What made your day? KAI

[JAGzilla]

this hellscape of a state.

Minnesota is that bad? Honestly, it's a state I don't hear much of anything about. I think of woods and lakes and... don't know much else. Wikipedia makes it sound very livable, but they're good at that. What, is it just cold?

[Jomei]

I enjoyed some of my time there. My reasons for needing out have more to do with a dried-up social scene and generally not having opportunities because of the culture where I worked. Academic departments have subtle ways of boxing you out if you don't quite fit in, and that made things tough at times.

But the winters are, indeed, quite a drag. I'm in a subtropical climate now and probably won't ever have to shovel snow except when I visit family.

[HedorahIsBestGirl]

this hellscape of a state.

Minnesota is that bad? Honestly, it's a state I don't hear much of anything about. I think of woods and lakes and... don't know much else. Wikipedia makes it sound very livable, but they're good at that. What, is it just cold?

It goes beyond just the awful winters. If we're lucky, we get 2-3 nice months a year, and that's a rarity.

December through March are just absolute hell. Snowstorms whenever it's most inconvenient, temperatures that frequently drop below zero and winds that get even colder. Imagine the end of Son of Godzilla. That's what at least a third of the year looks like.

April is chaos. It'll be winter weather with 7 inches of snow on Monday, 70 degrees with thunderstorms on Wednesday, then back to snow just in time for the weekend. Everything is covered in mud. Sometimes this extends into May, other years we get lucky. Even if May is nice, the mosquitoes are quick to ruin it. Locals call them the "state bird" for a reason.

There will usually be one nice month between June and August, chosen at random. But not July, which always feels like living in an oven and breathing hot soup. Either we get a nice June and a scorching August or the opposite. If August is good, we may get lucky with a period of nice weather that lasts until late October. If August sucks, September will usually suck too.

October is the only consistently nice month and even that's not reliable. We've had snow before Halloween before.

November is the dreadful buildup to winter. Sometimes it's a proper winter month, other years it's still fall but with those nasty icy winds that peel your face off.

Oh, and hope you like your outdoor recreation because there's nothing else to do. And the crappy weather makes outdoor recreation hard to plan most of the year. Our indoor options are the much-overhyped Mall of America and restaurants/bars that charge like it's New England but don't offer New England quality. And that's if you're a Twin Cities resident. If you live anywhere beyond the metro, there's a whole lot of nothing. Go south and storms get worse, go north and cold gets worse.

[JAGzilla]

So basically if you're not an outdoorsy type that likes the cold, you're in a lot of trouble. I lived in Ohio as a kid and West Virginia for a little while as a teenager, so I definitely have some experience with actual cold and snow, but not recently and the Georgia heat has made me soft since then. The upper Midwest probably would kill me. I sympathize with wanting out.

Well, it's good to know Minnesota's problems are just climate-oriented instead of some of the worse options. My first thought was that it was going to turn out to secretly be a poor, crumbling pit of drugs and crime like some of the other Midwest states.

[G-Matt]

I overheard a Chinese lady asking for directions at a cafe, so I offered to lead her to the tram that would take her to her destination. She was so touched by that.

[JAGzilla]

A little thing, but finding out that fruit doves exist. Tropical Southeast Asian doves or pigeons in ridiculous colors that look photoshopped. Do an image search. All of a sudden, the mourning doves in my yard feel so inadequate...

[LSD Jellyfish]

Back in Brooklyn temporarily. I finished my second job through the JET Program. I'm excited because when I return to Japan in a couple of weeks I'll also be starting another job, one that's far more suitable for my experience. While the JET Program was a good experience overall, and I'd gladly help anyone that wants to try and apply, I'm happy to be done with it. When I return to Japan I'll be working a new job completely of my own volition. I've also recently gotten another job online that I'm excited to do and don't want to fuck up.

Also had a good conversation about my life and it's trajectory with my dad last night. Drank a Sam Adams Cherry Wheat Ale and had a semi-serious but mostly positive conversation with him. I'm in my late 20s and it seems like things are finally clicking into place longterm career wise. I'm already married and have two kids so the next step is to just make more $$$. Just a lot of self-actualization going on.

