Life

[Nappi]

A colleague of mine realized that he had a big bottle of shampoo in his backpack, but decided to try and get it through the security check in Heathrow anyway. When they started to examine his backpack, I joked that maybe he should run already. Unfortunately, I said this in English and quite loud. The security guys' heads turned towards me immediately. Fortunately, they didn't tase me or anything.

 

So yeah, don't yell "RUN!" at the airport either.

[I_smell]

There was a great story on GiantBomb where everyone on the plane to PAX started talking about the giant bomb panel, without realising how it sounded.

[syntheticgerbil]

I'm done trying to explain it to him, because it's always interpreted by him as "not supporting my happiness," but it still bothers me sometimes, because I'm a jerk who can't let things go.

Well, he's your friend so you're going to care. I just think that the board game story is one of the stranger things I've heard to describing the overbearing type of partner. The scenario makes me think of something I might have done at a young age to keep my little sister from crying by purposefully losing, but it's strange to hear of adults doing the same among other adults. Also I would have purposefully never protected my little sister from losing because I was a very bad brother.

[syntheticgerbil]

I did it, I won my unemployment appeal after 3 months of fighting this crap and doing all of my homework on labor code and what constitutes wrongful termination. Long story short, I did good work and was praised for it, employer didn't like that I made complaints last year about problems with the job and over time that ended up as a fiasco over nothing because they CEO likes to take you into his office and talk down to you until you back down and admit you are wrong. I never backed down but I was ultimately branded a troublemaker. Director there hires art director from another state friend above every artist there, we never get along, the dude is apathetic and lazy and I try my best to be continuously professional about it the last year even when making complaints about him impeding my work flow and causing over time, blah blah blah. I was fired finally because the dude called me a dick and I responded with "fuck off."

 

Obviously what I did was wrong and I made a grave error by losing my cool but only I was fired without warning, not the art director. They fought my unemployment claim but I did some research on filing for benefits upon termination and found that my case would be classified under wrongful termination because I did not have any kind of warning ever given to me nor did I have any problems with any other team members. Did my research on precedents similar to my case, got statements from former coworkers, and called the company out on lack of having any kind of code of conduct or documentation of anything since they were trying to twist things and defame me for a bunch of reasons including suddenly stating that I had never done good work. Good thing I had copies of multiple e-mails praising me. The CEO also made the mistake to send a company wide e-mail about my firing which spoke highly of my work ethic even though I was fired. A former coworker then forwarded this to me.

 

Ah, so I'm trying to keep this short, but I guess I failed. Finally I had my appeal hearing yesterday, which was done as a telephone conference with my former boss and the HR person I reported the incident to (yes I reported myself, it seemed to win me a bunch of brownie points with the hearing officer). I was nervous as fuck to hear his voice again and was hoping I wouldn't screw up the verbal part since I sent a bunch of documentation ahead of time to the hearing officer. Turns out the hearing officer read every bit carefully and I didn't have to lead or say much of anything. She grilled my former boss as he tried to twist so many things around and she was able to quickly poke holes in everything he was saying and did it all so eloquently. It was so great to listen to and I felt incredibly relieved. I feel like she really did me a favor to hear out my case since Texas is apparently very bad about giving unemployment for any reason unless it is just a regular lay off.

 

So still, don't have a job which sucks, but now I have money to help my fiancee out with bills until I find one. Hopefully get a steady paycheck soon, as I hate being home all day. But either way,  a small victory for me in life. I tried so hard for the unemployment appeal and feel proud of myself for sticking to it even though I wanted to give up so many times because of how taxing it was and how much fine print and bureaucracy I had to deal with. I mean my old boss can technically still appeal this verdict in the next two weeks, but he has to present new evidence to the next committee it goes to and then explain why they didn't have it in the first place. I kind of don't think it's happening but there is a possibility he may try to manufacture statements against me with the other friends he works with. But I hope finally I can now let go of the incredible unhappiness with that job. In the report I received in the mail today, the hearing officer wrote a long description about my case specifically pointing out the nepotism going on in the company and then supported me by citing a second unemployment claim precedent in addition to the one I had already found. She also explained that even if they had problems with my personality, they never made the effort to reprimand me but instead decided to continuously praise my work.

