What is making you happy right now

[Ominous Gamer]

Redbox is having a rather nice sale on console games. Halo 5 for $6, The Uncharted collection was $9. Picked up 7 games for less than what a AAA title would cost me new.

[Aimless]

The freezer has been re-stocked with about 15kg of elk-meat, a few kg of nice elk-bones and a buttload of chantrelles, blueberries, lingonberries and cloudberries. We've begun to harvest some of the veggies and have more freshly pressed apple-juice than we can reasonably expect to be able to drink before it goes bad. I won't have to wear scrubs for a couple of months and I usually have about 2-3 patients per day, which means I can spend an insane amount of time on each patient, in a way neither they nor I will ever again experience in the Swedish healthcare system, going through every loose end and neglected complaint and inappropriate medication and crossing the i:s and dotting the t:s etc. In addition to this I have a lot of time to read and I've discovered that my ancient student login is still active which means I can use the good computers in the university library instead of being relegated to the crappy explorer-running garbage-heaps that are my usual frenemies at the hospital. The weather's good and the only thing annoying me right now is the weight I gained over the summer. Soon that too will be but a memory.

[Ominous Gamer]

and with this I have completed my LEGO Dimensions collection. Until the next wave lands in a few weeks. Little guy was a bitch to get a hold of without spending through the nose.

[Aimless]

It's fun being a grownup

[GGT]

My youngest child will turn 21 yrs old in a few days. I'm happy he'll be a legal adult, and I've lived to see the day. I think my dad would be proud of the grandsons he never met, maybe even proud of me, even though he died before my 21st birthday.

Strange way of being happy, huh

[Flixy]

Had a nice company trip to Rotterdam, stayed the night on the SS Rotterdam, which used to be an coean liner sailing to New York and was quite beautiful. And in the morning went racing in those RIB boats in the harbour

This is where the ship is now permanently moored:

[GGT]

To be honest, I'm not sure what makes me happy.

When morning arrives, the first thing that comes to mind is Why the Fuck is the Sun so Bright? I don't awaken like the cheerful chipmunks, ready to hop out of bed, with a song in my heart. I'm one of those people that pulls the sheets over my head and hopes to sleep another two hours.

[Timbuk2]

Heh - different to me. I'm a morning person - so much brighter, more optimistic and productive in the mornings.

[Aimless]

Me too, when I've managed to sleep properly. I need that early morning daylight. Unfortunately my job frequently forces me to be a night-person

[GGT]

It made me "happy" when a big summer storm passed through. Big winds shut down all electric power. The house became silent, void of all electrical hums. All the digital clocks flashed 00:00. The silence was only breached by the storm's blowing wind, and the wind chimes singing on the patio. I laid awake feeling happy for the first time in a long time, not knowing exactly why, but it didn't really matter.

[wiggin]

Seeing all of these world leaders trying to rock a kippah at Peres' funeral. They do a hilariously awful job (although Obama kinda pulled it off). I want to know:
1. Who told them they needed to wear one anyways?
2. Didn't they have any actual Jews on their staff who could have steered them in a less embarrassing direction?

[Aimless]

Indian summer making autumn more tolerable than it usually is. Absolutely beautiful weather all weekend but the leaves have begun to turn and it's chilly enough that you know it's really autumn.

Over the past couple of weeks we've been enjoying the harvest from our balcony garden, from our in-laws' garden and from nearby farms. I keep forgetting just how much better properly grown in-season veggies taste. Our meat-consumption is way, way down and we've felt better for it.

A lot of fish and other seafood tastes better from autumn onwards and we've been eating a lot more fish as well, thanks to a local fish shop that not only sells some of the most delicious hot meals in town but also has some of the best seafood in town. Which brings me to the thing that's making me the happiest right now:

seafood pan roast.

I fell in love with this on our trip to NYC and I've finally mostly recreated it at home (or perhaps the memory's faded enough that I can't tell the difference). The oysters here are nowhere near as amazing as the ones we feasted on in Kanazawa or even in NYC but they're decent enough and the pan-roast made my heart sing

It's nice having a less busy schedule for a few months.

