Shoot the Wall (A.K.A. The Rant Thread)

[Arcadia]

Hey, that's my homeland, and we never left the door open! For one thing, the dog would have escaped... That's something else that bugs me about TV shows ... hardly anyone has a pet. I get why, but it's just weird.

 

[Van Buren Supernova]

:D

As usual, happy to find like minded here

 

Since we are talking about things in TV or movie, I also feel annoyed when the characters are in chasing/urgent scenes, but had time to stop for schmoozing, mushy mushy, or those that take too long to die, I was talking about death scene that gets too unrealistic because they want to milk it. I mean, die already! (at this point I am aware maybe not many like minded about it here :P). Having said that, there are good prolonged realistic death scenes, and I appreciate and feel for those, too bad, there are not much. Most of the rest gets my eyes rolling.

 

And enemies who are very patient in fighting scene, like instead of attacking the protagonist at one go, they patiently dance around him/her and attack one by one, and get killed one by one. OR, do not try to kill the hero in straightforward manner, but make it extra complicated with devices and so on, then leave without making sure about the result (which of course, they escape) XD

 

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

... enemies who are very patient in fighting scene, like instead of attacking the protagonist at one go, they patiently dance around him/her and attack one by one, and get killed one by one. OR, do not try to kill the hero in straightforward manner, but make it extra complicated with devices and so on....

 

I dunno how realistic that is, but it sure does seem to be a cliche, doesn't it -- that and the baddie who tries to talk the hero to death. Someone posted a quote on here some time back (unfortunately in an image, I think, so I can't search for it), to the effect that if someone is planning to kill you, you'd better hope it's a baddie, because he'll take time to gloat first, whereas a good man will just kill you. Again, not sure if that's true in real life, but it sure is true on tekevision.

[Pseudonym]

Here it is, it's from Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett. 

 

"If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you're going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat.

 

They'll watch you squirm. They'll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar.

 

So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word.”

 

 

Also, as Sherlock would say, "that's the frailty of genius, it needs an audience."

 

I used to like it when the hero would point out the villain's monologuing, but even that seems overdone now. 

 

[Caya]

Yep, someone (don't know who created it originally, sorry) linked that passage to Sherlock after the first episode:

 

[J.P.]

Than Mrs Norbury was a good person. :D

[T.o.b.y]

I usually don't like drawn out death scenes either, especially if they are medically very improbable and the dying person should have expspired shortly after being injured, or at least become unconscious. But I must admit to being guilty of writing some myself. They are such an old tradition in storytelling.

[Van Buren Supernova]

Yep, someone (don't know who created it originally, sorry) linked that passage to Sherlock after the first episode:

 

 

Awesome.

That is very fitting for SIP.

 

Than Mrs Norbury was a good person. :D

 

To be fair, Sherlock did the gloating for her. He covers every single thing that she had nothing left to say. XD

 

I usually don't like drawn out death scenes either, especially if they are medically very improbable and the dying person should have expspired shortly after being injured, or at least become unconscious. But I must admit to being guilty of writing some myself. They are such an old tradition in storytelling.

I had come to expect that, so when I encountered character death without him/her managed to finish what they want/need to say, I was like.. whaaaaaaaatttt then I appreciate the realism and have new respect especially when they manage to work the unsaid things into the story.

[Van Buren Supernova]

Where do you guy stand in lending money?

I had bad experiences so it's a NO from me, but vice versa, I never borrow from anyone (except mortgage euh).

It ruins relationships and people take it for granted.

 

What surprises me is how easy people try to approach me, like just now, from a collague that I have just known for weeks and basically seen for, what, an hour? We share different office.

 

Why would she thinks is okay? I am not rich and don't appear so, I am tucked in my corner office and could go without any interactions with outside world except a morning and bye greetings from an equally introverted same-office colleague.

So she msg-ed me, walked in with sweet small talk (that I know too well) and leads to her trying to borrow money for her rent. I did recommend her some apartment back then, because I know how hard it is when you are new in town, but I don't expect that she thinks it's a good idea.

