BlackberryJam

I give MLK day off put not President's Day because PRIORITIES!

@Lady Whistleup I have more of a problem with my staff in the other direction. This is ALL about wanting a paid day off. @JTMacc99 There is little job loyalty and I get it. People want more money, more leave time, etc. I also give 120 hours of paid time off. When I went to lunch, I passed by a desk and notice that the leave time sheet was left out on someone’s desk. I never look at the leave time sheet when anyone else is in the office.

The problem is the struggle to find a replacement. I don't live in a huge metropolis. Finding a good paralegal is rough. A friend of mine hired a new one who was fantastic, and the woman just didn't show up the next week. They called her to see what was up and she said she'd rather work as a waitress because the office was too restrictive. They've now hired a woman who does great dictation, but sits in her car at lunch and gets high. It's the best they can find. I know there will be a swing soon and I'll start getting resumes, but right now, I'm stuck. Happy Father's Day!

Yep. Business has been good for the pandemic, but no one would put up with the crap I put up with in the office. I spoke to some other attorneys and we are requiring are staff members to send things out today, so all of them know they are in the office and it's not just one bitchy boss. I forgot to answer. My weekend? I had a handyman in who spent six hours doing things with light fixtures, outlets, mirrors and he was wonderful. My marble countertops that were installed last week have the faucet hole in the wrong spot. The entire marble slab needs replaced. No one returned my calls that started Wednesday until this morning. On Tuesday, my master bath is being ripped out. I had to deal with a family cookout on Sunday. My father is gone, MISS YOU JAMDAD!, but it was to celebrate brother in law, nephew (who has steps), niece who is about to have steps, and blah blah. It was a waste of three hours I could have spent reassembling my kitchen. I have huge dark circles under my eyes and look like crap. I wore my scrubby jeans, sneakers into the office, which I never do, and I've clearly had a bad few days. How was your weekend? How was everyone's weekend? And I hope no one else is having a bad staff day.

We are a law office, so there is the mentality that if the Courts are closed, we are closed. But we aren't. On top of that, someone had put in "Closed" on the calendar, meaning the Courts/post office/banks were closed, and it was clear because that's what is put on the calendar when Courts are closed. If the Office is closed, we put Office Closed. But on Friday when someone said something about a long weekend, "I said, we don't have a long weekend. It's the 4th that is our long weekend." And then the spluttering, "But the calendar says..." And now the calendar passive aggressively says, "Courts closed, but office open, but no client appointments." Seriously. They don't know that MomJam taught me the vicious art of passive aggression. When they are out to lunch, I am going to email the lists of things to do, so they get it when I leave for lunch. Bwahahah.

Now it's, "I planned to get estimate for my car and so I'll be late back from lunch." I said "fine" and she then told me she'd planned for three estimates but now only has time for one. I shrugged. That's the car accident that she had at lunch last Thursday. Yes, I get it. Someone hit her. But, her lunch hour turned into 2.5 hours and then she was "shaky" when she got back and spent an hour texting her husband about it. Many days, she's a great employee. She does great work. But today is going to be all about being passo-aggro and punishing me for not giving her an extra day off. No one has even asked me how my weekend was today, when they know I'm in the middle of a hellish kitchen remodel.

I would love to see a series based on Sisters of the Vast Black. That's pretty much all women over the age of 40, maybe two or three very minor male characters in the first book. Would a series like that even get off the ground though?

I mentioned this in the Royals thread, but I told my employees it was either Juneteenth or 4th of July off, not both. My employment contract lays out the paid holidays, and provides nothing for a new paid day off for creation of a new federal holiday. I even said they don't have to answer phones today. The hateful silence in the office right now is to the point I'm ready to make them stay until 5pm as well. And I got asked for a mid-year bonus last week. I am going to edit this message throughout the day with the petty that is going on. Just now, I was told that one of my instructions wasn't clear. I pulled up the email instruction and said, "what isn't clear about this?" because it was. It said, "Do X" and employee wanted to know if she was to "Do X or do Z."

I absolutely feel this way about some sports fanatics. I'm a big sports fan, but if you are painting your face, shouting at strangers and getting tattoos of your favorite team, you're no different than people getting into internet fights about fictional couples.

If it’s Aaron Paul centric, I’m out though.

No.

So glad Keaton shaved. Yes, I’m shallow but that facial hair was awful. I left this show for a long time because of Nigel and Mary. I’m happy giving it another shot.

