Whine like a baby, now with 500% more drama!
- Thread starter strawman
- Start date
Spoken and written language translation has been incredible. We know very little German and this trip has been a breeze. Pointing the camera at words on a menu and having it translate in seconds is nothing short of miraculous.
Automated listening systems have improved immensely in the last year as well.
Never was to Nuremberg myself but I believe the only tourist thing (unless you are a motorist or interested in history) is the Christkindlmarkt. But that's to early.
We're about a month in to the new K-12 school year and the wife is at a different school. It's quite a lot better than the last one. She doesn't seem to have kids who are little serial killers in training this year but there are some problem children.
She's patient with kids and that's why her school decided to dump the behavioral issues into her class. There are some kids who have documented trauma and emotional disorders. I feel nothing but pity for those unfortunates. Nobody, especially nobody that young, deserves to have had so much of their lives filled with abuse.
And then you have kids who are just jerks. They don't have disorders or mental illness; they're assholes. One in particular has a penchant for spitting, kicking, and biting. Our two-year-old niece knows not to bite. The wife positions herself between Damien and the other kids whenever he goes on a rampage, but she can't physically restrain him because she hasn't been trained in the recommended techniques. The school calls his parents who either don't respond or they shrug it off with "he's not like that at home." I'm thinking this might be solved with proper application of technology.
She's patient with kids and that's why her school decided to dump the behavioral issues into her class. There are some kids who have documented trauma and emotional disorders. I feel nothing but pity for those unfortunates. Nobody, especially nobody that young, deserves to have had so much of their lives filled with abuse.
And then you have kids who are just jerks. They don't have disorders or mental illness; they're assholes. One in particular has a penchant for spitting, kicking, and biting. Our two-year-old niece knows not to bite. The wife positions herself between Damien and the other kids whenever he goes on a rampage, but she can't physically restrain him because she hasn't been trained in the recommended techniques. The school calls his parents who either don't respond or they shrug it off with "he's not like that at home." I'm thinking this might be solved with proper application of technology.
That you know of.
Dave
Staff member
We all do to some extent.
Part of why I haven't gone to get a proper depression diagnosis is because of work. I install security systems and cameras and in my province you need a license from the government to do so. If you have a diagnosis of a mental disorder you need to get a release from a doctor to keep your license and I don't want to go through the hassle. I have it handled with regular therapy and don't need meds to function, so I just don't see the point of extra paperwork. I know I have dysthymia but I can regulate myself with enough sleep.
Like Dave said we all have some mental illness or disorder.
Like Dave said we all have some mental illness or disorder.
-Going back to work today after ~2wks vac.
-I set an alarm yesterday evening so I'd remember to plug in my car to charge overnight.
-Alarm went off, went and plugged in my car. Success!
-Woke up this morning to go to work, car did not charge overnight because I'd forgotten that I unplugged the other end of the cord to plug in the pressure washer when I cleaned off the driveway.
-Oh well. It's a PHEV, so I'm not dead in the water or anything, but it was still very much ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
--Patrick
-I set an alarm yesterday evening so I'd remember to plug in my car to charge overnight.
-Alarm went off, went and plugged in my car. Success!
-Woke up this morning to go to work, car did not charge overnight because I'd forgotten that I unplugged the other end of the cord to plug in the pressure washer when I cleaned off the driveway.
-Oh well. It's a PHEV, so I'm not dead in the water or anything, but it was still very much ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
--Patrick
This highlights the drawback people don't want to talk about with electric cars. Remember how angry mom/dad/spouse/partner/Jan Michael Vincent would get if you borrowed the car and brought it back with no gas? How mad will they get if you forget to plug it in to charge for the night.
Especially since you can't currently fill a battery with energy anywhere near as quickly as you can fill a tank with gasoline. Gasoline is still the king of stored-energy-by-weight ratio as far as land vehicles go, even in spite of the fact that combustion engines are only ~35% efficient at extracting that energy.
