Universal Chat Thread

[Maniakkid25]

If there's anything I hate the Soviet Union for, it's turning "Socialism" into a dirty word...

I was under the impression it became a dirty word in the last ten years or so of US politics but maybe it was because people didn't bring it up as much pre-2010's or living outside the US just caused me to naturally avoid hearing it tossed about.

No; Communism is a form of socialism, so even back during the formation of the Soviet Union, people were talking about avoiding the socialist regime (this is the First Red Scare). Hell, the full title of the nation in English is "The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics". It's just that, unlike America, which kicked the alarm into high gear against anything related to them commies (the McCarthy era, aka the Second Red Scare), Europe kind of eased into socialism after World War II, gradually chipping away at the term to the point that, nowadays, many of the countries in the EU can be considered "Social Democracies". Rhetoric in the US softened following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but it came roaring back with a vengance in the mid-00s, what with the oft-repeated comment of turning "The American Dream into the European Nightmare" once the debate over health care reform got started.

So, yeah, in the US, Socialism has always been a dirty word, used by the right wing to try and get the mob to go against anything remotely to the left of them because "they want to bring the commies back!" I hate it!

[Moonface]

The 1,100 is that all related to some type of Xmas promotions or something? Plus I guess other necessities. Wondering when our Produce stock comes in, all the 20p veg, masses of potatoes and what have you. This weekend I guess, but I'll see if it has begun tomorrow or if not, check delivery for Friday for certain lines.

A good majority of it (likely 2/3) was stuff that will be on sale on frozen food from today until Christmas Eve, but fortunately getting all of it in at once should mean every other frozen truck we get from now until Christmas will be relatively small (probably only about 250 cases) because we won't need as much ad stuff sent in due to having all of it up front. The alternative is to make the 1100 case truck smaller and spread out the sale item deliveries across multiple trucks, so it's either a) one big truck and then all small trucks after or b) all medium size trucks. I suspect most of the sale cases I have in my cooler will be mostly gone by this time next week though, especially any of the ice cream because for whatever reason customers at my store buy ice cream like it's all they eat for their three meals a day.

Rhetoric in the US softened following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but it came roaring back with a vengance in the mid-00s, what with the oft-repeated comment of turning "The American Dream into the European Nightmare" once the debate over health care reform got started.

I've never heard the term "European Nightmare" before and I find that hilarious when most of the American approaches to things European countries do would likely reduce the quality of life in those countries.

[Moonface]

Nothing like agreeing to come in on my day off only for an opening manager to keep their lazy arse in bed so I'm just sitting outside my store like a jackass since 5am (half an hour ago) wondering when someone will show up. I'm getting tempted to get back in my car and go back home...

[Moonface]

So the New Year is almost upon us; is anyone doing anything for the occasion or just treating it like any other day of any other year?

I think for once I actually don't have to work on either New Year's Eve or New Year's Day which means I might actually get to stay up until midnight strikes. Not sure whether I actually will or not but at least I have the choice for once. As for what I'll actually be doing with my life on either of those days I have no idea unless there's family plans I'm not yet aware of, although in previous years any such plans have never appealed to me so I just didn't go. (The plans were mostly involving lots of alcohol around people who are not good when they consume lots of alcohol.)

[Mr EliteL]

I don't have plans for Eve, but I'll be working on the 1st, I still don't know what time yet but will be a "late" shift so start will probably be noon or 1pm.

Also came down with a cold Wednesday so having fun with that and lack of sleep, hurrah.

[Moonface]

I swear everyone is getting sick lately. At my store one of the people on customer service is sick, the store manager is sick, and probably some others, then Shira's mother is also sick and I forget if other family members are/were too. I'm sure I'm forgetting someone. What's crazy is as far as I know, nobody I know who is sick has gotten sick from someone else who was already sick; they're all just weirdly independent of each other yet all very similar ailments.

[ShiraNoMai]

Yeah it's just floating around in the air. Hopefully I had whatever it was so I don't catch it again, earlier this month. Feel better soon, EL. Take lots of Zinc/Vitamin C so it'll get out of you sooner!

[Nebulous]

Hey all! Hope you're all doing well.

Tomorrow is New Years Eve! Anyone have any plans to celebrate?

[Dragon Lord]

So for whatever reason that compelled us, we went and got a new kitten yesterday. There's actually a bit of a story behind this one. We're pretty sure it's the same stray kitten that we saw hanging around the store some nights. We had actually tried to get her to come over to us so we could get her, but could never get her to come close enough to grab her in a gentle way. We hadn't actually seen her for a while and we feared that something may have happened to her, but then yesterday my mother randomly decides to check the website of the animal shelter in that town and there she was listed on there.

We're pretty sure it's the same kitten because she has the same exact facial markings and colors as the one we saw, and the chances of there being two kittens around the area with the same exact facial markings just doesn't seem to be too plausible. She's a calico like Zoey was. While normally I wouldn't get a new cat this soon after Zoey's passing, there was just something about this that told me it was meant to be and she had to come home with us.

So far reception to her as been very mixed. Leo is very aggressive towards her, hopefully we can get that settled down in due time. Eli is scared to death of her and I don't know why. Emma is wary of her, but very interested. She's come up and sniffed her several times, no hissing or growling at all, but she ends up going back a distance from her afterwards. The lack of aggression and her interest in the kitten is as good sign though, hopefully it means it won't take too long for Emma to get used to her and they can be best friends.

