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The last few days before a LONG vacation are *so* hard.
At work I've finished the two courses I promised I'd hand off before I went, and it looks like I'll make it through the third without breaking a sweat.
At home, it's the big, "Just how many groceries should I bother buying when we're going to be throwing them all out on Sunday anyway?"
So it's kind of forcing myself to go through the routine, knowing that the routine will be vastly disrupted in just a few days.
Bleah.
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I would pay hard currency to watch a webseries of Londo Mollari attempting to perform everyday mundane tasks and profusely swearing.I was watching Jurassic park the other day and thought to myself "Not only does he have a stupid name, but he's a terrible driver."Peter's not a stupid name, just dull. I didn't know he was a bad driver, though.
Yes. So much yes.
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Looks like the Great Western Road Trip isn't going to happen this summer.
1) We need to shift money into other areas of life, as life happens. We've got some work on the house to do, among other things.
2) My company overhauled our PTO system and the new system is...ridden with horrendous leaps of logic and implemented by children features, so my PTO won't cover for the length of trip that I'm wanting to do until next year.
They went from a yearly use-it-or-lose-it set up to a yearly rollover up to a maximum of x hours deal. Great! Except that the previous system did a few things:
1) Initial "allotment" of your PTO on Jan 1, so that you could take time off in Jan/Feb/March if you wanted or needed to.
2) Gain x amount of PTO per pay period based on your tenure and rank.
3) Second "allotment" of your PTO on June 1, so that when combined with what you've accumulated you should be able to take the time for the vacation.
4) Continued accumulation per pay period, up to the maximum you get based on tenure and rank.
5) The ability to dip into your future PTO if needed. So if I wanted to take a 2 week vacation in February but don't have the time built up yet, that's ok as long as you don't quit your job or get fired before you've brought your PTO balance up to a positive number. If you part ways with the company with a negative PTO balance, you'll have to pay that money back.
The new system did away with the Jan/June "allocations". It also did away with the ability to dip into future PTO. So this first year means nobody has any ability to take serious time off until later in the second half of the year. If you don't have the hours available right now, you can't take the time.
Worse: Say I want to get my name in early for taking time off the week of Thanksgiving, but I don't have the hours available right now. I can't put in for that time off. Not until I have the hours available. So I wait. And I finally submit the time off. But now you get sick for a couple days. You don't have the time available to get those two days paid, because you submitted early for that vacation. But you have 3 weeks per year of PTO. You've only submitted time for three days, and it's not letting you submit time for anything else because you haven't accumulated it. It's asinine.
Once people start accumulating time and letting it roll over to the next year, some of those problems will iron themselves out, but it's still illogical and a kick in various sensitive areas with its bad implementation.
They also removed a lot of paid holidays for one of our divisions, and reduced the amount of overall PTO a lot of the longer-tenured employees received.
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Yes. So much yes.I would pay hard currency to watch a webseries of Londo Mollari attempting to perform everyday mundane tasks and profusely swearing.I was watching Jurassic park the other day and thought to myself "Not only does he have a stupid name, but he's a terrible driver."Peter's not a stupid name, just dull. I didn't know he was a bad driver, though.
With a pause for complaining where is Vir when he is needed while looking at photo of Stephen Furst...
The only think that would make that better was if Vir and G'Kar could be part of that too :(
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
I would pay hard currency to watch a webseries of Londo Mollari attempting to perform everyday mundane tasks and profusely swearing.I was watching Jurassic park the other day and thought to myself "Not only does he have a stupid name, but he's a terrible driver."Peter's not a stupid name, just dull. I didn't know he was a bad driver, though.
in the alternate reality where we married, I'm sure this was our first dance.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Looks like the Great Western Road Trip isn't going to happen this summer.
1) We need to shift money into other areas of life, as life happens. We've got some work on the house to do, among other things.
2) My company overhauled our PTO system and the new system is...ridden with
horrendous leaps of logic and implemented by childrenfeatures, so my PTO won't cover for the length of trip that I'm wanting to do until next year.They went from a yearly use-it-or-lose-it set up to a yearly rollover up to a maximum of x hours deal. Great! Except that the previous system did a few things:
1) Initial "allotment" of your PTO on Jan 1, so that you could take time off in Jan/Feb/March if you wanted or needed to.
2) Gain x amount of PTO per pay period based on your tenure and rank.
