My father in law was a policeman, a man like a tree and a massive Bond fan ( I have "gotten" him with that on our first meeting).
Whenever I see a Bond movie I remember him and even more when I see Franck Ribéry playing football.
He always smiled when he saw him and his tricks.
And I always see my wife's tears after she heard with what he's been diagnosed and the first time that I have seen her after the funeral. Smoking does not "only" affect the smoker himself, it also affects their children
President of the 'Misty Eyes Club'.
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
Flicking on the goggle box this morning, I took a hop through the channels. Landing on a shopping channel for power tools, a guy is demonstrating a little saw that resembles a palette knife. It's for cutting ya skirting board while ya trying to 'professionally' lay some laminate flooring. Then one of the 'presenters' says "to be honest, when you see some laminate flooring professionally laid under the architrave it is a beautiful thing". )
Beautiful? The rolling English countryside on a misty morning is beautiful. The mark IX supermarine spitfire is beautiful. The Aston Martin Vanquish is beautiful. Eva Green is beautiful, the trevi fountain is beautiful, my wife, IMO is beautiful.
Neither an electric palette knife, nor a piece of skirting board (IT'S NOT ARCHITRAVE MR PRESENTER!!) are beautiful.
An instant zap reveals the next channel where a guy pretending to be orange faced David Dickinson looks like he's having a sh1t while trying to flog some crappy dust buster with "rechargeable bags"
It goes through a spectrum where I start off thinking "actually that looks like it could be useful, not a bad price either...... it does look a bit cheap though...... probably break after 5 mins.... Rechargeable bags? How's that work then?..... It's gordy tat, no chance would I buy that..... god it's gone down to a tenner lol.... bless, he's really trying..... now he's irritating..... nah I can't be arsed with this, and that music is doing my head in.... where's the remote?"
The Halfords adverts during Top Gear on Dave.
On the ad-break during Top Gear on Dave, halfords (who were top of 'worst customer service in the uk' league tables') have started showing some 'funny' 'home videos' of 'people' filming do it yourself clips, full of 'useful advice'.
One features a stupid cow who starts off "hello Internet". I'm watching you on telly love. 8-) she then shows us, unsuccessfully of course, how to change a bulb, by accidentally hitting the bonnet with a screwdriver (but trying to rub out the scratch on another area of the bonnet), then she notices shes bought the wrong bulb without looking at it, then 'Wayne' nicks the bulb, so she runs after him, and I think he's meant to get away but you can see he stops still in shot and she just stands next to him.
Then 'Ravi' the Asian chav tries to change a wiper blade and sets his car alarm off. Hilarious.
Brian attempts to change a bulb, and for some reason he's taken off the front grille, and when he goes to fit the bulb, the whole headlight falls out. This has never happened to me. Then his wife shouts "Brian, phone" and my **** fell off as I was laughing so hard.
Then some guy (and this is my favourite) comes on to show us how to change a battery or something. His accent is so weird I honestly don't know where he's from or what he's saying. He sounds Irish, but a bit Finnish too, with a hint of American. He then goes and puts goggles on and rubber gauntlets and then says something like "om ganner shor yow hough tay (unintelligible) forst yay ancorneckt tha poshateyv layd... ar as at tha neygotayv?"
Christ, I've just realised, this poor chap might be Russian.
I know ads are supposed to stick with you, and these do, but for all the wrong reasons. The ads are poorly made, not funny, and tell you nothing about halfords, other than their customers are complete ****. Like attracts like as they say....
FelixLeiter ♀Staffordshire or a pubPosts: 1,286MI6 Agent
I am on the verge of tears of frustration. I manage to get all my rage written down and, not for the first time, when I attempt to post it all disappears and I'm told "You must enter a message." That just tops it. I'm going for a fag.
I am on the verge of tears of frustration. I manage to get all my rage written down and, not for the first time, when I attempt to post it all disappears and I'm told "You must enter a message." That just tops it. I'm going for a fag.
I am on the verge of tears of frustration. I manage to get all my rage written down and, not for the first time, when I attempt to post it all disappears and I'm told "You must enter a message." That just tops it. I'm going for a fag.
thought you was giving up?
did you mean long life or smoking?
It all went fairly well until I got ridiculously drunk last Saturday, as in more drunk than ever in my life. Had several then (I'm told) and then one again Thursday night when I was drinking. That was a terrible night; I lost £13 to a slot machine then spent £7 on fags. Took a lot not to when I went the pub yesterday. As I said in previous posts, I'm still finding it really hard not to smoke when I drink. I've managed it twice including yesterday. After I posted above I had one, and of course I felt better and less stressed, but as ever I regret it now later.
I'm 24 and study digital arts at Uni of Cumbria, my rants of the week are as follows:
1) Employment of course leaders who can't teach, or lead. Always negative, never constructive feedback, just telling us that we are doing it wrong, we are useless etc. worst year he's taught, also likes to boast about how last year 12 students failed a presentation that we are due to give after christmas and that they had apparently not dont anything right so barely bothered looking at their wor? Does he seriously not realise this only looks bad on him and nobody else, with such negativity how can he possibly expect anything else? It seriously puts more doubts on his ability as a university lecturer if he ALLOWED 12 people to fail a single module, surely it's his job to try and make sure this doesnt happen? I have 2 step-children, a heavily pregnant wife ready to drop at any moment and I'm trying to move house, I feel like I could have a breakdown at any moment, i've spoke to him about my circumstances, it's too much, but it never matters to him, he just berates people in front of the whole class basically for being sh*t!
2) Course leaders who treat adults like school children, there are students on my course that have just left sixth form etc. which is a given, but he really does treat us all like school kids, sets us pointless homework though weekends, days off and holiday periods, he even set us a project over summer which went towards precisely f**k all! He arranges alternate tasks on days off so we get no time off. If somebody is off sick or late he will mark peoples attendance down if he doesn't see appropriate proof such as a doctors note! I had a really really bad stomach flu a few weeks ago that was going around, I didn't get a doctors note as I dont know about other peoples GP's but mine would not be very happy if I went in with just a highly contagious sickness and diarreah bug! He makes us sign in at the end of the lecture, which would be fine, but if somebody has to leave as little as 5 minutes early it's just tough, they are marked as absent.
3) This week was half term for the under 18's and as I am on a degree course I don't get half terms, or time off, so all the people in attendance that week were over 18, so I find it so f**king astonoshing that when I need to use the men's room I find myself having to flush the last guys business! Seriously c'mon! You are an adult, FLUSH THE DAMN TOILET! It is just pure bad manners and laziness! And no! Just because you only did a number 1 does not mean you are excused for this! Yet I have to do it for them...and I'm assuming they never washed their hands either! The funny thing is, sometimes they walk out of the cubicle past me as I go in and don't even look the slightest bit ashamed of their sheer bone idle-ness! The real shocker is when they walk out and wash their hands, yet they can't flush? SERIOUSLY, YOU ARE ADULTS PEOPLE! Errrgh!
1) you have extenuating circumstances and you can and should use these to get yourself some help. If your tutor won't give you any leeway, go to your SU, it's there for a reason.
2) your tutor can unfortunately choose how to teach you and be as strict as he likes. However, he can't teach by using intimidating or bullying practices. Mention these 2 terms and the SU should move onto him like hot shitt. Sadly though with your stomach flu, why didn't you call the docs? You could have had a phone appointment. It would appear your tutor plays by the 'get it in writing to cover your arse' method, so you're gonna have to play by his rules. It works both ways though, if he won't give you extra time for your extenuating circumstances, get him to put it in writing as to why. How about emailing him about it, then he'll be expected to reply in writing.
3) people are weird, it's a given. When I was at Uni we had someone who liked using turd as their medium of choice to display their angst within the toilet cubicles. (Ie they wrote 'uni is ****' in shitt on the shithouse walls.)
4) in-laws can be funny things. I absolutely love mind but I know many others who can't stand theirs. I guess I'm very lucky in life. If there's an ongoing issue, why not use a Christmas get together to bury the hatchet and move on? Life's too short.
1) you have extenuating circumstances and you can and should use these to get yourself some help. If your tutor won't give you any leeway, go to your SU, it's there for a reason.