--Patrick
--Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
I got a new EVSE because the OEM one is starting to flake out, dropping to half amperage sometimes while charging, which is a big deal at L2 (it literally doubles charge time). The new one I got, unfortunately, is "smart" but the dumbest smart one ever. It seems to be of a mind that it will always be outside in public, so I have to manually "begin charging" every time I plug in using the EVSE's app, and when the car signals it is "done charging" the EVSE cuts off. I just want it to always be charging if it's plugged in. The Bolt does this thing where it will maintain the battery and pre-cool the cabin and do all other kinds of neat things using shore power, if shore power is provided and it is left on the charger. But this EVSE is locked down tight and I can't figure out how to tell it that it is locked in a garage, not out in public where rogue EVs will come charge off of it.
Well, I do now!
Also, it's not like you can run down to the nearest station with a gas can, and say, "Can I please have a few gallons of electricity?". I mean, you CAN, but at some point there will likely be police involvement.
I like electric cars, but we haven't quite figured out how to get around the "human error" element yet.
Our range is very old and needs to be replaced. Only two burners work, and the oven temp is iffy.
Many years ago, for reasons completely unknown, my father-in-law yanked out this marvel of mid-century engineering...
(Tappan Fabulous 400 (link to video) - Two upper ovens, built-in rotisserie, pull-out burners, and "set-it-and-forget-it" options galore)
...and replaced it with your standard, boring, run-of-the-mill Whirlpool range.
(the model number plate on ours is damaged/obscured by decades of baked-on carbon, so I can't read it, but it is the exact same make, model, and even color as pictured here--thanks so much to the for-sale site where I pulled this image for only stating the color ("bisque") and not naming the actual model other than "Whirlpool" meaning I still don't know what the actual model is. Grr.)
My wife is very keen on replacing it with another Fabulous 400 (or one of its competitors such as the Frigidaire Flair, most famous for being the model in Samantha's kitchen on the TV show Bewitched), and I'm not against the idea. Heck, the area around it still has the paint and cut-out lines from when the 400 used to be here, so we know it would fit right back in. But every one of the reasonably priced TF400s I've seen for sale is either very far away with no delivery options (meaning I'd have to rent a truck and drive hundreds of miles) or else needs some noticeable amount of work done with what are now no doubt difficult-to-source parts. So I'm not ruling them out, but I'm focusing most of my attention on more modern options.
Now that I've gotten all of that out of the way, let me get to my rant. Gas is out (not because of the modern sentiment, but because I don't want to deal with running a gas line two floors down to the basement NOPE NOPE), so I'm limiting my search to electric ranges. Modern regulations require that exposed burners on cooktops made after 2014 aren't allowed to get as hot as older ones, but that's not as big of a deal either because the features I want mean I'm mainly looking at smooth-top stoves--but here's the rub: I'd love to move to induction because of the benefits it offers (more efficient, lower cooktop temps), except that would mean replacing a lot of our cookware (and never being able to use any that wasn't). We could stick with radiant, but then we'd lose those advantages. Being the tech-minded person I am, I'm thinking, "Dual-fuel (gas/elec) ranges exist, so someone out there has to make a range that has both radiant and induction, right?" Well, here's the thing--nobody does. Samsung used to, but it was a piece of garbage that had a lot of problems and got discontinued pretty quickly, possibly because people were using it wrong (induction can also be a little finicky if you don't build some idiot-resistant safeguards into it), and nobody has come out with another one since.
...actually, that's only mostly true. Multiple manufacturers have come out with hybrid cooktops which feature both types of burners, but nobody makes a range. There are literally dozens of models of hybrid cooktops to choose from across multiple manufacturers, but nobody seems to want to make a range. I suppose if I really wanted to get crazy, I could build a heat resistant cabinet to house a standalone oven and then cap it with one of these cooktops, but we already have a name for something like that IT'S CALLED A RANGE AAAAAHGH.
