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Getting ready for our last blizzard of the year this weekend.
Edit: Oh yeah, I got a streak going!
Does your manager's manager have:
1) A manager
2) A manger
3) An onager
4) A mane
5) Roger?
I need to play rome total war again.
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Yes, I now want all the kinds of onager.
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Cyz has an anonymous survey for her course this semester if anyone doesn’t mind helping out. Link.
Done
*looks up excitedly*
Actually, on closer inspection, it appears that all I have are jelly donuts.
I get it!
Yes, I now want all the kinds of onager.No onager, onigiri.
Look, I don't care what kind of fancy biblical name you use for it, it's still just fapping.
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Layoffs are an interesting animal and watching how each company does them tells you a lot about what that company thinks of its employees.
At my first tech job, they gave everyone at least 30 days' notice that they were being laid off. This let them clean up their remaining projects, hand off their stuff, and close out their jobs very cleanly. *BUT* it did lead to the occasional disgruntled employee doing as much damage as they could before they went. I saw at least one former employee get criminally charged over all the mischief they got up to. So I understand the whole, "Security shows up at your cubicle and escorts you out of the building," instant layoff approach to protect company assets.
*BUT*
Working at companies with the latter approach, rumors of layoffs leak well before the actual layoffs happen. I'm surprised at how bad the leaks are this time; the last few rounds of layoffs have been incredibly quiet and clean. I blame our new CEO, since that's the only major upper management change and somehow we're leaking financial news all over the place. With the sheer randomness of last year's layoffs (even managers didn't get to pick who on their team got let go -- it really seemed like a giant lotto machine layoff), everyone at the company is looking over their backs, and it's crippling productivity. So OK, you prevented that handful of disgruntled employees from doing any damage. But just how much money are you losing from lost work due to employee anxiety? I think it's a much worse system -- you're guaranteed to lose productivity, you're guaranteed to get some of your better employees preemptively jumping ship, you're guaranteed to disrupt the projects of the remaining employees, all because you fear a few bad employees doing a little bit of vandalism.
So yeah, still waiting for the axes to fall to see who makes it and who doesn't. Very much like "who got voted off?" on a sucky reality show.
Mildly political, but mostly Grumpy Old Man tirade: R.I.P. childhood creativity.
Many schools in California have kids in the lower grades (preschool through maybe 1st grade) build leprechaun traps for St. Patrick's Day. GothBard fondly remembers working with Impus Major on these. "OK, Impus Major, how would you go about catching a leprechaun? OK, what are we going to need for that?"
She'd help him by prompting him with questions so he'd see the holes in his design (for example, you can't dig a hole in the classroom floor), but the trap, how it was sprung, and everything else was his idea. Then she'd buy all the parts he needed and he'd construct it with help from her.
A friend of GothBard's has her first child with the same assignment. "Oh, we just ordered a kit online." Other parents are, "Oh, we just asked ChatGPT for ideas and then built the trap for him."
So, um, this entire exercise is one of creativity (come up with a trap) and hands-on learning (build the trap) and you're throwing both of those out in favor of convenience.
What, exactly, are you teaching your kids with this?
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What, exactly, are you teaching your kids with this?
How to throw money at a problem until it goes away.
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Um... both you and Musk have said that AI will eliminate the need for white-collar employees, putting tens of millions out of work. And unlike you, those tens of millions of people HAVE to work to pay for their homes, their food, their health care, and their education. So yeah, guess what? People hate existential threats to their existence! Go figure!
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In homeschool we had to call grandma and make her cards, because not only was she Irish, it was also her birthday.
Mildly political, but mostly Grumpy Old Man tirade: R.I.P. childhood creativity.
Many schools in California have kids in the lower grades (preschool through maybe 1st grade) build leprechaun traps for St. Patrick's Day. GothBard fondly remembers working with Impus Major on these. "OK, Impus Major, how would you go about catching a leprechaun? OK, what are we going to need for that?"
She'd help him by prompting him with questions so he'd see the holes in his design (for example, you can't dig a hole in the classroom floor), but the trap, how it was sprung, and everything else was his idea. Then she'd buy all the parts he needed and he'd construct it with help from her.A friend of GothBard's has her first child with the same assignment. "Oh, we just ordered a kit online." Other parents are, "Oh, we just asked ChatGPT for ideas and then built the trap for him."
