Gaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhh MK IV!

[James Harrison]

My gah (goodness, been quite a while since I had one) seems a bit petty and, dare I say it, ungrateful of me....

Whilst I was doing my postgrad my parents bascially did anything they could to try to get me down.  Eg a conversation with a family friend:

Friend- "So, where are you studying James?"

Me- "Oxford"

Mum or Dad- "Yes, but he's only at Brookes"

    

Now, when I started working and mentioned I had a Masters degree, again they simply had to interject with lines of that nature. 

And now my graduation is finally coming up they have done nothing but nothing but try to ruin it for me. 

They've told me where we'll be staying the night before (some motel 5 miles out of town), they've told me which photos of me in my academic dress we'll be buying (which to be fair doesn't bother me) and they're trying to organise it completely to suit themselves.  I am deeply, deeply offended by the 'meh, not proper Oxford' attitude they had whilst I was studying, and even more so by their overbearing manner now that the graduation ceremony is nigh. 

Frankly I'm of a mind to tell them their presence is not wanted.  Given their previous record of decorum whilst visiting me when I was studying, I'm fairly certain they'll lower my friends' estimation of me and not exactly make a good account of themselves in front of my tutors and friends' families either. 

I've been invited by my coursemates to a graduation dinner and drinks at a tutor's house... and when I tell them (and bear in mind my coursemates are some of my best friends... and some of them live clean halfway around the world.... and therefore I'll probably not see them again in a long, LONG time...) I get told "well, we'll have to see how that tallies with our parking/getting home/booking out of the hotel".  EXCUSE ME?!?  Just why the  are we going?  Whose big day is this?  (I'll give you a hint.  It's most assuredly not theirs). 

For the record, what is making me angry is that what I wanted to do for my graduation just hasn't figured in their plans.  And what really gets my goat is how they're trying to do it all on the cheap.... I get that money is tight and appreciate them paying for it, BUT: had they asked me what I wanted, I would have told them.  And I would have contributed most of the cost (not like my wages are being used for much else as it is, so may as well splurge now and again....)

If I didn't rant here I'd be ranting at them about it... and right now I just can't be doing with that.  I know it seems petty and ungrateful, but this is really important to me... the pinnacle of my academic career... and they're going about cheapening it into farce.   

 

[Captain Shipton Bellinger]

James, are all the chainsaws locked safely in the cellar?

…good.

 

[James Harrison]

It's my temper I have to worry about 

[Capt. Dirigible]

If it was me and my parents had that attitude I'd simply tell them that I don't want them there. It's your big day..you should have the final word on how you want to spend it. If they kick up a fuss simply ask "Why are you so keen to come? After all..IT'S ONLY BROOKES!!"

[Professor J. Cogsworthy]

I hate Wells Fargo right now.....

[Lady Ava]

My gah (goodness, been quite a while since I had one) seems a bit petty and, dare I say it, ungrateful of me....

<snip>
If I didn't rant here I'd be ranting at them about it... and right now I just can't be doing with that.  I know it seems petty and ungrateful, but this is really important to me... the pinnacle of my academic career... and they're going about cheapening it into farce.  
</snip>

Shout, a lot. Or tell them nicely that they are behaving like children. My Mother is very much the same, I just started leaving her out of things. She soon changed her tune towards things.

Today, I started my new job. It's slow, repetitive and a bit dull. And badly organised.
Now I can deal with other people working slower than I do etc, but it's the poor organisation that gets me. I was greeted by a rushed supervisor who handed me over to a couple of other assistants to train the new people. The people who trained me today had been working at the store for three weeks. I imagine this isn't gonna get a lot better, but I guess I'll have to just grin and bear it until something better comes along. Which in this economic climate isn't likely to be soon!
Anyone wanna buy a waistcoat? No? D:

[Mrs. Whatsit]

Lousy day at work.  I need a laugh.  Anyone got one I can borrow?

[walkthebassline]

Lousy day at work.  I need a laugh.  Anyone got one I can borrow?

Try this on for size:

Want to laugh? See hedgehog making funny faces

[Mrs. Whatsit]

Lousy day at work.  I need a laugh.  Anyone got one I can borrow?

Try this on for size:

Want to laugh? See hedgehog making funny faces

That little guy looks like one of my co-workers...  Thanks, Walkthebassline.

[Mercury Wells]

My Dear Harrison.

If I were in your position... I'd retort with:- "Hah!, at least I went to Oxford, unlike you two!", (I don't know if your parents went to Oxbridge etc), 'though your retort might might be considered as elitist/childish though.

But at least you went to Oxford (ok, your parents paid fees et cetera) and thats all that matters to employers really.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

My mother always says to me..."that I (myself) was good enough to go Oxbridge/Eton/Windsor et cetera. Guess what!...I failed her expectations and she's never forgiven me for that...though I occasionally throw her "aspirations" back in her face...not polite I know. But it was my choice, et cetera...I don't follow orders/rules, but If I'm asked politely I will do as requested though (with in reason of course).

also

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

As long as I can teach my Coglet the basics of English (plus old fashioned proper phonetics), maths & a few words/phrases/sentences of a foreign language (Welsh) before starting school Im not worried 

So even if you went to "Brookes" it's still Oxford University..isn't it?.

