one of those weeks...

[Slug Toy]

well i feel like complaining right now. maybe some of you do too. heres a chance to talk about the crap that's happened over the past week or so. ill start off because ive got plenty that's gone wrong lately.

first bad thing. i was busy being sick last week and half of this week. im way behind in everything now.

next bad thing. i had to drop out of calculus. at best i was going to end up with 30% on my final grade. kind of a shame because i dont get any money back from the course... and it probably goes on my record as a dropped course, but ill take that over a complete fail.

next bad thing. had a chemistry midterm today that dealt with crystal structure and kinetics, thermodynamics, and equilibria. i had my ass kicked thoroughly. ill be lucky to pass it.

next bad thing. handed in a chem lab today... i had a 133.6 million percent discrepancy in my results. the next worst person had 103% discrepancy. i did something very wrong there.

next bad thing. got an essay back for english. i got a C- on it somehow. im not too happy about that because i write very well (when it truly counts of course... i dont kill myself when its not for marks) and i can bloody well guarantee that people who have english as a second language managed better marks than i did. i cant say im too surprised though because its an "academic writing" course by name but in actuality its a course where we look at advertising and find reasons to be offended by it... and then write about it. im not a fan of doing that stuff (had i known what the course was beyond the crappy description, i never would have taken it) but i can definitely act offended, and i make much better arguments and think way faster than the teacher herself.... who also happens to be a hardcore feminist who talks to us like retards. it feels like she rewards the people who pick up on the obvious and justify it with some sort of half bull****-half rhetoric statements... while people like me who spend the time to pull out the stuff not many people catch get a kick in the nuts. ill get her for this though... the next essay due is actually a rewrite of the one i just got back... im going to submit the rewrite in a completely different language and let her deal with it. i swear to god if im going down in that class, im taking her sanity with me.

anyways... things havent been going well. ive had worse things happen, but never so many crappy things within such a short time span. my head is fried, and my body aches all over.

im going to watch some tv. next complaint!

[Maz]

Chemistry...Acid-Base titration (weak) kicks my ass every time man!

[Drum Thumper]

Ok, you asked for it...

As I've stated elsewhere, I'm stuck with being in an unionized workforce who's local doesn't do a damn thing for the people they represent. Here's how the last couple weeks have gone for me:

Get a bill from my dentist stating that I do not have any insurance. I find this odd, since, as far as I know, since I've been on this job for 4 months now, I should have insurance. Granted, I don't have a copy of the new contract, but this is how it's been in the past, so I imagine this is how it is now.

I call the union office and ask them what this is all about. I get quoted part of the new contract (which I haven't seen) that says all employees of the company I work for who were hired after May of 2004 will receive health benefits the 25th month of consecutive employment, granted that they have worked 160 hours in the 23rd month. 2 ****ING YEARS without health insurance! Happy ****ing day, I'm so damn glad that I'm having to shell out 36 bucks a month (soon to be 38!) and I'm not seeing a goddamn thing in return for 2 ****ING YEARS!

I'm tempted to believe that these assholes that are supposedly representing me just jumped at the first contract that my employer threw on the table. It sure wouldn't surprise me if that's what did happen.

And to think, I left a decent warehouse job that had really really good benefits in all areas (for the most part) for this.

But, one should always have a backup plan. Mine involves taking the 220-602 and the 220-604 for starters. Then, after I land a tech job, I'll probably have to snag Network+ and maybe some of the MSCE Certifications.

This shouldn't be read as a slam on unions mind you. Just UFCW Local 8.

/end rant

Next!

[Bucko]

My week has mostly been ok, except for the past couple of days.
Yesterday I took my Vespa for a ride to the far north coast and after about 5 hours riding from home, I snapped the throttle cable, leaving me stuck on the side of the road.
Luckily I was riding with a couple of mates, so I borrowed one of their bikes to head to the nearest town to find a phone (no mobile reception in the sticks), found a phone and rang my friend with a van to come get me.
he was about 2 hours away and I sat around in the pouring rain until he arrived.
Once loaded he drove me back to my place and stayed the night rather than driving the few hours back to his place.
Gotta love great friends!

