In keeping with the theme, though in a different way...

September 24, 2024 7:23 PM

Last week's freethread Not sure if I have ever done an FPP before, so bear with me... No freethread this week!?! So to pivot on last week's topic. What is the thing you were sure you would be doing 10 years ago, that you are now NOT doing?

This is your totally unauthorized free thread...

posted by Windopaene (79 comments total)

No time like the present, Windopaene (see my posting history). Excercising, and I'm not happy about it, but I'm really having trouble getting back on track (so to speak, I was an inveterate walker of trails). I was also going to a gym, but COVID did it in and there isn't one near enough to me at this point.
posted by mollweide at 7:27 PM on September 24 [5 favorites]

Good topic!

Playing live jazz.
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:28 PM on September 24 [2 favorites]

Regular happy hours after work with friends.

KIDS!! Plan changers for sure.
posted by samthemander at 7:29 PM on September 24 [1 favorite]

I'm not a simple painter or some job with few responsibilities. I had imagined after the previous high-stress job, I would get one I could just simply do whatever was on the task list, leave at the end of the day, and not think about again until I went back.

Instead I'm the kind of person with opinions and things I want to change, and now I've somehow gotten myself back into a job where I'm responsible for stuff, and people are counting on me. Sigh. Maybe next job.
posted by ctmf at 7:33 PM on September 24 [8 favorites]

I gave up on being sure when the Titanic sunk. Not that I was around at the time, but I caught the movie Night To Remember when I was maybe seven years old.

Link is to a scene near the end where the "moral of the story" gets imparted.
posted by philip-random at 8:01 PM on September 24 [2 favorites]

Not drinking. Not smoking. Finally.
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 8:05 PM on September 24 [12 favorites]

I was expecting, when I retired, to get a gym membership and hit the gym five times a week like a did in the old days. But then COVID and then my knees went out and today if I hit the gym it will hit back. I do walk and work out, at home. I've lost 90 pounds in the last two years, but I don't have a definite goal I'm working towards. Just doing what I can do for now, and hope it leads somewhere.
posted by SPrintF at 8:06 PM on September 24 [7 favorites]

Rotting in a casket from an act of my own hand. Luckily, mental health steadied out after a while.

I don't miss my 20's. I miss some of the people and places, sure, but I don't miss the experience.
posted by Philipschall at 8:21 PM on September 24 [16 favorites]

I think you mean?, ‘10 years ago what were you doing THEN that you thought you’d still be doing NOW, but you are not?’
I thought I’d be still be living in X and living together with Y, but turns out neither..
posted by TDIpod at 8:25 PM on September 24 [1 favorite]

Off topic but I am watching the Star Trek TOS episode "Space Seed" right now (the one that introduces Khan). It is wild--easily one of the most sexist episodes but so entertaining. Great dramatic pacing and some great lines.
posted by LarryC at 8:31 PM on September 24 [6 favorites]

Space Seed is very much relevant today with its theme of strongman-worship. Spock's reaction to the humans' nostalgic admiration for Khan's cruel reign is one that my brain calls up quite often.
posted by credulous at 8:42 PM on September 24 [8 favorites]

I thought after retirement, twelve years ago, that I would start painting again...oil or watercolor. Buy a small table loom and weave table runners...and continue making jewelry, wax model making, casting in silver and gold. I am now a full time caretaker for a brother with ALS. It's a bit more than I bargained for, keeping a house running in order and caring for him.
posted by Czjewel at 8:53 PM on September 24 [10 favorites]

Ten years ago? I was at the job that I'm still at, relatively new in my sobriety but getting more confident in it and seeing the beginning of the end of my quest to get my driving privileges back. I finished my first full ride of RAGBRAI a couple of months previously and had a good time, and was feeling good about that; I don't know if I'll do that again, between my getting older (and getting on meds that may be what made my attempt last year unsuccessful) and climate change. Single-day rides may be what I do from now on, but I can vary those to a degree that is satisfying in their own way.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:54 PM on September 24 [7 favorites]

Drinking (going on 7 years sober)
Married (happily divorced)
posted by rene_billingsworth at 9:05 PM on September 24 [7 favorites]

I figured I was going to be in the same job until retirement, for sure. I would have also figured my same volunteer job, which I gave up to do theater.
(I was hoping to not still be single, but obviously that dragged on.)
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:16 PM on September 24 [3 favorites]

I don't know if I've ever had "big 10 year" plans! Just keeping breathing and reading is hard enough.

