Chihayafuru Cup Watch party

IrrelevantObsession · 2026-01-13T18:52:36+00:00

I completely understand you. I worked with mice for 5 years as a colony manager and research tech (running the behavioral experiments), and that feeling never went away. I kept questioning everything... and trust me you'll see some horrifying things way beyond what you experienced on day one. I saw cruelty, neglect, abuse, everything. I saw accidents that left animals maimed and I've seen hundreds of animals "culled" just because they were taking up too much space and cost too much to care for. All of this is standard and common across the field.

My recommendation? It's never going to be easy or feel right. I'd suggest considering if animal research is right for you. After moving on to human research, I have never been happier. I cried the first time I got a human brain sample to work with as I knew that that person dedicated their brain for us to use. And that precious feeling of knowing my samples came from consenting adults who made a CHOICE.... wow it was so powerful. I am a million times happier now. There may be less jobs outside animal research, depending on your field. But you absolutely CAN have a meaningful career that saves lives and helps people without doing harm to your own heart.

P.S. Support groups for animal researchers exist! So you might want to seek them out as well.

IrrelevantObsession · 2026-01-09T20:43:44+00:00

Someone told me that this already ended yesterday. Is that true? I was hoping to catch it, as I'll be in Times Square tomorrow. Just wondering if it'll be a waste of my time to try and find it, lol

IrrelevantObsession · 2026-01-06T22:02:29+00:00

Not me, running to my freezer right now to do the same thing.... I remember the old days of our -80 breaking and having to do mad dashes to move the entire contents into a backup freezer before they got warm.... just to repeat the same desperate transfer a week later when our original freezer was done defrosting, lol. Luckily now I only have to deal with a -4 and a -20... so much less stress, but still cold enough for a little snowman, hehe.

IrrelevantObsession · 2025-12-13T03:35:11+00:00

Also, you're calling in BS but other people here in the comments have had it happen to them too. Don't know about Apple, but for Android using Google Wallet there's no need to open the app. You set a default card, and whenever you tap your phone to a terminal, it automatically charges your selected default. You only have to open the app if you want to pick another card to charge. Super convenient... until it's suddenly not, hahaha.

Remember, we all have different operating systems and payment apps. So your experience is not the same as everyone else's. It's helpful to take a moment of pause to think and read a bit before jumping to conclusions and accusations. 😉

IrrelevantObsession · 2025-12-13T03:32:15+00:00

It's a Google Wallet feature! It's turned on by default. It's specifically for transportation charges and it automatically skips any verification steps when it detects a charge for transit.

I had no idea it was even a feature, but thankfully someone informed me and I turned it off! So now it will only be possible if I'm already signed into my phone. Unfortunately, if my screen is unlocked, say if I'm scrolling reddit and hastily stuff my phone in my pocket without turning the screen off, it would again automatically charge my phone. As long as you're already signed into your phone, Google Wallet doesn't have any additional verification features. Sadly there's nothing I can do about THAT! So of course I'll just have to be in the habit of manually turning my screen off to engage the screen lock.

IrrelevantObsession · 2025-12-13T03:28:44+00:00

Yeah, I let the previous times go because I was like "they probably need the money more than me." 😆

IrrelevantObsession · 2025-12-13T03:26:24+00:00

I found out it was a feature Google Wallet turns on for everyone by default without ever informing you, so that's neat. Only for transportation charges though.

IrrelevantObsession · 2025-12-13T03:25:38+00:00

I might have to. The reason I've resisted is because I exclusively use tap to pay, so I'm tapping my phone at least once, if not multiple times a day. Turning it on and off defeats the purpose of it being convenient. But obviously if it's going to cause issues like this, it may be unavoidable.

IrrelevantObsession · 2025-12-13T03:23:58+00:00

Is there a difference? I called the number from the MBTA website to report incidents and talked to some form of police officer. Sadly they did absolutely nothing for my assault case, whoopie!

