Rant Thread II

[Solumina]

Jake and I both have the flu, in the middle of the fucking Summer. Neither of us has had it more than a couple of time and none of those times have been as adults, despite not getting our flu shots (since we never get the damn thing anyway). It is so bad that we both took off yesterday (after being sick on our days off), thankfully both of our fevers went down to just about normal (Jake’s is still slightly elevated but nothing really worrisome) and I’m better enough to be at work.

Better yet all of the crap draining down the back of my throat fucking hurts. My body has some trouble dealing with it as I have a lot of scar tissue back there so when I get sick mucus tends to stay there quite a bit longer than average, when I'm awake I just drink lots of fluids and swallow a lot but at night there really isn't shit I can do about it. Today it is so bad that T3, the strongest stuff I have that won't knock me on my ass, is only taking the edge off. My boss let me switch to putt-putt, instead of the rec desk so I don’t have to talk quite as much, but I still have to talk quite a bit.

[Grausamkeit]

Ben, that situation sucks, but the guy brought it on himself. It's not like they're having you fire him for some flimsy bullshit excuse.

[Murder.Of.Crows]

BEN, Gotta do what you gotta do.

[Ben Lahnger]

SONOFABITCH!

So, I take over managing my new store last Wednesday with the knowledge that I only have two out of the three sales reps I should have on staff, but I have a recommended hire from my district manager. So I interview and hire him, and get him started by Saturday. Cool, I'm fully staffed!

Then Monday comes and (as detailed above), I have to fire one of the previously employed staffers ... and I'm back down to two. So I call our corporate recruiter and she says she'll pull results from our ongoing ad on Careerbuilder, filter through the applicants and line me up some interviews. Sounds good.

Then today I get an email from the new guy saying he just doesn't think the company is a fit for him, and while he thinks I've been a great guy to work for and the best part of the experience, he just doesn't feel excited coming to work in the morning, so he quit.

He quit by email! WTF? Who does that?

(I'm still pissed because he hasn't come back with the store keys yet, and I could have to screw with my store budget to pay for re-keying my locks. I don't think he'll break in, but at a certain point that won't matter.)

I call the corporate recruiter and tell her the guy quit, so I'm down to a staff of one and need to fill two openings. And she tells me she has one interview set up for me for tomorrow for 1:00 pm with a guy who sounds like he might not be a strong candidate but I'll look anyway. She says she'll find some more and call me back later in the day with more interview appointments.

So I sit all day waiting for her call, and late in the day I get an email indicating she has been fired. So now I gotta screen through all the Careerbuilder crap myself, in addition to all the other stuff I'm responsible for and all the things I'm trying to learn post-haste.

FML!

[Fruitbat]

Shit Ben... that sucks!

CC - get some new friends.

I'm so argh! at the moment.... last weekend I organised gran to look after babybat so I could wander the shops aimlessly on my own. Mr bat comes along, gives me fashion advice, (that I don't want because we have totally different tastes in clothes) and so I lost my only chance to have time to myself in a month.

I'm pretty pissed at the moment. Then he suggests on sunday that i go with him to his flying lessons- what now he needs an audience for that too? Yeah so chasing babybat around an airport is going to be so much fun for me...

I do everything around the place because of his lazy ass, I'm totally over it.. argh..

Top it off, I'm having my fatigue thing again.. there's only so many times I can push myself, even though all my body feels like doing is lying down... oh I'm soo mad, I'm ropable...

[Ben Lahnger]

Fruitbat, you need to develop a "direct" voice. Arrange another babysitter for baby bat, schedule another shopping trip for yourself, and when Mr. Bat starts to tag along, say directly to him that he is not invited because you want some solitude time to think and meditate and just make yourself happy. Any feedback you get from him about why you want to be alone should be met with "If you don't trust me to be alone for a few hours, you should never have married me."

You really should make a stand so you can get this. You deserve it, and at some point all people need a little private time to maintain their own sanity.

[honeythorn]

I have fucking toothache and I can't afford the possible price of treatment right now. I'm pretty certain the crown on one of my upper side teeth needs re-fixing or replacing. The tooth feels painful and very sensitive ( which is how it felt when it was just a tooth before I had the crown ) .