Today I go to do some running around and find my other bikes battery is flat, so no transport for me.
I ring another friend and he comes and picks me up so I can get a battery charger. At least that bike is running now.

[simon275]

Went to university for my three days lots of fun.

Then today and yesterday spent the whole time struggling with Ubuntu.

Finally got it working today all is well.

[LiTHiUM0XiD3]

been sick.... been in a fight with my lady........ found out im gunna be in a area without internet for the next week.....

[xRyokenx]

Don't get me started. In fact, I won't at all... these past couple to three weeks have been annoying, and I'm still learning lots of new stuff though, that's always good... but let's not start me on that... a bit embarrassing (some of it) anyways...

[Airbozo]

Whew! I am almost afraid to post _my_ whiney ass problems...

Came back from mexico with a cold, missed a board meeting at Kirkwood Ski Resort, Sucked at disc golf and lost some $$, found out the fire department is refusing to cross our private bridge and we could lose our fire insurance. My Landcruiser is almost dead (water pump, alternator +more), and I have to get rid of my mustang so I can get a pickup, my sportster's alternator died just in time for the good weather.

On the flip side...

GOT to go to mexico, making that board meeting tomorrow, I sucked so bad at disc golf, I get to choose my doubles partner sunday (then get accused of sand bagging), Got re-elected president of our road association (and get to deal with the bridge issue), Get to start restoring the Landcruiser.

On Unions:
The Union is like a fan.
Stand beside it, it does nothing for you.
Stand behind it, it sucks.
Stand in front of it and it will blow you away.

I have been in a couple of unions and was even the hourly representative for one in So-Cal. I was amazed at the political crap that went on, and you could never find the big-wig's since they were always out at the golf course schmoozing with management ON MY DIME!

Slug-Toy, to (somewhat) quote Hank Hill; "You got a C- in English? But you speak english!"

Good DAY! Isaidgoodday...

EDIT: Not bashing unions either, just showing my frustration...

[Luke122]

Alright, here it comes.

First of all.. work has been dumping so much stuff on me, that I"m getting stressed right out. And for me, high stress = less sleep, which also = crap immune system.

So I've been sick at home for the last two days. I wake up this morning, feeling a bit better, and decide to come in to work. Two days behind is better than 3 days behind. :evil:

Stop at a gas station on the way to work to get myself a can of fuel.. Full Throttle baby... yeah! Hmm.. maybe I'll get 4 cans, since I cant hold much down for food. $10.75 total, and my debit card declines.. "insufficient funds" WTF?! I checked the bank last night, and I had $300+ in that account. So now I'm embarassed at the store, because my card declines. :evil:

Get to the office, and I try to sign into my internet banking to check my account status, and it wont work... just keeps timing out. Grrrrrrrr...:evil:

I manage to find the phone number for phone banking, and get into my account status. Turns out that I"m overdrawn by $20.. oh FFS. :evil: Turns out that my car insurance came out 5 days early.. no idea why.

So I get into work this morning, and one whole department has been moved. "None of our printers or computers are working." Nice of you to tell me about this proposed move. I've spent the morning so far trying to get things back up and running. :evil: Luckily it was just a bad connection in a wall plate, and after I repaired that, the workgroup printers are back running.

So here I sit, under a mountain of paperwork and proposals, trying to get in touch with 2 vendors for some obscure piece of information that my boss wants, and I still havent had any caffiene this morning. Did I mention I'm still sick? I want to go home and sleep some more. :evil:

[Ticien]

I do mindless repetitive work for a multinational insurance company. At the beginning of this year they drove our medical insurance into the ground, took away our profit sharing, and changed all us hourly employees to salary without telling us. Then they changed the workweek from 37 hours mandatory to 40 but kept our yearly wage the same (that means a paycut for all of us)...THEN the CEO came and did a presentation about how OUTSTANDING last years numbers were. hmm...

