Whine like a baby, now with 500% more drama!
- Thread starter strawman
- Start date
Had.
I keep a stash of snack cakes just for work lunches. I'll go to the store rather than tap into the stash if I'm out of other desserts.
You're despicable. I hope your next weekend shift is filled with a choir convention.Had.
I keep a stash of snack cakes just for work lunches. I'll go to the store rather than tap into the stash if I'm out of other desserts.
GasBandit
Staff member
So much stress. Our Traffic director (the one who's out sick for a month straight every year, etc) is being downsized, and her position eliminated. Her tasks are being split between the accountant, my primary lackey, and myself.
If they had straight up fired her, I think we could have handled it.
But they didn't. Probably because they're worried it'd make it look like they were firing her for being sick too much (which is what they are de facto doing), and don't want her to sue them.
They instead reduced her hours to half time (4 hours a day) for the next 60 days so she'll have some income, at least, while she looks for another job.
This has just turned her toxic. It's affecting me, but more importantly, my lackey - and if my lackey quits from the stress of the next 60 days I will be really up shit creek.
If they had straight up fired her, I think we could have handled it.
But they didn't. Probably because they're worried it'd make it look like they were firing her for being sick too much (which is what they are de facto doing), and don't want her to sue them.
They instead reduced her hours to half time (4 hours a day) for the next 60 days so she'll have some income, at least, while she looks for another job.
This has just turned her toxic. It's affecting me, but more importantly, my lackey - and if my lackey quits from the stress of the next 60 days I will be really up shit creek.
Update: the actual answer is $1,500.Answer: $750.
"What is it going to cost to fix your wife's car, Joe?"
DINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDING
GasBandit
Staff member
Gahd, I did it again! Home from work, sit on the couch, next thing I know I am waking up! At least I only slept 4 hours this time I guess.
Had the girlfriend and her son (20 months old) over for supper tonight after hanging out with them at the library earlier.
At one point, she took something away from him and he started to cry. Except, he got so upset that he basically forgot to breathe.
And turned blue/purple.
And passed out for a short time. Alix was there to gently guide him down to the floor onto a pilow as he collapsed, but it was still scary because he stopped breathing. But he soon woke up, breathing, was quiet and inactive for about ten minutes, and then was right back to running around and playing.
According to the girlfriend, the turning purple thing is a semi-regular occurrence. The passing out hasn't happened since last year.
Either way, it scared the HELL out of me because even though she'd told me about it before, I'd never seen it for myself. She was almost ready to call 911 when he woke up and started breathing again.
It's things like that that terrify me with the idea of being a parent because I pretty much froze during this whole ordeal.
At one point, she took something away from him and he started to cry. Except, he got so upset that he basically forgot to breathe.
And turned blue/purple.
And passed out for a short time. Alix was there to gently guide him down to the floor onto a pilow as he collapsed, but it was still scary because he stopped breathing. But he soon woke up, breathing, was quiet and inactive for about ten minutes, and then was right back to running around and playing.
According to the girlfriend, the turning purple thing is a semi-regular occurrence. The passing out hasn't happened since last year.
Either way, it scared the HELL out of me because even though she'd told me about it before, I'd never seen it for myself. She was almost ready to call 911 when he woke up and started breathing again.
It's things like that that terrify me with the idea of being a parent because I pretty much froze during this whole ordeal.
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*grumble grumble*
I smurfing hate nicotine withdrawls....
I smurfing hate nicotine withdrawls....
figmentPez
Staff member
In the last three days I've manged to stub both of my pinkie toes, to the point of significant bruising. I'm not looking forward to having to wear shoes tomorrow.
Problems that only someone who's been on the internets for forever would understand:
I was looking for something I'd written back in about 1990, and couldn't quite remember if I had it on my old computer - or its archives on a separate disk. So, I had to drag out the old iBook and hook up the huge external drive and go through pages of CPT files - without success.