2) your tutor can unfortunately choose how to teach you and be as strict as he likes. However, he can't teach by using intimidating or bullying practices. Mention these 2 terms and the SU should move onto him like hot shitt. Sadly though with your stomach flu, why didn't you call the docs? You could have had a phone appointment. It would appear your tutor plays by the 'get it in writing to cover your arse' method, so you're gonna have to play by his rules. It works both ways though, if he won't give you extra time for your extenuating circumstances, get him to put it in writing as to why. How about emailing him about it, then he'll be expected to reply in writing.
3) people are weird, it's a given. When I was at Uni we had someone who liked using turd as their medium of choice to display their angst within the toilet cubicles. (Ie they wrote 'uni is ****' in shitt on the shithouse walls.)
4) in-laws can be funny things. I absolutely love mind but I know many others who can't stand theirs. I guess I'm very lucky in life. If there's an ongoing issue, why not use a Christmas get together to bury the hatchet and move on? Life's too short.
MG -{
Thanks MG,
I have filed a claim against him through my Student Union, it was the last straw today, my friend on the course has been having alot of issues, he looks like he never sleeps etc. so I kind of put it upon myself to make sure he's ok at uni but today we had a presentation (he is in my group) and he was worse than usual, he was trembling violently and could barely stand and nearly keeled over at a few points, I told him to go home but he wouldnt out of guilt as he thought if he left our groups grade would suffer, anyway he went home to collect something and on his way back onto campus he collapsed and some guys ran to get me, he was ok but he was sobbing his heart out, shaking like made and couldn't walk or speak, it seemed to me like nervous exhaustion as he also mentioned waking up at night with nightmares and cold sweats on the rare occasions he manages to sleep, he too has also had issues with our course leader berating him, so I walkecx him home and some of the other guys went to inform the course leader, after I arrived back I went to speak to him also and got the same response as the other guys, he shrugged his shoulders and said there was nothing he could do. I think this is disgustingm, he has a duty of care over his students and it could of been a medical emergancy but he acted as if it was an inconvenience! I've spoke to my friend about it and he is still feeling pretty bad but did tell me the leader had emailed him about half an hour ago stating he had heard what happened and wants to see him in his office... complete joke
Well, what about the Citizens Advice Bureau or something? But make a detailed list of everything, dates, times and so on. Guess it could go legal as it's harrassment. Student newspaper anyone?
While researching future projects, I've unfortunately had the displeasure of encountering the horribly cliquey world of.... The Electronic Geek.
There appears to be some differing category of The Electronic Geek;
Maplin student geek - The 'I can't be arsed cos I'm only here to pay for my beer' geek. Usually a student or sixth former who can't be arsed with many things in life like washing, life in general, you. If it doesn't come out of a packet it doesn't exist.
Ebay robbing git geek - This geek pedels sh1t made by someone else but claims to be the genius behind it all. Enquiries about custom orders or specifications go unanswered as the information you seek isn't on the packet, or it's in Chinese which the ebayer can't read.
YouTube geek - The 'look what I made' smug git who's happy to show off his stuff but won't tell anyone how he did it, or make you one.
Maplin supervisor geek - A different class of nerd that's found solace in making real geeky sh1t at home, probably from parts pilfered from work. Can he answer your questions? Can he draw you a circuit diagram? Can he show you where to get the parts? Yes, but he won't cos he's a dick.
Forum geek - A right arsey know-it-all who replies to noob's plee for assistance with "if you think I'm gonna draw you a diagram and parts list, think again". About as useful as a third bollock.
Put simply, the world of electronics isn't my cup of tea. But it completely baffles me when you have people who have quite considerable talent who choose to either not let anyone know how they do stuff, or refuse a generous offer of money and/or gifts in return for making a circuit.
It would appear these days that the local high street is no longer what it used to be. Walking through my communal stench-pit infested with disproportionate amount of eastern bloc vagrants, its all too clear that what used to be a hub of thriving local commerce has now decended into a mass shithouse of winebars, clothes shops and every 10 yards, another tesco express (ironic name for a place rammed with plebs and only one working self service checkout).
What happened? My town used to host 2 decent toys shops, several record shops, a few clothes shops, school uniform shops, even a butchers and 2, yes 2 post offices.
Now, there's toys 'r' us, hmv and the rest is either clothes, winebars or banks.
Gone are those great little shops that sell those odd little things you needed, where the shop owner recognised you and even some knew your name. Replaced with these massive global conglomorates, we've lost touch with the personal service and familiarity of high street shopping.
Instead of the local shop having pretty much what you need and staffed by willing helpful people, who know about the job and what they sell, we now have a faceless service industry staffed by part timers, students or old people who don't know, care or understand what they're trying to sell.
My bank's counters of cashiers has been replaced by a row of machines. The tills at argos are now another row of screens and buttons, even the guy on the gate of the car park has been replaced with a box of bollocks and buttons.
Where's the friendly face and useful shop ASSISTANT?
People just don't seem to care anymore or take a pride in their work. We used to have 2 models shops in town, the better one closed down as the owner retired. The remaining store had this great opportunity to build his customer base and expand his business, there was no competition, he had the whole town to himself. He ruined it. Scratch build stuff is replaced with everything in the box crap. Gone are the racks of materials and parts, in come the mass made chinese bullshit that breaks after 5 mins. Why? Why do people not care anymore?
Which brings me to my next mini-rant.
I ordered some materials over a week ago. It was last monday actually, 11 days back.
2 days ago I received the first item, a replacement of the initial package they sent out because the postman lost/stole it.
yesterday i recieved the second item, some not brittle but quite bendy strips of plastic, sent in just a jiffy bag, they wasn't even seletoped together, luckily they're ok, although for this excellent packaging i was charged £7.
finally today i'm still waiting for a sheet of stuff i order tuesday, i paid extra to get it sent next day. i'm still waiting. the responce from my enquiries? "yeaaaaah, its always a pain when you're in a ruuush isn't iiiiiiit?" this total dumbarsed hair head tells me. Yes, it is indeed 'a pain'. 8-)
So whats gone wrong? Why have all the decent shops and service been replaced with huge companies that don't care once they've got your money? Why can't thing be delivered on time, well packaged and not extortionatly charged?
I was surprised on my recent visit to the UK about how the high street has changed, anything vaguely specialist has disappeared and seems to be online only.
I miss the old independent record stores, book stores etc Amazon and Co of course are killing everything and mostly unbeatable on price etc which is nice however I do miss the days where you went shopping, browsed etc. Nowadays there is no need to go into town as its cheaper and easier to order online to some extent and I found myself looking at stuff on shelves thinking "cheaper online" so whats the point in buying it now! Sad but true, independant small shops are practically history, same with pubs I guess too
Agreed, but I wouldn't advise Hermes delivery when it comes to ordering a pint, rubbish service.
"This is where we leave you Mr Bond."
Roger Moore 1927-2017
FelixLeiter ♀Staffordshire or a pubPosts: 1,286MI6 Agent
During 6th form I worked at a local (independent) garden centre so was one of the students you speak of, but it was always driven in to us the importance of good customer service.
I found the job tedious at times tbh, as I'd often spend 8-9 hours a day cleaning for £3.57/£3.64 an hour and I hated not having my weekends. But the purpose of several of us being on the shop floor cleaning sections of stock was so that there was always plenty of staff spread out. My job title was 'sales assistant' so I was who customers came to for help or questions. I'd help as much as I could (it meant less time cleaning) and if I couldn't, always knew which staff was the expert on something. Dealing with customers was the only part of the job I liked.
I really did loathe that job but it taught me a lot of things.
It meant I had a bit of empathy for anyone in retail and that even if I as a customer was having a **** day, 'good afternoon' 'please' 'thank you' etc, friendly conversation, really brightens the monotony of the day. When you've been up since 7am on a Saturday, an arsy customer can really drag the whole day down.
It taught me good customer service and consequently I am now appalled at bad customer service. I don't care what kind of day you're having, I don't care if you hate this job, I don't care if you're hungover or ill, I don't care what you and your co-workers think about last night's X Factor, I don't care if the last person you served just called you a c***, I AM THE CUSTOMER. Whilst you are serving me, I am GOD. I pay your wages and you should kiss my arse until I'm happy. I've dealt with some of the biggest pricks on the planet, but I still stood there smiling, ran round for them and at the end of the day took their money. It can be done and should be done.