And now I'm just about to wrap up my community cookbook project for my beer club's 50th Anniversary party and what can I say - lord, that's a lot of work!
posted by drewbage1847 at 10:01 PM on September 24 [1 favorite]

I’ll add drinking too. I wish I’d stopped sooner but I’m coming up to three years sober and I’m so much better off.
posted by grumblemf at 10:17 PM on September 24 [7 favorites]

I am one degree of Kevin Bacon.
posted by y2karl at 10:31 PM on September 24 [6 favorites]

Honestly, not sure what I thought I would be doing ten years ago that I’m not doing now. Same job. I accomplished my goal of hiking the Grand Canyon, have done it several more times, and many other big hikes. I’ve managed to get up the mountain here on my bike three times over the last year and a half, which I never thought I’d be able to do. Not that everything is perfect in life, far from it, but looking back ten years actually gives me an appreciation I needed for what I’ve been able to do.
posted by azpenguin at 10:39 PM on September 24 [3 favorites]

Ten years ago I was job hunting, without success, and beginning to wonder if I'd ever actually secure another job ever again. Now I'm eight years into the longest job I've ever had.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 11:07 PM on September 24 [5 favorites]

September 2014: happily married for a decade, living out west, thought for sure my family of origin and most of my friends liked me and had my back… (you see where this is going)

September 2024: NAH! Fuck all that. Lucky to be alive. Lots of stuff failed to kill me.
posted by edithkeeler at 12:56 AM on September 25 [5 favorites]

Ten years ago I blithely assumed I'd still be living in the EU today.

I haven't moved very far, but apparently a lot of people around me did and now we all live in a declining, backwards-looking dump propped up by little more than the capital's international money-laundering industry. Cheers.
posted by tomsk at 2:02 AM on September 25 [15 favorites]

Ten years ago I was married, and assumed I still would be. (I am not, probably for the best, the marriage was already over at that point but we were still pretending it was not.)

Ten years ago I was doing OK financially, though not "wealthy" by any American standard of the word. I am not doing OK financially now, at all, but there is a glimmer on the horizon.

Turns out I own a thing (like my last remaining "saleable" thing outside the house I live in) which might be worth a decent amount, but only to a very limited audience--and a member of said audience recently inquired about buying it. It's a thing where there is no real way to value it, so I threw a number out which would solve a lot of problems here, and did not get immediate laughter or "no thanks", but real negotiations have yet to begin...so who knows. Trying not to count any chickens before they hatch, especially as the hen hasn't laid the eggs yet and there may yet be coyotes looking for a meal.
posted by maxwelton at 2:39 AM on September 25 [5 favorites]

I was confident I'd be spending all my nonwork time on "pastimes" like reading fiction, watching movies, listening to music, just as I'd always done.

Since I converted to Islam in 2022, most of that has fallen by the wayside because it feels boring, irrelevant, or unduly distracting for its worth. (Or just flat out impermissible in Islam.)

Music was the most surprising "goodbye to all that" of the lot. I thought my identity was what I listened to. I couldn't have been more wrong.

