New Weird

[Dina]

Hello Weird!
Yes, they were fun times.
oh, guests can be fun, but so tiring. It is a good feeling to be alone with just your family again.
How is your mom doing?

I do not think I ever had true Gulash but I do understand the feeling of having good food after too much garbage food.

Poor sofa. We had a killer sofa here in Weird, it ate whatever you put in them and once or twice we had to save people from it. It must be around somewhere.
In all seriousness, I think that death by cat is a good and worthy death for an old sofa. But yes, you better not buy a new one until the cats are used to play outside. And I would not want 10 kittens either, no matter how cute they are.

We watched Madame Web. Everyone on internet was like "this is the worst picture ever". To be honest, I did not think it was that bad. Oh granted, it was bad. Lots of exposition and in general it seems like the pilot of a TV show. The main problem is I could not like any of the many characters.

I am still having troubles with my health, I think it was an stomach flu and I am not completely well. Anyways, I have a doctor appointment next Friday. Also, last Friday I had dentist and a root was removed. It was not too bad, but I hate to have an empty space. Also, I have a tooth that moves a little, so she gave me a medicine that helps with that.

[Regenbogen]

My mom is still hurting. The hip doesn't get better. Soon, she'll have an appointment with the orthopaedist. Let's see what he says.

OMG a killer sofa. I somehow get the feeling that mine is mutating. Once it dies, it will become a zombie sofa. It belonged to a dead man, btw. The man who owned the house before us. He bought the sofa and died 3 months later. It is dark red.
So far we have it under control. Necromantic power runs strong in our family. But soon, it will break free and roam these boards to devour whatever and whoever is in it's way. MWAHAHAHAAAAA! ****echos of manic laughter slowly fading into the void****

[Dina]

I am sorry about your mom, and I hope doctors can help.

Oh, that is awesome about the sofa.
Our poor sofa had been thrown as garbage, left outdoors when it was so used to the comfort of a cozy house. Feeling unloved was the true reason behind his wild behaviour. Shades gave it a home here, and at least it tolerated most of us. (yes, we had some fun with this backstory and it became a running gag)

[Regenbogen]

Hi, weird!
How are you? How is life?

Our sofa is still kind of alive, but it won't be much longer now. Nothing new, nothing worthy of writing here happened. I just wanted to say hi.

Hi.

[Regenbogen]

Double post: now there's news!
It snows.
But it is April, so no big deal. And it's not much. But it is cold. April is famous for it's crazy weather. I hope the plants survive, but probably some will not.

[Dina]

Hello! I like that you posted, even if it is to say hello.
And I bet things are beautiful with the snow now. I heard something about the beginning of Spring being quite cold in Europe.
We are having rain and wind. More wind than rain, so it is not a pleasant day. But it is not cold.
I am sad because my football team lost yesterday against its classical rival. The worst thing is that we did not play well. Sigh, well, on Wednesday we have another match, in another phase of another Cup. Sports life continues.

In a serious note, tomorrow we have a manifestation in defense of public education. I hope it is massive, we willl see. Our president is reducing the resources for education and other things. I will not say more because real lfe politics are banned here, but it is an important thing and I wanted to mention it.

[Fcrate]

Hello everyone!
Just checking in on you! I hope everyone is doing alright.
Spring is here, and it's very hot. Looks like this year is going to be even hotter than the last. 43 celsuis today, 42 yesterday.
On a more positive note, the unseasonal heat made my mulberry trees ripen early, so I've been eating the berries like a pig for 2 weeks now, getting happily fat I can't resist these babies when they're fresh off the tree. There's something extremely satisfying about picking a fruit and eating it in the same motion.

[Dina]

Hi Fcrate!
I am so glad you are here. And I also because you are doing well and enjoying your mulberries.
Here is coldish with occasional rains. I will leave for work in a while and I had my warm jacket ready.

I wanted to tell you that the protest I mentioned in my previous post was a success, with lots of people in the streets. I won't say more, except that we had a good weather that day.

[Fcrate]

I gained 3 kg so far, but those succulent mulberries can't be denied
Had a visit from my uncle and his family. They live in the US, and it's the first time he'd returned in 22 years. I did see my cousins, who I haven't seen since we were kids, and it was nice to reconnect. My cousin's girlfriend also came, and they told my family that they were married to avoid religious outrage (or at least extreme discomfort) but I understood the relationship right away, and kept tormenting them about it for the whole evening. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
I'm glad the weather was fine on your protest. How easily can you protest over there? Here it's illegal, and the police would immediately treat you as hostiles if you do so.
Are they trying to commercialize education in Argentina or something?

