POINTLESS DRUNK CHRISTMAS RANT!
Why are there so little christmas specials on tonight? Like seriously, what the hell?
Why are there so little christmas specials on tonight? Like seriously, what the hell?
Rant VIII: The Reckoning
- Thread starter Anonymous
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- boat people
I know, right? The options earlier today were either the annual 24 hour marathon of The Christmas Story on TBS, the Disneyland Christmas Parade, or Lifetime's 12 Men of Christmas. No Miracle on 34th Street, no How the Grinch Stole Christmas, nothing like that, just 5 NBA games and regular weekday programming.
Oh yeah, don't get me wrong, if I'd wanted to watch more Christmas movies, all I had to do was dig out my DVDs. It just kind of sucks that there's so little Christmas programming on Christmas day itself, but I suppose it's inevitable.
6 PM is a weird time to end a marathon right? I thought they didn't do it today because I assumed the 24 hour Christmas marathon would start from midnight to midnight. And then after the marathon I missed...Big Bang Theory marathon. WHAT?! I am sorry that is just a bizarre programming decision.
It's called filler. They run marathons because they don't think many people will be watching tv.
Had to be at work before 6 this morning, because the company was doing inventory, and I was slated to do data entry of all of the counts. And also because I'm the only member of the materials department that anyone else in the company trusts. Well... we allowed the other two members of the department a little too much leeway and, long story short, we're the best part of $500,000.00 off of what we're supposed to have. But wait, there's more! I know where a not insignificant portion of that missing inventory is, so now I get to go back to work tomorrow as well and try to save us at least $100k. This means that the only days off I'll be getting for the week that just ended and the week that starts tomorrow will very likely be Christmas Day and New Year's Day. And that's assuming that I don't have to go re-count something still on New Year's Day, because the guy who was in charge (don't ask me why the guy we're kicking out of the department for being a complete and utter failure was in charge, but he was) sent all of the counters home as soon as their initial counts were done, without even verifying that they filled out their count sheets appropriately (which is where that $100k went).
There is a silver lining though... the two idiots that've been making my and everyone else's lives miserable the last 5 months, are being removed from the department (one is being moved to sales where he should have been all along, the other is being fired), a new purchasing manager and purchasing agent are being hired, and I'm getting a raise within the next 30 days (assuming, of course, that we don't actually lose $500k).
There is a silver lining though... the two idiots that've been making my and everyone else's lives miserable the last 5 months, are being removed from the department (one is being moved to sales where he should have been all along, the other is being fired), a new purchasing manager and purchasing agent are being hired, and I'm getting a raise within the next 30 days (assuming, of course, that we don't actually lose $500k).
for the $500K off, a <hug> for maybe having to work on New Year's Day, a 
for the idiot who sent the counters home early, and a 
and <fingers crossed> for the raise.
By the sound of it, they could give you a $250k/yr raise and still save a quarter million dollars in inventory every year.
--Patrick
It would be a catastrophic loss if we couldn't find at least most of that inventory - that's over a third of what our systems said we had on hand Friday. Luckily, I'm pretty sure that I can find the vast majority of it, it just means that someone else is going to have to handle most of my responsibilities for a couple of days, and that's a chore in and of itself. I can't really trust the rest of my department to do the calling and negotiating needed to get the materials in this week that we need to in order to keep the shop running, because two of the three other members are complete morons with no spines (the moment a sales rep looks at them funny they fall all over themselves to buy whatever the salesman is selling) and the third is new and very easily confused and flustered.
Now, we are in the process of hiring a new materials manager and possibly a new purchasing agent, but even if that were to happen immediately first thing Monday, we'd have to have some time to train them on the way the system works and who our vendors are at the very least. So instead, we may have to cut shop hours until we can get some things on track, or have the shop guys help with the recounts instead - which would at least give them something to do and possibly help with locating some of the missing inventory.
We're also in the process of moving all of our inventory into one space so we can build a cage around it and ensure that everything that leaves the cage is appropriately issued to whichever job it's being used for and everything that enters the cage is checked in appropriately. But the current leadership of the department has been moving as slowly as possible on that front too, mainly because they're both completely overwhelmed by their responsibilities and because their fastest speeds are about 1/10 of my slowest speed on any given task - and also because each time something new comes up they feel the need to winge on about how hard it is and how this new task is going to take all of their time, and they can't prioritize to save their lives, so they just wind up doing absolutely nothing most days.
