Category: General

sweepywillow:

MY FAVOURITE PART OF SENSE8 IS THEY HAVE A MAN EXPERIENCE ANOTHER WOMANS PERIOD AND SHE’S DOING HER TRAINING AND BEING CALM AND IN CONTROL AND HE’S SCREAMING AND CRYING AND HE THINKS HIS STOMACH PAINS ARE SO BAD HE MUST HAVE A TUMOUR OR SOMETHING I LOVE THIS SHOW

seananmcguire:

jezi-belle:

skyliting:

almightybob:

starbucksfaster:

http://anniemurphypaul.com/2014/02/the-high-cost-of-acting-happy/

“Surface acting is when front line service employees, the ones who interact directly with customers, have to appear cheerful and happy even when they’re not feeling it. This kind of faking is hard work—sociologists call it “emotional labor”—and research shows that it’s often experienced as stressful. It’s psychologically and even physically draining; it can lead to lowered motivation and engagement with work, and ultimately to job burnout.”

RELEVANT. 

Welcome to mah realm

This is also true for customer service people.  So BE KIND. If kindness is too hard, at least don’t be an asshole.  If not being an asshole is too hard, use email so you don’t have to interact with anyone directly. 

This explains why I always felt so fucking drained when I came home from Target, even when I’d had a pretty good day and not stood up for all that long. Huh.

This also impacts people with disabilities, be they physical or mental, and people who are “performing” for a crowd.  By the end of a four-day con, I am so emotionally exhausted that I walk in a ring of handlers, because otherwise improper poking could lead to endless tears.

…while I joke about it with me, it also takes a serious toll on medical staff.

Watch doctors and nurses who’ve just cared for someone dying. Then watch them smile, laugh and joke with the sick child, the scared terminally ill person, watch them burn up their soul to make sure other patients don’t feel their pain.

It’s bloody hard work, and sometimes you just want to curl up in a ball, but there’s always someone who needs help, and you pledged to give it.

It’s why I work at making even the most stressful shifts as non-awful as I can for the team I work with; because they’re sacrificing so much for the privilege of looking after people, and often people forget that as they demand professionalism and smiling staff.

jellyfishjammin:

The “I am a piece of shit and nobody will ever love me” factoid is actually a statistical error. You are actually are fantastic and infinitely worthy of people’s company.  That person you used to care about, who taught you to hate yourself by abandoning you, is an outlier and should not have been counted

So, I think I’m going to blame it on the night shifts; that and the allergy season which appears to have kicked off in spectacular style this year. But whatever the reason I’m knackered today. Completely cream-crackered.

I had hoped to get *lots* done today, but have largely abandoned it in favour of watching Sense8 (difficult with the representation of minorities: YAY! for representation, boo for dear-god-stereotype-much?! Still loving lots of it though).

However – on the plus side I have put the final coat of paint on the boxing:

And I’ve also declared the stair rail done, and semi-attached the last of the three (butt ugly) brackets that hold it to the wall (at a different level to the one opposite. Why didn’t I just remove the damn thing? and the edge of the front door has met my ‘good enough’ criteria. It could do with another coat or two, but you don’t really see it, so I say it’s ‘good enough’.

We’ve also got a repair engineer coming to fix the Haier Washer-Drier (I just like the way that sounds). Fixed fee – covers call out, labour, all spares and a year’s warranty. It should be okay – so I’ve cleared the laundry room ready. Which involved moving all the tiling stuff for the floor that I’ve not yet tiled. I’ve also taken a photo of the poor sad object:

The string’s to hold the (broken) drawer shut – it tends to pop open when it’s spinning which has led to water on the floor syndrome (but not since the application of ‘string’. Oh no). The other thing you can just see is the peg sticking out which is doing the job of the missing foot. Hopefully the repair-bloke (it is a bloke, or at least the person is called Keith) will fix the ‘leaving nasty stains on things’ fault and maybe some of the other faults. I’m thinking, though, that I might make a false floor that’s actually level when I get to tiling the laundry room. That plus multiple screws to the walls, the existing floor, etc, might make the poor benighted object less inclined to shake itself to bits.

