My computer is down for repairs so I have the afternoon off. Nothing major, just brought it in for a detailed cleaning and to replace some fans and check the cooling tubes, do a detailed cleaning, etc. Is it something I could do at home? Probably. But I am tired of trying to jam my bear paws into a computer case filled with intricate shit, losing screws and having to shake them out, all while thurston sticks his wet schnozz into everything I am doing. So I am having a bunch of turbo nerds do it for me.
As such, I have the afternoon off. I can:
1.) Clean and organize the kitchen and pantry.
2.) Go outside and clean the front beds and then plant the plethora of tulips I orders in June and promptly forgot about until they arrived in the mail in September alongside the plethora of tulips and daffodils I ordered in fucking July because I forgot I ordered some in June, which also showed up the same god damned day in September.
3.) Fall into a Life Below Zero K-hole on Disney+ and convince myself I could handle subsistence living and then napping.
HAHAHAHA I kid myself it’s going to be three.
stinger
Tulips. I did EXACTLY the same thing last year, and boy was I glad this spring that I had! You’ll be glad next spring. Tulips.
wvng
Napping made four. Just saying.
Otherwise, sounds like a plan.
WaterGirl
@stinger: To be clear, I think the happy part only comes once you get them all planted! :-)
Steeplejack
Okay, perfect thread to drop this in! I have a couple of consumer-lust questions. On both of these I’m not looking so much for general recommendations but more for hands-on “This is the one I’ve got and I love it!” suggestions.
‣ AM/FM radio. I don’t need one, but I got a request for advice from a friend who lives in Fairbanks, AK. Usually I would tell someone to stream any station they want on line, but this friend has previously complained about her Internet service and (related) wi-fi problems. I think her service may even be metered—eek! So radio it is.
I’m leaning toward recommending either the Sangean WR-11 or this Panasonic model. The Sangean is highly rated, and I have had good experiences with some Panasonic boom boxes in the (okay, distant) past.
‣ “Phone rep headset.” Bluetooth, on-ear, sort of like this one. This one is for me. I already have a Plantronics Voyager earpiece, which works fine, but it’s a little long in the tooth and it’s a bit of a hassle to deploy. I like the idea of throwing on a (one-ear) headset for phone calls. (Don’t need it for listening to music.) If someone’s got an inexpensive one that they love, let me know.
Thanks in advance!
WaterGirl
@wvng: I don’t know. I think that the TV watching is what takes you to nap-land, so I can see why they are a package deal.
Urza
@Steeplejack:
https://www.amazon.com/Cyber-Acoustics-headphone-microphone-AC-840/dp/B000GGTSVU
This particular headset is cheap, lasts for several years if you aren’t doing anything crazy, and is high quality sound. I used it for all of my WoW years. Occasionally needed replaced cause I ran over the cord once to often or otherwise broke something, but i’ve had them last up to 7 years before something happened and at this price you can’t complain.
Steeplejack
@Urza:
Thanks! This is exactly what I’m looking for, except that I need Bluetooth or a 3.5mm plug to go into my phone. I’ll look for a similar Cyber Acoustics model.
Another Scott
@Steeplejack: Made me look. I’m surprised that there are so many stations up there.
Radio-Locator
I’d start with Sony, myself, but I haven’t looked recently. I still have a tiny multi-band/SW radio that is great for trips, but it’s mono only.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
scav
Our bulbs haven’t even arrived, so getting them in the ground is being pushed to colder and colder conditions (things couldn’t get any wetter). Mostly camassia and daffs, but also chionodoxa and allium — and those are definitely coming in hundreds. . . Enjoy your access.
Steeplejack
To the thread topic: my afternoons quite often feature a WFB (“work from bed”) session. Some reading on the phone, tablet or Kindle followed by a short nap. Sets me up for the evening.
OGLiberal
Headline I just read: “Mark Meadows faces contempt referral after failure to show for deposition”
I don’t know the answers to this but perhaps somebody does. Is ignoring a Congressional subpoena a punishable crime? If yes, who enforces it? If no, why the fuck is it even a thing?
My guess is the answers are “no”, “nobody”, and “who the fuck knows”.
My guess is also that Mark Meadows never speaks to any Congressional committee about January 6th unless it’s after the Dems lose the House in 2022 and the committee is called the “January 6th was as awesome and totally fucking American as a Trump boat parade” committee.
