My eye! Sweet Jesus, Ouch!

[GuzziHero]

I can't wear face masks. I can't stand my peripheral vision being blocked really. Heck, I get claustrophobia in the bath!

 

These mesk mouthguards I'm starting to see look promising.

 

---

New rant:

 

[spin - removed by admin as names and specifics mentioned getting too close to specific legal issues]

 

---

Edit:

For any former Unreal players who want to get in touch, I'm now on Facebook as Guzzi Hero, and my msn is in my profile here.

[GuzziHero]

Oops!

 

Actually, you're right. I shouldnt be discussing such things openly. I'll leave it for the courts.

[Kyrian_Zenda]

Job searches and postings.

 

Are you looking for a challenge?

 

No I'm *fruitcage* not! I just want a bloody job, not a sodding rock-wall that throws medicine balls and grenades at you!

 

Don't ask me stupid questions, just post up what the job entails, what I need to get it, and how to apply! Grrr.

[Azubi]

Good luck Guzzi!

[GuzziHero]

Cheers

 

Arnie is right on though. I shouldnt be washing my dirty linen in public.

 

New rant:

Innuendo. I am utterly terrible for it. So much so that now I'm boring myself with it. I have made a resolution to try and cut down. It's not big, and its not clever.

 

Unless I'm dressed in my priest loadout, in which case it's game on!

[Mike_West]

Chinese airsoft makers. I know they're making all that stuff illegally, but seriously: they promised a metric crapload of new releases, but they can't even keep up with the old ones. It's a miracle I managed to source a BE gas shotgun - of course it's used and, as luck would have it, belonged to a guy whose hobby is upgrading and repairing airsoft guns. Not like the Taiwanese don't screw up either.

 

Also, my job. I'm apparently getting pushed over to a different department, where I'm gonna be a paper-pushing cubicle monkey and if they won't be paying better, I guess it's time to call it quits. With a degree, I guess I'm gonna have an easier time getting a well-paid job. And why am I getting my post changed? Long story short: a woman got pregnant, you know how they're made. They started looking for a temporary replacement. I applied. Then, another woman got pregnant. Now, the first one comes back from maternity leave, my boss quickly rearranges stuff so I'm a temporary replacement for the second one. It turns out that the first woman is pregnant again, so all that *suitcase* was unnecessary and there's no way to undo it. As it's a government agency, I can't be simply fired because the person I was substituting for came back - so they'll have to find me a new post instead. Add a restructurization to make the agency work like its equivalents in the rest of EU, which will most probably end up in an epic cluster*fruitcage*, and I'll most probably end up as a low-grade paper-pushing cubicle monkey whose only quality is knowledge of English at level higher than "Oook.". KURWA MAC!

[GuzziHero]

I usually don't bother answering phone calls which come up as withheld or unknown. I did just, just to see what it was.

 

Usual blah starts off, how am I today etc...as if they care. I say this sounds scarily like a sales call. She insists it isnt.

 

She carries on... "We are currently doing a security promotion in your area. Is home security important to you?".

 

This IS a sales call. They were going to offer me a free monitored alarm and I still have to pay for the fitting and the monitor service charge. So they have lied to me before I even know the name of the company.

 

Byeeeee!

[Spudgun]

It's mega rant time.

 

In this outing, the subject of my rage is Swinton Bikes. Never have I delt with such butt-holes before. Before now, I've always delt with the local branch in town. There was never a problem. However, since my Enfield is a Grey Import, it's not on UK Insurers books so it has to go to a specialist (Enter Swinton Bikes). Getting the initial insurance wasn't a problem and the 30 day cover note arrived in the post a couple of days later. Mind you, it was wrong. It listed the bike being made in 2000 and not 1999. Not to worry, a phone call later and a corrected one turned up. So far, so good.

 

Due to the local DVLA Office being a bunch of petty jobsworths, I had to get a Dating Certificate from the Royal Enfield Owners Club. This ment that my 30 day cover note would run out by the time the certificate came back, so I asked for another one. No problem there then. It's from here that things went down hill.

