Nataly

Funny... Motivation is a topic that really fascinates me... And although you would think things like money would motivate people, lots of studies (and my own personal experience) suggest that things like validation/acknowledgement, feeling "useful", and responsibility are all more motivating than an increase in salary... Why just today I received a personal thanks for my professionalism and excellent work and I was pleased as punch

Some people can't talk about a movie without spoiling it for others. They don't mean to ruin your experience, they're simply thoughtless. Look at how many people in this thread did it starting with the very first post. Funny thing: my best friend is Hungarian. I have to keep repeating to her NOT to tell me ANYTHING about movies she has seen, because apparently, in her culture (her Hungarian friends have confirmed), it is normal to discuss all aspects of the movie... The notion of "spoilers" is lost on them... (Or maybe she is just cruel and winding me up??! ) "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Agreed. Studies have proven the issue is the shift of mental concentration from driving to conversing, not the act of physically holding the phone. Exactly. Yeah... It's hard not answering a ringing phone... I even feel stressed when I'm on the bike and can feel the phone ringing in my pocket (even though I know I would never have time to pull over, stop the engine, remove my helmet and answer before the person hung up!)... Nevertheless, no call is worth running over a pedestrian/cyclist/biker/other car... Ironically, on a bike you see people's driving behaviour SOOOO much more clearly, and you can almost always tell when someone is on the phone - even when it's hands-free. It's scary... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Get yourself a Bluetooth. All smartphones are compatible with them these days. I got one of the lower-priced ones at Best Buys. Works great, and I love it. While I agree with Andy that bluetooth is safer, I still think a phone conversation is too distracting whilst you're driving. Unless talking and driving are both necessary parts of your job (usually this is NOT the case) the phone can wait. Naughty, NAUGHTY John. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

It was that effective? Thanks. I'll keep being polite.

Well, people in all professions interpret and apply the rules differently according to the person, humour, and circumstances... I'm certain there are a variety of factors that make the same cop give a ticket to one person and not another... Some cops apply the rule the same way no matter what the circumstances... I don't personally feel that a cop's job is to "punish" people, but to keep order (aka to "serve and protect")... Although I can appreciate why that would sometimes involve making people "pay" / feel bad for their crimes... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Don't even get me started on charities - I could rant and rant and rant. Re the 50/50 thing - VERY uncool. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

She must have been in the gay part of town. It's the highway - I was lucky not to get run over! This is the only picture of me so far, but lots of people from my work were taking pictures so I'm sure there will be more "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Fuck me..why is this NOT in the womens forum you do realize you tried injecting logic into a situation involving a dress in storage, driving, dress shopping, an evening gala and a female, right? Wink I went shopping and didn't find anything (note shops close EARLY in France). I thought I'd just suck it up and wear a more plain dress I had, so I ironed it and melted the fabric... So off to the storage place I went... Bike stalled on the highway... After trying (unsuccessfully) to hitchike for about 30 minutes and kicking the bike about 4 times, it decided to start up again

HAPPY TURKEY DAY TO ALL YOU AMERICANS!!!

I probably will end up getting a new dress... *Sigh*... I *hate* shopping, and I *hate* wasting money... So I'm especially annoyed for putting myself in this position. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

In the anesthesiologist's defence, they probably get a lot of patients who think they know everything because they spent 15 minutes self-diagnosing on google... So perhaps it's not so surprising that some of them might develop a tendency to not take you as seriously as they should... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

OK... Not a proper disaster... I have a fancy gala to attend this evening... I thought I would fetch a gorgeous dress I have from my storage box for the occasion... As the storage box is near the airport (and about 1hr from where I live), I thought I would pick it up on my way home from London this weekend... Mistake 1 - bought too much stuff in London and couldn't pick up the dress. Mistake 2 - left it to the last minute, went to storage last night, and forgot the entry code (note this code has been in my wallet for about 2 years now, and I took it out - among other things - for my trip to London so my wallet would be less bulky). Mistake 3 - thought I had something else at home, but turns out I don't (it's also in storage)... Now have no dress at all and either have to go buy a very expensive dress I will likely never wear again, or drive 2 hours like a maniac to fetch the dress by the airport... Did I mention I'm not even sure the dress still fits??? Oh dear... What a numpty... Should have sorted all this ages ago and not left it to the last minute... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

It's odd to me that things will seem to be going well, we will be at a lovely restaurant, enjoying a lovely meal, and then BAM - out of nowhere, a MASSIVE (and ridiculous) argument spoils the evening. And the thing is, on some level I can't even be bothered to properly argue or take things seriously, because all I'm thinking is "there is no point in arguing over something so trite - something *else* must be going on"... We eventually drop it (anyway it's going nowhere), and things eventually smoothe over... But it happens again, and again, and again... I find myself wondering... - Do French people simply enjoy the occasional heated debate? - Am I so insensitive that I just don't "get it" at all? - Am *I* causing the arguments somehow? *sigh*... Just seems such a pointlesss waste of energy... If only there was some unbelievable make-up-sex involved, but no... An argument usually means *no* nooky... So that's not good... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

I read that too quickly and had to see why a thread on ERECTIONS made it to the SC!!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

A lot of the time it's confusing to people that I am a Canadian living in France with a UK passport/licence... It can make things complicated and sometimes they just can't be bothered. I think if I were in their place, mouthy, irritating, cocky or nervous/aggitated people would tend to make me feel less lenient... So I do my best to be the opposite - honest, polite, and calm. I make an extra effort NOT to seem like I'm in any kind of hurry. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Who, me?? "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

I *cannot* believe it... The cops here are notoriously unpleasant... But present a foreign licence, and they are suddenly much nicer, because their options are either to: - fill out A LOT of paperwork to force you to get a French licence so you can get penalised and pay a fine - fill out SOME paperwork to issue you a fine, to be paid on-the-spot - give you a warning and send you on your way

Tee hee!!

