Post your random thoughts/feelings etc

LoyalXenite

Well-known member
I usually love shopping for and making gifts for people, which is why Christmas is one of my favorite holidays, but finding out what to make or get for my sister-in-law's family and other non-gift givers/I-don't-give-a-crap-about-any-of-this drives me nuts. I want to make people happy, especially after this year, but at the same time I don't want to get someone something they're just going to complain about. Ugh. 😒
I feel this way about 2 of my cousins, They young but ALWAYS ungrateful. Literally anything I buy them for birthdays and xmas they complain about right in front of me. Its gotten to the point where I dont buy them birthday presents anymore (I dont tend to see them close to their birthdays anyway coz they only come down this way in school holidays). Literally I always tried to find something in their interests and they always hated it or found something to whinge about. One loves detective books, I bought her the complete sherlock holmes.. she complained that she'd read it already.. next year I got her this obscure-ish first couple books to a teenage girl detective book (she a teenage girl). She turned her nose up at it.... Its gotten to the point where now I just chose something teenage girl-ish and somewhat close to something they may have liked. They gonna hate it anyway so why go to all the effort
 

Phoenixx

Well-known member
I feel this way about 2 of my cousins, They young but ALWAYS ungrateful. Literally anything I buy them for birthdays and xmas they complain about right in front of me. Its gotten to the point where I dont buy them birthday presents anymore (I dont tend to see them close to their birthdays anyway coz they only come down this way in school holidays). Literally I always tried to find something in their interests and they always hated it or found something to whinge about. One loves detective books, I bought her the complete sherlock holmes.. she complained that she'd read it already.. next year I got her this obscure-ish first couple books to a teenage girl detective book (she a teenage girl). She turned her nose up at it.... Its gotten to the point where now I just chose something teenage girl-ish and somewhat close to something they may have liked. They gonna hate it anyway so why go to all the effort
Ugh, that really sucks. How rude of them. 👎 They sound like some pretty ungrateful spoiled kids. Can't blame you for not wanting to give them anything anymore. The problem with my sister in law is the fact that she and her husband would be the ones offended or complaining, not her kids. Their kids are great honestly, and too young yet to be judgey lol. It's unfortunate though that she's already picky about what they play with, then add in her hyper-religious husband and I'm honestly afraid of getting them a gift that would somehow be "feminine" and thus hearing about it through a snide comment from her husband or her telling her mom because that's literally the only person she talks to now. (Ever since my husband and I started dating and his brother got divorced and re-married, she no longer talks to anyone except her parents and somehow no one questions that at all. 😐🤷)

I did figure out gifts for the kids though and it's definitely something they won't complain about. My husband was on the verge of not bothering since they never get anyone else anything or even keep in touch or visit, despite only living 45 mins from us and about 5 - 10 mins from everyone else. But I felt for the little ones and they shouldn't be left out just because their parents are shoved so far up their own arses they can't be bothered to care about anyone else but themselves.
 

Miserum

Well-known member
I feel this way about 2 of my cousins, They young but ALWAYS ungrateful. Literally anything I buy them for birthdays and xmas they complain about right in front of me. Its gotten to the point where I dont buy them birthday presents anymore (I dont tend to see them close to their birthdays anyway coz they only come down this way in school holidays). Literally I always tried to find something in their interests and they always hated it or found something to whinge about. One loves detective books, I bought her the complete sherlock holmes.. she complained that she'd read it already.. next year I got her this obscure-ish first couple books to a teenage girl detective book (she a teenage girl). She turned her nose up at it.... Its gotten to the point where now I just chose something teenage girl-ish and somewhat close to something they may have liked. They gonna hate it anyway so why go to all the effort
Get her a chunk of coal. Maybe she'll enjoy solving that mystery.
 
Last edited:

vj288

not actually Fiona Apple
An open letter to AMC.

*Clears throat*

Dear AMC,

I'd like to begin by expressing my enjoyment of many of your high quality series, particularly those taking place in the Breaking Bad and Walking Dead universes. While I'm sure you have received criticism on their quality, I generally speaking am not of that persuasion, and appreciate the consistent high quality content you provide. I also love being able to watch them the next day through AMC on Demand. Being able to watch at my leisure is a luxury I do not take for granted. I am also not bothered by the inclusion of commercials while watching on demand. I understand it costs money to create such high quality entertainment, and I gladly give you 10 minutes of my time per episode to assure that happens. The option to pay extra to watch without commercials is also appreciated, as more options is always nice to have.

But you have to stop showing me commercials for the shows I am watching.