Would we though? Without the conservatorship and #freeBritney, it's highly likely she would have faded away by now. And the tone of how it's discussed would certainly be different if not for the conservatorship. People infantilize Britney rather than mocking her decisions as that of a grown ass 40 year old woman. The tone of how people talk about Britney is far different from how they discuss say...Hilaria Baldwin. It's never about how Hilaria isn't well enough to make her own decisions or how someone needs to step in and take care of her. And mind you, all I know of HB is from this forum, but she seems to be out of her damn mind.

How many celebrities are out there making worse decisions based on mental health? Kanye? Ezra Miller? Nick Nolte back in the day? Britney committed the horrible offense of GETTING MARRIED to her long term boyfriend with a spotty familial guest list and going on some instagram rants. Big Fucking Deal.

Well, this looks like something I definitely do not want to watch.

So happy to have not read any of his books.

He says he competes because he enjoys it, not because he feels the need to prove anything. He just loves playing tennis competitively.

The "problem" with Agatha Christie is that there are so many publications and combinations short stories. Some were published in magazines, then compiled into books. Then there are books combining all the stories that occur in winter, all the stories at sea, etc. There are, by my research, 14 total Parker Pyne Stories. The first 12 are in Mr. Parker Pyne, Detective, and the other two are The Regatta Mystery and Problem at Pollensa Bay. They all might be in some compilation though.

They aren’t murder mysteries. Mr. Parker Pyne runs an add in the newspaper, “Are you happy? If not consult Mr Parker Pyne, 17 Richmond Street.” It’s a series of short stories. They are fun.

I love the introduction of Marple in The Murder at the Vicarage. I'm also a huge fan of What Mrs. McGillicudy Saw aka 4:50 From Paddington. If you're doing audiobooks, I highly recommend the Richard E. Grant version of TMatV. He manages to create a different character voice for everyone. I like Joan Hickson, but she's very one note in her audiobooks. I'm also a big fan of the Parker Pyne books by Agatha Christie.

I have to admit that I made up that prompt because I didn't want to out the bad prompter, or out myself. But if you can write it, DO! For exchanges and the like, I'm a big fan of three word prompts. I think that's enough to inspire the writer. Or even three words and your favorite AU/Canon period is good. I was never in the HP fandom. I'm a little too old for it and not that big a fan of the work. That does sound like too much work though...

@wallflower75 Yes it was The Citadel. I checked out a couple of their "Highly recommended" stories and they were...not good. I couldn't even get into the plots because the first sentence of one used the same word/word version 4 times. The sentence itself was over 40 words. It was a grammatical mess. I put that sentence into a Word doc and it was all double blue line. I don't know how the writer, or any of the readers, didn't notice it. Which brings me to this: good writers have good betas. A good beta supports and encourages a writer while also giving that grammar review, pointing out issues with sentences, pacing, flow and consistency in characterization. OCs tend to be all-knowing self inserts, which annoy the crap out of me. My chosen fandom (Jaime and Brienne/Game of Thrones/ASoIaF) is doing a fic exchange right now. So I'm sharing my thoughts on that. A good prompt for an exchange should inspire the writer. I've seen prompts that are "Book canon only, must include BAMF Stannis Baratheon, and Cersei having a love interest other than Jaime, but not Robert. There should be a hurt/comfort sex scene or an angry sex scene. The smut should happen after a sword fight. No Lady Stoneheart. Also, please have a scene of Oberyn flirting with Brienne while Jaime watches." Clearly the prompter has something specific in mind, but that's way too specific to inspire someone. I've got my annoyed face on.

I was nervous. Rafa’s foot worries me. However, you can see how much he loves playing and how much each of these wins means to him. I loved seeing King Felipe and Crown Prince Haakon with Mette-Marit, his wife, all sitting together. I would love Queen Letizia to have been there as well. Is Johnny Mac sounding hoarse/drunk to anyone but me? Also, SUCK IT, NoVaxx!

Re Vi Keeland, I had not read anything by her before and I will not read anything in the future. I'm interested in this list of yours... I think I had pulled this off of the Audible Plus catalog which would make sense that it's a book designed to be read aloud to the reader. However, the male voice wasn't sexy in the slightest. I fully understand being repulsed by the authors who just churn out the same novel six or seven times each year. I'm currently listening to Twenty Years Later by Charlie Donlea and I swear they keep repeating the same background information about the two leads, but I can't go back and check. I'm interested in the story, so will finish, but I'm annoyed. I'm a big audio book fan because it allows me to "read" while I get other things done.

I've hit that point in my life where I will tell men to stop being so emotional, ask them if they need a moment to compose themselves, and tell them they should smile more often because they are so much prettier when they smile. Now, y'all know I don't do this to randos, but just to the mediocre (mostly white) dudes who are being offensive as fuck. Why is it that a woman is getting criticized more for rolling her eyes than a man is for a physical assault? Seriously, fuck that.