What Made you Smile/What Ticked you off Today?

[BogusMeatFactory]

You're made out of meat? I always thought you were a machine, Popo.

Maybe he is like me and made out of some strange meat substitute comprised of camel hair, lard and soy juice.

[Luke]

If this happens, I will be smiling from ear to ear.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-34372583

In short Australia is looking to deny visas for professional douchebags and full time cowards chris brown and floyd aprilweather due to their history of domestic violence.


Smile: Incredible game yesterday between the Hookies and the ECU Pirates. It went from a blowout to a nail biter.

ECU's first play with possession provided a fumble, and soon it was VT 7, ECU 0.

ECU's second play with possession provided an interception, and soon it was VT 14, ECU 0.

We (ECU) subbed quarterbacks (which we should have done two games ago) and won 35-28 by knocking down a few Hail Marys in the last few seconds of the game.

Rained buckets during the game, but the rain provided some comical relief. In our Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, a poprular chant is for one side of the stadium to Shout "PURPLE!", and the other side responses with "GOLD!", our team colors. Whoever sells the ponchos at the games can send his kid to college now, as almost everyone was wearing one. So the chant became "PONCHOS!", "GOLD!".

Had to be there I guess.

[MrPopo]

You're made out of meat? I always thought you were a machine, Popo.

That's just what I tell the ladies.

[Forlorn Drifter]

I'm not sure what I expected, but my birthday was very flatline this year. It's probably just me figuring out I'm old enough that my birthday doesn't matter all that much. Got to see my family and all that, which helps a lot with how lonely I get up here at school. There was a party last night that was kind of doubling as my b-day party, but that busted real quick, seeing as who did the inviting, but it wasn't intended as my party anyways, so I can't really complain.

[Fragems]

: Fucking credit union is at it again. So a few weeks back I mentioned having to fix a fuck up where these guys for whatever reason transferred my car loan payments to my dads account and I had to go in and get that all sorted. Well while they were transferring the payments on my jeep back to my account they decided to transfer his car payments on his truck over to my account as well. So anyways these guys are complete and total fucking Idiots. I'm seriously wondering how the fuck these people ever got involved in banking. Luckily I have plenty of money in the account but it's just another hassle to go in and get this sorted out again. Plus while I don't think he will my Dad could always stiff me and I'd be out $400.

[BogusMeatFactory]

My daughter is teething hardcore. She wakes up every 15-45 minutes until around 2 AM for the last 3 nights and it is happening again tonight. She has been slobbering like a madwoman and has been a little extra fussy. She hasn't been completely losing it, thankfully, but it still makes me be a bit worried regardless. I know everything is fine, but it has been tough since my wife works nights and I have been alone with her, running on 3 hours of sleep per night for the last few nights. Luckily, my wife has tomorrow off and then works the next night so she will be keeping her night owl schedule and can help me out in that department to give me a bit of a break.

Everyone has been thinking that my talking about this is me complaining about my daughter and has been judging me as a father. They say things like, "If you truly cared about your baby, you wouldn't be complaining." or, "If you were a real dad, you would love her no matter what," even though I stress that my feeling tired is not complaining about the situation. I love my daughter no matter what and am not blaming her for anything. She is teething and it is natural. All I am saying is that I am beat and exhausted.

Heck, even my wife is like, "You aren't doing a great job at keeping the apartment clean. You need to do a better job," even though I am still cooking, doing laundry and working with my daughter with her physical therapy exercises to make sure she develops properly, all the while keeping things quiet so my wife can sleep. I can't catch a break this week!

[Michi]

Hang in there, Bogus.

Also, wow, it sounds like you have crappy friends (or at least crappy conversation partners.) I don't know of a single new parent who hasn't at one time complained about lack of sleep due to teething/colic/illness of some sort. Hell, I'm pretty sure it's even a television staple for any show with an infant to cover a 'dear god this is exhausting' moments. Never once have I ever heard of anyone concluding that being tired somehow equates to you being a bad parent.

You're tired and complaining about the effects of the situation, not the situation itself. So unless your mentions of lack of sleep involves something to the extent of "The baby's teething and kept me up for hours last night... the little snot", the next time those tireless crusaders say anything to you, tell them to go find a baby that actually needs defending.

Or smack them in the face and then blame your poor motor functions on your lack of sleep.




of my own: A bug flew into my eye today. And I don't mean my eyelid or my eyebrow, I mean the little bastard Kamikaze'd himself right into my freakin' eye. Like, I litterally saw the little bugger flying past me, before he made an abrupt turn into my eye. If I could speak bug, I swear he would have been yelling "Banzai!"

And that little bugger hurt. Hurt as in stop abruptly in the middle of the parking lot, spend 15 seconds digging him out, eyes stinging, nose running, surprised exclamations of pain ("Gah! My eye!"), hurt. Luckily I was close to home and could go and rinse my eye out with water and put in some eye drops (blissful, blissful soothing eye drops), but it still took a good hour for the redness and stinging to go away.

