You know, I have taken to playing “mood music” that I pull off YouTube. My favorites are slow, coffeehouse jazz on rainy or snowy evenings. Such as this LINK.
There is always a slightly slow animated image on the video. Usually with a fireplace. Here’s a screenshot. It’s got a animated cat, rain, books, cozy fireplace, and of course, a leather chair with a throw.
Long time mm readers will recognize the similarity of this imagery with my own personal studio in Erie, PA. Check out the link HERE.
Notice anything familiar?
Aside from the disorganized clutter… heh heh.
.
The picture is crap, but imagine it is a snowy or rainy night.
It was actually very nice in the house. It had character, and quite cozy.
My cat Coco is sleeping on a throw on a pile of books.
Here’s Coco…
Coco chillin’ out.
Meanwhile, the wood burning stove is glowing. Mellow music is playing, and I am either painting, or reading a book. A cup of coffee or tea is near by.
It’s funny how thoughts and reality sometimes coincide…
What is the military budget of China compared to other countries? How much does China spend on its military?
Try to ask a more intelligent question.
it is not how much is spend it is what can you do with it!
If the U.S. spends 3 times that of China and one can buy 3 times more in Beijing than in Washington then essentially both the U.S. and China can buy the same amount and technology.
I have not factored in corruption. That probably take away another 50%! China is corruption free. Thanks to Xi Xinping. So after factoring in corruption you essentially has half of what Beijing has!
So that is why China is getting stronger by the day! The truth is far from what you see from a western hubris, superiority complex point of view. This is the price you pay for the forever wars you fight using money you print.
6 Sigma Male Traits That Are IMPOSSIBLE To Fake…
What are some unwritten social rules everyone should know?
1-Respect the privacy of others.
“Don’t swipe left or right when someone hands over their phone to you for viewing the picture”.
2-Never give advice until you’re asked.
“ Keep calm and oil your own machine. All people are not going through a crisis, even if they are, they just might know how to pull themselves out of it”.
3-Password also needs privacy.
“If someone is typing a password, just look away, turn the other side”.
4-When someone compliments you, just thank them. Or say, “That is very kind of you.”
5-Respect people, not their position.
“Treat the cleaner with the same respect as the CEO. Nobody is impressed at how rudely you can treat someone below you but people will notice if you treat them with respect.”
7-The speakerphone is not for public use.
8-Cover your mouth when coughing and sneezing.
6-Curiosity can look bad at times.
“Never, and I mean Never even touch anyone’s mobile until they say so”.
7-Order wisely when someone is treating you.
“Never order the expensive dish on the menu when someone is treating you for lunch/dinner”.
Protect the animals
Do you agree with Stalin when he said, German women rapes were justified after what Soviet soldiers had to endure defending their homeland?
The entire quote by Stalin is as follows: “I understand it if a soldier who has crossed thousands of kilometres through blood and fire and death has fun with a woman or takes some trifle.” With this, he all-but encouraged his Red Army to rape at will… which they did.
The Germans had inflicted great damage on the Russians during the war, treating them as less-than human and murdering, raping and torturing a great number of them. Does this make literally crucifying German citizens on their own doorsteps and in their own streets, raping women and children of all ages, okay? I don’t believe any sane person would say it’s ever “okay”.
Also, the wording… fun? I heavily side-eye anyone whose idea of ‘fun’ is the rape of innocent civilians. “Hey, guys, I just arrived in enemy territory after a long and grueling military campaig, dying to have some fun… do you guys know any fun activities for me to indulge in? Hmmm let me think… what about… sexual assault?”
But, sure, Mr. Soviet Super Mario says it’s okay, so it’s okay, right? Hitler and the Nazis were awfully evil, so it’s okay to rape the women of Germany, after all, the men of Germany raped plenty of Russian women, too… nah. That just doesn’t fly. This tiny little Borat looking human mite has no right to call upon his soldiers to rape to their heart’s content…
The Japanese army more or less ordered it’s soldiers to rape as many women as they desired in Nanjing, China. They went all-out, acted like animals. It’s a great war crime and regarded by everyone as such. Likewise, the conduct of Russian soldiers in the aftermath of WWII was appalling. And it’s not just German women, either — Polish women too and other Eastern European innocents were raped, murdered and robbed by Soviet troops as they made their way to Berlin. The human suffering was enormous and Stalin was a cheerleader to these horrors.
It’s not okay. It’s never okay. You cannot repay war crimes, with war crimes. You cannot undo evil, by doing evil. Restore balanced, by doing immoral and unhinged things. Stalin was wrong. Every bit as wrong as Hitler. Because they both dehumanized their enemy and endorsed tremendous human suffering. Encouraged it, even.
So Much
What are some dirty tactics used by fast food restaurants?
What are some dirty tactics used by fast food restaurants?
Just before every spring and all throughout spring it happens.
It has been a long day. I am tired. I really don’t care for fast food but when I’m tired and lazy, what the heck – right?
I get to the drive through window.
voice:
“welcome to _______ would you like to try a value meal?”
Me:
“Sure gimme a number <whatever> and a strawberry shake”
voice:
“OK that will be $10.59 please pull forward”
So far so good right?
I pull up, hand her a twenty, she takes my money then looks at me and says one of the following:
Would you like to donate 5 dollars to feed starving third world children?
Would you like to donate 5 dollars to send an underprivileged inner city kid to camp?
Would you like to donate 5 dollars so an amputee can receive a leg?
OK I made that last one up but you get what I am saying here.
Now I am just the kind of person these people are looking for. I feel guilty if I walk past a bell ringer in the supermarket during the holidays if I don’t at least give them a buck so it used to always work on me.
Until one fateful day it happened.
The woman at the window asked me:
Would you like to donate 5 dollars to send an underprivileged inner city kid to camp?
I told her “sure keep 5 bucks”
Then as I drove off it hit me
“I can’t afford to send my own kids to camp!”
Strombolis
Ingredients
Strombolis
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 tablespoon chopped onion
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/3 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fennel seed, crushed
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- 6 to 8 hamburger buns
- 6 to 8 slices Mozzarella cheese
Garlic Spread
- 2 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
Instructions
- Strombolis: Brown meat and drain. Add onion, ketchup, Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, fennel, and oregano. Simmer for 20 minutes.
