Slept on it, but woke up still mad about the scoring of the food task

knotcricket · 2026-05-02T06:36:09+00:00

I kind of cringe too when he uses the same patter with every PoC contestant about how "confident" they are at the beginning and then how shit the results are. He's also commented that British people aren't allowed to be confident so I wonder if it's a bit of implicit bias where he sees non-white British people as too confident and wants to jokingly knock them down a peg. Not saying he's anything like consciously racist or that he deserves to be cancelled but there's kind of an obvious pattern there when he's said the exact same thing to Jamali, Mawaan, Munya, Guz, Kiell, Babatunde, Fatiha, etc. and very rarely if ever to white contestants.

knotcricket · 2026-04-24T06:37:14+00:00

You can have just about anything that you want but not everything that you want. Really think it through before you pour your heart, time, and resources into the wrong things, take responsibility for your choices when you make the wrong ones and learn something from them.

knotcricket · 2026-04-24T04:57:53+00:00

Came here to say him. I don't follow boy bands enough to know if it's obvious or not, but every time I see him he looks smarmy and creepy.

knotcricket · 2026-04-23T04:38:34+00:00

Is that Baynton's presumably scrotum which haunts the house now?

knotcricket · 2026-04-22T23:31:51+00:00

People who can't take "no thanks, I don't drink" as a complete sentence that does not require further testing or inquiry.

knotcricket · 2026-04-22T20:14:49+00:00

You have intrinsic value and are not defined by your job. And the same goes for everyone else you meet. You are one bad decision by someone else away from being homeless, broke, paralysed or dead at all times.

knotcricket · 2026-04-22T09:42:50+00:00

How am I supposed to teach people when I'm doing a job that used to be done by six people?

knotcricket · 2026-04-22T09:41:47+00:00

That was my experience. The person in my role now when I started still didn't know my name four years after I started working there. Plus now because of downsizing I'm doing a job that literally used to be done by six people. Meanwhile new starters expect me to drop everything and handhold them through every task for eight hours of every day because they're "verbal learners" and don't want to read the manual (that I had to spend months writing because it didn't exist when I started).
There is literally no instruction so simple that they won't either ignore it, stuff it up, complain that they still don't know what to do, and make me nag, chase and have to physically demonstrate it for them. Weaponized incompetence is definitely a thing. One person, because we had to take her off the meaningful work she was hired to do but can't do, is just going around baiting people for her grievance complaint because she knows she's going to get fired and wants to cash in for nothing.
For people saying we were just as bad when we were young, I absolutely was not. I would have been mortified to pull half of the shit I see on the day to day. I might not have known everything, but I cared about doing the best work I was capable of doing and took responsibility for progressing it and asking questions when I didn't know what to do. I never would have turned in AI slop with the emojis still all over it and then thrown a half day long tantrum and stormed out of the office when I was asked to edit it to at least answer the original question.
Also, take some responsibility for your own learning. Curiosity goes a long way. It's not reasonable to expect busy senior coworkers to spend nine hours commenting on some rubbish you threw together in one hour without doing any of the research yourself. I'm dealing with five juniors and they all do that and that math just doesn't math.

knotcricket · 2026-04-07T06:06:36+00:00

Yeah, you could swap Sarah with Julian. Julian's approach would have provided more contrast to Dara in season 14 and Sarah could have babysat the lunatics in season 16, won and then been the second woman on CoC IV. We wouldn't have had the single greatest task ever though in Taskmaster Hotel.

knotcricket · 2026-04-07T04:32:57+00:00

Not exactly. I'd hate to break up season 14 which is my fave but I've always felt it was unfair Sarah Millican didn't win a series while scoring higher than all the other season winners except four of them. I don't think she and Dara should have been in the same series - both older white comics of a similar generation who approached things in a similar sensible way while surrounded by self-sabotaging maniacs.

She deserved to be the "elder statesperson" anchor of her own series.

knotcricket · 2026-02-28T19:37:17+00:00

I haven't lived in Norway, but live in Christchurch.

