It's times like that which make me fantasize about winning the lottery.
"You need to cut 70 hours? I quit. There's 60. Find the other 10 yourself."
"You need to cut 70 hours? I quit. There's 60. Find the other 10 yourself."
Whine like a baby, now with 500% more drama!
- Thread starter strawman
- Start date
I managed to cut 70 hours and somehow still have people here. It's not pretty, it's going to be a rough week, and no one is going to be happy, but I did it.
Making a bluetooth eeg monitor for a client with two others doing the bulk of the work (one EE, one programmer).
Got the prototype boards back from the board house, distributed them to the EE and CE and the CE reports a short in the board. The EE confirms, and neither one can locate it.
I spend over ten hours today (and at my billable rate that's over 1/8 of the total project cost - so now I'm losing money) trying to find the short.
I've removed every single part from the board and the short is still there, so now I've got queries out to the assembler who apparently ordered the boards from a fab in china (I was under the impression they used a US board house - they certainly charged us enough for one, so now I'm scratching my head - not only are they charging as much as a US fab, but they're taking a lot longer to get them, and I have to apparently worry about the quality).
These boards cost over $500 to make and assemble. Each. And I just destroyed one trying to figure out what is wrong, and it's probably a PCB issue, and there's a reasonable chance it's a design error, not a manufacturing error. I can't eat a $$$ re-run, so I'm hoping it's a manufacturing error, but I've done almost all the investigation I can, and now it's up to the assembler and fabricator to argue whether it's a manufacturing error or design error.
If it is a design error there's a possibility we can repair the boards and we won't have to face a re-run. I made the client aware that a re-run for debugging and design changes is a possibility at the beginning of the project - few projects work perfectly the first time around, but it's still something I'd hate to have them do if it's our fault.
And on top of that, I was hoping to finish this milestone before the baby came - we kinda need that money to get through July, and I'm not going to be doing much consulting at that point.
Bleh. Another leaf for the worry tree, but a big one.
Got the prototype boards back from the board house, distributed them to the EE and CE and the CE reports a short in the board. The EE confirms, and neither one can locate it.
I spend over ten hours today (and at my billable rate that's over 1/8 of the total project cost - so now I'm losing money) trying to find the short.
I've removed every single part from the board and the short is still there, so now I've got queries out to the assembler who apparently ordered the boards from a fab in china (I was under the impression they used a US board house - they certainly charged us enough for one, so now I'm scratching my head - not only are they charging as much as a US fab, but they're taking a lot longer to get them, and I have to apparently worry about the quality).
These boards cost over $500 to make and assemble. Each. And I just destroyed one trying to figure out what is wrong, and it's probably a PCB issue, and there's a reasonable chance it's a design error, not a manufacturing error. I can't eat a $$$ re-run, so I'm hoping it's a manufacturing error, but I've done almost all the investigation I can, and now it's up to the assembler and fabricator to argue whether it's a manufacturing error or design error.
If it is a design error there's a possibility we can repair the boards and we won't have to face a re-run. I made the client aware that a re-run for debugging and design changes is a possibility at the beginning of the project - few projects work perfectly the first time around, but it's still something I'd hate to have them do if it's our fault.
And on top of that, I was hoping to finish this milestone before the baby came - we kinda need that money to get through July, and I'm not going to be doing much consulting at that point.
Bleh. Another leaf for the worry tree, but a big one.
Got an interesting email from Credit Karma this morning. Apparently my Amazon.com store card has been closed by Synchrony (the card issuer). Now, since I opened this account in 2013, the limit has been $800 (when it opened), $700, $600, $500, $400, $500, closed. Never once has it been more than 10 days late on payment, the only time it's ever been over limit has been when they dropped the limit without telling me (I've never received a single thing in writing from this company - EVER) and the balance was above the new limit. I am so sick of Synchrony. At least this is the last account we had with them, but damn.
Mother's day is this Sunday at work. Technically "Christian Family Sunday" which is what I'm working with, but I know that there are a bunch of men planning on singing a terrible mom-is-awesome-based song. Like, I've heard them rehearsing, and the lyrics are truly terrible. I hate celebrating Mother's Day at work at the best of times, and do my damnedest to make sure that the amount of bs is limited, but I can't do a thing about this stupid song. It's going to haunt me, and I can't avoid it without risking a metric crap-ton of blow back.
Ug.
Ug.
GasBandit
Staff member
Technically it was a couple days BEFORE mother's day, but that just made mother's day all the more unpleasant when it got there.
The inspiration for Wooderson in Dazed and Confused just passed away. He was my boss for the last three years, and a friendly acquaintance for the last 14 years.
