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I have a client that has its own internal IT team. They contract with us to perform some of the bigger projects either due to technical details they don't have the skillset for or just due to lack of time.
Yesterday the second highest ranking member of that IT team asked me questions about doing a password reset. And he copied his boss on the email.
I'm, um, impressed by this display of talent.
\
I think it's less 'their lack of talent' and more 'lack of a boss that LISTENS when they provide information'.
I had this all the TIME at former Employer.
So they would insist I 'find the proof' that they were 'doing it wrong' so they'd cover their butt be able to 'do it better next time'.
Truly frustrating when the non-degree-d and barely higher-educated associate (couple semesters of college at best) from three decades earlier can provide better information for the manager than the manager who graduated from college two decades earlier.
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i get more sour about work with every passing day.
that "hours-crush" i mentioned has just gotten even more onerous: from this point forward, my Thursdays have been shaved by an additional hour.
so i've effectively had half a day's pay excised from each work week henceforth, after the revelations of the last few days.
and i haven't even been in the new home for more than two months.
belt-tightening will do only so much. however, someone like myself who still has a whole lotta quit left within will find another way forward, should push come to shove come to beatdown come to self-defense.
i'm quite fed up with being told that i'm not worth the money i've been making, and my lifestyle is not one of extravagance, if generally comfortable.
seems to me the American dream is being stabbed to death, and the popular "consensus" voices want us to be pleased about it, and reconciled to the idea. all such notions can collectively and thoroughly get f!&*ed.
** spoiler omitted **
Until the 'conservatives' (read fascists) called me a 'traitor' and the 'liberals' (read corporate stooges) called me a 'sell-out' in a level of unheard of irony.
Things really took off when one of the above told me that I did not exist as a person, that I was 'ill', and needed 'praying for' to 'get better'.
I may be ill for other reasons, but my identity is NOT an illness. I don't need some self-righteous hypocrite that self-owns on a regular basis telling me I need to follow their tier of divinity. (not aimed at you, aimed at the one that told me this pretty much to my face).
It's not consensus that one has to watch out for, it's one saying that Go(o)d only Good.
We kept getting 'crushed' at former Employer, with worse and worse new candidates for the workplace getting brought in until folks just *stopped applying* because former Employer was offering two-thirds of what the local job market was offering in exchange for cruddy hours, cruddy benefits, and the opportunity to be transferred on pretty much a moment's notice.
And then they tried to 'subtly' insist that folks 'didn't need to worry anymore' (by applying social/peer pressure to make folks unmask, along with providing perks and benefits to those willing to discard their health so casually).
I'm a casualty of the latter in part, because I did not trust the coworkers who routinely flouted other required health regulations to NOT bring their contagions with them to the workplace.
And yes, the Corporate thought it was a great idea to keep cutting because they'd been trained in the Gordon Gecko School of Finance 'Greed is Good'.
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Fantasy NPC: The Thrice-Lost Merchant.
Poor guy, tried to escape the capital when the local people started turning into trees but hadn't fled far.
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Speaking of such things, it's amazing how much other people can convince you to do things.
GothBard: Are you planning on getting the new COVID vaccine this year?
NobodysHome: No, because I have a family member who had the myocarditis reaction, and in spite of multiple confirmed exposures I've never gotten it, so I consider the risk/reward too high.
NobodysHome: We should plan on getting our COVID boosters soon.
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OK, here's what I hope is an innocuous poll question: Bathroom door: Open or closed?
Closed 100% of the time unless you're doing laundry and need to get in and out or trying to air out the room/home.
This is mainly because we have pets and the bathroom, other than when it is time to bathe them, an ALWAYS no-zone for animals, period, full stop. I occasionally see pictures of people posting a pic of their pet "bothering" them by sitting between their legs on clothes while they evacuate waste or pester them while they shower/bathe and I can never wrap my head around it at all, for the love of gods, you left the door open for them to the infinite water-dish and interesting smells room. Couple that with the fact that pet hair + damp shower air makes for a nasty situation for it clinging to the walls, floor, and ceiling and it's just... there is no justifiable reason to leave the door open at all. NOW, if you don't have pets and everyone in the home is perfectly comfortable with each other's bodily needs then that's an entirely different story.
Sometimes, you just feel bad for a guy.
