I think it's actually a way of encouraging us to bully Apple store employees. "Which one of you geniuses is going to help me?" "Hey genius, I just told you what I needed and that isn't it." "(Whistle) Over here, genius!" "Gee genius, I was really hoping you'd actually be able to fix my problem." Stuff like that.

Dear Apple "Support,"

So I have to lock the phone to sync? Because I do have that option on and it's not syncing.

Yours,


Ampersand. Now, about not being able to read the apple books on iTunes...

Hey everyone in the metropolitan area around Boston: Tim Thomas is a hockey goaltender. His expertise? How to prevent hockey pucks from reaching the net he stands in front of. Please shut up about his political opinions. He's allowed to speak his mind just like anybody else. But hey, if you want the local hockey team to trade away last year's postseason MVP and the best goalie in the league two years out of the last three because he has political opinions different from your own, I'm sure there are twenty nine other NHL cities that would love to fleece the Bruins on that deal. So, yeah, good luck with that.

Seriously. The guy pretty much won the Stanley Cup on his friggin' own last year, but because of a few innocuous opinions that doesn't matter anymore?

I'm sure the Avalanche would love to have him. Please, give him to us because you can't stand his political opinions.

(Although on that note, I suppose it is good you aren't a famous sports star Cid - they'd drive you out of town too.)

No! I want him! Trade him to the capitals. I love Tim Thomas and he would be loved here in the center of "everyone has a political opinion and we just accept it".

collegestudent22 wrote:Although on that note, I suppose it is good you aren't a famous sports star Cid - they'd drive you out of town too.

Only if I were a famous Bruin. Apparently everyone else gets a pass. Curt Schilling campaigned for President (W.) Bush just days after the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series, and nobody cared. (Of course, we were too busy hugging relatives and partying for a week straight, as though we as a city had won a war. And honestly, I think that celebration was a bit subdued, given how much we cared about that team. Also, the 2004 guys get a pass for just about anything.) Red Auerbach and Bill Russell were known to kind of publicly shame the entire city of Boston for racist behavior when Russell was playing. One already has a statue, the other's getting a statue. Hell, Tom Brady has been known to walk around Boston in a Yankee hat. He's also spent entire Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals games hanging out with Kobe Bryant's father. Nobody but me ever brings this up around here. Nobody held it against Carl Everett that Everett didn't believe dinosaurs ever existed. Sure, we made fun of him for it, and we still to this day call him "Jurassic Carl," and he left the Red Sox on extremely bad terms, but it wasn't about his denial of dinosaur existence.

collegestudent22 wrote:Please, give him to us

tnitnetny wrote:No! I want him!

See? This is my point. When fans of other teams say things like this, count your blessings. Tim Thomas won the Stanley Cup for the Bruins last year. He's not running for office. Frankly, he's not even saying all that much of anything. Are we this bored? Can't someone come shoot some movie here to distract people so they don't have to nitpick at an awesome goalie for something completely unrelated to hockey?

Dear Everyone,

You've probably wondered what has gotten over me. Well, on February 2nd, while I was studying towards another try at a certification test, I hear yelling coming from my mother. She yelled at me because she intercepted a letter from one of my banks indicating that I was having problems paying the student loan payment that I had owed them. She then indicated that "we" needed to start over and she would be needing all my credit cards, suggesting that I should only pay for my student loan and credit card loan. Except she already had them. So there wasn't anything she could do at that point.

That really set me off. The immediate thought that crossed my mind that this wasn't going to work, and regardless which way she wanted me to go, it seemed to be doomed to fail. Learning programming and trying to get Microsoft Certification was her idea through my brother-in-law, not mine. I only accepted it because it would allow me four months away from her.

But there's more. My father infidelity with his boyfriend recently came to ahead when he tried to verbally abuse my mother to the point in signing rights to a loan so they could purchase a house together. She did when she learned that my father accidentally signed the wrong line so that if they default on the loan, she would own the house. But what's worse, I am finding out all sorts of things about myself, about how my siblings thing --- at least according to my mother --- that I am completely unable to handle anything. My Uncle told me that he felt I have a minor form of autism. It's pretty clear that no one thinks I am able to handle anything or get a "real" job, dismissing the 1½ years I worked at a calling center during the graveyard shift. Handling complaints from irate students is not a real job. Customer service is not a real occupation.