I've never liked bugs before, but this just cements my hatred for them.

[Czernobog]

Eh, complaining is a decent way to relieve some stress! Hopefully, someone you know will understand and just let you vent Bogus.

Grad school pressure is on. 3 exams in the next two days and one is basically just memorizing the textbook. Annoying, but I'm pretty well-versed in memorization tricks. Just time consuming. Also been hitting up career fairs and such to look at some internships to give me some actually relevant work experience because of the career change. Time management is such a pain. Really want to get into Phantom Pain at some point.

Doing relatively well in said grad program. One quite rigorous course is taught by a professor who doesn't really explain. Been learning material through YouTube tutorials done by qualified professors and it's given me a huge leg up. Whodathunkit.

[BogusMeatFactory]

Hang in there, Bogus.

Also, wow, it sounds like you have crappy friends (or at least crappy conversation partners.) I don't know of a single new parent who hasn't at one time complained about lack of sleep due to teething/colic/illness of some sort. Hell, I'm pretty sure it's even a television staple for any show with an infant to cover a 'dear god this is exhausting' moments. Never once have I ever heard of anyone concluding that being tired somehow equates to you being a bad parent.

You're tired and complaining about the effects of the situation, not the situation itself. So unless your mentions of lack of sleep involves something to the extent of "The baby's teething and kept me up for hours last night... the little snot", the next time those tireless crusaders say anything to you, tell them to go find a baby that actually needs defending.

Or smack them in the face and then blame your poor motor functions on your lack of sleep.

Yeah, I get a lot of crap from a lot of different people for a lot of different reasons. I have been told that I spend too much time with my daughter and I spoil her. Don't know how you can spoil a 5 1/2 month old. I have been told that I need to not be so hands on with her, because people might be suspicious. At the Doctor's office, they assume that I am on government assisted healthcare. Nope! I get told to calm down when an in-law hears her cry and starts slamming their fist on the table to quiet her and I tell them that that is not okay. They tell me that I can't let her listen to real music, even though it isn't inappropriate or harsh. I get questioned at every turn about everything that I say and do and it is incredibly frustrating.

I do a great job with her and I go far above and beyond what a lot of people do for their kids. You would never see a happier baby who is so alert and aware of her surroundings and so interactive with everyone. She is doing great on all of her milestones, which are things I don't stress out about (but my wife goes nuts over). I get viewed as a layabout by my in-laws, because I stay at home with her until I get into my Ultrasound Technician Program (which I will be starting next year) and my friends have been jealous that I just can't drop everything and hang out with them and my wife stresses out about everything in the world. The only people who are accepting of my position is my wife's friends.

Everyone is so disapproving of everything and I can't tell you how tough that is. I am a happy, positive, intelligent person who works very hard to make sure this household runs smoothly. I pay the bills, I clean the apartment, I cook the food, clean the clothes, run all the errands, shop for groceries, and I take care of my daughter 24-7 5 days a week and no matter I do, it seems like everyone thinks I need to do more.

It is really tough.

I'm sorry to kind of go on a tangent, but even I get frustrated sometimes. I feel like people get upset that I am a happy person and they expect me to be miserable like them and it is disheartening.

[Michi]

Okay, first off, your right. You can't spoil a 5 month old. What are you supposed to do, ignore her when she cries? She's not a five-year-old throwing a tantrum. Leave her alone to stare at the ceiling for hours? That's no good. Stimulation is good for babies, it helps them learn.

As for the 'suspicious' part, there you may be SOL. Men get a hella bad rap when it comes to kids. Ninety percent of the time you hear about a lone man and child it's usually something criminal and that puts a cultural stigma in peoples minds that's hard to overcome. Just ignore those people. You're trying to be a good, attentive father and there's nothing wrong with that.

Personally, I'd tell the in-laws to fudge off (you have to watch your language with a baby present.) It's your home and your child and if you and the wife are happy with the music choices and don't want them to react like that than they should respect that.

And if the in-laws can't grasp that there is no room in the program you're looking to get into until next year (my friend had to wait 2 years for an x-ray tech opening) than perhaps the best solution to that is to have your wife explain it to them. I don't know how they are, but parents are more inclined to listen to their children than the spouse. Otherwise I'd really try to limit their visits. I'm sure they think they're helping (people like that usually do) but you don't need the extra stress they bring.

You just keep doing what you're doing, Bogus, and try not to let those nay-sayers get you down. I'm sure most of them would bulk after a week if they were trying to keep up with half of what you're doing. Chin up, shoulders back, smile on and, when necessary, middle finger properly flexed so you can discreetly flip them the bird when they get out of line.



Oh, and your friends will either get over this new life change or they won't. In a couple more months you'll know which ones are worth keeping around and which ones aren't.