Life

[Jay Tholen]

I can't sleep at all lately, and I've got a lot of unresolved anger issues bringing me down. Life is crap.

I'm not dealing with any anger issues, but I'm with ya on the sleep thing. I keep waking up gasping for air and I haven't been able to get a solid, refreshing night's rest in a long long time.

[miffy495]

So my green hair is apparently causing friction at my summer job. I kept working at Starbucks so that I wouldn't be bored as fuck all summer waiting for the school year to start again, but also wanted to dye my hair for the two months off teaching. I ran the idea by my store manager a month in advance, talked it through with him (I'm not an idiot, I realized there would be dress code conflicts) and he ordered me a starbucks hat so that I could wear it while I'm working and still fit with dress code. The day after I dyed my hair, HIS boss walks in and is now breathing down everyone's neck because the hat is apparently not good enough. She's been after him about one thing or another for a while, so he's already always having to watch out for her, and this is starting to become a thing. If it were just me against his boss, there'd be no problem. I'll be teaching again in 7 weeks anyway, so the worst case scenario for me would be that she'd fire me, I'd tighten my belt for a few weeks (still have a bunch of cash saved up for the summer, so I'd be fine), and she'd look like a massive jerk who overreacted over nothing and cost the store a very well-liked and competent employee (I have a fairly large number of regulars who come in pretty much just to talk with me). Speaking purely selfishly, she has absolutely nothing to threaten me with. Unfortunately, I'm really uncomfortable with the idea that some of the shit from this may end up splattering on my boss, who is a genuinely incredible guy and doesn't deserve any of the fallout. As she is actively looking for ways to get him in hot water (including recently setting our store's goal to triple of what it was last year. Last year being a record-setting anomaly because we happened to be located next to where everyone in the city came to gawk at the aftermath of the river flooding downtown), this is likely to happen. I'm not sure about how to play this one. If it were just me, no problem. This lady can go fuck herself. But someone else could get hurt by this and the whole thing kinda sucks.

 

Update!

 

Today my boss suggested that I shave my hair into a mohawk. This is much more easily concealed under a cap, and therefor his boss would have nothing on him. I would also still get to have fun summer hair. I am seriously considering this proposition.

[elmuerte]

or go completely bald

[tegan]

you could shave "THUMBS" into the back of your head

[miffy495]

or go completely bald

 

Yeah, but no. The whole thing came from wanting fun summer hair. My normal hair but green accomplished this, but a green mohawk also would and would save a good person some grief.

[Justin Leego]

Great to hear there's a win meets win situation on that one, Does this mean that you're looking at taking a fauxhawk back to work when the summer is done?

[miffy495]

Nah, when the summer is over I have to look like a teacher again, so I'll just be back to my natural brown.

 

Dress code:

[Roderick]

I like it even better this way!

[dibs]

That is much better.

[I_smell]

WAhahahaha!!!

 

I personally love that this is pissing off a boss at a Starbucks. That's perfect, that makes it.

 

The fact that you adhered to the dress code by shaving it into a mohawk is also perfect. Double thumbs up.

(shame about that middle guy)

[elmuerte]

now paint your beard red

[Roderick]

Good lord, an airplane carrying almost 300 people, half of which were Dutch, was shot down by a missile in Ukraine. That is a nightmare scenario.

[Zeusthecat]

I feel very exhausted with life lately. I wish it was possible to just turn off for a couple weeks.

[Ghobot]

Good lord, an airplane carrying almost 300 people, half of which were Dutch, was shot down by a missile in Ukraine. That is a nightmare scenario.

 

Also Israel launched a land assault on Gaza today. It's also my mom's birthday. Coincidence? Yeah, probably.

[Roderick]

A black day for sure.

 

The shooting down of a civilian aircraft by the Ukrainian separatists was obviously a mistake, and all parties seem to be confused and trying to figure out what their best bet is. Putin is buckling down on his supposed neutrality ("Russia has nothing to do with this"), Ukraine is speaking of an act of terrorism, there's a taped phone call by the separatists where they (loathesomely) say it's our own fault for flying over a war zone, and Malaysia, Holland, the UN and the US just want to investigate this in peace, mourn the dead and deliberate on whether we should get involved or invoke sanctions. It's a disaster.

[Codicier]

We are in the middle of horrible heat wave, I've got two fans on my desk fans blasting away at full speed & all the windows open and yet the air seems to remains cloyingly humid and still.

My sleep patterns (which aren't exactly perfect at the best of times) has gone to pot, and I'm having huge trouble focusing on my work and it's left me grumpy/brooding.