For those who haven't followed the drama of my gaming life, we were playing a homebrew 5e Sunday game, run by hubby. A brief summary:
(1) Shiro and I, unhappy that hubby was showing extreme favoritism towards wife and another player, arranged a Sunday where we could discuss our grievances with the GM.
(2) Each person got to talk in turn, and GM admitted that he was favoring his wife and the other player because Shiro, GothBard, and my personalities were "too strong", and if he didn't provide significant assistance to his wife and the other player then they wouldn't get a chance to play.
(3) Shiro patiently waited for everyone to speak and then spoke for 2.5 sentences. Paraphrased, "I want this game to change because I want to have fun too. I want to be able to do silly and inane things with no repercussions."
(4) Wife exploded, told us all to f*** off (a surprising number of times in a short tirade), and rage-quit the campaign, ending it.
(5) A few weeks later, wife sent an apology along with an 8-page PDF explaining in great detail how everything was my and Shiro's fault, including accusations that Shiro had physically threatened her at the table and we had done nothing to stop him.
Needless to say, we washed our hands of her, and, by proxy, hubby, even though we knew he was in a bind.
So now hubby's trying to reach out and mend social fences with us. And it's sad. We never intend to socialize with wife again. I've been in 3 campaigns with her, and she's rage quit all three. Hubby and wife come as a package, period. And wife will never consider that she might have been in the wrong in some of her accusations.
Thus, my choices are, "Ignore him and hope he gets the point," or, "Explain to him that his wife's 8-page diatribe was not a suitable apology, so we have no intention of socializing with either of them again."
Neither appeals to me.
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You really think ignoring him will enable him to read your mind? You don't have to explain anything, but if you want him to get the point, perhaps you could actually tell him what the point is.
"I'm sorry, but I do not have fun when I play with your wife. I will not be rejoining your game."
If he responds with anything other than, "I understand. I won't ask again.", then you tell him you don't want to have any further conversation about this topic and you will not be responding to any future communications from him.
Avoiding conversations in the hopes that someone will suddenly understand a situation they clearly do not currently understand is a baffling approach. The conflict resolution strategy of "avoid all interactions with this person" doesn't seem like it will work in this situation.
See... sometimes you just need to hear someone else say it. *SIGH*.
Thanks.
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Jesus. What an awful situation.
Sounds like the wife has serious serious issues, and needs to work on them independent of anyone at the table.
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I thought about saying it nicer than that. But yeah, not saying anything isn't going to solve the problem. My counselor has been patiently explaining that to me for the last couple years.
Well, there wasn't a problem; we'd gone our separate ways for a year now.
He's just trying to re-establish social ties, and I have to politely say, "No. I do not want social ties with you."
It's the mature thing to do, but that doesn't make it the easy thing to do.
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He's just trying to re-establish social ties, and I have to politely say, "No. I do not want social ties with you."
It's the mature thing to do, but that doesn't make it the easy thing to do.
Or you could just skip a step and not be polite.
"Whenever someone says 'I'm going to break every bone in your body,' I think that's ridiculous. It would take way too much work. But, given that over half your bones are in your hands and feet, I could break half the bones in your body with very little effort really."
Most of those are very tiny and thus hard to break. Like if you have a rock that's three feet long you can crack it down the middle with a few blows of a hammer. Your foot bones are functionally a bunch of pebbles in a sack. Hitting it just moves them around and separates them.
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?!
Awwwww...
Pink Gnomes strike again!
Where will I find free... 141 GB?!
That will take a while. I need to finish a few things first. I am nearing the end of Tiny Tina's Wonderland and Bard's Tale IV... I might end uninstalling Mafia, where I reached the point of obligatory time-restricted car rush through the city (a thing that I hate, both in general, and specifically its implementation in this particular game).
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Over the millennia, many cultures have used various astronomical events to set their calendars.
For me, this morning I started work and it was pitch dark outside. It is officially "NobodysHome's Fall".
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In other news, last night I got on the phone with Younger Brother and between the two of us ordered the final parts for the Celica. The shop claimed they could find me a control arm and ball joint themselves, but considering their behavior so far, I figured it was worth $180 extra to have them in hand so they no longer have an excuse for not fixing my ******* car.
