Complaints | Piss and Moan

Sit down and shut up

Posted on February 11, 2019 by backuphill

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

One thing I know for sure, teaching a class or training people never goes quite as planned. There are always things you can’t account for, even when you have experience and account for things you know will happen – because they always do.

I was a high school teacher for 15 years. One thing I got used to was that students, no matter how engaging the lesson was, never were really invested in what they were learning. I mean who are we kidding, right? Students don’t see how what they are doing now prepares them for something down the road, in the future. They are too focused on today to understand that. So interest in class was always a challenge, no matter the subject.

Now that I am no longer in the classroom, I am teaching at a different level, so to speak. I am teaching adults (teachers and school district employees) about how to use the software they use every day. Now, we are talking about people with different life experiences than students. People who know that what they are being taught will be useful to them immediately, or at the very least in the very near future. YET, they are, in some cases, a worse audience than high school students!

Teachers are a notoriously bad audience. I know because I was one of those bad audience members. But I see it all the time from adults. They sit and have side conversations, text, look at email, grade papers, etc. I even had one teacher watching the World Cup on his computer while at a training class. Yeah, real professional, buddy.

Listen, I get that teachers have a millions of things on their mind and a billion other things to do. I can totally relate! BUT, if you won’t let your students (or at least have the expectation that your students will not) act this way, why do you think it is acceptable to act that way when you’re in class? You’re an adult, for pete’s sake. Have a little more self-control than your 4th graders for crying out loud.

So, SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!

Choices vs. Choices

Posted on February 7, 2019 by backuphill

There are days were choices are just hard. It’s always this versus that. Me versus them. Us versus them. Me versus that.

So today, the choices seemed harder than most days:

Get up, work out, have a fabulous body (some day, because it isn’t right now).

Stay in the warm, comfy bed and sleep more.

Effort and exertion versus rest, comfort, and warmth.

Dang it.

Fine.

I got up.

But I hated it.

Stupid choices.

Why can’t we just have both?

Choices suck.

Snow day telecommute

Posted on February 4, 2019 by backuphill

black vehicle traveling on road near person walker

Photo by Lisa Fotios on Pexels.com

Well, the snow came just as they predicted and it hasn’t let up yet. This is somewhat unusual for the Pacific Northwest and there was a collective “YES!” across the region as schools are mostly closed today.

As you may recall from earlier posts, I drive about an hour to work every day. Weather like this makes it a challenge, to say the least, so I have decided to telecommute today. That makes work much easier and less stressful that trying to battle the roads and elements.

Quite frankly, I didn’t want to drive today. NOT because of the weather. I can handle that and have enough experience to handle what the roads may throw at me.

However, what I can’t account for are the other idiots on the road! I gotta tell ya, for a region that does a lot of driving in less than ideal weather, people are freaking stupid when it comes to this stuff. I see more four-wheel drive vehicles on the side of the road, in the ditch, upside down than I see any other vehicles. Guys (and I do mean that literally), just because you have a four-wheeled vehicle doesn’t mean you are invincible. You still need to use your brain, and a little less of that lead foot.

So, playing it safe from the other drivers today. And, if you live in the NW like I do, take it easy if you have to go out. The object is to get there. It isn’t about how fast you got there.

Guess we’ll starve

Posted on January 31, 2019 by backuphill

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Ok, I know this is a question for the ages and it is as much a mystery as finding a sasquatch…

Why, when you are with a group of people or family, is it so dang hard to decide on a place to go to eat? Why does it have to be an exercise in patience and tolerance, with a side of not murdering someone?

I mean, really? Is it that tough to decide? Everyone put an idea on the table. Is there a common thread to the ideas? Similar location? Wide variety of food options at your idea? Could everyone find something on the menu to satisfy their taste?

Sheesh, people.

My family is the worst. I honestly think it would be better to starve than try to make everyone remotely happy.

“Fine. Stay home and starve. I’m out the door and I’ll eat by myself.”

Enough already, PT 2!

Posted on January 30, 2019 by backuphill

This is an example of too much to read in less than 2 seconds. The photo is lovely, btw.

So, yesterday I had a little something to say about the “stories” feature on social media that seems to be taking the world by storm, but that some people aren’t telling stories but writing stupid novels with the overwhelming number of pics they post.

To follow up on that, can I just say that the other problem with “stories” is that people also want to put words on these photos. Not just a few words, like a caption for the picture, but like paragraphs…in small fonts…

Hey, if you want to write a paragraph on your photo, do it in the regular photo feed! I don’t know about most people, but I have a feeling I am not alone in that it is near darn impossible to READ a freaking small font paragraph in 1.32 seconds, let along all the links and other crap you include on the photo.

Again, for the love of your views and readers, keep the “stories” simple and short.

Enough already!

Posted on January 29, 2019 by backuphill

There is a disturbing trend going around social media these days and it bothers the heck outta me. I just don’t have all the time in the world for you, nor you me, so let’s keep it to one or two, not the whole story.

Social media has gotten this idea that people want to see a “story” about other people’s lives. Like I have none of my own, so I should see every aspect of someone else’s. So, Facebook and Instagram (yes, they are the same company) have instituted this “story” aspect where people can post multiple photos/videos that are chained together to tell a story. I hadn’t really payed much attention to these “stories” until just before the end of the year and then the end of the year came and I wish I hadn’t started in the first place.

