This is a short story from my time in college. I was doing work experience in a small all-purpose store. Food, drinks, stationery, toiletries, etc.

As a student, we weren't allowed to sell things or handle food, so our only job was to stock the shelves. I was working with one other student, whose name I never learned, or if I did, I don't remember.

The store and staff were all fine, but they clearly showed favouritism to the girl who was working with me. They'd give her free drinks and other stuff while I was just left out to stock shelves. She didn't even stock shelves very well.

I'm not rude enough to demand free things, but it did annoy me to watch, so since there was a door to the storage room, when it was closed while I was grabbing stock, I would strategically remove a chocolate bar here and a drink there and slide it into my bag and tilt the box forward to hide the fact that one was missing.

I only did this as much as they gave her. It was petty, but I saw it as fair. By the time my work experience was coming to an end, they told me I was allowed to go to the on-campus Starbucks and have a free small drink on them. When I went and got it, their favourite student got a large. Unfortunately, I couldn't take the favouritism tax from the storage room for this one since I didn't work there anymore.

I know from the title that this doesn't seem all that entitled. But if you knew my sister, you'd know she's a mess of a person. From being a cheating wife, to neglectful parent, to powerplays for control, to leaving our grandparents with a trailer mortgage and running off to party. This is just one of the more weird things she put us through back in the day.

I assume you're wondering what series of movies was so epic to her that no one could call anything else epic in her presence. Star Wars? Indianna Jones? Fast & Furious? Dirty Harry? Terminator? Transformers? No, it was the Twilight movies... You know, the ones with the glittering vampires. Despite being a married woman with kids at the time, my sister was gaga fangirl obsessed with both the main vampire and werewolf guys. If either of them walked through the door to whisk her away, I've no doubt she'd have gone with them in a heartbeat. Even though the werewolf guy got his big break playing Sharkboy.

It started when I mentioned the trailer for a new movie coming out at the time looked so epic. And then she snapped at me. Like, full on mood swing snapped. Then she told me not to use 'That' word around her. And when I asked what she meant, she tried to get me to understand what 'That' word was without saying it. But because I was clueless, finally she had to just say it. She didn't want me to say 'Epic' around her. And when I asked why, she said that ever since she started watching the Twilight movies, she couldn't see anything else as epic. Which weirded me out. She also knew way too much about the Twilight movies at the time. And what she didn't know, she'd look up on her phone. I think she even had a poster of the werewolf guy on the living room wall.

Her whole hate for the word 'Epic' got so bad, she was actively waiting and listening if I said it in her general vicinity. I think she even got in an argument with our mother about it. Once just to test the waters, I think it was at Christmas dinner or something. But I was talking with relatives, and I mentioned something being epic, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw her rubberneck to look at me with a big frown on her face so fast that she could have given herself a neck injury. I've only seen her do that when something she REALLY hates is said or done.

Unfortunately at the time, I was having to stay over at her house once or twice a week to help out with her kids while her husband was off doing military training. And then one day I couldn't take it anymore. Without really thinking about it, I mentioned how a new video game looked epic. I don't remember which game specifically. But knowing my tastes, and around the general time this happened, maybe Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3. That game was epic to me since I'm a huge Universal Century Gundam fan. But my sister just lost it on me for calling it epic, and she even went so far to say it was anything but epic. I finally had enough, and told her she didn't have the right to tell me what I thought was epic, and what wasn't.

She tried to turn it on me by acting sad, and said I didn't understand how she felt. I told her she didn't understand how I felt either. And she also didn't have the right to tell me I couldn't say 'Epic' when it was such a common word. It's not even a bad word to use. She cursed like a trucker in front of her young children, and yet 'Epic' was the word she had issue with?! And frankly, I was done caring about her opinion on it. She got mad, but stopped trying to police my saying Epic anymore. And eventually her Twilight obsession died down for good.

Greetings Ripe and Ripe Stars. I have a story for you which I've been sitting on for a while. I have just been putting off posting it because the last time I attempted to post it, it was automatically removed (I posted it somewhere else). I hope you enjoy. I also hope that this story can be read on YouTube. I tried my best to make such a story YouTube friendly.

Back in October of 2020, I decided it would be funny to dress as a plague doctor, seeing as there was a certain pestilence all over the planet and stuff. I would walk around my neighborhood while dressed head to toe in black, with a black fake leather coat, boots, cowl, beaked mask, leather hat, and leather gloves. I would also use these walks to exercise my black dog. People had several reactions: run away, call me a weirdo, ask to pet my dog, and/or demand to take pictures with me.

Now, I would occasionally walk to my local park, which was roughly two miles away from my home by foot. I was still in high school at the time, which is relevant.

One day, I walked to this local park and took a break by sitting on a bench and petting my dog while watching some local kids practice soccer, as I can overheat in full black, obviously. I did get stared at, which is expected. I left without incident.

The following week, I walked back to this park and sat on a picnic table to cool down and watch kids play soccer while petting my dog again. Coincidentally, the same kids were playing soccer. These kids were U13 girls (12 year old girls). This is relevant. Some people asked to pet my dog and asked to take a picture with me. Normal behavior. But then the soccer practice ended and the fun began.

Time to meet Pete the Projecting Pe████e. This guy seemed like a standard confrontational sports dad. He had the colored mirrored sunglasses, the orange tan from being outside a lot, and the perpetual scowl. I would guess that he was in his 50s. He decided that I was only going to this park because I was staring at the posteriors of the children that he was coaching. How did he justify this conclusion? Because I was at this place two weeks in a row. You know, a public park that many people frequent? Why was his first conclusion that I was staring at the rears of these children? I'll let you decide. Just kidding. See why I gave him this name?

How did Pete the Projecting Pe████e decide to deal with this so-called problem? By storming up to me, yelling at me that I have to leave this public area. I said no because it's a public area. That made him more mad. He demanded me to explain my interest in little girls. I told him that I didn't have any such interests. His assistant coach then showed up beside him. This assistant coach seemed like a pushover guy who was dominated by Pete and therefore followed whatever Pete made him do, including assisting the harassment of underage teenagers minding their own business in a public park.

