Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Mission Monitor Board The Moaning, Groaning, I just want to Vent thread

Well I wouldn't say "all that", but yes, it does get in the way of reaching that itch I used to be able to reach.

I always found it an acceptable tradeoff though. Don't mean to be mentioning in the venting thread as if it's annoying.

Back to venting, youse!

The traffic situation here in Metro Manila has got me up in arms. First, the rains are coming and even a little rain causes pockmarks in the road and the streets to flood. The streets flood because of illegal settlers who dump their garbage in the drains and rivers. The illegal settlers are lured there by shady politicians who pay them for votes; they're not relocated yet because the politicians requested the relevant government agencies to wait until after the elections!

At the same time, the traffic problem is exacerbated by undisciplined public utility vehicle drivers who stop in the middle of the road to drop off and pick up passengers, and who swerve like they didn't even notice the vehicles beside them! Drivers of private vehicles aren't always much better as some of them beat red lights, crowd intersections even though they can't get to the other side of the street, and act like they own the road (who the hell needs to go 70kph when traffic's at a crawl?!)

The worst part is we pay plenty of taxes only to see most of them get pocketed by politicians who have the temerity to reallocate the unspent portion of their budgets as "Christmas gifts" to each other!

And in our last senate elections nearly all the winners were relatives of other government officials. Over half of those with a decent track record (and all of whom I voted for) failed to get in. Among those who won are previous coup plotters and candidates who ran under two OPPOSING political parties (they ran under both the administration AND opposition slates, what the hell!)

I feel bad for those upright politicians we do have as they're facing a major uphill battle just trying to change all this crap!

Meteformin. Bitch.

I itch.

This ain't the rhyming thread, guys.

There is too much to even give a summary. Let's just say it's been one of those days/weeks.

Hope next week is better, Dev.

Me, I need a couple of buckets of beer myself.

I only had time yesterday before work to do either the laundry or the dishes.

I chose the laundry.

Now I have to deal with the dishes, including the coffee pot.

Eff it. Coffee down at the corner deli. Then I'm coming home and throwing all the dishes away and eating off paper plates forever.

Wise choice. I would have done the same. Getting take out is easier than buying new clothes. I can ignore the messy kitchen more easily than my own smell.

My apartment is so small .... well its a fine size but the kitchen sink is so small my kitchen is always messy because I eat in basically every meal but feel I should only have to do dishes once a week. The policy dosn't reflect reality.

oh btw. It is super-hot. LoSH style temperature.

I remember when I was living with my teammates in a rented house in L.A. I was the only one who bothered to cook my own food - but I stuck to it because I wanted to keep eating healthy.

When I came back from LA I was the skinniest I had ever been. Everyone was shocked because usually, when someone stays in the US of A for a couple of months they feast.

And now, A Moment Of Trauma ... er, Drama:


AAUUGH! I'm getting membership invitation mailings from AARP!
I'm OLD!!

"Inclusion" is the thing now in education, apparently mandated. It's placing students that used to have their own limited size classrooms into traditional classrooms. Usually there are some accommodations involved in testing. If the students are hearing impaired, an interpreter accompanies them, whether or not the interpreter can interpret subject matter or not.

Apparently new to this year, inclusion now also comes with a "Special Education" teacher that comes and goes when he pleases, if he comes at all, and who gets really, really important phone calls on his gadget that must not be ignored.

Now maybe I'm biased since this is a guy whose class I visited last year during my free period, to pick up a t-shirt he was selling for the football team. He had only two students. They were watching a feature film and as I entered he was hanging up his cell with a "great doing business with you."

Rock>Blockade Boy<hard place

I am so pissed right now.

Armed insurgents taking innocent citizens hostage in Zamboanga City.

Dozens of senators and congresspeople implicated in a scam to funnel away taxpayer's money to fake NGOs.

And one of our highest-ranking government officials, who imposed tough traffic laws in his home city, had the NERVE to run a red light and make a left turn in a no-left-turn intersection, using the excuse that he has a lot of appointments.

I WANT TO PUNCH SOMEBODY!!!

Can I join you, IB?

Our city government is busy proving how big and bad they are by walling off a major park downtown (creating a traffic/pedestrian hazard in the process) because of course homeless people are yucky and need to go sleep somewhere else. The beautiful minds of our "progressive" leaders must not be troubled by these things! Never mind that we all pay taxes to keep public spaces open and well-maintained.

Actually, I have to think our city government is on the improvement track.

We have a two party system here. Democratic One and Democratic Two. It was so dominated by a single party influence that our long term Congresswoman decided she didn't even need to debate her opponent.

That was the day I switched my voting card about ten years ago. I think I wasn't the only one.

We now have two business minded but socially liberal Republicans on counsel and in the recent preliminary voting for mayor, two Independents won over a Dem One and a Dem Two.

Even so, all the $^*@#$!s that left the city because too many blac... uh because they had a great desire to mow 4 acres of lawn every weekend, will still snipe from afar about how the city unions and the democrats ruined their businesses...

The laughable part; we were and are heavily blue color. Those snipers were in the union. That's how they got the money to move out, leaving the old properties to decay and buying up rentals to build their neglected section 8 slums (their businesses) in the city.

Aw cleome. Sometimes I think policymakers don't consider the consequences of their actions well enough.

It also irritates me when they don't plan and prioritize properly. Of course, it also irritates me when they take forever to decide, but I'd rather they pu t careful thought into it than jump the gun.



We recently elected a Senator who declined all debates during election season because she wanted to save them for when she was in the Senate. My eyes couldn't stop rolling. It's a symptom of the awful personality politics here.

I'm glad things are getting a bit better for you though, BB.

I'm not a party line voter so it's always nice to have a choice of perspectives. I'm not sure how we got in a situation where we had two competing Democratic Parties, whether they were backed by different Unions or economic strata or what.

