The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.

[Mrs Pingu]

They were in the absolutely *last* place I looked. Why does stuff always have to hide in the very last place you look?

Um, because what sort of numpty carries on looking once they've found what they're looking for?
IGMC.

[lou boutin]

I hate graduation. I like graduation in the sense that I love seeing the graduants in their caps and gowns all happy and excited. I love seeing my students celebrate their success with their families. I love the sense of excitement on campus during graduation. But, I hate having to have my photo taken with my doctoral graduants and the VC, I hate parading through town in full academic garb, I hate parading in to the theatre, I hate sitting on the stage, but most of all I hate having to stand on the stage and receive my graduating doctoral students. I gets so utterly, mind blowingly nervous and scared that I'm going to fall over or something. In the past I've attended but made one of the other supervisors do it. This time they just put me down as doing it, hauled me up the stairs to the Offices of the Vice Chancellor where I had to wait until the line up had formed and then trot down the stairs to reception behind the VC and the important people, where we were joined by the rest of the faculty.  I think I'm going to be having nightmares about this for the next few nights. 

Oh by the way, is it rude to not want to stand by the VC when your having your photo taken? I made a colleague stand by him, whilst I stood next to my student. When ever I meet the VC he looks me up and down, huffs and walks off, so why would I stand by him? 

[Tim Hall]

Language evolves, it's descriptive not prescriptive, yadda yadda yadda. But "kudo" as a singular of kudos and "kudoed" to show when someone has received kudos are quite horrid constructions.


(Grumpiness may be increased by reading these terms on the PayPal forum where I'm trying to find out where my refund is)

[Cudzoziemiec]

So they've made kudos countable? I can see the sense in that in the context of a forum or something that gives "kudos points" but I don't think it's going to catch on outside that.

[ElyDave]

I can't think when I've ever been stingy enough to just give someone a single kudo, that just seems mean

[hellymedic]

Maybe 25 December will be a Christma.

[hellymedic]

David is off to Berlin today. David has forgotten his German phrasebook and dictionary.

Airport bookshop apparently stocks neither phrasebook nor guide to Berlin.

T5 Heathrow: I am unimpressed.

[Mr Larrington]

This Unit has been unimpressed with LHR T5 since the day it opened.  T2 wasn't much better the other week, mind, just smaller.

[ian]

It's an airport. You can buy 'designer' underpants for £30 and socks for not much less. So don't leave them on the bed at home. Undergarments are generally a lot more useful than phrasebooks in my experience. Unless you are that way inclined, and well, it's Germany. I imagine a nation of commandoes and now wish I hadn't. Did I ever tell the story of the bondage bear? Best I don't. Those wacky Germans.

It used to be worst when they lost my bags going to America and I had to go to the mall. I'd spend the next couple of days wearing clothes so big that the only reasonable assumption was that I'd shrunk. I once had to borrow my girlfriend's stuff. Nope, not her knickers. A man has to have standards. Besides, I prefer lace.

[Kim]

Who needs phrasebooks when you've got google in your pocket?

[ian]

That's all I use, it's pretty magic. Point phone at the menu and it turns English, handily avoiding 'feet of pigs' mealtime debacles. A friend of mine didn't realise you could do that, ah the look on their face. Welcome to 2018.

If it's wasn't for Google, I'd be resorting to using my school-grade French, mostly as a weapon. Snooty French waiter? Watch the slow seep of horror into their faces as I yank out their national tongue and use it as linguistic sandwich filling. Frankly, you can get around the world provided you can say 'yes', 'no', 'thank you,' and 'stop it, that hurts' in the necessary languages.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The first recorded use of Kudo in the singular was in 1926 according to Merriam-Webster.

Is kudo a word?
Some commentators hold that since kudos is a singular word it cannot be used as a plural and that the word kudo is impossible. But kudo does exist; it is simply one of the most recent words created by back-formation from another word misunderstood as a plural. Kudos was introduced into English in the 19th century; it was used in contexts where a reader unfamiliar with Greek could not be sure whether it was singular or plural. By the 1920s it began to appear as a plural, and about 25 years later kudo began to appear. It may have begun as a misunderstanding, but then so did cherry and pea.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kudo

[T42]

See also the Illuminatus! trilogy: the use of "chao" as the singular of chaos, and the "Sacred Chao".

[Gattopardo]

I hate graduation. I like graduation in the sense that I love seeing the graduants in their caps and gowns all happy and excited. I love seeing my students celebrate their success with their families. I love the sense of excitement on campus during graduation. But, I hate having to have my photo taken with my doctoral graduants and the VC, I hate parading through town in full academic garb, I hate parading in to the theatre, I hate sitting on the stage, but most of all I hate having to stand on the stage and receive my graduating doctoral students. I gets so utterly, mind blowingly nervous and scared that I'm going to fall over or something. In the past I've attended but made one of the other supervisors do it. This time they just put me down as doing it, hauled me up the stairs to the Offices of the Vice Chancellor where I had to wait until the line up had formed and then trot down the stairs to reception behind the VC and the important people, where we were joined by the rest of the faculty.  I think I'm going to be having nightmares about this for the next few nights. 

