The fly still lives!
It's been landing on light bulbs and treasured belongings when it isn't mocking me.
I figure it'll slip up as soon as it reaches old age at some point this weekend.
This may be kronenberg level fly.
When New Neighbors said they'd been driven out of their old place due to noise complaints, I couldn't believe it: They don't play music nor instruments, they drive an electric car, and even when they're outside on the phone they keep their voices at a conversational level. They said, "Oh, it's the kids." But their kids are a quiet, well-behaved bunch EXCEPT...
It's Sunday morning. The toddler has been screaming for the last hour and a half nonstop. Outside. So as not to disturb the people in the house.
Yeah, listening to a screaming toddler every single morning starting at 6:00 am weekdays and 6:30 am weekends (he's inside before that, but I know he starts his screams at 4:30 am because I'm up then), and the fact that they take him outside every single morning to let him scream it out, NOW I understand why they had so many noise complaints against them...
EDIT: Even they admitted that they've never encountered a kid who cries as much as this one, and they have six kids between the two of them. I certainly haven't in all my time interacting with my friends' kids and the kids' friends.
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A sewer-dwelling rat-dragon.
Darksiders 3 finished...
It could have been much better game. Feels like a lot of lost potential here, comparing to previous games.
Story-wise ok, gameplay-wise meh. Exploration feels promising and neat at first... But then loses it with unsatisfactory rewards.
Yay, I have overcame multiple jump puzzles fighting against not always responsive controls only to get... A shard! Uh.
I hardly could meet the timing of dodges, and a lot of attacks lacked any prior telegraphing that I could notice and respond to reliably to defend against them, so I ended playing the game in a story mode.
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Yeah, listening to a screaming toddler every single morning starting at 6:00 am weekdays and 6:30 am weekends (he's inside before that, but I know he starts his screams at 4:30 am because I'm up then), and the fact that they take him outside every single morning to let him scream it out, NOW I understand why they had so many noise complaints against them...
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Adorable derp dragon stick topper A carved piece I'm very happy with. the shapes just don't show up well on camera.
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"I give up. I don't need college; I'm just gonna work at McDonald's."
"Hey, come on. At least shoot for Burger King."
"You'll have to go to McDonald's University."
"...is that a real place?"
Never a dull moment.
Ah, taxes.
The staggering underwithholding by the IRS has been a neverending thorn in my side, especially once Shiro pointed out (and I confirmed) that the maximum penalty they're allowed to assess is the amount you owe, so they have a vested interest in ensuring you owe as much as possible. Most years even though I have a mortgage (tax break) and two kids (tax break) and request -0- exemptions on my W-4, the IRS still routinely underwithholds by 5-10% of gross income. I shudder to think what it would be if I didn't have the mortgage and the kids.
So... this year GothBard got a job that pays roughly the same as mine (she makes more in raw income, but if you combine income, bonuses, and options I'm still a skosh ahead). I checked my estimated taxes in July and saw I needed to up my deductions because we were going to be $7000 short.
And yes, you know where this is going. I did my estimated taxes again over the weekend (an unfortunate habit required of tech workers, but I'll take the pain with the income), and we're another $6000 short.
How can the IRS continue to underwithhold by such a stupid amount? Other countries, and even the frigging state of California, have no such trouble. My California tax refund or payment at the end of the year is routinely within 1% of gross, and I never adjust my state taxes at all. If California can do it, why can't the Feds?
Money. They get money for doing it wrong. The epitome of a dumb system.
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...
I have never filled (my) taxes.
By the time I had a taxable income in Poland, the whole system was automated, based on tax advances withheld and reported by the employer (or a company that pays you, if it is a not-an-employment contract work, like mine), and you only have to fill in things like exemptions (none for me), costs of being self-emplyed (not self-employed), taxable payments from sources that don't withhold tax advance (none for me), and possibly other things that don't apply to me.
So every year for five or six years now, the system processed me, and I kept getting a (very small) tax refund, because I was always below the threshold of tax free income. I think I will slightly exceed the tax free threshold this year.
Though note that it is not the tax office that withholds your advances in any way, here. It is your employer/whoever pays you (or yourself if you are self-employed/run business) that is legally obligated to pay the advance in your name to the tax office based on the standard tax rates. Of course, if they screw up, you might be screwed up, or, in best case scenario, have to pay what they failed to pay.
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My understanding is that nowadays many, if not most, countries do it that way. The U.S. has lobbyists willing to spend tens of millions of dollars in bribes campaign contributions to prevent it from being feasible here.
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Oh, and because I know everyone here is horrifically concerned about my tax burden, I looked up the law and as log as I withhold at least 110% of what I paid in taxes last year they can't penalize me. So I have a nice, concrete number to work with.
