I would love to tell you "it's not that bad", but considering the UK's track record in the last decade, I just can't really think of anything
It would explain the popularity of arses like Michael McIntyre
Return to the Planet of the "Hey Euro's its that time again" Thread.
- Thread starter Mark Wein
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It would explain the popularity of arses like Michael McIntyre
wok
Nasi Goreng Afficionado
I would love to tell you "it's not that bad", but considering the UK's track record in the last decade, I just can't really think of anything
But hey, at least you can take comfort in the fact that Rutte is yet again part of a fallen government. Which makes a lovely 5 out of 6, and somehow is still doing well in the polls. So hey-ho, both your old and new country seem to appreciate fuckups
at least the Netherlands has a proportional representation system, which keeps the crazies in check
ColourofFire
Kick Henry Jackassowski
Considering that Rutte and his allies are the main proponents of the system which caused the current crisis, and somehow are still leading the polls, I'd say "at least makes the crazies work hard for it".
Him and the assholes that vote for him are the main reason I left NL and won't be coming back anytime soon. The type of "I'm not racist, but..." bullshit politics are toxic as fuck. Yes, it could be worse, but not by much. The only worse ones suggest nonsense that literally isn't possible within the constitution. The fact that he's now lamenting the fact that this was allowed to happen is laughable. He's been the main proponent of this political direction, this entire fiasco (and several others) are the direct consequence of what he advocates. He's presenting it as some flaw of the system. It's not. It's just the predictable outcome of the policies he's implemented, both as prime minister and every role he's been in parliament before. The only thing that separates him from the crazies is the thin veil of "acting decent".
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wok
Nasi Goreng Afficionado
It’s funny, I was speaking to my dad last week. He is Indonesian. He said he never voted for Rutte, calling him greedy and slimy. But then he admitted he often agrees with Wilders and voted for him
ColourofFire
Kick Henry Jackassowski
Weow.It’s funny, I was speaking to my dad last week. He is Indonesian. He said he never voted for Rutte, calling him greedy and slimy. But then he admitted he often agrees with Wilders and voted for him
As much as I think Rutte is despicable, I don't think he's greedy or slimy. I do believe he genuinely thinks he's doing the right thing. Problem is, he's a career politician that perceives politics as a "game mechanic". There's a system that has faults, and as a good neoliberal asswipe, you go about fixing those faults. Problem is, it's a society, not a computer, so in the system you fix, there's a fuckton of anomalies that aren't bugs, but just people that don't adhere to your classification of exactly how you factor humans to be in the system. For some reason this seems to be lost on a lot of politicians in the last decade. Which is also still excusable, people make mistakes and all that. For me the biggest gripe with the current VDD, d66, CDA and partially PvdA crew is that they do not seem to understand that they actively created this and need to take ACTUAL responsibility for it. Not just throw out some ministers here and there, but acknowledge the fact that they've treated society as a computer program. And that in the process of "fixing bugs", you fuck over a ton of people and create a lot more "bugs" that are just people doing people stuff that just happened to not fit your profile. Society will always have anomalies and if you start implementing systems that treat anomalies as fraudsters and criminals, you're massively detached from reality, and need to go fuck yourself. And why especially Rutte needs to go take a bath in acid at this point is that he has been in government in various roles for nearly 2 decades now and has been slapped in the face with exactly this problem over and over and over and over (IIRC he got slapped on the wrist literally in his first half year as staatsecretaris by a judge for doing exactly this) ad infite now, and still doesn't seem to fucking get it.
EDIT: And these are just my practical gripes with him. My political/policy gripes go a lot further, but they're besides the point.
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Yeah I'm seeing how this works
Have to laugh - amongst other things I've been:
Doing live lessons, differentiating materials as much as I can so our kids can do them as independently as possible, recording little instruction videos for f***ng everything so even if they get stuck, them or their parents can watch the video and attempt the tasks, tracking engagement and work handed in plus giving feedback to every single kid for every single bit of work they hand in, even if it's half finished.