I read much more now: Quran, hadith, other works of sacred knowledge, and history / ethnography of the Muslim world then and now.
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 2:57 AM on September 25 [4 favorites]

Well, "man makes plans and god laughs."
What I didn't foresee was how good quitting drinking would be for me. Last night -here's a question, the fuck is up with the extravagant itchiness of early-fall mosquito bites? And why do they always bite on the knuckles? So you can't really get any purchase on the satisfying scratching around? Luckily we have this - thing - where you zap the bite ... it's like a hot poker for a second, kinda hurts, but kills the itch. Thank god. Unfortunately I couldn't find it for a bit and went rumbling around the whole apartment. Finally did, zapped the two spots and then (and this is a small miracle) I went back to sleep! Which five years ago would never have happened.
posted by From Bklyn at 3:11 AM on September 25 [1 favorite]

Ten years ago, we were living in the UK and had no plans to move. Considering buying a house there. So I'd say, if you asked me then, that we'd be still living in the UK today.

But, today we are in Europe because we always wanted to be in Europe and the definition of 'Europe' changed right under our feet.
posted by vacapinta at 3:40 AM on September 25 [7 favorites]

Smelling and tasting, i.e. anosmia sucks
posted by DJZouke at 5:04 AM on September 25 [2 favorites]

Living in Kitchener, Ontario -- now in Toronto, much happier. Acting on stage -- COVID means no, much sadder.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:24 AM on September 25 [1 favorite]

I feel like this topic has to make space for a lot of grieving, so I suppose I'll add mine.

I assumed my career would take me on a financially upward trajectory that would allow me to gain a stronger foothold in the city I loved ... but instead my income plateaued as the cost of living kept rising and rising, and eventually I had to pull the ripcord, more or less against my will. I'm now living in a deeply homophobic red state I swore I'd never even set foot in, let alone settle down here. I'm still a little in shock over the whole thing.

There are lots of other losses that spin out of that, but I'll spare y'all the offgassing.
posted by mykescipark at 5:25 AM on September 25 [6 favorites]

Working in industry. I had no plans to retire and no timeline to do so. A combination of burnout and an irresistible voluntary layoff package got me out. Now I'm teaching software engineering at my alma mater, something I'd always dreamed about doing.
posted by tommasz at 5:50 AM on September 25 [2 favorites]

I thought I'd never use my degree and I'd end up managing a Trader Joe's somewhere I didn't want to be living...now I'm no longer with Trader Joe's and I'm a data analyst in the place I've always wanted to live forever.

I thought I'd never own a house, but this summer we bought the house we've been renting for the last 6 years.
posted by schyler523 at 5:54 AM on September 25 [7 favorites]

Ten years ago, I was driving around in a marked company van, popping into restaurants with a shirt that had my name stitched onto it to fix their dishwashers. I thought I would probably have to do that forever, would always be nearly broke, and would never retire. These days, my job and financial situation are better, and retirement seems like a thing that will probably actually happen.

The thing about corporate America is that as dumb and soulless as it can be, the money is not bad.

People will tell you money can't buy happiness. And they're right, of course, in the sense that wealth cannot create happiness. But if you're broke, a modest increase in income can sure as hell buy off several of the most pernicious forms of unhappiness.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:57 AM on September 25 [14 favorites]

10 years?

I didn't know that I would end up quitting drinking, and man, do I have no regrets doing so.

I also didn't know I'd end up being a homeowner (!!) with a paid off house in a decade too. (When you have no kids, two decent incomes, do not take vacations, do not own a car, and pay off the max mortgage payment every month, it's possible.)

Honestly, I'm in a better place than I thought I would be. Not bad for a girl who didn't even finish college (alcohol reasons for that one).
posted by Kitteh at 6:38 AM on September 25 [3 favorites]

10 years?

Dead.

Long term incurable disease, Crohns. Acute. Complications, yadda yadda, Osemy...

Surprised me. Seems to be going away.
posted by aleph at 7:07 AM on September 25 [3 favorites]

Ten years ago, I was ramping up a freelance writing career -- I was writing stories for public radio, had a (unpaid) byline at the local alt-weekly, and was looking to new places to expand. Then I...just stopped writing.

