Vent Thread

Do you not get overtime? You should be being paid every minute you work up until you clock out.

If you aren't getting paid after a specific time, pretty sure legally you don't have to work after that time.

Ok, I have a vent! Here goes.....,

People suck! (Not anyone here, you're all awesome!)

But people in general, I pretty much want to slap most of them! Annoying strangers...leave me the fuck alone. I don't know you, I don't want to talk to you! Please sense my demeanor. I find it hard to believe that I come of as an approachable person most of the time. My resting bitch face is on point, take the hint fuckers!

I don't care if you like what I'm wearing. I don't care if you've "seen me around" and love my coat! I don't care if your son is into the same band as what is adorned on my Tshirt. I don't know your son, you're best friend or your same sex lovers!

I don't have a spare cigarette. You're a grown fucking man, buy your own. I don't have any spare change, I live in the modern age where everything can be paid for on card. But I also hate all new technology!

Stop asking me what I'm listening to! Don't you realise I'm wearing giant headphones to make it obvious that I don't want a conversation? Just scan my goods, Mr checkout guy, let me be on my way! I don't know who the hell bob Dylan is, old man, and also you're dribbling.

Sorry miss "good morning, nobody just says good morning anymore" I didn't ask for your life story and I definitely didn't ask you to escort me all the way to town while you try to teach me about religion. (Absolutely no offense meant to anyone here of faith. I just don't believe)

I don't know the way to the train station! (I definitely do, I just can't be arsed telling you.) And btw,I'm a female so I'm generally bad at directions so you'll probably end up on the moon before you get where you actually want to go.

Don't get me wrong, I am a nice person...I will help old ladies across the street, I'll even lift your heavy mobility scooter out of your boot/trunk?(for the Americans), only to put it straight back in because the battery is dead. I'll pick up your kids dropped toy, and I'll throw a few quid in a charity box but that's all my choice. If I don't know you don't expect anything from me!

Well, that just covers strangers....family... FML!!! They have unrivalled power to just get right on my fucking nerves! I've had enough of a rant and don't want to "air my dirty laundry" so to speak, but OMG!

Sorry for the wall of text.

I'm not much for venting my woes publicly, however, when it may serve as a warning for others, I will make an exception.

The local branch of the United States Postal Service has more than its fair share of incompetent and/or malicious/criminal employees. It exemplifies the problem with many governmental agencies in that, while it generally provides a useful service, due to the protections granted the employees, many of them feel free to violate rules and regulations with minimal fear of consequences.

I am dealing with a private business 1800 miles away, on the other side of the country from me. They are old-school in that they do not accept credit/debit cards or electronic payments of any sort. So my choices were a Postal Money order, Cashier's check, or personal check that they would hold for 14 days before shipping. I decided to us the postal money order as it is guaranteed, so if someone other than the intended recipient managed to intercept it, I would be able to get another one sent at no cost to me.

Since I was having to go to the post office anyway, I used their overnight delivery ($26) to expedite the process and provide the tracking with guaranteed delivery by 3 pm the next day.

I turned the package over to the local branch of the post office Monday morning with expectation of Tuesday delivery and provided the tracking number to the recipient company as this is for an auction that I won for a quite rare item (less than 2500 in the world) and their terms only give you 7 days to pay before they relist the item.

They contacted me Tuesday evening and informed me that the package had not arrived and, according to the tracking, was still at my local post office. I contacted the national customer service line to start a lost package tracking Wednesday morning and informed them of the contents. I received a call yesterday afternoon stating that they had found my package at the local office but that it had been "damaged" and I would need to go collect it. When I pressed the issue about the damage, and the contents, they admitted that the money order was missing, but not yet cashed, so I would have to file a claim and I could expect to have a new money order (not a refund!) issued within the next 60 days.

Obviously this was not acceptable and I informed them that, since the package had never left the post office grounds, and the money order was for a significant amount, this amounted to federal felony theft, mail fraud, and larceny as well as state charges of theft and ID theft since the money order would have to be cashed at a bank. Additionally the postal service would be responsible for fulfilling my legally-binding auction bid-commitment within the next 4 days or would have to accept legal liability for restoring my good name, acquiring another of the items at their expense, and admitting legal culpability. I asked that I be informed of the resolution by the end of the week so I could contact the local authorities and legal counsel if necessary.

