The little things that piss you off

[Swykk]

I wish I had better words for you @Jinsai but you're right, that is seemingly the reality of things.

What does having intelligence mean in Trump's nation? It means horror. But I can't fathom sticking my head in the sand either.

[allegro]

I got a FRACTION of the number of Christmas cards I normally receive each year. Many people in my neighborhood who usually go all-out with Christmas decorations outside have dark houses this year. It's like a dark cloud is hovering. People don't feel hopeful. I want to bake everybody some cookies. Really, we have been through many dark times, before. I was alive (although VERY young) when our President was murdered, then RFK, then MLK. We will get through this. Don't give up hope.

See what Michelle Obama told Oprah about hope, here.

@Jinsai , solipsism is highly overrated. Hang in there. Look outward and maybe think outside-the-box for some real changes in 2017.

[allegate]

god I have been so fucked with lately... and things have not been well for me. From almost dying and winding up in a hospital, watching someone on a gurney next to me die and watch the light fade out of his eyes, sitting there crying, hysterically being taken way restrained in an ambulance trying to scratch an itch on my fucking face that won't go away... to being left outside in the cold strapped to a gurney in the freezing cold only wearing my boxers and a paper thin hospital gurney for what felt like forever.... to curling up in a corner and just asking for a blanket to cover myself and be left alone, to come back into the hell that sent me there...to have some savvy shrewd desperate people rile up my hopes that my life might take a dramatic turn for the better, to just run into the same disappointing illusion.

I feel like I have hit the realization that my desperate appeals to my abilities and intelligence are grossly overstated in order to just keep justifying one foot marching in front of the other. I don't want to live a solipsistic and meaningless life, and it hurts a bit to consider that I am going to regardless.

What do you mean here? Because I've been going off on something like this for a month now and I been wondering if it was my "mid-life crisis" or something. Looking at my life and wondering, as I approach 40, if I could/should have done something different with it. I have options ahead of me but which one will serve me and - more importantly - my family better?

And the big one: Why bother? There are few people who care about me enough to notice if I'm gone and nothing I do matters to anyone other than my bosses and I don't bring anything to the table that someone else couldn't. Which sound darker than it is - I'm not going anywhere - but it is something that is hard to think about.

I got a FRACTION of the number of Christmas cards I normally receive each year. Many people in my neighborhood who usually go all-out with Christmas decorations outside have dark houses this year. It's like a dark cloud is hovering. People don't feel hopeful. I want to bake everybody some cookies. Really, we have been through many dark times, before. I was alive (although VERY young) when our President was murdered, then RFK, then MLK. We will get through this. Don't give up hope.

@Jinsai , solipsism is highly overrated. Hang in there. Look outward and maybe think outside-the-box for some real changes in 2017.

I run the charity drive here at work and we're not even hitting 5% of what we did last year. It took three tries to get more than one other volunteer helper and even then none of the helpers have, well, helped. It's hard to run something like this by yourself and maybe part of that's why it's not raising a lot of money?

[Jinsai]

yeah... I mean, if I could choose to just cancel Christmas this year, I would totally say "fuck it" and be the Grinch.

[Alex of scotland]

Actual Christmas shopping. Fuck you. Fuck you in the ass with broken bottles.

[playwithfire]

nevermind

[tony.parente]

Buying new release music off NIN.com

I wish there was a third party option so I know there wouldn't be any issues listening on release day without jumping through 1000 hoops. I don't know how they manage to fuck up LITERALLY every single release since ghosts for me. Every.single.one I've had to pirate to listen to it on release day sans the slip, and that one I spend 2 weeks emailing them trying to get them to actually mail the physical copy.

Every release.

Every single time.

Why is it so 100% consistently difficult?

I spend $120 on 2 releases and have to get my music illegally because they fuck up EVERY. TIME.

[Alex of scotland]

Buying new release music off NIN.com

I wish there was a third party option so I know there wouldn't be any issues listening on release day without jumping through 1000 hoops. I don't know how they manage to fuck up LITERALLY every single release since ghosts for me. Every.single.one I've had to pirate to listen to it on release day sans the slip, and that one I spend 2 weeks emailing them trying to get them to actually mail the physical copy.

Every release.

Every single time.

Why is it so 100% consistently difficult?

I spend $120 on 2 releases and have to get my music illegally because they fuck up EVERY. TIME.

Do you remember when the Spiral changed ownership, and someone from the Shania Twain fan club posted to warn everyone how shit it would become?......... Just me?

I know it doesn't really compare , but still. Its a memory.

[allegro]

Do you remember when the Spiral changed ownership, and someone from the Shania Twain fan club posted to warn everyone how shit it would become?......... Just me?

I know it doesn't really compare , but still. Its a memory.

HAHAHAHA YEAH I REMEMBER THAT!!!!

