What's messing with your Groove?

[Khendraja'aro]

Don't you mean 1AM? This AM/PM stuff is too confusing for me...

See, that's why I like the military terms for time: 0100 hours. Done. Everyone knows how late it is without having to think about it.

In Germany, we have even more confusing idioms. Like: "Quarter four". No, not "Quarter to four".

"Quarter four" means 1515 (or 0315 if in the morning). See, the reasoning behind that is that only a quarter hour has passed until the full hour.

This once led to a very confused boy waiting for his grandmother at 1645 ("quarter to five"), when she wanted to meet at 1615 ("quarter five"). Narf.

[termite]

It was easier when we had day time and night time...

[earthJoker]

See, that's why I like the military terms for time: 0100 hours. Done. Everyone knows how late it is without having to think about it.

In Germany, we have even more confusing idioms. Like: "Quarter four". No, not "Quarter to four".

"Quarter four" means 1515 (or 0315 if in the morning). See, the reasoning behind that is that only a quarter hour has passed until the full hour.

This once led to a very confused boy waiting for his grandmother at 1645 ("quarter to five"), when she wanted to meet at 1615 ("quarter five"). Narf.

I think AM and PM are of no use, you just need 2 characters more to write the same information you have with the 24 hours system.

"Viertel Fünf" or "Dreiviertel Fünf" is something we never use in Switzerland.

[RandBlade]

I use military time for all time-keeping at work.

Apart from the computers at work which use a decimal clock that does not reset at midnight. If you work from 16:30 until 01:15 the next day you'll be clocked on from 16.50 to 25.25

[Nessus]

-*

[BalticSailor]

So, yeah, the first thought today as I woke up was "ok, let's try to stay sober for this whole week".

Pleasant, but still, failure.

[oldmunchkin]

The high temperature here on Monday was...wait for it...a whopping 58 degrees! What the fuck happened to summer, and heat, and all that good shit? We had NONE of it this year! My fucking foot hurts and SS can't seem to figure out I got divorced! Jesus Christ on a Bloody Fucking Crutch! They sent all my paperwork to The Thing's address instead of mine! No wonder out government is sooo fuckered up!

[Hazir]

Went to bed at 1am after watching a TV show Amanda had on about young female American adults going missing, typically raped and murdered. Got woken up by a phone-call at 2:30am.

Was a colleague, one of my manager's (D) who lives with another one (M). D was in tears, her and M had gone out and M had been chatting with a guy and then she just disappeared. Apparently unlike her, but M also had their keys so D couldn't get into their home. D had tried calling M but couldn't get an answer and now her phone was going flat so she told me all this but then her phone went out. M was missing, D locked out and in tears with no phone now its flat. Tried calling M repeatedly but could get no answer. D also said something before her phone died about being concerned a guy had been following her, said she was worried she "looks like a prostitute" now with what she was wearing, alone, on the streets.

Amanda (also woken up by the call) and I went driving looking for them both. At the least if we could find D we could get her out of the cold and safe, but maybe also find M if she was in trouble. We'd been to their house once before a month ago but when very drunk, but it was in a part of town I knew so had a vague idea where it was and D has a very distinctive bright yellow car, if we could find that we could find her and get her warm at least. Although they're both colleagues so we've got everyone's addresses on file, they've both moved into that property together and neither had updated their records.

2 hours of driving up and down side-streets later at half-four in the morning got a text from D to say she was OK. Called her back, apparently M had just come home then at half-four and unlocked the door, D was freezing and furious with M, I'm less than happy too. As it happens we'd driven up and down the side-streets either side of hers but missed the junction for hers in the dark, was in the right part of town.

Now 7am, unable to get back to sleep and just had 1 hour's sleep this night. Got a very long day ahead of me too, Monday's are one of my companies (and hence used to be my) quietest day of the week, used to take them off generally, but now they're my busiest with a ton of admin including payroll which is a real headache at the best of times.

Now what makes me think this entire story shouldn't have happened for the simple reason that this 'D' had no business calling YOU in the middle of the night?

[Bitter Jeweler]

Trial by jury this morning. Maybe?
Stupid legal system.

[littlelolligagged]

Knock 'em dead, sunshine. We'll be waiting!

[RandBlade]

Now what makes me think this entire story shouldn't have happened for the simple reason that this 'D' had no business calling YOU in the middle of the night?

I am D's boss. Perhaps that wasn't clear with me saying "one of my Manager's", I don't mean a manager I work for, I mean a Manager who works for me. Still strikes me as confusing sometimes as if I didn't know better I'd think my job title now (Supervisor) would be of a lesser rank than Manager, but I am the only Supervisor in the business and all of the Manager's in the business across 7 locations report to me. When I did my training course for this, it was so weird through the entire course thinking of a Manager being a lower rank. D is one of my most senior manager running one of those 7 locations.

Anyway I have told everyone to feel free to call me day or night, my phone is on 24/7 ... unless I'm in the cinema, that's the only time it gets turned off and sometimes I get emergency phone calls at night, never the likes of this before.

Ironically enough I'd only just been speaking to D a few days before as she's been 'down in the dumps' recently. She's recently moved to Warrington from a different town half-way across the country for this job and she doesn't have friends in the area yet. M whom she lives with is her only close friend, I told her (as I tell everyone) to feel free to call me any time she needs to even if its not work-related. It may not be necessary, but most people never take me up on that offer but I consider it an important part of being a good boss, to be there when people need you - even if its not always for professional reasons.

Besides that, I was brought up still to be chivalrous, I would never leave a girl in distress. I couldn't live with myself if I'd gone back to sleep and she'd been raped.

