Group Work

As an extrovert, I thrive on the energy I get from being around people. I love being in groups, at parties, etc. I enjoy discussions, and I tend to get cranky if I don't have social stimuli for a while. Being around people is what makes me tick.

That being said, I HATE group work. Since the dawn of time, people have needed other people to complete work. I get that. Sometimes teams are needed in order to accomplish a task. The problem lies in people not giving the assistance required. In my classes, I am put in a group. I didn't get to choose the people in my group (I rarely do), and I really didn't know any of them before hand. I got to enter into this group completely blind, with no bias towards or against any particular group member.

Each of us has our strengths. one of us is very analytic, one a technical guru, one is creative, one is a leader, one is very literate, and one is energetic. I'm not going to say who is who. The downside is only 2 of us are hard workers. That leaves 4 people who are just riding on coattails. There is also a distinct lack of communication. Despite the fact that I'm constantly asking people when we want to meet, who is doing what, and who is in charge of actually presenting or turning in the final product, I get no concrete response. We set meetings, and only 2 or 3 of us show up. We say "oh, this needs to get done" and then I'm the one stuck with the bill in the end, furiously punching out content 15 minutes before the deadline because 3 of my teammates didn't give me their portions of the assignment.

I can't stress enough to my group that it will take more than an hour to slam together our findings. Despite my constant reminders that something needs to get done, everyone refuses to meet for more than an hour at a time. Arg. Guess who ends up picking up the slack.

Always me.

It wouldn't be as big of a deal if everyone pitched in, but I hate having to drag someone else's weight. I'm heavy enough as it is.

I think everyone in a group should have shock collars. A person's collar would be activated whenever 2 other teammates believe that person is not doing enough work or pulling their own weight. I believe this would reduce the amount of AZZZCHCHCHCHCHAAAAAAAAPHPHPHPHPHHPHPPHP....

I guess my teammates think I should get back to work, rather than blarging.

Where did it go?

As a consumer, I find myself usually buying the same things when I go to the store. I purchase the same fruits, the same bread, the same peanut butter, blah blah blah blah blah list of items which I buy every time blah blah blah blah blah. I then find myself saddened when the products I like are no longer on the shelves. There are so many cool novel things out there that companies come up with that, for whatever reason, are massive market failure. One of these is Pepsi Blue. For whatever reason, that was a massive market failure. I never had it, so I couldn't personally tell you. But there are others that were extremely good (in my opinion, of course) and I'm really sad to see (or rather NOT see) leave the shelves. Like Snapple Elements. Those were delicious! And they came in these really cool bottles. I actually had a collection of the bottles going, where I had one of each element. At one point, they just sort of disappeared from stores, and I didn't even notice until someone brought them up a few days ago. Sad panda.

Squeez-its were awesome! They were the greatest sugar water a 5 year old could ask for, and the little twist off cap was just the right size to tuck between your upper lip and your teeth and act like a vampire. Of course, this was made more realistic if the Squeez-it was the red variety of sugar water. Then Koolaid had to come in with their version of the product, but with a slightly different lid. It tasted the same, but it all came down to that lid. It just wasn't as good for playing vampire, but Koolaid won the battle for shelf space, because I still see theirs from time to time. Poor Squeez-it.

Berry Berry Kix, the greatest kids cereal of all time. The only close competitor was lucky charms, of course. Normal Kix are still available, thank the cereal gods, but the berry version of the delectable cereal has mysteriously gone missing.

These are, of course, only some examples of the various products that have gone missing. There's only so much that can be done about these disappearances, but if too many things go missing, I may have to start taking out "have you seen me" ads on the side of milk cartons. I find it interesting that the products I've listed above are all food... apparently I'm hungry. Anyway, lets all have a moment of silence for the dearly departed that we will miss so much.

And then a moment of brooding for the products that, for whatever reasons, will not go away, despite their being awful. That's a different story, though.

HDMI ports (or lack thereof)

I'm a man who loves his electronics. I like having things that allow me to many things through my TV. Here's the real problem: HDMI ports.

HDMI is a great invention. High quality sound and high definition picture in one convenient cable. the cables themselves are a little fragile, but I guess people shouldn't be yanking cables out of various receptacles anyway.