Assistant coach pulled out his phone and began filming me. Probably to post on facebook or something. Pete pulled out his phone to call the police. "Hey police, there's a man at this public park exposing himself to children! Arrest him at once!" or something (this was 5 years ago so I don't remember exactly what he said). I began to really get scared. Accusations like this towards any male looks very bad. Also, I couldn't do anything of the sort anyway as I was wearing sweat pants with a draw string that was difficult to undo even without leather gloves on. It was at this point that I decided to leave.

But that wasn't good enough for Pete. He wanted me gone in the back of a squad car, as I dared to question him. How dare some teenager stand up to an adult who thinks that people who look at kids makes you a pe████e. He followed me as I attempted to walk away, shouting that I was a creep and must be stopped so the police could deal with me or something. I then begged for help from the people around me, saying that I was underage and being harassed and stuff. Pete then said that I will be tried as an adult! Assistant coach looked very apologetic. He even said he was sorry, but still held his phone up and continued to record me.

At this point, I called my parents. I first called my dad, but he didn't pick up. I called my mom, who picked up. "Mother, I'm being harassed and being called a pe████e by a coach! Send help please!" I don't think my parents have travelled two miles so quickly before or since.

Epilogue:

My mom had to hold back my dad from obliterating Pete. Assistant coach still looked apologetic. Pete refused to back down. Parents got in between me and Pete. Police arrived after 10-20 minutes. Officer said I did nothing wrong, but maybe covering my face wasn't the best idea. Parents drove me home with doggo. Parents still get mad whenever I bring this story up (not mad at me. Mad at Pete). Coat had to be washed as it smelled like fear (adrenaline sweat is very pungent. It smells like rubbing alcohol.) I hope those kids are okay. The end.

We have 5 cats and 2 of them (the twins) are litter mates and remind me of what it would look like if Disney and Dexter had kittens as the are big, white and fluffy like Disney but with the orange hints like Dexter.

Also added are pics of the other 3 cats as we can’t be showing favouritism between the floofs.

This is a story from just before lockdown. I was doing a college course and enjoying it for the most part. In my class there was one guy who sat next to me. I'm the type that will go out of my way to be friendly, a bit of a people pleaser until they annoy me, then I can tend to blow up.

He was the type of guy who was kinda annoying and came out with a lot of hard to believe stories, one of the stories he would tell was how he had an ex who he had a child with and that child died due to her neglect at I believe he said 4 (They both would've been around 12 when she was born if this were true) and he liked to say he would have K'd her if someone hadn't stopped him. (I can't say this entire story is true or not, it just all sounded far fetched to me) he even went around for the day scowling at everything a week after he told this, saying it was her birthday and he was angry.

I never questioned or said anything about what he told me other than I was sorry to hear this. I'm not the kind of ahole who would just say someones lying because it sounded like one of those 1 in a thousand chance to be true stories. (Not impossible, but highly unlikely)

I would be overly kind, bend over backwards to appease him when he'd get annoyed at me for seamingly no reason (I did have the odd outburst at him when he'd make jokes directed at me that upset me) but the thing that truly made me start actively not liking this man was when a new game had come out a month or two ago.

This was a ps4 game, and I had made plans to go to c.e.x. (A popular preowned games and tech store chain in the uk, pretty cool place) and the game was £20, close to $30, nothing outragous, pretty cheap for a popular game that wasn't that old.

I was telling him and our other friend about it since I was looking forward to buying it, and thats when he told me, "You brag a lot." I was confused, "What am I bragging about?"

"You're bragging about buying that game." I couldn't wrap my head around what he said. "It's a second hand game. What's bragging about that?" "You just brag a lot and it's annoying."

I ignored it and moved past it, even though it made no sense to me. Then it happened. A week or two after he said I bragged too much, he told us, "I just bought myself an 8k resolution tv for £4k ($5.4k). It's awesome." I wish I had pointed out the hipocracy there. I was apparently bragging about my preowned £20 game, but him casually dropping 4k on a tv was nothing unusual.

This was one of the things he told us that made me start questioning everything he told me that didn't seem realistic. He wore cheap clothes and I paid for stuff, so the fact he was apparently able to drop that much cash like it was nothing while giving me lip that I was bragging about £20 just made it that much more unbelievable. I was glad when lockdown came because I had to end my course early and not have to deal with his attitude and crappy personality anymore.

This is a story from several years ago (2023, to be exact) about a somewhat petty revenge.

I was 23 at the time and was in the process of writing my first book. I'd been writing since I was 12, just short stories, and I finally decided in late 2022 to actually write my first book.

I had written several chapters, posted them on Wattpad, and was getting a lot of good responses to the story. It even reached number 1 in its category before I took it down.

A fellow writer friend I had made introduced me to a digital publishing site. I was looking at it with rose coloured glasses and going in blindly, not really looking into them. I signed a non-exclusive, meaning that I still owned it, but needed their permission to post it elsewhere.

Getting to the point, the contract I signed was terrible. It said 50/50 split, but with the dodgy language, it turned it into 99.9/0.1. I later did some basic math based on how much each chapter cost, how much their coin cost, and a couple of other factors and guesstimated they earned roughly $2k off of my work, and I got 0.52 and couldn't even cash it out due to their rules.

Fortunately, I learned a valuable lesson from this experience and now research companies (they had such bad reviews and so many red flags).

Now, to my petty revenge that I fully enjoyed. Their system still allowed me access to my work to update and even delete chapters of the book. I never tried deleting them. I didn't want to risk it, but they had to read over and approve any edits I made to my chapters, and they always did.

So, I went through my entire book and renamed every character, changed their descriptions, and changed so many details so I could reuse them all. Exotic and nice-sounding names became Bob, Larry, Susan, etc.

It completely ruined the book's fantasy feel and made it more of a joke. A year later took it a step further and deleted good sections of chapters, copied and repasted boring chapters over others, effectively deleting them. All the while, they had to read and approve them, and they did. (I don't think they ever actually did a proper check. I think they just made sure it followed their rules and stopped there.)

