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Speaking of frugality, I packed 16 backpacker's lunches for the trip: Beef jerky, string cheese, dried apricots, trail mix, and crackers. So every other day I'm having a backpacker's lunch so they don't go to waste.
And y'know, eating dried meat, fruits, and nuts while looking at the fresh fruit at the height of harvest season in your corner store is just wrong.
EDIT: All the freeze dried stuff will keep 'til next year. The dried stuff? I figure I'd better go through it.
EDIT 2: As long as I'm pretending I'm backpacking anyway, why not enjoy the additional freedom?
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So, if we can do it at a cost of under $100/year with ludicrous amounts of space to spare (the 4 TB backup is under 25% full), why don't corporations have disconnected backups? (Our training department at my original private job did the same -- our file server was backed up to physical media and placed in storage once a year.)
The smart ones do. The foolish ones cut it as unnecessary expense. Still, major companies have greater headaches maintaining a solid backup plan that covers all of their needs and specific situations.
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So, if we can do it at a cost of under $100/year with ludicrous amounts of space to spare (the 4 TB backup is under 25% full), why don't corporations have disconnected backups? (Our training department at my original private job did the same -- our file server was backed up to physical media and placed in storage once a year.)The smart ones do. The foolish ones cut it as unnecessary expense. Still, major companies have greater headaches maintaining a solid backup plan that covers all of their needs and specific situations.
Yeah. Global Megacorporation had a magnificent backup system: Every laptop came with backup software that ran constantly in the background, so as long as you put all your work in your My Documents folder you could throw your laptop into the chipper shredder and be up and running on a new laptop the next day. Our corporate filesystem was backed up nightly as well.
Then, cost-cutting...
...At this point I'm responsible for maintaining my own backups.
I shudder to think how many tens of thousands of employees would lose their entire work history if our internal network got p*wned at this point...
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GothBard and I just finished watching John Oliver's bit on ransomware, and it got me thinking.
Since we got our first computer in 1979, our assumption was always that at any point our computer might burst into flames, come alive and run screaming out of the house, or otherwise render itself unavailable to us. So we do annual backups. All my personal, financial, and other files from my first computer all the way through 2020 are in a 4 TB hard drive in storage.
The whole thing has always cost under $100/year, especially now that storage costs are even lower. (You don't want to KNOW the number of ZIP disks I recently had to destroy.) And if you're on a budget you can cycle back and forth between two disks.
So, if we can do it at a cost of under $100/year with ludicrous amounts of space to spare (the 4 TB backup is under 25% full), why don't corporations have disconnected backups? (Our training department at my original private job did the same -- our file server was backed up to physical media and placed in storage once a year.)
Because they know their workers and know someone somewhere would f**k that up anyway?
At least that's my impression from yours, Vany's, Woran's, and other friends that worked in various sorts of IT support stories about the people that work in corpos.
My sleep pattern is turned upside down again. I went to bed around 4pm and woke around midnight.
Now a rain makes air cooler and more pleasant, though it isn't really felt inside.
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I just realized my birthday is Friday.
I hope no one else at work realizes this.
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I just realized my birthday is Friday.
I hope no one else at work realizes this.
Hippo birdie two ewe.
Hippy bear day!
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Me (to this new kid on his first day, while I'm trying to wrestle an industrial sized compactor into a skid loader bucket): Can you help me with this?
New Kid: Actually I was told to do whatever Captain (the other Captain) told me to do!
Me: Well, today's your lucky day!
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The manager was unexpectedly working 2nd shift tonight, and I had an interesting interaction with him.
Manager: "You're going to notice on your paycheck..." *long pause*
Me, internally: "You better not say something that's gonna make me want to walk out of here, because I might just do it."
Manager: "That I bumped your pay to (amount). I just wanted to let you know that I really appreciate everything you do around here."
Me, genuinely shocked: "Oh, wow. That's really nice. Thank you."So, I got a $1.25/hr raise out of nowhere. Which is awesome.
On the other hand, the suspicious part of my brain is wondering if maybe he's the reason I didn't get the job I had interviewed for, and he gave me the raise to a) entice me to stay, and b) assuage any guilt he might feel for sabotaging my chance at that job.
Gratz? At least something good has come out of this.
TOZ, I am sorry about what Shanna is going though and am very glad that she is improving. Tell her that I send my best wishes and I do miss you two.
