Random Thoughts...or...What's on Your Mind?

[Alexander Corrino]

I would love to go to bed early on New Year's. The last thing on my mind is parties and celebrating and whatnot. I just want peace and quiet, lol. Unfortunately, the noise outside would not let me sleep even if I tried.

I miss the days when I used to be a night owl. I mean I probably still am, but ever since I got a job that requires of me to take over the early morning shift, staying up all night just isn't feasible anymore. That, and I'm getting old.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I miss the days when I used to be a night owl. I mean I probably still am, but ever since I got a job that requires of me to take over the early morning shift, staying up all night just isn't feasible anymore.

This is why morning people shouldn’t have been allowed to set the rules of capitalism. From what I’ve read, it is more harmful to have to constantly fight against your chronotype than to just embrace it, but most of the modern world makes that impossible for night people.

I’m sorry you’re in that situation.

 

[Set Harth]

VDAWS6h

that's one old cat!

 

[Alexander Corrino]

This is why morning people shouldn’t have been allowed to set the rules of capitalism. From what I’ve read, it is more harmful to have to constantly fight against your chronotype than to just embrace it, but most of the modern world makes that impossible for night people.

I’m sorry you’re in that situation.

Thank you! Yes, it does often feel like as if I'm working against my internal chronometer. It wants for me to go to bed at 4am, not get up. I will never forget a two year period in my life when I was studying political science via long-distance learning and could literally study whenever I wanted. I slept halfway through the day and then got up and worked/studied in the evening/at night. It was awesome.

I did ask about a night shift at my current job, but unfortunately it doesn't have one. We used to have them, but not anymore. If we still had them I would definitely ask if I could take that shift.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

I haven't celebrated New Year's since the Millennium.
I'm usually in bed by 9pm - that's when it's midnight on the East Coast. I figure that's good enough.
I draw the blinds, pull the curtains, crawl into bed, put in my earplugs and I'm dead to the world.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I never was much of a night person to begin with. Hell, even when I go on vacation, I am rarely out past 10 or 11 at night.

As much as I love cities like New York and Toronto, I rarely get to experience nightlife. Usually when I get back from a baseball game I'm too tired to go out!

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

This is why morning people shouldn’t have been allowed to set the rules of capitalism. From what I’ve read, it is more harmful to have to constantly fight against your chronotype than to just embrace it, but most of the modern world makes that impossible for night people.

I’m sorry you’re in that situation.

I think for me it's just become a recent habit to go to bed before or just around midnight. 2017 wasn't that long ago and I used to be up till 1 or 2am just pottering around either playing games or watching movies, sometimes a little later but lately it's the exact opposite.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I would love to go to bed early on New Year's. The last thing on my mind is parties and celebrating and whatnot. I just want peace and quiet, lol. Unfortunately, the noise outside would not let me sleep even if I tried.

That always happens to me on July 4th. That night, the noise in my neighborhood gets to a level rarely heard since the Battle of the Bulge. The fireworks go ALL.NIGHT.LONG. I have to flee the area and get a hotel room, the noise is that bad.

Which actually works out for me pretty well. Not only do I get Marriott reward points, but it's actually a really cool hotel. And just far enough away that 1) I can still easily get to work the next morning, and 2) the noise doesn't reach me.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

That always happens to me on July 4th. That night, the noise in my neighborhood gets to a level rarely heard since the Battle of the Bulge. The fireworks go ALL.NIGHT.LONG. I have to flee the area and get a hotel room, the noise is that bad.

Which actually works out for me pretty well. Not only do I get Marriott reward points, but it's actually a really cool hotel. And just far enough away that 1) I can still easily get to work the next morning, and 2) the noise doesn't reach me.

America is so different to Australia where frankly we seem to be to nannied sometimes.

I'm not sure if the rules there have changed much over the years but can you still buy things like fireworks and do that kind of stuff at home?

I miss fireworks nights but it's a big no no here unless you have a permit.

 

[fireproof78]

I'm not sure if the rules there have changed much over the years but can you still buy things like fireworks and do that kind of stuff at home?

