Get Your Grump on Thursdays - Was (What's chapping my @ss today?)

[mjbabcock]

So you must be right.

Sorry I was a dick earlier. Sarcastic responses shouldn't be the norm and I should know better than to engage in such discourse online.

On a more respectable note:

The Olympics are littered with politics and money. There was Jackie Owens showing up Hitler and his ultimate race, there was the US boycott of The USSR games and the USSR boycott of our LA games. Tons of countries have national doping programs set up to defeat their counterparts. There was the assignation you mentioned by the Palestinians. Heck, I attended the Vancouver games a few years back and it was all about national pride as opposed to the athletic performances. The fact that there are medal counts and national programs dedicated to winning seems to be evidence that politics play into the games. The money thing, there are so many corporate sponsors and TV rights at play that the games represent billions upon billions of dollars.

All that aside, I believe that any time a person is fighting to claim their rights as a person, it is a good thing. It is paramount that we not confuse a right with an ability. Putin, or the Ugandans may have the ability to imprison or murder folks who are sexually attracted to the same sex, but they do not have the right. As an American, we tend to believe that these rights are bestowed upon us by our creator, or by virtue of our shared existence on this planet. To claim that being elected, appointed, or to have fought one's way into leadership endows someone to decide what human rights are is the thinking that led folks like Hitler, Milosovich, Stalin, Pol Pot, etc. to murder millions upon millions of people. It is those folks without power, who have pointed out universal truths, who let us know there is a right and a wrong...MLK, Grandi, Jesus, Mandela, Budda, etc.

If we can agree that there are rights all humans should be entitled to, then we should be able to agree that any fight in pursuit of those rights is noble. More noble than bobsledding down a mountain or doing backflips on a snowboard. I think we must also recognize that fights for such rights have had a tremendous impact on the quality of human existence over the last 250-500 years. It is because of those fights in the pas that we think it odd that women get raped in front of a village, or horrible that a mN would keep women in an Ohio basement as sex slaves. Less than a century ago, women were engaged in a fight very similar to the one the LGBT community is fighting today. They will succeed for the same reason women are ski jumping this winter...because discrimination of a group based upon race/gender/class/able-bodiedness/age/sexuality outside of the hegemonic norms, when illuminated, is indefensible. Best of luck to the LGBT athletes and those aligned in a fight for equity.

I'll end with a quote by someone far smarter and braver than I, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"

[Corso]

Well said.
I knew you had it in you.

I agree with you on the big picture. I thing it’s odd on what issues the media decides to focus on, the point of my OP.

[Chad]

I hate it when people clutter up the complaint box with intelligent, well thought out discussions. Knock that shit off.

[davids]

Well said.
I knew you had it in you.

I agree with you on the big picture. I thing it’s odd on what issues the media decides to focus on, the point of my OP.

I hope that's what was behind your "1.7%" riff. Because the group I most identify with also happens to make up approximately 1.7% of the US population. And maybe 0.2% of the world population. If you are arguing that the raw numbers somehow abrogate my human rights, I have a grump that won't fit into Thursdays.

The media's - and society's - gaze wanders. You can get bent out of shape for that, or be thankful when it lands on a worthwhile issue. Gay rights are hot right now. And I think that's tremendous. Women's rights need the same attention too, internationally. Sexual equality is probably the single best thing a society can do to improve itself. But that doesn't make the people pushing gay rights wrong (and it's not just the 1.7% who are gay who are behind this effort, you know...)

[vertical_doug]

It's Tuesday. I don't mind the snow, don't mind the cold, I even enjoy shoveling. But when the village plow hits my stone slate sidewalk and explodes it into several pieces, I get grumpy. This will keep me grumpy till spring.

[christian]

I hope that's what was behind your "1.7%" riff. Because the group I most identify with also happens to make up approximately 1.7% of the US population.

David, I love you. I love your "sport" wagons. But there is just no way 1.7% of the US population owns an Acura TSX wagon.

[davids]

David, I love you. I love your "sport" wagons. But there is just no way 1.7% of the US population owns an Acura TSX wagon.

The choosing people:

Attachment 63549

[Wordbiker]

My last post in this thread was grumpy, curt, inappropriate and profane. I didn't even know there was a rep system until mine took a hit from my poor choice and indiscretion...not the sort of member of this community I wish to be. I offer my sincere apology to all that might have been offended and my assurance that I shall do my best to be a better person.