That leads me to this week. I hate my job and I cant leave it because my lady moved here from Florida to be with me, and hasnt been able to find a job that pays more than 8 bucks an hour and gives her 10 hours a week because its the Detroit area and all the laid off auto workers are getting the jobs as they come up. she keeps getting interviews with no luck, and my funds are about zilch. most of my monthly income now that ive had to take my pay cut and pay extra to put her on my insurance since her job doesnt get any, has gone towards rent/groceries/bills. I have none left to do anything with so i just sit on my ass at home and do nothing which makes me extremely depressed. Adding to that are the thoughts that keep running through my head that I have everything I have ever wanted, except that I spend more time at work hating life than I do at home loving my lady. I keep kicking myself because I have been in college for almost 6 years and I dont even have an associates to show for it because I ****ed up in the beginning and have been fighting to get it back on track since then. I feel like I am stuck in a little box and there is no way out. The part of my life i see when I go home is what I always wanted things to be; the part I see all day here is the part I never wanted to happen and now Im living in it. It ruins the rest of my days and I have to either sit and watch the love of my life cry on my shoulder every night because I look and act like a zombie every day and she blames herself, or I put it aside and act happy, only to wake up in the morning feeling sick because I dont want to get out of bed and come to this mind-numbing piece of **** job every day and deal with the monotony and office politics that make me want to claw my face off.

Sorry to complain, fit with the thread, I know its up to me to change it but it feels good to rant every now and then.

[nil8]

Woo, bitch thread.

1. A childhood friend of mine died of heroin overdose last week.
2. I am still unemployed and my benefits run out at the end of April.
3. I might have to move back in with my parents, as I will have no source of income.
4. I have a sinus infection that isn't going away(2 months), and I have no health insurance and no money to go to the doctor.
5. My truck's transmission continues to leak and I can't afford to get it fixed.

[Ticien]

I guess lives like ours are why we have modding to take our minds off of it :D or in my case, daydream about modding to take our minds off of it :D

[xRyokenx]

Oh, man... that sucks nil8... but hey, your parents are there to help you, right? I'm still being reminded of that constantly... I'm glad I got "stuck" with the two people I did, otherwise I'd be screwed right now.

[xmastree]

Well, I started a new job this week. Two days induction, first day I felt real bad but I didn't want to throw a sickie on my first day (especially as they only do inductions once a month) so I went along. By the end of the day I had a thumping headache, hot/cold flushes, and dizzy spells.
Still, they gave me a car, and a PDA (http://www.msmobilenews.com/uploads/2006/02/m600_3.jpg) and I came home. Took my temperature, 102° ! :dead: Took paracetamol.
Next day, temp down to 100° and feeling slightly better (still taking the meds) I went for the second day's induction. This time I had a raging thirst, but got through the day.
Wednesday I was out on the road, and the fresh air seemed to help me immensely. I feel fine now.

And I got to see perspex being made... cool! :p

[Bucko]

Today I go to do some running around and find my other bikes battery is flat, so no transport for me.
I ring another friend and he comes and picks me up so I can get a battery charger. At least that bike is running now.

But was dead this morning when I went to leave work. 300kg of Murdercycle is hard to push up to speed to bump start!

It's back on the charger now and once it has enough charge to start again I'm off to the bike shop for a new battery.

[jdbnsn]

Is this thread a rant in general thread, or did it just get hi-jacked from Slug Toy? Either way, I feel ya'lls pain. Life can really suck at times and it is a million times worse when you see your own problems without the contrast of other's woes to put them in perspective. Slug, I know getting your ass handed to you for a week in school sucks (I know this better than you can possibly imagine), but it's good for keeping us humble and reminds us there is always more to learn and we have room for improvement.
As for putting pain in perspective, I'll give you an example case study:
(this is a completely true story, with mild inaccuracies to obscure identity)
A 37 year old female who had gotten married 5 weeks ago presented to her family doc because of small amounts of blood in her stool and difficulty using the bathroom. He sent her to get a CT scan and colonoscopy. The CT showed opacities in the colon as well as "possible abcesses/cysts" in her liver. Colonoscopy showed a small polyp in her colon which appeared benign and looked like an easy ressection. She was then reffered to our surgical team for removal. She was given anesthesia and went to sleep expecting to wake up and go home healthy in a couple of days. Upon opening the abdomen, many large masses were immediately visualized on the liver and the cheif surgeon's expression was that of doom. We biopsied them and sent them for frozen section pathological exam (this is a real fast way of getting the tissue under a microscope and identified by the cellular makeup), about 15 minutes later and head poppped through the door and exclaimed "adenocarcinoma"! What followed was a 5 hour labourous manual examination of the gut where we discovered affected lymph node after node. The original plan was to remove a small section and re-connect the two ends to her GI tract would regain function, but there was so much cancer we took everything south of the tumor. She now has a colostomy bag and woke to be given the news of her prognosis. Metastatic (stage IV) adenocarcinoma is not a good thing, and her chances of living at all much less normally are nil to none.

