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OPEN BAR: Top 10 things millenials hate about OB that we didn't know last week!

Started by Doktor Howl, April 23, 2015, 04:00:29 AM

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Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Quote from: Cain on July 08, 2015, 05:57:31 PM
Urgh.  Offered a job interview, which is good.

They want me to attend after my three nights on shift.  So get off a 12 and 1/2 hour shift, travel to Waterloo, travel 2 hours by train, travel another half hour by bus and then another half hour by foot and then be interviewed.

Initially they wanted to interview me on Friday, which just wasnt happening.

That sounds nightmarishly grueling.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Cain

It's not my idea of a fun time.  By the time they actually talk to me, I will have been up 20 hours.

Demolition Squid

There seems to be a bad case of unemployment going around my social circle.

Two friends lost their jobs this week, a third is worried he will by the end of the week, and I discovered on monday that my boss has brought in someone else to do the data entry work that makes up ~80% of my role. He then asked me to put together a research project with very broad parameters to present to him tomorrow. (What are midlands councils up to?)

This is obviously a test. If I pass, I might get a promotion and more interesting work! However, after chatting with him today, I'm not convinced I'm going to give him what he wanted in the end. I'm not sure I want to, either; this work has been intensely draining and I've wound up working way past my 9-5 to try to complete it to a reasonable standard. If that's the new normal, I won't be able to pursue my actual career goal.

I'm surprisingly okay with this. When I took this job, I didn't expect more than 2 weeks work; it has been 10 months. My screenwriting tutor has been very impressed with the quality of the work I've put out for him, and has said he'd like me to keep in touch after the end of the course, with a potential for working with him - if I can complete a finished script in the next five weeks (to prove I can meet deadlines) which, shouldn't be a problem. (Hopefully)

But in some ways, it would be a relief if I lost this job tomorrow and was free to dedicate some serious time to my script. I have a month's notice (when they let the office manager go, they paid her for it but didn't make her work it) which - combined with my savings - would be enough to live comfortably for three-four months...

I like the money, and I'd be sad to see that go... it'd be better if I could string it out to a full 12 months before moving on somewhere else, but, I've been feeling for a while that they've been taking advantage - I just haven't been motivated to find something else whilst I've generally been comfortable and exploiting the 'work from home' factor.

Still weird that such a sizeable chunk of my social circle are suddenly experiencing work woes this week.
Vast and Roaring Nipplebeast from the Dawn of Soho

Chelagoras The Boulder

Had two interviews this week: One at a child development center at CSULB, the other at Home Depot. Landed the job at Home Depot, still waiting on a call from the Child development center. I'm a little nervous about how i handled that interview, but then again im ALWAYS nervous about how I handled interviews so, yknow, theres that. Looking back, i dont think i stuck TOO big a  foot in my mouth, and i put my friend who works there as a reference, which hopefu8lly is a feather in my cap. Fingers crossed.
"It isn't who you know, it's who you know, if you know what I mean.  And I think you do."

Roly Poly Oly-Garch

Took my car into a mechanic to see about getting my AC fixed on Monday. Paid $100 for an estimate to learn that it would be $200 more to fix. Decided against it. Tuesday my battery light comes on on the freeway. Tonight my battery light comes on on the freeway and everything else turns off...including my car. That was...harrowing. Should be an interesting return trip to that mechanic.
Back to the fecal matter in the pool

Reginald Ret

Quote from: Chelagoras The Boulder on July 09, 2015, 04:08:48 AM
Had two interviews this week: One at a child development center at CSULB, the other at Home Depot. Landed the job at Home Depot, still waiting on a call from the Child development center. I'm a little nervous about how i handled that interview, but then again im ALWAYS nervous about how I handled interviews so, yknow, theres that. Looking back, i dont think i stuck TOO big a  foot in my mouth, and i put my friend who works there as a reference, which hopefu8lly is a feather in my cap. Fingers crossed.
Congrats on the job.
Lord Byron: "Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves."

Nigel saying the wisest words ever uttered: "It's just a suffix."

"The worst forum ever" "The most mediocre forum on the internet" "The dumbest forum on the internet" "The most retarded forum on the internet" "The lamest forum on the internet" "The coolest forum on the internet"

Junkenstein

Quote from: NoLeDeMiel on July 09, 2015, 05:47:23 AM
Took my car into a mechanic to see about getting my AC fixed on Monday. Paid $100 for an estimate to learn that it would be $200 more to fix. Decided against it. Tuesday my battery light comes on on the freeway. Tonight my battery light comes on on the freeway and everything else turns off...including my car. That was...harrowing. Should be an interesting return trip to that mechanic.

