Venting.

[Darth Justicar]

Oh that's a good one.  If this guy does it, then yeah...STALKER.



Now I need to vent.  I am gonna have to get the rest of this out with my saber (won't break anything, I promise), but as much as I have tried like heck to be patient with team lead, who was new to managing a project, her time management skills and general management skills leave something to be desired.  I love when someone else's time management ends up becoming an emergency I have to participate in despite the fact that I had my materials submitted a week ago to the day and this would not have been a crisis if she had done it ANY TIME during that intervening week instead of at the eleventh hour today.

And on top of that she needs to learn which comments should be addressed in the middle of a team meeting and which ones should be addressed in private.

I try to remind myself she has no management experience and I DO have prior management experience (though in another line of work).  But that's why I'm going to go vent with my saber instead of having done that at the office.

[Vivectius]

Now I need to vent.  I am gonna have to get the rest of this out with my saber (won't break anything, I promise), but as much as I have tried like heck to be patient with team lead, who was new to managing a project, her time management skills and general management skills leave something to be desired.  I love when someone else's time management ends up becoming an emergency I have to participate in despite the fact that I had my materials submitted a week ago to the day and this would not have been a crisis if she had done it ANY TIME during that intervening week instead of at the eleventh hour today.

And on top of that she needs to learn which comments should be addressed in the middle of a team meeting and which ones should be addressed in private.

I try to remind myself she has no management experience and I DO have prior management experience (though in another line of work).  But that's why I'm going to go vent with my saber instead of having done that at the office.

I believe the saying is "A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine."

When all else fails, vent at the office with your saber.  In full costume.  In fact, just come in one day with the voice changer turned on, march into their office, turn on the Lightsaber, and say "Quit f'ing up." and walk out. Get changed, come back in a few minutes later, and ask her what's new.

[Layana]

After waiting for the Dark Shock to come back to stock at the beginning of January, where it said that it has up to ~8 weeks to come back, they still say everytime I ask that it is ~8 to ~15 weeks, regardless from which point of date I ask; as for the Manticore, it was early April all the time until now, now it's end of April or even May.

WTF US... if you don't know, just say you don't know. It's ok to wait but it's not ok to be disappointed every time. I'm pissed. And yes I will buy further lightsabers and recommand US, but I'm pissed nonetheless.

[Darth Justicar]

I believe the saying is "A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine."

Hah, yeah, pretty much exactly what I was thinking.  But like I said, I held it back at work and let rip on my comforter, pillows, etc. at home with the saber instead, because this is someone who is very, very inexperienced at project leadership (i.e. it's her first time).  I was far MORE furious (imagine that) when I had an experienced team lead make a complete and total mess of a project I was on.  With her years in service she should have KNOWN better.  This, at least, I can count as inexperience instead of incompetence.

When all else fails, vent at the office with your saber.  In full costume.  In fact, just come in one day with the voice changer turned on, march into their office, turn on the Lightsaber, and say "Quit f'ing up." and walk out. Get changed, come back in a few minutes later, and ask her what's new.

Wellllll, there are a few little complications.  1) These people HAVE seen a picture of me in costume, because we had a silly project for our department where each group created a team "mascot" and took it to various places around the city.  I took it to a con.  So I can be ID'd.  2) I removed the voice changer from the helmet because the Black Series one sucks, and really, what good is it going to do with MY voice?

That and the whole workplace violence awareness program.  They're not quite as tolerant as the Finalizer crew.

After waiting for the Dark Shock to come back to stock at the beginning of January, where it said that it has up to ~8 weeks to come back, they still say everytime I ask that it is ~8 to ~15 weeks, regardless from which point of date I ask; as for the Manticore, it was early April all the time until now, now it's end of April or even May.

WTF US... if you don't know, just say you don't know. It's ok to wait but it's not ok to be disappointed every time. I'm pissed. And yes I will buy further lightsabers and recommand US, but I'm pissed nonetheless.

