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I have over 430 hours into BG3. I can't help myself with that game,
On the one hand, I understand that absentee property management is hard; there's so much crap I have to deal with because our property manager is so stereotypically laissez-faire that it's hard to throw stones.
On the other, our neighbors of nine years moved out of their rental on February 29 and there's been no sign of anyone at the property since then. I know the owners are down in San Diego, but they must have had at least a month's notice that our neighbors were moving out and they should have planned to have someone come by over the weekend (March 2-3), but they didn't, and no one stopped by yesterday, either.
Maybe they're managing it themselves and they need to adjust their schedules for one of them to come up here, but leaving houses empty for prolonged periods in this area isn't a great idea, and it takes weeks to prep a house for re-rental, then weeks more to rent it. So we'll be "enjoying" an empty neighbor's house for a couple of months. Hope the rats don't find it too enjoyable. (In this weather rats move in to empty houses with alarming speed and start doing damage, so you don't want your house to remain empty for long.)
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Just saying.** spoiler omitted **
That is an extremely disingenuous argument, there is a huge difference between birth control and wearing masks.
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Masks are more placebo than an actual deterrent. Go nuts if you want to wear one but they won't keep you from getting sick.
Just saying.
Counterpoint.
I haven't gotten sick enough to call out since I started wearing a mask around my classes.
Before I started regularly masking, I'd have to use nearly all of my sub days because public schools are petri dishes.
They might not block COVID, but they've blocked the usual flu/respiratory ick like a charm. So they can prevent you from getting sick in addition to being just plain considerate of others.
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And the die is cast...
...GothBard's final interviews are all lined up to finish by Thursday, and New Company expects to have a final decision for her by Friday.
Tom Petty was 100% right -- it'll be much easier once all the waiting is done and we know some concrete answers.
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*Insert vague rant about soul-crushing life events here*
I'm not glad for much right now, but among the things I'm genuinely thankful for are my children since they're just about the only thing left keeping gas in my tank, proverbially speaking, and the lessons that I learned in therapy so many years ago to help push me through to the other side of a new chapter in my life, hopefully, mostly intact.
I'm sure plenty of y'all who participate here and more lurkers beyond that have been through hell and back and haven't often shared just how hard it is out of pride, ego, or perhaps not wanting to feel embarrassed by opening up but... man alive, if you're going through it right now, so to speak, you're not alone. I can't say I know things will actually get better, but I'm pretty darn sure I won't let my situation get any worse so ...there's that at least... right?
There aren't many times in my life that I felt that this alias better personified how I'm actually feeling but right now it's just about on the money.
*Insert vague rant about soul-crushing life events here*
I'm not glad for much right now, but among the things I'm genuinely thankful for are my children since they're just about the only thing left keeping gas in my tank, proverbially speaking, and the lessons that I learned in therapy so many years ago to help push me through to the other side of a new chapter in my life, hopefully, mostly intact.
I'm sure plenty of y'all who participate here and more lurkers beyond that have been through hell and back and haven't often shared just how hard it is out of pride, ego, or perhaps not wanting to feel embarrassed by opening up but... man alive, if you're going through it right now, so to speak, you're not alone. I can't say I know things will actually get better, but I'm pretty darn sure I won't let my situation get any worse so ...there's that at least... right?
There aren't many times in my life that I felt that this alias better personified how I'm actually feeling but right now it's just about on the money.
Ugh. Sorry you're going through so much! My advice: Don't hesitate to lean on your kids for emotional support: Much like pets, no matter how young they are they can sense something is wrong and if they can sit there being held and sobbed on and you end up better for it, they're bewildered but happy that they could help in some way. Just make sure they know that they helped. Impus Major has been a rock for both family members and friends as this tiny, huggable bastion of optimism.
I also recommend putting Jee Veerey on repeat at high volume -- there's nothing like knowing that a bunch of Indian metalheads have been through similar trials to make it feel more global and less isolated.
From the lyrics:
Walk this valley of death, head high
Say: I'll be back, today I won't die
'Cause try as we may we can never deny
We can get back up if we're still alive!
I lost my best friend to undiagnosed manic depression. I have a lot of vested interest in other people's mental health. Hold on. Be well. It WILL get better.
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That is an extremely disingenuous argument, there is a huge difference between birth control and wearing masks.Just saying.** spoiler omitted **
Truth. A mask won't protect you from syphilis.
