The Official Rant Thread

[Josiah]

That really sucks Cheez. The others are right about telling on the almond kid, he needs to learn a lesson. As for the thieves, I'd either tell their teachers / parents (if you recognized them) or the police (if you didn't). Actually, might went to tell the police even if you did recognize them. And if they're not smart enough to disable it (and plenty of people aren't), cellphones are actually pretty easy to track so the police could probably find them if they tried. Then there's always the old "call your stolen phone" trick and see if the person who answers is stupid enough to tell you who he is (it's happened before).

[Cheezdude]

Yeah, Guy is suspended for the rest of the year. I didn't recognize the kids, but I disabled it when I could. A few teachers at my school know now. Oh well.

[PoikSpirit]

Okay. Back to the board of rants. Hello, my name is Chris, and I am ashamed. I have posted a comment to a YouTube post in a attempt to stop a flame war. I am ashamed of the flames to be honest. They're everywhere on the internet. The interwebs community might as well burn itself to the ground with those flames, it would be a better use. For forest fires make it possible for new plants to grow.

Metaphors aside, looking as some of the sorry mudslinging, it baffles me that the only rhetorics left in modern society are "ad hominem" and "reducio ad absurdum." In fact, most people would think the first thing I said mean "add homo-ness" and the second thing was just absurd, if I posted this on YouTube. Did you know, in ancient Rome, after enslaving a few Greeks, they would force them to teach their sons rhetoric? Ah, the art of arguing was an important one. Still is, just no one understands it these days, so watching arguments is like giving a 3 year old a box of crayons and waiting for the Mona Lisa. If you're lucky, he'll eat the crayons instead of writing on your walls.

You all know I love to argue, and frankly, you all probably think I can be a little over the top when I do. I'll admit, I find hyperbole a most valuable concept in driving a point across. The only thing that makes your viewpoint clearer is pure sarcasm. Sarcasm was taught alongside battle techniques in Sparta, and now everyone views it as the lowest form of comedy. Truly a well polished wit is more valuable than a well polished gun. When the words, "the pen is mightier than the sword" were uttered, they were not spoken about just writing, for any half-literate person can write, but that does not mean he'll be able to lead any cause. No, the pen that writes with wit can gather forces, dispell anxieties, rewrite rumors, raise causes, and ruin governments, not the simple pen. This was not lost on America's forefathers, nor the Europeans after the Medieval Era was over, nor Europeans before the Dark Ages started. Heck, Confucius wrote with wit. But now we have Twilight. Twilight is truly the epitome of what has become of modern day writing, with great emotional lines like, "you left," and "I think I loved you because I knew you would have this child..." Creepy, no?

That may seem discursive, if that word is still within your vocabulary, but it isn't. Read Mark Twain. A sharp wit makes an interesting read. Heck, Steven Hawkins has a pretty good wit; A Briefer History of Time was a really interesting book. Now the flame wars, on the other hand, were about how Muslims are terrorists and how the two people who were arguing were going to go home tonight and eat the defecations of their respective mothers. When all else fails, tell your opponent to eat s***. Ad hominem attacks, outside the court of law, are admissions that you cannot bring forth more evidence to prove your opponent wrong, unless the fact in question is the opponents credibility. And they aren't terribly interesting either. After a while, they all seem the same. Like bad "yo mama" jokes.

Unfortunately, one of the reasons it comes down to flames is because everyone on the interwebs is so touchy. If I were to say that abortion has occasional reasons that are substantial, but I do not anyone just having an abortion for the hell of it, someone would call me a baby killer. If I were to say I support the right to use guns, but I believe they could monitor the sales and distribution of guns a little tighter, they would say I'm taking away their second amendment rights. Which is funny because the second amendment doesn't actual give the right to bear arms, unless said bearer is part of a militia. If I said that I disagree with Obama's notion that you can pull money out of the economy by taxing heavily, or actually what he's doing is removing the tax cuts like the one for mortgage owners which is killing my family, and then giving the money back will actually change the economy, they would call me a racist. Maybe it would if he didn't give the money to the big shots like GM who are just going to horde it. Seriously, can anyone have a serious debate on something substantial these days without it escalating to a fight. This is why I admired the fact that we have, here on PebbleVersion, argued a couple times and it actually stayed civil. There are a couple things that just seem out of grasp though. Not so much anymore. If I post, "I like coke better," I will no longer be eviscerated. And... Well, Swellow still sucks.

