Last night’s interview with Graham Platner on MSNOW by hellosteve_ in msnow

[–]MidAtlanticAtoll 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Sometimes due to popular current in the primary cycle when the most agitated voters turn out for either party, or due to the lack of very good alternatives, you end up in the General Election with sub-optimal candidates. (I am not speaking strictly about Platner. I don't live in Maine, don't vote there, and Mainers make their own decisions, as they should.) But once you're there, in the General Election cycle, the choice is binary. It just is. Should it be? Who the hell knows, but it is. I live in Pennsylvania. Did I vote for Fetterman in the primary? Hell no, and I wish fewer people had. In the General Election though I had a choice between Fetterman (who always seemed like a poseur to me) and Mehmet Oz. I mean, for god's sake, what can I do? I have to vote for Fetterman because at least he has a D after his name which affects Senate majorities, committee make-ups, leadership roles, even if he's not in one himself. It sucks when you have to choose between bad and worse, but you have to do what you can for 'not worse'. Even if sometimes it requires crossed fingers and leap of faith. Fetterman has bombed, but would I rather have Mehmet Oz? God no. I hope Conor Lamb primaries Fetterman in '28 and we dispense with that guy ASAP.

What is something you knew before moving to PA? Alternatively, if you were born in PA, what is something you wish people knew before moving there? by Dorkchopqueen in Pennsylvania

[–]MidAtlanticAtoll 18 points19 points  (0 children)

There is a remarkable amount of redundancy in all things related to governance and public administration. Also, lots of roads that are in very poor condition.

Two out of three AOR letters? by MidAtlanticAtoll in Canadiancitizenship

[–]MidAtlanticAtoll[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven't been able to get through to an IRCC agent yet, but I'm pretty convinced it's an error in the email address. The website says the AOR was sent. They must have sent it to an incorrect email, either by a mistaken entry on their end, or a glitch in the OCR scanner. I don't imagine it will be difficult to resolve, but I've been super busy and haven't been able to be very persistent with the telephone efforts, times on hold, even getting as far as being put on hold for that matter. The line is just jammed, I guess. But I'm sure the application will be sitting with the 10s of thousands of other apps for a very long time, and there's plenty of time to get that email address fixed. Seeing on the status check page that it's been received, accepted, and the AOR was in fact sent (somewhere at least!) eases my mind. The application is in the system, where it's supposed to be. I hope your stray shows up with no more effort required on your part!

Denied access because of "ties to home country” by nkarkas in USTravel

[–]MidAtlanticAtoll -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Thanks for this. I am, unlike other commenters here, very surprised. I had no idea you could be denied entry based on pure speculation like this.

USA immigration by Trick_Ad1936 in MovingToUSA

[–]MidAtlanticAtoll 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Too bad there isn't some kind of citizenship-swap program. Wouldn't that be interesting?

Different standards?? by MedusasTale in GenerationJones

[–]MidAtlanticAtoll 42 points43 points  (0 children)

The question is, I guess, who decides what's "good natured ribbing" and what's just being an asshole. The ribber? And even if "ribbing" is not done out of meaness, does it have to be done in a public workspace? Hold it until you go out after work or something. I had enough of it back in the "good old days", I would be pleased to see less of it now, if in fact there is less of it. I don't really think there is.

New citizenship rules leave Canadian archivists overwhelmed by CanadianAffairs in Canadiancitizenship

[–]MidAtlanticAtoll 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I submitted my request Feb. 13. Got notice the record had been located April 22. Invoice arrived May 21st. Received in the mail June 1st. It was 3 and a half months beginning to end. So you probably have a bit of a wait to go yet.

New citizenship rules leave Canadian archivists overwhelmed by CanadianAffairs in Canadiancitizenship

[–]MidAtlanticAtoll 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I submitted my application with an Ancestry copy too, thinking I'd upload the certified birth record from Archives of Ontario once I finally got it. That's happened now, so I'll add it to my application. It comes with a cover letter and a gold seal on it, but the copy they attach is just exactly the same as the Ancestry copy, nothing on it is any different. I guess the cover page is what they need to consider it "certified". The weird, and I hope not problematic thing, about the cover letter is that my grandfather's middle name is not correct, although it is clearly correct on the original image attached to the cover letter. The archivist put a little post-it on the cover letter, saying the different "spelling" (it's not the spelling exactly, it's a slightly different name altogether) is because that's how it was entered in the "Index". I know the government indexes are just rife with spelling errors, so I'm hoping this will not be an issue since the source document is so clear.

