The Not Happy Thread

OK, I getcha. I just didn't want to get into a debate (with you or anyone else) where I might get overemotional (read: angry) and say something I'll regret.

 

Been dealing with some tiny leaks, but shit could be much worse.

 

I can understand that. I get that sometimes I can come off as a bit more confrontational than intended, just know that I appreciate your contributions and value you as a person, and as such, wouldn't intentionally try to bring you distress or acrimony.

 

ETA: I wanted to add a comedy clip here, but I can't find it.

 

I'm so, so tired of my mother constantly bringing up my weight. It feels like it's every other day now. Just hints, but she's really trying to drive it into my brain that we need to loose weight asap!

I know I'd do good losing about 15 kg - and I'm trying - but it won't go faster when she's on about it all the time. All it does is making me obsess about it all over again. I've always been in battle with my weight and it's just going to end up with me stop eating which in turn will lead to me over eating. I don't want to go back to those spirals again.

I try eating healthy (less on the weekends) and I work a heavy factory job that I get to and from by bike. On top of that I try to work out extra - even though I'm mostly in too much pain for it to be of much use. What more does she want from me?

I don't need more stress

 

Are you talking about things like vampire tee-bags?

 

Yes.

 

I can't help but get upset when I hear parents have died, leaving young children behind.

 

This does present and excellent opportunity, though, to take them under your wing and train them to be the supervillains they were meant to be.

 

My car has been sitting idle for a while as I've been out of the country sorting out funeral and estate stuff. So when I got back, it wasn't much of a surprise that the battery was dead. No problem, I'll just hook up a battery charger. After 2 days, the battery is still dead. That is unless you consider that ominous hissing noise every time I connect the charger indicates it's still alive and about to strike someone dead. The sound's reminiscent of ye olde dynamite fuses. For me, though, it kind of represents ominous doom where things might go boom or start a little unwanted cosy campfire in the engine compartment. So I've given up on the battery charging.

I then thought, I'm sure this thing was a recent purchase, and it's got a 36 month warranty. Trouble is, I can't remember for the life of me where I put the receipt and it might be older than that anyway.

Burial of the dead battery is tomorrow in the local recycling station, shortly after obtaining a new horrendously expensive battery. So RIP, you stupid battery. Flowers in lieu of donations gratefully received.

 

Where I am auto places have a deposit (or "core" charge) you have to pay until they get the old one back.

 

Again this month, Vodafone have taken 21.99...but I'm not getting any internet on that device or sim card!!! They have until tomo to get their fucking arse in gear with this damn thing, before I go down there with a Shitstorm I've been brewing since March. Not looking forward to it, but I will be putting my foot down. I am not paying anything additional cos they have already been overpaid by me to date...whether they acknowledge receiving it or not, it went from my account!!!

ETA: I just stumbled on this familiar sounding issue that another customer had...back in 2011! So their systems still don't work since then?! I've never had any luck with the pin shit for the billpay device either.

https://community.vodafone.ie/t5/Mobile-Network-Coverage/Attempting-to-pay-bill/m-p/49489

 

Balt was acting weird when I was getting ready for bed... turns out a huge bug had entered through the window...

...it looked somewhat like a cockroach, but I might've just overreacted. I'm surprised no neighbours called the police with all the horrified screaming comming from my apartment.

Now I'm terrified to go to bed. Or ever having my window open again. Cockroaches are one of my biggest fears!

 

I got a resident cricket that barely roams the wilds of my living room. Freaks me out
when it jumps onto something, but it is not much of a bother.

 

I taught the Civil Rights/lynching/Middle Passage lesson again today.

A mono-ethnic society can never really hope to understand America's issues, but I do my best.

It's pretty wrenching, but that's how I designed it.

 

I think everywhere other than America has difficulty understanding Americas issues... and even then....

 

So....

Now you have one pupil less?

 

Yeah, but while the racism in Japan is generally not malicious, it's bone-deep. Think I've told this story here before, but in context it bears repeating. There are two words, well, one and an abbreviation, for "foreigner" in Japanese. The first, gai koku jin, literally translates as "outside country person." The second is the more well-known gai jin, which is "outside person."

Now, I'm a white guy who grew up in a very white city and county, so I'm picking my words carefully here, but I think the best explanation of the semantic difference between the two would be the American English words "African American" vs. "black." Gaikokujin (which applies to anyone not Japanese) is the preferred term, but while there are some people who see gaijin as a slur, there are many of us who aren't bothered by it and indeed tend to use it amongst ourselves.

This is an imprecise analogy, but I don't see gaijin as being the equivalent of the N-word.

So one day I was cycling through town and passed a group of kindergartners out with their teacher en route to the park or something. The little kids saw me and began excitedly shouting "Haro! Gaijin, haro!"

Their teacher corrected them. "Gaijin ja nai, gaikokujin desune."

To use my analogy of black vs. African-American, it's as if some white American kids started shouting out "Hello! Black guy, hello!" and their teacher corrected them "Not 'black guy,' 'African-American guy,' right?"

To paraphrase Douglas Adams I think, the mere thought of correcting them for calling out someone who looked different hadn't even begun to contemplate the possibility of crossing her mind.

 

So, Kinda like when I go south and pretty much everyone just ends up calling me "Canada."

 

"Sup Panama?"

 

Nah, nah, I think you're looking for David Lee Roth. I'm another David looks good in spandex.

 

There's a Blackadder clip I had in mind for this as well, but alas I can not find it.
Gonna have to watch that when you are here.

 

Inmates got commissary today and are now all hopped up on coffee and sugar. Meanwhile I'm trying to dig myself out of this writer's block, and they are very distracting....