If Silver can be the grammar nazi, and Stevenson, spelling, can I become the rhetoric nazi? Just kidding.

[Josiah]

I think one of the biggest "problems" with the internet is how easy it is to be annoymous. For most people, it's not too easy to tie an online user name to a real person and, even if you did, it's probably some random guy living hundreds of miles away. Problem is, a lot of people use that annonimity as an excuse to ignore standard rules of behavior and civility. If you want around in real life cussing out everyone because they don't agree with you or they're doing better than you in a game, it wouldn't go well. People might ignore or ostracize you, or they might call the police and get you arressted for causing a disturbance. Heck, someone might just walk over and slug you in the face. If you want to make a point in the real world, you need to prove you point in a well thought out and respectfull manner (ok, for a lot of people these days it mostly boils down to ignoring evidence and just saying that your opponents are unedjucated morons because they don't see how inherently right your opinion is, but you get what I mean). On the internet, since there's no serious consequences for bad behavior, it's easier just to yell at the other guy than actually spend time researching and proving your point.

Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, it's starting to spill over into real life. Just look at a lot of the anti-video game crowd, or (sorry if this offends anyone) a lot of the more vocal democrats. Instead of presenting any hard evidence to try and prove their views, they play off emotional speechs and/or insulting the other side to sway people to their view. Could they prove their points if they really tried? Maybe, but maybe not. As I said, researching something well enough to effectively argue it takes more time and effort than most people want to spend. Then there's always the risk that said research will prove that they're actually wrong, and no one wants that. Easier just to assume you're right and that everyone who disagrees is wrong, and probably stupid because they can't see how wrong they are.

[PoikSpirit]

Now be fair, Josiah. Some of the more vocal Republicans are that way too. Oh, and the more vocal of the independent parties can be some of the worst.

[Josiah]

I never said Republicans and other parties don't do that too, some people in all groups certainly do. I just see it quite a lot more often in Democrats. I also see far more Democrats immediately writing off anyone who disagrees with them as being uneducated morons instead of actually listening to their arguements.

[Astral Omega]

There is so much stress involved to moving to another country. Especially when the people you are travelling with decide that they want to leave the booking of the ticket to the last minute in case they change their minds as to when they want to go.

Before I leave I have to:

1) Find out what immunisations I will need before I go. This is stressing me out so badly because I did think of this months ago and it appears I should be up to date and I won't have to get any needles. I hate needles. When mum informed me that some of the ones I got at school and whatnot may not be suitable I actually cried. The thought of getting injections terrifies me. What makes it worse is the doctors that do the immunisations aren't open today and won't be open till Monday.
Cue two days of stressing about that.

2) Sort through all my stuff and figure out what I'm storing, what I'm throwing away and what I'm taking with me. This is a big job because I have a lot of stuff holed up in my room.

3) Book a ticket. Tickets be EXPENSIVE! So I have to keep working to be able to afford one. Ad I'm back to working pretty much every night again which isn't really that bad but I liked being in holiday mode so I want to go back to that. But I can't. the only consolation I guess is I like my job.

Also the issue that the boys I'm going with don't want to book the ticket yet. It looks like they want to stay longer again and I personally want to get out of here as soon as possible. I want my own room, I want a comfortable bed and I want to be able to choose when I go to sleep and wake up. I can't do that right now because I'm sleeping on a fold-out bed in the lounge room. Not comfortable. No privacy. It's driving me insane.
My house was already crowded with 6 people in it (I had to share a room but at least I had a door I could close) but now with 2 extras I need to get out even more.

Basically the stress is really getting to me. I've never even left the STATE let alone the country and I really have no idea what I'm doing. I hate not knowing what's going on. I wish I could click my fingers and everything would magically be done, but that's impossible.