I know that it's not a pleasant thing to post on the forums, but I have learned alot from cases like this one. Mostly perspective. Everytime you wake up and are not told that you are about to suffer, consider it a good day.

[Aero]

Ell, my week hasn't been that bad. I'm realizing I won't have a date for my senior prom which blows. Especially when your that "nice guy" who everyone knows, and nobody hates. But no one will go out with you.

Other than that the most exciting things that I've done this week is index all 150 of my DVD in Excel.

[Bucko]

Just to share what a really good friend of mine has gone through in the past two months to put life in perspective. Bear in mind this guy still has his sense of humour after all of this.

2 months ago his 18 month old Son passed away. Only a few days before Christmas. After that happened, he and his wife of 18 years started having problems, so he jumped on his bike to go for a ride with friends and just clear his head.
While about 9 hours ride from home, he crashed. Only minor damge to the bike and a few bruises for him. What he didn't realise was the rear wheel was knocked out of alignment. It sheared off the rear sprocket carrier, locked up the rear wheel and nearly spat him off again.
Stranded away from home, he finally had a friend come and get him and the bike and then he caught buses and trains home (over 12hours).
He then decided to buy a Van to head down to get the bike. After 4 hours via public transport, he got to Sydney, bought the van and then went to drive down to get him bike.
Halfway there the engine blew, leaving him stranded again.
It was towed to a shop, where the prognosis was a new engine was needed.
That meant coming up with another $4000 after already spending $4500 on buying the van. He stayed there for a few days and managed to injure his knee so much so he needed a walking stick to get around.
Long trips by public transport got him home, then back to the van once it was fixed.
He then drove down, got his bike and drove home. The bike fell over twice, breaking a few bits on it and denting the van.

Once home he saw the Doc about his knee and while he was there, he had an ulcer on his tongue checked out that wouldn't go away.
Well, that ulcer was a cancer and he had to have a chunk of his tongue removed and have a skin graft from his thigh to patch it up.
No he can't speak normally and has to have speech therapy.
He has at least sorted out some problems with the wife, but it isn't perfect by a long shot.

[Slug Toy]

I know that it's not a pleasant thing to post on the forums, but I have learned alot from cases like this one. Mostly perspective. Everytime you wake up and are not told that you are about to suffer, consider it a good day.

you could look at it that way. more and more im starting to feel like it doesnt really matter if you know or not... bad things will be there waiting. although in fairness, i probably feel like that because of school, the bad weather, and the fact that last weekend while everyone in my family was away except me, i was either feeling too bad to do something, or my friends bailed out on me.

and that whole cancer thing, i know how that goes. that is complete crap. we actually lost a family friend to cancer a few months ago. he had various forms of skin cancer. he had a tumor in his armpit, which ended up with an amputation of his whole arm including collar bone and shoulder blade. it wasnt done there though, because he got a huge post-op infection, and was still showing strange symptoms. he went back to the hospital finally because his "arm" was not healing and kept hemorrhaging, where he was then screwed with for a few days and ended up completely loopy and unconscious most of the time. some test results came back and they showed that the cancer in his skin had metastasized to pretty much every part of his body. brain, lungs, liver, bone, skin, pretty much everything was ciompletely ****ed up at that point. only good thing was that he was on intense pain killers, so when he was awake... he was hallucinating and happy. he died within a week, and as far as i know his wife was there pretty much 100% of the time. she was a nurse, and im damn surprised she didnt slip something into his IV to just end things... i would have.

but anyways... it happened... its done, cant do anything about it now, so i dont focus on it, and i move on.

and no, this thread wasnt hijacked from me. i just felt like i had to vent some frustration, and i figured maybe other people might want to. i feel better now amazingly. something about telling your problems to people who care. my parents dont care, they cant understand why im sucking at school. my friends dont have time to care... they have their own schooling and work to deal with. it seems like the only place where people may be able to relate right now is here, and its true.