Another Scott
ObOpenThread – BlueVirginia.US:
The process has been the totally predictable disaster that was predicted, but at least the state Supreme Court hasn’t totally rolled over at the start.
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
dr. bloor
You have chosen…wisely.
OGLiberal
I was speaking with my neighbor about a recent state race – state assembly, in particular. She was working on a campaign for two 3-term assembly folks seeking re-election. Both are currently trailing their GOP opponents, although it’s pretty darned close, especially with one of them. Still outstanding votes to count and they haven’t conceded yet. She said that one of the candidates’ campaign manager had them doing GOTV in areas where they would never get votes while ignoring areas where they’d get votes as long as those people went out to vote. Election day came along and – lo and behold – turnout was down in the area where if the folks did vote they’d vote for the Dems.
I have a feeling this is repeated all across the nation by local Dem parties/candidates. Why do we keep making this mistake?
Gravenstone
Originally read this as “Life below zero K” hole, and had an immediate brain cramp, as there is no “below” zero K. Then understanding slowly dawned and I felt better.
dr. bloor
@OGLiberal: Not surprising. DC circuit is going to have to deep-six Trump’s claim of executive privilege on the 30th before any of his stooges will consider showing up. Of course, the inevitable appeal to SCOTUS will follow.
satby
@stinger: I did the same, sort of. And then the tulip place sent me one partial order twice. I passed some of those in to a gardening friend.
@John up top: but the question everyone (ok, just me) wants to know is what you had for lunch??
I have a ton of stuff to finish but instead I’m making a spinach mushroom pizza, and when that comes out of the oven I’m putting in a maple syrup flan (the maple syrup instead of the regular caramel sauce).
Suzanne
Okay. Frustration.
I am working on this amazing building (cannot say for whom or where, but it will be exceedingly visible). The design is developing unevenly. I have been saying for WEEKS that we had some engineering problems that were exceedingly difficult to solve. Solving them will entail some expensive and above-my-pay-grade decisions to be made. My boss has listened but no one else has made it a priority to do more than kick these decisions down the road, because these decisions are complicated and no one likes the implications. FINALLY someone else — a white dude — said the same thing on our meeting this morning and NOW it’s a priority and we’re getting a workshop scheduled with the engineers (which I have been suggesting). I feel like I have done everything short of an interpretive dance to communicate this problem, and it takes a dude to say it in order to get someone to listen.
brendancalling
I don’t have the afternoon off, but I work with high schoolers, so I love my job when I’m not missing being a full-time musician, to which nothing can ever compare. Today, I’m subbing for a fellow English teacher. We’re reviewing and summarizing Chapter 5 of Animal Farm, before they read Chapter 6 by themselves. I may be reading it aloud as well, we shall see. I got some good responses to the summary last class, let’s see how these kids do.
Tomorrow I fly to Nashville to see the woman who taught me to two-step get married. I’m super excited—there’s a GREAT show at the Legion Saturday night, and my fiend is giving me a refresher so I can better teach dance up here in the frozen north.
satby
That actually sums up my career in IT until I became a manager. I would have hoped some things had improved in the almost a decade since I left the corporate world.
JCJ
@stinger: Where I live tulips could easily be called “deer chow”
WaterGirl
@Suzanne: Totally maddening and at the same time, totally unsurprising.
Old School
@brendancalling:
You’re not seeing Kenny G?!?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
so… have y’all heard the news? Borax baths will undo the effects of the vaccine, which are imaginary
I have never really known what Borax is, some kind of laundry detergent that advertised on Gunsmoke as “
90 Mules20 Mule Team Strong”? [ed, apparently they’re still using the slogan] And according to this thread, people use it to kill bugs.How long before they start drinking Borax smoothies and blame Fauci?
Hungry Joe
Exactly 24 hours since my Moderna booster, and I somehow hit the sweet spot: feel too crummy (moderate aches, a little fuzziness, lethargy) to be up and around much, but not too bad when lazing around in bed or under blankets on the couch. Dog and cat nearby, Ms. Joe bringing me stuff, podcasts loaded, Netflix at the ready. As bad days go, this one ain’t half (bad).
Martin
Is it a punishable crime? Yes!
Who enforces it? The Department of Justice, as with all federal crimes.