My TV has 3 HDMI slots. This poses a problem, as I have 5 devices that require an HDMI connection (or at least, get better picture with HDMI). This means that whenever I have to use one of my devices that isn't currently plugged in, I have to pull my TV away from the wall, gently pull out one of the current devices (remember, I can't yank, because the cords can be fragile), safely stash the cord somewhere easily accessible for future use, find the cord to the desired device, and gently plug it in before pushing the TV back against the wall. That's a lot of steps to switch between my bluray player and my chromecast.

On top of all of this, if I forget to check which input I switched (as I frequently do) I have to spend time going through each HDMI input in the TV settings to see which one has something on it. It's a small inconvenience, but it's one I have to deal with almost every time! Oh, and then, sometimes I forget to turn on the desired device, which means I end up scrolling through the inputs several times (looking like a moron the whole time) before I finally realize that the little light on my device is red instead of green or blue.

Now, I know, there are a lot of devices that allow me to consolidate functions. I can get a bluray player that can also stream, or I can use my video game console to play movies, etc. etc. etc. I get it. But I didn't, so I"m stuck with what I have. Maybe when I get my grand theater space (Oh, I have such great plans! *giggle*), I'll plan better, but for now, I'm stuck with what I have.

I could easily avoid this problem with a receiver, which allows me to switch between inputs, and only requires one output. That's an extremely viable option, and I have to admit, has some serious draw. But I'm a poor college student and I can't drop 200 bucks on a good receiver, and I'm too proud to buy a cheap one.

So, I guess I'll have to keep switching my cables back and forth, hoping to find the balance between the devices I use the most and the devices that I use less, but still frequently enough to make me go through this little song and dance. Maybe I just need another TV.

Or my theater...

My cupholder

I love my car. Love it! I love everything about it. It's very versatile (go hatchbacks!) and it gets great gas mileage. lots of little accessories in it that make driving it a pleasure.

Between the two front seats are two cup holders. One sits in front of the other, and the one in the back sits just a little bit higher than the other. The one in back is perfect for pretty much everything. Soda cans, water bottles, fast food cups, again, everything can fit in this cup holder.

The partner cup holder does not perform the same job with the same vigor and excellence, however, and it is very upsetting. For whatever reason, it is just a little bit smaller than the other one. It won't hold a soda can, and it's too close to the rear cup holder to allow anything with a lid to sit in it without the lid popping off. About the only thing that will actually fit in this cup holder is a standard 16.9 oz water bottle.

I'd like to know why on earth the designers of this otherwise wonderful car would put in cup holders of differing sizes? It seems like a completely idiotic thing to think of, let alone actually put into practice. I mean, who on earth designs something with two separate size cup holders? I get the idea that some beverage containers are different sizes, but there are many ways to make a larger cup holder work with smaller objects, but there are no ways to make a smaller cup holder fit larger cups.

Really, Kid?

Here is a current event for you!

My son, who is two, is extremely smart. He grasps concepts quickly, he is helpful, cheerful, and overall a great little kid. I could compare him to your kids, but I'm pretty sure it would end up in an argument, and eventually, you would see reason and begrudgingly accept that my son is pretty much the greatest kid around.

Today, however...

In the basement, I have a little mini office set up. It allows me a space to work on my homework (and my blarg) in relative peace and quiet. So today, as I'm studying, I hear this drip drip dripping noise. I go to investigate. No signs of dripping. The faucets are all off, the toilet isn't leaking, etc. so I go back to my homework.

The dripping continues

and continues

and, well you get the picture. So I go to investigate again. I look around a little further, and in the storage area, I notice a puddle on the ground. Upon further inspection, I realize there is water dripping down the walls! Holy Smoke! So, I get on a chair, look around, but can't find the source of the dripping. So I go upstairs. The bathroom right above me is totally dry. No dripping, no water running, nothing. But in the closet right next to that bathroom, I can hear dripping. So I think "What on earth upstairs can be... OH NO!!!"

I sprint up the stairs and slam open my sons room. He has the sink on. Normally, not a bad thing in and of itself. The problem is, he has deposited some toilet paper in the sink, which clogged it. The TP then clogged the emergency drain in the front of the sink. The sink then overflowed. The bathroom rugs got to sop up a lot of the water, but they were not enough to handle it. So, where can the water go?