I like to call it 'writer's block' but I'm still not entirely sure what happened; I really didn't write anything of substance until I returned to college in 2023 and I think I mentioned it in those free threads but when I was forced to write for school, there was an initial panic and resistance, but then after getting over that hump those muscles felt really good to exercise again.

So, by this time I thought I'd have a variety of writing gigs, higher profile than I had at that time, but things change.

Keeping in the creativity thread:

Last week and this week have been busy but I've been going through the footage from the indie film I filmed two weeks ago. On one hand a lot of it looks awesome. On the other hand, I'm trying not to focus on the flaws, the bad takes, and I wasn't director, I wasn't cinematographer, I'm not editor, I just pointed the camera where I was told, so my worries about whether we got the right shots to make a film out of isn't my problem, until they want reshoots. Shooting the rest of the film happens October 13th.

It's a secret until I feel comfortable using the equipment, so don't tell anyone I bought one, but my rule for buying equipment is that when I finish a project or work on someone else's project, I look at what would have helped get a better result, or what was the most helpful equipment on that project, and then I buy it. The indie film showed that while I think I can hold a camera steady, without tripod, but it's not as good as I think and does look amateur...so I bought a steadicam. Not capital-S Steadicam, those are like $10,000, I bought a well-reviewed chinese knockoff based on the earlier Steadicam patents which I assume are expired, and I'm watching a 1980s instructional video to learn how to use it. The video makes it looks like magic -- this huge fucking thing just floating around -- and then I calibrated mine and put it on and I cackled so happily and loudly at its physics-defying behavior my wife yelled from the other end of the house, asking if I was having fun with my toy. It IS like magic! But I clearly need to play with it more before I can be useful on set with it, but it has to be the funnest thing I've bought so far.

Last night, in 16mm film class, was pitch night, for the final project where the class is broken into two teams and each makes a movie based on the best-recieved pitches. As with writing, I was initially panicked but let myself relax because pitching wasn't required, but I kept mulling over ideas until Monday one struck me and I started writing out a treatment and thought it was good, and I pitched it -- and it was very well recieved but the pitches are chosen based on anonymous ballot, so I won't find out until later whether mine was chosen. There were several other good pitches, so competition is tight.
posted by AzraelBrown at 7:20 AM on September 25 [9 favorites]

Doing craft shows.

It was an ordeal driving long distances, setting up your booth and spending the weekend watching folks come and go. And the weather was always a factor if you were outdoors (lots of fun trying to cover up in a thunderstorm). I don't miss the work but I do miss all the interesting artists and customers that we met along the way. Sometimes we even made some money!
posted by jabo at 7:52 AM on September 25 [4 favorites]

Ten years ago, I was only a couple of months into the job I still have. It was a close thing- I had pretty much hit bottom before I got this job, I was burned out from two failed startups and completely broke.

Things… actually came out more or less as expected? Apart from I wouldn’t have expected to still be in the same job after 10 years. I’d never gone more than about 2 years at a gig before. It’s kind of weird to be a lifer now. Not sure what I would do if I left this particular job, if I can’t ride it all the way to retirement I might have to reinvent myself as an FPGA programmer. C++ has kind of left me behind by this point.
posted by notoriety public at 7:57 AM on September 25 [1 favorite]

Also, six days ago was my 23rd anniversary here. How time flies..
posted by y2karl at 8:00 AM on September 25 [3 favorites]

Honestly once I hit adulthood everything went to shit so hard I stopped thinking about the future. So I actually had to try and figure out where I was in 2014 and what I might have expected back then, but it turns out I didn't have anything going on in 2014 that I thought would be long-term or permanent. Which is sad because I think I was moving in with my then-partner that year? But somehow I always knew that was definitely not forever. I guess I'm kind of surprised that I'm not currently actively depressed?
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 8:01 AM on September 25 [3 favorites]