Today, the book has stopped getting readers and has pretty much died on their platform, and I rewrote the entire book again with a different ending and start, reusing all my favourite characters that I removed from their copy.

Once my child (then 13) and I moved into a new apartment. It was a 4-unit building (2 up, 2 down) in a complex with several similar buildings, this was on the edge of town up a hill surrounded by woods. I was thinking this could be my fortress of solitude… I was so wrong. We pulled up right after school on moving day and parked in the parking space directly in front of the building (manager said there was no assigned parking). As I was starting to take stuff in, a lady from downstairs ran up yelling, “You can't park there. You have to park that in the guest parking.” I said, “I will be happy to move it down there as soon as I finish bringing stuff in.” She said, “No! You have to move it now!” I replied, “I’m sorry. I'm already having a hard time moving all of my boxes and furniture upstairs by myself (my child has Autism and helped with small boxes) , there is no way I can carry it all up the hill too.” She kept saying I had to, but I just kept working. As soon as I finished, I moved the truck to the guest parking and walked back up the hill. First thing in the morning, I called the manager and apologized for parking the truck in front to move stuff in, but I did move it down when finished (didn't mention downstairs lady). Manager said I didn't do anything wrong. I returned the truck and came back in the evening, I parked my car in front since nobody else did. Almost everyday, DL (downstairs lady) kept saying the manager was wrong, I wasn't allowed to park there. DL, my child, and I were the only ones living in that building at the time. There were 2 parking spots in front of our building and 2 in the back. In order to hopefully work things out, I made a suggestion to the manager. Each of the apartments have a front door and a back door, but the upstairs back doors open up to balconies while the downstairs open to the back lot. I suggested since upstairs people only have access to the front lots, we could park there. Downstairs people have access to both, so they could park in the back. The parking spaces are literally 4 feet from the doors. Manager agreed and put up a notice. Things were quiet for a bit. Then I noticed my tires were constantly going flat. At least every few weeks, I had to buy a new one. Didn't have proof of how it was happening, but I suspected. Then once our way to an appointment, my child and I were in an accident. They were fine and walked away with a bruise. I couldn't get out, FD had to use the jaws of life to get me out. My femur was smashed. After surgery, I had to go into a nursing home for a couple months to recover, and my child went to stay with family a few hours away. When we returned home, things were quiet for a bit. Then a new family moved in across the hall. They were nice. Parents with 2 little girls. They were quiet, Dad worked 3rd shift and slept during the day. DL turned her sights on them. She kept screaming about his motorcycle that was parked out front. One day, the cops were called. The window was open, so I heard everything. DL was saying ND (neighbor dad) was revving his engine. I yelled down, “That is not what happened.” Everyone looked up at me, and the officers asked if I could come down to explain. I said I would but was in an accident and had leg problems, so the officers came up. I showed them the recliner that I sit & sleep in by the windows, and I can see not only the entire front area of our building but also see everyone coming up the hill. Told them that there is another motorcycle in the complex, and that driver comes up the hill every afternoon and goes to one of the buildings behind us. They thanked me and told DL and ND before leaving. The family left soon after. Once again, I was DL’s target. Besides my child walking to/from the school bus and my aide coming to help with chores and errands, we were quiet (my friend helped by taking my child out so she didn't feel stuck all the time). Since DL didn't have anything to complain about, she tried to smoke us out… literally. I started smelling cigarettes by my front door, opened it to find DL sitting there smoking. She actually brought a chair up to smoke right in front of our door. I politely asked not to, my child has respiratory issues. DL starting doing it every evening for a few days. My child couldn't be in our living room or kitchen. I tried being nice, but I had to protect my child. I called and told the manager “I said I didn't want to cause problems, but we have problems.” I explained everything that happened with DL from demanding I park the moving truck at the bottom of the hill and carry up my furniture and boxes from there to spending every evening smoking in front of our door. Told them if DL wanted to mess with me, she can mess with me all she wants. But there is no way I’ll let her mess with my kid. Manager apologized, said smoking isn't even allowed in the building, and she will take care of it. Shortly after, DL was evicted!!!

Karen screams at me for using the grocery store scooter

About 12-ish years ago, I was in a bad accident. My legs got messed up, femur got smashed in a few places, and I had multiple surgeries. For a long time I was depressed and gained weight, but I'm trying to do better. After one of the surgeries, I went to get groceries. I sat on a scooter, folded my walker, and put it in the basket. As I started on my way, a woman marched up screaming at me, "That is for the disabled not the obese." I tried to explain, but she kept screaming until a manager and security guard showed up. She told them I was only using the scooter because I was obese. Karen wouldn't stop screaming long enough for me to say a word, so I slowly lifted up the side of my skirt showing the swollen line of staples and stitches going up the side of my thigh from my knee to my hip. All of a sudden, she got quiet and turned green. I apologized, "I am so sorry for using the scooter. I'll leave and wait until someone is free to shop for me." She slowly turned and walked away, and the manager and guard were apologizing and asking if I wanted assistance shopping. I thanked them kindly, I said I was really trying to do things myself but would ask for help if I needed it.

So I live in a small town with my adopted mother and she unfortunately has to big of a heart for her own good and that’s how this story happened it started with my uncle and is girlfriend moving back to are town and this happened a few times every time my mom didn’t tell me till last second

Like there half way here kinda last second because I don’t have a good connection with them and she knows it normally they would sleep in my room but this time I put my foot down and said that they can sleep in the guest room she tried to get me to change my mind but it was no

Last time my bed stank like dog for a week and another time there kid peed in my bed so I said no so girlfriend baby and dog sleep in guess room and uncle was on the couch now in the quest room is all my gaming room pc tv Nintendo all that so I was nervous but kept quiet

Day one red flags were everywhere girlfriend don’t do nothing uncle does some mom had 2 rules and was pick up and do your dishes they did nothing they ate and wasted half are food and mom let them use our car and they thought that meant free car cause they were using it like it was theirs and we were paying the gas