Like I said, in the other thread, I'm sorry you're having to deal with this, fellow Knight.  It might be interesting to see what they say if you ask if they could ship the sabers individually as they arrive (without charging you to do that), so that at least you don't get stuck waiting for all three should one take longer than the others.  I don't know that they'd say yes to it, but it's at least worth a try to ask them once, and nicely.

[BurceChuat]

My dad's been annoying me more than usual for the past couple days. We were having a fine car ride home when he asked my sister about her nursing plans. She said she wanted to continue studying in order to be a nurse practitioner ASAP. He enjoyed the idea, and naturally asked me if I was gonna do the same. I said no, that I would just get my bachelor's, work for a couple years, and go from there. He pretty much threw a hissy fit and said that I was wasting time by not following my sister's path. Eventually, he finished by saying "well, if that's what you wanna do. We can't force you, even though we think it's right", yaddayaddayadda.

The funny thing is that I think my mom (aka, the other half of "we") is alright with my plan. She was conversing with my sister and I the other night and brought up our choices separately, with no hint of judgment or persuasion whatsoever.

[Darth Justicar]

I totally understand about overbearing parents.  Mine were pretty pushy about what I majored in in school too.  It was never an easy conversation with them.  Of course, one good thing about the way the education system is set up here (assuming you're in the US/Canada) is that what you major in does not necessarily dictate what you'll do as a career.

[Darth Abaddon]

Same here.

Went to school for engineering for a bit but hated it. After a little of this or that, I decided I wanted to be a welder/fabricator/metal work in general.

Mom fought me every step of the way with it. Dad instantly started looking at welding schools. I think he about cried when I said I wanted to take advanced courses.

Tell ya what though. For me it wasn't "Crap, I have to go to school tomorrow." It was "I get to go to school tomorrow!"

Do what you love, approval or not.

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Now for my vent. I sent my resume to a shop down in Lancaster and the supervisor called me the next morning. He was explaining to me kind of what they do but basically said that it's easier to show me and that they want me to come down and see what I think of the place.

The job wasn't super ideal but it would have been a good start. I have certifications for non-destructive inspection for metal work. I have education for a Level II (guys that can go out into the field on their own, don't need to be supervised) But I lack the hours. I need a combined 500 hours to get my Level II in those methods. Additionally, they would have taught me a third. It was a start. I could have taken that near anywhere and gotten at least 50k a year if I wanted (cost of living around here is around 30k).

Anyway, they flat out offered me a job and said that they just have to talk to the owners to figure out a starting pay to offer. I hadn't heard from them in days so I started calling and calling. FInally, the guy calls and leaves a voice mail that basically said that they decided to hold off cause things are going slow..

I'm not so upset that I didn't get the job so much as the things leading up to it.

You called me down. I made the four hour round trip for you. You flat out offered me a job. Then you decided that you changed your mind. Thanks for wasting my time and my gas.

[Darth Justicar]

Wow.  That especially sucks that they offered the job...that seems like it should have been a legally binding verbal contract at that point, unless they were "smart" enough to put some weasel words in there.  That really does SUCK.

[Noctis]

Wow, Darth Abaddon, that's some kriffed up crap right there!  It's especially irritating that they wasted your time like that and then had the nerve to act like it was something casual. 


An update on the "copycat friend" situation.  Things went EXACTLY as I suspected and the copycat copied the falsehood to perfection.  I suggested my friend go on about a specific sport (which he can't stand) and talk about his "favorite" team.  Shock of shocks, the copycat proclaimed this to be his favorite sport as well.  He showed up at my friend's house wearing a jersey with that team on it and proudly proclaimed his "new found" support.

SURPRISE, motherkriffer. 

[Darth Justicar]

So what happened, did he get called out on it?

