Well take the trash out.

Figuratively speaking, of course. Then again if they are hobo's... all bets are off.

It's not nice to talk about undergraduates like that.

Not ALL undergraduates. ;)

Truth is a defence against accusation of slander.

Unfortunately, trash is hard to prove. Too haphazard.

Just call for a biohazard clean up crew.

no she needs a haphazard clean-up crew. like the A-team. or something

You got one? An A-team, I mean? Will I need Material Safety Data Sheets? Will the the "team" be clearly labeled?

no i have a C team.

Mr. T as done by Eddie Murphy:
"Slow down, boy... you gone fuck up and cum too quick. I'll squench up the cheeks of my butt and rip your dick off".

I rear-ended someone yesterday. I was behind them makin' a right turn, I saw them turn, so I looked back at the oncoming traffic to ensure I had time to go, I did, so I went...then I hit the car in front of me which had stopped in the middle of turning. Awesomeness. Then we had to wait around for the cops because they refused to give me their insurance information. Even though the cop told them I would have to have that information, they still refused, so now I have to wait to get it with the police report to get their insurance. Sucks for them because that all that much longer they have to wait for a settlement.
Today I missed my alarm and was 30min late to work.

MTP: :comfort:

I wonder why they wouldn't give their info. Strange.

Say ... you weren't ... texting ... were you? :bolt:

No devil's advocate, I was paying attention...just to the wrong cars apparently. :(

My mom suggested they wouldn't give me their info because I'm a white girl, she's serious. Why do people first think racial issues are the problem? They just didn't want me to call their insurance and file a claim against them claiming the issue was their fault. TX law is that its mine, but I was being obstinate and not discussing that with them. Since they wouldn't give their info over though, we will have to go through the insurance company (mine) which will cost us BOTH more. Although I'll be payin for the damage, he will still get a no-fault accident put on his driving record and will therefore lose potential discounts.

I would suspect the other guy was uninsured.

We did too, but they handed over their insurance to the cop when she arrived. So they were just being silly and didn't want to give it to me.

Yesterday was the first day of school. We sent the kids off with all their tons of stupid required supplies. Last night, talking at length about how their day went, our daughter mentioned that about half of the supplies we bought for her were dumped into a communal bin. We got her a nice protractor. Not expensive, but a color she liked. She had labeled it with her name. Into the communal bin it went. Same with the scissors, the 6 boxes of sharpened pencils, etc. etc.

What if we teach her not to be wasteful with her supplies, when the kid in the corner who gets crayons stuck in his nose is constantly breaking pencils? He doesn't care. There are more in the communal bin. We are paying for his pencil breaking habit.

It's a little microcosm of capitalism vs. communism/socialism right there in the school. We're providing pencil welfare and promoting waste.

Oh, and last year, we had to provide something like ten glue sticks. They went into the communal bin too. And then in March or so, we had to provide something like 4 more, because so many of them had dried up from sitting in the communal bin with their caps off. If our kid had her own supply of glue sticks, she would use one until it was gone and then pull out a new one. None would dry out.

We did/are experiencing the exact same thing. Lil Lookout had to have 84 presharpened pencils to turn in. 23 kids x 84 = 1,932 pencils. That's kind of a lot of pencils. On top of that Lil Lookout likes "fun pencils" so he takes his own $.25 in every Tuesday and buys a fun pencil for the librarian. He'll never even use any of those 84 pencils.

Of course we had to send in cleaning supplies and hand sanitizer and all that stuff too. The weird thing is I had to make out a $20 check to the teacher for "additional supplies". I know teachers are underpaid and I absolutely don't want her spending her personal money for classroom supplies... but it just feels weird.

car towed to dealer this morning. leak in roof.

bah!

Hopefully those are unrelated or you have some 'splaining to do.

Obviously a wasted effort. I call Bullshit! At my kids school they are all responsible for their own supplies. If they lose something or use it up each kid has to replace it. We are not, nor should we be a communal society.
More of the entitlement mentality - It's ok, use waste whatever.... someone else will GIVE ME more. Fuck that!

no; unrelated but concomitant

con,con,concom... are youcalling me a communist?!? freaking hippies...

:3_eyes:

simultaneous then, ya doof!

...but don't we all try to teach our kids to share nicely with their friends too?

I think it's downright digraceful to insist parents provide their children with these provisions then confiscate them for the communal bin. That's not communism, it's a racket to make up for funding deficits.