I realized that if I didn't get out of here now, I would never will. But I've tried twice before and it didn't take long before I felt that I couldn't handle it. I read where if you feel like you have to do something completely new (or reckless), I had to decide whether I would accept the worst case scenario. So I thought about it. Going from job to job, people finding the remains of my body in my car out in the West after an avalanche (or at the bottom of the ocean), ending up in the porn industry, working at a much meaner calling center, those were my thoughts for what could possibly happen. I'm pretty sure the worst thing that could happen is something else entirely, nevertheless I felt it was time to go.

So I'm moved on. At this point I am on my own, but just far enough away that my mother could still ask if I would make it to some of the family functions (and which I am going to try to say a polite 'no'). I'm with a good friend of mine, and I've slept on his couch for about the last two weeks now. I have a promise of a job in April, but I'm looking something more immediate. If I don't find it soon, I'll move on to someplace even further away. I had originally thought about going to North Dakota, but it seems like that boom is turning into a bust faster than expected.

If somehow anyone in my family is reading this, please know that I do not do this completely out of reckless abandonment. I do this because I am tired for being stuck here and tire of mooching off of others. At some point I will need to pay it back, and I don't feel like I would have been able to just to remain here. Besides, who wants to be known as the 40 year old single guy still living with his mother? Oh, and I don't like any of you anymore.

To everyone else, yes, I am much happier even though the stresses are a bit higher. I wouldn't expect anything less.

Yours,


Ampersand, who is also glad his friend has cable for the first time in forever.

The situation sucks, but it is still commendable that you are on your own.

Call centre jobs suck. Why not go into manual labour work? I find production environments interesting places to work. Warehouse I would stay away from simply because it is so boring.

My first few jobs were at various production/manufacturing jobs. I learned a lot about work ethics in general, and it has helped me grow. Besides, if you mentioned you want a "real" job, I think it doesn't get any more real than manual labour, which is a backbone of the world economy.

Good for you, Amp. I agree with Mr. Bond. Manual labor can pay surprisingly well in some cases, but while it'll never make you rich on its own, it is a great way to have a definable job you can really do and take pride in and make grow a little while you get in better shape. I say that assuming you're like me where I don't really get all that much exercise

Also, don't forget security work. It is available nearly everywhere, pays decently, and their main requirement is that you be able to present a neat appearance and show up on time. It has the added benefit, that in most places they are perfectly happy to let you study while you sit the desk, allowing you to move on to better paying work while still eating.

Thank you for the support. I will certainly keep the advice in mind. Meanwhile, I just learned that my father's boyfriend apparently is wanted on a felony in Florida. <sarcasm>It just keeps getting better.</sarcasm>

Felony is the bad one, right? Do you know what it is?

Wearing crocs in public.

Anyways - very glad to hear that you are distancing yourself from that clusterfuck of frustration. The immediate future will be tough, of course, but you'll be happier and more satisfied without the detractors shitting on your every move.

Godspeed, Amp.

Jamie, good suggestion. I wasn't suggesting that the call center job wasn't a real job, but that the rest of the family, especially my mother, thought it wasn't a legitimate job. I do agree that calling centers don't tap into what I am good at (overtly lying and selling something), so I will certainly see if I can find something that I could handle some light physical labor for the time-being.

The training center I that I learned the C#/.NET skills for has a private job fair on the 29th of February. I think I'm going to shoot for that date to have something ready in the local area before I move on to somewhere else. At the very least, I'd like to try one last time for certification before I just see if I can pick it up sometime later. At least I wouldn't have to pay for it.

UPDATE

1. Turns out the felony my father's boyfriend has an outstanding warrant for was sexually abusing a minor. I don't want to know anymore than that. The business that the two of them were trying to establish has been promptly sold, and apparently being gay and having a partner with a potential of being a child sex offender is enough to not be asked back as a substitute teacher. My father sure knows how to pick them.
2. I have an interview today with the company that is promising a temporary job maybe in a week, maybe in April. They're good with not giving you any information upfront. At the very least it will last until June, which hopefully should give me enough time to plan my next move. If I do not feel satisfied with my current situation after the interview, I will probably start moving west.
3. Also, I don't want to get the impression that I didn't think trying to get a Microsoft certification wasn't the worst idea from my mother. It's just that this suggestion, like so many others, just has not materialized into a job. I have resigned to the fact that at least for a long while, I may have to put up with factory, manual labor jobs, or maybe even be a dishwasher for a while until my background may improve.