Finally, in my catalogue of activities for the day I took my poor bicycle down to a local place that hopes to be able to repair the broken brake linkage*. Failing that it may be a model-it and send it off to be milled. It’s actually just a bit of bent metal that’s snapped, but it’s beyond my making abilities. I’ve also been re-re-re-redirected to someone who might be able to repair the BSA three speed hub. Which is exciting. It’s probably advisable to get that repaired before leaving the UKland because whilst BSA hubs are rare here, they’re probably hens-teeth-rare in the US.

Mind you, having checked the status of my application for registration again it’s frustratingly still listed as ‘awaiting documents’. GET OVER THERE ALREADY, JEEZE.

* Did I mention this? No? On my last night shift I pulled out of the garage and started cycling, pulled the brake lever and discovered a complete absence of retardation. Now, lets be fair, my bike’s brakes are never highly effective, but this was a ‘oh, nothing is happening’ moment. Fortunately, the less-than-adequate front brake brought me to a stop – and doubly fortunately I’d not made it out onto the junction with the main road which would, I think, have been somewhat more exciting.

shadesofmauve:

shadesofmauve:

AND I found them for cheaper than the price Home Depot had listed (back when Home Depot still believed they existed)!

I AM VICTORIOUS!

I got the ‘retailer’ list from the manufacturer’s website and set about to just calling them all, since brick-and-mortar stores rarely put prices online. One was a dud, but the second called the manufacturer and got an excellent price per square foot.

He also told me what the List price is (something that seems to be top secret, most of the time), so now I know that the supposedly-discount place in Bellevue was selling this ‘discounted’ tile at twice the list price. Ha. Ha.

It’s still more than I budgeted for initially, but that’s my own fault for having taste. It’s $200 cheaper than what I thought I was going to be in for last night, and it’ll arrive in the first part of the week I took off to work on the house.

Flush with my victory, I have used the energy to run five loads of laundry. ADULTING.

I take back my admission of blame. I’ve decided it’s my parents’ fault that I have taste.

That’s what parents are for, right?

Woot! 1337 adulting skillz there, for sure.

And aye, quite definitely your parents’ fault.

Yes, yes, as usual caveat reader – I’ve been awake (bar a 2 hour lie down during which I vaguely slept) for around 35 hours. Aren’t nights fun. Oh, no, they suck.

Anyhow, there was a bit of angst yesterday – well, the night before. The licensure office in WA sent an e-mail saying (very politely) “Your application is missing bits, so uh, we can’t process it”. Having had to do the rather specific sacrificial dance to obtain the cheque that I’d had to send I was not overly delighted at the prospect of having to obtain a new one (and the additional cost wouldn’t hugely help). But having had a quick e-maily chat with them – they’re holding the application ready for the CGFNS assessment of my transcripts. Neither of the letters appear to have actually arrived there yet (the earliest left the UK around the 26th May – so it’s not entirely surprising).

Also, the camera situation left me a little dissatisfied. After a bit of pondering I’ve sucked it up and bought a Lumix G2 with a new 14-42mm lens. I’d’ve liked a better, more interesting lens. But that’s what I’ve got available.

The reason for the camera upgrade is that I wish to do some video recording. Kathryn and I have store-related-plans which call for being able to make some videos. The Lumix G2 adds in 720p capture with image stabilisation. It’s hardly cutting edge tech, but it is good enough for podcasting outside. Some stuff will obviously be captured with the vastly superior 4k capabilities of the OnePlus, which is also much more easily grabbable. But the Lumix offers niceties like control over depth of field, optical zoom, the option to use other lenses…

…which might make for some interesting stuff.

We’re going to be holidaying in Norway this year, possibly also in Sweden and Denmark, and travelling through Germany and the Netherlands. So we’ll have a chance to play with it…