 

Now, the bloke who does the Dating Certificates is an unpaid volunteer, so you can't expect fast service. This was going to take some time. Anyway, 2 weeks past. I then get from Swinton Bikes a notice of cancellation. Not because I hadn't given them the Registration number, but because they didn't have proof of my No Claims! I phoned them up, "Oh we're busy. We'll phone you back". Did they? Did they hell. I phoned them an hour later and actually got through to someone. I told them that the local branch of SWINTONS had my No Claims details and that SWINTON BIKES should make contact with them to get the details. 'OK' they say and they said they'd phone me back the next day. Did they phone back? Did they hell. Another week passes that brings us to today.

 

I've recieved another letter telling me that they're going to cancel my insurance because I haven't provided proof of my No Claims!!!! Just what are these butt-holes on? I tried (over a period of 2 hours) to call them with no luck. To be honest, I don't care. The DVLA local office has my Registration application and I've sold my other bike which is on the same insurance. By the time the 7 days are up, I'll have my number plate and I'll go elsewhere for my insurance.

 

I only wish I did the same thing that a friend did. He was with Swinton Bikes for a short time and they mucked him about, so he cancelled his insurance. However, he was paying my monthly direct debit (which he cancelled at the time). Swinton Bikes sent him a letter demanding a cancellation fee. What he told them to do is unprintable.

 

In Summary:

 

Swinton Bikes = Butt-holes!!

[Skarclaw]

Job searches and postings.

 

Are you looking for a challenge?

 

No I'm *fruitcage* not! I just want a bloody job, not a sodding rock-wall that throws medicine balls and grenades at you!

 

Don't ask me stupid questions, just post up what the job entails, what I need to get it, and how to apply! Grrr.

 

What about "Wanted: Fun, outgoing, people"

 

I'm none of those things (apart from the people bit I suppose)

[Stealthbomber]

I usually don't bother answering phone calls which come up as withheld or unknown. I did just, just to see what it was.

I had a similar thing the other day...

 

Numpty: "Hello, I'm phoning to share with you an opportunity to take advantage of a variety of services which can dramatically reduce...."

Me: "Hi, I'm kinda busy so can you just tell me what you're selling please?"

Numpty: "It's an opportunity to take advantage of a variety of services...."

Me: "Okay, if you put down the script and just tell me what you're selling I'll listen to you, okay?"

Numpty: "Hello, I'm phoning to share with you an..."

Me: "Bye!"

 

Also, I enjoy taunting the bank when they phone.

 

Bank: "Hello, is that Mr Stealthbomber?"

Me: "Yes."

Bank: "Before I continue I need to ask some security questions."

Me: "Go on."

Bank: "Can you confirm your date of birth?"

Me: "16th March 1968"

Bank: "And can you give me your address?"

Me: "Look, no offence but I'm not really comfortable about sharing personal information with a stranger who phones me out of the blue."

Bank: "I'm sorry sir but if you can't answer the security questions I can't proceed with the call."

Me: "well, you phoned me so I guess that's kinda up to you."

Bank: "Sir, this is a standard security check."

Me: "Yeah, but I've got know way of knowing that you really work for the bank."

Bank: "We'll call back another time."

Click!!!

 

 

Seriously, I reckon we should give banks a security word to use and then whenever they phone us they should give the security word before pestering us.

Gits!

[Habakure]

Good idea for the password (for when banks ring you up), I still prefer to go into a bank.

 

My rant for the day, people who think its acceptable to shout out a teacher for telling thier child off. Here goes. A female teacher takes a child out of class for being disruptive. Child tells daddy about it who then comes into school and shouts at said teacher (the child in question is 6). The teacher is female, feels threatened but can't do anything about it at that time, due to being alone in her class with the male parent. Its actually come to the point now, where the school is thinking of not letting any parents in to see teachers on a one to one basis. Which is another thing to put on to the wall of, the majority being punished, for the actions of the minority.

