Things That Really !&$%2 You Off

That's a thing I could do without, medication like ear or eye drops the latter especially can fuck right off!

Well since the eardrops seem to have done a decent job, I'll defend them.  What's up with the eyedrops, Jas?

Just don't like anything getting dripped into my eye.

I can understand that. Never tried doing shots through your eye, then?

(Seriously, that sounds awful.)

Walking through the town centre with my beloved when a fight breaks out! Just so you know, this is super rare. Nonetheless...

The current Republican government here in australia. Again. While it's not really surprising to see Abbott kill marriage equality given he's both exceedingly conservative and religious it's really sad to see someone do something so delusional. We're not at the point where you can outright oppose this and expect your career to benefit from such a move.

I'm just fed up of having genuinely incompetent governments. Ever since Abbott took office it's been one inane farce after another, one attempt to turn back the clock of modern civilization after the other. It's just tiring to see the country being run by genuinely incompetent fools.


Also, ear drops are the devil.

Continuing the "Ballad-ears" story (sorry), the eardrops have been replaced by what is effectively an earosol. Poke tube in ear, press down.

That sounds horrible, Zero (and Athrun, but we all know how rubbish they are in excruciating detail anyway). Seems you both avoided coming to harm, though.

Yeah, a quick picking up of the pace saw us right!

When is the next election, Athrun, so you can try to vote out these Neanderthals?

The next election is due by september next year, although there remains a possibility that an election may come to ahead earlier than that. Not so likely now but for a while it looked like an early election was on the cards back when Abbott faced his back bench revolt and his leadership was in serious trouble.

Unfortunately I live in a "blue ribbon" seat so the day anyone besides a Liberal rep wins here is the day hell actually freezes over. Still at least I have a senate vote which counts regardless.

File this under "things that really sadden you", I suppose.

There's one particular Muslim dating site that occasionally pops up on Google Ads. Among their stock photos. of example dates, there's one of a sad tired-looking woman and a child.

Presumably this is meant to be attractive, in the same way as the conventional-looking busty blondes advertising other dating sites. Men are meant to come to this site in hope of scoring a sad-looking single mother.

And maybe this is meant to inspire protective feelings in potential clientèle. That would be the nice way of looking at it. My cynical mind hears, "Look at this poor sad soul with nowhere to go. No one to turn to but you. Find someone on this site that you can control, because they have no other choice. They need you."

What sites have I been on, that Google thinks I want this!?

I got the White Screen Of Death on my iPhone earlier today. Really very irritating indeed.

I've actually had the fabled blue one at work recently. I didn't think it was a thing any more!

Also, woo, 'phone problems! The main camera on mine's packed up recently, meaning that I can only take selfies. Which I loathe.

Just turn it round and hope for the best?

Mine sorted itself out once it had powered down and been recharged.

I'm lucky enough to have a deferment on an MA in History at Louisiana State University - while I get some funds together/apply for assistantships to pay for it... or so I thought!

Turns out I can only defer until their short terms, (they have 4 terms 2 long main ones, and 2 intersessions), whilst the history department only accept people in the long, autumn term. I'm also fairly certain visa requirements dictate that I be in a lengthy full-time term anyway.

So if I want a place I have to apply all over again ($$$)

ZeroJones wrote:

Just turn it round and hope for the best?

That's what he said

Being treated with complete disrespect by the mouth breathers of this arse-end town.  If I'm walking down the street at the edge of a pavement large enough for four people to walk side by side and someone finds themselves on an intercept course they need to move, not force me to dance around them in a way that risks my falling in front of oncming traffic should I lose my balance.  

It's not hard, just shift your walking angle slightly to the left and the problem goes away.

And this isn't the first time it happened, it's like every single sodding time I'm walking at the moment I find myself in this situation, and I am frankly sick of it.  I walk on the edge specifically because I'm then out of the way, but apparently that's not good enough and I'm still expected to move when I'm out of freaking pavement to move to.  Do I just have a face that says "hey, I'm a young person so you can treat me like trash!!" or some such nonsense?

I swear, next moronic mouth breather to walk like this and expect me to move can enjoy being roughly shouldered past, I'm that fed up with this.  Why should I be forced to move out of someone's way when they have the whole damn pavement to themselves already and I have none?  

God I miss living in the city, people actually had a sense of where everyone was and moved automatically there.  They didn't walk like a sloth with the spatial awareness of a slug.

I love being on my current health kick with the strict schedule and being up in the day, but I'm going to miss shopping at night and avoiding this nonsense which I'd forgotten about.

Over the past week or so I've come across some unexpectedly rude customers - and I say unexpectedly so because generally, even in customer service roles, I haven't been used to people being quite so rude. One woman asked about a tattoo on my arm, which I explained, and she said "well that's a bit over the top isn't it?" and I said "do you think so? Why?" and she faltered; "well, I mean... I don't know!" Then don't say it! Bumder. Then there was one other guy who, when I was doing a talk (I'm a presenter at an aquarium), charged up to me and explained to me how microphones work, that I was holding it too close to my mouth, and that I "sound terrible". When would you ever say that to someone you don't even know? For god's sake. I don't get paid enough for this.

