Category: Crankypantsing

Crankypantsing

Pure. Comedy. Gold.

Shelly

Big Brother rant ahoy!

Background for those who haven’t seen the show: A bunch of strangers are locked-down in a house, and they have to vote out one person each week. The last one standing wins. This week, Chima was Head of Household, so she nominated two people for eviction. Jeff was given the power to nullify those nominations and put up two people of his choosing. Chima got pissed off. Yes, I can understand being disappointed that your nominations weren’t going to stand, but if the tables were turned, she would have done the same thing as Jeff. It would have made no sense for Jeff not to use the power given to him. Not using it would have likely resulted in him being voted out of the house the following week, because Chima’s alliance was too large and strong. So Jeff did the smart thing and replaced Chima’s nominations with two people from Chima’s alliance. This resulted in St. Jesse the Bully being evicted. Good riddance!

Better than Jesse getting booted, though, was the wake that Jesse’s alliance threw for him after he left. As if the guy died! I laughed so hard that I gave myself asthma.

That is some damnfinegood television! They’re mourning a total douchebag and bully, someone who tried to stab all of them in the back at different times. I’m not sure which part is best.

  1. The weeping
  2. Chima saying “If it wouldn’t have been for [Jesse] I wouldn’t be here” (conveniently forgetting for a moment that Jesse put her up for eviction)
  3. Kevin’s eye rolling at the women’s pityfest
  4. The comment that “He was so grateful for being here”
  5. The comment that Jesse had “such a good spirit”
  6. The comment that he never said anything bad about anyone in the game
  7. The talk about how Jesse prayed for everyone all the time

And just let me say that Jordan seems about as sweet as can be. She reminds me of a friend from college who would be the first to admit that she is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. In other ways, though, she’s brilliant, especially in her ability to read people. Funny as hell, too.

And o gross! I nearly choked when Lydia called Jesse “Mr. Pectacular.” That’s just wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrongity-wrong, wrong, wrong.

Crankypantsing

Facebook is Creepy

Shelly

I am so uncool that I have never had a MySpace account, and only just now set up one for Facebook. I’m generally ambivalent about social networking sites. I just don’t tend to utilize them very well, so why bother? But I was invited to join FB, so I did. Aieee! The last step? It gives you a list of folks you might want to friend. What does it draw on to create this list?! I am totally and completely creeped out by it. It listed folks I’ve never interacted with online, but whom I know in real life. Family members with different last names. People I’ve interacted with in other fora, but using different email addresses. People I do not know, but judging from their names (not the same as mine!), may be distantly related to.

Srsly, srsly creeped out here. I realize that there is deep data mining and traffic tracking going on, but somehow, this seems more invasive than I would’ve expected.

Crankypantsing

Freecycle Madness

Shelly

OFFER: Catholic bible good condition

i have this bible i do not need. i have a new one. we are christian. please state time of pick up. i will leave in bag under our carport. [location redacted] thank you and god bless…

WTF?! So, apparently Catholics are not really Christian, and nor are their Bibles. And while I may not be the most respectful of people where religion is concerned, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t leave a Bible sitting outside, under the carport. GOD BLESS!1!!!1!eleventy-one!1!1!!!

Crankypantsing, Pets, Photography

Bad Polly

Shelly

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Polkadottie

One of the quirks that the late Polkadottie never outgrew was a taste for headphone cords. Eventually, no matter how careful I was, every pair of headphones I bought would be demolished by her. Maybe it’s a tortie cat thing? Polly has now killed three pairs of headphones. The first time was a learning experience, the second time was my fault for not putting my iPod away, but the third time? The horrid little brat got into my bag and pulled out the headphones.

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Polly

Crankypantsing, Ladybusiness, My Garden, Photography

Resurrection Lilies

Shelly

DSCN0153

I planted several of these last year, and all of them came up this spring, but so far, only one has bloomed.

In other news, that staff meeting and the training BS we have to go through? I got to work this morning, and there was an email from our unit supervisor requiring us to read the FAQ (it’s a wiki, actually) on using our computers. We will have to give a short explanation of what we learned from it at our next unit meeting, this Wednesday. My head nearly explodiated!

