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West coast invasionI had one of those once... the trick is to set out glue traps baited with fresh avocados and broccoli pizza. Should clear up after a few days.
Mmm... broccoli... pizza...
EDIT: Hey, if I'm gonna be a nature-lovin' Californian, I'm gonna be a nature-lovin' Californian!
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And here we go. Let me know whether you can access those videos.
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Um... DHL? I really don't feel I needed 22 emails over the last five days just to tell me that my coffee pot would eventually arrive. It just wasn't that important to me.comprehensive real-time tracking isn't just all the rage in logistics, for some companies -- it has become a standardized feature of the throughput from shipper to recipient, and the slightest error in that procedural has serious financial repercussions. don't ask me how i know that, 'cause i don't. but it just might be an avenue by which you can cut your costs, if ever a step is skipped. the process may be rather impenetrable, but if you ever notice one of your shipped packages "disappears" for more than 12 or 24 hours with zero flags, call customer service and complain.
again, i don't know anything, and i haven't said anything, and you didn't read this.
I got my coffee pot. It wasn't broken. I'm happy.
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yes, yes, we know you're a self-professed paladin of Civilization, but *must you* be so . . . so . . . "high-self-standards, lower-than-normal-expectations" all the time?? really??!
joke aside, though, the fact that they *were* that exactingly thorough with the process simply points to exactly that sort of thing: high standards.
enjoy your coffee!!
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The problem with getting my bibimbap served dolsot (hot stone bowl) instead of the ceramic bowl: yes, it makes the food taste better and crisps the rice, but this morning, all I can feel is how burnt my tongue is.
No, I didn't lick the bowl.
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yes, yes, we know you're a self-professed paladin of Civilization, but *must you* be so . . . so . . . "high-self-standards, lower-than-normal-expectations" all the time?? really??!
joke aside, though, the fact that they *were* that exactingly thorough with the process simply points to exactly that sort of thing: high standards.
enjoy your coffee!!
Yes. Yes he must.
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Sometimes I love my team.
I'm missing an important meeting because I'm going to a Babymetal concert.
Instead of chastising me, they all got excited and asked for links because they'd never heard of them. And right there during team meeting my manager started watching Doki Doki Morning.
Silly, silly people.
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Sometimes I love my team.
I'm missing an important meeting because I'm going to a Babymetal concert.
Instead of chastising me, they all got excited and asked for links because they'd never heard of them. And right there during team meeting my manager started watching Doki Doki Morning.
Silly, silly people.
Hermione and Val love that song!
Me: Okay phone, set an alarm called "movie" for Friday at 8 pm!
Phone: You got it Freehold! Calling Indiana Power Company like you asked!
Me:...what?
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I need to shave soon. I cannot hang out with Celestial Healer looking a horror.
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Me: Okay phone, set an alarm called "movie" for Friday at 8 pm!
Phone: You got it Freehold! Calling Indiana Power Company like you asked!
Me:...what?
And that is my eternal experience with voice recognition. Corporate wanted to know why I hand-write all my Closed Captions instead of using the highly-touted speech-to-text feature of the software they were paying a mint for.
I took one of the videos I wasn't done with, let the speech-to-text do its thing, and played the resulting comedy show for them with the sound muted so they couldn't hear what I'd actually said.
I have never been asked about using speech-to-text again.
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One of the few entertaining things about Teams or Zoom meetings is putting on auto captions, even more so if you decide to display them in (say) French, or Serbian when everyone's talking in English.
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I need to trim the beard soon. its spring and the critters need the nesting material.
I need to trim the beard soon. its spring and the critters need the nesting material.
Can't they nest in your beard?
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LOL. Impus Major caught me in the act!
Speaking of voice recognition, I was on the phone with my mail order pharmacy to reverse a double charge. Needless to say, they're all voice recognition; there's no longer even the option of pressing a button. And needless to say, I have never had voice recognition recognize the problem. I've never had it call 911 on me, either, so I guess that's a plus.
So I gave it a game try.
"In a few words, tell us why you are calling."
"I was double-billed."
"I understand you want to refill a prescription. Is that correct?"
...
"Now so we can better find your records, tell us your birthday."
"<gave them my birthday>"
"I'm sorry. I didn't understand. Please say it like this."
"I'm sorry. I didn't understand. Let's move on."
Impus Major fully approved.
