Pet Peeves: Aka Things That Make You Go "Gah!"

[backformore]

5 hours ago, Maharincess said:

The pain medicine situation is getting ridiculous. My daughter in-law recently broke her leg, broke an actual bone.  She was given 12 norco at the hospital and told to contact her doctor to get more. She hates taking pills and those 12 norco lasted her a long time. When she called her doctor to get a refill she was lectured about addiction.  This is a girl who has never had a narcotic pain medicine prescribed for her in her life, she has no history of any kind of addiction but still she was lectured for wanting to get pain medicine for a broken leg.  She was in tears when she got off the phone.  

Yes, it's crazy isn't it?   A few years ago I had spine surgery.  I don't even recall what I was given, but I had people telling me not to take it, because I would get addicted.  Really?   That's exactly what narcotic pain pills are for - recovery from surgery.  

[zxy556575]

My stupid refrigerator keeps freezing my produce even though I have the temperature set on 1 out of 8 (zero is off). Last night it turned a bowl of Jell-O into a block of strawberry-banana ice. (If you've ever wondered, no it does not thaw back into a liquid state suitable for re-chilling.)

The repair tech has also been here three times but my dryer still takes 2+ hours to dry towels, so all in all, my appliances look to be staging a coup.

Edited July 14, 2016 by lordonia

[MargeGunderson]

19 minutes ago, lordonia said:

My stupid refrigerator keep freezing my produce even though I have the temperature set on 1 out of 8 (zero is off). Last night it turned a bowl of Jell-O into a block of strawberry-banana ice. (If you've ever wondered, no it does not thaw back into a liquid state suitable for re-chilling.)

The repair tech has also been here three times but my dryer still takes 2+ hours to dry towels, so all in all, my appliances look to be staging a coup.

It really was only a matter of time before the machines tried to take over the world.

[Sandman87]

2 hours ago, MargeGunderson said:

It really was only a matter of time before the machines tried to take over the world.

Run far and run fast if your toaster starts threatening you with his "electric heating coil of doom!"

[BookWoman56]

23 hours ago, backformore said:

Yes, it's crazy isn't it?   A few years ago I had spine surgery.  I don't even recall what I was given, but I had people telling me not to take it, because I would get addicted.  Really?   That's exactly what narcotic pain pills are for - recovery from surgery.  

Backformore, a few years ago I encountered a situation even more absurd. A cousin was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer which had already spread by the time it was diagnosed. So, she had about 6 months to live and for the last few months of that was in extreme pain. Yet her adult children were insisting that she not be given narcotic pain meds, because they were afraid she would get addicted to them. My older sister and this cousin were BFFs, and my sister finally told the adult offspring to give their mother the damn meds, and that if by some miracle she survived after all, then my sister would pay for rehab. I mean, seriously, the woman is going to be dead in 2-3 months and you're worried she will get addicted to the pain meds?  If anybody needs narcotic pain meds, it's someone going through that kind of pain on a daily basis.  The absolute stupidity of some people never ceases to amaze me.

[Maharincess]

@lordonia, I feel you,  my refrigerator is on its last legs. It freezes stuff that shouldn't be frozen and doesn't freeze stuff that should be frozen.  I had my cleaning lady vacuum the  motor as that's helped in the past with other refrigerators but not this time.  I hate shopping for appliances. I just can't ever seem to make a decision and when I do finally decide I second guess myself to death after buying. 

Frozen, thawed out Jello is pretty gross isn't it? 

@BookWoman56, that story is absolutely ridiculous!  I thought I'd heard it all but that one takes the cake.  

I was told that I'll need to be on some type of pain medication probably forever. I live in fear of my Dr leaving and me having trouble with new doctors.    It makes me mad that the duggie abusers have made life so hard for the people who need these medications just to be able to get up and function.  I've been hurting since we got back from San Jose, I can't imagine going through this without my medicine. 

As soon as I found out that I'd be on the medicine long term I went to an NA meeting and got myself a sponsor. I want to make sure that I stay on the straight and narrow, I know how easy it is to fall off the rails with them.  My sponsor usually only sponsors addicts so this was new to her but together we came up with our own program for it.  I'm an alcoholic, I've been sober since 12/29/95 but I know I'm prone to addiction so I needed help. 

 We're thinking of trying to get a program like this going though for people like me who need to take them and want to try to make sure they avoid addiction.  She runs a lot of programs with NA.  

Edited July 15, 2016 by Maharincess

[Maharincess]

Sorry for the double post. I don't know if this is a peeve or just me being upset and pissed at myself. I hate that I allow strangers on the internet to have the power to make me feel so badly about myself that I cry. I hate myself for that.  I don't do social media too often but I'm bored and was poking around on Facebook.  I made a comment that I don't understand the new Pokemon  game thing and think it's crazy to see grown adults running around stores to catch a Pokemon. I said that just this morning I had a strange man come up to me when I was on my porch and tell me that he thinks there's a Pokemon in my backyard. I told him it's private property and he needed to leave. 

These people on Facebook started calling me names, saying horrible things about me and saying that at least people are out doing something and not sitting on their ass on Facebook like me. They called me a twat and other horrible names because I didn't let a strange man in my backyard.  The things they said to me were unbelievable.  I was stunned. I didn't say anything bad, I didn't insult anybody, but these people, and there were quite a few of them, came at me hard and it was fast, within half an hour I had more than ten notifications. I was kind of happy at first, I can't sleep and bored and somebody else out there was awake too.  I hate that I'm sitting here crying my eyes out because of it.   The page I was on was a page about dogs but people were talking about the game. 

I don't think anybody is wrong or stupid for playing it.  To each their own.  I don't understand how people can be so mean to other people. 

I had to vent that to somebody. I can't believe I'm friggin crying over this. 

[Demented Daisy]

I'm sorry to hear that, Maharincess.  I was just saying to a friend the other day how sad it is, that the world wide web was designed to make information accessible to people around the world with no barriers.  Instead, we've chosen to stay in our safe little corners and spew vitriol instead.

