Random Rants LXIX: Life is a Dismal Chore

[warpus]

What's not so reasonable about it, from your roommate's point of view? I would ask him how much she will contribute, and then if he says "nothing", go from there.

 

[Traitorfish]

Must be that it is midnight but I dont get it.

She seems to think that Nineteen Eighty-four is about the dangers of populist demagogues, as if Oceania isn't explicitly a technocratic oligarchy.

 

[Synobun]

What's not so reasonable about it, from your roommate's point of view? I would ask him how much she will contribute, and then if he says "nothing", go from there.

The paying part. I mean, I can certainly try to arrange something. I'm not sure it'll matter much. My previous two roommates, also Japanese, balked at the idea of making long-term visitors pay for their stay.

Third time's the charm?

 

[Birdjaguar]

@Vincour: I'm confused. Is the problem: his lying, your new lack of privacy (the guest is a she); utilities will go up, not enough chairs, she is messier than the two of you, she's cute and you want to hit on her, their bedroom now makes noises, three people can't fit into the kitchen, you have to pay for her food, you are feeling taken advantage of, something else?

 

[Synobun]

@Vincour: I'm confused. Is the problem: his lying, your new lack of privacy (the guest is a she); utilities will go up, not enough chairs, she is messier than the two of you, she's cute and you want to hit on her, their bedroom now makes noises, three people can't fit into the kitchen, you have to pay for her food, you are feeling taken advantage of, something else?

The problem I was specifically complaining about? The lying.

But in general I don't like strangers intruding on my living space and taking liberties with my belongings. I've lived with more girls than dudes so the gender isn't the issue.

The apartment's quite small, in typical Vancouver fashion. It would really be better suited for one person instead of two, and especially not three. In my experience once someone's family or SO enters the picture, they take subtle but persistent ownership of the space.

 

[Birdjaguar]

If the is the case then work towards solving that aspect of her visit. If you have your own room, move important thing into it. define times of the day when you need quiet or privacy or something else. Set some small boundaries that will make your life better for the next few weeks. If your name is on the lease, by rights you could and perhaps should say that after, say, 3 weeks, she will have to make some contribution to the rent. 20% pro rated? If she knows that is coming, maybe she will leave or at least get ready to pay.

How hard would it be to find a new roommate should they both leave?

 

[Synobun]

How hard would it be to find a new roommate should they both leave?

Oh, it'd be super easy.

I'm not in charge of that process, though. My landlord is. They've recently adopted a Japanese-only policy for any new tenants and contractors for the house so they tend to only rent out to people via Japanese newsletters. My input in the process is essentially zilch at this point. I get no say over who I live with.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Weird rules for leasing an apartment.

 

[Synobun]

Weird rules for leasing an apartment.

Yes, well, it's Vancouver.

You guys think it's just a saying/cop out, but Vancouver genuinely does live in its own little world when it comes to real estate and housing. Being able to cite the law or make an attempt to enforce it is a financially-supported privilege. The poors or undesirables are at the mercy of the benevolent landlord. There are outright bidding wars between renters at open houses, realty companies that are foreign fronts or only cater to specific ethnicities, rentals that are women-only or certain-ethnic-only... It's all fair game here even if it is illegal. If you are compromised financially or physically (or both!), your ability to set your foot down is significantly impaired if not outright removed.

Housing was one of the biggest issues from the most recent election. They've done things like put a tax on foreign buyers and banning AirBnB (without enforcing it, of course) in inane attempts at curbing the bubble. It's the downside of being one of the most "livable" cities while also being the 3rd most expensive city in the world. I would not be here if it weren't due to medical necessity.

 

[warpus]

The paying part. I mean, I can certainly try to arrange something. I'm not sure it'll matter much. My previous two roommates, also Japanese, balked at the idea of making long-term visitors pay for their stay.

Third time's the charm?

Isn't that the norm? Someone drops in for a couple weeks - they gotta contribute to the household. I wouldn't assume it's a Japanese thing to not "do that"

If someone did that to me I'd really make myself at home, if you know what i mean

 

[Synobun]

Isn't that the norm? Someone drops in for a couple weeks - they gotta contribute to the household. I wouldn't assume it's a Japanese thing to not "do that"

I'll be honest here, I agree with you, and paying is my own personal and natural inclination if I'm going to be staying in someone else's space for more than a day, but I've never once seen anyone else share that thought process IRL. Granted, my experience with that has only been in four different states/provinces, but the idea definitely doesn't seem like a common one in the circles I've frequented or the people I've had to live with.