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The crew was changing out the arsenic removal media. It was hard work and a long day. (But at least not 110 degrees F.) The rep for the media provider was there and took the crew out to dinner after we were done. I was invited too, so went along. We ate at a steak house. It was 85$ for my New York strip and a Guinness. The rep wanted to buy mine, but I’m not allowed to accept gratuities and such.
It was a good steak though…
I need to trim the beard soon. its spring and the critters need the nesting material.Can't they nest in your beard?
not unless they resume the rent.
Our local pub had one of the best steaks in the area at a pre-COVID "what a steal" price of $26. It's now up to $55, but it's still the best steak deal around here. $85 at a good steakhouse isn't that far out of line with prices around here.
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No work two days this week on account of rain, and it wasn't even that much. Iowans wouldn't last an hour in the Northeast...
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This week's selection of odd custom Iowa license plates:
3FKNKDS (a touch of resentment, perhaps?)
HAFACAR (on a Smart Fortwo, so fairly accurate)
TR09DOR (the fact that there are numbers in the name means this probably isn't the first "Trogdor" plate in the county...)
ANUSTRT (I pray to god this is supposed to mean "a new start")
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Damn bluebirds...
I was just about to make the same Rat Queens reference, but you beat me to it...
I'm having the opposite issue: Spring has finally arrived and we've had our first few "nice" days of the year last week and this. (High 60s to low 70s, mostly sunny, a slight breeze.). And there hasn't been a single one of those days where someone wasn't using high-decibel tools within 50' of my house for the entire working day, frequently gas-powered, so I haven't been able to open the windows to air out the house at all in spite of the nice weather.
The neighbor's house is the frustrating one. The guys who did the required structural repairs (drywall, painting, hardwood floor refinishing) were pleasantly quiet. Today marks the third day of gardening with a gas-powered weed whacker. Which baffles me, because when we moved back in to our current house our tenants hadn't tended the garden in years so our gardener came in and it took one day for him and his wife to clear the entire property. I don't know how these three guys are justifying taking 3 days to clean up the foliage on a 3750 square foot lot, over 2000 sq.ft. of which is covered by house or concrete.
So yeah, Monday I got the street repairs (a necessary distraction). Tuesday was these gardeners and our gardener (perfectly reasonable). But then Wednesday and today these gardeners are still here, and I'm thinking, "What's left to cut?"
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Damn bluebirds...I was just about to make the same Rat Queens reference, but you beat me to it...
RAT QUEENS TO THE SLAUGHTER!
As a final rant on the subject for the day, I think it all boils down to how you think about paying for services.
(1) That rip-off artist overcharged me! I'm going to demand 2/3 of my money back or else I'll sue them!
(2) Wow; they finished way faster than they said they would. I obviously overpaid. Next time I'll be more careful and talk them down in price.
(3) Wow! These guys are really good! I paid them the going rate and they finished way faster than they said they would! Awesome! Now I can move on to the next guys!
-----
I think the fundamental issue is that the technically correct answer is (3): You paid the going rate for a service and the service was finished ahead of time so you have received a concrete benefit. And yet every property manager with whom I've ever discussed the matter has had an attitude of (1), so every worker they hire makes sure they look busy for the entire allotted time. I don't think the guys next door are actually doing anything useful today; they're just making the property manager happy.
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As a final rant on the subject for the day, I think it all boils down to how you think about paying for services.
** spoiler omitted **
Captain Yesterday and David M Mallon would be the best people to consult on this. In my area finishing ahead of time would result in (1), because everyone plays loosey goosey with time and it would indeed seem like someone is ripping someone else off because depending on the type of arrangement made along with the definition of services, now nothing can happen for 2 days because work was supposed to be done at that time.
Captain Yesterday and David M Mallon would be the best people to consult on this. In my area finishing ahead of time would result in (1), because everyone plays loosey goosey with time and it would indeed seem like someone is ripping someone else off because depending on the type of arrangement made along with the definition of services, now nothing can happen for 2 days because work was supposed to be done at that time.As a final rant on the subject for the day, I think it all boils down to how you think about paying for services.