Well, so far some things that seem plausible: - Fatigue, plain and simple. - Some kind of fungus/bacterial infection. - Gluten / Lactose intolerence. I seriously doubt it's anything major, but any one of those 3 (or something similar) could lead to the type of frequent and pesky symptoms I so often have to put up with. Thanks for everyone's input

I have really enjoyed the Daniel Craig Bond movies, however a few things have disappointed me in this one: - Almost all the scenes with Craig show him from the waist up... I wanted to see that great ass, DAMMIT!!! - The sex scenes were merely suggestions that they were doing the deed - not steamy or visual enough for me... Again; I wanted to see that great ass, DAMMIT!!! - The motorcycle chases... Whenever the camera had them on the bike with the background behind them, it looked TOTALLY fake. Don't know what it looked like at the IMAX, but in our small theatre the editing seemed amateurish. Otherwise, some excellent acting, a fantastic villain, exciting scenes with beautiful scenery in the calmer moments... Again - I really enjoyed these last 3 Bonds

NICE!! I am completely amazed that no one has come up with the obvious answer. Kidding aside, hypochondria is when a person persists in thinking they are ill despite doctors consistently proving there is in fact nothing wrong with them. This is not the case with me. I may be getting the order of events slightly wrong, but here is how this has developped... I hate doctors and avoid them like the plague, but after A LOT of bullying from my work colleague and my boyfriend, I went to see a generalist a few months ago when I had laryngitis (I didn't know I had laryngitis, I just had a sore throat and a very pesky cough that lingered for a while). Antibiotics cleared this. Then I then got a cold and another cold and another cold, and they once again bullied me to see a doctor. The doctor asked if this was frequent, and I said yes, actually, so he said "let's do some allergy/blood tests" - no allergies and bloodwork was perfect. He tried to prescribe medication but as it was just a common cold I refused and let my body clear the infection on its own like it's suppsed to. Then I got an eye infection. I get them very regularly, so I tend to ignore it as it always goes away. But then my boyfriend and my work colleague again both told me that actually, I should see someone about that because it was clearly bothering me. So back I went to the doctor, who recommended I see an ophtamologist. The eye doctor did a thorough examination and noticed I was congested and had a runny nose and asked "do you also frequently get colds?" I said yes, actually, quite frequently. So he said it was likely that I had some kind of sinus problem that in turn caused chronic conjunctivitis - he suggested I see an eye/ear/nose specialist. He prescribed some eye-drops and I again refused, because once again, I know these things go away naturally and sure enough it cleared up on its own in a few days. So a few weeks later I got an appointment to see an otorhinolaryngologist (eye/ear/nose doctor) and coincidentally, I happened at that time to have a runny nose and was sneezing/coughing from my latest cold... He confirmed I was very congested (it was kind of obvious anyway) and ran a bunch of new tests, including a more thorough allergy exam and a scan of my sinuses. My scan showed some anomalies, but nothing that would cause the problems I was experiencing. My allergy tests confirmed I am only very mildly allergic to dust, and that allergies weren't the problem. Just to be sure, he gave me a month's worth of anti-histamines to see if this would reduce my sneezing, et cetera, but in this time I saw no improvement in the frequency of my congestion/sneezing. Anyway, as my colds/flu/general stuffiness don't seem to be particularly linked to seasons or diet or life-style, I'm not that surprised that allergies are not the problem. And throughout all of this, it has got me thinking that actually, I *am* ill rather often, but I always tend to ignore it or simply consider it one of those pesky facts of life you just have to deal with. But speaking to my mom, she said I KNOW YOU ARE ALWAYS ILL - I'VE BEEN TELLING YOU THAT FOR *YEARS*! And my best friend had the same reaction, and my work colleagues, and my boyfriend, and so in the end I had to admit that it probably is worth considering the fact that there must be some kind of underlying issue. I reckon it's probably something really small or stupid. But at this stage, I don't really have a clue. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

I have lots of Aussie friends and none of them have ever given me Tim Tams Then again, I have never given them any maple syrup either "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

What a surprise - yet again you are spouting falsehoods mixed with hyperbole. Bush's IQ is in the ballpark of 120. There has been a long running hoax about it being 91, but there's also been a long running dead horse about Obama being born in Kenya. Intelligent people can tell the difference between truth and fiction. You do know what the definition of a moron is, right? Like I said, your disdain for his policies has clouded any remote sense of objectivity. 120 is over a standard deviation above average, placing him at about the 90% percentile. This is not stellar by modern era (1900-) Presidents, but it is not remotely near below average, let alone moronic. Utterly ridiculous... Must... Stop... Responding...!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Well, as I have been an insomniac all my life, this wouldn't surprise me at all, but I can't help but think "and what is the *cause* of my chronic fatigue???" That link has another link to autoimmune diseases... Maybe I'll read those when I get a chance... The problem always being that a lot of these things involve "flu-like symptoms"... They all look the same to me - I'm not trained to tell the difference. But hey... Never know... Some people *do* end-up self-diagnosing their problems... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss