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[glyphic]

...to his parents?

[Barmymoo]

Well that wouldn't solve the problem at all.

No, he should find someone on the internet. When I was plotting my marriage to Emilio I looked into the effect it would have on my finance (internet marriage: serious business). I would have got more funding!

[october1983]

I'm not sure how widespread this is, but as undergrads we discovered that the uni would pay £1000 to any student who married while enrolled there. It was pretty damn tempting.

[tania]

financial aid is available to students who get married in canada, too. good to know...

[Liz]

Get married before college, use the tax break, then get a divorce when you are done.

I don't see any flaws with this plan. None at all.

[Emaline]

If Patrick needs to get married, there's always that one girl he knocked up. Just sayin'.



Also, for awhile now my boyfriend and I have been considering getting "secret married" to save money. We'd have an extra $250 a month if we got married, due to everything they take out in taxes. And when you are as broke as us, thats pretty tempting.


BTWs: In the confessions thread, I confessed that I post on a board just to make fun of it. Here is an out of context quote from said board:

I just "requested info." from that site.
   
    I'm thinking about doing it next year. Do you have any say in the child you get? What I mean by that is if I wanted a child close to my son's age, would I be able to request a boy around his age?

[LittleKey]

Patrick, I have no idea about financial stuff so I don't there's anything I can say that would be a real help, but just keep pushing your parents and remember that things do have a tendency to work themselves out. Don't give up!

In other news, skimboarding seems to be off due to more bad weather, but oh well, at least there's the World Cup game on. ¡Vamanos españa!

[JD]

so my grandparents are moving out of their house and into a retirement home, due to the fact they clearly can't care for themselves anymore.

I'm being lazy and not really helping with the move at all.

[Zingoleb]

I came out to my  mother about my gender issues. She told me if I showed up at her house in a pink skirt she'd disown me, because she hates pink, but she told me she loved me anyways.

I saw a man wearing a shirt that said NOT MADE IN CHINA whilst shopping in Wal-Mart. I laughed, and he has no idea why.

I saw America, which was the whitest show I've ever seen.

I saw The Guess Who and the bassist signed my forehead.

Edit: Also it's really hot here. Yesterday, I got out of the shower, and noticed something dripping out of my medicine cabinet. When I opened it up, my can of shaving gel had exploded, and opening it made all the (now frothy) gel splatter out onto the sink/floor/wall/me.

[Emaline]

Dear Self pity and whining and angsty thread,

I'm disappointed in myself as per usual. I mean, I typically feel this way about myself but I guess I've been really good at hiding it for the past year or so.

Anyway, I feel like a failure and I've got no one to talk to about it. My boyfriend's response when I tell him all of this, is that he feels the same and is in the same position, because you know someone who makes $70,000 a year curing cancer and who actually went to school and has two degrees is a complete failure. Yeah, we're in the same exact position.

And I don't think I want someone to talk to about it anyway. I mostly want to be alone and all of that. It sucks that this city is so horrible and rude and disgusting, because I really want to ride my bike when I get home tonight(roughly 10:30pm) but I will likely be mugged. Plus I just saw a guy get hit on his bike. In board daylight. When it was his turn, and not the car's turn, to go. So yeah. Its a bit off putting.

Anyway. Today is a take valium and fall asleep outside listening to Belle and Sebastian day.

Oh and now our train is stuck on the tracks. I'm going to be late to work.

[JD]

sorting through their old stuff is pretty awesome though

things found so far:

a pan flute
a machete
several old coins and bills
an article in dedication of my great grandmother

[Scandanavian War Machine]

thermometer on the bank said 86 earlier. EIGHTY-SIX. And I guess it's supposed to break 90 tomorrow and Friday!

it's the fucking apocalypse!

[onewheelwizzard]

Come on dude it was 102 in Philly today

[Scandanavian War Machine]

yeah, yeah, I know.

breaking 90 is a big deal for NW Washington though! Espescially this summer since it's been pretty rainy and grey up until yesterday.

[JD]

meanwhile in canada it is pretty mild. at least where I live

[Scarychips]

With the humidity factor, it's 43C/109F in the Montreal Region.
In other news, I'll be on a plane to Lebanon in less than 48 hours. Woo!

[beat mouse]

yeah, yeah, I know.

breaking 90 is a big deal for NW Washington though! Espescially this summer since it's been pretty rainy and grey up until yesterday.

Yeah just north of the line here it's been 30+ this week after a month of SHIT weather.

[Emaline]

So, I really like my job, usually anyway. But this is bullshit.

So every one of our stores is supposed to sign up 20% of our customers each day to our rewards cards. Our store averages 30%. Recently we beat the entire company and our goal was pushed up to 40%. If we didn't make that goal(double what every other store is doing), we'd get written up. Today we are at 21% and being threatened to be written up if we don't do over 30%. This is complete bullshit. Its hard enough to get anyone to sign up because most of our customers already have the card(we've been keeping track). If we get written up three times we get fired. So we are all likely to get written up tonight. This is such fucking bullshit. Shit like this seriously makes me think of quitting.

[jhocking]

That's how it always fucking is.

"Great work! Here's your reward... MORE WORK"

[beat mouse]

Yeah, currently at my job (I work at a large Irish Pub) we took a 63% cut to our labour hours (anyone wanting to get into the food industry, dont) which while it falls under the correct percentage of sales to labour, puts us so far understaffed that there are days where it is completely impossible to make any kind of headway and just fucks us constantly until friday and saturday roll around where we can "afford" to have enough people to get the bare minimum accomplished we need to survive.

[Lines]

Man, I'm glad we don't have a savings card quota to fill. We have a card and we get perks when we get people to sign up, but there's no real goal outside of personal gain. (Meaning a little more $$.) That really is some BS.

[HiFranc]

So, I really like my job, usually anyway. But this is bullshit.

So every one of our stores is supposed to sign up 20% of our customers each day to our rewards cards. Our store averages 30%. Recently we beat the entire company and our goal was pushed up to 40%. If we didn't make that goal(double what every other store is doing), we'd get written up. Today we are at 21% and being threatened to be written up if we don't do over 30%. This is complete bullshit. Its hard enough to get anyone to sign up because most of our customers already have the card(we've been keeping track). If we get written up three times we get fired. So we are all likely to get written up tonight. This is such fucking bullshit. Shit like this seriously makes me think of quitting.

Assuming that you get a mixture of repeat and new customers, at the rate you're going you're soon going to arrive at a point when all the repeat customers have already signed up and it's just the new customer's to market to.  Trying to get a larger % of a smaller set of people (those that do not yet have the card) is a recipe for continually disappointment.  Furthermore, if where you are is anything like the UK, if you're too eager or pushy with the cards, the regular customers would not like the store as much and your overall level of custom may go down.

Yes, your Head Office has really thought this through.

Yeah, currently at my job (I work at a large Irish Pub) we took a 63% cut to our labour hours (anyone wanting to get into the food industry, dont) which while it falls under the correct percentage of sales to labour, puts us so far understaffed that there are days where it is completely impossible to make any kind of headway and just fucks us constantly until friday and saturday roll around where we can "afford" to have enough people to get the bare minimum accomplished we need to survive.

First of all, what market are you in?  Are you at the cheap'n'cheerful end of the market or one that, at least officially, prides itself on quality.  If you're at the former, you may not be able to achieve much.  If you're operate in the latter then I suggest, outside of work hours (either just before or just after) make a list of everything you cannot do at peak times due to the time pressures and mention it to your manager.  Write it up if your manager wants to use your list to put the case to upper management.

I would also suggest plotting demand over time and superimposing shifts if you're doing a write up.  That information may show that you do have enough people but shifts aren't optimised or it may show that the shifts are reasonably aligned but the difference in demand is too great.

I suggest doing it outside of work hours because then management can't argue that things would be properly covered if you were doing your assigned duties.  I suggest that you write it up yourself because, if you do it, you can make sure the document has your name on it.

[Gemmwah]

There is something ridiculously satisfying about having access to the internet wirelessly while sat on a moving train. I am quite happy with this. Also, I have been working my absolute arse off at work for the past few days (yesterday being an AMAZING day where i actually smashed ALL of my targets including my loyalty card target (i feel your pain, Emaline) and then coming into work this morning to have my manager bitch at me saying i needed a better day today fuck dammit no).

Anyway now I am on holiday until Monday, so I'm coasting on the train rolling back up to my mother's in order to be invaded by a vast amount of Scottish family, who will be staying for some time. I love my family, at least I love this side of my family, but spending time with them isn't exactly the most relaxing thing in the world. I certainly wouldn't call it holiday. Nonetheless I shall partake in alcohol and food and merry times and actually chill the fuck out and not have to go to work and be attacked with targets and limits and POS and tech details and sales pitches and everything that my managers now believe is the most important thing in my life as I am out of university for the summer.

Also I officially transferred to computer science on Monday so all of that will be beautifully sorted out when I go back for registration. Score.

[jhocking]

I woke up in the middle of the night with soreness in my kidneys and couldn't go back to sleep. I seem to be fine now, but that was mildly alarming. goddamn aging

[Zingoleb]

Dearest blog thread,

OH GOD WHY SO HOT

BRIGHT THING IN THE SKY HURT ME

[jhocking]

I nearly melted to death just going to the bank yesterday. I probably have a job interview downtown today, and I am seriously considering bringing nice clothes in a bag to change into down there.

[Zingoleb]

It's hot enough that my can of shaving gel exploded on me two days ago, and it's not much cooler. Was 95 then, only 92 today! WHAT THE HELL NEW YORK! You're freezing fucking terribly awfully cold and miserable in winter and horribly fucking terribly awfully hot in summer. I don't like you anymore New York! I'm seeing other states, ones that AREN'T manic about their seasons!

[HiFranc]

[...]

I don't like you anymore New York! I'm seeing other states, ones that AREN'T manic about their seasons!

In that case stay near the coast/a great lake because a large body of water moderates the temperature.

[Emaline]

I nearly melted to death just going to the bank yesterday. I probably have a job interview downtown today, and I am seriously considering bringing nice clothes in a bag to change into down there.

This is what I do everyday. I walk/take public transport to work. So it's always a good idea to bring a change of clothes. My boyfriend does the same since he bikes to work.

[abadname]

[...]

I don't like you anymore New York! I'm seeing other states, ones that AREN'T manic about their seasons!

In that case stay near the coast/a great lake because a large body of water moderates the temperature.

Except humidity will fuck your shit more.

[tania]

anything located next to a really BIG body of water like a sea or ocean tends to be pretty temperate, but a smaller body of water like a lake can lead to more drastic tempertature changes and things like lake-effect snow and lake-effect rain. in toronto it's been like 35°C every single day this week and I know for people further south this isn't that big a deal but for me this is absolutely intolerable considering it also frequently gets to be about -30°C during the wintertime. basically there are only maybe like four days out of 365 a year where i consider the weather acceptable and on every other day i am totally miserable and hate just about everything.

one big reason i decided to make the move to vancouver despite the fact that it will utterly destroy my bank account in ways i don't even want to think about right now is that apparently vancouver's annual high for summer is roughly 15-20°C and the average low during the coldest winter they have ever had was −9.7 °C. frankly i don't care how much it rains, that sounds incredible. i can't even believe that is real. i would easily take six months of rain and humidity over this bullshit.

[Zingoleb]

I live near two (2) Great Lakes, which don't seem to do much except fill the entire western area with dread. Ever hear the words "Lake Effect Snow"? They're terrifying words.

I'm okay, now, though. I has an ice cream.

[beat mouse]

one big reason i decided to make the move to vancouver despite the fact that it will utterly destroy my bank account in ways i don't even want to think about right now is that apparently vancouver's annual high for summer is roughly 15-20°C and the average low during the coldest winter they have ever had was −9.7 °C. frankly i don't care how much it rains, that sounds incredible. i can't even believe that is real. i would easily take six months of rain and humidity over this bullshit.

I wish we only had 6 months of rain here. Try 3 months of not rain, and 12 months of humidity. Also, it's been 30 all week here, crept into mid 30s yesterday. Granted I live a whopping 75k east of Vancouver, so we don't get the moderated ocean climate, but I completely agree that the weather here beats most of Canada's standard 40 above or 40 below style. We also have some truly bizarre weather patterns, a few years ago we didn't get snow until spring break, and summer usually starts here around mid-july (this week has really been the first "summer" weather we've had this year).

[Scandanavian War Machine]

I has an ice cream.

oh snap

i know what i'm getting for lunch

[pwhodges]

I don't know why we complain about the weather in Britain; I really don't.  It's so little trouble compared to the sort of stuff you guys have to put up with.

[scarred]

Today's high is 91˚F. There's not a cloud in the sky. YEAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH

[ackblom12]

Oh yeah, Rochester is all about blaming Canada for our Lake Effect snow. It's where all of your spite goes.

[HiFranc]

I don't know why we complain about the weather in Britain; I really don't.  It's so little trouble compared to the sort of stuff you guys have to put up with.

People I know think I'm weird when they say they would like to live somewhere hot and I say I prefer the weather in Britain.

