Remember Valentine’s day 2004, when San Francisco county started issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples?
Thousands of couples showed up. Some from the other side of the planet, some from the other side of town. The County Clerk was overwhelmed and there weren’t nearly enough wedding officiants to keep up. So they put out a call for volunteers to be deputized by the Clerk as county marriage commissioners. I volunteered and officiated at dozens of ceremonies at city hall.
Still have my official commission hanging on my wall.
Okay, that is awesome.
I let a homeless guy know he dropped a nickel.
deleted by creator
That’s awesome - well done! Reminded me of something else, story below.
For anyone that watched MythBusters, you’re probably aware the two main hosts, Adam and Jaimie, didn’t like each other because they were two different clashing personalities and tough to work with. There was a pirate myths episode, and Adam went all out dressing as a pirate and using a very heavy faux-pirate accent. Jaimie was laughing so hard during that scene that his whole head was red! One of the most endearing moments of the show, and something I treasure because this show was so influential for me growing up.
Props to anyone like @Vanth@reddthat.com that makes the normally serious person laugh!
Come on, you can’t tell us that and not share the joke!
I think doing this is a life achievement. I used to work at a grocery store and was being trained by an ex military woman who was hard as nails and really no nonsense. At one point she was explaining to me the concept of First in First Out (FIFO stocking of product, meaning the oldest product stays at the front of the shelf to be purchased first).
When she asked me “have you heard of FIFO?” I replied “Yeah, first in, last out… Oh, wait, that’s the Marine Corps”. Got an actual laugh out of her. I’ll never forget it.
deleted by creator
They made a rule against using bird houses in a demolition contest because of me. It’s not my fault they asked for the most effective way of getting through a steel plate instead of the most precise.
I would love more details.
So there I was with something of an informal competition in front of me to make the “best” shaped charge to blow throw about a two inch steel plate. It was really just something like practicing skills and maybe showing off creativity.
Most people took “best” to mean most efficient, precise, or cleanly shaped hole in the metal. I took a different meaning. A Mongo minded meaning.
People showed up with their creations and proceeded to pack them with explosives. Most were C4 filled and under half a pound, many of them much less. Shaped charges made of coins, wine bottles, whatever else.
I brought a bird house similar to:
Removed the copper roof, put it in a 5 gallon bucket and proceeded to fill the bucket with as much C4 as it could hold. I don’t know how much. It was a lot. More explode means more good.
My charge had to go last for fear of disrupting everything else. I put a dachshund sized hole in the steel plate along with a massive crack. Penetrated the dirt a few feet down. Somebody even recovered the copper penetrator and turned it into a keychain.
After that they put a size limit on how much explosives you could use. Really not my fault there wasn’t a limit in the first place.
Please tell us more…
Going to talk therapy. Getting married and having kids really pushed me and helps me keep going on the hardest days. I cannot have mental illness affect their lives like it did mine growing up.
I have three kids. I was present for the birth of the youngest two. But I adopted my oldest. She was 12 so she had to tell the judge she was OK with it. I told her it came with two conditions: Nothing between us needed to change and she didn’t have to call me “Dad”. She calls me by first name to my face but she calls me “dad” behind my back. I’ll take it.
It just so happens I’m proud of something I did two hours ago as I write this sentence. A friend of mine said they needed a constant companion for the time being, and another friend said they needed a certain demographic to be friends with, and after realizing the first friend fell under that demographic, I thought “wait, do these two people know each other”. Three hours ago as I write this sentence, I introduced them, and they really hit it off. I just made three people very happy.
In 2007, I, a non-white non-Korean, took a job in South Korea. Then, I took another. Then, at the third job, I was hired, but the owner’s brother was amenable to some of the more racist thoughts that guided the approach to business in SK. He thought I would hurt the business. He resisted hiring another non-white, non-Korean.
