Wapsi Square Forum

Completely forgot to mention, my dad got me a pair of the inserts. They had to be trimmed down a bit to fit my shoes, but my legs don't ache like they had been Wednesday morning. Only three hours left of my current shift, and my feet are only a little sore. Back aches a bit, but that seems normal.

I'm working at a much faster machine, so I'm not waiting three minutes for one seat. Although, I have outpaced it several times tonight...

(EDIT: Why does autocorrect change what was already correct?)

Alkarii wrote:Completely forgot to mention, my dad got me a pair of the inserts. They had to be trimmed down a bit to fit my shoes, but my legs don't ache like they had been Wednesday morning. Only three hours left of my current shift, and my feet are only a little shoe.

Excellent! Yes, having the right amount of "cushiness" and proper support of the arches can make a huge difference if you have to stand and/or walk a lot on the job.

I remember reading that when they first became available, mass-produced rubber soles were an important "weapon of war". Prior to that, military boots all had leather soles, which aren't resilient. Soldiers' feet took a lot of pounding as a result, and long distance marching could result in "march hemoglobinuria". The pounding would rupture the red blood cells and the troops would end up suffering from anemia. Not as big a problem as trenchfoot or typhus, perhaps, but anything which reduces the fitness of the troops in battle is a Bad Thing.

Yeah, that machine being faster than the other two I had been on so far helped my shift seem to go much faster. I assembled more than 540 seats, which is more than on my first two nights combined. Also, there was one of those rubber pads on the floor, which helped a bit. Hopefully there will be one at the machine I'll use tonight. If not, the quality control guy told me that some people will fold a box and put foam in it, and use that as a pad, so I might try that.

Well, I think I just found the limit of my current capabilities... They put me on a machine that's faster than the last one, and I'd been falling behind a lot. There's barely enough time to even tape a box shut before the belts get full. Of course, it didn't help that the hinges I thought I was supposed to be using (which I also had to keep assembling) were actually supposed to be recycled, or sent to whoever builds the hinges so they can redo them. None of the supplies I needed were on hand, one of the tape guns is broken and the other had tape wrapped several times around the roller, which caused problems.

And to ice the cake, someone had gone into the box of bags and removed all the hanging rods, then put everything back in the box and set an empty box on top of it.

Hopefully, the shift leader will realize I'm not ready for a machine this fast just yet. (Apparently, even more experienced people have trouble with it.)

Well, then, I guess the shift leader either:
1) wants to make you mess up bad enough that he can get rid of you, or
2) wants to show you that you have limits, or
3) was impressed enough that he thought you might be able to handle it, or
4) was maybe not quite that impressed, but was even less impressed with everyone else on hand that day...

(Or, of course, something else.)

Anyway, from what you've said I think you're doing a good job in terms of doing the job. Shop politics I can't and won't comment on.

Yeah, I managed to figure out a rhythm that worked, and I was doing pretty good, having enough time to close my boxes, until the quality control guy came by, and not only pulled a couple seats out of a box I was just about to close, and when he was done checking them, he left them for me to put back in the box. Thankfully my trainer came by and helped me get back on track.

Here's another quote from my wallpaper changer:

“If you give a man a fish, he will eat for today. If you teach him to fish, he'll understand why some people think golf is exciting.”
- P.G. Wodehouse

lake_wrangler wrote:Here's another quote from my wallpaper changer:

“If you give a man a fish, he will eat for today. If you teach him to fish, he'll understand why some people think golf is exciting.”
- P.G. Wodehouse

Help a man build a fire, and he'll be warm for a day.

Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

Heh, that second one is genius. I'll have to remember that one for later.

Alkarii wrote:Heh, that second one is genius. I'll have to remember that one for later.

I honestly can't remember where i lifted it from.

I wish i was clever enough that it were original with me.

I have stolen that one, too. Think I first saw it in someone's sig a few years ago, but do not remember whose, or on what site.

I got it from Belkar Bitterleaf. I don't know if the halfling is the original source or not, though.

I remember hearing the "set a man on fire" thing back in High School back in the 70s, so it's been around a while!

Also:

• Laugh and the world laughs with you.
  Smile, and they think you're up to something!

Atomic wrote:I remember hearing the "set a man on fire" thing back in High School back in the 70s, so it's been around a while!

Also:

• Laugh and the world laughs with you.
  Smile, and they think you're up to something!

Oh this is so applicable to me...

GlytchMeister wrote:

Atomic wrote:I remember hearing the "set a man on fire" thing back in High School back in the 70s, so it's been around a while!

Also:

• Laugh and the world laughs with you.
  Smile, and they think you're up to something!

Oh this is so applicable to me...

When you smile that doesn't concern me. The laugh, though...{shudder}

Meanwhile, when I do either, it's a dead giveaway...

Just Old Al wrote:When you smile that doesn't concern me. The laugh, though...{shudder}

Just remember who you are dealing with. His smile is an embryonic form of his laugh... and I'm thinking "alien face-hugger egg" sort of embryo.

Dave wrote:

Just Old Al wrote:When you smile that doesn't concern me. The laugh, though...{shudder}

Just remember who you are dealing with. His smile is an embryonic form of his laugh... and I'm thinking "alien face-hugger egg" sort of embryo.

Oddly enough you echo my exact thoughts as I typed that. Don't visualize...

Dave wrote:I remember reading that when they first became available, mass-produced rubber soles were an important "weapon of war". Prior to that, military boots all had leather soles, which aren't resilient. Soldiers' feet took a lot of pounding as a result, and long distance marching could result in "march hemoglobinuria". The pounding would rupture the red blood cells and the troops would end up suffering from anemia. Not as big a problem as trenchfoot or typhus, perhaps, but anything which reduces the fitness of the troops in battle is a Bad Thing.

Or there was the amazing revolution in footwear when they started making an actual left-shaped boot and a right-shaped boot, instead of just making all boots look and fit the same and expecting the continuous use of the same boot on the same foot to gradually get them shaped to fit.

Warrl wrote:Shop politics I can't and won't comment on.

Probably a very politic decision to make.

Alkarii wrote:Yeah, I managed to figure out a rhythm that worked. . .

Once you manage to find a rhythm that works for you and that satisfies workplace rules, that's half the battle right there. Much of the rest of the battle, of course, is getting other people to not step in and mess up the rhythm now that you've found it.

AnotherFairportfan wrote:

Alkarii wrote:Heh, that second one is genius. I'll have to remember that one for later.

I honestly can't remember where i lifted it from.

I wish i was clever enough that it were original with me.

I've seen it all over the place, from all sorts of different sources. It's likely one of those things where by now it would be almost impossible to figure out who first came up with it.

Catawampus wrote:I've seen it all over the place, from all sorts of different sources. It's likely one of those things where by now it would be almost impossible to figure out who first came up with it.

Unless you're talking about the line about English following other languages up dark alleys and mugging them for loose vocabulary - i know EXACTLY who's responsible for that one.