Minor rant thread. Post your rants o' the day here!

Big windstorm last night, rain, all that.  Wake up to 20+ emails about downed trees on the tracks, standing water, etc.  The usual for a storm like this.  Two reports stood out, though:

6:14PM - Train stopped due to tree down across track

6:23PM - Tracks clear, train back on the move

You're telling me in 9 minutes that a crew was raised, work instructions given, a safety briefing conducted, proper PPE donned, the tree removed from the tracks, the crew cleared and the locomotive up and moving again?  This is the railroad, we don't do a coffee break in 9 minutes.  

More like, the engineer said, "Eh, that tree doesn't look _that_ big, and I'm already behind schedule" *moves engine to full throttle*

eastsideTim said:

My phone has been acting up for a few weeks now, where it will suddenly "drain" the battery rapidly.  I need it for work, so I've been trying to recharge it as quickly as possible.  Turns out one of the first things you are supposed to do when the battery percentage seems to be off, is to let it drain to the point it shuts off, then charge it fully.  Supposedly, that will let it get a better idea of the real battery health, and resync it.  It has now been sitting at 1% for over 12 hours.  I used it to get logged in this morning, and am hoping I don't need it too much today, because I really want to see if this fixes it.

38 hours and counting.  If nothing else,  I'm impressed with Low Power Mode.

Speaking of "pays the same as work".  I had a meeting scheduled in Columbus today at 0900.  So I hit the road at 0630 and arrived just about 0835.  Awesome.  I was sitting in the customer's parking lot getting caught up on some emails real fast when the rep called me.  Apparently the guy we were meeting with was sick and wasn't coming in today.  It's not really a rant, because I basically got paid to listen to 4 hours' worth of Dan Carlin's Blueprint for Armageddon.

Safety manager sent out an email at 6pm scheduling arc flash training at 8 the next morning, then got upset when people showed up at 9 (our normal start time). People scheduling meetings before our normal start time is a rant of its own. My European colleagues will sometimes want to meet at 6 and that's a hard no

Company designated 3 days as "everyone return to office these days", which is fine (I was in 3 days a week usually anyway), but each of our seating areas has like 60% capacity to fit us, so it has been impossible to get a desk and a 2nd screen.

So now I'm spending 30 minutes+ a day walking around trying to find somewhere to put my computer instead of working at a desk with a second screen where I can be as productive as I am at home. 

So far one hour to go not quite 8/10 of a mile because it rained yesterday. God bless our third world infrastructure. 

I was just joking about how I saved a bunch of money on car insurance a couple years ago by switching providers from one that wanted me to use a monitoring app, but apparently now it's my turn in the car insurance barrel, and in Ontario the barrel has many holes. I just got the bill for 2024 and it's up about 30% from when I initially switched. I ragequit my last provider for charging less than this.

Also, upon inspection, it turns out they already bumped my price for 2023, by almost 20%,  but I didn't notice because the usual renewal docs didn't go through - when I nagged them for updated forms they only sent the costly piece of paper to carry in the car and not the updated costs. Looking back on my payment history I can see it. One of the reasons I ragequit my last provider was sneaky price increases, this may not have been sneaky but it sure was a convenient accident...

Just keeping it short-

- F has throat cancer return, probably losing voice box in surgery

- M has pneumonia (after missing thanksgiving to have gallbladder out)

- MIL needs bypass surgery

- K#1 spend night in ER after hitting snowbank. Lucky to still have license. 

I'm done with 2024 and it's only week 2. 

Datsun240ZGuy said:

Is everything PC?  This is BS. 

I heard Joe Walsh sing on Pandora.......I go to parties sometimes until four, it's hard to leave when you can't find any more.  

Now I'm not one to encourage excessive drug or alcohol use but we gotta change it up?  You too, Ted Nugent and Cat Scratch Fever.  

Kudos to you Roger Daltry for still asking who the berkeley are you......

Get off my berkeleying lawn.

Listen to the lyrics of "Body like a back road".  It is about lusting over a 15 year old girl waiting for her to be of legal age.

Makes Joe Walsh seem quaint.

Two nights running I have woken up at 1:30 with my heart pounding and my sinuses so stopped up I can't breath. 

This sucks. 

My solution for stopping YouTube ads is no longer working. unlock took away my ability to purge cache.

