Get Your Grump on Thursdays - Was (What's chapping my @ss today?)

[ericpmoss]

I got laid off. The new corporate overlords want to beat more overtime out of the other two developers, and hire more salesmen. So they eliminated my position. My skills are too specialized, and now it will take 6-12 months to find a job, and it's all but guaranteeing I have to move again. I've never lived in one place long enough to call home. Probably never will. I've never been able to save up much money before shit like this happens. Probably never will. Imagine how terrifying it is for all the people that don't have the tech degrees. Oy, what a country.

[ericpmoss]

Oh hey, something of more import. Donna Brazile admitted (finally) that the DNC rigged the primary against Bernie. Clinton had a secret agreement that gave her personal control over every hiring decision, strategy decision, and every money decision at the DNC. She laundered campaign money, too. Brazile knew she was likely to lose the general, and admitted it to Bernie. OMFG. I lost every friend but one, because they belittled me for saying what was going on as it was being reported, and they won't admit anything. Now the DNC under Perez has purged all Bernie supporters from the rules committee, and filled it with Clinton superdelegates. And no, Trump was not the answer. Jesus.

[Matthew Strongin]

I got laid off. The new corporate overlords want to beat more overtime out of the other two developers, and hire more salesmen. So they eliminated my position. My skills are too specialized, and now it will take 6-12 months to find a job, and it's all but guaranteeing I have to move again. I've never lived in one place long enough to call home. Probably never will. I've never been able to save up much money before shit like this happens. Probably never will. Imagine how terrifying it is for all the people that don't have the tech degrees. Oy, what a country.

That really sucks to hear. Hopefully you'll find something else without too much time elapsing. If you don't mind my asking, what's your specialization?

[false_aesthetic]

That week when your co-worker decides to quit . . . by showing up to work completely blitzed . . . so he can get fired . . . because he's too chickenshit to quit.

[gggross]

I got laid off. The new corporate overlords want to beat more overtime out of the other two developers, and hire more salesmen. So they eliminated my position. My skills are too specialized, and now it will take 6-12 months to find a job, and it's all but guaranteeing I have to move again. I've never lived in one place long enough to call home. Probably never will. I've never been able to save up much money before shit like this happens. Probably never will. Imagine how terrifying it is for all the people that don't have the tech degrees. Oy, what a country.

Sorry to hear that. Keep your chin up.

[ericpmoss]

That really sucks to hear. Hopefully you'll find something else without too much time elapsing. If you don't mind my asking, what's your specialization?

I write Common Lisp code. My big thing (before the previous buyout) was something called blackboard, or rules-based programming for analyzing medical insurance claims. I've done perl and python and Objective-C, but once I learned Lisp, I let the rest fall by the wayside. Probably a bad career choice. Ahem.

[Matthew Strongin]

I write Common Lisp code. My big thing (before the previous buyout) was something called blackboard, or rules-based programming for analyzing medical insurance claims. I've done perl and python and Objective-C, but once I learned Lisp, I let the rest fall by the wayside. Probably a bad career choice. Ahem.

Gotcha. That is pretty niche. I don't want to give any unsolicited advice, but feel free to hit me up with a PM if you ever want to chat with another engineer type.

[bigbill]

You might look at www.careersatkc.com, kc being Kimberly-Clark. There were some IT and data analysis jobs.

[thollandpe]

On Monday I saw two big pickup trucks in a turnout where a trail crosses the road near my house. It was dusk and I had just turned my light on. Two guys gave me the hairy eyeball as I waited for my dog to heel before we crossed the road. We were both in blaze orange, and I pegged them as hunters.

Tuesday I notice there are two trash bags tossed not far into the woods. I go over to inspect, the contents look disgusting and the dog is very interested. We skedaddle before the dog gets too curious.

Last night, without the dog, I take a closer look:





Nice, eh? At least both deer and pheasant are in season, my guess is that's what these are. Were.

