Random Comments/Stream of Consciousness Thread

[Brice]

I'd work for just enough to scrape by if I could be happy at a job. The reality is I'm absolutely miserable at my job and it pours into my life outside of work. And the pay is mediocre. Even more distressing/depressing it's the best paying job I've ever had. LOL

[stkmw02]

Transportation to and from a job is a major issue. I totally understand!

When I first started dating my husband, we lived an hour apart: me in the Jim Thorpe area, him in the Bethlehem area. Only seeing each other on weekends was annoying when we got more serious, but moving in together after less than six months of dating seemed crazy. My position at the school district was terminated, so I started looking for jobs anywhere... agreeing that if the job was closer to him, we'd move in together to be practical. (I was offered two jobs and took the one closer to him, at the casino. lol) For a little over a year, we lived together with no more than a ten minute commute to our respective work places. Then we decided to move closer to my family... so for about six months we both made an hour commute to work every morning and an hour commute home. In the winter, this was especially tough. I was working full-time and taking three graduate courses, so I finally decided to leave the job to focus on school and job hunting closer to home.

I currently live in Jim Thorpe and am very reluctant to seek jobs in the Bethlehem area... of course I have to, because I'm desperate for full-time employment. However, if I lived in Bethlehem, I would have no problem commuting to Jim Thorpe. I know, because I did that before I moved in with my husband (read: when I was living with my husband before we "moved in" together.) Same amount of driving... just a different destination. Making the trip for the job I enjoyed was always worth it. Sometimes that ten minute commute to the casino was more painful, because I dreaded going to work at all.

My husband still spends two hours of every day driving. Plus, he gets motion sickness. But he doesn't complain, because he loves living in this area. If he could, he'd work up here too... but he owns his own business. Which you would think means he could move it wherever he wants, right? Not so. His business has been established in Allentown for about fifteen years, moving would mean jeopardizing current clients. So he commutes to a job he loves from a home he loves and seems pretty happy about it.

So. To help you more... 30 minutes of walking will be tough on your feet and 30 minutes of the metro could be expensive and annoying, regardless of whether the pay makes it worth it or the enjoyment of the job makes it worth it. Here is my suggestion. Make a list of the two jobs and the perks of each (no drawbacks, perks only!). The pay for one is great. The pay for the other is still plenty for survival. The work for one is great. The work for the other is still enjoyable. For the 30 minute walk, you'll be getting some great exercise every day. For the metro, you'll have a good opportunity to sit and read before and after work. Then, looking at all the perks, decide which seems like a more pleasant "day to day" life for you. If you still can't decide, then you can toss in those drawbacks. Maybe you hate the metro so much, no job is worth that commute. lol

[Pasiuk57]

I'm pretty (VERY) lucky
I work 10 minutes away from home- I can't imagine driving an hour one way to work-Only benefit-listening to more King audio books!
I travel around the world looking for new items for our stores, website and catalogs
I make deals and negotiate every day with national firms as well as smaller ones
Our company has a jet that I get to take around to various places/meetings in the USA
I love my job.
It pays very well and I make my company millions based on the decisions I make.
Very fortunate in my little part of the world
My wife drives 20 minutes to work but is always in early and out early so that is never an issue-except when it snows for her then everyone drives slow...

Would I work for less and be happy-not sure-I am super happy now! Have been for 17 years at the same place...

[herbertwest]

I didnt think that my random thoughts would bring such interesting answers!

@Pasuik : Sounds like a very interesting position!

@stkmw02
A few comments :
"30 minutes of the metro could be expensive and annoying" > Na. Parisian companies pays 50% of the metro card. Meaning that it finally costs you about 30€ if you live close to Paris.
"For the metro, you'll have a good opportunity to sit and read before and after work." > You dont know the parisian metro in peak hours ;-)

[Patrick]

I think it's high time I move to Apple Valley and beg Mike for a job!

[alkanto]

I took a job this summer that was a 45 min commute 1-way without even knowing what the pay was going to be. it was just the right job. I know my situation is a bit different, as I still live at home when I'm not at school but I am responsible for myself as far as everything but food. And I still had to save up for my England trip. I was very lucky, in that they paid me way more than I was expecting/thought I really deserved...$8.50 an hour for watching dogs play is a bit ridiculous! But it was the perfect job for me, and looked good on my resume. The satisfaction I got from the job more than outweighed my hatred of driving long distances.

[Merlin1958]

Starting to feel like this thread has a "Topic" LOL LOL

How 'bout them Yankees!!!

[CRinVA]

[stkmw02]

As I kid, I had my fair share of lightening bug jars and ant farms. I was pretty familiar with all the local bugs. When I went to college, my roommate and I encountered the scariest creature ever in our dorm (and we had a lot of scary shit in that dorm). It was a HUGE bug with many many legs that ran super fuckin fast around the dorm and had us both cornered on the window ledge screaming for help. Of course, it disappeared before help arrived and everyone thought we were crazy. I saw these odd alien bugs a few more times in college and even brought one home accidentally in my luggage, so my brother was able to see it scurry off and morph into the wall. Seriously. There was no crack or crevice for it to hide in. Scary shit.