Don't even get me started on the fact that I also want it to have a double oven, or that I'll probably have to (have someone else?) rewire the old 10-50 style three-blade plug to fit any range more modern than the 1970's. Why does appliance shopping have to be so hard? This feels even angristupider than shopping for a new car.
--Patrick
Many years ago, for reasons completely unknown, my father-in-law yanked out this marvel of mid-century engineering...
(Tappan Fabulous 400 (link to video) - Two upper ovens, built-in rotisserie, pull-out burners, and "set-it-and-forget-it" options galore)
...and replaced it with your standard, boring, run-of-the-mill Whirlpool range.
(the model number plate on ours is damaged/obscured by decades of baked-on carbon, so I can't read it, but it is the exact same make, model, and even color as pictured here--thanks so much to the for-sale site where I pulled this image for only stating the color ("bisque") and not naming the actual model other than "Whirlpool" meaning I still don't know what the actual model is. Grr.)
My wife is very keen on replacing it with another Fabulous 400 (or one of its competitors such as the Frigidaire Flair, most famous for being the model in Samantha's kitchen on the TV show Bewitched), and I'm not against the idea. Heck, the area around it still has the paint and cut-out lines from when the 400 used to be here, so we know it would fit right back in. But every one of the reasonably priced TF400s I've seen for sale is either very far away with no delivery options (meaning I'd have to rent a truck and drive hundreds of miles) or else needs some noticeable amount of work done with what are now no doubt difficult-to-source parts. So I'm not ruling them out, but I'm focusing most of my attention on more modern options.
Now that I've gotten all of that out of the way, let me get to my rant. Gas is out (not because of the modern sentiment, but because I don't want to deal with running a gas line two floors down to the basement NOPE NOPE), so I'm limiting my search to electric ranges. Modern regulations require that exposed burners on cooktops made after 2014 aren't allowed to get as hot as older ones, but that's not as big of a deal either because the features I want mean I'm mainly looking at smooth-top stoves--but here's the rub: I'd love to move to induction because of the benefits it offers (more efficient, lower cooktop temps), except that would mean replacing a lot of our cookware (and never being able to use any that wasn't). We could stick with radiant, but then we'd lose those advantages. Being the tech-minded person I am, I'm thinking, "Dual-fuel (gas/elec) ranges exist, so someone out there has to make a range that has both radiant and induction, right?" Well, here's the thing--nobody does. Samsung used to, but it was a piece of garbage that had a lot of problems and got discontinued pretty quickly, possibly because people were using it wrong (induction can also be a little finicky if you don't build some idiot-resistant safeguards into it), and nobody has come out with another one since.
...actually, that's only mostly true. Multiple manufacturers have come out with hybrid cooktops which feature both types of burners, but nobody makes a range. There are literally dozens of models of hybrid cooktops to choose from across multiple manufacturers, but nobody seems to want to make a range. I suppose if I really wanted to get crazy, I could build a heat resistant cabinet to house a standalone oven and then cap it with one of these cooktops, but we already have a name for something like that IT'S CALLED A RANGE AAAAAHGH.
Don't even get me started on the fact that I also want it to have a double oven, or that I'll probably have to (have someone else?) rewire the old 10-50 style three-blade plug to fit any range more modern than the 1970's. Why does appliance shopping have to be so hard? This feels even angristupider than shopping for a new car.
--Patrick
Ugh. I have done this too. Sorry this happened.
I told my boss that I need more help in the lab. He said that he thinks that I am keeping up with the projects fine. Then, he asked if I want to work weekends to help meet client deadlines. I said no.
Then he said he was giving me an additional client.
It was nice knowing you all. I will be in the lab if y'all need me....
Then he said he was giving me an additional client.
It was nice knowing you all. I will be in the lab if y'all need me....
