A whine and complain thread

[IanC]

And that is why you shoudlnt do drugs!

[jvcc]

But I didn't. I just wanted to.

[EvilJekyll]

But I didn't. I just wanted to.

And that is why you shoudlnt do drugs!

Take a bite out of crime!

[EsBe]

But I didn't. I just wanted to.

And that is why you shoudlnt do drugs!

Take a bite out of crime!

Toasted crime with olive oil, garlic, and chile flakes. A crunch that really satisfies.

[MysticalDescent]

But I didn't. I just wanted to.

And that is why you shoudlnt do drugs!

Take a bite out of crime!

Bite, bite, bite, bite out of crime.

[Skimba]

Bite, bite, bite, bite out of crime.

Is that a song or something?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGruff_the_Crime_Dog

[ntw3001]

I'm gaining weight at an incredible pace. Being at home is awful.

Sounds like maybe you're falling into old habits. Can you try and recreate what you were doing in canada?

Unfortunately I don't think I can. What I was doing was making my own meals (so I ate when I was hungry, rather than when I was hungry and also when meals were made for me) and walking to places, and now I'm living with my parents in a dead suburb. It would be possible for me to go for walks, but the only destination is a supermarket. Aimlessly wandering for two hours a day isn't quite as easy a regime to stick to as walking to work every day. I'm going to join the gym now that I've got a little money though. I could do all that if I moved to London, though. And I wouldn't be in the same stagnant social rut.

Ntw, save your pennies and come back to my end of the world

That was my initial plan, mostly due to the French girl I think I whined about earlier, but she stopped replying to my messages. That was pretty much expected, but I'm not too pleased. I'd expected to be able to keep in contact via Skype and Whatsapp, but to use Skype I'd need an internet connection that wasn't dial-up in my dad's study, and to use Whatsapp I'd need a smartphone. So, I came back, arranged to use my brother's old iPhone, found that my dad was finally planning to set up a wireless connection, and so it seemed fine.

But! My brother had to unlock the phone, and my dad had to actually set up the internet. Obviously, neither of them did those things, so I could only message her when I could get on Facebook in the study. This is not ideal! I've given up, taken the phone back and am going to see if I can get it unlocked somewhere else. The internet is just not very likely to ever get changed, because my dad is the type who places no urgency on changing anything that is not actively killing him. If something could be improved that's nice, but if the current state of affairs is at all tolerable it won't change. Our staircase is currently held up by a jumble of random planks after it broke 18 months ago, and a surveyor told us last month that it could collapse at any time. Unfortunately the maximum priority level is something in the area of 'should really get around to fixing that (beige alert)'.

Aside from that, most of the social network I built up in Toronto is gone now. Many were also on working visas, a few who were there longer-term are gone for other reasons, and one of the few Canadians has mysteriously vanished from Facebook (I got my suspicions why, and it's a bit sad, but in any case there's no way I can get back in contact). If I did another working visa I'd want to go to Toronto because spending six months learning the ropes in another city would be pretty dire, but I'm now thinking of teaching in Korea. A proper job, so no scrounging around. That, or just doing proper work in London. Or I seem to have a decent chance of getting a better, permanent job where I currently am. Insurance in Essex is not what I dreamed of, but it would be permanent and would pay more than my current £12k a year, so getting that would at least set me up to make long-term decisions rather than spending my time plotting an emergency escape from my parents' house.

[MysticalDescent]

Bite, bite, bite, bite out of crime.

Is that a song or something?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGruff_the_Crime_Dog

I got it slightly wrong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vg7ZAaR7AU

[badplantmommy]

For my landscape design class, we were supposed to go measure and photograph a new house that wasn't lanscaped yet, and design a landscape for it. I have been unable to do this, as just the thought of asking for permission to do this causes me to have a panic attack. Fortunately I'm just taking the class for my own knowledge and not for a grade.

[loofah]

For my landscape design class, we were supposed to go measure and photograph a new house that wasn't lanscaped yet, and design a landscape for it. I have been unable to do this, as just the thought of asking for permission to do this causes me to have a panic attack. Fortunately I'm just taking the class for my own knowledge and not for a grade.

Do you have to ask permission? Couldn't you just go to a new housing tract before someone moved in?

[Zombie Protestor]

So I came home to find my roommate/live-in girlfriend making out with another guy last night. I am this big ball of torn emotions right now.

She needs the stable home so she can get her daughter back. I can't in good conscious kick her out. I told her last night that if she wants to date him instead, then do it and don't go doing this behind my back and I can at least be at peace on where her heart lies. Otherwise, if she wants to remove him from her life, we can work it out. She opted for the latter, so we'll see how that goes.

[AshleyOliver]

I need new shoes. I hate shopping for clothes; shoes, doubly so.

Actually, I don't mind buying T-shirts and things. I know where I stand with those. But shoes are bastards.