[Dina]

  I can't believe mulberries make you gain so much weight 

I am glad you had fun with your family.

Protests are legal here (of course, unless you begin throwing stones or something) but this government is particularly obsessed with free transit (as in nothing can stop you driving from one place to another), so if you cut the streets and stop the traffic, police will try to coerce you to move with more or less strength according to the situation. But in this case, it was really too many people, so the government OF THE CITY  decided not even try to stop us and let us manifest in peace. It was a good day.
National universities are "free" here (meaning, we all paid for them with our taxes). I am pretty sure this government is trying to make them private or at least paid, but for now they did not said that. They just tried to give the universities the same budget that last year, even when our annual inflation is more than 100%.  They also suggested that some workers will be fired. And they intend to do more controls that they are established by law. Basically, they were drowning the universities. Now, before the protest (when they suspected it would be massive) the government granted some money to the universities, but it was not enough, so we did the protest anyways. And it seems that it worked because it seems that more money will be coming soon. (They are also making a more or less covert campaing in social networks, trying to make people think that the lack of money is due to a poor administration by the universities authorities and because of the foreigners who study here. Xenophobia is always stalking).

[Fcrate]

Well, I have 3 trees outside, that I leave to the neighborhood kids, and I have 2 trees that are right outside my window, and they yield about 5-7 kg daily, of which I eat at least 1 kg and sometimes a lot more. And these are the sweetest fruit I've ever tasted, if you wait until they're ripe enough to almost fall by themselves. As a comparison: I tried eating some cookies right after I finished enjoying a handful of juicy, succulent, tasty berries that burst in my mouth as soon as they hit my tongue, and the cookies tasted bland and sugarless.
So, as far as I could tell from your earlier posts, education (even at a university level) in Argentina is excellent. Good job trying to protect it. Private education is good in the short term, but in the long run, it's quite destructive to society. Once you have to pay for it on an individual level, it becomes a business, and the prices will be over-inflated to the point where only the elite will be able to afford it, thus raising the prices in certain areas (medicine/law/engineering, etc).
I'm sorry, did you say that you had an inflation rate of 100% in one year? :O

[Dina]

All right then. Enjoy them!
Yes, Argentina traditionally had an excellent education. It got worse in the last few decades for several reasons, but university remained really good, with some careers between the best in the world. And without any cost for the students (except for post-graduates, some special courses, things like that). We also have private universities, some of them good, some of them bad.
And yes, the last year was completely awful in terms of inflation but there are some palliative measures (like raising the salaries, tax cuts, etc). Inflation is getting slightly better but palliative are worse with this government, so it is very, very difficult to live. Our salary ends long before the end of the month. But I have to tell you, this is not the worst inflation I lived. We have an hyper inflation in the 90s and other bad moments along the years.

[Fcrate]

Education is the first thing to go. As it's a long term investment, with no precise calculable returns, governments tend to start cutting corners there. In our case, some of our universities were ranked in the top 20 in the world up to the 90s. Some cuts later, in basic and university education, and we started feeling the effects around 2010. People who wanted to work in the US/Europe started having to go to a remedial year of courses to equate their level with the locals. 5 years later, it became 2 years of remedials.
About the inflation, well, 100% sucks, which I know from experience. Our local currency has lost half its value against the USD every year for 5 years straight now. Which is a nightmare, because every piece of technology and most animal feed is imported here, so everything goes up and down exactly with the dollar.

[Dina]

Yes, that is why we are so afraid about our university. It is terrible.
Well, inflation is going down now and they opened importations, so it is possible that prices stop raising or even reduced. But industry is probably going down too. *sigh*. Well, that is enough about real world policy. Today is a lazy Saturday and I plan to enjoy it.

[Regenbogen]

Hi, weird.
Sorry, I was busy. But I am OK.
We are watching the Eurovision Song Contest. There are some good songs, but also a lot of stuff that feels like you've already known it before. Some ballads, some disco music,...
And it must be extremely hot in Sweden: most performers don't have much clothing on their bodies, even the men, lol.
Just wanted to share a cool one from Ireland. I'll vote for them.

https://www.eurovision.de/videos/2024/Irland-Bambie-Thug-Doomsday-Blue-Erstes-ESC-Halbfinale-2024,irland1100.html

Edit: Switzerland won. Ireland is number 6.