OT: THE OT Thread: Grass mowing szn is here

[Chainshot]

Official tornado confirmation in Ft. Lauderdale. We had "wind shear" and nothing confirmed yet.

 

[newfiejesus]

my wife when I try to leave for work in my gold lamè unitard

 

[Der Jaeger]

Any of you drive a Honda Ridgeline? Do you like it?

 

[Gras]

Any of you drive a Honda Ridgeline? Do you like it?

I have a friend that has one, he loves it, but we give his shit for driving it.

 

[TehDoak]

Well, I just got a free trip to the Super Bowl. Pray for the Bills if they get there, my last two games were Philly and the game in Jacksonville.

 

[whiplash]

Well, I just got a free trip to the Super Bowl. Pray for the Bills if they get there, my last two games were Philly and the game in Jacksonville.

I mean, you skip it if we make it, right? It's what @ValJamesDuex would want

 

[MarkusKetterer]

This renovation is starting to get frustrating. There’s starting to be more problems with this place the more I do. In one of the the bedroom closets, an entire section of the wall in the corner is missing, so there’s a huge gap between the wall, ceiling, and outside. The reason? When they built this place, they ran a pipe on an angle, so it cuts through the corner OUTSIDE of the wall and into the room. So now I have to build a bulkhead in the closet that hides it. And seeing every apartment in this building has the same layout (so 101, 201, 301 all look the same, 102, 202, 302 all look the same etc.) that means that the other two apartments have the same thing and I have no idea what they did when renovating those apartments.

But on the plus side, doing this job also got me another one. When I’m done this, I get to renovate the front foyer. That should be a lot more simple of a job, but we’ll see once I start taking things out.

 

[TehDoak]

Just was informed by my current job that what was supposed to be a short contract (3 month) to full time hire is now just straight contract.

Guess it's time to update that resume again.

 

[Ehran]

Just was informed by my current job that what was supposed to be a short contract (3 month) to full time hire is now just straight contract.

Guess it's time to update that resume again.

That sucks. Didn't Microsoft get sued to hell back in the 2000s for pulling that crap?

 

[Ehran]

For those of you that enjoy reading Fantasy books, Humble Bundle is doing a charity drive featuring Terry Pratchett's entire 38 book Discworld series.

Get all 38 books for (minimum donation) of $18. Or get smaller bundles for smaller donations.

Discover Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld

Some caveats.... it's U.S. only. And these are designed for the Kobo reader (online or downloadable apps). So you can't use a Kindle app to read these, as far as I know.

But $18 for the entire Discworld series? With at least part of it going to charity?

Yeah. I jumped on that.

Info on the Charity

We envision a world in which all children can pursue a quality education that enables them to reach their full potential and contribute to their communities and the world.

Room to Read seeks to transform the lives of millions of children in low-income communities by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education. Working in collaboration with local communities, partner organizations and governments, we develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children, and support girls to complete secondary school with the relevant life skills to succeed in school and beyond.

 

[Jim Bob]

That sucks. Didn't Microsoft get sued to hell back in the 2000s for pulling that crap?

A lot of those lawsuits were around large companies having long term "contractors" that were really treated as employees minus benefits as a way to save money.

I'm not sure how many were around bait and switch type situations like Doak is unfortunately having to deal with.

 

[TehDoak]

A lot of those lawsuits were around large companies having long term "contractors" that were really treated as employees minus benefits as a way to save money.

I'm not sure how many were around bait and switch type situations like Doak is unfortunately having to deal with.

So my company is a subsidiary of a larger company. They essentially are given a lot of free reign as long as they remain profitable, the big company won't subsidize them at all (even though they use the software this company makes quite heavily).

But, the downside is they do have to abide by corporate mandates at the higher level. And the corporate locked out all conversions from contract to full time. Note, this is an immensely profitable company. My boss as telling me about "well when we convert you we will..." a lot, so I think this blindsided him a bit as well.

While I was 'bait and switched' here (they told me it was contract to hire), I think it was circumstantial and not my company being intentional deceitful. That being said, I'm going to disney next week and then the job hunt starts again. I can at least be a little picky as I have income coming in. Ironically my superbowl trip may end up being a networking event as I'll be following my C-level friend around to NFL parties with a lot of Execs. Not really in the tech industry, but you never know what could happen.

 

[oldgoalie]

So my company is a subsidiary of a larger company. They essentially are given a lot of free reign as long as they remain profitable, the big company won't subsidize them at all (even though they use the software this company makes quite heavily).

But, the downside is they do have to abide by corporate mandates at the higher level. And the corporate locked out all conversions from contract to full time. Note, this is an immensely profitable company. My boss as telling me about "well when we convert you we will..." a lot, so I think this blindsided him a bit as well.

While I was 'bait and switched' here (they told me it was contract to hire), I think it was circumstantial and not my company being intentional deceitful. That being said, I'm going to disney next week and then the job hunt starts again. I can at least be a little picky as I have income coming in. Ironically my superbowl trip may end up being a networking event as I'll be following my C-level friend around to NFL parties with a lot of Execs. Not really in the tech industry, but you never know what could happen.

best of luck, Doak.