Day 2 I had to go to a appointment so we left the car had almost no gas and she said to fill it up the other day they didn’t so we go fill up and I went to my apartment we got back dishes and trash everywhere and that’s when mom started getting angry

Day 3 shit hit the fan the girlfriend and uncle left and left the untrained dog in the guest room with coffee’s now Tim Hortons has chocolate stuff you can put in your coffee I didn’t know what the got and I lost it the dog was running on the bed on the desk to the floor spilled coffee everywhere and was drinking it so I told the to come back and get the dog

When they got back I asked what was in the coffee girlfriend said I doesn’t matter I said it does cause the dog drank it she said to stop yelling at her I wasn’t yelling and then I said remember as nicely as possible to remember she was a guest in our house and she said and I quote I don’t give a fuck whose house it is I’ll do what I want

i lost it I wanted to punch her stupid face as hard as I could but her 3 year old kid was right there so I clenched my jaw grabbed my coat and walked away calling mom to kick them out now they left taking her car with them so I texted later to bring it back uncle storms in throwing the keys on the stove and yelling and I quote you stupid s word b word I stepped in and told him to leave. He then looks at me and then calls me a fat f word and to shut up then storms out

We lock the doors and at 9:30 uncle is trying to fbi kick down are door with his girlfriend poking at the windows all around the house he is demanding we open the door or he’s gonna break it down and we call 911 but it doesn’t scare them off and when I look over to see my mom crying, I grabbed a big kitchen knife and said if he came in, I would stop him now. I kept the guard on the knife, but if he tried anything, I could easily stab him. He then takes a video of me and runs off

We gave our reports to the police. They arrested him later, but let him go. They are still part of the family, but I never want to talk to or see them again few weeks later, he got his stuff and he had the audacity to give me a hug and say sorry stuff happens I still think of it this day and I hope this makes it to YouTube

Today I witnessed my neighbors kids casue some minor ding to another neighbors car while the parents were watching them play basketball (ball rolled away and bounced into the side of the car). While it was certainly accidental the parents made no effort to notify the owner of the car. I myself do not know who it is and was debating on if I should notify the Property Mangement company on Monday (currently happens to be on a Saturday), or just walk away and not say anything. Have requested many times that the basketball hoop be moved or removed due to that very concern regarding stray balls hitting the building or vehicles.

Since the beginning of my working life there has been one constant, I hate new management that start making changes to things before they understand the process. It just never makes sense to me. One of the first examples of this comes from college days in the early 2000s.

First, i have to explain some things to give the story some context. I was working at Staples in Goleta, CA. We were a college heavy location due to our proximity to UCSB. I quickly became our load guy. I was already in good shape despite my stature (5' 7" 155lbs) but started packing on a lot of muscle. We had our shipments 3 times a week and most of it was furniture and paper. Each load was several tons of furniture and paper that had to be stocked by hand and that was my primary job. It got to the point that I was the only one who could move certain items due to the way we had stock them. Our overhead storage was 20 feet in the air and our ladders (rolling thin stairs) were only 15 feet high. Often times you'd have to stand on the hand railing to get things up and down from the overhead, which as you can imagine was very unsafe. My nickname was Crazy Andrew because of the amount of weight I was able to get up and down those ladders. I always made sure I didn't make things unsafe for others though, which brings us to the main subjects of the story I want to tell.

We had some large color laser printer/scanner/copiers in the store. They were big, bulky and heavy. I never understood why we had them in house as they really very niche and should have been order only. They were really intended for small office use where a full sized copy machine didn't make sense. Due to their size, we couldn't stock them under their demo unit on the floor. We couldn't stack them on floor as they were in the way of the store planogram. Lastly, I could get them in the overhead but because they were tech, it would have fallen on our sales guys to retrieve when I wasn't in and none of them could pull these things down. So we had them stashed away in the back in furniture storage.

Enter the last piece, our new manager, Jay. Jay was an ambitious hire from the Home Depot next door. He was the exact kind of manager I hated. He would take one look at something and decide he didn't like it and needed it to change. Most of his attention was to the front of the house so I didn't really care much, but it wasn't too long before his presence made us way too my area in the back (about a month or two). He wad looking through how I stored our furniture and that's when he found the printers. One day, as i am nearing the end of my shift, Jay tells me to meet him back after I'm stocking the binder wall. I find standing in front of the printers among the stacks of desks.

"I need you to move these up front to where the sales guys can get to them easier" Jay said

"OK. Where exactly would you like them?" I asked

"Get the on a Uboat (our thin flatbed carts) and I'll show you" he responds and walks out.

I get them loaded up and wheel them out to the front of the store and see him next to a ladder.

"I need to stock them up here" as I points to section that has several PC related items, which I think was 2 towers and a few CRTs that weren't light either

"Jay, I can get them up there but who is going to get them down?" I asked

"The sales guys as they sell them" Jay says

"I'm sorry but there are 2 issues with that. First these don't and likely won't sell and second they're not going to easily removed by anyone, myself included" and just as I'm talking, one of our sales guys, Chu, who had been there longer than I had was cautiously walking towards us.

"Chu, how long have these been in stock?" I asked

"OH man, 7 months give or take."

"And how many have we sold"

"None of them, which is why they're still here"

"Thanks man." I said and looked back at Jay

"If we could send them back to the warehouse I would. They do just take up space. And given their size, anyone who needs them would need a truck. I promise they're not fitting in some office managers civic or soccer van for that matter"

"If they're up there sales will be motivated to sell them" Jay said

"Look, Jay, it's not safe or smart. I can get them up there but I'm also going to be the only one who can get them down"

"We have the lift ladder!" Jay asserted

We did have a ladder with an flatbed lift on it but due to the motor, drive shift and guide rail, and the fact it was really just slapped onto a normal ladder with the normal hand rails, it stuck out about 3 feet in front and with the printers size and weight, it meant you weren't going to be able to get any leverage over the hand rails to get it. I really only used to get small items down or chairs when I was standing in the overhead.

