The Venting Thread

[arcturus]

I paid for access to the World Cup yesterday, so's I could watch today's match (and others). Today, I discovered that I'm being sent on an infinite login loop and, thus, cannot watch the match. Ugh.

Canada played well, but lost concentration for a few minutes at the end of the first half. Thus...they are still searching for their first points in World Cup play.

Thanks for the recap. I'm not surprised. I expected a thashing, even from Belgium's B-team.

I'm still angry about the infinite login loop though.

I understand the frustration. I actually recommend watching the full game if you can get access to it. Canada played very well, except for those few minutes.

[Parasaurolophus]

And I accidentally smashed my phone. Ugh. I'm not winning today. I give up until tomorrow.

[mamselle]

Yikes!

I suppose a dinosaur's footprint will do that...

Hope it's replaceable without too much trouble.

M.

[AmLitHist]

While waiting for the casseroles (dressing, scalloped corn, sweet potatoes) made yesterday to bake for dinner, we're doing DIY washer repair.  Not "sitting and doing nothing" that I'd planned for the day.  Still, we've gotten a lot of use out of it.

[Parasaurolophus]

Today's first item:

I sent a document for discussion (which I was asked to draw up at the last minute, mind you). Yes, it's not copy/pasted into the proper final format. That doesn't preclude discussing its contents (which are well-organized, incidentally, and actually easier to see and discuss than they will be in the final formatted document). Why do you want the final, formatted document? It's just a question of cutting and pasting what I did into the relevant sections. There's literally nothing else to be done.

Ugh. I mean, I just did it for you. It only took a few minutes. But now it's harder to find the information we're supposed to discuss.

[clean]

Clean, does the hotel you were staying advertise one of those "leave your car with us" setups? If so then I would be triply mad. If not, or it has changed, you may want to move the car to long term parking anyway. Otherwise it may not be there when you return.

I also live about 150 miles from the "big airport" (it might be same one you use). Anytime we decide to travel international, we fly out of there. Although our local small airport is now getting bigger, so more options are hopefully on the way. It's hard to decide which is the better deal in terms of cost, time, and gas. Small airport has fewer options if something gets cancelled, but then I can just go back home. But the flights are more expensive because it's a smaller airport, and I have to connect to get to the west coast.

I went to this particular hotel because in the past, I had used that option to park and fly several times.  However, the first trip to the airport is now 9am and that does not help if the flight leaves a 6am! 

The primary reason to use this airport is that the flights that I get from it are direct, and usually a bit cheaper than from my local ariport, which seems to always include at least a 1 or 2 hour layover. 

Im on the trip. It is almost over.  It promised unlimited internet access, but until today, (well now, earlier was the same as before), it was 'unlimited, but useless'.   It would take 4 or 5 minutes to load my personal email, and then another few minutes to delete even 10 junk mail posts. If I tried to delete more, it would just stop. 

I cruise in the summer, but in Alaska, and I am in US ports most of the time, so I just connect via my smartphone as a hotspot.  That is fast enough to get work done, but not fast to get email, but not fast enough for zoom or anything.  Besides, on vacation, I m not going to Zoom!  Nothing good comes in emails or zoom, so why get mad on vacation?

[Juvenal]

Super Bowl?  World Series?  Test Match?  World Cup?  I was always passed over for team selections as a kid at school (I was [am] a fattie) and so, as a septuagenarian now long since, have cocked a snook at all team sports.  They manage without my interest; I manage without theirs.  Win-win.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I guess this is a vent, more of a something's-annoying-me-but-not-that-much kind of thing.

Students are already asking to take the final exam early due to impending funerals, etc. I just don't want to deal with it. I just don't have the emotional/mental reserves to deal with the whining and gnashing of teeth.

[mamselle]

Just.Say.No.

M.

[clean]

For funerals now, I would give an incomplete.  The students can not study if the relative was close, and I dont want to have to administer a separate exam at the end of the term when so many other things need to be done.   
Let them recover and take it when there is less stress for all of us after the start of the next term. 

[onehappyunicorn]

We need part-time people to teach in the spring, I realize it's late in the season but we had two of our adjuncts get full-time jobs just a few weeks ago. I sent out a link to the job posting with all the details, including minimum requirements. It's great that people have shared it, we definitely need instructors, but I am not going to call everyone to discuss the position before you apply. It takes all of maybe fifteen minutes to complete the application, I can see if you meet the qualifications and then we can talk. I seriously had seven people leave me voice messages or send me an email with their numbers to call them.

I already know that at least a couple of you don't actually meet the minimum requirements. Yes, you need at least a Master's degree in the field we are asking you to teach. No, having a Bachelor's in that field and your Master's on some other field won't work. Yes, you do actually have to completed your degree, we cannot hire you after you completed a year of your graduate program. Yes, the job description states that we need people for in-person instruction. No, we cannot just move the class online.

When you do apply and you don't meet the minimum requirements please don't call me to plead your case. I don't care that you taught the subject for fifteen years in public school, you don't have the advanced degree. My office phone is readily available, no one from the accrediting body has called to ask my opinion. I can make sympathetic noises at you, that's the best I can do.

I certainly don't need my supervisor telling me multiple times a week that we need to hire. The problem is crap pay in a hot job market, that's why we lost our other adjuncts. I know we have three full classes with no instructor but there is no one in the applicant pool that I haven't already interviewed.

[Langue_doc]

Yesterday was "giving Tuesday", which meant that I've been inundated with emails starting last week, some of them from the same outfit, requesting, begging, and often trying to shame me into donating. The Central Park Conservancy sent me more than six emails just yesterday, the last one with the subject line

Really surprised not to have heard from you today.

Organizations, money doesn't grow on trees, at least not the ones in my neighborhood.

[ab_grp]

Langue_doc, that is so rude! I cannot imagine who thinks this kind of tactic works.  I have also been deluged, but nothing that extreme.  The other day, I got a kind of funny one that said:

You are why I love my job. I sincerely appreciate you taking my call today and making a pledge of $0.00.

I would have been taken more aback if I actually had taken their call, but this was apparently a form email that went off the rails.  Still, you're welcome! Glad to make your job so enjoyable.

[secundem_artem]

Giving Tuesday should be followed up with "Leave me the fvck alone Wednesday."  Every organization I belong to, my employer, various web sites I visit, news outlets - every last one of these yoyos has been begging for cash.  As always, we've taken a reasonable idea and run it into the ground.

[Istiblennius]

I have a monthly donation set up to a particular organization whose work I feel strongly about and there is evidence that they are doing good work in that area and using the donations effectively. But... they keep sending me push notifications asking for more. Every month I opt out of the push notifications. Then my monthly donation goes through and they put me back on the notification list. You would think they would have a way to fix this!