3) Second "allotment" of your PTO on June 1, so that when combined with what you've accumulated you should be able to take the time for the vacation.
4) Continued accumulation per pay period, up to the maximum you get based on tenure and rank.
5) The ability to dip into your future PTO if needed. So if I wanted to take a 2 week vacation in February but don't have the time built up yet, that's ok as long as you don't quit your job or get fired before you've brought your PTO balance up to a positive number. If you part ways with the company with a negative PTO balance, you'll have to pay that money back.The new system did away with the Jan/June "allocations". It also did away with the ability to dip into future PTO. So this first year means nobody has any ability to take serious time off until later in the second half of the year. If you don't have the hours available right now, you can't take the time.
Worse: Say I want to get my name in early for taking time off the week of Thanksgiving, but I don't have the hours available right now. I can't put in for that time off. Not until I have the hours available. So I wait. And I finally submit the time off. But now you get sick for a couple days. You don't...
we switched to a system like that for one year.
One.
The bloodbath that was known as Thanksgiving-New Years was not nice. Nor was working from January to March with no breaks.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Looks like the Great Western Road Trip isn't going to happen this summer.
1) We need to shift money into other areas of life, as life happens. We've got some work on the house to do, among other things.
2) My company overhauled our PTO system and the new system is...ridden with
horrendous leaps of logic and implemented by childrenfeatures, so my PTO won't cover for the length of trip that I'm wanting to do until next year.They went from a yearly use-it-or-lose-it set up to a yearly rollover up to a maximum of x hours deal. Great! Except that the previous system did a few things:
1) Initial "allotment" of your PTO on Jan 1, so that you could take time off in Jan/Feb/March if you wanted or needed to.
2) Gain x amount of PTO per pay period based on your tenure and rank.
3) Second "allotment" of your PTO on June 1, so that when combined with what you've accumulated you should be able to take the time for the vacation.
4) Continued accumulation per pay period, up to the maximum you get based on tenure and rank.
5) The ability to dip into your future PTO if needed. So if I wanted to take a 2 week vacation in February but don't have the time built up yet, that's ok as long as you don't quit your job or get fired before you've brought your PTO balance up to a positive number. If you part ways with the company with a negative PTO balance, you'll have to pay that money back.The new system did away with the Jan/June "allocations". It also did away with the ability to dip into future PTO. So this first year means nobody has any ability to take serious time off until later in the second half of the year. If you don't have the hours available right now, you can't take the time.
Worse: Say I want to get my name in early for taking time off the week of Thanksgiving, but I don't have the hours available right now. I can't put in for that time off. Not until I have the hours available. So I wait. And I finally submit the time off. But now you get sick for a couple days. You don't...
And that right there, my friends, is how companies lose all their best employees to the competition.
Holy carp. I have never seen anything so punitive and stupid. And I worked for Global Megacorporation back in the days where you maxed out at 25 days off a year, including vacation and holidays.
(I already have serious issues with companies that roll sick time into PTO unless they're exceedingly generous with said PTO, but not being able to borrow after a reorg is just sick...)
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Oh, by the by, so far Attack on Titan Season 3 rocks. I'm glad the kids convinced me to watch it.
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My company sucks.And that right there, my friends, is how companies lose all their best employees to the competition.
Holy carp. I have never seen anything so punitive and stupid. And I worked for Global Megacorporation back in the days where you maxed out at 25 days off a year, including vacation and holidays.
(I already have serious issues with companies that roll sick time into PTO unless they're exceedingly generous with said PTO, but not being able to borrow after a reorg is just sick...)
One of my techs ended up taking a day unpaid and then worked an extra 2 hours per day for the rest of the week to make up for it for a medical procedure because he didn't have the hours accrued yet in January.
"But now he'll get to take the time off at a later time, so he's coming out ahead in this!" is what the HR rep cheerfully said to me.
And yes, it's all one bucket for sick, vacation, etc.
EDIT: Clarification. I missed some punctuation. "Working" for an extra two hours per day. He was officially working. I had him "working" off site on a very important project. Yes. That's it exactly.
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I'm contemplating taking Friday off as well. I have a mental issue with holiday-workday-weekend.It's my choice if I work on Friday.
On the one hand, we can use the money.
On the other hand, I could use an extra day off.
