Exchanges with People that Make Your Brain Hurt

[Slartibartfast]

I had a friend once who yelled at me for sending her a virus.  The "virus" in question was this image:



I'm not sure whether she just didn't get the joke or whether she got it halfway through yelling at me and then couldn't figure out a graceful way to make an exit 

[Lauds]

He has nearly taken his hand off with a chainsaw (so so lucky), almost killed himself trying to beat the garage door on foot, ripped open his palm using screw drivers/knives twice because he was holding the object he was working on in his hand rather than putting it on the table, got thrown from his bike because he was thinking too hard and didn't notice the wire stretched across the trail to block cars, got into a car accident because his engineer's mind couldn't stop debating the possibility that the house on the giant hill he was driving down was built crooked, and has crashed a grand total of 3 cars (he wasn't the cause of any of these accidents). 

That part's brain-hurty for me.  I've done that once, and it was painful enough that I will never make that mistake again.  (Plus I have a scar to remind me to be careful!)

DH, a locksmith, has drilled the palm of his left hand and tried to catch a piece of falling metal with his left that cut 1/2" into the side of his hand. He still hasn't learned.

My father has managed to have two very similar accidents involving two different table saws but the same two fingers. First time, he was left with minor scars (and he complained that they weren't bigger for all the fuss they caused). Second time, well, he still has the fingers but they're noticeably shorter!

Speaking of dad, here's a story I've been meaning to post for a while. It's not word for word since its been several months. Let's say that my birthday is on the fifth of that particular month.

I spent my birthday at my parents place. They gave me presents in the morning and dad cooked my favourite meal for dinner. After dinner I was watching TV and he started up his laptop for what must have been the first time in days. Dad sees the calendar on the screen and says "is it the second? I thought it was later than that". My response "no, it's the fifth". He made some other comment about the date which clearly showed he still didn't get it. In fact he didn't realise what the actual date was or why I was laughing at him until I told mum what had just happened and she started laughing too!

He does tend to forget my birthday, I think because I was born a few days after their first wedding anniversary so he gets the two mixed up, but he's never forgotten it on the day before.

[norrina]

One of my friends mouthed off to a Dean about how bad his course load was last semester and got some sort of permanent "mark" on his account. I know that being in law school doesn't automatically make you a slick, smooth-talking politician, but at this point in your life what don't you get about "You catch more flies with honey"? 

It's law school. Did he think it was going to be three years of cakewalks and underwater basket weaving?

[Lynn2000]

My mom has caused me plenty of brain-hurting moments with computers, too, so I feel your pain, Miss Tickle. She really, really tries and has actually learned to do some stuff on the computer on her own, that I don't know how to do, because she really wanted to do it. But then she'll call with a problem and can't really explain it to me with words I understand, and can't answer the questions I ask, and can't do simple things like copy and paste or type an address into a browser, and we both just end up really frustrated.  I'm not at all a computer person, I just use them a lot more than she does, so I really don't want to be "responsible" for her computer use and maintenance, but I also don't want to be totally unhelpful.

[2littlemonkeys]

I have a relative who tries to play on the internet but she just can't seem to figure out how it all works.  I had my computer home over the Christmas holiday and she was over.  One of the kids was playing games on Disneyjr.com or one of those sites.  She thought it was cool but said something like, "I don't think my computer has that."  I think she thinks the websites are programs like Word or Excel and you have to load them.  Or something.  I've tried but I just can't get her to understand that if she has internet access (she does) then she should be able to get to pretty much everywhere by typing in the address.

[turtleIScream]

On the radio this morning, they were doing a call-in segment, asking listeners if they paid their kids for certain things. Several callers talked about paying their kids for good grades. One woman in particular seemed to not have a grasp of financial realities. She pays her kids $100 for As. She does this because her kids like expensive things that the family can't afford, so she pays them so they can afford it themselves.

[BabyMama]

I think we have the same mom, Miss Tickle. I sure don't miss all the phone calls about how our computer was running slow and so it must be infected with viruses and it must be all my fault because I used it for "all those Internet searches"...nevermind that it was laden with thousands of pirated Napster songs downloaded by my sister, that there was no firewall or virus protection, that the poor thing had very little memory and most of it was used, and that my mom has no concept of closing windows so would use the computer with 15-20 Internet windows up at the same time. Must have been my fault by using Google to do homework. 

[Thipu1]

The thread on the New England Blizzard reminded me of this.

Several years ago, NYC got hit with 2 feet of snow in a surprisingly short time. 

The operators of a very nice Mom & Pop grocery lived over the store and could stay open longer to provide local people with emergency supplies such as diapers, batteries, cold cuts and milk. 

Around midnight we were experiencing close to white-out conditions. They were closing when there was a furious knocking at the door of the shop. 