[glyphic]

ARGH migraine gonna puuuuuke

[beat mouse]

I'd like to move to Norway for the weather, anything higher than 20C makes me hate life.

[HiFranc]

glyphic, I hope you feel better soon.

[Lunchbox]

I like Australia's weather. Anything below 5C outside makes me feel like dying.

[JD]

Done moving! Why did we have to move on the hottest day on record though, goddamn.

[jmrz]

Mini life crisis and oh goodness why am I doing graphic design I have no conceivable art talent whatsoever and I should love this and I don't and I nearly failed an entire semester oh dear oh dear oh dear.

I am not good at art. I don't enjoy trying to be good at art because I just make myself miserable everyone else is so much better at this than I am and I am in second year, I should be doing better, getting just over a Pass in a course at this stage is BAD. Maybe I should stick to just doing the design/photography thing for fun. Because this degree has kind of taken the passion out of it for me a little.

Maybe I should transfer to Business or Communications or something that probably has more practical and easy to obtain job prospects. Bleh.

[JD]

hey we sound like complete opposites

[Alex C]

jmrz, as someone who once threw an easel through an open 2nd floor window and didn't paint again for a couple of years,* I never really know what to say about posts like that because I'm not sure if my opinion on the matter is discouraging or good advice. I guess I'll just say that it's totally possible to keep art in your life whether or not it's your job.


*As I've said before, I don't think I resembled a functioning human being until I was around 24 or so.

[jmrz]

Yeah, see, I spend my life at work sitting in front of the Adobe Suite designing and typesetting and laying things out for newspaper advertisements and things that go out from this office as promotional stuff (for a real estate company). I'm good at it. I find it mostly painfully boring because most of the time it's a gigantic exercise in how fast can I copy and paste things, but it pays well and it's flexible with hours and stuff. I look at the people I have classes with, these kids are getting Distinctions and High Distinctions for these classes, they have art talent. They live and breathe this stuff. At this point I'd probably be happier if I never had to see a roll of double sided tape and a cutting mat again. I don't live and breathe it. I feel like I'm faking it just to scrape by and sure, I appreciate great design, I see well designed things and sqeee a little. I have an unhealthy obsession with well designed stationary and nice pens and art supplies because it's all so WONDERFUL, but I can't bring myself to actually produce things that I'm proud of.

If someone asked me to write an essay and turn it in tomorrow on a subject I've got little knowledge of, I'd do a hell of a lot better at that than what I am doing now. I never did art at school by choice, we had compulsory classes in early highschool and if they could have failed me I am sure that they would have. I haven't picked up my camera and it's assorted lenses which are worth an incredible amount of money, to do anything fun in forever. I mean, graphic design is a hard gig. You have to be great and exceptional to be recognised and even then it's a constant struggle to prove yourself. I shouldn't be just scraping through with limited ideas, it just doesn't seem right.

I don't even really know why I picked Graphic Design when I decided I hated Computer Science. It was just the thing that came to mind and I thought 'hey, maybe I'd be good at that'. Now I'm starting to think that maybe I should go back to what I am really good at. Maybe I should follow the "find something you love and DON'T do that for a job" rule. *sigh*

[Patrick]

Ok, so I've gotta know, what exactly are your parents saying to you? Word for word if you can. Because I'm inclined to think that maybe you are just interpreting what they are saying the wrong way. Like maybe they are really saying "Art school is not a good idea, and maybe you should just become a doctor instead"

Dad: "I don't think you will succeed, you won't get a job in your field, and I am not going to get financially involved with this at all"
Mom: "I don't have time to do this and you didn't give me enough warning"

Dad's just inexcusably dickish, Mom's just lazy because I gave her waaaay more time than she cares to admit.

Oh hey guys so I had a spare half hour and I like the Beach Boys so I recorded this cover for you

Wish I had the motivation to make it sound halfway decent, but I'm too busy hating my life and myself as a person to give a fuck

[Alex C]

I feel like I'm faking it just to scrape by and sure, I appreciate great design, I see well designed things and sqeee a little. I have an unhealthy obsession with well designed stationary and nice pens and art supplies because it's all so WONDERFUL, but I can't bring myself to actually produce things that I'm proud of.

Yeah, I've been told on several occasions that my compositions are good and I have an eye for perspective etc, etc. It's just too bad my paintings still suck. I feel like I can recognize good stuff, I just can't create it to save my life, apparently.

[McTaggart]

Be a critic!