I've been playing Dead Island 2. It's a pretty fun game, once you tell your brain it's okay that it's not on an actual Island.
Truth. A mask won't protect you from syphilis.That is an extremely disingenuous argument, there is a huge difference between birth control and wearing masks.Just saying.** spoiler omitted **
one of the few stis I can't test for.
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I'm not a very good pervert because, like so many others, I learned it as STDs, and every time I hear "STI" the first thing that comes to my mind is Subaru Technica International.
We have enough sexual dysfunction in the car enthusiast community. Stop making things confusing, even if it is more accurate.
I just assumed it was the office building in Die Hard.
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Landscaping season starts on the 18th, so that leaves another week and a half at the factory. As I was leaving today, I noticed a box marked "FORMER EMPLOYEES" that was full of defective gloves and scrap leather. So, if you don't hear from me by April... you can draw your own conclusions.
...they turn former employees into building material?
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...they turn former employees into building material?
Clearly you've never worked in construction.
...they turn former employees into building material?Clearly you've never worked in construction.
I haven't. I would be part of a water feature by now if I had.
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...they turn former employees into building material?Clearly you've never worked in construction.
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Ooooh... I'm watching a train wreck in slow motion, and now it's up to me to judge between "overly intrusive busybody neighbor" and "helpful friend".
I heard movement at the neighbor's house today so I checked (we're a very good neighborhood that way) and it was PG&E shutting off the power. The garbage bins have been left in the driveway, so I'm assuming Waste Management will haul them away next week. In short, our former neighbors did everything right and canceled all their services from the moment they moved out. Good on them!
*BUT* at that point, as the property owner you're supposed to take over at least the power to avoid such shutoffs. Because guess what? With no one having checked out the house before the shutoff, anything our former neighbors left in the fridge is now growing unchecked. There will be no lights on in the house and no gardener has come by so it's going to become rapidly apparent that the house has been abandoned.
I figure a month can't hurt too much (except for the rats), but if I haven't seen any movement at the house by April 1 I'll ping the owners and ask them what's up.
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Here's a new one.
What the student meant: Justine sacrificed herself to gain forgiveness.
What the student said: Justine scarfaced herself to gain forgiveness.
Very, very different take on Frankenstein.
Oooh... alternatively, I could have the kids move in...
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Oooh... alternatively, I could have the kids move in...
You might be better off with the rats.
Ugh. Lots of rain today and even more yesterday. Starting to get to me healthwise.
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Well, today's the Moment of Truth for GothBard: Three more interviews, and presumably if she nails them all she should see an offer Friday or Monday.
Yesterday's interview was another fantastic sign of the culture at the new company. It was with an upper-level manager from another department. "So, I won't be working directly with you and I have a lot of faith in <New Manager>, so I'm assuming we're just going to go through this and then I'm going to sign off on you. I'm not very good at this, but let's get started."
And then he conducted a very formal, very standard interview looking for any red flags, then once there weren't any he rubber stamped her.
In short:
(1) He was an upper-level manager, yet he was absolutely honest with her that he had no vested interest in whether or not she got hired. Even better, he had faith in his lower-level manager that she knew what she was doing.
(2) In spite of this, he did his job and conducted the interview to make sure GothBard had the correct qualifications.
It all screams, "Well-organized, competent management," which is WAY better than what GothBard has now.
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Ugh. Lots of rain today and even more yesterday. Starting to get to me healthwise.
Burble burble burble fix pump burble burble burble dig trench with paws burble burble.
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Ah, well. Not so fast! The recruiter tried to play fast and loose with Outlook's scheduling, laying down a full day of interviews for GothBard and then specific meetings for the individual interviewers, but it confused the living daylights out of the first interviewer, so he didn't show up this morning and is booked for the rest of today, so GothBard's got at least one interview tomorrow, making a final decision more likely to take until Monday.
Been there. Hate that. It's always terrifying to show up for an interview and have the interviewer not show up, because you always assume it's your fault.
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Fun fact: I've never gotten a job I had to apply for.
Every time, I get the job, then fill out the application afterwards.
Crookshanks is now continuing the tradition! This will be her 4th job in a row where she already had the job before filling out the application.
Edit: unrelated to NobodysHome thing!
Quiet day.
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Akira Toriyama has passed away at 68.
This is a sad day.
