Zompist Bboard Again

Torco wrote: ↑Sat Jan 31, 2026 5:30 pm I am become Torco, owner of land.

I've just returned from my first trip as owner to a little plot i bought on the rural bits, about an hour's drive from santiago. Mostly bought it for the land, the house that sits on it is shitty. the main purpose of the trip was to ascertain next steps: demolition and bulding anew, or fixing 'er up. It's looking like it's gonna be building anew, but it's not too bad. it's 500 square meters of nice flat land, with electricity, sewers and running water.

this makes me happe

Cool and good news! What's your long term plan once you rebuild the house? A vacation home or something more permanent?

me being a remote worker the plan is fixing 'er up and moving there. I don't know if i'll like it, living relatively far from the capital (it's one hour by car or bus), but i think I will, having a yard is lovely, and my living expenses will drop by a lot.

I honestly don't get the thing about being tied down. if you don't fancy living somewhere you own, you rent it out and live off someone else, don't you? and if you don't want to bother maintaining the property and finding renters... come on, landlording isn't a real job, it's not that much work, but okay, if you don't want to do that minimum, there are agents that will do all that for a 5% commission.

sure, housing oughtn't be a commodity like that, but in the real world it is... and you also can always sell.

also

only a woman can test your humanity even further

lmao what? what's wrong with women? i like women. they're cool and nice. how do they "test your humanity" ?

Torco wrote: ↑Mon Feb 02, 2026 10:38 am me being a remote worker the plan is fixing 'er up and moving there. I don't know if i'll like it, living relatively far from the capital (it's one hour by car or bus), but i think I will, having a yard is lovely, and my living expenses will drop by a lot.

Nice! Plus, one hour out seems about ideal; it's far away but not that far. Hope you enjoy it!

At long last it looks like the relevant Government departments have decided that I'm entitled to some benefit money. So now I can indulge myself in a life of luxury at the taxpayer's expense stop having to worry about persuading someone that I'm actually worth employing and not just a potential liability.

Turns out I apparently don't have any detectable heart conditions right now. I'd noticed some unpleasant and worrying physical signals recently, so I went to my GP. But the ECG turned out fine, the heart sounds were fine, and today I learned that the blood test results turned out fine, too. Oh, and I also learned that my Vitamin D levels are fine again, too!

This is all very nice to know.

Raphael wrote: ↑Fri Feb 06, 2026 11:15 am Turns out I apparently don't have any detectable heart conditions right now. I'd noticed some unpleasant and worrying physical signals recently, so I went to my GP. But the ECG turned out fine, the heart sounds were fine, and today I learned that the blood test results turned out fine, too. Oh, and I also learned that my Vitamin D levels are fine again, too!

This is all very nice to know.

Congrats Raphael! That's wonderful.

I also had positive health news, in that my blood pressure (which has been floating in Stage 2 hypertension levels since December) appears to have returned to merely 'a little bit higher than it should be'.

sasasha wrote: ↑Mon Feb 09, 2026 1:53 pm

Raphael wrote: ↑Fri Feb 06, 2026 11:15 am Turns out I apparently don't have any detectable heart conditions right now. I'd noticed some unpleasant and worrying physical signals recently, so I went to my GP. But the ECG turned out fine, the heart sounds were fine, and today I learned that the blood test results turned out fine, too. Oh, and I also learned that my Vitamin D levels are fine again, too!

This is all very nice to know.

Congrats Raphael! That's wonderful.

Thank you!

I also had positive health news, in that my blood pressure (which has been floating in Stage 2 hypertension levels since December) appears to have returned to merely 'a little bit higher than it should be'.

Congratulations!

Small news: A bank transfer order that I had sent out yesterday evening has already arrived at its destination early today. And that despite the fact that I used a perfectly ordinary bank transfer, not any of the fancy instant transfer options banks here offer for additional fees. And also despite the fact that it was sent to a different type of bank in a different part of the country. Seems to me that the bank transfer system here has gotten better recently.

I had two, by my standards, fairly productive days in a row, where I got a number of small things done which I had hoped to get done. And today, something I wanted to buy turned out to cost less than I had worried it would. Which is a kind of weird thing to happen on a day that's traditionally seen as bad luck.

It delights me to read that things are going well for you.

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Sat Feb 14, 2026 2:19 am It delights me to read that things are going well for you.

Thank you! We're talking about fairly small stuff, here, but small stuff matters.

The strike of public sector employees here has been resolved, and apparently - I haven't seen enough yet to know that for sure - the union got a reasonably good result.

That is, of course, good from a political perspective, but I'm posting about it here instead of in the German Politics Thread because it also means that, personally, I can use all of the local bus lines again. (I live right next to a state boundary. The state I'm in was one of the few that didn't take part in the strike. Some details of local labor relations rules had meant that the public sector here couldn't have gone on strike before, I think, April.)

I'm now a Luxembourger.

lëtzeshark wrote: ↑Tue Feb 17, 2026 5:12 am I'm now a Luxembourger.

Congratulations!

EDIT: Given how small a country Luxembourg is, I wonder - was there some kind of ceremony where someone from the ducal family appeared in person?

Thanks! And actually no ceremony at all: I just got an e-mail saying my application had been approved by the Ministry of Justice, and my nationality listed in the national registry changed to "Luxembourgish" and "American". Don't know if this is because I applied by option rather than by naturalization, but very anticlimactic end (though still with a positive outcome).

lëtzeshark wrote: ↑Tue Feb 17, 2026 5:12 am I'm now a Luxembourger.

Congratulations for our resident newly Luxembourgish endoctoratificated vampiric shark¹!

¹ I now see why each new description ousted the old one

Lērisama wrote: ↑Tue Feb 17, 2026 8:15 am

lëtzeshark wrote: ↑Tue Feb 17, 2026 5:12 am I'm now a Luxembourger.

Congratulations for our resident newly Luxembourgish endoctoratificated vampiric shark¹!

Thanks!

¹ I now see why each new description ousted the old one

Incidentally, vampireshark was from an old e-mail handle I have. I changed it to doctor shark in celebration of my Ph.D. in 2019, and now seems like a good occasion on which to have changed it again. Because "doctor vampireshark" or "doctor lëtzeshark" both seemed too long. :P

lëtzeshark wrote: ↑Tue Feb 17, 2026 10:00 am Because "doctor vampireshark" or "doctor lëtzeshark" both seemed too long.

Herr Professor Doktor Luxem-Vampiricus Hai.

lëtzeshark wrote: ↑Tue Feb 17, 2026 5:12 am I'm now a Luxembourger.

I notice you changed your username to correspond to your new status as a Luxembourger.

Raphael wrote: ↑Tue Feb 17, 2026 11:18 am

lëtzeshark wrote: ↑Tue Feb 17, 2026 10:00 am Because "doctor vampireshark" or "doctor lëtzeshark" both seemed too long.

Herr Professor Doktor Luxem-Vampiricus Hai.

I always considered "Herr Professor Doktor" to be a rather ostentatious set of titles myself. But then, I'm not German, Austrian, Swiss, or a Luxembourger.