We had the in-laws over for a three hour discussion about their horrible daughter. It was basically "we aren't going to hunker down so you can preserve your neutrality any longer" which basically led to we will tell her to call you so that we don't have to take any position." That phone call was this morning and was basically two hours of "gaslight gaslight false equivalency disappointment." My wife, of course, keeps her receipts so the email directly contradicting everything her sister lied about for two and a half hours was forwarded without comment. It's fucking exhausting. On the plus side, I had a conversation with my father about radioactive waste (a friend has a pad printer that was used for rrrrrrrrrrrrrrradium and she's wondering if she needs to worry). While we didn't discuss my father's collection we did have an interesting discussion about a friend of his who ended up in possession of his father's collection, which included a mason jar of yellowcake. Said friend asked my father what to do with this... curio. "Yeah, what did you tell him?" I asked. "I told him to wait until a dark moonless night and then dump it from the bridge into the Rio Grande," he said. "Yellowcake is natural and in the river it'll dissipate enough that nobody will be hurt by it." So there you go, son. When I die, throw my plutonium in the river. The fuck do you do with that.
I've got a close friend who is one of the last remaining original hippies from the Ken Kesey days. He has a box he wants to sell me. In the box are all the things you used to be able to buy mail order from chemical companies. And some of the more industrious hippies purchased a lot of this stuff mail order and set up ... umm ... businesses. Making ... consumables ... that people like the Grateful Dead highly praised ... Welp. This box is from them. Contains all that, and more. And has the name and address of someone that pretty much everyone alive today would recognize. This thing is a fucking national treasure ... if it weren't so goddamn hot and illegal and just possessing the contents would put you on every watchlist for every three-letter agency, who'd just assume throw you behind bars and take the stuff out and sample it to track strains and compositions that still circulate today. But man... I want that box.
I used to work at the Fisherman's Terminal. I used to walk around while I ate my lunch. Ethiopian dude walked up to me once. "Merchant marine?" "Excuse me?" "Do you know to the merchant marine?" "Directions? No I'm sorry - " "Do you like to party?" Dude holds up a rag. Opens it up. hockey puck of black tar heroin, Arabic stamp on the side. I aver that I don't like to party that much and the dude moves on. I don't even like weed and I still wish I bought that fuckin' horse-chokin' slab of horse from time to time.
One day you should bundle these updates of yours and package them into a book. Call it Journal of a Plague Year, or something like that. I would buy it.
Keeping it abstract, but I was recently offered a job that I am SUPER, SUPER unqualified for. It's a pay cut, I'm likely too young for the role, it'll mean sticking to my home town for the next few years, and it'll probably be stressful for the first few months... ...BUT it would make me faculty at the university honor's program I graduated from two (ish) years ago, meaning I could go to grad school for free. What's Hubski's gut feeling?
My gut feeling is if they offered it to you, the "unqualified" and "too young" aspects are a lie. Unless they've misjudged you terribly, they've surmised you'll figure it out quickly enough. You've never done the job. They've hired for it (or something similar to it) before. Don't look down your nose at that vote of confidence. My one word of caution is that university salaries tend to increase more slowly than salaries out in the marketplace and with the economics we're looking at for the next few years, "pay cut" now might be "deep pay cut" a few years from now. If you've got an exit strategy should that pinchpoint squeeze you too tightly I say go for it.
I’m the CEO of a biotechnology company. I have a degree in business management from an unremarkable university. Still, I’m any mans equal. I’ve learned this. I have natural abilities that are hard to qualify. You do too. My guess is they see this in you. Take it.
Thanks guys. We're still in the salary negotiating phase, and I know they're desperate to hire before school kicks off in about a month. I'm going to see if I can leverage that for a bit more pay (my current salary isn't far outside of their range), but ultimately I'll plan on accepting the position. I'll keep y'all updated and let you know how it goes!
Short answer: I think so? Long answer: I'd effectively be a lead dev on like 30 student projects simultaneously. It sounds stressful, but I also know they aren't doing anything technologically groundbreaking and it could be a really useful accelerator to pick up some skills I want to lay claim to in the future. I'd also get to deliver lectures and spend my free time picking up new technologies (essentially fucking around w/ side projects so that I can be a better resource for students). The role seems really flexible, and I'd get to use my natural soft-skill talents more than I do in my current in-the-trenches dev job. So...Probably? I think so! Plus, I'd get to say I was the assistant director of an entire school on my resume. Kinda nifty.