Oh, most of the fireworks people prefer are still very illegal. Unless you live close to a Native American Reservation and can pick up the aerial kinds for a fair price then you can buy them and set them off and hope the police don't feel like citing you too much.

In Washington state, next door, all fireworks are illegal for private use, and only to be used in professional shows.

The evidence is always in the skies with how many people follow the law across the state every 4th of July and New Year's celebration.

 

[auntiehill]

My stupid neighbors are STILL setting off fireworks. We are just 2 hours away from Jan. 2 and these idiots are still firing off what sounds like fucking cannons. Christ on a cracker.

 

[Alexander Corrino]

Every year we have the debate of whether fireworks should be banned for private citizens. And every year the answer is "nope, no ban", because dudes (it's almost exclusively men) want to blow up dangerous pyro stuff in front of their house and put themselves and everyone around them in danger because they are obviously not trained to handle these things; and neither do they take any safety precautions or they forget about them because by the time they start setting off the stuff on New Year's, alcohol has already clouded their minds and judgment. Fireworks are only sold during the days before New Year's, and it's a massive industry; people literally line up in front of the grocery stores before they open just to get their hands on the stuff. They will often spend hundreds of Euros on it.

Even if they banned fireworks here in Germany it wouldn't work very well tho - people would just hop over to France or Poland or wherever else to buy the stuff. This would have to be a ban for the entire EU, and given how the EU often has a hard time agreeing on ANYTHING... this is simply not going to happen any time soon.

And yup, they are also still setting off fireworks now here as well. This goes on way beyond New Year's even though it's technically illegal to set off fireworks after Jan 1st. There's also no escape. Entire groups of young men roam through my village and terrorize everyone with their loud fireworks. This should not be happening. Fireworks that sound like tanks shooting stuff should not be in the hands of ANY private citizen, much less in the hands of young men who are clearly drunk and have nothing better to do because it's the holidays.

I'm really glad I no longer have pets. Currently my entire village is looking for a dog that apparently ran away from home on New Year's because he got so terrified by the noise. Poor thing. I'm normally not someone who asks for bans easily, but in this case I would support such a notion 100%.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Fireworks here appear to be regulated by municipal by-law. My city only allows home displays on the following days:

• Victoria Day
• Canada Day
• Diwali
• Lunar New Year

So we don't have fireworks going off in our neighbourhoods on NYE. I think the city used to have a display downtown for NYE, but I don't know if they still do that, because I don't go.

The allowances for Diwali and Lunar New Year were new additions to the by-law as of April 2024; before that, there were only two days allowed each year. Some people did set them off in our neighbourhood for the first Diwali that permitted fireworks this past fall. It will be interesting to see if anyone does anything for the first Lunar New Year permitting fireworks, since it falls at the end of January this year, and the weather at that time isn't always amenable to sitting outside.

I get the sense from reading the fireworks-related posts here around July 4 that the fireworks they sell here are much tamer than the ones they sell in the US.

 

[Colonel Midnight]

Hawaiians are crazy for their (illegal) fireworks… They light them off any/every night, all year long. It’s insane.

This happened last night during the festivities, not sure how much it’s been broadcast outside the local area:

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Four people deceased, at least 20 others injured in the hospital.

Cheers,
-CM-

 

[scotpens]

Sales of consumer fireworks have been illegal in the City of Los Angeles for several decades, but that doesn't stop folks from getting hold of them and setting them off every Fourth of July. When I was growing up in the Valley, everyone bought their fireworks in San Fernando where they were legal. In West L.A., you could buy them in Culver City. I believe both those cities have since banned them. Fortunately, this New Year's Eve the fireworks in my neighborhood only lasted for about 15 minutes after midnight.

 

[auntiehill]

Hawaiians are crazy for their (illegal) fireworks… They light them off any/every night, all year long. It’s insane.

This happened last night during the festivities, not sure how much it’s been broadcast outside the local area:

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Four people deceased, at least 20 others injured in the hospital.