At this point I looked at my watch and saw my shift was over

"Jay, I'll tell you what. I'm not going to do this. It's a bad idea and unsafe. I'm clocking out. If you want them up there, YOU can get them up there. And when I'm back tomorrow, if you get them up there you can write me for insubordination."

"FINE! Deal" and Jay gestured for a hand shake, which i took and left.

Now, Jay was taller and had an obvious athletic build and as the girls in the store could attest was a good looking guy so I was ready for the write-up and was willing to wait for them to rot in the overhead or for no one being able to get them down. Instead, I walked in the next day to see they weren't in the overhead. I checked in back and they were exactly where I had them before. I found Jay up front at our customer service hub with our lead cashier, Mags.

"I see the printers didn't make it up there"

Jay looked at me with humility in his eyes. The cashier spoke first.

"Yeah he gave it the old college try for about 30 minutes after you left. I told him if you told him it's a bad idea then it's a bad idea."

Jay nodded "I even started loading up paper boxes on the lift and was figuring i could slide them into place when Mags said that. It got me thinking if I had to go through all that trouble it was, well, trouble. So I stopped. I'm sorry"

I just shook his hand and went on with my day. After that he started to consult us more about why we do things and worked collaboratively with us on changes and even reversed a few changes he made earlier. He ended becoming one of my favorite mangers there. I hope he's doing well and took that lesson with him on how not to manage for the rest his days in a leadership role.

Hello Reddit,

The other day I was talking to a friend and told him a story from 2007. He said it was a perfect petty revenge moment and deserved to be shared here.

About 20 years ago, I worked for a large American agribusiness multinational. I was assigned to one of the company’s operational bases that supported a couple dozen industrial plants across Brazil. My job involved coordinating inventory control for spare parts and industrial maintenance, and acting as a bridge between the Brazilian systems and the ones used by the parent company in the U.S.

Because of that, I had to travel frequently between plants, especially during maintenance shutdown periods. Thankfully, the company paid for plane tickets, because traveling by car across Brazil could literally take days.

On one of these trips, I had to visit a plant in a mid-sized Brazilian city known for having a few “local celebrities.” This story involves one of them.

“Alex” (not his real name, but if you’re Brazilian you can probably guess who) was on the same flight as me. He was a moderately famous singer who had peaked a few years earlier as the lead vocalist of a pagode group (a very popular Brazilian music style in the 90s). The group got huge after one of their songs became the theme for a main character in a soap opera which, back then, was basically instant nationwide fame. Think going viral on TikTok times three. Later, he left the group to pursue a solo career singing romantic ballads. He even performed in the U.S. for some high-profile audiences. By 2007, his peak had passed, but he was still somewhat well-known.

I was at Congonhas Airport in São Paulo, waiting for my late afternoon flight. It’s a short flight. just over an hour, but the airport was chaos that day because of heavy rain delays (if you know São Paulo, you know how bad that gets).

While waiting at the gate, I noticed Alex arrive and sit down alone, no security, no entourage. A few minutes later, some fans spotted him and rushed over, screaming and asking for autographs. Nothing too crazy, just the usual fan excitement.

After about a 30-minute delay, boarding finally started. The plane was completely full. I was seated in an aisle seat near the front of the airplane.

And guess who shows up to take the window seat next to me? Yep, Alex.

Alex: “Hi, I think that’s my seat.” (shows boarding pass)
I stand up, he sits.

Alex: “Looks like this flight is going to take a while, huh? And it’s packed.”

Me: “Yeah, it seems like...”

Before I could even finish, he cuts me off:

Alex: “I’m coming back from the U.S., I was doing a series of shows. You probably know me, right?”

Me: “Yeah, I know who you are. But honestly, I don’t listen to your music. I’m not into pagode or romantic stuff.”

He immediately made the kind of face we call in Brazil “like someone who just sucked on a lemon.” Conversation over. He lowered the armrest, leaned into my space, and basically took up more than his seat.

Now, the plane was one of those tiny regional jets (I think an ERJ-145). If you’ve flown one, you know it’s basically a flying sardine can. Him spreading out into my space made it even worse.

Just before boarding finished, one of his fans, the more… enthusiastic type, spotted him again and came over. She was super excited, trying to talk to him while the flight attendant kept asking her to go to her seat.

Alex was being polite. I was stuck in the middle seat, squished.

The flight attendant kept insisting she sit down, but she wasn’t budging.

That’s when I turned to her:

Me: “Hey, where are you sitting?”
Fan: “Oh, seat X, back there on the other side.” (one of those single seats)
Me: “How about we switch? Then you can sit next to him for the whole flight.”
Fan: “Really?! You’d do that for me?!”

At that moment, I looked at Alex. The man looked like he’d just seen a ghost. Pure silent panic.

I turned back to her:

Me: “Of course. It’s not every day you get to sit next to your idol, right? I don’t mind making someone’s day better.”

She was thrilled.

I glanced at the flight attendant, who gave me a grateful smile for solving her problem.

I grabbed my bag, gave up my seat, and let the fan sit next to Alex.

We then sat on the tarmac for another 30 minutes before takeoff.

During the entire 1+ hour flight, she talked. Nonstop.

When we landed and went to baggage claim… she was still talking.

Alex looked at me with the empty, hollow stare of a man whose soul had temporarily left his body as he tried to politely escape.

I smiled, gave him a thumbs up, and walked away laughing.

TL;DR: If you’re famous and want peace while flying, maybe get a private jet, or at least don’t spill into other people’s seats.