I used to be keen to please, but working in retail as a youth beat it out of me. I am now sympathetic to it all and when I visit a retail store I bury the attitude and become more personable. The unwritten code of service etiquette quickly melts away and once a rapport is established I find it much, much easier to get what I want.
It is only when the service is dire that I break out the big-guns and take no prisoners. (As MyHermes are currently experiencing)
D I am now appalled at bad customer service. I don't care what kind of day you're having, I don't care if you hate this job, I don't care if you're hungover or ill, I don't care what you and your co-workers think about last night's X Factor, I don't care if the last person you served just called you a c***, I AM THE CUSTOMER. Whilst you are serving me, I am GOD. I pay your wages and you should kiss my arse until I'm happy. I've dealt with some of the biggest pricks on the planet, but I still stood there smiling, ran round for them and at the end of the day took their money. It can be done and should be done.
Sorry, I think that attitude is awful, but it explains a lot. I suppose if your parents beat you up as a kid, you'd figure it's okay to treat your kids the same, after all, you had to put up with it.
No one needs to be spoken to and treated like ****.
I know someone who works in retail, they have had to put up with some unbelievable behaviour through no fault of their own. Someone had a go at them in a big way, shouting at them, threatening to get them sacked, claiming they'd sue (Christ knows what for). What was it about? Someone in a delivery depot in another town forgot to put a pair of jeans on a truck. How was the shop assistant responsible for that?
Things go wrong, all too frequently these days, but when directing angst and anger at people, I always make sure it's the right person.
I remember going to see my bank about a charge on my account. When I said the charges were unreasonable and that I'd been with the bank for 10 years, the young lad dealing with me smirked as if my loyalty to the bank was unimportant. Did I go mental at him? Well I did ask what was so funny, which he denied anything was. I wonder if he felt my letter to his manager that resulted in him being retrained was as funny as my loyalty?
There is more than 1 way to skin a cat, or bollock a yuppie
FelixLeiter ♀Staffordshire or a pubPosts: 1,286MI6 Agent
I suppose I should clarify.
I am always polite to sales assistants, I always make the effort to be friendly and courteous, so I expect the same in return, regardless of how other customers have treated them. They shouldn't have to put up with being treated badly just for doing their job - no one should, but they also shouldn't take it out on other customers by not being as polite and helpful as they usually would.
So one of the modules on my course is a big group project; designing and building a video game level. Earlier in the year I was picked by my tutor as a group leader, whether I wanted to or not. Something I was annoyed about as it just adds more stess to my life ontop of all my other issues with the course as my tutor doesn't care about my extenuenting circumstances (because I don't have breasts), anyway my group was sort of on top of everything but in the last 2 weeks I had to miss a few classes and group meetings because of lots of hospital appointments with my wife who is nearly 9 months pregnant and having complications so everyone lost the plot abit and didn't know what they were doing.
Anyway, I wrote up a timetable with tasks and dates they needed to be completed, along with who was to complete them. So today we had a group tutorial with our tutor, if you can call it a tutorial, I'd call it 'Tutor slating me for being a sh*t group leader'. All because of one guy in my group, he is a foerign student and the laziest, most arrogant person I have EVER met, he thinks everything and everyone is beneath him, he doesn't bother doing the work as he claims he can't do it yet still thinks he is going to run Google one day. He is happy to let other people do the work and let them pull him along so he gets a decent grade on the backs of the others. He has no idea about what our concept is about as he never bothered reading all the documentation I typed up, whats worse is that my tutor knew about the issues with him at first but has sort of jumped onto his 'side' now, basically he had looked at the timetable last week and saw his name next to the date '1st February 2013' and basically slated me (along with my tutor) and used me as an excuse for not doing anything (as he always does) as on the timetable he didn't have any tasks to do for the next two months. They way he spoke to/about me was horrible and knocked my confidence alot as I genuinely thought I had messed up, and was also upset that the amount of crippling stress I am under lately hadnt been brought into account, I couldn't even respond I was that upset, I was visibly shaking with what was happening, both with anger and stress. Anyway after the meeting I composed myself and suddenly realised that I HADN'T made a mistake at all, The student in question hadn't bothered to read the timetable correctly, about the dates in BOLD there was a header of the coloumn that read DUE DATE I hadn't out him down as doing nothing, that was the date I wanted his work to be completed by (a fair date at that for the task in question), the worst part was that he KNEW that, I had let him use me as his scape-goat and excuse for not doing anything!
It was too late to talk to mention it by this point as he had left. so after the bus journey home I logged onto our groups private facebook page and pointed out that I hadn't made an error and wasn't at fault and that I would be emailing the tutor regarding the matter and explained my distress at the way I was treated, he responded by replying in a sort of defensive and threatening manner along the lines of 'come say this to my face', the worst part was that for somebody who speaks and writes in fluent english had started typing in broken-english, which worried me as earlier in the day I was made aware that this particular student was known for playing the 'racism' card if he didn't get his own way or he had his back to the wall, I had a gut feeling this was going the same way...
...I wasn't wrong, so he replied with the whole 'tell it to my face' stuff and calling me a coward for not mentioning it in the meeting (oblivious to the fact that I had stated that I hadn't realised the mix up until AFTER class and that I wsa too upset to say anything in the meeting) so I replied that I would be happy to discuss it with him and my tutor in person and that If I was to be given an apology that I would gladly accept and put the whole matter to bed, he then replied (in even worse broken english) something along the lines of 'Apologise to you...haha! What for? Seems you have a big problem with me because I'm foreign, who knows, you have never liked me, enjoy your evening...' I didn't acknowledge the racism accusation and simply replied that I meant apologise for being so rude to me and for blaming me for his own mistake and also pointed out that I had made mistakes in the past and always took responsibility to them. Then my wife seen how upset this made me and got on my facebook and added herself to the group while I was cooking dinner and replied with her dissatisfaction for the accusation or even notion that I would be racist and that he was doing so because he had no rebuttal to the situation or logical answer to the argument and then went on to explain how much stress I was under with her pregnancy etc. to which he replied that he thought it was hilarious.
I have emailed my tutor explaining the situation and express my worry about the accusations should he make them public and that I see them as threatening behaviour, at no point in my time knowing him have I came across as remotely racist or even show him any signs of dislike or hostility towards him, I always treat others how I wish to be treated, that's how I was brought up and I am really worried about what is going to happen because of this, his sudden use of broken english I can only put down to him covering his back in order to accuse me of being racist towards him by suggesting that I somehow put him not reading the timetable down to his nationality, he is well known for one minute speaking fluent english then the next he is using broken english if he is being critised by the tutor or doesn't understand something, one other student (who had been accused of racism by him in the past) told me that he 'throws the racism card around so much that he doesn't even know what it means anymore'.
I understand that the term 'broken-english' may be seen as racist, along with my criticizing his use of it but I can't think of another way of describing it. I know it is a terribly cliched thing to get so defensive of being called a racist but this could get me thrown out of university or even prosecuted. False accusations of a hate crime should be considered a hate crime in itself, in my eyes its as bad as somebody falsley crying rape and can ruin peoples lives. I just don't know what to do, he can be a very hostile guy aswell sometimes if he is annoyed or doesnt get his way and I just want to keep stress levels to a minimum what with a baby due this week amongst other things and just want to get my uni work done as well as I can do without being blackmailed into taking the blame for stuff or get accused of racism. Yeah I dislike the guy, because of his attitude and because he is a fool, not because of his ethnic background, and I've NEVER been anything but polite to him.
I dunno, if he has a reputation for using the race card as a knee jerk reaction, make it public and call him out. I've had that at one point too, but understand that if someone falsely calls you racist then that is serious slander/libel you've got going on there...
That said, when you can be accused of being racist for slagging off the French or Italians (which is xenophobia, not always justifiable but sometimes can be if talking about broad national characteristics that may not be to your taste, and in a jokey manner), you have to tread carefully.
It's Here, The End of the World.....................................
....................................................................................
............................................ Ah well, catch it next time. )
"I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
So I asked several webstores if they shipped to my country - answer? Never bloody replied!
