You steal a camera during MY Workshop? Fuck you, you piece of messed-up shit !

The BBQ Pit
1

You slide into town on the cheap, stay 17 miles away at the cheapest hotel you could find. Okay, I can appreciate barely scraping together the bread for the workshop tuition. You tell me you used frequent flier miles to get there. All good, it showed dedication to learning the stuff. You drop a remark about having spent almost 2 HOURS taking buses to get from hotel to workshop. ( This is Austin Texas. They have buses. It ain’t Queens, however ). I offered to drive you home. You shared plenty of life angst on the way home. Again, I respect the path you’ve had to travel. You seemed a pretty cool fellow, and intent on learning the stuff.

Even offered to pick you up Sunday so you didn’t have to take buses or pay money that apparently comes very dear to take a cab. And why not?

I pick you up at 7am and you reek of freshly smoked pot like a kid on the way to a Led Zep reunion concert. Fucking moron. You skate through your career, whatever it is, stoned? And you have the balls to show up smoked up to face the intensity and complex physical work of the 2nd day of the Workshop?? Okay, I lost 90% of the respect I had for you. You’re a stoner who holds the Holy Herb in greater regard than work. Dick.

We get to work, work hard all day and I have to say, you seemed to function fairly well despite being zonked. A few errant and bizarre remarks here and there reminded me that indeed you were more than just mildly buzzed.

Late in the day a camera goes missing. It’s quite small and easy to slide into one’s bag, even with the Israeli arm and suction cup attached so it could mount against any smooth surface. Things grind to a halt immediately.

Nobody has ever pulled this kind of appalingly selfish inappropriate fucked up SHIT at my workshops. I’ve taught close to 1,000 adults in small groups since 1990 and nothing, NOT ONE THING, has ever gone stolen. It was stolen. Not misplaced, not set aside. This item was not a part of the training, it sat there stuck to the wall in the showroom. I told the entire group, briefly and gently ( one does not presume theft is in the air… ) first thing in the morning that we’re guests here, that we do not touch or check out ANY ITEMS we see.

There are surveillance cameras in the room. Only a moron…or someone stoned and uncaring…would go and steal an item anyway.

Who found it? Why, Captain Herb did. He announced he’d root around through the large plastic garbage can ( the type you see in school cafeterias, etc. ) and lo and behold he “found it”- at the bottom. What the fuck?? That’s the best you could do you pathetic arrested development feeb? The bottom of a can that went unemptied the day before???

Asshole. You fucking fuck. I may not be allowed back there, though the folks there were cool enough since the item was “found”. You smeared my good name, you besmirched the integrity of the program I run and my company’s good name by association. You brought embarrassment down upon the group of 9 people sitting there.

And you showed your true colors. Fuck you pal.

:frowning:

Cartooniverse

2

I missed the part where you have him on tape or somebody saw him take it, or he confessed.
Oops. For some reason, the last couple of paragraphs weren’t there when I looked at the OP the first time. Never mind.

3

Oh, and the pot thing? His wife has M.S. and uses it to control her exacerbations. I’m down with that 100%. But his smoking up has nothing to do with his health, he vomited forth his entire life story on Saturday night. No doubt I’d have learned if he smoked for medicinal reasons. No. He actually said, " She gets it and we smoke. "

So, he gets no kind of pass for medicinal needs.

4

Why did you allow him to attend the second day if he was baked when you came to pick him up?

5

He’d signed a liability waiver and is an adult. He wants to be in a fog instead of at the top of his game and miss learning stuff? Not my problem. I’m his instructor not his daddy.

6

Do you actually have proof that he stole the camera, or is that just an assumption you made because he smokes pot?

Also, what’s wrong with showing up to a workshop baked? He’s paying for the workshop, he’s not your employee and it doesn’t affect cognitive abilities anyway, so why do you care?

It sounds like you’re profiling pot smokers.

7

I’m profiling thieves. The pot smoking was a sidebar issue to me. Fuck it, let him show up baked. But surveillance cameras? They really don’t lie, now do they ?

Asshole stole it then proudly “found it” at the bottom of the garbage can.

As for cognitive abilities, that’s a debate for another thread. I don’t care if he can or cannot concentrate and if he falls and gets hurt, he signed off on that already. But nobody is forced to attend these, these are attended by people intensely interested in LEARNING this stuff.

He wasted his time, till he stole. Then he wasted OUR time, and wrecked the day.

8

Hopefully you ended his participation.

I hate thieves. Earn your own shit.

9

It was a 2 day workshop. It was an hour away from ending when the theft was discovered. He almost got away with it.

10

Well, if you have proof, you have proof, but the pot had nothing to do with it, nor does pot have anything to do with one’s desire to learn, nor does it affect their ability function at a photography workshop. It’s not like being drunk.

11

College students paid for their classes, but I’ve never heard of a college professor that didn’t mind students showing up drunk.

12

Drunk is not the same as baked. The comparison is not valid. I was stoned in 90% of my college classes and got straight A’s.

13

It’s only idle curiosity on my pary, but (one) what kind of workshop was this and (two) what was the camera there for?

14

That’s just a load of self-serving pothead twaddle.

True, it doesn’t affect you in the same exact way that alcohol does, but pot certainly does affect one’s cognitive abilities and fine and gross motor skills.

15

I’m not following the evidence well…

When you say “But surveillance cameras? They really don’t lie, now do they ?” do you mean that you were shown video that showed the accused in the act?

If not, it still does sound pretty suspicious that the camera was found by the guy. However, I would be wondering who had control over those trash bins. It isn’t too unusual for workers to put stuff in the trash and then retrieve their loot when they take the trash out to the dumpster.

Considering that you were guests, it doesn’t seem plausible that a thief in your group would use the garbage route for their crime. I assume you feel he tossed it in the bin minutes before “finding” it?
Was he unobserved long enough to have done this once the heat was on?

16

So if you visit your family doc to get evaluated for a medical problem, you wouldn’t care if he was stoned on pot?

The profs grading you were probably in similar shape. :smiley:

17

No it doesn’t.

18

I personally wouldn’ty care, no, but that’s not even analogous since the doctor gets paid to examine people. This guy at the workshop was a paying customer himself, not an employee.

I used to give guitar lessons. It was no skin off my nose if my students showed up high.

19

Who cares? If you want to make a point about marijuana not impairing cognitive abilities, then go find a cite. (Hint: One exists.) This bullshit “no it doesn’t” “I’m a pothead so I know what I’m talking about” “no it doesn’t” “you’re wrong” crap is what turns your threads into the Dio Show. Either back up your opinion with facts, or STFU. On a message board supposedly dedicating to fighting ignorance, coming in to a thread and making an argument consisting of, “I’m right you’re wrong, I just am and you have to accept it, I’m right right right and you’re wrong wrong wrong” is pretty sad.

20

I haven’t smoked pot in years, but if someone wants to claim that marijuana impares cognition and motor skills, that’s the person who needs to bring the cite, not me.