The grumpy thread

[Station]

By this time I had decided it needed to come out whether I took the sump with it or not, especially considering the amount of sump to ground contact that has occurred - it's smashed to bollocks. It's a cast ally sump on a 16v golf engine - I bought a new plug, but ended up just putting the frankenplug back in. At least I can be sure I'll be able to get it back out.

 

Did you ... carefully ... unscrew the sump plug, making sure not to drop it into the oil catch tray underneath, watching each thread unscrew, making sure you've got hold of the plug nice and tight, waiting for the first drip of oil as you don't want to drop it into the tray underneath, and then get onto the last thread of the plug, have the first drip of oil and then drop the plug and copper washer into the tray as it fills with black oil?

I do that -every- time.

[cobblers]

By this time I had decided it needed to come out whether I took the sump with it or not, especially considering the amount of sump to ground contact that has occurred - it's smashed to bollocks. It's a cast ally sump on a 16v golf engine - I bought a new plug, but ended up just putting the frankenplug back in. At least I can be sure I'll be able to get it back out.

 

Did you ... carefully ... unscrew the sump plug, making sure not to drop it into the oil catch tray underneath, watching each thread unscrew, making sure you've got hold of the plug nice and tight, waiting for the first drip of oil as you don't want to drop it into the tray underneath, and then get onto the last thread of the plug, have the first drip of oil and then drop the plug and copper washer into the tray as it fills with black oil?

I do that -every- time.

 

I'm lucky enough to have never done that. I've took the plug out and then forgotten to put the bugger back in before refilling the engine. I was once actually looking directly at the sump plug, while filling the engine up with oil and thinking to myself "I need to slip the copper washer round on that before I put it back in"

 

This was 5 years ago, and I have just realised that is the last time the oil in my mums Ka was changed.

[warren t claim]

PAS pumps.

 

For some reason mine shattered on its mounting today causing much swearing and praying. Fortunately I found one in the local scrappy but trying to undo the pully wheel bolts without the belt attatched was a total pita.

 

I suppose I should be grateful that the engine didn't cook after being driven for 8 miles with no fan and waterpump.

[Guest]

Hi Salford University,

 

I've fucking had it with your joke of a video journalism lecturer. She's an absolute disgrace and I want my money back. If things don't change I'm refusing to come in. This module is an insult to my intelligence. Is that alright? You'll get your finished piece, but we'll do it ourselves without any more conjecture from that stupid gobshite. If we submit something vaguely cogent, we pass the module. Your rules. So be it.

 

You know what? The last thing I want is a civil war but I see no other option.

 

FOR. FUCK'S. SAKE.

[warren t claim]

Hi Salford University,

 

I've fucking had it with your joke of a video journalism lecturer. She's an absolute disgrace and I want my money back. If things don't change I'm refusing to come in. This module is an insult to my intelligence. Is that alright? You'll get your finished piece, but we'll do it ourselves without any more conjecture from that stupid gobshite. If we submit something vaguely cogent, we pass the module. Your rules. So be it.

 

You know what? The last thing I want is a civil war but I see no other option.

 

FOR. FUCK'S. SAKE.

 

With sky-high tuition fees you should be able to sue the polyversity for not delivering the goods. Demand a refund.

[Guest]

Hi Salford University,

 

I've fucking had it with your joke of a video journalism lecturer. She's an absolute disgrace and I want my money back. If things don't change I'm refusing to come in. This module is an insult to my intelligence. Is that alright? You'll get your finished piece, but we'll do it ourselves without any more conjecture from that stupid gobshite. If we submit something vaguely cogent, we pass the module. Your rules. So be it.

 

You know what? The last thing I want is a civil war but I see no other option.

 

FOR. FUCK'S. SAKE.

 

With sky-high tuition fees you should be able to sue the polyversity for not delivering the goods. Demand a refund.

 

Yeah, I could do with some bits for the Amazon now you mention it.

 

AAAAAAARGH.

[warren t claim]

I'm serious! If I was paying thousands for a service and it wasn't as good as expected I'd call the lawyers in. I don't know why universities think they are above the Sale of Goods Act?

[Guest]

I'm serious! If I was paying thousands for a service and it wasn't as good as expected I'd call the lawyers in. I don't know why universities think they are above the Sale of Goods Act?

 

Right so that's the second thing I'm out of pocket \ been done out of cash on. Seriously I might just drive my 480 at the daft bitch and film that. I've already managed to piss her off when she asked us to 'go and film an action sequence'. Cue me hoying past the camera at 90 down the access road to the unit. Lovely pan, great diegetic sound, bit of Danzig on the radio...it oozed class.

 

Her: Wasn't that a bit dangerous?

Me: Well, you're not dead yet, so I'll call it evens.

[warren t claim]

You should of filmed yourself torturing her with an ice axe. That would be pretty "action packed".

