(no subject)
So, here I sit. Up too late (as I have been more often than not lately), staring into the void of the internet for hours on end. Searching? For what? I don't know.
I'm listening to music from a CD that's not been released yet, and that I'll buy as soon as I can afford to. I'm trying to figure out the best way to extricate myself from this...unfortunate situation I find myself in. There's been far more than too much stress in the last 3 months.
I would like to apologize for my absence in LJ updating, almost as much as I'd like to apologize in advance for the stream of obnoxious ranting that's about to be typed.
I moved from Iowa City, IA to Rantoul, IL (Just north of Champaign, IL) on the first of August. Things were going poorly in Iowa, the school was downright depressing, and our lease was up, so we decided to try a completely different location. We moved from a cramped 2 bedroom apartment in the ghetto to a rather nice 4 bedroom duplex that's unfortunately half an hour from the university...on the interstate. It's alright though, this town is nice, the house is nice, and the drive isn't the worst thing I have to put up with.
At the time that we moved, we were living three people in an apartment that was too small for two people's stuff. As we moved, we picked up a fourth person, and even more stuff. The timing was unfortunate, in that we almost didn't have a place to live before our lease ran out at the old place. Everything worked out at the last minute as far as that was concerned, and after about a week, we were more or less moved out of the old place and mostly into the new place.
Things started out...not poorly for the first day or two. Then my girlfriend (room-mate number 1 who'll be called Liz during this rant) began getting rather aggravated by room-mate number 4 (the new one, who we'll call Jim). Apparently Jim had some minor personality quirks that were really getting to her. He'd say something in a tone that sounded like "you must be dumb not to know that", and such. At first, I was not happy that the two of them weren't getting along, since she's my girlfriend, but he's my friend, and I was having no problems with either of them at that time.
Soon enough, Jim started annoying room-mate number 2 (or Fred for now). Jim would play video games against Fred, and he'd win or something and Fred would get really annoyed by this. At first, I was more annoyed at Fred than anything else, since Fred would often win an overwhelming majority of the "rounds" that they'd play, and then get pissy when Jim won one or two. Admittedly, I hadn't actually watched them play or anything, I just saw the scores. So...now Liz is angry at Jim, Fred is angry at Jim, I'm annoyed by Fred, and stressed out by Jim and Liz.
Eventually, I played some games in three player mode with both Fred and Jim. I saw why Fred was annoyed: Jim would adapt the simplest, highest chance of winning strategy, and use it to a fault every single time they played. For example, in a fighting game, Jim would block and dodge the entire fight, and the only offensive thing he would do is counter an attack made by Fred. It works rather well, but is aggravating and not fun to play versus. I then understood Fred's annoyance, but still felt he was overreacting.
Unfortunately, I soon found that Jim used that strategy in every aspect of his life, take the easiest way out. This isn’t always bad, admittedly. Before I could really get too far on that, he started exhibiting another obnoxious trait. He soon started to use and take things without asking permission first. Things that aren't his. He'd use Fred's Xbox without asking, he'd turn it on and then leave it on while he went to do something else, so that nobody else could play it, and it would run down the wireless controller battery. He'd cook food for everybody in the house without asking if anybody wanted anything...or what they wanted, then he'd store the food in the refrigerator in the pot still.
Then soon enough, the faults grew and even I started to get really aggravated. He'd leave the toilet seat up, cook on the stove after midnight, turn off lights near other people, as long as they weren't obviously using them at that precise minute. He'd turn off the television while somebody was in the bathroom, "to save power". Oddly enough, he's left his own bedroom light and lamps on after he stays up all night. It's strange that his bedroom light was on since he spends (on average) between 22 and 24 hours a day in the basement, and hasn't slept in his own bedroom in almost a week. Also, he makes it a habit to take a novel or gameboy into the bathroom with him (the one bathroom with a shower and all the hygiene products). He goes up, uses the bathroom, then apparently stays in there and reads or plays for about an hour. He does this particularly around the time that people start getting ready for bed and may want to shower or wash their faces or brush their teeth.
