What Made you Smile/What Ticked you off Today?

[the King]

Either you've got kitty litter in your ass crack or you're still in a hissy because the wings haven't been so hot the past few years while the Hawks have won two cups.

You can't win them all.

[the King]

Every St. Patrick's Day Eve, if you believe, you will be visited by at least one (sometimes multiple) leprechaun(s). If you are able to trap him - you must hold him in your stare as soon as you see him. If you catch him, make eye contact and look away, he will disappear. If you catch him, but are able to hold him in your stare, he must give the location of his treasure to secure his freedom.

Each SPD Eve it is recommended to build traps. The traps should be built to catch a leprechaun, which are typically about the size of a mouse. They are agile and fast. They are attracted to shiny or valuable appearing items (tin foil, coins, sprinkles, gold wrappers, etc). They are also mischeivous so if you put signs saying, "Don't do X.", odds are, they'll do "X".

Basic trap:

A green hat with sparkles on top - the ladder leads to the top of the hat where he'll go to investigate the sparkles. The hat has a false top and it collapses in when the leprechaun steps onto it.

Here's my son's basic trap. Some shiny stuff, a ramp, some sprinkles and syrup, oops! You slipped into the cup. The cups' walls are greased w/vegetable oil - you can't climb out!

Here we have a bit more detailed setup. Notice the trap level underneath. Ladder up, shiny stuff, 2nd ladder up, more shiny stuff, oops again! Slipped into another hole. Well, if you got out of the first hole, you were prepared for slick / slippery - thus, you likely aren't prepared for sticky, so we have some slow drying gorilla glue to catch you!

Here's a more advanced trap:

Notice the red door - one way in, but no way out. He follows the shiny objects through a maze and ends up at a sign that says "dont' touch the pencil. When he does (because he will) the roof collapses. Notice the rocks at each end - these are enough weight that he can't push the lid back open and hop out:

Now my daughter on the other hand was been really close over the years - she's caught a leprechauns' pants, nicked one and drew some blood, but never had one still there in the morning light. So, she is fully prepared and fully employes Newtons' laws of physics:

Now, this is pretty cool. Never heard of it before. Thanks for sharing.

[CRTGAMER]

Saturn #1: Arrived with top shell almost ripped off, power button broke
Saturn #2: Huge hole in the package, USPS taped over it with some sort of large label and the box was ripped up
Playstation #1: Doesn't read discs, makes loud grinding noise and doesn't spin
Playstation #2: Does not turn on
NES: Does not turn on

I double check everything I send before I ship it. I play for at least 15 minutes on each system and pack my items better than anyone I've seen. It's not unusual for me to use a whole roll of bubble wrap on one package. None of this is my fault and all my consoles are getting destroyed and I'm paying the return shipping and price for the item. I just want to scream at this point.

The Original Xbox you sent me arrived just fine. I am in the process of installing a Hard Drive and did notice the Mod Chip inside was not seated all the way down. Not a big deal, gave it a press and will be posting a Guide later on.

Maybe you could have the post office stamp "FRAGILE" all the way around? Not sure if that just makes a bigger target for worker who has had a bad day though.

@ mjmjr25 - Those traps are very great, your kids are very creative. Maybe share that Pot of Gold when you catch the green clothed guy!

[Stark]

dsheinem was asking for an update and I thought since a lot of you would want an update too, here ya go.

Update: Moira is really stable, it's nice to have the family all together, we're down at the Ronald McDonald House in Seattle in an apartment there. The part that is tough is we've got to go in for testing every week for what's called a chimerism study, which tells us how much of certain cells are donor vs. her old system. Right now a lot of those numbers are very low and very slowly rising. So it's nice that she is well and active and normal, but tough that it's such a waiting game with the numbers. It makes for some uncertainness regarding whether we will eventually have to re-do the transplant or do something else.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Student loans........

[Luke]

Smile:

Update: Moira is really stable...

Smile:

Student loans........

Bonus smile: I might, MIGHT, get a full paid trip to Las Vegas to do stand up in June. MIGHT, but still, awesome turn of events.

[Hobie-wan]

Great news Stark!

[Flake]

Smile:

So I've been gone a lot for a good long while. There's a reason for that.

6 months ago I got laid off and the world I'd built for myself, a career carefully curated over 10 years came crashing down around me. There was zero warning and it was a completely arbitrary decision made by some contracting officer for whom I was probably not even a number on a piece of paper.

I made a decision, for the first time in my life, not to run away or take the path of least resistance. I had a fiancee and a step-daughter that were counting on me to man up. So I did. I managed to cram about two years of IT training into a 5 month window, grabbed my Network+, Security+, CCENT, CCNA, and CCNA Security certifications and hit the pavement looking for IT work.

Today I accepted an offer from the biggest tech company here in town for a position in their Network Security group. It took 6 months of non-stop study, work, stress, and sacrifice but I've taken what looked like the end of my career as a professional and managed to wrench something even better than what I lost out of the wreckage.

What was probably the hardest part of my life with one exception is finally behind me. I think this is what it feels like to 1cc a game?

[BoringSupreez]

Congratulations on that. That sounds like much harder work than most would try to take on.

[Jmustang1968]

Smile:

So I've been gone a lot for a good long while. There's a reason for that.

6 months ago I got laid off and the world I'd built for myself, a career carefully curated over 10 years came crashing down around me. There was zero warning and it was a completely arbitrary decision made by some contracting officer for whom I was probably not even a number on a piece of paper.

I made a decision, for the first time in my life, not to run away or take the path of least resistance. I had a fiancee and a step-daughter that were counting on me to man up. So I did. I managed to cram about two years of IT training into a 5 month window, grabbed my Network+, Security+, CCENT, CCNA, and CCNA Security certifications and hit the pavement looking for IT work.

Today I accepted an offer from the biggest tech company here in town for a position in their Network Security group. It took 6 months of non-stop study, work, stress, and sacrifice but I've taken what looked like the end of my career as a professional and managed to wrench something even better than what I lost out of the wreckage.

What was probably the hardest part of my life with one exception is finally behind me. I think this is what it feels like to 1cc a game?

Very nice! Rackspace?