OT: What words or phrases annoy you?

Inverted Peter Principle?

On Sat, 12 Jun 2021 15:02:17 -0600, rbowman posted for all of us to digest...

Being disabled I agree with that. I once contacted the ACLU to see what they would do, if anything, about a problem. If anything applied, replied we don't get involved... WTF I thought that is what they were there for? Another bunch of maroons.

On Sat, 12 Jun 2021 15:03:17 -0600, rbowman posted for all of us to digest...

Good analogy. On second thought some do rise to mismanagement. Dilbert bears a mention with the pointy haired boss.

SWMBO did it in about 5 hours, with a layover in Page, AZ. ;-)

We chose to see the North Rim first because we hate crowds. While there, we were chatting with one of the NPS Rangers.

"Should we visit the South Rim? We hate crowds."

"I've worked for the NPS for close to 40 years. I've always chosen the quietest, most remote assignments because I hate crowds, so I know what you mean. That said, you're here. You'll regret coming all the way out here and not seeing the South Rim. It's worth the drive. Get there early, see what want and leave when you want."

So we drove to Page, got up early enough to be one of the first cars through the gate, with a plan to stay for a few hours. We ended up being the one of the last cars out of the parking lot. We had a great time. We were hiking the rim trail when we were told to evacuate because of approaching thunderstorms. We took the bus down to the Village and had a fantastic and very reasonably priced lunch in the lodge. By the time were were done, the storms had past so we took the bus back up and continued our hike to Hermit's Nest. Most of the crowds had left when the rains came so we basically had the trail to ourselves.

Knowing what I know now, I see what he meant about regrets.

Another Dumb Ass

If you want quiet and remote, go to Toroweap.

I bit the bullet and went to the South Rim a couple of years ago. It was in the fall so it wasn't too bad. No way am I going to Phantom Ranch unless I'm heavily sedated and tied to a mule.

We went there when I was a kid and my mother was one of those people hanging ten off the edge for a photo op. My father and I hung back about twenty feet. otoh she hated boats. We got her out in a boat once and it was pretty tense.

I'm reading a novel by Francis Porretto in which the protagonist asks his boss 'How badly to I have to screw up a project to never get promoted to management?'

I know the feeling. Theoretically I am a manager but everyone I'm supposed to manage has been diverted to another project and I'm happy as a clam doing actual programming.

Exactly. I would much rather *do* something (produce something) than watch and manage other people doing it. And any job which involves spending a large part of each day in meetings with other people would be my idea of hell: my definition of a meeting is a means of getting more work dumped on me after the meeting than I had before it, but then "imprisoning" me in the meeting room while everyone else waffles on, preventing me from actually working on that increased workload.

I'm very much a details person: I would rather get on and make *something* (even if that something is the wrong thing) than spend all day discussing what the right thing is to do without actually making anything (even the wrong thing). I find it very hard to stand back and take an overall "helicopter view", mainly because doing so bores me rigid: I'm itching to get into the details.

In what kind of work are you engaged?

Never work on a DoD project. You'll spend a year or more talking about what you're going to do before doing something. When you finally get around to doing it, if you discover problems you're going to to what was decided anyway because of all the ego involvement.

That process brought us the F-35, Zumwalt, and the matched pair of LCS turkeys.

I quit after 6 months of meetings and thumb twiddling and move on to a real project.

I say jabbed (or jagged) because it's a horrid thing to have done to you. I ain't getting a piece of steel shoved into my insides. You want something inside me, give me a tablet.

Indeed. It used to be worse. "My elder brother". The word elder always makes me think of a tree.

Tha Aussies call their parents "olds" which is amusing.

I must admit I use those, for example when my neighbour's elderly (ROFL) brother died. I wanted to show I was being polite, without having to bother with a long sentence describing my feelings.

Not sure why religious people care about death, aren't you meant to get another one like in a computer game?

Not every thing can be in tablet form.

How strange. I think of elder as a Church of Scotland 'rank'.

My younger daughter calls us "groans"

What a coward. I've done worse to myself with a kitchen knife.

Cindy Hamilton

Exactly: if it gets destroyed by the stomach acid or doesn't get absorbed through the stomach or small intestine, then there's no point in giving it orally (by mouth). I have no problem with injections and can barely feel the "sharp scratch". Giving blood (as a donor or for a blood test) is more of a problem because my veins seem to be either very deep or very fine: sometimes the nurse has to try a couple of times in different arms to manage to get the tip of the needle *inside* the vein rather than into the wall - and that's a comment on my veins, not their skill. The exception was a qualified blood donor doctor who attempted to insert the canula for me to give my pint (very nearly an armful) and caused me a lot of pain with her fumbling; eventually a nurse tactfully suggested the doctor needed to attend to another patient, and the nurse got the needle into a vein quickly and painlessly. Put me off doctors who looked like Rosa Klebb, but not off being a blood donor ;-)

For last year's flu jab and first covid jab, I didn't feel a thing at the time, just about felt the second covid jab maybe I flinched, or it didn't go in completely straight, either way no actual pain.

Maybe Peter would like it in suppository form?

Nurse : Doctor, why have you got a suppository behind your ear?

Doctor (after fumbling and examining said article) : Damn! Some bum's got my pencil!

Now that *would* be painful to inject by needle ;-)

I meant to add to my earlier comment that while I hardly felt the injection, the site of the injection felt bruised and tender for a couple of day afterwards. Conventional flu jabs sometimes affect me like that as well.

But a very small price to pay for knowing that I'm better (not necessarily completely) protected.

That one annoys me. Surely a medic should know the difference between a prick and a scratch. The last time they administered inoculation via a scratch they put live smallpox pus in.

When I was in the service, a lot of shots were given with a Jet Injector.

I say "usually pain free" because there was a certain shot that didn't fit that category. I don't recall what the shot was for, but it was nicked named the "water fountain shot".

We'd stand in line, waiting to enter the room where the shot was given. About 10' outside the door of the room there was a water fountain built into the wall. Service members would enter the room, get the shot, feel no pain and walk out just like they walked in - until right about when they passed the water fountain on the way out. That's when you'd see people suddenly suddenly clutching their arm and hear something like "Holy sh*t!" or "Damn! That f'ing hurts!"

Even the toughest guys that would never admit to being in pain would sort of visibly tighten up or change their gait just enough that you could tell that the pain had started.

The pain usually lasted about 24 hours, during which time, of course, the drill instructors would make sure that all activities included copious use of the painful arm.