Irritates the **** out of me specially when I know other people have had instant responses.
Im guessing its because they dont want to ship to me etc which is fine by me but at least acknowledge my frikking email!
Rant over lol
Oh yes, the same for eBay! Some sellers won't sell outside of their country, not even if they can send by registered or signed for mail.
Sure, they don't have to, but still...
Ah Christmas time, mistletoe and wine, children..... shout loudly as they piss about in puddles right outside my front door, the little shitz.
Yes it's that time of year again, where families all over head down the pawn shop with granny's wedding ring to raise some funds to buy darling little Wayne some overly violent play station game, he's only 5 but developing so well that he can master those PEGI18 games in 10 minutes!
So it's off to town for me to buy for the nearest and dearest, and run the rat race of 'high volume pedestrian retail traffic', or 'running the gauntlet with the scummers' as I loathe to call it.
It would appear these days that people can only deal with one thing when driving a vehicle; going forward. Throw reversing, a busy junction, any junction or a change of direction from a straight line into the mix and it all goes to ratshit. I dunno why, but it just seems that people can't cope with it. Now take away the vehicle. You'd think that by doing so, you'd reduce the risk and make things a lot safer. How wrong could I have been?
You see, when you take a busy road and remove all the vehicles you get the modern day pedestrianised high street. It's carnage. There's a constant flow of people going up and down said street, with people over taking, plodding along, briskly walking, running etc, but then there's others; people trying to cross over, others who stop for no apparent reason causing a pile up and idiots who have forgotten something and do a U turn risking a head on collision.
A more covert and unsuspecting pain in the arse is granny. Granny wouldn't hurt a bloody fly would she? Oh no, grannies are great, they like sweets n stuff, knit and embroider things. Just think about that image though. Sits in an armchair, has a cat, likes and collects many sharp pointy objects and occasionally has a helper who's about 6' tall and has the mental capacity of a garden gnome..... remind you of anyone?
Granny, in her house is the most sweetest dearest thing you'll ever encounter. Place her with 16 layers of clothes (5 of them being coats)*, brolly in hand regardless of weather and that bloody death chariot of a shopping trolley thing trailing behind her and she becomes the devil incarnate.
During this last week, one granny actually got hold of me by the arm and dragged me to one side while I was walking down an isle in boots (boots the shop, neither of us were in doc martins). This little dainty thing changed my direction like some kinda balrog, it was so shocking I actually just moved and didn't say a word. Course, when I'm walking down the street minutes later I actually clock what just happened, stopped dead, caused a pedestrian pile up (so this is what causes them!) and couldn't move for 5mins due to shock. I'd just been herded by a granny.
The next experience happened yesterday in the bank. "Excuse me" came this little frail voice from behind. "Sorry love" I said, stepping to one side to let gran through the crowded bank. Through came granny, but she'd failed to mention the two wheeled war cart she was towing, which promptly smacked my leg and then ran over my foot. I didn't realise that granny carted round a half-hundred weight of pig iron with her at all times, but the inertia of said heavy load hitting my right steely, bringing gran to an abrupt stop nearly took her down with a clothesline effect, but she's seen two world wars and my boot ain't gonna stop her. A second attempt and the cart was over my foot toot sweet.
And then some bright f@cking knob had the idea of putting these socialist pigs in a battery powered car!? Wtf?! Who the hell thought of that idea?!
He's a grumpy old farting shitstained grandad, he hates everyone and everything. Nothing was as good as when it was 1946 and if he could get away with it, he'd shoot you on sight like one if them 'krout nazi bastards'. This guy is mardy pretty much 100% of the time, so what shall we do? Oh what a great idea, we'll sit him on a go cart with 3 speeds, (ramming speed, just too fast to overtake me when I drive this thing on the road speed and I'm reversing but I don't care what's behind me speed) and then put all over shroud on it so you can't identify him in a line up and he can't see you properly (his eyesight when out with thatcher anyhow), effectively turning said go cart into a scaled down version of the ride he invaded Normandy with, AND THEN we'll put him on a crowded high street, let him go and sit back and watch the carnage as blood, bone and other bodily mess gets strewn skyward as grandad plows a path to poundland where he can ram raid his way in to kill everyone in the building by impailing them on his bullbars.
Then there's the most evil of all pedestrian based traffic; the pushchair.
The pushchair must be to pedestrians what the cyclist is to motorists. They're slow, clumbersome, get in the way, change direction with no warning and if they hit you, it's all your fault. Not only all that, but the parent powering this bloody thing is usually on the phone so has little control, and also uses the damn pushchair as a battering ram. You briskly walk past them through the crowd, then you get held up at a crossing, they ram and squeeze their way to the front and then you have the life risking event of an overtake to do all over again.
In a few months time it shall be me behind the handles of that pushchair....
Karma WILL be a bitch.
* it's rumoured that the MOD's closely guarded top secret Chobham armour was developed after a Churchill tank on excersise ran into a granny who was out shopping in some drizzle. The tank didn't make it. It's never been confirmed what's in Chobham armour, but many suspect utilisation of many layers of duffle coats, scarves and those cellophane hair net things.
Case 1: I have been in discussions with an AJB er regarding my Dupont CR cufflinks, replied on detail to all questions ( price was clear from the first email), sent pictures, created and sent invoice, have been asked to wait 2 more weeks and never heard from him again!
Case 2: After a finished ebay auction, someone called me to get a better deal, we agreed with all the details. I prepared the shipment, sent a PP invoice and never heard from him again. Yesterday, he cancelled my PP invoice without any additional word.
People, if you are backing off from a done deal, you should have at least the balls to inform the seller, say sorry and move on!
President of the 'Misty Eyes Club'.
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
We're all pretty aware of the big debate on gun ownership going on the states right now. The recent awful events over there seem to highlight that something isn't working and people who shouldn't be able to have access to guns are all too frequently putting their hands on them, and worse items like tannerite, resulting in terrible avoidable tragedies.
However, one thing that continues to piss me off is the media's inability or reluctance to report these events and the details accurately and impartially.
I've seen here in the UK the press reporting that all guns were banned since Dunblane in 96 I've also seen them describe rifles as automatics and I've seen them report about gun incidents and taken statements from the police etc but never voiced what the NSRA or BASC have had to say. It's infuriating. There's no wonder that people have such anti gun views, as all the info they have to go on is the one sided and sometimes incorrect stance of the media.
And then along comes YouTube. Now anyone can become famous and reach a global audience within minutes. Great stuff, an opportunity to finally be heard. Does anyone use it as such though? Not in my mind, no. Instead we have people firing guns at anything, dark shades and toothpick in mouth apparently customary. Airsoft shooters acting like Rambo, and generally people talking codshit. The worst is people new to the sport of shooting take these idiots as gospel and adopt the same gun-ho stance.
I was watching a YouTube clip this morning which was supposedly a gun review. Instead, billy bob and son billy bob jr decide to take 2 rifles and fire them into a lake. They then proceed to shoot randomly at a dirt track that leads round a blind corner, which anyone could have come walking round. Most of the comments were positive nuggets of wisdom like "hell yeah!!" Etc, and only one person mentioned the danger of shooting at the road. That comment was responded to with "it was on private land so it's safe". Only trouble there was people often stray onto wide areas of 'private' land unknowingly, and highlighted in the clip was the arrival of the land owner on his buggy, great stuff shoot the land owner coming round the corner on his own private land.... perfectly safe huh?
The other issue is there's a dog barking and jumping all over, even when the guy is firing. I guess it's not keen on the noise. If doggy don't like it, put doggy in car, or don't take doggy at all. An excitable or irritated dog causing distractions while you shoot isn't very safe either. Grrr, bloody stupid fools.
So there's no wonder most general public don't have a clue about shooting and the attitudes real shooters have to the sport. With this in mind, I'd ask for anyone making any judgement on others to research the facts for themselves and open your eyes to the very blinkered and single minded thinking of the media. I'm not gonna start ranting about all the New World Order stuff, but it'd be great if people actually saught an opinion from the people themselves instead of relying on YouTube and the News Corp. to provide the 'facts'.
What really got me pissed of is the NRA's stance in America;
"The only thing that will stop a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun."