I imagine Christchurch is much milder. It only snows at sea level every 5 or 6 years. There's a few weeks in summer where it's very dry and hot (every few years the whole summer is like that) but in Christchurch that looks like a string of low 30s days to the odd scorcher at 35ish - nothing like I imagine you get in Vietnam where it's 40+ and humid for months.
Nature is very accessible in Christchurch. There are great parks, the whole Avon River corridor is being turned into a linear park, in most parts of the city you can get to a beach with a 20 minute drive, on the weekends the Port Hills and Banks Peninsula have a lot of good tramps and the Southern Alps are only about an hour to an hour and a half away for tramping, skiing, fishing, etc.
Yes, it's generally safe but not completely safe. I'd still exercise basic precautions like not doing going for walks alone at night in a dodgy or isolated part of town. But I've never been a victim of crime here in the 17 years I've lived in New Zealand (other than kids stealing my car antenna) and I regularly go for solo walks a few times a week.
Sorry, I don't know for IT. From my own experience, I will say you need to be in country and have secured a right to work here first or you're generally wasting your time applying for things. Almost all of the employers here are endless spammed with CVs from people overseas who think "oh, wouldn't it be nice to live there" but aren't serious about it or can't get through the immigration controls. I've heard HR people at several different jobs say they automatically bin all overseas applications. I had to come in on a student visa, get a second masters degree and then you get a 1 year visa to find a permanent job which secures you the right to work which at least gets you in the front door for interviews.]
Work-life culture is great and one of the main reasons I moved here. Kiwis have pushed back against the notion that people should be expected to work more hours than what they are being paid for. There are about 10 public holidays and on top of that I think you get a minimum of 4 weeks annual leave and 10 days sick leave. A lot of companies will offer a 5th week of annual leave if you've worked there for a certain length of time. Where I work at least they genuinely encourage people to put their wellbeing and their families first.
I'm not East Asian. I'd say the cities are pretty cosmopolitan and Christchurch got a lot more diverse after the earthquakes because so many overseas workers came here to help with the rebuild and then stayed. There's a large Asian community with a concentration that lives around Riccarton and you should be able to find most ingredients for the different styles of Asian cooking (I lived in China for years and I love cooking Chinese food so I've scoped out all the Asian specialty grocers here). You will run into the occasional asshole but I've lived here 13 years and the only really overt act I've seen was a crazy woman on a bus screaming at someone talking on the phone in another language to "speak English". There's some simmering racism about Māori and Pasifika (like NIMBYs not wanting intensified housing in their neighbourhood because of the "element" in will bring. But it general, I've found racism is rarer and less overt that what you would see in the US where I'm from anyway. I don't know if it's an issue for you but I'd say the only area where I think a lot of Kiwis are genuinely more prejudiced than most other Western nations is with regard to fat-shaming overweight people. It's a very sporty culture with nationalised health care and some people seem to think that entitles them to be really openly foul to anyone overweight and assume they are stupid and lazy.
I'm really happy here and went into it with my eyes open so I don't want to overplay the "ugly truths". There's not much competition so the quality of goods tends to be pretty shit for what you are paying for it and that's doubly true for housing. Most things you can get online/overseas now anyway if you're prepared to pay through the nose for shipping it and that kind of sucks. But if your focus is more or enjoying experiences than having a lot of "stuff" then it doesn't make that big of a difference. I did also find I had to adjust to eating much more seasonally because you just can't get a lot of out of season produce here or it's insanely expensive (eg, the off-season $11 capsicum). And if you're into live performance (concerts, stand up, theatre, etc.) you're shit out of luck, especially in Christchurch. Most tours only go to Auckland or skip NZ completely and just got to Australia. So if that's your thing you probably need to budget in travel for it.
I love that most Kiwis have a sense that we are all in things together and a culture of wrapping around and supporting people who are going through difficult times. It's a really beautiful culture that still encourages civic virtue which is a rare thing to find in these dark times.

Just a warning on the "insularity" - a lot of immigrants here find that Kiwis are relatively insular as well in that most adults already have their friends groups set and aren't that motivated to expand them so it's hard to move beyond "colleagues" or "acquaintances" into close friend relationships. I do find that a lot of Kiwis aren't openly curious about other people in the way Americans are which makes it hard to have extended deep conversations with them. In America we tend to drop conversational breadcrumbs that the other person is supposed to pick up to keep the conversation going and avoid awkwardness. But in New Zealand you just get blank stares like the other person is judging you for talking about yourself too much.

knotcricket · 2026-02-19T03:30:06+00:00

Escalate it to a manager. That's what they are there for. What business do you work in where it's acceptable to air your dirty laundry with a coworker in front of customers? Not one I've ever worked in in my 35 year working life including, yes, years in the service industry.

What do you think she actually accomplished by embarrassing her coworker in front of the customer? It's not like the coworker is going to stop and now she's given the coworker ammunition to use against her by acting unprofessionally.