Ten years ago, I was a good tech employee/corporate drone, and I thought that would continue until retirement.
Ha ha ha.
Nine years ago I got really sick, almost died, didn't die, but still have fairly severe health problems. So I ditched the tech career and took up farming.
The pay is shit, the hours are long, but am so much happier to have escaped the sexist abusive assholes of tech. And looking at the tech job market today, I am glad to have spared myself the layoffs and having to pretend to give a shit about AI as well.
posted by birdsongster at 8:12 AM on September 25 [3 favorites]

Thanks a lot for putting up the Free Thread for the week, Windopaene. I always look for it first thing on Monday and spend the next few hours scratching my noggin,' waiting and wondering and wittering, " Will anyone post it? Will everyone forget or not bother or is it only me who thinks it's not only fun but important in it's own way? And of course, I can't do it because, because, because I'm not "official", I wasn't appointed, anointed or given the job!" So big thanks!
posted by dutchrick at 8:45 AM on September 25 [6 favorites]

(just FYI, dutchrick - none of the people who post free threads are "official" or appointed; anyone who feels moved and/or brave enough to do so is absolutely welcome to think up a low-stakes topic and post one.)

16 years ago I got laid off from the only job I've ever actually liked. I used the layoff as an excuse to move across country to a new city where I didn't know anyone and didn't have a job lined up. Fortunately it went well, I found friends (thanks to local Metafilter IRL meetups, for which I remain deeply grateful) and a job making better money than I was before and I was actually able to start putting money into savings for the first time in my life. But (here's the part relevant to the OP question) ten years ago I unexpectedly had to leave the house I was renting because the landlord's son decided he wanted to move into it. At that point rental prices were starting to rise steeply and I was forced to downsize to a small apartment. Although I've gotten a couple of modest pay raises since then, I still can't afford to move back into an actual house-house, with room to host meetups again and be able practice sax without disturbing the neighbors.

Even so I'm aware that I'm pretty privileged to be able to afford to live alone at all; I don't expect that to last forever.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:58 AM on September 25 [3 favorites]

Ten years ago, at age 48, I had given up dating after multiple failed relationships (and 1 marriage). Did a whole lot of soul-searching and eventually realized where I had gone wrong with them. Became comfortable being alone and wholly accepted that I would spend the rest of my years like that.

Last year my first love showed up out of the blue after 25 years, divorced and on a quest to reconnect. We were together when we were teenagers 40 years ago, each other's first love. I was initially hesitant because I had come to love my solitude, but gave it a chance.

Working out great. NEVER thought I'd be partnered up again, but here we are!

Still haven't quit smoking, like I thought I would have by now...
posted by sundrop at 9:10 AM on September 25 [7 favorites]

"What is the thing you were sure you would be doing 10 years ago, that you are now NOT doing?"

remembering what I was doing or thinking 10 years ago lol

(I've recently developed some pretty severe autobiographical memory loss, and 2014 is one of the years that's completely gone -- but I'm guessing that 2014!me couldn't have predicted that)
posted by Jacqueline at 9:15 AM on September 25 [2 favorites]

Today is a Hell Day at my old job. We had Hell Days (followed by Hell Weeks) three times a year, but today is the worst of the lot. AND I AM NOT THERE. I am so gloating in my heart to not be there, and I hope everyone who is there has a horrible stressful miserable time. I hope karma gets those who went after me someday, but at the very least that they have a horrible time and don't have enough staff to deal with the mess that will be commencing within the hour.

Will anyone post it? Will everyone forget or not bother or is it only me who thinks it's not only fun but important in it's own way? And of course, I can't do it because, because, because I'm not "official", I wasn't appointed, anointed or given the job!"

Oh, I think this AND I'VE SOMETIMES STARTED FREE THREADS.

Became comfortable being alone and wholly accepted that I would spend the rest of my years like that.

...Yeah, I need to do this.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:25 AM on September 25 [1 favorite]

In 2014 I was turning 45 and realized the kid thing just wasn't going to happen so Mr Arctostaphylos and I made a 10 year travel plan.