[Blergh]

Maharincess,

 Sorry to hear that with ALL the other stuff on your plate these days that there are folks getting THAT obsessed over a fictional kind of character  dumping on you for no other reason than you're not part of their cult. Remember that episode of  'Star Trek: TNG' in which virtually the whole crew save Westley got into a game to such a horrible degree that it put the entire ship in peril? Didn't think that prediction for this kind of obsession would come true THIS fast. 

 But then, what do I know? I got over any interest re computer games right about the time Ms. Pac Man peaked (and folks back then got upset when I asked why she was called 'Ms. Pac Man' instead of 'Pac Woman' ).

Edited July 15, 2016 by Blergh
grammar

[Jaded]

5 hours ago, Maharincess said:

 I made a comment that I don't understand the new Pokemon  game thing and think it's crazy to see grown adults running around stores to catch a Pokemon. I said that just this morning I had a strange man come up to me when I was on my porch and tell me that he thinks there's a Pokemon in my backyard. I told him it's private property and he needed to leave. 

What you said is the truth though. So far I've seen stories of people falling off cliffs on land marked with notices to stay out and one guy getting stabbed and I saw a YT video of a female news anchor walking through a weatherman's shot on set because her face was glued to her phone trying to catch Pokemons.

[auntlada]

They should not have called you names or said you were stupid, but in their (slight) defense, they are probably feeling pretty defensive about the game. I have seen a lot of people online saying how stupid the game is and dumb the people playing it are and how much of a waste of time it is. It's true it isn't a highly intelligent game, but it's sort of fun if that's the kind of thing you like. And some people playing are dumb, but they'd be dumb no matter what they were doing. And it can waste time, but what can't? It's certainly not for everyone, but it isn't inherently bad, and I've seen a lot of people online basically sayng it is (except that many of them wouldn't use the word "inherently" because they don't know what it means).

I started playing yesterday to see what it was about. I played on my work breaks. It helped me get 13,000 steps on a day when I was very tired and would not otherwise have walked.

I think it's a little like geocaching or going on a scavenger hunt. It isn't bad or dangerous in itself, but you do have to use common sense and pay attention to what is going on around you. Sadly, so many people are lacking in common sense.

I just wish players and nonplayers could stop calling each other stupid. One could say, "I don't get it, and it's not for me," (which it sounds like you did, @Maharincess), and the other could say, "I enjoy it," and everyone could go on their way knowing that we don't all have to do the same things.

[magicdog]

Quote

I had a strange man come up to me when I was on my porch and tell me that he thinks there's a Pokemon in my backyard. I told him it's private property and he needed to leave. 

You had every right to turn that man away!  Who do people think they have a right to go traipsing onto private property to play a freaking game??!!!!  I think it's even more pathetic (not to mention disturbing) that these idiots insulted you online like that!  Klassy!!

I have also heard from someone who said Pokemon hunters came to their residential marina (all private property) and even boarded private houseboats!!  The nerve!

This Pokemon thing really has come on strong lately.  I even found a song written about it!  Please somebody make it stop!!

[janestclair]

Maharincess, I wouldn't let a stranger into my backyard to catch a Pokemon either.  There have been news reports of people getting robbed because of that game.  I'm waiting to hear that someone gets killed because they walk right out in traffic. 

I do play video games, but I was a bit older when Pokemon started, so it's not for me. I did see that Nintendo is releasing the original NES with a bunch of games, and I NEED it.   So many hours of my childhood were spent in my parents' bedroom on their TV playing video games.  I can't wait to play again.  But Pokemon? Pass.

[topanga]

6 hours ago, Maharincess said:

Sorry for the double post. I don't know if this is a peeve or just me being upset and pissed at myself. I hate that I allow strangers on the internet to have the power to make me feel so badly about myself that I cry. I hate myself for that.  I don't do social media too often but I'm bored and was poking around on Facebook.  I made a comment that I don't understand the new Pokemon  game thing and think it's crazy to see grown adults running around stores to catch a Pokemon. I said that just this morning I had a strange man come up to me when I was on my porch and tell me that he thinks there's a Pokemon in my backyard. I told him it's private property and he needed to leave. 

These people on Facebook started calling me names, saying horrible things about me and saying that at least people are out doing something and not sitting on their ass on Facebook like me. They called me a twat and other horrible names because I didn't let a strange man in my backyard.  The things they said to me were unbelievable.  I was stunned. I didn't say anything bad, I didn't insult anybody, but these people, and there were quite a few of them, came at me hard and it was fast, within half an hour I had more than ten notifications. I was kind of happy at first, I can't sleep and bored and somebody else out there was awake too.  I hate that I'm sitting here crying my eyes out because of it.   The page I was on was a page about dogs but people were talking about the game. 

I don't think anybody is wrong or stupid for playing it.  To each their own.  I don't understand how people can be so mean to other people. 

I had to vent that to somebody. I can't believe I'm friggin crying over this. 

Yes, the Internet is full of people who love trying to make other people feel bad. And I know this wasn't your point, but were these people who made those comments your Facebook friends? If so, they don't sound like very good friends. If they weren't your friends, check your privacy settings. Do you have it set so that anyone in the public can view your posts and comment on them?

[Sun-Bun]

Maharincess, I'm so sorry you had to endure that and feel such empathy---yes indeed, people can be extremely cruel and awful from the safety of their keyboards and computer screens. Sadly, personal honesty/opinions online coupled with your own image can bring out the worst insults imaginable by people who either feel jealous or opposite of your views. Once you've gotten personally attacked like that it certainly makes you a bit more leery of sharing as much online, unfortunately. 

Years ago, way back in 2001, I experienced a similarly cruel dose of online hate, so hope you don't mind if I share my own story on that:

 I was on an online fan forum I regularly visited that was about my favorite band. A girlfriend and I had visited one of the band members' bar that he owned, and spent a fabulous evening drinking and partying with this band member in his bar after we spotted him, introduced ourselves and we all hit it off.