- Split hamburger buns. Spread 1 teaspoon Garlic Spread on each bun top. Divide meat mixture evenly on bun bottoms. Top meat mixture with a cheese slice and add top bun. Wrap each sandwich in a square of foil.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes, or until heated thoroughly through.
- Garlic Spread: Combine butter, garlic powder and paprika. Mix well.
American story
Is it true that martial arts are useless in a street fight?
I trained Budo (Nimpo) for a couple of years and got jumped by five people unprovoked at a buss stop with my friend. Probably because me and my friend had a girl at each side and they had football atire on them and probably lost a match or something. I’m a small person and so is my friend. Smaller than most. This isn’t my first unprovoked aggro because of that size.
There where several other persons at the buss stop too and no one intervened except the girl that was at my side (everyone else just moved away). She screamed at the three jumping me to stop it and tried to move in front that halted two of them a bit before rounding her. My friend didn’t have the same luck with the other two and fell to the ground behind me after a couple of hits.
I saw the first charging me with the two following and had the thought, keep them at a distance and plunged a under hand fist and hit the person in the ribs and followed up with a foot push with my momentum. Two moves I trained alot during my practice. The first when I didn’t have a practice sword and needed distance. The second to make room to draw my practice sword. What was new to me was to combine them in the move. I did it because my master had told me.
If you end up in a fight do three things. Keep them at a distance so they can’t hurt you. If they hit you, make it hurt back so they give up due to pain and if you ever have a chance. Always run, because if you don’t you can get damage for life or loose your life. Fight with that in mind.
I was just thinking, I can’t run from the girs or my friend so went for the two other rules.
The first hit better than I intended, by pure luck or perhaps training. The two others could se the hit as extremely painful when he screamed and started saging(never done the move with full force before). The followup push moved him several meters, more than I thought and that stopped the others in their tracks. They where chocked and didn’t want that pain.
I screamed at them to keep their distance and turned to my friend and saw the other two using him like a football on the ground. I moved in behind one of them and did a locking and draged him off my friend, without hurting him. So my friend could roll out of the way and only get one on one.
This was a misstake because it fixed me too him and sacrificed my movement, the other three jumped me then.
So my masters feedback that I could get a permanent damage was true. My left wrist was broken in a way to remind me every day now, what pain is.
My own experience told me that Grappling a person and killing your movement is something you never should do with more opponents than one. Why did I do that. Yes because of training and the training also teached me to never hurt a person if I could avoid it.
One opponent in front of me do one opponent defence, was drilled into me. Bad decision. It’s wrong, thinking like that. They where four, just one active.
More will always defend a friend if you have hurt them before. Even if you are not hurting their friend at the moment and just keeping him out of the fight. Remember telling him will you stop fighting if I release you.
So three things was in my favour.
Some of my training had helped me alot and the training had also given me the time to think because I acted faster and reacted faster than my opponents due to training without thinking how I did things. This speeds things up alot and gives you awareness if you use it to your benefit. I even combined different moves in my head.
Traning also gives you better results when you do things, that will give you an edge if you can minimize their damage.
Distance is a key factor and a safe direction like what my girl did to the other two in the beginning so there where no one coming from that direction during that time. Also used the buss stop like that after the grappling because I had pulled the person into the buss stop and ran around it a couple of times to avoid getting hit. Must have looked ridiculous.
They where also not sober and I was.
Still grateful that they didn’t jump my girl!
Have Women Lost Their Minds? (It Sure Looks Like Some Have!)
God! Check out 4:20…
What bad experience had you saying “I will never buy from that company or use their service ever again”?
Best Buy’s Geek Squad.
I’d gone into Best Buy to replace a bad mp3 player. The counter I had to go to was next to the same counter as the Geek Squad incoming counter.
While an employee was looking up my receipt I had time to overhear the Geek talking to a customer with a computer with no power.
Geek: “Well since it won’t power on that means the motherboard(?) is dead and would cost more to replace than a new computer. I’d recommend picking up a new one on Aisle 5. Hopefully we can transfer your data from this dead system.”
The previous night we’d had a lightning storm and in that day dial-up was still a think. Also I was, and have, worked in legit computer repair stores.
Also I’d drank heavily the night before and was still feeling the effects.
Me: “Why don’t you try pulling the modem out of the computer and try it again. There were lightning strikes in the area last night and it may have blown.”
Geek: “I’ve been doing this for 6 months and I think I know what I’m doing and talking about!”
Me: “I’ve been doing computer repair for 10 years and I think I’d try the modem.”
Customer: “Pull the modem like he said and try again, please.”
So the Geek in a huff opens the case and removes the modem. He hits the power button and turns to us with a smirk on his face while the computer boot into Windows behind him.
I was asked to finish my business and leave the store.
New Data FINALLY PROVES Passport Bros RIGHT!
What was the biggest waste of money in human history?
As you may know, Atlantic City, New Jersey isn’t doing so well.
They are losing thousands, if not millions, of tourists to other cities. Many casinos have closed down and the ones that are still open are struggling to make a profit.
Today, I’m going to be showing you a casino that opened in 2012, and it was supposed to be an iconic symbol of Atlantic City.
Revel Casino
(Today it’s called TEN Atlantic City)
Construction began in 2007, the project would cost an astonishing 2.4 billion dollars.
It would became the tallest casino in Atlantic City, and the second tallest in the United States.
It opened its doors on April 2, 2012.
Revel went through a rough start. The building was too massive to fill all of the 1,399 rooms it had. The debt began to build up right as they opened doors, and the owners had no idea what to do.
On February 19, 2013, they announced they would file for bankruptcy in March. The total debt was estimated to be around $1,000,000,000!
On May 21, 2013, Revel exited the bankruptcy court by giving lenders an 82 percent stake in the property.
On June 19, 2014, they filed for bankruptcy again!
They tried to sell the property, but there were no buyers. I wonder why?
In result, they closed their doors on September 1st, 2014. However, just 20 days later, a court-based auction was held. There was a $90 million bid on the property. Then another bid was placed for $110 million! Shortly afterwards the $110 million bidder walked away. The property was eventually sold to Glenn Straub for $95.4 million.
In the end, Revel lost over $2.3 billion dollars.
It may have not been the biggest waste of money, but it was a pretty big one.
The problem was obvious. You can’t build a multi-billion dollar casino and hotel at an already struggling city! Some people can be so weird.
