The Bobiverse

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although I don't remember learning I had awakened—or so I was told—until around three days after that)
I apparently extubated myself after emergency surgery, even with the boxing gloves / mittens of shame on. Or, so I am told. I wasn't there for it.

The entire basis of the humor in many comedic TV series in decades past is miscommunication.
Don't get me staaaated, Normie!!!! Those plots make me physically uncomfortable. The movie "Meet The Parents" was entirely predicated on miscommunication. The guy behind me clearly thought it was the funniest thing ever. I wanted to walk out the entire movie. Likewise the TV show "Ellen" 1994-1998 (Ellen Degeneres). Every single episode should have been 5 minutes long because any sane person would simply have said "No. That's not what I meant.".

If something I say or do is inappropriate or offensive, I like to know about it right away so I can (hopefully) avoid that mistake in the future.
I had a long argument with HR at my old company over the fact that the official sexual harassment policy never even mentioned the possibility of the "victim" simply saying they did not welcome or appreciate whatever it was. CLEARLY, if someone grabs a handful or says "sleep with me if you want that raise", you don't need to give them the benefit of the doubt. But, if a coworker says something that offended you, and there is the slightest possibility that they didn't mean to or didn't realize they had, you should at least consider saying something to them before you go to HR. (Never affected me personally, despite an edgy sense of humor, but a friend of mine was.) The company that gobbled us up does have a common sense element to the policy that suggests considering simply speaking up if you feel safe doing so.
 
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... common sense ...
What's that? Talking ~around~ others instead of to them is an age old problem indeed. 🙂 The overwhelming majority of issues between people aren't really issues at all, but simple misunderstandings that became issues when people failed to directly communicate with one-another, face-to-face. Second job working as a buss-boy at a large restaurant. One day a waitress pulled me aside in a storage area and told me to stop stealing tips. I was blindsided, a little tweaked and vehemently responded, "I am not a THIEF!" Well if you didn't steal it, what happened to the money I had on the table? What tip? The laundry chute was full, so the tablecloth with napkins and scraps of food left on it was still at the top. We went over and unwrapped the cloth and... there it was. Tired of them sliding off my face when looking down, I had started working without my glasses... I never saw it! I felt horrible and refused "my" cut of the tips from the waitresses as repentence for my mistakes. While the OTHER waitresses spent weeks complaining behind my back about missing money, THIS waitress actually said something FACE-TO-FACE. I greatly respected her for it.
 
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CLEARLY, if someone grabs a handful or says "sleep with me if you want that raise", you don't need to give them the benefit of the doubt.
I never "grab a handful" or ask for favors and never have. That's far beyond what I've ever considered to be potentially appropriate. My offenses have (in the past) been standing too close—some people have different-sized "personal bubbles"—or (an early lesson 30 years ago) touching a stranger on the shoulder. and once, mildly asking someone out when she was wearing a wedding ring (although I didn't know it and hadn't looked... oops!). We'd had a good conversation while decorating a Christmas tree in a public place and ... well, she was infuriated, I slunk out of the room and I ALWAYS check both hands on any woman I see, even if I never talk to her.

It hadn't even crossed my mind to look at her hand first. but that was the LAST time made that mistake. I also watch for other body language and clues, but, because I have such a hard time reading body language, I have to consider what I think I see as being only possible, rather than something I'm sure about. I have noticed, in the 26-27 years since the event in which I failed to notice a girl's wedding ring, that married women and I have much better conversations.

From what I've been told in answer to my questions (when asking females I trust), this occurs because they feel safer and less intimidated, whereas single females feel intimidated by my appearance. Additionally, single women lack a spouse/significant other from whom they might have learned that guys aren't really scary or from whose status as their husband/SO they draw confidence.
 
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I apparently extubated myself after emergency surgery, even with the boxing gloves / mittens of shame on. Or, so I am told. I wasn't there for it.
When I was first brought to the hospital, the docs told my mom, "call whoever you want to call, he won't live more than 15-20 minutes." When I was alive longer than that, they said "he could die at any time," then after a few days when I'd stabilized, they told her, "He'll live but when he wakes up, IF he wakes up, he'll be a vegetable." ...or so I was told.