 

My dark mood isn't helped by the inhumane business going on in the Ukraine & Gaza. Both are in their own ways horribly depressing, the festering wounds of conflicts that claim more lives daily.

[osmosisch]

This is getting into some conspiracy stuff:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/17/world/europe/maps-of-the-crash-of-malaysian-airlines-flight-mh17.html#aviation

[tegan]

We are in the middle of horrible heat wave, I've got two fans on my desk fans blasting away at full speed & all the windows open and yet the air seems to remains cloyingly humid and still.

My sleep patterns (which aren't exactly perfect at the best of times) has gone to pot, and I'm having huge trouble focusing on my work and it's left me grumpy/brooding.

 

I'm in the same boat here. The heat's not as bad as it was at the beginning of the month, but there's been a lot of days where the humidity hovers around 95%. Last night I fell asleep at something like 2:00 or 3:00 and I woke up at around 5:30 

[Merus]

This is getting into some conspiracy stuff:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/17/world/europe/maps-of-the-crash-of-malaysian-airlines-flight-mh17.html#aviation

 

This reminds me that one of these days I'm going to have to try out the 'logical extreme' version of arguing against aggressively anti-evidence people (specifically, that you take their delusions, run with them, building it up to be more and more extreme, until they finally start getting uncomfortable and start pushing back).

[Roderick]

I don't think there's any conspiracy here with Russia closing some flight lanes. It's like the AI enemy arranging armies in Age of Wonders: I'm constantly expecting some detailed strategic play, but it's just randomly shuffling stacks of monsters around. No, this is merely a major fuck-up, leaving everyone reeling in shock.

 

Predictably, both sides in the conflict are already using this as political fodder for their warmongering efforts, where the only sensible thing to do is not use any weapons anymore ever and find a way to solve problems peacefully. But hey, look how well that's gone on the Gaza strip over the last fifty years. Children, do not ever start a civil war or any other bloody conflict. It's actually pretty goddamned amazing (Western) Europe came out of it like it did. For all the scorn it gets, the EU has been a mind-boggling success in spreading peace and stability. As an institution for pulling together a historically war-ravaged continent, it is a singular human achievement.

[osmosisch]

That might ironically be said to lie at least partially at the root of the Ukrainian conflict - Russia seeing a too-strong bloc on its historically vulnerable western front

Call me vicariously selfish but I hope Ukraine stays pro-western if only so that Poland will not become the border state again.

[Roderick]

Well, there's always Belarus!

 

[Bjorn]

Up to a hundred HIV researchers may have been on that plane headed for an Australian conference.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/18/aids-conference-says-100-researchers-may-have-been-on-board-crashed-plane

[SecretAsianMan]

Apologies in advance for interrupting actual life events with my own crap.

 

I came into work this morning happy it was Friday and looking forward to a weekend.  I was hoping to be able to leave a bit early.  The project I've been working on for the last year or so seemed like it was going to be on track to finish on schedule, but today I got several phone calls in a row that basically ruined that dream and now I'm scrambling to get a bunch of issues resolved or risk delays.  That might not sound so bad except that schedule delays for the thing I'm doing might have to involve asking the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) for a time extension, which would be VERY bad.  I'm not even sure how to resolve some of these issues.  In the span of 2 hours, my day went from "Man, TGIF" to "OH MY GOD HOW THE FUCK AM I GOING TO DIG MYSELF OUT OF THIS HOLE".  I'm a little bit stressed right now.

[Thrik]

I had a couple of dates with a girl this week and it didn't really work for me. First date was pretty much great and we kissed and all that, probably more than we should have done due to moderately copious alcohol consumption. But during the second date it became rapidly apparent that our common interests just didn't go far beyond the surface — she wasn't particularly interested in my passions, I wasn't particularly interested in hers. At this point I'm loving my life so much that if a girl isn't ticking the boxes in terms of conversation I'm not wasting her time or mine.

 

An added factor that certainly sped up my decision is that she seemed really (really) into me. As in, telling all her friends and family about me; joking with them that she was meeting her future husband; literally telling me about a dozen times how happy she is and how amazing it is to be with me; and making comments about having kids on more than one occasion. So I gently broke it off by saying that I don't feel we're really a match because holy shit I've just come out of a 3.5-year relationship and am not looking for an immediate marriage.

 

Now more than 24 hours later I've just received a text that looks absolutely ginormous and begins with 'Excuse me but...'. I don't think I even want to open it. This is the shitty part of dating.