I received a call first thing this morning from the local supervisor informing me that there had been a "misunderstanding" and that they had located my missing money order and would have it delivered by 10 am tomorrow morning. When I asked where they had found it I was told it didn't matter and that they were closing the inquiry. He informed me that, since the money order had not been cashed, no crime had been committed, so they had no reason to investigate further and this would be the end of the issue. I pointed out that the package had not opened itself, and that the money order had not removed itself from the package, but he stated again that no crime had occurred so they were unable to pursue the matter further.

While I am happy that I will not have to become entangled in a federal case, and that my payment will arrive in time, I am rather dissatisfied with the resolution. This is far from the first time I have had difficulty with the local post office but this is the first time it was at a felony level, yet there will be zero repercussions to the personnel involved. Additionally, if this had occurred to someone not quite as determined as myself, odds are the perpetrator would have the money, the victim would be be out the money twice from having to buy another money order to fulfill the payment terms for the auction, and then they would have had to wait 60 days to get the replacement money order.

For my part, I will consider this a lesson learned and will make certain to avoid utilizing the postal service in favor of private entities such as UPS and FedEx for shipping. While I know that many, and possibly even most, Postal Employees are hard-working and honest, this incident has left me with a rather poor impression of the local service.

No idea if it's a worthwhile exercise or not but there should be some accountability for what may be seen as attempted fraudulent behavior and it may be worthwhile contacting the office of Inspector General regarding the package damaged/Money order missing which conveniently turned up when you hinted at the law getting involved. www.uspsoig.gov/hotline.
They may push you back to the Postal service consumer affairs office but if they don't, investigative action will occur as to how such a thing came about.   
You didn't say what you bought so I'm going to picture a WW2 vintage rifle, possibly a Remington 720 30-06 which fits the description of less than 2500 made although lots of things fit that same description.
Regardless of what you bought, I certainly hope you receive it in the condition which it was sold.

I feel your pain. I'm somewhat of a hermit, rarely leave the house on my own time because people.   I don't even own a mobile phone although I do carry a work issued one and there is a land line(with answering machine which I never answer) 

I force myself to engage people who approach me in a polite manner unless they look like they are selling something but hate small talk. Strangers on plane trips are some of the worst when just wanting to sit and read or watch a movie or rest the eyes. 
 
Something about your demeanor suggests you're open, safe, approachable and sociable otherwise people would leave you alone.  If you are unable to say "Look, i'm tired and irritable and wish to be left alone"  You may need to take it up a notch. Have you tried the coughing and spluttering  followed up with a sneeze in the general direction of anyone who looks like they want to approach or the constant looking at your wrist watch approach? Try a stink bomb and claim you crapped your pants or simple directions like Sod off tend to encourage people to go away too. 

You apologised for a so called wall of text. You can't go around making such claims hey willy nilly(well technically as the Admin you can), If anything you should be apologising for claiming a wall of text.  If you're going to claim writing a wall of text, you seriously need to improve your game. If you need wall of text tuition though, send me a message and as someone who's well practiced in the wall of text art form, I'm sure I can help you out. 
 

Re the Postal thing, I find myself ironically ranting about the shoddy treatment worse than you and what appears to be absolute complacency and lack of accountability. 

The package wasn't lost in the end but the valuable contents somehow became removed which forced you to be actively involved which created stress, hassle and frustration at your end. You paid for a priority service which was not provided. It got delivered in the end. Not sure if that was outside of the agreed service levels or not but it doesn't sound like it.  What the complaints people only follow through with complaints which involve stuff going missing permanently? At the very least, you should have reassurance that the process which created the situation is being scrutinised to find out how it happened and be informed of what action is being taken/outcomes.  How complex can getting to the bottom of what went wrong be?

On top of that though, It's not about whether the package arrived in time or not.  It's about how the complain process failed you and more importantly perhaps, it's about governance of the operation and how due process allowed  a "cash cheque" to go missing from a package before it even left the post office. Who had access to the package? Who discovered it missing?  When were they panning on informing you about delay? Did they even know there was an issue until you called? How did the cheque leave the package and somehow return to the package? You paid for a priority service, why were you needing to follow this up?  

