The Ranting Thread

Started by SueC, April 09, 2020, 06:12:28

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SueC

Call THAT a rant?   :evil:  :P

...a mere two lines...  :1f634:

...more like a rantlet.   :angel

My rant is still cooking.  However, Brett came home ranty yesterday, growling about how he wanted to kill people who talked in circles on the phone instead of getting to the point.  :evil:  Apparently it no longer attracts attention at his workplace when he's smacking his own forehead with his fist and miming strangling a person while on the telephone.  The really funny part of that is that he is constantly complimented on his wonderful telephone manner.  He claims this is because he turns off a part of himself in order to speak on the telephone.  However, when I asked him if he did that when he was on the phone with me at the start of our relationship, he said no, that wasn't work.  :angel   I can't understand a) his misanthropy, and b) why he makes an exception for me, although he says the answer to b) is "mammary glands"... which clearly is a dodge, since around half the population has those.

I am asking him to explain his misanthropy and he's saying, "My philosophy is simple.  People are idiots."  The other day he said, "If you're breathing, you're part of the problem."  (I noticed he was breathing.  :angel)

Tea appears to temporarily reduce his symptoms...
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MeltingMan

Quote from: SueC on April 14, 2020, 14:29:09If we excuse that kind of stuff, we lower our expectations, and people often happily sink to those low expectations.  On the other hand, if we have high expectations of what people's behaviour is going to be, people often rise to those (or disappear entirely, to find murkier waters to wallow in).  This then allows for a nice, warm, interactive environment where people can talk openly and feel supported and respected - rare as hen's teeth on the Internet, which is yet another reason it's worth doing.

When I came here, I expected lively discussions, but I was quickly taught better. In the meantime, those who "just read" no longer bother me. This is because I no longer have the time and patience to read and reflect on everything. When I listen to music or write a text, I am still concerned about 12 to 18 hours later. On the other hand, I'm happy when someone posts something that has been offline for a long time. Unfortunately, moments like this have become rare. When 2020 started, I thought to myself: "Oh G*d, don't let it be an off topic year again!" I'm "on the road" there too, but sometimes I think it's "too much".
En cette nation [Russie] qui n'a pas eu de théoriciens et de démagogues,
les pires ferments de destruction ont apparu. (J. Péladan)

SueC

I just wanted to officially post that after thinking about it for a bit, I came to a position halfway between my prior position and @word_on_a_wing's position, and I thank her for voicing her thoughts on the matter.  And that's why networking with other brains is so much better than just playing with your own.  :cool
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SueC

In summary:  Grrrr.

https://www.crikey.com.au/2020/06/19/why-is-the-catholic-church-getting-jobkeeper/?utm_campaign=Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&ins=WktSZTR4R1dZN1p2S082MkpQbkExUT09&at=blpiK2xBM3B0ZFFhZHE0MUllYkxMZz09

A completely legal scam - the Australian Catholic Church collecting COVID-19 welfare payments on behalf of its clergy (while the arts sector is quietly dying unsupported, as are some sole traders etc).  Previously, the Catholic Church had spent decades immune from prosecution for institutional child sexual abuse by maintaining that the clergy were not its employees...

A typical example of what's wrong with this whole shiitake system of ours:  That politicians, clergy, corporations can pull stunts like this, and never, ever have to face legal consequences or lose their jobs - they make it all "legal" by writing the rules - one way for themselves, and another for the citizens.  :evil:

"The age of entitlement is over," said a cigar-smoking Joe Hockey some years back when making life even more difficult for unemployed Australians.  I wish - he's on a golden handshake plus a job-for-the-boys these days, and politicians are still shamelessly rorting taxpayers with their own travel expenses, all "legally"...

From GetUp today:

QuotePauline Hanson is eating fish and chips with right-wing donors on the public dime.

But a shocking string of revelations this week reveal she's not alone in her blatant misuse of public money.

💸 Senator Eric Abetz sent us the bill to attend a gala dinner to celebrate the mining industry.
💸 Deputy PM Michael McCormack billed taxpayers $4300 an hour for his RAAF flight to the Melbourne Cup.
💸 Three Cabinet Ministers flew to Sydney on the public dollar to wine and dine with mining and banking donors.
💸 Shadow Minister Chris Bowen billed taxpayers to be the guest of honour at a Labor fundraiser.

It's scandal after scandal – but these politicians aren't even breaking a sweat. Because without a federal corruption watchdog they know they won't face consequences.