 

Side note, the child in question wasn't doing anything major, but has learnt that if he says to his daddy that the teacher was in the wrong, the parent believes his child. If a teacher ever told me off, my father would always believe the teacher.

[amateurstuntman]

I bought a set of GBE hub extenders for my HPI Baja.

The rears were lovely.

The fronts were bonk, the threads were unfinished and as a result the threads bound up and both axle extenders and one of my wheel nuts were destroyed.

 

That is bad.

 

I called MMR largescale from whom I purchased the extenders and they are sending me another set, no questions.

 

That is good.

 

Now I have to contact GBE and see if they will replace the damaged wheel nut since it was broken my his axle extender.

He is like the scarlet pimpernell.

 

That is bad.

 

But you get a free frozen youghurt, I call it froghurt.

 

That's good.

 

The froghurt is also cursed.

 

That's bad.

 

But you get your choice of toppings.

 

That's good.

 

The toppings contain potassium benzoate.

 

Can I go now?

[Stealthbomber]

My rant for the day, people who think its acceptable to shout out a teacher for telling thier child off.

One of the most important lessons I learned at school was how hypocrisy works.

 

While at school in the 1970's one of my teachers (a guy who had a ponytail and wore rose-tinted spectacless and a scarf all the time) who, with hindsight, must have been something of a deadbeat, ended up so broke that he moved in with the family of a kid in my class.

 

It turned out that the kid had a cat which used to crawl into the bed with him at night.

The teacher, apparently, discovered this one morning while "helping" the kid get up for school.

 

So, one day, while our physics teacher was off sick and this numpty was standing in for him, this teacher decides it'll be funny to tell the class that this kid has a cat sleeping in bed with him.

After about an hour (literally - it was a 90 minute lesson and this went on for almost all the lesson) of seriously intimate p*ss-taking (which the kid sat quietly through) the kid eventually opens his mouth and calmly says "Look sir, why don't you f**k off and find your own house if you think mine is so weird?".

There's about 5 seconds of stony silence and then the teacher goes ballistic and, eventually, drags the kid off to the headmasters office.

 

The best bit, however, was that when he got back he calmly explained how what he'd done was for the kid's own good because, y'know, people need to learn that they can't just swear at other people and that it wasn't just an issue of school discipline but that, out in the real world, a person might end up getting thumped for swearing at another person like that.

 

At that point the hypocrisy was just getting ridiculous so I stuck my hand up (like a good little drone) and said "Sir, surely you could also get thumped out in the real world for constantly making fun of another person for an hour?"

 

Another stony silence preceded another bout of ranting and I found myself joining the other kid at the headmasters office.

Apparently we both lacked any respect for our teachers.

 

Ah well, probably one of the most insightful lessons I ever had at school.

 

In an unrelated incident, the interior of that teachers little yellow Triumph Spitfire was mysteriously smeared with dog-sh*t the next time he left it with the roof down. Police called to the incident were seen to chuckle and suggest that perhaps he'd upset one or more of his pupils.

[Habakure]

Sorry Stealth, think I should have explained myself. Child in question had thumped another child, and as such was taken to the deputy head, not at any point was the child, shouted at and or made fun of. No dark sarcasum here. Parent came in and threatened teacher for having the nerve to single out his child. I understand that there are very seriuos cases of techers using thier position of power to belittle and torement. That is wrong. But in the instance I mentioned, the child was not shouted at, only taken to the head teacher as he would not stop shouting, and hitting other children.

 

Or I suppose you think it is part of a techers job to be threatened by a parent, or maybe I missed your point about hypocrisy, and how it works in relation to the teacher (Not all teachers, am talking about this instance). Of is it, that telling a child off is wrong, and teachers should just ignore children that mis-behave. Again it comes down to what is mis-behaving and also the way in which a person addresses, bad behaviour.