What? So it's a perfectly good idea to have MORE guns in SCHOOLS?! Would it not be better to PREVENT the bad guy from owning the gun in the first place instead of letting a situation like a school shooting take place and then deal with the consequences? Would any of us really want to be placed in the position of facing an armed nutter and the prospect of being the one having to shoot them? What if you miss? What if you hit an innocent bystander by mistake? So to the NRA in America I'd say;
"A dead good guy can't even call the cops."
Prevention is better than cure.
But this idea of the NRA's is extremely damaging to the image of the sport. People see that crap and then assume that that's what 'them shooters' think. I can assure you, it's not.
Also, if you are a shooter and enjoy showing people what you've got, how about bearing in mind that you're a representative of your sport, so act safely, sensibly and try to portray a positive image if us. We're not all combat wearing dark shade adorned trigger happy nutcase wannabe Rambo types, so try and show the world that its usually the ones who act like they know everything who invariably don't.
If anyone is interested, I personally believe in gun ownership, but also understand that it should be regulated safely and sensibly. It's pretty tight here in blighty, and my opinion is that if you haven't got anything to worry about, like your mental condition etc, why get bothered by checks etc? The legal loopholes in the states need closing and more background checks need doing, I think that would make a great difference to the statistics. Gun ownership is by the large of it, safe, it's the people behind them who really shouldn't be who need the attention, not the millions of safe, responsible and stable legal people.
Never quite got the good guy with a gun argument, I mean 20 kids could be shot dead while the good guy is only getting to his feet... assuming he hasn't been shot first, after all the bad guy has the advantage of surprise.
Sure, the good guy, if alive, could shoot the bad guy dead, but only after the damage is done, and the bad guy usually gets shot anyway at some point; they are usually suicidal so it's a result for them.
Comments
My father in law was a policeman, a man like a tree and a massive Bond fan ( I have "gotten" him with that on our first meeting).
Whenever I see a Bond movie I remember him and even more when I see Franck Ribéry playing football.
He always smiled when he saw him and his tricks.
And I always see my wife's tears after she heard with what he's been diagnosed and the first time that I have seen her after the funeral. Smoking does not "only" affect the smoker himself, it also affects their children
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
TV shopping channels.
Flicking on the goggle box this morning, I took a hop through the channels. Landing on a shopping channel for power tools, a guy is demonstrating a little saw that resembles a palette knife. It's for cutting ya skirting board while ya trying to 'professionally' lay some laminate flooring. Then one of the 'presenters' says "to be honest, when you see some laminate flooring professionally laid under the architrave it is a beautiful thing".
Beautiful? The rolling English countryside on a misty morning is beautiful. The mark IX supermarine spitfire is beautiful. The Aston Martin Vanquish is beautiful. Eva Green is beautiful, the trevi fountain is beautiful, my wife, IMO is beautiful.
Neither an electric palette knife, nor a piece of skirting board (IT'S NOT ARCHITRAVE MR PRESENTER!!) are beautiful.
An instant zap reveals the next channel where a guy pretending to be orange faced David Dickinson looks like he's having a sh1t while trying to flog some crappy dust buster with "rechargeable bags"
It goes through a spectrum where I start off thinking "actually that looks like it could be useful, not a bad price either...... it does look a bit cheap though...... probably break after 5 mins.... Rechargeable bags? How's that work then?..... It's gordy tat, no chance would I buy that..... god it's gone down to a tenner lol.... bless, he's really trying..... now he's irritating..... nah I can't be arsed with this, and that music is doing my head in.... where's the remote?"
The Halfords adverts during Top Gear on Dave.
On the ad-break during Top Gear on Dave, halfords (who were top of 'worst customer service in the uk' league tables') have started showing some 'funny' 'home videos' of 'people' filming do it yourself clips, full of 'useful advice'.
One features a stupid cow who starts off "hello Internet". I'm watching you on telly love. 8-) she then shows us, unsuccessfully of course, how to change a bulb, by accidentally hitting the bonnet with a screwdriver (but trying to rub out the scratch on another area of the bonnet), then she notices shes bought the wrong bulb without looking at it, then 'Wayne' nicks the bulb, so she runs after him, and I think he's meant to get away but you can see he stops still in shot and she just stands next to him.
Then 'Ravi' the Asian chav tries to change a wiper blade and sets his car alarm off. Hilarious.
Brian attempts to change a bulb, and for some reason he's taken off the front grille, and when he goes to fit the bulb, the whole headlight falls out. This has never happened to me. Then his wife shouts "Brian, phone" and my **** fell off as I was laughing so hard.
Then some guy (and this is my favourite) comes on to show us how to change a battery or something. His accent is so weird I honestly don't know where he's from or what he's saying. He sounds Irish, but a bit Finnish too, with a hint of American. He then goes and puts goggles on and rubber gauntlets and then says something like "om ganner shor yow hough tay (unintelligible) forst yay ancorneckt tha poshateyv layd... ar as at tha neygotayv?"
Christ, I've just realised, this poor chap might be Russian.
I know ads are supposed to stick with you, and these do, but for all the wrong reasons. The ads are poorly made, not funny, and tell you nothing about halfords, other than their customers are complete ****. Like attracts like as they say....
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org
thought you was giving up?
did you mean long life or smoking?
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org
It all went fairly well until I got ridiculously drunk last Saturday, as in more drunk than ever in my life. Had several then (I'm told) and then one again Thursday night when I was drinking. That was a terrible night; I lost £13 to a slot machine then spent £7 on fags. Took a lot not to when I went the pub yesterday. As I said in previous posts, I'm still finding it really hard not to smoke when I drink. I've managed it twice including yesterday. After I posted above I had one, and of course I felt better and less stressed, but as ever I regret it now later.
1) Employment of course leaders who can't teach, or lead. Always negative, never constructive feedback, just telling us that we are doing it wrong, we are useless etc. worst year he's taught, also likes to boast about how last year 12 students failed a presentation that we are due to give after christmas and that they had apparently not dont anything right so barely bothered looking at their wor? Does he seriously not realise this only looks bad on him and nobody else, with such negativity how can he possibly expect anything else? It seriously puts more doubts on his ability as a university lecturer if he ALLOWED 12 people to fail a single module, surely it's his job to try and make sure this doesnt happen? I have 2 step-children, a heavily pregnant wife ready to drop at any moment and I'm trying to move house, I feel like I could have a breakdown at any moment, i've spoke to him about my circumstances, it's too much, but it never matters to him, he just berates people in front of the whole class basically for being sh*t!
2) Course leaders who treat adults like school children, there are students on my course that have just left sixth form etc. which is a given, but he really does treat us all like school kids, sets us pointless homework though weekends, days off and holiday periods, he even set us a project over summer which went towards precisely f**k all! He arranges alternate tasks on days off so we get no time off. If somebody is off sick or late he will mark peoples attendance down if he doesn't see appropriate proof such as a doctors note! I had a really really bad stomach flu a few weeks ago that was going around, I didn't get a doctors note as I dont know about other peoples GP's but mine would not be very happy if I went in with just a highly contagious sickness and diarreah bug! He makes us sign in at the end of the lecture, which would be fine, but if somebody has to leave as little as 5 minutes early it's just tough, they are marked as absent.
3) This week was half term for the under 18's and as I am on a degree course I don't get half terms, or time off, so all the people in attendance that week were over 18, so I find it so f**king astonoshing that when I need to use the men's room I find myself having to flush the last guys business! Seriously c'mon! You are an adult, FLUSH THE DAMN TOILET! It is just pure bad manners and laziness! And no! Just because you only did a number 1 does not mean you are excused for this! Yet I have to do it for them...and I'm assuming they never washed their hands either! The funny thing is, sometimes they walk out of the cubicle past me as I go in and don't even look the slightest bit ashamed of their sheer bone idle-ness! The real shocker is when they walk out and wash their hands, yet they can't flush? SERIOUSLY, YOU ARE ADULTS PEOPLE! Errrgh!
4) My in-laws - just because.
This is all for today!
In reply to ya rants;
1) you have extenuating circumstances and you can and should use these to get yourself some help. If your tutor won't give you any leeway, go to your SU, it's there for a reason.