Oh well, those are personality quirks. As long as he pays his rent...we can live with problems, or work them out.
When we first moved here at the start of August, only Fred had a job, he worked at Wal-Mart and still does. Liz has the excuse of attending the university full time, and her parents are willing to pay her portion of expenses. Even still, she got a job babysitting 3-5 days a week. Jim applied at places in Rantoul, since he has no car (and owes Illinois about $1,300 in insurance tickets from his last vehicle) and has to ride his bicycle everywhere. I, unfortunately, cannot handle industrial work, and am absolutely disgusted by fast food service. As such, I applied at lots of retail positions and helped out with housework as much as I could.
Due to the nature of the businesses Jim was applying to, he was offered a job within a week of applying, and started working a lucrative career as an Arbys employee. He was put on a "training schedule", and worked 2 hour shifts for the first three days he was employed there. Then he was off for 3 days. Then he attended a mandatory employee meeting, and worked that day, and was off for another 6 days. He finally got an amazing 4 hour shift this last Saturday, and the schedule that started Sunday apparently wasn't done when he got off work.
A little side note here, he showed up right on time for his interview, not a bad policy. On the first day of work, he was late because he had been playing video games and it takes him fifteen minutes to ride his bicycle there. On the second day of work, he wasn't able to attend. As he was running late for work (again), he decided to save time by jumping down the five stair staircase to the basement. This resulted in him hitting his head on the ceiling on the way down, then again on the staircase. He was bleeding fairly profusely. Arbys wouldn't let him work until he got a doctor's notice. His quote on the whole staircase incident? "It seemed like a good idea at the time." "Good ideas lead to blunt head trauma."
Sunday, he didn't wake up until 4 PM (in the basement), and didn't bother to call Arbys. Eventually (4:30) Liz came down and asked him if he intended to call Arbys, and he said he would. At 5:05, I came down and asked him about it, and he informed me that he couldn't call between 5PM and 7PM since it was the dinner rush period. I left for awhile and when I came home at 8PM, I found out he had been told by Arbys the same thing I'd have told him "We'll call you if we need you to work".
Monday, I got employed at EB Games. I've yet to be put on the schedule, but there's promise there. The last time I worked at an EB, I got about 25-35 hours per week, and Christmas is coming. Jim applied to the new Walgreen’s and McDonalds on Monday and Tuesday respectively, and decided to sleep in until 5PM today and then play on his computer the rest of the day. In fact, he's still playing on his computer right now. Playing an online roleplaying game, a trial. He says that he's interested in subscribing to it...at $15 a month. He has no way to pay rent or utilities this month, and that doesn't seem like it is going to change between now and October 1st.
Admittedly, I'm putting myself further into debt in order to make a payment on rent, but at least I'm moving my debt around, and not making one of the room-mates pay my rent. On top of all this, his annoying habits have continued to become more annoying. Now he gets defensive every time somebody complains about one of his faults, he hasn't woken up or slept at a regular time since Friday night, and lately has been staying up long enough to eat breakfast just before going to sleep...in the basement. He may not cook after midnight, but he does have a habit of cooking at about 11:00 PM or so. He still doesn't quite understand the whole "put the toilet seat down" thing. And worst of all, he doesn't voluntarily clean anything in the house, and is hesitant and almost complaintive when he finally does clean. He sure does hop in to offer criticism and suggestions to other people cleaning house though.
I'm not sure I'd want him cleaning though, since his easy way out strategy would likely require me to clean up after him cleaning.
So, I dunno, I’m non-confrontational, so I likely won't do anything.... Kicking him out may not be a bad idea, but I dunno.
Oh well, for the rest of you who didn't click on the link:
Good news: I got a job at EB Games
Weather has been fairly nice
Things are going well with the girlfriend
Whoo, I'm 21 and legally able to drink
Bad news: Stressful lately
Really obnoxious room-mate
Not making money quite yet
Neutral news: Steve Irwin died
I'm looking at taking up a couple new hobbies
Wow, lots of stuff...I'll need to post more frequently
~Devamon
I'm listening to music from a CD that's not been released yet, and that I'll buy as soon as I can afford to. I'm trying to figure out the best way to extricate myself from this...unfortunate situation I find myself in. There's been far more than too much stress in the last 3 months.