If all goes well, by the end of the week the Celica should have moved from, "Parking lot planter", to "car being repaired".
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Over the millennia, many cultures have used various astronomical events to set their calendars.
For me, this morning I started work and it was pitch dark outside. It is officially "NobodysHome's Fall".
: The Fall will start when it is still dark when I go to bed!
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Sometimes it's interesting to try to get into people's heads. Someone parked a nice new car in front of the house, so our gardener naturally assumed it was ours. I explained all the work we were doing to get the Celica back up and running, and his response was a matter-of-fact, "You should just buy a new car."
And it got me wondering. We make very good money. Admittedly, we live in the Bay Area so we spend almost all of it as it comes in, but I know we make more than most. And the idea of just popping off and buying a new car is totally alien to me. I don't have $40,000 lying around in a bank account, waiting to be spent. I don't want to go into debt just to get a car. And leasing is affordable, but we couldn't let the kids drive the leased car and at the end of a few years we'd've spent thousands of dollars and we'd still be short a car. It all seems economically irresponsible.
So I wonder:
- How was he thinking I'd pay for the car?
- Does not wanting to take a lease or a loan make me the abnormal one?
I think I know the answers, but it all goes back to the modern encouragement for all consumers to borrow, borrow, borrow, to buy everything they think they need.
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- Does not wanting to take a lease or a loan make me the abnormal one?
I think I know the answers, but it all goes back to the modern encouragement for all consumers to borrow, borrow, borrow, to buy everything they think they need.
You anti-American weirdo!
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- Does not wanting to take a lease or a loan make me the abnormal one?
I think I know the answers, but it all goes back to the modern encouragement for all consumers to borrow, borrow, borrow, to buy everything they think they need.
You anti-American weirdo!
I was watching a British guy do "101 facts about America" and the most depressing was, "If you have a $10 bill in your pocket and no debt, you're richer than 25% of all Americans."
EDIT: Since you shouldn't trust YouTube videos, I looked it up. 31% of Americans have a negative net worth.
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I was watching a British guy do "101 facts about America" and the most depressing was, "If you have a $10 bill in your pocket and no debt, you're richer than 25% of all Americans."- Does not wanting to take a lease or a loan make me the abnormal one?
I think I know the answers, but it all goes back to the modern encouragement for all consumers to borrow, borrow, borrow, to buy everything they think they need.
You anti-American weirdo!
Apparently, I am within the top 10% of the world's individual wealth (or at least very close to it), merely by virtue of owning a 49 square meter two room apartment in one of the Poland's major cities, with no mortgage attached...
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I was watching a British guy do "101 facts about America" and the most depressing was, "If you have a $10 bill in your pocket and no debt, you're richer than 25% of all Americans."- Does not wanting to take a lease or a loan make me the abnormal one?
I think I know the answers, but it all goes back to the modern encouragement for all consumers to borrow, borrow, borrow, to buy everything they think they need.
You anti-American weirdo!
Apparently, I am within the top 10% of the world's individual wealth (or at least very close to it), merely by virtue of owning a 49 square meter two room apartment in one of the Poland's major cities, with no mortgage attached...
We barely crack the top 10% in the U.S. (or maybe we were at 11%?), but that puts us squarely in the top 1% in the world. And it's all in property...
...at least until the next big fire or earthquake...EDIT: OK. COVID must have done a number on the numbers. According to this newer article, we're comfortably in the top 5%. I don't believe it for an instant.
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"You should just buy a new car."
I don't have $40,000 lying around in a bank account, waiting to be spent.
I don't want to go into debt just to get a car.
- How was he thinking I'd pay for the car?
- Does not wanting to take a lease or a loan make me the abnormal one?How ARE you thinking about paying for your next car?
You've ruled out borrowing money from other people (lease, loan)
You've ruled out using your own savings ('lying around in a bank account').I don't think you're one of those 'manifesting wealth' people who believes that the universe will provide a car when you need one.
What is your plan?
While I don't have money lying around in a bank account to afford a car today, I could rearrange where our money is going, tighten our belts a bit, and have the money to buy a new car in a year or two. So for me, major purchases involve long-term planning. Which is why my cars are 27 and 17, respectively. When one of them dies, I'll rearrange our finances until such time as we can afford a new one.