The problem comes in two forms:
This is why contempt during the 2 impeachment hearings and the Kavanaugh hearing was a pointless exercise – Barr wasn’t going to go through with it, and those were Senate votes, and we didn’t have the votes. This is why the House Jan 6 committee is so much more powerful than a joint one would have been. We can get the votes for contempt in the House a lot easier than we can in the Senate. That was a bad self-own by the GOP. They were so busy opposing anything Dems put forward, that they overlooked that opposition would actually make their situation much worse .
satby
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: it’s a mineral deposit that’s mined, and has the effect of softening hard water so detergent works better. Also a very old fashioned way to emulsify water and oil to make handmade lotion. It’s stupid, but pretty harmless for them to “detoxify” the vaccine that way, so I would encourage any anti-vaxxers you know to get the shot and then take the bath. Whatever works.
schrodingers_cat
Take a nap. Its the best way to spend an afternoon.
Woodrow/asim
Yep. My 1st boss in IT was a woman, as were many since, and I’ve observed that reaction happen more with women, then men. I’ll cop that I’ve done it myself, and good friends have called me out on it.
I’d have to dig for it, but there was a study I keep in the back of my head, that said that far less than 50% of women speaking during a meeting was seen as “equal time” by both men and women in the survey.
smedley the uncertain
@JCJ: Here also too.
VeniceRiley
Clearly, you need a penis. You can probably buy one on ebay.
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodingers_cat:
I have just finished my last class of the week and am now supine in my bed even as we
speakkeyboard. A nap will occur chez Duinne within approximately 30 seconds.Sure Lurkalot
@Suzanne: Thank you for describing my 35 year career in commerical real estate financing.
I’m not saying the arc didn’t move while I did my time, but what’s the name for something so small it can barely be measured?
Suzanne
@satby: What is frustrating is that this all could have been avoided, if there had been a bit more intention about the physical massing of the building. The design firm we are working with has made this very complicated building but they are really bad at the technical parts of design. My firm has to push back on them a bit and I get why they don’t want to do it. But, like, fuck…. This is why that firm can’t design buildings on their own.
ETA: They are drawing finish plans and we don’t even have a main electrical room or MDF room yet. Carts, horses.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Suzanne:
That sucks. You’ve got my sympathies. Back in my corporate software days I used to write email memos summarizing things, which I could pull out later when things went to hell.
debbie
@VeniceRiley:
And then when she walks into the next meeting, slam it down on the table as she’s taking her seat. ?
Sure Lurkalot
Trevor Noah…funny, yet not.
Suzanne
@VeniceRiley:
He wants $22, maybe I can talk him down to $17.
PST
@Steeplejack: A few months ago I received, as a gift, a pair of AfterShokz OpenMove bone conduction Bluetooth headphones. I thought they were silly when I opened the box, but I almost immediately loved them and now use them all the time. The speakers sit just in front of the ear, not in the ear. I find the sound very clear. There is a setting for speech (as opposed to music) that emphasizes the midrange, but that’s minor. The Bluetooth connectivity works like a charm. Even though there is no microphone in front of the mouth, as in a traditional headset, the microphones in the earpieces work great. I use the Aftershokz to answer phone calls all the time, and everyone says I sound just fine. I’ve recorded my voice to check it out for myself. I started using them while cycling because I want to be able to hear traffic while listening to music, but when I started answering phone calls while in motion (which is done with a single, easy tap) I found I could carry on conversations effortlessly. Now I use them at home for handsfree calls. I have some typical hearing loss for a 68-year-old, with a little rolling off at the higher frequencies, and have started having trouble on phone calls, especially in one ear. Nothing dire, but I may be asking about hearing aids one of these days. Anyway, these sound much better than my iPhone. And I can put them on if I’m expecting a call and go about my chores without worrying where I left the phone. I don’t know if Amazon has the best price, but page has a lot of information. The OpenMove is the entry model, but I have no reason to think any of the more expensive versions would be better for phone calls.
Sure Lurkalot
@Suzanne: I’m wedded to an architect and boy, could you two have conversations!
Kay
What a weird thing to lie about.
A localized shoplifting panic. Why would they want that?
MisterForkbeard
@VeniceRiley:
Etsy is usually better for this sort of thing, I hear.
dr. bloor
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
@satby: It also has a proven capacity to scrub liquid nanotechnologies from bogus “vaccines.” I distinctly remember Ronald Reagan saying so when he was hosting Death Valley Days in the 60s.