 

Oh she has higher rank than me, although maybe she has less pay. I don't know, she knows, she is the HR manager ffs.

Update on this.

This person apparently goes around and approaches a lot of people, and successfully gets most of them to lend her money, some multiple times and hasn't payed them back, each with the message that everyone should keep this a secret because she is embarrassed.

 

I don't mingle, but had my informant, the only person I call friend here. After she approached me, I was keeping her secret tight as what she made me promise. But I found her behavior weird and grew suspicious, and since my this friend could be involved with her at work, I decided to warn him. (This is the friend that I complained about being too nice, and he had been victim of his own kindness many many times, don't want it to happen to him, again). I only based it on my intuition but since I can trust him and he is a very private person as well, I am sure her secret is still safe within us.

 

Apparently not everyone keeps her secret (not that she deserves it because it's all bullcrap) and I heard someone else was approached by her with the same intention few weeks ago. And recently, my friend who has more social exposure with office people found out it had become public secret because she has a lot of victims and in a lot of debts, and they have started to compare notes.

 

Aiz. I have nothing to describe this kind of person and feel very sick with her fake exterior, I think she wears her mask so well that in total, only two including me escaped her ploy.

[Pseudonym]

Gawd, I don't understand how people have the balls to do that kind of thing and not be embarrassed about it. 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Oh, but she IS embarrassed. She told everybody so. :P

 

Just not sufficiently embarrassed to stop borrowing money, apparently.

[Arcadia]

Or she's genuinely desperate. Many people do awful things when they're desperate. :(

[Pseudonym]

It's the fact it's co-workers that gets me. They aren't friends or family, they are colleagues. 

[Arcadia]

Friends and family are already on to her. Or she doesn't have any. (No surprise there ... meowwww. )

[Pseudonym]

God, I hate having workmen about. I'm working from my brothers, where he has workmen replacing the windows. They aren't that much of a pain and I don't need to deal with them much but it makes me uncomfortable having a gang of unknown men roving around. 

 

I was thinking about the cat-calling we were talking about the other day. I don't get cat-called so much as pointedly leered at. Twice yesterday I had vans slow down to the point of almost stopping so that the men in the cab could leer out the window at me. I hate it. And twice in a day is a particular low point. All I want, 99.9% of the time, is just to be left the hell alone by everybody. 

[Arcadia]

On the bright side, there must be something about you they find attractive. I don't think I've ever been leered at in my life. Not that I particularly want to be. I have been propositioned though, each time by complete strangers ... now that's a little unnerving! Once while I was unloading my garbage out of the car at the landfill. You do have to wonder about men's brains sometimes.....

[Pseudonym]

I've only ever been propositioned in clubs, so you have that dubious honour over me! What did you do?

[Arcadia]

Well, let's see ... the time at the landfill, I couldn't hear what they were saying, and was taking a couple steps towards their car to try and hear better, and one of the staff saw what was going on and came over ... they took off when they saw him coming, and his reaction told me what they'd been saying.

 

The time in the parking lot I think I told y'all already, when the guy sitting in the next car over mouthed his "proposal" at me; I was so startled I burst out laughing and simply walked away.

 

The time at college I was with friends, who suddenly turned into Mr. Macho Men and chased the guy off.

 

The time I was taking a walk on my break, and the guys in the car pulled up beside me, I made a sharp right, crossed a little field and went into the nearby store, then waited until I thought it was safe to go back to work. Which it was.

 

Then there was the other time in college when I've never been sure if the guy was propositioning me or not. He kept saying something I couldn't understand, and I kept saying, I'm sorry, I don't understand what you're saying, and he'd repeat it, and we went several rounds like that until someone else walked into the room and he gave up. He never approached me after that, to this day I don't know if he was saying something awful or trying to compliment me on my hair tie or something. :P But he's the one that creeped me out the most; something about his demeanor bothered me.

