Not in the pit as they don’t involve any of you wonderful people (I love you all, hugs) or the Board.
“The God of Small Things” by Arundhati Roy – bought this book as part of a sincere effort to read more widely and not be such an Anglo-centric – she certainly has a way with words, but I get the feeling that she’s writing this for herself and doesn’t care if the readers follow along or not. Fifty pages in and these are unique characters to be sure, but where’s the story? This one’s going to Goodwill.
The Stephen King message board at the publisher’s website – www.simonsays.com – what is it with the amateur writers who have taken over this board? 99% of the postings are “poetry” or attempts at dark fiction – people posting with King questions are ignored or ridiculed. Especially me.
My boss – signed off on a payment today for an invoice that included November and December charges and asked why it was “late”. Cuz they just sent us the damned thing, that’s why. Do NOT dredge this up at review time, okay?
Moderator of a one-list group leaves for a couple of months. I go to the site and find out I’m listed as moderator. Huh? His e-mail is disconnected. Thanks for the vote of confidence, but, uh, no thanks.
That’s enough for now. The month isn’t even half over.
The damnable laundry starched me collars; the fridge is on the blink; MsCrick is being ‘visited’; me stalwart boy is down with the flu, with the daughter soon to follow; there’s now no hope for the Mars Polar Lander; tha bleedin’ Eagles might be the most pathetic American team of all time (aside the Phillies); the NASDAQ is teeterin’ on the edge of a legendary fall; the Loch Ness monster still refuses to show herself; and Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.
Gaudeamus Igitur.
Dr. Watson
“Living in the infinitive: to look, to want, to stand amazed.”
They had to set that damn trap in MY office to catch the mouse. Just what I needed… to watch that cute little mousey be crushed to death squirming and kicking. You would think the fact that I have Mickey Mouse memorabilia all over my office would have given the message that my office is mouse-friendly… but ohhh no, they set the trap when I wasn’t there so I didn’t know anything about it until the bone crushing pop happened. I swear! when I hand in my resignation…violence in the work place will be mentioned!
I really try to be good but it just isn’t in my nature!
During the previous week, ALL of my systems at work have gone down. We spent about $5k on Y2K updates to prevent this and none of them were due to this; Just a bizarre coincidence if you can beleive it. I spent an average of 11 hours a day at work last week. Sheesh!
I would like to rant about my friend. First of all, she changed her name to Rachel when she graduated high school. She took her name from Whitney Houston’s character in The Bodyguard. I am not kidding, even though she will deny this today. She is totally obsessed with image, food, and excercise. She’s working on her doctorate in psychology, so she not only obsesses, she analyzes her obsessions, which may be the most boring thing to listen to in the whole world. We are so amazingly different, I have no idea why we’re friends, but we have been for about eight years now, so I doubt it’ll change any time soon. She’s so completely superficial, it drives me insane. Like, we’ll be talking about a movie, and I’ll mention that I think someone is a good actor. Her response? “You think so? He/she is not attractive at ALL.” That wasn’t what I was talking about! I was hoping that she would become less self-centered in college, but that didn’t happen, so I’m wondering what it’ll take.
Back to the food thing: she’ll eat anything, as long as it’s fat-free. We went grocery shopping, and she bought American cheese. I made a face, and pointed out that the stuff was made entirely of chemicals and not even cheese. Her response? “Well, it’s fat-free.”
I could go on, but this went over the mini-rant limit a while back.
My check was supposed to be direct deposited into my account on Friday, but as of 9 a.m. this morning, it still isn’t there. I called my work to speak to the payroll girl, but she’s been out sick since last week and nobody else in the office knows anything about it. Hmmmmm…what else? My insomnia is back full force. I fell asleep around 4:30 this morning and was back up by 8:00… My cat tore a hole in my couch and pulled some of the stuffing out the other night… My vacuum cleaner is on the fritz (where in that thread about vacuum cleaners that I saw last week?)…I could go on, but it would take me hours to list them all.
First time in months I get to make out with somebody, and she gives me a cold. I hope this isn’t the prelude to that damn flu.
He weathered a firestorm of agony and did not break.
And while Yori raged against his unbending
courage, we took Kyuden Hiruma back.
His loss is great, but so is the gift his suffering brought.
-Yakamo’s Funeral
Gee, thanks, Sue. Now I’m sitting here at work looking like this
and everyone’s looking at me like I’m an idiot. At least now I’m smiling instead of wishing I were at the apartment.
He weathered a firestorm of agony and did not break.
And while Yori raged against his unbending
courage, we took Kyuden Hiruma back.
His loss is great, but so is the gift his suffering brought.
-Yakamo’s Funeral
Was shit on by customer service two times in one day.
#1 - I was waiting in the drive thru line at the bank at 130pm to make a deposit. After the guy ahead of me left, I waited patiently in my own little world for the bank tube to come back so I could make a deposit. Five minutes pass and I don’t really care, I’m in my own little world.
The teller comes over the speaker with a snotty voice, " What do you want?" Thank God for a life time of being a sarcastic bitch, because I was really shocked. I shot back,
“Wooow, if you don’t like your job that much, then quit.”
#2 - not five minutes later, I’m at the FArmer Jack’s, which I’ve never been too. I just need to pick up five things. I waddle in and ask the lady at the customer counter if they have a public restroom.I make a joke about pregnant ladies and peeing. She was not amused at all. The woman doesn’t even look at me and points in the general direction of the check out lanes,
“The sign is over there.” Well, I looked and didn’t see any sign and to be honest, I’m not walking one foot in any direction because my energy level is at an all time low to chase down the wrong dusty trail.
