what? You lost your job??

oh, I am so sorry classic. I really am.

gawd how shitty.

thanks. Still fucking sucks. With everything else that's going on right now, adding unemployment to the issue is REALLY pushing me closer to the edge.
Anon, I guess my point was that at least working made me feel productive in some ways. Like I was contributing. Right now ... not so much.
Yeh, we are all just insignificant like a number in some ways, BUT that is YOUR number and you do the best you can with it. Those important to you will remember and respect you for your accomplishments even though sometimes we cannot see that.

If its a life change you are looking for, get started and look at your current situation as temporary. Maybe that'll help. Again, sorry.

Anon, three or four people here have said, basically, see if there is one little thing you can change to give yourself something to look forward to. If you find it difficult or impossible to get the energy together to do that then you may well be clinically depressed and a trip to your doctor would be just the thing. If you feel "meh, why bother" about that suggestion then you should definitely go.
I know this sounds flippant, but all of us (so far) that have chipped in with comments on your plight have our own experience to draw on. We really have been there .... And we care about you.

Life can be a real shitter sometimes anon. I don't have any better advice than what's been said already.

I really hope you can turn things around for yourself. Sometimes it really is as simple as changing your attitude towards some things, but other times you have to make changes externally. I guess only you know which it has to be in order for you to get through. Whichever way you go, I'm sure you have friends here who can help you through this time. xx

I burned myself last week. Fucking carelessness on my part, was cooking and splashed some hot oil out of the pan, onto my hand and onto my bare foot. fucking ouch. First pair was the night of the crime (friday), second pair is rfn. My hand's feeling ok. The thin skin over the burn was chafed off by my gloves during the hike. My foot came through the hike fine, but I recently lost the skin over that burn too. It hurts and my foot's swelling. I just want it to dry out and skin over, but that's not happening very fast. Upsetting and painful.

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Yuck V. Just yuck.

You need to get something to dry that out with, and be really careful it doesn't get infected. That's the biggest problem with burns like that.

Hope it gets better soon though. It looks really painful.

Yes, particularly on the foot where Pseudomonas infections (green ooze, awful smelly, ugh !) can get started and can be hard to treat.

Dude, a couple of those are serious burns. You need them treated.

charming.

holy jesus foot, stigmata boy.

nurse!

bandage this, Stat!

consider that goatsed.

Uday no longer has his poker game on Friday night. :(

Also, this coffee is shit. Is like cafeteria lady put through goat first.

*snort* Sorry your coffee tastes crap, but love the description.

Uday is being kind.

America put men on the moon, gave us the internet, and invent poker...But your friend can not find a good cup of coffee if you are putting a gun to his head.

It helps to have something to look forward to...until it gets there. and then what? you need SOMETHING ELSE to look forward to. It NEVER ENDS.

Find your peace now. don't look for salvation in the Future. I hope you can find your way to peace within your present self. That's where you can be happy.

I know I harp on that a lot, but it really helped me, and I want others to get that same kind of help.

Read The Power of Now. Or go Buddhist. Your Life is different than your Situation. It's not you... there's nothing to quit.

Big V ... OOOOUUUCCCHHH!

You really should get that treated by proper medics. On the other hand ( ;) ), the worst place for getting MRSA infections is ... in hospitals and other health care facilities.

Hmmm.

V get that looked after NOW !!!!!!!

apparently we're sry about ur fut.

Remember crazynurse? ........

What she said !!!

Mum is grieving.
Normal grieving I could handle.
Mum's style of grieving however is a little tricky. It includes calling Dad a stupid idiot, a deaf old bastard and basically screaming at him about everything.

He just brought the wrong packet of crisps into the living room for her and she accused him of dementia, not listening to her and not giving a shit about anything that she wanted.

She's just asked me to come off the computer. Which I will of course.
I suspect it's to complain about her evil husband to her friends.

Poor Dad.
Poor Mum as well, losing her Father.
And poor me, having to hear mine verbally attacked.

It's a genetic thing I think.

sorry to hear this SG
Tell her to take a chill pill have a drink and a nap

Tcha, last time I tried that approach I was shouted out of the house.
I didn't live here then, and had a car.

