Lesson learned: Having to thumbs-down half a dozen EDM songs a day on Pandora is WAAAAAAY easier than trying to manage a Spotify library. There's no Spotify setting for, "I like what I like so play a well-mixed random set of 80s punk, 2000s pop, and 2000+ international metal, but only with female vocalists. Plus KPDH."
EDIT: And when I watch KPDH, I watch it nekkid.
Speaking of our house:
NobodysHome: When the fur herd leaves Naptopia, let me know so I can track them.
GothBard: OK. Where's Lenore?
NobodysHome: Napping in WhimseyShire.
I assume they know at least that much.
... have you been listening to your own stories about them? :)
Also yes, "its clogged, we have the valve open down here, someone go up there take the cover off and poke it with a broom" is the exact response i expect from management. Nope.. get a submersible pump and drain it if you have to. )(#&*$ the water bill.
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AI really is basically the entire corporate world deciding that I'd be happier with Clippy in every aspect of my life.
Just say, "No."
It looks like you're trying to reject my presence in every aspect of your life.
Would you like help with ensuring that fails?
I assume it's because the fees would be more than the money recuperated. And we only have cameras at the desk, but I'm not sure that they even record. They're mainly so we can see if someone is there while we are doing laundry, and so the manager can "spy" on us from their office. I just wish that they would stop accepting the groups. If the groups are getting refused by all the hotels (or at least the halfway decent ones), then maybe they would learn that there are consequences to their actions. Maybe. Alas, the owners only care about the money, so they keep demanding that we take the groups, because most of them bring in more money than the damages they cause. And who cares about the stress it brings to the employees?I've never understood the failure of hotels to take legal action against such groups. If the youth soccer league was sued for damages, it sounds like they'd be out a few thousand bucks. You have physical evidence of everything. If your hotel has security cameras, it's a slam-dunk case.
I understand that suing youth groups is bad PR, but how much do hotels lose every day having to deal with undisciplined monsters? I've chaperoned many a middle and high school trip, and surprise surprise, if the chaperones are willing to do their f-ing jobs this kind of stuff doesn't happen. Send one or two kids home on their parents' dime for misbehavior (yes, we've done it) and the rest fall in line pretty darned quickly.
You're likely right. It's just frustrating. We put in 18-20 hour days as chaperones making sure our kids behaved. Then we'd see other groups letting their kids run amok. And of course the staff can't tell the groups apart and all the groups get yelled at. We even had one of our chaperones nearly get in a fistfight with a chaperone from another group for "not controlling her little monsters".
My favorite was when one of our girls' rooms asked us, "Why are the other groups so terribly-behaved? Don't their chaperones DO anything?"
No. No, they don't.
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(1) U.S. conservatives are too dedicated to pearl-clutching to ever consider that this entire issue is of their own making. As I like to ask them, "Do you separate your bathrooms by gender at home?"
(2) Men are complete slobs. Whenever one or the other bathroom is closed for whatever reason, if a man has to go into a women's room his inevitable response is, "This place is so nice! Why aren't men's rooms like this?". If a woman has to go into a men's room her inevitable response is, "Um, no thanks. I'll hold it."
Anyway, these musings were brought about because I want to implement cat-specific litterboxes, and I have no idea how to do it. Nefret is happier being brought in at night, but she doesn't like to leave our bedroom. So if there's no litterbox in the bedroom, she uses GothBard's side carpet. GothBard Does Not Approve.
However, if we put a litterbox in the bedroom, Lenore inevitably finds it and says, "Oh, thanks!" Not only does she have craps that are stinky to the point of legend, but her previous owners were so overattentive that she never learned to use a litterbox properly. She craps, scratches the side of the litterbox very loudly and ineffectually for a solid two minutes, the smell doesn't go away, and she gives up and wanders off. Morrigan has taken to following her and covering up her poops for her. But at 2:00 am, you don't want to be awoken to the sound of someone scratching interminably at a litterbox, only to be assailed by an ungodly stench a few seconds later.