EDIT: Don't forget I'm in my 50s. Every spare dime is going into retirement funds so I can retire either earlier or more comfortably or both. Stopping payment into the retirement funds for a year would delay my retirement for a year, but it would get me a car.
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So my deaf 20 something cat is asleep on the porch. There's food on the porch often enough for critters to include it on their nightly rounds. A possum gets to the top of the steps, but the cat (being a cat) has somehow managed to both curl and stretch himself out so that he's blocking the entire space.
The poor possum doesn't want to step on the cat. He winds up doing the hokey pokey. he sticks his right hand over the cats tail and tries to move his left hand over the cat but its too high. He tries this 4 or 5 times. then tries to reverse the order but again.. the cat is too tall. he shuffles over and starts to go over the cat, but stops when their bellies touch. the cat of course doesn't bother to wake up for this.
"You want me to just bring you a snack over there?
Possum Ptoohs. I have no idea if that's a yes or a no. he keeps trying.
Slice up an apple. Go to the bathroom, toss the bits out the window towards the back of the possum. Nom a few pieces myself
"Here you go
Ptooh
Keeps trying to cross the cat. I'm pretty sure at this point he's stuck on the principle of the thing rather than looking for food. Nice to know it's not just humans that think cats are weird. Possum a go up and down the steps so he should find the apple eventually...
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My in-laws used to buy 50-pound bags of dog food and put out roughly 15 pounds of food a night, plus tubs of water complete with tub toys.
Raccoons, possums, skunks, and cats would all come in and partake, frequently standing shoulder-to-shoulder. Even Death Cat happily came in and left all the prey alone.
The sole issue was the baby skunks. They have no self-control. At all.
But watching four species of animal get along splendidly because they had enough food and water that there was no reason to fight was both inspiring and depressing.
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Just do it. Buy the new car. I mean, so practical.
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Just do it. Buy the new car. I mean, so practical.
GothBard actually wanted one of those until politics.
I'm incredibly boring. In 1996 I got a car that got 30 mpg. In 2006 I got a car that got 40 mpg. My next car has to get 50 mpg or I won't buy one. So yeah, probably electric.
But I really enjoyed my conversation with the insurance person at Progressive. She's a young single mother living in Southern California, and her car got totaled just a few weeks before mine. And, being a wise woman after my own heart and having a lot of contacts, she combed the Central Valley for used cars (prices there are about 1/3 what they are in the cities).
Got a ride with a friend, dropped the kid off with the parents, drove 3 hours into the valley, took the car she'd picked on a test drive straight to a local garage and paid for a full inspection, and once it passed she had a used car that she had some confidence in for all of $4000.
If you need a car, you can find one for well under $40k.
If you want a new car, things get far pricier. I'm picky and patient, because I can live without a car.
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we're comfortably in the top 5%. I don't believe it for an instant.
You live in a very expensive area of the country, so your budget is going to be mathematically oversized compared to what you get out of it, and well...From a different era than the majority of people these days. There was a generational shift after you to just not paying employees anything, and that really hurt a lot of people. Even beyond the straight loss of income, it's very expensive to be broke.
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It really says something when you have to block the number of your bank's fraud department.
Long story short, every single time Impus Minor uses his card it triggers a fraud alert and we get a bunch of robocalls asking us to confirm the purchase. Twice we went through the process to speak with a human being about it, and both times they apologized and said they'd fix it, but the litany of calls continues (about 6 calls every time he uses his card, even after he confirms his purchase).
So they can fix the problem, or we can go to a different bank. Their choice. But I'm not going to answer the phone to their stupid robodials just because they can't figure out how to turn them off.
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OK. That's funny and sad. After my tirade about malfunctioning robocalls, I got a correct robocall from my dentist's office asking me to confirm my appointment.
Robocaller: To confirm your appointment, press 1.
NobodysHome:
Robocalled: An application error has occurred.
Can we please just do away with robocallers now?
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they could always cut costs by not calling people . . . .
that would be a win-win-win . . . . with maybe another layer or two of "win" wrapped up in there somewhere.
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Clickbait title from 1934 newspaper:
connecting The City Of The Dead with the city of the living.