Naturally, we were excited about it and shared our various photos and tales from the evening on this forum, and everyone else enjoyed the post, save for this one dickhead who went on our post and said, "Gee, after reading this post, I thought these chicks would be hot. One looks inbred and the other is fat. What a waste!"

Thankfully, the other folks rose to our defense and immediately called this douche out for being so rude, and he was later bounced from the forum(after making it a personal mission to point out how "ugly" I was or how I "look like a tranny" by posting other personal photos he'd found of me on similar forums there)but it was a shock to me, nevertheless...and it honestly didn't bug me as much as my friend, the "fat" one, to the point of her losing so much weight not long afterwards that I thought she developed an eating disorder(she's fine now, thankfully!). 

Since then I'm extremely careful about keeping myself mostly nondescript in forums. People will pounce on your weaknesses in an instant online if you allow them that power. I can't imagine how kids these days can even cope being online with their fragile young egos up against cruel peers just waiting to tear them apart.

[JTMacc99]

For me, it is the perfect storm of completely nerdy activity combined with pop-culture phenomenon that hits me directly between the eyes.  Also, it gives me something to do with my kids for however long it keeps their interest.

I mean, I don't expect to be walking on any train tracks or off any cliffs, but that's just the level of enjoyment I expect to get from it.  I'm also hugely interested in watching the economic impact of it, because I'm a bit of a nerd that way as well.  

I also like reading all of the stories about it. The NY Post has a couple every day, including this funny one about a young women saying it's way better than Tinder if you want to meet men.  Heh.

Edited July 15, 2016 by JTMacc99

[Maharincess]

3 hours ago, topanga said:

Yes, the Internet is full of people who love trying to make other people feel bad. And I know this wasn't your point, but were these people who made those comments your Facebook friends? If so, they don't sound like very good friends. If they weren't your friends, check your privacy settings. Do you have it set so that anyone in the public can view your posts and comment on them?

It wasn't any of my friends. I rarely use Facebook, most of my friends on there are my kids and their friends.  I was on a page for people who love their dogs but all anybody was talking about was this game.  I didn't say anything insulting, I just said I didn't understand it and thought it looked crazy to see people running through stores yelling "I got one".  

@Sun-Bun,  I'm so sorry that happened to you.  People can be so cruel.  I don't have any personal pictures on my Facebook. My profile picture is a picture of Kaylee.  They told me Kaylee was ugly and she looked neglected, that Kaylee probably hates me as much as the rest of the world does, etc etc. 

[ZaldamoWilder]

@Maharincess I'm sorry that you went through that love. 

The idea that a stranger should show up at your address and actually feel entitled to access to your house/yard is insane.  I don't care what they're doing on the phone.  Unless you're a first responder, hell no you can't come in here.

Social media can turn really ugly really quickly for reasons that I think don't have too much to with the poster.  Mob mentality or online being the only place some people get to feel important or anything or nothing.  Anyway I'm sad that they got to you this way.

I've been seeing nothing but stories in the news about this and two nights ago my daughter asked if she could go stand on our porch (at 11:10 in the p.m.) to go *get* one.  I said you can, except, when you show up or check in or whatever you do when you get there, Bill Ritter just said thugs in training are waiting to take your phone and your pokemon....and possibly your sew in.   She tapped out at the possibility of having her hair grabbed up  :)   Hope you chuckled a little.

[Maharincess]

@ZaldamoWilder, Damo, you can always make me chuckle! 

I'm mostly mad at myself for letting strangers on the internet get to me like I did.  It's my fault for giving them that power. 

You are all so great. I'm more wary of posting stuff now but I feel like I can trust you guys.  

[krimimimi]

Oh, sweetie. People suck sometimes. And others who don't suck, are just sometimes too quick to be hurtful, because they feel safe in their anonymity and don't truly understand the ramifications of their posts. If they "knew" you, I'm sure the majority of them wouldn't have behaved that way. 

Now. Enough tears and moping! You know they are wrong. Hell, we know they are wrong. Idiots don't deserve any more thought. Phooey! Life is too short. Kaylee was an incredibly loved pup, and anyone who is truly a friend to dogs wouldn't ridicule you or your care. Patently absurd!

I actually didn't think the Pokemon thing sounded so bad, sort of like Geo-caching, which we used to do with misc. nieces and nephews and such. (Plenty of such.) I didn't realize the Pokemon game was directing people onto private property; that's just madness. I agree with your actions completely, and wouldn't have behaved differently, fwiw. (Except for avoiding dog forums. ;-) Seriously, they've consistently proven to be some of the least tolerant places I've visited. I honestly can't figure out why.)

@Sun-Bun, that's horrible. And depressing. Please don't let a single idiot make you smaller or less than you are. I personally think isolation is really bad for the soul, which is effectively what happens when you hide the real "you." How else can people you're interacting with know you? Don't do that to yourself. Let your sun shine! :-)

 

So I was thinking (that's always dangerous)... I have a friend I am failing to help, basically because we didn't keep in touch at a critical point in time. That annoys me more than I can say. As a result of which, it occurred to me (repeatedly) that sometimes timing is really important (for example ours), and sometimes it's helpful to not be doing things all on your own (in this example, her).

Transposing that sort of situation to here, we have a thread to support folks with their weight loss goals, which is probably brilliant, because I've known people who were better able to stick to a diet in the context of a group setting than on their own. How about we try something like that for anything and everything else? Like there's a person in the relationship thread that could probably use a bit of hand holding to remain single. There are folks here that could probably use the occasional "atta girl/boy/individual of unspecified gender" - so maybe a continued support and periodic cheerleading thread? A safe zone where you can get support until you opt out. (Can you tell I've never started a thread? Also, I fail at pithy titles, so...) Or is that too out there?

