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OSJ

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Guest The Magnificent 7

Got the house paid off and the “Satisfaction of Mortgage” letter came on my birthday. Many sacrifices were made over years to pay this off early and now we are 100% debt free. 
 

After the worst year of my life I needed this. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Congrats on the house 7!

For my great news: Waldo is home!!! Let me back up a bit, we moved a little over a month ago and Waldo (our 5 year-old silver tabby) was hard to catch, but we got him and brought him to the new place which he seemed to like. We let him out to check out the surroundings and as is his usual routine, he walked around the yard and came back and sat by the door, he's always been partial to staying in and just goes out for a few minutes to survey things and then right back inside. However, the third time he went out he disappeared. This was just over a month ago. We went down to the old house, nothing. Looked around the neighborhood, nothing. I finally reconciled myself to the fact  that he was gone...

Two days ago our former neighbor called to let us know that there was a cat hanging out in her yard crying. Being a cat person herself, she fed him and gave us a description, sure sounded like Waldo! We went down there with a can of food and some cat treats and sure enough, it was him. We let him munch on the cat treats for a few minutes and then picked him up and brought him home. I've never seen such a happy cat, he's running around washing all the other cats and rolling around just purring. Pretty obvious he's glad to be home. We got him just in time as it was down to three degrees last night and he has no clue how to find warm shelter on his own (did I mention that he's as stupid as a box of rocks?), yes, we love him, but he's not the sharpest pencil in the box. Right now he's just rolling around under my desk purring up a storm, he's pretty easily amused. Nice to have him home. He doesn't know it yet, but he's an indoor cat for the rest of life.

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Got a grand jury to no bill an Aggravated Sexual Assault of a child.  Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child is a first degree felony punishable from five years to life in prison, plus mandatory lifetime sex offender registration.  Allegation was 18 year on a 13 year old, no consent.  Complainant's version of events made no sense, but that's never stopped the State from prosecuting anyone. 

In Texas, for a felony to proceed after the initial arrest, prosecutors present to a grand jury of 12 (who serve six month terms) to decide if there is probable cause to continue.  Very low standard, and the saying is you can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.  Prosecutor goes in alone (defense attorneys are not allowed in, and all proceedings inside the chamber are secret, unless there's testimony). 

The prosecutor has the discretion to allow defense attorneys to provide a packet to the Grand Jury.  Whether they actually show the packet to the grand jury is up to the ethics of the prosecutor, because everything that happens inside is secret.  I'm certain that other prosecutors have thrown my packets in the trash as soon as they walked in, and got a true bill inside 5 minutes, shorter than it would take to read the packet. 

This time, I watched the prosecutor walk in with my packets.  There was a letter, two affidavits, some pictures and two letters from his mom and dad. 

Usually, the grand jury process takes less than 20 minutes.  Usually less.  Prosecutor gives their spiel about why the case should continue, explain it's a low burden, and then they rubber stamp.  It's literally a rubber stamp they use for a True Bill. 

This time, the grand jury deliberated for five hours.  Over whether there was probable cause for an Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child.  I've never seen it.  And they came back with a No Bill. 

Client gets his life back.  I'm probably getting stiffed on the rest of my fee.  But damn it feels good to be a gangster.

Second No Bill on a sexual assault of a child case this year.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/1/2019 at 6:34 PM, Lawful Metal said:

Client gets his life back.  I'm probably getting stiffed on the rest of my fee.  But damn it feels good to be a gangster.

Yes it does. 

Keep up the good shit and remind the legal system that every story has two sides, man.

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My girlfriend was offered a new job today, making more than what she and I make combined currently. That’s pretty rad. 

On the more terrifying side of the scale, this means moving from PA (where I’ve lived my entire life) to the greater Nashville area. Stressing out greatly about that, since I’ve been in the same job for 20 years and the idea of finding a new job sorta makes my stomach hurt. Heh. Super exciting as well  

Any of y’all (can I use that yet?) familiar with the area? Seems like a shit ton of stuff to do. At least compared to where I am now.  Good place to settle down? How is traffic? I can be an anxious driver. Possible to get around without all highway driving?

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11 hours ago, Joel Martin said:

After seven agonizing attempts—don’t ask and/or judge—I finally passed the Certified Professional Coder exam!!!

It took me two tries to get my Ethical Hacker.  Congrats, man!

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On the flip side, way back in the day when I got my MCSE, I gave up on memorizing "the Microsoft approach" to the questions -- because there's logic and then there's rote memorization of one specific way to do something, and that's lame -- and just got some legit braindumps from someone who posted here (Jeremy, maybe?  Guy with a pentagram avatar).  I memorized the exams and was in and out of the test center in 15 minutes every time.   The Security+ elective exam was especially hilarious, because it was scenario based.  I'd read the first sentence of the scenario and be like, "right, this one" and just jump to answering the questions.  ?