[Aimless]

I just discovered that Shazia Mirza's bringing her show "The Kardashians Made Me Do It" to the wilderness tickets booked for Tuesday

[Flixy]

The experimental heart valves (pulmonary valves) we make at work were implanted in three kids across Europe and they're doing well

[Ominous Gamer]

Season 1 is complete and "installed" now to start working on collecting Season 2.

[GGT]

Seeing all of these world leaders trying to rock a kippah at Peres' funeral. They do a hilariously awful job (although Obama kinda pulled it off). I want to know:
1. Who told them they needed to wear one anyways?
2. Didn't they have any actual Jews on their staff who could have steered them in a less embarrassing direction?

Do you mean the Jewish head covering also known as a skullcap or yarmulke? I don't know why you'd find it "funny" when people try to observe religious traditions during a state funeral.....but Bill Clinton did look pretty stupid, so I know what you mean. I just wouldn't post in the Happy Thread, if you know what I mean.

[Ominous Gamer]

We're pregnant.

[Loki]

Congrats.

[RandBlade]

Congratulations!

[Aimless]

We're pregnant.

Congrats!

How do you feel about naming children after video game characters??

[Hazir]

Congratulations Angel.

Yesterday took a Portuguese friend on a little tour of the Istanbul most people don't get to see. Then when we were at the entrance of the Kucuk Ayasofia mosque (the Byzantyne church of Sergius and Bacchus) we saw some flames inside. At first we assumed that it was something to get rid of bugs or similar, but then we realised it was actually the carpet that was on fire. Our first reaction was to call an attendant so that he could get the fire extinguisher and extinguish the fire. But as there was no fire extinguisher and it appeared to take quite a bit of time for the attendant to come back with whatever solution he was looking for, Joel and I picked up the big mat from the entrance and dropped it on the spreading flames. Effectively putting out the fire. Turned out the electrician who'd hung up the camera had done a shoddy job. The thing had burned through and had fallen still burning on top of the carpet.

[Ominous Gamer]

Thanks guys

Congrats!

How do you feel about naming children after video game characters??

Got a couple of friends who have done it already. It can work. I don't see it being any worse than naming your kid after a vain, self-centered, and very spoiled fictional movie character.

[GGT]

Congratulations Angel.

oh, that sounds like an omen for Ominous

Yesterday took a Portuguese friend on a little tour of the Istanbul most people don't get to see. Then when we were at the entrance of the Kucuk Ayasofia mosque (the Byzantyne church of Sergius and Bacchus) we saw some flames inside. At first we assumed that it was something to get rid of bugs or similar, but then we realised it was actually the carpet that was on fire. Our first reaction was to call an attendant so that he could get the fire extinguisher and extinguish the fire. But as there was no fire extinguisher and it appeared to take quite a bit of time for the attendant to come back with whatever solution he was looking for, Joel and I picked up the big mat from the entrance and dropped it on the spreading flames. Effectively putting out the fire. Turned out the electrician who'd hung up the camera had done a shoddy job. The thing had burned through and had fallen still burning on top of the carpet.

When that type of event happens, I tend to see it as a bad/unhappy thing -- as in, why didn't the museum hire an electrician who would do a superb job, which would have prevented the fire in the first place?

[wiggin]

The experimental heart valves (pulmonary valves) we make at work were implanted in three kids across Europe and they're doing well

That's awesome! I'm happy it's working out; important work you guys are doing.

Do you mean the Jewish head covering also known as a skullcap or yarmulke? I don't know why you'd find it "funny" when people try to observe religious traditions during a state funeral.....but Bill Clinton did look pretty stupid, so I know what you mean. I just wouldn't post in the Happy Thread, if you know what I mean.

Yes that is what I am referring to. And I find it funny because even Jews aren't required to wear one, but gentiles most certainly aren't expected to ever wear one, even at a Jewish funeral. But what was worse is that it's entirely possible to pull off wearing a kippah if one is unfamiliar with it, but most of the world leaders photographed with one clearly didn't have a clue. It shouldn't have been hard for, say, Prince Charles, to ask Lord Sacks for a non-ridiculous looking one.