So, how do you convince a group of cats, "Oh, this litterbox is for Nefret only?"
I don't think it's possible...
I assume it's because the fees would be more than the money recuperated. And we only have cameras at the desk, but I'm not sure that they even record. They're mainly so we can see if someone is there while we are doing laundry, and so the manager can "spy" on us from their office. I just wish that they would stop accepting the groups. If the groups are getting refused by all the hotels (or at least the halfway decent ones), then maybe they would learn that there are consequences to their actions. Maybe. Alas, the owners only care about the money, so they keep demanding that we take the groups, because most of them bring in more money than the damages they cause. And who cares about the stress it brings to the employees?I've never understood the failure of hotels to take legal action against such groups. If the youth soccer league was sued for damages, it sounds like they'd be out a few thousand bucks. You have physical evidence of everything. If your hotel has security cameras, it's a slam-dunk case.
I understand that suing youth groups is bad PR, but how much do hotels lose every day having to deal with undisciplined monsters? I've chaperoned many a middle and high school trip, and surprise surprise, if the chaperones are willing to do their f-ing jobs this kind of stuff doesn't happen. Send one or two kids home on their parents' dime for misbehavior (yes, we've done it) and the rest fall in line pretty darned quickly.
You're likely right. It's just frustrating. We put in 18-20 hour days as chaperones making sure our kids behaved. Then we'd see other groups letting their kids run amok. And of course the staff can't tell the groups apart and all the groups get yelled at. We even had one of our chaperones nearly get in a fistfight with a chaperone from another group for "not controlling her little monsters".
My favorite was when one of our girls' rooms asked us, "Why are the other groups so terribly-behaved? Don't their...
Its gotta be the tape.
...Its gotta be the tape.
We have literally caught kids from other groups intentionally breaking the tape on our kids' rooms. Tape without common sense leads to tears.
We may tape 30 rooms. There are only 2-3 rooms where we know the tape actually matters.
...Its gotta be the tape.We have literally caught kids from other groups intentionally breaking the tape on our kids' rooms. Tape without common sense leads to tears.
We may tape 30 rooms. There are only 2-3 rooms where we know the tape actually matters.
I have seen people break the tape while cleaning, and people just breaking it just cuz. I still think its an incredibly flawed approach.
I have seen people break the tape while cleaning, and people just breaking it just cuz. I still think its an incredibly flawed approach....Its gotta be the tape.We have literally caught kids from other groups intentionally breaking the tape on our kids' rooms. Tape without common sense leads to tears.
We may tape 30 rooms. There are only 2-3 rooms where we know the tape actually matters.
Fair, but what's the alternative? Letting the kids free roam opens you up to lawsuits. Ankle bracelets would be too expensive, as would hiring night security guards. Having one chaperone stay up all night per floor would be ludicrous. Tape is flawed, but it's workable. I can't think of a more effective solution.
EDIT: I mean, the choir director trusted me so I was the chaperone representative at every parent orientation for those trips. The #1 question was, "How are you going to protect our kids at night?" If we'd said, "We're going to trust the kids," there wouldn't have been a trip. If we'd said, "You're going to pay $40 extra per person to pay for night security guards," there wouldn't have been a trip. Sometimes, the only workable solution isn't a great one.
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Yeah I've been on too many group trips where other kids will damage the tape or whatever other tracking system is put in place by chaperones just for the fun of getting other kids in trouble. My school stopped using it because it just wasn't worth it, and moved to a system of "if you're the kind of kid we would have to put tape up for, you don't get to go on the trip to begin with".
I have a lot of things to say about the s*~*ty state of Texas public education, but in this one field, my hellhole small-town school managed to get the right answer.
Yeah, it's interesting just how negative people's experience with the tape is. I chaperoned for 6 years and we simply didn't have an issue with it. We had maybe half a dozen "broken tape" incidents in those 6 years, and 5 had good explanations, and the sixth the person out-and-out admitted what they'd been up to. So we never had major issues, but then:
(a) As I keep saying, the choir kids were the best groups I've ever worked with, and
(b) all the chaperones were willing to listen to the students' explanations with open ears and an open mind.
