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

[nrs5000]

I spent four hours last weekend patching and caulking around a leaky window. It still leaks.

[davids]

My wife's stepfather died two weeks ago. All things considered it was an easy quick death at a ripe old age. I miss him and mourn his loss, but that's not the grump.

The grump is that he never told his children (all well into adulthood, btw) about the existence of a pre-nup and the contents of his will. And in the last two days they've learned about both, and about how little is left in his estate. They are not getting what they imagined/anticipated. They are angry and taking it out on my mother-in-law who (did I mention?) lost her husband two weeks ago. The husband who never told his kids about his plans.

Wow, who could have seen this coming? Grumpy, grumpy, grumpy.

[ron l edmiston]

--- david my brother,

i would hope that the years he was a companion to your mother-in-law and a father to/for his children would bring smiles and compensate for dollars & material goods.., no longer there..

keeping you & yours in tammy's & ronnie's thoughts..,

ronnie

[j44ke]

Most of the subway lines are fxxked tonight. Since these are subways, you have to go underground to get to them, sometimes a long way down. You would think that the MTA would post someone at street level or at least in front of the turnstiles where you pay your fare announcing that there are no subways at this station. No, they are all the way down on the platform, announcing to everyone arriving on the platform that there are no trains. Which means that you have to turn around and go back up to ground level to figure out what the fxxk you are going to do to get home.

Bah!

[bigbill]

Got my ass kicked trying to make a product fit in a box. Four, 15 product count bags were supposed to fit in a case that is smaller than the 4X12ct box. Staff engineers: "oh yea, we know about that, it's not going to fit well, but we already bought a full production run of cases so you have to use them up, but hey, we won't run this code again for a couple of months". Got an email today letting me know that one of my machines was "red" for production and efficiency. Yup, the machine running the shitty code. Thanks for pointing that out, Asshat.

[j44ke]

And another thing - everyone seems to be shocked! SHOCKED! that the CIA was beating the crap out of anyone they could get their hands on and none of it was yielding any intelligence data of importance so they decided that instead of improving their data gathering they continued to beat the crap out of anyone they could get their hands on and started leaking "information" to news outlets as PR so that no one would figure out that they were beating the crap out of anyone they could get their hands on and they would continue to get massive funding for more cudgels, cattle prods and buckets of water connected to electrical outlets.

Wasn't anyone paying attention in the 1970's? Doesn't anyone remember Operation Mockingbird? How about Chile? Or how about most of Latin America and Operation Condor? Air America? Why is the CIA's behavior a surprise at all to anyone?

Trick question(s) I know.

[doomridesout]

2000 Subaru head gasket. Quick checkover before 36 hour drive with all our stuff to California this Sunday. You see where I'm going with this...

[dogrange]

2000 Subaru head gasket. Quick checkover before 36 hour drive with all our stuff to California this Sunday. You see where I'm going with this...

2001 Subaru headgasket. Small leak, "make sure the oil level doesn't start to drop." 2 seized pistons 2 months later, despite solid oil levels. No more Subaru for me.

[robin3mj]

Nanny called in sick last Wed/Thu.
Came back to work Friday, in time to give our 1 year old the bug in the worst way.
I came down with it Saturday, and yesterday took my first sick day in years, and wife is now showing signs.
Starting with Friday night, none of the humans (nor the dog, probably) in our house have slept for longer than 2 hours at a stretch.
And work is beyond crazy with the usual end of year fun.

Been living on pho and Naked protein shakes for 3 days now.
I will do my pushups as soon as I regain the strength.

[Sbti]

Apparently low oil prices are bad for the economy. Who knew? Not counting yesterday the stock market, has seen some of its worse days in the last couple weeks mostly due to turmoil in the oil markets. I paid $2.22/gallon last week. No wait. High oil prices are bad for the economy. Back in summer of 2008, before the financial collapse, oil was over $130/barrell and I paid over $4.00 per gallon. The stock market tanked. People were panicking and looking to car pool, etc.(a good thing). All manner of goods and services had an energy surcharge attached to them since the price of trucking everything around had gone up so much. Us average joes skipped going out to eat, taking the longer road trips, rode the bikes more(a good thing). Will we now get energy rebates on those same goods and services? Will the airlines drop prices? Effity Eff Eff NO!!!! Bastards. "Hey, we're the oil market. Give us the money, do as we say and nobody gets hurt."