Wait, you paid for an estimate?


Take it somewhere else, anywhere else. You'll get skinned alive taking it back there.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Cain


Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Quote from: NoLeDeMiel on July 09, 2015, 05:47:23 AM
Took my car into a mechanic to see about getting my AC fixed on Monday. Paid $100 for an estimate to learn that it would be $200 more to fix. Decided against it. Tuesday my battery light comes on on the freeway. Tonight my battery light comes on on the freeway and everything else turns off...including my car. That was...harrowing. Should be an interesting return trip to that mechanic.

I've had that happen. Multiple times. Turned out it was the alternator belt every time.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Cain

Further adventures in "things that shouldn't work together but do", food edition.

Szechaun and satay sauces.  Do not have an additive effect when it comes to spiciness, merely a complimentary one.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Quote from: Chelagoras The Boulder on July 09, 2015, 04:08:48 AM
Had two interviews this week: One at a child development center at CSULB, the other at Home Depot. Landed the job at Home Depot, still waiting on a call from the Child development center. I'm a little nervous about how i handled that interview, but then again im ALWAYS nervous about how I handled interviews so, yknow, theres that. Looking back, i dont think i stuck TOO big a  foot in my mouth, and i put my friend who works there as a reference, which hopefu8lly is a feather in my cap. Fingers crossed.

Congratulations!
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Mesozoic Mister Nigel

"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Roly Poly Oly-Garch

Quote from: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on July 09, 2015, 04:56:15 PM
Quote from: NoLeDeMiel on July 09, 2015, 05:47:23 AM
Took my car into a mechanic to see about getting my AC fixed on Monday. Paid $100 for an estimate to learn that it would be $200 more to fix. Decided against it. Tuesday my battery light comes on on the freeway. Tonight my battery light comes on on the freeway and everything else turns off...including my car. That was...harrowing. Should be an interesting return trip to that mechanic.

I've had that happen. Multiple times. Turned out it was the alternator belt every time.

Alternator,  FTW!
Back to the fecal matter in the pool

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Quote from: NoLeDeMiel on July 09, 2015, 10:20:25 PM
Quote from: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on July 09, 2015, 04:56:15 PM
Quote from: NoLeDeMiel on July 09, 2015, 05:47:23 AM
Took my car into a mechanic to see about getting my AC fixed on Monday. Paid $100 for an estimate to learn that it would be $200 more to fix. Decided against it. Tuesday my battery light comes on on the freeway. Tonight my battery light comes on on the freeway and everything else turns off...including my car. That was...harrowing. Should be an interesting return trip to that mechanic.

I've had that happen. Multiple times. Turned out it was the alternator belt every time.

Alternator,  FTW!

YEY

A cheap fix, at least? I hope?
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Cain

So, as part of my security pitch, I decided to look into the local gang situation on my road.  I'm never going outside after dark again.

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/fabric-15-years-of-rave-834

QuoteThe Reillys are one of Britain's most notorious organised crime families, second only to north London's infamous Adams Family – with whom they held regular battles up-and-down Caledonian Road for much of the 80s and 90s. When Keith's uncle John was arrested at age 65, he was holding 12lbs of cocaine and, in the words of the arresting officer, "enough automatic weapons to take on the Taliban".

http://www.christopherfowler.co.uk/blog/2012/06/21/londons-hidden-histories/

Quote'The Secret History of our Streets' is the kind of old-school documentary series at which the BBC excels. If you live near any one of the six streets being featured over each hour-long episode, you'll know how accurate the programme-making is proving to be. At the top of my street is the Caledonian Road, the subject of the latest episode. It's an area that has fought a series of battles against rapacious property developers, do-gooders, bombs, idiot government planners, the IRA, drugs, gangs and scumbag landlords.

