April 3, 2013

Why do seemingly normal, even nice people

post crap like this on their Facebook feed?

http://www.ammoland.com/2013/04/every-mass-shooting-in-the-last-20-years-shares-psychotropic-drugs/#axzz2PLbk0NYD

Guns are the only thing common in all shootings! Hence the word *Shooting*! Gah!!!

I usually just ignore them, but this time I responded... I wrote "...except the shooter didn't throw pills at their victims and hope they would randomly swallow one, he used bullets fired from a gun. Sorry, logic fail."

I'll find out in few hours whether I'll have to restrict my Facebook feed to friends only.

February 1, 2013

+1000!

I can see going a little over, especially if the items are small and quickly scannable, but the people with the mounded cartload of stuff really take the cake!
A coworker of mine once had a customer innocently say "I have a few more than15, is that okay?" She said sure and went back to checking the two people ahead of the woman.

Then she looked up.

The woman was unloading an entire cartload of groceries onto the belt. She had over 50 items.

My coworker called her on it, and the woman whined, "but I'm in a hurry!"

My coworker said "So are all the people behind you!"

She made put all her items back in the cart and go to the appropiate line.

January 25, 2013

I'm a Professional Threadkiller!!1!!

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

I have a whole folder full of them...

January 25, 2013

Another bill to penalize the poor...

First off, I don't smoke, never have. My father smoked cheap, nasty cigarettes all throughout my childhood and I had no desire to take up the habit myself. I hate the smell, I hate the pollution from cartons, butts, and lighters. I hate the way that the smell seeps into everything it comes into contact with. That said, I think this bill is a terrible idea.

I was really pissed off when they did the same thing to pseudoephedrine; it cost about $5.00 for a box of 100 pills over the counter. Suddenly, to get a $5.00 box of pills, I have to take time off work or lose a chunk of my day off, schedule an appointment with a doctor (that'll be about $80.00 just to walk into the office), and then add the cost of the prescription; my $5.00 box of pills is now in excess of $100.00. I make do with phenylephrine, which is the OTC replacement for pseudoephedrine, but it really doesn't work as well.

Many of the smokers I know either have little or no health insurance, they don't have a doctor to go to. I see a lot of homeless smokers, where would they get a prescription for cigarettes?

Why not make every legally available addictive or potentially addictive/harmful substance prescription only?

Alcohol?

Sugar?

Carbohydrate laden foods?

Deep fried foods?

Butter?

Bacon?

What doctor would give a prescription for any of those (proven to be bad for your health) substances? Where would it end?

I would love it if everyone could easily quit smoking or switch to e-cigs, but most "tabacco" (I use that term loosely as so many things have been added to it as to make it virtually unrecognizable to it's original plant component) is deliberately so addictive that people can't just quit.

How about if Corporate Tobacco had to pay for every prescription? How about if buying a pack of cigarettes gave the purchaser access to "smokers insurance" where every smoking related office or hospital visit was covered by said insurance?

I live in Portland and I think I can say with certainty that if this bill passed there would be riots in the streets. Or at least an unbearable amount of whining from the hipsters. For a city that's full of bicyclists and touts itself for being green, I can't walk down the street without passing someone puffing away on a cigarette (sometimes while they are riding a bicycle).

January 10, 2013

Lost Gold Ring

[IMG][/IMG]

January 9, 2013

Anyone in Portland, OR. want an adorable kitten?

A couple of months ago, a little tuxedo male (neutered) showed up in my neighborhood. None of my neighbors knew who he belonged to. A few days after he showed up, he came through my back yard crying loudly. I went out, he came running up to me and practically jumped into my arms, a little purr and snuggle monster. I gave him some kibble (I know, I know!) which he devoured and after a while he took off. He seemed to have found a home right after Thanksgiving, he still came by for snuggles (and birdwatching) but wasn't ravenously hungry anymore; he even had a collar (till he lost it).

About two weeks ago he showed up at my back door at 9:30 PM, crying and hungry. I fed him, cuddled him and waited for him to go home. He didn't. He curled up in my lap and prepared to go to sleep. Not wanting to sit on my back steps all night freezing, I let him sleep on my back porch (enclosed) on a pillow my cat sometimes uses when she's out there and left the back door open enough to let him out. He slept there that night (a good thing since it actually did get down to freezing) and was gone when I checked the next morning. It was Saturday night so I put it down to his humans having a late night out and not getting home to let him in.

I didn't see him for a few days, then he was back, his old self, but hungrier. He's a growing kitten, I put him at close to a year old, twice as big as when he showed up in November so I put it down to him being a teenager. Now I'm not to sure.

He just showed up at my back door about 20 minutes ago (9:40 PM) crying and hungry. I fed him and left the door cracked open enough for him to come onto the porch. I'm worried that whoever was giving him a home has turned him out, moved, or got tired of looking after him.

The problem is, I already have a cat and this little guy is really, really active and quite a climber (he climbs legs and backs and arms...) and my 85 year old mother has nixed taking him in (he tried to climb her leg and at her age she can't risk falling or kitty claw lacerations). The no kill shelters and foster homes in my area require that he be examined, vaccinated, etc. (I understand, one can't risk infection and disease spreading) but I don't have a car or know how to drive, and pretty much have 1 day off a week. The thought of taking him somewhere where he'd put in a little cage and put to sleep brings me to tears.

I'd take him in if I could, I've fallen in love with the little guy. He is very well socialized, likes other cats (wants to play with everyone) and loves to snuggle. He is also very wriggly and curious, this is the clearest picture I've been able to take of him:

[IMG][/IMG]

If anyone has any suggestions or can provide a home, please post here or PM me. This little guy deserves a loving, caring forever home.