She's since apologised for calling me, I told her not to worry about it and that I don't mind that. Stuff happens and its once in a blue moon but I'd rather be there for her, she'll remember that now. I'd also rather think she was safe, my losing sleep wouldn't compare to her being raped and I did nothing to help.

[Ominous Gamer]

technology and the cables it creates.
My entertainment center has component, composite, HDMI, and coaxial cables. Its a mess to manage and can take hours to feed, wrap and tuck it all away.

My grandmother gave me a tube TV over the weekend, and I figured I could fit it into the kid's playroom, give me a TV of regular size to play the SNES on instead of the 13" thats been in there. Well, all its got for a connection is a coaxial plug, for an antenna or cable. Yet because of how simplistic that design is, I'm able to link up everything I wanted.
Antenna to Converter Box to SNES to DVD/VCR to TV. Using only coaxial cables, and all the pictures look fine.

I could never pull that off with an Xbox or PS3. Oh, how I miss the simpler days

[Nessus]

[Loki's] not dating [him]self

What are you, his mother

[he's] merely referencing the NY public school system.

Now that's just messed up!

[Angel_Mapper]

A grey hair. Oh great here we go.

[RandBlade]

One all by itself? It'll be lonely. Pluck it out and then you can have two

[littlelolligagged]

Eww. Sucks to be you.

Better buy hairdye.

[RandBlade]

Urgh, just passed someone whom I used to work with 5 years ago in the ASDA car park. His name was Marcus, a bit of a weirdo he was one of three people whom we hired when we started the business as trying to be nice to the world, offering jobs to people who normally couldn't get a job. He's also one of the people for whom we realised we were being naive and there's a reason he'd struggle to get a job. He had very poor interpersonal skills, poor personal hygiene (was frequently told he needed to wash his hair) and other problems. He was eventually fired after a road-rage incident were he swore at a female driver (member of the public) who saw him in his uniform and called us.

A while back I heard gossip that he was now wearing female clothes and called himself a she, the way people were talking it sounded like malicious gossip (a lot of what was said was mean) though so told them that it wasn't nice and they should stop it.

So today I saw him/her in what looked like a dress, with very dirty blond hair. Without thinking and trying to be polite I said "hello Marcus" and he/she shouted at me "I told you not to call me Marcus, my name's Anya". I said to Anya that I had seen him/her in many years and hadn't been told anything. Anya then said to me "you've put on a lot of weight ... look at you, you've really become bigger, I'm a size 8 now". Fuck off Marcus

[Hazir]

Yeah, truth about weight sucks.

What messed with my groove today was that our phone provider (at work) did something that disabled conference calling just before I was frantically trying to set up a 4 way conference call including a physician, a lawyer, a client in Turkey and me. In the end I had to reschedule to tomorrow untill after my phone is re-programmed.

[GGT]

It's common for 'newlyweds' to put on a few pounds.

[RandBlade]

I may have put on a few pounds but I'm not wed.

[GGT]

I may have put on a few pounds but I'm not wed.

That's what YOU think.


btw Mr. Domestic, in Happy thread you mentioned buying bedroom furniture. What the hell is a cupboard and how's it different from a wardrobe?

[Ominous Gamer]

British, its just odd

[GGT]

What's odd to Americans is that British sometimes take their "units" with them, and they call it "moving house". Literally taking the kitchen cupboards (cabinets) and bedroom wardrobes (closets) when they move, like furniture. I just wonder why you'd have a cupboard in your bedroom.... or is that what we'd call a dresser or chest of drawers....?

[termite]

Ahem.... Cupboard ; A closet or cabinet, usually with shelves for storing food, crockery, and utensils.

The one in the bedroom is usually called a wardrobe... and in most recent times around here just robes - as in "I have the nicest walk-in robes in my new home."

The English language is always evolving, not least because so many different countries butcher it in their own way.

And as for the English taking the "cupboards" with them, that would not usually include kitchen cabinets that are mounted or fitted to the walls, floor or ceiling - just the closet type things that can easily be taken with you.

[GGT]

Rand said:

Went shopping today and bought our bedroom furniture: bed, cupboard, wardrobe etc the whole set.

I've watched some English and Irish decorating shows, and they called the kitchen cupboards "units" and the cooktop "hobs". They used wall-mounted heavy duty metal clips to hang (fit) them, and could take the "units" with them when they moved. Sounded strange to me, because our kitchen cabinets aren't considered moveable furniture but "built-ins".

And our houses usually have built-in closets, so we don't have to buy wardrobes, let alone carry them around with us when we move.

[termite]

Rand said:

I've watched some English and Irish decorating shows, and they called the kitchen cupboards "units" and the cooktop "hobs". They used wall-mounted heavy duty metal clips to hang (fit) them, and could take the "units" with them when they moved. Sounded strange to me, because our kitchen cabinets aren't considered moveable furniture but "built-ins".

And our houses usually have built-in closets, so we don't have to buy wardrobes, let alone carry them around with us when we move.

Yep, they're a weird mob those English!

I think Australian and American suburbs are more similar - we both tend to have more room than the Brits and due to the Brit's ancientness they are more likely to have limitations on developments.

Hmmm a cupboard in your bedroom, with a teapot and tea cups no doubt - those bloody Brits will drink tea anywhere, any time.

[GGT]

I used to think Rand might have a liquor cabinet in his bedroom, but maybe it's something else now....an adult toy cupboard?

I have an armoire, but it's holding a tv and its components.

[termite]

I have an armoire, but it's holding a tv and its components.

Come on, we both know that's just a fancy name for a wardrobe.

[Ominous Gamer]

I've got an armoire and a wardrobe in the house. Armoire has cubbyholes and sliding drawers, the wardrobe has hanging rods and open shelves.

[Khendraja'aro]

As long as any of you ain't got a murder hole above the entrance?