I got yelled at for over an hour by my friend today. He was having a housewarming party, and had said that he would really love it if I got him a couple of goldfish. I cheaped out, however, and got him a bag of silverfish instead.
At least it wasn't a copper fish.
You know, I think that it is a little bit "fishy" that gran hasn't responded yet. I guess he is dealing with some dirty laundry?
Shave and a hair cut.
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While I understand the historical context, it still mildly vexes me when weather reports use nautical terms. Apparently our weather pattern is shifting, some "westerly winds" are coming in, and that's going to change the smoke.
Er... how? Are "westerlies" coming from the east or the west? Are you going to measure wind speed in knots now?
Yes, weather forecasting was almost entirely developed to help shipping.
No, we shouldn't still use nautical terms for weather reports aimed at the layman.
(For the record, having served -0- time in the navy nor merchant marines, I had to look it up, and a westerly wind is coming from the west and blowing to the east. Which is our normal weather almost year-round so I don't know why they're calling it a "shift".)
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Grr...
Yesterday: NobodysHome has an optional meeting from 7-9 am, so promises to make Impus Minor breakfast for his first day of school.
This morning: Junior guy in our department schedules a meeting for me at 7:00 am, then gets pissy when I tell him I can't make it because I didn't have the time blocked off on my calendar.
Yeah, if you're going to set a meeting for first thing in the morning the next day after I've already left work, you're going to have to accept that my circumstances may change overnight.
Not showing up. Deal with it.
EDIT: FTR, this is the guy I've complained to my manager about multiple times because he believes in "a meeting for everything". We started together on this project 7 working days ago. He's already scheduled me in 4 meetings in that time. To review his docs. To go over my feedback. To discuss plans. To meet with PMs.
It's well known that many PMs refuse to meet with him any more because he schedules too many d*** meetings. He just got ditched in this morning's meeting because the OTHER guys also refused to show up.
Maybe, just maybe, if everyone's refusing to come to your meetings, it should be telling you something.
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While I understand the historical context, it still mildly vexes me when weather reports use nautical terms. Apparently our weather pattern is shifting, some "westerly winds" are coming in, and that's going to change the smoke.
Er... how? Are "westerlies" coming from the east or the west? Are you going to measure wind speed in knots now?
Yes, weather forecasting was almost entirely developed to help shipping.
No, we shouldn't still use nautical terms for weather reports aimed at the layman.(For the record, having served -0- time in the navy nor merchant marines, I had to look it up, and a westerly wind is coming from the west and blowing to the east. Which is our normal weather almost year-round so I don't know why they're calling it a "shift".)
Oh man, you should see Midwestern weather patterns. I bet I could move to the west coast tomorrow and become a meteorological god without any training.
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New person: Wait, you're Captain also? There's more than one of you, then?!
Me: Yeah, we're everywhere!
Oh man, you should see Midwestern weather patterns. I bet I could move to the west coast tomorrow and become a meteorological god without any training.While I understand the historical context, it still mildly vexes me when weather reports use nautical terms. Apparently our weather pattern is shifting, some "westerly winds" are coming in, and that's going to change the smoke.
Er... how? Are "westerlies" coming from the east or the west? Are you going to measure wind speed in knots now?
Yes, weather forecasting was almost entirely developed to help shipping.
No, we shouldn't still use nautical terms for weather reports aimed at the layman.(For the record, having served -0- time in the navy nor merchant marines, I had to look it up, and a westerly wind is coming from the west and blowing to the east. Which is our normal weather almost year-round so I don't know why they're calling it a "shift".)
Yeah, when you can brag about having a 34°F temperature difference in a 6-mile distance, THEN we can talk.
EDIT: Found the article.
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Aaaaaand, Impus Minor is off to his first day of in-person schooling in 17 months. For some reason he's a little nervous. I don't blame him. I think being in class will take some getting used to.
Aaaaaand, Impus Minor is off to his first day of in-person schooling in 17 months. For some reason he's a little nervous. I don't blame him. I think being in class will take some getting used to.
wishing him nothing but the best.
Ah, the pre-COVID days of pretending illnesses don't exist. How I don't miss them!
One of Impus Major's friends is on leave from the navy and had several gatherings last week. Someone there "shared the love" and all the kids who attended have colds to a greater or lesser extent. On the bright side, the symptoms aren't remotely COVID-like (last time I checked COVID wasn't a gastrointestinal illness), and Impus Major's insistence on continuing to wear a mask seems to have done him a great service (he has nothing but a little lethargy and a very mild elevated temperature. His friends are going through... much worse...).
