Things you hate IV

Fewer.

 

Fuhrer.

 

Horrendously smelly ****s with mind blowing BO issues in the gym.

Have a wash or go to the doctor, you inconsiderate ********

 

Every single office printer, ever. All programmed never to work properly to keep thousands of IT support staff in employment.

 

I did slap it a few weeks ago and a little spring came out. Doesn't appear to be serious as it is still functioning as it did previously, might have actually been the issue.

 

If I can get to retirement before office printers become obsolete then I'm going to be very happy.

 

We have had some really good HP Laserjet ones, lasted on average a decade. They get an absolute hammering printing full colour brochures and forms, but you have to spend on decent office qulaity ones and from a few years ago. Also don't cheap out on refilled cartridges.

More recent HP ones have last last about 3 years before they died. The boss decided to go with an inkjet one this time.

Now we get ink deliveries almost weekly through this crappy instant ink system, rather than replacing a cartridge every few months. The brochures come out soaking wet, wrinkle up, smear or simply end up all over the floor out of order becasuse the output tray is crud.

Any saving in initial outlay is far outpaced by time and effort in sorting this peice of ******** out and in reduced print speed and quality.

I also forgot, it's refusing to print envelopes now. So we have to print labels for the addresses and then more labels for the barcode and then trim them and stick them in the right place, more time.

 

Inkjet printers are the devils work, lasers and toner is where it's at. Due to the world chip shortage all of the major players are having serious issue with toner cartridges. Some manufacturers are in big trouble with no end of it in sight.

 

I think "The Office" is a very good metric at how UK and US comedies work. RD and Stephen Merchant, wrote, directed and starred in 14 episodes of the show - do you know how much work that is, even for a six episode run (a British TV standard 'slot')? SM often tells the story of "Gareth" - the final character cast. SM and RG had written for a tall, well-built muscled actor to play the TA soldier. In walked MacKenzie Crook and they knew they had found "Gareth" but his casting necessitated a complete re-write of the entire series' scripts a week before rehearsals (30 day, 5 days an episode) started. The UK series is exceptionally tightly scripted (it's not as people think improvisations: it's highly scripted - dialogue, actors' reactions shot angles), it had to be to get that fly-on-the wall feel from the talented actors (not comics/comedians) they chose. The reason it may look dated is that its style was so ground-breaking (again a result of the very disciplined production process). It's style was copied by (and very unsuccessfully mimicked) by that mainstay of British TV schedules: the scripted reality show and the 'look' of virtually all, good, contemporary sit-coms.

The US office employs an ensemble cast of comedians/comics who improvise around a script produced by a team of writers (usually 6) supervised by a lead writer who liaises closely with that season's showrunner (I think they've used 4 over. Network US TV slots are either 'long' (26 eps) or 'short' (13 eps) a series (although the influence of streaming services are changing this). With the improvised nature of the performances 'rehearsals' will be a lot longer, with script changes, and 'merged' with shooting the scenes around 10 days an episode. Also due to vast amount of money spent on US shows compared to UK budgets there will be far larger 'crew' typically three times what a UK production uses. I can't really say anything about the finished product as I have never seen an episode of the US Office.

 

I don’t mind the US office, I’ve watched quite a few but not religiously, I just watch them randomly every now and then. Ultimately they had to change the show to make it work in the US anyway, specifically Michael Scott, so I don’t think the two are even comparable beyond the first few seasons, this quote from one of the writers is interesting:

“The biggest moment was when we got picked up for season two by the skin of our teeth, and Greg [Daniels] sat everybody down and said, “Listen, the British show is one of the greatest pieces of comedy and art that’s ever been made. But because it was twelve episodes long, they were able to present an incredibly bleak worldview and have their main character be downbeat and sad. We’re trying to make this last for much longer than twelve episodes, so we need to make adjustments if we want it to survive.” We were all grumbling, like, “You don’t get it, man! You’re going to ruin this amazing thing.” He let us whine and then he was like, “We’re going to make the endings of our shows optimistic. We’re going to make Michael Scott a more sympathetic character.”

https://www.cinemablend.com/televis...ged-Michael-Scott-Fundamental-Way-102297.html

 

Power cuts.

 

Passengers who take it on themselves to turn down the volume on YOUR car stereo, when YOU’RE driving, just to make sure you listen to what nonsense they’re about to say. Are you reading, Mrs TuT?

 

I know a remarkably inept conveyance solicitor if you’d like their number. For no extra cost she’ll lose most of your paperwork, be in a ‘meeting’ every time you need her, lie about acquiring information you need and for a final flourish she’ll not bother to arrange the handover of keys leaving you partially homeless with all of your stuff in rental vans for half a day.

 

She sounds like one of the better ones.

 

They always give the ****wits conveyancing to do.

 

The whole house buying/selling process in this country is a farce.

 

Two things happening on FaceBook today which are getting my wrath:

Changing statuses to "We support Ukraine" or similar bollo**s, along with the Ukraine flag in the background
Talking about the imminent rise in fuel cost, meaning the ****s are going to be filling up again.

Can someone invent a slap icon which will enable you to physically hurt the people posting this sh*t.

 

I’d strongly suggest just not using Facebook.

 

One of the usual suspects on my feed has overlaid the Ukrainian flag on top of his 'I've been treble vaccinated' banner. Gotta double up on that virtue signaling while you can I guess.

 

@Diamond To follow up on my post, I say that because I found myself getting drawn into stuff that really annoyed and upset me. Misinformation, glib virtue signalling, the ugly post Brexit fallout. I deleted my account a couple of years ago, with a heavy heart at first because it held so many memories going back to the age of about 16. I’d say it’s made a genuinely positive impact to my mental health.

Again, that’s just what worked for me, you might be able to take the kind of idiocy that FB throws up in your stride but I’m always in favour of cutting negative or toxic influences out of one’s life.

 

I have cured all of that with my fake FB account. It's a thing of beauty that let's me interact with the lunatics without any stress whatsoever. I highly recommend it.

 

I've been toying with this idea for a while.

My alter ego will be single, a millionairre and drive a Ferrari.

Facebook on the whole is harmless, I get to laugh at the idiots without becoming them.

Free Ukraine, I've had my vaccine, save the cats, ban avocados and plant a tree.

 

I find this an interesting discussion because I have no issue with FB at all. I have a limited set of friends, we exchange family and work news, pictures of pets and kids, and I get some gardening tips from Gardeners’ World. I’ve never had any problem with it. Certainly no “lunatics”. Maybe a bit boring, but hey.

In fact I was recently appointed to a post about which I wouldn’t have known had it not been for FB.

The only reason it affects my well-being is that it’s troubling when people drop off: I wonder what has happened to them. A bit like @zztop on here.

 

Add my fake account as a friend. Moog McCartas.

I had to set it up after about my 5th 30 day ban

 

Good advice Filbert. I shall stop supporting Watford immediately

 

To be fair my real FB account is pretty boring mundane stuff, it's the local groups that are a bit scatty. I set up the fake one to ask for recommendations locally as I didn't want to use my real one. As I've mentioned previously, once you grab a few random people as friends the following suggestions are golden.

 

See what Kalu has to offer first eh?

 

Exactly the same with me, I found myself getting really annoyed every time I logged on to it, so deleted it a few years back. Same goes for Instagram shortly afterwards, that annoyed me for different reasons due to all the people trying to desperately portray how their lives are so great etc. I’ve got no social media whatsoever now and my life is so much better for it.

 

Kick someone when they're down, why don't you. I'd forgotten we'd signed him - is he the one that's supposed to be 23 but looks like his own grandad?