 

Beaming right now.

[Gormongous]

That's really awesome, Synth. I remember that finding work was hard when I was growing up in Texas because they let employers run roughshod over employees, but it sounds like you had a great advocate in the hearing officer and did more than your fair share of legwork to see it through.

 

And hey, don't apologize for the length. I love all the juicy details that come with a shitty workplace getting called out for what it is. I don't feel like the little guy is the winner enough already.

[Justin Leego]

Yeah, that's great news SG, you really put a shift in over the case and the level of detail means that it's not only a fascinating read but practical and helpful too.

Anyway, go Synth.

[Roderick]

Fantastic news, SG. Good for you for sticking out this long, getting your own back and confronting a man that did you wrong. That can be tough as all hell, so it speaks of real character that you persisted.

I returned from Stockholm yesterday night. Thanks for all the great suggestions here! I had a great time visiting the Vasa museum and the Science Fiction Bokhandeln. A good thing I spent every evening reading the book I brought along, since that opened a vacancy on the last day I could fill with Isaac Asimov's Foundation. It came with high praise from friends, so I knew it was good. Then I started reading and it's a treat! Incredible.

Alright, back to Stockholm. Places I visited: the lush Djurgarden park, the Abba museum (who is the dancing queen? I am), the East-Asia musem (of which I first had reservations because it seemed weird to delve into that culture while being in Sweden, but my curiosity won me over and I didn't regret it. Small but very beautiful) and a tour of Riksdag - the Swedish parliament. Stockholm is a beautiful city, it looked very sweet and lovely (soft colors, round shapes) and I felt very much at ease there.

[Twig]

I hate nothing more than waiting for a phone interview.

[dibs]

I took one a few months back sitting in bed in my underpants. Nice and relaxed.

[Twig]

It's usually fine once it starts. And this one was, too, although I fumbled a bit on two of the questions - not because I didn't know the answer... but because my tongue wouldn't cooperate.

 

I just hate the waiting period, because my mind is so preoccupied by the impending DOOM that I can't concentrate on anything else. I'm a nervous person on a regular day. This kind of shit just amplifies it by a million.

[syntheticgerbil]

Thanks guys!

 

I took one a few months back sitting in bed in my underpants. Nice and relaxed.

 

I might have found this imagery way more hilarious than it should be, but I laughed out loud.

 

I hate phone interviews too, I tend to talk too much if left in silence in those situations and I'll often speak over the other person when they have just started asking a question, continuously causing awkward conversation where we both stop talking and try to let the other person speak. It's so much easier in person because you can kind of take visual cues and tell when someone is about to talk or if they are becoming disinterested in what you have to say.

[Ucantalas]

I took one a few months back sitting in bed in my underpants. Nice and relaxed.

The last job I got, I had an interview at their local office... on a phone call with the head office elsewhere in the province. So I had to get dressed up all nice to impress the people in the local office, and ALSO have the stress of a phone interview.

It wasn't too bad once I found out a)the local boss was the mother of one of my coworkers from a previous job, and b)I was the only person who had applied...

[Twig]

I finally put up an ad on craigslist, looking for a new roommate, about two hours ago. I got only one response so far (which is fine), but they supplied a hotmail address.

 

I can't help but be immediately, uh... apprehensive of a person with a hotmail address.

 

Don't judge me.

 

Stop it. I can see you judging me for judging other people.

 

STOP IT.

 

In other news, still no job, getting worried.

[osmosisch]

My wife & children returned from a two-week stay at the in-laws yesterday. So happy to have them back

[Thrik]

Put the ad on dating sites too for unpredictable results.