[ThreadJack]

My dad's been annoying me more than usual for the past couple days. We were having a fine car ride home when he asked my sister about her nursing plans. She said she wanted to continue studying in order to be a nurse practitioner ASAP. He enjoyed the idea, and naturally asked me if I was gonna do the same. I said no, that I would just get my bachelor's, work for a couple years, and go from there. He pretty much threw a hissy fit and said that I was wasting time by not following my sister's path. Eventually, he finished by saying "well, if that's what you wanna do. We can't force you, even though we think it's right", yaddayaddayadda.

The funny thing is that I think my mom (aka, the other half of "we") is alright with my plan. She was conversing with my sister and I the other night and brought up our choices separately, with no hint of judgment or persuasion whatsoever.

I understand this. I get the feeling my Mom doesn't like the idea of me being a history major, and I kinda don't think my Dad wants me to go to school AT ALL. (They've never said this, just the vibe I get). My Mom always asks things like "What can you do with a history degree?"

I'm 29 years old, so of course don't need their approval, but still kinda stinks. If they can't approve of this, how will they ever approve of certain OTHER things?....

[Landen Se-Sentien]

Wow, Darth Abaddon, that's some kriffed up crap right there!  It's especially irritating that they wasted your time like that and then had the nerve to act like it was something casual. 


An update on the "copycat friend" situation.  Things went EXACTLY as I suspected and the copycat copied the falsehood to perfection.  I suggested my friend go on about a specific sport (which he can't stand) and talk about his "favorite" team.  Shock of shocks, the copycat proclaimed this to be his favorite sport as well.  He showed up at my friend's house wearing a jersey with that team on it and proudly proclaimed his "new found" support.

SURPRISE, motherkriffer. 

I'm remembering the movie Single White Female.

[Darth Justicar]

I think if you have a concrete plan on what to do with the history degree, it's not a bad thing.  There's a BIG difference between being goal-oriented, and being an aimless student.

It is also important to recognize when you're in a field that requires graduate education to get the good jobs--or even going all the way to the terminal degree.  For instance, a family friend had a kid who got an English degree without a plan and it didn't go well. In contrast, another guy I knew got an English degree but knew already, in undergrad, that he wanted to go all the way to his PhD and be a professor.  He knew what he was going to need to accomplish that.

If you've got a goal in mind and you know what all of its requirements are, and all of the potential hardships and constraints along the way (such as limited positions, pay, etc.), and you know how you plan to compensate for those, then I think you're good and you should let nothing (and nobody) stand in your way.

[ThreadJack]

I think if you have a concrete plan on what to do with the history degree, it's not a bad thing.  There's a BIG difference between being goal-oriented, and being an aimless student.

It is also important to recognize when you're in a field that requires graduate education to get the good jobs--or even going all the way to the terminal degree.  For instance, a family friend had a kid who got an English degree without a plan and it didn't go well. In contrast, another guy I knew got an English degree but knew already, in undergrad, that he wanted to go all the way to his PhD and be a professor.  He knew what he was going to need to accomplish that.

If you've got a goal in mind and you know what all of its requirements are, and all of the potential hardships and constraints along the way (such as limited positions, pay, etc.), and you know how you plan to compensate for those, then I think you're good and you should let nothing (and nobody) stand in your way.

I'm going to a two year "Junior" college right now. I plan on going on to at least a Bachelors(not settling for an Associates), but beyond that not much. My main focus right now is getting everything done so I can start, and getting any remedial classes out of the way.

[Noctis]

So what happened, did he get called out on it?

My friend hasn't directly confronted him yet, but he will.  He's letting it go a day or so to see how "into it" the other guy gets before he has a serious chat with him.  We had an in-depth discussion about it and honestly, I don't think Copycat means any harm.  I think he's just very lonely and socially awkward.  He seems like he just really wanted to connect with someone and he thinks that this is how you do it.  However, my buddy is way nicer than I would be about this kind of thing, even if I do understand why it's done.  It's one of my biggest pet peeves and is just about the fastest way to send me packing.  I've got reasons lol.

I'm remembering the movie Single White Female.

Those would be the reasons!  Although, in his case, it's "Married Black Male," but still!