I've been thinking about my writing recently. I'm debating whether or not to take that creative plunge again.
For one, I've been continuing to play Dill with a tabletop role-playing group, which has been an absolute blast. Two, one of my co-workers started reading my first book, so it's come up in conversation. Three, just tonight, I skimmed through my old blog posts where I did self-indulgent commentary on my first book.
I was also reminded that a friend gave Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman a copy of my book. If he ever read it, I've never heard. I assume he politely took it at the time, and then chucked it in a bin when no one was looking.
Learning that Mickey Spillane took a 9-year hiatus from writing got me thinking, too, since it was 9 years this month since The Dame was a Tad Polish was published.
I still don't know if I want to go through the heartache of writing again. I don't think my books were any good, nor do I believe I have what it takes to do anything with it. I keep thinking of maybe sitting down to write, but then I just...don't. It's like that spark or joy I got from writing is buried deep below mountains of self-doubt and crippling insecurities. Any time I even think to grab a shovel, something stops me.
For one, I've been continuing to play Dill with a tabletop role-playing group, which has been an absolute blast. Two, one of my co-workers started reading my first book, so it's come up in conversation. Three, just tonight, I skimmed through my old blog posts where I did self-indulgent commentary on my first book.
I was also reminded that a friend gave Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman a copy of my book. If he ever read it, I've never heard. I assume he politely took it at the time, and then chucked it in a bin when no one was looking.
Learning that Mickey Spillane took a 9-year hiatus from writing got me thinking, too, since it was 9 years this month since The Dame was a Tad Polish was published.
I still don't know if I want to go through the heartache of writing again. I don't think my books were any good, nor do I believe I have what it takes to do anything with it. I keep thinking of maybe sitting down to write, but then I just...don't. It's like that spark or joy I got from writing is buried deep below mountains of self-doubt and crippling insecurities. Any time I even think to grab a shovel, something stops me.
When self doubt sabotages, I think you could try a couple of actions: write first thing when you wake up. Second, start out slow; write for 10-15 min using a timer and stop when the timer is over.
When you get your groove back then get rid of the timer. Good luck!
When you get your groove back then get rid of the timer. Good luck!
It's been three years since I lost Diomedes and there are still days I miss him dearly. Ruff & Tuff are wonderful, but...they're not Diomedes. What I'm saying is there will probably always be times when you miss her and that's okay.
I feel like I've been teetering on the edge of coming down with a cold for like the last 3 days now. I feel woozy and under the weather, and my nose and throat feel weird but not actually unwell, and I've had some extra phlegm but not enough to break out into an actual cough.
It's like, yo immune system, make up your mind, either eradicate these germs so I can get back to feeling normal, or just let them in so I can actually get sick and maybe take a couple of sick days off work, y'know? Don't just keep me hanging on the threshold of getting sick without actually letting me either get sick or get well. (What do the youngsters call this these days? Edging? Gooning?)
It's like, yo immune system, make up your mind, either eradicate these germs so I can get back to feeling normal, or just let them in so I can actually get sick and maybe take a couple of sick days off work, y'know? Don't just keep me hanging on the threshold of getting sick without actually letting me either get sick or get well. (What do the youngsters call this these days? Edging? Gooning?)
Isn't that normal? It's said that a cold comes three days, stays three days and than leave three days.
Not for me, usually I'll drop into "cold mode" immediately, suffer through it for a few days, and then have a lingering cough for a couple of weeks afterwards.
Dave
Staff member
My FIL had a stroke and is in the hospital. Only my wife has an updated passport. I let all that slip during covid days.
Still a little drunk, but starting to sober up, so here's a sobering self thought.
While I'm happy to win another company award this year, it sucks I'll have no one to go with, unlike last year. Being single sucks and it'll be lonely going by myself this year.
While I'm happy to win another company award this year, it sucks I'll have no one to go with, unlike last year. Being single sucks and it'll be lonely going by myself this year.