Pant Thread (because we need more panting)

[OBrien]

I've only been thinking seriously about the fact that I'm running for this position since.. todayish. I had initially decided to just wing it, but now realize that's not gonna work in the slightest. So tomorrow I have to come up with a speech, and I tend to dislike both writing and politics. And at least one of the two people running against me has a pretty decent chance of beating me, I think.

SU elections?

[e^iπ+1=0]

Sort of. I'm running for treasurer for a specific society (rather than the overarching SU). It happens to be filled with the type of people who are going to take the annual general meeting Very Seriously™ and so will be unimpressed with whatever I come up with on the spot. It's a society that's existed for longer than I've been alive and still has at least a couple active members who have been around the entire fucking time. And so considering there are strong opinions from people who have only been there a couple years, you can imagine how set in their ways some members are. It's certainly worth thinking about my position and all that beforehand and writing at least an outline of what I'm going to say. Speeches are a maximum of two minutes, and you're kind of expected to not even take that long. Initially I thought that sounded like more than enough time, now I'm kind of wishing I had more like five to adequately explain myself. We'll see how it goes.


Also: fuck you, not being able to sleep. I don't want to be up at 3am when I have things to do that day.

[OBrien]

Hmm, well good luck is all I can say. Hope you do well!

[Ptolom]

The Student Loans Company privacy policy is bullshit. They ask for pages and pages of personal details and then make you agree for it to be shared with a huge list of government departments and some unspecified third parties. Oh well, there's not really much choice.

[Steax]

Dear clients,

When a server is down, there are only 2 stages that matter.

First stage is before we know about it. Make noise so we know, but be specific and don't speculate. Do not tell us that hackers are raiding your server. Do not tell us that the government has injected a virus into the bitstream. Do not tell us that we're stupid idiots for not being omniscient.

The second and last stage is when we're trying to fix it. Just answer our questions honestly and please settle down until we get things working again. It's not easy to fix a server while being on the phone, by the way.

Thank you.

[e^iπ+1=0]

Hmm, well good luck is all I can say. Hope you do well!

Thanks. I was just at the AGM for a different society, the physics society, and it was kind of terrible. It took an hour and a half, a lot of argument, some slightly dodgy ways of handling motions, and people being slightly annoyed with me because a couple times I wanted us to do things a bit more formally than they did. In the end it mostly turned out alright, though.

My main problem was that often we passed things without actually having any sort of exact wording. In fact, at least once we passed something with wording that we all agreed wasn't quite right. And we just sort of had an understanding that the exec will change it and hopefully everyone will be happy with it. Depending on how (un)reasonable the exec feel like being, when they post the new version of it in a week's time or whatever, I'll be able to say "we should have this minor change here" and they'll go "sure, whatever" since the wording is just going to be made up by one of them anyway. However, if not, and if it's major enough, I may try to call an EGM, but that'll require getting 20 people to give a fuck and sign a thing.

However, I'm now actually more optimistic for the role playing society's AGM tomorrow that I'm running at. The exec are a hell of a lot better, the constitution is better and I don't think any major changes are even going to be suggested, everything will actually get done by the book because nearly everyone will be upset if it's not (as opposed to me sitting there and apparently being the only one who even half cares), the basic way in which the society is formed is a lot more convenient*, we don't have any sponsorship issues, and I'm sure there are plenty of other things I'm not thinking of at the moment.

As to whether or not I become treasurer, who knows, but even if not I'll be happy knowing the society is a lot better than it could be.


*The physics society is weird because everyone who's in physics is automatically a member (although random other people can also join), and mostly as a result of that we don't actually have an official member list, nor an exact count of members. This led to a ton of time being taken up while we argued about quorums and voting and the possibility of an "active members" list (which we actually passed and then repealed inside 15 minutes). The role playing society, on the other hand, is a regular society where we don't have to deal with that shit.

[You, sir, name?]

