000. But that mostly exists in rural areas. The big cities the local population is is pretty equally balanced. That said, the greatest number of itinerant workers in the big cities are poorly education rural men doing construction work primarily. The young lady in question is not likely looking in their direction but by the same token, I've never heard her utter a word in three years that suggests she is looking for wealthy men. Her last boyfriend was a designer, and he broke up with her because his parents insisted he marry a woman from his local town.

Women in China often do not have high regard for single men, often using the term Trash Men. It has nothing to do with their wealth or education, the term is used relative to how many Chinese men treat women as something to "own" and that women are not equal to men and expecting them to simply be a sex provider, cook or clothes washer. While many marriages are still arranged by parents, more and more women are choosing to seek their own choices, thus, it takes longer to find a mate. And this leads to the staggering number of woman focused romance movies where, in the end, the girl marries the boy for love.

One other point, it was nearly 10 years ago that China outlawed parents from viewing ultrasound images of the baby in the womb. Before this, it was all too common that a family chose to abort a baby if the scan showed the baby was a girl. And now of course with the population about to start falling in China, they are actively encouraging fewer and fewer abortions. If there is some abnormality present or a mother's health is in question, abortion is still allowed, but now, getting an elective abortion is becoming hard to do in China.

[Alabuckeye]

One other point, it was nearly 10 years ago that China outlawed parents from viewing ultrasound images of the baby in the womb. Before this, it was all too common that a family chose to abort a baby if the scan showed the baby was a girl. And now of course with the population about to start falling in China, they are actively encouraging fewer and fewer abortions. If there is some abnormality present or a mother's health is in question, abortion is still allowed, but now, getting an elective abortion is becoming hard to do in China.

We live in upside down world where the authoritarian govt is more life supporting than the free. I do understand it isnâ€t on an altruistic basis, but still.

[ChinaBuck]

One other point, it was nearly 10 years ago that China outlawed parents from viewing ultrasound images of the baby in the womb. Before this, it was all too common that a family chose to abort a baby if the scan showed the baby was a girl. And now of course with the population about to start falling in China, they are actively encouraging fewer and fewer abortions. If there is some abnormality present or a mother's health is in question, abortion is still allowed, but now, getting an elective abortion is becoming hard to do in China.

We live in upside down world where the authoritarian govt is more life supporting than the free. I do understand it isnâ€t on an altruistic basis, but still.

I don't know the numbers, but I now wouldn't be surprised at all if the abortion rate here is lower than in the US, maybe now, a lot lower. 

It's changed a lot in the years I've been doing work over here, 14 years total. Used to be an average size hospital would have 4 abortion surgery rooms. Now maybe one, it's done in Out-patient Surgery and that one OR isn't exclusive to abortion. Years ago, I told a colleague that I was not comfortable in planning that part of a hospital, so he did that part. But he also told me, and this had to be 12-13 years ago, don't worry, it's going to change. You just have to look at the demographics trends over the last three decades. That dude was smarter than me.

[3rdgensooner]

I guess this thread is a good place for a pointless post. Driving home from dinner yesterday I got behind a little foreign car and the plate said SUBPERB. WTF? Am I missing something or is the owner of the car missing something?
Then I got next to an old white Bronco. Cool, maybe an Al Cowlings sighting. Then I saw the plate. DESRTOJ. I liked that. 
Also weird coincidence. The bartender at the bar across the street from my house walked into a bar and sat next to me in North Phoenix last week. Then exactly one week later did the same thing at a bar downtown. Of course I say are you following me around. No he says I always come here. Which was true because he was with two guys I know are regulars there. A city of 4.5 million what are the odds? The two places are more than 10 miles apart. And I don't really know the guy at all except he's served me a few times.

[maize]

I've run into more people I know in Florida. Rather than say the local grocery store where I grew up. I don't have an explanation for it, just weird. 19+ hours away disregarding traffic.

[stxbuck]

Gonna hit up the Buffalo Trace distillery on the way to Mammoth Cave on Thursday. Itâ€s kind of crazy how many people around me have turned into bourbon collectors, stalking liquor stores on release days. I just like drinking the stuff now and then, never got into the collection thing. It helps living next door to Kentucky.

[AlumneyeJ93]

Went to the Celtic Festival yesterday, good Irish bands. My buddy works for the beer distributor, so I got free beer. They were serving Boddngtonâ€s, which I thought was ironic for a Celtic festival.

Will be headed down the street to the Irish Festival in Dublin this weekend. Weather forecast isn't looking too promising as of now though.
Always enjoy the music and some Jameson.

[stxbuck]

Went to the Celtic Festival yesterday, good Irish bands. My buddy works for the beer distributor, so I got free beer. They were serving Boddngtonâ€s, which I thought was ironic for a Celtic festival.

Will be headed down the street to the Irish Festival in Dublin this weekend. Weather forecast isn't looking too promising as of now though.
Always enjoy the music and some Jameson.

Dublin Irish Festival is the shizznit-nothing else is close. I have permanently sworn off Jameson, canâ€t handle it!

[stxbuck]

Is a chicken gyro really a gyro?