A forest in Germany, December 1944.
GI sentry: “Who won the World Series in 1943?”
David Niven (for it is he): “Haven’t the foggiest idea, but I did co-star with Ginger Rogers in Bachelor Mother.”
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I went to a potential student event at Notre Dame. One of the speakers was a WWII vet, who told a story about being stopped by a sentry, “who were the four horsemen of Notre Dame?” He had no idea, he was a kid from New York giving ten years of starting lineups for the Yankees was enough to not get him shot.
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Okay, so on to the Wardrobe conclusion.
Wardrobe #1 is on its way
To my not-small surprise, I quickly got another call from the woman 2 days ago letting me know that they had organized transport and they would try to be here on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday and which days were okay for us. Basically all were good with a strong preference for Sunday.
We talked again for a bit. She let me know her partner was happy the wardrobe had been taken down already so that they didn’t have to do it.
She later let me know via SMS that they would make it on Sunday. Which is/was today.
We met at the apartment just before noon and it turns out they are a very nice couple, who had brought their dog along and already taken a little walk around the local park.
She handed over the money before even seeing the wardrobe and gave us a very nice bottle of red wine as well. Turns out she’s a wine merchant. My partner was quite enthusiastic after finding out about that 
Now the wardrobe is on its way to its next home in France (with a few months of rest in a basement until their own move). She promised me a picture when they set it up which will be around Christmas.
Wardrobe #2 remains in our basement
The other person who had managed to organize transport for today and who wanted to have the wardrobe for free and whom I offered the other one to… said they had to check with someone and then didn’t get back to me. What can I say…
Kleinanzeigen remains fascinating. Sometimes apparently half of the appeal of something its the story and people behind it. This is not the first time I have spent a lot of time on the phone about something I was selling (the other occasion was my “City of Chaos” boardgame). Since most of the time I sell things so they can remain used … it’s probably worth my time. My last post I may have been a bit angry because I was really unsure we could get the wardrobe out of the apartment in time. But now both wardrobe and fridge have new owners and I have slightly more money and a bottle of wine
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Lessons learned in my Cthulhu Eternal scenario at Convocation today: ① don’t get into a gunfight with a Haunter of the Dark; ② if you do, use the Bren gun.
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Always use the Bren.
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I tried to give away some things for free on Kleinanzeigen because I didn’t care about the few Euros I could make with it.
It was very exhausting every time. You get overwhelmed with messages and they are not well phrased most of the times.
It is often a lot of work to get rid of things but at least they still get used.
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I feel like it takes some practice to handle Kleinanzeigen. There is a certain etiquette I learned when selling boardgames. This came in handy now.
The wardrobe was so stressful because I was really afraid at a certain point that we wouldn’t get rid of it in time (…I’ll omit the issues generating time pressure…) because I had put up the ad a bit late. I had not anticipated the transport issues with something 220cm high.
I only remembered that when we furnished our first apartment, my room-mates and I got a lot of used stuff from similar places as Kleinanzeigen and since uni is just starting here, I had thought students might come pick up the stuff. I did not remember what kind of car we were using at the time to go shopping at IKEA:
(The one my room-mate had looked even more rickety, it was probably rusty and far dirtier and less well maintained than this one)
It feels like today’s SUVs would easily roll over the polo without even noticing. But we managed IKEA shopping 
We did not transport any 220cm wardrobes. My one roommate didn’t even have a bed for the 5 years we lived there–he kept saying he would build one from the materials he had acquired… but he kept putting it off sleeping on a matrace on the floor. And then we all finished uni and moved into new apartments with our respective partners (who had been living in the same building as room-mates in another apartment)
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I remember squeezing my newly purchased 5x1 Expedit in my old housemate’s Suzuki Swift. Pretty much spanned the gap between the front window and rear window!
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A friend of ours still remembers her trip back here balancing an ironing board on her head. Well, she had said “if you don’t get that, you’ll regret it” and they were out in a Mini…
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Probably better than on a unicycle.
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I have found the easiest way to get rid of something I don’t want is to just put it out on the curb with a “Free” sign on it. It’s usually gone within the day. Old air conditioning unit, broken chest freezer (labeled as such), old box of pull up diapers that wouldn’t fit my kid, scrap metal, it’s all been taken.
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Depending on your neighbourhood, it may go a lot faster if you put “£10 - enquire within”.
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Back when I was a student living in a rougher part of York, my housemate had her bike stolen but they left the wheel locked to the bike rack.
A while later we unlocked the wheel and left it with a “Free Wheel” note. Gone within minutes.
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Nice to see, at a time when some companies are trying to reduce plastic packaging, Plaid Hat decided everything needed to be in shrink in the Ashes expansions I just received. Including the board and punch boards!
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Need to vent
Goodness, the OG Games discord got exhausting. Finely discussing what Multiplayer Solitaire means.
I’ve left it as I have a compulsion to keep up wherever I’m a member/participant. (Possibly not healthy in a different way).
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I had a discussion with a product designer about this problem a couple years ago, about a non board game product, but I expect the reason is similar here. Their product contained a number of small parts, which were produced separately from the main product. (Mostly hardware, but also an electronic component). Putting them in plastic bags meant the people who made the big piece could pack everything: just put one of each bag in the box. No counting, no risk of forgetting one component, and no risk of damaging the parts.
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I’ve just unwrapped my copy of Tuki. Each sort of piece has its place in the inlay… and comes its own pointless bag.
It’s a bit boring lmao
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Some people feel the compulsion the categorize and, perhaps as a result, organize the chaos that surrounds and consumes them.
Me, on the other hand… I feel that categorization (or categorisation, depending on your spell-checker) is counter to real, profound undrestanding.
So, categorically speaking: categorization is bad (unless it’s insightful).
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Spotted on facebook: google has started spouting AI nonsense.
Search for “Is there an african country that starts with k” and you’ll get a ChatGPT answer, which reads:
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