Random Confessions

Urgh, I am getting seriously fed up with GDPR!

It was supposed to be this great thing that meant that instead of websites collecting data on you without you knowing, you were able to choose exactly what data you shared with them and what data you didn't. But, coming up to a year after it came into force, it has turned out to be a curse!

I have yet to see a website that lets you specifically choose what data you share with it. Instead, all websites seem to give you two options - accept the things that they want you to share with them, or else clear off!

So, in effect, practically nothing has changed in terms of how much data you share. The only thing that has changed is that you have to click a button saying you accept the data sharing before you get to use the website.

But, it has had a major adverse impact on the ability to view websites from outside of Europe.

I first came across this problem when a thread was started on here about a couple of American skaters whose houses were for sale. And there were links provided to articles and the estate agents' listings. And when I clicked on these links, I was told that because of GDPR, the websites were not able to be displayed in Europe.

I have a Facebook friend who is a journalist in America. And over the past month or so, she has been posting links to an ongoing story where the headlines made me curious to know what it was about. But, I was not able to find out what it was about, because GDPR meant that the website of the newspaper that was running the story was not able to be displayed in Europe. And it must have been an exclusive story for that particular newspaper, because I couldn't find anywhere else talking about it when I did a search on Google. So, I still have no idea what exactly it was about!

Over the past week, I have been making out an update to the Fan Fest of the only American skater I have adopted. Now, I admit that I have kinda neglected it, because it hasn't been updated since she quit Singles skating 3 seasons ago (somebody else adopted her new partnership, so there was no real urgency for my thread to be updated). But, now that I have most of my other Fan Fests updated, this seemed the right time to do a full overhaul on this thread to bring it into the same format as my other threads.

When I created this Fan Fest, I found a whole pile of stories about her on the website of her local newspaper. And, as I always aim for my Fan Fests to be a one-stop-shop to find things about the skater in question, I included the links to these stories. But when checking if all the links in my Fan Fest for her were still working or whether I needed to replace the links to point to archived versions on the Wayback Machine, I found that I could not access the website of this newspaper, because of GDPR. So, I have no idea if the stories still exist, or if the existing links need to be replaced with Wayback Machine links, or anything! :hpull:

It is just a total mess!

So I dread to think of what the mess that is created when Article 13 comes in will be like...

CaroLiza_fan

Late responding, but I do love to talk about movies! :hap93:

My favorite Grace Kelly movie is Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, with Jimmy Stuart. A few years back I showed this to my teen-age son and was cheered to see how thoroughly he admired the suspense and the actual fear generated in (both!) viewers, despite the lack of graphic violence. Alfred was the best .... but it also is quite a testament to Grace's and Jimmy's acting.

CaroLiza_fan said:

As planned, I watched "Gone With The Wind" on Saturday afternoon. It may have been very long, but it was worth it!

But, boys, Scarlett was a piece of work. She really was shameless!

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This is actually what author Margaret Mitchell meant to show ... and yet Scarlett's such a compelling character. MM said that to her, Melanie was the true heroine of GWTW.

I'm interested by your questions and comments about Minority Report and 2001: ASO. I loved both movies, even including the endings, although in Minority Report, I felt the ending did get a bit fuzzy. (A second viewing helped.) I like endings that leave one's imagination free to wander, ponder, and invent. But I also am a huge fan of endings that are satisfyingly conclusive, including "they lived happily ever after." I feel even more strongly about book endings ... I like a great ending paragraph or sentence.

One of my favorite ending sentences in a novel is by Avery Corman, Kramer vs. Kramer. It's conclusive and open-ended or ongoing at the same time.

SPOILER ......

I am super excited because in 30 minutes I'll leave my house and go to the BEC (Bilbao Exhibition Centre) to participate in Ennio Morricone's Final Tour concert. The moment I discovered he would come to Bilbao (I live 20 minutes in metro from this city), I decided to go and bought the tickets in the first minute of their availability That's the first time my husband and I will go out since our son was born and it makes the whole adventure even more special One of the grandmothers will be babysitting and we'll be enjoying the music

Greetings to everyone. I hope you'll also enjoy a lot this weekend

My cousin, her boyfriend, and her mother (aka my aunt) came from Toronto to Korea for a vacation of sorts, and because maman is not going to let her sister and her niece needlessly pay for hotel fees all three of them are staying at our place. Aside from me being awkward with Diana(my cousin)'s boyfriend (I am socially inept, to put it mildly) it would't be much of an issue if only my brother didn't come home on leave from military service next week. See, Diana's boyfriend is using my brother's bed for now, and my brother dearest is of course going to bring his friend home to drink and play video games (deep sigh), so the house is going to be crowded. Which is bad for my poor nerves. I'm going to be holed in my room next weekend to preserve my sanity.