This could be a true emergency.  Perhaps the guy was stranded and couldn't get home.  The family unlocked the door and a man entered.  He was covered in snow and gasping for breath.  He seemed to be in dire need of warmth or shelter. What could they provide?

'Do you guys have any cumin?'

 

[mmswm]

The thread on the New England Blizzard reminded me of this.

Several years ago, NYC got hit with 2 feet of snow in a surprisingly short time. 

The operators of a very nice Mom & Pop grocery lived over the store and could stay open longer to provide local people with emergency supplies such as diapers, batteries, cold cuts and milk. 

Around midnight we were experiencing close to white-out conditions. They were closing when there was a furious knocking at the door of the shop. 

This could be a true emergency.  Perhaps the guy was stranded and couldn't get home.  The family unlocked the door and a man entered.  He was covered in snow and gasping for breath.  He seemed to be in dire need of warmth or shelter. What could they provide?

'Do you guys have any cumin?'

 

In my house this could be a life or death emergency!  How do you make white chili or fajitas without cumin?!?!?!?

[PastryGoddess]

On the radio this morning, they were doing a call-in segment, asking listeners if they paid their kids for certain things. Several callers talked about paying their kids for good grades. One woman in particular seemed to not have a grasp of financial realities. She pays her kids $100 for As. She does this because her kids like expensive things that the family can't afford, so she pays them so they can afford it themselves.

  *blink* *blink* 


*passes out*

[Amava]

On the radio this morning, they were doing a call-in segment, asking listeners if they paid their kids for certain things. Several callers talked about paying their kids for good grades. One woman in particular seemed to not have a grasp of financial realities. She pays her kids $100 for As. She does this because her kids like expensive things that the family can't afford, so she pays them so they can afford it themselves.

First I was like: "Ouch! My brain! How??"

But then I started to think it makes sense but she just worded it in a confusing way.
She probably means her kids want all kinds of expensive things all the time and she couldn't afford to buy them all. So she gives them 100 for each A so that they 1. have to wait and save for a while to buy expensive things and 2. think more thoroughly about what they want, before they make a choice and actually buy something.
So she probably means that buy giving them money, they can afford to buy /one/ of the many things they want from time to time, while the family couldn't afford to buy them /every/ thing they want all the time.
It makes sense that way, so I think that is what she means.
 
But she worded it very brainhurtily indeed.

[Piratelvr1121]

Ah yes, put that way it does make a lot more sense!

[jedikaiti]

My mom has caused me plenty of brain-hurting moments with computers, too, so I feel your pain, Miss Tickle. She really, really tries and has actually learned to do some stuff on the computer on her own, that I don't know how to do, because she really wanted to do it. But then she'll call with a problem and can't really explain it to me with words I understand, and can't answer the questions I ask, and can't do simple things like copy and paste or type an address into a browser, and we both just end up really frustrated.  I'm not at all a computer person, I just use them a lot more than she does, so I really don't want to be "responsible" for her computer use and maintenance, but I also don't want to be totally unhelpful.

My Mom's gotten quite good doing her own tech support, and reboots and resetting the router usually solve her problems. For everything else there's the XKCD Tech Support Cheat Sheet: http://xkcd.com/627/ or, the next time she has a problem I can't diagnose over the phone, I'm having her install this: http://www.teamviewer.com/en/index.aspx.

[WillyNilly]

On the radio this morning, they were doing a call-in segment, asking listeners if they paid their kids for certain things. Several callers talked about paying their kids for good grades. One woman in particular seemed to not have a grasp of financial realities. She pays her kids $100 for As. She does this because her kids like expensive things that the family can't afford, so she pays them so they can afford it themselves.

My dad hurt my brain when I was a kid.  Many of my friends got money rewards for good grades.  I didn't and I asked about it.  I was in third or fourth grade at the time.  My dad said "why should I pay you for good grades?  Its your job to get good grades, you shouldn't need to be bribed."

I was a kid sure, but I was old enough to know my dad didn't go to work every morning for fun, or for free.  He went because it was his job and he was paid for it.  It wasn't bribery, it was payment for a job done.

[Diane AKA Traska]

On the radio this morning, they were doing a call-in segment, asking listeners if they paid their kids for certain things. Several callers talked about paying their kids for good grades. One woman in particular seemed to not have a grasp of financial realities. She pays her kids $100 for As. She does this because her kids like expensive things that the family can't afford, so she pays them so they can afford it themselves.

My dad hurt my brain when I was a kid.  Many of my friends got money rewards for good grades.  I didn't and I asked about it.  I was in third or fourth grade at the time.  My dad said "why should I pay you for good grades?  Its your job to get good grades, you shouldn't need to be bribed."

I was a kid sure, but I was old enough to know my dad didn't go to work every morning for fun, or for free.  He went because it was his job and he was paid for it.  It wasn't bribery, it was payment for a job done.

A better argument would have been "education is the reward."  Not that would have resonated with a kid any better...