[rovingjack]

For the record, what is making me angry is that what I wanted to do for my graduation just hasn't figured in their plans.  And what really gets my goat is how they're trying to do it all on the cheap.... I get that money is tight and appreciate them paying for it, BUT: had they asked me what I wanted, I would have told them.  And I would have contributed most of the cost (not like my wages are being used for much else as it is, so may as well splurge now and again....)

My approach to this would be to find a way to have them only come along for the parts I'd want them on and pitch it as a cost saving advantage. Then I'd do the rest by myself.

But That's partly because I'm one of those that never wants much extravagance and would mostly like things that I can do on my own. Other than that people can join me or not and I'm not going alter my life for other folks who are only visiting it. I have to live in it after all. Any visitor who causes problems in a place where someone else 'home', gets a telling off about hospitality (it's not just a word it's a set of social values and a code of conduct).

The benefit for me is that other people don't become a burden to me, and I don't become a burden or inconvenience to them.

But I'm not sure if some of that is an aspergers way of looking at things. Sort of a looking at things and saying, these are my plans and those are your plans and it will be great if we can overlap them in a few places to share the moment. All the while accepting that their value of the moment it not the same as my value of the moment and I should embrace that. Let them have their pleasure in what they like about it, and I'll have mine and we walk away both having enjoyed something for completely differing reasons but enjoying it none the less.

And should somebody take their pleasure at my or somebody elses expense, then it is my pleasure to snark and needle them in subtle ways that cause them to be embarrassed by their own actions and wanting to bury the incident behind them, but I make sure that everyone knows the mistake they made and they will think twice before doing something like it again in that group.

If you were my friend and I was in a situation where your parents belittled you, I might look at you and proclaim "Wow it must free you up some to not have to keep a level head about the amazing things you do. I mean sometimes I get so excited and proud that my head must positively swell, but if I had folks like yours who where always there to pick it apart and take me down a peg or two with backhanded remarks I wouldn't have to always catch myself from being too happy." and I'd let that awkwardly hang there for a moment before asking your parents if they could give some of their 'grounding' insight into some of the things about you I respect and admire.

Theeeen I might let it go and turn the conversation to the excitement about the future. And of course always giving my pointed attention when your folks spoke.

  I'd make it up to you too if it made you uncomfortable. But I just can't resist those that feel they must explain other people conditions for them. And disregard of the tenets of hospitality puts barbs on my tongue.

[Dorian Ambrose]

Right now, I'm pretty annoyed that I can't get a all-in-one USB boot and recovery drive to work.
I wan't it to be a bootable win7/ubuntu 12.04 dualboot installer, that can also be used to flash the BIOS and setup relevant applications after OS install. And preferably, it should automatically override the normal boot priority.
Is that really to much to ask?

Getting each of these functions is easy enough, but getting all of it to work together is proving difficult 

[rovingjack]

so basically you want something that fits in the palm of your hand that with a simple poke into a usb port allows you to boot your own computer on any machine anywhere and give you complete admin access?

Can't imagine why the manufacturers wouldn't forsee the need and make it much easier to do that. 

  Just teasing ya. Course my understanding of the newer computer OSs is a bit weak so forgive my ignorance.

[The Corsair]

I'm a bit blessed with suck (and count your blessings given that I didn't just link you all to tvtroped) right now I think...
I'm literally in the middle of my exams and have to get up at 7 for each (I've been getting up at 7 for lectures, so this on its own is no issue). However, in this time where I've had to get up earlier than preferred and when good sleeps are a necessity my mind, which has struggled for a while with getting to grips with a new musical project of mine, has decided it's full of ideas and I've found myself still up at 4 am, playing around with ideas and writing a myriad of parts for a myriad of songs.
I'm happy, of course, but this isn't the time for it!

[Rockula]

My wife is having a MS relapse. It's the first in several years. Sometimes it's easy to forget she has it when she goes so long without symptoms but then wham!!!

I feel like crying but I can't. It wouldn't be fair on her. I mean, she's not crying so it'd be selfish of me, right?

I just hope it's a short relapse this time.

[Capt. Dirigible]

My wife is having a MS relapse. It's the first in several years. Sometimes it's easy to forget she has it when she goes so long without symptoms but then wham!!!

I feel like crying but I can't. It wouldn't be fair on her. I mean, she's not crying so it'd be selfish of me, right?

I just hope it's a short relapse this time.

Sorry to hear that, Ken. Please give her our best for a speedy recovery. It is indeed very easy to forget she has MS...

[Dorian Ambrose]

so basically you want something that fits in the palm of your hand that with a simple poke into a usb port allows you to boot your own computer on any machine anywhere and give you complete admin access?