2) your tutor can unfortunately choose how to teach you and be as strict as he likes. However, he can't teach by using intimidating or bullying practices. Mention these 2 terms and the SU should move onto him like hot shitt. Sadly though with your stomach flu, why didn't you call the docs? You could have had a phone appointment. It would appear your tutor plays by the 'get it in writing to cover your arse' method, so you're gonna have to play by his rules. It works both ways though, if he won't give you extra time for your extenuating circumstances, get him to put it in writing as to why. How about emailing him about it, then he'll be expected to reply in writing.
3) people are weird, it's a given. When I was at Uni we had someone who liked using turd as their medium of choice to display their angst within the toilet cubicles. (Ie they wrote 'uni is ****' in shitt on the shithouse walls.)
4) in-laws can be funny things. I absolutely love mind but I know many others who can't stand theirs. I guess I'm very lucky in life. If there's an ongoing issue, why not use a Christmas get together to bury the hatchet and move on? Life's too short.
MG -{
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org
Thanks MG,
I have filed a claim against him through my Student Union, it was the last straw today, my friend on the course has been having alot of issues, he looks like he never sleeps etc. so I kind of put it upon myself to make sure he's ok at uni but today we had a presentation (he is in my group) and he was worse than usual, he was trembling violently and could barely stand and nearly keeled over at a few points, I told him to go home but he wouldnt out of guilt as he thought if he left our groups grade would suffer, anyway he went home to collect something and on his way back onto campus he collapsed and some guys ran to get me, he was ok but he was sobbing his heart out, shaking like made and couldn't walk or speak, it seemed to me like nervous exhaustion as he also mentioned waking up at night with nightmares and cold sweats on the rare occasions he manages to sleep, he too has also had issues with our course leader berating him, so I walkecx him home and some of the other guys went to inform the course leader, after I arrived back I went to speak to him also and got the same response as the other guys, he shrugged his shoulders and said there was nothing he could do. I think this is disgustingm, he has a duty of care over his students and it could of been a medical emergancy but he acted as if it was an inconvenience! I've spoke to my friend about it and he is still feeling pretty bad but did tell me the leader had emailed him about half an hour ago stating he had heard what happened and wants to see him in his office... complete joke
Roger Moore 1927-2017
While researching future projects, I've unfortunately had the displeasure of encountering the horribly cliquey world of.... The Electronic Geek.
There appears to be some differing category of The Electronic Geek;
Maplin student geek - The 'I can't be arsed cos I'm only here to pay for my beer' geek. Usually a student or sixth former who can't be arsed with many things in life like washing, life in general, you. If it doesn't come out of a packet it doesn't exist.
Ebay robbing git geek - This geek pedels sh1t made by someone else but claims to be the genius behind it all. Enquiries about custom orders or specifications go unanswered as the information you seek isn't on the packet, or it's in Chinese which the ebayer can't read.
YouTube geek - The 'look what I made' smug git who's happy to show off his stuff but won't tell anyone how he did it, or make you one.
Maplin supervisor geek - A different class of nerd that's found solace in making real geeky sh1t at home, probably from parts pilfered from work. Can he answer your questions? Can he draw you a circuit diagram? Can he show you where to get the parts? Yes, but he won't cos he's a dick.
Forum geek - A right arsey know-it-all who replies to noob's plee for assistance with "if you think I'm gonna draw you a diagram and parts list, think again". About as useful as a third bollock.
Put simply, the world of electronics isn't my cup of tea. But it completely baffles me when you have people who have quite considerable talent who choose to either not let anyone know how they do stuff, or refuse a generous offer of money and/or gifts in return for making a circuit.
Self righteous egotistical power mad tossers.
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org
'Customer service'.
It would appear these days that the local high street is no longer what it used to be. Walking through my communal stench-pit infested with disproportionate amount of eastern bloc vagrants, its all too clear that what used to be a hub of thriving local commerce has now decended into a mass shithouse of winebars, clothes shops and every 10 yards, another tesco express (ironic name for a place rammed with plebs and only one working self service checkout).
What happened? My town used to host 2 decent toys shops, several record shops, a few clothes shops, school uniform shops, even a butchers and 2, yes 2 post offices.
Now, there's toys 'r' us, hmv and the rest is either clothes, winebars or banks.
Gone are those great little shops that sell those odd little things you needed, where the shop owner recognised you and even some knew your name. Replaced with these massive global conglomorates, we've lost touch with the personal service and familiarity of high street shopping.
Instead of the local shop having pretty much what you need and staffed by willing helpful people, who know about the job and what they sell, we now have a faceless service industry staffed by part timers, students or old people who don't know, care or understand what they're trying to sell.
My bank's counters of cashiers has been replaced by a row of machines. The tills at argos are now another row of screens and buttons, even the guy on the gate of the car park has been replaced with a box of bollocks and buttons.
Where's the friendly face and useful shop ASSISTANT?
People just don't seem to care anymore or take a pride in their work. We used to have 2 models shops in town, the better one closed down as the owner retired. The remaining store had this great opportunity to build his customer base and expand his business, there was no competition, he had the whole town to himself. He ruined it. Scratch build stuff is replaced with everything in the box crap. Gone are the racks of materials and parts, in come the mass made chinese bullshit that breaks after 5 mins. Why? Why do people not care anymore?
Which brings me to my next mini-rant.
I ordered some materials over a week ago. It was last monday actually, 11 days back.
2 days ago I received the first item, a replacement of the initial package they sent out because the postman lost/stole it.
yesterday i recieved the second item, some not brittle but quite bendy strips of plastic, sent in just a jiffy bag, they wasn't even seletoped together, luckily they're ok, although for this excellent packaging i was charged £7.
finally today i'm still waiting for a sheet of stuff i order tuesday, i paid extra to get it sent next day. i'm still waiting. the responce from my enquiries? "yeaaaaah, its always a pain when you're in a ruuush isn't iiiiiiit?" this total dumbarsed hair head tells me. Yes, it is indeed 'a pain'. 8-)
So whats gone wrong? Why have all the decent shops and service been replaced with huge companies that don't care once they've got your money? Why can't thing be delivered on time, well packaged and not extortionatly charged?
I'll tell ya why;
Money and greed.
It's a sad state of affairs it really is.
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org
I miss the old independent record stores, book stores etc Amazon and Co of course are killing everything and mostly unbeatable on price etc which is nice however I do miss the days where you went shopping, browsed etc. Nowadays there is no need to go into town as its cheaper and easier to order online to some extent and I found myself looking at stuff on shelves thinking "cheaper online" so whats the point in buying it now! Sad but true, independant small shops are practically history, same with pubs I guess too
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I found the job tedious at times tbh, as I'd often spend 8-9 hours a day cleaning for £3.57/£3.64 an hour and I hated not having my weekends. But the purpose of several of us being on the shop floor cleaning sections of stock was so that there was always plenty of staff spread out. My job title was 'sales assistant' so I was who customers came to for help or questions. I'd help as much as I could (it meant less time cleaning) and if I couldn't, always knew which staff was the expert on something. Dealing with customers was the only part of the job I liked.
I really did loathe that job but it taught me a lot of things.
It meant I had a bit of empathy for anyone in retail and that even if I as a customer was having a **** day, 'good afternoon' 'please' 'thank you' etc, friendly conversation, really brightens the monotony of the day. When you've been up since 7am on a Saturday, an arsy customer can really drag the whole day down.
It taught me good customer service and consequently I am now appalled at bad customer service. I don't care what kind of day you're having, I don't care if you hate this job, I don't care if you're hungover or ill, I don't care what you and your co-workers think about last night's X Factor, I don't care if the last person you served just called you a c***, I AM THE CUSTOMER. Whilst you are serving me, I am GOD. I pay your wages and you should kiss my arse until I'm happy. I've dealt with some of the biggest pricks on the planet, but I still stood there smiling, ran round for them and at the end of the day took their money. It can be done and should be done.
I couldn't agree with you more minigeff.
It is only when the service is dire that I break out the big-guns and take no prisoners. (As MyHermes are currently experiencing)
Regards,
Wilde. -{
Sorry, I think that attitude is awful, but it explains a lot. I suppose if your parents beat you up as a kid, you'd figure it's okay to treat your kids the same, after all, you had to put up with it.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
No one needs to be spoken to and treated like ****.