So, um, this entire exercise is one of creativity (come up with a trap) and hands-on learning (build the trap) and you're throwing both of those out in favor of convenience.What, exactly, are you teaching your kids with this?
I never got an assignment like that.
** spoiler omitted **
Many people saw machines and automation take their jobs away too, and they weren't exactly happy.
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** spoiler omitted **Many people saw machines and automation take their jobs away too, and they weren't exactly happy.
Yeah, and how many of the laid-off factory workers or assembly line people then immediately went home and bought robots to automate their chores?
The personal computer shows how massive social change can happen organically: While mainframes existed for decades, they were only touched by a few specialists. Along came game consoles and Apple, who sold first to consumers as a curiosity. Once personal computers were well-established in the home, IBM and Microsoft combined to add it to businesses as just one more useful tool for the worker. As workers got accustomed to using their personal computers more and more for work, businesses could phase out the other, more obsolete tools.
By comparison for AI, ChatGPT was released as a "cute toy" and started getting embraced by the masses, so Step 1 was successful. But then many corporations, ours included, have basically said, "Here's a chatbot. Use it to improve your day-to-day productivity so we can eventually replace you with it." There's nothing organic about the approach, and it's openly threatening.
And somehow that's not going over as well.
** EDITED **
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Translation: "We stole all your knowledge and art, and now we're gonna put a meter on it and sell it back to you. You're welcome."
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** spoiler omitted **Many people saw machines and automation take their jobs away too, and they weren't exactly happy.
It's almost like the Luddites had a point and weren't just the industry-hating terrorists they keep getting portrayed as.
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So, I go in for cataract surgery, which is covered by my insurance. *Except* I have an annual $4,000 deductible, which is pretty standard practice these days, so the $1,500 bill gets the "in network" discount to $500, but I have to pay that because deductible. Then I have the pre- and post-visits with $35 copays each, so I'm out $570 to the surgeon herself. But wait! There's more!
She doesn't own the building she works in. So there's a "facilities fee" for her to actually be able to use the operating room. Oops! Another $430 out of pocket for a 30-minute surgery. I'm up to $1,000 out-of-pocket.
Oh? Did you want an anaesthesiologist? Pretty much none of them are in-network, so that'll be another $800 so you don't have to be in pain during the surgery. Now I'm up to $1,800.
Per eye.
Now my surgery is up to $3,600, which still doesn't hit my deductible, so I'm paying all of it out-of-pocket.
In short, I have what is considered "very good" medical insurance in the U.S. I was diagnosed with cataracts. The insurance company approved my surgery and my surgeon was in-network. And it still cost me $3,600.
And that is U.S. healthcare in a nutshell.
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Sir, I'm an American and I still don't understand American Healthcare.
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It's simple, they make the rules as complicated as possible to extract the most money from the customer for the least expense spent on care.
The lowest deductible was $7500. The out of pocket maximum was $10k to $19k. With the monthly premium being at minimum $1000-1200.
I'm waiting to see what the actual costs for the company plan will be, since that actually has all of our doctors in-network. (The marketplace plans were hit or miss.) But the estimated costs are around $1000 a month for premiums, because the company only pays for part of MY premium, not Cyz's. And the deductible is still like 5k with a 10k maximum, at least for Cyz.
So we are continuing to pay the full $1700 COBRA premium from PF Changs since Shanna has already hit the 3k out of pocket max, until the new insurance becomes available. Then we'll have to start the maximum over, with triple the yearly expense going forward. US healthcare is garbage.
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It's almost like the Luddites had a point and weren't just the industry-hating terrorists they keep getting portrayed as.** spoiler omitted **Many people saw machines and automation take their jobs away too, and they weren't exactly happy.
Most of what we hear is the propaganda of the wealthy, written to discredit those who opposed them.
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Well, at least the idiocy has an unintended side effect of improving my health.
Because insurance doesn't pay for things I have to make my own payments.
Because credit card fees have been deregulated health care companies won't take credit cards any more.
Because it's no longer worth paying a web service to accept online payments any more, health care companies require physical checks.
Because of the 2006 gutting of the U.S. Postal Service post boxes are few and far between.