What's interesting (to me) is that our current Mayor, a former Fire Chief will be running against a former Police Chief. With all the for charity competitions between Fire and Police, if Toledo can't have fun with THIS election, then fun can't be had.

AAAARRRGGHH

Mr. Inclusion cut out of class again. I teach the material, give the seatwork assignment then walk around helping the different groups. Then I hear, "Mr. BB, Mr. BB, we need help," coming from several groups that aren't sure how to do a problem. I look for my teaching "partner." He's no where to be seen.

The guy doesn't
- make a single lesson plan.
- grade any papers.
- teach.

Yet he makes more than me and is never in the room. I've a feeling the Admin hired another buddy to coach a sport, at a school that has produced two (maybe three) athletes to go on to major college sports in the last 50 years.

TRUST ME:

Education Admin is not only one of the EASIEST degrees to get, it's lucrative and has almost no potential for consequence as all those grading you are those being graded by you.

I haven't had a cold in quite a while now. Went to the doctor last thursday. Had a cold by saturday.

Shit.

I feel like a zombie today and have felt like so for the past two weeks. Ugh.

at myself. I should just change this to teacher self-pity/vent thread.

Mr. Inclusion: I thought to go to the state about him. We're a Title I school (high poverty) which means Federal money has started to come in. I'm pretty sure Admin used that money to hire themselves a wrestling coach/buddy who has a Special Ed certificate.

With "inclusion," now some students are taking tests same as "less" disabled students. My included students are not cognitively disabled. They're what used to be called severe behavior disorder, which USED to mean, they often couldn't control violent physical behaviors. There's some interference with learning ability but that's not their main difficulty. That's how these kids are classified but it's a bunch of hooey. There's some frustration difficulty. That's about it. I think a lot of these "special ed" kids are getting classified to keep a powerful special ed teacher lobby in business. JMHO.

So anyhow, they can get teacher help on tests. They can take their test in other quieter rooms. From a teacher perspective, that means I'd be responsible for putting my name on work I did not oversee. I brought up that maybe that's not kosher.

Mr. Inclusion had a fit. The guy who rolls his eyes when our BEHAVIOR DISORDER kids aren't quite on task. The guy that couldn't be bothered to come to class, pulls the old, "well I advocate for my kids" routine. I'm the one coming to school at 6am and he's the advocate. sheesh. Apparently, he doesn't want HIS students' performance on HIS roster. OR, I'm thinking there's something stinkier at play here having to do with that Title money.

Didn't see him here for Open House either but maybe he was here and I'm piling on.

I'll leave off Mr. Inclusion. At least he's been coming to class, after a little mention to the bosses that'd I'd noticed their pet couldn't be bothered. Should have gone to state/fed with this.

Open House:

I think I had my first "two daddies" parents. I don't pry but it was unusual to have two males show up with a kid. Two females, all the time. That's not rare in poorer neighborhoods. Smart kid. Not as open as he is in class so there might be some embarrassment. One of the Dad's had an unusual accent. I should have asked. That's always a conversation opener. Kid's smart AND interested in school.

Two former students came by. Both still babies, wheeling in their babies. Another, a boy, came by earlier in the day. He has some trouble staying out of trouble. But it was nice he stopped by the school to say hey to his former teachers. Gives us hope they'll figure out their problems when they're still wanting to visit the old school. That's a joy of the job, when former students come by. So far no one has named their kid after me. Blah. lol. Blockade Boy is a good name. Specially for a girl.

So, the real reason I'm venting.

I have two brothers in the same classroom. Either one or the other comes to school. Rarely both at the same time. Usually this means parents are making their kids babysit or work. Not in this case. Couple parents came to open house with a girl I have in a different hour. Turns out, all three kids are siblings. So many last names around here, it's difficult to make connections.

Never had parents so negative about their kids, the boys that is. All the kids are well behaved, if not academically inclined. All are polite. Respectful. Wouldn't know it from Dad's description. If I said something nice about the boys. He countered with something negative. It was IMPOSSIBLE to tell him something nice about the boys. Never had that happen. Not sure what if anything to do about it. One of the boys and the girl are bright. The other boy, obviously struggles. According to Dad, that one's weeding.

I'll toss and turn tonight.

I'll be working straight through next weekend (the company is moving down the road and needs to be open for business the morning of 10/1). Which means I really need to get up off my big rump and go do some chores. But I don't wanna'!!!!

My cable/internet/phone went out Sunday night. Called the company and they said it would be back on in an hour or so. Went to bed. Next morning, Monday, still no cable/internet/phone. Called the company again at 8:00 AM. They said they would have to send a technician out...WEDNESDAY...and I would have to be here. I grumbled and set up an appointment.

Tonight (Tuesday) I came home and everything is working fine. Called the company. No, there was no record that any work had been done. Do I want to cancel the appointment?

Hmmm...we don't know why it went off for two days, we don't know why it came back on. I'm wondering, will it happen again, and if so, will it take two days to get a tech appointment?

I kept the appointment. I'll leave work to be here. They'd better find a reason for this, and it better be free.

So, I polluted yesterday.
Not a little, but a HUGE (as in millions of dollars in fines and provincial and maybe federal investigations)

I can't give exact numbers, but for example:
If I am allowed 1ton per hour, I put out 64 tons in a little over 5 minutes.

Why did I pollute?
Someone accidentally shut down a critical pump in my plant.
How did that happen?
There was no coverplate over the the on/off switch.
Why was there no coverplate?
There should have been...we noticed it was missing months ago and put in a notification to have it repaired. It just wasn't repaired because the people who decide what gets fixed first (who btw have never stepped foot out of an office) decided that IT WASN'T IMPORTANT