Wapsi Square Forum

Well screw them then if they're going to punish you for trying to do the right thing.

I pass by this building every day, while driving the bus. One day, I happened to notice the address number... The following was my immediate thought:



We're sorry, the building you are looking for does not exist...

Incidentally, I just figured out how to post larger pics, by reducing the quality during the resizing... I had not paid attention to the settings in the software I was using, so I was reducing image size, while keeping it full quality...

Just read this quote on my wallpaper, and it made me chuckle:

Dear Lord: Please make my words sweet and tender, for tomorrow I may have to eat them.

I can't find any attribution for it, though.

And as I was about to post this, the wallpaper changed, and the quote is now this:

“I'm not sure I want popular opinion on my side -- I've noticed those with the most opinions often have the fewest facts.” - Bethania McKenstry

If somebody argues that "Everybody knows X," then ask them to explain how X works, please. Popcorn advised.

Well, it looks like I'll have to go to trade school after all. Nobody who is hiring apprentices without any experience will call me after I apply. At the very least, they could have the courtesy to a person why they can't (won't) hire them, even when the posting has been up for several weeks.

Alkarii wrote: ↑Sun Jul 12, 2020 4:11 pm Well, it looks like I'll have to go to trade school after all. Nobody who is hiring apprentices without any experience will call me after I apply. At the very least, they could have the courtesy to a person why they can't (won't) hire them, even when the posting has been up for several weeks.

That sounds normal to me, honestly. I've sent lots of resumes and applications without a response. More responsible outfits will acknowledge receipt and will inform you when the position has been filled. Many do not.

Hang in there, and good luck!

Typeminer wrote: ↑Mon Jul 13, 2020 8:21 am

Alkarii wrote: ↑Sun Jul 12, 2020 4:11 pm Well, it looks like I'll have to go to trade school after all. Nobody who is hiring apprentices without any experience will call me after I apply. At the very least, they could have the courtesy to a person why they can't (won't) hire them, even when the posting has been up for several weeks.

That sounds normal to me, honestly. I've sent lots of resumes and applications without a response. More responsible outfits will acknowledge receipt and will inform you when the position has been filled. Many do not.

Hang in there, and good luck!

Consider a company above-average for civility to job-seekers if they actually take listings down after the position is filled, or in some other way positively discourage new applicants. (Such as put a "we expect to fill this position by..." date on the listing.)

Note: this doesn't apply to "commodity" positions - where a company has dozens of people doing essentially the same moderate-skill job, so they have a new opening or three almost every week. Example: cashiers and stockers in big-box stores.

I love this one:

> Linux is not user-friendly.
It _is_ user-friendly. It is not ignorant-friendly and idiot-friendly. - Seen somewhere on the net

lake_wrangler wrote: ↑Tue Jul 14, 2020 5:26 pm I love this one:

> Linux is not user-friendly.
It _is_ user-friendly. It is not ignorant-friendly and idiot-friendly. - Seen somewhere on the net

That is the elitist attitude of the kind of Linux-head who, when asked by a newbie for help, spouts a string of CLI-based bafflegab that you'd have to be at least familar with the CLI ... and insults you and says "Go back to Windoze!" when you say "Wot?" or when you ask if there might be a way to do it using the GUI.

The kind who would wear a t-shirt saying

Real programmers don't comment. It was hard to write, it should be hard to understand

...and not recognise the irony

People who consider Linux their own little club, and feel that it becoming popular cheapens it - the same attitude i watched Betamax fanatics giving VHS users, or iThing users giving Android users when an app that had been their own private playground was opened up for Android.

"Oh, god - who let all this dreary common riff raff into our Sacred Precincts?"

{Right now, i have a Linux partition on this machine - primarily for playing a game i haven't been able to find a decent Windows version of. Tell me where i can find a decent Windows implementation of Shisen-Sho, and i may not log into Linux again for months, if ever.}

I am happily ignorant of programming and such- if the program is something friendly to me, I use it... if not, I get by without. The technologies I am most comfortable with were old before your parents were born and will withstand an electro-magnetic pulse without so much as a hiccough- what's more, I have the capacities to bring them online

Sgt. Howard wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2020 12:19 am I am happily ignorant of programming and such- if the program is something friendly to me, I use it... if not, I get by without. The technologies I am most comfortable with were old before your parents were born and will withstand an electro-magnetic pulse without so much as a hiccough- what's more, I have the capacities to bring them online

So you're saying you're most comfortable with pre-WWII technology? (My dad was born in 1939... )

lake_wrangler wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2020 2:09 pm

Sgt. Howard wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2020 12:19 am I am happily ignorant of programming and such- if the program is something friendly to me, I use it... if not, I get by without. The technologies I am most comfortable with were old before your parents were born and will withstand an electro-magnetic pulse without so much as a hiccough- what's more, I have the capacities to bring them online

So you're saying you're most comfortable with pre-WWII technology? (My dad was born in 1939... )

Mine in 1922

My sister informed me today that when she picked up one of her kids to take him to the dentist, our mom was on the phone.