** spoiler omitted **
Yep. And that's the huge issue. When they keep it secret, everything goes smoothly. Every garage that has more than 3 mechanics has the manufacturer's list of "job times"; for example, replacing the brake pads is 1.5 hours of labor. So when you get your estimate it's for 1.5 hours of labor. And that's what they bill you for, even though an experienced mechanic might do it in 20 minutes and the new guy might take 2.5 hours. You're paying a price for a service, the time estimate is nonsense, but you don't see it so your cost matches the estimate and you're happy.
Once that service is being done in a public area, they do the same thing: "1000 square feet of yard typically takes 50 hours of labor so we're going to charge you $1250 and it should take 3 days."
But you get CY and his crew and they're done in 1 day. And people get angry because they got the best of the best and the job got done faster than expected. It shouldn't be a negative.
EDIT: GothBard put it well: There are two types of contract: "I will pay you $xxx to do this," or, "I will pay you $yy/hour to work on this until it is complete." Most yard work is of the first type, in which case it doesn't make sense to complain about it getting done early if they're charging a rate that's competitive with everyone else you talk to.
EDIT 2: I'll admit, I have more of a vested interest in this than most because today I got TWO sets of wandering gardeners aimlessly pushing leaf blowers around for no reason because the people who hired them insisted on getting "their money's worth". As I've mentioned, the Thai guys across the street routinely spend over an hour blowing the 40' in front of the house because they have nothing better to do and they're not allowed to leave or be inactive, and they were here today. Then there were the guys next door hired by the property managers, and I got to watch one of them spend 5 minutes weed whacking a small slab of concrete. Another, "Look busy in case the boss looks this way," moment.
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I don't run my own business, so I can't speak to pricing/bidding issues, but I will say that in 10+ years working in the trades, I've never seen a client tell someone to run out the clock in order to "get their money's worth." It's been my experience that people just want things finished (and not necessarily finished well, just finished in general). Maybe it's just a West Coast thing?
That said, I honestly can't think of a single example of a time where a job I was on got finished substantially early. It's like a law of physics-- jobs finish on time, or late, and if you're starting to run a little ahead of schedule, the universe will rearrange itself until you're running behind schedule again.
If you have Netflix, start watching The Grimm Variations. I watched Cinderella and it was one of the most horrifying pieces of anime I've ever seen. Not frightening. Horrifying.
Soooooo good!
Hm. I'll check it out after Dungeon Meshi.
No work two days this week on account of rain, and it wasn't even that much. Iowans wouldn't last an hour in the Northeast...
Yeah, Crookshanks and I are both from Seattle so we only missed a half a day and that was mostly because we can't do concrete work when it's 50 degrees and raining.
I don't run my own business, so I can't speak to pricing/bidding issues, but I will say that in 10+ years working in the trades, I've never seen a client tell someone to run out the clock in order to "get their money's worth." It's been my experience that people just want things finished (and not necessarily finished well, just finished in general). Maybe it's just a West Coast thing?
That said, I honestly can't think of a single example of a time where a job I was on got finished substantially early. It's like a law of physics-- jobs finish on time, or late, and if you're starting to run a little ahead of schedule, the universe will rearrange itself until you're running behind schedule again.
It is a west coast thing.
As a final rant on the subject for the day, I think it all boils down to how you think about paying for services.
** spoiler omitted **
Yeah, that's why everyone hates dealing with property managers and professional companies don't deal with them.
Property mangonels, on the other hand...
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Yeah, Crookshanks and I are both from Seattle so we only missed a half a day and that was mostly because we can't do concrete work when it's 50 degrees and raining.
"hey we need you to stop what you're doing and go help the masons
"Why?"It got too cold for the prisoners to be out there so now you have to do it...
"....
Needless to say it's a peaceful Friday with no one doing any loud work... so it's cloudy and 54°F with a breeze. I don't think even Freehold would open his windows for this.
Needless to say it's a peaceful Friday with no one doing any loud work... so it's cloudy and 54°F with a breeze. I don't think even Freehold would open his windows for this.
Are you sure you typed it right? It's 45 here (according to google, it's 10 pm, during the day the temperature was closer to 55) and my windows are open. Not wide open-open, but definitely open.
Why would anyone keep windows closed at 54?! o.O
(well, aside of intense wind that threatens to damage open windows, or an intense rain with wind coming at angles that would blow water in)
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I'm the one at work that estimates the labor hours for projects for clients. These are fixed rate contracts, so the hours estimate is what you're getting billed for regardless, unless the client starts materially changing the scope of the work.