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Contemplation didn't take long. I've submitted for the time off.
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Yeah, I'll gripe a LOT about how Global Megacorporation does a LOT of things, but working under a manager whose entire attitude is, "If you hit your deadlines and do a good job, and are available when I need you, then I don't give a rat's patootie what hours you work," has made me stay there for 15 years now.
It's worth its weight in gold.
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I'm at a park with the kids for the afternoon while my niece has her nap.
It was good to spend time with old friends and cousins, and I like the part of road trips where there are long stretches of undeveloped land, deserts or prairies or mountains, between the travel plazas.
But it would be better if it were easier to get good food on the road.
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I'm at a park with the kids for the afternoon while my niece has her nap.
It was good to spend time with old friends and cousins, and I like the part of road trips where there are long stretches of undeveloped land, deserts or prairies or mountains, between the travel plazas.
But it would be better if it were easier to get good food on the road.
Freehold is taking a page from the Fanboy book this con and is making food to travel with and bringing food from home.
If only I was in a Sheraton suite. I would cook.
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in the alternate reality where we married, I'm sure this was our first dance.I would pay hard currency to watch a webseries of Londo Mollari attempting to perform everyday mundane tasks and profusely swearing.I was watching Jurassic park the other day and thought to myself "Not only does he have a stupid name, but he's a terrible driver."Peter's not a stupid name, just dull. I didn't know he was a bad driver, though.
In that reality, we'd be about 40 minutes from eating homemade pulled pork, steamed corn on the cob, baked potatoes, and garlic toast.
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Today's gaming session never really recovered after the arrival of the kittens...
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Yeah, I'll gripe a LOT about how Global Megacorporation does a LOT of things, but working under a manager whose entire attitude is, "If you hit your deadlines and do a good job, and are available when I need you, then I don't give a rat's patootie what hours you work," has made me stay there for 15 years now.
It's worth its weight in gold.
Amen.
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I came about as close to a heat stroke as a person can get, without actually having a heat stroke (I've been working outside for 17 years, I know what a heat stroke feels like).
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I came about as close to a heat stroke as a person can get, without actually having a heat stroke (I've been working outside for 17 years, I know what a heat stroke feels like).
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In that reality, we'd be about 40 minutes from eating homemade pulled pork, steamed corn on the cob, baked potatoes, and garlic toast.in the alternate reality where we married, I'm sure this was our first dance.I would pay hard currency to watch a webseries of Londo Mollari attempting to perform everyday mundane tasks and profusely swearing.I was watching Jurassic park the other day and thought to myself "Not only does he have a stupid name, but he's a terrible driver."Peter's not a stupid name, just dull. I didn't know he was a bad driver, though.
we would stop the ceremony to eat?
My "mmphmnem" around a mouthful of pulled pork counts as "I do".
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I would mind. I don't want my gaming stopped just because of some frigging cats.Today's gaming session never really recovered after the arrival of the kittens...It never does.
And nobody minds.
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...For the 2018 tax year, including the massive tax increase Californians suffered, my net tax rates were 17.95% of my gross income (and that's an increase of almost 5% over the prior year).
I just cashed out some stock options, and they withheld at the "full rate" (what I'd pay without deductions, exemptions, or the like): 41.94%. Ouch!...
So...
Your net tax rate for 2018 were around 18%...*Leafs through last years tax papers*
Mine was…40.97%
So yay for the for the all-encompassing Nordic well-fare state?
Seriously though, I don't really mind paying that much. All the things. healthcare, education and so on, we have offered up here either free or government-subsidized are well worth it.
Unfortunately with them comes quite complex and expensive bureaucratic systems (especially when you consider we're only around 5.75 mil. ppl. up here), that need near constant trimming, evaluation and restructuring (which again cost more money) to function at an adequate degree of efficiency.
Oh, quick question for the European FaWtLers: Is tipping officially dead in Europe?
That's the travel advice we 'Merikuns are given, so I don't plan on tipping anyone, but are there still areas where you're expected to tip?
(Personally, I'd love to see tipping abolished worldwide, so Europe's lead makes me happy, but I figure I'd better double-check with people who actually, y'know, live there instead of relying on advice from the interwebs.)
Up here in fairy-tale Denmark tipping is mostly considered dead.