I suspect that (b) made all the difference in the world.
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So, because of [redacted for politics], my school is doing a massive dry goods drive for our local food pantry.
The messaging the parents are using to talk to their children when they shop varies.
One of my three-year-olds walked into the classroom with a big sack this morning and hollered, "HEY! I'VE GOT FOOD FOR SAD PEOPLE WHO LOOK REALLY HUNGRY! WHERE DO I PUT IT?"
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So, because of [redacted for politics], my school is doing a massive dry goods drive for our local food pantry.
The messaging the parents are using to talk to their children when they shop varies.
One of my three-year-olds walked into the classroom with a big sack this morning and hollered, "HEY! I'VE GOT FOOD FOR SAD PEOPLE WHO LOOK REALLY HUNGRY! WHERE DO I PUT IT?"
Yeah, it was funny; AFTER I made my donation to the women's shelter I saw an article about how food banks are preparing for a massive influx of donations because the media is (for once) doing a good job of getting the word out that there are going to be a lot of hungry people out there unless we all step up.
EDIT: And I'll openly admit, while I made the donation because it was the right thing to do at the right time, I'll still be interested in whether I get anything in return, even a bare "thank you" email. I'm always surprised at charities when you send them a couple grand and they can't even be bothered to send you a quick, "Oh, thanks!" email. Of course, I was raised in the era of mandatory thank you notes to all your relatives no matter how terrible the present, so perhaps I'm just (even more) old-fashioned.
I have seen people break the tape while cleaning, and people just breaking it just cuz. I still think its an incredibly flawed approach....Its gotta be the tape.We have literally caught kids from other groups intentionally breaking the tape on our kids' rooms. Tape without common sense leads to tears.
We may tape 30 rooms. There are only 2-3 rooms where we know the tape actually matters.
Fair, but what's the alternative? Letting the kids free roam opens you up to lawsuits. Ankle bracelets would be too expensive, as would hiring night security guards. Having one chaperone stay up all night per floor would be ludicrous. Tape is flawed, but it's workable. I can't think of a more effective solution.
EDIT: I mean, the choir director trusted me so I was the chaperone representative at every parent orientation for those trips. The #1 question was, "How are you going to protect our kids at night?" If we'd said, "We're going to trust the kids," there wouldn't have been a trip. If we'd said, "You're going to pay $40 extra per person to pay for night security guards," there wouldn't have been a trip. Sometimes, the only workable solution isn't a great one.
Iirc, when I was in elementary school/scouts, we had one adult per room. But Jesus that was a long time ago.
Fair, but what's the alternative? Letting the kids free roam opens you up to lawsuits. Ankle bracelets would be too expensive, as would hiring night security guards. Having one chaperone stay up all night per floor would be ludicrous. Tape is flawed, but it's workable. I can't think of a more effective solution.Iirc, when I was in elementary school/scouts, we had one adult per room. But Jesus that was a long time ago.
Yeah, um, we have about 180 kids and each room sleeps 6. So you're asking for around 35 adult chaperones for the trip. Ain't gonna happen.
Yeah, um, we have about 180 kids and each room sleeps 6. So you're asking for around 35 adult chaperones for the trip. Ain't gonna happen.Fair, but what's the alternative? Letting the kids free roam opens you up to lawsuits. Ankle bracelets would be too expensive, as would hiring night security guards. Having one chaperone stay up all night per floor would be ludicrous. Tape is flawed, but it's workable. I can't think of a more effective solution.Iirc, when I was in elementary school/scouts, we had one adult per room. But Jesus that was a long time ago.
We had a lot of parents along, if memory serves.