TIR over that my Japan manager got sacked. Feel really bad for the guy. He's been working his ass off to make ends meet with impossible requirements. If they thought the deliverables were late under him, they'll be amazed what a few weeks of confusion and disorganization will do to the time tables.

It doesn't even make business sense. Are they intentionally trying to hemorrhage money out of the company? His wages were peanuts compared to the money we'll lose due the delays this will cause.

Fuck office politics.

[GenovaHeightsGhost]

So sick and tired of being sick and tired. HMv possibly turning into pneumonia with a pulled muscle/impinged brachial nerve from all the coughing? Fuck this. I have AP material I'm missing but haven't done a full day of school since last Tuesday. I hate feeling guilty for being upset with my situation. BLARG.

[Angua]

Seriously? This university doesn't have access to the online archives of Science earlier than 1996????????????????????????????????? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Yes, I know I can probably find the article in the library, I just don't have the time at the moment to go and dig it up

[bigglesworth]

Which article do you want? I'll make a deal: you get the article and I get to brag about having a better library.

[Angua]

Which article do you want? I'll make a deal: you get the article and I get to brag about having a better library.

Actually, I found it on one of our lecturer's websites because he co-authored it. Thank heavens for the alternate versions on google scholar!

Thanks though!

[Adam H]

Mrs. Adam H is a first year med student at a pretty good school. She saw a flyer at school for a round table discussion on abortion, featuring free food and what she assumed was an intelligent medically relevant viewpoint on abortion. Who wouldn't want to go to that, right? The school hosts these kind of things (on other topics) all the time and they're almost always led by a doctor or a doctor-turned-patient or a PHD.

It was led by some pro-life high school teacher who began by saying: "We need to set some assumptions, because if we don't then our arguments will end up all over the place." (so far so good) "First, we define abortion as the killing of an innocent human being. Second, every human life is equally precious. Third..."

There was a lot more stupidity, but I don't remember the rest, this being a second-hand rant. Apparently the dozen or so med students who were there spent the next hour tearing this guy into shreds, so that's good. But still, wtf prestigious med school?! If you're going to let an idiot come use your facilities and talk to your students, be honest about who he is and what he's saying. This rant would still apply if it was a clueless planned parenthood volunteer who led the forum.

[Angua]

Mrs. Adam H is a first year med student at a pretty good school. She saw a flyer at school for a round table discussion on abortion, featuring free food and what she assumed was an intelligent medically relevant viewpoint on abortion. Who wouldn't want to go to that, right? The school hosts these kind of things (on other topics) all the time and they're almost always led by a doctor or a doctor-turned-patient or a PHD.

It was led by some pro-life high school teacher who began by saying: "We need to set some assumptions, because if we don't then our arguments will end up all over the place." (so far so good) "First, we define abortion as the killing of an innocent human being. Second, every human life is equally precious. Third..."

There was a lot more stupidity, but I don't remember the rest, this being a second-hand rant. Apparently the dozen or so med students who were there spent the next hour tearing this guy into shreds, so that's good. But still, wtf prestigious med school?! If you're going to let an idiot come use your facilities and talk to your students, be honest about who he is and what he's saying. This rant would still apply if it was a clueless planned parenthood volunteer who led the forum.

Depends who organised it. A lot of that sort of stuff can be students organising it themselves rather than the university itself.

[Hyphe]

Over the course of the last nine months, the office I work in has gone from being a nice, fun place that comfortably housed the 25-or-so staff that were around at the time, to being packed full of about 70-80, all of whom are talking to each other or on phones, with increasingly shrinking desk space. It's SO DAMN LOUD. We developers are supposed to work in pairs, but it's so hard to concentrate we're retreating into our headphones and coding alone. It's making everyone miserable.

In October there were plans to move into a new office this month, but every time we ask about it, the date gets pushed further and further away.