[Fruitbat]

Originally Posted by Ben Lahnger

Fruitbat, you need to develop a "direct" voice. Arrange another babysitter for baby bat, schedule another shopping trip for yourself, and when Mr. Bat starts to tag along, say directly to him that he is not invited because you want some solitude time to think and meditate and just make yourself happy. Any feedback you get from him about why you want to be alone should be met with "If you don't trust me to be alone for a few hours, you should never have married me."

You really should make a stand so you can get this. You deserve it, and at some point all people need a little private time to maintain their own sanity.

Thanks for the advice Ben.. greatly appreciated.

Well I'm happy to say that Mr Bat has taken babybat out this morning. The house looks like a toddler tornado has hit it and I'm leaving it that way until they get home and we can clean up together (well I'll try to anyway).

And Mr Bat did it off his own bat, although I did walk into the bedroom door this morning, mumbling something about stupid potatoes (which is one of my swear words).

And as far as trusting me... I'm a mum to a young kid, I seriously have no energy to put into even thinking about another guy... if, I dunno, George Clooney walked up to me and told me I was the woman of his dreams, I'd tell him to take a hike..sure I'll talk to George but that would be it...

although he could come back to my house and clean up the toddler tornado while I sat and had a nice quiet cup of tea on the back deck.... hmmm...now there's an idea.

[Saya]

Originally Posted by honeythorn

I have fucking toothache and I can't afford the possible price of treatment right now. I'm pretty certain the crown on one of my upper side teeth needs re-fixing or replacing. The tooth feels painful and very sensitive ( which is how it felt when it was just a tooth before I had the crown ) .

Having the same problem, just got to save up because my insurance won't cover the whole cost, which is pretty expensive I think I need a new crown, plus I need my wisdom teeth out.

[honeythorn]

NHS dental treatment costs goes in bands here. And I quoteth :

There are three NHS charge bands.

Band 1: £17 includes an examination, diagnosis and advice. If necessary, it also includes X-rays, a scale and polish and planning for further treatment.

Band 2: £47 includes all treatment covered by Band 1, plus additional treatment, such as fillings, root canal treatment and removing teeth (extractions).

Band 3: £204 includes all treatment covered by Bands 1 and 2, plus more complex procedures, such as crowns, dentures and bridges.

So for a new crown I'd have to pay full whack I may as well go the whole bloody hog and have a gold one if I have to fork out that much cash.

I can't help but wonder if they can't simply pull off my crown, see to the tooth underneath, clean any old fixative/cement stuff out of the crown , put new fixative in and stick it back on again?

If they can then surely it shouldn't cost me the whole £204 because I wouldn't be having a new crown, just refixing the existing one..

I shall have to look this up.

[Fruitbat]

HT - my last cap cost me $900.

Fuck it I can't get moving today.. I don't want to haul my ass today, i just want to lay in bed and cuddle my pillow. it's got abandonment issues, my pillow... poor thing...

And why do guys wait until the last possible second before they help you out? Unless they are trying to impress you and get into your pants?

[Ben Lahnger]

Over 80 people dead or wounded because of a madman's killing spree in Oslo, Norway, but the world is shocked and concerned about the death of a 27 year-old drug addict who had the gift of some talent and had fortune and fame and a life of ease thrown at her, but couldn't hack it.

fuck.

[Fruitbat]

Originally Posted by Ben Lahnger

Over 80 people dead or wounded because of a madman's killing spree in Oslo, Norway, but the world is shocked and concerned about the death of a 27 year-old drug addict who had the gift of some talent and had fortune and fame and a life of ease thrown at her, but couldn't hack it.

fuck.

^this... totally this^^

Amy's old man tried to get her into rehab but she refused... I don't have any empathy/sympathy for her, but I'm gutted over the almost 100 people who were killed by the nutjob in Norway.

[JCC]

Fuck that, drug addiction is an illness which claimed the life of a talented young woman and claims more lives than terrorism ever has. People are really fucking me off with this 'she deserved it' shit.

[CuckooTuli]

Originally Posted by JCC

Fuck that, drug addiction is an illness which claimed the life of a talented young woman and claims more lives than terrorism ever has. People are really fucking me off with this 'she deserved it' shit.

