RE: Kittehs and cloudiah

Awesome! I can totally draw that, and will do so!\

RE: Kiwi Girl

Please do a link to your website so I can give you cash too.

I love you guys. And if you don’t have an art commish in mind, feel free to pitch some money at my head so I can put up more Shadowthon stories! (Link should take you to a page with a donate button, though it might take a bit of scrolling.)

RE: Kittehs

Reluctant? For crying out aloud, you’re having breathing trouble.

Well, this is the USA. My family’s health treatment was that unless you broke something, were bleeding uncontrollably, or were vomiting for more than twelve hours, you didn’t need a doctor.

RE: Ally

according to my uncle he had an anxiety attack so severe that my dad doesn’t even remember what he said to people that day.

Uh huh. Odd. I’ve never known anxiety to induce amnesia. Regardless, it doesn’t matter: he’s still an adult responsible for his own creepy behavior. If he is so debilitated he’s not in control of his actions, he needs to be getting mental help, not making excuses.

RE: Kittehs

Yeah. I know that NZ isn’t the same as Australia, but when I was in NZ, I got food poisoning or something and started vomiting all over the place. The people I was staying with at the time were horrified and pleaded with me to get an ambulance, and I was like, “I can’t! I don’t have health insurance!”

They just stared at me like I was crazy, but at that point, I was too sick and dissociated to be reasoned with, and I ended up blanket-burritoing for like four or five days. At the time, I felt like I was dodging a healthcare bullet; it wasn’t until later I realized that things were different there. (Though seeing as I’d literally landed on the country a few days before, I don’t know whether I would’ve counted.)

Don’t worry, Argenti. I know how it goes. *is currently writing trans crossover fanfiction for Shadowthon*

Woooow. Other people’s healthcare is weird.

*has had his own healthcare delayed ANOTHER month because apparently the “food and medical assistance” application is not actually for health insurance*

@kittehs

I’m happy everytime you link to that picture :D I don’t know why. It’s just awesome.

Ps: got to the eyedoctor, apparently I have a some kind of dry eye thing, nothing terrible. I got prescription drops to take. :3

@tracy

I really don’t have any good advice, sorry :( I think knowing people out there love her will help, and I don’t know any other ways to help support her.

@melody: I have no idea the denomination that is involved with this, but I do know that different denominations have differing views about the appropriateness and/or usefulness of exorcisms. One particular element that concerns me is basically the “project plan” for this exorcism. What requirements had to be met to have one, who decided on the person/people/organisation conducting the exorcism, the outcomes for the exorcism, and what the measures for success are.* Because your company could be on a hiding to nothing if this doesn’t fix whatever issue is there. I have read a little “popular science” about the ability of ultrasonic waves at particular frequencies causing people to get a sensation that a particular place is haunted – so there could be an actual physical explanation for this, irrespective of other considerations. We have some cultural activities here in NZ which are around blessing places to ensure that nothing bad happens in the future, and also undertaking basically cleansing ceremonies where bad things have happened (esp, removing tapu), but some bad shits need to occur before you can get tapu (in this context, there are others) such as the death of someone. And what you describe doesn’t seem to have a cause, per se.

* You’ve already mentioned that others have an issue with this. What is the reason that one person’s request – which does affect everyone around them – is being acceded to without apparent consideration of the wider impact? HR should *know* this.

@Marie: hooray both for your throat and for your eye. Thanks for letting us know what happened.

@Tracy: does N14’s counsellor have any suggestions, as that is the person who has responsibility for trying to get good outcomes for N14? Given that she is seeing a counsellor, to me it makes sense to involve the counsellor in trying to establish practical outcome(s) and then a plan to get to those outcome(s). I’m assuming that N14 has established a rapport with the counsellor and that there has been at least a couple of sessions.

/sigh horrible people in this world remain horrible

And this is just too cute:

http://lovemeow.com/2014/02/children-read-to-shelter-cats/#HGTxZsKqFw683eJs.01

RE: Tracy

Oh man, that’s awful. I’m so sorry for your niece. If legal proceedings aren’t involved, I guess the best you can do is stay in contact as best you can and emphasize that her mother’s behavior is NOT OKAY. Is there any way BIL can get custody of her?

RE: melody

That is the strangest thing, and I’m sorry it’s going on. You’re well within your rights to be creeped out, especially since it sounds like your coworker kinda sprung this on you without telling you. It’s, uh. Kinda creepy to do something like this and not tell everyone. I mean, I live with pagans who sometimes “clean” things, but they wouldn’t do something like that even at home without telling me first, never mind at WORK.

RE: Kiwi Girl

Thank you! Was there anything in particular you wanted it to go to?

@LBT: the picture thing (?icon ?image, don’t know what to call it) for Ravelry that Kitteh mentioned earlier. :) I just want cat/cats. I find your question hard to answer because I imagined you would actually put it towards “food” or “rent” or … :)

@melody: the most appropriate avenue to deal with this is via HR, who should *know* the factors that I outlined in my earlier comment. It’s around “speaking truth to power” and HR is supposed to fill that role in the situation you outlined. If you have a crappy HR person/department, this is where the HR doing its job properly angle falls down, sadly.

Realistically, your employer could be setting themselves up for an ongoing issue. An ongoing positive outcome from the exorcism is not guaranteed. And given that exorcisms have often been performed on people, there is the possibility that your co-worker could decide down track that another co-worker is possessed, rather than an area.

Your bosses will be thinking that the exorcism will solve the problem once and for all (or maybe they have a later exit strategy for that employee if the exorcism doesn’t work). They have no evidence that, in fact, this is what will happen.

@LBT: how about, if you have an idea on the backburner, you put it towards that. Because I honestly don’t care what it contributes to, I just wanted to give you some $$$ towards the commission that I suggested but then Kitteh ninaj’d me on re the finances.

What would make it easier for them to understand what they have to do, when, after two years of instructions, they still don’t understand what they have to do?

You have to tell them to do what they want to do, when they want to do it. Then they’ll hear what you’re actually saying. Otherwise, everything goes through a filter that triggers whining until a) they finally shut the fuck up and do it, b) somebody gets so sick of hearing them that they do it for them, or c) it’s too late and they fail (which triggers a whole new chorus of whining).