Our ten yr old is now in 5th grade.
posted by Arctostaphylos at 9:31 AM on September 25 [15 favorites]

/Ghod laughs
posted by aleph at 9:46 AM on September 25 [1 favorite]

Or, in other words: 'Plans are useless; planning is essential' – Dwight Eisenhower.
posted by aleph at 9:49 AM on September 25 [6 favorites]

I should say I disagree/agree with the above. There are quite a few traditions that don't go in for "planning" at all. Mostly the "as God wills" types, but there are others, such as Taoism. I think planning can be useful as long as you keep in mind that's it's not real. But it's useful for what it's useful for.

"Life is what happens while we're making other plans" and all...
posted by aleph at 9:57 AM on September 25 [3 favorites]

When I was an aspiring young hippie-ish free soul in the Nineties, with a job as a public school teacher's aide whose pay was spread across 12 months for 9 months of work, I spent a few summers just loading myself into my car and driving and letting the world blow me as the wind might wish. It was a bit of a culmination of having absorbed a lot of "life is best lived without a plan but allowing the plan to emerge" sort of stuff, and it was indeed astonishing what I encountered while doing that. I didn't keep that job and 12 month employment doesn't really give one that kind of freedom, but I can say there is much to say as a benefit for just... letting oneself fly if one is young and has even very modest means.
posted by hippybear at 10:04 AM on September 25 [3 favorites]

Yeah...

Wife and kids (or equivalent :) ) can really drag that down.

But I have seen people over the years that seem to make that work, at least for decades.

I remember getting vibes like that off of "Housekeeping":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housekeeping_(film)

[snip]
...described the film as a "haunting comedy about impossible attachments and doomed affection in a world divided between two kinds of people" (those who embrace random existence, and those who try to impose reason and order on random existence).[16] Canby noted that Forsyth was able to "make us care equally" for both sisters,[16] and called Lahti's performance "spellbinding" and "role of her film career".
posted by aleph at 10:14 AM on September 25 [2 favorites]

Ten years ago my wife and older daughter and I were living in a 400sqf one-bedroom apartment directly above the BQE in Carroll Gardens. It was fucking grim. At the time, we were still struggling to admit to ourselves that New York had passed us by, even as we watched friend after friend decamp for Westchester or New Jersey or their various hometowns, kid(s) in tow.

Today we live in a nice little house in a dumb little town in America's dumbest state and we have fruit trees and another kid and a second cat and a really big network of really wonderful friends and it truly couldn't feel more different. I ran for local office and won! Twice! Some days I run to the beach, swim, and then run home! After 15 years of struggling, the dream of NYC truly couldn't be more dead, but it turns out it's really not bad at all.

Counterpoint though I'm bald as hell now, that sucks.
posted by saladin at 10:30 AM on September 25 [5 favorites]

Biiig changes. That's a struggle/effort right there. Besides the actual change(s).

Rate of change has an effect(s).

I keep remembering that little book from the 70's:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Shock

[snip]
Future Shock is a 1970 book by American futurist Alvin Toffler,[1] written together with his wife Adelaide Farrell,[2][3] in which the authors define the term "future shock" as a certain psychological state of individuals and entire societies, and a personal perception of "too much change in too short a period of time".

I believe that has a lot to do with what's happening present day.
posted by aleph at 10:39 AM on September 25 [2 favorites]

10 years ago I knew something had to change, and days later I made big changes. I don't think I had any vision of what my life would look like at 2014+10 beyond "The only relief from this relationship and home life is hurting myself terminally" so ... this is up from there.

I'm still grieving 2020's lockdown, and 2016’s Brexit vote. I didn't expect both things to happen. I guess I didn't expect social media to become as partisan as it did, or Reddit to sell out and break as it did, or Bitcoin to trade above $20, or Deep Learning to yield another wave of tulip-betting.
posted by k3ninho at 10:48 AM on September 25 [2 favorites]

We do seem to be in a time of ever increasing change. It's got to hit limiting points, when? But I don't expect hitting those to be pleasant. :(

But then I tend to be pessimistic. I try to factor that in.
posted by aleph at 10:52 AM on September 25

Update: Sadly my short film pitch didn't get chosen, but one of the others I liked did so hopefully I'll get on that crew!
posted by AzraelBrown at 11:07 AM on September 25 [3 favorites]

Hopefully.

