SMBC Comics Forum

I hope Jack does okay.

Things are looking a bit better. They are fairly sure there is no blockage, which means no surgery. Anesthesia is tricky on smaller animals, he almost died the first time they tried to remove his eye years ago and he has a heart condition now to complicate things. So no surgery is really, really good news. Wife is visiting him now. If he eats and doesn't throw up he'll be home tomorrow. They are pretty sure he has a mild case of pancreatitis, the labs aren't back on the cultures for kidney infection of course, but they are giving him antibiotics anyway. This is the first time I've had to deal with a seriously sick pet that wasn't terminally ill. It is a bit tough.

Had a surprisingly good day today. The kind of day where you end up liking mankind because, despite working retail, the customers were a delightful combination of needy and grateful.
Even my management team seemed to be surprisingly amicable.

Which is highlighted even more because my particular Walmart is undergoing a HUGE employment restructuring that would/should result in a much higher level of dissatisfaction than was readily apparent. It's a restructuring that is good for Walmart, doesn't seem to be outrightly affecting the current work-force, and should be beneficial for the consumer. And I don't say that lightly. For the immediate future, I think all of those are true. There is a level of 'time will tell', but the approach for this restructuring has been done quite well.
Personally, I'm embracing the change with reckless abandon. I've decided on a position where I don't like the hours one bit. But it puts me in a position where there are two options:
1. I like it well enough, thrive on the challenge, and put myself in a position to move up the Walmart ladder relatively quickly.
2. I hate the hours and am not convinced about my future, and as such am forced to move on from my employer once and for all.
It's possible that I've been more forthright with some of my superiors about my reasons for applying for this new position. But I think that only cements my decision that this next stage with Walmart will either mean moving up or moving on.
And I'm embracing the shake-up that it represents.

I too enjoy workdays where things are a little busy, but I manage to help a lot of people. Plus, today, I surprised a customer by remembering a single word from my inuktitut class!

Two big news items on my docket:
1. I'm starting a new job in just over a week. It's a lateral move, and it means a much longer commute, but I'll be working way more hours and going in Monday through Friday. I also will no longer be dealing with the public, which is a mixed blessing; on one hand, I'm gonna be bummed to not be helping people directly anymore, but on the other hand, I'm sort of burnt out on seeing awful stuff happen all the time for the past 8 years, so I think I will appreciate the break. I also understand I'll be sitting a lot of the time, which is not my favourite thing but it'll be good for me seeing as both of my knees are messed up right now.
2. I have found an apartment! Strictly speaking my brother and his wife found it, as it's their old place. It actually seems pretty great! I will be moving in November. I believe a while back I mentioned the saga of my grandmother deciding that she is going to take my apartment at my parents' house, but aside from that I am getting older and stupider and I figure it's time to start living on my own anyway. This will also shorten my commute re: item #1, which I anticipate to be arduous for about 6 weeks.

Change is exciting!

Jack went into cardiac arrest last night and died. So yesterday was pretty shitty.

Today is a going away party for a friend who is moving back to India because she lost her job when the grant that was funding it expired and her work visa was dependent on that job. So tonight will be a bit sad too, but she is happy to going back home and I'm sure we'll all have fun.

I'm so sorry, Kaharz.

that sucks man

I'm really sorry for your loss Kahara.

Thanks all

My boss just told me he wants to put my name in the running for a division head position with the new owners. It is definitely a long shot. My resume is excellent for my age, but I doubt it will be the best one in the pile since I'm under 40 (barely) and they are looking at external candidates too. Plus they just bought my employer in July, so I'm barely known to most of the execs.

My big fear is I'll get an offer and they'll want me to relocate to Chicago since the company is based there. I don't mind relocating, but my wife is highly opposed. Actually my big fear is that I don't even get an interview. I'm kind of hoping I come in second and get a good local offer a couple of years down the road.

The current division head retires at the end of the year, so I'm assuming I'll find out in the next few months.

Good luck on not quite getting a promotion.

It got difficult keeping track who of my friends know that I'm queer/bi, so I used the Coming Out day to post it on Facebook, as some of you have seen. It went well, 18 likes, including by the mother of one of my husband's day care children (that's kind of the only material risk ... parents not sending their kids here anymore. One would hope it's not an issue in 2016 anymore, but alas, a petition for stopping an "education under the rainbow" curriculum in public schools in my state got 60k signatures [out of 10.5 mio inhabitants]) and by one of my colleagues who's over 60 (on average such things go over less well with old people ... haven't told my grandparents yet, and might or might not).

Not so enthused over the one response I got by a friend of me and my husband that said "Doesn't matter, as long as $husband is okay with it" - like, what?! (a) If it didn't matter I wouldn't post it (b) Ah, and if my husband were not okay with it you would not support it? That's not how it works, my friend. In general most people ask first if my husband is okay with it. But whatever.

Astrogirl wrote:It got difficult keeping track who of my friends know that I'm queer/bi, so I used the Coming Out day to post it on Facebook, as some of you have seen. It went well, 18 likes, including by the mother of one of my husband's day care children (that's kind of the only material risk ... parents not sending their kids here anymore. One would hope it's not an issue in 2016 anymore, but alas, a petition for stopping an "education under the rainbow" curriculum in public schools in my state got 60k signatures [out of 10.5 mio inhabitants]) and by one of my colleagues who's over 60 (on average such things go over less well with old people ... haven't told my grandparents yet, and might or might not).

Not so enthused over the one response I got by a friend of me and my husband that said "Doesn't matter, as long as $husband is okay with it" - like, what?! (a) If it didn't matter I wouldn't post it (b) Ah, and if my husband were not okay with it you would not support it? That's not how it works, my friend. In general most people ask first if my husband is okay with it. But whatever.

Thank you. I knew you were queer/bi already, but I appreciate this announcement nonetheless.
Particularly because recently some tangential friends of mine have been starting a separation/divorce because their attempts at polyamory have reached a stand-still. The break up seems to be amicable, thankfully. But her bisexuality and their attempt at polyamory* has reached a point that, sadly, their marriage seems to be at an end. She used "Coming Out Day" as an announcement of her bisexuality, but I think anyone who was paying attention already realized that was the case. It's unfortunate that their sexual preferences couldn't coexist, but that's the way the biscuit disassociates.



*Both parties have expressed interest in polyamory, but one party has seemed more keen than the other. Again, this is from a totally external perspective based on what has shown up in my FB feed. Regardless, it seems that it was enough of an issue that the marriage seems to be disbanding.

Polyamorous / open relationships* are tough. Having one successful relationship takes a lot of work, adding other relationships into the mix can get tough. I've been in one openish relationship and that aspect definitely accelerated the end of the relationship, but it wasn't going to work regardless. My wife and I are currently testing the waters because after several years it became apparent we couldn't get everything we needed from each other. I won't say it is going well, but there have been some positives and neither of us have any plans to end our relationship. I've never been terribly interested in having more than one sexual partner at a time and am really uninterested in having more than one emotionally involved, romantic relationship. I'm only equipped to handle about 0.8 relationships at one time, which is part of the problem.

I've known a lot of poly / open couples and it usually doesn't work, but most managomous relationships don't either. I can't really say how many ended mainly because of that aspect.

*I use 'open' to mean sleeps with other people and very casual dating and 'poly' to mean actually having multiple emotionally invested relationships. Others definitions may vary.

I tried to help my room mate to solve her C++/particle physics statistics/CERN ROOT homework and we failed miserably.