 

[BB79]

Any of you drive a Honda Ridgeline? Do you like it?

Get a real truck

 

[cybresabre]

For those of you that enjoy reading Fantasy books, Humble Bundle is doing a charity drive featuring Terry Pratchett's entire 38 book Discworld series.

Get all 38 books for (minimum donation) of $18. Or get smaller bundles for smaller donations.

Discover Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld

Some caveats.... it's U.S. only. And these are designed for the Kobo reader (online or downloadable apps). So you can't use a Kindle app to read these, as far as I know.

But $18 for the entire Discworld series? With at least part of it going to charity?

Yeah. I jumped on that.

Info on the Charity

I've been reading Discworld through my local library (hoopla has 33 available) and have loved it. I'm going through it as slowly as possible just to savor it. Might as well buy the lot in case the service flops. I also like how you can adjust the amount going to charity, though this is the first one that I've seen that has a fixed minimum for humble bundle's take.

 

[TheMistyStranger]

It occurs to me that my situation isn't that I don't have (real life) friends, it's that I have very little tolerance or patience for other people's stupidity.

 

[TehDoak]

I have a friend that has one, he loves it, but we give his shit for driving it.

Get a real truck

the weird obsession with massive trucks is weird to me. They've gotten so cartoonishly massive in the last 15 years. If someone doesn't need to tow a 747 or a full size bed, the ridgeline seems like a reasonable choice.

 

[Gras]

the weird obsession with massive trucks is weird to me. They've gotten so cartoonishly massive in the last 15 years. If someone doesn't need to tow a 747 or a full size bed, the ridgeline seems like a reasonable choice.

Ridgeline is unibody which makes it have more in common with most cars instead of a truck, we call it a modern El Camino. Ranger, Tacoma, Frontier, Canyon are more capable as trucks in the same size.

EPA is one of the reasons for trucks getting continually larger, the physical size of a vehicle is used in the calculation for what the target MPG needs to be, so you either keep the truck the same but somehow have to make the MPG higher, or make the truck bigger and then it can have a lower MPG.

 

[Butt Ox]

the weird obsession with massive trucks is weird to me. They've gotten so cartoonishly massive in the last 15 years. If someone doesn't need to tow a 747 or a full size bed, the ridgeline seems like a reasonable choice.

Here, the criteria is, "Can it haul a 4x8".

 

[Chainshot]

Ridgeline is unibody which makes it have more in common with most cars instead of a truck, we call it a modern El Camino. Ranger, Tacoma, Frontier, Canyon are more capable as trucks in the same size.

EPA is one of the reasons for trucks getting continually larger, the physical size of a vehicle is used in the calculation for what the target MPG needs to be, so you either keep the truck the same but somehow have to make the MPG higher, or make the truck bigger and then it can have a lower MPG.

Same thing with all the crossovers and SUVs , mini-vans and such - they are all rated as light trucks so don't have to meet CAFE standards for automobiles. They also don't have to meet safety standards for cars. It's convenient corporate maneuvering and some folks make a lot of money off continued poor fuel economy.

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

Ridgeline is unibody which makes it have more in common with most cars instead of a truck, we call it a modern El Camino. Ranger, Tacoma, Frontier, Canyon are more capable as trucks in the same size.

EPA is one of the reasons for trucks getting continually larger, the physical size of a vehicle is used in the calculation for what the target MPG needs to be, so you either keep the truck the same but somehow have to make the MPG higher, or make the truck bigger and then it can have a lower MPG.

Man, the more I learn about the law the more f***ed it all is. I guess as a 1099 employee I could buy a vehicle over 6000 pounds and write it off as a business expense, but that’s absolutely insane. I just gotta drive a bunch, bought a Prius for it.

Same with solar laws in California- morons incentivized the wrong things, actually made the problems worse, now it’s my job to rescue fools from pg&e, arguably the most murderous and corrupt power company out there.

Anyways- y’all stay safe. Rained like crazy here today, but that’s nothing to what you Buffalo folk brave. Hope all is well, happy 2024, hope it’s a good year for y’all once this storm passes and the world stops being crazy. Ok, maybe don’t hold hope on that second part.

 

[ValJamesDuex]

All you 716ers shoveled/plowed out ? About 15" here, pretty light, still took about 2 hours. Another round coming.

I heard O.P. is pretty bad, not sure how they are going to get dug out for the game tomorrow ???


Great tip: add some sweetened/condensed milk and Bailey's (or Kilauea) to your hot chocolate

 

[Chainshot]

Made cafe de olla last night for today. I forgot that last time I wanted to cut the sugar in half. So instead of it being the right amount of sweetness, I had to make another pot of coffee to cut it further.

 

[Ehran]

I've got a pot of chili on. It's 23° here in Texas.

 

[Chainshot]

I've got a pot of chili on. It's 23° here in Texas.

I have stew meat thawing. Same idea - we are supposed to be in the upper 20's in a few days.