Isolated Blurt Thread

[loquere]

This time next week I will be in Las Vegas

What will you be doing in Vegas?

 

[TheeGoatPig]

What will you be doing in Vegas?

As much poker as possible.

 

[Handley_Page]

As much poker as possible.

May you return with more cash that you set out

 

[PennLady]

I'm confused. Is penngirl writing in the third person, or is someone writing for her?

I'm PennLady. PennGirl is my daughter.

 

[loquere]

I'm PennLady. PennGirl is my daughter.

Im sorry, I apologize fully for my error.

 

[oggbashan]

I have just returned from our local weekly auction. Among other lots I bought a Milkmaid's Yoke for carrying milk buckets.

All I have to do now is find a Milkmaid to try it on.

Including Buyer's Commission, it cost me £6.60

I think the Milkmaid might be more expensive.

 

[Handley_Page]

I have just returned from our local weekly auction. Among other lots I bought a Milkmaid's Yoke for carrying milk buckets.

All I have to do now is find a Milkmaid to try it on.

Including Buyer's Commission, it cost me £6.60

I think the Milkmaid might be more expensive.

Highly likely, Ogg.

 

[loquere]

As much poker as possible.

Don't go over board. Please avoid gambling your pants away.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Proper blurt about my work.

So, recently I began to try to apply for a little more work with the institution for whom I teach. This is extremely difficult, as usually when a teaching contract becomes available, people who have just lost teaching contracts get first bite at the cherry. Well, that's fair enough. Unfortunately as I have so few teaching contracts, I very rarely lose one so I very rarely am in a position to get first bite at any new ones made available. That's still sort-of fair.

I am in danger of losing my one teaching contract in the autumn, as student numbers have tended to fall, and my colleagues who may have lost contracts will be first in line to keep theirs even though they have several and I only have one. If that happens, I may not even be able to sign on for unemployment benefit as I will still hold a contract to start work in February and the DSS may say I am not making myself properly available for work.

So, that's still fair but it doesn't feel much like it.

Meanwhile, my line manager suddenly disappeared on study leave. By which I mean, she sent an email on Friday saying she would not be around any more tralala, and somebody else would take over as of Monday. She didn't put my name on the email, one of my colleagues texted me to tell me about it so I could kick off and make a fuss, and he wouldn't have to.

I knew she was going and had asked about whether there would be a post to replace her, as I thought of applying for it, but she said if there was one, it would probably be taken by people being affected by a relocation process going on. So I was discouraged then from applying.

Then I saw that one of the rest of us lecturers had been temporarily parachuted in to take over while a proper application process was put in place. I emailed to ask how this had come about. Was this a transparent open appointment process?

One line manager replied to offer me a day's paid work doing something else.

The other emailed to offer me coffee/lunch.

Neither explained how the appointment had been made.

I was going to apply for the management post as I am so worried about not having work in the autumn. But I felt down-hearted because of my one line manager saying it would go to someone being relocated. Now I realise this is actually unlikely. However, I did also reflect that I don't want to be a manager! I want to be well-managed to teach. It would be horrible being a manager, as I would have to work with that basturd manager who is always trying to prevent me getting work.

Meanwhile a teaching contract was advertised. I am putting together an application for it. I asked Basturd line manager to be my referee on it, as a kind of sop towards seeing if he has changed his spots, and I also asked for some details about it. He said that with the move to Group Tuition, he thought it would go to someone out of the region, but within a 'cluster' (a group of regions teaching a module together).

First of all, that sounds very unlikely to me. I didn't think this was a module which was arranged on a clustered basis.

Secondly, he was not giving me the information I wanted so I could progress my application, but telling me I would be unlikely to get even this lowly teaching contract. Not on the basis of other people having lost contracts so having prior bite at the cherry, but on a whole new criterion which of course I don't fit.

Am I wrong to get a strong whiff of something rotten in the state of job appointments? (Remember, Basturd line manager is the one whom I finally got slotted for discrimination in appointing teaching contracts about three years ago, who had his head kicked in by senior managers behind the bike sheds and went about for a while afterwards with his tail firmly between his legs.)