ETA: Never mind, I've decided to just embrace my inner flake and figured out how to start a thread and went for it. :-)

Edited July 15, 2016 by krimimimi
Flakiness embraced. Thread started. Cheers.

[BooksRule]

Quote

Remember that episode of  'Star Trek: TNG' in which virtually the whole crew save Westley got into a game to such a horrible degree that it put the entire ship in peril?

'The Game'.  That's the first thing I thought of when I heard about the Pokemon Go mania.  As far as playing it goes, I certainly hope everyone has a good time as long as they don't walk out in front of my car and they stay off of my property.  

I'm on Facebook a lot, but I guess I haven't posted anything too radical, because no one has unfriended me yet or jumped all over me for something.  However, I have posted a couple of times in a group where one person seems to be kind of a know-it-all and bashes most comments that don't agree with his/her own.  They usually get deleted and banned from the group pretty quickly.  (I don't check those pages often though, so I usually find out that I missed the whole controversy and all of the mean comments have been deleted.)  So far I've been lucky that I haven't posted anything that I consider to be totally innocent only to have someone bash me.  I have a couple of friends who tend to post a lot of conservative political stuff (I'm not into politics, but if I was, I would probably be on the liberal democrat side) and basically ignore what they post (or I will just unfollow them if they post a really, really lot).  I've also noticed that most of my FB friends are pretty religious, which is funny since I'm agnostic.  I usually just scroll past the religious posts that ask me to 'pray and share if... blah blah blah'.  

[BookWoman56]

Maharincess, I don't play Pokemon Go but my daughter does, so I am aware of some aspects of the game and have been reading online about some of the financial aspects of it. Most of the places where the various Pokemon characters appear are supposed to be more or less public places, like parks, restaurants, churches, etc. But occasionally there seems to be a glitch in the coordinates and one will be at a personal residence. One benefit of the game is that it does motivate kids to actually walk around rather than be couch potatoes. That said, there is no way in hell I would let some random stranger into my back yard to catch a Pokemon. What fascinates me about the game is how businesses are using it to drive up store traffic. There is a way you can buy a "lure" that functions for 30 minutes or so to have a character be at that location (or possibly turn it into a Pokestop, which may be the same thing as far as I know), so an article in some online business journal was encouraging businesses to use the lures during their normally slow times during the day. Sure enough, a couple of times we've been driving down the main drag close to home around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, and a couple of restaurants have lures in place.

As for the people on FB who criticized you, their opinion means nothing. The relative anonymity of the web seems to increase many people's asshat quotient considerably, and they say things online they would never say in person. I do encourage you to be careful about revealing too much personal info online, because nutjobs can and will sometimes string together different pieces of info you have revealed and figure out more about you than you would want them to know. Pretty sure I have shared this story at least once before, but many years ago in an online forum for The Sopranos I stupidly revealed too much personal info, enabling a guy to track down my phone number and begin calling me to express his disagreement with one of my opinions about a character from the show. And, lesson learned. I changed my phone number, closed my user account on the site and created a new one with a completely different username, but spent a few weeks being apprehensive that the guy might have been able to obtain my street address when he found my previous phone number. Fortunately, nothing else occurred after I changed my phone number but that was definitely a wake-up call for me about sharing too much info online with strangers.

[Bastet]

I've seen the headlines about this game craze, but I hadn't read any of them until now, so if someone had shown up at my house saying there was a Pokemon in my yard they wanted to catch, I would have been backing away slowly to call the men in white coats.  Note to self: Even though a bunch of people playing a game doesn't sound like anything you'll care about, when you see that many headlines about one, read the articles.

Edited July 16, 2016 by Bastet

[BookWoman56]

Spoiler alert: rant coming. I have to vent about something or explode. Background is that my daughter is bipolar and once she finished high school, she needed a break from classes for a while and I needed to be able to relocate to where she would be attending college because she will not be able to live in a dorm or by herself for a while. I changed jobs to one where I telecommute and my location does not matter, but that happened after the start of the academic year in fall 2015 and for a variety of reasons we decided that it would be best for her to begin university classes in spring 2017. Rather than just do nothing for the period before classes start, she decided to get licensed as a massage therapist so that she would be able to make more money at a part-time job while taking classes than she would be able to flipping burgers. She took her SATs a couple of months ago and got the scores within the last few weeks. So, she’s got a 3.9 GPA from high school and scored at the 96th percentile on the SAT, and had decided on a specific state university because she will be majoring in astronomy and not all of the state universities offer that major.

Today we drove two hours to the university she was planning to attend to talk to the admissions people, only to be told that because she had attended the trade school to get her massage therapist license, she could not apply as a regular freshman but instead had to apply as a transfer student, and had to have at least 30 hours of college credit to transfer. But they don’t consider the trade school courses as something that they would give credit for. This is supposedly a rule that the state applies to all state 4-year universities. Their advice was to go take 30 hours of classes at a community college so she can transfer. We had looked at the admission requirements on the university website several times; there is no reference there to any stipulations about attending trade/vocational schools making it so you have to be a transfer student. You can search the site for “trade school” or “vocational school” and nothing pops up related to this rule.

And to me, it’s ludicrous: if they want to say that courses from trade schools are automatically not eligible for college credit, then someone who has attended one should not be treated as a transfer student because he/she has not, by their definition, taken any college classes. I did not in any way expect them to give her credit for the 500+ hours of instruction that she had to get her massage therapist license, but I absolutely did not expect to be told that having taken that training would disqualify her from entering as a freshman.  The admissions people even said they think this rule is stupid but they are required to enforce it, and her name shows up in the state database as having attended the trade school.