So this morning I wrote out physical checks like it's 1999 and went on a morning constitutional to reach a mailbox so I could mail them in.
I'm sure that was their plan all along: Get Americans walking again!
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So this morning I wrote out physical checks like it's19991987 and went on a morning constitutional to reach a mailbox so I could mail them in.
In other news, Crookshanks saw her mother out in the wild the other day at Walgreens picking up a prescription and tried to have a civil conversation with her. Her mother then threatened to and started to call the cops on her for "accosting her in public".
Yeah.
Blimey.
Ouch.
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So this morning I wrote out physical checks like it's19991987 and went on a morning constitutional to reach a mailbox so I could mail them in.
O... M... G...
They are all too young to have been alive in 1987. But they SO nailed it ALL. It is perfect.
** spoiler omitted **
...Altman be praised?
I could get a bit of what NH said, but TOZ? That was clearly some sort of ď̴̜͔̭͚̖̱͔̫͔̘̞͆͒̿̆̀̀̌ą̷̨̘͚̮̣̗͊͐̈́̈́͑̒͝r̵̨̢̛͔̟̫̯͔̹̬͈̥͍͔̗̀̄̌̎̕͜͝ͅk̷̛̏̌̌̌͗͋̇̕͠͝ ̡̱̰̯̯̗͓̺̺̫̄̌ ̷͉̈́́̃̽̎͐̊̍̈́̉̂̅̃͘s̸̯̤̮̈́̎͐̎͝p̵̡̨̛͇̬̙̱̞̹̞͉̍̉̾̿̓͜͝ȅ̶̼͕̘̖̺̪̭̺̘̣̘̼̦͌̕͠e̶͉̯̫̼͔͐̍͋ ̬̣̥͍ͅc̶̣̙̙͍̤̦͈̱͙̺͇͚̲͔̽̅̈́͜h̴͈̺͈̥̖̖̻̳̼̯͈̭̆͐̾̎̆̄̑...
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I am just waking up from a dream in which the Paizo.com messageboards were aflame due to someone(I'm not sure who) discovering that I had a torrid affair going on with Treppa. The world went mad at the revelation of this news, and I became a pariah overnight, as it somehow was decided that I seduced her somehow? There were entire topics dedicated to this and how much of a lothario I was, although your friend and mine Celestial Healer, made a lengthy post about how he was still, and would always be, my friend. I made a post that sorta kinda explained things, maybe? I know I said something about leaving Treppa alone, and that it was okay to be mad at me but that she was blameless. But I am not sure what the details of that post were because it was decided that I needed to go into exile. I got onto a double decker Greyhound bus that had a VERY long line, and eventually I paid for my ticket. I tried to get a seat at the bottom level, but there were already people going upstairs because it was full, and so, upstairs I went. But this is where things get stranger- apparently upstairs was all private rooms with double beds and mini fridges. I start to set up my room when some...imp of some kind? starts playing pranks on me, claiming to be my roommate, and blowing balloons up everywhere and popping them for fun. This is beyond irritating, and so I go into the mini fridge to get refreshments. It turns out its full of old mexi-cokes and other sodas, and both I and the imp get excited by this, and we cease hostilities to enjoy rare sodas. We discover that the sodas not only have been already opened, but have been filled with water, some of which was drank already. At this point the imp and I look at each other infuriated. What kind of monster DOES this?
Then I woke up.
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I am just waking up from a dream in which the Paizo.com messageboards were aflame due to someone(I'm not sure who) discovering that I had a torrid affair going on with Treppa. The world went mad at the revelation of this news, and I became a pariah overnight, as it somehow was decided that I seduced her somehow? There were entire topics dedicated to this and how much of a lothario I was, although your friend and mine Celestial Healer, made a lengthy post about how he was still, and would always be, my friend. I made a post that sorta kinda explained things, maybe? I know I said something about leaving Treppa alone, and that it was okay to be mad at me but that she was blameless. But I am not sure what the details of that post were because it was decided that I needed to go into exile. I got onto a double decker Greyhound bus that had a VERY long line, and eventually I paid for my ticket. I tried to get a seat at the bottom level, but there were already people going upstairs because it was full, and so, upstairs I went. But this is where things get stranger- apparently upstairs was all private rooms with double beds and mini fridges. I start to set up my room when some...imp of some kind? starts playing pranks on me, claiming to be my roommate, and blowing balloons up everywhere and popping them for fun. This is beyond irritating, and so I go into the mini fridge to get refreshments. It turns out its full of old mexi-cokes and other sodas, and both I and the imp get excited by this, and we cease hostilities to enjoy rare sodas. We discover that the sodas not only have been already opened, but have been filled with water, some of which was drank already. At this point the imp and I look at each other infuriated. What kind of monster DOES this?