MisterForkbeard
I’m about to go on vacation for a week – first I’ve had in a couple years. Though it’s not really a vacation, as I still have four meetings to attend and about 4 hours worth of work to do that literally no one else in the company can do. Sigh.
In other news, I plan on playing a lot of Final Fantasy XIV since Warcraft has lost some of its luster and the FF game is pretty decent. Also because I can’t go anywhere, what with the kids in the school and covid still everywhere.
Does anyone else play FF XIV here?
dww44
John, I so enjoy these recent blog posts of yours, both the political ones and ones that are not. I also opt that you choose door number 3. There’s many a week or weekend night that I choose to watch whatever animated movie is showing on one of the cable channels. They’re usually well done and a nice respite from the political wars and other distressing news.
Baud
@Suzanne: Is there a reason you rejected expressing yourself through an interpretive dance?
Suzanne
@Sure Lurkalot: Yes, and they would be conversations that bore everyone else.
:::points to something:::
Me: “That’s not to code.”
Suzanne
@Baud: I work mostly remote. Hard to do interpretive dance via Teams.
piratedan
@Suzanne: I’ve found being an advocate (or finding one) is one way around this. I’ve taken suggestions made by female staff and promoted them myself… saying it like “I think Suzanne’s idea needs additional consideration because I’m not comfortable just waiting on xyz to happen”…. and suddenly it’s like they’ve heard it for the first time. This really depends on a collaborate staff to make it work but if that’s what it takes to get the job done, you roll with it.
Understood that not every work environment operates like this, but for those that do it helps to have bosses hear that the dudes on the team are listening to the women, perhaps they should too…
Librarian
@Suzanne: It’ll be lying next to a broken toaster oven.
Martin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Borax is sodium borate. It’s actually a food additive (preservative) in some countries. Bathing in it is fine. Nobody is determined enough to sit in that bath long enough for it to cause harm. It’s slightly acidic, so probably won’t feel great in some nooks and crannies.
The 20 mule team marketing came from the fact that the borax mines in the US are in dry lake beds, most notably around Death Valley. They are absolutely miserable places to work, and hauling this shit up and out of these lake beds over one if not more ranges of mountains, isn’t much fun either.
Side lesson on CA geography. The geography of central CA is pretty interesting. You have this series of north-south mountain ranges that formed lakes/inland seas. You have a coastal range (Santa Lucia), then the Salinas valley (101, Steinbeck novels, lots of grapes and salad greens), then another mountain range (Gabilan/Diablo where Pinnacles Natl Park is), then the Central Valley (all the rest of your food), then the Sierra Nevada range (Yosemite), then the Panamint valley (395, where most westerns were filmed), then the Panamint range, then Death Valley, then the Amargosa range and Nevada follows.
In ancient times these were all lakes/seas. In modern times the Salinas valley grows a lot of crops that require more regular water and have better value/land area, since the valley doesn’t have huge land area. This valley takes the first bit of rain from the two ranges that force clouds up into colder air which causes the rainfall. The much taller sierras then take most of what’s left in the clouds for the central valley. The panamint valley gets a little bit of the back range precipitation from that action, but the panamint range is too low to take anything else, leaving Death Valley with nothing.
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
Be careful, he may be way overpricing. Ask if he’s had it appraised or if this is a self determination of value…..
debit
@PST: Those look like a better solution than one airpod in my right ear. Do they work with a helmet?
MisterForkbeard
@Kay: The argument I keep hearing is that the thefts just aren’t being reported, and that other stores like Target have lowered their hours due to ‘theft’.
I don’t think that makes sense, though – in order for Target to get by insurance and other things, they’d need to report the thefts and missing inventory, wouldn’t they?
Kay
@MisterForkbeard:
I don’t know. They’re reported here. We have lots and lots of shoplifting prosecutions, but that’s a constant.
Kay
@MisterForkbeard:
Could Target perhaps have reduced their hours because they can’t find enough people to work at Target, but don’t want to say that?
satby
@MisterForkbeard: It’s another in the time honored cannon of “cities are unlivable, populated by those kinds of people” married to “crime is everywhere, especially in urban hellholes like SF! Be afraid”
satby
@satby: Also, in retail, a great deal of thefts are inside jobs. But they hate to admit that.
Suzanne
@Librarian: Thank you.
One of the benefits of WFH is that I am listening to that song RIGHT NOW.