[monadnocky]

So, in what has been called "the biggest scandal in medical ethics since Tuskegee," it's becoming clear that my professional organization - the American Psychological Association - collaborated pretty closely with the Bush Administration on the best way to use torture post-911, and there is convincing evidence that at least two APA-affiliated psychologists were physically present during repeated waterboardings of at least two Guantanamo detainees. APA has been scrambling ever since, flatly denying it's role in torture, much to the contrary of what scores of very credible sources are saying. Keep in mind that the AMA and the ApA (the American Psychiatric Association) have always condemned torture and expressly forbidden any of their members from any involvement in torture (besides to directly care for those who have been tortured without being a part of the structure that performed the act).

[Six Questions] | The APA Grapples with Its Torture Demons: Six Questions for Nathaniel Raymond , by Scott Horton | Harper's Magazine

Regardless of one's personal political leanings or views on torture, our ethical code begins with the following preamble:

Psychologists strive to benefit those with whom they work and take care to do no harm. In their professional actions, psychologists seek to safeguard the welfare and rights of those with whom they interact professionally and other affected persons, and the welfare of animal subjects of research.

As psychologists, we abide by this code regardless of any personal views. It's part of the deal. We can't make exceptions just as we can't make exceptions and decide on our own to discuss patients publically or decide to enter into a sexual relationship with them. How two - and perhaps more - psychologists directly and knowingly aided the CIA in what was clearly torture makes a perverse mockery of everything in our Ethics Code, not to mention the practice of clinical psychology as a whole.

I simply cannot fathom not being an APA member at this point in my career (it would be quite damaging), but I cannot remain a member if these allegations are in fact substantive. We'll see.

Oh, and the two psychologists who helped the CIA? Their company got over $50 million (some sources say closer to $100 million) of your dollars. That's a company of two psychologists. At least $50,000,000. Of your tax dollars.

[devlin]

I lost my $120 Moon bike light. That thing was a frickin laser beam.

[Britishbane]

Too sick to race in the last cross race of the year. Bummer since it was at the park right next to where I do 90% of my riding and only 10 minutes from home.

Also, I'm sick and tired of the mindless prattle of some of my coworkers. Office chit chat is the worst. I try to not be a grump, but I cannot stand people who have to constantly be talking (or making nonsensical noises), it is so forced and superficial.

[David Tollefson]

Had to take daughter-the-elder to the walk-in clinic yesterday after almost two weeks now of various symptoms (she's been with her mom the last 10 days). First suspect is strep throat. Nope. Okay, how about flu? Nada. Well, mono is the next culprit. Again, no. So with swollen and painful glands, painful spleen on palpation, slight fever (that was up to 105 on Sunday, and she didn't check in the hospital), the docs can only say "we think it's viral." So now she's quarantined in her room to keep from spreading whatever-it-is to the rest of us, sleeping (like a teenager), and feeling like crap because she can't do the last of her Christmas shopping.

[nahtnoj]

My dealings with a certain product safety organization grow ever deeper, intertwined, and painful.

[bigbill]

I'm off today and it's rainy, foggy, and cold. If it was Friday, Ancient Aliens would be on, Thursday TV sucks.

[Chad]

If you are going to have a website, please keep it somewhat up to date. Showing every product available through the companies you represent is not useful to me. I much prefer to see what you have in stock. Furthermore, please remove or update links on a somewhat regular basis as well. If you aren't going to do this I suggest a blog or facebook page not a website.

[dashDustin]

Last week of school. Oldest boy is failing 3 classes (3rd grade). Not because his grades are bad and he's doing poor on work. But because he doesn't turn in his work, or forgets about his homework because he doesn't write it down. Wife still suffering concussion. I'm treading lightly, but god damnit. 3 fucking classes. Teacher told us "oh, it's just elementary school. Grades aren't really that important until high school." Right. Grades might not be, but work ethic, responsibility, and accountability are. He got detention because he didn't wear his belt, and has had 3 prior warnings. So what does the teacher do? Tells him to leave his belt at school so he doesn't have to worry about it at home.

Split custody with 2 very different parents is stupid.

[jacked]

Humans...that think it's okay to saunter around with your dog at the mega hardware store. Here's a tip, the extra long leash you are letting your eight year old wield isn't helping.

[MarkC]

The filet on yesterday's trip across the Atlantic was a bit dry but somehow I managed to make due.

Happy Holidays all you grumps!!!

-Mark