Then I woke up.
We cannot condone the having of affairs with other members of FaWtL, regardless of how long it has been since they have posted. Neither can we condone the use of whatever the f$*# you took before bed in order to have such a dream.
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I start to set up my room when some...imp of some kind? starts playing pranks on me, claiming to be my roommate, and blowing balloons up everywhere and popping them for fun. This is beyond irritating, and so I go into the mini fridge to get refreshments. It turns out its full of old mexi-cokes and other sodas, and both I and the imp get excited by this, and we cease hostilities to enjoy rare sodas.
Almost like true adopted brothers!
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fever dreamTwo reactions.
1) I'll have what he's having.
What's funny about this is that the presence of my *other* favorite dragon, Drejk, right above Freehold's post, combined with my current sleep-deprived state, had me at first thinking that YOU were the OP.
Which will never not be funny.
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We cannot condone the having of affairs with other members of FaWtL, regardless of how long it has been since they have posted. Neither can we condone the use of whatever the f&@! you took before bed in...I am just waking up from a dream in which the Paizo.com messageboards were aflame ...
Then I woke up.
(Shakes head in puzzlement)
We can't?I mean, I know the secret kinks of a fair few FaWtLites past and present (except for NH, oddly, and he's the one I've known the best and longest, because I respect his privacy), and with a few notable exceptions, y'all aren't exactly gonna pass any purity tests.
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We cannot condone the having of affairs with other members of FaWtL, regardless of how long it has been since they have posted. Neither can we condone the use of whatever the f&@! you took before bed in...I am just waking up from a dream in which the Paizo.com messageboards were aflame ...
Then I woke up.(Shakes head in puzzlement)
We can't?I mean, I know the secret kinks of a fair few FaWtLites past and present (except for NH, oddly, and he's the one I've known the best and longest, because I respect his privacy), and with a few notable exceptions, y'all aren't exactly gonna pass any purity tests.
We also cannot condone testing people for purity. That way lies really unpleasant behavior.
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Last night seems to have been the night for odd dreams.
I trained myself by and large not to remember my dreams, because when you have PTSD, they can be really [vulgar expletive redacted] disturbing.
But sometimes when I'm extremely exhausted, I lower my guard and some creep through.
Last night's was weird.
I was out front of a pub/tattoo parlor with patio tables, contemplating getting a drink, because it was a nice day. It was apparently a slow day for ink, because one of the artists came out to say, "no waiting, ma'am, live a little, get your first tattoo!"
I told him I'd already had my first, long ago, and he probably wouldn't be able to faithfully render what I wanted because it was a bit complex.
He bristled at this and demanded I explain.
I said I'd had a dream that I was standing with a friend on an observation platform--the kind with the big standing binoculars you put a coin into--on a cliff on the edge of a wide, pristine bay. There were dolphins playing in the surf. I was watching them. I drew the pouch with my tarot pack out of my handbag and did the daily one-card draw for contemplation and came up with the "four of diamonds" (yes, it was a four of diamonds like in a playing card pack, which in no way resembles my actual tarot deck, but diamonds correspond to pentacles, so four of pentacles). The image on the card was four dolphins leaping out of the water together in formation, like a living sculpture, with the motto, "So long and thanks for all the fish" in script at the bottom. I pointed to the V of my right hand between my thumb and my index finger and said, "The dream made it clear that I need a rendering of that card right here. But I don't think you can do it."
I looked it up after I woke this morning. Four of Pentacles frequently reads as possessiveness/hoarding/scarcity mindset. Which is kind of interesting/cool combined with the message on the card in the dream-within-a-dream.