That was 1990. Some advances have been made since then, I think, but the brain is still not understood very well...

Apparently, when I had breathing/feeding tubes in my throat and a catheter (during the coma), I kept pulling them out (trachea/esophagus) breathing/feeding tubes and catheter), extubating myself, I guess, to use that terminology. That must have been annoying, so they put tubes up my nostrils instead. (I guess the catheter was reinserted in the same spot?) ... then I got a bad sinus infection, so they cut a hole in my trachea. Although the tracheotomy/tracheostomy scar remained pink for nearly a decade, nowadays people rarely notice it at all. I remember that (the incision) being rather painful, particularly the plastic thing used to keep it open. The pain from that might be what started my wakeup process, since the tracheotomy was performed only two or three days prior to my reported time of awakening, which was 14 days, within 5 minutes or so, from the accident.

It was so EASY to breathe through, though! When I blocked it and breathed through my mouth or nose it was a lot harder (nose being much harder than mouth, which was a lot more difficult than the hole between and just above my clavicles.

*shrug*
 
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The upstairs office is now only used by the cat.
Ow. Sorry you went to such much trouble. I'd like to make my basement office as nice as possible, but I'll probably get only 1/2 of it done before I end up having to occupy it.
 
@Steve mentioned in a recent podcast that he was starting to read, and enjoy, the Bobiverse books. I predict that he'll continue to like them. Since he mentioned it, I decided to revisit the series for the 5th or 6th time. All really good books and movies are worth multiple visits. I read on audio from audible.com. I just wanted to encourage everyone to TRY audio books, even if you never have and always read kindle or print. This isn't like having a voice synthesizer read text, although that's getting pretty good these days. With a good voice actor or actors, it's like living IN the story. It adds a whole other dimension that you don't get otherwise, kind of like a 15 hour long movie. And, you can do this while driving, etc. The voice acting in the Bobiverse series is good. Not all audio books are good, but this one is. Some books, but not this series, also include sound effects in the audio, which adds even more realism. If you try this out, let us know what you think. I'm betting you'll like it. The Audible app on my tablet reads a bit slow for my taste, so I bump the speed up to 1.3X normal. If you're just reading for content, and not entertainment, you can read at 2.0X or so and cover ground more quickly. I like to take the novels at a more leisurely pace.

I'm going to start another thread about another science fiction series, Manticore Ascendant

May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast. :cool: Ron
 
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@Steve mentioned in a recent podcast that he was starting to read, and enjoy, the Bobiverse books. I predict that he'll continue to like them. Since he mentioned it, I decided to revisit the series for the 5th or 6th time. All really good books and movies are worth multiple visits. I read on audio from audible.com. I just wanted to encourage everyone to TRY audio books, even if you never have and always read kindle or print. This isn't like having a voice synthesizer read text, although that's getting pretty good these days. With a good voice actor or actors, it's like living IN the story. It adds a whole other dimension that you don't get otherwise, kind of like a 15 hour long movie. And, you can do this while driving, etc. The voice acting in the Bobiverse series is good. Not all audio books are good, but this one is. Some books, but not this series, also include sound effects in the audio, which adds even more realism. If you try this out, let us know what you think. I'm betting you'll like it. The Audible app on my tablet reads a bit slow for my taste, so I bump the speed up to 1.3X normal. If you're just reading for content, and not entertainment, you can read at 2.0X or so and cover ground more quickly. I like to take the novels at a more leisurely pace.

I'm going to start another thread about another science fiction series, Manticore Ascendant

May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast. :cool: Ron
Having finally made it through the whole Wine Of The Gods series (with interleafed Directorate series) I decided to go back and re-read the Ell Donsaii series.
 
I just wanted to encourage everyone to TRY audio books, even if you never have and always read kindle or print.

I second this! Many audible narrators are FANTASTIC, the Bobiverse books are no exception. I have only listened to books 1-3 so far. For some reason I'm not able to add narration to the 4th book (which I own on Kindle). I could buy the audible version separately but I prefer the less expensive option of adding narration to my existing Kindle purchase.
 
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