1. I read the damned wiki when it was first made available.

2. Because I am one of the few people who finished the ridiculous Web 2.0 assignment (the one in which we were supposed to set up a blog and post photos to Flickr), and because I use them every damned day, I long ago subscribed to the RSS feed for the damned wiki. And I actually look when it’s updated, which is kind of pointless, because it’s almost always a stylistic edit, not anything to do with actual content. But I do look!

This means that I’m not going to read the damned wiki, because I already have. Nor am I going to learn anything from it, because I have actually done what we were told to do a goddamn year ago. Apparently, some folks have not acquainted themselves with the damned wiki, though, so there will be the equivalent of a test.

We are not amused.

Also on the list of things that we are unamused about is the coworker whose daughter is pregnant, and who keeps giving everyone in the department hourly updates on how dilated said daughter’s cervix is. I think I can safely say that’s one of those things that’s near the top of the list of Stuff I Do Not Need to Know. I understand she’s excited about her grandbaby being born, and I understand that’s something that’s perfectly appropriate to share between good friends, but we are coworkers, not good friends, and that sort of thing is therefore definitely TMI.

Beyond that, though, is the larger issue of women’s bodies being treated like public property, especially when those bodies are pregnant. Too many people don’t think twice about offering unasked for advice to pregnant women, or sharing their own birth horror stories with them, or invading their personal space to touch their bellies. It seems that my coworker’s sharing of her daughter’s labor progress falls somewhere in there. It’s kind of private and shouldn’t be for public consumption. If people want a progress report, a simple, “Nothing yet,” should suffice.

Art, Crankypantsing, Doodles

Staff Meeting Doodle

Shelly

Staff Meeting Doodle
ballpoint pen in steno pad
4 x 4 1/2 inches

We had our quarterly division meeting today. Thankfully, they’ve been scaled back to one hour long, but there was enough packed into that hour to piss me right the hell off.

First, we spent most of the meeting discussing IT crap. All stuff everyone who works here should know. All stuff there’s no excuse for anyone who works here not knowing. Like, how to properly log off workstations at the end of the day. We’re supposed to restart, not shut down, so that the machines are left on overnight. That allows LIT to install software when the network is the least busy. Duh. That’s been the official procedure since I started working here eight years ago, and I’m betting it’s been so much longer than that. And if there were people who were unclear on the subject (all of whom I bet skipped today’s meeting, because that’s how those things go) a quick, two sentence email should have been sufficient to clue them in. There was really no need to waste time on the subject.

Second, we were told that we will be required to take a series of workshops on such scintillating subjects as how to use MS Vista (because, after a year of using it, obviously we now need training? WTF?!), how to use Outlook (even more baffling, not to mention, our unit had to take a three hour long mandatory Outlook class last winter!), and something that promises to teach us “tips and tricks” for using web browsers. That last one should be especially exciting. And by exciting, I mean exasperating, because I would bet real money that it will cover Internet Explorer, a browser I do not use unless someone holds a gun to my head. The best part was that the guy in charge promised that there would be something to learn for all levels of expertise. And pigs might fly, but I’m dubious.

So basically, today’s meeting made the baby Shelly hoppin’ mad.

Crankypantsing, Pets, Videos

Catfishing

Shelly


Fishing for Kitties (And One Puppy)

It took me three trips to Target, but I finally managed to get a decent, working camera. It was a total pain in my ass. The camera is not the one I originally wanted, nor was it the second one I wanted. And it’s definitely not the brand I wanted. I’m a Canon/Kodak person, not a Nikon person (kind of like a I’m a PC person, not a Mac person?). The camera is nice enough, but everything is in the wrong place.

It also doesn’t have a view-finder, which I realize is pretty standard for new point-and-shoot cameras. I don’t like it, though. I don’t like that most of the menus are accessed via the LCD screen. I don’t like using the LCD screen, period. It’s not good for composing photos, for sure. It’s also a battery hog, which makes it a less than ideal way to change camera settings.

That said, the test photos and video I took seem Just Fine. My problems with the camera are on the design end, not with the lens and processor, and obviously, the lens and processor are what matters.

But most importantly, I just cannot stand Ashton Kutcher.