The Complaint Thread

True story... I once agreed to buy a bunch of figures from a very well-known scalper on Marketplace and offered extra if he delivered. When he came to my house I told him he was a fucking loser and closed the door in his face. He lives like 30 minutes away from me. SMALL things can make me happy.
This is why I married you.
 
From the "every damned day some little thing" complaints department - my trusty treadmill, which had a very good run and which I have TRIED to take good care of, which has seen me through complete watches of Vikings and the Last Kingdom, the Expanse, Babylon 5, the one place where I can, well, not mono-task or uni-task but do nothing other than run and watch TV shows, started smoking like a burning battery today and then all the letters on the screen turned into weird symbols that looked like the Star Wars alphabet, and I think it has hit its end of life. Probably the one expense in my life that is totally justified, but I was hoping to get one more year out of the thing before it died.

But the complaint I have to issue is not just that it broke, but it died while I was running a nine minute mile and I would say that was not just a disappointment but an ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT on my dumb ass.

Anyway, new treadmill will be here Monday because I've got clinical exercise addiction and I need to make sure I've got an indoor option in case we have more deathly weather problems coming up...
 
But the complaint I have to issue is not just that it broke, but it died while I was running a nine minute mile and I would say that was not just a disappointment but an ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT on my dumb ass.

punished-lion-the-attempt.gif


See, this is why I don't exercise (much). Between my asthma and my unwavering ability to turn any situation into an unintentional physical comedy bit, I'd be in a full body cast in no-time.
 
punished-lion-the-attempt.gif


See, this is why I don't exercise (much). Between my asthma and my unwavering ability to turn any situation into an unintentional physical comedy bit, I'd be in a full body cast in no-time.
I won't say that every treadmill in my life has tried to kill me, but it's been at least two of them and that feels like a trend.

I would like to be addicted to exercise. I lift five to six times a week, but I don't enjoy it!
Honestly, for me it's something I wish I could NOT do. My partner is so understanding of it that she makes sure there's a gym in any hotel we stay in when we're traveling because she knows I can't actually enjoy life if I can't work out. (I actually got the treadmill so I'd stop running in dangerous heat or on icy conditions during the winter because I'm old now and I don't bounce when I hit the pavement anymore.)
 
I truly wish I could skip a day. It's basically medicinal at this point. Treadmill broke and I'd unhesitatingly spent the cost of a Mythic Legions Dragon on a new one within the hour.

Then I woke up and it was pouring out, but I ran in the rain because I can't NOT, and honestly, running in a light rain at 65 degrees in September? Ridiculously goddamned refreshing. I normally would've chickened out and just hit the treadmill and watched an episode of Yellowjackets instead if I had the option. (I'm not stressing out about disposing of the OLD machine... )
 
My ideal would be to be able to get up and get it over with first thing in the morning, but I just have such a bad time of it if I haven't been up and about for a while and eaten a couple of times first. So I end up doing it after work and I dread it all day long. And yet I feel so guilty and lazy if I DON'T do it, so I'm never really in much danger of falling off the wagon. But it definitely eats into my day hard. Like, in years past I used to watch a movie before bed nearly every day, but now I'm lucky if I watch one a week. I don't know what's it's all FOR!
 
Before kids, and when my first was very very young, I used to work out right out of bed. But I was in my late '20s then. I get up for work around 5:30am. Everyone is sleeping and the house is silent when I get up. I'm older now and it takes me a bit to get moving in the morning. Between that and just regular getting ready for work, I don't really have time to work out -and- be at work by 6:30am.
I thought about getting up earlier, but realistically the flow of the family keeps me up until at least 10pm almost every night, and there's just no way, especially not with severe insomnia, that I'm going to bed at 10pm (so, asleep by 11-11:30pm) and then awake and ready to work out AND do an entire stressful work day, by like 4am. No way.

So I do all my work-outs basically 'sometime after work.' I don't have regular 'off' hours, technically. So when I get home varies and therefore when I can get a work-out in varies. Not actually having any kind of fixed schedule does make it harder to stick with it, but I haven't come up with a good solution for that. Working out right before bed does not seem exciting to me, and by then I'm usually way too tired anyway.

And same -- it's in my head all day that I've gotta find the time to do it. And if I don't do it I, also, feel guilty about being a lazy asshole. The only good thing is the lack of structure means I give myself a lot of room on what qualifies as a work-out. If I really do run out of time, as often happens between work and family, I'm okay with just doing a couple sets of push-ups and a couple sets of curls. Just do SOMETHING, is my rule.
 
The only good thing is the lack of structure means I give myself a lot of room on what qualifies as a work-out. Just do SOMETHING, is my rule.
I read something a few years ago that I try to live by...
Anything worth doing, is worth doing poorly.
Meaning, if it's important, even just doing a little bit is better than not doing it at all.
 
Delivery work is brutal and underpaid and I never want to complain about anything involving deliveries, but I just had a 300 pound treadmill delivered and placed precariously on the top step of a landing leaning on its side (this side up rules not applied) against a railing with a 12 foot drop on the other side and I'm just really hoping this isn't indicative of how rough a trip it had the rest of the way here. (Also glad I arranged to work from home for the day to be here to haul it inside because I don't think it would have been there in a few hours just based on how it was delivered in a fashion that seemed like a test of the limits of gravity and weight-bearing screws).
 
I read something a few years ago that I try to live by...
Anything worth doing, is worth doing poorly.
Meaning, if it's important, even just doing a little bit is better than not doing it at all.
Damn. As an AudHD with burnout perfectionism fits about work and play, this was really nice to read. Screenshotted and will probably write it on my board above my desk.

Thanks for sharing it.
 
Damn. As an AudHD with burnout perfectionism fits about work and play, this was really nice to read. Screenshotted and will probably write it on my board above my desk.

Thanks for sharing it.
That's the advice my artist friends all live by, especially in these days when AI is trying to push them out or remove the learning process. It's not just okay to be bad at something, it's a blessing to be bad at it cos it gives you a reason to aspire to try again.
 
I burned myself out so much last two years of school because I have the (parental programmed) need to do Best. Took a lot of therapy and friend encouragement to just be content with work, and to treat a sketchbook like a gym, not a finished piece.

Social media really screwed up my return to art because people love to post "just a sketch, it's trash, was standing in line at Starbucks", and then they post the Sistine Chapel ceiling and anyone who does any art knows that wasn't a trivial write off. But the reactions and likes eat it up. Now I have an aversion to any creators who play those cards, because I'd rather you stood on business and showed process. A lot of creatives like to qualify the work as expendable, casual, no investment, didn't have my real tools, and only now am I accepting that's a defensive measure on their end. But it really got inside my own head for years.

Finally back in a place where I'm just having fun for myself and looking forward to turning pages. It's like meeting that inner child.

But in a professional setting. Yeah. Why was I burning out trying to be nurse of the year, soldier of the company, employee of the month, when it really didn't mean anything.

I think a lot of us can relate that the people who seemingly give 40% get just as rewarded if not more, when you step back. Frustrating as that is, gotta take care of yourself.
 
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