 

If some one shouted or threatened me when on the phone for the council, I could always say, "Sorry, if you don't stop shouting, I will no longer continue this call/intereview" depending on wether I was on the phone or face to face. Always was very handy having a security gaurd that could double for Hulk Hogan. The teacher could not, as she was alone, with this parent in the class room after school, which parents are allowed to do (Speak to the teacher after school if they have a grievance or need to ask for help with home etc). Though the teacher doesn't have the luxury of what I had in the council (When doing one to one interviews).

 

Edit:- Wow, confrontational or what. Was trying to say, that not all teachers belittle thier students, they care about them, and want them to do well. But, also, that more and more, teachers are not allowed to tell a child off, through fear of a parent threatening them. If you can not keep your emotions in check, you should not teach children, esspecialy todlers. I do not believe in shouting as a first resort to telling a child off (Or even as a last resort). It is far better to speak to them (In a calm way) and tell them why what they just did is wrong, the age old, you wouldn't like it if some one did it to you.

[Stealthbomber]

Edit:- Wow, confrontational or what. Was trying to say...

No worries, fella.

I was just using your post to bounce a related experience of my own off of.

[Habakure]

Oh I've got a big one from my past. My sister was taught by a primary school teacher, so when she came to teaching me, she thought I'd be the same. Uh-oh. Back then, I don't think dyslexia was big on the education radar. I always felt belittled when it came to spelling words out loud (You know, where the teacher asks you to sound out a work etc). Yeap, I always felt picked on, never finished early, like the rest of the kids on a friday (You finish your work, you got to play with toys), unless it was mathmatics, then I was alright and was never the last person. But it was mostly spelling on a friday.

 

Looking back, maybe it only happened once or twice, but still it stayed with me for a long time.

[SpoonMan]

Habakure, I was a pre-school teacher for 2 years, I know exactly what you are talking about. I had teachers come to me and ask me to stop harassing their child, after their child repeatedly refused to follow directions and do what the rest of the class was doing. This was an everyday thing, and I had a group of 3 children (and parents) doing the same thing.

 

However, it was always nice when one of the other parents would give me a card or something along the lines of "Thank you for disciplining my child appropriately and keeping hem/her on task." What was even better was most of the time these came with a small gift card.

[Stealthbomber]

My high school was a bit weird.

I was part of a group of kids who were seen as "rebels" or "drop-outs" but, bizarrely, we were usually did better, academically, than almost everybody else.

With hindsight, I think the school was staffed by a bunch of rather poor teachers and they couldn't deal with bright kids who got bored while they tried to force the nuggets to pay attention.

 

One of my best mates was considered "dumb" because his writing was really, really, bad.

I dunno if there's a term for this but it was obvious (to us, at least) that he was just as smart as everybody else but the teachers often simply dismissed his work because it was "scruffy" rather than actually bothering to check the factual content of it.

 

I had really bad eczema as a kid and, because of this, teachers either excused me from sports entirely or let me go do stuff with the rest of the "weirdos".

Funny thing is that I set a whole bunch of records for a variety of athletic stuff (some of which are still unbeaten 20 years later) and yet none of the teachers ever seemed interested in encouraging my athletic ability cos, I guess, my skin looked a bit nasty when I wore my PE kit.

 

There was a girl who was kicked out of several classes for being a "dreamer" when, in fact, she almost always completed her work within minutes of it being allocated and then simply had nothing else to do.

She really was a proper "genius" and yet none of the teachers ever tried to explore her potential. They just gave her the standard work and then criticised her for not showing any interest in lessons.

 

So, yeah.

 

For every teacher who's ever been abused or upset, I'm sure there are a hundred kids who've been shafted by a crappy teacher one way or another.

[amateurstuntman]

The lowest common denominator problem.

 

I ran into it all through school until my parents sent me to boarding school.

 

Then I ran into the problems associated with frequent savage beatings and sexual assault.

 

Where I teach now we have a structured framework to identify students who are "as risk" (of failing) and students who aren't challenged.