You see, the stories have turned into a place for people to dump all their stupid photos. Instead of just spamming their account with endless photos that people wouldn’t normally see, now they post them all in stories and force everyone to look at them (or at the very least, tap through them). One person I follow posted (guess-timating) 70 photos to sum up their year. I don’t need that kind of crap. I don’t have that kind of time. I don’t have that much interest.

What’s worse, is businesses are using to sell their freaking products and I am just as stuck watching the commercial on this platform as I am on tv, only here I can at least “fast-forward” to some degree. Ugh, I don’t like it.

Social media was supposed to be a WINDOW into your life (no matter how fake it was), not your whole life! Oh, and commercial free too! Let’s get a grip here. If you are going to use “stories”, let’s keep it to one or two, three max. Don’t overwhelm people with your life.

I mean, really, we don’t care that much.

The evil that lurks inside

Posted on January 28, 2019 by backuphill

Photo by Rene Asmussen on Pexels.com

There is evil in the house.

It resides in a place you never thought to look, yet it rears it’s ugly head at the most inopportune time and it strikes fear in all who encounter it. It most often shows itself in red, digital form but has been known by other identifications as well. It squawks. Sometimes it plays music at unimaginable volumes of incoherence.

The evil of which I speak?

The Saturday morning alarm clock.

Why is it that the man-child in the house can’t figure out his damn alarm clock but can figure out how to subvert Netflix security?

The alarm clock has a week day setting so it only goes off on school days, but NO he has it set for every day of the week. So, Saturday morning rolls around and the 6:00am squawking of a high pitched chirp can be heard throughout the house. There is no escaping it and there is no ignoring it, unless you are he who sleeps right next to it.

I swear if I have to stumble out of bed, half asleep, through a dark house to unplug (yes, I didn’t even bother with switches and nobs) the thing, again, I am going to blow a gasket. I mean like really.

Wait, maybe I’ll self impose the dog house. There are no alarms in there…

I’ll stalk you for power

Posted on January 25, 2019 by backuphill

Photo by Rahul on Pexels.com

That’s right, I’m watching. All the time.

I am just waiting for you to make a move. A move out of the room you are in to another room. I am waiting for you to fail at something you have been instructed hundreds of times, at varying volume levels, to do and yet still forget to do.

Again, I am one of those dads…

If you leave the room and leave the light on, you better dang well know I will be right there within minutes to make sure you know you left the light on. TURN OFF THE LIGHT!

I am not Tom Bodett, and I will NOT be leaving the light on for you (in case you didn’t get that reference).

Why is it so hard to remember? Why can’t you turn off the light when you leave the room and turn it back on when you come back in? Why do I have to be the power police?

Perhaps I will install motion detecting light fixtures and remove all the light switches…Oh, then that might actually have to make the teens get up and move once in a while. I might be on to something here…

Anyway, can we just do one thing today? Turn off the lights.

Who else has to deal with this, every. single. day.?

Slow fast food

Posted on January 24, 2019 by backuphill

Photo by Mikechie Esparagoza on Pexels.com

I know we have gotten rather spoiled these days in society and the modern comforts we often take for granted only seem to make us appreciate less and less. There is no lack of gratefulness these days.

BUT, I gotta tell ya, there is nothing more frustrating than slow “fast” food.

Time is short. You have a schedule to keep. You’re a mover and a shaker and you gotta get stuff done. People to see, places to be.

So you stop at a “fast” food restaurant thinking you can get in and out in less the 7 minutes and you can still maintain your fast paced agenda.

Screeching halt. 13 minutes later. 22 minutes later. Doesn’t matter how long really, as long as it isn’t “fast” it gets frustrating fast. You can feel your anxiety rising and you start “chomping at the bit”.

As an example just this morning even, I was running a little behind and there was no coffee ready at home. I stopped at a place where the golden arches beckon (don’t judge the coffee, it is passable) in hopes that I could get in and out quickly. Seven minutes from ordering, I am still waiting…for coffee. This, waiting at a place where the literally push a button after the put the cup under the spigot because the coffee is made in one of those dispenser things. That is not fast.

So, fast food. Not.

Anyone else frustrated in/with places like this?

Get the flush out

Posted on January 23, 2019 by backuphill

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Pexels.com

This probably falls into the TMI category, but it is no less irritating either way.

Have you ever walked into a public bathroom to use the facilities, open the stall door, and find that the crapper has already been crapped in but the final flush failed (whether they didn’t do it themselves or it plugged) to get done? So you end up turning up your nose, maybe curse under your breath a little, and then move on to the next stall? Yeah, me too.

Now, get this. While that previous scenario is frustrating, what’s worse is to find a toilet in your own home in a similar condition…open the lid to sit down and SURPRISE! Now you have to risk flushing and hope that the swirling water stays in the bowl and doesn’t end up on the floor making an even more inconvenient event.

I tell you, I am pretty sure teens have brain damage.

Perhaps we should do like some suggest with animals that pee or poop in the house, rub their face in it. Maybe it we rubbed the teen’s face in it they would get the picture? Yeah, you’re right. The brain damage is too significant. They likely wouldn’t get the picture.

Here goes nothing…

#SMH