The owner asked me to write a letter. Instead of saying, “that’s not my job”, I wrote the letter. I made the case. They hired another non-white, non-Korean after me.
I’m still pretty proud of that letter.
Being pleasant and helpful to customers at work. What I do is by no means important, but I take pride in doing it well (or at least trying to). Too many people in customer service are bored, apathetic, or act like you’re bothering them by asking them to do their jobs. I like to make people smile.
As someone who has worked in the customer service industry… I will not allow you to belittle yourself.
What I do by no means [is] important,
If I were standing next to you right now, I would playfully but with meaning, open up your cranium, lean down, sternly point, and talk to your brain with the following. “You stop being mean to @magnetosphere@kbin.social or you’re going to have to deal with me.”
I 1000% disagree with the selected statement above. You and your work are very important to the people that come in. If it weren’t for the work that you do, I can guarantee you that there would be more people feeling lonely, discontent, or frustration. Being pleasant is a sought after characteristic, I would argue in all work industries. (Think about it. How well would a company perform or last, if it wasn’t for those who work there, being pleasant to be around?) Being helpful: I’m goodness. People LOVE to be out shopping and find an employee that actually wants to help you out. It’s a high ranking frustration for customers in any industry. Nobody (in my experience,) wants to always have to find things or do things for themselves at a business. So if you genuinely like making people smile or providing a good shopping experience, you’re a badass in my book.
Wow. Thank you.
You’re worth it! And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!
As someone else who works in customer service, thank you! I take pride in trying to make sure the customer is always properly helped, and done so in a kind and just manner.
I get that some people are jaded because of past experiences (and I really am not trying to understate that here), but treating the customer like shit because of it only perpetuates the cycle. The customer treats the support person badly, which causes said rep to treat more customers badly, etc. If no one takes charge to stop it, then the customer service industry will always be doomed to suffer - on both sides.
I’m just glad that my current job does let me actually help our customers workout having to worry about KPIs and other metrics (we have one metric, which is to reach 0.5% of something on all of our tickets - it’s pretty forgiving). I left my last place because it was always about the numbers, and had no human element accounted for your performance.
When I was still in a band we played the same venue that I saw one of my favorite bands play at once. That was really cool, even though it was on a Monday and we just played to other bands.
Surviving
The indomitability of the human spirit. Good for you!
I quit smoking. Had too many downsides to be justifiable.
Hell yeah! Proud of you, internet stranger. Quitting, I hear, is one of the most difficult things.
I took up an instrument for the first time in my late 30s and have gotten okay at it. If I was 8 years old people would nod politely to my parents after my recital.
what instrument? what songs are you playing, or are you originating music??
Mandolin. Playing Bach, American folk standards and children’s songs. Started la vie en rose tonight. No original material but it’s been fun to do something I, for a reason I no longer remember, thought was beyond me. My wife loves it. My kids are annoyed that I follow them around like a restaurant mariachi playing the same songs over and over lol.
Sounds fun. Don’t forget about Losing My Religion! I play guitar and drums. When I first started with guitar, I only played covers as if the only thing that mattered was my technical capacity. Once I learned a scale out if curiosity, I discovered a wholeeeee new world. I no longer bother with covers. I hope you find some courage to engage in creating something new, and if you do, please share it with me if you feel comfortable 🙂
Thanks for the tip about scales. Music theory has been on my mind as something to learn after I get technically good but maybe I should move it up in the batting order.
Being part of a team that helped a child learn to communicate in their own way. They went from dangerous head banging behaviors, having to work in a padded room to sitting at a desk with nearly no SIB. Not all wine and roses but damn it’s night and day over the last 2 years.
I made some mods for a few games. People still use 'em.
That’s really neat. Which games/mods?
Mostly Deus Ex and the Bethesda Fallout titles. (3, New Vegas, and 4)
Anything that’s got a link?
Easiest thing is probably just checking my NexusMods profile.
Oh and my Deus Ex mod is over at ModDB.