Juju
I love tulips and I even tried planting some a number of years back. I don’t have a green thumb so I was surprised and thrilled that they sprouted and then grew. I was watching for buds as the tulips were growing, but they never made to buds. The bunnies and deer ate them down past the bulb. I planted tulips two years in a row and the bunnies and deer ate them. Apparently tulips are very tasty if you are a bunny or deer. The animals never touched the irises or daffodils. If your tulips bloom in spring I think pictures would be nice.
Martin
@Suzanne: Welcome to my time as a director. The overwhelming majority of my staff in my career have been female, mostly because the female candidates present resumes they can back up in interviews, while the male candidates too often spin fantastic tales of high fantasy. I once made a guy cry in an interview when he broke down and admitted he couldn’t really do half the shit on his resume.
Anyway, just about every big meeting we needed to go into involved a conversation between me and my team about how we were going to present, and what role I should play. My style was to only present for things where I did virtually all of the work, and have my staff present for anything that was shared (which was almost everything). I would sit in the back and steer things. If my staff were getting a hard time, I’d jump in, take that pressure off and then let my staff take control back. But way, way, way too much of my role was to wait for the presentation and Q&A to end, the room to turn to me, I nod that everything my female staff said was correct, and then they’d take it seriously. Periodically, I’d then lecture the room to tell them that the presentation would not have happened if that wasn’t the case – that I wouldn’t put my staff as the face of some bullshit, or something we weren’t certain of, and if they presented it wrong, I’d have stepped in and corrected it, which I didn’t need to do. If my staff present something they should take it as seriously as if I presented it. I figured after a while I could stop lecturing them, but it never ended. That shit even proceeded into merits and promotions, where I’d have to argue that this individual ran this project and I’d get an expression of ‘oh, but did she *really*, or did you do it?’. Man, I got in a lot of trouble screaming at people over that shit. And I work in what I consider to be among the more favorable environments for female employees.
I don’t say this to garner credit – as far as I’m concerned I just did my damn job, I say it to tell all of you that it’s not your imagination. This shit is never ending. If you feel compelled to give me an atta boy, give it to Suzanne instead. She apparently doesn’t get the ones she deserves, and I’ve got a couple of decades of getting ones that should have gone to others.
brendancalling
@Old School: No—although “Kenny G and Michael Bolton Shred” is a must-see video.
I’m seeing Lillie Mae, Josh Hedley (holy shit is he good), Langhorne Slim, and Nikki Lane.
For those of you that ain’t in the know, the American Legion Post 82 in East Nashville is one of the best honky tonks in that fair city. In 2018 or 2019, I saw Emmylou Harris backed by Vince Gil and Rodney Crowell at the Legion for $5.00. That’s not a typo.
MisterForkbeard
@Martin: I’m a director as well, and this is somewhat similar. My team has always been majority female, and I try to give them the spotlight as much as possible. It annoys me tremendously that I have to do it, though. You can see the unconscious bias at work when some of the women are talking, and there’s this awful feedback loop involved:
1) They know only some of the audience takes them seriously
2) They lose some confidence
3) The rest of the audience takes them less seriously because of the lack of confidence
4) See #2
Suzanne
@Martin: I am harkening back to a meeting about a project that got hung up late in the game because the Owner hadn’t been maintaining their Fire Life Safety compliance information with the City. During the first week of the design phase of the project, I asked the Owner if they had their Life Safety Report, they said no, and I said they needed to pull that together. They didn’t, and then it became a problem because the City wouldn’t grant them a building permit until they did it, which cost about $75K in specialty consultant fees and a few months.
Anyway, I was sitting in a meeting with the Owner and the Life Safety consultant, and some others. The Owner says, “Suzanne, can you explain the process of what we have to do here to get the building permit?”. So I explain. Trying to keep it concise, but it is a complicated thing. Owner then turns to Life Safety consultant and asks the exact same question. To his credit, he replied, “Exactly what Suzanne just said”.
:::headdesk:::
Suzanne
@MisterForkbeard: The dynamic here is that I am telling people that they have to make some hard choices, and no one wants to do it. I’m not sure they don’t take me seriously, or if they just don’t like what I’m saying and figure they can continue kicking the can and that I will somehow be able to fix it for them.
PST
@debit:
Yes, but the helmet has to go on first because of the helmet strap coming down behind the ear. Add glasses and a face mask and the ears are really multitasking.