The Revel was suppose to be an iconic symbol of Atlantic City. It was designed to be flooded with tourists and to host world class shows. Instead, it’s looked down on as a symbol of enormous failure.
Cannelloni
For a complete meal, serve Cannelloni with a crisp tossed salad, a loaf of Italian bread and fresh fruit.
Yield: 8 to 9 servings; 3 cups tomato sauce
Ingredients
Tomato Sauce
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup finely chopped onion
- 4 cups canned tomatoes, coarsely chopped (reserve liquid)
- 6 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 teaspoons dried basil
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Black pepper
Meat Filling
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, squeezed dry
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 pound ground round beef
- 5 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 tablespoons whipping cream
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/2 teaspoon oregano
- Salt and pepper
Besciamella
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 4 tablespoons flour
- 1 cup milk
- 2 cups whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
Assembly
- 1 (1 pound) box lasagna noodles*
- 4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
Instructions
Tomato Sauce
- Heat oil in a 2 or 3 quart saucepan until a light haze forms over it. Add onion and cook until soft. Add tomatoes with liquid and other remaining ingredients. Reduce heat to very low and simmer for 40 minutes with pan partially covered. Stir occasionally.
- Blend tomato mixture in blender and taste for seasoning. Correct if necessary. May be made up to a week before serving and stored in refrigerator.
Meat Filling
- Heat oil in skillet. Add onion and garlic. Cook over moderate heat, stirring frequently, for 7 to 8 minutes until soft. Stir in spinach and cook 3 to 4 minutes, stirring constantly. When all the moisture has cooked away, transfer to large mixing bowl. Melt butter in same skillet and lightly brown meat, stirring. Add meat to spinach mixture. Add cheese, cream, eggs and oregano. Mix and season with salt and pepper.
Besciamella
- In a heavy 2 or 3 quart saucepan melt butter over moderate heat. Remove from heat and stir in flour. Add milk and cream all at once, stirring constantly with whisk. When the sauce comes to a boil and is smooth, reduce heat. Simmer, still stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes or until sauce is thick enough to coat the whisk wires heavily. Remove from heat and season with salt and white pepper.
Assembly
- To assemble cannelloni, cook lasagna until done. Cut each whole lasagne noodles into 3 equal sections. Pour a light film of the tomato sauce into 2 (14 x 10 inch) shallow baking dishes. Place 1 tablespoon of the meat filling on the bottom third of each of the pasta rectangles and roll them up. Lay the cannelloni side by side, seam-side-down, in 1 layer on the tomato sauce. Pour besciamella over cannelloni and spoon the remaining tomato sauce on top. Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese over the assembled cannelloni and dot with butter. Cannelloni may be assembled to this point the day before serving, then refrigerated until time to heat and serve. It may be wrapped and frozen.
- When ready to cook, bake cannelloni in 375 degrees F oven uncovered for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and sauce bubbling.
Notes
* Variation: Use tufoli or manicotti, cut in half after cooking, for pasta.
How athletic do Formula One drivers need to be?
An argument can be made that Formula 1 drivers are the most fit athletes in the world.
For example, the drivers encounter these conditions:
- When in wide turns at great speeds, the heads of F1 drivers can experience 5g’s
- When a driver releases full throttle while on a straight with no application of brakes, he experiences greater deceleration from the braking power of the engine alone than we would if we slammed the brakes hard in our cars
- F1 drivers experience massive g-loads when they crash. In almost all cases, they walk away from the crash.
- Their sustained heart rates can be 190 bpm during a race
- The drivers can lose 2 – 3 liters of water through perspiration during a race
Formula 1 drivers are human marvels. They have insanely fast reflexes, have great eyesight, possess an innate sense of how a car moves around a track, endure high heart beat and respiration rates, need to manage a massively complex car through steering wheel controls and conduct conversations with the pit crew throughout the race.
A Mercedes F1 Steering Wheel.
F1 drivers train constantly and have excellent aerobic fitness and endurance. A typical F1 race lasts 1.5 – 2 hours, usually in warm conditions. They constantly run at the edge of their performance.
I don’t think any other athlete has more to contend with than does an F1 driver during a race.
Have you ever sabotaged food because someone was stealing it?
I did this once, and what ensued remains one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.
I worked for a mid-size office supply company for a couple of summers in the late 80s when I was in college. Our department of about 25 people was great — everyone got along and we had lots of fun despite the heavy work load.
We had a tiny kitchen with a fridge just outside the conference room. Occasionally there would be a small item missing — a piece of pie here, a can of soda there. It always annoyed us that someone would filch a coworker’s food, but we couldn’t figure out who was doing it. We ruled out someone from another department as they would have to walk clear across our office to get to the kitchen and would be spotted. No, this was an inside job.
One day as I was getting my lunch from the fridge, I saw that my small container of potato salad was gone. I was pissed, and said so to my coworker Ann. She motioned with her thumb to the workstation behind hers and whispered, “I saw Mike eating it. I think he’s the one who’s been stealing from the fridge.”
Mike B., our neurotic, rotund salesman. How had I not suspected him? He was an otherwise good guy so I couldn’t really get mad at him, but I did want to get revenge.
So after work I bought a slice of cake at the supermarket that looked like this:
I carefully removed all of the frosting, put half of it in a mixing bowl and tossed out the rest. To the bowl I added at least half a tube of this:
Mixed it all up and “re-frosted” the cake. I even added some of these to make it more enticing:
He didn’t touch the cake the first day, or the second. Ann and I were getting worried. But on Day 3 he could hold out no longer. Ann came rushing to my desk late in the afternoon and told me to look in the conference room. I stood up and peered over the dividers to see Mike sitting alone in the darkened conference room making calls with a beautiful slice of buttercream and Crest cake in front of him.
Ann couldn’t see, so she asked, “What’s he doing?”
“He’s eating the cake.”
“What do you mean, ‘He’s eating the cake’?”
“The man is eating the cake,” I said, nonplussed.
I watched him eat the entire slice. He paused at one point to poke at the icing with his fork — something wasn’t right — but he kept eating. He hoovered down the cake, toothpaste and all, within two minutes.
By now others had gathered to see what was so interesting, and by the time Mike emerged from the conference room the entire department was waiting. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw us.