From when Bob sued Linklater.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...91c-bc61-91561ad23338/?utm_term=.49eeeb000bf6
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...91c-bc61-91561ad23338/?utm_term=.49eeeb000bf6
My family doctor is weird sometimes. He has been helpful, but sometimes weird. Today I wanted to get a prescription for something to help with my severe nausea from the various medication that I'm on including the weekly low dose chemo that I inject. I felt almost like I had to fight with him to get him to write me a prescription for something stronger than Gravol. He even tried to put me on synthetic cannabis. An interesting option, but it causes drowsiness and I need something that doesn't so I can take it and drive or work and I also need something dissolvable. It was a very strange appointment. I did ask why synthetic was an option, but not natural lol.
Stay the hell away from synthetic cannabis. That stuff can really screw people up. The good news is, actual cannabis shouldn't interfere with your biologics at all - at least not in a bad way. I found a fair amount of people who are using cannabis (anecdotally) to treat nausea, left-over pain, and insomnia symptoms from RA and Crohn's, who are using cannabis in addition to Rensima - but I have no idea which biologics you're on.
I wanted nothing to do with it. It sounded bizarre. I wanted this one specific anti-nausea drug. It works incredibly well, dissolves and doesn’t make you drowsy. It’s expensive though, which might be why he fought a bit.
I asked why on earth synthetic cannabis was ok and not the real thing and he explained that even the medical grade could have some unwanted side effects that could get you high. Then he described the side effects of the synthetic....no thanks.
Pro football players in the US have a nasty habit of using synthetic weed because the NFL drug tests and bans players for using the real thing. It's led to some seriously messed up situations off the field. But yeah, if you smoke weed - especially the medical stuff, it's gonna get you a little high (unless you stick to some of the really high CBD, low THC strains). I had it all laid out in that medical cannabis thread, but it was lost to the mists of time.
The amusing part is that I’m on some very strong pain killers that he prescribes me.
Our insurance is so jacked.
Hormones: $13. That's the end price even without having cleared the deductible.
Inhaler, which I need, life or death function: $200.
Hormones: $13. That's the end price even without having cleared the deductible.
Inhaler, which I need, life or death function: $200.
One player for the Bills just essentially tried to kill himself (Zay jones video) while on bad synthetic weed. That stuff should be illegal rather than the regular stuff.
Yeah, that was one of the ones I was thinking of, but I hadn't seen it absolutely confirmed that Zay was on synthetic weed. The other was a hit-and-run by a Seahawks player from a few years back. Dude wandered off and had no idea he'd been in a wreck, apparently.
Cajungal
Staff member
I've made more friends in my late 20s and 30s than I have had in my entire life. My whine is that I'm having a hard time learning how not to be a bad friend. Relearning to balance between me-time and friend-time is hard. I'm sorry ifnthis sounds like an obnoxious humble-brag. I'm aware that I'm also lucky to have people who want to hang out with me...
But come on, man. Who wants to meet up more than once a week??? What will we have to talk about?
But come on, man. Who wants to meet up more than once a week??? What will we have to talk about?
I dunno, that last bit sounds more to me like you're the sane half of the relationship and your counterpart is a little clingy.
Cajungal
Staff member
One of them, yes. He's a kind of eccentric, intense dude, and we got to be good friends during my improv classes. I love hanging out with him, but I think he's got more free time than I do.
I can't even get my D&D group together more than once a month.
An old childhood friend appeared at my house fully intoxicated and repeated bullshit that he has said to me a billion times over while intoxicated and I am sick of it. I thought he got better, he didn't, and I am sick of this cycle. I'm sick of telling him year after year what his god damned problem is, I want this to fucking end.
It wasn't confirmed, but it seems highly likely given that all indications are that he's completely fine and has been since it happened.
I swear to God when I sell this fucking house, I'm never owning anything with a lawn again.
Just spent all day aerating, adding a layer of topsoil and overseeding. Fuck lawns.
Aerators were designed by assholes. The first one I rented didn't work, had to drive back and swap it out. Wasted an hour of my life. The one I ended up getting was still a finicky prick, but at least it could go one pass of my yard before puttering out.
Just spent all day aerating, adding a layer of topsoil and overseeding. Fuck lawns.
Aerators were designed by assholes. The first one I rented didn't work, had to drive back and swap it out. Wasted an hour of my life. The one I ended up getting was still a finicky prick, but at least it could go one pass of my yard before puttering out.
figmentPez
Staff member
They did start as a way for rich people to show off by wasting land and manpower in a grand effort to ostentatiously not grow food. Then America took that and did our usual thing of Making Things Worse™ by completely missing the point of the display, while still putting great stock in appearances, so now we just pour time and money into lawns because it's "necessary" to keep up property values, and the only ones who are benefiting are businesses that make money off of lawn care supplies.
GasBandit
Staff member
Xeriscaping FTWI don't have a lawn. I have gravel.