[Pseudonym]

Wow, you've been propositioned a lot! I've been followed around quite a few times, had to get the security guards to keep an eye on one guy whenever he came into the cafe where I worked, but he never tried anything, though I think he might of if he could have got away with it. We had an incident where someone fitting his description was found in the staffroom studying the rota. It was like you said about that last guy, it was just something about his demeanour that freaked me out. And I had a similar thing where one day one of the guys I worked with, who was conveniently a rugby player and pretty big, did his macho thing of standing in the doorway with his arms crossed looking intimidating and glaring at the bloke until he left. 

 

 

[Arcadia]

It does seem like a lot, but I'm willing to bet it's not a lot more than most women encounter. :(

[Van Buren Supernova]

Or she's genuinely desperate. Many people do awful things when they're desperate. :(

I know, but of the other similar things happened to me, her case is the only one where that option doesn't cross my mind at all. Because she is not.

 

With me, she said she needed it for advance payment for her rent, since she's just settled down. Told me she spent her money because she travelled back and forth for that. When I suggested company loan, she said nah, the amount is too small that she didn't want the hassle of paperwork.

 

Currently she is staying/renting expensive apartment.

 

She managed a big amount from another colleague (12.5 times amount that she asked from me), I'm sure advanced rent was not used as excuse to get that, she had to have another excuse which suggest she has multiple stories to tell = lies. Which is confirmed by another colleague who said she was telling him another different story.

 

And yah, she talked big about the type of place she was looking when I asked her about budget she was willing to spend (when she asked me to recommend her some apartment).

 

She has to face these people she borrows money from on daily basis. Not me, thank god. Geez, this kind of people is the type who spoil it all for people who are genuinely desperate and genuinely kind and trustworthy with others (definitely not me, I've passed that phase long time ago because of people like her! *grumble*)

 

 

@proposition, catcalling etc

I'm thinking that some men also face the same thing but because of gender, it's hard for them to complain about it, which is quite unfair to them, those who are uncomfortable. Women, especially in group, just like men, tend to get more aggressive and also could do similar harassment. Most people would view it as cute and funny when women do that to men, but I think it has the same negative effect to the recipients.

 

My friend's friend squeezed a guy's butt in the bus (don't ask me to explain) and they laughed it off. It passes around as funny story and I admitted I laughed a bit at first then thought about it how unfair the world for men sometimes. Imagine the outrage when it happens to women.

Maybe it's similar with people tend to dismiss/take it too lightly domestic violence when man is the victim instead of woman.

[Arcadia]

Yah, I think it's hard for either gender to complain about, actually. I do think that women should say something if they don't like the way a man is hitting on them or whatever, and I think a guy should do the same. But at the same time, I know how difficult that can be in certain situations, such as if it's a co-worker or a social group. I've never encountered it with someone I knew or worked with, but if I did .... I don't know, it would depend on what kind of harassment it was, I guess. I tend to be rather non-confrontational and go with the social norms of whatever group I'm in, but I have my limits. :( 

[Pseudonym]

Yea, I don't think it's liked by most people really, whatever your gender. Gangs of women on hen parties are particularly terrifying. 

[T.o.b.y]

Gosh, you guys have had an awful lot of unpleasant experiences with guys! I must be either completely tone-deaf or come across as totally sexless (maybe both?) because even when I was younger and had no wedding ring (and I am not old now), I never got catcalled or propositioned at all. I have been bullied and harassed but it was never in a sexual way, in fact most men / boys who have been aggressive towards me seemed to feel outrage at my level of unattractiveness - how dare I exist without being pleasant for them to look at?

 

The funny bit is, while I would never call myself pretty, I don't think I am particularly hideous either. In my mind, I just look normal and boring, average in almost every way, a bit frumpy maybe but no worse than Molly in that respect. So why my appearance is deemed offensive by some is a mystery.

[Pseudonym]

I wouldn't say I'm anything special either. The second van leering the other day was when I just got home from the gym, I was red, sweaty and gross - definitely not looking attractive.  

Getting bullied/harassed by men sounds just as bad if not worse! I'm not good with aggressive people. I did have a boy like that when I was a teenager, who seemed to find my appearance offensive, though I honestly think he had a thing for someone in our group and knew that none of us would have touched him with a bargepole.