“There’s some white on your lips, Mike,” one of the other salesman said. “Did you just brush your teeth?”
“What? What’s going on?”
Ann told him what he’d just eaten and we all burst out laughing.
“Oh my God!” Mike shouted. “I knew there was something wrong with that cake! I could be poisoned!”
Half of us were doubled over by now, as much over the prank as over Mike’s histrionics.
And then came the crowning moment, totally unforeseen by any of us. Margaret, our frail, 72-year-old bookkeeper, stepped forward carrying a small bottle and a spoon. She was genuinely concerned for her coworker’s health.
“Mike, you need to take this — quickly.”
“What is it?” He asked.
“Just take it. It will help,” she said solemnly.
What this woman was doing with a bottle of Ipecac in her desk drawer I’ll never know, but Mike, by this point desperate over potentially being poisoned, took two spoonfuls and downed a glass of water.
If you know what Ipecac used to be used for, then you won’t be surprised at what happened next.
Mike spent the next half hour in the bathroom, vomiting his guts out. He definitely purged the cake, the toothpaste, and anything else he’d eaten that day.
I went in at one point to check on him. “I’m okay,” he muttered from behind the stall door. “But I’m going to strangle that old woman.”
Mike survived and eventually came around to appreciate the humor of what happened, what came to be known as “The Ipe-Cake Incident.”
I Bought America’s Most Expensive Storage Unit (He HOARDED GUNS!)
What was the biggest waste of money in human history?
It’s a hard question to answer, because as a percent of GDP its pretty hard to compare building the pyramids to anything else.
However I have a great Canadian example.
Canada wanted to save its ship building and technology sector by building a whole new fleet of 15 warships, plus more coastguard ships.
To make this economical, we were buying a hull design from the British navy, but were building them in Canada, and using Canadian built armaments, Canadian radar, Canadian developed software, etc. We were building 15 warships for 24 billion dollars, or $1.6 billion each.
But then the navy decided that they didn’t want anything Canadian in it, they wanted everything to be compatible with the US systems. So everything has been redesigned, where we now buy all American parts, and software, and install them on our ship. But we now have to pay licensing fees every year to a foreign government, to operate our war ships, and if we have a dispute with that government, our systems are shutdown.
So now the cost of frigate has soared to 5.7 billion dollars, or $84 billion for 15. But it gets worse, with maintenance costs, its over $300 billion, and we have to contract out a lot of maintenance to the Americans for their proprietary systems.
The UK bought a used US aircraft carrier, for what we are spending on a frigate.
It gets even worse, the US is willing to sell us their off the shelf, brand new frigates, that have everything the navy wants, for the same $1.6 billion each, that we were going to pay in the first place. Since the new ships will have no new Canadian technology in them, there is little gain for Canada to spend an extra $4.1 billion a ship more than forecast.
The government announced that they will have to cut the armed forces budget.
Doomsday Prepper’s ABANDONED Mansion | Found Secret Bunker with EVERYTHING Still Inside
Once upon a time, the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert.
Once upon a time, the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert.
Congress said someone might steal from it at night; so they created a night watchman, GS-4 position, and hired a person for the job.
Then Congress said, “How does the watchman do his job without instruction?”
So they created a planning position and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, GS-12, and one person to do time studies, GS-1.
Then Congress said, “How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?”
So they created a Q. C. position and hired two people, one GS-9 to do the studies and one GS-11 to write the reports.
Then Congress said, “How are these people going to get paid?”
So they created the following positions, a timekeeper, GS-09, and a payroll officer, GS-11, and hired two people.
Then Congress said, “Who will be accountable for all these people?”
So they created an administrative position and hired three people, an Admin.
Officer GM-13, Assistant Admin.
Officer GS-12, and a Legal Secretary GS-08.
Then Congress said, “We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $280,000 over budget, we must cut back overall cost.”
So they laid off the night watchman.
Daily Life: What is the most valuable skill a person can have for their entire life?
One day in the early 1920s, a four feet tiny man walked into a Ford plant near Detroit.
His name was Charles Proteus Steinmetz. He was a mathematician and electrical engineer, called there to help fix a big generator. From Smithsonian Mag
:
Upon arriving, Steinmetz rejected all assistance and asked only for a notebook, pencil and cot.
Steinmetz listened to the generator and scribbled computations on the notepad for two straight days and nights. On the second night, he asked for a ladder, climbed up the generator and made a chalk mark on its side. Then he told Ford’s skeptical engineers to remove a plate at the mark and replace sixteen windings from the field coil.
They did, and the generator performed to perfection.
Henry Ford was thrilled, until he got an invoice from General Electric in the amount of $10,000. Ford acknowledged Steinmetz’s success but balked at the figure. He asked for an itemized bill.
Steinmetz responded personally to Ford’s request with the following:
Making chalk mark on generator: $1.
Knowing where to make mark: $9,999.
Ford paid the bill.
I’ve told this story before, but I can’t think of a better one to show: the single most valuable skill in the world is judgement.
At first I thought great judgement would just make you rich, but that’s not true. It’ll also make you happy. Deciding who you trust requires judgement. Choosing who you marry is a judgement call. How you spend your time is a direct result of your judgement.
That’s why nature made it hard to get. The only way to good judgement leads right through experience, which you pay for in time, energy, and taking risk. But most of all, you need courage.
Because while life is one big judgement training camp, those who really embrace it must ask what the most important decision is, choose an option, and then see it through. Over and over again. And that’s not a matter of judgement at all.
What is the most unfair advantage a person can have?
The landlords in Maldives.
Maldives is a small country barely visible on the map. Of course there are smaller countries, but the islands in Maldives are scattered all across the ocean making some islands big as a regular apartment or just sand banks (which is useless. No one can live there). This means, we do not have a lot of land and landlords take advantage of the people with skyrocketing rent.
Our capital city, Male’ is where literally every Maldivian wants to live in because it has got everything that a regular islanders could never have.
To give you a clearer picture; regular islanders live in suuuper tiny islands, sometimes with a population of 200 or more. Zero cars sometimes, because these islands are so small you can literally walk anywhere. One small school for 10–20 kids and one health clinic (worst).
Right after they see the city, they want to move there at any cost and this is the story of EVERY Maldivian. And is also the reason why three quarters of the population lives in Male’ city . Hence, skyrocketing rent.
