Eh, I also wasn’t very good at flirting back then.

Agreed and done, thanks!

Back when I was dating, I encountered someone with the username “razetheaxolotl.” I was trying to show off my awareness of esoteric animals and my vocabulary and asked if she meant to raise them, as in promote awareness of them; or to raze them, as in clear land (and occupants).

She responded that she loved axolotls and would never advocate razing them, then I never heard from her again. Weird.

I’ll try to find it and try even harder to remember to put it here.

I’m not sure I’m succeeding, but I’m trying hard to be good to her. She’s the best person I know.

Last time I touched grass, I hyperextended my already injured ankle. I’m super tentative about that kind of thing now.

Oh, cool. I like the axolotl most of all, but that’s pretty cute, too.

Do you play Minecraft on a server? Can I join?

edit: also, I would describe that as bee-like, rather than squirrel-like; that said, I haven’t seen it in action.

I thought maybe it was a reference to carbuncle.

What game?

edit: warning, my link leads to a gross wiki article.

I don’t like your username, but I like your message.

That appears to be correct.

Thank you!

Watch out for Burnseses.

I dated and married.

I love the story of how I met my now-wife. It was on IRC. When I was trying to start to meet women, I never would have guessed that that would be how I met my future wife.

Thank you for the recommendation! I was not a fan of that series, so I don’t think that was it.

DDG seems to mostly be recommending Deep Rock Galactic (which is a fantastic video game, but my memory is from the 90s or 00s, so I don’t think it qualifies) and I’m not sure how many times I want the term “satchel charge” to show up in my search history.

My thoughts were GoldenEye, Red Faction or Duke Nukem, but unfortunately none of those appear to be correct.

Again, I appreciate the effort.

It’s not quite on the same level, but somewhere I have a screenshot of words along the lines of “test, no one should see this” on Bank of America’s account views.

That reminds me of satchel charges from Red Faction.

Actually, looked it up and found it didn’t resemble what I remembered (and was called the “remote charge” in the first game of the series): https://redfactionwiki.com/wiki/Remote_Charge

I remembered a green bag with an antenna sticking out of the top, very mildly visually reminiscent of your photo. Wonder what game that was.

I suspect you’re right, but fortunately for me, I’ll never know!

Back around 2005ish (I don’t remember the year for sure), I interviewed for a company that, IIRC, provided support for business class printers. At the time, that’s all they did. (Looking at their website now, it seems like they’ve expanded to general IT support).

I went through two two hour in-person interviews followed by a five hour on-site “personality test” (many pages of multiple choice questions, similar to - but longer than - a personality quiz you might find online today). Throughout the two original interviews, I could tell that I was making a good impression and was verbally told how impressed they were several times.

After the test I then had to come back one last time, something like a week later, to be told the results. They told me a lot of things that sounded generic but flattering, again just like a personality quiz you would take online, then told me they’d decided not to hire me. The reason, they explained, was that I changed jobs too often. Which was true, I had been changing jobs a lot in that timeframe. Because I was working retail and hated it; I was interviewing there in the hopes of getting a grown-up job.

I don’t agree with their reasoning, but regardless of whether they were correct, my employment history was on my resume, which they saw before even my first ridiculously long interview. They could have decided that it was a deal breaker at any time without wasting 9 hours of my time (not including drive time and the final “we’re going with no” meeting). Also, in that timeframe I had received another job offer, which I had declined because I thought this would be a better job and closer to (at the time) home. I thought I was going to get it because of the positive feedback.

I’ve been at my current job and haven’t interviewed in a good long while, but other than the process described above I don’t think I’ve ever had an interview last over an hour. Ultimately I’m glad I didn’t get that job, because there were a lot of what I now recognize as red flags, but I was young and dumber back then and was quite upset.

Thank you for the thought! I live in a pretty small town. I would be very surprised if there were such a facility within an hour of here (not to say I wouldn’t travel a two hour round trip to mitigate my pain, but it would be discouraging). If swimming in my pool next year helps, I’ll look into finding an indoor pool for the next cool season.

That sounds like an excellent use of your time. Good luck!

I don’t mind the insurance bit. It does suck that they cut me off, but it’s also true that I wasn’t seeing improvement after several extensions. Even if they had continued paying, I doubt that would have changed.

The aforementioned brother also mentioned suing the surgeon. I declined to do so primarily because I sincerely doubt there was any malice in his actions. He continued to see me after the surgery and seemed to be making his best effort to help me improve. Even though he made a mistake, I don’t want to punish him and I don’t need anything I could get from litigating. You could argue that suing might teach him something by bringing his attention to his mistake, but if he were likely to be made aware of it, it he probably would have done so after seeing me regularly for months. He even met with me and an “ankle specialist” (though I would have thought that the guy who physically rebuilt my ankle would be a specialist himself) who, though he didn’t mention it to me, hopefully had a discussion with the surgeon behind closed doors. Other than not mentioning the incorrect surgery approach, the specialist said all the same things as my current doctor, so presumably they are similarly qualified to observe the error.

Regardless of all of that, it’s been almost three years now and I’ve moved hundreds of miles and several states away. I’m not sure how things like statutes of limitation apply to suing and medical malpractice, but I’m not sure I still could sue even if I were so inclined.

I definitely intend to do some biking once I can safely do so. In the meantime I bought an elliptical that I can use nearly regardless of weather and intend to see how my ankle handles it. Thank you for providing accountability.

Good luck with your class; what class is it?

Since the incident, I have been fortunate enough to move to a home with a pool. So far I’ve only had a few opportunities to use it, but they have been pleasant and not generally hurt my ankle.

I have found that my ankle or leg cramp to a debilitating degree fairly frequently while in the cold water, but that usually doesn’t last too long. It is possible I could make better (and/or more frequent) use of the pool, but that will have to wait until warmer weather to determine. Thank you for the recommendation.

Thank you for the kind words. The ankle thing has shaped my life and capabilities in ways I never would have guessed ever since it happened.

I have a now-five year old whom it has also clearly influenced and I feel bad about causing them trauma. You wouldn’t believe how many of their stuffed animals have also suffered broken ankles or legs since I did.