By the way, apparently my aunt used to have membership (or something, nobody in my family skates) at TCC, and she caught a glimpse of Junhwan training once. Or at least, she saw a "Korean-looking boy" on the rink. Either way, gah why was I not in Toronto back then

Ducky said:

A few nights ago, I ended up watching The Great Beauty (dir. Paolo Sorrentino 2013), what an absolute luscious film. I'm kicking myself for missing this when it came out in theaters.

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I really liked that movie even though it was a little slow and difficult to understand at points.

My brother is banging his fists against his desk again, it's 2:30 am here. Not that I'm trying to sleep, but closed doors don't cancel the god(bleep) auditory hazard that pisses, stresses, and exasperates me. He has so much issues, but of course he's not going to see a therapist because how is a trained professional supposed to know anything about himself or have the right to pry :disapp:

I say that my brother is a blood-related stranger, but at least strangers usually don't cause inevitable stress in your life. Like, I have a psychiatrist-confirmed 'sensitive' temperament, my ratio of activity of sympathetic nervous system to parasympathetic nervous system is something like 8:2, it's supposed to be around 5:5 for you to be healthy/normal. I am seriously affected by large and/or disturbing sounds, because my eardrums are my most sensitive of my sensitive organs, and I have gotten myself gastritis by pouring a can of Red Bull to an empty stomach (which is already wrecked by three years of high school dorm life) to be actually awake at work. And guess what's not helpful for calming a raging internal organ down :sarcasm:

Oh for (expletives censored) mom's up

Now he's ranting about whatever distressing situation he's in on the top of his (bleep) lungs, like the army sucks and you have the right to rant but not at the top of your (pissed off swearing censored)

My depressive bouts were goddamn contained I just crawled into an abandoned corner somewhere where I wouldn't be a bother to anyone then hated myself hasn't got even that much courtesy has he

I want a leave from life

Praying for you, Aisha!

Ok, I know in my heart that gangs like the Jets and the Sharks did not REALLY dance through Manhattan in their ballet shoes, but why oh why do I love West Side Story so much? I went to see the live production today, and it was phenomenal. They did more aerobics with all their dancing in that 2-1/2 hours than I will do in a whole year. The songs, the dancing, the costumes, the live orchestra. Sigh. If you are coming to Chicago, it is running through June 2 at the Lyric Opera and is well worth it.

Picture the scene: somebody walking through a housing estate in Coleraine (Jenna McCorkell's home town) wearing all black except for a yellow Valentino Rossi hat, and singing the Italian National Anthem at the top of their voice... in a Northern Irish accent!

My friends, last night that person was me!

Let me explain. This is the week of the North-West 200 motorbike race meeting, held on the roads connecting the towns of Portstewart, Portrush and Coleraine. This year is the 90[SUP]th[/SUP] anniversary of the first running of the meeting. Last night, the first three races were held. And the final race of the day was won by Stefano Bnnetti on a 650cc Paton, the first time that an Italian rider had ever won at the NW200.

The circuit originally went into Coleraine, but then a short link road was built so that the town was bypassed. And we were watching from this link road, with the car parked in a housing estate just 300 yards away on the outside of the circuit (the entrance to the estate is actually onto the old part of the circuit). So, as soon as the races were over, we started heading to the car (the podium is in Portstewart, and there were no big screens where we were so we couldn't watch the ceremony).

The BBC Radio Ulster commentary is played over a PA system around the circuit. And when we were in the estate, I heard the Italian National Anthem being played, and I started singing along!

Well, if I am totally honest, I only sang the first line, because that is the only line I know the words of. But, it's the thought that counts.

I actually had an Italian flag in my bag, and I would have had it out to celebrate except that I was carrying too many other things. The only way I could have displayed it was by tying it around my neck, and I didn't have anything to tie it with, so that was that idea out the window.

Overall, it was a great night. All three races were brilliant, there were no incidents, the weather was great, and everything ran really smoothly. Oh, and I was happy with the results of the races!

Complimenti, Stefano!!!

