The Venting Thread

[mamselle]

Boy did I pick the wrong week to really dive into my sabbatical research!  School vacation.   Smolt is home.  MrsFishProf is home.  I can't get anything going.  I have been struggling with time management and task management, but this week is shaping up to be a disaster.

Are there any nearby libraries you need to visit to find the resources you need to do your work? (hint--hint)

Libraries can be very quiet places....

M.

[apl68]

Well, having received word that our library's federal E-Rate reimbursement will not come through because the vendor we used failed to keep up with the paperwork on their end, this morning we received our official reimbursement for $0.00.  That's the fruit of about a year and a half of paperwork, documentation, and other jumping through hoops, on my part and that of our state's E-Rate coordinator (Without whom this would have been a far greater nightmare than it was).  In the coming fiscal year we'll try to collect our reimbursement for some equipment funding that we've put in for, and then I'm done with E-Rate.  It's just too much of a bureaucratic hassle for a small institution to deal with.

On the positive side, I was preparing our monthly state Use Tax report this morning and learned that we didn't make any eligible purchases last month.  This meant that we owed $0.00 on our Use Tax.  So our federal E-Rate reimbursement was at least enough to cover that.  I guess you could say it all balanced out.

[clean]

because the vendor we used failed to keep up with the paperwork on their end

Have you expressed your disappointment with the vendor, and that you will expect them to a). improve,  b).  make up for your failings with appropriate discounts and c). begin a search for a new vendor?

Choices have consequences. Their choice to 'save time and money' to not complete this paperwork should have consequences for them, whether that is a discount for you, or you can make all of their dreams come true! You can relieve them of ALL of the paperwork associated with your library by finding another vendor more willing to provide the services YOU PAID FOR (including the associated paperwork).

[mamselle]

+1,000

DON'T BE A VICTIM!

Or as Eleanor R., I believe it was, put it, "Never become the instrument of your own oppression."

M.

[FishProf]

Students!  The quizzes are OPEN NOTE.  If you just took a quiz and couldn't answer the question because YOU didn't put it in your notes, that isn't a flaw in the quiz.  It's a flaw in your notes.

Also, given what is going on in the world today, how did you conclude that Oil was not a major (in fact, primary) source of energy in First World countries?

[Thursday's_Child]

Also, given what is going on in the world today, how did you conclude that Oil was not a major (in fact, primary) source of energy in First World countries?

There's something going on?  You mean a new album from Taylor Swift or <insert any fav singer here>?  Besides, Oil isn't a major source of energy - I mean, you do have to get it changed occasionally, but not nearly as often as you have to put gas in the car.

[Langue_doc]

As soon as I got on the parkway, on my way back from getting my car serviced, the tire pressure light came on along with a series of beeps. I had a similar experience when coming home from the same service place, so kept driving. The last time it happened, I took the car to the tire guy in my neighborhood who told me that it was a malfunction of the light and turned it off. I'm waiting for the service place to respond to my text. Aargh! I have a trip coming up and the last thing I need is to drive 26+ miles one way to have the car looked at.

[mamselle]

Your brakes worked ok, and there was no evidence the service place had damaged the brake fluid line, yes? (I.e., no puddles on the garage floor, etc.)

I had these idiots replace my worn-out brakes, who FORGOT TO BLEED THE LINE, which I discovered a short while after driving out of their service area...when I owned a car in the 1970s...

Read 'em the riot act and never went back there.

M.

[Langue_doc]

mamselle, I don't think they damaged anything, it's just that they have not responded to my text (they communicated with me through texting when I was waiting for the car, and even texted me a video of the innards of the car), and when I called, I was on hold, first for 6-7 minutes, and then for 24 minutes. The email they sent me has a "no reply" return address!

I didn't worry about it as much as I should have because the problem with the tire pressure light happened a few years ago when I was driving home from this service place. I got the runaround when I called, but then took the car to my local tire shop where they checked the tires and told me that the light needed to be reset. I'm taking the car to the tire shop first thing tomorrow morning and then will try to contact the main service person (who sent me an email when I bought the car three years ago about a complimentary oil change). I hope the email still works; I tracked it down and noted that the sender was "servicesomethingsomething" and not the name of a person.

[mamselle]

Their communication structures sound a bit...um...worrisome? Irregular?

Hope it gets worked out!

M.

[Langue_doc]

Tyres are good, but I'm quite unhappy with the service place which still hasn't responded to my text.

I took the car to the local tire guy who checked the tires (perfect) and showed me the tire pressure reset button on the dashboard, below the steering wheel. The service place forgot to reset it; all they had to do was to respond to my text advising me about the location of the reset button.

I hope they send me the survey.

[Langue_doc]

Unrelated to the above.

Our city is seeing shootings, stabbings, carjackings, getting shoved in front of trains, and now a stabbing in a museum, of all places.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/12/nyregion/moma-stabbing.html

He's probably going to be out on bail because of our no-bail laws.

What next? Elected officials, do something.

[mamselle]

Britain outlawed knives a long time ago.

But we can guess how that would go down here.

I can't recall if the MOMA has security frisking at the entrance, but I suspect they will, soon.

The underlying assumption--that if one is denied something and is angry about it, then, one is justified in becoming violent and taking out ones anger on the officials who instituted the denial--is the part it's hard to legislate against.

"No more entitled violence" would be a good idea, overall....but then, there's Russia....

People just need to grow up, but they seem to be regressing.

Not sure how one legislates that out of existence....but it sure would be nice....

M. 

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

My student workers told me today that they decided to work on 'y' instead of 'x', which was assigned to them. I'm pretty pissed off that they're not listening to me and seem to think they can do whatever the hell they want.

[mamselle]

Normally, the consequences of not following orders in a job are a reprimand or a write-up.

The consequences for getting research steps out of order "in real life" can range from greater delays in esearch progress--and the attendant need to work unpaid overtime to meet the projected manager's goals--to a failed experiment.

I wouldn't fail to let them know about any of these potential consequences, and I wouldn't shield them from whichever and as many as may be appropriate in such a case.

I know that's obvious, but I mean it supportive, as in, "you'd be fully justified to read 'em the riot act and penalize them as needs be."

If they don't learn now, they won't last two days in a real-life job ...I've seen folks in pharma wet labs get fired on the spot for such shenanigans.

M.