[Guest]

You should of filmed yourself torturing her with an ice axe. That would be pretty "action packed".

 

Nah, there's gonna be a massive kick-off in a couple of days anyways. I'll take the IX 20 in and leave it running at the back of the room. Otherwise I might just act the dick head and deliberately wind her up. I can do that quite exquisitely when sufficiently motivated.

[Guest]

I'm beginning to think I have a different grasp of the English language to that of my University cohorts. We have a closed Facebook group in which we air our problems and concerns. Whilst we have a mutual agreement about the appalling standard of teaching we're receiving from our Video Journalism lecturer (with a formal grievance in the works) several of us differ as to how well the University radio station is organised. You may recall that I applied to get involved with S**ck at the beginning of last term. Many e mails, forms and phone calls have a occurred since then and I am still not on any team or in possession of a show slot. I decided to air my views in a clear and forthright manner, and subsequently got ripped to pieces by two girls in my set who had managed to get a show. They decided to somehow interpret my comments as a personal attack aimed at them, personally. I responded in kind.

 

Cue a shitstorm.

 

If they crawled out of the station's arse for a fraction of a second they'd see how pitifully shit the whole concern is. I'm not participating in any kind of discussion or debate any more. They can all fuck off. This is worse than that joke of a call centre I worked in. 'Oooh, it's a bit negative, we can't possibly have that, our entire shitty universe will collapse around our ears and kittens will be raped. How dare you suggest that something is crap because you're so negative and horrible, blah blah blah FUCK OFF. Let's ignore all the evidence to the contrary and ram cotton wool so far up our ears it comes out of our arses, wibble bollocks bling blah let's all decorate our desks because it's Halloween.'

 

You know what? I hate being ignored, especially when said station whinges they can't get anyone interested. I've applied to them AGAIN for the fifth (or sixth, or seventh) time (I've lost count), and if they were full up, or didn't like what I proposed, would an e mail or phone call have gone amiss? No, no it wouldn't.

 

Actually, I'm so fucking sick of people taking what I say the wrong way then I might as well buy a Golf and a white fluffy coat.

 

I'm now being told I 'can't complain about the Video Journalism lecturer because that will offend her and will get your face known and no one will want to work with you'. Right then, I'll just take my trousers down and you can all piledrive up my arse without lube. Thanks for calling! Thanks! Would you like some bile with that?

 

Fuck this. I'm not saying anything bad about anything ever again, in case it offends someone. What a pathetic state of affairs.

[M'coli]

A bit of a conversation stopper, Wat - good rant.

[Guest]

A bit of a conversation stopper, Wat - good rant.

 

It's nice to have an appreciative audience.

 

[Cavcraft]

This mong...

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VW-MAN-BEAVERTAIL ... 3f0801602e

 

'It's MOT exempt because it says recovery truck on the logbook'. OH RLY? I had a Mk4 Astra that said 'Sport' on the logbook but it wouldn't beat a Ferrari, you fucking cockwand.

Oh well, his feedback says it all anyhow.

[DCLane]

Watanabe ...

 

Being a lecturer (but not at Salford!), the best route for you to get action is to submit it to a) the Vice-Chancellor copied to the Dean.

 

I'd not suggest that to my students though

[Guest]

Watanabe ...

 

Being a lecturer (but not at Salford!), the best route for you to get action is to submit it to a) the Vice-Chancellor copied to the Dean.

 

I'd not suggest that to my students though

 

Slight problem : She's the one marking our assignments.

[Negative Creep]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12664346

 

A Muslim extremist has been found guilty of burning poppies at a protest in west London on Armistice Day.

 

Emdadur Choudhury, 26, of Spitalfields, east London, was fined £50 for offences under the Public Order Act.

 

Choudhury, a member of Muslims Against Crusades (MAC), had denied the charge at Woolwich Crown Court.

 

Mohammed Haque, 30, of Bethnal Green, was cleared of the charge. Both men had been accused of burning three oversized poppies on 11 November in Kensington.

 

Rival protests had been taking place at the time near the Royal Albert Hall, the end point of a charity march at which serving members handed over books of condolence ahead of Remembrance Sunday.

 

District Judge Howard Riddle said: "The two-minute chanting, when others were observing a silence, followed by a burning of the symbol of remembrance was a calculated and deliberate insult to the dead and those who mourn or remember them."

'Just despicable'

 

Judge Riddle said the ceasefire at 11am on 11 November 1918 had "huge significance" for Britain and marked the end of a "terrible war".

 

He added: "Against that background, interrupting the two minutes' silence by chanting 'British soldiers burn in hell', followed by the burning of poppies, is behaviour that is bound to be seen as insulting."

 

The court was previously told that the grandson of a World War II soldier felt "sick inside" as Muslim extremists burned replica poppies.