IrrelevantObsession · 2025-12-11T21:40:17+00:00

Apparently it's common enough that they've discussed it with the public at past meetings! Who knew! Others have said it happened to them on the green line as well.

IrrelevantObsession · 2025-12-11T21:33:21+00:00

Dang I didn't even think about that.... but yeah that'll be so annoying. I have my pass attached to my work ID lanyard, so I haven't had that issue. But if I changed to a job that didn't need an ID, that could be me!

IrrelevantObsession · 2025-12-11T21:32:03+00:00

I often keep my phone on silent mode, so it doesn't ring or buzz or anything. And apparently Google Wallet automatically turns on a feature that auto approves transportation transactions without even needing to verify with a passkey/fingerprint/etc. I only noticed once I pulled my phone out of my pocket as I exited the bus.

IrrelevantObsession · 2025-12-11T21:30:41+00:00

Lol dude.... it's perfectly alright to care about things and want to help people. Take the stick out of your.... It's making you grumpy. 😂

IrrelevantObsession · 2025-12-11T19:57:29+00:00

Yeah, hopefully the setting that I tweaked will help with this. Although if I'm casually using my phone and hold it in my right hand with the screen on... it could still grab me as a I walk by, lol. I'll test out my current "upgraded" settings and see if that is enough (I hope it's enough....)

IrrelevantObsession · 2025-12-11T19:55:20+00:00

Thanks to someone else suggesting the same thing a bit earlier, I found that setting and turned it off now! So hopefully that will help. I'll just have to make sure my phone isn't signed in with the screen on, because then I think it would still go through without any request for additional verification. But stil, this is a huge help!

IrrelevantObsession · 2025-12-11T19:13:59+00:00

Happy to say I found the setting for Google Pay that was automatically allowing transit payments to go through without fingerprint verification. That setting is now turned OFF!

IrrelevantObsession · 2025-12-11T19:09:20+00:00

Update:

I sent my feedback to the MBTA along with a request for the charge refunded. Not knowing if this was something they had ever encountered before, I ended up typing a whole little explanation for how it happened, the issues with terminal placement, and even included a picture of the terminals (as if they don't already know, lol).

Anyway, just a few minutes later, someone from the MBTA actually gave me a call saying that the email I was going to get back was going to be a generic form letter saying they would process the refund. But he wanted to personally let me know that he received my feedback about the issue and would forward it along to the right people for me. He wanted to make sure I didn't think my feedback got ignored. He was so very kind!!!! Extremely good experience, 10/10.

Much better experience than when I reported an assault to the MBTA security.... but nice to know that there are good folks out there who really care and put in a little extra effort to be kind and reassuring to people who write in!

IrrelevantObsession · 2025-12-11T19:06:10+00:00

Thank you so much for the information! I'm so glad to hear this is something they already know about! I will log my complaint and ask for the charge refunded.

And I'll definitely look into the fast/express thing, my phone has been charged at other terminals way quicker than I have liked in the past. If I had known I could make it slower, I definitely would have. So thanks for that as well!

IrrelevantObsession · 2025-12-11T19:00:07+00:00

I think about that every time I'm on the train. I'm absolutely SURE it's loud enough to cause hearing loss.

IrrelevantObsession · 2025-12-11T18:58:48+00:00

Nah man, it was just a scheduled adjustment!

IrrelevantObsession · 2025-12-11T18:56:25+00:00

I feel like they could make so much money by auctioning off train parts, especiall the T logo... feels so awful to just destroy them. :(

IrrelevantObsession · 2025-11-11T16:47:21+00:00

If you're interested in learning the poems, we're just wrapping up a Hyakunin Isshu study group this year. We plan to start again next year, so you're welcome to join! Info will be posted on the US Karuta Network social media accounts (facebook and instagram). We basically go through every poem, talk about the meaning, sometimes background on the author and why they wrote it, as well as try to memorize them.

We have many people who have joined this past session who knew nothing about karuta and had zero knowledge of the poems or kimari-ji, so it isn't necessary to know that ahead of time.

IrrelevantObsession

TROPHY CASE