[darknut]

got a playstation for holiday, friend wanted to play online but all the names i could come up with where taken, so whatever, made a random stupid name figured i'll just make a better one later. well i finally got around to that (i havent been playing online much) i copy over my saves to the new account
then when i try to play them it tells i cant play those saves because it doesnt belong to this account. which is absolutly stupid
why would anyone copy their saves over to another account if they didnt have the inention of actually playing them!


on a related note if anyone knows how to make copyed data playable?

[Rium]

Man. It seems my nose has decided to turn red more or less permanently. Okay, most of the time it’s more of a tinge and not bright red, but still. It’s pretty depressing to see myself in the mirror looking like this. Does anyone have any tips (regarding the color, mainly) for this?

[Angua]

Man. It seems my nose has decided to turn red more or less permanently. Okay, most of the time it’s more of a tinge and not bright red, but still. It’s pretty depressing to see myself in the mirror looking like this. Does anyone have any tips (regarding the color, mainly) for this?

Try the makeup 101 thread maybe? http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=77005

[SurgicalSteel]

Turns out my cousin is an insensitive piece of shit. She has decided that the "That's Funny Shit" cartoon about school shootings is funny. Even out of context of what just happened in Ohio it would be a horribly unfunny/disturbing comic. I mean, seriously, if you think a kid taking a gun to school to "solve a problem" is funny, you're an asshole and part of what's wrong with the world today.

[RollingHead]

Lost my first job, nearly out of money, need to move out and have no place to go. Yay!

[rath358]

Fucking RPI.
Because of housing being dicks, I may be paying 4 to eight grand more than I was planning on next year, to live in a shittier room.
Fuck.

[Chewbaccawacca]

I work in a Call Center.

I hate it.

I figure most here have either worked customer service, know someone who's worked it, or has at least read about it online in some humorous forum or comedy site or something like that. In light of that (admittedly unbased) assumption I shall forgo that particular train of thought in favor of one that was stemmed by a singularly bad day at work. That is to say that this rant is not about my bad day at work. Instead it is about why, when I was under it and emotionally unstable, instead of lashing out at my antagonists I instead calmed myself down and just took it. I surmised my tormet (melodrama ftw) with the question:

Why must cooler minds prevail?

Now truthfully from a purely economical standpoint there is a rather easy answer; "So we don't all kill eachother."
While technically correct this doesn't do my sense of justice any favors. I wish that I could (sometimes) totally disregard the laws of man and mind and just attack somebody (or something I suppose). I need a primal release that would allow me to deal with the pent-up rage that seems to build over time. Please don't take me for a raving lunatic, I don't randomly start screaming and cursing for no reason (unless there's the opportunity for a joke, to be fair). In fact I can say with almost 93% certainty that I have never struck another human in anger in my adult life. But sometimes I wish that cooler minds didn't have to win, I wish that I could let my blood run hot and leave my temper unchecked.

Let me ask you this, metaphorical-sympathetic-blagosphere-shoulder, have you ever tried yelling at the top of your lungs? Like as loud as you can? I don't mean with a group of people at a sporting event or some such (though that can be nice in it's own right), but instead when it was dead silent. When there's nothing else that can compete with your own raw aural power (POOOOOOWAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuhhh-sorry). Have you ever been the loudest most alive thing at a time or place? It's one of the best and most enjoyable things I've ever done, but most importantly it's also one of the most cathartic things I've ever done. But sometimes it just doesn't seem enough. Mostly I believe this is because it is a delayed gratification, and while normally I would be a proponent of such a course, in this instance what I crave something immediate. Once I wish I could just go up and punch the loud, obnoxious boor and not give a damn about the consequences. Or even just tell someone off.

I believe that in order to live healthy, full lifestyles we have to have a flood gate. Something that, everyonce in a while, can open and get all of that negetive energy (oooOOOOoooo new ageyyyyyyy) out in a purely destructive way.

I think I'm done. Anybody else ever feel like that? Or am I an angsty teenager? (what? how? I'm 25!!! madness!)