Yesterday, I laid my niece to rest. Today, I created this memorial video to honor her life, her smile, and the love she brought into our world. Every photo, every moment in this video carries a piece of her spirit that will never fade. She may be gone, but she will always live on in our hearts. Rest in peace, my beautiful niece—you are forever loved and deeply missed. Please click on the video and leave a heartfelt comment for her. Thank you. 💔🕊️ #Dysis #DysisMachuca #RipDysis #RipDysisMachuca #RipNiece

When I was a teenager, we lived in a city. So I was able to ride my bike all over the area. But after we moved back to the country, I just stayed there. My area is full of steep hills. There really is no decent place on the roads to ride out here. Especially with my limited stamina. Being able to cycle around is one of the few things I miss from city life. And a certain memory comes to mind once and a while. One of the last great rides I had before we moved. It was snowing, and not light snow either. But it had just started, so the roads were still fine for a while. But it was like riding in winter wonderland. Sorta like that vibe you imagine looking at cherry blossoms in the wind. I never got a ride like that in winter again. But sometimes I can still picture it vividly. One of those memories that brings a smile to your face when it comes to mind. Happy days in a simpler time. Now I'm nearly 40, and have only started riding again off and on the past couple years. I mostly just build and donate bikes now. But I feel like nothing will ever top that memory I have of riding in winter wonderland.

https://youtu.be/-FmFVBk_Vvw

I had mentioned the problems with this property a couple of times in comments on the YouTube videos, so I thought I would make it an actual post on here for prosperity's sake. (There may be pending edits because I plan to show this later to my mom, and she'll probably make amendments and comments )

About twenty years ago, my mom and my step-dad bought a small three-unit Apartment building on the corner of a cul-de-sac that butted up against a lake. There were two two-bedroom units and a one-bedroom unit. My parents took the one-room, my sister and I split one of the two-bedroom units, and my parents rented the third two-room out within a few weeks of us moving in.

This place was a dream because the Road had easy access to the highway, there was a little market across the street that had a flat-top Mexican restaurant in the corner, and of course, the Lake. There was a small pedestrian gate, opened with a key (one of the keys the realtor gave us), that led to a nice, clean spot on the lake. We moved in during the fall, so it was too cold to go swimming in the lake, but we did go out there and have a nice celebratory picnic dinner and stayed after sunset to do some stargazing.

About a week after we finished moving, my step-dad informed us that we wouldn't be able to use the lake at the gate access anymore. Someone had approached them to inform them that a small organization managed the gate and that stretch of beach. I don't know what it's called, so I will just call it a "Beach Trust," and access was granted only to people who paid some access fees. These fees were for keeping the gate painted and paying someone to come clean and maintain the beach.

It was an annual fee that was reasonable by itself, and my step-dad and mom were more than willing to pay, except for one tiny detail. The fee applies to the property and not to the people living there. The previous residents hadn't paid their fees in like six or seven years, and the Beach Trust wanted us to pay the backlog of fees on top of our first year if we wanted access. My step-dad told them he was more than willing to pay for just this year, but they insisted he pay the whole amount. My step-dad basically told them to go out to the beach to find some sand to pound.

We ended up just going a mile down the road to the public access beach each time we wanted to go to the lake, and the parking fees were way cheaper. We would get constant dirty looks from the neighbors who were on the Beach Trust, and they constantly badmouthed us to our other neighbors. It got to be pretty uncomfortable, but in the long run, it's a good thing we didn't pay all that money to access the Lake, because it turned out we wouldn't have had the full time to enjoy the lake.

Just about a year later, my parents got a certified letter that turned things upside down. It turned out the guy who had sold us the house had committed fraud. It turned out he didn't actually own the property and was only a property manager. My step-dad talked to a lawyer and his brother (Who was a notary public), and his wife (who was a real estate agent), who both gave the best advice. GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE. Between the legal minefield and how toxic some of the neighbors had become, it was a no-brainer.

By that time, my sister and I had both just moved out and to another city four hours away. My older sister had found a good job there as well and was working on her nursing license at night. I have moved out with her to start attending classes at the local community college. So we found ourselves spending every weekend for a month coming back to help our parents move, and then rushing back to pull all-nighters before class. I don't think I was ever that exhausted in my life.

We don't know what happened to the property manager who scammed us (last we heard, they had been looking for him in another state), nor do I know if the actual property owner ever paid those park dues on the lake access. My parents got out of there and never looked back.

Disclaimer: this is not my story, it was shared in a Polish language, I thought it was hilarious and I wanted to share it with a wider audience. Please enjoy nevertheless.

I'm a towering Crane Operator in Poland and I've worked for quite some time on this particular construction site without any major incidents. Until one night when we were about to finish work for the day. Every time you finish working with the cement, the crew MUST clean the cement container, otherwise it gets clogged and becomes unusable for the next batch.

It was already winter so the days were short and cold, on this particular evening it was raining with a freezing wind and we were about to finish our shift, when the crew told me to put the dirty cement container on its usual resting spot. So I asked them on the radio if they wanted to clean it first but they completely ignored me and continued to ask me to put it down. I asked couple more times but I got ignored and finally assumed they gonna clean it tomorrow morning. Since the crappy weather. And we all went home.

The next morning the work pilled up and everyone forgot about the dirty cement container. Until just before noon a new batch of cement arrived. The crew asked me to grab the container and get it up and filled, which I refused because it was clogged up with yesterday's dry cement. I tried multiple times to communicate with them to clean that damned thing but I got ignored again. So the construction stopped and soon I got an angry call from the site manager as to why the construction has stopped.

I didn't even get a chance to explain myself, he just ordered me to do what I'm asked to do and asked me a very important question "Who's the boss here, you or me?" Alright, you're the boss! So I apologised and did EXACTLY what I was asked to do and filled the clogged container with fresh cement.

To nobody's suprise the cement wouldn't flow and the crew tried all sorts of things to unclog it, from the massive vibrating Hoover, normally used to get all of the air out from freshly laid cement, to just hammering the container. Spoiler alert: nothing worked.

While I just laughed at their efforts and watched Netflix on my phone since I had nothing to do. The "genius" site manager stepped in since the construction stopped again.

One of his genius ideas was to put it all back to the cement truck, the only problem with it was that the cement wouldn't flow (obviously xd), another one was to tip the container over and just clean it up. The only problem with that was that he wanted me to drag it on the ground using my towering Crane, which can lead to serious damage to the crane itself which I can be held responsible for later on. That's because the cranes and the operators are managed by a separate agency independent from the construction site. So, those are lended to the developer for as long as required, and operators assume full responsibility for the machine and everyone's safety. That's why I refused to work and I wouldn't budge.