Thanks!

December 28, 2012

It's almost as if they are reverting to medieval stereotypes...

Essentially, God is "punishing" the wicked and undeserving by marking them with physical deformities. Dehumanising and devaluing people makes them easier to ignore, exploit, and ultimately to get rid of, sadly.

December 20, 2012

My parents (and eventually my brother and I)

helped with my aunt when it became clear she could no longer care for herself unassisted. Unfortunately, she waited before admitting to us she needed help and had a couple of nursing agencies send in people to help, one of whom stole we don't know how much from her (she had a lot of antiques, many of them small and portable). She also had a grifter calling herself a caregiver attach herself to her like a leech. We found checks that were clearly written by other people and signed by my aunt; on a check she did write she wrote the year as 1942, the bank cashed them all without so much as phone call. We don't know how much money she was scammed out of.

My aunt had the good sense to give my father power of attorney and signed her house over to him before she began suffering from dementia. When it became clear that the "caregiver" wasn't doing anything to earn her paycheck (and was in fact doing her best to keep us away) and was preparing to move into the basement apartment of my aunt's home with her husband, we were able to step in cut them off before they actually assumed residency. The husband tried to bully my dad, "You don't own this house!"
My dad, "Actually, I do!"
They were out in short order. Not that they didn't keep trying to worm their way back in. Which is longer than I want to write right now.

In the end, my aunt died peacefully.

Then all the out of state relatives came out of the woodwork.

"She promised me this necklace!"

"She promised me that piece of furniture!"

"Gimme Gimme Gimme!!!"

Not one of them wrote her so much as a get well card while she was ill, not one of them offered any kind of help at all.

Many of the things my relatives wanted simply weren't there. They had either already been stolen, liquidated by my aunt while she still had her faculties, or given to persons unknown.

My father sent things like savings bonds that were made out to specific individuals to their recipients, but mostly he ignored the greedy relatives. If it wasn't in writing he wasn't listening.

So I commiserate completely, but it could always be worse. Get your parents to put things in writing and get the legalities taken care of as unpleasant as it may seem (who gets what, who gets the title to the house, car, etc.). Siblings and relatives swooping in vulture- like on an undefended estate is a horrible thing.

All my best to you!

July 12, 2012

I worked with someone similar for quite a while

He decided that my doing my job well and doing extra work when I had free time was an attempt to make him look bad.

It started out with him giving me the silent treatment for some imagined slight. The first couple of times he pulled this I genuinely thought I had inadvertently done something to offend and apologized. He would "consider it" and eventually things would go back to normal. The third time he pulled this, I wracked my brain and couldn't think of a single thing I had done that could possibly warrant such an overreaction, so I completely ignored his behavior and acted as if nothing was abnormal. I figured if I had done something he could damn well tell me what was upsetting him or just get over it. I told him point blank when he decided to speak to me again that if I did something that upset him, tell me on the spot so we could resolve it instead of him stewing silently and expecting me just *know* what I had done (because clearly I must have done whatever it was on purpose ).

That, unfortunately, didn't work and I gave up when I confronted him on yet another bout silent treatment and he snapped "Well, I'm mad at you, so you must have done something!" but he couldn't think of anything I'd actually done. There were lots of other things and he was always careful, for the most part, to avoid doing or saying anything in front of witnesses.

The best you can do is avoid being alone with this person. She will likely not attack you in front of other people. Be as nice to her as you can, don't give her anything to twist into a slight or insult. Ignore her snark as much as possible; she sounds like a miserable person who wants to drag you down and make you as miserable as she is. Lastly, be sweet as pie to everyone else you work with so that when she tries to badmouth you to them (and she will) they'll blow off whatever she says.

From my experience, her goal is to provoke you. She wants a negative response (preferably in front of others) to make herself a victim and you the bad guy. Avoid giving her the kind of attention she wants and it will backfire on her. She will appear to be petty, snarky, and unreasonable and everyone will be on your side.

I stuck it out because I was determined to stay at a job I really liked and not be driven away by this guy. He eventually quit and left for another job; he was fired from that job for sexual harassment. (I know it's wrong of me to gloat about that, but *tee hee*).

Good Luck to you!

June 4, 2012

Best random thing found on the internets today...

Classmate #1: Like, I'm okay with gay people wanting to be with each other. But marriage should be between a guy and a girl.

Classmate #2: I don't even want to see it. Like, it's nasty.

Me: Oh my god! I know! My neighbor was talking about how he and his Jewish girlfriend wanna get married and I was like "Why should you two be allowed to get married?" in my head. I mean, why would they think it was okay for a Christian and a Jew to get married. Disgusting.

Classmates: ....

Me: And let me tell you about this other couple I saw making out at the mall. It was nasty. The boy was white and the girl was black. Can you believe that? Two people of different races being together? That's just wrong.

Classmate #2: What the hell is wrong with you? So what if they want to be together?

Classmate #1: Yeah, there isn't anything wrong with it.

Me: Are you kidding me? It's completely wrong.There is only one kind of marriage that is okay. And that is between a man and a woman of the same race, religious background, with the same income level and from the same place. We wouldn't want kids to think that diversity is okay. God wouldn't appreciate these people ruining the sanctity of marriage.

Classmate #1: Why are you even in this conversation? God loves everyone.

Me: What? So you're telling me that God doesn't care who you marry, because he loves everyone?

Classmate #1: Yeah...

Me: Does he love animals, too?

Classmate #1: He loves human and animals and living creatures all around.

Me: Whoa. That just blew my mind. Well it is a good thing that gay people can't get married then. Because everyone knows that gay people aren't human, or living for that matter. Haha.

Classmate #1: ....

Me: Go choke on a dick you stupid prick.