Random Rants OA - I Have 71 Problems, But This Thread Ain't One

Indeed, normally one would except the reference to be about the US, but 1917 seems out of context; the usual 1776 is glaringly absent ^^
Is 1917 about irish independence struggle?
Besides, in the Uk people can use acid as a defensive weapon

 

It's mostly a US thing, as far as I can tell. Even those Europeans who do entertain fantasies of Red October-ing their way to power don't imagine that they're going to do so with privately-owned firearms.

 

Ok I guess I was just confused by the 1917 reference. I know there was a lot of turmoil at that time but I didn't know there were people who referenced it as a bellweather moment in the states.

 

Well, I am fairly certsin 1917 is a direct reference to the Russian Revolution, not any internal event in either the US or UK.

 

As it turns out, some Sims don't breed well.

Spoiler :

 

This stupid weather. Minnesota got dumped on with snow this weekend which isn't that bad, but the temperatures have surged into the high 30/low 40s so it is all starting to melt. Since all the drains are clogged with non-melting snow and ice blocks from previous melt/freezes, the water just pools on the sidewalks creating massive puddles. The sidewalks are all covered in dampness and slush so every night it is cold enough to freeze so it is very slippery in the morning which is not fun when you are taking large steps and slightly hopping from side to side to avoid the massive puddles.

Oh, and I had to get my roommate to help unstuck my car because the wheels were resting on super slick snow/ice melt they couldn't get any traction on.

And as a minor annoyance my car will be in the shops for the next two weeks getting body work done.

 

I dread the winter months here because my landlord doesn't accept "I can't" as an answer for requested physical labour. They own a sports car and the alleyway is covered in potholes, so when it gets icy the car basically becomes useless. Without fail, every year, they get stuck twice during the winter and need to get pushed out of a hole. Last time they managed to get stuck enough that we needed five different people to get it out.

You'd think that would be incentive for them to get winter tires, but no.

 

They own a sports car and park it next to the alley? Is this a paved alley or a gravel alley? If the latter, I guess your municipality is a bit lax on the grading... but even so, the potholes should be fixed.

Mind you, there are so many potholes in the front parking lot here, it's unsafe for disabled people to even go from the front door to the nearest sidewalk.

Does you landlord ever reciprocate any favors you do with this car-pushing stuff?

 

They don't evict me.

It's a paved alley. Most people have alley garages here.

 

They can't evict you for not helping to push a car out of a pothole.

That said, it doesn't hurt to do the occasional favor. Last summer I allowed one of the security staff here to use my parking stall one evening during a wind/hailstorm (it's in one of the covered sections; staff parking is in the open section).

 

I think one of the security guards at work hates me now. He's new, and since I work with the security guards as part of my job, I like to have a sit down with them just to get a feel for who I'm working with. Nothing formal, since people tend to put up a front and hide who they really are during formal interviews/meetings. I just find time to make what seems to them like small talk.

Anyway, while talking with this new guard I picked up that he's one of those alt-right types. Said some pretty weird things too that makes me want to keep an eye on him and I recommended he be put in one of the unarmed positions (we have both armed and unarmed security). While talking with my boss about him, I made a joke saying this guard has "active shooter" written all over him if he were ever fired. Well, I think he overheard me say that since I found he was nearby when I said it and he gives me this weird look now whenever I walk past him.

So I guess if he does go all "active shooter" on us, I'm going to be a prime target now.

 

I mean, you're welcome to call me a liar. The belief of strangers on the internet doesn't really impact me IRL. There is a reason why housing in Vancouver was the focus of the provincial election and continues to be a daily issue with multiple stories every day for several years at this point, and it's not because of yuppies. It is a landlord's market where most landlords are homeowners who built their house into suites because there would have been no way to afford living in the city otherwise. As a result, that makes it so that A) if you say 'no' to a landlord, you should be prepared to leave, and B) landlords possess the control in any social dynamic.

Can I say 'no' and put my foot down? Absolutely. No one can force me to do anything. Can I say 'no' and expect no retribution? Nope. These are landlords that walk into my unit whenever they please and use my space as personal storage and have threatened eviction in the past if I didn't comply with what is ordinarily an illegal request. You'd be right that this isn't acceptable, that I should say 'no', that I should go somewhere else, but the reality of the situation is that I can't do that, so placating unreasonable people is my best path to staying where I am. Two or three more years and I can leave this city.

That's why I only complain about it as an add-on to other people's stories instead of clogging up valuable space with constant independent complaints. It's unlikely that anyone 'gets' it since they don't live here or simply haven't been in my position anywhere else, so there isn't much to say.

Anyways, your question is wrong. It's not "do physical labour for me when I demand it and I won't evict you", it's "do what I say when I say, because of the implication".

 

Just reviewed my lecture notes for the Catholic Reformation class I'm taking this quarter as our final will be handed out on Thursday. I have 80 pages-worth (28,000 words). Consolidating them is not going to be fun.

 

I went ahead and looked up the course description:

There will be one question on each of these four topics. (Course descriptions can provide a glimpse into what the professor thinks the class is fundamentally about). Organize your notes accordingly.

And who are you tryin' to kid? You're gonna love reviewing everything you learned this semester.

 

Nobody is calling you a liar. We're expressing befuddlement that your landlords are allowed to get away with this.

None of my landlords have ever demanded my help with physical labor or barged in and used my suite for storing their stuff. There have been other things that happened, which would ordinarily merit reporting them, but as you say, retaliation. There are ways to retaliate, and there aren't many places here that are within my budget, will take cats, and are disabled-accessible. I've been lucky with the last two managers here; I've been in places where they absolutely did not give a damn about safety issues.

In this place, I was able to prod the manager into making the case to his boss that the disabled people in this building cannot and should not be expected to remain at the mercy of helpers just because the ramp was taken away and the curb put in wasn't rounded. I'm sure they realized that they could be sued if someone in a wheelchair fell and ended up in the hospital (which did happen; a friend fell out of her wheelchair; thankfully she didn't break anything so she didn't end up in the hospital), so they changed the walkway in front to make it level with the parking lot. No more curb, and there isn't even any requirement for a ramp. They went beyond what we needed, and there aren't many places here that would do that.

Now if they would fix the damn potholes in the parking lot so we could actually get to the sidewalk... but that's another gripe. Maybe the incoming manager will be amenable to putting in a request for that.

 

He lives in a monarchy, you know.

 

Constitutional monarchy. It's not the fault of either the Queen or the Governor-General, or even the Lieutenant-Governor. At the same time, it's not up to any of these people to threaten to toss Synsensa's landlord in the Tower.

 

You have a head of state who's paid a lot for doing nothing. That's not exactly progressive.