Poppy burning Veterans' families felt said they felt physically sick at the act

 

Tony Kibble said: "Halfway through, I looked up to see what was going on around and I saw a ball of fire fall to the ground. Literally, my stomach turned over.

 

"I felt sick inside. It is something that means so much to me and to see what I believed to be a wreath of poppies fall to the ground - it is just despicable."

 

Judge Riddle called Mr Kibble a "mild-mannered" man who had impressed him as a member of the public with "typical feelings" about Remembrance Day.

 

He said that freedom of expression was not unlimited.

 

Video footage of the incident was shown to the court.

 

In it, a member of the MAC could be heard to say, "the two minutes have started" before leading a series of anti-British chants.

 

About 20 men at the demonstration joined in with shouts of: "Burn, burn, British soldiers, British soldiers, burn in hell."

 

The crowd continued: "British soldiers - murderers, British soldiers - rapists, British soldiers - terrorists."

 

Their actions went "far beyond the boundaries of legitimate protest and freedom of expression," prosecutor Simon Ray said.

 

Choudhury, of Hunton Street, was found guilty under Section 5 of the Public Order Act of burning the poppies in a way that was likely to cause "harassment, harm or distress" to those who witnessed it.

 

Daniel Breger, defending, said Choudhury was a married man who worked part-time.

 

He said his wages were £480 a month, on top of which he receives a monthly £792 in benefits from the state.

 

Choudhury must pay a £15 victim surcharge on top of his fine

 

 

I have to pay £80 for not taxing a car I don't own. What a fucking joke.

[fiatdaft]

i would have let the veterans set light to the fucker,or me , i would have been right up for that.

[DCLane]

Watanabe ...

 

Being a lecturer (but not at Salford!), the best route for you to get action is to submit it to a) the Vice-Chancellor copied to the Dean.

 

I'd not suggest that to my students though

 

Slight problem : She's the one marking our assignments.

 

Can I strongly suggest that this shouldn't matter. An External Examiner should ensure quality - also, if you've complained I would expect it to be monitored.

 

We've had a similar issue - the group complained and we made sure that someone else other than their lecturer marked their work; i.e. me. It made sure that bias wasn't considered. It was a problem member of staff and we were stuck unless we get an official complaint. When they did, we could take action.

 

Go via the Vice-Chancellor and the faculty Dean, as well as submitting the written complaint using the official process; partly because you don't know who else may have complained. Your module is just one of a series a lecturer will teach, along with other responsibilities. If they are poor in their pedagogic process, then the faculty needs to know now, rather than at the end of the module.

 

Let me stress two things though; the complaint must be in writing and also, it's got to be submitted using their official process.

 

Why? Because every university has to report on written complaints through the complaints process. Not only that, they have to officially report the actions taken to ensure student fairness.

[Guest]

Watanabe ...

 

Being a lecturer (but not at Salford!), the best route for you to get action is to submit it to a) the Vice-Chancellor copied to the Dean.

 

I'd not suggest that to my students though

 

Slight problem : She's the one marking our assignments.

 

Can I strongly suggest that this shouldn't matter. An External Examiner should ensure quality - also, if you've complained I would expect it to be monitored.

 

We've had a similar issue - the group complained and we made sure that someone else other than their lecturer marked their work; i.e. me. It made sure that bias wasn't considered. It was a problem member of staff and we were stuck unless we get an official complaint. When they did, we could take action.

 

Go via the Vice-Chancellor and the faculty Dean, as well as submitting the written complaint using the official process; partly because you don't know who else may have complained. Your module is just one of a series a lecturer will teach, along with other responsibilities. If they are poor in their pedagogic process, then the faculty needs to know now, rather than at the end of the module.

 

Let me stress two things though; the complaint must be in writing and also, it's got to be submitted using their official process.

 

Why? Because every university has to report on written complaints through the complaints process. Not only that, they have to officially report the actions taken to ensure student fairness.

 

I'll see what the group consensus is. I am not keen for my name to be at the top of this for obvious reasons. Someone has to start it all off by going to the school \ SU, and again, I am not willing to be the poster child for the whole thing. Something needs to be done about it though, without my card being marked for retribution further down the line.

[M'coli]

Autotrader's website. I prefered the old style one (http://search.autotrader.co.uk/www/cars ... orm.action) but now that re-directs me to their new-style one. The one that loads the advertisments faster than the photos. The one that uses up far more bandwidth and processor time. The one with the shit look and the pish features. Teh old one wasn't the best, but it doidn't look cuddly, which this one tries to do.

 

Fuck that for a game of soldiers.

[Cavcraft]

Hey Wat, could one of us help with some sort of vitriolic e-mail suggestions to this soppy bint or her boss? Happy to help if needed.

 

 

Right, grumpy:

 

Tesco's internet service can go feast on white dog turd. Absolutely fucking hopeless on their good days, infinity times shitter on their bad ones.