I would like to apologize for my absence in LJ updating, almost as much as I'd like to apologize in advance for the stream of obnoxious ranting that's about to be typed.
I moved from Iowa City, IA to Rantoul, IL (Just north of Champaign, IL) on the first of August. Things were going poorly in Iowa, the school was downright depressing, and our lease was up, so we decided to try a completely different location. We moved from a cramped 2 bedroom apartment in the ghetto to a rather nice 4 bedroom duplex that's unfortunately half an hour from the university...on the interstate. It's alright though, this town is nice, the house is nice, and the drive isn't the worst thing I have to put up with.
At the time that we moved, we were living three people in an apartment that was too small for two people's stuff. As we moved, we picked up a fourth person, and even more stuff. The timing was unfortunate, in that we almost didn't have a place to live before our lease ran out at the old place. Everything worked out at the last minute as far as that was concerned, and after about a week, we were more or less moved out of the old place and mostly into the new place.
Things started out...not poorly for the first day or two. Then my girlfriend (room-mate number 1 who'll be called Liz during this rant) began getting rather aggravated by room-mate number 4 (the new one, who we'll call Jim). Apparently Jim had some minor personality quirks that were really getting to her. He'd say something in a tone that sounded like "you must be dumb not to know that", and such. At first, I was not happy that the two of them weren't getting along, since she's my girlfriend, but he's my friend, and I was having no problems with either of them at that time.
Soon enough, Jim started annoying room-mate number 2 (or Fred for now). Jim would play video games against Fred, and he'd win or something and Fred would get really annoyed by this. At first, I was more annoyed at Fred than anything else, since Fred would often win an overwhelming majority of the "rounds" that they'd play, and then get pissy when Jim won one or two. Admittedly, I hadn't actually watched them play or anything, I just saw the scores. So...now Liz is angry at Jim, Fred is angry at Jim, I'm annoyed by Fred, and stressed out by Jim and Liz.
Eventually, I played some games in three player mode with both Fred and Jim. I saw why Fred was annoyed: Jim would adapt the simplest, highest chance of winning strategy, and use it to a fault every single time they played. For example, in a fighting game, Jim would block and dodge the entire fight, and the only offensive thing he would do is counter an attack made by Fred. It works rather well, but is aggravating and not fun to play versus. I then understood Fred's annoyance, but still felt he was overreacting.
Unfortunately, I soon found that Jim used that strategy in every aspect of his life, take the easiest way out. This isn’t always bad, admittedly. Before I could really get too far on that, he started exhibiting another obnoxious trait. He soon started to use and take things without asking permission first. Things that aren't his. He'd use Fred's Xbox without asking, he'd turn it on and then leave it on while he went to do something else, so that nobody else could play it, and it would run down the wireless controller battery. He'd cook food for everybody in the house without asking if anybody wanted anything...or what they wanted, then he'd store the food in the refrigerator in the pot still.
Then soon enough, the faults grew and even I started to get really aggravated. He'd leave the toilet seat up, cook on the stove after midnight, turn off lights near other people, as long as they weren't obviously using them at that precise minute. He'd turn off the television while somebody was in the bathroom, "to save power". Oddly enough, he's left his own bedroom light and lamps on after he stays up all night. It's strange that his bedroom light was on since he spends (on average) between 22 and 24 hours a day in the basement, and hasn't slept in his own bedroom in almost a week. Also, he makes it a habit to take a novel or gameboy into the bathroom with him (the one bathroom with a shower and all the hygiene products). He goes up, uses the bathroom, then apparently stays in there and reads or plays for about an hour. He does this particularly around the time that people start getting ready for bed and may want to shower or wash their faces or brush their teeth.