Is it something you can polish for a later pitch?
posted by aleph at 11:16 AM on September 25 [2 favorites]

Playing board games with friends. qq
posted by symbioid at 11:20 AM on September 25 [2 favorites]

Possibly, there's a few other pitch-related classes -- but also I wasn't super married to it; the pitch was "KARAOKE", but no singing -- it's about how difficult it is to get people to join you for karaoke. A mostly wordless montage of one person sending the text "Karaoke?" to friends, then seeing which friends get the message and where they're at when they do (with interesting 'friends' like someone in a gorilla costume or someone handcuffed in the back of a police car), then how many actually try to attend and whether they run into obstacles getting there, and then finally seeing who actually makes it, with the original texter getting up to sing, with microphone in hand inhales to start the first verse, and -- roll credits, approximately 7 minutes long. I got a lot of good feedback that it would be fun and interesting, but like I said there were a lot of competition, and I admitted during my pitch that instead of having one seven-minute scene at one location, having a bunch of 10-second scenes at different locations takes a lot of planning and logistics to get results, so that might have been the key weakness. But, really, what's stopping me from calling on friends and just...making it myself?
posted by AzraelBrown at 11:27 AM on September 25 [6 favorites]

I'd watch that one, as a karaoke enthusiast.

I really want to write a play about karaoke, but I presume that the music rights would prevent me from doing so. That said, I saw a play called "Snow Fever" that did that and I wonder how they got around it?
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:34 AM on September 25 [1 favorite]

"...what's stopping me from calling on friends and just...making it myself?"

You can do that, they can't. Your advantage.
posted by aleph at 11:38 AM on September 25 [1 favorite]

I'm a short-term planner, not a long term planner. Turned 48 this spring, and on vacation this summer I had the first ever glimmer of an idea of what I would want to do when I retire. I've never before given it any thought, always seemed too far away to bother thinking about.

As far as the question at hand, 10 years ago versus now, I've moved from a mid-sized town to the big city. Didn't really see that change coming very far in advance, but it's also not surprising at all. That's the biggest change. I'm still working in the career I studied for in college, if anything I'd expected to have changed tracks by now, but I still love it.

This month brought a change. My 16 year old Prius got smashed at a traffic light a couple weeks ago. I'm fine, car is not. Bought it new, back in 2008, intending to drive it as long as I possibly could. So now I'm in a pretty white Subaru. Hope this one carries me another decade and a half!
posted by dorey_oh at 11:44 AM on September 25 [1 favorite]

"...but I presume that the music rights would prevent me from doing so."

Could you write the play about Karaoke like AzraelBrown was doing where it was about K but didn't use the music? Say a series of scenes that had something to do with K but just as they launched into the first notes the scene crashes closed and on to the next? Or any other thing you want to do with it.
posted by aleph at 11:45 AM on September 25 [2 favorites]

"I'm a short-term planner, not a long term planner."

I'm not much of a planner at all. Ended up with five College degrees just...

Don't know. Never thought much about it. It was what I wanted to do at shorter time scales with some vague long term plans. Not unhappy at how it worked out.
posted by aleph at 11:52 AM on September 25 [2 favorites]

Should say I was fairly big into Taoism when I was young. Might have had something to do with it.
posted by aleph at 11:55 AM on September 25 [1 favorite]

a play called "Snow Fever" that did that and I wonder how they got around it?

Most artistic rights have two options: performance rights and reproduction rights.