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WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
GothBard just got the offer letter! And it's insane. It's like being in a video game and getting that ultra-rare "God loot drop" that breaks the game.
Base Salary: +60+%. Yes. That's not a typo. It's a raise of over 60%. Her base salary is now higher than mine, though Global Megacorporation's desperate flinging of options at me in an attempt to get me to stay keeps my total compensation higher than hers... for the moment. They apparently have a solid bonus program, so it'll be a serious competition.
Holidays: 8 --> 25. Yes. Her old company sucked. Her new company somehow finds 25 holidays a year.
Vacation: 12 --> ∞. And even this is an understatement. Her old company had a 3-month "probationary" period where she didn't generate any vacation, so in her year there she earned a grand total of 9 vacation days.
Management: Going from a "never there" manager and an Elon-Musk-worshipping CEO to "the best manager I've ever had".
And her new position has a HUGE amount of responsibility and is right in her wheelhouse -- it takes advantage of all her strengths. It won't be easy, but it's something she's extremely qualified to do.
For the record, Monday is Impus Minor's birthday and we were hoping for a "perfect birthday" for him:
(1) GothBard gets a new job.
(2) The Celica's registration comes in.
(3) A fantastic birthday dinner.
(4) The Cranky Calico keeling over dead.
Ah, well. We're only 1/4 so far, but as GothBard said, his birthday isn't until Monday...
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
GothBard just got the offer letter! And it's insane. It's like being in a video game and getting that ultra-rare "God loot drop" that breaks the game.
Base Salary: +60+%. Yes. That's not a typo. It's a raise of over 60%. Her base salary is now higher than mine, though Global Megacorporation's desperate flinging of options at me in an attempt to get me to stay keeps my total compensation higher than hers... for the moment. They apparently have a solid bonus program, so it'll be a serious competition.
Holidays: 8 --> 25. Yes. Her old company sucked. Her new company somehow finds 25 holidays a year.
Vacation: 12 --> ∞. And even this is an understatement. Her old company had a 3-month "probationary" period where she didn't generate any vacation, so in her year there she earned a grand total of 9 vacation days.
Management: Going from a "never there" manager and an Elon-Musk-worshipping CEO to "the best manager I've ever had".
And her new position has a HUGE amount of responsibility and is right in her wheelhouse -- it takes advantage of all her strengths. It won't be easy, but it's something she's extremely qualified to do.
I once worked at a place that after a year of working there you got 8 hours of vacation time. And we worked 10 hour days. I did not work there very long (2 months exactly).
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
GothBard just got the offer letter! And it's insane. It's like being in a video game and getting that ultra-rare "God loot drop" that breaks the game.
Base Salary: +60+%. Yes. That's not a typo. It's a raise of over 60%. Her base salary is now higher than mine, though Global Megacorporation's desperate flinging of options at me in an attempt to get me to stay keeps my total compensation higher than hers... for the moment. They apparently have a solid bonus program, so it'll be a serious competition.
Holidays: 8 --> 25. Yes. Her old company sucked. Her new company somehow finds 25 holidays a year.
Vacation: 12 --> ∞. And even this is an understatement. Her old company had a 3-month "probationary" period where she didn't generate any vacation, so in her year there she earned a grand total of 9 vacation days.
Management: Going from a "never there" manager and an Elon-Musk-worshipping CEO to "the best manager I've ever had".
And her new position has a HUGE amount of responsibility and is right in her wheelhouse -- it takes advantage of all her strengths. It won't be easy, but it's something she's extremely qualified to do.
Hey, that's basically what I did! It will be a lot better for her!
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Ah yes, the science of calling a rain day on a construction site!
What you do is, draw a circle on the ground and when an arbitrary number of rain drops (today being the first Friday back was a 3 drop day) fall within the circle (or it starts downpouring or there's lightning) you pack it up and leave.
This week we're working outside of Milwaukee, which is quite the drive from Madison, and at about 11 it still hadn't started raining there so I decided we should text someone working at the shop to draw a circle there and send us a picture when it hits 3 drops. His reply "it's raining. I'm not drawing a f~$~ing circle" so we packed it up for the week.
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So, Dead Island 2!
There is this part where you go to this hotel where the army is supposedly holed up and I get to the pool area and they'd been dissolving bodies in the pool filled with acid or whatnot and I get swarmed by a shit load of zombies and I think the tactic you're supposed to use is using a battery to turn on a pump that sprays the acid in various areas. Or something like that.