I fear that the document is on one of the many floppies that I have in storage, or - worse yet - on a Zip disk.
Don't laugh. I flipped from Mac to Windows 98 late, and a lot of my stuff from pre-98 is all Mac.
I was looking for something I'd written back in about 1990, and couldn't quite remember if I had it on my old computer - or its archives on a separate disk. So, I had to drag out the old iBook and hook up the huge external drive and go through pages of CPT files - without success.
I fear that the document is on one of the many floppies that I have in storage, or - worse yet - on a Zip disk.
Don't laugh. I flipped from Mac to Windows 98 late, and a lot of my stuff from pre-98 is all Mac.
If you're serious about this, keep me in mind. I have access to Macs going back to System 6 and PCs all the way back to DOS 4.0, and may be able to retrieve stuff assuming the media are still good and it's important enough to you.
--Patrick
fade
Staff member
I kind of get annoyed by those collections of gifs on Tumblr that supposedly are evidence for some point. Usually followed up by rabid angry wall of text. Mostly annoyed because the gif is either so isolated and short that you could make any point using similar gifs from the movie, or because it's not really a good piece of evidence for the point being made.
GasBandit
Staff member
GasBandit
Staff member
It's disorienting meeting someone my own age who ISN'T a slavering, solipsistic, hedonistic pervert wrapped in a thin facade of normality, but rather just plain old normal. I'm starting to think there was something in the water where I grew up that made everybody I knew broken or deranged. I knew more high functioning alcoholics and drug addicts when I was 19 than the number of my own relatives I could name without looking it up. One of my classmates put a shotgun in his mouth his junior year, and by the time my education was done I found myself genuinely surprised he was the only one. I kind of thought that when the reins were turned over to my generation, there'd be an immediate and irreversible howling descent into madness and strife because we were all warped, bent, or flat out damaged... but that didn't happen because apparently we were the exception and not the rule.
Now we're all dispersed, disseminating out amongst the mundanes. Eating lunch with someone who not only has never experienced the tragedy of losing 10 gigs of speculum porn to a hard drive crash but would fail to even see it as lamentable if they even knew such transpired, except to possibly be displeased by its existence in the first place. On a conference call with a younger person who has never seen tubgirl, might not even know what it is. People who think it's weird I keep an envelope full of teeth in my desk - and they're not reassured when they're told they're just my own teeth, not anybody else's.
It's disorienting because I feel like there's an imbalance, like I just looked up from tying my cleats to see I'm playing football with kindergartners, and now I've got to be careful not to ruin them. Or let them know too much, because I'm pretty sure somebody out there's making a list of people like me to watch for "warning signs" in our day and age of 24/7 tragedy TV that's always on the hunt for the next psychopath to turn into a superstar when they go off the rails - and I don't want the attention, it might encroach on my busy schedule of soul-numbing corporate drudgery, video games and feeling sorry for myself.
... Huh. I didn't mean to post a wall of text, but there it suddenly is. I almost posted this in a different thread but decided I might as well put it here instead.
Now we're all dispersed, disseminating out amongst the mundanes. Eating lunch with someone who not only has never experienced the tragedy of losing 10 gigs of speculum porn to a hard drive crash but would fail to even see it as lamentable if they even knew such transpired, except to possibly be displeased by its existence in the first place. On a conference call with a younger person who has never seen tubgirl, might not even know what it is. People who think it's weird I keep an envelope full of teeth in my desk - and they're not reassured when they're told they're just my own teeth, not anybody else's.
It's disorienting because I feel like there's an imbalance, like I just looked up from tying my cleats to see I'm playing football with kindergartners, and now I've got to be careful not to ruin them. Or let them know too much, because I'm pretty sure somebody out there's making a list of people like me to watch for "warning signs" in our day and age of 24/7 tragedy TV that's always on the hunt for the next psychopath to turn into a superstar when they go off the rails - and I don't want the attention, it might encroach on my busy schedule of soul-numbing corporate drudgery, video games and feeling sorry for myself.
