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[PA Comic] Wednesday, October 9, 2013 - The Intrusion Of Actual Life
Geth
LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
Posts
This is were I was going to make a joke concerning the size of a booce ball to other famous sports paraphernalia in fantasy literature, but there is surprisingly little that I can think of. Best I can come up with is that it's about half the size of a Bludger from Harry Potter...
Every magazine you just listed would be equally boring to me.
I can sometimes read PC gamer mags but largely magazines are an outdated concept to me. I just browse the net on my phone.
Huh.
I'd say about the size of the knob on the end of a wizard's staff...
http://newnations.bandcamp.com
The last line tore me up
http://www.snappedcontroller.com
Turns out that guy was reportedly a gentleman's gentleman who sired a science nerd.
Relevant:
youtube.com/watch?v=1rjRYSfCJvM
I mean I don't put all the blame on him just that it makes me think trying not to be my dad to my kids would take me to the other extreme that is just as unwise.
I would like to be as affectionate as my dad was to my kids, but probably less of a spoiler of them.
My father worked tirelessly to create something to leave me with and I'll be forever grateful to him. Even though we share few interests that don't involve the outdoors, at 34 I still have the childlike view that my dad is the best dad. I try every day to prepare myself for a world that he isn't in. I simply can't imagine it. I know you don't read this and aren't religious, but my prayers/positive energy are directed towards you and your family in this difficult time Jerry.
Thanks for making me laugh.
Having spent many, many hours in hospital waiting rooms, after a certain point everything else blurs together. And besides, they're probably the most up-to-date magazine on the rack.
Steam: adamjnet
Steam: adamjnet
I can only imagine what he's going through. Some of the best and more powerful stuff from Penny Arcade I've seen comes from personal stuff like this, I hope things turn out okay.
I didn't realize why my dad drip-fed my experiences with his family until I was about 15. That was around when I actually got to meet my granddad, a few years before he died. What I experienced wasn't an overbearing asshole dad. What I experienced was a dad with a high level of restraint that occasionally faltered, revealing his upbringing. It's amazing how a contrast can make your whole life look a little different.
And my niece has a great dad because our dad showed that restraint, and brought us up to be thinking, caring, and progressive despite his failings.
Having spent many hours in hospital and doctors' waiting room just this last weekend, depending on electronics to last the entirety of a visit is risky. Especially if you are using the internet.
I guess this is one of the situations that would make a Powerbag a worthy investment.
right in the feels
"Readers who prefer tension and romance, Maledictions: The Offering, delivers... As serious YA fiction, I’ll give it five stars out of five. As a novel? Four and a half." - Liz Ellor
My new novel: Maledictions: The Offering. Now in Paperback!
Holy shit, Jerry, why you gotta write such devastatingly honest and sparse sentences, huh? Haven't I felt enough?
This. This in so many ways.
I was raised by mother and my grandparents. My grandfather died 9 years ago. There isn't a thing in this world I wouldn't trade to spend one more day with him. He was a gruff man, a poor share cropper who grew up in the deep south with the great depression. He wasn't an expressive person. Emotions weren't his strong suit. But he loved his family. And we loved him.
Do you still have parents? Call them. Stop typing and surfing the god damn internet, pick up a phone, and call them or go see them. Ask them how their day went. Chit chat. It doesn't matter.
One day you won't be able to.
Good post, loved reading a different perspective.
In my case though, I find that, more and more, as shit gets real in terms of me grappling with being a man, a husband, a dad, I have less and less comprehension for what he did. Sure, he left us a wad of cash (but what's the use of that at this point? I coulda used some of that earlier, now it's just zeroes on a bank account), but the aggression, the abandonment (due to him fleeing in work), the abuse of our mom and us (mostly verbal, sometimes physical), the lying, cheating and hiding stuff, the emotional blackmail,...