In three days will be unemployed and in a ten days I'll be leaving my state and going to grad school. Classes start in four weeks. I have a place to live, one bed one bath, with a nice balcony facing east which should be good for plants. It's all happening so fast I'm so not ready but I'm going to have to make it work. That's the story of my life so far and I'm just going to keep winging it until I have a job post-grad school and can like relax or something.
That's all we can ever do, my friend. It doesn't change. You just wing it on different things, and try to learn from your past mistakes when winging it on something else you have no idea how to handle/do. "... I'm just going to keep winging it until I have _________ ..."
Got a new challenge. After discovering that going full-on work-to-rule hasn't impeded my output and most of my routine stuff being fixed, it should occupy my time nicely. The current plan is to finish vol 1 and then take on a concept a day from vols 2 and 3 while going along with the rest. There're already caveats like watching Shakespearian plays instead of reading them, but there's a lot that's been on my list for years now, and it's often easier for me to tackle them as a part of something greater than individually. I'm on the fence about omitting the ones I read already, but it's better to handle those as they come along. Definitely gonna do Homer; so far I'm of the mind that the worst English translation of Iliad beats the snot out of the best Polish one. Though, in a year from now, I hope to read it in Greek. I've been thinking a lot about my future lately, in no small part because of problems with people at work. Not with the adviser, mind you, if I got to work solely with him and his group, my satisfaction would be soaring. Regardless, should I stay with academia, I owe it to myself to leave abroad if only to avoid devolving into the "big fish in small pond" mindset present among all too many folks. Though, really, it occurred to me that the main reason against leaving academia is that in the end, I'd honestly rather focus on finding ways, any ways, of powering through all the necessary suck than go back to trying to find other kinds of work. Let's face it: I kept failing incessantly even when the economy wasn't one gigantic pig's breakfast. Terminal degree isn't gonna change that, so there's no point in pretending otherwise. My medications seem to continue working fine, but I don't like the quasi-introspective state they put me under at times. Definitely won't go along as easily with another dosage tweaking, too. It's dissonant. Material occupying me at downtime should be "has it really been so long since I got any?" not "I don't even think with the language that molded so much of me anymore -- is there any aspect left that's still German?" Worse, I keep spiraling into those odd decision-paralysis states where I keep, for example, re-editing or re-drafting everything for so long the purpose of doing it becomes moot. They got even worse, and this comes from someone who's been sitting on reviews of Durant, GEB, Diplomacy, and others for years now. Those unfortunate among you to be in private correspondence with me no doubt noticed it's even moreso either a stream of overemoted consciousness riddled with mistakes or nothing at all. Apologies, as this is by no means an excuse but an explanation.
Neat! This is magnet fishing? Pitty that won't get coins because I bet there are a few down there.
Yep, not likely to find a steel penny these days. The most valuable thing I pulled up was the magnet itself. I keep it stuck to a steel beam at home and it's pretty hard to dislodge. If it got attached to a boat anchor stuck on the bottom there would be little hope of recovery.
This has me wondering what might get pulled up locally here. Otis Redding and six others died when their plane crashed into Lake Monona, and an F-102 also did. A magnet wouldn't get any aluminium bits, of course, but there might be some steel pieces that weren't recovered.
Maybe put it in a burlap sack and tie it over the hook/line? It won't impede the pull, but the added layer eases the separation while helping to protect the magnet against eventual damage. Our lab techs cover permanent magnet slabs in this weird fine rubbery cloth for some experiments, but I'd bet even some old jeans would work.If it got attached to a boat anchor stuck on the bottom there would be little hope of recovery.
An old sock or some latex gloves secured with rubber bands would have helped. As it happened, a thick coating of river mud and grit coated the magnet after the first few drops. The most interesting things might not contain much iron, though. A key ring with keys, a cell phone, even a modern gun can be mostly plastic. Any guesses about the mystery object? It feels like a solid mass of metal, but may have been separate parts fused by corrosion.