CaroLiza_fan

I just spent two and a half hours sitting in my driveway and holding a baby crow that got attacked by some other birds and couldn't stand up. Wildlife rescue was very busy, hence the 2 1/2 hours, but said that the little guy looks perfectly healthy and should be fine.

...I wanted to keep it. I think it liked me. It didn't try to get away from me (actually flew onto my shirt and looked like it wanted to cuddle at one point!) and fell asleep as soon as the sun went down, so I guess it must have at least trusted me not to eat it.

But I have cats, so yeah. They would definitely eat it.

Good luck, little crow!

I so wish I had the means to live by myself, I've wanted a cat since I was six but my father does not see the necessecity of having a furry animal aside from his children in his house... One of my students has a Siamese named Latte, everybody except me seems to have a cat :sad4:

Unrelated, but I am finally learning Russian (and Italian, and German, and High Valyrian) on Duolinguo, and I had forgotten how much fun it is to learn a new language. I could do it all day, I kinda wish I didn't have to go to work

I might be a little tipsy but I got a couple who have never met me to tell me that I have a very good voice at karaoke and really that is all the validation a gal needs in life. (Well that and money)

I bought a skipping rope today (I used to go to the gym, but due to my work situation I can't afford to join one right now) and I broke it after less than 5 minutes!

Sure hope I can return it and get one that's a little less fragile. It was only four bucks though so I guess if I can't I'm not too out of pocket...

^^^ What a great idea... I may give it a try - not sure I even remember how - it has been decades!!

elbkup said:

^^^ What a great idea... I may give it a try - not sure I even remember how - it has been decades!!

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Indeed! I have to admit I got the idea watching all the Angels of Plushenko Instagram videos with the kids working out with a skipping rope. I thought, hey that looks like a good way to work out without gym equipment or whatever.

Hopefully, I can get a decent rope!

anonymoose_au said:

Indeed! I have to admit I got the idea watching all the Angels of Plushenko Instagram videos with the kids working out with a skipping rope. I thought, hey that looks like a good way to work out without gym equipment or whatever.

Hopefully, I can get a decent rope!

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We used to use old clothes line... Double-Dutch was a huge challenge which I am proud to say I mastered at age 6... will post if it goes well. ..

I learned to jump with a hula hoop way before I could jump rope! Maybe I felt more in control of the hula hoop than the rope?

There is a new 'wave' of new joiners at my work (cue me leaving in a month hehe ) and one woman is really attractive: tall, statuesque, strong/striking features, lean, long hair, stylish...Basically everything I am not. And before I started to take myself down about that/depreciating myself, I saw others making assumptions, throwing 'looks', making rather unpleasant remarks (presumable out of a bit of jealousy maybe...), all coming from women. And I thought how different my perception is from this a lot of my female co-workers have - I will rather put myself down, appreciating someone's attractiveness, something I do not have than starting 'hate fest'/depreciation out of negative feels towards that person. I just never saw physical attractiveness of other woman as something worth of putting down or competing for that matter. Of course, we live in a society where looks/appearance are important (or was made as a quite important part of ourselves in interaction with other people), but for me (at least) this is never a 'decisive' factor or something that would influence me that much about that person (I am very influenced by how people talk though, not even the views, but how they approaches topics, the mannerism in their gesticulation/tone etc.).

So I am like undecided if to beat myself over this new co-worker attractiveness. I wish I was taller, have no potato nose, different body build, but over the years it became not that important to think about it every single time beautiful woman crosses my path

Beatrice, as someone who has been in that woman's place more times than I care to remember, thank you for not joining in on that garbage.

And it's nothing to beat yourself up about at all, or for anyone else to beat her up about. It just is.

I'm glad you're leaving and won't have to be in that environment. Hopefully she'll get out fast, too. :disapp:

^^^ several decades older than you; speaking from experience, I can say this is a tempest in a teapot. Your new, attractIve colleague may not be the same 10 years from now. Beauty can be a curse as well as a blessing especially if those blessed are possessed of a sensitive kind nature and are made to suffer due to to the enmity of others. Try getting to know her if she appears to have a kind sensitive side... you may acquire a life-long friend. Ignore the negativity. You may see yourself wanting but time can work wonders for the the better... I think you will find as you move through life your self perception will improve especially with right-thinking, healthy life style and an eye to living with joy and wonder, as you seem to be doing now... relax, breathe deep, contemplate, and love; the rest will take care if itself, my friend.