And, no, I am not a fan of hand tattoos. I do have a tramp stamp of an art nouveau dragonfly, done in the style of Alphonse Mucha, because of course I do. Also because in Hopi mythology, dragonflies carry the souls of the dead. But I draw the line at dolphins, the yin-yang symbol, or any kanji.
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Fantasy Monster: Giant Clockwork Rooster
Smack a vampire with a giant cock...
We cannot condone the having of affairs with other members of FaWtL, regardless of how long it has been since they have posted. Neither can we condone the use of whatever the f&@! you took before bed in...I am just waking up from a dream in which the Paizo.com messageboards were aflame ...
Then I woke up.(Shakes head in puzzlement)
We can't?I mean, I know the secret kinks of a fair few FaWtLites past and present (except for NH, oddly, and he's the one I've known the best and longest, because I respect his privacy), and with a few notable exceptions, y'all aren't exactly gonna pass any purity tests.
lisamarlene. This is...quite the left turn in terms of topic.
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Fantasy Monster: Giant Clockwork Rooster
Smack a vampire with a giant cock...
..then again...
I had a longer dream last night, though – sadly – the only part I actually can recall is an advertisement/training video of winter outdoor survival course, where the instructor created "a tenet" by hugging a tree and using a piece of scrapped bark, moss, and possibly some pine branches as sort of blanket/wrapping around themselves.
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lisamarlene. This is...quite the left turn in terms of topic.We cannot condone the having of affairs with other members of FaWtL, regardless of how long it has been since they have posted. Neither can we condone the use of whatever the f&@! you took before bed in...I am just waking up from a dream in which the Paizo.com messageboards were aflame ...
Then I woke up.(Shakes head in puzzlement)
We can't?I mean, I know the secret kinks of a fair few FaWtLites past and present (except for NH, oddly, and he's the one I've known the best and longest, because I respect his privacy), and with a few notable exceptions, y'all aren't exactly gonna pass any purity tests.
I'm not ADVOCATING it.
I'm just saying, none of us should exactly be quick to make the finger-wag of judgement.
How shitty and useless are SnoutTome's advertising algorithms?
It offered me an ad for "cleaning your Mac"...
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I'm not ADVOCATING it.
I'm just saying, none of us should exactly be quick to make the finger-wag of judgement.
I'd say be careful what you're wagging...
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I am just waking up from a dream in which the Paizo.com messageboards were aflame due to someone(I'm not sure who) discovering that I had a torrid affair going on with Treppa. The world went mad at the revelation of this news, and I became a pariah overnight, as it somehow was decided that I seduced her somehow? There were entire topics dedicated to this and how much of a lothario I was, although your friend and mine Celestial Healer, made a lengthy post about how he was still, and would always be, my friend. I made a post that sorta kinda explained things, maybe? I know I said something about leaving Treppa alone, and that it was okay to be mad at me but that she was blameless. But I am not sure what the details of that post were because it was decided that I needed to go into exile. I got onto a double decker Greyhound bus that had a VERY long line, and eventually I paid for my ticket. I tried to get a seat at the bottom level, but there were already people going upstairs because it was full, and so, upstairs I went. But this is where things get stranger- apparently upstairs was all private rooms with double beds and mini fridges. I start to set up my room when some...imp of some kind? starts playing pranks on me, claiming to be my roommate, and blowing balloons up everywhere and popping them for fun. This is beyond irritating, and so I go into the mini fridge to get refreshments. It turns out its full of old mexi-cokes and other sodas, and both I and the imp get excited by this, and we cease hostilities to enjoy rare sodas. We discover that the sodas not only have been already opened, but have been filled with water, some of which was drank already. At this point the imp and I look at each other infuriated. What kind of monster DOES this?
Then I woke up.
I'm pretty sure you meant TWO imps of some kind...
when some...imp of some kind? starts playing pranks on me, claiming to be my roommate, and blowing balloons up everywhere and popping them for funI'm pretty sure you meant TWO imps of some kind...
Let's face it, Freehold was asking for that when he slipped you the adoption papers to sign...
The question is, which Imp would blow balloons up and which would pop them?
I'm not ADVOCATING it.
I'm just saying, none of us should exactly be quick to make the finger-wag of judgement.
We are an ethics committee. Finger wagging is kinda what we do.