[Twig]

I got another hit on the ad. It reads sorta spammy, like can I really trust this person is she REALLY from South Korea is she REALLY a student. The email also came back SUPER fast like as soon as I confirmed the room was still available. I mean if I were in her situation I'd probably also have an already-written stock email ready to send people, too. Saves effort. Maybe I'm just too wary of the internet.

 

This is a weird experience.

[Roderick]

Good greetings. I am a Namibian Prince with difficulties getting rid of my extremely $ucculent diamond mine. And I am also interested in being your roomie.

[thestalkinghead]

Good greetings. I am a Namibian Prince with difficulties getting rid of my extremely $ucculent diamond mine. And I am also interested in being your roomie.

just what i have been looking for, can i send you my credit card and bank details so you know i am a trustworthy guy like yourself 

[Ucantalas]

I finally put up an ad on craigslist, looking for a new roommate, about two hours ago. I got only one response so far (which is fine), but they supplied a hotmail address.

 

I can't help but be immediately, uh... apprehensive of a person with a hotmail address.

 

Don't judge me.

 

Stop it. I can see you judging me for judging other people.

 

STOP IT.

 

In other news, still no job, getting worried.

I feel weird about this, because I still use Hotmail because its the only service I've been able to get "firstname.lastname@" with.

[Apelsin]

I also use a MS-based email account. Mainly because my gmail-account with the same name got hacked, but also because everytime I went to make a new gmail account they wanted my phone-number. :/

[Thrik]

It's not a bad idea to have a phone number associated with your email account, considering that otherwise if someone did get in they could both lock you out and then have free reign with any site you've set up to use that email address as a 'Forgot your password?' address (probably quite a lot).

[Twig]

I mean I was joking. Hotmail is fine. My dad uses hotmail. It just baffles me that anyone still has a hotmail address.

 

Also this second hit is still weird. I sent an email last night clearly explaining that she'd need to send a credit report for the realtor before sending any money, and she sends me another email asking only for my address so that she can send me the rent check. Even though I said "don't send me money until credit report is accepted by realtor". AHHHH. She claims to speak English but I feel like maybe her understanding isn't the best. OR I'M BEING SCAMMED OUT OF... MY ADDRESS?

[Thrik]

There are quite a few cheque scams knocking around, one of which is 'accidentally' sending you a cheque that's too big. When you reimburse it the whole cheque ends up being invalid and you've lost however much you reimbursed. I think cheques work in a relatively weird way (at least in the UK) where even if you've had the funds deposited in your account they can still be taken away significantly later once the bank does more thorough checks. I personally would be inclined to have nothing to do with them and insist on other ways of paying.

[Twig]

Well, she said specifically her dad would send a cashier's check, and as I understand it, cashier's checks are safer in that regard? But I mean, the issue isn't even the money, yet. It's just that she doesn't seem to understand (or is refusing to acknowledge) that she needs to pass a credit check first for the realtor. That's the bit that makes me question things.

 

Also, I just got ANOTHER hit, and this guy seems a whole lot more reasonable - asking the right questions, etc. Not even talking about money, yet. But then I'd feel bad if this other person was legitimate, and my suspicions are just leaving her without an apartment. I know how hard it is to find an apartment in San Francisco. Shit's impossible.

 

I'm probably making this way harder than it should be.

[Nachimir]

I've been happy for years after meeting my special other through Plenty of Fish — which along with (to a lesser extent) OkCupid are the only ones you should put any time into, and they're free.

I took a quick look at that before leaving Nottingham, and man: It is so much more populated that OKC. Nonetheless, the difference between OKC in a city as small as Nottingham and one as big as London is night and day. After an hour of looking and messaging people, it seems a lot easier here.

Maybe PoF would have been similar there, and I'll try it when I return for a bit, but the heavy demographic skew toward students made it difficult for me, and above those ages I tended to find a lot of bored people in Nottingham who weren't sure what they wanted to do. That's a small sample size though. OKC is pretty poor up there; possibly more a reflection of it than the city.