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My understanding is that nowadays many, if not most, countries do it that way.
We do too.
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My understanding is that nowadays many, if not most, countries do it that way.We do too.
Yeah, the tax return from Her Majesty kept my finances up for a large part of another year...
Valheim (the board game) costs an arm and a leg ($250 plus shipping) for the biggest, miniature-filled version...
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Valheim (the board game) costs an arm and a leg ($250 plus shipping) for the biggest, miniature-filled version...
For that much I want to be able to belly rub the fenrir wolf in person.
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Valheim (the board game) costs an arm and a leg ($250 plus shipping) for the biggest, miniature-filled version...For that much I want to be able to belly rub the fenrir wolf in person.
That would be the 'arm and a leg' part of the price, yes.
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That would be the 'arm and a leg' part of the price, yes.Valheim (the board game) costs an arm and a leg ($250 plus shipping) for the biggest, miniature-filled version...For that much I want to be able to belly rub the fenrir wolf in person.
whistles innocently
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Anyone have actually seen Tyr standing on both of his legs?
Yeah, the tax return from Her Majesty kept my finances up for a large part of another year...My understanding is that nowadays many, if not most, countries do it that way.We do too.
Britain is ruled by a king these days, you know.
And now I want to watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail. But I was already wanting to watch the Red Hot Chili Peppers (Live at Slane Castle), because it’s Flea’s birthday. So many things to do… So little time.
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Valheim (the board game) costs an arm and a leg ($250 plus shipping) for the biggest, miniature-filled version...
And you know if Shiro were still in California we would now own it...
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That would be the 'arm and a leg' part of the price, yes.Valheim (the board game) costs an arm and a leg ($250 plus shipping) for the biggest, miniature-filled version...For that much I want to be able to belly rub the fenrir wolf in person.
Quibblemuch gets cookies.
Britain is ruled by a king these days, you know.Yeah, the tax return from Her Majesty kept my finances up for a large part of another year...My understanding is that nowadays many, if not most, countries do it that way.We do too.
It was mid-2015 when I cashed Her check.
Valheim (the board game) costs an arm and a leg ($250 plus shipping) for the biggest, miniature-filled version...And you know if Shiro were still in California we would now own it...
It has (allegedly) solo mode...
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Oh, and because I know everyone here is horrifically concerned about my tax burden, I looked up the law and as log as I withhold at least 110% of what I paid in taxes last year they can't penalize me. So I have a nice, concrete number to work with.
I am concerned, father.
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I am 10% done with my master's.
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I am 10% done with my master's.
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Tirade-o-the-day:
Customer: I need help with this issue.
Support: Here's a link to the documentation.
That level of "support" merits a firing, in my opinion. The support person already found the link. They need to follow the darned link and at the least copy-and-paste the relevant text into their response to prove that it exists.
Why?
Because as part of my job I'm required to read our customer support questions. More than half of them are answered with, "Here's a link to the relevant documentation." More than half the time that that response is used, the linked documentation does not contain the answer to the customer's question and we end up with a pissed-off customer. Even worse, since there's now an existing answer, the timeline of, "All questions will be answered within 24 hours," gets thrown out the window and said customer might have to wait a week or two to get a real answer.
It happens to me all the time, so I've taken to saying, "I have this question and I've checked these documents (links them all) and none of them contain the answer."
And yes, the standard support answer is, "Here's a link to the documentation," and they provide one of the links I just sent them.
It's cheap, but if that's going to be your support person's full-time job, I'd argue that you could save money by having a bot do it.
On the other hand, we have all our SOPs in Workday for the sites and the problem managers never reference them, just call or message us to fix what they could fix on their own.
Yeah, there's a whole special level of Hell reserved for end users. Real experiences:
NH: So, I asked you to reboot your machine. Did you?"EU: Of course I did! Right before you came over!
NH: Then why does your task manager show me processes that have been running for 8 days uninterrupted?
EU: It's lying to you!
NH: OK. I managed to clean out the virus this time, but you must stop clicking on links in email. You must not EVER open unsolicited links or documents that you receive, especially PDFs.
EU: You're talking about my entire job. I can't do my job if I don't click on those links and open those documents.
NH: Then buy a better antivirus program.
EU: No. They're all con men and they make my computer run slower!
NH: Then I'm not going to help you again.
.
But yeah, this is support for technical implementers; typically people who have been working with our product for years and who've had a new requirement come in that they don't know how to implement. They always go to docs first because docs is faster than trying to get support on the line, and their time is insanely limited. So telling them, "Please hold for up to 72 hours," then responding with a link to a doc they've already read is... erm... poor customer support.