There's been a lot of talk here about staying out of the woods in hunting season. I think it's important to be out there, to be visible, and to keep an eye out for irresponsible folks like these. Riding at dusk in hunting season makes me very nervous, no more for me as now I go after dark.

[rwsaunders]

^ last Saturday afternoon, if you were at my house, it sounded like WWIII had broken out, there were so many people in the area "sighting in", in anticipation of deer season. The state (PA) allocated 804,000 antlerless deer licenses statewide, and if all 804,000 licenses are sold and all 804,000 show up in the woods on 27 November, it will be WWIII.

[monadnocky]

Related - 3:30 AM sometime last week. Woken up by three rifle shots, incredibly close. And hey what a surprise - next morning, .30-06 brass found lying down the dirt road from my house, just as I suspected - someone had lit up a new clearing that was logged a few weeks ago and done a little night hunting.
From the road. Most likely from their pickup. At night.

Any direction you can point a stick at will intersect nearby houses within three tenths of a mile.

FWIW, I live about a mile from the capitol city here in NH. This is getting ridiculous.

[monadnocky]

^ last Saturday afternoon, if you were at my house, it sounded like WWIII had broken out, there were so many people in the area "sighting in", in anticipation of deer season. The state (PA) allocated 804,000 antlerless deer licenses statewide, and if all 804,000 licenses are sold and all 804,000 show up in the woods on 27 November, it will be WWIII.

This is.... wow.

For comparison, NH grants about 4,500 antlerless licenses per year. That's about one license per every 288 people. For PA, that would be one license for every 16 people.
Wow.

[rwsaunders]

333,254 deer harvested in PA last year...1/3 by bow hunters and the balance by firearms. The stat that always has me thinking is that you have a 1/70 chance of hitting a deer in PA, every time that you get behind the wheel of a car. I've had a few close calls on my bike, so I'm all behind the hunters having at it.

[monadnocky]

The stat that always has me thinking is that you have a 1/70 chance of hitting a deer in PA, every time that you get behind the wheel of a car.

Seems just as likely that you have a 1/70 chance of hitting a hunter.

[SlowPokePete]

Seems just as likely that you have a 1/70 chance of hitting a hunter.

or getting shot by one.

SPP

[rwsaunders]

Seems just as likely that you have a 1/70 chance of hitting a hunter.

I ride pretty early in the morning and I avoid riding by the state game land areas when the season is in full swing. There's no way that I'd be near a rail/trail or on a MTB on 27 November...the open day of buck season this year.

[Tom]

Our favorite local place is closing. Family run place, he's the chef and she runs the front of the house. The regular menu is great but what's the best part is the tapas menu - you never know what you're going to see on the big chalkboard and it is always great. They're both foodies so the choices are always unusual. We've gotten in the habit of going there every couple of weeks and having dinner at the bar and if friends are in town that's where we take them. Business was fine but he's been struck with a very serious and unusual health problem and his wife can't run both sides of the house and see to his care. In all the time we've gone there the staff is unchanged which is highly unusual in the restaurant business. When they were told, they were told that if they found another job before the closing don't let it get away. Every single person said no way, we're here until the lights go out. We happened to be there the night that the news went down and before it went public we made reservations for the next to last night. You can't get in there now, they're booked solid.

It's just another thing I can't fix. Things always change, but this is for the wrong reason and another case where misfortune visits good people's door.

[ides1056]

WTF is with guys in this country?

[Matthew Strongin]

WTF is with guys in this country?

Entitled assholes. I'm not being sarcastic.

On a more personal note, my sinuses are a mess...again. I can't tell if it's allergies or a sinus infection because I'm allergic to my home and office so there's been no break. I'm over it.

[Trevor]

Matt, I just getting out of the woods on a sinus infection. They're the worst. I thought it was allergies at first as well, but then it hit me like a bag of bricks. Finally feeling better a week and a half later.

My grump... been without heat for the last week in our new house. Something is up with the pilot light in our furnace. And I have now had to reschedule a visit for the second time. I hope someone shows up today... The past week in the new place has been really challenging, mostly related to weather and cold. Could really use a win today.