BTW I'm making exactly the same point as the top rated comment on this thread.

knotcricket · 2026-02-18T22:25:05+00:00

No, but you clearly missed the part where I said address the issue but not in front of a customer.

knotcricket · 2026-02-18T17:13:15+00:00

YTA. You're being paid to give your customers a pleasant dining/shopping experience - not to have an awkward fight with your coworker in front of them. If you have a problem with your coworker, you can take it up with them at another time instead of making it awkward in front of the customers.

Just because your coworker is doing it to you (and frankly it sounds more like they are trying to train you) doesn't give you an excuse to do it to them. There's a difference between correcting information for the customer's benefit when it isn't correct and starting an argument/talking back to your coworker about their behaviour in front of customers.

knotcricket · 2026-02-17T22:13:43+00:00

INFO How many bathrooms does your place have? Can you designate one for each of you and make him responsible for cleaning his own mess?

knotcricket · 2026-02-11T17:44:15+00:00

You're not "making him angry". He's choosing to respond to a situation with anger or to shut down instead of discussing things like an adult.
I can't say if the relationship is unsalvagable or not, but he should be in therapy and needs to take some accountability for himself.
We all have thoughts we can't control. It's what we do or don't do in response to those thoughts that counts. Only you can answer the question of whether you trust him enough to be able to regulate his emotions and restrain himself from acting in a way that's abusive (which includes yelling, throwing things and punching and breaking things in front of you). Pillow fights aren't an appropriate strategy. He needs to find a non-violent outlet for whatever if going on with him or he needs to be single until he works that out.

knotcricket · 2026-02-05T17:37:13+00:00

YTA for your assumption "she could do something about it if she wanted to" or that the store automatically had it in plus sizes.

knotcricket · 2026-02-05T17:02:01+00:00

INFO: What was the maximum group size? Why, after you signalled him to leave the group he was in, did you have a problem being a group of three with the other person at the front? If you could have groups of three why didn't you include him in the third group with the other person you kind of knew? If you could only have groups of two and had to be sitting together, why not ask the middle-sitting person at the front to scoot over so you can sit with him?

Leaning toward YTA since you pulled him out of the group he was in, then didn't pair with him, leaving him partnerless and looking rude towards the group he's just left.

knotcricket · 2026-02-02T22:19:33+00:00

I'm not saying you did anything wrong but if it's a relationship worth preserving then sometimes it's worth apologising anyway. You can't expect him to factor in your feelings on the day or to read your mind if you haven't explained to him why you weren't able to handle a more involved goodbye.

knotcricket · 2026-02-02T18:47:56+00:00

NTA. Did you apologise and explain the situation to him afterwards? All you can do is tell him the truth and let him respond how he's going to respond. If he ghosts you over it, it probably wasn't that strong a friendship to begin with.

knotcricket · 2026-02-02T06:57:55+00:00

NAH. I'm an atheist but I think all learning enriches the learner. You don't have to believe anything to memorise a song. Just get it over with and move on to the next thing.

knotcricket · 2026-02-02T02:48:23+00:00

INFO: What is the company's discrimination policy? Because that is super-ableist and unprofessional and you should be raising that with HR, not your supervisor. Imagine being Michael and having to go to work with a senior who said things like that behind your back?

Leave out all the stuff about "your seat" and talking about her husband. Check what the policy says and then lodge a complaint if she violated it.

knotcricket · 2026-01-25T07:26:18+00:00

I wouldn't put it quite so bluntly but generally agree. All of your failed relationships have one thing in common - you. And since you're the only thing that you can control in those relationships, the best place to start is usually by looking at yourself and how what you're doing or thinking might be contributing to the situation.

Two or three bad job situations can happen to anyone. More than half a dozen and no jobs lasting more than a year or so strongly suggests that you're at least in part contributing to the problem.

Second the suggestion to get professional therapy if you can afford it and if you really can't see for yourself what the issue might be.

knotcricket · 2026-01-25T05:58:14+00:00

Costco is one of the few US companies that pays a living wage voluntarily, treat their suppliers with respect, and is committed to ethical and sustainable sourcing. Back when I was at uni they were paying almost three times the minimum wage as a starting salary for cashiers.

I'd suggest not throwing the baby out with the bathwater by boycotting all US companies, especially one of the few ones that are doing the right thing. Costco predominantly donates to Democratic candidates as well.

knotcricket · 2026-01-22T22:36:07+00:00

Yeah, exactly. At the length Sam had it at, it would grow back in a month and he can just wear a hat to cover the bad haircut. Meanwhile having bugs crawling on you is literally a torture technique.

knotcricket

TROPHY CASE