We had a lot of parents along, if memory serves.Yeah, um, we have about 180 kids and each room sleeps 6. So you're asking for around 35 adult chaperones for the trip. Ain't gonna happen.Fair, but what's the alternative? Letting the kids free roam opens you up to lawsuits. Ankle bracelets would be too expensive, as would hiring night security guards. Having one chaperone stay up all night per floor would be ludicrous. Tape is flawed, but it's workable. I can't think of a more effective solution.Iirc, when I was in elementary school/scouts, we had one adult per room. But Jesus that was a long time ago.
It was a different era. When the kids were in elementary school GothBard was unemployed so she did all the extracurricular stuff with them. In a total class size of around 120 kids, she was one of 8 parents who regularly volunteered. Even as we went into high school and the class size got up to 500 or 600 and I started volunteering for trips, there were still maybe 12 parents total. Once the U.S. economic dynamic went to, "Both parents have to work to be middle class", the whole, "We have all the parent volunteers we need," paradigm went out the window.
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I have seen people break the tape while cleaning, and people just breaking it just cuz. I still think its an incredibly flawed approach....Its gotta be the tape.We have literally caught kids from other groups intentionally breaking the tape on our kids' rooms. Tape without common sense leads to tears.
We may tape 30 rooms. There are only 2-3 rooms where we know the tape actually matters.
Fair, but what's the alternative? Letting the kids free roam opens you up to lawsuits. Ankle bracelets would be too expensive, as would hiring night security guards. Having one chaperone stay up all night per floor would be ludicrous. Tape is flawed, but it's workable. I can't think of a more effective solution.
What would you do when your AD&D,
Your AD&D (1e) party,Was resting in a dungeon drear,
While gnolls, trolls, and goblins,
Were out on the spree?
SPIKE THE DOOR SHUT!
SPIKE THE DOOR SHUT!
A 10ft pole won't do s#%$ to a troll,
SPIKE THE DOOR SHUT!
SPIKE THE DOOR SHUT!
And may Pelor have mercy on your soul
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Having done bathroom maintenance at the pool, The mens rooms were grosser for... **thousand yard stare flashbacks** reasons, but in terms of the sheer volume of stuff just seemingly having been thrown around like a black friday sale the womens room was WAY worse. Just.. how/why did you bring all that stuff with you JUST to toss on the floor? It was like.. using a wide broom to clear a path and then shoveling level mess.
I have finished Sniper Elite 5 and now I am back to Silksong...
I was so fed up with one of the bosses that I downloaded earlier version of the game, before the devs patched a way to skip that stupid bug to not have to run back to him and keep repeating the fight against minions every time you die...
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Rumors of Mephisto's stupidity may be greatly exaggerated.
I was in my 1-on-1 with my manager for a LOOOONG time. He meowed to be let out but I ignored him. 10 minutes later I went into the kitchen and he was very meticulously with claws and teeth separating out his harness from the rest. When he managed to pull it loose and look at me, I decided he'd earned outsies in spades.
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Guide to life improvement: Set reasonable, achievable goals.
NobodysHome's goal for tonight's game: Mute my mic before I fall asleep during the session.
Or at least don't snore too loudly.Guide to life improvement: Set reasonable, achievable goals.
NobodysHome's goal for tonight's game: Mute my mic before I fall asleep during the session.
Well, seriously. This is the second three-hour session of just casually meeting the various council members. Each meeting is 10-15 minutes of, "This is what the building looks like. This is what the person looks like. He asks you the same questions everyone else did. Did you want to ask him anything?"
No plot. No point. Just meeting after meeting after meeting with NPCs irrelevant to any sort of plot. Imagine roleplaying out meeting every member of parliament. And thus I sleep.
EDIT: I mean, it really did feel like we were a small group of British schoolkids who were randomly selected to meet half a dozen members of the House of Lords. We'd be introduced, the peer would ask who we were, what our parents did, and whether we enjoyed school, and then they'd ask whether we had any questions for them. And we knew we'd get in trouble if we asked anything sassy, so we said, "No, no," and they said, "Good lad," and we moved on to the next peer.
For two. Solid. Sessions.