The people who actually belong to Male’ rent out their houses or build huge apartment buildings and rent it out for prices however they like. Why not?!? People still want these places at any cost, even if that means working two jobs, even if that means sharing one small unit with 10 other people. And don’t even get me started on investing in these tiny ass apartments, that is just a topic for another day pheww.
Ever wondered where these ‘rich’ landlords are? They rent out even the tiniest places they own for ridiculous prices and move to a cheaper country. Basically they are set for life. However, they live like normal people in those countries , no crazy fancy life but the quality of life is better of course.
Basically anyone who owns a little piece of land in this concrete jungle, Male’ city, is SET FOR LIFE.
8
What is the most impressive, best designed medieval fortress in the world?
Everyone wants to know the “most” the “best”, I too am guilty of that :-p However, its not that easy to say which is the No 1 in everything especially if there are multiple measures to grade against, that the scope (time & geography) is so wide, that some may be lost to us and hence not enough is known, tactics-strategy-war tech change even within the medieval time frame so as to affect what is desirable in a fortress and as with all things strategic and tactical – there is always differences in opinions. So knowing full well there is no right answer and I can’t even pretend to know more than a tiny fraction of fortresses within the question scope, I will hazard a few candidates and also why.
Illustration by Peter Dunn of Siege of Dover Castle in 1216 (from english-heritage-uk.co)
Before going into individual fortresses, 3 things. 1) the question used the term fortress, the word emphasis a combat role, so I will take it entirely from a military perspective and ignore all other factors. 2) The term medieval refers to a span of approximately 1000 years between the fall of the Romans and the start of Renaissance. However the word is a essentially a European and perhaps Middle Eastern due to the degree of interaction back then. It does NOT apply to “the world”. Despite this I will simply assume coverage include examples from somewhere around c500AD to c1500AD without geographic limits. There is a slight difference in the time when we refer to “Medieval” because depending on the civilization in question there are differences in the start of the Renaissance period. 3) There is a difference between castles and fortresses, but its a minor one of generally greater focus on battle priorities by fortresses than the castles (eg relatively thicker walls) and castles encompass more. For this answer, I will NOT distinguish between the 2, but I will ignore non-military strengths of castles per (1).
About individual castles I would first point out that I will only be touching on them in brief, which frankly speaking will be a disservice to them since a lot of their defensive features may be left out in the process. But this is quora, I am not trying to do a research paper.
These castles may have their surrounding defense works overtaken by development. In addition, its common to have temporary defense works added outside the permanent parameters if they have the troops for it. Example of temporary defense works are ditches and earthen works for layers of defense and fall back positions.
In no particular order.
(from:architectureofcities.com) Le Mont-Saint-Michel, Normandy, France
from 8th century
Top view (from:pininterest/Luc Vieri)
The castle at high tide is accessible by one narrow approach at high tide (narrower in the past). And at low tide the waters around recede and is clay-like sand. Defense is oriented more towards the land approach which is deemed the greater threat.
(from:art.com)
(from eart.esa.int)
What its location means is by land you are restricted to 1 approach at high tide, and at low tide siege engines won’t work from other sides, foot approach will also be a real pain. By sea, you only have a short period to do anything and you risk running aground. It is conceivable that if the defenders anticipates assault by sea, they can prepare some surprises for the ships.
You will see it has concentric walls of higher and higher elevation, which makes each breach just meaning a harder fight coming up with the next wall (attackers gets “boxed in”). Also elevation gives all sorts of advantages to the defenders. Seaward side you will note the sheer inclines.
The abbey has never fallen.
Murud-Janjira – Murud, Maharashtra, India
(from:architectureofcities.com)
from 1200s
(from:holidify.com)
(from reddit)
from wiki
40’ high walls and 19 rounded bastions, has fresh water wells and made made lakes. Not a star shape fortress, but the concept of one is present with the bastions to provide fire on “at wall” targets. Has multi walls, can only be threatened by sea but will out class sea vessels guns of the time with weight and range of fire of their guns as well as advantage of elevation.
Edinburgh Castle – Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland
(2 pics from:architectureofcities.com)
from 1103
High elevations , commanding view (more on this point from next castle), very thick walls. I actually visited the place, even as a visitor it can be tiring to go around. For attacking troops, there will be so many obstacles and death traps along the way even if you get pass the outer walls, or even reach the outer walls for the matter. And if for some reason you managed to get inside, there are so many little details that will disadvantage the attacker vs the defender. Simple things like the direction of spiral stairs to disadvantage a right handed attacker moving upwards vs a downward fighting defender for example.
Besieged more than 25 times but never fallen by force. When it did fall it was through treachery, deceit, politics, surrender etc. The 1 case a comment managed to dredge up was when the castle was bombarded extensively by the largest siege engines of the time for 3 days, and practically demolished the place. By the time the defenders gave up and surrendered, the damage took many years of rebuilding to restore and with help of master craftsman from Wales. So in that 1 case they dodged the “taken by force” on a technicality of surrender before the defenses were actually overwhelmed.
Hohensalzburg Fortress – Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
(from:nomadbytrade.com)
from 1077
Its very much similar to Edinburgh castle in terms of military perspective but the picture above shows a cannon point out from the defenses, this is what I had meant about “commanding view”.
Château de Puilaurens
from 13th century
(source: pininterest/Susan Calderon)
(source:catharcastles.info)
Other than the fort on a hill top and aspects already mentioned, I draw your attention to the only approach is not only steep and zigzag, but there are also zigzag walls to let the attacker face wall after blood letting wall.
Mehrangarh – Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India
from around 1459
(from architectureofcities.com)
Same strengths as Edinburgh and Hohensalzburg
There are actually many such hill top fortifications so rather than go into too many I will just show some without explanation:
Königstein Fortress – Königstein, Saxony, Germany
from c860
(from spottinghistory.com)
Ksar of Aït Benhaddou – Aït Benhaddou, Morocco
from 11th century
(from:architectureofcities.com)
Himeji Castle
from 1346
(from:jrpass.com)
(from Japan-history-travel.net)
I actually visited one of these. Unlike most ‘on the hill top’ type fortifications, many examples of the Japanese forts show much more extensive modification of the surrounding area for defensive reasons. Just moving from the outer perimeters to the castle proper is quite a challenge for an attacker. Every step of the way is uphill with things designed to give the defender plenty of chances to kill or maim the attacker from relative safety, some of which are really devious. Even if you reach the main door of the castle, you face an entrance way that is almost vertically upwards with each of the steps so high you have to literally climb up (all the daily convenience aspects are retracted away). The entire fort from outer perimeters, courtyards to hallways designed to be a meat grinder.