Down the AC vent!

Apparently, the water drained down the vent, and when it got the bottom of the vent, leaked into the ceiling of the basement, and onto the floor. The carpet in several places is soaked, and the restoration guys say that there is water in the ceiling and some of the walls. Great. That's a boatload of money I wasn't planning on spending. Sigh.

Two-year-olds... It's a good thing he's cute.

Im closed!

So, I've recently moved to another position at my workplace. This particular move was a promotion, meaning more money. Excellent. It also means a LOT more work. Not a big deal. I knew that.
What I didn't expect, was the incredible amount of stupid people I now have to deal with. More on this in future posts.
A particular kind of stupid will be focused on today.
I now run the front end of my store, which means I have a number of cashiers under me, and their job is to ring people up. Easy, right? For the most part this is correct. I am also in charge of their on-the-clock schedules, i.e. sending them to breaks and lunches, among other things. So, when its time for them to break away from a register, change their sign from open to closed, and tell them to finish with the people currently in their line and go to break.
Apparently people don't read signs. Customers will continue to get into lines that say they are closed. Now, sometimes, the cashier will be nice and say, "Sure, I can take one more." But one turns into five turns into ten. Eventually, the cashier has to turn someone away. Generally, this is done nicely, with an apology. The customer then snatches this opportunity to get angry and throw a tantrum. Why on earth do people think that they have the right to get upset? The sign says closed. They have been told, by superiors, to close their sign and get off the register for a time. If you walked up to a store, and the sign says closed, would you still try to walk in? No.... So why would you think that the word "closed" means something different when it applies to a cash register?
Now, if there aren't enough people RUNNING registers, that's an entirely different reason to complain. But if you complain simply because you have to wait behind ONE person in order to get your stuff... sorry, but in my book, that's not a legitimate complaint.

READ THE SIGN!

Please follow all posted signage...

Shaving

Like most men, I have facial hair. I have nothing against facial hair. I think that a lot of people can really pull off a good goatee. I have a real respect for the old men who come in with an 18 inch scraggle beard. I think they are awesome

Personally, though, I don't look good with a beard. I've tried! Actually, I've never fully seen me in a beard. What tends to happen with my face is a great three-day growth. Then it stops. I attempted to grow my beard out for a full 14 days. Once it hit three days, it never got any fuller.

This leaves me with a problem.

I cant grow hair, and the three-day thing doesn't look good, which means I'm now stuck shaving every day. Also, I've found that I can't use an electric razor. My stubble is too dark and thick, and when I use an electric razor, it looks like I haven't shaved at all. This leaves a manual razor as my only option. I use a high end manual razor (sorry, no brand promoting today), and it works really well on my face. I really don't have issues with the razor itself, except for the fact that I have to replace blades every so often. I don't cut my face very often, so I dont have any real complaints about that either. I shave in the shower, so it saves me a little bit of time, which means no complaints there.

But I have to do it every day.

Every. Day.

Sigh.

I would love to find something that would allow me to skip shaving every day. I've thought about waxing my face. Seriously, I have. But I need more than a three-day growth in order for waxing to be effective. I've thought about using a hair removal cream. Actually, I did try a hair removal cream. It didn't do anything. I'm assuming that, again, I need some actual hair to be there, but I could be wrong. You have to be careful with cream though, as there are some creams designed for facial hair... and some that aren't. I had a friend who used regular Nair on his face (completely ignoring the warning saying not for use on face. It was printed on the bottle. Twice.) with disastrous results. About 5 minutes into the process, he started complaining about the burning sensation he felt. twenty minutes in, he was crying. After the cream was removed, his face was, indeed, hair free. He also had a lobster red clown smile going from each sideburn down to his Adam's apple and to under his nose. This "smile" stayed with him for over 2 weeks. Not good.

I've thought about using the "no-no" hair removal product, but I'm skeptical. Anyone out there know anything about it?

I'm exceptionally jealous of the men who don't grow facial hair. I sure wish I had that gene. Maybe I'm just doomed to shave. Every day.