The Syndicate

It's that time of year again for me...

"Mr. Brown...what can I do to bring up my grade?"

"BUILD A TIME MACHINE AND GO BACK TO THE DAY YOU WERE FUCKING AROUND."

My tests are open book and open note. There is no extra credit. You have to be a loser to fail me.

I just burned the hell out of my hand. I use my pans in the oven sometimes and I grabbed the handle of this one while stirring.

Owwie.

Mongoose wrote:
Elohcin wrote:Y'all are hilarious. And Bea you are sweet to keep encouraging Epi to get me a DW. I only wish it were possible :/
Eloh, could you get an elephant to help you with them, like on The Flintstones?

Hey, easy with the fat jokes.

Lightweight.

The last time I drank I had about 12 beers and a bourbon.

That was yesterday.

bea wrote:Epi - 12 IPA's? 12 PBR's? Shot of bourbon? two fingers? three fingers? Half a tumbler? Ice? Neat? THESE QUESTIONS MATTER!!!!!!!

I mostly drink Miller Lite with an occasional Samuel Adams or whatever I feel like. The bourbon is on the rocks, and I don't measure it. I just pour it in the damn glass.

So much this.

You should throw ink in somebody's face.

I have the entire house to myself for several hours, which means recording time without noise.

My brother the trucker called complaining about Mom. My supper took forever to cook. I burned my mouth when I ate the supper.

My ASIO (audio stream input/output) refused to load the first three times. My DAW (digital audio workstation) crashed twice.

Finally, when everything was all set and all my aggravations seem to have paid off, my boom stand broke in two when I moved it. It's made of metal, and the main part folded in two like a Fruit Roll Up. I have never witnessed such a thing occur.

I'm so pissed at my evening.

I'm still looking at it in disbelief.

You know it's been a tough day when you're just thankful to be back at the house.

DharmaHelper wrote:I am tremendously frustrated.

why

I am laid up at the hospital awaiting an unexpected surgery. I am in a great deal of pain. I don't know how that will affect my activity here- just letting my Syndicate family know.

S~V~S wrote:Aw, prayers & good vibes, Epi~ feel better

Well, that was damn fast! Even though two doctors believed I would have to have surgery, the latest test results came back and surgery will not be necessary. Medication and pain management are all I require.

I still hurt like a sonofabitch, but yay!

Thanks S~V~S. I am home now.

Seven hours at the hospital today...maybe I should have written my message in here this morning and gone home by noon.

Excellent vacation.

We have to check out tomorrow.

The car won't start.

I hate you Chris Sale.

That sounds about right.

Sounds like your tech support need to find new careers. This sounds like a very simple issue to me.

Dom wrote:
Epignosis wrote:It's that time of year again for me...

"Mr. Brown...what can I do to bring up my grade?"

"BUILD A TIME MACHINE AND GO BACK TO THE DAY YOU WERE FUCKING AROUND."
I would just like to say that I have not related to anything more in my life.

"Mr. Torro, how can I get a B?"

"Go back and not fail every test and quiz you have taken in this class"

I damaged a nerve in my left arm which is affecting my fourth and fifth fingers, rendering them weaker and with less sensation than is normal. As you might imagine, this makes playing instruments a more frustrating affair. This morning, I couldn't even make a proper barre chord (I can this afternoon, but it takes more effort than it should). Recording has becoming difficult.

To add to my troubles, my left speaker is now dead.

If troubles come in threes, I don't want to know what third left item is going to fail.

Ricochet wrote: ↑Wed Aug 02, 2017 7:19 pm That's terrible, Epig. Having something happen to my hands counts as the least desirable thing in my life. Is it recoverable? If so, I'd recommend having it rest as much as possible, despite any process of recording and such. I remember having experienced some bothersome sting in my left foot's middle finger and I told myself it must be from abusing the soft piano pedal. After some time, it was all ok again.

It's because if I roll over on my left side when I'm sleeping, I am most comfortable sliding my left arm under my head like a second pillow. I don't know why this is. I've slept like that for ages. The funny thing is I don't do that with my right arm if I roll over on my right side. I guess one particular time this past week was enough to compress a nerve.

The feeling ebbs and flows. I am hoping it returns to normal.

I'm almost positive I have cubital tunnel syndrome. I'm hoping an elbow brace at night helps.

Guys, I can't even bend a guitar string for a whole note.

Golden wrote: ↑Tue Aug 08, 2017 3:30 pm
Epignosis wrote: ↑Tue Aug 08, 2017 2:42 pm I'm almost positive I have cubital tunnel syndrome. I'm hoping an elbow brace at night helps.

Guys, I can't even bend a guitar string for a whole note.
epi, this is shit. I hope that it heals.

My sister, who is a pianist, suffered carpal tunnel. It took her a while of non-use, but she can play the piano now. She just can't do it for extended periods. I'll be praying for you.

Thanks buddy.

It's the way I sleep.