I am an real horse enthusiast.I have been used equestrian tshirts.

[Skimba]

I am an real horse enthusiast.I have been used equestrian tshirts.

That's hard to read in my head or out loud.

[EsBe]

I haven't had electricity or running water since Monday afternoon on account of the hurricane, and I'm not expected to get it back until Tuesday. I have to rely on the office at work for checking emails, charging the cell phone, and the like. I shan't complain too much since I'm neither dead nor trapped in a cold, pitch black, high rise apartment building like some people are, but it's still a little bit rough. Last night we ran out of water in the tub for flushing toilets (I've never been without power for longer than the bathtub's lasted) which required a reprovisioning of water allocated for washing dishes, and the impact sort of cascaded from there.

[Skimba]

I was wondering how folks were faring out east and who all on this board was effected. I know Eviljekyll lives in NJ, Gif is in either VT or NH, and a few others. My brother and friends just outside Philly are apparently OK, but some still w/o power in some areas as of Tuesday. I read an article about how people were getting angry about power, gas, etc. and I thought to myself, "Really? Wow.", but I guess people will always be irrational.
I hope it gets better for you and for everyone soon!!

[chrismachine]

What's irrational about being upset at not having power or gas to heat your home for days on end? Unless you mean the prices... I think you mean the prices actually now that I type this, and that makes sense.

[EsBe]

Good gnus everybody, the power went on at 3:45 AM. I know this because I was awake at the time when my bedroom light went on, and the house shook with the sound of toilets and other water fixtures returning to life. I am inexplicably the only one awake, and I hesitantly await the shrill shriek of people discovering it for themselves. My only regret is that I was not prepared at that late hour to bake cookies for the linemen who fixed my poopcakes.

[EvilJekyll]

I was mostly unaffected. Parts of the city I live in still don't have power, but I never lost power for more than 30 seconds. Gas is a big deal right now though.

[Zombie Protestor]

This. This needs to stop.



I saw this on my Facebook feed today and felt like going off on this person. First off, if you are proud of your daughter, then telling her so is going to make a hell of a lot more impact than you taking two seconds to click 'Share' on something like this. Second, you're not really telling this to your daughter, now are you? No, you want all of us to know that 1) you have a daughter and 2) you must be some awesome parent if you would stick up for her in a public forum like this. It's ironic (in the true definition) that in trying to prove to us what a good parent you are, you're showing that you have to resort to indirectly giving her praise for no specific set of accomplishments, a phenomenon that I'll call "passive-appreciation".
One of the funniest parts comes in that they want you to hit 'Like' and not 'Share', which somehow manages to cheapen it, if this can be cheapened, in that you're not even putting it up on your own page for all your friends to see, you're just encouraged to like some other guy's status in order to show it. Bra-vo, Wonderdad.

[chrismachine]

Well I couldn't be much farther away from your stance on waiting for your child to do something good before telling them you're proud of the person they are. I think that creates people who grow attached to actions and not people, making them more self-centered but also having a heightened risk that someone will notice they are out there looking for praise and will take advantage of them. Rather, I would prefer telling your child the elements of their character you admire and respect, obviously including examples of their actions that show this character trait when they ask what you mean or what exactly is making you say this. I don't think they have to always be tied to events, or that you have to wait until your daughter or son helps a kid off the ground who fell off his bike to tell them you're proud of them for how compassionate they are. The more you can get your kid to see and appreciate their good qualities, the more they will see those as being valuable parts of who they are, not just always trying to go "do things" for other people all of the time just to see if they can get praise for it. I just really wanted to say that.

I totally despise those "'like'-chasing" pictures, but I see them rarely anyway as I have unsubscribed from the people I know who tend to respond to them.

[James]

I ate too much cheesecake and now I feel unwell. I have caused my own misery.

[jvcc]

Dammit, I gave a student a C when she was supposed to get a B. Now I've had to email the English department administrative assistant to find out how to change her grade. Goddammit.

[PonderThis]

Dammit, I gave a student a C when she was supposed to get a B. Now I've had to email the English department administrative assistant to find out how to change her grade. Goddammit.

It's her own durned fault for not getting that bribe to you on time.

[badplantmommy]

For my landscape design class, we were supposed to go measure and photograph a new house that wasn't lanscaped yet, and design a landscape for it. I have been unable to do this, as just the thought of asking for permission to do this causes me to have a panic attack. Fortunately I'm just taking the class for my own knowledge and not for a grade.

Do you have to ask permission? Couldn't you just go to a new housing tract before someone moved in?

I ended up using the model home. I survived that class, and Perspective Drawing too. Yay!

--J--

[PonderThis]

I survived that class, and Perspective Drawing too. Yay!

Hooray! DRAW SOMETHING FOR US! [/unreasonably demanding]