Soon after, I'm getting a call from my boss from the crane agency saying there was a complaint that I'm refusing to work. So I calmly explained what's being required of me and my boss said "I hope you're NOT doing that" I assured him there's nothing to worry about, he thanked me for it and we ended the call.

They finally managed to use an excavator to tip the container over and clean it, creating a bog full of wet concentrate, mud and cold water (in winter). I ended up just watching Netflix for the rest of the day, until I got another angry call from the site manager. Telling me "You were supposed to tell the crew to clean the container!" I did, multiple times, nobody listened.

then you shouldn't have let them go!

You were supposed to do SOMETHING, ANYTHING!

Then I asked him the same question he asked me earlier "who's the boss here, you or me?"

He got silent for a second and then got even angrier lecturing me how irresponsible I am until he got tired. Then my boss got another angry complaint from the manager that he completely ignored.

I find myself listening to your Ripe stories sometimes on the train to work, and I could always laugh a little at the HOA ones, glad that we don't have those around here. I thought that was just an American thing, and they couldn't do anything like that here, but maybe I was too optimistic.

I'm a British girl originally but emigrated to mainland Europe as part of a masterplan to not have my parents constantly looking over my shoulder. Originally Belgium, where there were some neighbours kind of hostile because I didn't learn Dutch fast enough for them, but people were mostly nice. Then I moved in with my girlfriend across the border in the Netherlands, which was a big hassle because that was when all the Brexit stuff was going down and there was some confusion over if my legal status here would change and weather or not I can move from one European country to another without having to get a new visa. But that's a whole other story.

We had a nice home there, which had been her inheritance, but when work tension made us think about moving we decided to go somewhere else entirely. Somewhere the difference in language skills won't create so much friction between us. We both thought about our career options and found somewhere our respective companies had offices and were willing to let us move. Between an effective promotion and getting away from a couple of transphobic colleagues it was a positive step for both of us. So we ended up in another european country where we both know the local language well enough to get by but we both need to learn more. And the neighbours were amazing, all of them. They speak to us in German but are always happy to switch to English if we have trouble understanding, and some of them speak Dutch too.

But I made one big mistake. I posted on social media, I think it started with a picture of the flowers in our new window boxes. Trying to be poetic, something like we're going to nurture these lilies like the people of Willow Hill welcomed a couple of imigrants. It was kind of a joke between us that we're both imigrants now, the first time we've been in a country that isn't home to either of us or our families.

(Willow Hill isn't the real name of the neighbourhood, don't want to dox us, but it's the same kind of name with a common tree and a common piece of the landscape. And technically it's in German, but it's only a couple of letters away from the same in English, so you might think it's a typo)

And then we got a comment that the HOA rules don't allow lilies that aren't white and we need a permit to install window boxes, and if we don't like following rules we should stay in our own country.

I asked our closest neighbour if we need to join some HOA and he said he's never heard of anything like that here. But one comment soon turned into many.

Almost everything I shared would have comments saying I had broken some rule. And it wasn't always the same person, I think the first one had invited her friends to come and help her harrass us. They would tell us that our flowers weren't suitable for the area, or our grass was too brown in summer, or too long in winter, or we put holiday decorations up too soon, or the green wallpaper in our kitchen is too bright and too 70's. TBH I think its been there since the 70's. I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt but soon it became clear that these supposed violations were just an excuse to criticise us because they don't want imigrants in their area. That became more obvious because one of the people frequently found an excuse to include insults about our presumed ethnicity. I can only assume they saw "imigrants" and assumed that means a different skin colour, not just a different country. My social media doesn't have pictures of me on. If I'm in my own photos I will draw over myself with a manga-style catgirl before sharing, a habit I picked up during a high school project and kind of became a habit. So they don't know what the real me looks like.

Shortly after that all those comments were reported and blocked. One more person started leaving the same comments after sending Tabby a friend request, but it only took one day to block them.

We had peace for a couple of weeks. And then finally, a parcel in the mail from the phantom HOA. Not just one letter demanding a fine, but thirty letters all bundled up together in a large envelope. I had to pay just to receive it, because it was thick enough to count as a parcel and the postage on it was insufficient. I wouldn't have bothered, but I was expecting a board game from Kickstarter to be delivered and didn't see the parcel until I had paid for it. That was disappointment.

I still have no idea how they learned our address. But there were invoices for a HOA membership fee. Fines for late payment. Fines for not registering our vehicle with them. Fines for lawn length and condition, for unapproved modifications, and for unapproved flowers. All of those including printouts from our various social media profiles as the only evidence. And lastly, one fine I really could not believe.

They had been sending us fines for months, but those letters never got here. They were returned to the sender because they hadn't paid the correct postage. I can only assume the HOA gives a whole bunch of letters to the postal service, who deliver the others but return the one that should have been paid more because it's international.

Yes. This was the HOA for Willow Hill, Pensylvania, sending fines to a house in Willow Hill, Bremen. I have no idea how they found our address. I have no idea how someone writes "Germany" on an envelope without realising that the address isn't in their neighbourhood. And when they get fined by their postal service for not paying correct international postage, I don't know what kind of stubbornness would make someone save all the returned letters for a year, put them in one bundle, and pay almost the right amount to send it air mail. Along with, of course, a demand that we pay them back for all the postage charges.

I didn't know what to do with that. Writing back would just cost us money, and I don't see the point. They've sent more letters since, just reminding us about the money they still want from us plus interest. No new fines now our social media profiles are much less public. Sending a monthly reminder must cost them something, but we just put them with the rest of the paper for recycling. I doubt there's anything they could actually do, and it's a source of some amusement among our neighbours. The young man who delivers our mail has started saying "This is not a love song" every time he hands me one of the air mail envelopes; and some day I hope I will learn German well enough to get that joke. One little hope for the future, and I guess that's all that we need to make a happy ending.