Spacedaisy wrote: ↑Wed Aug 09, 2017 1:31 am Is it something that will go away given enough time avoiding the cause?

God, I hope so.

I slept with the elbow brace for the first time last night. I think it helped keep my arm straight most of the night. I believe I've gotten much better about not sleeping on it, so there's that much.

I also located some exercises that are supposed to help. A number of people (including musicians) have claimed they helped.

To anyone who cares, my hand is back to about 90%. I have some numbness in my little finger and some mild weakness in my ring finger, but other than that, I feel good.

If anybody knows what it is like to lose a beloved job and struggle for it for a long time after, it's me. I empathize with you, DDL.

The best advice I can give is to realize immediately that any time in the gutter is temporary. If variance can work against us, it will work for us too.

Two words that frequently serve as a preface in the educational field are actually a warning that whatever follows is probably bullshit.

"Research says"

Yesterday a woman from the state came into my classroom along with two women from the county to observe what we were doing. I had just played the audio to chapter one of The Great Gatsby because I have found success letting students read along to a recording, especially if the sentence structure and vocabulary is more complex (as is the case with this novel).

The woman from the state told me, "Research says that when students listen to the literature, they're not actually reading."

Bullshit, says I, but I politely explained that we don't listen to everything. We use audio maybe five or six times all semester, and on a couple of occasions, I personally read to my students. The rationale behind this, I went on to explain, was that many students were never read to as children, and they have no foundational skills with respect to cadence or inflection or tone. Hearing a professional articulate the words as they follow along accomplishes a few things; namely, it models proper reading, and it gets them to "buy in" to the plot of a novel they otherwise might have dismissed due to the length (yes, to our students, The Great Gatsby might as well be The Holy Bible).

In front of my students, this woman from the state said, "Well, research says that if they don't have it by now, they never will."

I'm sorry. The fuck did you just say to me? In front of my students?

If what you just said is true, then what the hell am I doing? What the hell are my students doing? We all might as well cash it in and go find jobs moving boxes somewhere. Oh, and make sure you cancel those adult literacy programs.

Fuck outta my classroom, and take your shitty "research" with you.

G-Man wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2017 5:05 pm Nope, it's actually called fifth disease. They don't even capitalize the name. It's literally the fifth disease in a list of six families of viruses and bacteria that cause childhood rashes but apparently nobody decided to give it a fancy name:

1. Measles
2. Scarlet Fever
3. Rubella
4. Duke's Disease
5. erythema infectiosum
6. Roseola

Fixed.

It does.

juliets wrote: ↑Sat Dec 23, 2017 3:10 pm Well, I don't have any problems but Eloh and Epi did your Christmas trip to Florida get cancelled?

Everyone there is diseased. We're not driving all the way down there to become infected.

I've no wish to put a damper on anyone's Christmas spirit, and I want to emphasize that this is not my problem, as the title of the thread would prompt one to believe, but I felt it needs to be shared.

This happened to a former pastor of mine and his family:

http://www.wral.com/woman-killed-when-c ... /17212273/

It troubles me today.

My friend called and said he's losing part of his foot.

S~V~S wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2018 10:46 pm
Epignosis wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2018 10:01 pm My friend called and said he's losing part of his foot.
My father's best friend Phil was mowing the lawn and one of his kids (who is now about 50, this was a long time ago) ran In front of the mower, and Phil reflexively yanked it back and cut off all his toes.

It took him a while to learn how to balance again, but after a year or so you would never know he's toeless.

I hope your friend makes a similarly good recovery.

Thanks S~V~S. He has road ahead of him, but I believe he can do it.

Golden wrote: ↑Wed Apr 18, 2018 11:23 pm When you are in charge of something big and you spill your blood and guts on the floor to get it done, other people don't support you the way you're supposed to, and then get mad at you for doing your own job when you simply call out what you need them to do.

Shit man you a teacher too?

Golden wrote: ↑Wed Apr 18, 2018 11:30 pm
Epignosis wrote: ↑Wed Apr 18, 2018 11:26 pm
Golden wrote: ↑Wed Apr 18, 2018 11:23 pm When you are in charge of something big and you spill your blood and guts on the floor to get it done, other people don't support you the way you're supposed to, and then get mad at you for doing your own job when you simply call out what you need them to do.
Shit man you a teacher too?
I could use a spring break, that's for sure.

Today I dealt with an ex-girlfriend beating the shit out of an ex-boyfriend. He was on the ground. She sliced his face open with her nail. He didn't hit her and even asked that she not get into trouble.

I'm too old for this shit.

Golden wrote: ↑Sun May 20, 2018 11:20 pm So it turns out my ongoing employment ended up being the topic of a lot of debate.