Oh yeah, almost forget, we named her Lily. She is the most lovable little thing I've ever seen. All kittens are lovable, but when you pick her up and hold her, she just completely melts into your arms and will stay there for hours. Within the first few hours of bringing her home she was just content laying on me and sleeping. Everyone knows about the infamous 3-4 AM running of the kittens when you get a new one (Zoey was like this, and she made it very hard to get sleep the first week, haha), Lily was like nah, I'm just gonna get on the bed with you and sleep.

I'll try to get some pictures to show of her, but right now it's impossible because every time I try to get a picture of her she just wants to sniff the phone, haha.

[Mr EliteL]

I'm sure it'll go soon, I hope. I can deal with the bad throat, bad nose not so much, annoying sniffling. I at least got a better night sleep last night, my alarm actually had to get me up as I normally wake up before it goes off.

Ooh, already got a new kitten DL? Interesting how only one of your cats have reacted badly/aggressive so far, sure Eli will get used to Lily too once Emma does perhaps, then maybe Leo will be accepting later, just make sure he doesn't get too close for now but you already know that. Keep the little one safe. 

[Moonface]

Hey all!  Hope you're all doing well.

Tomorrow is New Years Eve! Anyone have any plans to celebrate?

Things haven't really changed for me since my last post when I brought up New Year's plans except that I know there's nothing planned by any family members to possibly attend.
What are/did you do for New Year's?

@Dragon Lord: I've never had a kitten to know what they get up to such as the 3am zoomies, but my two cats I had when I lived with my parents were notorious for doing it all the time. If not that then it would be walking around with a toy mouse in their mouth while making noise that pierces the silence of the night. One of those two were a calico too although for the longest time we thought she was a tortoise shell because that was what we were told and didn't know better.

As for getting photos of cats, I swear it's harder than photographing a child. Even using a DSLR with an insanely fast shutter speed wasn't able to remove all of the challenge of getting a clear and perfect shot of my cat although I did get one eventually.

[Dragon Lord]

Yeah, the 3 AM running of the kitties is a fun spectacle for all cat owners, haha. Thankfully being an overnight worker now and being up at that time, I don't have to worry about it too much.

Though so far in the few days that we've had Lily, I haven't had to worry about it all much. Unlike most kittens who love to be super hyperactive at all times and be general turds, she is a HUGE snuggle bug and a very eepy kitty who likes to just curl up with me and snooze the day away. She's only been here for a couple of days and she already fits in this household as if she was made for it, haha.

I do have a couple of nice pictures of her sleeping, so I'll try to remember to upload those from my phone tonight and post them. Hopefully I can get one of her awake sometime as well.

[Karo]

I hope your other kitties get used to her soon and I'm happy she found a nice home and it would be very neat if it does turn out to be the same cat! I'm sure she'll enjoy her new home and looking forward to seeing the pictures!

I just wanted to wish everyone a happy new year! We are coming up on 2024 and I really can't believe it, but here we are and I hope the coming year will be a great one for all of us!

[Dragon Lord]

They are slowly getting used to her. Emma and Eli have taken a lot of interest in her and will now watch her run around, and I just had a very nice interaction with them where I was holding Lily an both of them jumped up on a box and wanted to sniff her and check her out. Very good sign. Unfortunately Leo is still being pretty bad around her. He won't attack her, but lots of hissing and snarling when she gets close to him. Not sure if he'll ever come around, but it's very nice to see Emma and Eli quickly getting used to her and taking much more interest in her activities. Hopefully not too much longer and they'll be willing to play with her.

On another subject, huge fuck you to UPS. Amazon gave me the option to schedule a free pickup for the monitor I am returning, which was to be today. I have the monitor all packed up and next to my front door ready to go. I went out to the living room and my mother tells me she heard a noise in the porch. Well, turns out it wasn't in the porch. It came from outside. It was the UPS driver leaving the shipping label in our screen door and then leaving. Never knocked to let me know he was here, no other notifications that the UPS driver was approaching for the pickup. Dude just decided to go, "Nah, fuck it, I don't feel like doing my job." and now I have to drive 20+ miles away and drop it off at a pickup location. I don't like to go "Karen" on people, but I'm definitely going to see if there's any way I can email UPS and complain about this driver (not sure if they'll be able to pinpoint which driver it was, but worth a try), because that is absolutely ridiculous that you're going to be that shit at your job.

[Moonface]

I just wanted to wish everyone a happy new year! We are coming up on 2024 and I really can't believe it, but here we are and I hope the coming year will be a great one for all of us!

Happy New Year to you too @Karo!

On another subject, huge fuck you to UPS. Amazon gave me the option to schedule a free pickup for the monitor I am returning, which was to be today. I have the monitor all packed up and next to my front door ready to go. I went out to the living room and my mother tells me she heard a noise in the porch. Well, turns out it wasn't in the porch. It came from outside. It was the UPS driver leaving the shipping label in our screen door and then leaving. Never knocked to let me know he was here, no other notifications that the UPS driver was approaching for the pickup. Dude just decided to go, "Nah, fuck it, I don't feel like doing my job." and now I have to drive 20+ miles away and drop it off at a pickup location. I don't like to go "Karen" on people, but I'm definitely going to see if there's any way I can email UPS and complain about this driver (not sure if they'll be able to pinpoint which driver it was, but worth a try), because that is absolutely ridiculous that you're going to be that shit at your job.

I was expecting to read that a porch pirate took the monitor instead of UPS. I assumed since you left it outside that the UPS driver didn't need to interact with you at all and would have just put the label on the box and took it, but then you mentioned the guy never knocked on the door nor did you get a notification they were approaching so if you had to see them before they could take the monitor it seems risky to have left it outside. What would be stopping the driver from taking the monitor and claiming it was never there or they never took it?