Because it's a mile and a half long, one end of the Cally doesn't conform to the other. So while the police move out crack whores and drug dealers in the Southern part, the opposite end is seized by sleazy opportunists happy to exploit the housing shortage. There's the kind of footage you'd expect here; film of the old cattle market, monochrome images of kids playing in the street, an old geezer telling the camera you could leave your front door open in the old days.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/the-war-zone-how-the-notorious-london-neighbourhood-they-call-the-v-is-fighting-for-its-life-1717619.html

QuoteBut the deeper tragedy of Kinsella's death – the utter arbitrariness of it – is a function not just of the society he lived in but, more specifically, of the territory he inhabited on that fateful, and fatal, night. The fuller explanation of his death is to be found not from the broad canvas of contemporary Britain, but from the zoomed-in purview of an urban "hood". It is one with which I'm familiar, from my time as a youth worker within it. Kinsella was killed because he was on someone else's turf, in an area of London where trespassers are rarely forgiven. He was in the wrong part of the "V".

The V springs forth just north of King's Cross, and is formed by the Caledonian Road and York Way, on whose northern cusp Kinsella was attacked. The two most visible landmarks on the horizon of those within it are Holloway prison, half a mile to the north, and Pentonville prison, on Caledonian Road itself – giant chambers of criminal intent both, in whose shadow residents of the V live. The area has no coherent or official name (unlike Somerstown to the west).

The Caledonian Road (or "Cally", as it is locally known) was so named because of its Victorian status as a refuge to poor children. Formerly known as Chalk Road, the road was renamed after the building of the Royal Caledonian Asylum in 1828. That asylum was designed to house the children of impoverished and exiled Scots. The Cally runs north from that other Victorian monument, King's Cross, and forms the eastern boundary of the V. Sandwiched between the Cally and York Way, a desolate landscape unfolds. Within the V are back-to-back estates that envelop their residents in a sequence of tower blocks, separated by roads whose inaccessibility makes them very much the residents' own.

By the end of each school day, these streets are populated almost exclusively by children. In appearance they are the feral youth of tabloid stereotype: attired with dirty sportswear, the boys parking their oversize bikes, and the girls mixing with them in packs of up to a dozen or more. Many of them smoke or drink; on some the acrid stench of cannabis is overwhelming, and with it comes that bipolar flittering between insouciance and paranoia which is the mark of regular skunk use. Drugs are a huge problem in the area; police have tried to clamp down on heroin and cocaine dealers in particular, but it's rare that you'll find a teenager here who, even if he doesn't take any drugs himself, doesn't know a dealer several stages removed from the bottom of the chain.

In the very bowels of the V, the centre of its centre, sits a playground around whose concrete innards many of the children congregate in the afternoon and at night. It runs adjacent to a patch of land known as Crumbles Castle. Local myth says the name comes from the manner in which residents rebuilt the surrounding area from crumbs after the war; in fact it emerged as a reference to the scattered concrete and debris that litter the area. Like the poor Scots that preceded them, the children here have no affluence to boast of. Many are from families where nobody has worked for several generations, and very few have two parents.

http://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/crime-court/stab_victim_of_gang_attack_found_cradled_in_auntie_s_arms_1_4074954

QuoteAn increase in gang violence has shaken Islington in recent months and the victim is thought to have been caught in the crossfire.

In particular the Cally Boys, from Caledonian Road and the EC1, or Easy Cash, gang from Finsbury have been squaring off.

This attack may have been the Cally Boys invading EC1 turf on the look out for victims.

A spokesman for the Met said: "Police were called at around 18:50hrs on Thursday May 14 to reports of a stabbed male in Hall Street.

"Officers attended and the victim, believed aged 18, was taken to hospital by London Ambulance Service suffering serious head and stab injuries.

"His condition is described as critical.

http://londonstreetgangs.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/islington-borough-gangs-profile.html

QuoteIn the south of the borough violent incidents were said to have increased between the Caledonian Road-based Bemerton Boys, who are now involved in the theft of iPhones and drug dealing, and EC1's Easy Cash gang, who are connected to "smash-and-grab burglaries, robbery, drug dealing and anti-social behaviour" across Islington and Camden.

"This centred around a 'respect' issue between members from each side, with the Bemerton Boys accusing their rivals of disrepecting a fellow gang member who was murdered in 2009," the report says. "A significant amount of partnership work has helped reduce the tensions and the corresponding violence seen. The Bemerton Boys are now involved in the theft of iPhones and drug dealing in their immediate area."

So-called "drugs markets" have sprung up in Finsbury Park, and centre around the Andover and Six Acres estates. The markets are not gang-controlled but centred around a "group that has been identified, and attracts people from a large area".

And on and on and on.  Even as I write this, three police cars have gone blaring past.