Lol, that too. Learned my lesson trying to get the spilled ferrofluid off of a magnet once. Hull bolt? I have no idea. Some ceramics contain iron in them. Not just as glaze or pigment or literal ceramic magnets, but it's added into the clay/other material. Dunno if it would work, but then again you have a strong magnet on your hands so maybe it could pick some fun bauble.As it happened, a thick coating of river mud and grit coated the magnet after the first few drops.
Any guesses about the mystery object? It feels like a solid mass of metal, but may have been separate parts fused by corrosion.
The most interesting things might not contain much iron, though. A key ring with keys, a cell phone, even a modern gun can be mostly plastic.
Maintain good relationships with (some) of your old co-workers, yo...might be applying + interviewing for a job elsewhere which could be a major promotion all because of a LinkedIn conversation with somebody I used to work with...
Acutely aware today of how unpleasant and incompetent I can be, when I lack a few hours of sleep. Had a horrible nightmare, where I was shopping at the supermarket and didn’t plan ahead so I didn’t take a basket at the entrance. I had my hands full and the tomatoes fell and scattered around me. I felt like an idiot. And have had a crappy day ever since I woke up. I think it’s partly a stress dream due to a lot of things happening at work, while we’re all (like the 3 employees of the makerspace) leaving to a festival for 4 days tomorrow afternoon. The problem is that I could not possible advance the work anyway, since with events it mostly hinges on other people and volunteers. Plus I still need to shop, pack and wrap up my other 2 work project things. I really hope I can power through this tonight and get up well sleep and ready to rumble tomorrow.
I've been quiet. Here's an update from Melbourne. I mentioned late last year that we'd bought our first place. I may not have mentioned that it is located on what has now officially been recognised as the coolest street in the world.[1] Melbourne has just come out of another snap two week lockdown, during which we appear to have eradicated the delta variant locally (helps that the Victorian Government ordered the shut down as soon as it was detected). Across the border in NSW, things appear to be deteriorating much like it did for us last year (and which led to a truly traumatic three and a half months of hard lockdown). It's weird seeing another city, one which up to now had done so well during the pandemic, falling to the same mistakes and hubris we demonstrated 12 months earlier. Despite the comparative success of six out of seven states in locking the rest of the world (and hence COVID) out, vaccine rollout remains a fiasco. COVID vaccination rate in Australia is worst in the OECD. Which means we'll soon be locked out of the rest of the world. Lockdowns aren't all bad. For instance, and further to my first paragraph, our apartment is located directly above a bar. We bought this apartment during the first lockdown, when the bar was closed. We had previously known it as a wine bar, but at some point in the year or so before we bought it had turned into a live music venue. This was not something we realised until after we moved in. I've caught up on a lot of sleep in the past two weeks. Tonight, the music is back on. Still, it is good to see Smith Street returning to life. [1] Individual results may vary.
I have friends "trapped" at their vacation home up the coast from Sydney. They bought it during COVID and when things were improving they went up to outfit the place... and got stuck when Sydney went back into lockdown. Which would be EXCELLENT... except it is winter there, and it's a summer getaway that doesn't even have heat. So they have kicked into renovating the place and updating it - with heat - while being locked down. Fortunately they work for an internet company and can work anywhere there is a connection...
Australian houses are not built for cold weather. At all. The residential construction industry just likes to pretend winter doesn't exist. I realise our winters don't compare to North America or northern Europe, but it's cosier inside a northern hemisphere house during a northern hemisphere winter than an Australian house during a southern winter (at least in the bottom half of the continent). On the other hand, the scenic northern NSW coast would be a great place to spend the pandemic.
Was laid out for a week with all the COVID symptoms (except loss of taste and smell) and two negative COVID tests later, I am finally feeling better today, 9 days later. Still have a random cough and stuffy head, but at least can sleep all night without coughing my lungs out, and most of my brain cells are working again. So that's nice... Got another underground wasp nest I need to kill, but the temperature hasn't gotten low enough at night to put them to sleep. With lows in the mid-60's, I may just have to suit up and bomb them even when the hive is busy. Wife has been stung three times in a week, and they are right next to our very productive tomato plants! So Something Must Be Done. (Oh joy.) My artistic side is stifled right now. Got some sort of blockage. Need to clear that out so things can flow again... and trying not to just put a bandaid on the spot by buying some new gizmo or effects pedal or piece of synth hardware. I don't need more equipment... I just need to sit down and MAKE with the tools I have...