Our son and daughter-in-law law did a quick trip to Buffalo this past weekend. Our son hadn’t been back there in many years, and our daughter in law’s visit was the first time. She saw an ad for extras for the Buffalo Bills Holiday movie and signed up for it, and they accepted her. So they spent several hours at Highmark filming, and in the other free time did some visiting and actually had time to see the Falls from Goat Island side. He asked for the address of my and my wife’s house where we grew up; if they had time they were going to do a drive by. I told him the drive by in my old ‘hood needed to be quick with no interruptions or stops. Unfortunately, they didn’t have time to do that part. Pizza and wings were consumed, and they want to get back there again, possible for some games.
OT: The OT Thread: Work sucks. Short work weeks don't. (Warning in post 368)
- Thread starter Jim Bob
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TheMistyStranger
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- May 21, 2005
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We left the hotel this morning and literally the first car we saw had a custom license plate of BJARKI.
TheMistyStranger
ミスト
- May 21, 2005
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Having a homeless, one-eyed man with a gravel voice and a cane slowly make his way up behind you and growl "welcome to my father's land" was not on my holy-shit-was-that-Odin? Bingo card.
Mike McDermott
blah blah blah
Had a lot of disagree selections on my associate opinion survey. And my writing area for what is going well was very short and the what needs improvement was very long.
Do I think it’ll change anything? No, but it was very much needed to put my thoughts out there. Not being able to find something even close to my current pay/schedule flexibility when needed, along with have a great immediate team/supervisor is all that is keeping me here.
Do I think it’ll change anything? No, but it was very much needed to put my thoughts out there. Not being able to find something even close to my current pay/schedule flexibility when needed, along with have a great immediate team/supervisor is all that is keeping me here.
old kummelweck
Registered User
- Nov 10, 2003
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I work for a huge multi-national. The pay is decent, but they have been slowly eroding merit and bonus over the years. Nothing sucks more than 15 conversations TWICE a year (our merit and bonus cycles are not aligned) where I have to tell people what a great job they do, but the budget isn't there for appropriate increases or bonus. Lucky, some of those people are line managers, and have to have the same discussion with their direct reports. We get a pool, and with almost the whole team performing well or above expectation, many don't understand that I can't give them more without taking it away from someone else.
But what I can do is offer flexible comp time, work from home, interesting projects, and we generally score very high on the employee surveys with the line management questions. We are lucky that we can at least try and offer a promotion across the org to one or two people every year they allow them. We also sometimes have market adjustment opportunities.
The only attrition my team has is through staff reductions, and I ALWAYS try and pull other levers like reducing our non-labor expenses (I am lucky to have a big IT expense budget where I can push for cost optimizations in the cloud or cut a tool that we could possible cover through open source or live without).
There are so many stresses and frustrations working with a customer delivery organization and software engineering for a hosted platform, but I think the flexibility around work/live, and having a really supportive team environment has paid off in the long run. It makes managing people much easier, and it seems like people really feel appreciated despite all the externalities that make it a challenging job. I get surveyed twice a year, and I am honest, but working in software, some things just will never change. I have learned to let the things that I can't control go.
Don't undersell flexibility and a good manager. It's often hard to find. Also, changing jobs, even if you could, requires forging that relationship again, and earning all that respect and trust you've built up. Bad managers or environments that try and track your every minute will make your life hell.
That's always an odd bit of nostalgia. I know my last visit to WNY, I drove past the house my parents built when I was little to show R where I grew up. The owner's father noticed my car at the foot of the driveway and we had a nice chat that his daughter loved the house. That was heartwarming.
TheMistyStranger
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- May 21, 2005
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This? This was amazing. Going through the process was almost meditative.
www.skylagoon.com
Sky Lagoon Iceland | Rejuvenate with the Skjól Ritual
Journey through Icelandic bathing culture with the Skjól ritual – a wellness experience birthed from tradition and offered nowhere else in the world
www.skylagoon.com
Living down the street from the house my parents had when I was born sends me going down memory lane regularly. I did talk about it with the current tenant once when I was on a walk and he was in his driveway.
I wanted to make sure he knew that my lingering looks weren't me casing the joint.
I had an acquaintance do a couple of months of car camping in Iceland a few years ago and I've been besotted with the idea of going. Also had friends stationed there in the military and were supposed to go up to visit but IIRC, we had a drain pipe in our old house break to put that on hold.This? This was amazing. Going through the process was almost meditative.