The agencies responsible for ensuring accountability don't seem to care. They should not be able to get away with fobbing off a shareholder by watering it down to a delivery issue and that's the end of it.  Do you not have a right as a shareholder to understand why process failed and be reassured that appropriate measures are in place to prevent or deal with such a situation being able to occur in the future?   
Any media outlets want to run with this? Radio shock jocks on talkback radio tend to love this stuff and it provides an avenue to understand if it's a systemic thing. Megan Brennan's office might like to hear about this too but it's all time effort and energy and it shouldn't be your mandate to drive it in the first place. 

Regarding the revolvers, Glad you got them and hope the differences in their design translates to something tangible in when operating them. Nice to hear that your collection is not just for show. 

I regret suggesting that. This will come back to haunt me I'm sure.

I'll have forgotten this whole thread in a year or two and  a little bit down the track, you happen to be pestered by a forumer in real life, maybe even one with a hint of an Australian accent like me who's a little lost in your neck of the woods.

Later that day I finally make it to where I'm going and later that night I decide to post about me being lost and this crazy English female  I encountered  but I can't log on anymore and have been permabanned. Which is a shame because I was planning on sharing how I was a tad lost and this girl with big headphones, who seemed quite normal and chilled and approachable literally shat her pants when I asked her if she knew the way to the train station, I politely try and excuse myself and she then  looks at me in this freeky way, eyes lit up and everything stunned as if she was doing a double take and acts like she knows me.  I was at this stage moving away, very quickly, then she blurts out that she does actually know the way and she is happy to show me the way, i'm picking up pace at this stage and she starts shouting after me trying to keep up yelling  "Test that's you right?" "Wait it's me, Violent", I  didn't really crap my pants and can show you the way, i'm thinking yeah right, It was the skunk in your hand bag right and I wish this crazy bitty would leave me the hell alone but she's now chasing me.  I eventually escaped, barely but I was pretty freaked out for a while...….

Then later that night I sit bolt upright after my brain joins the dots and I remember the innocent advice I gave to the a few years earlier...oops, Violet, not Violent I realise but it's too late and no one else to blame but myself.   

 

Playing off a Twitter thread I saw earlier.

I hate people who get butthurt because something, that they more than likely will never play or watch, has provocative or unrealistic character designs.

These are the people who say things like "X iS a BaD gAeM bECauSe sOmE ChaRActeRs HavE biG TidDiEs!"

If you don't like the design, THAT THING ISN'T FOR YOU.

Fiction is supposed to be better than real life, that's the whole reason it exists you moron. If you want everything to resemble real life so bad then go outside you loser.

Why are you triggered because some random JRPG has a character with revealing clothes to please their majority male audience that enjoys that? There's no harm in pleasing that demographic.

Just because you're insecure because you think you're unattractive, you're overweight, or any other slew of reasons doesn't mean you should dictate how an artist makes their art. The world doesn't revolve around you and your opinions, despite how important you think you are.

These are the same people that were triggered because an artist didn't draw a character "black enough" and changed the color palette on their art to "fix" it and condemn them.

If you have a problem with something because a character has big boobs, shows a lot of skin, has super toned abs, is gay, or God forbid was drawn in a pastel color palette, then don't consume that media. You're obviously not the person it's being marketed too.

/rant

I expect someone will rant about folk like me who just go on and on and on In forums lol....

I'll start this by saying, i'm not the type of person you are referring to, personally, i'll try just about anything and if I enjoy it great, if I don't oh well. 

I assume you're not talking Hentai themed JRPGS.
I really have no idea about the specific jrpg games you are referring to and probably need to have an idea because I get the feeling that this isn't a JRPG issue so much.
Despite that I don't agree with your conclusions in associating the same  people who might whinge about this stuff as people who think artists are attempting to make their artform more appealing to white supremists because the colour palette doesn't shows pale skin tones. 
Nor do I agree that the intended market is clearly not people who might take issue with the way the female  features are exaggerated. Some might.
Sexually provocative visuals are not specifically a feature of JRPGs as you well know. Providing that a person doesn't feel that it is and is moaning about all JRPGs, It's reasonable to believe that  some people might enjoy the general gameplay/story of a particular game or have kids who might  yet find the visuals lacking modesty and inappropriate so feel excluded. I'd put those people in the intended market bracket and their voice should be heard but if the genre was Hentai, i'd agree with you, not the intended market. Basically, if you don't like nude and "enhanced", don't go down the route of porn or complain that porn has too much sexual explicit material. Yeah - that's what defines it. JRPGs though, lots of genres.