oh, Ticien, while im thinking of it... i have a small suggestion that can help, although you may have thought about it and tried it already. back when i was doing computer sciences and hating it, i REALLY needed a reason to get up in the morning. i found that reason in random "chaos". by that i mean this... everyday when i got bored, i would burst out in some sort of stupidity or game... even in the middle of class. i would say and do things to make myself feel better and make everyone else laugh. it worked for the most part and i was known throughout the school, except i didnt get very good marks because of it. but hey... it was my only semester at the place, and i went out with an incoherent bang. moral of the story is if you arent happy, shake it up a bit. maybe not at home... if you're happy there, but do something stupid every once in a while. its a lot more fun than being grumpy all day.

[jaxspades]

Well--I had to sit in a classroom all week, observing how a teacher teaches, because my college wants us to have this experience--long week. Not too bad, but just a long week.

I also have been having odd symptoms lately--I've had them before, but not this often--dizziness, light-headed, weak feelings in the muscles, hunger-pains, headaches....and all I keep hearing is--hypoglycemia. I hope it doesn't come down to that. But it could be worse.

God'll strengthen me for it, if that is the case.

For all who are sick, may you find medicine; For all who are sad, may you find comedy; For all who are sick of their jobs, may you find a vacation soon!!!

Have a better week guys.

[xRyokenx]

Dude, I have hypoglycemia, it's low blood glucose (sugar). You may be prediabetic, as that's a sign... what you have to do to regulate it is simple, just eat snacks with protein every couple hours, take it easy on the sugar intake, and overall eat healthy, balanced meals (I have trouble with that last one, heh heh).

[Mitternacht]

I've seen this thread, and now because of tonight I have a post to contribute.

My sister wants to install this MP3 software for a Phillips MP3. She tries to install it, and she's informed that she needs SP2. She has the basic XP Home Edition.

I try to install SP2, and I'm informed that cmd.exe is open, and the upgrade is cancelled; the command prompt is not open. I figure its corrupt system files, so I use an XP disc I have, and use the repair utility. It fails.

My sister asks about the upgrade install, and I tell her that a clean install is better. She agrees and says she has all the discs for the programs she has; ok. I start the upgrade install first to see if it works. This old ass Sony Vaio freezes 3 times, and now I have a ****load of mixed files; upgrade from home to pro.

I tell her I'm gonna do the clean install; "Wait! I have important files on that computer still!" Well, what THE ****!!??

It should of all been moved to the other drive before I even started. In fact, its a 20gig hdd inside this labtop; 12 gigs as D:, and 8 as C:, which the system files are. She's supposed to keep all of her files on D:, so C: has enough free space. I counted on reformatting just the C: part of it, and now she wants me to boot up Windows to move her files; too.....fuuuuuccckkkkiiiiinnnnggg,........late.

I go into the BIOS to move the CD-ROM as secondary, and the HDD as Master. The hdd is nowhere to be found. I can't boot from it now, and when startup, the sony screen stays on forever. When I try to get into the BIOS, it says Entering SETUP... and it stays like that. So now, her computer is ****ed. I had to fix that piece of **** every other week.

She's expecting to have it fixed tomorrow. heh, heh.

[xRyokenx]

My mom has this awful Dell laptop that was my dad's for work. My youngest brother decided to pull out the HDD, while it was running, because his dumb game was lagging. It's either the server or the craptop that does that, not the HDD. So now, I have to figure out how to fix the thing when it's missing files for it to run Windows 2000, and I don't have the disk because they installed it wherever they shipped it from for my dad's work... luckily I found the driver disk for the infernal thing, so I might end up installing XP, which might work better...

[Spawn-Inc]

well my beef is games. i was watching tv and saw future weapons. they had a kick ass gun
xm307, 40mm grenade machine gun it you will
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/images/ORD_XM307_lg.jpg
xm312, .50 cal machine gun
http://www.huaxia.com/uniwaysimages/200511/hx111010313.jpg

soi go and google it to get some pictures and i come across a mod for BF2, point of existence. so i download it and it takes a hour (1.30gbs at 130kb/s). once it finished installed and it loaded up and i went to play a single player map and everyting works until spawn time comes. it won't spawn me. so i went back to pos's website and i see i need a patch. i go get the patch and wait 20 minutes. install and now none of my bf2's work. also my computer has been slowing down and it took forever to scan crap and uggh i don't like computers anymore....

seems like a small problem, which it is, but still pissing me off none the less....


