Life is riddled with a procession of minor impediments

[Roger Godpleton]

Maybe you need a change of scenery. Let me tell you a little about how I was raised...

I was born in the wagon of a travellin' show
My mama used to dance for the money they'd throw
Papa would do whatever he could
Preach a little gospel, sell a couple bottles of
Doctor Good

Gypsys, tramps, and thieves
We'd hear it from the people of the town
They'd call us Gypsys, tramps, and thieves
But every night all the men would come around
And lay their money down

Picked up a boy just south of
Mobile Gave him a ride, filled him with a hot meal I was sixteen, he was twenty-one
Rode with us to Memphis
And papa woulda shot him if he knew what he'd done

I never had schoolin' but he taught me well
With his smooth southern style
Three months later I'm a gal in trouble
And I haven't seen him for a while, uh-huh I haven't seen him for a while, uh-huh

She was born in the wagon of a travellin' show
Her mama had to dance for the money they'd throw
Grandpa'd do whatever he could
Preach a little gospel, sell a couple bottles of
Doctor Good

[The Legendary Shark]

Seems there's only one way to get ahead in this world.

Cheat.

[TordelBack]

Haven't got the hips for it.  The tits, maybe.

EDIT:  That was in response to Roger's post, but it works equally well for Sharky's.

[The Legendary Shark]

Maybe start small, work 'under the books' or barter. Ain't no tax on barter.

[TordelBack]

Oh I'm going ahead anyway, and starting small is the only way to go - in between tech training courses, I've been doing bits and bobs for no pay to maintain and build up relationships and skills, and keep up on rumours and developments,  and I've been accepting lunch, beer, leftover equipment and promises of future help in return for labour  That's about the only thing that's stopped me taking the old winchester up the clock tower, and it's been pretty heartening to find that I'm still of some use.  Still, it's hard to climb down from 60+ hours a week to a day here and there.   

I just thought the official position, and the embittered creature they hired to impart it, was amusing.

[The Legendary Shark]

Good for you, Tordels - I wish you every success.

On an unrelated note, I can understand how these poor officials become so embittered. I imagine starting out in a job like that with every intention of helping everyone you can but being constantly frustrated by the system and seeing your optimism crushed and your humanity shrivelled. These people are to be pitied as much as the poor sods who rely on them for help. Goddam system - almost as if its very purpose is to keep us all down...

[TordelBack]

I imagine starting out in a job like that with every intention of helping everyone you can but being constantly frustrated by the system and seeing your optimism crushed and your humanity shrivelled.

In fairness to her, she was being helpful, and disarmingly honest - I was just pretty pissed off that this was the best advice she could offer, and wound-up by her simply incredible flatly hostile manner, unmatched in my experience (and I've been to France).  And you're not wrong - I'm only in that building a few times a week at most, and it depresses the hell out of me.  A career of it, with endless rounds of cuts, and ever-increasing workload... ouch. 

However, a lot of people work there, and the vast majority I've encountered are polite and professional, at least to your face (losing your paperwork as soon as you walk out the door, mind).  She just stood out by being none of those things.

[Roger Godpleton]

Take her a cake with a bunch of antidepressants mixed in with it next time.

[TordelBack]

Go to bed man, you have a job!

[The Legendary Shark]

Didn't mean any criticism of you there, Tordels. Just my half-arsed late night pontificating - as opposed to my usual half-arsed pontificating 

[TordelBack]

Careful now, or I'll accuse you of attacking boarders' personal integrity.  I have a history of this sort of thing.

-yawn - I've now been up all night doing tech-support for my brother, who's currently in Oz for work, but needs an unbelievably complicated video analysis setup assembled, packed and shipped to Kenya, where he'll intercept it in a fortnight (how Sprawl are we). 

I say 'doing', when what I mean is 'waiting around' while things don't download and then don't install properly, and the software guys in India who are supposed to be doing various fiddly things remotely don't get back to me.  Best of all I'm missing exactly one critical adapter from the spider's web of camera feeds and multiple screen outputs, and I can't even give out to the supplier because nothing in the brief suggested I'd ever need a 9-conductor-to-4-conductor firewire.  A great thing to discover at 2am.

At one point I drifted off and vividly dreamed that 9 demonically possessed babies were peering at me through 9 separate Skype windows.  And they call Shark mad.

The (large) compensation is that I'm getting to paw two magnificent virginal 17" MacBook Pros, to whom dualboot is as natural as whirring.

Now please excuse me, I must get back to sitting around at the taxpayers' expense.

[Roger Godpleton]

The last three episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic have all centered around the Applejack continuum. Sort it out, guys.

[Spikes]

her simply incredible flatly hostile manner, unmatched in my experience (and I've been to France). 

[Gonk]

The alarm clock this morning. C.c.c..oo..old. Didn't want to get out of bed.

[staticgirl]

I used to work in a jobcentre and it is easily the worst work I ever did in my life. You accept the job because they hire you off the dole and you can't say no. Then you will know how unhelpful the system is to the jobhunters in the UK and Ireland. On top of that is an autocratic management style, fewer benefits than the rest of the civil service and tons of abuse and threats from some of the more violent members of the public. If you're not careful you get institutionalised and start treating all claimants as scum thereby mistreating some of the most vulnerable, honest and honourable people you are ever likely to meet. It is so depressing and I only lasted 8 or 9 months.