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After seeing the pool wasn't draining any more, we called the company who sells us all our cleaning supplies, as well as pool chemicals. They said "We don't really do that, but I'll ask around." A while later, they called back and said "So, the manager says that since if we tell you something wrong there is serious risk of property damage and/or injury, we're not gonna be able to help you."
Now there's a company I can respect. Honest answers, even if they're not what you want to hear.
So, my guess as to the last two sessions is that the GM was thinking, "I hate those handouts that list all the major players and factions and their personalities and quirks! They're so impersonal! I think it would be better for the players to meet them all and learn it all firsthand!"
But:
(a) Meeting them all at once in an interminable series of sessions makes them all blur together; I couldn't tell you a single personality quirk of anyone we've met over the last two sessions. Especially because,
(b) as a GM, you have to have the roleplaying chops to make the NPCs seem fundamentally different from each other. Aside from a couple of voices he did, they all seemed fundamentally to be the same person.
So not a fan.
Pool update:
After seeing the pool wasn't draining any more, we called the company who sells us all our cleaning supplies, as well as pool chemicals. They said "We don't really do that, but I'll ask around." A while later, they called back and said "So, the manager says that since if we tell you something wrong there is serious risk of property damage and/or injury, we're not gonna be able to help you." Which is fair. Next, we called around to various other hotels asking if they could let us borrow their maintenance person for a while. Eventually, one agreed. The guy came over, looked around a bit, and said "Yeah, your s~@~ is f##&ed. Call the pros." So, we called around to several pool companies. They all basically said "Well, that sucks. We can't really give you a quote without knowing exactly what is wrong, but can tell you it would be $X per hour, plus parts. Also, we're booked out for at least a week."
Which means we likely won't have the pool up for a while, and this weekend is not just a football game, but Dad's Weekend for the university. So rates are jacked through the roof (like some people are paying over 5x our normal rate), and we won't have the pool open. Now, usually this wouldn't be a problem, because people rarely use the pool on those weekends. But you can bet your sweet bippy that there will be complaints aplenty about it being closed, mainly from people who wouldn't be using it anyways, but are just trying to get a discount.
Have I mentioned how glad I am that I don't work weekends anymore?
Unfortunate.
Put up a sign pool closed due to alligators and hope there isn't a druid for whom that's a bonus?
Cue alarmingly enthusiastic Australian man in Safari gear coming up to the front desk saying, 'Maaate! Maaaaate!!!! Alligators? Frigging Alligators in the pool?! Let me in RIGHT NAOW - I hope they're whoppahs!'
He will be so disappointed.
I lost my sweet bippy in an earlier wager. What other things might I offer. I would like to get back my bippy. It was sweet.
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What disturbs me the most is that, being a Northern Californian, I gripe constantly about Southern Californians and their staggering pool maintenance (during one of the droughts one fairly large area down there was averaging 3000 gallons per household per day). Shiro had a pool and refilled it a couple of times.
So I looked it up: Home pools should be refilled every 2-5 years. Hotel pools should be refilled every 3-5 years... but there are no regulations that they have to do it.
I'm now truly curious as to how long it's been since gran's hotel's pool has been drained. Will they find Amelia Earhart?
Put up a sign pool closed due to alligators and hope there isn't a druid for whom that's a bonus?I worked at 2 hotels in Florida that had outdoor pools. Gators were always a possibility. Never happened while I was there, but heard about it happening previously, and another hotel nearby had it happen while I was down there.
It happened to my in-laws.
Put up a sign pool closed due to alligators and hope there isn't a druid for whom that's a bonus?I worked at 2 hotels in Florida that had outdoor pools. Gators were always a possibility. Never happened while I was there, but heard about it happening previously, and another hotel nearby had it happen while I was down there.
YAY! Bonus swamp puppy!
I lost my sweet bippy in an earlier wager. What other things might I offer. I would like to get back my bippy. It was sweet.Do you have someone else's sweet bippy to wager?
No, but I have a really old pair of Chacos. Mmm. Strike that. I don’t want to risk those.