There are many such fortifications around the world from that time period and my relatively short coverage of so few does no justice at all to all the examples not yet mentioned.
Key aspects:
Command the surrounding
Difficult to approach
Time consuming to besiege/attack
Able to take attacks from weapons of the time
Supplies – especially water
Death Trap – cost the attackers every step of the way
Layer after layer of defense
Cozy Fireplace 4K (12 HOURS). Fireplace with Crackling Fire Sounds. Crackling Fireplace 4K
LOL. This is 12 hours of fireplace blaze. Great for a background video on your living-room television. But useless otherwise. Enjoy the link if you want to.
What is the nastiest thing you’ve done for revenge?
It was a party. He was hassling a girl and calling her boyfriend “scraggly Jesus”.
Fifty kilo (110 lbs.) me asked him to stop. Hundred kilo he, lifted me under the armpits and pinned me against the wall while lecturing me on minding my own business in front of 50 or 60 partygoers.
A few of his friends told him to stop, and he did.
I left the party.
Three days later, I saw him get out of an open convertible in the parking lot and leave it open.
My eyes happened upon the poison ivy growing along the fence.
Knowing my tolerance was high (after many severe and very itchy cases), I tore off a dozen leaves and rubbed them all over his steering wheel and seat before tossing them away at the fence again.
I then went back into work and washed my hands thoroughly.
I had a light case on my hands.
He spent three weeks looking very pink (from the medication) and very unhappy and never able to figure out why the poison ivy kept spreading to new areas.
The Pants
Was the D-Day scene of World War II in the movie Saving Private Ryan overrated?
Originally Answered: Was the D-Day scene of World War II in the movie, Saving Private Ryan overrated?
My dad was part of the landing shown in the movie “Saving Private Ryan.” He was a combat engineer and landing three minutes into the invasion. I grew up hearing his war stories. I guess talking about it made it easier for him. It wasn’t until years later I realized how important those “boring” conversations were.
Dad landed with 44 men. Eleven made it through that first day. After he saw “Saving Private Ryan,” he confessed to me that the only thing missing for him was the smell.
When I saw the movie, I vividly remember the guy walking around looking for his arm, because that was a story Dad had told me long before the movie ever came out. He talked about being pinned down and how there was only one choice: forward. There wasn’t an evacuation plan if the invasion didn’t work out.
He spoke about how tired they got waiting to die and how welcomed it was when people began organizing and attacking again. He told me how he just had to move and ignore the bullets. He described the bullets as like buzzing bees flying past him. They didn’t matter. Getting off the beach was the only thing that mattered.
As for the scene after D-Day where they show Tom Hanks’ character sleeping beneath a Jeep and just shaking with fear, I asked Dad about that. He explained how brainwashed they were going into the invasion; how they had been convinced it was going to be a cakewalk to Paris; how some of the guys were even (jokingly) asking for weekend passes to Paris on the boat ride over. That first day was supposed to be the easiest day and when it was over, all he could think about was, “If this was the easy day, I don’t want to see tomorrow.”
After seeing the movie, Dad called each of his children and asked them to see it, too, out of respect for him and the people he served with. I called him after I saw it for the most chilling phone call I ever had with him. In the course of that phone call, he recited the name and rank of every soldier he served with who didn’t make it. Over 50 years later, he still remembered every one of them.
Please find and read D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Battle for the Normandy Beaches Paperback – June 5, 2002 by Stephen E. Ambrose – which was written after receive 1400 oral histories from people who were there.
My Wife Said She “Identifies” As Poly & Wants An Open Marriage…So I Made Her My Side Piece!
When did you see a police officer do a clever, but sneaky thing?
When did you see a police officer do a clever, but sneaky thing?
I didn’t see it but was told this story firsthand.
My cousin was an undercover Narcotics detective in Vancouver. He’d arrested a low level dealer and talked him into revealing his supplier. He also got the date for when the supplier would have a shipment in.
With search warrant in hand the group went to the drug distributor’s home to search his premises.
While officers searched every nook of his home my cousin focused on watching the dealer while the other officers did the search.
The dealer looked confident and relaxed during the search. My cousin was starting to worry that they had missed the delivery.
They finished searching the house and went out to the garage. Again, my cousin focused on the dealer while the rest did the search.
He noticed a stacked pile of new plywood in the center of the garage. When the other officers searched elsewhere the dealer looked calm. But when they passed by the plywood he flinched.
My cousin did a gotcha-smile and had the officers remove a half dozen layers of plywood. Then they found a cut-out in the middle containing a large quantity of drugs.
A clever detective indeed!
Addendum:
I’m delighted that many Quorans found the answer interesting. So let me add to the story.
I was reluctant to add my cousin’s name because frankly I didn’t think you would believe it. His name is Rick Crook and he had an incredible career in the Vancouver Police force. He went from undercover drug enforcement to homicide and ultimately worked for the RCMP. He wrote a book and did some script work for Canadian crime dramas. The story of the drug bust was from 1985. Rick in his “cop” look was as straight as can be. However, in his druggie garb he was amazing. I remember looking at this picture of him in his druggie role. He had a beard, jeans and looked like a country hick. No one would ever have guessed he was a cop. He went on to major crimes/homicide during which he dealt with a major mob informant, later murdered, as well as investigating the Air India bombing. (links below)
Side note: He was the only cop at the station who was paged by his badge number. Apparently paging Detective Crook created way too much humour.
Vancouver police Det. Rick Crook – Joe Bruno on the Mob
A truth
Has a hotel maid ever walked in on someone at an awkward moment?
Back in 2000, I was in the national guard. During the summer, I would ask to be put on orders to for the money. Since they apparently had the money to spare, they put me on orders for a couple of months in the summer, so I was full time. Well, since i lived 200 miles away, they put me up in a hotel not far from the base.
