What Made you Smile/What Ticked you off Today?

[REPO Man]

Sorry I've been gone for so long.

Since I've been gone:

I got the idea to take a trip to NYC at the end of December...

but I cancelled it...

at least until the spring.

I am now the proud owner of a new tablet. It's an Onn brand 10" tablet running Android 9 iirc. It was only $80.

And I've been buying Christmas presents like mad.

Which is, along with still being stuck at working QA for 20 hours a week, why I'm down to under $1000 in my savings. But given how much I've spent on others, I'm surprisingly okay there.

I've bought some books and DVDs for my nieces and nephews. Since the girls don't live in the same house (each girl lives with their mother), so some things have to be bought twice, save for gifts for individual kids or gifts for the boys.

For the girls I bought them Jem and the Holograms: Season One and for the boys I bought them Big Bad Beetleborgs: Season One Volume 1. I've also bought a copy of Ticket to Ride: First Journey for each household. For the girls and boys when they're old enough, I bought the first books in the His Dark Material, Percy Jackson and Artemis Fowl series. I also bought some books for the boys that include the Star Wars Little Golden Books adaptations of the original SW trilogy, Little Golden Books based on The Avengers and Batman, along with the childrens' book The X-Files: Earth Children are Weird, a collection of Paw Patrol board books, and two 5-Minute Stories collections (Spider-Man and Marvel). As for DVDs I've bought them copies of The Wiz, Hairspray Live, Labyrinth, Jesus Christ Superstar (the 1970s film adaptation) and Godspell.

I know, but I've never had any real cash around Christmas to buy presents. Plus who is gonna teach these kids about musicals and such if not their Uncle Repo?

I've also been thinking about getting them each a Broadway cast recording and a best-of album from some of my favorite bands.

[prfsnl_gmr]

It’s good to hear from you, REPO. I am glad you are doing so well and doing so much for your nieces and nephews this year.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Went on what I'm making myself call the last last Xmas shopping trip today
Picked up the CD my little sibling wanted but was feeling too money concious to be able to pay for himself (a Malice Mizer single I managed to find at the resale mall).
While there, I found the PERFECT gift for a friend as well. They love Pokemon and they especially love Groudon and Maxie, and I found a Maxie Pikachu plush for an absolute steal! They're gonna be SO pumped when I give it to them, I can't wait X3

[bmoc]

This happened a few days ago but it still makes me smile. First a little background on my kids. My 9 year old son and 6 year old daughter fight fairly regularly. Typical sibling stuff really but it happens more than I would like.

My kids both got some Christmas money from various relatives. My daughter really wanted to get Minecraft but didn't have enough money. My son has his own Windows 10 Minecraft license that he purchaed several months ago. My son decided, without any prompting, to give his sister $10 so she would have enough money so they could play together.

Super cool of her big brother right? I watched them play for a little while and it gets better. Eventually my son's mischievous streak got the better of him and he "accidentally" blew up part of her in-game house. Without missing a beat, she runs her character over to some of his in-game dogs and threatens to kill them. He switches her from creative mode to adventure mode so she can't. So then she threatens to destroy the ground out from under the dogs so that they fall into the endless void. He fixed her house straight away.

I am proud of my son for giving away his money to help his sister and I am equally proud of my daughter for not putting up with his in-game shenanigans.

[Forlorn Drifter]

It’s going to take me a while to get used to having so little free time. I really like my work hours, but knowing when I get home at 4 I have 6 hours for chores and fun is kind of a downer- especially because I have to actually go to bed at a normal time.

Plus, I’m pretty sure already that after I hit my year I’ll start looking again. Not that this job is bad by any means, but I’m going to want something other than poo plant work.

[MrPopo]

:shock: It’s going to take me a while to get used to having so little free time. I really like my work hours, but knowing when I get home at 4 I have 6 hours for chores and fun is kind of a downer- especially because I have to actually go to bed at a normal time.

The good news is you have the next 40 or so years to get used to it.

[emwearz]

For those who don't know, large parts of Australia are burning, I live inner city so in terms of the fires impact on my personal life it has been minimal (outside of family worry, the fact so many are being displaced, etc) but yesterday the wind made the city look like silent hill and gave me some of the worst asthma I have had since I was a teen. I ended up having to get to a specialist earlier today to get some stronger steroids. Bastard fires.

[Ack]

We had something similar a few years ago in North Georgia, emwearz, where the smoke drifted into Atlanta. It kicked off the start of an episode of recurring panic attacks that ended with me finally going back on meds for my anxiety and depression. But the scale of ours was significantly smaller than what you guys are facing.

We Americans are hoping for the best for all Australians in the time, man. We've sent a few of our own fire crews, but we're also keeping you all in our thoughts.

[PretentiousHipster]

This is actually the worst I've had so far in regards to job hunting. This is a ticked off post.

I worked a suit and tie job before (even with a visible tattoo), but had to leave that industry multiple times due to my mental health. I can say that at one point my bus home never arrived, and someone called me with some indecipherable text as the caller ID. I was convinced that the bus blown up and that it was the military calling me because I'm a terrorist suspect and are now chasing me. Obviously working under those conditions was hell, and I usually end up in a hospital. Now I'm on disability.

Since June I decided I was ready to go back to work, but a low-key, part-time job, taking baby steps. I even have an employment support program for disabled people helping me find work.

This is where the bad part comes in. They see the suit and tie work experience on my resume. I'm clearly overqualified and they don't bother. If they do I either say the truth that I'm disabled and need a more low-key job, or I lie and say that was not the career for me. Neither works. I then removed those jobs from my resume, showing that I haven't work in 3 years (when I was put in the psych ward for a while actually). Then they ask why I haven't work for so long. I either tell the truth that I did jobs that were irrelevant so they're not on my resume, leave it vague and say I needed time off for personal reasons, or do a partial lie and say I'm disabled and needed some time off. Again, none of these work.

I've had maybe 5 phone interviews and 3 in person interviews since June, definitely the least amount of progress I've had looking for work. I just hope it changes soon.

[emwearz]

Melbourne officially had the most hazardous air in the world today.