Obligatory: this was yesterday (1/20/24)

In the US 1/20/24 was the last day to buy stamps at the old postage rate. The flat rate for postcards was 51 cents and was going up to 53 cents the next day.

They have a concept called forever stamps for regular letters and a similar thing for postcards. If you buy them today at today's price, you can use them at any time in the future regardless of price increases. So if you'll mail letters or postcards, they're a good deal and future investment.

So anyways we ran to the post office at 4pm. The office was closed except for the self service machine. We need about 90 postcard stamps so I figured I'd get 100 to have some extras for the future.

I was so excited to see postcard stamps for 51 cents. I took a picture: https://i.imgur.com/M997Nfg.jpeg

So we bought 100, which happened to be the most we can buy at once.

At that point the machine began printing 100 individual 51 cents stamps.

Now you may have noticed the issue: it wasn't 100 postcard stamps, but rather 100 stamps each saying 51 cents of value.

It took a long time as each stamp was printed one by one, but I got to stand there sad as I didn't get my forever postcard stamps.

Now to mail my postcards, I'll need to buy 2 cents of postage each (or more when it goes up again). I'll be more careful next time.

Tldr: I bought 51 cent stamps instead of postcard stamps for 51 cents.

Edit: commented with an update after a few days.

This happened a few years ago, before the pandemic, at a MUN. A model of the United Nations. You might be familiar with it, but for those who aren't, it's a university activity that simulates a United Nations debate. We basically choose a character in some commission and role play as important world leaders. This type of activity is very popular among law and political science students.

I participated my first year in law school. I did it well, I think, but it has hard ngl. Besides playing role-playing video games my whole life, I never did any IRL role-playing, like DND or anything like that, so I was not used to actually having to act, and instead I just took it as doing what a diplomat would do. But anyway... that was my first year.

In my second year I participated again, this time there was a Historical Commission. This one would follow different rules and standards. It would put us in the time of the Cold War, more specifically the Cuban Missile Crisis. This commission would have 2 antagonistic chambers. The Western one, with the US and its allies, and a Soviet one, with Russia, the other Soviet countries and their allies.

The idea was exciting, so I signed up for the Soviet Chamber, because why not? Being among the Soviets sounded so fun. There was a selection of historical figures to choose from, except for Nikita Jrushchov, who would be played by one of the experts who organized the whole event. Same for JFK in the Western Chamber. There was one name that I thought would be perfect for me: Andrei Gromyko, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union. I chose Gromyko as my character.

We did a lot of research to stay in character and know how the Soviets would act and make decisions. In a way, we had it easier than the Americans because we didn't have that pesky democracy, but on the other hand, we could be sent to Siberia if we screwed up, whereas the Americans had the right to a fair trial.

The organizers of the Commission had certain scripted events, like the death of JFK and the discovery of nuclear missiles in Cuba, but otherwise we had the creative freedom to change history. I remember that at one point we planned to overthrow the government of Romulo Betancourt in Venezuela so that we could use it as a strategic territory because we were about to lose Cuba.

MUN is a big event at my university and so many people signed up and even people from other universities joined. At the end of the first day, we had a lunch break. Then I saw an old friend I hadn't seen since my last year of high school. I greeted him and we talked a little while I ate. I told him a bit about what we had done in the morning, and then the lunch break ended.

After we resumed our discussions, an organizer came into the room and announced that there was a spy among the representatives of the Soviet Chamber, and they were conducting an investigation to discover the spy.

We had discussions, debates and changed the story (for the worse lol). Until the second half of the afternoon. The organizers came back and announced that they had found the spy. It was Andrei Gromyko who was seen talking to CIA Director Allen Dulles.

I was as shocked as everybody else. I was immediately taken out of the room, then a member of the chamber took a (plastic) gun and pointed it at my head, saying that I had betrayed the Soviet Union and deserved a public and instant execution. Then he pulled the trigger and I just felt backwards. After that they went back into the room and I talked to the organizers for a while.