One morning, I was not working for some reason, or I was going in later or something. Point is, I was just getting out of the shower and apparently did not hear the maid knock at the door. As per usual, she let herself in and proceeded to clean up….of course unbeknownst to me. I opened the bathroom door and walked out in the buff—of course not expecting anyone to be in my room. The maid was making the bed as I walked out. We caught each other’s eye…we both stopped dead. I didn’t even have a towel to cover with. Suddenly, she turned red and apologized profusely. I went back into the bathroom and told her not to worry, it was my fault for not hearing her come in. Well, she left. I got dressed and headed out.
On my way to the car, I saw her sitting outside looking troubled. When she saw me, she apologized again and said she was really really sorry. I could tell she was worried about it. I told her not to worry. It didn’t bother me at all. It was just one of those things that happen. I actually thought it was kind of funny. She smiled at that and relaxed. I was there for a couple of months in that hotel room. Every day, I passed her in the corridor and we always said hi to each other.
Man, I feel really bad for guys…
Have you ever sabotaged food because someone was stealing it?
Cream of Tartar and Citric Acid.
Those are the ingredients responsible for the “sour” in sour candy.
Exactly what I used one day to make homemade Warheads.
Homemade candy is an art form. The precise timing allows expression of individual preference for the hardness; that, combined with absolute control over amounts of flavoring, shaping and texture as it cools means almost anything imaginable is possible. And I imagined candy more sour than any of that weak “legal” stuff.
I bring the corn syrup and sugar to a boil, and it’s time to add flavoring. The options were lemon oil, apple, or even cherry, but I didn’t use any of those. Everyone knows natural taste distracts from the most important flavor: sour. I didn’t want that. I wanted the perfect pucker, a sour so undeniable that even the coolest dude would wince and beg for mommy.
So that’s what I did. I wasn’t using a recipe, so I could add as much as I wanted. Forgoing the measuring spoon entirely, I poured the acid in. Once the liquid had consumed the acerbic powder completely, I calmly whispered to myself, “That should be enough.”
Enough it was, because when it came time to test it, the immediate reaction of every family member followed a predictable pattern:
- Gag
- Run and spit candy out
- Wash mouth repeatedly
- Criticize my ability to cook
They all gave scathing reviews, which I’ll do my best to recreate:
- “This isn’t candy, these are literally acid drops.”
- “Tastes like gasoline.”
- “What did you put in these? They’re terrible.”
They were perfect — exactly as I imagined.
See, there was this kid at school who loved candy too much for his own good, if I dare foreshadow the inevitable.
He had a habit of literally rummaging through people’s lunchboxes and eating any candy he found, as well as snatching things from people’s hands. No respect for personal space and no hesitation.
Which is what made him the perfect victim. That morning I put every single sour candy I had in a plastic bag, and put it at the top of my lunchbox.
Dude couldn’t even wait for lunch, it happened during chemistry, ironically.
“What are these?” he said, holding the bag of dark brown pieces. While I replied, “some candy I made,” he had already opened the bag, grabbed an entire handful of them, and shoved it in is mouth. I had rolled them in powdered sugar, so it took a bit for the sour to kick in.
“AAAAACTHVK AAACK TBBD GAAACK GAHCHK NGAH”
He gagged and ran to the trashcan by the door, spitting the dozen or so pieces out, while the class watched, proving that not even the sugar content could keep him from following the reaction process.
“WHAT ARE THOSE?”
Even though I had already replied, I realized he hadn’t fully heard the first time, so I again said, “some sour candies I made.”
“THOSE WERE GROSS.” Yes, yes they were.
The lesson had been made. Don’t throw foreign objects in mouth without first seeing someone else eat them.
Honestly it was more funny than in bad taste, as everyone in the class including the teacher then got a chance to try one. They all agreed I had bested Warheads
and created something truly inedible, yet still somehow candy.
Those “acid drops” will always be remembered, for the special way they burned our tongues and seemingly melted our teeth, but more especially for how that greedy kid partook of sweet, sweet karma.
Welcome to manhood, kid…
Caprese Sandwich
A classic Italian vegetarian sub sandwich is a spring and summer favorite of ours. Creamy mozzarella, lush ripe tomatoes, extra-virgin olive oil and basil are the basics of this sandwich.
Yield: 1 sandwich
Ingredients
- 1 Italian sub roll (or similar)
- 1/2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tablespoon balsamic glaze
- 5 fresh basil leaves
- 2 ripe tomatoes, thickly sliced
- Salt, to taste
- Freshly ground pepper, to taste
- 3 thick slices fresh mozzarella (buffalo, if possible)
Instructions
- Using a serrated knife, slice a sub roll in half lengthwise.
- Drizzle the inside with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic glaze.
- Add basil and tomato to one side and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Top with fresh mozzarella and close sandwich.
- Top the tomatoes with mozzarella.
Notes
It is best to assemble this sandwich just before eating since some moisture from the cheese and tomato will seep into the bread as it sits.
Don’t have balsamic glaze on hand? You can use regular balsamic vinegar or make some by adding 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar with 1/4 cup apple juice and boiling it down until it reduces into a thick syrup.
Kids these days
As a lifeguard, did you ever see something that made you say, “You can’t be serious…?”?
I was a lifeguard as a teenager, and was working at a summer camp as are so common in US.
This kid, who I had been teaching to swim that morning, was out on a float in the lake. He wasn’t a strong swimmer but was safe, in my estimation. On the shore side of the float, the water wasn’t very deep. On the other side, about 10 feet from the float, it was *very* deep- a float-cord warned swimmers to not go on that side. The float was about 50 metres from shore. It had a ladder and a little slide, both on the shore side.
The kid starts yelling that I need to come get him as he is too tired to swim back. I told him that he was capable of getting to shore on his own.
So he said “Oh yeah? Well what about this?” and the little pillock dove off the back of the float, swam to the float-cord, and went under to the deep side- screaming he was drowning.
I was ready to murder him.
But, I went off to get him- by the time I got to him, he was actually in real trouble.
I dragged him back to shore, told him off, reminded him of the rules, told him he could have drowned, and the little weasel said “It’s your job to come get me if I don’t want to swim. I’m going to tell my mother [a high flying criminal attorney] that you pushed me in the water.”