All of the departments in this company have their challenges and various dysfunctions, but ours is the worst by far and has the most potential to sink the entire fucking company. But, while cleaning all of this up is going to be a hell of a challenge, it's also a rewarding challenge, both emotionally/mentally and compensationally.
Now, we are in the process of hiring a new materials manager and possibly a new purchasing agent, but even if that were to happen immediately first thing Monday, we'd have to have some time to train them on the way the system works and who our vendors are at the very least. So instead, we may have to cut shop hours until we can get some things on track, or have the shop guys help with the recounts instead - which would at least give them something to do and possibly help with locating some of the missing inventory.
We're also in the process of moving all of our inventory into one space so we can build a cage around it and ensure that everything that leaves the cage is appropriately issued to whichever job it's being used for and everything that enters the cage is checked in appropriately. But the current leadership of the department has been moving as slowly as possible on that front too, mainly because they're both completely overwhelmed by their responsibilities and because their fastest speeds are about 1/10 of my slowest speed on any given task - and also because each time something new comes up they feel the need to winge on about how hard it is and how this new task is going to take all of their time, and they can't prioritize to save their lives, so they just wind up doing absolutely nothing most days.
All of the departments in this company have their challenges and various dysfunctions, but ours is the worst by far and has the most potential to sink the entire fucking company. But, while cleaning all of this up is going to be a hell of a challenge, it's also a rewarding challenge, both emotionally/mentally and compensationally.
Commercial cabinetry - schools, hospitals, that sort of thing.
BLARGH! So I've been ruminating on a sequel for my novel. In fact, this is the second attempt at a sequel, as I decided to take the first attempt (already 30k+ words in) and put it on the backburner. Instead, I decided to try an entirely different mystery/adventure for Dill...
...and I'm stuck back at the same problems as the other one. Sequel Attempt #2 shares a lot of the same problems I ran into with Sequel #1:
-Unsure what the motivations are for the antagonist(s).
-Trying to put too many ideas into one story/adventure, basically making it needlessly complex for a single adventure.
-Don't know how a major character involved in the story would even act (in Sequel #1, I tried writing the character three times and none of them felt right).
The more I think about just trying to write another Dill adventure, the more I feel like completing the first one was a complete fluke.
Any creative types feel like bouncing ideas around with me to maybe salvage something out of this?
...and I'm stuck back at the same problems as the other one. Sequel Attempt #2 shares a lot of the same problems I ran into with Sequel #1:
-Unsure what the motivations are for the antagonist(s).
-Trying to put too many ideas into one story/adventure, basically making it needlessly complex for a single adventure.
-Don't know how a major character involved in the story would even act (in Sequel #1, I tried writing the character three times and none of them felt right).
The more I think about just trying to write another Dill adventure, the more I feel like completing the first one was a complete fluke.
Any creative types feel like bouncing ideas around with me to maybe salvage something out of this?
figmentPez
Staff member
I love brainstorming, and my writer friends tell me I come up with interesting ideas. Let me know what medium you want to communicate via.
Sent something to both Fig and Caj. I think two new brains to pick is good enough for now. Thanks guys. 
I'd be willing to offer some ideas as well, if you want another brain set at it. Good luck!Sent something to both Fig and Caj. I think two new brains to pick is good enough for now. Thanks guys.
Ah, Wisconsin, trying to kick it's residents out for years. We're a stubborn lot.
The part about work had nothing to do with the state and everything to do with the population I deal with.
A little lesson for everyone to take with you for the day: judges who have to deal with criminal cases on a regular basis - of any age - do tend to want to make sure that those cases are taken care of before they go off on a long holiday vacation. This tendency leads to them being more lenient in most cases - suspending hearings until after the first of the year and what not. The problem is that there are some cases where the individuals involved have shown disconnect between leniency and their actions - in other words, they don't care. The technical term for this is "####ing off the judge."