I can somewhat understand showing commercials for other shows I am not watching. But even then, if you have 2 new episodes on Sunday night, and I decide to watch them Monday morning, I have to watch one before the other. So if I decide to watch Fear the Walking Dead first, I don't want to see commercials for The Walking Dead World Beyond. For one thing, they are spin-offs of the same show so it is very likely that the people who watch one also watch the other. So if I am watching one, and then there is a commercial for the other in which they are burying a body, that sort of spoils the episode.

Episodes of shows which are known for unexpected moments happening. These are not shows where you know what will happen ahead of time. So stop showing ads for shows that have massive viewer overlap, less than 12 hours after it airs.

Perhaps you want to assume I'd watched the other series' episode - which you shouldn't -but maybe you do. There is absolutely no logical reason why you are showing me teasers for next weeks episode for the show I am currently watching! If I am in the middle of watching a show the day after it initially aired, you have very good reason to assume I have not watched it yet. So halfway through when a commercial for next weeks episode comes on spoiling how this episode ends, I am understandably going to be frustrated.

You may want to point to that option to watch commercial free which I mentioned earlier, but why have the on-demand feature if it's not to be used? Unless you are trying to make you product worse in order to push me into spending more for a better product, I see no reason to not stop putting ads that will spoil what I am currently watching.

In closing, get your shit together AMC. Not spoiling things for nerds is marketing 101.

Sincerely, vj.
 

Phoenixx

Well-known member
Actually had a decent dinner with my family yesterday for the holiday. My in-laws didn't put on a dinner this year due to covid, but my mom really wanted one with just us, so we went there instead. I wasn't really looking forward to it honestly, and was in such an agitated mood over it in the morning prior to leaving. Every year it's the same if it's either Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner -- my mother doing everything and winding up in a pissy mood because no one but me helps, my dad ignoring everyone and keeping to himself, and my brother also not doing squat to help, yet will visit and either talk too much about himself, politics or controversial topics, or his own interests that no one else shares. All that and crammed in a small cluttered house. But yesterday went well. My mom had mostly everything done and wasn't stressing out over the possibility of dinner being late, the house was picked up -- not perfect but decent, my dad still ignored everyone for the most part but he actually sat at the table and ate with us and talked to my husband, and my brother didn't bring up politics and kept decent conversation and didn't try to start anything. Overall it was a decent day and the food was actually really good. My mom isn't the best cook, but sometimes she does really well, other times falls short. I brought over a couple dishes to share, but she did most of it. I think she did really awesome yesterday though for having multiple things going at once. 👍

I hung out in the living room for a bit afterwards and noticed my mother hung all the photo collages I made over the past 6 years. Finally. She also hung a photo a cousin of mine took of my brother and I years ago that I absolutely hate. Thought that photo was lost in the abyss of hoarded stuff, kinda hoping it was. But it also made me realize how far I've come from even looking like or being that kind of person I was becoming in my teens. Not saying I was a bad person, but I needed a lot of work and guidance mentally and emotionally. I had no one to help me. I had to put in all the work and do that all by myself. Getting out of that house, keeping my immediate family at arm's length and farther, and cutting complete ties with other extended family that only added to the toxicity will always be some of the best decisions I ever made. Of course I'm still far from perfect, I'll always be working on myself to become a better person, and I'll always struggle with my mental health from time to time I think, but at least I can still work through everything far easier than if I had stayed in one place and kept surrounding myself with toxic people out of fear of being alone. I don't give myself enough credit for any of it, honestly.
 

vj288

not actually Fiona Apple
An open letter to AMC.

*Clears throat*

Dear AMC,

I'd like to begin by expressing my enjoyment of many of your high quality series, particularly those taking place in the Breaking Bad and Walking Dead universes. While I'm sure you have received criticism on their quality, I generally speaking am not of that persuasion, and appreciate the consistent high quality content you provide. I also love being able to watch them the next day through AMC on Demand. Being able to watch at my leisure is a luxury I do not take for granted. I am also not bothered by the inclusion of commercials while watching on demand. I understand it costs money to create such high quality entertainment, and I gladly give you 10 minutes of my time per episode to assure that happens. The option to pay extra to watch without commercials is also appreciated, as more options is always nice to have.

But you have to stop showing me commercials for the shows I am watching.

I can somewhat understand showing commercials for other shows I am not watching. But even then, if you have 2 new episodes on Sunday night, and I decide to watch them Monday morning, I have to watch one before the other. So if I decide to watch Fear the Walking Dead first, I don't want to see commercials for The Walking Dead World Beyond. For one thing, they are spin-offs of the same show so it is very likely that the people who watch one also watch the other. So if I am watching one, and then there is a commercial for the other in which they are burying a body, that sort of spoils the episode.