I’ve been working in my team for the last nine months and I’ve really enjoyed the job. My manager is one of the most inspirational people I’ve worked for. She’s visionary, and she really manages to set a tone. My team is amazing, and I really get along with all of them. But there is this one person, who I’ve never quite been able to figure out. I really liked her, but for whatever reason I was never quite sure exactly what she was thinking. That’s ok though, she’s been really busy and stressed and I figured that she probably just need to be mostly left alone to get work done. I wasn’t that bothered by it.
We are now putting in to place our final team structure. We really need it, because we are understaffed. So we are growing to double the size. As a result, my manager needed to put another person in, a deputy chief legal counsel, and that’s who I’ll be reporting to.

The job went to that very woman who I didn’t quite understand, and the next thing I know, I find out she’s fighting to get rid of me. Why? Apparently because I don’t work hard enough. Now to put this in context, I’ve been working extremely long hours, cancelled a holiday, didn’t go to the doctor when I was sick, basically put on hold all my other life commitments as well, hired external legal counsel to help me with aspects of the job – because this job was so demanding of me at the moment. We are short staffed, and because of that inspirational boss, I’ve been fine doing it. Actually genuinely happy doing it. My new manager, there is no way she could actually not see that this was the case. She managed to pick up a couple of examples where the very least important thing I’m doing that was non-urgent, wasn’t done to her expected time frames (which weren’t stated).

The worst thing about this is that I had no idea my new manager felt this way. She’s never addressed it to me directly. I had to interview again and she was on my interview panel – she could have put a question directly to me about it or given me the opportunity to defend myself, but she didn’t. She chose to fight against me in a closed room without my knowledge and without ever giving me a chance to respond or even know. I only find out because my current manager was determined to let me know what I was walking into if I took the job.

Now I managed to keep my job due to the grace of my current manager and her fighting for me. But now I’ll have to report to someone who I know wanted to get rid of me, and I still don’t understand what the real reason was. I feel like my real life is a game of mafia. It’s really taken the joy out of the job, and while I objectively know that there is something else going on here and the issue actually doesn’t lie with me, that doesn’t really help. I am a person who generally in life doesn’t need the validation of others and has enough self-worth that I would think something like this doesn’t bother me. But it does – I feel like I suddenly have no job security and a boss I can’t trust. It’s not a situation I imagined finding myself in and frankly – it just sucks.

It’s now been more than a week that I’ve known this and been processing it and it hasn’t gotten much easier yet. I’ve been hoping for some sort of sign that opinions have changed on me at least slightly but I don’t think that they have. I’ve had the odd depressive episode over it. I’m hoping it gets better.

*Taking off the Rockies Cap here*

Call her out on it. If she didn't confront you in an honest manner, then it means she is a dishonest person who has something (usually a lot of things) to hide. And she's only going to cause more problems. Directly and loudly call her ass out. Ask her to explain directly what you did wrong to warrant her opinion of you. Make her give examples. Don't let her get away with platitudinous phrases.

This happened to me once. The minute I did the above, I more or less got left alone.

I just found out my good friend's little brother passed last night. He still looks like a little kid to me, even though he was a soldier. RIP Brian.

G-Man wrote: ↑Tue Jan 29, 2019 11:20 pm Our new neighbors moved in a month ago, though I have yet to meet them. The husband occasionally brings home a large work pickup truck. Our mailbox is a straight shot out the middle of their driveway.

In 10 and a half years, our mailbox has never been hit by anyone. The door sits flush with the curb. It’s a tall curb. The only way to hit our mailbox is to have a tall vehicle that can hang over the curb enough to smack the box or the post. Like a large pickup truck.

Since our new neighbors moved in, our mailbox has been hit twice and is now on life support. It’s the middle of winter and there is a polar freaking vortex descending on us this week. There’s no chance of digging a new post hole, let alone cement setting right until probably March.

I have no proof that our new neighbors are responsible but the circumstances sure make me go ‘hmm.’

I remember my mailbox getting run over on purpose, and then the scraps getting run over for good measure.

Drink drove me into the gutter.

Eloh drew me out.

And now I shake drink's hand, but that's all.

We don't go down into the gutter.

Talk to Mongoose.

Lost another student.

Heart attack. Good kid. Had her last year. Always said hello to me when she passed by.

I'm sorry to hear he got sick, but that sounds like things are on the upswing.

Sloonei wrote: ↑Mon May 06, 2019 4:31 am My roommate decided that 4 AM is an appropriate time to do laundry. The washing machine is loud and on the opposite side of my bedroom wall. I was sleeping soundly.

He just moved in with me a month ago because he couldn’t get along with his previous roommate. I wonder why. He moves out again when the semester ends in a week and a half. I am counting down the days.

Ask Eloh about her smoothie making suitemates sometime.

Or don't. Her eyebrow twitches.

I don't have a roommate.

I have a family.

If you don't have a wife and children, do what you must and whatever you feel like. You can prioritize your personal happiness.

If you have dependents, you make the doughnuts.

Hope it doesn't become a grave site.

That's gross. I hope your girls are okay. I do want to hear about your deck though. Any news?

Search found 60 matches