Suzanne
@MisterForkbeard: One thing that kills me at work is the niceness issue. I can be a bit prickly. But so can most of the dudes in this business. No bullshit. But I got an annual review once telling me that I didn’t smile enough at work. I guarantee that not a single one of the grumpy-ass motherfuckers I have ever worked with got that comment.
debit
@PST: LOL, seriously! Thanks so much for the recommendation. I’m going to nab a pair.
UncleEbeneezer
Going to see the presidential portraits at LACMA tomorrow afternoon and then I think we’ll swing by Kyochon and get some of the worlds best chicken wings to bring home for dinner. Kinda excited.
Sandia Blanca
@Steeplejack: I got the Sangean WR-11 about a year ago, as the cheap radio I had been using to listen to our classical music station just wouldn’t let me tune it accurately. The Sangean is perfect for my needs! The sound comes in clear, and the look of the console is soothingly retro. Highly recommend.
scribbler
@debit: Just to jump on here, my husband uses them for biking and wears a helmet. He loves them.
Martin
@Suzanne: The deliverer of ‘make hard choices’ news was something of a speciality of mine, to the degree that my bosses would often send me in to do that on their behalf. If people haven’t noticed, I love that shit. Organizational denial is a serious problem, and someone needs to knock them out of it, and as a former NYer, I feel well trained to tell them to knock that shit off. I’ve had countless situations when I walked into a meeting my bosses were supposed to be in, with people above my pay grade, and there’s an audible <sigh> when they see me because they know why I’m there, and they know what’s coming. The meeting proceeds normally, but there’s a tension because everyone knows that I’m going to pop off on them, and they’re just waiting for it to happen. Personally, I find it to be a lot of fun, and I can now lean into it and ask the folks running the meeting ‘can I do my thing now?’ because they too know what’s coming. I got to do it once with Janet Napolitano in the room, which was a blast. She thanked me afterward. She seemed to be very amused by it. I’m not mean, but you can’t pretend you don’t understand the message, and if you try and weasel out of something I will call you out on it hard. If it’s uncomfortable, it’s your own doing. Lots of people find it entertaining, mostly because they agree with me but aren’t brave enough to do it.
Anyway, it’s very hard to be that person and to become that person. I had to build a pretty solid backstop of people who would have my back when the complaints come rolling in. Took me years. And you really need to have done your homework because you cannot ever be wrong, or else that’s the last time you can do it. I’m not sure how to approach it in a situation with clients. I had the benefit of working with the same people for years. Even when Napolitano was in the room, I had a personal relationship with most of the people there, built up over years. Even though she didn’t know me, she knew them, and they knew me, and they gave me credibility.
Being the truth-teller is hard, but it’s really important. I steered my employer off of a LOT of bad decisions. I also spent a LOT of time fighting off calls to have me fired, claims of discrimination for calling people out, some just made up shit, and so on. Lots of nearly getting fired. Understand that’s part of the cost, which is why a lot of people get a little shy there at the end, and I don’t fault them for that. Institutions don’t need to enable the retaliation and punish those who are being painfully blunt, but they always do. I always get lectures about being more polite, which after a bit of back and forth we come to agree is just code for ‘don’t point out the unpleasant shit’. Yeah, well, the unpleasant shit is what’s going to get you, and pretending it doesn’t exist doesn’t help.
I’m not an intimidating presence like Adam is, but being a guy really makes it easier. Nobody ever called me ‘hysterical’, yet that’s the first word that would have been directed at me had I been female, and everyone knows it. Play the game that puts you on top, that lets you live with your actions, and know that we’ll understand and have your back. Sorry the world isn’t better, but we’ll keep working at it.
NotMax
@Sandia Blanca
Did someone say retro?
;)
stinger
@Juju: @JCJ: I plant most things, including tulips, within fencing, or I’d never have tulips, roses, vegetables, blueberries, etc. No idea why daffodils are safe!
Roger Moore
@Kay:
Business leaders are human, too, and they behave just as irrationally as any other person. FWIW, Calfornia relatively recently downgraded a bunch of crimes to misdemeanors, including some categories of petty theft. That means some shoplifters who used to get harsh sentences are now getting relatively light ones, and businesses that deal with shoplifting have been angry about it the whole time. It doesn’t mean their complaints are valid, but that’s probably where it’s coming from.
quintillian
@Steeplejack: I have that Sangean radio, and it’s great. Recommend.