I wonder if they do it knowing that only half the kids will actually bring stuff...

Honestly it doesn't really bother me with pencils and stuff like that. If there is a kid in class who eats his pencils then I want to make sure he has plenty to eat. I'm a giver like that.
Compass and protractor though? Hell, no. I've instructed Lil Lookout to stand on his desk and declare "I'm a conservative! You can only take what is mine if you are bigger, stronger, and have more friends than I do!"

OR are duly elected ;)

bastard. I just choked on my tea lol

I think they may indeed be expecting some kids not to turn up with stuff, in which case the school should have a small supply ready from which those children can use (labelled as school property in the case of compass and other more expensive/larger items, and uniformly the same in the case of pens and pencils.) A note to their parents or a word when they come pick them up would hopefully have them bringing their own.

If these are state schools that parents are already paying for their children's school through taxes. Covertly making them pick up the slack is dishonest. I bet they could even invite parents to send their kids in with their full kit and a'donated item' for the class box for use as spares. That at least would be honest and the kids would have the lovely experience of contributing to their class (building a sense of camaraderie, ownership and class responsibility) without actually stealing their stuff.).

What's upsetting me today...well actually upsetting is probably the wrong word. Just winding me up and making me feel uncomfortable. Eczema flare. 70% coverage . Hot hot.

Eh, this is just a primer on taxation.

When it could be a lovely lesson on sharing :P

nooo, sharing is deciding what to share, with who, when to share it, and in what amount all of my own free will.

taxation is being coerced, however politely, into giving something with no control over the other factors.

each has a proper place, let's just not mix them up. :)

But that was my point :P Instead of taking the opportunity to give them a lesson insharing (asking parents to supply their children's kit and inviting them to also bring in a donated item for the class tub) They chose to tax them instead. except no they didn't. Tax would have been if they'd taken one or two things off everybody and let them keep the rest.

They demonstrated highway robbery:)

What it's really demonstrating is FUCKING STUPIDITY. 84 pencils??!?!?! Eighty Fucking Four?!?!?!? Even if we stipulate that the best way to operate is a communal stash to which everyone contributes, why 84? Why not 75? Or 90, which perhaps makes numerical sense for a 180-day school year? Besides, who decided you had to buy all your supplies for the whole damned year at once?

In addition to the values of communism, it's also teaching the values of conformity. Why should your daughter have a "special" protractor? Or your son a "fun" pencil? They can damned well use a random one out of the bin like everyfuckingbody else. I'm surprised they didn't mandate specific brands, sizes, and colors in order to maintain the proper decorum amongst the classroom. Some years they've asked our kids to buy specific color notebooks and/or folders... I understand it's so they can say... OK, all math stuff goes in your yellow notebook... then for math everybody can just pull out their yellow notebook. But goddamn people, if it gives the kids just a small shred of pleasure during the school day to have a notebook with a puppy, or a baseball player, or a movie star on it.... do you really think your little automatons can't remember which one is the Hannah Montana notebook and which one is the Zack & Cody one???!?!

AARRRHGHGH don't get me started. "What Not To Wear" already came damned close to get me spewing off about mindless conformity in contemporary American society. But I was too damned lazy to put it all down.




I'm sorry. I'm off my meds today, and I spent an hour at Staples last night getting the graph paper Miss Dallas needed for her algebra homework. (Apparently high school supply requirements are less numerous, but given with less advance notice.) I could write more, but I'm getting incoherent and tangential and etc. etc. blah blah.

It doesn't actually teach the values of communism. It teaches them about power and authority. When they walk into that classroom the teacher is king/queen. S/he decides who uses what and when. It is however very stupid.

awesome. power and authority are such a turn on.

Woof!

Have you said something about it? to the principal?

we're at a hippie/socialist (state) school and there are no lists of stuff to bring. If a classroom is short a particular item, the teacher requests and someone provides. usually too many someones and they all come home with a spare gluestick with which to cause mischief..... bless them....

but we'd sure as hell say something if there were constant requests because the items we were donating were being abused....

Yeah, every god damned germ that comes to school.

I have some socialist leanings, but I'm also one for schoolds teaching indivudual responsibility.

That stationery policy strikes me as bloody stupid.

And how many goddamn pencils does a kid need????

Zen, you've not being paying attention. A kid needs 84 pencils.