Why is this a problem? Just let the ads run? Last night, when my ad blocker still worked, it blocked 210 ads. In an hour and a half if watching YouTube, two hundred and berking ten ads.

Appleseed said:

My solution for stopping YouTube ads is no longer working. unlock took away my ability to purge cache.

Why is this a problem? Just let the ads run? Last night, when my ad blocker still worked, it blocked 210 ads. In an hour and a half if watching YouTube, two hundred and berking ten ads.

What browser? I use Chrome st work and the same thing happened to me today after a reboot. Quite tedious. 

We've been using a different browser (rhymes with Schmave) on the HTPC for a while. So far it seems better. We'll see how long it takes Big Brother to ruin it.

I'm actually having a pretty great day, but will join your rant in solidarity. 

Raises went out on the first of the year. To verify my billing rates, I'm doing a cost analysis of what it costs per hour to keep the doors open and everyone paid and insured. 

That's a fairly terrifying number. I could buy a gallon of premium gas every minute for 40 hours a week and spend about the same amount. 

In reply to DarkMonohue :

No ads right now with Firefox. I feel better not using a chromium based browser anyway

In reply to Toyman! :

I have 2 bosses.

Boss1 worries constantly about how we are going to get all the work done.

Boss2 always thinks that we are one job away from starving to death.

They're kind of both right.

In reply to Duke :

There's no conflict there. I briefly worked at a company where the one boss seemed to hold both of those views, while also bringing on more jobs as fast as possible.

Duke said:

In reply to Toyman! :

I have 2 bosses.

Boss1 worries constantly about how we are going to get all the work done.

Boss2 always thinks that we are one job away from starving to death.

They're kind of both right.

 

I am both of those guys wrapped up in one. 

It's no wonder I weigh so much.

I also get to watch my business checking account fluctuate wildly. It can be fairly exciting at times.

Realizing that you are directly responsible for housing, feeding, and clothing  20 people can make for some sleepless nights. I figure, that at any time, I'm 90-120 days from being out of business. Assuming I don't go into debt to keep the ball rolling. 

Toyman! said:

Duke said:

In reply to Toyman! :

I have 2 bosses.

Boss1 worries constantly about how we are going to get all the work done.

Boss2 always thinks that we are one job away from starving to death.

They're kind of both right.

 

I am both of those guys wrapped up in one. 

It's no wonder I weigh so much.

I also get to watch my business checking account fluctuate wildly. It can be fairly exciting at times.

Realizing that you are directly responsible for housing, feeding, and clothing  20 people can make for some sleepless nights. I figure, that at any time, I'm 90-120 days from being out of business. Assuming I don't go into debt to keep the ball rolling. 

This is a good argument towards staying small really.

In reply to Toyman! :

That's why I don't think I could ever be self employed. I'd lose my berking mind. Mad props to you guys that are, and are making it work.

The GF has been on the verge of a nervous breakdown for the past week or so. She has been extremely anxious over getting everything done in time for our cross-country move. I know I haven't helped as I'm a horrible procrastinator but I work well under pressure.

So naturally, she HAS to do something at all times so today we finished up the rest of the interior painting. It was just some trim and interior doors.

I still cannot fathom who would ever want to paint the inside of a house this color. Hearing aid beige is the best I can describe it as. They painted EVERYTHING this color; the walls, the ceilings, the baseboards, the doors, EVERYTHING. It's even gloss for that extra touch.

I'll be so berkeleying glad to done with this move. I honestly feel like this might strain our relationship to the breaking point. 

In reply to stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) :

I may have missed it, but what ended up being your ultimate destination?

If you're having an important meeting for the parents, maybe tell all the kids to shut the berkeley up first so the parents can hear?

Just stopped by my cousin's house and everyone had "the sniffles," which these days tends to mean "the latest COVID strain as long as you don't test for COVID." I guess if I start feeling sick I'll pull out a test kit and let them know...

In reply to Rodan :

The middle of BFE New Mexico. Specifically Clovis.

No people, no traffic, no humidity and a reasonable cost of living. I can't berkeleying wait 

In reply to stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) :

We bought a house that exact color, the doors, the ceiling, the trim and the carpet was even kinda close.

Exactly how bad is your overall mood if everything has to be Hearing Aid Beige?