Episodes of shows which are known for unexpected moments happening. These are not shows where you know what will happen ahead of time. So stop showing ads for shows that have massive viewer overlap, less than 12 hours after it airs.

Perhaps you want to assume I'd watched the other series' episode - which you shouldn't -but maybe you do. There is absolutely no logical reason why you are showing me teasers for next weeks episode for the show I am currently watching! If I am in the middle of watching a show the day after it initially aired, you have very good reason to assume I have not watched it yet. So halfway through when a commercial for next weeks episode comes on spoiling how this episode ends, I am understandably going to be frustrated.

You may want to point to that option to watch commercial free which I mentioned earlier, but why have the on-demand feature if it's not to be used? Unless you are trying to make you product worse in order to push me into spending more for a better product, I see no reason to not stop putting ads that will spoil what I am currently watching.

In closing, get your shit together AMC. Not spoiling things for nerds is marketing 101.

Sincerely, vj.

I should have reserved my annoying long open letter for the association responsible for picking Grammy nominations. How in the world is Blinding Lights by The Weekend nominated for nothing.
 

Phoenixx

Well-known member
I should have reserved my annoying long open letter for the association responsible for picking Grammy nominations. How in the world is Blinding Lights by The Weekend nominated for nothing.
I'm normally not one to pay attention to Grammy nominations because I really could care less about a lot of Top 40 mainstream artists, but I was very surprised by that snub. That song is so freaking catchy, I always find myself blasting it in my car whenever I hear it on the radio. 😌 I actually like a lot of his music. 👍

Side note, The Naked and Famous did an amazing cover of Blinding Lights as well. Ugh.... So good. Of course they would never be nominated either. 😏
 

Graeme1988

Hie yer hence from me heath!
Just because Iron Maiden is one of my favourite bands of all time. That doesn't mean that I want their official calendar every fuckin' year! :mad: Ah do like other bands besides Maiden, y'know?
 

Phoenixx

Well-known member
It's getting to the point where I never want to own another dog ever again unless I'm home 100% and have all the money in the world to take them to classes and daycare. ☹️ I hate saying that because I really do love dogs. (Not as much as cats, but still) I feel like a horrible dog owner all the time anymore because me and hubs are struggling caring for a senior dog separate from a rambunctious adolescent dog. Neither one of us can do both. We just can't and neither one is safe here with the other.

I feel horrible too because I feel like maybe I made a mistake getting a GSD last year...? I took countless quizzes of which dog breed would be best for my lifestyle (GSD was always one of the top ones), did all sorts of reading on GSDs, and I thought I was ready. I have worked so hard training her to be good with kids and other animals and keep her playful. But I'm still no longer able to cohabit with our other dog. I'm so scared of this aggressive streak she has now towards her that I'm afraid it's going to be towards people and other dogs next. ☹️ I actually have a dog behaviorist near me that I'm thinking of contacting but I'm not sure if they can help since 1) It's a guy and she's guarded with random men -- still haven't figured out what sets her off with certain guys, like I said it's seemingly random but has to be something, and 2) no idea if they're able to do anything with covid still. 🤷‍♀️ I'm just really upset with everything atm. 😫
 

vj288

not actually Fiona Apple
I went to put my snow tires on and there was a four hour wait, so I may an appointment instead. Thus begins my yearly period of obligations. After Thanksgiving, I put my snow tires on, and then get my inspection sticker for my car. I also usually get an oil change, and this year I'm likely bring it in to a mechanic to have the brake pads replaced and a creaking noise checked out. Then at the end of the month, my car insurance is due.

Amongst all this I also have Christmas upcoming, meaning I need presents for five people, as well as coordinating Christmas plans with everyone. Then when the holidays are over, it's time to take care of my taxes, and prepare for the 9 holidays/birthdays that occur over the next 5 months or so.

Then it's after Father's day, and I have no set-in-stone obligations until Thanksgiving again. On the one hand I find Winter stressful, but on the other it forces me to function as a human being which makes me more productive, capable, and down-to-earth in general.
 

FountainandFairfax

in a VAN down by the RIVER
People have always complimented me on my complexion, and I do think I still look kinda young for my age. But man, I was watching clips from Hot Ones and I saw the one with Billie Eilish and it just made me realize how good your skin really looks when you're 20.


She friggin' glows.
 
Top