On the other hand I've had these conversations this week:
Colleague: Mr JBJ, do you know anything about Nat 5 Numeracy? My daughter is doing it and their teacher hasn't put any work up for them and just said they don't need to worry about it as nothing's due in until June.
MIL: Your niece's teacher has been on video chat to do a stupid assembly thing, work wise, she's just sending out loads of worksheets, half of them the kids have never been taught what to do and she's not given any sort of order or instruction for them to do them.
No wonder the unions are kicking up about the fact online learning is probably going to be looked at as part of inspections moving forward. I know I've nothing to worry about or answer for but there's a lot of people out there that will get slaughtered - these kids are literally going to miss almost a year of learning. Teaching it remotely isn't ideal but we're duty bound to do whatever we can to make it as good for the kids as possible even if it is hard.
Gorgon90
Harmonic Dive Bomber
@jbj - lots of respect for doing what you can for your kids. I don't envy teachers at all in this situation. I've been working from home since March last year and due to the nature of my work it's not made a huge amount of difference. There's definitely a social interaction part that I miss but if things ever go back to some form of normalcy I don't think I'd want to be back in the office anywhere near full time again, working from home has definite benefits from my perspective.
It is hard and I've had a go at some folk. I'm used to the "you get so many holidays" crap you get from people but this is easily harder mentally and on my workload than being in the building doing what I usually do, plus with our kids, we can't give them the same amount of teaching or support that you would with a mainstream class (this is the first time in years I've thought I'd actually prefer being back teaching mainstream history) so it's really irked me when, innocently in their defence, pals have messaged or text saying stuff like "oh so you're off this week? What are you going to get up to?" as if I'm on holiday. I love my job but I can't do it properly unless I'm in the room with the kids and ultimately it's them that are going to suffer.
Mrs JBJ is quite happy working from home and given her firm are now letting them order furniture and IT gear I'm assuming they'll be moving that way more permanently - why spend a fortune on office space across the world when folk can do it from their houses? Why spend £££ sending Mrs JBJ to London City via BA and putting her up in the Canary Wharf Hilton for meets when they can do it over zoom?
Which is a good thing as long as it doesn't start encroaching into people's private lives - I never thought I'd do it but I am guilty of checking e-mails at night, more just to see what's coming up in the morning incase I need to hit the ground running, but that's my choice, if working from home becomes an issue of demarcation for people then that's not good either, and I'm not a particularly union headed person.
Gorgon90
Harmonic Dive Bomber
I have a clear rule that the work laptop gets packed away at the end of the working day. There are rare days I do overtime when there's some deadline that has to be met but that's the exception rather than the rule. I make it a point of not having any of my personal devices set up to access my work email so it can't encroach on my personal life.
Mrs JBJ is the same - she has a dedicated work laptop and phone that she leaves in our little office at the end of the day.
I need to use my own stuff for work, well I could get a Chromebook from the place but they're shite and I'd need to jump through all sorts of hoops, so it works for me.
I'm actually pretty good at separating work and home, compared to a lot of teachers anyway. I go in early and work and I work through lunches if I feel like it so usually when the end of day bell goes, I'm on my way to the car and that's me done - there's the odd time I need to stay on a bit to do things but it's rare. I'm always early with deadlines and stuff gets done to a high standard the bosses approve of so it's all good.
I need to use my own stuff for work, well I could get a Chromebook from the place but they're shite and I'd need to jump through all sorts of hoops, so it works for me.
I'm actually pretty good at separating work and home, compared to a lot of teachers anyway. I go in early and work and I work through lunches if I feel like it so usually when the end of day bell goes, I'm on my way to the car and that's me done - there's the odd time I need to stay on a bit to do things but it's rare. I'm always early with deadlines and stuff gets done to a high standard the bosses approve of so it's all good.