[ExplodingHat]

Pizza pockets. Can't eat just one. There is no way in which this is a good thing. =\

[Menacing Spike]

I believe that in order to live healthy, full lifestyles we have to have a flood gate. Something that, everyonce in a while, can open and get all of that negetive energy (oooOOOOoooo new ageyyyyyyy) out in a purely destructive way.

My outlet is trolling teenagers on online games and taking screenshots of their reactions.

[SlyReaper]

Go you.

[Menacing Spike]

Go you.

Well hey, there are sillier hobbies.

[Felstaff]

I prefer hobbies that aren't spiteful and don't ruin other people's good time. Like... arranging bottle-tops into mosaics. If it must be destructive behaviour, I heard there's good catharsis in choppin' wood. This is why all lumberjacks live longer than regular humans.

[Menacing Spike]

I only go after assholes. Like some kind of internet Batman.

This is why all lumberjacks live longer than regular humans.

Source?

[Felstaff]

[Hyphe]

Damnation! I ordered furniture from Ikea and they've pushed the delivery date from tomorrow, back to next week. I need that table and chairs!

[SlyReaper]

I only go after assholes. Like some kind of internet Batman.

This is why all lumberjacks live longer than regular humans.

Source?

To fight asshole, you must become asshole.

[Menacing Spike]

I only go after assholes. Like some kind of internet Batman.

This is why all lumberjacks live longer than regular humans.

Source?

To fight asshole, you must become asshole.

And like batman, it does absolutely no good in the long run.

Damnation! I ordered furniture from Ikea and they've pushed the delivery date from tomorrow, back to next week. I need that table and chairs!

FOOL, YOU ARE FUELING THEIR DARK IMMORTALITY

[Giant Speck]

Damnation! I ordered furniture from Ikea and they've pushed the delivery date from tomorrow, back to next week. I need that table and chairs!

I wish there was an Ikea in Las Vegas.

[Hyphe]

FOOL, YOU ARE FUELING THEIR DARK IMMORTALITY

Is that why everything they stock sounds like a Cthonic incantation? Good job I could never manage to pronounce my order out loud, I guess.

[OBrien]

It could be worse: If Ikea was Finnish no one would be able to pronounce about half the stuff they sell (except for the Finnish, of course).

[Xeio]

So, when your support form took over a day to tell me that it's being forwarded to someone who MIGHT get back to me in 5-7 days your customer support sucks.

[Chewbaccawacca]

I prefer hobbies that aren't spiteful and don't ruin other people's good time. Like... arranging bottle-tops into mosaics. If it must be destructive behaviour, I heard there's good catharsis in choppin' wood. This is why all lumberjacks live longer than regular humans.

Yeah splitting logs is good. So is breaking something that needs to be broken for whatever reason. Assuming of course that you have something on hand that needs breaking.

[Magnanimous]

Also, digging holes. When my childhood cat died I literally gave him a six-foot grave.

Pant: I seem to be cosmically unable to get to class on time.

[greythought]

I prefer hobbies that aren't spiteful and don't ruin other people's good time. Like... arranging bottle-tops into mosaics. If it must be destructive behaviour, I heard there's good catharsis in choppin' wood. This is why all lumberjacks live longer than regular humans.

Yeah splitting logs is good. So is breaking something that needs to be broken for whatever reason. Assuming of course that you have something on hand that needs breaking.

Get a clean mace and tarp and a couple pumkins, put the pumkins on the tarp then beat the hell out of the pumkins and use the remains for some pumkin based food. It's destructive and constructive!

[e^iπ+1=0]

Bah, I hate when my role playing sessions get cancelled. Tuesday session two weeks ago got cancelled due to half the players not being able to make it, Tuesday session last week got cancelled due to the GM having a migraine, Thursday session last week got cut in half because of the AGM, Thursday session this week is cancelled due to the GM going to a funeral. Perfectly valid reasons, but annoying nonetheless.