 

The at risk students get one on one tuition and the advanced ones get pushed through the tests early and then given unsupervised advanced work to get on with.

[Desolation mkII]

I was stuck in the third set for maths and they refused to move me up. This was for one reason, I'm thick as pig ###### in most subjects, but in maths I was very very good. So I could work out almost any question that didn't require a calculator (including algebra) in my head. In two years of GCSE's, I never once showed my working, I got told off repeatedly and accused of cheating and they refused to move me up a set. When it came to the exams, I got the highest mark in the year.

 

And the funny thing was, it wasn't as if I was alone in my protestations that I was not cheating. All the people sat around me backed me up each time I got the accusation, yet I was stuck in a low set because of some silly *badgeress* teacher who couldn't hack that I was better at maths then her. Discracefull. I did eventually get my own back when in the last few weeks of school, during ofstead, she accused me again, presumably to show how she dealt with miscreant pupils. So I stood up, picked up the mock paper and reeled off the answers, looked at the inspector and deputy head (who earlier in the year had tried to stop me going to the police after I was stabbed in the head with a piece of glass) who was accompanying him and simply said 'this is how they encourage intelligence at this school".

 

After that began my lifelong affair with anti-authoritarian sentiment, including but not limited to calling the Minister of Education a *tortilla chip* during a visit. It was funny, I was never misbehaved before, it took being treated as a bad kid to turn me into one.

[DarkLite]

One of my best mates was considered "dumb" because his writing was really, really, bad.

I dunno if there's a term for this but it was obvious (to us, at least) that he was just as smart as everybody else but the teachers often simply dismissed his work because it was "scruffy" rather than actually bothering to check the factual content of it.

 

I suffer from this too - my handwriting is pretty bad, messy and jumbled. I saw a significant jump in my grades when I was allowed to submit my work printed out off a computer. Odd that.

 

One of the brilliant things I remember from my high school was when I was doing my GCSEs in Maths - our school operated on a "band" system - we had separate classes for students based on their skill level.

 

I was placed in the top class when I took the aptitude test at the beginning of the year - I was good at maths, so I didn't find it too hard. The teacher in the top set class was a *tortilla chip*. Because he was supposed to be the best maths teacher in the school in terms of ability, he thought the sun shined out of his *albartroth*.

 

Immediately he took a dislike to me, for some reason, and would constantly call me out for being "disruptive". This came from the fact that I was sat next to three other students who were also good at maths, so we'd blitz through questions and then spend the rest of the time chatting quietly to each other about whatever 14 and 15 year olds talk about. Probably boobs and counter-strike.

 

So I was singled out as "the disruptive one" and he moved me to a solitary desk in the corner of the room, where I couldn't talk to anyone at all, being as I was separated from every other student by about 12 feet in any direction.

 

Yet he still claimed I was being disruptive, and continued to punish me for "talking in class", "disturbing other pupils", "lack of respect" etc. Eventually I got tired of this ###### and called him on it in the middle of a class when he asked me "Why is it that I seem to have to talk to you every lesson, DarkLite?".

 

My reply of "I'm not sure sir, but I assume it gives you a hard-on, because you seem to find a reason every time." was probably not the right one, but I felt it was justified.

 

He didn't, however, so I was shunted into the second set class and given several hours worth of detention. My parents questioned this - as I had received several detention slips before, ALL from this teacher and ALL for "being disruptive" etc, when they knew I enjoyed maths and never got into trouble with other teachers.

 

So when my mother came to speak to him about it, she asked politely what I had done. He told her a bunch of lies about how I was disturbing other students etc, and that I wasn't suited for his class because "he taught A-grade students".

 

So naturally, at the end of my GCSEs when I got an A* in my Maths results, one of the top 10 in the school, I photocopied the results slip, framed it and left it wrapped neatly in his office.

 

And then I spray painted "A-grade *Ubar*" on his car's windscreen in neon pink.

 

The odd thing here, again, was that I complained several times about this teacher and his bullying, and no one took notice - even though the students in the class all stood up for me and complained as well. Nothing at all.

