I use hot water for a shower, but that's because I'm a feeble, First-World foreigner. My guess is that about 75% of houses here have no water heater.* In special cases, like giving a bath to a baby in the winter, they might boil a kettle on the stove for the purpose.

* Statistical basis: I asked a few classrooms full of students

Well I don't know, but we have central heating. Turn it on and the rads heat up and you have hot water through the immersion for several hours. I would usually only boil a kettle for tea or if I need to, um, clean Karen up. And for boiling things afterwards. Otherwise the hot water comes out of the taps once the heating has been on for about an hour.

Funny(ish) story: we used to have to turn off the immersion or the water would just keep getting hotter and hotter, on the old system. And of course everyone forgot. Cue someone jumping in the shower and howling in pain as scalding water hit them! "Who the **** forgot to turn off the immersion? AGAIN?!" :shycouch:

Do you churn your own butter, your majesty?

Sticking unrinsed dishes in the washer is not going to get them clean and is more likely to make it worse with every washer I ever used.


Real question is what's your favorite drain to pour oil down?

You have that problem disposing of human fat too, huh? Things are not made easy for the poor serial killer, are they? Nobody understands. :(

This was a heartwarming dishwashing post. :love: Seriously, I'm glad you are there for those kids and the program is very lucky to have you.

Same here. As a hand washer (mostly), I admittedly don’t use a soaking basin and run the faucet with hot water. I use a dish rack but also often dry by hand with linen tea towels (but they’re white and look pure!) which may not be the most sanitary practice?

*runs from rostasi’s ire*

Unemployment Update

My car broke down twice in January so far. Thankfully the repair expenses haven't been astronomical, I've broken down near my favorite repair shop, and I know I can trust them so that's okay.

I've had difficulty finding realistic potential jobs among my daily automated search queries. I get 60-90 newly-posted job listings in my email every morning but most are duplicates from cubicle farms posting hundreds of the same job.

It's exhausting spending days researching employers, authoring responses to interview questions, staging, filming, editing, and experimenting with compression standards to export emailable-sized-response videos, only to be told that hundreds of persons applied and I didn't make the final cut. I can't compete with hundreds of applicants for each job, especially with the exhaustive effort I put into each application.

I registered with the city's career counseling service, but my caseworker has been mostly non-responsive, as they explained that most of their clients have never used a computer or were recently incarcerated, so they've made me less of a priority.

As for unemployment benefits, that has been a nightmare. I've been phoning and logging into the NYS Unemployment website multiple times a day for the last 50 days. Every menu permutation on their phone system returns a message that "due to extreme call volume my call can't be taken at this time" and the call disconnects. The website updates daily and for the past 50 days has said "We are continuing to work on your application" for my initial waiting week from December 2nd of last year. I have had zero benefits and zero income for the entirety of those 50 days.

I tried the unemployment office downtown, but was told they closed their doors permanently when COVID happened, all staff work remotely now, and their phone number redirects to the state line that gives me the aforementioned recording.

In an act of desperation, I emailed the governor of NYS, and received her stock reply.

I'm starting to run out of steam here. But I'll keep trying.

Wow, that is one tough situation, ISB. Why do you go to the extreme trouble of making videos for job applications that are unlikely to yield any results? Is that not overdoing it, the old "if the CV is leather bound with gilt lettering throw it in the bin without even reading it"? Does anyone else make videos? I wish there was some advice I could give you, but I'm unfamiliar with your situation. Have you considered dropping in on the local radio stations to see if they're hiring? I bet you'd make a fascinating radio DJ. Sorry, all I can think of at the moment. Keep the hopes up I guess.

ISB, I'm sorry that you are facing this very difficult situation, especially on the heels of the brutal winter weather there - which would depress anyone to begin with. I don't mean to pry, but I wonder what type of work you might be seeking? Are you creating the videos because you are applying for a media position of some kind? I agree with Trollheart here: you undoubtedly would be a superb as a DJ or presenter.

However, I realize that media positions are few and far between and there is high demand for those positions. Even if you are extremely talented, it's often a matter of "who you know".

I wonder if, in the meantime, you have considered contacting any temp agencies in your area? You are very versatile, so I imagine you could go in many directions for temp employment - just to stabilize things and gain quick income for the time being, until you find permanent employment.

Again, so sorry you are going through this really difficult period.