What's bugging you? (2017-2018)

[nodakfan17]

I am trying to think of the name of an old educational show from the 1990's.

 

It was a reading show where there was a bad guy on a motorcycle and the kids had to solve a riddle from a book.

 

I am not sure if it was an actual TV show or if it was just used as a teaching tool in school.

I’m pretty sure you are referring to ‘Story Lords.’

[fondybrewfan]

That's it,

 

When looking back at it the bad guy has a striking resemblance to a larger Guy Fieiri.

 

Thanks

[FVBrewerFan]

Ho Chunk didn't move beyond bingo until the late 80's, early 90's so the young couple being from an era of 50's to early 70's would not make sense. However, they appear to be in their 20's when they won the car, so if it was 1990 and they were 25, that would make them 53 now. That's only about a year older than my wife and I. I sure hope I don't look as old as the guy in the commercial. I know my wife does not look as old as the woman does. I would guess they are mid 60's? So, the timeline does not make sense at all, unless you assume the scene with the guy polishing the car is in the future, like 2025 or so. Oh, and I also don't think they were giving away cars when they first ventured into slots.

 

 

Plus the car is from the 50s right? I suppose they could be giving away a classic car in the 80s, but that would be odd. Isn't the prize always a shiny NEW car? It's funny because it annoys my wife just as much as me, everything about it. The way she says "let's go back" is my fingernails on a chalk board. I'd rather see 100 Gruber commercials. The good news, gotta love Tubie.

[jerichoholicninja]

I am trying to think of the name of an old educational show from the 1990's.

 

It was a reading show where there was a bad guy on a motorcycle and the kids had to solve a riddle from a book.

 

I am not sure if it was an actual TV show or if it was just used as a teaching tool in school.

I’m pretty sure you are referring to ‘Story Lords.’

 

I remember, even at my young age, thinking this is beyond weird while watching that show.

 

What's bugging me right now is the MLBTradeRumors comment section. It's the internet, so 99% of comments are troll posts anywhere anyway, but it used to be really good. I'd used to go there to read what fans of other teams thought of their players I didn't know anything about. Now for some reason the comments on every article degrade into Cubs fans trolling the Brewers. Like, sure, Cubs fans trolling the Cardinals or White Sox, but the Brewers?

[stoutdude04]

I am trying to think of the name of an old educational show from the 1990's.

 

It was a reading show where there was a bad guy on a motorcycle and the kids had to solve a riddle from a book.

 

I am not sure if it was an actual TV show or if it was just used as a teaching tool in school.

I’m pretty sure you are referring to ‘Story Lords.’

 

Filmed in Menomonie Wisconsin no less.

[fondybrewfan]

That's actually pretty cool, even if it was an extremely low budget PBS flick. I remember being a little freaked/weirded out by the bad guy. Now if only Carmen Sandiego were still around; that probably was my favorite educational game growing up. That and Oregon Trail.

[Patrick425]

My son and his girlfriend took a train trip out to Utah to visit her step brother (she is afraid of flying). So, 30+ hour trip vs. 3 or 4 hour trip on a plane. Her parents dropped them off a few weekends ago at the train station in Naperville and I agreed to pick them up today. What I didn't realize are that train schedules are basically worthless. They were scheduled to be in Naperville at 1:53, but they are now running an hour and 45 minutes behind schedule. I was really hoping to get there and back before afternoon traffic started getting bad. The train they took out to Utah ended up being over 2 hours behind schedule. They just left Ottumwa, IA. When I click on the history of that train station, the average departure time going back to June 13th of this year is 2 hours and 43 minutes behind schedule. Why even have a schedule if it's pretty much never close to accurate? At least adjust the schedule to be more reflective of reality!

 

Well, at least it sounds like they had an awesome vacation (Brice Canyon, The Arches, Yellowstone, Napolean Dyanamite's house in Idaho, took in a Salt Lake City Bee's minor league game).