And then some people bitched and then you-know-who came in here and said fuck you, I'll give you your money back!

I get mine through iTunes, no fuss, no muss, took me a half-a-second, BAM, music was on my computer and it cost, like, $5.99.

[Alex of scotland]

Yeah, I was never a member. But I didn't see rehearsals once because of it.... Then the infamous ETS shirt signing happened. He couldn't resist.

[Jinsai]

God bless you (see what I did there?)

I love my brothers, but one has gone full tilt political on Facebook. I'd love to unfollow him, but I think he's notice.

He could only know that you sadly unfollowed him if he logged into your account and looked at his profiled...

Lately I'm just getting direct - I don't need that shit in my life. I used to have a "I don't block anyone, I'll hear you out" attitude, but after I got into a row with a Trump supporter who refused to even clarify what the fuck it was he was even talking about anymore, and instead wanted me to wade through his barrage of posts to find his "point" I just said "fuck it." Everything is better without some people chattering away mindlessly.

But really... everyone who posts those "I DARE you to say Merry Christmas" gets a super bright and merry "Happy Winter Solstice, and let us not forget the true meaning of it all and remember to hail Satan during this festive time" greeting.

On topic: My family is BLASTING the Xmas music this year... and it's making me realize how much I just HATE so much of this music.

Fuck Jingle Bells. Nobody should ever be this happy. Ever.

Fuck On the Whatever Day of Christmas My True Love FUCKING blah blah blah. Why do people give such a heraldic fuck about five gold rings?

Fuck Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The song always sounded like strange pro-nazi code language for some reason. Rudolf, rhymes with Adolf? Reindeer is suspiciously close to Reichdeer, and just because my computer says that isn't really a word doesn't mean I need to believe it.

Also, Santa Baby has the most transparently euphemistic lyrics to the point where it gets really uncomfortable... "Santa baaaaaaaby, hurry up and come down my chimney tonight?"

Also, "Baby it's Cold Outside" is basically the festive rapey holiday version of Blurred Lines.

I need to watch or listen to some antidote to this stuff like Gremlins or Silent Night, Deadly Night pt 2

[playwithfire]

Yeah, maybe it was working retail or something, I don't know, but I'm generally not a huge fan of Christmas. Yule makes me happy. Christmas... eh. I don't know if working in retail for 4 years (Starbucks, SO MUCH CHRISTMAS) burnt me out or what, but I really don't get into it. If it was like... allowed to be special and we didn't get oversaturated to all hell and back with it, maybe, but it just doesn't feel like something I connect with. I wonder if I'll ever come back around to it.

I remember this dude I saw in college hated Christmas music and college me was like "Who hates Christmas music?" and here I am, here we are.

[eversonpoe]

normally my OCD (yes, actual OCD) requires me to read every single new post in every thread in which i've posted/regularly visit on this board, but with how much people have been posting in the last few days and not making it on here between wednesday morning and friday morning, i had to skip a bunch of stuff and it almost gave me a panic attack. i could literally feel my chest clenching and my heart speeding up abnormally when i hit the "last" button, and then i almost threw up, which would have been really bad right before the day i had at work yesterday. i seem to be handling it ok but i also keep being tempted to go back and read every single post i missed. i just literally don't have the time.

[marodi]

My poor Delphine has an aural hematoma in her right ear and the earliest I can go to the vet is Wednesday.

[kel]

"buffalo plaid".

i was supposed to get married tonight.

[Pillfred]

I need to watch or listen to some antidote to this stuff like Gremlins or Silent Night, Deadly Night pt 2

Die Hard, Yippie Ki-Yay mothefucker.

[Jinsai]

I'm making things festive today. I just needed an avenue to vent for a moment there. I just want a stress free, peaceful pleasant day with my family and I hope my little nephew is happy.

[sick among the pure]

I got a remote shutter release for my camera today... only to find out it's compatible with the Canon D60, not the 60D. So I have to buy an adaptor cable and wait for that to show up.
Just a little thing that pissed me off, because I was so excited to use it and get some nice long exposure shots.

[perch]

Just found out all ETS-related emails have been going into Spam folder and there I was moaning about password reset system being broken. Ugh!
I take it back.

[Substance242]

Regarding this fucking year, two versions of the same from The Oatmeal:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BOYvEACD...-by=theoatmeal
https://www.instagram.com/p/BOdAnFsj...-by=theoatmeal
and one a bit older: https://www.instagram.com/p/BGlAWt8I...-by=theoatmeal

[Sarah K]

People complaining about spending time with their families during the holidays.

Being alone on holidays is fucking torture.

[Khrz]

People complaining about spending time with their families during the holidays.

Being alone on holidays is fucking torture.

I don't know... I've spent years alone on the holidays, my family was too far away for me to make the trip and my GF used to see her own family... It was okay, pizza and vodka, video games and horror movies. I was aware that the whole world was doing its thing, but well, I was doing mine.