Video games are also rated, maybe they need to stick to G rated ones.  

 My view probably comes from the idea that the art in anime and manga is so wide and varied and not universally full of scantily clad women with oversized boobs with the exception perhaps some specific genre or subgenre which may be what you are referring to. 

The question must be asked whether sex appeal really has any relevance to whether people will enjoy the game or not. While I can understand with Manga and I understand with Anime, I wouldn't have thought that JRPG visuals were as critical to the audience as story, character depth and gameplay. 

While I can't think of a JRPG that the person might have been referring to that's not unexpected, there's more of them and more variations than I can poke a stick at, don't bother with anything that focuses on sex and I haven't really found a JRPG that I really like.  I noted Dead or Alive and Dead or alive 2 at the Arcades about 20 years or so and found the chest animation of the females amusing.

I've tried to get into JRPGs  over the years btw, countless final fantasy including the online MMO, a few Personas including Persona 5, dragonball Z universe are some that I own of the top of my head but they don't tend to resonate with overly "enhanced" females to attract a male audience. I want to like them and people absolutely rave about them but I don't tend to like them for other reasons.
My reasons are this:
1. The combat mechanics
2. narrative(might be stuff lost in translation since i'm not fluent in Japanese)
3. lore and how the world works.
4. visual style, voice style - turns me off some Anime and Manga too. 

Now, I don't really know what defines specifically a JRPG, I've enjoyed a couple of Japanese visual stories which are categorised as RPGs but really aren't.  Two of my favourite Action/RPGs are Japanese including MGSV and YAKUZA series of games. Can I throw Nioh in there too?   Yakuza has some weird soft porn optional mini game thing where you collect cards of female models and can watch videos featuring them in a booth with a tissue box but it's done in a hilarious way. The visuals though possibly serve a "cultural" purpose in representing the way things were and showing attention to details as well as adding comedic affect. I personally would prefer not to see photos of Japanese models in various states of undress but I don't think they are intended to be erotic to the player but who knows. They are photos and they are deliberately attempting to sexually tease the character. In one of the games, they ahd cat(girls in their underwear) wrestling as a mini game which just had me shaking my head, rolling my eyes.  Maybe some players get turned on by this stuff. I don't get it but I'm not saying the inclusion isn't for that purpose. I certainly wouldn't whinge about it but I can understand why someone might. 

Sexually appealing PCs and NPCs is not a a defining theme of JRPG or a Japanese only thing or even a female only thing or even a computer game thing.  The impractical and unrealistic lithe and buxom heroin or villainess exists in western styled media and especially DC/Marvel comic book styled media but again I can't think of any JRPGs of the top of my head which goes to ridiculous levels of exaggeration designed for a primarily male soft erotica hungry market. Was the person complaining about a specific JRPG and if so What was it? I'm curious.

I agree wholeheartedly about there being a problem with people's confirmation bias in relation to seeing racial vilification in visual art because there's not enough racial representation in whatever character is seen to be the good guy or too much racial representation in the characters seen to be the good guy or a particular colour palette waters down the ethnic skin tones and doesn't represent all ethnicities fairly. 
I'd go as far as to say that even if a particular style was used in the past as a propaganda tool to push popular racially prejudiced attitudes - Jim Crow era in the US for example it doesn't mean that similar styles which come from a different place should be interpreted as perpetuating those same attitudes or coming from the same place.
I might be sad that someone were to interpret something a particular way due to some prejudice that they might have but it pisses me right off when that same person starts  telling other people how to interpret it. 

The outcry comes from people who come in all shades and love pushing an idea that some poor minority group is being unfairly victimised and socially opressed, next thing you know, a whole bunch of people start believing they are socially oppressed and start vilifying the artist.  

I suppose throughout all of this text, there's only one thing which is important - Which JRPG had too many scantily clad women with inflated breasts?