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Speaking of Navy Boy, his level-headedness is hilarious.
Kids: So what do you do in the Navy?
Navy Boy: I'm a technician in the reactor room of a nuclear aircraft carrier.
Kids: Wow! Does that mean you got a lot of close combat training?
Navy Boy: Not really. The way I see it, if intruders manage to get to the reactor room on a U.S. nuclear aircraft carrier, my job is really to say, "Wow! Congratulations!"
Well, that's very polite.
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OK. This is very political, but I thought it was a nice analogy:
I obviously don't understand wind.
Apparently, the reason it was important for me to know that the wind will be "westerly" is that it means it'll be bringing in all the wildfire smoke to San Francisco (and consequently Albany) tonight and tomorrow morning, so it's time to break out all the air purifiers.
How the wildfires ended up west of San Francisco I'll never know -- I thought it was too wet in that direction. But apparently we didn't rake the seaweed enough or something so I'm supposed to prepare for smoke tonight.
Whatever. It's August. Time to be able to hang your laundry outside and have it smell like smoked salmon.
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Geez... just HOW privileged is Albany Unified School District?
- Impus Minor's getting free lunches even though we didn't ask for them. Apparently they're now feeding everyone for free.
- Every class requires him to bring a frigging laptop to school. If he doesn't have one, they'll provide a Chromebook. Honestly, I'm wondering how long he'll be willing to tote the 15-pound MSI monstrosity he owns before he gives up and takes a Chromebook. There's "powerful gaming laptop", and then there's, "I have to carry this thing to and from school every day." And considering it's an MSI from 2015, I don't think it's exactly "powerful" by today's standards.
I was expecting to have to shell out for another TI graphing calculator (an industry scam in and of itself). Instead, kids around here are required to have laptops, or laptops will be provided for them.
Sheesh.
Geez... just HOW privileged is Albany Unified School District?
- Impus Minor's getting free lunches even though we didn't ask for them. Apparently they're now feeding everyone for free.
- Every class requires him to bring a frigging laptop to school. If he doesn't have one, they'll provide a Chromebook. Honestly, I'm wondering how long he'll be willing to tote the 15-pound MSI monstrosity he owns before he gives up and takes a Chromebook. There's "powerful gaming laptop", and then there's, "I have to carry this thing to and from school every day." And considering it's an MSI from 2015, I don't think it's exactly "powerful" by today's standards.I was expecting to have to shell out for another TI graphing calculator (an industry scam in and of itself). Instead, kids around here are required to have laptops, or laptops will be provided for them.
Sheesh.
Same here.
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Geez... just HOW privileged is Albany Unified School District?
- Impus Minor's getting free lunches even though we didn't ask for them. Apparently they're now feeding everyone for free.
- Every class requires him to bring a frigging laptop to school. If he doesn't have one, they'll provide a Chromebook. Honestly, I'm wondering how long he'll be willing to tote the 15-pound MSI monstrosity he owns before he gives up and takes a Chromebook. There's "powerful gaming laptop", and then there's, "I have to carry this thing to and from school every day." And considering it's an MSI from 2015, I don't think it's exactly "powerful" by today's standards.
I'll happily take it from his hands to make life easier for him.
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New Kid: I dunno if Captain is going to like me helping you?
Me: It doesn't matter, I outrank him anyway
New Kid (sounding disappointed): Oh.
You don't get out of actually working that easy!
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OK. This is very political, but I thought it was a nice analogy:
** spoiler omitted **
The manager was unexpectedly working 2nd shift tonight, and I had an interesting interaction with him.
Manager: "You're going to notice on your paycheck..." *long pause*
Me, internally: "You better not say something that's gonna make me want to walk out of here, because I might just do it."
Manager: "That I bumped your pay to (amount). I just wanted to let you know that I really appreciate everything you do around here."
Me, genuinely shocked: "Oh, wow. That's really nice. Thank you."So, I got a $1.25/hr raise out of nowhere. Which is awesome.
On the other hand, the suspicious part of my brain is wondering if maybe he's the reason I didn't get the job I had interviewed for, and he gave me the raise to a) entice me to stay, and b) assuage any guilt he might feel for sabotaging my chance at that job.
Congrats man! I get sentimental as heck when I get a raise.