On the other hand I've never been big on these sorts of things. I enjoy them, but I don't miss them. Birthdays have always felt like a bit of a burden in fact, showing up and showing off, "here I am, still alive, in an increasingly surprising manner as years go by". At least christmas has this communal thing going for it.

I'm kinda glad christmas and new year's eve are happening on week ends, it flattens them somehow, and I get to go back at work right after that.

Granted, family gatherings have a glum aftertaste these days, my opinion on the subject is probably worth shit.

So, yeah, sorry you feel that way Sarah, hopefully next year will deliver !

[eversonpoe]

I don't know... I've spent years alone on the holidays, my family was too far away for me to make the trip and my GF used to see her own family... It was okay, pizza and vodka, video games and horror movies. I was aware that the whole world was doing its thing, but well, I was doing mine.

On the other hand I've never been big on these sorts of things. I enjoy them, but I don't miss them. Birthdays have always felt like a bit of a burden in fact, showing up and showing off, "here I am, still alive, in an increasingly surprising manner as years go by". At least christmas has this communal thing going for it.

I'm kinda glad christmas and new year's eve are happening on week ends, it flattens them somehow, and I get to go back at work right after that.

Granted, family gatherings have a glum aftertaste these days, my opinion on the subject is probably worth shit.

So, yeah, sorry you feel that way Sarah, hopefully next year will deliver !

i think the other difference is that some people enjoy solitude. i, personally, do not. i don't enjoy being alone, i don't do well on my own, and i particularly don't like being by myself during a time that's normally associated with spending time with loved ones. so it's all a matter of perspective.

since my wife and i got married in 2014, we've done our christmas on the 24th, then we go to her parents' in the morning on the 25th, and my parents in the evening. it works out well. but the three years before that, she would go stay at her parents' for the (23rd, two of the years &) 24th, and i would be absolutely miserable trying to be ok by myself. i've just never done well on my own (only child, i've spent more than enough time alone in my life) and when i'm that close to a person, i don't enjoy being away from them unless i'm with other people i love almost as much.

i understand that your family gatherings have a bittersweet taste, and for that i'm sorry. i hope you had a nice weekend on your own <3

[Sarah K]

I've been able to make it back the last couple of years.

However, this year, I am taking a winter session class. And unlike fall and spring classes, the winter class cannot be put on a payment plan. The full tuition had to be paid upfront. So, my going home money had to become tuition money about a month ago.

I am definitely a person who likes alone time. Like, A LOT. It's always been a problem when I've been in relationships. But I enjoy spending time with people around holidays. And for the last couple of holidays, I've just joined my "it's complicated" at his family stuff. We exchanged gifts and hung out Friday night, I spent the night... And then as I was heading home on Saturday, it just hit me that I was going to be completely alone on Christmas. That couple with me getting sick meant just laying around in bed the last couple of days being sad. It was rough.

[elevenism]

I have tried to let go of anything that is temporal.
There were a LOT of holidays when i was alone in my 20s and i just decided i was going to stop caring. And it helps.

But i am very sorry for those of you who are feeling such pain.

[playwithfire]

I remember the first time I spent Christmas alone. I went to see The Hobbit in Long Island with my friend Mike. My ex (then boyfriend) hadn't picked up on the very gentle hints I'd dropped to like, maybe invite me to his stuff, so he was celebrating with family and friends. I was good, until I was walking home post movie and I started crying.

Christmas has lost a lot of meaning to me over the years, I spent it alone last year and was fine, but there really can be something uniquely shitty about spending holidays alone.

[Dra508]

I spent one Christmas completely alone and as much as there are shitty family time that you want to get away from all the idiots, when you are actually totally alone - it's pretty quiet and well lonely.

My BF's family has been very very welcoming now that my family is 1000 miles away and I didn't try to get together with them. Even his 93 year old grandmom gave me a sweet gift.

[Rubeninphoenix]

When the boss spends ALL. FUCKING. DAY. hovering over me. It's one of those situations where you feel a bit anxious because the only thing I can think of is, "Do you not trust me to do the tasks assigned to me? I know what I'm supposed to do and will get them done".

[Khrz]

i understand that your family gatherings have a bittersweet taste, and for that i'm sorry. i hope you had a nice weekend on your own <3

I didn't mean to make it about that, just to put my input in perspective, but thanks. Paradoxically, more than ever I understand the importance of family, so even though those gatherings can prove difficult at times, they've never been more crucial.

I actually spent the week end with my parents, and will pass new year's eve with my brother and his friends. Again, if I were to listen to myself I'd just shut everything off and spend this time alone, but I'll latch on any moment with my brother, no matter the circumstances.

[tony.parente]

Going to the gym tomorrow and having to deal with all the damned resolutioners everywhere.