A non-recorded, performed-live play uses performance rights, which are usually easier to get and a lot of time venues just have a blanket performance right license, and karaoke music it comes inherent in the fact that, y'know, karaoke is made to be performed, like I'd bet that karaoke disks somewhere specifically grant performance rights in the liner notes. If they made a cast soundtrack recording using the music, they'd need reproduction rights, which would be harder to get. I started to go down the hole of how the heck IS karaoke licensed anyways? but stopped myself.

And that was also a factor I was taking into consideration: I planned to use mediocre MIDI versions of popular songs, karaoke-esque, but how'd those rights be handled to be part of a movie.
posted by AzraelBrown at 12:09 PM on September 25 [1 favorite]

Oh wow, that would explain a lot. Thanks! I did wonder since they actually sang the songs and whatnot.

I was considering doing a song-free karaoke play, but the idea is based off the first year I did of karaoke in 2019, when we had regulars there every week and in all honesty, plotlines kinda happened and sometimes songs were even part of the plot.
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:08 PM on September 25 [1 favorite]

10 years ago I was thinking maybe it would be better for everyone if I wasn't here anymore and my husband knew something was wrong and helped me get help and now I've been on meds and doing therapy for 10 years and I'm so, so glad I stuck around.
posted by cooker girl at 8:58 AM on September 26 [8 favorites]

Sent in my absentee ballot for the election! The Canada Post clerk was like, yeah we've seen a big uptick in American folks coming in to mail their absentee ballots.

I am strangely heartened by this.
posted by Kitteh at 9:46 AM on September 26 [3 favorites]

I signed up for and was accepted to be a poll worker for election day and because I'm the pedantiest little pedant that ever pedanted, there will be zero shenanigans allowed at my assigned polling location.
posted by cooker girl at 10:48 AM on September 26 [9 favorites]

"I signed up for and was accepted to be a poll worker for election day..."

Appreciate it.
posted by aleph at 10:50 AM on September 26 [2 favorites]

I've got friends and family directly in the storm path so I'm doomwatching the weather and hoping everyone will be ok - that goes for any affected MeFites as well.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:36 PM on September 26 [2 favorites]

Greg_Ace, my dad's tiny island town was under mandatory evac but my sister tells me he isn't budging. Not surprising but fucking stupid.
posted by Kitteh at 12:49 PM on September 26 [1 favorite]

Yeah, it's weird how consistently dumbly stubborn some small percentage of humanity can be.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:55 PM on September 26 [1 favorite]

Agreed. I mean, we're estranged but I would rather he not be a total idiot.
posted by Kitteh at 1:03 PM on September 26

I thought I would have moved on to doing something different or doing the same thing somewhere else. Instead I’m at the same employer, doing the same thing with some tweaks that make it challenging and interesting.

It has been a rough 30 hours. Spouse has not been feeling well and went to get checked out yesterday. I talked him out of urgent care and suggested an ER instead. Tests found multiple blood clots in his lungs and left leg (the source). No discernible cause. He is home now, and will be OK, with a prescription, an already-scheduled follow-up appointment and probably a shitton of more tests.

We were supposed to travel in a couple of weeks and I had to cancel everything, so I’m currently misplacing all my feelings into being sick over the financial loss of non-refundable airfare and tickets to do things and disappointing our kid and the friend we were supposed to see.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 1:25 PM on September 26 [3 favorites]

Good job theBigRedKittyPurrs!

When they go to the lungs, they can kill you in an instant essentially.
posted by Windopaene at 4:23 PM on September 26

One thing this hurricane is teaching me is to stop following the Weather Channel's weather.com site entirely. I've been pretty freaked out by all of their catastrophizing reporting, but when I checked an alternate source (noaa.com) I got a very different, less disastrous picture. Not entirely benign by any means, I don't want to minimize the issue either. But I'm feeling a little less alarmed than I was.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:24 PM on September 26

I don't like to sound negative, but I have looked back over my notes from 2014, and in a lot of ways, life has not gotten any better in the last ten years. In some ways it has gotten worse, particularly around my housing situation. Yes, I will continue to struggle, but it is hard to remain optimistic some times.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 5:44 PM on September 26