Hypo dart gun ????

Sorry chick. This too will pass.

Wrong. The best place to get MRSA is in hospitals.

What kind of Doctor are you anyway?

You can't put too much water in a nuclear reactor.

I bet the Japs may disagree with you on that one...

I think I must be cursed or something. My friend Jim and I and another friend were making a cozy little T-Day dinner for 3 when Jim's phone rang. It was the Bates Motel - Nooooooooooooooo. But yes. I don't even know how they tracked me down, but they did. Carmen was really, really, really sick and needed me to come in so she could go to the hospital. Well, what could I do? I knew that Carmen must be feeling really bad if she had her husband call and ask me to come in Thanksgiving. Carmen never complains about her health. She's a trooper.

I, however, am not a trooper. I got called away before the food was finished cooking, so I never got a chance to eat - anything. I've been here since 3pm and have to stay until 10:00pm and I'm starving. I just rented a room to a Navajo lady in exchange for a necklace. This place does not exactly get over run with guests on Thanksgiving, so what the hey?

And I'll probably work here again tomorrow from 8am to 10pm. I'll NEVER get a chance to eat even a bite of that turkey that I just so happened to pay for.

Wah, wah, wah. Poor me. :mecry:

You want me to send you a turkey wing? I can drop it in overnight express in the AM. Hate for you to be so tortured.... :)

Well If I was one of the other two, I'd've brought your meal over..... maybe even brought the whole party over....

We had decided to just put everything on hold and eat a late Thanksgiving tomorrow, but now that poor Carmen is going to be in the hospital for a while, we can't even do that.

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate the Bates?

it's Bates' fault Carmen is in the hospital?

The Bates' Hotel does have a reputation.

Probably. Carmen's illness has no doubt been fueled by the stress of having to deal with the impossible owner of the Bates.

But the reasons tonight that I REALLY hate the Bates and, by extension, its owner are:

Carmen should have been allowed to shut the place down until tomorrow. One little Navajo Lady trading a necklace for a room isn't going to make or break the Bates.

As usual, there will be no holiday pay or overtime pay. Its hard to feel very sunny about this place when I'm looking at working for just straight minimum wage.

It happens Sam,
When i was stationed in Iceland , the Gnny Sgt who was in charge of the club and the First Sgt got us 3 whole hogs to cook for the barracks Birthday,
we dug a Big pit ,
put up a tent ,
fired up a Big ass fire,
Preped the hogs , we had designatd trained Marine cooks ,
Oh we ALLL were haveing a Hell of a time ,
Dudes Grabben the hogs heads , Humpen them < Laughing , LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTS Of Booze flowing ,
about 10 or 11 ish the Cooks started falling out ( Wussys !!)
by 12:30 1:00 every body else had passed out or left
the smoke sorta cleared , there was this navy dude accross from me
he looked up and said " Well whats yer choice rum or wiskey ??"
Rum it was for me , he went and got a 1/2 gallon or dark rum for me and he had a 1/2 of jack for him ,
we sat up All nite drinking and tending those hogs , basting them , turning them , tending the fire , BS'ing ,
about 7:30 other folks started showing up ,
i went and flopped in my bed ,
8 am SHARP there was a knock on the door ,
Time to go stand guard , WTF !!!????
i thought the navy folks were doing that for us ,
change of plans , get yer shit in line and be down stairs ASAP !!!!
i got to stand post for like 6 hrs insted of 4
when i got back there was not a SCRAP of Hog left , not even any skin !!!!!!!!!!!:evil3::evil3::mad::mad:
I was PISSSSSEDD !!!!!
The First sgt pulled me into his office to see what was up ,
i explained ,

I had NEVER Heard a First Sgt applogise befor ( They DON'T Do that !!!)
Been there , befor

Sorry that you didnt get to eat your TDay dinner :(

Thanks, Zip. Your experience sounds like it was extremely frustrating, as well. If I'd been you, the hogs wouldn't have been the only ones with smoke coming out of their ears! ;)

I havent read the last couple of pages, so I will go back and read and comment...Im just still so fucking angry about finding someone elses dog in my back yard knocking up Lucy and beating up Jackson at 4.30am this morning!!