Roger Moore
@Martin:
FWIW, the main borax mining is no longer in the Death Valley area. There’s a major mine near Edwards AF Base in the Mojave which is one of only two big mines in the world. The other is in Turkey. At least that was what they told me when I went on a tour of the place 20 years ago. The mine in the Mojave is much bigger and is more convenient to transportation, notably the ports of LA and Long Beach.
Suzanne
@Martin: You know, women dominate interior design and men dominate architecture. I remember watching watching men in architecture when I was new at this, and they commended respect when they worked through engineering problems. I thought that I would command the same respect when I was good enough to do that. Now I’m doing it and instead of respect, I’m getting brushed off….. because these other designers don’t like that the hard stuff interferes with their creativity. I can’t win.
sab
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I hope they don’t. Borax is poisonous. We used to sprinkle it behind the refrigerator to kill roaches. They’d get it on their tiny feet and die when they cleaned them. I think it dehydrates them.
Brachiator
@VeniceRiley:
And then pull it out and slam it on the desk before she speaks.
ETA. And to be clear, I hate this bullshit. Have seen it too often in various permutations.
sab
@satby: Safe to bathe, causes upset stomach if ingested?
Brachiator
@Steeplejack:
I love Sangean and CCrane radios. But its gots to be digital. I greatly prefer digital tuning and the ability to designate favorite stations.
Sometimes the ability to fine tune a digital selection can make a difference. But I think the model you show is noted for its accuracy and selectivity.
I don’t care about wood panel or retro looking products, but this is obviously an individual taste thing.
MisterForkbeard
@Suzanne: I’m actually regularly told I’m too nice in my reviews, which I find hilarious. I literally got feedback today that “upper management isn’t getting complaints about you, which means you’re not being aggressive enough when you give people hard conversations”
As for can kicking? Yeah. My management kicked a particular can down the road for 3+ years and now are on me daily about fixing it, with heavy implications of “how have you not fixed this already if you’ve been aware it was going to be a problem?” and “I don’t understand this because you haven’t explained it, and I’m going to ignore the last 3 mails on the subject”.
Business work. Bleah.
debbie
@MisterForkbeard:
Management where I work is the same. “Why do they like you like they do?” like it’s for criminal reasons It’s because I am always working with them instead of rejecting their work almost immediately.
Roger Moore
@sab:
Borax is a lot more poisonous to insects than to humans. They wouldn’t sell it as a laundry booster if it were very dangerous, and it’s actually legal to use as a food additive in some countries. Bathing in a dilute borax solution may cause skin irritation, but it’s unlikely to do much more than that. I’d be happier if people got vaccinated voluntarily, but I will accept it if they get vaccinated and then use ineffective home remedies to “undo” the vaccination.
Sandia Blanca
@NotMax: Yes, very much in that vein! Reminds me of the 1960s.
eclare
@Martin: Very interesting, thank you.
eclare
@brendancalling: Holy shit! Have fun and be safe.
MisterForkbeard
@debbie: yeah. I had one of these yesterday, where I turned down another team flat on a big project request and explained why. They even took it straight to their GVP boss and they accepted it – “Yep, that makes sense. Get back to us when things change.”
Today, my boss told me that upper management doesn’t hear complaints so therefore they assume I’m not pushing back on anything. Just because THEY can’t talk to Sales People doesn’t mean I can’t, you know? :)
Juju
@Suzanne: Jeeze it pisses me off when people tell me to smile. I have never heard of or seen in person anyone doing that to a man. I’ve been told that at work, and I was a teacher, so to some degree I suppose it’s justifiable, but again, I’ve never heard that complaint made of any male coworkers. I especially hate it when random people at the grocery store or whatever store I’m in feel it’s fine to tell me to smile. It’s extra special when they add the it makes you look prettier part. The nice thing about wearing a mask and reaching the invisible woman part of life is that no one tells me to smile while I’m grocery shopping.
Juju
@stinger: I just had a fence installed this summer. The fence will stop deer, but I don’t know if it will stop bunnies. Maybe I’ll try to plant some tulips again and find out.
OGLiberal
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Borax is a key ingredient in the homemade slime my kids used to make. That’s about the only thing I’ve ever used it for. Basically it’s Borax, Elmer’s glue, water and the optional food coloring. I remember my parents spending a decent amount of money buying that stuff for me when I was kid. It came in a garbage can container. The store bought stuff did have rubber worms so bit of an extra touch.
