Real Life and What's Happening...

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Toadmaster said:
Wow, I wonder what they define as "fast food". I could see that if they include chain restaurants like Applebees, Denny's and such, but that is very surprising if it is just classic fast food, the burger places, Taco Bell, KFC etc.
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It's actual fast food. Most of my job experience before I snapped (in my late twenties) was in fast food and for every teenager working nights and weekends... well, someone's got to run the grills when those teenagers come in on their lunch breaks. You see more of them when you go through the drive-thru-- except lunch breaks-- because there are often legal or corporate requirements for workers to be 18 years old before they handle a lot of industrial cooking equipment, so they get thrown on registers.

Of course, I've also heard people making the "these jobs are for kids" arguments during school hours, when everyone taking their order and preparing their food and serving them was very obviously in their mid-twenties or later.
 
Brock Savage said:
I just got laid off and am seething with rage. While HR was babbling about severance pay and shipping their PC back, I hardly paid attention because I couldn't even think straight I was so angry. Once again I am screwed over by "it's not what you know it's who you know." I am going out for a drink
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Sorry to hear that, man. Hope you land on your feet, and soon.
 
Thank you everyone for the kind words and support. I will be okay financially and don't feel the need to look for another job anytime soon. I am just angry because this has happened to me twice in the past 9 years- I help a small company become successful by working like a maniac, the company gets bought out by a corporation, business tanks shortly thereafter due to bad decisions and I am laid off within a year.
 
Just about finished putting four projects to bed at work. Loads of stress, long hours etc. Also, just finishing my Management Apprenticeship at the same time. Also, my wife is returning after 4 months away, so have to get things spick and span.

Still, I have nearly two weeks off work, soon, which will help me relax.
 
spittingimage said:
I'm tempted to sprinkle "as was foretold in the prophecy" in my conversation at work, but then I remember the day I learned you don't try to banter with mental health nurses.
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It depends on the banter - Stumpydave RNMH.
 
Stumpydave said:
It depends on the banter - Stumpydave RNMH.
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Their main office is on a road that shares a name with me. They asked me if there was a connection and I said yes; my great-grandfather brought that street with him from Ireland as his only souvenir.

Suddenly I had everyone's full attention.
 
spittingimage said:
I'm tempted to sprinkle "as was foretold in the prophecy" in my conversation at work, but then I remember the day I learned you don't try to banter with mental health nurses.
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Same with psychiatrists. My stock answer to a polite but insincere enquiry after my health is a vivid but figurative affirmation of extreme well-being. One morning a psychiatrist ask me “How are you?”. Mistaking that for a phatic preliminary, I answered “Fit to fight tigers!”, and got a prescription for lithium (a mood stabiliser). Since then I have been careful to answer “how are you?” with “good morning” etc. in therapeutic contexts.

Humour is dead.
 
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spittingimage said:
I'm tempted to sprinkle "as was foretold in the prophecy" in my conversation at work, but then I remember the day I learned you don't try to banter with mental health nurses.
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Do you have some examples for me to practice? It sounds like this would get me lots of puzzled looks at my work.
 
3rik said:
Do you have some examples for me to practice? It sounds like this would get me lots of puzzled looks at my work.
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Off the top of my head, I would deliver it as a sarcastic, straight-faced footnote to a statement that is obvious or not surprising.

When a stranger asks how I am doing I often reply with an enthusiastic, "Living the dream!" because it shakes people out of their routine and leads to a more authentic interaction. This is especially true for people who have to deal with the same dull conversations day in day out, like grocery checkout lines and bank tellers.
 
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Brock Savage said:
Off the top of my head, I would deliver it as a sarcastic, straight-faced footnote to a statement that is obvious or not surprising.

When a stranger asks how I am doing I often reply with an enthusiastic, "Living the dream!" because it shakes people out of their routine and leads to a more authentic interaction. This is especially true for people who have to deal with the same dull conversations day in day out, like grocery checkout lines and bank tellers.
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I'm more likely in that situation to go for the Eeyore version: "Still sucking atmosphere" or "Still on the right side of the dirt." It has the same kind of effect, though. Or they just turn a glazed look at me.
 
Brock Savage said:
Off the top of my head, I would deliver it as a sarcastic, straight-faced footnote to a statement that is obvious or not surprising.