Obviously, she can go take 30 hours of classes at a local community college over the next year and then apply as a transfer student, and yes, those classes will be much less expensive than at the state university. But I feel like the university system is penalizing her (and other potential students) for having the initiative to get some job training before starting university classes. She’s essentially been given the treatment they give to students who don’t meet the usual GPA and SAT requirements, of being required to go to community college for a year to prove that she can handle college level classes before they will admit her. So the moral of this story is that if she had sat on her ass for the past year, she would have been admitted with no problems; hell, they had initially emailed her to recommend their honors program based on her SAT scores. Instead, because she chose to go to a trade school, she now has to jump through an extra hoop to get admitted.

[zxy556575]

That is messed up, @BookWoman56. If trade class hours aren't transferable, what the hell difference does it make, and to whom? I'm curious what the reasoning was and why such a law ever got approved. Who does it harm if a person went to welding school, worked as a welder, then decided to enter college? They'd still need to meet all the entrance requirements, including minimum test scores.

I didn't go to college until I was 30 and that State university still made me get my high school transcripts. This was before the Internet so I had to physically go to my high school. When I told them what year I graduated, I got a blank stare: "Oh. We don't have THOSE here. They need to be retrieved from storage." I also had to get a financial statement from my dad about his income and other particulars, even though, I repeat, I was 30.

Edited July 16, 2016 by lordonia

[ABay]

My pet peeve this morning: Actors.

I have a type. And that type is British. And, if I'm being picky, male. Everything else is negotiable. It's more a combination of character + actor that sparks my...let's call it interest, shall we...and then I'll check for other film and TV they've been on. And here comes the peeve: Why do so many lovely British actors insist on taking on projects in which they play an American? It's not that they don't do the accent well, it's that a British actor's attractiveness drops about 50-75% without a British accent.

I'm really an undemanding fan--I wouldn't go to a Broadway show they were in, I don't follow actors on social media (the fantasy bubble is fragile and after a particularly negative experience when it burst, I try to keep it intact), I don't even read or watch interviews. All I ask is that they be pretty (in my eyes) and British, and that the project be at least tolerable. I've sat through a lot of terrible productions for the sake of actors I've liked but a couple of years ago I had the sad revelation that I do, in fact, have some standards when it comes to the degree of swill I'll subject myself to.

So, gentlemen, please--fun projects in which you use a charming accent and you aren't styled to scar my retinas. It's a low threshold and I know all of you are capable of surpassing it. My sincere thanks for your efforts in keeping my supply of fantasy fodder fully stocked.

[magicdog]

BookWoman56, you're not the first person universities have messed with.  I decided to go back to my alma mater for a 2nd bachelor's degree.  I was doing quite well getting a 3.5 GPA on the classes I was eligible to take.  When I wanted to take upper level classes (which required a 3.0 or better average).   I was denied!  They told me my overall average from my first college stint was what they based the decision on  (2.8 GPA more than a decade earlier) and I should take a bunch of easy A classes to boost it so I could go on.  I appealed to the dean but was denied.  I told them to go to Hell and never looked back.  I've taken classes at community college and other places but I don't see the point in traditional college anymore.  Perhaps your daughter might consider college online.  They're legit and much cheaper (no campus or tenured professors to support) and you can work at your own pace. WGU, Liberty University, and others might be what your daughter needs.  Lots of homeschooled kids have continued their education this way too - especially if they breezed through earlier work, but were too young to go away to a traditional campus.  Friends of my sister, who obtained degrees through WGU have raved about it.  So much so, I'm looking to pursue a Masters there!   My main caveat is don't leave your real phone number with Liberty University - they kept calling and harassing me until I finally told them I decided not to go!!

[auntlada]

Is there anyone to appeal to, @BookWoman56? If not, or if you already have, I'd start calling newspapers and TV stations and telling about the stupidity that tax dolars are paying for (possibly leaving out the bipolar aspect depending on how your daughter feels about sharing that).

As part of the system of state career tech institutions in our state, I think that university is stupid. There are a lot of higher ed systems that are threatened by career tech systems and the idea that not everyone needs to go to college to be successful and even by the idea that tech schools are not what they used to be (where high schools sent the kids who weren't capable of college) and offer classes that have higher STEM stuff.

[Bastet]

Ants.  Specifically, ants that get in the house.

Riley just found little black ants in her dry food bowl (in the office), and not only did they come all the way from the far corner of the bedroom at the other end of the hallway, they took a route apparently inspired by that kid in the Family Circus comic strip.

When I first moved into this house eleven years ago, I used to get ants in the cats' food a fair bit -- they'd come in through the dining room and kitchen into the service porch to get to the bowl.  After dealing with that, I had only the occasional ant visitation over the years (and because Maddie took all day to finish her breakfast and all night to finish her dinner, there was always food out).  So this isn't a chronic problem, and I shouldn't grumble.

But I find dealing with ants annoying.  They're so small, and there are so many of them.  It's not like a spider or other bug that I can just pick up and put back outside. 

[harrie]

BookWoman56, for what it's worth, I hear your aggravation; I only wish I had some good answer how to fix it.

I started back to finish/get a degree last fall, and the crap they make you do is ridiculous. Of about 47 credits I had, they transferred 29; but nobody can tell me how they were apportioned - that is, what requirements have been satisfied.  I used to be an English major and have about 21 credits in literature and writing, but I might have to take Advanced Composition.  On the one hand, it will probably be pretty easy but on the other hand it's a complete waste of time and money. And this time around, it's my damn money!

I also had to get a new series of shots for MMR (mumps, measles, rubella) because I couldn't prove I'd already had them.  (The sad part is, I recall getting the rubella vaccine because it was done in school, and it hurt like a sonofabitch. But scarring childhood memories count for nothing, apparently.)  I'm 55, my pediatrician's been dead at least 20 years, and he retired long before he died. Getting high school transcripts was a pain in the butt, but getting shot records proved impossible. Apparently the fact that two other schools accepted me way back when, so my inoculation records must have been okay, holds no water.  

So, if it's any consolation, bureaucracies are assholes to everyone, not just your daughter. Can she apply to a different school with the same or a similar degree  program and just leave out the trade school information this time around?   