I can see in myself how "easy" it would be to go that route (just a few nights of taking out the work stress on the family and in turn fleeing to work to avoid facing the consequences of being an insufferable ass, just a little bit of sating that addictive personality he left me by either work, drink or other), and recoil at the abyss... I can't, looking at my son and daughter, imagine putting a child for which I feel that all-consuming love through that. Not for anything. Not even if it means my work, sanity or life.
EDIT: And I still relate to Jerry's comment too though. I wasn't angry at him, lying there painfully dying, there was no feeling of karma, no malice. Until he made it his final conscious act to heap an additional pyle of emotional abuse on my little bro (who, due to a sad fluke, was the only one bullied in to going there for that shit sandwich).
If I learned one thing from him: intentions mean jack shit, if you don't act in a good way, you are NOT a good person.
Just bring your charging cord from home. Nearly every waiting room has power outlets for you to use these days.
Well, the powerbag keeps you from having to compete with possibly limited power outlets with other people, and takes away the problem of having to sit near an outlet or having a cord snaking across the room.
I know I sound like a salesman for these things. Actually I don't even own one myself, as I don't have the need (don't have to travel a lot or anything). But I know people who have them and I just think they're cool.
Mine resolved not to be his crazy, sociopath, knife-throwing mother and turned into his crazy, sociopath, physically-and-emotionally abusive father instead.
I know precisely where Jerry is coming from on the "anti-him" part of the newspost and even though my asshole of a dad is still out there today I have long since forgiven him (even if he doesn't want my forgiveness) and moved on with my life. I can't say for sure how I'll feel when I'm in this place but I can't imagine it will be dissimilar.
And having all the power in the world isn't going to help you with the internet in most hospitals, because when all their shit is switched on, there will be no signal for phone or 3G.
Steam: adamjnet
Given that my father is in prison for being a remorseless child molester, in addition to generally being a mentally abusive, sometimes physically abusive asshole, his death will be the cause of great celebration for my family.
Like Jerry, me and my brothers have made it a point to be the anti-him. Unlike Jerry, there was never anything we bonded over. No real connection. We were essentially possessions, dolls to be paraded about whenever our achievements made him look good as a parent. Beyond that? Nothing.
I envy those who have some kind of positive connection with their father. For me, my oldest brother (who, coincidentally, is going through chemo due to colon cancer) is my father figure.
I think this advice works better in theory than practice. The reality of an emergency room can be pretty grim. People in serious pain wondering it if their life will ever be the same. On my recent trip there were people who had been sitting there for over 4 hours. I personally would never ask one of those people to move so I could power up some electronics.
If you're reading this, Jerry, best of luck.
My mom died when I was in college. At the time, I was working in a giant videoscreen factory (i.e., a normal-sized factory that made giant videoscreens, not a giant factory that made normal-sized videoscreens) and they didn't provide any kind of PTO for bereavement to student employees (despite working the same hours as full-timers during the summer), so I had to return to work for a couple days between when she died and the funeral. I had already been gone a few days, to be there at the end of things, and I literally couldn't afford not to make up the time I'd missed.
At the time, I had been driving my grandparents' old 1978 Malibu station wagon, my Fiero having died some months prior. The thing had a big ol' V8 in it and got about 12 miles to the gallon, so when my mom died, I inherited her car, a maroon 1992 Buick LeSabre. The old-ladiest of old lady cars. My first day back, I was driving out to the factory, and I saw the car of a friend of mine from work in the rear-view. This guy never really seemed to do much processing between the 'thinking of a thing to say' phase and the 'actually saying the thing' phase. And he was exactly the type to take notice of my change in vehicle. And since I had made no secret of my absence from work, I knew he was walking into a real minefield.
So we got to the factory. I pulled into the lot across the street. He pulled in a few spaces away. I got out of my car. He got out of his car. I braced myself, because I knew this was gonna be good.
"Jeez, what old lady'd you kill to get that car?"
I kept my face perfectly neutral.
"It was my mom's."
Seeing his face go from "Heh heh, I said a funny thing," to "Oh God, what have I done??" is a memory I will treasure forever.
your = belonging to you
their = belonging to them
there = not here
they're = they are