 

[warpus]

I actually haven't experienced much of that particular scenario, from what I can remember people crashing at places I've lived would only do so a day here, a day there. I don't think it ever happened to me that somebody came for a couple weeks. If that happened it seems that I would always want my other living partners to tell me about it ahead of time and figure out a solution that would work to everyone. I was basing what I was saying on couple scenarios I remember from my college/post-college years where people (who I wasn't living with at the time) had their bf/gfs stay over every single night and at that stage the other roommates stepped in and so on, plus relationship advice type columns

If your local culture-dar is telling you that you should keep quiet, then I would just listen to your own internal sense of what to do in this situation. We're supposed to be ranting though, so screw that

 

[Takhisis]

Well, anyway if they're from Japan and not yet completely westernized, you might pressure them with a bit of context-dependant passive-aggressive behaviour.
Or just yelling a good amount and shaming them.

A talk about how she's expected to contribute would (no, could) be in order.

How many days remain?

 

[Lexicus]

Being able to cite the law or make an attempt to enforce it is a financially-supported privilege. The poors or undesirables are at the mercy of the benevolent landlord.

Trust me when I say that Vancouver is far from unique in this regard.

Must be that it is midnight but I dont get it.

She seems to think that Nineteen Eighty-four is about the dangers of populist demagogues, as if Oceania isn't explicitly a technocratic oligarchy.

Well, in way 1984 is about the dangers of populist demogogues, since IIRC it is implied that the Party originally took power in this fashion. My reading is that in the society depicted by 1984, you really do not want to rely on "leaders, the press", or "experts who seek to guide public policy based on evidence."

I want to add my own commentary to this tweet, and start by pointing out that she is saying that a "core feature" of authoritarianism is that it "attempt to define reality." This is ironic considering that the entire philosophical basis of her politics appears to be that the hoi poloi need to step aside and allow experts to define and interpret "reality" for them - precisely what she claims is a "core feature" of authoritarianism (it's also a "core feature" of every epistemological tendency that doesn't entirely reject the notion of an objective external reality, but we'll leave that aside for now). This is essentially outright stated later in the same paragraph: "the people we need to rely on: [...] experts who seek to guide public policy based on evidence". The problem of course is that, whether we admit it or not, "reality' is contested political terrain, and it's unfortunate that the result of the 2016 election has apparently not taught Clinton this. What makes it funnier is that this is also the message of the bit in 1984 with the torturer and the fingers.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Yeah, I want to pile on Hillary for this dumb reading of 1984 also.

For me, the dumb is most evident not in the reference to experts, but to "leaders." So we're supposed to rely on "leaders"? But out of what position do these "authoritarians" operate that they can impose their view of reality on everybody else but a position of leadership?

So all this ends up meaning is "good leaders (like I would have been)."

The funny thing is, she's not altogether wrong. Trump has made countless, energetic efforts to present some false as reality. But she can't stay focused on that one thing that would let 1984 be illuminating about Trump's behavior; she has to drift over into the technocracy she would have preferred to officiate over.

 

[warpus]

Hillary is so far up her own butt we might as well come up with a new word for that sort of thing

 

[Lexicus]

The funny thing is, she's not altogether wrong. Trump has made countless, energetic efforts to present some false as reality. But she can't stay focused on that one thing that would let 1984 be illuminating about Trump's behavior; she has to drift over into the technocracy she would have preferred to officiate over.

Yeah, that's I guess the funny thing, is that there are any number of ways one might deploy 1984 to attack Trump, what she did just ain't any of 'em.

You know, I've been hating on Hillary hard for her recent public comments and the stuff in this book, but I'm now changing her mind. Let her vent. I don't think it's gonna do any real harm. People keep having this idea that a "divided" left is unable to win elections, but the Republican Party gives that the lie - winning elections is obviously not mutually exclusive with serious (and seriously acrimonious) ideological and personal divides within a party. I think this ties into @Sommerswerd's point that the Dems need an interesting and competitive field in 2020.

...aand we're getting way off-track now, sorry for my part in that.

A random rant I have: the one coworker I have who can't get along with anyone else is coming back from a work-related trip soon and it's so much better when he's out of the office.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Tell him that. Sometimes hearing that everyone was happy without you around can help a person reflect on why that might be...

 

[Lexicus]

Tell him that. Sometimes hearing that everyone was happy without you around can help a person reflect on why that might be...

It's only better for me and one of my coworkers who actually have to deal with him regularly, and I shouldn't have said he can't get along with anyone, because he is perfectly capable of normal human interaction with our bosses...

 

[Synobun]

[...] and I shouldn't have said he can't get along with anyone, because he is perfectly capable of normal human interaction with our bosses...

How strange!