Snap.
Socialism does not have to equal waste and stupidity.
But it does in this case.

For me, I'm really down about my on-going migraine situaion.
This one has been going on since Sunday evening.
I've been unable to type on the days I've not been here.
Yesterday was particularly bad.
I have not had a single piece of solid food all week, half the water I drink comes back up again, and the precription painkillers I've been given only handle 75% of the pain.

Aside from the worry that it's not actually a migraine (4 DAYS?!) and in fact I am about to die of something, I'm worried about our Big Day Out on Monday. I'm terrified of letting Mum down, promising her the earth and not delivering. I'm going to call the doctors tomorrow and ask for a telephone consultation just to be on the safe side, because we're scheduled to leave at 09.30 Monday morning, so it's kill or cure over the weekend.

:smack: :lol: touche'!

Sundae: :comfort: yeah, like actually :comfort: only carefully and gently.

A kid needs to bring 84 pencils because that dipshit Jethro Redneck takes his pencil home every day and leaves it there, and comes to school without supplies. But the teacher is not at liberty to let him fail for his dipshittedness, because No Child Left Behind says her pay and her job are directly tied to whether Jethro can pass, which he needs a neverending supply of new pencils to do.

As usual, Clod: :notworthy

SG...do you think your migraines are stress-related? Do you have a history of migraines? Sending you well wishes: hope you feel better.

I was all ready to defend teachers buying supplies for their students until I read the 'communal bin' Do all teachers do this at that school? Is the administration aware of it? I would feel ok about a communal bin if the parents were made aware of it AND the kids allowed to keep their own things. I would be making some phone calls. I am annoyed for you.


lol @ monster.

Sundae I hope you feel better soon!

Can't you get an emergency appointment? Sometimes you need to be less British :lol: Four days is a long time, i hope you get it sorted soon

I'm sure the administration knows.

It's a great school otherwise, with great teachers, and does it really make sense to get yourself labeled as one of "those" difficult parents as the school year is just beginning? We're trying to build good relationships with the teachers for our kids sake, and don't want to rock the boat at the very beginning. It's just not worth it. But I'm happy to bitch about it here.

I've been trying to kick away a depression, but it hit me hard today. I can't make mysekf do the things I need to do. So another day and then another week goes by without them getting done and I sink further. I do some of my work stuff (council). But this summer I wanted/needed to get some serious research done: I've done a few little bits. Some preparatory reading: I've read a handful of articles and a couple of chapters, sporadically without really taking detailed notes. My house, is in a state. Has been for like a year. I can't seem to make myself get started on clearing it, and bagging up shit to dump. At best I can force myself every so often to wash up and chivvy the place a little. But I am sinking under the junk. Mum offers to help (of course) but I don't want her to. I want to do it myself I just can't find the motivation to start.

I keep waking up and not wanting to get up come day time. I manage to force myself out of bed by thinking about checking responses on here and the Big Finish forum. I then can't make myself pull away and do anything else. The idea of doing anything else just brings to mind the ever growing list of other stuff, I feel exhausted and can;t face it.

My eczema is flared and that's making me ratty. hair trigger temper. Then I lose my rag with Pilau and feel guilty. I suspect it's partly hormonal because I don't usually feel this bad. Today I just have this constant want to cry feeling.

I am broke. totally broke. I owe my landlord most of my first scholarship payment (due 1st Oct). So every time i think about doing the house I get this sinking feeling of guilt and insecurity.

I know at some point soon the money Dad left me wil come through. But my hopes for a Summer research trip to kickstart the project have not happened. Every month it's been 'due in about 6 weeks.'. I have lost hope of getting the research trip done this side of Christmas. There's stuff I can research in the meantime, but I keep coming up against a wall on the courts martial records: each time I find a deserter, his regiments records are held at Kew gardens and aren't digitised. I can't afford to go to Kew gardens.

I'll probably be feeling much better later. That's usually how it works. I know this isn't for ever. But just today I have had enough.