I know someone who works in retail, they have had to put up with some unbelievable behaviour through no fault of their own. Someone had a go at them in a big way, shouting at them, threatening to get them sacked, claiming they'd sue (Christ knows what for). What was it about? Someone in a delivery depot in another town forgot to put a pair of jeans on a truck. How was the shop assistant responsible for that?
Things go wrong, all too frequently these days, but when directing angst and anger at people, I always make sure it's the right person.
I remember going to see my bank about a charge on my account. When I said the charges were unreasonable and that I'd been with the bank for 10 years, the young lad dealing with me smirked as if my loyalty to the bank was unimportant. Did I go mental at him? Well I did ask what was so funny, which he denied anything was. I wonder if he felt my letter to his manager that resulted in him being retrained was as funny as my loyalty?
There is more than 1 way to skin a cat, or bollock a yuppie
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org
I am always polite to sales assistants, I always make the effort to be friendly and courteous, so I expect the same in return, regardless of how other customers have treated them. They shouldn't have to put up with being treated badly just for doing their job - no one should, but they also shouldn't take it out on other customers by not being as polite and helpful as they usually would.
So one of the modules on my course is a big group project; designing and building a video game level. Earlier in the year I was picked by my tutor as a group leader, whether I wanted to or not. Something I was annoyed about as it just adds more stess to my life ontop of all my other issues with the course as my tutor doesn't care about my extenuenting circumstances (because I don't have breasts), anyway my group was sort of on top of everything but in the last 2 weeks I had to miss a few classes and group meetings because of lots of hospital appointments with my wife who is nearly 9 months pregnant and having complications so everyone lost the plot abit and didn't know what they were doing.
Anyway, I wrote up a timetable with tasks and dates they needed to be completed, along with who was to complete them. So today we had a group tutorial with our tutor, if you can call it a tutorial, I'd call it 'Tutor slating me for being a sh*t group leader'. All because of one guy in my group, he is a foerign student and the laziest, most arrogant person I have EVER met, he thinks everything and everyone is beneath him, he doesn't bother doing the work as he claims he can't do it yet still thinks he is going to run Google one day. He is happy to let other people do the work and let them pull him along so he gets a decent grade on the backs of the others. He has no idea about what our concept is about as he never bothered reading all the documentation I typed up, whats worse is that my tutor knew about the issues with him at first but has sort of jumped onto his 'side' now, basically he had looked at the timetable last week and saw his name next to the date '1st February 2013' and basically slated me (along with my tutor) and used me as an excuse for not doing anything (as he always does) as on the timetable he didn't have any tasks to do for the next two months. They way he spoke to/about me was horrible and knocked my confidence alot as I genuinely thought I had messed up, and was also upset that the amount of crippling stress I am under lately hadnt been brought into account, I couldn't even respond I was that upset, I was visibly shaking with what was happening, both with anger and stress. Anyway after the meeting I composed myself and suddenly realised that I HADN'T made a mistake at all, The student in question hadn't bothered to read the timetable correctly, about the dates in BOLD there was a header of the coloumn that read DUE DATE I hadn't out him down as doing nothing, that was the date I wanted his work to be completed by (a fair date at that for the task in question), the worst part was that he KNEW that, I had let him use me as his scape-goat and excuse for not doing anything!
It was too late to talk to mention it by this point as he had left. so after the bus journey home I logged onto our groups private facebook page and pointed out that I hadn't made an error and wasn't at fault and that I would be emailing the tutor regarding the matter and explained my distress at the way I was treated, he responded by replying in a sort of defensive and threatening manner along the lines of 'come say this to my face', the worst part was that for somebody who speaks and writes in fluent english had started typing in broken-english, which worried me as earlier in the day I was made aware that this particular student was known for playing the 'racism' card if he didn't get his own way or he had his back to the wall, I had a gut feeling this was going the same way...
...I wasn't wrong, so he replied with the whole 'tell it to my face' stuff and calling me a coward for not mentioning it in the meeting (oblivious to the fact that I had stated that I hadn't realised the mix up until AFTER class and that I wsa too upset to say anything in the meeting) so I replied that I would be happy to discuss it with him and my tutor in person and that If I was to be given an apology that I would gladly accept and put the whole matter to bed, he then replied (in even worse broken english) something along the lines of 'Apologise to you...haha! What for? Seems you have a big problem with me because I'm foreign, who knows, you have never liked me, enjoy your evening...' I didn't acknowledge the racism accusation and simply replied that I meant apologise for being so rude to me and for blaming me for his own mistake and also pointed out that I had made mistakes in the past and always took responsibility to them. Then my wife seen how upset this made me and got on my facebook and added herself to the group while I was cooking dinner and replied with her dissatisfaction for the accusation or even notion that I would be racist and that he was doing so because he had no rebuttal to the situation or logical answer to the argument and then went on to explain how much stress I was under with her pregnancy etc. to which he replied that he thought it was hilarious.
I have emailed my tutor explaining the situation and express my worry about the accusations should he make them public and that I see them as threatening behaviour, at no point in my time knowing him have I came across as remotely racist or even show him any signs of dislike or hostility towards him, I always treat others how I wish to be treated, that's how I was brought up and I am really worried about what is going to happen because of this, his sudden use of broken english I can only put down to him covering his back in order to accuse me of being racist towards him by suggesting that I somehow put him not reading the timetable down to his nationality, he is well known for one minute speaking fluent english then the next he is using broken english if he is being critised by the tutor or doesn't understand something, one other student (who had been accused of racism by him in the past) told me that he 'throws the racism card around so much that he doesn't even know what it means anymore'.
I understand that the term 'broken-english' may be seen as racist, along with my criticizing his use of it but I can't think of another way of describing it. I know it is a terribly cliched thing to get so defensive of being called a racist but this could get me thrown out of university or even prosecuted. False accusations of a hate crime should be considered a hate crime in itself, in my eyes its as bad as somebody falsley crying rape and can ruin peoples lives. I just don't know what to do, he can be a very hostile guy aswell sometimes if he is annoyed or doesnt get his way and I just want to keep stress levels to a minimum what with a baby due this week amongst other things and just want to get my uni work done as well as I can do without being blackmailed into taking the blame for stuff or get accused of racism. Yeah I dislike the guy, because of his attitude and because he is a fool, not because of his ethnic background, and I've NEVER been anything but polite to him.
That said, when you can be accused of being racist for slagging off the French or Italians (which is xenophobia, not always justifiable but sometimes can be if talking about broad national characteristics that may not be to your taste, and in a jokey manner), you have to tread carefully.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Irritates the **** out of me specially when I know other people have had instant responses.
Im guessing its because they dont want to ship to me etc which is fine by me but at least acknowledge my frikking email!
Rant over lol
....................................................................................
............................................ Ah well, catch it next time.
Oh yes, the same for eBay! Some sellers won't sell outside of their country, not even if they can send by registered or signed for mail.
Sure, they don't have to, but still...
1 - Moore, 2 - Dalton, 3 - Craig, 4 - Connery, 5 - Brosnan, 6 - Lazenby
Christmas bloody shopping.
Ah Christmas time, mistletoe and wine, children..... shout loudly as they piss about in puddles right outside my front door, the little shitz.
Yes it's that time of year again, where families all over head down the pawn shop with granny's wedding ring to raise some funds to buy darling little Wayne some overly violent play station game, he's only 5 but developing so well that he can master those PEGI18 games in 10 minutes!
So it's off to town for me to buy for the nearest and dearest, and run the rat race of 'high volume pedestrian retail traffic', or 'running the gauntlet with the scummers' as I loathe to call it.
It would appear these days that people can only deal with one thing when driving a vehicle; going forward. Throw reversing, a busy junction, any junction or a change of direction from a straight line into the mix and it all goes to ratshit. I dunno why, but it just seems that people can't cope with it. Now take away the vehicle. You'd think that by doing so, you'd reduce the risk and make things a lot safer. How wrong could I have been?
You see, when you take a busy road and remove all the vehicles you get the modern day pedestrianised high street. It's carnage. There's a constant flow of people going up and down said street, with people over taking, plodding along, briskly walking, running etc, but then there's others; people trying to cross over, others who stop for no apparent reason causing a pile up and idiots who have forgotten something and do a U turn risking a head on collision.