Rum Rapture wrote:

Then there was one other guy who, when I was doing a talk (I'm a presenter at an aquarium), charged up to me and explained to me how microphones work, that I was holding it too close to my mouth, and that I "sound terrible". When would you ever say that to someone you don't even know? For god's sake. I don't get paid enough for this.

Throw him in the shark tank, and then when they're attacking him, tell him he "looks terrible".

Nah, customer service is a thankless job - "the customer is always right" is totally false.

Ah, tact and diplomacy. Cornerstones of Britain.

Got what might be viewed by some as a genuine complaint today.  Gotta love the landlord, what do you do when the ducts need cleaning?  Tell the tenant and have the cleaner show up during the day?


Of course not!  You don't so much as warn them and have the guy show up before seven in the morning when people are still sleeping and have the guy start literally banging directly above your tenants bedrooms.  I'm so furious over this absolute violation of my rights for privacy and peace I actually can't even rant about it, I'm that angry.  

I know he doesn't do this because of spite, but holy crap must he be stupid to not get how problematic this stuff is that he pulls.  People should be forced before they do anything to ask themselves two questions: "is this legal?" and "would I want this done to myself?" before making this sort of thing up.  

Still the place is dirt cheap for the location and the condition so you put up with this sort of garbage and deal with it because you know you might get less intrusions but boy does stuff like this make you reconsider your choices.  Still, cheap rent and a literal stone throw away from the centre of town, at the end of the day you just have to look at crap like this as an alternative form of rent.  

I'd say that's a genuine complaint, yes. Is it legal? Can you get stroppy with him over it?

JayMoyles wrote:

Rum Rapture wrote:

Then there was one other guy who, when I was doing a talk (I'm a presenter at an aquarium), charged up to me and explained to me how microphones work, that I was holding it too close to my mouth, and that I "sound terrible". When would you ever say that to someone you don't even know? For god's sake. I don't get paid enough for this.

Throw him in the shark tank, and then when they're attacking him, tell him he "looks terrible".

Nah, customer service is a thankless job - "the customer is always right" is totally false.

I would have proceeded to put the mic even closer to my face (or perhaps entirely in my mouth) as I was speaking directly to him, also is it a thankless job or a tankless job? *Runs*

Balladeer wrote:

I'd say that's a genuine complaint, yes.  Is it legal?  Can you get stroppy with him over it?

Probably not legal, I believe there's something in the law that any use of the property requires something like a 24 hour advance notice and I can't imagine that not extending to work being done on the place. I probably could get stroppy over it, alas I've cooled off now so the chances of my doing so are pretty much nill as I'm pretty meek in real life, although I should definitely see about stressing the importance of giving notice before doing this in the future.

Long passage. If you're friends with me on Facebook you've already seen it, so can ignore.


Recently, Gunman Clive HD Collection was released on the Wii U. GC2 brought a new character to the party, Chieftain Bob, who can now be played as in GC1. And if you beat GC1 as him,

Spoiler (also you may not want to read the rest if you want to remain unspoiled):

You can argue whether or not this was done in order to court controversy and hence boost sales. I like it regardless. In a society where this is controversial, games should continue to portray it until it stops being controversial.


But like a muppet, I read the article comments - hoping for some reactions to the Buzzfeed-like title, forgetting that it was "the gay" and therefore things would inevitably get ugly. I stopped reading the comments at around the point where somebody was talking about how they would continue to warn people against homosexuality, because homosexuality is a sin and they want to protect the people they "love" from eternal damnation.

And this has lodged in my brain all week and is pissing me off.


The response I want to give, but that would be arguing on the Internet and therefore attain naff-all in exchange for my precious sanity, is this:

The commenter needs to consider whether or not he has misinterpreted the Bible. After all, there are plenty of lovely Christians out there who have no problem with gay romance, sex, and marriage, so that interpretation is very possible.

If he decides he can't do that, then God has (when putting in place his grand design) at the very least permitted some people to have stronger, or as strong, feelings towards their own sex compared to the other, or another. And he wants to punish the people who follow that with eternal damnation. In this scenario, God is what is technically known as "an arse", and is not worthy of worship. Fear, yes, but love and respect? Nah.

So, our commenter needs to decide whether he's got it wrong, or whether God has. I'm no great religious mind, but if there is a God, I'd bet on the former.

Of course this won't happen, of course there will always be people like this, of course I'm basically screaming into the wind. But this bastard thing took me by surprise and has upset me.

I've never been able to connect with religion because of that very paradox, god is supposed to be a divine being about love and yet punishments for disobeying his decrees include being sent to a realm to be, essentially, tortured for the rest of eternity.  Such an action is worthy of the Greek gods, who were not typically worshipped out of love but the already mentioned fear of being punished and desire to get rewards for appeasing them.