[pitchleague]

My son and his girlfriend took a train trip out to Utah to visit her step brother (she is afraid of flying). So, 30+ hour trip vs. 3 or 4 hour trip on a plane. Her parents dropped them off a few weekends ago at the train station in Naperville and I agreed to pick them up today. What I didn't realize are that train schedules are basically worthless. They were scheduled to be in Naperville at 1:53, but they are now running an hour and 45 minutes behind schedule. I was really hoping to get there and back before afternoon traffic started getting bad. The train they took out to Utah ended up being over 2 hours behind schedule. They just left Ottumwa, IA. When I click on the history of that train station, the average departure time going back to June 13th of this year is 2 hours and 43 minutes behind schedule. Why even have a schedule if it's pretty much never close to accurate? At least adjust the schedule to be more reflective of reality!

 

Well, at least it sounds like they had an awesome vacation (Brice Canyon, The Arches, Yellowstone, Napolean Dyanamite's house in Idaho, took in a Salt Lake City Bee's minor league game).

 

 

I'll assume you mean 1:53 pm?

 

I only say this because consider yourself lucky. The amtrak train is scheduled to arrive in my town (Kingman, AZ) at 11:30 pm or 1:30 am (depending on if the train is going east or west.) But, because of the delays, it's usually either 1:00 am or 3:00 am (depending on which way the train is going.) I have ridden that train twice and both times it was so far off schedule and we're already just dying to get on board so we can sleep so the beginning (or end) of the trip was just miserable.

 

Granted, the rest of the train ride was excellent.

[jerichoholicninja]

I've traveled AmTrak a few times in my life and other than the time we were stuck outside of Seattle an hour or two because a snowstorm covered the tracks they've never been more than a few minutes late.

[Patrick425]

The trend of men wearing above ankle length pants with no socks and brown dress shoes. Horrible.

[TURBO]

The trend of men wearing above ankle length pants with no socks and brown dress shoes. Horrible.

 

Agree.

 

I'll add to this:

 

man buns = horrible

 

man rompers = horrible

 

giant man beards on skinny little hipster men = horrible

(giant man beards only look right on giant men)

[owbc]

giant man beards on skinny little hipster men = horrible

(giant man beards only look right on giant men)

 

This is everyone in the Pacific Northwest...the dream of the 1890s is alive in Portland...

[pitchleague]

The trend of men wearing above ankle length pants with no socks and brown dress shoes. Horrible.

 

THANK YOU! My wife and I were just talking about this last night as we saw some people on TV wearing this "fashion." As a full-fledged member of the "I Wore High-Waters as a Kid and was Bullied Because of It" club, I can't believe that this "trend" is popular. I know I was scarred for life from ever wearing pants that are too short.

 

edit: Please note that I didn't wear high-waters on purpose as a kid. I just outgrew my pants/jeans and my folks were too cheap to buy new ones so soon. Thus, I had to keep wearing them. Ugh, those were the days.

[hawing]

The human resources office in my state agency has turned over 100% since the last time I needed HR assistance. On Friday I met one of the new employees and felt like several red flags were raised in the process. So let me bounce this off you guys:

 

On Friday I was wearing a 414 design shirt from one of the Milwaukee t-shirt sites. (It was a Friday, late summer, I work on a college campus.) The HR person asked if I was from Milwaukee or Waukesha counties. I said I wasn't, but we visit Milwaukee frequently for Brewers games. She made a sour face and quickly looked down at the form she had in front of her. After a peculiar pause, she looked up and quickly said "Cubs."

I let that slide, because I'm used to being in the minority at work for my sports preferences. But why would a HR person act that way toward a colleague she just met? I called that red flag #1.

 

Red flag #2: I made a general reference to the amount of upheaval HR has experienced over the last year. Her response, after kind of a knowing look, was "Try googling my new boss sometime. But not here. Everything gets tracked here." What the heck? The most benign thing I can think of to say about that is there are certainly multiple things to unpack in that remark.

 

Red flag #3: I stopped back later for a separate HR task, which it turns out is the turf of one of this person's coworkers. Her description: (Colleague) can help you with that, and she's having a heated argument in the next office right now (gesturing toward the office next door)."