We went back and forth (It’s right there. I don’t see it…) and she was getting really irratated at me for being so stupid. THEN stood on my tip toes and leaned over the service counter and saw the restroom signs.The woman was about 6’2.
I commented,very nicely, " You know, I’ve never been here before and not familiar with the store. You are the first person a customer sees when they come into the store. My time and energy are very limited today and I will tell you this, this is the last time I shop here."
Ladies and Gentleman, you’ve witnessed me turning into my mother.
I must have been in the Bermuda triangle of Customer Service that day.
I signed on to the SDMB, thinking to share with other posters my warm recommendation of Arudathi Roy’s “The God of Small Things”, to discover the novel being dissed by another poster.
During our winter vacation, my fiancee, whom I was proud to show around Switzerland, caught pneumonia. (I guess when you already have the flu it’s not a good idea to go traipsing around on the mountain at 3000m).
I wrote two bitch letters to the companies above that I ranted about. I love email. It allows me to get the albatross from around my neck and not have to walk down to the mailbox to do so. ( Although, I think snail mail is the best way to get the results you wanted.)
If I ever hear from these companies, I would actually be surprised.But at least I did something about it.
“Desktop conversion” at work removed my foreign keyboards. Big Brother is watching. The keyboards are on a Windows 95 disk if I can find one.
no öäåæøå which I may use for personal e mail. I would prefer to have German characters as well.
For those of you who don’t know, I’m a stay at home mom. The pay sucks, but all in all I like it. And most people respect my choice, even if it isn’t one that they would choose for themselves. Except evil downstairs neighbor lady. She seems to have made it her mission in life to get me in the workforce, and failing that to make me feel as bad about my life as possible. Every friggin time I see her, she tells me how glad she it to have an opportunity to get out and use her mind and have her own money. She is amazed that my husband “lets” me have my own check book and credit cards, you know since I’m not “contributing” to the household. I really, really, really would love to tell this woman where to go, but as fate would have it my son is just crazy about her son and I don’t want to ruin his friendship. Ick, I hate being grown-up about things. The kicker is, this isn’t some high powered career woman we’re talking about here, she works at Anthony’s Pizza as a cashier. (I know, it’s not nice to make fun of other peoples jobs, but she started it! :))
Tatertot, don’t let that woman make you feel bad. If I could stay at home, I would. But I have a really great job with excellent benefits. My husband, on the other hand, is a musician. So, he’s a stay at home dad. But if he was the one with the excellent job, I’d be home. I really would.
Now for my rant: Why do so many people think that men in my husband’s situation think he must be a leech? If the woman stays home with the kids, and the man works outside & provides the financial support, it’s traditional. Other way around, and he’s a lazy so-and-so, who needs to get a real job. Excuse me, but raising children is a real job. And he plays with his band four nights a week. So technically, he has two jobs. And playing music is a job. Just because it’s considered one of the arts doesn’t mean it’s not work.
Oddly enough, I don’t have a rant for this month (YET!) so I’d like to use one I have saved up from last month…ahem:
Goddammit people! The post office is where you go to SEND and RECEIVE letters and packages. It is not where you wrap your packages! It is not where you buy polystyrene peanuts for your piece of crap rattling around in the most non-appropriate box you could get your hands on, that the PO employee will not even let you mail in the first place! It is not where you find out what your aunt’s zip code is (or ADDRESS for that matter!) They (contrary to what you apparently believe) do not have to supply you with tape because you just showed up with an open box in one hand and a hastily scrawled address label in the other. Binder twine is not an appropriate mailing medium. Neither is a plastic bag with an address on it. It is 100% NOT COOL when there is a line out the door to ask the poor harried employee to show you every single stamp in his drawer because you’re looking for the “PRETTIEST” one. (Look at the posters, dammit! Get a freakin’ Superman already!) When I was dropping off my xmas packages (seriously, if you have a clue it’s a 30 second transaction) I had to forcefully restrain myself from proclaiming loudly “Hey! All boxed, taped AND addressed! How 'bout that!”
Thank you for this ranting opportunity.
Marge: “You know, Homer, it’s very easy to criticize.”
Homer: “Fun, too!”
I called up my college today to register for my classes. Busy signal.
So I called again…
and again…
and again…
and again…
and again…
and again…
After the 50th busy signal I finally get through. But then I find out that most my classes are already full. So I had to rearrange my schedule and after 30 more busy signals and 3 hours of headaches, I get only half the classes I needed to take. sigh
On the plus side, all my classes have an hour break in between them.
…and remember, duct tape fixes all your problems, big and small.
I’m a paralegal. My boss has got to be the slowest-moving, laziest attorney on the planet. Two petitions I drew up months ago and have been sitting on his desk waiting for him to sign off on (really, about ten minutes each out of his time) … and waiting … and waiting … and I’m the point of contact for the client, so I’m the one who has to keep making excuses to them … well finally yesterday he signs and returns them to me. Today he’s out of town but calls to speak to another paralegal and tells her to give me the message that these two petitions have to be filed today. They would have been filed two months ago if your lazy ass hadn’t held them up!!!
I am convinced there is a circle in hell for bosses who make their employees suffer for their own failings.
I put some files in i-drive. It’s on the web. They used to show on my homepage.Now they don’t work. one picture
all it does is give the general idrive page, even though these are all Web files, not private.