 

[Handley_Page]

So, recently I began to try to apply for a little more work with the institution for whom I teach.

First of all, that sounds very unlikely to me. I didn't think this was a module which was arranged on a clustered basis.

Secondly, he was not giving me the information I wanted so I could progress my application, but telling me I would be unlikely to get even this lowly teaching contract. Not on the basis of other people having lost contracts so having prior bite at the cherry, but on a whole new criterion which of course I don't fit.

Am I wrong to get a strong whiff of something rotten in the state of job appointments? (Remember, Basturd line manager is the one whom I finally got slotted for discrimination in appointing teaching contracts about three years ago, who had his head kicked in by senior managers behind the bike sheds and went about for a while afterwards with his tail firmly between his legs.)

Why is this BLM still employed ?

 

[NaokoSmith]

Why is this BLM still employed ?

Oh, because he's too incompetent for them even to kick upstairs, one presumes

More news!

Tomorrow I am going to meet the line manager who went on study leave, as she invited me to coffee when I accused her and BLM of not exercising due transparency in appointments.

Today I had an email from my colleague to say that she appointed another colleague - whom she also gave other small pieces of paid work to on the basis that they 'had a chat' - to teach the contract we are all applying for when the former contract holder suddenly resigned. My colleague is wondering why he wasn't appointed, given that he taught the module the previous year so knew it inside out already.

Well, we will be having a lovely chat over our coffee!


(ETA: this is the line manager who swore all appointments would be made with complete transparency in a thoroughly open and fair manner when she first started out only a year ago.)

 

[Handley_Page]

Oh, because he's too incompetent for them even to kick upstairs, one presumes

More news!

Tomorrow I am going to meet the line manager who went on study leave, as she invited me to coffee when I accused her and BLM of not exercising due transparency in appointments.

Today I had an email from my colleague to say that she appointed another colleague - whom she also gave other small pieces of paid work to on the basis that they 'had a chat' - to teach the contract we are all applying for when the former contract holder suddenly resigned. My colleague is wondering why he wasn't appointed, given that he taught the module the previous year so knew it inside out already.

Well, we will be having a lovely chat over our coffee!


(ETA: this is the line manager who swore all appointments would be made with complete transparency in a thoroughly open and fair manner when she first started out only a year ago.)

It would seem as if said 'manager' has the makings of a political career; a first-class liar. . .

 

[oggbashan]

I am trying to rip a new collection of classical CDs. I think I have taken on too much.

About a month ago I bought a collection of classical CDs at our local auction for £13.20. They were all in perfect condition and most of them were complete works. Some were still in the unopened wrappers. I gave the 'extracts of' of and 'best of' to a local charity shop.

I still had over 700 remaining. So far I have ripped less than a tenth of them, including many pieces I had never heard before e.g. Salieri and some of Shoskovich's minor pieces.

I have been concentrating on operatic arias today and have found composers I had never heard of with wonderful renditions of rarely heard performances.

I think I will still be ripping those CDs in several months' time and enjoying the discoveries.

 

[Handley_Page]

You really do have a lot of interest & fun at your local auctions, don't you?
My local place has a large collection of squawking birds, farm produce and 'farm items of unknown function'
It used to be good, too.

 

[TxRad]

You really do have a lot of interest & fun at your local auctions, don't you?
My local place has a large collection of squawking birds, farm produce and 'farm items of unknown function'
It used to be good, too.

'farm items of unknown function' Gives my imagination a big jolt.

So many possibilities.

 

[oggbashan]

'farm items of unknown function' Gives my imagination a big jolt.

So many possibilities.

There's a small rural heritage museum near me. I gave them the milkmaid's yoke last week.

They often have an 'unknown object' on display for visitors to guess the purpose. Whatever they put out as 'unknown' is something for which they actually know the function but the visitors' guesses can be amusing.

They rarely have anything actually 'unknown' because most of the volunteers are retired farmers but they were stumped for a while on one. It was obviously a cutting instrument for gelding bull calves but it had odd attachments. An ancient (90+) farmer's wife told them. It caught the balls as they were cut off so that they could be used in witchcraft rituals. Not many people knew that witchcraft was practised in the local area in the early 20th Century.