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we're comfortably in the top 5%. I don't believe it for an instant.You live in a very expensive area of the country, so your budget is going to be mathematically oversized compared to what you get out of it, and well...From a different era than the majority of people these days. There was a generational shift after you to just not paying employees anything, and that really hurt a lot of people. Even beyond the straight loss of income, it's very expensive to be broke.
(1) Shiro demonstrated this admirably with his move. He'd been making fun of the Fremont Red Lobster for all the years he lived there, so he finally owned up and went there for dinner, alone. (Apparently it "wasn't terrible".) He moved to his new place and took his mother and sister out to dinner at the Red Lobster there. Dinner for the three of them was just a little less than he'd paid for himself in Fremont. And overall it seems like inflation has cut our "factor of 5" to a "factor of 3", but it's still funny trying to get people to understand that a $12 hamburger is a pretty good bargain around here.
(2) John Oliver did a magnificent piece on just how expensive it is to be poor -- how seemingly every organization on the planet wants to charge you extra fees for being broke. I think I commented here how even when Impus Minor got financial aid, they pushed hard for him to take it in the form of a bank card with staggeringly high fees just for using it. "If you don't take it as a card, it may take you weeks to get your money!" It was vile.
EDIT: And for those wondering how on Earth Impus Minor got financial aid, California has a "first year free" program where if you go to a community college, take a full course load, and pass all your classes, you get reimbursed your tuition. So it's not need-based, but it still goes through the Financial Aid office and he still had to fill out all the aid forms.
OK. That's funny and sad. After my tirade about malfunctioning robocalls, I got a correct robocall from my dentist's office asking me to confirm my appointment.
Robocaller: To confirm your appointment, press 1.
NobodysHome:
Robocalled: An application error has occurred.Can we please just do away with robocallers now?
I either get texts or a call from a live human being to confirm appointments. Very, very rarely do I get a robocall for appointment confirmations anymore.
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The Celica's fender arrived today, and it's in MUCH better shape than I had any right to expect. Worth every penny!
My one concern is that the parts list lists, "Left knuckle without ABS," and the salvage yard sold me, "Front Left Spindle With Hub Without ABS," and they sure as heck look like two totally different animals, but both Shiro and Younger Brother think it "should be OK".
My fear is that now that I have all the impossible-to-find parts, I'm going to drop them off and shop guy's going to say, "Nope. Wrong knuckle. Try again."
(It's the usual fear: I've checked with two amateur mechanics and a real mechanic and they've all said, "That's good enough." But the word of the mechanic who'll actually be putting my car together is final.)
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Yeah, yeah, "pot", "kettle", but it really is amazing seeing how "the other half" lives.
The "core" of the Bay Area is the cities right along the bay (Oakland, Richmond, Berkeley, San Francisco, etc.) by the Bay Bridge, and this area has been urbanized for over a century now, so it's a ragtag mishmash of buildings from whatever housing boom spawned a particular area. Go over any set of hills and you encounter the areas settled by the landed gentry who didn't want to have to associate with said mishmash: Walnut Creek, Moraga, Los Altos -- anywhere where a quick trip over the hills gets you back into the urban area.
Those cities used all the infamous HOA policies, zoning, and any other tricks at their disposal to keep the riffraff out and the money in, and as a result their public services are second to none. (We drive to Walnut Creek for emergency services because we save far more than the 30 minutes of drive time in reduced wait time. And the care is orders of magnitude better.)
So, yet again Impus Minor managed to run the Prius' battery out. With no Celica to rescue him, I suggested he call DVC security. "The police?"
"No. Absolutely not. They'll do nothing for you. Call security."
He called security. And security told him to call the police. And apparently, in Pleasant Hill the police have a dedicated "police aid" whose entire purpose is to go around and help people in exactly such situations. Change a tire? Charge a battery? Any trivial task you can't do on your own? Call the police aid and he'll swing by and do it for you.
So Impus Minor got the battery charged for free... by the Pleasant Hill police department.
I sure as heck know you wouldn't get that kind of service from the Oakland or San Francisco police...
Maybe they have a quota of good services to meet to retain the name?
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*snip*
I sure as heck know you wouldn't get that kind of service from the Oakland or San Francisco police...
Oh, the laughter could probably be heard in the Midwest.
After they called for a tow to some lot for 'blocking traffic' that'd cost a month's pay to recover the vehicle from IF it wasn't crushed or resold 'by accident'.