... Huh. I didn't mean to post a wall of text, but there it suddenly is. I almost posted this in a different thread but decided I might as well put it here instead.
Maybe we (i.e., you and I) could start a support group.
Oh, wait...
FWIW, I don't feel like I'm wrapped in a thin façade of normality. I just don't see it as required that the normality and the perversion necessarily need to conflict with one another. Curiosity is my superpower.
--Patrick
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Maybe they're just better at faking normalcy than you are.
Also, fuck them, normal is boring.
I'm with Ravenpoe on this one, normal is boring. And honestly, the only thing in that list that I find even slightly odd is the envelope of teeth thing, and I'm sure you have a reason for it that's perfectly rational to you. I'm curious, did you grow up in a small town? Because that all just sounds like small-town USA right there.
I mean, I honestly don't care even if someone enjoys eating their own poop. As long as you don't try to get me to eat my poop (or try to French kiss me after eating your own), you can do what makes you happy. You could tell me about how wonderful it is, I would happily chat about it with you and discuss what little I know about the subject ("What are your feelings on corn?" "Does fiber really affect texture?"), but I have zero interest in partaking, no matter how good you might make it sound. I am fully capable of appreciating something without necessarily liking nor participating in it.
...cuz here's the secret. Everyone I've ever gotten in with has something that embarrasses them, some obsession that they don't talk about because it's too uncomfortable for them, and while it can be something serious, it's often something so innocuous to other people that the embarrassing part doesn't seem to be the thing itself, but rather the incredible level of devotion to the obsession. That's ok. Maybe you've always wanted to eat a monkey. Maybe you torture yourself mentally about it and plan elaborate secret monkey-feasts in your head, just don't expect me to help you round up a monkey on the down-low. I would submit that it's more "normal" to have one of these things attached to your psyche that it is to be completely, boringly "normal" normal.
--Patrick
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GasBandit
Staff member
It mostly pertains to Colorado Springs, CO and Albuquerque, NM.
Well, I wouldn't exactly call either of those a small town (comparatively, my hometown boasted a population of 350 people), but I do know enough about C-Springs and Albuquerque not to be surprised about either of them.
GasBandit
Staff member
I suppose not. I guess I just lived there (and Socorro, NM, where I went to New Mexico Tech, which if anything was even more debauched) long enough, and in such number of places all being that way, I guess I started to assume everywhere was. Had no idea the majority of my generation were still squares.
Also, I keep the teeth because teeth are pretty cool.
Also, not all of the porn lost was speculum porn but a lot of it was. My whole circle of friends mourned the loss of that raid array in the 11th grade.
Man, screw normal. You know why? If you're normal, the crowd will accept you, but if you're deranged, the crowd will make you their leader.
-Christopher Titus, Norman Rockwell is Bleeding
When everyone else is different, normalcy becomes extraordinary.
GasBandit
Staff member
Make mention of how much you admire the concept of Jury Nullification.
I told Kati about this thread, because she's also the Curious About People type, and she says the phrase "speculum porn" to her evokes images similar to "food porn," or "gun porn," i.e. artsy and lurid photos of engraved specula reposed on red velvet in a mahogany case with antique brass handles, or a stainless steel model sitting on a pale blue towel, still hot and steaming from the autoclave and slightly out of focus.
--Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
Assure her that is most definitely NOT what speculum porn is.
I made a boo-boo at my new position at work, which will now result in me and my head of department going to our client and saying, "Uh... yeah, we messed up, our bad. We can fix it, but we're gonna need to restart a huge section of this project, which will lead to delays. That's... that's not going to be a problem, right?"
Luckily my head of department's an awesome guy who understands it was a simple rookie mistake, and completely has my back.
Luckily my head of department's an awesome guy who understands it was a simple rookie mistake, and completely has my back.