[BookWoman56]

Thanks to everyone for their input. We're still considering options but will most likely go the route of her attending one of the local community colleges to get the 30 hours and then transferring to the university she wants to attend. It's not possible for her to simply apply to a different university within the state and omit the trade school info; the admissions people stated that she is in some state database they check against during the admission process, and in addition, there is only one other major state university that offers the same degree. And I realize it's not the end of the world, but I think it's a damn stupid rule and part of what pisses me off the most is that there is no upfront info about this on their website. If we had known this prior to submitting the actual application, then she could have taken 15 hours this summer and 15 hours this fall at the community college and started university classes in spring as we had planned. Or if the info had been accessible earlier, she could have made an informed decision about whether to go to massage school in the first place. But there was nothing in the admissions info online so we were blindsided by this rule.  My ex (her father) wants to escalate to someone higher up in the academic food chain and also talk to a few state legislators he knows to bitch about how stupid this rule is, but my daughter has pretty much accepted at this point that she will have to do the local classes first.

I feel for the other bureaucratic nonsense some of you have described and am no stranger to it. I started college at 17, and when I was 20 and a junior, I had burned out. Got married (bad move at that age), moved with husband to a different town in the same state and transferred to the university there intending to finish my coursework. Harrie, they did the same thing to me they did to you; English lit courses that I had taken as sophomore or junior level classes were applied to some of their required freshman courses, and because they did not offer German, which was my minor, all my credits for those courses did not transfer. Lordonia, although I did not have to get a financial statement from my father, I had to list my husband as the person who would receive my grades for the semester, because even though I was 22 at the time, they refused to release final grades to a student. Fortunately, we ended up moving back to the same town where I had done my original university coursework, and I was able to transfer the token 3 hours of credit from the second university, finish my degree and jump straight into grad school. I have toyed with the idea of going back for my doctorate at the university my daughter will be attending, but the prospect of having to take the GRE again because my scores are too old, and deal with getting official transcripts and records of all the immunizations required is not appealing. Magicdog, the one thing the community colleges allow here that seems like an excellent idea is the option to ignore any college credits more than 10 years old. So if you have a low GPA from when you were a young party animal and then 12 years later decide you want to be serious about getting a degree, you can opt to have those credits not be counted. They still appear on your transcript but are not used to calculate your GPA; the down side is they cannot be used to meet degree requirements. But it is a way to overcome having low grades from a first round of college hang over you forever. Students who want to use their old credits can do that, so there is flexibility.  Not sure if the 4-year universities have this option, but it seems like a good idea.

[Maharincess]

7 hours ago, Bastet said:

Ants.  Specifically, ants that get in the house.

Riley just found little black ants in her dry food bowl (in the office), and not only did they come all the way from the far corner of the bedroom at the other end of the hallway, they took a route apparently inspired by that kid in the Family Circus comic strip.

When I first moved into this house eleven years ago, I used to get ants in the cats' food a fair bit -- they'd come in through the dining room and kitchen into the service porch to get to the bowl.  After dealing with that, I had only the occasional ant visitation over the years (and because Maddie took all day to finish her breakfast and all night to finish her dinner, there was always food out).  So this isn't a chronic problem, and I shouldn't grumble.

But I find dealing with ants annoying.  They're so small, and there are so many of them.  It's not like a spider or other bug that I can just pick up and put back outside. 

Ants are the worst.  I used to get them so bad when I first moved up here but for some reason they seem to have disappeared.  This is the third year I haven't seen any.  

When I make spaghetti or lasagna sauce I simmer it all day, one year the ants were so bad that I went into the kitchen to stir my sauce and when I went back in 20 minutes later my spoon, spoon rest and cooktop were covered in the nasty little bastards. 

[ABay]

The early warm spell followed by a killing frost seems to have have eliminated the annual ant invasion. So far. I also keep the cats' bowls in a big boot tray so the food (mostly) doesn't get on the floor. 

For all of you suffering the bureaucracy of higher ed, call the Provost's office and the President's office or go to the university's website and get their email addresses and email them. 

Newest pet peeve: Xfinity/Comcast. No internet service from 11 yesterday morning until some time overnight, so at least 12 hours, and I had to unplug and reset my router to get on this morning. But will there be a break on my extortionate bill? Of course not.

[zxy556575]

I got a new laptop and in the midst of doing all my re-installations and setting up preferences, I started to wonder how much time I've devoted to technology since I got my first home computer in 1993. Printers, scanners, smart phones, tablets, car GPS, computers, router, smart TV, DVRs, wifi, Ethernet, LANs, system updates, etc. etc. Currently if my router resets, I have to manually connect it again to the TV, phone, tablet, laptop and backup network. It's not just bugs/glitches, but technology still swallows time even when things are functioning correctly. I work online for a living, but calculating a conservative estimate of 3 hours a week for 23 years is almost 3,900 hours. Time saving technology, indeed.

I used to live in the South Pacific and even though I'm phobic about roaches and the mosquitoes were a PITA, what bothered me most were the ants, just because as @Maharincess said, I couldn't leave a single crumb unswept without them swarming the place within 30 minutes. They got in all the pantry boxes of cereal, rice, flour, etc. It was super aggravating.

[bilgistic]

Time Warner Cable's tech came out last week and "fixed" my connection that is constantly dropping out by moving my modem/router combo to the bedroom, and blaming the problem on the fact that I live in a three-story apartment building. He gamely went outside and touched the cables. Guess what hasn't changed?

I didn't have the problem with AT&T (so much for that three-story apartment theory), but they were playing games with my bill for months, so I left them. I'll be going back after my year promo is up with TWC, if Google Fiber isn't yet in my complex.

Shiesters, all of them.