Edited by Technico Support
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So as part of getting ready to be a teacher, you have to take the Praxis. For elementary teachers its this big bear of a test that covers Math, English, etc. For future history teachers like me, however we take one on just the content area, ie world and us history. I'd taken a practice test a couple of times just to see where I was and my mocks were around 160 or so(out of 200 points). To I take the exam, and at the end you have the option to report or not report your scores without actually seeing them. So since I paid $120 for the test, naturally I said report.  I see my score and I scored 186(out of 200). So I wrecked the test. Also I've been waiting a while to hear back from a emergency job opportunity.I finally get a letter from them the other day. I've gotten enough thanks, but no thanks, letters to know what it is. Turns out, its telling me I have a interview on the 20th, at 9 am. Besides the $$$(which .-is always welcome), I would be able to do my student teaching in my own classroom, at 3 less credits. So we'll see what happens.

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On 11/14/2019 at 9:09 AM, Joel Martin said:

After seven agonizing attempts—don’t ask and/or judge—I finally passed the Certified Professional Coder exam!!!

It it's any consolation, I had "8 attempts" in the betting pool so you beat my estimate anyway. 

?

Congrats and way to go! 

 

Edited by Tabe
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I got the call today offering me the Fort Hall High job, and I accepted. Besides the $$$, my student teaching will now be done on the job, and 3 less credits next semester. So I'll be doing that, and graduate with 33 credits instead of 36. That's in the design of the program, though so its all good.

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  • 5 weeks later...

I went halfsies with my daughter's stepdad on the cost of a 2009 Saturn VUE that was literally driven to the grocery store and back since it has like 12K miles on it.

We got it from a local auto auction for a pittance, but it needs a little work

He is an auto-mechanic so I will foot the cost for parts and he'll provide the labor.

My daughter will be a licensed motorist very soon with a vehicle of her own.

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4 minutes ago, JLSigman said:

RIP your calm demeanor. ? 

I am not really nervous about her being on the road as she is a very good driver.  It is the other idiots out there that concern me.

The VUE's have a pretty good safety record but the gas mileage on them is pretty shitty.  On the plus side, if something breaks her stepdad knows enough about cars to fix it himself.

That was the whole point of getting her a vehicle that did not require NSA level cryptologists to help with the maintenance.

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On 12/26/2019 at 7:19 AM, J.T. said:

I am not really nervous about her being on the road as she is a very good driver.  It is the other idiots out there that concern me.

The VUE's have a pretty good safety record but the gas mileage on them is pretty shitty.  On the plus side, if something breaks her stepdad knows enough about cars to fix it himself.

That was the whole point of getting her a vehicle that did not require NSA level cryptologists to help with the maintenance.

This coming summer I turn 63, never having had a driver's license and have driven a car less than fifty times. You guys can have it. I know how to drive, I just don't like to.

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7 hours ago, OSJ said:

This coming summer I turn 63, never having had a driver's license and have driven a car less than fifty times. You guys can have it. I know how to drive, I just don't like to.

You laugh, my brother; but I'm serious as a heart attack. When I was 19 my then girlfriend taught me how to drive, my personal record is from Montlake Terrace to the University District, a distance of about twenty miles. Granted, this was at four in the morning so traffic wasn't really much of an issue...  Kathy attempted to refine my driving some years ago and gave up rather quickly I thought...

My driving is just fine, if only there weren't other cars on the road I'd do it more often... (Some folks might have a problem with the fact that I don't like going faster than twenty miles per hour, but that's on them).

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  • 1 month later...

My kid sister is adopted and she has recently touched bases with her biological family.  I'm not sure what she's expecting to happen, but one of her sisters is coming to visit next weekend.  I think this is a positive step, but pray for us all nonetheless.

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On 2/20/2020 at 3:23 AM, tbarrie said:

Not really "news" per se, but I'm just finishing up a lovely vacation in Kenya. Off to England tomorrow to stay with friends in Oxford for a few days, then back to the daily grind in Toronto. Life is good.

In related news, Gatwick Airport apparently classifies this site as unsuitable for children and blocks it on their wifi. Smart.:)

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Dear Gatwick Airport: The Sleaze thread was over a decade ago! The Smashing Crumpet tournament was eight years ago! The porn form was closed almost 20 years ago and didn't actually have any porn in it to begin with! We're not like that any more!

Oh, wait, it's not that. It's having the words "Death" and "Video" in the name of the website. They're probably both flagged. Also all the deathmatch stuff in the gif and matches threads.

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19 hours ago, AxB said:

Dear Gatwick Airport: The Sleaze thread was over a decade ago! The Smashing Crumpet tournament was eight years ago! The porn form was closed almost 20 years ago and didn't actually have any porn in it to begin with! We're not like that any more!

Oh, wait, it's not that. It's having the words "Death" and "Video" in the name of the website. They're probably both flagged. Also all the deathmatch stuff in the gif and matches threads.

The Snuff Valley Driver Movie Review, new at Aldi.

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