I went to the Senior counsellors about this, and we put measures in place… the next day he was outfitted with a “swimmie”- a bright yellow and red vest with flotation material in the abdominal/chest area- and told he could not be within 10 feet of the water without it. It made kids look like they were fat with a well endowed chest, but it kept their head out of the water if they couldn’t swim. The Senior Counsellor told him if he could not safely get back from the float on his own, as he had proven, then he had to wear the swimmie.
His mother was told by her outraged child, who clearly expected her to chastise the evil counsellors who didn’t want him to drown… her response was to threaten to have a life size picture of this 12 year old hotshot in his swimmie made, and put it on the front lawn.
She was awesome.
Michelle Obama is a MAN?!
Have you ever been to an interview where it was clear from the beginning they had no intention of hiring you?
I got an interview for a program manager job at a company where I felt like I wasn’t a great fit… a job that was 5–10 years more than my experience level in that particular industry would usually give me. I mentioned this to the interviewer early on in the interview and he said something like “Yeah… You aren’t a great fit. I’ve just never met anyone who graduated from Yale. I wanted to see what you were like.” This frustrated the hell out of me… thanks for wasting my time leaving my job, dressing up, an hour in the interview and the travel time back to work in the middle of the day.
After the first 10 seconds of “F-you, a-hole” that ran through my head, I then thought “OK. Let’s have fun with this. I’m already here. I can either tell the guy what I think about his wasting my time and walk out or I can flip the table and make it a learning opportunity or an experiment.” I decided on option 2, as I was already there. I continued w/ the interview, asking my usual questions about what they wanted the person to do and the problems they saw in the organization, but 5 min in I stopped him. “I think you are hiring all wrong for this position. You say that you are looking for X, but that person is going to fail, and here’s why… What you REALLY need is Y. THAT kind of person and knowledge is what you need to be successful, if what you told me about your problems are true. I’m also guessing that you badly need Z skills in your group, if not in this position, then another.” I didn’t hold back. I was professional, but I basically told him that he was unimaginative, dim and was doomed to repeat the mistakes that had plagued him over the past few years with his current hiring plan (This is sarcasm here folks. I, of course, was polite and professional, but as the interview had stopped being about me getting a job and started being a learning experiment, I wasn’t worried about pulling any punches or staying on his good side).
It’s funny, but he called me a few days later, told me I was right and made me a job offer. I turned him down nicely. I was looking for a new job to leave a bad company… there were so many red flags that came up during the interview (more than the reason above) that I was never going to work for that place. I would have been jumping from the frying pan and into the fire.
What are the reasons for the reversal of fortunes between Japan and China?
Japan need to rid itself of this strange bedfellow call USA of its back. Without which the nation will stagnate till it fully collapse.
It is not easy when the US has over 100 military base big and small in its small territory. I dare say it is bad for both the U.S. and Japan. But let’s focus on Japan. They are threatened, coerced and bribed into talking shit, doing shit and stirring shit on China 24/7, 365 days a year by their master USA. As a slave they have no say and no opinion that can differ from its master.
In 1945 they had no choice having lost the war and nuke twice, by 1970 it seemed a perfect arrangement, US is a behemoth market while China is minuscule underdeveloped nation. Japan gets protected and sells its goodies to its master and got filthy rich. By 1991 Their master says no way, we decide to double the Japanese yen value overnight.
For 33 years and counting the Japanese economy is in a deflationary, stagflation. Meanwhile by 2010 China as a market and as manufacturing base has overgrown Japan and today in 2024 China as a market is equivalent to the U.S. plus the entire G7 put together. So try imagining talking shit, doing shit and stirring shit at China!
But that is what they are compelled to do! There lies the problem. Their product won’t sell, their companies suffer losses, their people lose jobs, Investment dry up and consumption fall flat or going down. Their debts are highest in the world and they lose a million population a year. And what do they do?
They suck up to the Yanks!
What choice do you have!
You don’t resign from a mafia boss!
Japan vs China in the 1930s – 1940s
Baked Spaghetti Pie
Ingredients
- 2 pounds spaghetti
- 2 pounds ricotta cheese
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 3 large eggs
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 pound spicy Italian sausage
- 1/2 cup spaghetti sauce
- 1 pound Provolone cheese, sliced thin
- 1/2 cup Romano cheese, grated
Instructions
- Heat oven to 475 degrees F.
- In a large pan, boil spaghetti 20 minutes; drain and set aside.
- Mix ricotta, milk and eggs together in a small bowl; add to spaghetti and stir together.
- Press into a 13 x 9 inch baking pan until compact and even.
- Cook ground beef and sausage in a large skillet.
- Drain fat, removing as much as possible.
- Stir in spaghetti sauce.
- Spread evenly over spaghetti base in pan.
- Layer slices of Provolone over meat mixture, then add the grated Romano on top of that.
- Bake for 20 minutes.
Have you ever met someone who seemed nice and normal but there was just something about them that didn’t seem right?
Yes,a work friend. We worked together at Wamu (before it closed) and got along really well. She seemed a bit rough around the edges and normally not the type that I associate with, but we clicked well. I didn’t want to be judgmental. I found out that she was homeless and lived in her car at night, so since it was only my husband and me raising our grand-daughter with a 5 bedroom house, I offered her a place to stay. I told her not to worry about rent for the first month but after that we would expect it. Was I stupid or what?
She ended up yelling at my grand-daughter for dumb things when she didn’t think I heard (g-daughter was only 7) , and then would be sweet when I was around. RED FLAG. After the first week, she started creating problems with my husband and me by pitting us against each other. She would say things like, “and you know what else he said?” as if my husband was trashing me behind my back. Because of that, she created a number of arguments. I learned she was drinking in her room and I suspected drugs . My husband wanted her OUT OF OUR HOUSE NOW.
I went to work and talked to a few other friends who told me that she is using meth. They said to get her out of our house. After a week I asked her to leave (before I had to evict her) and had my daughter and her husband come over as a witness (by this time I didn’t trust her). My manager at Wamu along with my supervisor also advised me to get her out , and gave me support while doing so. Once she left, she harassed me at work, made harassing phone calls at work and at home. She would go into an empty office and call my extension and hang up…..and eventually she was caught. I went home one night and found my dog dead in the garage, and it was suspected she poisoned her, but I couldn’t prove it. The manager became so concerned that she was eventually fired and security escorted her out. I will never do that again,….lesson learned. Why is it when you try to be nice, the person becomes a jerk?