Now they're looking at the old lady differently.

 

[Handley_Page]

There's a small rural heritage museum near me. I gave them the milkmaid's yoke last week.

They often have an 'unknown object' on display for visitors to guess the purpose. Whatever they put out as 'unknown' is something for which they actually know the function but the visitors' guesses can be amusing.

They rarely have anything actually 'unknown' because most of the volunteers are retired farmers but they were stumped for a while on one. It was obviously a cutting instrument for gelding bull calves but it had odd attachments. An ancient (90+) farmer's wife told them. It caught the balls as they were cut off so that they could be used in witchcraft rituals. Not many people knew that witchcraft was practised in the local area in the early 20th Century.

Now they're looking at the old lady differently.

And maybe making the sign of the cross as they scurry away. . . .

 

[NaokoSmith]

So far I have ripped less than a tenth of them, including many pieces I had never heard before e.g. Salieri and some of Shoskovich's minor pieces.

Salieri wrote some charming pieces as I remember.


Ogg, TX and HP, I'm hoping you will get together over your farmyard implements and write a wonderful story about witchcraft and bull calf testicles.

 

[NaokoSmith]

The blurt continues

I gave my line manager a right b!tch-slapping today. At first she mumbled some excuses: "It was a desperate emergency situation ..." "No, surely he's not that bad ..." (about Basturd Line Manager Too Incompetent Even to be Kicked Upstairs).

Eventually to her credit, she admitted she had not managed very well and that in particular she had failed to give me adequate management support. As she has effectively left, her feeble efforts to ask what she could do to help me now she has mucked things up for me went down like a ton of lemons. However she does still have a small role so in the end I graciously allowed her to find out if there were a couple of things she could do for me. Remains to be seen if she actually does them.


She did reveal that some of Basturd Line Manager's decisions have come under fire from Someone Above Him called Phillip. (Who he? I know not.) I tucked the fact up my knicker leg for later on, intending to keep a close eye on matters. If things continue in this way (highly likely), I shall put it all in a densely worded document supported with the substantial damaging email correspondence I have collected and shove it somewhere extremely painful for all managers who have had anything to do with the shambolic setup here.
:caning:

 

[Handley_Page]

I think we all look forward to the details of the replies/ reactions.

 

[NaokoSmith]

What I learned

I found it disruptive having to go and tick off my line manager. It was my 'day off'. Because I often work through the weekend, I usually take Tuesdays off from work and relax. It cut up my day that I had to meet my manager and go through all this cr@p with her. The rest of the day was nice but not as nice as usual.

I remember that it used always to be like that. There was always something disruptive and disturbing going on, always some drama that put me out, cut up my peace, made me anxious and stressed.

Sunday this week was relaxed and easy-going, even though I had Piglet and that usually means stress. Life generally is becoming more relaxed, even on days which are not my 'day off'.

My life used to be non-stop stress and drama and anxst and trouble, with tiny islands of time when I could stop and get a moment's respite. Now the stress and anxious times are more like the islands, and shrinking. (That is partly because I worked hard and got in there and kicked butt to show that I wouldn't be taking any of this cr@p which stresses me out.)

 

[MagicaPractica]

I don't understand what changed and it makes me sad.

 

[PennLady]

Why is it everything gets in the way of writing? How did I manage to write several stories, six or so of them novel-length, when my kids were younger, and now that they are both in school all day and capable of entertaining themselves when at home, I just... have no time, or focus, or time to focus.

Sigh.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

Back from Las Vegas. Only lost $44. Can't wait to go back some day

 

[oggbashan]

Bank Holiday Weekend

It's a Bank Holiday weekend. I had some ancient maps to deliver to a Museum so I arrived there almost as soon as they opened. As I was driving back the traffic going the other way was building with a two-mile queue.

I parked alongside my house as cars were parking along the sea front road. That road will be completely parked up within half an hour and will stay that way until about 6pm.

Why? Because it is free seaside parking all day.

I stay at home on Bank Holiday weekends and watch the grockles.