Oh well, those are personality quirks. As long as he pays his rent...we can live with problems, or work them out.
When we first moved here at the start of August, only Fred had a job, he worked at Wal-Mart and still does. Liz has the excuse of attending the university full time, and her parents are willing to pay her portion of expenses. Even still, she got a job babysitting 3-5 days a week. Jim applied at places in Rantoul, since he has no car (and owes Illinois about $1,300 in insurance tickets from his last vehicle) and has to ride his bicycle everywhere. I, unfortunately, cannot handle industrial work, and am absolutely disgusted by fast food service. As such, I applied at lots of retail positions and helped out with housework as much as I could.
Due to the nature of the businesses Jim was applying to, he was offered a job within a week of applying, and started working a lucrative career as an Arbys employee. He was put on a "training schedule", and worked 2 hour shifts for the first three days he was employed there. Then he was off for 3 days. Then he attended a mandatory employee meeting, and worked that day, and was off for another 6 days. He finally got an amazing 4 hour shift this last Saturday, and the schedule that started Sunday apparently wasn't done when he got off work.
A little side note here, he showed up right on time for his interview, not a bad policy. On the first day of work, he was late because he had been playing video games and it takes him fifteen minutes to ride his bicycle there. On the second day of work, he wasn't able to attend. As he was running late for work (again), he decided to save time by jumping down the five stair staircase to the basement. This resulted in him hitting his head on the ceiling on the way down, then again on the staircase. He was bleeding fairly profusely. Arbys wouldn't let him work until he got a doctor's notice. His quote on the whole staircase incident? "It seemed like a good idea at the time." "Good ideas lead to blunt head trauma."
Sunday, he didn't wake up until 4 PM (in the basement), and didn't bother to call Arbys. Eventually (4:30) Liz came down and asked him if he intended to call Arbys, and he said he would. At 5:05, I came down and asked him about it, and he informed me that he couldn't call between 5PM and 7PM since it was the dinner rush period. I left for awhile and when I came home at 8PM, I found out he had been told by Arbys the same thing I'd have told him "We'll call you if we need you to work".
Monday, I got employed at EB Games. I've yet to be put on the schedule, but there's promise there. The last time I worked at an EB, I got about 25-35 hours per week, and Christmas is coming. Jim applied to the new Walgreen’s and McDonalds on Monday and Tuesday respectively, and decided to sleep in until 5PM today and then play on his computer the rest of the day. In fact, he's still playing on his computer right now. Playing an online roleplaying game, a trial. He says that he's interested in subscribing to it...at $15 a month. He has no way to pay rent or utilities this month, and that doesn't seem like it is going to change between now and October 1st.
Admittedly, I'm putting myself further into debt in order to make a payment on rent, but at least I'm moving my debt around, and not making one of the room-mates pay my rent. On top of all this, his annoying habits have continued to become more annoying. Now he gets defensive every time somebody complains about one of his faults, he hasn't woken up or slept at a regular time since Friday night, and lately has been staying up long enough to eat breakfast just before going to sleep...in the basement. He may not cook after midnight, but he does have a habit of cooking at about 11:00 PM or so. He still doesn't quite understand the whole "put the toilet seat down" thing. And worst of all, he doesn't voluntarily clean anything in the house, and is hesitant and almost complaintive when he finally does clean. He sure does hop in to offer criticism and suggestions to other people cleaning house though.
I'm not sure I'd want him cleaning though, since his easy way out strategy would likely require me to clean up after him cleaning.
So, I dunno, I’m non-confrontational, so I likely won't do anything.... Kicking him out may not be a bad idea, but I dunno.
Oh well, for the rest of you who didn't click on the link:
Good news: I got a job at EB Games
Weather has been fairly nice
Things are going well with the girlfriend
Whoo, I'm 21 and legally able to drink
Bad news: Stressful lately
Really obnoxious room-mate
Not making money quite yet
Neutral news: Steve Irwin died
I'm looking at taking up a couple new hobbies
Wow, lots of stuff...I'll need to post more frequently
~Devamon