[Negative Creep]

Autotrader's website. I prefered the old style one (http://search.autotrader.co.uk/www/cars ... orm.action) but now that re-directs me to their new-style one. The one that loads the advertisments faster than the photos. The one that uses up far more bandwidth and processor time. The one with the shit look and the pish features. Teh old one wasn't the best, but it doidn't look cuddly, which this one tries to do.

 

Fuck that for a game of soldiers.

 

 

Firefox + Adblock Plus = adverts x0

[boobydoo]

Emdadour Choudhury earns £792 in benefits each month.......glad to see that my tax paid his fine, then.

[M'coli]

Autotrader's website. I prefered the old style one (http://search.autotrader.co.uk/www/cars ... orm.action) but now that re-directs me to their new-style one. The one that loads the advertisments faster than the photos. The one that uses up far more bandwidth and processor time. The one with the shit look and the pish features. Teh old one wasn't the best, but it doidn't look cuddly, which this one tries to do.

 

Fuck that for a game of soldiers.

 

 

Firefox + Adblock Plus = adverts x0

Still doesn't stop the problem of the website looking utter pish!

[DCLane]

The colourful language, hmmm.

 

It may be OK outside the UK, but if it's to Salford's VC I'd suggest he keep it as professional as possible. Even if it's not as entertaining

[Guest]

Arguments are a funny thing, Wattonearthy, to which there is no easy solution.

 

I've been involved in a lot of them lately, they seem to come in waves. I don't set out to be confrontational, but sometimes people just present themselves as a problem which requires sorting out, whether they've said something or done something. There's no easy solution - do nothing and you'll stew over it for days wishing you'd done something (and inevitably be on "edge" until you overreact and blow your top on something fairly trivial). However, if you do something, there's generally consequences (or at least the thought of some), which can be escalated depending on how much they managed to frustrate you. Obviously I'm aware that you can lose your rag at about the same level as me, which isn't an ideal level I must admit.

 

The solution I've found to be particularly helpful in my case is to avoid other people as much as possible. Not just in terms of one-to-one contact, but in terms of everything. I stopped reading the paper on a morning because it would generally put me in a foul mood. Television is almost completely no-go, other than watching DVDs of stuff I actually like. Jobs are another massive waste of time when it comes to getting angry - there tends to be a few people who drag everyone else down, generally just from their foul mood rather than any intentions of winding people up. For example, the local misery merchant made me aware of the fact that due to my job changes, I'll essentially be doing my job "on the cheap" as I'm doing an exact copy of a role someone else on a higher scale does, thereby losing about £3K a year I should really get. I hadn't thought about it like that, but if I thought about it for long enough I'd probably be angry enough to launch my workstation out of the window. As is, I'm just trying not to think about it, because work is only the thing I do between getting to drive big cars around and drink. If I'm one of the lowest paid people here, so what? They probably have really rotten kids and are too thick to enjoy anything good, or they might have a big gas leak and die in a huge explosion - there's loads of positives to focus on here.

 

Now luckily, this situation you have isn't a spur-of-the-moment one, which gives you a lot more chance to bring it to a conclusion with the minimum of stress. Obviously what you want to see is for this lecturer to be leaving with her belongings in a box, openly weeping whilst you point and laugh. However, think of all the time and anger it would take for you to bring it to there - massive bile-filled letters, worries about whether your work will be examined fairly, probably a load of meetings to go to, plus all the stress whilst it takes weeks and weeks to all go through, constantly having it hanging over your head. Now imagine the amusement you would get out of her being given a ticking-off and told to get her act together - much easier to get to that conclusion, you just have to politely raise your concerns to the appropriate person, using their policy in a way that makes you look like a good guy and stressing that you would like it to be kept anonymous from her (think of the added amusement there - she'd get a ticking off and not know where it's coming from!). Hell, the people you report it to might be interested enough to ask you to keep them informed of the situation. Wouldn't that be nice?

 

In any case, your main goal should be achieving that qualification. If the teaching was rubbish, you can smooth that out later. I can't remember barely anything I did in College or Uni, it's still on my CV though. Good luck and stay relaxed!

[Guest]

FAO MR HIRST

 

WATANABE very much appreciates your input. After consulting with his group, WATANABE delivers the plans to the Rebel Alliance. Soon afterwards, the Death Star is destroyed.

 

We reckon the best thing (after a bit of a phone conflab) will be to dob her in the shit[e] when the module is over. However, I am pretty good at the foul tempered, impeccably worded letter - I got the funding out of SFE after all!

[mattblack]

Why are the people that slag others off for being 'disorganised' usualy the most disorganised themselves?

 

Oh, and if you use the draining board as an extention of your desk, your paperwork WILL get 'accidentaly' splashed with water.

 

THXBAI

[Guest]

If your desk is neat and tidy, you've obviously not got enough to do.