Guess when the courts send these individuals to jail and/or juvie hall? Yep, right before the holidays. Take that, their already contemptuous attitude toward all things authority, sprinkle in distance between the prison/detention center and home, and pour in lousy weather and a bunch of relief staff because regular staff are on holiday vacations, and...
Yeah, that's what I had to deal with. Nine pages of reports.
A little lesson for everyone to take with you for the day: judges who have to deal with criminal cases on a regular basis - of any age - do tend to want to make sure that those cases are taken care of before they go off on a long holiday vacation. This tendency leads to them being more lenient in most cases - suspending hearings until after the first of the year and what not. The problem is that there are some cases where the individuals involved have shown disconnect between leniency and their actions - in other words, they don't care. The technical term for this is "####ing off the judge."
Guess when the courts send these individuals to jail and/or juvie hall? Yep, right before the holidays. Take that, their already contemptuous attitude toward all things authority, sprinkle in distance between the prison/detention center and home, and pour in lousy weather and a bunch of relief staff because regular staff are on holiday vacations, and...
Yeah, that's what I had to deal with. Nine pages of reports.
Tracing my family tree is such a fucking pain in my ass. I can't get anything on my husband's family past his fraternal grandparents and maternal grandmother. That's frustrating enough. However, the fools on my side of family believe any story they are told and swear it's true. I was just told last night, by a cousin's wife, that my grandmother on my dad's side was part Blackfoot Indian. I have a major problem with this since she and her family were from Hershey, PA and the Blackfoot tribes are central to Montana, Idaho, and nearby parts of Canada.
I was told my great-great grandfather was in a circus. This was "proved" via the word of a supposed historian local to us. Except my great-grandfather didn't grow up in our area and moved there as an older man. It actually turns out he was a Civil War vet! If he left (aka "joined the circus") it was because he ventured west as a teenager with his uncle during the CA gold rush.
I was told for years that a great-grandmother on my mom's side was Chickasaw Indian. Someone else said she was 100% Cherokee. Except her father's family comes from Germany. Her mother's name is listed as Mary, but people in the family insist it was Morning Glory and therefore she must be Native American. /facepalm
One of my dad's brothers makes up shit and tells his kids these moronic tales as if they were fact. And they don't question any of it or ask for real proof. I want to strangle them all!
I was told my great-great grandfather was in a circus. This was "proved" via the word of a supposed historian local to us. Except my great-grandfather didn't grow up in our area and moved there as an older man. It actually turns out he was a Civil War vet! If he left (aka "joined the circus") it was because he ventured west as a teenager with his uncle during the CA gold rush.
I was told for years that a great-grandmother on my mom's side was Chickasaw Indian. Someone else said she was 100% Cherokee. Except her father's family comes from Germany. Her mother's name is listed as Mary, but people in the family insist it was Morning Glory and therefore she must be Native American. /facepalm
One of my dad's brothers makes up shit and tells his kids these moronic tales as if they were fact. And they don't question any of it or ask for real proof. I want to strangle them all!
Oh I've gone back to the early 1700's in my dad's paternal line (they were famous silversmiths and jewelers in Philadelphia who came from France by way of Haiti).
I've gotten pretty far in my maternal grandfather's paternal line, too (back to Scotland which was a shock since they all insisted they were Irish due to the spelling of their last name).
I'm stuck in a few spots and these "historical fiction" tidbits being given to me by helpful relatives are wearing on my nerves.
I've used some census tracking. It's helpful to find out parents' and siblings' names in addition to supporting residential information. Unless it's like the census in Alabama and Georgia in the mid-1800's which only listed the male head of household's name, race, and occupation. The rest were only counted and grouped by race, sex, and age with no names. Mr. John Smith, a 36 year old white farmer, would be listed, but his wife and children and people working in the household were only a hash mark or number in a column. That's irritating especially when the given and surnames are common. I might have to look into that software though! Thanks.
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Hey, for the longest time my family was convinced they were related to the James brothers. Only one small problem: my great-great-grandfather's family was firmly entrenched in the state of Wisconsin by the time Frank and Jesse were born down in Missouri.
