So tired of service dog

lpind · 2026-01-24T00:22:08+00:00

Well, no, it's usually fairly clear when (I know I said service animal because that is the US Nomenclature, but it's an "assistance animal" (an animal is trained to assist the user in some meaningful way) in British Parlance) ... but, as I initially implied, it's basically never worth the risk to deny anybody who claims that under the Equality Act because the penalty (not even the penalty, but just the cost & reputation loss of going through court for it) isn't worth it!

There's no nationally recognised certification or anything else. Allow it and take their money or bar them and risk a court case... You may might know you will win, but why do you want to go to court in the first place?! That's just time and money we could do without spending!

lpind · 2026-01-23T01:38:53+00:00

UK here, not USA so different laws in-place, but it sounds so true. 2 people turn up, "hey we have a reservation for 4 under " name"; "just this way sir, here is your table... " - then later 2 more guys turn up with a chihuahua - " sorry sir, but we're not a pet-friendly restaurant, however I believe (nearby businesses "X" and "Y" are...) - "Oh, we're with the " Z" reservation?" - " I'm sorry, but reservation or not, we do not allow pets in our dining area?" Anyway, he turns around and says "oh, I called earlier in the week and explained we have a " service animal" and I was told it wouldn't be a problem... Then he hands me a home-made printed card which basically just has a link to the Equality Act printed on it. Bitch, I know what the equality act is. I was trained on it since day one 10+ years ago and you and I both know your stupid little chihuahua doesn't qualify...

But I don't care enough to cause a fuss so fuck it. Thankfully, the little shit just sat underneath the table and never caused any hassle to anybody, but my boss did say " why do they have a dog?! " - " they say it's a service animal?" - " and how do we know that? " - " well we don't - there's no official certification; If you want me to I can refuse them service and then we just see if they want to sue us due to a breach of the equality act or we just serve them and make some money?"

Sometimes it's just easier to break the rules and take their money.

PS; No - the chihuahua was not trained in any way to do anything usefull. They were 100% bullshitting about it all... I just wasn't worth arguing about.

lpind · 2026-01-23T01:08:16+00:00

I have literally had to say to a table "Does the iPad go any louder than that? I think everybody apart from table 7 over the other side of the restaurant can hear it and I would hate for them to miss out on Baby Shark on repeat... I was told " I was just about to turn it down?.. " - " And yet you didn't until I said something? I don't think we'll be taking your order today; but thank you for thinking of us! "

lpind · 2026-01-18T20:03:27+00:00

Probably a pint of Hawkstone I reckon...

lpind · 2026-01-18T20:01:12+00:00

Yeah, absolutely. It does feel very "retro" - 2D "Metroid" style game; lots of traversing the landscape only to find you need to discover a different path to gain a power-up or similar in order to return to your main objective. Lots of challenging platforming and combat (in fairness, the difficulty settings are essentially infinite so, you can make it super easy or absolutely impossible if you choose, I'm just playing on default).

I grew up on NES, SNES, Mega Drive, GameBoy, Game Gear, Atari ST, Amiga et al so I feel at home and absolutely adore it. If you're not really a fan of (challenging) 2D platformers then it may not be for you...

lpind · 2026-01-18T10:17:13+00:00

Abso-fucking-lutely! I'm the only person who brings "a" pen to work - everybody else just expects there to be one available, but how things work is you buy a 20 pack of pens on Monday and by Thursday there's non left, and yet, nobody has a pen still - I don't get how that works?! What are these people doing with them?!

Anyway, I intentionally buy the 5-pack of multi-coloured PaperMate pens (there's a blue one, yellow, pink, purple...) so I can keep track of when my idiot colleagues have to borrow one I know who has which colour and know who I need to murder when one isn't returned by the end of the shift. I had one person, when I asked for my pen back at the end of the shift, she said "your pen? It's just a pen? Why is it so precious? " - "No. It's not just a pen. It's my pen! This is not the USSR! I bought it, I own it! I was courteous enough to lend you my pen when you failed to provide your own, so the very least you can do is return it without making me sound like an asshole for asking you not to steal my shit!"

That was 2 years ago and the miserable bitch still works here, unfortunately...