A more covert and unsuspecting pain in the arse is granny. Granny wouldn't hurt a bloody fly would she? Oh no, grannies are great, they like sweets n stuff, knit and embroider things. Just think about that image though. Sits in an armchair, has a cat, likes and collects many sharp pointy objects and occasionally has a helper who's about 6' tall and has the mental capacity of a garden gnome..... remind you of anyone?
Granny, in her house is the most sweetest dearest thing you'll ever encounter. Place her with 16 layers of clothes (5 of them being coats)*, brolly in hand regardless of weather and that bloody death chariot of a shopping trolley thing trailing behind her and she becomes the devil incarnate.
During this last week, one granny actually got hold of me by the arm and dragged me to one side while I was walking down an isle in boots (boots the shop, neither of us were in doc martins). This little dainty thing changed my direction like some kinda balrog, it was so shocking I actually just moved and didn't say a word. Course, when I'm walking down the street minutes later I actually clock what just happened, stopped dead, caused a pedestrian pile up (so this is what causes them!) and couldn't move for 5mins due to shock. I'd just been herded by a granny.
The next experience happened yesterday in the bank. "Excuse me" came this little frail voice from behind. "Sorry love" I said, stepping to one side to let gran through the crowded bank. Through came granny, but she'd failed to mention the two wheeled war cart she was towing, which promptly smacked my leg and then ran over my foot. I didn't realise that granny carted round a half-hundred weight of pig iron with her at all times, but the inertia of said heavy load hitting my right steely, bringing gran to an abrupt stop nearly took her down with a clothesline effect, but she's seen two world wars and my boot ain't gonna stop her. A second attempt and the cart was over my foot toot sweet.
And then some bright f@cking knob had the idea of putting these socialist pigs in a battery powered car!? Wtf?! Who the hell thought of that idea?!
He's a grumpy old farting shitstained grandad, he hates everyone and everything. Nothing was as good as when it was 1946 and if he could get away with it, he'd shoot you on sight like one if them 'krout nazi bastards'. This guy is mardy pretty much 100% of the time, so what shall we do? Oh what a great idea, we'll sit him on a go cart with 3 speeds, (ramming speed, just too fast to overtake me when I drive this thing on the road speed and I'm reversing but I don't care what's behind me speed) and then put all over shroud on it so you can't identify him in a line up and he can't see you properly (his eyesight when out with thatcher anyhow), effectively turning said go cart into a scaled down version of the ride he invaded Normandy with, AND THEN we'll put him on a crowded high street, let him go and sit back and watch the carnage as blood, bone and other bodily mess gets strewn skyward as grandad plows a path to poundland where he can ram raid his way in to kill everyone in the building by impailing them on his bullbars.
Then there's the most evil of all pedestrian based traffic; the pushchair.
The pushchair must be to pedestrians what the cyclist is to motorists. They're slow, clumbersome, get in the way, change direction with no warning and if they hit you, it's all your fault. Not only all that, but the parent powering this bloody thing is usually on the phone so has little control, and also uses the damn pushchair as a battering ram. You briskly walk past them through the crowd, then you get held up at a crossing, they ram and squeeze their way to the front and then you have the life risking event of an overtake to do all over again.
In a few months time it shall be me behind the handles of that pushchair....
Karma WILL be a bitch.
* it's rumoured that the MOD's closely guarded top secret Chobham armour was developed after a Churchill tank on excersise ran into a granny who was out shopping in some drizzle. The tank didn't make it. It's never been confirmed what's in Chobham armour, but many suspect utilisation of many layers of duffle coats, scarves and those cellophane hair net things.
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org
People who don't keep with their word!
Case 1: I have been in discussions with an AJB er regarding my Dupont CR cufflinks, replied on detail to all questions ( price was clear from the first email), sent pictures, created and sent invoice, have been asked to wait 2 more weeks and never heard from him again!
Case 2: After a finished ebay auction, someone called me to get a better deal, we agreed with all the details. I prepared the shipment, sent a PP invoice and never heard from him again. Yesterday, he cancelled my PP invoice without any additional word.
People, if you are backing off from a done deal, you should have at least the balls to inform the seller, say sorry and move on!
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
Misrepresentation.
We're all pretty aware of the big debate on gun ownership going on the states right now. The recent awful events over there seem to highlight that something isn't working and people who shouldn't be able to have access to guns are all too frequently putting their hands on them, and worse items like tannerite, resulting in terrible avoidable tragedies.
However, one thing that continues to piss me off is the media's inability or reluctance to report these events and the details accurately and impartially.
I've seen here in the UK the press reporting that all guns were banned since Dunblane in 96
And then along comes YouTube. Now anyone can become famous and reach a global audience within minutes. Great stuff, an opportunity to finally be heard. Does anyone use it as such though? Not in my mind, no. Instead we have people firing guns at anything, dark shades and toothpick in mouth apparently customary. Airsoft shooters acting like Rambo, and generally people talking codshit. The worst is people new to the sport of shooting take these idiots as gospel and adopt the same gun-ho stance.
I was watching a YouTube clip this morning which was supposedly a gun review. Instead, billy bob and son billy bob jr decide to take 2 rifles and fire them into a lake. They then proceed to shoot randomly at a dirt track that leads round a blind corner, which anyone could have come walking round. Most of the comments were positive nuggets of wisdom like "hell yeah!!" Etc, and only one person mentioned the danger of shooting at the road. That comment was responded to with "it was on private land so it's safe". Only trouble there was people often stray onto wide areas of 'private' land unknowingly, and highlighted in the clip was the arrival of the land owner on his buggy, great stuff shoot the land owner coming round the corner on his own private land.... perfectly safe huh?
The other issue is there's a dog barking and jumping all over, even when the guy is firing. I guess it's not keen on the noise. If doggy don't like it, put doggy in car, or don't take doggy at all. An excitable or irritated dog causing distractions while you shoot isn't very safe either. Grrr, bloody stupid fools.
So there's no wonder most general public don't have a clue about shooting and the attitudes real shooters have to the sport. With this in mind, I'd ask for anyone making any judgement on others to research the facts for themselves and open your eyes to the very blinkered and single minded thinking of the media. I'm not gonna start ranting about all the New World Order stuff, but it'd be great if people actually saught an opinion from the people themselves instead of relying on YouTube and the News Corp. to provide the 'facts'.
What really got me pissed of is the NRA's stance in America;
"The only thing that will stop a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun."
What? So it's a perfectly good idea to have MORE guns in SCHOOLS?! Would it not be better to PREVENT the bad guy from owning the gun in the first place instead of letting a situation like a school shooting take place and then deal with the consequences? Would any of us really want to be placed in the position of facing an armed nutter and the prospect of being the one having to shoot them? What if you miss? What if you hit an innocent bystander by mistake? So to the NRA in America I'd say;
"A dead good guy can't even call the cops."
Prevention is better than cure.
But this idea of the NRA's is extremely damaging to the image of the sport. People see that crap and then assume that that's what 'them shooters' think. I can assure you, it's not.
Also, if you are a shooter and enjoy showing people what you've got, how about bearing in mind that you're a representative of your sport, so act safely, sensibly and try to portray a positive image if us. We're not all combat wearing dark shade adorned trigger happy nutcase wannabe Rambo types, so try and show the world that its usually the ones who act like they know everything who invariably don't.
If anyone is interested, I personally believe in gun ownership, but also understand that it should be regulated safely and sensibly. It's pretty tight here in blighty, and my opinion is that if you haven't got anything to worry about, like your mental condition etc, why get bothered by checks etc? The legal loopholes in the states need closing and more background checks need doing, I think that would make a great difference to the statistics. Gun ownership is by the large of it, safe, it's the people behind them who really shouldn't be who need the attention, not the millions of safe, responsible and stable legal people.
Rant over, off ya go.
MG -{ (trigger happy gun nut 8-) )
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org
Sure, the good guy, if alive, could shoot the bad guy dead, but only after the damage is done, and the bad guy usually gets shot anyway at some point; they are usually suicidal so it's a result for them.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Whats the next suggestion, hand out guns to kids at enrollment?
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org