This. It's ALWAYS sad when somebody dies an untimely death - I fail to see how one tragedy negates another. If people deserve to die for making some bad choices, we'd all find our way onto the executioner's block at some point in our lives.

[Solumina]

Why do people keep comparing the two tragedies? Both are fucking sad and I don't know why people feel like they have to choose to be vocal about one being worse than the other.

[Ben Lahnger]

I didn't say she deserved it. I meant the other tragedy, where people got killed by something completely out of their control, deserves much more attention and empathy. And I said she couldn't hack it. While addiction is a disease we SHOULD be understanding of, nobody in the treatment and recovery business thinks addicts aren't responsible for their own recovery.

ONE IS MUCH WORSE THAN THE OTHER. On several levels. 92 people versus 1. People who had no chance to prevent or circumvent their tragedy compared to a person who had other people trying to intervene on her behalf. And so on.

[JCC]

People are not just numbers, every death is a tragedy. As someone living in England where Winehouse is from, made her success and died, I can tell you now that her death did not receive more coverage than the Norway attacks. It did for the couple of hours or so after it was announced, but today Norway is back at the top of the news agenda. So, nothing to complain about.

[Ben Lahnger]

Well, you failed to address my points (92 individuals dying in one act is worse in every measurable way than one individual dying in one act), and your response of "every death is a tragedy" is a trivialization of mass tragedies of all sorts that I wouldn't have expected from you. Is a death by mugging a tragedy? Yes. Is hundreds dead from a Tsunami a worse tragedy? Yes.

I have lost individual members of my family to death over time ... one at a time. There was grief and lingering loss. But I have a homeless man who comes into my store every day to cool off (I give him some water and some conversation), and he lost his entire family (close and extended) in Hurricane Katrina. That's a level of tragedy I don't know I could deal with.

So while all day long here yesterday I noticed my Facebook and Twitter feed were cluttered by many, many comments about poor Amy Winehouse with little notice or concern for the people of Oslo (while the news was actually doing a decent job of balanced reporting), I got very irritated.

[JCC]

Hundreds of thousands of people have died in the Middle East as a result of the Gulf and Afghan wars, but 92 victims of a terrorist attack in Oslo get more media publicity than they ever did because they are white and live in Western Europe. Shall I start ranting about how pissed off I am that people care about the deaths in Oslo but not the deaths elsewhere? I think it's more telling and more outrageous than the conflict between the news stories of Norway and Amy Winehouse. Both of my grandparents are dead, they didn't get a media report but Amy Winehouse did, how is that fair? Only 6% of rapes in England end with a conviction, but today on the news instead of talking about that they will have been talking about school fairs, and how it's pretty hot today. Is that fair? The media is not going to cover anything and everything and everything has different importance to different people, you are making an issue out of something you can never resolve. Why did Princess Diana get a huge funeral when you or I will be lucky to get more than 50 in attendance at ours? There is no answer.

[Saya]

People can be upset at a lot of things at once. I wasn't really into her music but I'm sad she's dead and it is tragic, and I still manage to follow the news on Norway and the famine in the horn of Africa and following all the news I can about the war in Afghanistan. There isn't really a limit to how many things a person can care about, its not a contest.

[CarrionCorpse]

Fucking flies... Everywhere in my house.
I've taken all the garbage out and cleaned the animal cages and everything else and STILL they exist.

Anyone know any methods aside from fly tape to get rid of them?

[honeythorn]

Carnivorous plants. Suncatchers, pitchers ect. Or fly spray?

[Raptor]

Originally Posted by CarrionCorpse

Fucking flies... Everywhere in my house.
I've taken all the garbage out and cleaned the animal cages and everything else and STILL they exist.

Anyone know any methods aside from fly tape to get rid of them?

How do they get in? I seem to remember everyone having screens in MN, do they not work completely? My dad has taken to using an electric flyswatter to remove the mess cleaning stage of killing insects. I'm not sure how useful that is though, he likes to buy a lot of stupid shit.

[CarrionCorpse]

I honestly have no idea how they came to be. They just WERE one day, and it has been like that ever since. I despise fly tape, but might be forced to buy some for the time being.
And yes, we have screens.