Same thing for Betsy Ross. I had reason to believe that, since her maiden name was (apparently) James, I could count her as an ancestor. No dice: my part of the James family never even set foot in the states until the 19th century. But when we did, we essentially took to populating the city of Mineral Point.
What I really wish my family WOULD have told me about was what relationship I had with that really weird monument in the middle of my hometown's Mound Cemetery. And I really could kick myself now for not asking more questions before the last of my grandfather's brothers and sisters passed away years ago.
There is one thing that frustrates me more than anything about my family tree, though: I have tons of relatives in six of the 72 counties in this state - but practically none in the county where I live.
Same thing for Betsy Ross. I had reason to believe that, since her maiden name was (apparently) James, I could count her as an ancestor. No dice: my part of the James family never even set foot in the states until the 19th century. But when we did, we essentially took to populating the city of Mineral Point.
What I really wish my family WOULD have told me about was what relationship I had with that really weird monument in the middle of my hometown's Mound Cemetery. And I really could kick myself now for not asking more questions before the last of my grandfather's brothers and sisters passed away years ago.
There is one thing that frustrates me more than anything about my family tree, though: I have tons of relatives in six of the 72 counties in this state - but practically none in the county where I live.
Today, after five months of dealing with a bad, then dying, then completely dead dishwasher, with two previous "appointments" over two previous months to have it completely replaced, we were finally supposed to be getting a new one. Well, this is the rant thread, so you can all probably guess what wasn't installed by our apartment complex today. And, because it's the day before a holiday, the office decided to close early. Three hours early. This, along with the fact that the new "emergency" contact numbers the complex handed out last week are bogus numbers with no voicemail boxes, meant that my wife had the pleasure of calling the old emergency number over and over again until someone picked up. The person who picked up was the head of maintenance, who told her that he didn't have any work orders for our apartment today, but that he'd check with the office staff and someone would call her back.
In the time it took for someone to call her back, I'd managed to find the old contact number that was still up and running, and leave them a very angry (but no swearing or yelling) voicemail, then track down contact info for the management company and call them to complain - they were less than happy to be hearing from what seems like yet another tenant of our complex. With that done, we got ready to head to the store for groceries, only to be interrupted on our way out the door by a call from one of the office staff, who told my wife that the reason they weren't able to replace the dishwasher today was because "one of the maintenance guys had an emergency and had to leave early." This is his 5th emergency in as many months. He may want to find a new job. Maybe one that doesn't require him to work during the day. Sadly, said maintenance guy is the boyfriend of the office worker who called my wife. Now, they're supposed to replace the dishwasher on Thursday, and my wife has to take ANOTHER day off of work, and if they don't install it on Thursday by 5pm, we get to call the management company back and complain again. For whatever good that will do.
In the time it took for someone to call her back, I'd managed to find the old contact number that was still up and running, and leave them a very angry (but no swearing or yelling) voicemail, then track down contact info for the management company and call them to complain - they were less than happy to be hearing from what seems like yet another tenant of our complex. With that done, we got ready to head to the store for groceries, only to be interrupted on our way out the door by a call from one of the office staff, who told my wife that the reason they weren't able to replace the dishwasher today was because "one of the maintenance guys had an emergency and had to leave early." This is his 5th emergency in as many months. He may want to find a new job. Maybe one that doesn't require him to work during the day. Sadly, said maintenance guy is the boyfriend of the office worker who called my wife. Now, they're supposed to replace the dishwasher on Thursday, and my wife has to take ANOTHER day off of work, and if they don't install it on Thursday by 5pm, we get to call the management company back and complain again. For whatever good that will do.
Yep, that's what we're working on. Found an awesome apartment last weekend, much closer to work, brand-frickin' new construction (finished in May of 2013), was originally supposed to be a condo but the housing market took a nose dive, really quiet area - the place is damn near perfect. Just waiting to hear back on the credit application.
My mom is in the hospital. She had an appendectomy yesterday, but because of numerous other health problems she has it's become a bigger issue. She's being kept another night because her fever isn't completely under control, and she's having problems breathing. I'm trying to keep everything together for my family, but inside I want to scream and cry. I hate feeling this way.
I'll be thinking good thoughts for you and your Mom.