Im waiting on animal control to approach the owners of said dog (after I chased him out of the yard, I followed him home) and have spoken to the Vet about the "morning after" injection for Luc'....costs will come in at about $400 to fix this little problem and comes with a whole heap of potential side effects.

Seriously....grumpy as!!

Fucking useless owners.

Dux , I had to run a dog off from Our back yard with a gun today
she was sniffing around our smoker
I yelled and she ran off 2-3 times ,
4th time i stepped out the door pistol in hand 1 in the AIR , she ran
then 2-3 to heard her in the right direction and keep her running
No i didn't Shoot the dog

Sundae - so sorry for your families loss.

We went through some terrible narkiness when Dad passed away earlier this year. My brothers and sister dont talk to each other as a rule, I am the only one that got along with all of them, my sister and I are definitely on the outs now and its still a big competition about how gives Mum the most attention.

Filthy - Sorry to hear about Michelle. I think she and I spoke on the phone a couple of times? or at least we spoke through you, I remember her driving you nuts but being a lovely person.

Dux you plan on breeding Lucy? If not how much is a spay? That would be a permanent problem solver. That abort shot for canines is not the way to go...

Zip - this bastard dug under the neighbours yard and then dug into mine. He had the balls to stand up to me but I had a big lump of wood because I heard Jackson carrying on.

Yeah, Nirvana, she is for breeding and thats why we got Jackson - they are both registered for breeding.

Lucy would have already been spayed otherwise and as soon as Jackson's nuts dropped they would be gone as well (Clyde was desexed).

Its why I am so annoyed, I have kept Luc' locked up and have even taken them in the car away from our immediate area to walk them so as not to put her scent out there and we were on the home straight, she's in her week coming off.

I didnt plan to breed her for another 12 months.

Sorry about Lucy's Romeo on the sly, Ducks. But girls just wanna have fun!

I am feeling guilty about being such a selfish brat yesterday. The flight for life had to fly Carmen to the closest real hospital last night - Grand Junction - about 200 miles away.

Her condition has deteriorated and her husband is scared she'll die. His hands were shaking so bad, he couldn't even fix himself coffee last night. I had to start the coffee maker for him. He's taking off for the icy, treacherous drive from here to Grand Junction this morning.

Yesterday, I was just all caught up in myself and being pissed about having to work Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, Carmen could die! :( How selfish and thoughtless am I?

Carmen is the best boss I've ever had and the kindest person you'll ever meet. I'm getting tears in my eyes just typing this. Those doctors up there better get her fixed up.

Ducks - bloody hell. I hope you can get some compensation from the idiots who let their dog run loose. Unless he genuinely escaped from theirs in the same way he got into yours - unfortunately there is only so much you can do with a dog when they smell a bitch.

Sam - crikey don't beat yourself up about it!
You're concerned now you know the situation. Previously of course it was "all about you". You are the only person living your life and empathy is subjective. One of my colleagues was off sick today - she's been poorly all week but my first thought was for myself. I genuinely like her and we have socialised out of school. But it's natural. Away from school I wish her all the best.

Just reminded me, should text her.
Should've done so earlier today really...

Mean people.

Thought you were talking about Sam and me for a second there.
Sorry on behalf of the mean people.
Perhaps they are just pig-ignorant (pignorant).

Of course if you were talking about me you can go fuck yourself with a stapler :p:

Lord no. I just ventured out into the world. Its a jungle out there. Consumer madness. I'm going to take a nap.

Trute, there.

crap Dux :( :knockdup:

Sam don't beat yourself up situations change and so do your feelings about them. Its all going in a forward motion and regret doesn't help you or Carmen. :nadkick: Now you can go on :)

This probably should go in the irritating forum, but I'm here, so it's going here.