Not that I know anybody that ever ran out of gas in Chicago and had this happen to them or anything, of course...
Ouch. I wish her a speedy recovery, gran!
As for us, yesterday was our first, "Wildfire smoke and gas leaks! Shutter all your doors and windows!" day of the season. Pleasantly late (I credit the winter rains) and at a time when it's cool enough outside that I'm not miserable shutting everything up.
But it was a reminder of pre-COVID times. We have air purifiers throughout the house. We had a stock of N-95 masks. All in 2019, and all because of the fires. So it's an, "Oh, yeah! That's why we bought all this gear in the first place," moment for us. It's the first year that the fires aren't coinciding with a local COVID spike.
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Yeah, yeah, "pot", "kettle", but it really is amazing seeing how "the other half" lives.
The "core" of the Bay Area is the cities right along the bay (Oakland, Richmond, Berkeley, San Francisco, etc.) by the Bay Bridge, and this area has been urbanized for over a century now, so it's a ragtag mishmash of buildings from whatever housing boom spawned a particular area. Go over any set of hills and you encounter the areas settled by the landed gentry who didn't want to have to associate with said mishmash: Walnut Creek, Moraga, Los Altos -- anywhere where a quick trip over the hills gets you back into the urban area.
Those cities used all the infamous HOA policies, zoning, and any other tricks at their disposal to keep the riffraff out and the money in, and as a result their public services are second to none. (We drive to Walnut Creek for emergency services because we save far more than the 30 minutes of drive time in reduced wait time. And the care is orders of magnitude better.)
So, yet again Impus Minor managed to run the Prius' battery out. With no Celica to rescue him, I suggested he call DVC security. "The police?"
"No. Absolutely not. They'll do nothing for you. Call security."He called security. And security told him to call the police. And apparently, in Pleasant Hill the police have a dedicated "police aid" whose entire purpose is to go around and help people in exactly such situations. Change a tire? Charge a battery? Any trivial task you can't do on your own? Call the police aid and he'll swing by and do it for you.
So Impus Minor got the battery charged for free... by the Pleasant Hill police department.
I sure as heck know you wouldn't get that kind of service from the Oakland or San Francisco police...
I'm pretty sure you could imagine what would happen if I tried this.
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SOOOOOO close!!!
The struts and ball joint just arrived, so all that's left is the control rod (Friday) and left turn signal (a week from tomorrow). I plan on dropping everything off on Friday and telling the guy to get to work, since the turn signal is definitely a, "We can put it in at the end," dealie.
Mom is trying to recover from her leg fracture, but has somehow caught COVID for the 4th(?) time. So, that's fun.
How is she healing?
I'm pretty sure you could imagine what would happen if I tried this.Yeah, yeah, "pot", "kettle", but it really is amazing seeing how "the other half" lives.
The "core" of the Bay Area is the cities right along the bay (Oakland, Richmond, Berkeley, San Francisco, etc.) by the Bay Bridge, and this area has been urbanized for over a century now, so it's a ragtag mishmash of buildings from whatever housing boom spawned a particular area. Go over any set of hills and you encounter the areas settled by the landed gentry who didn't want to have to associate with said mishmash: Walnut Creek, Moraga, Los Altos -- anywhere where a quick trip over the hills gets you back into the urban area.
Those cities used all the infamous HOA policies, zoning, and any other tricks at their disposal to keep the riffraff out and the money in, and as a result their public services are second to none. (We drive to Walnut Creek for emergency services because we save far more than the 30 minutes of drive time in reduced wait time. And the care is orders of magnitude better.)
So, yet again Impus Minor managed to run the Prius' battery out. With no Celica to rescue him, I suggested he call DVC security. "The police?"
"No. Absolutely not. They'll do nothing for you. Call security."He called security. And security told him to call the police. And apparently, in Pleasant Hill the police have a dedicated "police aid" whose entire purpose is to go around and help people in exactly such situations. Change a tire? Charge a battery? Any trivial task you can't do on your own? Call the police aid and he'll swing by and do it for you.
So Impus Minor got the battery charged for free... by the Pleasant Hill police department.
I sure as heck know you wouldn't get that kind of service from the Oakland or San Francisco police...