Oh by the way, is it rude to not want to stand by the VC when your having your photo taken? I made a colleague stand by him, whilst I stood next to my student. When ever I meet the VC he looks me up and down, huffs and walks off, so why would I stand by him?

I only ever went to mine for my parents.

Can't see the point if it was just me.

[Gattopardo]

It is the start of the christmas in the shops...ho ho fuck that shite.

[mrcharly-YHT]

See also the Illuminatus! trilogy: the use of "chao" as the singular of chaos, and the "Sacred Chao".

Can you milk a sacred chao?

[orienteer]

Frankly, you can get around the world provided you can say 'yes', 'no', 'thank you,' and 'stop it, that hurts' in the necessary languages.

We used to say you only need three phrases in any language:
No
Where is the toilet?
My friend will pay

[Kim]

I hate graduation. I like graduation in the sense that I love seeing the graduants in their caps and gowns all happy and excited. I love seeing my students celebrate their success with their families. I love the sense of excitement on campus during graduation. But, I hate having to have my photo taken with my doctoral graduants and the VC, I hate parading through town in full academic garb, I hate parading in to the theatre, I hate sitting on the stage, but most of all I hate having to stand on the stage and receive my graduating doctoral students. I gets so utterly, mind blowingly nervous and scared that I'm going to fall over or something. In the past I've attended but made one of the other supervisors do it. This time they just put me down as doing it, hauled me up the stairs to the Offices of the Vice Chancellor where I had to wait until the line up had formed and then trot down the stairs to reception behind the VC and the important people, where we were joined by the rest of the faculty.  I think I'm going to be having nightmares about this for the next few nights. 

Oh by the way, is it rude to not want to stand by the VC when your having your photo taken? I made a colleague stand by him, whilst I stood next to my student. When ever I meet the VC he looks me up and down, huffs and walks off, so why would I stand by him?

I only ever went to mine for my parents.

Can't see the point if it was just me.

In the absence of parents who cared, I didn't go to mine.  On balance, I made the right decision.

[ian]

I went to my undergraduate graduation – my parents were mostly bemused and amused by the pageantry and it was good fun. It was the last time I saw many friends as we headed off in different directions and slowly forgot to keep in touch.

I didn't bother with the PhD as there wasn't really any point beyond the ceremony and I wasn't about to fly all the way back to the UK to collect a roll of paper.

[Gattopardo]

I hate graduation. I like graduation in the sense that I love seeing the graduants in their caps and gowns all happy and excited. I love seeing my students celebrate their success with their families. I love the sense of excitement on campus during graduation. But, I hate having to have my photo taken with my doctoral graduants and the VC, I hate parading through town in full academic garb, I hate parading in to the theatre, I hate sitting on the stage, but most of all I hate having to stand on the stage and receive my graduating doctoral students. I gets so utterly, mind blowingly nervous and scared that I'm going to fall over or something. In the past I've attended but made one of the other supervisors do it. This time they just put me down as doing it, hauled me up the stairs to the Offices of the Vice Chancellor where I had to wait until the line up had formed and then trot down the stairs to reception behind the VC and the important people, where we were joined by the rest of the faculty.  I think I'm going to be having nightmares about this for the next few nights. 

Oh by the way, is it rude to not want to stand by the VC when your having your photo taken? I made a colleague stand by him, whilst I stood next to my student. When ever I meet the VC he looks me up and down, huffs and walks off, so why would I stand by him?

I only ever went to mine for my parents.

Can't see the point if it was just me.

In the absence of parents who cared, I didn't go to mine.  On balance, I made the right decision.

Part of me felt like graduation was a money making exercise, from gown hire from eide to tickets for attendees.  Think the degree one I had one or two free.  Others none at all.  The holding the waste pipe for the eyewateringly expensive photos to the walk on stage and collecting a blank piece of paper.

[Jurek]

I think my clippers are about the same vintage as yours Jurek.   10 minutes on a medium/fine waterstone & a dab of oil & they seem to be cutting a bit better,  so thats one less piece of landfill.    I keep looking at cordless sets so I don't need to take the extension lead into the bathroom, but am so far resisting.

Take the mains lead in.
It's exciting.
Just don't turn on the water.

[Pickled Onion]

I can't think when I've ever been stingy enough to just give someone a single kudo, that just seems mean

[mcshroom]

I now know why the extractor fan in my bathroom was strangely quiet. The 'blades' inside are more of a melted thermoplastic ball. Looks like that will be this weekend's DIY job.

[T42]

Curry a bit strong?

[Guy]

After three days of attempting to give access to SharePointy stuff on gubmint IT notwork

head/desk head/desk head/desk head/desk head/desk head/desk


We’ll try again in the morning. You’ve been site-moved now so maybe the system just hasn’t caught up yet. <clutching at straws.com>

Regards
 
 Guy