[BookWoman56]

I've spent way more time dealing with technology than I would have liked to, but I clearly recall having to write my master's thesis using an electric typewriter, with no option to fix a typo other than using whiteout after trying to insert the page back into the typewriter and align the line of text with where the corrected word would appear on the page. I was extremely grateful that my committee did not make any major suggestions for the thesis, such as adding a new sentence or paragraph in the middle of a page, because that would have meant retyping every single sentence after that point. So overall, I'm grateful for new technology. OTOH, I look forward to the day that I can bring home a wireless printer, plug it in, and it will immediately work wirelessly with all devices in my home. My printer, less than 6 months old, recently died and I was able to get a replacement for free from the manufacturer as it's a common defect. But when the replacement arrived, I had to go through the process of downloading the driver, etc. so that it would work with my laptop, which is less than a year old as well. However, my daughter could use her tablet to print from the new printer half an hour before I could get my laptop to recognize that the new printer existed. And FFS, could the various device manufacturers agree to have one standard size power cord? Or better yet, figure out a way to just have the devices be powered some way that does not require power cords? Between the power cords for my personal laptop, printer, work laptop, work laptop docking station, two external monitors, and so forth, my home office area is a jungle of power cords.

Bilgistic, I don't have TWC but was having similar problems in the last 6-9 months with my modem/router. They tried boosting the signal on their end but that was only a temporary fix, and finally a tech came to my place with a new modem/router and said they had bought a lot of a particular model of modem/router, which turned out to be crap and were constantly not working correctly. So they were in the process of replacing all of them. No problems since then. If the problem persists, you might consider asking them to replace the modem/router itself instead of just moving it from one location to another in your apartment. I suspect that my cable company was not the only one that bought a batch of subpar devices. ABay, cable companies/ISPs do not seem to understand the concept that they should not bill for services they don't actually deliver. If there is an outage, they should not be billing for the duration of that outage.

Forumfish, the massage therapy program doesn't even award a degree; it's not like an associates degree. It does nothing other than meet the state requirement for the number of hours one has to take in massage classes along with an internship. I will email the university to express how ridiculous their rule is, but I am not going to be holding my breath that they will suddenly change their minds. To me the issue is pretty simple: either say the trade school classes count as college credit and award transfer credit for them, or say they do not count as college credit and so having taken them does not make someone a transfer student.

And yes, ants suck. At certain times of the year, every time it rains there will be an influx of them coming in from the kitchen sink. Right now I'm having more problems with small roaches, likely as a result of people moving into the apartment below me, which had been empty for several months, and the apartment adjacent to me changing tenants. Per our pest control people, not only do moving boxes and so forth typically contain various bugs, the act of moving upsets the bugs that were already in residence in the other apartments and they move headquarters into a place where not as much activity is going on. I've done one round of roach bombs but will have to follow up with another one, because the stuff the pest control people use isn't getting rid of them sufficiently.

[zxy556575]

It may be that I was fortunate to have gotten the One Conscientious Internet Repair Person, but when my connection kept dropping, the guy actually went outside and added a new splitter (?) just for my house. He said there were too many residences on the current line.

[bilgistic]

@lordonia, supposedly that's what the tech did because he went into my storage room and said, "Holy..." when he saw what the last tech did. It's nice to see they don't all--crazy thought--get the same training?!?

@BookWoman56, I bought my modem/router when I set up the service because I refuse to pay a monthly "lease" rate, and I can resell it when I change services. As you mentioned, the company's equipment is usually shitty and outdated, anyway, so I know the problem isn't my three-month-old $130 Motorola equipment. There was a great deal of consternation in setting up my service because a former resident of my unit didn't pay their bill. They blocked the unit's service, but that has nothing to do with the problems now. Nope. Nor does TWC's old wiring, blah blah blah. It's something I'm doing, and here's my bill. Have a nice day.

In other news, I've recently developed (or developed a more exaggerated form of) an intolerance to milk and milk products. This is nothing short of devastating to me, as dairy is a major food group in my life. It seemed to come on pretty suddenly, but looking back, I see that I was gassy (sorry) at work all day while drinking coffee with half-and-half. For over half my life, I have had painful gas cramps because air would just sit in my stomach and nothing would help it. I haven't made the connection to a food sensitivity until now. I think there's also a stress component because the cramps were unbelievable in college. I remember eating Tums in high school. I feel worse at work than when I'm out, maybe because I'm just moving around.

As I'm eliminating dairy from my diet, any time I have dairy (even with lactaid pills), I get very nauseated. I'm intolerant of something else, too, because I'm nauseated even when there is no dairy present in certain foods. The only things that don't make me feel like garbage are fruits, veggies, nuts, granola, cereal (so it's not a gluten sensitivity), nut milks, soy milk, cheeseless pasta with tomato sauce. I don't eat meat. I wanted to lose weight, but not like this!

[backformore]

@Maharincess  I thought of you when I saw this: 

This guy's anti-Pokémon yard sign is a rallying cry for everyone who thinks this is a dumb fad.

[bilgistic]

Love it!

[auntlada]

14 hours ago, ABay said:

The early warm spell followed by a killing frost seems to have have eliminated the annual ant invasion.

So you're saying Wildfire's owner was an ant, not a woman?

[Maharincess]

I love it too.  I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels that way. 

@bilgistic,  the daughter of a friend of mine has Chrones disease and her symptoms and food triggers sound a lot like yours.   It sucks when you can no longer eat things that you love. I love spicy food,  not super duper can't breathe, kind of spicy but pretty spicy.  The past couple of years, every time I eat anything spicier than black pepper my stomach starts a war with me.  I can't imagine not being able to eat dairy though,  I love cheese way too much.  My local pizza place is the only place that puts enough cheese on my pizza. I told them that when they get to the point that they thought "wow, that's too much cheese" to double that.   I feel for you on the dairy thing. 

[LJonEarth]

On 7/16/2016 at 7:06 PM, Bastet said:

Ants.  Specifically, ants that get in the house.

Riley just found little black ants in her dry food bowl (in the office), and not only did they come all the way from the far corner of the bedroom at the other end of the hallway, they took a route apparently inspired by that kid in the Family Circus comic strip.