When a stranger asks how I am doing I often reply with an enthusiastic, "Living the dream!" because it shakes people out of their routine and leads to a more authentic interaction. This is especially true for people who have to deal with the same dull conversations day in day out, like grocery checkout lines and bank tellers.
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5ol2mf.jpg
 
Since September 10th, and especially in the last week, things have been so bad that my upcoming colonoscopy has gone from being unpleasant but necessary to a welcome time away from work.

Now I must go, for a bottle of Magnesium Citrate awaits me.
 
Whew. I am taking tomorrow off. We're only in Week 5 of the semester and I am wiped. I'll be spending time with my kids whose elementary school switched to remote last week and Trophy Gold.

screen-shot-2019-09-23-at-9-48-56-am_orig.png
 
What a world we live in!

Late last week, I got a nice package with a note and instructions to please poop in it and return it. It even had a prepaid return sticker for next day air to airmail my poop.

And it took me a few days before I was at home to poop in the box, so in the interrim, I got phone messages to please not forget to poop in the box and to send in my poop as soon as I could. It was very important for them to get my poop.

This morning, I dropped off a box of poop at the UPS Store to send it to someone who actually wants it. Teenage me's mind would be blown.

Of course, I'm going to be paying for the priviledge, but I haven't gotten that medical bill yet. It will probably be at least 12 different bills, all with some reason or other why insurance doesn't cover it and I need to pay something like $6,783 or something. If I didn't have insurance it would probably only be $500, but since I do, I obviously need to be a few thousand lighter.

But for the moment, there is only the novelty value that I just mailed off my poop to someone, and I'm not gonna get prosecuted for it.

Although, come to think of it, the fine for mailing poop to an unwilling recipient would probably be cheaper than the medical test cost.
 
Gabriel said:
What a world we live in!

Late last week, I got a nice package with a note and instructions to please poop in it and return it. It even had a prepaid return sticker for next day air to airmail my poop.

And it took me a few days before I was at home to poop in the box, so in the interrim, I got phone messages to please not forget to poop in the box and to send in my poop as soon as I could. It was very important for them to get my poop.

This morning, I dropped off a box of poop at the UPS Store to send it to someone who actually wants it. Teenage me's mind would be blown.

Of course, I'm going to be paying for the priviledge, but I haven't gotten that medical bill yet. It will probably be at least 12 different bills, all with some reason or other why insurance doesn't cover it and I need to pay something like $6,783 or something. If I didn't have insurance it would probably only be $500, but since I do, I obviously need to be a few thousand lighter.

But for the moment, there is only the novelty value that I just mailed off my poop to someone, and I'm not gonna get prosecuted for it.

Although, come to think of it, the fine for mailing poop to an unwilling recipient would probably be cheaper than the medical test cost.
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Yes. The marvel that is "poop in the box." It took me over a year to get mine in and my doctor was so excited because she helped develop it in some post doc trials.

It was a nice little home health science project that was far better than the alternative, more invasive procedure.

Poop in a Box.

It is a thing. LOL
 
For those reluctant to poop in a bucket and mail it out, you can still smear poop on a card and mail it. You're supposed to do the former every 3 years, the latter every year.

There's a lot more poop in the postal system than most people realize.
 
Yep. Ask your doctor about cologuard or a fit test.

The wife recently had a colonoscopy. The prep and induced severe diarrhea consumed much of a weekend then we both had to burn a day off. for the procedure.
 
Bunch said:
Is this a substitute for colonoscopy? Oh man I have never wanted to mail poop so bad. In fact it might be the only time I have ever even considered mailing poop.
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No. A hemoccult test just checks for traces of blood in the feces. A colonoscopy is a visual inspection with (possibly) irregularities removed and samples taken. Over here, men are advised to do one age about 50, give or take, and more depending on the outcome. Women a few years later as they are less likely to develop colonic cancer or something, IIRC. Medicine is weird, e.g. last year they gave my child a shot for cancer of a cervix I hadn't even known he has.

For your other needs: Linky.
 