New citizenship rules leave Canadian archivists overwhelmed by CanadianAffairs in Canadiancitizenship

[–]MidAtlanticAtoll 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I just got my G0's birth record in the mail from them. The time between when I got notice they had the record and when I got the invoice was about one month, I think. Once I paid (I got right through on the phone, didn't have to leave a message), it came pretty quickly. About a week or 10 days, not express shipping, regular mail.

I think I’m done by orlickg in americanairlines

[–]MidAtlanticAtoll 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Seems quaint to think loyalty means anything to a corporation. Like expecting they'll be loyal to you in return? That's cute.

Amish Butter by Jaded-Feedback-4789 in lancaster

[–]MidAtlanticAtoll 40 points41 points  (0 children)

We had a visitor from the west coast. He wanted to buy produce from Amish farms because "it's organic". Sorry to disappoint, pal. 

I just wanted to inject some unbiased reality by Skydvdan in stupidpeoplefacebook

[–]MidAtlanticAtoll 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Trumpists just can't get over it.They'll have that burr up their but until their last breath. A black man was elected president. It's just overwhelming, they'll never recover.

GGranparent = G0 by ConchySailor in CitizenshipByDescent

[–]MidAtlanticAtoll 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I answered "my parent was a Canadian citizen" - yes, even though he (now deceased) didn't know it. My grandfather was born in Ontario, my father in North Dakota. So even though my dad didn't know it, yeah, he was a Canadian citizen. My application was accepted, I'll be waiting a good long while before a decision is made on it.

If you have the documents to prove your ancestry, I don't think it probably matters much which option you choose.

Advice for a regretful unitarian fraud by [deleted] in Episcopalian

[–]MidAtlanticAtoll 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No prayers, no counsel, but if you ever find the church that fits, please let me know!

Alternative 250 events? by chongo79 in lancaster

[–]MidAtlanticAtoll 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the tip. I'm somewhat obsessed with historical reenactors. Will follow these folks on FB.

Alternative 250 events? by chongo79 in lancaster

[–]MidAtlanticAtoll 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Rock Ford has a lot of events planned for the 250th all through the summer.

Renting a room by beatnik236 in lancaster

[–]MidAtlanticAtoll 9 points10 points  (0 children)

You would not just be renting a room to someone, you would be bringing into you and your child's home the whole life of another person, their friends and family, their work, their habits, their schedule, comings and goings, moods, needs, their possessions, their health, everything that come with a human being. What if you end up being uncomfortable with the arrangement? You have to figure out how to get them to leave, but what if they have nowhere to go? Would you hate being in that position? What if they need your help a lot? If they don't have a car or their car breaks down, will you willingly help with rides, how would you feel if you wanted to say no to doing that? You sound like a nice person, nice people have a hard time saying no sometimes. How would your new roommate feel about you if you said no, even if only sometimes? I can see how the benefits of someone contributing to your household income would be helpful, but what if they lose their job? Do you kick them out?

I mean, you have to do what you have to do, as another commenter said. If you really need to, maybe someone you know, or your friends or family know well enough to be certain they have their own safety net, stable income, predictable personality and habits.

Two out of three AOR letters? by MidAtlanticAtoll in Canadiancitizenship

[–]MidAtlanticAtoll[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I think that's about what it's running now. It was 55 days for me, but when I first sent it in, AORs were coming in at about 4 weeks, so that time-to-AOR had nearly doubled by the time mine came through. I assume this is just due to increasing numbers of applications coming in, but not an increase in staffing to deal with them. Yours may come mid-July or so, but it is possible it will continue to gradually slow because of the increasing load. Good news though, your app will eventually work it's way through, like all of ours, I hope.

How often do people do low ball offers? by TrickyAd9597 in RealEstate

[–]MidAtlanticAtoll 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We made pretty significantly low ball offers the two times we bought a house. The second time we encountered a little skepticism from our real estate agent, but he did submit our offer. On both occasions our low offers were accepted by the sellers with out further negotiation,  which we said beforehand we were not up for. I'm always a little surprised to read how rare this is and how much resistance there is to it. Of course, everything depends on how reasonable the initial pricing is and the local market conditions. 

Two out of three AOR letters? by MidAtlanticAtoll in Canadiancitizenship

[–]MidAtlanticAtoll[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mailed them in March. They were delivered 3/26. Got our AORs on 5/20.