When I first moved into this house eleven years ago, I used to get ants in the cats' food a fair bit -- they'd come in through the dining room and kitchen into the service porch to get to the bowl.  After dealing with that, I had only the occasional ant visitation over the years (and because Maddie took all day to finish her breakfast and all night to finish her dinner, there was always food out).  So this isn't a chronic problem, and I shouldn't grumble.

But I find dealing with ants annoying.  They're so small, and there are so many of them.  It's not like a spider or other bug that I can just pick up and put back outside. 

The thing to think about when getting rid of them, isn't just to kill them, but to find their path and wipe up their chemical trail. I usually take vinegar and wipe down everything from the point of entry to however far they got, including along the walls and door frames. Then I mop. It's a pain, but I never see them again. My few infestations have been because I brought one in on my vegetables, and he found a way to signal the way for his friends. My problem is that my vision isn't that great and I don't wear glasses inside. So, I never know how long they've been in my house before I finally spot them. 

[backformore]

My pet peeve is that I have become a wimp who can't tolerate humidity.  Our air conditioning broke and my asthma is causing me to feel exhausted.

[BW Manilowe]

My most recent pet peeve--which I might've mentioned before & forgotten--is criminals who either kill themselves or "commit suicide by cop" to avoid paying for their crimes.

[bilgistic]

I am deeply mourning the loss of cheese and ice cream, but especially cheese. I LOVE cheese. I ate cream cheese on everything. I love the sharpest cheddar. Yes, I want shaved parmesan, and keep shaving until your wrist aches.

I'm fine with with soy milk and almond milk in coffee and cereal, but nothing replaces my beloved cheeses and sour cream.

I had a sad veggie pita for lunch today with basic "garden veggies" and oil and vinegar dressing, and even that went straight through me (I suspect the oily dressing). I wasn't nauseous, though, so I'll take it.

I just thought about macaroni and cheese from my favorite divey restaurant. I'm going to go cry now.

Edited July 19, 2016 by bilgistic

[Sandman87]

We had a couple of 16 year-olds who got mugged yesterday here in town while "collecting" with Pokemon Go...at 2 am, in a deserted playground. I'm beginning to think that the Darwin Awards are going to need a category just for PG.

 

On Saturday, July 16, 2016 at 5:06 PM, Bastet said:

Ants.  Specifically, ants that get in the house.

Riley just found little black ants in her dry food bowl (in the office), and not only did they come all the way from the far corner of the bedroom at the other end of the hallway, they took a route apparently inspired by that kid in the Family Circus comic strip.

When I first moved into this house eleven years ago, I used to get ants in the cats' food a fair bit -- they'd come in through the dining room and kitchen into the service porch to get to the bowl.  After dealing with that, I had only the occasional ant visitation over the years (and because Maddie took all day to finish her breakfast and all night to finish her dinner, there was always food out).  So this isn't a chronic problem, and I shouldn't grumble.

But I find dealing with ants annoying.  They're so small, and there are so many of them.  It's not like a spider or other bug that I can just pick up and put back outside. 

As a temporary fix while you look for ways to deal with the ants, you could try protecting the food bowl in the same way that people used to protect ice-boxes and meat-keepers from ants: Get a shallow pan (like a small cookie sheet) and put about 1/4" of water in it, then put the food dish in the water so that the ants can't get to the food. Ants don't swim. The only disadvantage is that you have to add water periodically. Well, that and the cat may be a little puzzled about it.

[JTMacc99]

11 hours ago, Sandman87 said:

We had a couple of 16 year-olds who got mugged yesterday here in town while "collecting" with Pokemon Go...at 2 am, in a deserted playground. I'm beginning to think that the Darwin Awards are going to need a category just for PG.

Much like a corn chip is simply a way to eat salsa, Pokemon Go seems to be the chip that the salsa of general stupidity was looking for.

Here's a newfound Pet Peeve for me:  

I've put a LOT of work into getting physically healthy, and it turns out that I'm still almost exactly the same level of golfer I was at this time last year. WTF? It requires physical skills, why wouldn't I be better at it? Ugh. I'd chalk this up to golf being a unique problem, but I think I can think of other things I've put a lot of effort into, and apparently I can still suck at them too.  Grrr 

[zxy556575]

4 hours ago, JTMacc99 said:

I think I can think of other things I've put a lot of effort into, and apparently I can still suck at them too

I sympathize with your frustration.

I've always taken exception to that hoary chestnut of inspirational messages: You Can Do Anything If You Set Your Mind To It.

No! You can't! I would love to be able to sing, even in a community glee-club kind of way, but no amount of training or practice will make my vocal cords into something they're not. We've seen many people on Dancing With The Stars who, despite practicing for hours a day, can barely manage a box step. Hundreds of thousands of kids play sports and dream of becoming professionals, but only a fraction of a percentage of them do. I could never be a mathematician no matter how hard I studied. Jeb Bush will never be President. People have physical and mental limitations, dammit!

I'm all for people breaking through and overcoming obstacles, duh. The recent review here of the ad for the Paralympic Games was very inspiring and moving, but can even those determined athletic strivers do anything in their lives? No! Stop saying that.

[JTMacc99]

9 minutes ago, lordonia said:

I could never be a mathematician no matter how hard I studied. Jeb Bush will never be President. People have physical and mental limitations, dammit!

HEE!  

I suppose I can tone it down a little.  My frustration isn't so much that I'm not as good at golf as other people, I know damn well there is a ceiling that I will hit due to my own athleticism and time available to me to practice. It's that fit-me is exactly the same as unfit-me. Jeez. So frustrating. 

It's like this: When I entered in my weight to my tracking app this morning, I hit the goal I had set for myself in January. The app threw a little party for me with a "Yay, you did it!" And showered me with virtual confetti. Brought a tear to my eye to be honest. The golf thing is my way of wanting a real life confetti shower. I did all that work, so how about it translating to something like getting better at something athletic?