At a time when people across the country are struggling financially, losing their jobs and pulling money out of their superannuation just to survive – this week's spotlight on politicians reckless spending shows they need to be held accountable for their misconduct.

https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/democracy/icac-petition-hanson/sign-we-need-a-corruption-watchdog-with-teeth?t=AABeBHN7N



from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/17/who-needs-a-federal-icac-when-weve-got-the-integribot-5000
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SueC

From Crikey this morning:

Quote from: undefinedBruce Gordon

Last week we learned expat media mogul Bruce Gordon, normally based in Bermuda, had been given an exemption by the Australian Tax Office (ATO) to live in Australia during the pandemic without incurring an additional tax bill.

That's right. A 91-year-old billionaire who has lived in a tax haven since 1985 wanted to stay in Australia because, sources close to him revealed, he felt "safer" here.

That's because most of those grubby little tax "havens" are actually upmarket swamps that don't have the superior healthcare we have in this country thanks to, you know, those common little people who actually pay tax.

We also learned he spent most of the year holed up in his luxury Circular Quay apartment. It's the longest he has been in Australia since quitting our shores last century. That would be because the ATO has a strict rule that you must spend 183 days offshore to qualify as a non-resident to avoid paying pesky personal income tax.

 :smth011  :smth011  :smth011  :smth011  :smth011  :pouting-face  :pouting-face  :pouting-face  :pouting-face  :pouting-face 🥴 🥴 🥴 🥴 🥴 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 👺 👺 👺 👺 👺
SueC is time travelling

word_on_a_wing

Quote from: SueC on December 01, 2020, 03:54:32From Crikey this morning:

Quote from: undefinedBruce Gordon

Last week we learned expat media mogul Bruce Gordon, normally based in Bermuda, had been given an exemption by the Australian Tax Office (ATO) to live in Australia during the pandemic without incurring an additional tax bill.

That's right. A 91-year-old billionaire who has lived in a tax haven since 1985 wanted to stay in Australia because, sources close to him revealed, he felt "safer" here.

That's because most of those grubby little tax "havens" are actually upmarket swamps that don't have the superior healthcare we have in this country thanks to, you know, those common little people who actually pay tax.

We also learned he spent most of the year holed up in his luxury Circular Quay apartment. It's the longest he has been in Australia since quitting our shores last century. That would be because the ATO has a strict rule that you must spend 183 days offshore to qualify as a non-resident to avoid paying pesky personal income tax.

 :smth011  :smth011  :smth011  :smth011  :smth011  :pouting-face  :pouting-face  :pouting-face  :pouting-face  :pouting-face 🥴 🥴 🥴 🥴 🥴 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 👺 👺 👺 👺 👺


😡😡😡😤😤😤
"Where the flesh meets the spirit world,
Where the traffic is thin..."

SueC

SueC is time travelling

SueC

Shopping is a chore at the best of times, but especially trying at Christmas.  I can usually avoid going to town more than once a fortnight (since we grow a fair bit of our own food), and Brett advised, "Get in there before it gets completely crazy - avoid next week if you at all can!"

So this morning we went to town with a list of things required from different outlets.  This included two new pillows, since our heads are so heavy with the weight of the world  :1f635: that we tend to flatten new pillows within a year.  This starts manifesting as earaches from lying on the ear cartilage without proper cushioning, or cricks in the neck that stop you turning your head fully without dreadful crunching noises and stabs of white-hot pain.  :-D

This isn't a rant yet, but it will be, and I'm sure that no matter where you are in the world, you too are finding it impossible to go into public spaces without sonic bombardment by Christmas muzak...  :1f629:

Target stores have particularly bad muzak this time of year.  We held our breaths before entering through the sliding glass doors, mental maps of where we needed to go in our heads, and proceeding there rapidly because existence is brief.  But it had started already.  I tried to block it out, go to a quiet faraway place in my own head, but a particularly shrill, jangly bit of soapified electric guitar that was part of a contemporised Christmas carol penetrated my barricades like fingernails down a blackboard.  "Brett!!! To think that someone took music lessons in order to make that abominable noise!  :1f635:"

We found the pillows pretty soon - side gusseted pillows don't go flat so quickly, and sadly only Target stocks them in our area - but then came the significantly harder problem of finding new standard pillowcases, preferably in flannellette cotton, possibly in thick-ish linen or bamboo or cotton jersey, and in any uniform colour from the palette of white, cream, mocha or anything in-between - not poly-cotton, not thin cotton you can read a newspaper through, not in fluoro pink or orange or another such ghastly colour, no prints and no knobbles.  Is that too much to ask?

Apparently it is.  :1f62d:   We made round after frustrated round amongst the display shelving, finding dozens of European pillowcases within the stated specifications, but none like that for standard size pillows - which are, after all, STANDARD in Australia - but as Brett pointed our, "Der, Sue, don't you know anything, if you need new standard pillowcases you're supposed to buy a whole new sheet set!  And your old sheet set is so yesterday, so you may as well ditch the sheets if a pillowcase wears out, and get whatever is on trend today, and be a good little consumer robot!  Vive la capitalism!"  :evil:

And then, the muzak got more horrid:  A totally inane cover of Last Christmas came over the PR.  "OMG, that was already a trial in its original form when George Michael sang it, but this is even worse!"  To which Brett replied, "That's the legacy of American Idol, that we get all these even more crap covers of crap songs!  In this overblown, quasi-operatic style, if you can even call that a style..."