ColourofFire
Kick Henry Jackassowski
Meanwhile I'm just sitting here self-employed wondering why everyone's so distressed by this
I am quite happy I stopped my high-school teaching gig already before covid kicked off though. I did some remote teaching to my old uni, but most of those students are pretty much the same age as me.
Other than that, I do nowadays leave my laptop in my studio and try to not check my email on my pc at home, as WFH people started sending me emails at the craziest hours (usually I'm the one sending stuff at 21.00, I don't expect a reply at 22.00 )
I am quite happy I stopped my high-school teaching gig already before covid kicked off though. I did some remote teaching to my old uni, but most of those students are pretty much the same age as me.
Other than that, I do nowadays leave my laptop in my studio and try to not check my email on my pc at home, as WFH people started sending me emails at the craziest hours (usually I'm the one sending stuff at 21.00, I don't expect a reply at 22.00
)
wok
Nasi Goreng Afficionado
Meanwhile I'm just sitting here self-employed wondering why everyone's so distressed by this
I am quite happy I stopped my high-school teaching gig already before covid kicked off though. I did some remote teaching to my old uni, but most of those students are pretty much the same age as me.
Other than that, I do nowadays leave my laptop in my studio and try to not check my email on my pc at home, as WFH people started sending me emails at the craziest hours (usually I'm the one sending stuff at 21.00, I don't expect a reply at 22.00
I am quite happy to be studying from home, although I kind of miss the social aspect of uni life and just popping in the professor’s office for a quick chat is not an option at the moment
As we are seen as essential workers, my weekend gig at Amazon is on site, with everyone wearing masks all day. We get Covid tested every week.
ColourofFire
Kick Henry Jackassowski
I gotta say, as unpleasant getting tested every week probably is, I'd love to have that. Now every time I have an itch in my throat I get paranoid as fuck and spend days worrying whether I should get tested or not.
I do hope you still get to do some of your MA in person, it would be really salty if the entire uni-life gets taken away from it :(
wok
Nasi Goreng Afficionado
Hey @ColourofFire ,
What do you think about the riots in the Netherlands last night? My best friends who live in Eindhoven all say none of the people involved were actually really wanting to protest anything, they were all out to riot. Trumpism infected part of the Dutch society?
What do you think about the riots in the Netherlands last night? My best friends who live in Eindhoven all say none of the people involved were actually really wanting to protest anything, they were all out to riot. Trumpism infected part of the Dutch society?
ColourofFire
Kick Henry Jackassowski
From the pictures I've seen it looks mostly like the types that beat the shit out of each other after football games looking for good fight. While it is the direct cause of the government's all over the place reaction to covid, I think attaching any sort of meaning or purpose to these riots would be giving them too much credit. Basically morons being morons. The far deeper problem is these types of morons having been there forever and nobody ever doing much about what causes it, holding them responsible for their actions or doing anything about their rather bleak perspective in life. It looked like mostly 20 to 35 year olds that especially with the covid situation lasting for a year now have very little to give a shit about. Basically the "voting cattle" that goes to work in a job they don't give a shit about 5 days a week, drink with mates on Friday and Saturday and go to the football on Sunday. The parties that delude them with law and order bullshit rhetoric have been in power for 15 years now, so they've been voting them in power over and over, while said parties have steadily created a society where only corporate life has benefited, these people's prospects have slowly gotten bleaker and the only parties that give a shit about their well being have had no chance to do anything cause they use words and concepts too difficult for them to understand and completely failed to explain the increasingly complex situation of the world around them. They don't trust authority because authority hasn't done anything good for them in ages and has only been making them jump through more and more hoops when they happened to lose their jobs.
All in all, sad sacks of shit being sad sacks of shit that aren't being helped and don't help themselves because they're too thick to figure out that you can find some sense of purpose in life yourself. Put a bunch of them together after a year like this and the result is predictable. It's pretty grim all around, but I can't say I'm very surprised about it.
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