MisterForkbeard
@Suzanne: Also: The whole “smile at work” thing is amazingly bad. Like, I can’t imagine how women put up with that.
I had an old manager who was told she was passed over for a promotion (the guy who got it was an asshole and personally responsible for a lot of screwups). She was told she was “too emotional” for the job. I’m amazed she didn’t quit immediately, and HR didn’t take it seriously at all.
That was about 8 years ago, so I have some hope that it would go better nowadays. I have to watch myself because I have a female manager who I sometimes ask if she’s doing okay because she looks incredibly serious when the rest of the room is reacting normally. I really hope that doesn’t cross the line.
frosty
#2. Take advantage of sunny warm weather to go outside when you can!
Gin & Tonic
Where I live, planting tulips is a complete waste of time and money. As soon as those delicate green shots poke up in the spring, they are eaten to ground level by the fucking deer.
Steeplejack (phone)
@PST:
Thanks for the review of the AfterShokz. I saw those and thought, “That’s just crazy enough to work,” but I didn’t want to commit. This will make me take another look.
eclare
@brendancalling: OMG that was hilarious! And good to see that Michael Bolton and Kenny G are self-aware and have a sense of humor.
sab
@Roger Moore: I kind of of revised that, per satby. Humans it just upsets stomachs, unless you have kidney problems.
OGLiberal
@Martin: Situation isn’t any worse if we don’t do 1 & 2. My money is on the Dems/Garland not doing either because “the GOP might do it to us in the future.” And they will…but they’ll do it anyway because they are the party of crazy and bad faith. So the Dems will just say, “well, we subpoenaed him but he didn’t show up”, and think that’s tough enough while most people will think, “well, either what he did wasn’t that bad or you’re just wimps – neither makes me enthusiastic to vote for you.” We’ll see, I guess. History doesn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy. If you’re serious about this you set the wheels in motion 5 minutes after this jerk is a no-show.
Steeplejack (phone)
@PST:
Good reminder. I wear glasses. I take it that’s not an issue.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Sandia Blanca:
Thanks! I like the retro look too, but it’s nice to know that it also actually works.
Steeplejack (phone)
@quintillian:
Thanks! Just got up from siesta time a little while ago, and I’ve been going through the thread.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Brachiator:
I’ll look to see if Sangean has a digital model. I presume they do.
debbie
@sab:
In theory, it does kill cockroaches.
sab
@debbie: Which in northern Ohio aren’t a concern. My seventy year old husband hasn’t seen a cockroach since boot camp for Coast Guard at Camp May. He laughs at my cockroach concerns since we don’t have them in Akron OH. In Florida they will carry off your pet alligator.
debbie
@sab:
In NYC, they’ll quickly outnumber you and then knife you for your food.
Kayla Rudbek
@Suzanne: there have been many times during the last five-ten years in my career that I have wanted to try the experiment of signing off my work as Karl instead of Kayla, and see just how much less crap I would have to put up with from my reviewers and outside stakeholders. Unfortunately it would probably take a legal name change to do that, but particularly last Tuesday I wanted to do it so, so much.
Sandia Blanca
@Steeplejack (phone): I was originally shopping for a digital radio, too, but after reading many reviews of all kinds of radios, became convinced that the Sangean’s analog tuning system is acute enough (it lights up when you are on a clear signal) that it would work well, and it has.
Steeplejack
@Sandia Blanca:
Thanks for your added input. I remember reading that the Sangean has that light that zeroes in on the station. My friend is fairly tech-savvy, but she is elderly, and I do have some slight concerns that she might not like a digital radio.
I sent her the links for the Sangean and another radio, and in her reply later today she said she needed Bluetooth so that she could use her AirPods. WTF. I may go back to telling her to just stream stations on her iPhone.
Brachiator
@Steeplejack:
I don’t currently use Apple products, but see that there is a Radio feature that is part of the iPhone Music app.
You can ask Siri to find a station, etc.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
I use the Apple Music app to listen to internet music stations, it works great on either iPhones or Mac computers.
Steeplejack
@Brachiator, @Ruckus:
Yeah, I know. In my original post I said that my friend lives in Alaska and reguarly complains about problems with Internet, wi-fi and cell-phone coverage, hence her interest in a radio. I just got a little irritated because the Bluetooth requirement came in way late. She has a tendency to omit crucial details that often makes things harder than they need to be. I’ll ask her about her status with Apple Music.