Since my character had died, I could have a fictional character to replace him. This seemed like a golden opportunity to me. My new character would be called "Dimitri Rascalov".

The rest of the MUN went by without much drama. Except for the very end, when the Western Chamber followed the advice of Henry fucking Kissinger and used every single nuclear weapon they had, and the world just went K-boom.

TIFU by essentially pepper spraying my entire household.

We’re having a seafood boil later today for the 4th. Previously the potatoes have taken ages to cook, meaning more time spent outside in the Florida heat over a boiling pot. In an attempt to limit the time my husband will be outside in triple digit temps today I decided to pre-boil the potatoes on the stove after breakfast.

I threw some Zatarain’s seasoning in the pot & added water. While it was coming to a boil I cut the potatoes in half. As soon as the water started boiling I started coughing & knew shit had gone wrong. I immediately turned on the exhaust fan, but it was already too late.

If you’ve never had the pleasure of inhaling creole/cajun seasoning, let me paint you a word picture: imagine the pain and sharp discomfort of getting caught in a plume of smoke - your eyes are burning, your nose tingles with a pending sneeze and your throat feels raw & irritated. This was all those things, but invisible and also angrier somehow.

Everyone that came through the kitchen, dining room, & living room was squinting, coughing, sneezing, and looking very confused. This included the cats, which almost made it worth it.

TL;DR: This morning I aerosolized spicy seasonings on the stovetop and made inhabitants of my house pretty miserable for about 15 minutes.

Obligatory "not today" disclaimer: actually fucked up over two decades ago, but found out today.

At the dawn of theinternet, I made an account on imgur. I figured (correctly) that I wasn't going to use it often enough for the username to matter much, so I just went with the first part of my email adress and a number four times.

Turns out that there is such a thing as nazi number code and it's never a good idea to use an even number of 8s for usernames when you're not a nazi.

TL;DR: Didn't know about nazi code, accidentally selected an imgur username ending with the equivalent of a double Hitler salute

Two minutes ago, I decided to clean up the post-Reddit mess on my phone.

I uninstalled RIF, because I use Wefwef now.

I uninstalled kbin, because I use Wefwef now.

Lots of icons disappeared from my launcher. Oops.

In my haste, I failed to notice that kbin is not an app, but actually a browser app like Wefwef. So I did not uninstall kbin - in fact I uninstalled Firefox! And with that, I lost all my launcher shortcuts, all my open tabs, and all my browser apps ( including kbin but also including Wefwef).

I really don't know all the stuff I lost that way but hey, if. I don't miss it then maybe that's okay?

My boyfriend works for a charity organisation, and as part of their fundraising they were hosting a ball. The theme was to be "Brides and Grooms". His workmates and he discussed various costume ideas for the weeks leading up to the event.

About a week ago, we were brainstorming and came up with the brilliant idea to dress as a Bride and Groom, but in reverse. My partner is a big guy, and so I custom made him a beautiful wedding gown by sewing parts of an op-shop bargain dress together. I decided to wear one of his formal suits.

Fast forward to tonight, we were pumped for this event. We took the elevator up to the conference floor of the hotel, and the elevator doors opened.

Immediately we turned heads. So, apparently a Bride and Groom ball is NOT a costume party. There were tuxedos, bow ties and wedding dresses that were definitely not from Vinnie's (a second hand/thrift store). We were mortified. We looked at each other and grabbed a glass of wine each from the nearest waiter. We had seriously misread the situation, but it was too late to back out. We had to commit.

We spent the next three hours politely posing for people's photos, laughing about our fuck up and generally trying to play it cool. In the end we won the best dressed competition, with the MC announcing "We all know who they are. Both of them have beards, though one is crocheted!"

TL;DR my boyfriend and I went to a ball as a gender reversed Bride and Groom. It turned out that the ball was a formal event.