No, I'm not grumpy about taking the rep hit, that was completely appropriate. I'm grumpy because I hate the taste of both crow and my own feet.

[mjbabcock]

Had to get up at 1:30 to get Aunt-in-law to the airport, just went into the office instead of going back home to save 50 miles of driving. I need some sleep. I'm also grumpy that the bike commutes all week have been in the midst of steady twenty degree 30+ mph winds coming out of the mountains. If I wanted to move to Nebraska I'd have moved to Nebraska.

[Tom]

Instant messaging client software. Hey numbie: "Instant" implies that it requires an instant (or at least pretty quick, like as soon as I finish this I'll address it) response. If you need it done by next Friday, email me with your requirements, and try to write complete English sentences with all the words spelled correctly. If we sent you clear requirements what to do, do not instant message me your answer do what we told you to do. It puts me in mind of Disturbed's thread there, where he says just because one has a thought it isn't cause to broadcast it necessarily. I realize that for a lot of these people I'm dealing with a thought is something to celebrate because they happen so very infrequently but I have work to do. (Shut up, writing long replies to bike sites keeps me from saying extremely unprofessional things to the people here and having to say I'm sorry, it is not a complete waste of time.) How about you went to the meeting we called to explain all this to you in words of one syllable, read the meeting minutes, looked at the detailed extracts we gave you or even took the extra time to listen to the recording we made of the meeting? Oh heck no, just IM a string of blockheaded questions. I'll be glad to answer the same blockheaded questions for the 45th time.

[abbeyQ]

It's just down right cold outside, 2* and I'm going to spend all afternoon on the back porch brewing beer. Suppose I'll have to dig into the moonshine stash to keep me warm.

[prolix21]

Have been at airport since 6am. Flight forced to turn back & cancelled. Second flight now delayed.

[Nierman]

Hate to beat a dead horse because I'd likely sprain both wrists in these temps. Switched to Celsius for effect because I'm a whiner. Saturday looks nice, so there's that.

Picture 32.jpg

[chasea]

"Throwback Thursday." Selfies aren't enough. You have to celebrate younger-you?

And the debate about the number of spaces after a sentence rages on.

[Jonathan]

My scanner, it's done. I have to drive 25 miles RT to hand some docs to my assistant that will take 2sec. Oh well, I'll grab a taco and a beer.

[seanile]

I need some sleep.

seconded. but it's my own damn fault. staying late at a coffee shop to chat up a lady is fun and all, but having to wake up early the next day for work is a painnnn.

and while im at it.. damn the comfort of laziness.

[Shinomaster]

I wish I had some real NY pizza.

[boxerboxer]

I come up with some of the most mindbendingly bonejarringly missedshiftingly awful grumps early in the week. Then Thursday takes it's sweeeet-ass time coming, and by the time grump season is open I can't remember a damn thing I'm mad about.

[David Tollefson]

Oh man... This is only day two, and I'm about to lose it. Here's the story (so far):

My wife had shoulder surgery yesterday. I'm home for the next 3 and a half weeks to help out with taking care of her (while she only has one usable arm) and the baby.

But this story start last week -- I'm supposed to be "working from home" now. I freely admit I'm not a good work-from-home candidate because I can get distracted enough at the office (see my VS time, and other online time, and it tells the whole story). Because of that, I've never "upgraded" my work desktop PC to a laptop. ANYway, since the office can't function without me for three plus weeks, I need to be available to work issues while I'm here. I use CATIA V5 and several other programs on a daily basis -- actually, I spend pretty much all day on them as it's basically my job. So I send in the loaner laptop request, and specify all the software requirements.

Tuesday I leave the office early so I can go to the laptop service center that's 20 miles away and get the loaner. As I'm booting it up there, the tech asks, "Oh, do you really need CATIA?"

No shyte, sherlock, that's what my request says.

"Oh, well we don't have any laptops capable of running that." He makes a call, and nope, nowhere in the whole company are there any...

Yeah, would have been nice to know this LAST WEEK when I made the request. I guess their policy is to not look at the requirements until the person is standing right there in front of them. I left without hearing so much as a "sorry."

So now I'm expected to still be able to do my job with no equipment, take care of my wife (who is in pain and the vocidin is barely touching it), the 6-month-old, and run the house on my own. And my wife thinks I'll be able to ride at some point... RRRRRRRIIIIIIGGGGGGHHHHHHHHTTTTT!

[chasea]

Adding this:

DarrenCT can often be a pain in the balls.

That is all.