We're pregnant.

Fantastic news, congrats!

[GGT]

I'm trying a cognitive "happy" exercise. When I awake in the morning, despite any real aches or pains or sorrows, I'm supposed to be "happy" just to be alive, just seeing another day, living through the night. This new day happiness is supposed to make me feel glad, and propel me into today, one day at a time.

It's been effective for a few days, many days, even months, but it's sporadic. Then I want to post in the Unhappy thread; it's inevitable. What I want to know is how to string a "right now" happiness into a lifetime of happiness. Or how to be "happy" while ageing.....while witnessing the atrocities man commits against itself.

[GGT]

I can truly say that autumn makes me happy. I love the crickets chirping, the low moon, the early sunsets, the chilly weather. I love watching perennial plants and trees begin their seasonal dormancy, pushing out fruits at the last minute, before the first frost, then dropping their leaves like crispy gifts. I love the dark skies of Fall, and the scents of wood or leaves burning in some distant darkness. I love pulling out heavy blankets and sweaters from storage, sleeping with layers instead of throwing them off in summer's sweltering heat. I love everything about autumn.

[Flixy]

We're pregnant.

Congrats!

That's awesome! I'm happy it's working out; important work you guys are doing.

Thanks! I have to say that even though I know how everything is thoroughly tested, it's still a little scary when it's implanted in actual children. Let's hope that the long term results are also good Oh and if you want to help with the important work and still want to move to Europe, we're hiring an R&D director


Also work related happiness: I've been picked to become one of our company's emergency response (not sure what the correct English term is). Basically means you always wear a beeper, and during any emergency you're the first response (i.e. first aid, fighting small fires, or evacuating the building) before the fire department arrives. So also getting first aid and firefighting training, which will be interesting and useful to know And also soon a lecture on school shootings (we are located on university campus) by some American expert, should be interesting.

[wiggin]

Thanks! I have to say that even though I know how everything is thoroughly tested, it's still a little scary when it's implanted in actual children. Let's hope that the long term results are also good Oh and if you want to help with the important work and still want to move to Europe, we're hiring an R&D director

Yeah, it's a bit scary. There's this tradition in North America, especially Canada - don't know if there is an equivalent in Europe - it's called the Order of the Engineer. Essentially, it's a Hippocratic Oath that graduating engineers take to use their powers for, well, good. Doctors and the like can kill people through mistakes on the retail scale, but engineers can do it wholesale - sometimes requiring literally hundreds of thousands of surgeries to fix a defective product, not to mention the deaths that have already been caused. I sometimes worry that the time and budgetary pressures on a given project mean that important data is not being captured that might change a design for the better. But at the end of the day we just have to do our best, based on well-defined standards, and hope we don't miss anything subtle.

Thanks for the suggestions btw but I doubt I'm qualified for the job - I would probably love it (despite not knowing a lick of Dutch) but I probably don't have enough experience. Someday, maybe...

I hope that you end up with solid clinical data going forward!

[Aimless]

Easy access to large quantities of aged gouda can easily numb any negative emotions that may arise from doing a job you're not qualified for.

[Flixy]

We don't have an oath like that here. Of course things like that are both in our company's policy and in the laws and regulations we have to adhere to. And our production processes fall under the ISO standard for medical devices, and the product had to be approved by ethics committees, medical authorities etc., but it's still an experimental product. And it if course does put extra peession on the job, if you don't do your job properly you could really harm someone (though we of course have a lot of tests and safeguards. On the bright side, to try and improve patient's lives gives me a lot more satisfaction than my previous job renting vacation homes

That said this particular batch that was used in these patients was produced when I had just joined and was trained in hardly anything, so I probably only packed these particular units in a box

Oh and in a lot of companies here English is the working language! We have 15 or 16 nationalities working here, more than half of my team isn't dutch. And that's not uncommon, especially in the more educated jobs. Being Dutch is a benefit, it was part of why I got the equipment responsibility (suppliers and technicians don't always speak English as well), and for the emergency response task speaking Dutch was required.