I could hear a conversation, and while I wouldn't have immediately described it as heated (maybe because I don't make a point of eavesdropping on people I don't know?), if the person were my colleague and I were in an HR office providing HR services to someone I barely know, I certainly wouldn't characterize it that way.

 

Would any/all of these have left you shaking your head too?

My reference to upheaval over the last year is legit - the outgoing supervisor is in her last (I guess lame duck) month of working there; everyone in that office has been yanked around by the state Department of Administration this summer; and even if I ever wanted to work in Human Resources, I wouldn't want to be in that office now - but this particular employee didn't seem well suited for at least the human interaction part of human resources.

 

I can't avoid her since she coordinates the hiring of student employees (which I'm about to do as the school year begins). I do intend to minimize my in-person interactions with her as best I can; and after the next month I should be relatively free of HR needs for a while.

 

Just struck me as weird, and still bugs me.

[JimH5]

I would call the Brewers/Cubs exchange as awkward, not necessarily unprofessional. Sometimes we trip over our words or make a bad first impression, and we can't just rewind it and start over.

 

The other two, though, really were unprofessional.

 

"Google my new boss" is telling you that this person doesn't trust or respect the new boss, and can't keep things confidential.

 

And "she's having a heated argument right now" isn't anybody's business. Nobody should have their business exposed like that by a coworker.

 

I worked in HR for many years and made a few mistakes like this, but not often, and not in back-to-back encounters.

 

You can't avoid this person, but understand if she's being this chummy and loose-lipped with you, she probably is doing the same with others.

[GAME05]

The "Cubs" comment sounds like something from a socially awkward person who is trying to rib you but doesn't exactly know how. Part of me wonders if the rest of it stems not as much from just being unprofessional but from the person being not entirely socially aware.

[Baldkin]

As someone who coaches IT people on the importance of words and vocabulary -- and how important it is to make our brains stop and think and try to take things people say in the best possible manner, let me try to look at this from an outsider's perspective:

 

The human resources office in my state agency has turned over 100% since the last time I needed HR assistance. On Friday I met one of the new employees and felt like several red flags were raised in the process. So let me try to play... um... angel's advocate?

 

On Friday I was wearing a 414 design shirt from one of the Milwaukee t-shirt sites. (It was a Friday, late summer, I work on a college campus.) The HR person asked if I was from Milwaukee or Waukesha counties. I said I wasn't, but we visit Milwaukee frequently for Brewers games. She made a sour face and quickly looked down at the form she had in front of her. After a peculiar pause, she looked up and quickly said "Cubs."

I let that slide, because I'm used to being in the minority at work for my sports preferences. But why would a HR person act that way toward a colleague she just met? I called that red flag #1.

 

This feels like she wanted to engage, realized she made a sour face and didn't know how to say, "Well, I root, root, root for the Cubbies." Seems pretty harmless.

 

Red flag #2: I made a general reference to the amount of upheaval HR has experienced over the last year. Her response, after kind of a knowing look, was "Try googling my new boss sometime. But not here. Everything gets tracked here." What the heck? The most benign thing I can think of to say about that is there are certainly multiple things to unpack in that remark.

 

This was her response, instead of saying, "Yeah, it's a bit crazy, and it's been complete chaos." She said, "Yeah, and the new boss is way worse than the old boss." Again, comes off as someone who doesn't have a whole lot of social know-how.

 

Red flag #3: I stopped back later for a separate HR task, which it turns out is the turf of one of this person's coworkers. Her description: (Colleague) can help you with that, and she's having a heated argument in the next office right now (gesturing toward the office next door)."

I could hear a conversation, and while I wouldn't have immediately described it as heated (maybe because I don't make a point of eavesdropping on people I don't know?), if the person were my colleague and I were in an HR office providing HR services to someone I barely know, I certainly wouldn't characterize it that way.

 

Again, seems to stem from a lack of ability to tone down the language. A bit more of a red flag, but still not overly horrible.