You don't see it done in most establishments, particularly in the higher-end and posh eateries where it might be taken as somewhat of a low-brow or plebian thing to do.The reasoning is, that since most places (you know, none chain restaurants) are required to pay a "living wage" to their servers, then they shouldn't have to "beg" for tips in order to pad their salaries.
Now this has some knock-on effects, mainly that while your average server might be friendly enough, you shouldn't expect them to be doing anything extra in order to make you feel that your business there is particularly appreciated. They are there to do a job (ie taking your order, serving your food and basic table cleaning), not to make you feel special.
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I recently took a poll of the household and we had a unanimous decision on favorite superhero.
Deadpool.
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As far as requesting time off from work, I wouldn't know how I've never asked for time off, I suppose I'd probably just text the boss.
At Toys R Us they had a form you had to fill out and then the scheduling manager would forget about it and schedule you anyway and then they try to put it on you to fix it or cave, which I didn't do.
"Well, you have to find someone to cover your shifts" "No, YOU have to find someone to cover my shifts, I'm going camping".
It pays to Office Space your job sometimes.
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I recently took a poll of the household and we had a unanimous decision on favorite superhero.
Deadpool.
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I recently took a poll of the household and we had a unanimous decision on favorite superhero.
Deadpool.
"Deadpool Is My Spirit Animal"
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Spiderman. It is good.
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I recently took a poll of the household and we had a unanimous decision on favorite superhero.
Deadpool.
"Deadpool Is My Spirit Animal"
If only you knew the horrors deadpool has wrought upon the convention world...
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There's a reason I don't go to cons.
Well mostly it's cost, distance, the fact that it's full of people, and the fact that you inevitably get horribly sick after the fact.
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Hi, Kjel!
*Waves "Hello" belatedly late to John*
About to clock out. Good night, everyone.
Nighty-Night John.
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Spiderman. It is good.
I wanted to go today, but apparently it starts showing in cinemas here tomorrow. So next Wednesday, before session, is more likely.
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There's a reason I don't go to cons.
Well mostly it's cost, distance, the fact that it's full of people, and the fact that you inevitably get horribly sick after the fact.
Don't forget overpriced parking and obnoxious people asking if you're cosplaying Jesus every five minutes.
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Luckily temperatures have gotten down here again to normal.
Yeah, the temperatures are more bearable for now here too.
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There's a reason I don't go to cons.
Well mostly it's cost, distance, the fact that it's full of people, and the fact that you inevitably get horribly sick after the fact.
thanks for reminding me.
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Don't forget overpriced parking and obnoxious people asking if you're cosplaying Jesus every five minutes.There's a reason I don't go to cons.
Well mostly it's cost, distance, the fact that it's full of people, and the fact that you inevitably get horribly sick after the fact.
I am within walking distance of the con itself, and I look nothing like jesus. Or black Jesus. Or Hispanic Jesus. Or chinese Jesus.
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Don't forget overpriced parking and obnoxious people asking if you're cosplaying Jesus every five minutes.There's a reason I don't go to cons.
Well mostly it's cost, distance, the fact that it's full of people, and the fact that you inevitably get horribly sick after the fact.
...you could have some real fun with that.
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...you could have some real fun with that.Don't forget overpriced parking and obnoxious people asking if you're cosplaying Jesus every five minutes.There's a reason I don't go to cons.
Well mostly it's cost, distance, the fact that it's full of people, and the fact that you inevitably get horribly sick after the fact.
every jesus cosplayer I met has been cool, mellow dude.
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Ah, summer in California! Nothing like waking up, heading outside, and smelling a massive grass fire somewhere in the distance.
What's curious is that I don't see it reported in the news yet. Must be a fresh one...
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...you could have some real fun with that.Don't forget overpriced parking and obnoxious people asking if you're cosplaying Jesus every five minutes.There's a reason I don't go to cons.
Well mostly it's cost, distance, the fact that it's full of people, and the fact that you inevitably get horribly sick after the fact.
It's really not, everyone unloads their problems on you.
And let me tell you, you don't want to know what other people's problems are.
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Ah, summer in California! Nothing like waking up, heading outside, and smelling a massive grass fire somewhere in the distance.
What's curious is that I don't see it reported in the news yet. Must be a fresh one...
Ah, summer in Wisconsin! It's only 8:30 and it's already 80 degrees and you can smell someone using tar somewhere in the distance.