Also, while the Tuesday game is generally fun, it's just not as good as it could be. It's a fairly railroaded plot, plus we succeed at things too easily. The GM is a really good GM in general, but I'm just not enjoying this as much. It's partially also due to how one of the players is playing, though I can't quite articulate what's annoying me about it. In any case, I feel weird saying I'm not having a ton of fun playing a game where, for example, today's session involved accidentally rescuing the Dalai Lama.

And Thursday's game I find way more interesting, but it's a bit slow at times because there are too many players with too many things they all want to do. I don't think we've ever had everyone show up at the same time, but there are theoretically like 8 players? And when people miss sessions, the GM generally takes time out to get them caught up and ask what they've been doing. This had led to the fact that even though my character has been trying to learn magic since about week four, he's not actually going to learn any until week nine. Out of ten weeks. The GM might continue running the game next term (I'll have to ask him next week), and even if not he'll almost certainly continue running it at some other point (it's already a continuation), but I'm a bit disappointed that I don't get to see this character through to the really interesting things I've been planning, at least not for a while.

[RetSpline]

Well fuck. I was already in a shitty mood today, why did I have to go and make things worse. My best friend and all around great guy randomly started posting some startlingly depressing, sexist, and depressingly sexist pictures and rants to the dropbox we set up. I keep learning about all the terrible things going on in the world and feeling increasingly like there's nothing I can do. To top it all off, I decided that now would be a good time to approach my mom about the almost $1,000 she owes me and has continuously promised to pay me.

I was pleasantly surprised when she offered to pay half of my community college tuition. I mean, I never really felt like she owed me for all the times she was incapable of having any positive effect on my life, financially or no, but if she wanted to mend fences then I'd let her. The one catch was that she wouldn't be able to pay me until she got her financial aide "sometime in February." Ah. Yeah there's no way this wasn't going to bite me in the ass later, but I said okay. That was $498 I didn't have to worry about, or so I thought. Then later she asked me to lend her about $450 for just the most asinine convoluted reason ever. She had apparently told her... "boyfriend" (not at all the right word, but I am unaware of the proper term for their fucked up sort of relationship) that she was going to get some amount of reimbursement from her school because she had overpaid for a semester. Over in reality, however, she still owed the school about $100. So she asked me to add to her account the balance of her school payment plus what she had said she would be reimbursed. I had all sorts of mad misgivings about the whole situation, but she promised to pay me back and I am nothing if not a doormat.

So anyway I finally asked her about all this today since that's about $1000 I can't exactly comfortably live without seeing as how I'm going to school and don't have any income to speak of right now. She gave me some B.S. about her money being tied up in the financial aide office and how she's totally working really hard on getting that all sorted out. Whatever. I can even buy that, my friends have had difficulties with college offices before. I just, y'know, kind of need the money soon. I'm racking up late fees on my tuition over here. Then she finally managed to piss the last bit of my goodwill and trust away by saying that I might as well dig deep into the last of my reserves and pay the rest of my tuition but she's going to cover the costs as soon as possible. There's no fucking way I'm ever seeing a cent of that money. I've run this sort of scam (though in the context of avoiding, and hiding the aftermath of, school assignments) before. Hell I've run this scam on her before. That last line of hers isn't the sort of thing you ever bring up until you're just trying to put the matter to rest to put the other person at ease. You put them in control of the last critical section to take their mind off of it and assure them that you're doing everything you can to uphold your end of the bargain. godfuckingdammit I should have known better than to naively trust all this shit. I think the worst part is that I told myself that if she burned me on this then that would be the last straw and I would just be done with her shit. I should have known that she wouldn't make it that easy, she'd disguise her part in the whole thing, make it impossible for me to blame her, either inwardly emotionally or outwardly but finally severing ties with her, because she's just chock full of assurances that it just isn't her fault.