No. That I have. Ubuntu even has a function that creates such a device for you with one click.

What I wan't is a way to install and setup a dualboot system from scratch, using only one usb drive and have it all be one single process, rather than having to install each OS separately.
In a perfect world, it would also find and install the latest motherboard and graphics card drivers on it's own.

Making any OS boot or install from usb, is simple. The difficult part is getting multiple OS's to do so at the same time.

[The Bullet]

I would do that my way:

Kludge a USB connector to a dual-throw Microswitch.
Kludge two USB-drives to it.

The dual throw switch switches the two data lines from one usb drive to the other, so you choose which usb-drive is connected.
The power-lines are just connected together.

Build a nice casing and you´re done.

PS: Want one too.

[Dorian Ambrose]

I would do that my way:

Kludge a USB connector to a dual-throw Microswitch.
Kludge two USB-drives to it.

The dual throw switch switches the two data lines from one usb drive to the other, so you choose which usb-drive is connected.
The power-lines are just connected together.

Build a nice casing and you´re done.

PS: Want one too.

That pretty much defeats the purpose, which is to have a single usb drive that does everything. And a simpler way to do what you suggest, would be to just use two separate ports.

[James Harrison]

Thanks everyone for the kind words.  We managed to somewhat defuse the situation without a family fight  (the chainsaws are still in the basement.... I have far more deserving victims 'stuff' for them to cut up  ) 

[Mrs. Whatsit]

My wife is having a MS relapse. It's the first in several years. Sometimes it's easy to forget she has it when she goes so long without symptoms but then wham!!!

I feel like crying but I can't. It wouldn't be fair on her. I mean, she's not crying so it'd be selfish of me, right?

I just hope it's a short relapse this time.

Hope your Mrs. is feeling better soon.

[Herbert West]

Feeling a bit down right now. I had heart problems years ago, but after having some breathing problems last week, I paid a visit to the doctor and found out that my blood pressure was through the roof, in addition to the diabetes. So now I'm on two types of pills to fight it. Today they called and let me know that a urine test says that I have kidney damage as well. So needless to say, I'm not a happy camper.

Next checkup is a week from tomorrow.

[D.Oakes]

The final straw with the landlords, my fiance and I are moving out by the end of next month.  One of my friends, a fellow artist, has rooms for rent.  I will have to scale down much of my life...well...actually I will get rid of a lot of junk as the bulk of what I live in exists comfortably in two rooms of my house.  The biggest gah is basically having to cut out a large part of my family.  It just is not worth my fiance's or my mental health to have them in our lives.  It will hurt, but it must be done. 

[rovingjack]

looks like health problems all around for a lot of us. I had to stop vitamin supplimentation for my low levels of one vitamin because I was loosing control of my smooth muscle actions and loosing the ability to focus both visually and mentally, that and "charlie horses" like crazy and random muscle twitches and cramps, including racing heart and rapid blood pressure changes.

So within twelve hours of stopping vitamin supplements much of it faded (I still get some charlie horses, a cramp or two and loss of focus but far far reduced and seemingly fading more and more). But now the original complaints are coming back. Exhaustion, weakness and depression, along with the fact that the vitamin actually made my crohn's disease leave me alone for almost a week and now it's letting my know it was just avoiding me.

I feel like the vitamin is a solution I seriously need to be using to correct the defficencies I had as well as it helping problems that were opportunistically agressive because of it's abscence, but I also can tell that supplimentation will kill me if we don't figure out why I'm reacting so badly to it. It's like two interlocking conditions preventing the other from getting better. I just wish the health care industry in this country didn't suck so much and I could get answers and work out a solution that is properly suppervised toward success rather than suggesting something and leaving me to work it out on my own when it's not going right. Three simple tests could be given that would individually not answer as much as bring up questions, but together they would be valuble in peicing together what exactly might be going on. and then an additional test while doing supervised supplementation would tell us exactly what is going on and what approach to take for it. all told the cost of these four tests would actually be less of a burden on everybody then A) letting this get worse B ) long term complications from the condition if it isn't reversed in time C) the lawsuit I plan to have my family file if they keep making me wait a month and a half between consultations when I've told them that the solution they suggest for the defficencies is causing nerve and muscle pain spiking blood pressure and heart arythmia.

The mood swings from the missing vitamins are not helping me either. I'm whipping back and fourth between depression and panic, with occasional stops in anger. All of which are completely out of spectrum for me most times.

[citizen_erased]

The helpdesk of the organisation - as in, the number on the website that`s there for people to ask all questions they have - keeps sending customers our way, because they don`t know the answer to the questions of the visitors.

What on earth do we have a helpdesk/callcenter for if they don`t know any answers!?

(As a result, I`ve had several phonecalls of angry people who have been trying to get an answer to their question through calls and e-mails and everything and just keep getting send in different directions or don`t get an answer at all).