Be Excellent To Each Other

[MASSIVELY SWEARY RANT STYLE POST DELETED]

Poor Warcat

I have a nay thing today (quelle surprise), only for once it's not about me.

I still keep in fairly regular contact with a girl I used to work with. She's a lot younger than me (23 - 24, something like that) and is quite a strong Christian. In fact I've actually been to her church with her once and discovered that she's actually an evangelist, so the church is not only stuffed to the rafters with people holding their hands out and swaying as they sing their happy-clappy hymns, their services are also all filled with talk of their 'mission' to spread the word and essentially try to indoctrinate as many as they can to their faith.

I'm a pretty easy going guy myself and actually a former Christian (my beliefs would best be described as Agnostic these days), but that place made me feel incredibly uncomfortable and I never went back.

Anyway, to the point of this story: she's been in a relationship with this absolutely top-notch bloke for the last 3 years or so and the pair of them love each other to bits, but her fellow Church goers have apparently been quite vocal in their disapproval of the relationship on the basis that the guy is not a Christian himself. More recently her parents have also been dropping hints that the relationship has no future, since she should be with a fellow Christian for them to get married, have kids, etc.

And so, she's finally buckled and dumped the guy. And is now incredibly down in the dumps. I've been trying to gently suggest that maybe her fellow church people are arseholes, but she doesn't see it this way. She seems to feel there is nothing she can do, she wants to be with the guy but she can't due to her faith.

So grrrr... bloody religion, etc!

You got her preggers didn't you?

Well that's pretty sad for both of them, though I think that unless she were to change her faith then it would have been a difficult relationship. I can't imagine trying to negotiate some of life's dramas and challenges with a fundamentalist for a partner.

Wow, that's almost an archetypal example of religious conceit.

'Your relationship has no future because your boyfriend doesn't believe in the same ancient Zombie Myth that we do'

Funny how the guy was able to tolerate the evangelists probably trying to enlighten him at every chance they got.

Top paraphrase Jon Stewart: "Religion provides hope in a world torn apart by religion"

I know a bloke who has been in virtually an identical situation. He was happy in a relationship but his fellow cultists, er, Christians frowned upon it, saying they should sleep in separate rooms when she stays over etc. In the end, he broke the relationship up due to the peer pressure.

Ah, religion.

A friend's sister had a child recently, and she's just had her christened*. The mother's family are Protestant, while the father's Catholic, and the whole ordeal was planned behind the mother's family's back to be a Catholic ceremony.

‘Peeved’ doesn't quite capture the tension in the air on this one.


* I think.

Heh... my ex and her whole clan are Catholic. She wanted Zioette christened and I absolutely insisted that if it was happening at all, it was happening in a bog standard CofE church. No way is my daughter being indoctrinated Catholic.

They buckled on that one, but I know she's planning on sending her through the local Catholic schools when the time comes, and that won't be happening either if I have anything to do with it.

Edit: in fact, this one is more important to me than the Christening. I can deal with a one-off religious ceremony, but religious educations are another matter entirely.

Holy shit.

I'm fairly sure I have two operational k800i phones in my house. They're a bit battered, but if your casing is in better nick you could always swap shit over?

Thanks mate, but I've just bought a HTC Wildfire.

Fuck you! I'm charging you 12 quid for my time anyway.

I'll collect it from Grim...

I've just dropped a printer!

Has it been 9 months already?

I banged my head on a desk earlier. I'm obviously rusty at fumbling at cables under people's desks.

I like to bang my head on the nearest desk from time to time.

Was moving a load of junk that I'd forgotten about and a newish printer. I'd piled them all up on the trolley and figured, in my 'bull-in-a-china-shop' way to tackle the two steps down from the lab without assistance.

It did not go well

There is a lift...

Quiet you. In a stunning design twist, you have to go down two steps to get to the lift.

Take that, cripples!

Indeed. Also, half of the building is completely inaccessible to the disabled, but as that's the Dance side, it's 'ok'

Stupid Chrome is giving me the following stupid JS error:
IT IS FUCKING DEFINED!
Even IE can make it work

Heh! In fairness, I can sort of see the logic of that one.

The textiles department is also up there. Up 50 steps.

.. although obviously it's not "ok".

Have some bananas

I wasn't going to post anything here but I reckon it'd do me good to get a few things off my chest.

My wife had a miscarriage last Friday. We went into hospital, they did the scan and everything and she ended up having an operation that evening. It wasn't the best day of my life as you can guess.

We're both a bit out of it now and trying to carry on as normal. She's still sore and a bit slow but she's getting there but I've got to say, the hospital staff were excellent. Every last one of them were comforting and really sympathetic.

Then today, we took our hamster to the vets and it turns out he has cancerous lumps in/on him. We've got to take him back a week on Saturday but it doesn't look good for him. We probably won't bring him home.

I'm trying to put a brave face on it all but you know... sometimes life is a bit shit.

Fucking hell man.

Sorry to hear it, chap

Ah, Vision. That's shit. Sympathy to you and the Mrs.

Sorry to hear that, MrVision.

That's horrible news. Hope things get better for you both really soon.

I'm doing that thing again where I keep opening the thread, trying to think of a response, then giving up as I can't really put it into words.
Really sorry to hear that mate.

Shit man. All the best to you and Mrs Vision

Thanks chaps.. I'm the kind of guy who bottles stuff up and puts a brave face on for those around me.. putting all this down on here helps in a strange kind of way.

I love your avatar, Vision.

We've really had some terrible forum news lately, haven't we.

Thanks.. I like it too. It cheers me up.



Yes we have. Hopefully it means that things can only get better.

Don't utter that phrase. I'm reasonably sure it summons Tony Blair.

Also, I hope you're right.

I was going to create a Tony Blair account and use Riles avatar, but then I realised I was too lazy. Just pretend I did it and find it accordingly hilarious, thanks.

Nay!

Crikey Mr. TheVision, very shit. My condolences sir. I hope you and your other half are okay.

Just read page 3. Sorry to hear the news, TheVision.

Really sorry to hear that The Vision.

Oh The Vision, I'm so sorry. Sending good thoughts to you and Mrs. The Vision.

Just read the last few pages, really sorry to hear what's going on in everyones life and TheVision I'm sending condolences to you and your wife.

Part of the software I wrote uses a Javascript and Flash-based video player. Another part uses a more recent version of the same thing.
I have spent an hour updating the part with the older version to the newer one.
I look on the vendor's website, and I see that in the hour I've been working on it there's an even newer version out.

Bah.

So sorry to hear that, The Vision. Hope you and the Mrs get back on your feet soon.