gdp's Comments

The Toast : Open Thread!

Tue, 28 Jun 2016 20:47:28 +0000

Yes, I loved that book! I was so sad when I finished it; I really didn't want to leave that world. I'd have been perfectly happy if it had meandered along for another 900 pages.

The Toast : Every Meal In Great Expectations, Ranked In Order Of How Upsetting It Is

Tue, 21 Jun 2016 14:16:59 +0000

The Royal Society of Chemists researched Miss Havisham's wedding cake back in 2011, and it's a doozy: http://www.rsc.org/AboutUs/News/PressReleases/201...

The Toast : Link Roundup!

Wed, 8 Jun 2016 13:17:06 +0000

Wait, so that whole "Who sir, me sir? Yes sir, you sir" thing in Houseboat came from the Bible?

The Toast : John Denver's Testimony At The PMRC Hearings Was Transcendently Good

Tue, 24 May 2016 20:50:49 +0000

Holy shit, did he REALLY? I once fractured a rib by laughing too hard; our glorious pairing would've been carnage!

The Toast : John Denver's Testimony At The PMRC Hearings Was Transcendently Good

Tue, 24 May 2016 20:19:42 +0000

THANK you. My thoughts exactly.

The Toast : John Denver's Testimony At The PMRC Hearings Was Transcendently Good

Tue, 24 May 2016 19:22:36 +0000

I also MAY have drunkenly bellowed "I WANNA FUCK JOHN DENVER" at my best friend when we were in college, and 20 years later said bff MAY still remind me of it on at least a monthly basis

The Toast : John Denver's Testimony At The PMRC Hearings Was Transcendently Good

Tue, 24 May 2016 18:56:28 +0000

I was in the 8th grade when those hearings were going on, and hoooo boy was I invested. I remember actually cheering when John, who everyone clearly expected to be pro-labelling, stepped up and proceeded to demolish them in the most John Denver of ways. He was my hero from that point on (and I still hate Tipper Gore, but I held my nose and voted for Al because I HAD TO AND THIS IS A LESSON FOR TODAY omg sorry my nerves are extremely frayed)

The Toast : Link Roundup!

Wed, 13 Apr 2016 19:08:46 +0000

It's a good thing it's not the 1600s; we would all be executed for weather-predicting witchcraft.

The Toast : Link Roundup!

Wed, 13 Apr 2016 17:07:28 +0000

Thanks! Yeah, it stinks. But it's definitely worth tracking to see if the numbers coincide with how you're feeling. It could also be that it's just really crappy timing, and a cocktail of triggers are overlapping for you - hormones, barometric pressure, stressing over the headache itself. Do you have any allergies? They can also be a contributing factor - especially now, with all the mold and pollen in the air. Ugh. I'm so sorry. If this has never happened to you before and it persists, you may want to talk to your doctor about it. If only for the peace of mind. Good luck - I hope you feel better soon!

The Toast : Link Roundup!

Wed, 13 Apr 2016 14:55:00 +0000

I get barometric pressure migraines that can last weeks at a time. As soon as the pressure changes, I get a migraine, and if it stays high - anything above 29.50 for me - the headache sticks around until the pressure drops again. Last month we had numbers of 30.50+ for almost two straight weeks and I was a WRECK. I have prescription migraine meds, but they make me feel like I'm underwater, so I try to stick with advil and watch the weather reports like a hawk to get out ahead of it. But even with the pain muffled, the sinus pressure still makes my teeth ache and my skull feel like it's going to explode outward. My brother and I inherited this lovely sensitivity from our mom. Growing up, rainy days were always occasions of great giddy excitement in our house, because it meant a break in the pressure and a rebirth as a normal human being for each of us.

The Toast : Link Roundup!

Wed, 23 Mar 2016 17:14:30 +0000

Me too! It really is fascinating, because aside from that guy, my experience was very tame. We lived right on the edge of West Philadelphia, so it was a pretty diverse place, faith-wise. I'd actually forgotten about that whole drama until this thread reminded me, so now I think I'm going to bust it out at the Easter dinner table. "Hey, remember that dude that burned a cross in front of Sacred Heart? What was up with THAT?"

The Toast : Link Roundup!

Wed, 23 Mar 2016 16:37:56 +0000

When I was little, there was a nondenominational Christian church in my neighborhood, and its pastor haaaaaated Catholics. He even went so far as to burn a cross on the front lawn of our Catholic church! And then stood out there screaming that all Catholics would burn in hell. It was wild. He also bought a building across the street from his church and put up a big sign that said "CONVERSION CENTER: For the Conversion of Roman Catholic Priests and Nuns." I was utterly fascinated by all of this, but anytime I asked my mom or dad about it they just said, "eh, he's a loon."