GAH! The stress. At least I have someone here to support me though and give me huggles when I need them... Actually I think I need a huggle now.

[Josiah]

At least you're going to a country where they mostly speak the same language. That always makes it easier. But yeah, I know what you mean. I was kinda freaking out shortly before going to Japan and my first day or two there. Well, mentally anyway, I didn't really show it though.

[Astral Omega]

I'm so glad I don't have to learn french or anything before going. I'd be even more panicked if I did.

[NabMaster]

Heh, no kidding. Unless you're going to Quebec or some parts of Manitoba you will never have to speak any French in Canada (strangely enough, kids in Quebec don't even need to learn English in school!).

[Josiah]

Ugh... I've got a headache. Most of it comes from a combination of a bunch of tricky Japanese homework a reading House of Leaves (a very strange, very hard to follow novel I need to read for my Interactive Fiction class), neither of which is worth ranting about. The other thing bothering me is some morons on another message board.

You know that survey I'm running for my thesis? Well, you should since I spent several days bugging everyone to take it. Speaking of which, the thread with the link is still in the Forums section if anyone hasn't yet... I don't have enough responses to call it a random sampling of the entire country. I can probably call it a targeted sample, but I decided to try and get some more responses, to be safe. And hey, if I can get enough for a full random sample that'd be pretty awesome. Anyway, I managed to think of a few places I hadn't posted it and also reposted it on the Gamefaqs boards. The first time I posted it there, my thread promptly got buried in a flood of other threads and nothing came of it. So this time I posted it in several different parts of their boards and tried for a more attention grabbing title. A couple of the threads I made got buried but a couple others generated some nice conversations and another 30-40 responses (still 80 or so short of a full random sample, but definately enough for a target sample). Then there's one which got taken over by trolls. It commented on how cool is was to have the power to mess up my research by making up fake answers. I politely responded that, the way I had the survey set up, I should be able to detect deliberately faked answers. At that point it degenerated into a mess with a couple of morons accusing me of doctoring survey results, being biased against various religions, and the like. I reported them and asked for a mod to lock the thread. So far nothing has happened. After a few attempts to politely get them to find something better to do, I decided to just give up and hopefully let the thread die on its own. Sad thing was, that thread was on a board restricted to long time forum members (though I also had a thread on a board for even longer time members which was received quite well) so I can't even blame it on "stupid n00bs. Sometimes I wish I wasn't so polite (and aware that proper ettiquette is just as important online as off). I would have loved to tear into them. I mean really, if you've got nothing better to do than antagonize people for no reason as all, your life must be pretty pathetic. And that type of attitude is all too common these days... I worry about the future...

[Giga-Gar]

I'm not in the best of moods right now. I just got my music for marching band, but not a letter saying that I'm going to be section leader. I don't know why I didn't get it due to many reasons.
1) I was the only other person in my class to apply for section leader
2) none of the other seniors are either qualified or interested in section leader
3) there can only be one junior as section leader unless there are strenuous circumstances, such as only one senior being a section leader like last year.

I'm really hoping that the letter is supposed to come later, because if it isn't, I'm going to be one very POd band member.

[Kaida]

Urgh... I don't know whether I like my job at the moment or hate it.

See I've just been stressing so much lately, It's actually gotten bad enough that it's started affecting my sleeping and eating habits. Sure I normally have trouble sleeping, but that increased and I know I don't eat enough but from going from eating about 2 meal a day and snaking and being hungry enough to have about 5 meals with snakes. (I've been able to resist actually eating that much) It's just too much.