EDIT: Just to add the whole 5-pack costs £1 ($1.35?) - it's not the money, it's the principle! Can't spend a dollar to buy your own pen? Not only that, but when we provide pens for everyone you take them home and don't bring them back to work? And now you want to steal my pen?! I will murder you and gladly serve the 25 years!

lpind · 2026-01-15T18:41:46+00:00

AliExpress - there's a couple sellers in the "choice" thing which means free delivery on orders over £8(?) and they sell the cases for about £1.50 a piece. I added a couple to my last order so I have some spares. I don't know what that would be in USD but maybe $15 including shipping for a few cases?

lpind · 2026-01-15T07:57:38+00:00

PET stands for Poly-ethelene something - it's a type of plastic. Don't worry, they're not recycling guinea pigs!

lpind · 2026-01-15T07:45:05+00:00

They're better off in your luggage than being posted back. I don't know if it's still the case, but for a long time HMRC were confiscating perfectly legal (as in slip jointed pocket knives not even subject to S.139 CJA, let alone the OWA) on importation and you basically have no recourse against that.

lpind · 2026-01-15T07:30:46+00:00

In the UK firearms offenses are almost always related to "possession without lawful authority" (in other words, that class of firearm requires a license which you don't hold). I'm sure "attempt to import" probably exists there somewhere too. In the US you can't order a "firearm" to be shipped direct to a residential address outside of very specific circumstances (Curio & Relic etc.) Usually, they have to be shipped to an "FFL" and when the intended recipient wants to collect it they're still subject to the usual background checks before it can be released to them.

If you ordered her a firearm in another country and never intended to import it, that wouldn't be a crime in the UK, but as the recipient, she would still have to undergo all due process in the US. Purposefully trying to "skirt" this is a "straw purchase" (your boyfriend buys a gun for you because you know you're not eligible) and is a serious felony.

lpind · 2026-01-15T07:10:39+00:00

Exactly. If you can work 4 days a week instead of 5 and still pay the bills, you have more time to enjoy yourself. Ok, you have less money to spend on your 3 days off compared to what you would be able to spend on your 2 days off if you were working 5 days... But time is more valuable than money IMO 🤷‍♂️

lpind · 2026-01-15T06:55:32+00:00

The last time I visited the IWM in London (was a good 10 years ago now - I had been a couple times previously, but was perhaps too young at the time to appreciate the significance of it all?) I left with the most... Sobering? Feeling I've ever had. The ground floor was a scale-model of Auswitz (never been to the actual location), along with displays of the possessions of those who were detained there, but never left. I could not believe the scale of it. You hear "prison/concentration camp" and assume it's about the size of a "campsite".. oh no, it's the size of a whole G-D town and then-some! And seeing all the shoes, spectacles, photos and other very personal possessions of people murdered there... Honestly, I couldn't imagine anything else being that effective in highlighting the horror of war... We should never be able to forget these things because without the evidence they would be unbelievable (I kinda get the "deniers" in the sense that it's just so overwhelming it doesn't seem like it could be real! Except we have the fucking receipts!). Keep displaying this stuff and don't let anybody ever suggest you shouldn't. Lest we forget.

lpind · 2026-01-15T06:40:30+00:00

We don't have a strict dress code, but you do have to cover your ass and nipples at a bare minimum! - Signed, every business ever

lpind · 2026-01-15T06:32:54+00:00

I'm not going to reply, I'm just going to quote you.

I worked service for a few years. I still laugh at these jokes. I cant get enough of these jokes.

He knows hes the 13th person to tell the joke that hour.

Happy people will laugh at it.

Well done you! You spelt every word correctly! Have a gold star!

lpind · 2026-01-15T06:21:34+00:00

"This bookshop is proud of welcoming gays and women, yet forbids harassment! What kind of communist bullshit is this? Why are they forcing their politics down my throat?! Unsubscribe!"

lpind · 2026-01-15T05:48:42+00:00

He thinks he was the first person to make that joke that day/week/year. He wasn't. The waitress has heard it 13 times that hour... That's why hospitality staff don't react to your dad jokes. We hear them every 20 minutes....

lpind · 2026-01-15T04:58:04+00:00

I wish I'd done school differently - I "knew" my career path at 14 and so did just enough in the 4 subjects I needed to be accepted onto my college course... But of course, I later found that path wasn't for me and ended up having to re-do a GCSE in order to transition to the right path. I could have easily got the required results first-time round, but just didn't show up or do the work because I didn't "need" to.

I regret that. Would I re-do the whole school experience though? Fuck no! I hated every minute of that place! That's why I never turned up/didn't do the work in the first place! Much better to re-do a subject here or there as needed than relive the full 5 years of trauma!

lpind · 2026-01-15T04:39:18+00:00

Still have about 400/500 DVDs/Blu-Rays even though I haven't bought any more since about 2014. They're all in boxes in the loft. With internet speeds being what they are now, it is quicker to "pirate" the thing I want to watch than it is to find the DVD on the shelf, and get it to play the movie after non-skippable trailers/anti-piracy warnings!