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We only have 3-5 days left on our huge project, with the marble alcove and accompanying sun rise patio, and the winding path of pavers going from the pool to the fire pit to the the outdoor kitchen plus another three patios around the pool and another 20 pallets of pavers in between it all, and then of course, the sundial.
All told, it's nearly 3 million dollars worth of work and it will have only taken 3 people (usually only two people at a time) ten months to complete.
So, I'm pretty excited for the rest of the week.
Also, the fact that I'm excited for the end of the week is probably why everyone out there (except the boss) is unhappy with me.
Peas and Rice, people.
These two people call me on speakerphone so they're both talking at me, neither one with very good English. They say they just made a reservation, but didn't get a confirmation email even though their payment was processed. I ask if it was for tonight, which should be impossible as we are sold out, and they say "Yes, yes it is for tonight." I tell them that they couldn't have (because we are sold out) and that no reservations have shown up in my system (again, because we are sold out). They keep arguing that I must be lying, that I took their money and am trying to cheat them, etc... I keep trying to help, asking where they made the reservation through. They say the chain's website. Finally, after 10 minutes, they say "Oh, it's not for tonight. It's for Thursday. And we booked through Hotels.com". Well, that's why nothing has shown up for tonight, and if you have a question about Hotels.com, then you need to contact them. "Oh my god, this is such nonsense. Why can't you just help us?" Because I'm not Hotels.com. "Fine, transfer me to them." I can't. "Ugh. Then give me the number." I don't have the number, you need to find it on their website. "Fine. This has been very frustrating and I'm not happy."
At least they finally hung up so I could help the guests who have been standing in front of me for the last 15 minutes or so while I dealt with that.
Yelp that sounds about right.
I have really been enjoying the The Stork Tower series. It is a near future cyberpunkish / VRMMO RPG series.
Peas and Rice, people.
These two people call me on speakerphone so they're both talking at me, neither one with very good English. They say they just made a reservation, but didn't get a confirmation email even though their payment was processed. I ask if it was for tonight, which should be impossible as we are sold out, and they say "Yes, yes it is for tonight." I tell them that they couldn't have (because we are sold out) and that no reservations have shown up in my system (again, because we are sold out). They keep arguing that I must be lying, that I took their money and am trying to cheat them, etc... I keep trying to help, asking where they made the reservation through. They say the chain's website. Finally, after 10 minutes, they say "Oh, it's not for tonight. It's for Thursday. And we booked through Hotels.com". Well, that's why nothing has shown up for tonight, and if you have a question about Hotels.com, then you need to contact them. "Oh my god, this is such nonsense. Why can't you just help us?" Because I'm not Hotels.com. "Fine, transfer me to them." I can't. "Ugh. Then give me the number." I don't have the number, you need to find it on their website. "Fine. This has been very frustrating and I'm not happy."
At least they finally hung up so I could help the guests who have been standing in front of me for the last 15 minutes or so while I dealt with that.
That brings back some memories.
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How to Recognize a Terrible Place to Work
A requirement just came in: "We want to be able to track where employees are at all times, which routes they're taking, which customers they visit, and how long they spend with each customer."
The whole, "Which routes they're taking" screams, "We do not trust our employees," and indicates a terrible work environment.
Gee... how about, "We only reimburse employees for the fastest route as shown on Google Maps plus 10%, and give bonuses based on number of customers who report their issue resolved after the employee visit."
You've incentivized following the correct path without tracking their every move. You've incentivized doing the job correctly as quickly as possible without a daily check on who they're visiting. You've turned, "I don't trust my employees one inch," into, "You can earn at least 10% over your base pay just by following Google Maps." Win-win.
I used to make a couple hundred extra dollars per trip to L.A. because I drove a Prius and still got paid $0.52/mile to follow the optimal path. Deviating from that path cost me money, so I didn't. And my company didn't have to track me to get that behavior.
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Unfortunately, Shiro pointed out that it's probably an insurance thing: If the driver goes off-route for whatever reason (swing by a bar, a strip club, or just go sightseeing down Highway 1 in the Spring), then causes an accident in the company truck, the company's going to have a nightmare collecting insurance because the driver was on an "unauthorized route".
So corporations have a vested interest in keeping drivers on their designated routes, and they can get insurance discounts by tracking said drivers.
I stand corrected and saddened by this news.
Both are true, NH.
"Good faith" no longer exists.