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And my mother-in-law is such a shining example of the exact opposite that she deserves special mention. She despises computers to the point that she didn't even touch one until the mid-2000s, and then only to write poetry using WordPad. When she was widowed, she was forced to learn how to use email and online banking. I'd sit her down, show her how to open a browser, show her how to click the bookmark to her banking site, and she'd sit there with a notepad taking meticulous notes.
To this day she still doesn't know the difference between her monitor, her keyboard, and the actual computer. She has no idea what programs she's running. She is probably the least computer-savvy computer user I've ever encountered. Yet when she has an issue, she calls me up, I go over, I tell her how to recognize it and how to resolve it, she takes careful notes, and then a few months later I'll get a delighted email that she had the same problem, recognized it, went to her notes, and fixed it herself.
Other than her abject hatred of technology and refusal to learn how things work, she's a model end user: I show her how to fix something once, and she can fix it on her own forevermore.
My mom has a mixed record in that respect. A lot of problem comes from the simple fact that I have no idea what the program/interface looks on her side so I can't tell her where to find the right button.
She did made notes in a paper notebook about a lot of things and she did learn a bit to handle some things on her own. Her retention of acquired skills is less than stellar because of not enough repetition (so is mine when I have to handle some problems that I face once a few years, like, what was that function that I turned off/on when I re-installed program/Windows X years ago, and where it went in this edition).
First conference/training regarding SEO finished.
Out of planned 10:00 we really started at 10:04 when the last participant managed to connect and make the mic work and it ended around 10:50.
On the other hand, we have all our SOPs in Workday for the sites and the problem managers never reference them, just call or message us to fix what they could fix on their own.Yeah, there's a whole special level of Hell reserved for end users. Real experiences:
NH: So, I asked you to reboot your machine. Did you?"
EU: Of course I did! Right before you came over!
NH: Then why does your task manager show me processes that have been running for 8 days uninterrupted?
EU: It's lying to you!
I did have this happen at my last job.
As it turns out, IT had more or less turned off our ability to turn off the computer or something like that. Any time we shut down at the end of the day, nothing happened/there was a weird reboot? I'm not sure.
There was a huge schism in IT at that job.
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More Daylight Savings Hell: GothBard's entire division has been working on a milestone handoff for the last month or two and it's due next week, so of course all the emergency, "What can we do about this?" meetings are taking place. Since many of the team members are in Europe, the meetings are scheduled to start at 6:45 or 7:00 am PDT.
And if you check, thanks to Daylight Savings Time, we are currently experiencing the darkest mornings of the year. (Last year sunrise on October 31 was 7:33 am, whereas on December 21 it was earlier at 7:21 am).
And what enrages me is that the vast majority of people I talk to want to simply abolish DST entirely. "Let's just have normal time year-round." But because of the sportsball lobby, our choices are, "Stay with the current system, or go with permanent DST," neither of which anybody except sports parents want. Even sleep researchers say that permanent DST is less healthy than normal time.
If you don't like your kids playing sports in the dark, adjust your sports schedule, NOT the schedule of the world around you!
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(Last year sunrise on October 31 was 7:33 am, whereas on December 21 it was earlier at 7:21 am).
WOOOOOOOOOOOOO
And what enrages me is that the vast majority of people I talk to want to simply abolish DST entirely. "Let's just have normal time year-round." But because of the sportsball lobby, our choices are, "Stay with the current system, or go with permanent DST," neither of which anybody except sports parents want. Even sleep researchers say that permanent DST is less healthy than normal time.
If you don't like your kids playing sports in the dark, adjust your sports schedule, NOT the schedule of the world around you!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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Ah, the little things that bring joy to your life.
As I've mentioned, in Final Fantasy XIV we've been "adopted" by a larger, more hardcore guild. They're mostly in their 20s and 30s with all the interpersonal melodrama that that entails. Last night they were apparently having a particularly nasty issue when Shiro, clueless as always (and even if he hadn't been he wouldn't have cared), invited them all to join us for some map runs.
Within half an hour one of them PM'ed me: "It is impossible to stay in a foul mood around you three."
Yes, we were proud. And OMG we were horribly, horribly silly.
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More Daylight Savings Hell: GothBard's entire division has been working on a milestone handoff for the last month or two and it's due next week, so of course all the emergency, "What can we do about this?" meetings are taking place. Since many of the team members are in Europe, the meetings are scheduled to start at 6:45 or 7:00 am PDT.
And if you check, thanks to Daylight Savings Time, we are currently experiencing the darkest mornings of the year. (Last year sunrise on October 31 was 7:33 am, whereas on December 21 it was earlier at 7:21 am).