The Toast : Jobs I Have Had

Tue, 22 Mar 2016 23:29:13 +0000

I did! I have a degree in painting and I veer towards the photorealistic, style-wise - so the job was right up my alley, tbh. I sanded the whole floor, painted over all the black, damaged areas, and then heavily varnished the whole thing a few times. It took forever but it looked amazing; you never would have known there was a problem! It's held up, too - this was back in 1998, and I was there for a party a couple years ago and it still looks great. They top up the varnish every few years so it's a pee barrier. I should get them to endorse me for "faux bois" on LinkedIn.

The Toast : Jobs I Have Had

Mon, 21 Mar 2016 20:38:24 +0000

Yeah, I remember wandering though the huge building after everyone had been laid off, and eerie is the perfect word. Desks full of work abandoned mid-stream, because no one was going to take it over. Plus the awful feeling of guilt for being one of the few left standing - even though we all knew the axe would eventually fall on us, too (which it did).

The Toast : Jobs I Have Had

Mon, 21 Mar 2016 20:30:30 +0000

It was UNBELIEVABLY creepy. The entire staff watched with horror as it progressed, but the CEO just ate it up! The mimicking of the voice and mannerisms was the most unnerving part - especially when, early on, he would get the cadence wrong on some catchphrase of the CEO's, and the whole thing would fall horribly flat while we winced at our desks in second-hand embarrassment. He also was a sneak - he would silently creep around the office and report to the CEO about people he didn't think were team players. In less than a year, he single-handedly turned what was a happy workplace into a company full of scared, exhausted people, constantly looking over their shoulders to make sure they weren't going to get reprimanded for some imagined infraction. So, so awful.

The Toast : Jobs I Have Had

Mon, 21 Mar 2016 17:06:13 +0000

The job where, except for our tiny dept, 2000 people were laid off in one day and armed guards were posted at the doors of the building. The job where the CEO had two estranged brothers with similar companies in the same industry, so when one of the brother's companies did something, we were ordered to drop everything and do it too, and do it BETTER (and put in massive! unpaid! overtime! because we still had to do all our other work as well). The job where my department (the art department) was referred to as the "trained monkeys." The job where, every week, we each had to take a day to drive 2.5 hours to an office in another state, "work" for three hours, and then leave to drive 2.5 hours back again, because our CEO was pulling a power play on our boss. The job where an HR guy was hired who immediately pulled a Single White Female, turning himself into a carbon copy of the CEO by losing 40+ pounds and changing his hair, dress, voice and mannerisms to EXACTLY match the other man. He was rewarded within a year by being promoted to the second most powerful position in the company. The job where I was asked to paint fake wood grain onto the owner's hardwood floors at home, which were destroyed because she let her dogs pee wherever. The job where our group publisher hired the bartender (a bodybuilder with no experience in sales or publishing) from his local drinking hole to be the publisher of one of the magazines I worked on. Not an entry-level sales position, the PUBLISHER. The job where I was working late in what I thought was an empty office, when a blazing fight ("I WAS LEAVING MY HUSBAND FOR YOUUUUU") broke out between two upper managers who we had all suspected were having an affair. I tried to silently extricate myself from the floor but tripped into a metal filing cabinet, fled in panic, and hid in a bathroom on another floor until I thought it was safe to leave.

The Toast : Link Roundup!

Mon, 22 Feb 2016 22:53:36 +0000

Yessss! Although it didn't take long to become fairly desensitized.... | miss hearing "uuuuuuugggggggh" coming from somebody's cubicle. The whole office would run to see what fresh horror had arrived.

The Toast : Link Roundup!

Mon, 22 Feb 2016 18:08:10 +0000

My favorite was the guy who thought he could cure a baseball-sized maggot infestation in his FACE with meditation. He only went to the doctor "when the sensation of movement became too strong," and he could no longer sleep.

The Toast : Link Roundup!

Mon, 22 Feb 2016 15:42:31 +0000

Oh god, I used to work in medical publishing, and one of the magazines I designed was about dermatology. I still have nightmares. It never fails to blow my mind how long people will go before seeing a doctor.

The Toast : Link Roundup!

Wed, 10 Feb 2016 15:47:30 +0000

I basically just scrolled through looking for Hannibal.