Silent Green said:
No. A hemoccult test just checks for traces of blood in the feces. A colonoscopy is a visual inspection with (possibly) irregularities removed and samples taken. Over here, men are advised to do one age about 50, give or take, and more depending on the outcome. Women a few years later as they are less likely to develop colonic cancer or something, IIRC. Medicine is weird, e.g. last year they gave my child a shot for cancer of a cervix I hadn't even known he has.

For your other needs: Linky.
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Cologuard (poop in a bucket) also does some DNA tests to screen for cancer.

I'm not poop obsessed, I've just been on a couple of colorectal screening studies. One of the experts has stated that while hemoccult tests don't detect every polyp, big dangerous poylps are going to bleed and be detected. If you're low risk, avoiding a colonoscopy with an alternative is a perfectly acceptable path.
 
Yup, I keep delaying the colonoscopy. I don't like going under. It's damn near phobic and they want to put you under for doing one. Plus all the prep before doing one is a real drag. So I just have them do the poop test for blood every year.

Last year I was actually going to breakdown and go through the colonoscopy just so I could get my doctor off my back but the pandemic happened and I decided that I'd rather not do it during a pandemic. Of course since we're still dealing with the pandemic I've put it off yet another year.

Though next week I am getting my Covid booster and pneumonia shot as well. So at least there's that. Though I have to fight down the frustration and stress of why I need a booster because so many won't get vaccinated... still.
 
Change the doctor? Over here you can opt out of the sedative. The procedure's not exactly comfortable (because/although you might have nurses bouncing on your belly to force the scope around the bends) but apparently doesn't need anesthesia per se. The TV show they put on is rather soporific, too.
 
Silent Green said:
Change the doctor? Over here you can opt out of the sedative. The procedure's not exactly comfortable (because/although you might have nurses bouncing on your belly to force the scope around the bends) but apparently doesn't need anesthesia per se. The TV show they put on is rather soporific, too.
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They twilighted me- not exactly an anesthesia, but just something to relax you and for the pain. Of course, I ended up just going to sleep. I had to get mine done early because of the family history. Though it boggles me that even though they did find something (thank God my doctor insisted on me getting it early) they don't want me back for 10 years just like normal.
 
Silent Green said:
Change the doctor? Over here you can opt out of the sedative. The procedure's not exactly comfortable (because/although you might have nurses bouncing on your belly to force the scope around the bends) but apparently doesn't need anesthesia per se. The TV show they put on is rather soporific, too.
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Over here? Here, (Outside of Nashville, TN) where I'm at I explained the phobia situation and that I'd rather I'd rather be conscious and the doctor who would have been doing the colonoscopy pretty much blew me off. Part of what factored into my canceling it last year. The main concern was COVID worries, but the cap on the bottle was the doctor's handling of my questions and asking about options.
 
Acmegamer said:
Over here? Here, (Outside of Nashville, TN) where I'm at I explained the phobia situation and that I'd rather I'd rather be conscious and the doctor who would have been doing the colonoscopy pretty much blew me off. Part of what factored into my canceling it last year. The main concern was COVID worries, but the cap on the bottle was the doctor's handling of my questions and asking about options.
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I really think for the doctors sake they should do more classes on bedside manner and how that can keep you from getting sued.
 
About 4 years ago, the company I worked for laid off about 200 people. Looking at the finances and with my wife and I both employed there, I said okay one of us needs to get a new job because this company won't be here in 6 months. I took a grant funded position with the local court. I was hired to implement a new program with all new staff and develop the unit. My staff and I started the same day. The program took off and has received recognition from the state supreme court.

This June, a different unit/program at the court had such a poor manager that 60% of the unit quit at the same time. Then in July that manager quit. The director who hired me asked the judges to put me in charge to rebuild the department from the ground up in August. The bonus was that by taking over the new unit I switched from grant funding to secured/general funding. I've just about got everything fixed that the previous manager screwed up and only have 1 more person to hire to be back at full staff.

Today at the annual employee recognition ceremony I received the court’s leadership award for my work. Feels to good to get recognition.
 
Got my son (11) and I GOOD tickets to see Tool in Tacoma. He should be vaxxed by then. Father son trip, hotel, and no mom governing our poor dietary choices. He will have some ear protection and we are near an aisle just in case things go south, but he’s already a fan. Glad I get to take him to a concert more than a decade before I got to go to my first.
 
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