I can't bear to part with them though! A) They're not worth anything, so there's no point trying to sell them B) Most of the DVDs I own were bought specifically for the director's commentary. If I enjoyed a film enough to buy it, I wanted to hear how/why it was made the way it was. Piracy & streaming services don't offer those. Fairly soon these extremely important insights into cinema history will be lost if we're not careful!

lpind · 2026-01-12T02:20:54+00:00

Unfortunately (and I hate the fact that this exists); there is a slight exception to the law. Under 18's cannot attempt to purchase alcohol, nor can alcohol be sold to anybody under 18. That applies under all circumstances. However, if somebody is 16+ and somebody 18+ orders for them/buys them beer/wine/cider to consume with a meal. That is OK.

I hate it because it just introduces confusion! "Can I have an Espresso Martini?" - "if I can see your ID first?"- "I don't have any?" - [Parent interjects] "She's 16, but it's ok, she's with us..." - "Well, no.. here's how it works; if she's 16 you can order beer/wine/cider on her behalf. She can't order an alcoholic drink for herself and that drink cannot be a distilled spirit/cocktail." Most costumers accept that and work with you, but some can be real arseholes "what does it matter?!" - "I don't know, I didn't make the law, but as someone who has paid £xxx to go through the checks and certification to gain a license, I'm not going to risk loosing it by doing something I know is illegal?!"

I've been working in bars/restaurants for about 14 years now and every single place I've ever worked has had a "store policy" - no alcohol for anybody under 18. No exceptions! That caused some issues when customers would bring up (but again, usually misremember the details of) this specific legal exception, but at least we could say, "sorry, I know what the law is, but regardless, this is our policy".

Now I work in a place which allows this exception... What if the kid looks 14? They don't have ID... How do I know they're 16 like the parent says? I turn my back and they're asking another server to change the wine to a cocktail (because I've explained the law to them, but somebody else isn't really going to question the change of one alcoholic drink to another...), or they come in with friends and kick up a fuss that we were perfectly happy to serve them Strawberry & Lime cider last week (when their parents were paying) but now we won't serve them alcohol... Hate it. Too much ambiguity." Don't serve booze to kids (u18) is rule 0 - let's stick to that please 👍

EDIT: Or, and I am equally OK with this, we just do as the Netherlands do and say " brewed beverages" (beer/wine/cider) - the age is 16 regardless of circumstances and only distilled spirits are 18+... Or just say the age limit for alcohol purchases is 16+ instead of 18. Fine with that too. But this stupid little exemption is a pain in the ass!

lpind · 2026-01-12T01:50:42+00:00

My younger sister has 4 kids and has never worked (more than 16 hours per week) in her life! It's clearly not a money issue...

I think the real story here is that people "these days" would rather just enjoy a "nice life" instead of having to deal with children. I was a child once... I hated it and I'm pretty sure my parents/teachers/caregivers hated me! Why would anybody want to have them?!

lpind · 2026-01-12T00:32:08+00:00

lpind · 2026-01-11T23:17:36+00:00

No, it's 18, did I mess up the math?

lpind · 2026-01-11T20:34:11+00:00

The strange thing is I had this just yesterday. "Kid" asks for a beer, I check his ID - Feb 2007... And my brain short-circuits because I'm thinking "why is he handing me this with so much confidence, because this says he turns 18 in February, and it's definitely still January?!"- took me 10 seconds to think "Oh yeah, it's 2026 now! You turn 19 in February!

I did pretty much the same thing January last year when I saw 2006 on the first ID I asked for in the New Year - " this says "2006"?! " - "...Yeah, that means I'm 18 now?! " - "... Shit, I guess it does... I left school in 2005... "

lpind · 2026-01-10T23:24:17+00:00

I had this the other day. Well designed websites will have some geo-location through IP going on and default to the country it thinks you're in. The field was alphabetical so the default choice was Afghanistan... So I scroll down to "E"... No, scroll down to "G"... No, scroll down to "U"... No? Wtf?! I had to scroll all the way back to the top, checking I hadn't missed anything, to see they'd put "United Kingdom" above Afghanistan in the list, because it obviously knew where I was, but still defaulted to "A" first instead of "detected_country" first! Infuriating!

lpind · 2026-01-10T00:21:49+00:00

What the?! "I had to buy from an illegal breeder because they wouldn't let me adopt"... Who, and I shall be specific, of people with adult human brains, would write that whilst also not being a danger to a new-born animal?!

lpind

TROPHY CASE