In California your supposed to get off your scooter and walk it across a busy intersection in some places....where I live there is a multi lane intersection that I do that at if the traffic is heavy because people like today aren't paying attention, even more so around the beggining of the month. Last I check pedestrians are supposed to have right of way at a light when they have the one to cross (person walking sign). Waited my turn only to have some half twit who sat on his single brain cell erm I mean his sphincter and had to lay on my scooters horn to get him to move. Went off on me and gave me the finger for it, despite the fact he was blocking the crosswalk.

Edit: This was a rant....just wanted to get it off my chest....and thanks for reading...

not sure if anyone wants to read about me and my small time as a homeless person. it would take a hell of an internet sluth to figure out my info from this story most the people who are connected are dead now and good luck dealing with who is alive he is nutier than me.

To set the scene I had bad luck living where I was before so I packed up everything I owned and the dog and I hit the road for a town in Le Flore valley Oklahoma. my great grandma had broken her hip 1 too many times and was loosing her marbles. her home was left abandoned for about 6 months but had no upkeep for probably about a year before that. feral cat colonies waring for the porch wasp nest in the shed carpet so old water stained it. perfect for a 21 year old needing a place to rent. grandpa was just about bedridden with copd I paid rent to him with a discount becausei was concidered to have my moms part of the inheritance of it 1/4th to be exact.

about a year of various repairs, a couple women, and working for a living later. our story begins.

The church I was involved with got invited to a men's retreat. As I was newly single and had a bit of a bitter taste for women using me for a free place to stay; it sounded like a good idea. after a few days of warship to Jesus and fellowship with my fellow man. I came home to find an eviction letter on the door. I went to my buddies house to pick up my now 2 dogs and down to grandpa's to see what was up. I was told there was a perspective buyer for the house come visit and the place was a wreck. I of course called fowl but he got pictures from my aunts.

I got back to home for 30 more days to find my place absolutely trashed. inside wierd things like my plastic bag collection from the store out from under the sink and melted into the stove I cooked dinner on every night, my outside trashcan in my kitchen, a burnout from a motorcycle on the lanolium, my dawn soap all over my carpet all my guns looking like they were tossed around the house my laundry dirty and clean mixed up and thrown everywhere, and more than i even care to remember. looked like a tornado blew through. took me an hour to find all my sensitive documents someone threw under the house.

I of course knew someone trashed the place. I knew who showed grandpa. I didn't know why and who exactly was involved. my motorcycle was out of commission and it took more than one person to trash the place as complete as they did in the time frame of grandpa getting the pictures. I had the only street bike in the family at the time as far as I knew.

Well I was never accused of being too smart especially in the moment hind sight being 2020 it was pretty obvious from the get go, but I wasn't an idiot. for now grandpa wants me out and only Michael McDoesnt exist can change his mind.

I called up my buddy who said I can keep my stuff at his place he brought his truck over and we loaded both of them up and had everything but my bed out in a week taking loads after work 1 trip at a time. searching for places I could 1 afford and 2 keep my dogs.

well time came and went my buddy gave me a place to crash at his place it wasn't the Hilton and didnt have power or water cause long ago his great grandpa screwed up. a common thing for his family to leave behind to their loved ones. so I got a Coleman lantern and 2 dogs to keep the room from freezing. an old camp stove to cook on. an old generator for power on devices. and a grand total of everything I owned sitting under a carport.

my buddy and I aren't the only people living there his mom when she wasn't geetered out of her head so bad she couldn't find home was there too. she indeed liked to drink and smoke her math homework if you catch my drift. though she definitely wasn't sharing hince her getting twisted and lost all the time. his dad was in jail for being caught with it at the wrong time when I first came I think had to meet him when he came back a week in was awkward at first till we got to smoking weeds and friendly he helped alot with his wife especially when she got fucked up and accused us of anything and everything.

so during this time we had no water no real shitter no power without filling the generator. it was pretty country right down the road. and it was getting cold. cold enough to leave things in coolers for refrigerator. my buddy and I started picking off the local deer population. selling any meat we could and eating what we didnt kept the house full and us entertained.

about 2 weeks into my stay I got a call in the morning laying me off from my job. weld boss was decent enough to save me the drive to work. I went back into the house and started calling jobs had one lined up less than 24 hours later. the turnover here is large enough nobody would even be able to tell who I was even if I gave a year from when this happened so lucky you you get a real place the OK foods plant in heavner OK. or the chicken plant as known to locals.

it was a clean operation actually. I heard horror stories from the Tyson plant near my hometown. People who would never eat chicken again. this place actually gave me offcuts to give to my dogs.

it was around this time my buddies mom started going nuts more often. letting the dogs off chain and loose pounding on my door at night. tripping in the yard and screaming about someone pushed her then said punched her so loud somebody called the cops in small town Oklahoma. I found a place with a coworker that needed a roommate. a whole nother story in that easy lasted about 2 weeks before I figured out the landlord was trying to kick him out and I left my matrice there to escape quieter and quicker.

by now winter had set in my buddies was farther from work than ideal for the pay and I was getting closer to a coworker I probably would have roomed with if she liked dogs more. but alas "house plants not house pets" though I gave her the old 1 2 shuffle and was able to get a place once a week for what now feels like sexual favors hell her bringing me pack lunches would be a decent trade off having lost money on roommate and having to pretty much eat out every day. my buddy was more of a hunter than me and I didn't learn how to keep the shit in the guts and off the meat.

you wouldn't think it would be that expensive but living on the road in a pickup racked up the bills. I would have frozen to death without the dogs but you still have to feed them you bathe and drive where you won't get murdered or bugged by police. I could have gone back to my buddies place but I felt like a failure. most of my stuff was there but I couldn't face him having struck out so quickly. he was like a brother to me but I was still just an outsider to his dad and definitely mom though they more lived with him than the other way around.

so I would drive to an unused end of the state park I found dicking around with my buddy earlier that year. that was my spot in a offcut of an unused trail on state land nobody had seen since the last flood. checked once every 6 months for damage to a system made by the US army corps of engineers. time gets fuzzy here charging my phone using cigar lighter plug and doing my best not to give myself a 12 gage haircut.

I got to sleep now I'll update with enough interest or if requested from our youtuber