Yesterday I went to buy some new preserve jars and paid enough money for them that I really thought it wouldn't be too much to ask for them to seal properly (starting to think maybe the pissed off thread) partly because that's what they're supposed to do anyway, and secondly, because I wanted to use them to put chopped up fruit (peaches, apricots and cherries) in them to soak in vodka and sugar till Christmas. They make a really lovely looking gift and most people enjoy opening them up and having the juices and then eating the fruit with icecream or something.

So anyway, I'm annoyed (hmmm..annoyed thread?) because they're not sealing properly. I'm also annoyed that I give things in preserve jars as gifts quite often to family a friends, and I always ask that the jar is returned (with the seal) when the contents are finished. The only person who does so is my Dad. All the rest of those people don't bother.

Now getting really fired up with my rant...

I like to make stuff to give people at Christmas. It gives me a great sense of satisfaction, and I feel it's more personal than just buying something from the shop, so it annoys me a lot when the jars aren't returned because it means that the gift for next time will cost more because I have to go and buy more.

I think I'm going to tie notes on the jars this year and see if I get a better return rate.

Bloody shitheads!

The end.

The notes will probably help. What's the deal with the jars though, bad seams? We haven't had that problem here yet... Chinese jars?

One lot I bought from a kitchen ware shop and the one that's leaking has a chip out of the lip, so I suspect that's the problem. I'll probably return that one.

The others are ones I bought from a discount store (so probably chinese) just to try them because they only cost $2 compared to the others which were about $6.

http://www.freshpreserving.com/home.aspx

Ball canning jars are about fifty cent to a dollar a piece depending on size. I think one US dollar is equal to about three Australian cents.

I think you should consider the jars as part of the present. Could you not transfer to cheaper jars just before you give them? A present "with strings" loses some of its sparkle. In this case, if you don't use it straight away there's the guilt factor that you might think they don't like it, and they have to remember to wash it and return it, it'll probably sit around on a counter collecting dust and annoying them as they wait for the next time they see you.... It's king of on a par with giving a gift that requires a subscription on the part of the recipient, or one that needs batteries without providing batteries. Or taking a meal to someone who's sick/bereaved in several dishes that must be handwashed with care. Unenvironmentally friendly as it may be, giving edible gifts in "disposable" containers is a better idea imo. :2cents:

If you do continue with the expensive jars and go with the notes, I would word it in a way that stresses the environmental factor: "If you do not plan to re-use me, please return me to Aliantha and help preserve our earth's resources" Twee tough that may sound, it makes it seem more like it's the recipient's choice rather than obligation to return the jar which, imo, makes it more likely that you'll get them back -"Aliantha will appreciate it if I give her this jar" rather than "Oh bollocks, I have to remember to wash the jar and give it back" or "Cheeky cow wanting half of the present back"......

But maybe it's a cultural thing.

The exchange rate is about even at the moment foot, so not as bad as all that. lol

What does the word 'ball' have to do with anything? I don't understand the term. Does it mean a jar where the lid vacuum seals with heat?

It's close family and friends that I give this sort of stuff to. Often, the cost of the jar is higher than the actual cost of the ingredients. It's mainly my brother and his wife that don't return them, and I give them a lot of stuff because they're into the whole food thing and no preservative food etc.

If they were just used jam jars it'd be different, but since we rarely buy jam etc, I usually have to buy jars, and if I have to buy them every time, I might as well just buy jam cause it'd be cheaper.

Anyway, I don't think it's too much to ask for people to return the jars. Especially if they want them refilled next time round.

eta: and I think that's really the issue. If the preserves were a one off it wouldn't matter, but when I might end up giving them 20 jars throughout the year, it gets expensive to replace them.

"Ball" and "Kerr" are each family names of original inventors/companies

Can you go with the transferring to cheaper jars just before giving idea? Or is there no such thing in Aus? Can you buy second hand jars?

If you transfer the contents with preserves, you risk contamination and the contents have to be refrigerated and usually consumed in a short period of time. With proper preserving, the idea is to add the preserve to the jar then put the lid on while it's still close to boiling if not still boiling.

I understand your point, and while it's a good one for non-preserved things like lollies etc, it wouldn't really work for jams and things like that.