Sky Lagoon Iceland | Rejuvenate with the Skjól Ritual
Journey through Icelandic bathing culture with the Skjól ritual – a wellness experience birthed from tradition and offered nowhere else in the world
I'm also keen to visit the Faroe Islands and Longyearbyen. I'd also like to see what winter is like in Tromso.
Yeah, I still have family in the neighborhood - my uncle is next door, I have a cousin who bought my grandparents' place that was up the street off of one of my aunts and the other aunt lives around the corner. Most of the old neighbors are gone though - weird to think most of the land has been in the family for 200 years now.
TehDoak
Chili that wants to be here
For about 10 years now, I've been an avid Lego collector (Mostly star wars, but with of the new lord of the rings, and a few nerd centric sets). Having been through several moves and a disastrous shelving accident in Florida, I'm at a crossroads of "what the hell do I do with it all"
I can't really display it all at once currently. Once my kids are a bit older, I plan to reclaim a good chunk of the finished basement as a "man cave" and probably spend some time building out a cool display for the sets.
In the meantime, I've exceeded my ability to store it all. Its probably time to go through and do a culling.
I can't really display it all at once currently. Once my kids are a bit older, I plan to reclaim a good chunk of the finished basement as a "man cave" and probably spend some time building out a cool display for the sets.
In the meantime, I've exceeded my ability to store it all. Its probably time to go through and do a culling.
Inventory, then separate the list out into things you love, things you like, things that aren't either but have value and then the rest would be re-sale.
Oh, on a doggo front, our oldest seems to be back to his usual self after a day and a half of not being on top of his game. He even decided it was time to tree some squirrels which is very young dog behavior.
Butt Ox
Registered User
Not sure about where you are but the easy solution for folks my way would be to rent a storage unit for the items to keep them out of sight/out of mind until you are ready to claim your space. The area currently occupied might be better utilized in another way. Justify the expense by asking yourself what the price on happiness is. When the time comes move everything home. Expand further in your new Lego realm. Wake up each day with a smile on your face.
TheMistyStranger
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- May 21, 2005
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"Infiltrate the dealers, find the supplier."
Ice Cube was a perfect casting for 21 Jump Street. Every scene with him cracks me up.
Ice Cube was a perfect casting for 21 Jump Street. Every scene with him cracks me up.
Even though my neighborhood has become a very dangerous place to be, it was still cool taking my daughter by the house two years ago. I also took her to Grand Island and showed her where we lived when she was born.
My old street had towering elm trees where we first moved there. Dutch Elm disease wiped them out, and they were replaced by maple trees. They’ve gotten pretty large, but still nowhere near the size of the elm trees.
I get nostalgic thinking abut growing up in Buffalo. It was a great place to be a kid in the 60s and 70s.
sabremike
I didn't even know he was sick!
Beerz
Registered User
- Jun 28, 2011
- 35,181
- 16,480
Jesus i hope this isn't real. Letting your children handle drugs that could potentially be laced with fentanyl is certainly a choice
MarkusKetterer
Shoulda got one game in
I love how some people can be confidently incorrect. I was out for a hike this morning with a couple of friends, and as their English skills aren’t that well off, so we were talking in Ojibwe. One woman heard three brown guys talking, so of course she felt like she had to say something. She confidently declared that if we’re gonna be in the US, we need to speak American.
This threw me off because there’s no language called “American”. So I just pointed at the International Bridge where the flags were and said “where you see those flags is the border. Which means this island we are on is in Canada, so we can speak whatever damn language we want to.” I then pointed out that the language we were speaking was thousands of years old and that she should mind her own business, before concluding with “have a good day sir” to her and caught up to my friends. The noises she was making after was hysterical because she had no idea how to react.
This threw me off because there’s no language called “American”. So I just pointed at the International Bridge where the flags were and said “where you see those flags is the border. Which means this island we are on is in Canada, so we can speak whatever damn language we want to.” I then pointed out that the language we were speaking was thousands of years old and that she should mind her own business, before concluding with “have a good day sir” to her and caught up to my friends. The noises she was making after was hysterical because she had no idea how to react.
This reminds me of someone in SoCal speaking Spanish and being told to speak English.
They were in San Diego and they asked the person how to say San Diego in English.
Mike McDermott
blah blah blah
Add to the annoyance at work, someone just heated fish in the microwave in the kitchenette which my desk is like 20-30 feet from. 
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