Monday afternoon, her brother-in-law's brother was riding his motorcycle with his wife when he hit a deer, and ended up hitting a tree as a result of it. His wife ended up getting her leg torn up pretty badly, and she's going to need skin grafts, while he was in the OR due to a torn spleen. He didn't make it, and died on the table.

I don't know if I ever met them, and I'm also not sure I even knew my uncle had a brother.

But this sort of thing is precisely why I won't get a motorcycle, and I have to tell my brother that all the time. Maybe this will convince him to leave me alone about getting a motorcycle.

Damn... sorry to hear that!

A friend of ours bought a motorcycle a few years ago (a life-long dream). About six months into his ownership he had a freeway mishap that totaled the bike; if he hadn't taken the precaution of wearing full leathers and helmet he'd have lost a lot of skin and flesh. As it was he got away without serious injury, but has sworn off motorcycle riding for life.

I guess I can see the attraction, but for me (as for you) it just isn't worth the danger.

There are two kinds of motorcycle riders. The ones who have wrecked, and the ones who are going to.

I had a near-death experience on a motorcycle at 19, and I think that was the last time I ever drove one, though I've been a passenger now and then.

My brother is a longtime deranged biker. He's as careful a driver as anybody I've ever seen. He wrecked one bike, with his wife onboard, when an idiot made a left turn across his path of travel. He once saw friends on an organized ride nearly killed on the road ahead of him, I think because a tire blew.

On a motorcycle, in a very real way, you do not have control. Idiots will fail to see you and cross your path in defiance of the laws of both traffic and physics.

They have their charm, but there is always danger. You have some of that with bicycles, too, but you're not in highway-speed traffic on a bicycle.

In 1972 i came close to losing an arm when an idiot turned in front of me on my ten-speed.

Three hours on the ER tabld, forty-plus stitches and a knee that still hates me.

When I was a teenager, I used to ride my bicycle a lot, going on long day rides (100 to 150 km - 60 to 90 mi.), by the time I was 17. To me, it seemed like the logical progression would be that eventually, I would like to get a motorbike. Of course, that never happened. Only two years after leaving home, I got married. Getting a motorbike was simply out of the question by then. In fact, I had completely forgotten about that.

Ten years ago, I went on a diet (Herbalife), and lost a lot of weight, which I had gained over so many years. After losing the weight, I started riding bicycles again, and going on long trips. It then occurred to me that if I ever did get a motorbike (which I could, now, if I wanted to), I would not ride my bicycle as much. So I am not even interested in having a motorbike, now.




Sadly, after taking a year and a half to lose 164 lbs, I maintained the weight for a year, then gained 150 lbs back over the course of 5 years. I managed to maintain myself (that is, not gain more weight) for two years. I finally regained the last 15 lbs in the last few months. And when I tried starting up riding my bicycle again (I had mostly stopped, since buying a house two years ago, taking me to 11 km from work, instead of 5.5 - 6 mi instead of 3), the threads holding the right pedal stripped. It took me a while to get the crankset I needed. I started installing it, but it's taking a while, due to minor complications. But it's almost done, and I'll be riding my bike by next week, God willing.



But yeah. No motorcycle for me. I did ride one, once: a dirt bike, in a field at the horseback riding center I was working at, but I never even tried to shift to second gear... And was passenger on one, one time, as well. But that's it.


Honestly, I prefer driving a farm tractor or a full-size, stick shift school bus...)

lake_wrangler wrote: ↑Thu Jul 16, 2020 12:36 pm Honestly, I prefer driving a farm tractor or a full-size, stick shift school bus...)

When you get the urge to start popping wheelies on either of the above, please post a link to the YouTube video.

lake_wrangler wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2020 2:09 pm

Sgt. Howard wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2020 12:19 am I am happily ignorant of programming and such- if the program is something friendly to me, I use it... if not, I get by without. The technologies I am most comfortable with were old before your parents were born and will withstand an electro-magnetic pulse without so much as a hiccough- what's more, I have the capacities to bring them online

So you're saying you're most comfortable with pre-WWII technology? (My dad was born in 1939... )

While still in high school, I learned how to run a steam locomotive- and skippered one with passengers! I have done wet-plate photography. I have done PRE-wet plate photography (Talbotype/Calotype, paper negative process). I shave with a straight-edged razor. I can sail anything with one mast and most that have two if I have a second crewman. I have done salvage in a Navy Mk.5 rig. My deer rifle loads down the front. There are kerosene lamps on wall fonts that I have made throughout the house. If it has points and condenser, the motor in the front powering the wheels in the back and a clutch, I can work on it and likely can rebuild it from the ground up
.