[Habakure]

I always find it very odd when teachers are not punished for obvious "bullying" of a student, infact, its a pet peeve of mine. Though I can see the view point of being very careful with complaints made towards a teacher(s). In fact I wouldn't be surprised if its a dangerous area, as whats to stop lies being said about a teacher by a bunch of students and getting a teacher sacked, when the teacher has done nothing wrong. But, the flip side is, what if they (The student/studnets) are telling the truth.

 

How would we prove such "bullying" by a teacher. Its a question that is very hard to answer.

 

I had a similar incident in my high school. Third year high school and am in second set for science. During the course of the year (Due to my endless questions), I got moved up by a teacher to first set. That teacher then left the following year to be a head teacher. So then not long after he had left I was moved down to second set. I was kind of happy about it as more of the people I knew where in the second set (You got the same grade as first set any ways, so no real change). But no reason whats so ever was given for me being moved down. Of course it also had nothing to do with the fact that the teacher who moved me down would always mark my work down and I would have to fight for it to get moved back to its original mark, oh no, not at all.

 

I think, that had a great effect on me in my final two years at senior school, I just didn't care what I left school with (Grades), except in english where I wanted to prove a teahcer right. They believed I had potential in english lit/lang, if only given the correct tutilage. So, I've had both sides of the teachers spectrum, really good ones, and also the insane type who just seem to not like you. And as a result of not liking you, your grades suffer (Bit defeatist that, but my way of thicking was, do I really want to work with people like that when am older, *fruitcage* that).

 

Edit:- Just so am clear though. I have had far more positive experiences with teachers than negative, and those negative ones will not change my general view of teachers. One teahcer I will mention is John Channel, who also told my Dad and was definitly the type to call a spade, a spade. He was a great teacher and was very fair, the best history teacher I have ever known (He actually went to historical sites on his holidays etc).

[amateurstuntman]

Where I teach we have 4 instructors for every 12 students during practical work and in theory classes we have 2 for each 12 students.

 

However if there are less than 6 students we always have a minimum of 2 instructors to back each other up in case a student falsely claims anything.

 

If we have a female student the instructors are not allowed to be alone with her ever, lessons or not.

 

If the student is disruptive we knock them down with some a-grade insults and sarcasm.

If that doesn't work we swap places with them and make them teach the lesson. Then we get the other students to tell them what they thought of their teaching.

 

If that fails we get the army guys to thrash the living ###### out of them until they are a sweaty mess then they lose their morning break to work through to make up for the lost training time from the thrashing.

 

 

The system is expensive (250,000 per student per course) but it works we have a 97% pass rate target and 100% actual.

 

Give me 4 1/2 months an I could have anybody through the course.

[Triggerhappychappy]

How would we prove such "bullying" by a teacher. Its a question that is very hard to answer.

 

Easy & not too expensive either = cctv in classrooms.

 

We did have a terrible mathes teacher too ( alot of them it seems... ), who would do the following quite frequently:

 

student: sir, I dont understand this question.

teacher: be quiet and get on with your work.

student: but I dont understand, can you explain it for me/us.

teacher: get out of my classroom!

 

Basically, we were given a textbook and told to do pages x,y & z, with pretty much zero worked examples to guide us. On the flipside, in later years we had a brilliant female mathes teacher who everyone loved & who went out of her way to help kids understand difficult questions ( parallel equations, ugh ).

 

I'd say with a cctv system you could quickly findout if a pupil had actually been misbehaved or if a teacher had assulted a pupil etc etc. If needs be, when an angry parent came into the school and started shouting the odds at a teacher, they could be sat down in an office and shown a recording of little Timmy swearing at a teacher after being told to stop talking during lessons, see how the parent ( and child ) reacts to that little home-truth session.

[amateurstuntman]

Do you have any idea how much paperwork you have to do to even take a picture of a kid nowadays?

 

Video them?

You're having a laugh.