And why I've been stressed? Work. That it, just work. See the problem is I stress easily (I also have anxiety and paranoia problems). So when my boss says to me "Unless you start doing more stuff I'm not prepared to keep you." Or something along those lines. Pretty much it all started because or a Saturday night, sure I was stressed before then but this kind of tipped it over.
See I did my job, cook all the meal, cleaning, prep, etc. Which wasn't a lot because it had been dead all week, and was once again pretty dead. So I pretty much did nothing. She says that I could have helped out the waitresses or bar person, and I didn't think of that because usually they ask me if I need help with anything.
Which then brings me to the other thing that I could have done. Controlling. Controlling is pretty much sitting or standing around making sure the Dancers and Clients don't do anything their not supposed to. And she thinks I'm uncomfortable do that. (It's not an apprentice chef or chefs job anyway, but no I have to do it.)) The reason is because one night I was on the floor controlling and one of the guys decides i look lonely and need to be included in the conversation, so I talk to him for a little bit, yeah that's okay. I go away to cook some food. Come back to a different spot a little while later. And guess what he comes over and starts talking to me again. Except this time He tries to hug and kiss me (on the cheek). Sure I love hugs, hugs are good, but when their coming from pervy drunk guys in a strip club, not so great. So I freaked out a little and told him to in the nicest way possible to not touch me.
So that's what happened pretty much. But that's not it, The guy goes and tells Trever (manager and bosses husband) that I seem unfriendly, so now she thinks I'm uncomfortable being on the floor. Come on I Sat And Talked To Him For about Half an Hour and He Goes And Say's I'm Unfriendly! Apparently when I try to be nice I come of as unfriendly. And people wonder why I hide in the kitchen all the time. They don't get the fact that I am Used to people not liking me and hence have very bad people skills. Not to mention that no matter what I try i can't go a week without making some sort of mistake. Or somebody not understand what I mean when I say "Okay or "Yeah".

So I'm all stressed out and thinking about quitting, my fiancee thinks I should quit, his mother thinks I should quit. Problem is if i quit we'd be living off of my fiancee's pay,which isn't a lot. And I know it will be though because I know how much he earns and how it seems to disappear very quickly. Not to mention that our rents getting raised in September.

Thing is I can see where my boss is coming from, but that doesn't help me at all when it comes to stressing. I spoke to a friend of mine whose been in the business for awhile and thinks she might just want me on the floor for eye candy. Yeah sure there's been quite a few guys who have wanted to talk to me or take me for a lap dance or wanting to know when I'd be going up on stage. And he suggested talking to the apprentice agency and seeing what they say and either wait for my boss to fire me so I can get money off centrelink straight away or see how it goes and quit if I need to.

Part of me thinks I need to take a break from the hospitality industry altogether, because no matter what job I get I seem to just get so stressed out. Queenies wasn't so bad because I was only there 3 days a week.
As it is I'm beginning to wonder if I can even make it as a chef. Sure I'll finish my apprenticeship If i don't I would have just wasted 2 years. And yeah I love cooking and stuff but the amount of stress involved is just too much, considering the fact that I stress easily. Oh yeah you know that sleeping problems, they don't help either when you work 13 hour days (including 2 n a half hour break and travel time.) And when I do get time to sleep I either wake up multiple times or get woken up. Which is just making everything worse because on the nights i do get the chance to sleep all the way through I wake up for some reason or another.

I really don't know what I should do. Stay at work and possibly hate being there everyday or quit and go to living below the poverty line until i can get a; another job or b; get money off of the government...

[Josiah]

My advice, keep working for now but start seriously looking for another job. I mean, chef or not, being a young woman in a strip club seems guarenteed to lead to problems sooner or later... From what I've heard (I've met some professional chefs), it's often a fairly stressful job, but it can be a lot better or worse depending on you where you're working. On a sorta related note, Endo Supreme is really good with fixing up a lot of the problems that stress causes in your body. Not sure if anyone in Austrailia sells it though...

[Kaida]

Well I'm gonna take half of that advice Josiah. I'm going to start looking for another job, but I'm going to quit work. I've apparently been getting upset and muttering about it in my sleep. (Well I don't remember waking up and getting upset about it so I must have been asleep). So I'm gonna do what Astral's supposedly done and quit prematurely. We'll be alright money wise for a few weeks, I've saved up some, not a lot but its some. We'll just have to cut out all luxuries.

As for the job itself being stressful. I know about that, unfortunately I just happen to keep getting jobs in the worse places. As for Endo Supreme I'm not sure either, I'll have a look around.