Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I feel you! I need silence when I'm in creative mode and noise distracts me. I hate collaborating too. This is how collaboration works for me: I either wind up doing the whole thing on behalf of everyone, or have minimal involvement. It's not them, either, it's me. I just can't seem to find that happy collaborative medium as others seem to do. I'm always better off working independently, and it sounds like you are, too.

Two days ago we had a guy from roto rooter come out and look at our pipes. He clearly had no idea what he was doing (turned out he was a physical therapist, not a plumber!) and instead of fixing things, he broke one of the pipes. He asked us if we had any duct tape, so we gave him some and he put it on the broken pipe. He left and his supervisor came out and started to yell at us, saying it was very bad that we put duct tape on a pipe, and we should never do that. We had to explain to him that his employee did that! The supervisor did nothing, just looked at it and said someone would be out the next day. So two guys showed up yesterday, looked at the pipe, said "yeah, it's broken. We'll report it, and they'll send someone out to look at it, and then that person will make a report, and then a plumber will be sent out... " And at that point, my dad was super pissed off and basically said, "No, you guys broke it, and you need to fix it, NOW. We can't just not use water for a week because one of your employees forked up." So they promised to come back and fix it first thing in the morning. They have been here for over 6 1/2 hours now, and it's still not fixed. We can't use any water, flush toilets, etc. until it is fixed. So I think the moral of the story is don't ever call roto-rooter.

No, not even a little bit, which is another way it's peculiar.

Meh. If I'm still feeling worried about it on Monday I'll just go to a drop-in clinic.

If it's a bruise, it's normal.

A bruise is damaged tissue under the skin which burst small blood vessels.

As the blood under the skin gets older, the blood is broken down and that gives the different colours. A bruise can go from blue-ish to deep purple and when it fades it will turn yellow on the edges of the spot.

So I think it's normal that it gets darker.

Can you talk to your friend about your dilemma and ask what she would like you to do?

I'm having a really hard time trying to figure out what I want to do on my trip. There are so many things to do and places to eat and they're all so far apart! And not just in NYC - everywhere! I'm getting a little overwhelmed.

Yeah, that would be my suggestion too.

I was in a similar situation once; when I was working in HIV education I had to go in and grade high school students' class projects on topics related to HIV, and it was an absolute nightmare. Each project had been done by a group of 3-4 students, and I not only had to grade them, but then I had to sit with each group and discuss the projects with them! I basically just refused to give them grades, because it was totally impossible to grade these projects, and I just sat with each group and asked them questions to find out whether they really knew anything about HIV or if there were any gaps I could possibly fill in for them, and I discreetly let their teacher know which papers I had found were copy-pasted from sketchy websites (half of them) or had such poor grammar that I actually could not understand what they were trying to say (the other half). This was an honors English class at an affluent suburban public school. I was so embarrassed for these students...I can't even bring myself to call them "kids"; these were 17-18 year olds, most of them on their way to college.

I can't imagine ever agreeing to do something like that again.

I am going to try to talk to my friend tomorrow. I don't know quite what I expected but definitely not what I got. I figured I would have to cut the kids some slack but it is definitely more what I would expect from someone in 5th or 6th grade than 11 or 12th.

Welcome to my life. Nothing ever meets objectives and most students don't much care about anything, including, it seems, graduation.

Rate them as they deserve while being reasonably generous where it's not crucial.

!!!! :))
vegans! woo!

Why oh why is this damn dog so hyper so early in the morning?! Looks like we will have to go to the beach for a couple of hours today.

I think this article needs to find its way to your boss.

I'm fairly certain I would be going absolutely nuts if i was in your shoes, paprikapapaya. It sucks that your work environment is making you miserable right now.

And it makes it doubly confusing because these should be students that have taken an advanced science elective or are currently in an advanced science elective. They may also be in a science club. They get to pick the topic and the only thing they get out of doing it is something for their college resume and possibly a college scholarship. So overall, I'd think they would be more motivated than your average high school student.

I think the soup I've been eating for my lunch is upsetting my stomach. I might have to find something else to eat, which sucks because it's the best store-bought option I've found.

I've run out of chili powder. I didn't realise I was so low and I was even in the asian market yesterday. I feel like such a bad vegan. A house without chili powder is no house at all.

That doesn't make you a bad vegan! It just makes you a bad person.

I have an opposite dog. For her, the hyperness starts at 9pm. My mother calls it the witching hour. It starts very suddenly. The dog will just start tearing around the house, crashing into furniture, grabbing things, biting the other dog's neck, leaping at people... We end up having to take her outside in the dark every night to try to get her energy out.

Well, the thing is, they have never been expected to stretch themselves. Especially with the whole NCLB crepe, the entire focus of our educational system is now on aiming for mediocrity. We are doing a lot of great things to help struggling students, but nobody much worries about the bright ones, so they get bored and stagnate.

I really don't think they genuinely know how to produce true quality work because all they ever need to do is connect the dots in a fairly rote fashion.

I think this group of students makes me even sadder than the "don't cares." I feel that the "don't cares" might figure it out in a couple years, the hard way, but the unchallenged might just never figure out what they can achieve.

I needed this laugh. This is sig worthy.

Thanks, lepelaar! I have a pretty good rapport with my immediate boss, so I totally did send him that article, haha. He sent me a funny Dilbert comic back about how much open concept offices suck.
It just sucks because I went from loving my job to dreading each day, all because of this environmental change, which is huge.

LMFAO!!!!!!!



Thejoys of dogs! Lexie is wired all bloody day. No amount of exercise and activity wears her out. I do love her though.

I guess I am going to have to stop posting soon so my very fitting forum rank will stick. :P LOL

For a lot of kids, it really does boil down to this. One of my favorite teachers used to say that the most important skill most students learn is how to bullshiitake.

I'd agree with all of that. I only ever felt challenged in my AP classes in high school, and I pretty much wouldn't even do the work for the other ones, because I was completely uninterested. Same with college, except only my last couple 4000-level classes were difficult, and I got my bachelors degree in 3 years. I don't really know what to do about it though. It seems like expectations have been super-lowered all over the place.

My band has its first (and probably only) show tonight.
I am not looking forward to it- we aren't prepared enough and we don't sound that great and the bassist and drummer are quitting after tonight. Our set is too short and our singer isn't very good.