And what enrages me is that the vast majority of people I talk to want to simply abolish DST entirely. "Let's just have normal time year-round." But because of the sportsball lobby, our choices are, "Stay with the current system, or go with permanent DST," neither of which anybody except sports parents want. Even sleep researchers say that permanent DST is less healthy than normal time.
If you don't like your kids playing sports in the dark, adjust your sports schedule, NOT the schedule of the world around you!
This is America, sir.
Speaking of America, is there a bigger rip-off than "skip the line" passes?
Disneyland's one-day Park Hopper pass just topped $200, and they introduced a $400 one-day "skip the line" pass. So, if you pay $200 to get into the park, you will never get on a ride because you'll be behind an infinite loop of "skip the line people". I know; I experienced it at Universal Studios when I was chaperoning a trip. We got all the kids regular passes, and in their 14 hours at the park they averaged 3-4 rides each because the "regular" lines for any of the popular rides were 3+ hours long, and we vowed, "Never again, at least without skip the line passes."
So, give it a few months and nobody will enter the park without a skip the line pass. So everyone with a skip the line pass will line up in the exact same lines they did before because they all have the passes. Except now they've paid $400 to enter the park instead of $200. The beancounters and the executives are ecstatic. The customers somehow justify this treatment by saying, "Just think how bad it would have been if we hadn't bought the skip the line passes."
And Impus Major, as always, put it beautifully: "Thank you SO much for taking us to Disneyland so often when we were kids, so we never have to go there again."
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The little lad and I went to get our hair cut today, and when asked how he wanted his done by the barber, Sonic requested a bowl cut. Domestic Tyrant Longears countermanded that pretty quickly, and he had his usual discreet flat-top instead, since (even if a bowl cut is possible with Afro hair), neither the wife nor I are having him wandering around looking like Duane Dibbley.
In Indianapolis for dinner at Harry & Izzy's then going to catch the show for Randy Feltface.
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The little lad and I went to get our hair cut today, and when asked how he wanted his done by the barber, Sonic requested a bowl cut. Domestic Tyrant Longears countermanded that pretty quickly, and he had his usual discreet flat-top instead, since (even if a bowl cut is possible with Afro hair), neither the wife nor I are having him wandering around looking like Duane Dibbley.
"... Cat's alter ego without any of his cat instincts, intuition, vanity, or dress-sense."
That explains the bowl cut...
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The "fun" part of getting divorced is navigating everything the spouse handled.
Which is especially fun when said spouse also cut off contact with their daughter.
This week Crookshanks and I had to navigate the world of insurance billing and coverage.
The good news is I'll probably get a bit of my money back.
Still, incredibly confusing!
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Sonic requested a bowl cut. Domestic Tyrant Longears countermanded that pretty quickly, and he had his usual discreet flat-top instead, since (even if a bowl cut is possible with Afro hair), neither the wife nor I are having him wandering around looking like Duane Dibbley.
Oh, great, it is Roundheads vs Cavaliers all over again!
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Sonic requested a bowl cut. Domestic Tyrant Longears countermanded that pretty quickly, and he had his usual discreet flat-top instead, since (even if a bowl cut is possible with Afro hair), neither the wife nor I are having him wandering around looking like Duane Dibbley.Oh, great, it is Roundheads vs Cavaliers all over again!
Hey, look, I'm doing my best! You try coming up with something new after five thousand years!
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Twenty-one parent conference reports written. Four still to go. Then I'm done until March.
And yep, gave my cell phone number to a food delivery service and a week or two later the scam texts have started flying.
And they're -SO- bad that it's depressing that people fall for them. The first was at least semi-plausible: "You have added a new address to your Amazon account. If you did not do this, click here," with the only clue that it was fake was that it was a tinyurl link. Today's is a message from a 530 number that "The Usps" that I won't get a package due to incomplete address information, again with an obviously fake URL.
Erm... companies and government agencies use 800 or 888 numbers... if you're going to text me scams from fake numbers the least you could do is to get the fake number right.
Wow, this is depressing.
I'm filling out the voting guide/recommendations for the family, and I have all my notes from the March primary.
In every single race so far, the two final candidates are two I listed in March as, "Absolutely DO NOT vote for either of these two; they're both terrible."
So yeah, that's about how my vote goes around here.
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Wow, this is depressing.
I'm filling out the voting guide/recommendations for the family, and I have all my notes from the March primary.
In every single race so far, the two final candidates are two I listed in March as, "Absolutely DO NOT vote for either of these two; they're both terrible."
So yeah, that's about how my vote goes around here.
Well, at least you don't have to bother with deciding who to vote for...