NOTE: sorry for any and all grammer mistakes i am to dam tired to give a rats ass about grammer it and english can go to hell right
now.

EDIT:
soo.. my toy helicopter broke after playing with it for 5 minutes.... 45$ for nothing.... i'm sorry but that just makes me laugh... so + rep for that.

[xRyokenx]

I know how it gets, when computers mess up, I tend to get quite frustrated too... Morrowind is getting annoying :( I hate having to look for quests, etc. They should have it where you can't go everywhere and you have someone telling you what to do, where to find it (easier), etc... but that would make it less of a free roam RPG, but then again... they should have it so you can choose...

[.Maleficus.]

Wow, I don't even know if I should post my gripes. Compared to some I've just read, my whining will make me just sound like a puss. Oh well.

1. For the past semester of school, I've been failing English with a 38%. It's my native language.. I had 6 missing assignments, and the highest grade I got on our To Kill a Mockingbird quizes was a 30%. I can only get 50% highest for late homework, so now that it's all turned in, I have a 64%. The quarter ends in 2 weeks.

2. I have a B- in Algebra. This isn't too bad, except I could be teaching the class better than my teacher. Again, this is due to missing homework (10 0% scores on homework this semester I believe). My mom is questioning whether I'll be able to handle the workload of Geometry this summer (I'm taking it in the summer so I can take Alg. 2 right away next year). This also holds true for Physics, because I don't do homework, and I'm skipping a year of required science.

3. The past week and a half I've been struggling with my computer. I fked my Ubuntu install, and gave my friend the disc, so I couldn't re-install. My DVD burner wasn't working, so I couldn't burn another copy, or any other distro (I was hoping to install Arch soon). So I had to use something I had on hand. Gentoo. Wow. I spent a week doing about 6 complete installs, none of them working because I didn't read a config. file closely enough. I got it working, and couldn't configure X, because of some 'speedo' module I didn't even need. I got Xfce running, but a bunch of important packages were masked by '~amd64' because I'm on a 64-bit install. I got that sorted, but I'm stuck with xffm and can't install Thunar, for some imaginary package that doesn't exist, that isn't installed on my computer, that also can't be installed is blocking it. If you've ever used xffm, you'll know why this pisses me off. I want to install Gnome now, but it will take forever installing from source, and I don't want to go in and manually remove all of my Xfce files.

4. I don't have much time to work on CS:Server any more, and it's just starting to warm up around here. And I have to start drivers-ed sometime soon, eating up more of my free time. Oh well, I'll make time :evil:

5. I can't configure my damn scroll wheel in X.


Wow, I was right. I do sound like a puss. Oh well.

[xmastree]

5. I can't configure my damn scroll wheel in X.
Take a look in your config file, (/etc/X11/xorg.conf) for this section:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

The bold part is what configures the wheel.

[Ticien]

Thanks for the advice Slug, I just now checked back on this post. I will have to try doing something to get my mind off of it. It does make you feel a lot better to put your gripes in a place like this. I have found throughout my random meeting of people that those you dont know often seem to care more than the people right next to you. This place has a very strong sense of community. I have only been a part of this for a short time and even though I dont know any of you it still feels like a big family. Maybe it is because we all share a common interest, maybe it is because most of us are that "nice guy" who couldnt get a date to the prom, all meeting here to share the things that are important to us. To those of you telling all of us your issues, talking about how they aren't as bad...The things in your life may seem small compared to the rest of the world, but to one person, it may seem like the world is falling apart. Everyone's problems are always more important to them than other people may be able to recognize or consider. With me it's my job. To others this may be a non-issue. The important part is to talk about it and get support from your friends and those who care. And I think I can safely say that everyone who posted in this topic cares about what every single one of you has said, problems big or small. So to that I give all of you kudos for sharing your lives with me, and listening to me share mine with you all. Good luck to everyone.