 

All those things combined though, makes them sound like someone who is not happy with their job, and might not be long for the position.

[hawing]

All those things combined though, makes them sound like someone who is not happy with their job, and might not be long for the position.

And this person has been here just about five weeks, so she arrived at possibly the height of the new-fiscal-year upheaval. The red flags her responses raised with me on Friday are still concerning, but I'll readily admit I wouldn't want to trade jobs with her.

[NeedMoreFans]

We got somewhere between 9 and 11 inches of rain last night and water seeped up through a crack in our basement floor, soaking the carpet and pad that was in the basement. What bugs me most is that we were going to replace that carpet in the event that we ever did get water in the basement.

[Baldkin]

All those things combined though, makes them sound like someone who is not happy with their job, and might not be long for the position.

And this person has been here just about five weeks, so she arrived at possibly the height of the new-fiscal-year upheaval. The red flags her responses raised with me on Friday are still concerning, but I'll readily admit I wouldn't want to trade jobs with her.

 

15,000!!

 

Not sure where in Madison you are exactly, but I hope you survived the massive flooding without too many issues.

[NeedMoreFans]

Not sure where in Madison you are exactly, but I hope you survived the massive flooding without too many issues.

 

I'm in Middleton. Aside from the carpet, we had no issues. However, the bike/hiking trail system is destroyed. Also, our Costco took on a lot of water and will be closed for a few weeks and my doctor's clinic was flooded. There are a few inconveniences for certain, but we were spared the worst at our house. Just west of us is another story altogether.

[Bikeage77]

Just to touch back on the high pants / brown shoes thing. I was at my high school reunion last fall and the biggest d-bag from high school was wearing that crap. I laughed so hard to myself, but wondered if he was now part of a yacht club (which also wouldn't surprise me).

[hawing]

15,000!!

 

Not sure where in Madison you are exactly, but I hope you survived the massive flooding without too many issues.

Now rocking 15001...

 

Thanks for asking. Hawing HQ is in near west Madison, near enough to Camp Randall so it's an easy walk but not so close that football fans pee in our yard. It rained heavily for the bulk of 6 hours, but we didn't experience anything like NMF or parts to the west.

 

Southwest Madison, Middleton, Cross Plains, Black Earth and Mazomanie are the worst hit. One of my colleagues lives in Black Earth and her yard became a lake and her basement a pool. A guy we know who lives in Mazo was evacuated in the middle of Monday night into Tuesday. Worst of all, the person who drowned in the floodwaters in southwest Madison was a retired colleague from my workplace.

 

NMF summed up the west Madison/west "suburbs" problems accurately. People in Black Earth/Mazomanie have to be creative to get anywhere because the main east-west road (Hwy 14) has a washed out bridge.

 

The next part of the "ripple effect" (pun intended, I guess) is that the extra rainwater has raised Lake Mendota levels, which is putting stress on the Tenney Park dam, Yahara River, Lake Monona and the central city's storm sewers. The blocks of E. Johnson St closest to Tenney Park and the river are closed, and E. Washington Ave may have to be at least partially closed near the river. That leaves very few ways to get through the central city/isthmus.

 

And it's supposed to rain more in the next day or two. Fingers crossed for the area.

[Baldkin]

 

The next part of the "ripple effect" (pun intended, I guess) is that the extra rainwater has raised Lake Mendota levels, which is putting stress on the Tenney Park dam, Yahara River, Lake Monona and the central city's storm sewers. The blocks of E. Johnson St closest to Tenney Park and the river are closed, and E. Washington Ave may have to be at least partially closed near the river. That leaves very few ways to get through the central city/isthmus.

 

And it's supposed to rain more in the next day or two. Fingers crossed for the area.

 

I've been watching this intently, I grew up on the East side (parents are still there, not far from Milwaukee St/E Wash intersection).

 

Their place is high enough that they shouldn't be at risk, but I can't help but worry a bit.

[hawing]

Well, if they're in that part of town and their street is clear (or not blocked), they might see more traffic.