Which is what happened recently with a company that had a domain consolidation project. After a discovery session where I snooped around their environment and asked about their secret dirty laundry (every IT department has stuff in their environment they don't want to admit to), I came up with 200 labor hours.
After I've put in approx 125 hours of work, they fired their IT director, asked me to stop work, reverse everything I've done, and consolidate their domains in a completely different way that I have specifically told them defeats the purpose of what they were wanting to accomplish in the first place.
It also materially changes the scope of the project.
We're adding another 100 hours of labor to their bill.
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Oh-so-political, but Fritzy hasn't gotten any exercise in a while:
Then, according to John Oliver, the drug manufacturer modified the delivery device (I noticed they'd removed the strap from the cover), somehow managing to renew their patent by doing so. And exactly as he said on his segment, my out-of-pocket cost went from under $5 per inhaler to over $100.
A couple of years ago when I finally ran out and I renewed and had to shell out over $110 for a single inhaler I decided I could live with diphenhydramine instead.
Unfortunately, GothBard has apparently been using my inhalers for her asthma and we're finally almost out. Hence my tirade because I'm going to have to shell out another $100+ for a $5 inhaler.
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It's time to elect the Regional Mayor again. Despite how excited everyone is (of course!), we are all solemnly preparing ourselves for this critical Clash of Titans, since Regional Mayors are EXTREMELY IMPORTANT and do a great many things that could not be done by anyone else, like Make A Statement About The Buses.
There's the Liberal Democrats, currently the most pro-EU of the major parties, but choose not to mention that in the little brochure;
The C*n*e*v*t*v* P*r*y, preparing to go right down the plughole at the next general election, and eager to take the rest of us along with them;
The Greens, who are only ever of any use in opposition;
The Yorkshire Party, who seem alright. Probably won't win, but I might vote for them;
The L*b*ur P*r*y, currently in. At least she likes the buses, and isn't afraid to say so;
And a man who thinks climate change is a big plot by the 'globalist elites', and wants to save us all from woke lockdowns .
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Well, there is little else for you to do, but win one of those insane half-a-billion powerballs, and use those money to go on a paladin's legal crusade in courts to contest such b$ patents.
It's time to elect the Regional Mayor again. Despite how excited everyone is (of course!), we are all solemnly preparing ourselves for this critical Clash of Titans, since Regional Mayors are EXTREMELY IMPORTANT and do a great many things that could not be done by anyone else, like Make A Statement About The Buses.
** spoiler omitted **
Second turn of elections for the president of my city.
I have little opinion or reliable knowledge of either guy. There was some mud slinging after the results of the first turn (where those two got the most votes, but neither got over half of them, and now are facing each other) came in.
Honestly, I will likely pass on voting this time, because that would really be a throw of a coin for me. I already got what I wanted from this elections—neither the candidate of the formerly ruling party nor the bonkers nationalist party got to the second turn.
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Meh. The current mayor of our city decided to switch parties and platforms *after* his election, so I'm a bit sour on local politics at the moment.
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Oh-so-political, but Fritzy hasn't gotten any exercise in a while:
** spoiler omitted **
GRRRAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH
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Oh-so-political, but Fritzy hasn't gotten any exercise in a while:
** spoiler omitted **
Meh. The current mayor of our city decided to switch parties and platforms *after* his election, so I'm a bit sour on local politics at the moment.
Our mayor is surprisingly good, she was a bit overwhelmed her first term but I've been impressed with her 2nd term so far.
That said, she's no Mayor Dave.
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The boss (to his uncle, who runs a different landscape company): I found Yesterday an assistant this year so he's really moving along!
The Uncle: No s#+&! Who'd you find that can work with Yesterday?!
The Boss: his daughter!
The Uncle: Wait!... so there's TWO Yesterday's now?!!
OK, the second episode of The Grimm Variations was definitely not to my liking, but they're really trying to do something different, so much like Love, Death, and Robots I'm betting they'll run from crappy to mind-blowing, but I loved the fist one so much I'm willing to watch the rest of the season to find the other gems.
The boss (to his uncle, who runs a different landscape company): I found Yesterday an assistant this year so he's really moving along!
The Uncle: No s@@%! Who'd you find that can work with Yesterday?!
The Boss: his daughter!
The Uncle: Wait!... so there's TWO Yesterday's now?!!