We got out of there pretty quickly after that, with new pillows, sans covers - sympathising with the nice young man at the till over having to work all day long with this stuff on - "How do you bear it?"  He laughed, and agreed you couldn't make worse music if that was your actual intention...  :1f635:

That was just our first stop for the day.  The aural assaults continued all morning.  Brett mentioned that he always shops with his iPod in when he's on his own, for that reason.  But there was one blessed oasis in the series of establishments we frequented - at Icky Finks, a craft / odds and bobs place, they were playing Pink Floyd as we came in...

If they have to play Christmas stuff, couldn't they find something tasteful, or at least play the Corona Christmas stuff @Ulrich found?

We never did find suitable pillowcases - but the two other places we tried had the same type of muzak.  Never mind, I know exactly where I'm going to get what I need:  At the Denmark Co-op, next time we go hiking near Denmark.  The Co-op there is a remarkable place, sort of like a little department store, but one that stocks only useful items, and well-made, and fair trade, and lots of natural materials - no junk, no built-in obsolescence.  I found a lovely set of towels there this year after looking all over Albany first - the nicest towels we've ever had - thick, fluffy, absorbent, not in a screaming colour.  :cool  We've got all sorts of useful items from them like well-made kitchen scales, bamboo socks, stripey bamboo blend singlets and underwear, and sun hats with neck covers - and I make it a habit to try them first for particular items, if we can plan it that way.  Hippie towns do have certain advantages - and I just know they'll have decent standard size pillow slips...
SueC is time travelling

Ulrich

Well I guess it fits in here. Stupid fool that I am, I once said this:

QuoteI don't remember the exact wording or where I posted it, but I am so certain we're going to get a new album before 2020 is over, I said: if that ain't happening, everyone here will be free to shower abuse over me around Xmas 2020 (for a week or so) without being banned...

Obviously this won't be happening. I got it wrong, the album isn't finished (yet) and it won't be out in 2020. Thus, if you want, feel free to rant and rave now (you got until XMas)...
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

MeltingMan

...and I was about to ask you if you have an old hat in your house! 😉🎩
En cette nation [Russie] qui n'a pas eu de théoriciens et de démagogues,
les pires ferments de destruction ont apparu. (J. Péladan)

SueC

I could bake you a hat, @Ulrich;)  It might be more palatable!  :angel
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Ulrich

You both are much too kind, you were supposed to rant here!  :P

Anyway, in case you wanted to know or not:
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2016/11/saying-ill-eat-hat-come/

The holy city breathed like a dying man...

SueC

Quote from: Ulrich on December 17, 2020, 16:14:53You both are much too kind, you were supposed to rant here!  :P

..."We have piped for you, but you would not dance" etc... :winking_tongue

Thank you for the information on hat-eating!  :cool  Always interesting to find out about stuff like this.  All those shenanigans!  :1f62e:  A website to bookmark...

The original citation is so good it bears repeating!  :)

For though we tumble down the wall,
And fire their rotten boats and all,
I'll eat my hat, if Jove don't drop us,
Or play some queer rogue's trick to stop us.
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MeltingMan

In the German-speaking world, 'old hat' can have a different meaning. Here is the translation:

Quote from: Wiktionaryits old hat idiom. Word separation: to be an old hat. Pronunciation: IPA: [aɪ̯n ˈaltɐ huːt zaɪ̯n] Audio samples: be old hat Meanings: [1] to be known for a long time, not new for a long time and therefore also a bit boring / bland.

🤓
En cette nation [Russie] qui n'a pas eu de théoriciens et de démagogues,
les pires ferments de destruction ont apparu. (J. Péladan)

SueC

It means the same in English!  :)

However, I'm still trying to explain to my husband what "Du kannst mir den Buckel herunterrutschen!" actually means in English.  The nearest thing is eff-off, of course, but I have to say, "You can slide down my hunchback!" or however else you want to translate it is just so much more evocative... :angel

@Ulrich, that website you posted has a podcast I'm now subscribed to!  Will be nice to hear this kind of stuff when pruning trees etc.  :cool

PS:  Just to add a rant:  🌪  🐲 Bloody hayfever bloody sinuses bloody waking up at ungodly hours unable to breathe because a giant octopus is lodged in my throat 🐙 and I have to go make cups of octopus-destroying tea arrghh bloody bloody bloody arrghh :1f629:  👾  👺
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