I never saw them again after I graduated. Then, I read the term "cave cricket" in The Reading Promise... and I thought, "Gee, that sounds about as ugly as the bug I remember. I wonder if that's what it's called." But did I look it up? No. Two books later, I again read about "cave crickets" in Dewey's Nine Lives and again think, "I really should find out what they look like." Do I look it up? No.

Today I enter my bathroom and turn on the light, only to see the biggest fuckin creepy-crawly multi-legged alien creature scurry toward the toilet. Forget about sitting my ass on that thing now. Who knows where that face-hugger looking thing might be? I tried to coax the cat into the bathroom, hoping he would hunt the thing down like the books I had read suggested. The cat would go nowhere near the bathroom. He did not wish to have some further evolved form of the bug leap out of his chest. I don't blame him.

So, I googled Cave Crickets. Still a little creepy, but cricket enough to make me realize that is not the creature I am dealing with. When I googled "bug with many legs" and scanned the images, I finally identified this ugly mofo as a household centipede. Doesn't that sound cute? household centipede. Like it belongs in a house. Like it's no big deal. This thing in my bathroom was the size of my FOOT and now I have no idea where it is.

In general, things with more limbs than body segments freak me out. Ants? Head, thorax, abdomen - three sets of legs. Ok by me. Spiders? Cephelothorax, abdomen - four sets of legs. Not okay. Not at all. Octopi, squid, crabs, shrimp - same deal. Way too many legs for one body, man. So a centipede, the normal looking ones that have tiny legs, is borderline scary because the legs are sort of hidden, like a caterpillar. But this fucking thing is ALL legs... everywhere... more creepy fucking legs than any creatures needs!

Here is an example from google images. Keep in mind this guy's big brother is somewhere in my home. Right now.

[Patrick]

Creepy creepy, crawly crawly

[Randall Flagg]

Here is an example from google images. Keep in mind this guy's big brother is somewhere in my home. Right now.

Probably in your bed, or underneath the toilet seat....

[jhanic]

When I was in Vietnam, we were sitting around this makeshift table in our tent, wearing flip-flops, when I felt something run over my foot. It turned out to be a foot-and-a-half long centipede. We burned it with gasoline.

John

[stkmw02]

Thank you, Jerome. That's comforting.
John, you are welcome to come over with some gasoline if you'd like. I have a fire extinguisher.

[Randall Flagg]

When I was in Vietnam, we were sitting around this makeshift table in our tent, wearing flip-flops, when I felt something run over my foot. It turned out to be a foot-and-a-half long centipede. We burned it with gasoline.

John

Did you hobble ever since with a burned foot?

[jhanic]

John

[Ricky]

When I was in Vietnam, we were sitting around this makeshift table in our tent, wearing flip-flops, when I felt something run over my foot. It turned out to be a foot-and-a-half long centipede. We burned it with gasoline.

John

[stkmw02]

Toby the cat hunted down a smaller household centipede! The bigun' is still out there somewhere... which means we may have an infestation on our hands. I am proud of Toby, who fiercely faced the alien and conquered it. This one was half-dollar sized.

[Randall Flagg]

Toby the cat hunted down a smaller household centipede! The bigun' is still out there somewhere... which means we may have an infestation on our hands. I am proud of Toby, who fiercely faced the alien and conquered it. This one was half-dollar sized.

Don't go to the bathroom-especially in the dark..it's under the lid-or perhaps behind the tank-ready to crawl upon you. I suggest you learn to do your business standing up....this can only end in a tragedy...

[jhanic]

Toby the cat hunted down a smaller household centipede! The bigun' is still out there somewhere... which means we may have an infestation on our hands. I am proud of Toby, who fiercely faced the alien and conquered it. This one was half-dollar sized.

This reminds me of King's screenplay "The General".

John

[stkmw02]

Luckily, I have another bathroom I could use... I'm reluctant to start peeing standing up.

[Brice]

Oh, his bigger brother lives in the other bathroom.

[Shannon]

Oh yeah, definite infestation. You don't see any and then all of a sudden you see two? Infestation. And they're multiplying. And evolving.

And getting larger.

[herbertwest]

We had an unpleasant experience as well, twice last year :
Last october, we went out to a restaurant to come home by 23:00..... With a kitchen full of maggots! They were starting to go to the hall as well... It took me 1-2h to tidy all of this fucking mess! Bleaching the floor, wiping, grabbing every single maggot... Very pleasant!

A few months later, it happened again...

I tend to believe that it happened because of the bin that had melon or some other fruit with it... While we had the window opened and some flies were around.
They seemed to be coming from thz bin and going inside a wall... Or thr other way around.

We treated the wall with some specific products, we pay more attetion to the bin an avoid putting fruits and stuff like that....... And hope that it wont happen again!

So, unlike you it was not 1 giant bug that we dont know where it is.... But loads of maggots spreading everywhere..........

[carlosdetweiller]

I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've ever had an accused murderer's phone number as a contact in my cell phone.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/texas-plast...8#.UAbXTFKLL4I

[jhanic]

Bob, that's wild! Two doctors! Amazing!

John