I have time to also get back into my creative writing and Godzilla pursuits.

[Jomei]

I have time to also get back into my creative writing and Godzilla pursuits.

Awwwwwwwwwwww yeah

Congrats on making your next big moves

[HeiseiGodzilla117]

Back in Brooklyn temporarily. I finished my second job through the JET Program. I'm excited because when I return to Japan in a couple of weeks I'll also be starting another job, one that's far more suitable for my experience. While the JET Program was a good experience overall, and I'd gladly help anyone that wants to try and apply, I'm happy to be done with it. When I return to Japan I'll be working a new job completely of my own volition. I've also recently gotten another job online that I'm excited to do and don't want to fuck up.

Congrats on your new gig, LSD!

Drank a Sam Adams Cherry Wheat Ale

But, ESPECIALLY congratulations on this.

[Jomei]

My movers finally arrived, and I am full of gratitude to the universe for proper sleeping arrangements, a desk to work at, a TV to blast YouTube while I do other things. I am back in homebody heaven

[LSD Jellyfish]

But, ESPECIALLY congratulations on this.

I generally don’t like sweet alcoholic beverages, but I think they’ve got the balance of flavor and not being overly sweet just right.

The sam adams cherry wheat beer is one of the few beers I’ve genuinely missed while I’ve been in Japan and it’s been something I’ve been looking forward to. I don’t drink too much these days, but it was really nice to just have two and chill before calling it a night.

[HeiseiGodzilla117]

I hear you. I mostly just have the occasional hard cider these days. But I've always enjoyed several of Sam Adams' offerings. And since I can't get any 3 Floyds locally anymore, Sam Adams is probably the only brand I care to drink at all. The Cherry Wheat is one that I always thought was refreshing after a hard day's work.

[chikara]

cool chat from Japanese friend

[JAGzilla]

I picked Japanese back up on Duolingo the other day. I'd tried it before a few years ago and didn't like their teaching approach at all (for Japanese specifically), but the course has been revamped and new features added, so it actually kinda kicks ass now. Memorizing three alphabets just by looking at the characters and hearing the sounds is difficult and boring at best, but now they have you actually write the characters and there are lessons without sound so you force yourself to commit sounds to memory.

I wish I'd had this available ten years ago; I'd be fluent by now, or at least close enough. I had time and drive back then, but limited resources. Now that's reversed. Duolingo makes (limited) language learning easy, though. Maybe I can finally push through and make some progress again.

[G-Matt]

I saw this little beauty. Only two weeks till the 35mm screening here in Helsinki!

[Jomei]

I thought a few minor fridge decoration items had gone missing in my move, which is not a big deal, but the fact I couldn't find those (which are easy to spot) made me worry about the fact I also couldn't locate an obviously irreplaceable packet of correspondences from family and other loved ones, students, mentors, etc. from over the years. I knew I'd packed all of those things somewhere safe, and in fact I thought I'd brought them in my car with me, but for two weeks, I couldn't seem to unearth them. I was starting to think a box had gotten missing, or things had fallen out, or maybe I'd been stupid enough to leave them in the drawer of a piece of furniture that didn't survive the move (and which I just had the movers get rid of).

But today, instead of really getting a lot of real work done, I finally figured out where they'd been stashed in the mad dash of packing. Phew.

[Kiryu2012]

After being missing for around a month, my cat suddenly returned last night.

[Tyrant_Lizard_King]

Guillermo Del Toro is currently staying in a haunted hotel room while filming Frankenstein and keeps giving updates about his experiences.

[mikelcho]

After being missing for around a month, my cat suddenly returned last night.

That's great! I'm really happy for you.

How does that old song go? "But the cat came back...".

[mikelcho]

I just got today a Kraken Blu-ray of Ebirah, Horror of the Deep in the mail from eBay when it was expected to arrive on the 28th, next Wednesday! Is that great or what?