What I did was start tossing zombie bait into the middle of the pool and then stood on the opposite side so they'd try to walk through the pool to get me rather than climb up the side when it wore off. And if any did make it to a side I'd kick it back in.
Also, there is something absolutely hilarious about kicking a zombie in the face in first person games.
The Top Secret flashbacks are strong!
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Speaking of appropriate punishments:
Whoever it was that managed to make car alarms standard equipment in all new cars really deserves to have car alarms placed in every room of their house, and once a week at a random time on a random day in a random room, one of the alarms goes off.
This morning at 4:17 am a car with no muffler drove down our street. (I'm a lot more sympathetic towards such people ever since the Prius' catalytic converter got stolen and I learned just how loud even a 3-cylinder engine is without a muffler.) It set off two car alarms on our block alone. And of course, it being 4:17 am, the car owners had to wake up, realize it was their cars, get up, put on bathrobes (a strange but time-honored tradition before going outside), and turn off their alarms. So it was 4:22 by the time both alarms were off.
I was doing paperwork so it was more of an amusement to me to see how long they went but the fact that we had to fight tooth-and-nail to NOT have an alarm in the Celica and we couldn't buy a Prius without one infuriates me. At least the Pruis' isn't motion-sensitive; it only goes off if you open the door after it's been locked without having a key nearby. Which happens remarkably often with my family. (Two people drive to the store. The person with the key goes into the store and locks the doors. The person without the key gets bored and decides to get out. Alarm.)
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I finally saw "Treasure Planet".
My favorite bit: "Dang it, Jim. I'm an astronomer, not a doctor! I mean, I am a doctor, but I'm not that kind of doctor. I have a doctorate, it's not the same thing. You can't help people with a doctorate. You just sit there and you're useless!"
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I finally saw "Treasure Planet".
My favorite bit: "Dang it, Jim. I'm an astronomer, not a doctor! I mean, I am a doctor, but I'm not that kind of doctor. I have a doctorate, it's not the same thing. You can't help people with a doctorate. You just sit there and you're useless!"
I must have seen that movie two or three dozen times -- Impus Major loved it when he was a kid. And yes, that line always hit close to home.
I finally saw "Treasure Planet".
My favorite bit: "Dang it, Jim. I'm an astronomer, not a doctor! I mean, I am a doctor, but I'm not that kind of doctor. I have a doctorate, it's not the same thing. You can't help people with a doctorate. You just sit there and you're useless!"
A truly underappreciated marvel.
I wouldn't mind a remaster, though, to improve the 3D graphics here and there.
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Holidays: 8 --> 25. Yes. Her old company sucked. Her new company somehow finds 25 holidays a year.
Well, technically every day of a year is a holiday of one or more Catholic Church Saint...
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I finally saw "Treasure Planet".
My favorite bit: "Dang it, Jim. I'm an astronomer, not a doctor! I mean, I am a doctor, but I'm not that kind of doctor. I have a doctorate, it's not the same thing. You can't help people with a doctorate. You just sit there and you're useless!"
I must have seen that movie two or three dozen times -- Impus Major loved it when he was a kid. And yes, that line always hit close to home.
"You give up a few things, chasing a dream..."
Also, Jim's song still hits right.
Poland has 13 days that are public holidays, 8 of which are generally Christian holidays.
I think Christmas is the only Christian holiday that I get. I get Christmas Eve off too, but I don’t think it’s technically a religious holiday.
At my current job, the only holidays we don't work are Thanksgiving and Independence Day (Christmas and New Year's Day are during the off-season, and are on-call days for snow removal).
Global Megacorporation has upped it to 11 in the U.S., but only one is even remotely Christian:
- New Year's Day
- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
- Presidents' Day
- Memorial Day
- Juneteenth
- Fourth of July
- Labor Day
- Veterans' Day
- Thanksgiving (2)
- *Christmas (1)
Yeah, that’s pretty much what I have.
Except add Christmas Eve, and replace Juneteenth with a floating holiday.
We have an on-call rotation which can ruin a holiday for you, so the floating holiday seems okay to me.
We get off for holidays but we don't get paid for it.
The big ones during the season; Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day.
Also deer season, but I don't hunt so I'm literally the only person that works that week.