Cheers,
-CM-

CNN had this story on their headline news this morning. It was an illegal show and they charged customers for it. If any of the organizers survived, they're probably facing prison time. And rightfully so.

 

[Fantasy Lover]

Currently considering something that's a very bad idea and before you make the wrong assumption, I'm considering having a child or fostering.

And the reason I'm doing it is because I'm terrified of ending up alone: my maternal grandparents will decease in about a decade, my father has early dementia, I'm not close to my father's side of the family, so I only have my mother.

I went from 7 online friends and 5 Irl friends to 4 online friends and 3 Irl, within a decade the holidays will consist of a little group of me, my mom and my stepfather. So the holidays of my mother's family will be over, I'm already struggling with loneliness because I have nothing to do and nothing to come home except my cat.

And being a single mother with such a small village is just sad, I won't be able give my a big, warm family. It will grow up in small, fractured family and I swore to not have a child in such conditions

 

[auntiehill]

Currently considering something that's a very bad idea and before you make the wrong assumption, I'm considering having a child or fostering.

And the reason I'm doing it is because I'm terrified of ending up alone: my maternal grandparents will decease in about a decade, my father has early dementia, I'm not close to my father's side of the family, so I only have my mother.

I went from 7 online friends and 5 Irl friends to 4 online friends and 3 Irl, within a decade the holidays will consist of a little group of me, my mom and my stepfather. So the holidays of my mother's family will be over, I'm already struggling with loneliness because I have nothing to do and nothing to come home except my cat.

And being a single mother with such a small village is just sad, I won't be able give my a big, warm family. It will grow up in small, fractured family and I swore to not have a child in such conditions

From someone with a little experience with the system: trying to become a foster parent or an adoptive parent is a long, frustrating experience for most and even after years of trying, you might still not be approved. You have to really want it and be dedicated to all the training, the night classes, the home inspections, the background checks, etc, and even then, you still might not get approved for any number of reasons. It is not easy, nor should it be. But if you really want it, those hurdles may not discourage you.

What bothers me, though, is that you say you want a child because you don't want to end up alone and are struggling with loneliness. I sympathize with you there, because I am too...BUT....if your motivations for raising a child are about YOUR needs and that's the first thing that comes to your mind, I would say don't do it. The child shouldn't have the job of making you feel better; it should be entirely the other way around.

Since you have already said it's a bad idea, I think you probably already know the answer. There are, however, lots of other alternatives. There's "Big Brother/Sister" programs for kids who need a reliable adult in their lives and give them support. There are tutoring programs where struggling kids need someone to volunteer to help them. There are animal shelters who need dog-walkers, etc, etc. Have you considered any of those programs?

Again, just my two cents and from my limited experience. My best--and probably only--friend died in November and it's been hard. I have my husband, and two acquaintances who I hardly ever see any more. My Mom is 91 and I don't know how long she'll last. It is indeed very lonely sometimes.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

So last night, I'm eating at my local bar (which I do four times a week ) and I notice that at another table, there is a toddler - firmly ensconced in her seat, of course, but ALONE. No parent in the immediate area. I'm like, what the hell? Some creep could swoop by and take the kid!

So I asked the bartender, and he said it's fine, the kid's mum was one of the wait staff. And she was. Turned up a couple of minutes later.

But it kind of festered in my head for awhile, I started to think, what if the barman thought *I* was being a creep?

DId I do the right thing? Or should I have kept my mouth shut?

 

[Victoria]

So last night, I'm eating at my local bar (which I do four times a week ) and I notice that at another table, there is a toddler - firmly ensconced in her seat, of course, but ALONE. No parent in the immediate area. I'm like, what the hell? Some creep could swoop by and take the kid!

So I asked the bartender, and he said it's fine, the kid's mum was one of the wait staff. And she was. Turned up a couple of minutes later.

But it kind of festered in my head for awhile, I started to think, what if the barman thought *I* was being a creep?

DId I do the right thing? Or should I have kept my mouth shut?

You spoke to a member of staff about the situation. That was the right thing to do and hardly the action of a creep.