The communal bin thing is pretty common, I think. Especially in cities. For example, this was the list for my son, last year when we lived in a suburb of Denver. Notice they ask for 2 spiral notebooks with 90 pages. At the end of the year, he came back with one spiral notebook (not one I bought) half full. Where did the other notebook go? Most of this stuff was dumped in a communal bin, never to be seen again:

GRADE 2
1 small pointed scissors (Fiskars)
12 glue sticks
48 Sanford America #2 pencils, sharpened
2 big pink erasers
1 water color paint set
1 large box of tissues
1 box Crayola crayons(48)
4 bottom pocket folders (with 3 brads)
(one each red, blue, yellow, & green)
1 box colored pencils (24 sharpened)
1 3-ring notebook (1” rings)
2 spiral notebooks (90 pages wide-lined)
1 supply box- (cigar box size)
BOYS – 1 container of disinfectant cleaning
wipes
GIRLS – 1 ream of white paper

Please choose 1 of the following items to send with your child:
1 - box of gallon size self sealing plastic
bags
1- box of dry erase markers
1 - anti-bacterial hand soap

Now that we live in a small town much further North, my son goes to a different school. Here was his list for this year. I managed to spend less than 30.00 on supplies this year. To my surprise, none of his stuff got dumped into a bin (except the kleenex and ziplocks). The teacher just asked them to put all their supplies in their desks:

Third Grade Students:
48 pencils (non-mechanical) marked with name
2 large boxes of Kleenex
1 box of 24 crayons (minimum)
1 set of 8 colored pencils (minimum)
1 ruler with inches and centimeters
1 pair scissors
2 glue sticks
1 bottle of white Elmer’s glue
1 small pencil case (small enough to fit in desk)
8 sturdy pocket folders
3 spiral notebooks – WIDE line, white, 8 ½ x 11
2 yellow highlighters
2 block style erasers – no cap erasers
1 black felt tip pen
1 set colored markers
1 four pack dry erase markers (expo brand)
Girls – 1 container antibacterial wipes
Boys – 1 box quart/sandwich size ziplock bags


Still, not quite 84 pencils. ;)

At his old school, parents were encouraged to bring in additional supplies and even food for kids who didn't have enough. I have also noticed a huge gap between the level of knowledge and responsibility expected at his new school compared to the old one. The new one has higher expectations, so he is experiencing a steep learning curve right now.

Have I said this before:

Fuck Capital One: fuckity fuck fuck fuck they are the WORST. Payment shows online...fine. Two days later my bank shows payment processed...available credit still not reflecting. If this isn't some kind of fucking way they get a few extra pennies I'll be goddammed. I'm going out of town and I don't NEED THIS SHIT.

The best-laid fucking plans of mice and fucked up corporate America bullshit.

Amen to that.

I didn't mention my bank showed cleared funds YESTERDAY. Why do I have to fight these people every single time?

Thanks for the amen, I needed that. :o

I'm so worried about getting stranded due to their incompetence, I've done everything right.

Can't you just call the bank and talk to a real person?

Don't let them do this to you, Shawnee. Call the bank. Ask for the bank manager. Tell them how disappointed you are and that you expect him to resolve the issue. If he balks, maybe expressing a desire to document your issue for the Attorney General or the state banking commission would help.

Then they'll cancel my card without cause, as they CAN do, because I'm causing trouble and they're not making money off me because I pay my balance off completely almost every month. I can't afford that to happen right now: I'm leaving TODAY.

I sent a message via my log-in to C1, asking pretty please advise when funds will show available. I love kowtowing to the devil.

It's not my bank's fault. Last time C1 conferenced me and my bank who said "yes the funds are there." My bank is local. I know these people. C1 is corporate evil.

Oh Dana! I do know how you feel. I am overwhelmed by my mother's alarming deterioration and I've been ignoring a huge and constantly growing pile of stuff-to-do for weeks now. Today I grabbed both of the 12" high piles of paper and dealt with each bit of paper that I could deal with immediately (loads and loads of file or bin, a few phone calls and cheques to write). When I'm this desperate I don't prioritise or sort, I just traipse back and forward with each bit of paper, putting it away and then looking at the next one, which often has to be filed in the same damn place. Inefficient? yes. But otherwise I just end up shuffling the papers again (and again and again).
Start in one corner - the nearest spot. Or I'll come and help you!!!!

FINALLy talked to someone at my car dealership. They don't know what's wrong with it. After "misplacing" it yesterday, and after putting in $500 of "preventive maintenance" my nice little car which ran perfectly is now fubared, and they're "running tests."

So, yeah, I'm more than irritated. And it's coming out in my posts.

Two identical embedded systems running bit I-DEN-TI-CAL code are running... differently.
I swear I'm gonna break something.