Useless Conversation

[MuffinMan]

If there is one thing we love more than hating non-whites it's stuffing our fat fucking faces with burritos.

[Yegolev]

[Nevermore]

Or perhaps the whole 'hating non-whites' thing is overblown by the shrill crying of a vocal minority.  I'm glad we're taking a simple 'I like X restaurant' down the political rabbit hole, though.

[WayAbvPar]

Thank Christ. I couldn't live without Asian or Latino food. Or even the swarthier of the Euro nations (PIGS).

[Paelos]

If I didn't know how to make Tacos al carbon myself, I'd probably go crazy trying to eat what passes for "Mexican" food in this town.

The only place that is remotely authentic is a joint 20 miles away, in a terrible neighborhood near an industrial complex, and surrounded by two body shops and a hispanic quicktax service.

It's gloriously awesome though. I only go there for lunch in the daylight.

[MuffinMan]

Thank Christ. I couldn't live without Asian or Latino food. Or even the swarthier of the Euro nations (PIGS).

I feel the same. It's telling how unhealthy the American diet is when for the past 6 months I've been trying to eat a lot healthier of a diet and most of it is not our own cuisine. I mean, everyone knows how unhealthy we eat as a country but you really see it when you start eating more ethnically and not just at the Americanized fast food restaurants.

[Yegolev]

I found authentic Mexican in a few places around Atlanta, but I really prefer the Americanized burrito+enchilada+taco, aka Combination #11.

Thai, on the other hand, is different.  Panang curry from a place with actual Thai people in it is like the mythical ambrosia, and I have to plug my favorite place: Spoon on Marietta St. just west of Georgia Tech.

[Ingmar]

If they don't have a picture of the king on the wall, turn around and leave.

[Fabricated]

Qdoba is okay but you don't get a lot of food for the money. Moe's I've never liked since I don't like beans, and I've never liked Chipotle since I'm not a burrito guy.

We got a place called Fuzzy's here that's pretty good but it's a pretty long walk from where I work so I don't go there often. Basically any restaurant that closes here usually ends up becoming a mexican place for some reason.

[Nebu]

Always been a fan of Chipotle and QDoba (and Pancheros to a lesser degree).  You can build a pretty decent burrito for cheap and it's not as bad as most fast food.  They're like Subway in that you can manage something reasonably healthy when you need to grab some fast food.

I love authentic Mexican food but can't eat it.  Most of it is cooked with lard and that shit will kill you.   

[Lantyssa]

If they don't have a picture of the king on the wall, turn around and leave.

Even though my favorite Thai place doesn't, that's a really good indication.  (The owner was from Bangkok and was sweet even for a Thai lady, so I knew it was authentic.)

I think Houston has a large hidden Thai populace that only works in the food industry.  I'll go to a restaurant clear across town I haven't been to before and end up seeing someone from elsewhere.

[Bunk]

Checked out a tiny little Mexican place down the street from where I moved to. Appeared to actually be staffed by Mexicans. Couldn't read half the menu, so I ordered what was listed as their best seller lunch.

Turned out to be chicken enchiladas in corn tortillas, with a tomatillo based, almost salsa like sauce. Never had an enchilada that tasted anything like that. I will be going back for more.

Love Thai, have a couple nice places owned by Thai folks around me. Unfortunately, most of my friends either dislike ethnic food, or are allergic to nuts, so I don't get to go often. Have to laugh every time I go in to the mall food court and look at "Thai Express". Basically generic food court Chinese food, with the word lemongrass slapped on a few of the item labels.

[HaemishM]

You know, what with all the bitching about illegal aliens, you'd think that these places wouldn't survive. Oh, wait, anglo-america wants its mexican food sanitized into a nice, easily comprehended franchise!

What's funny is the area of town that it opened up in has shifted drastically in demographics the last decade. When I moved to Jackson in '84, that place was white as can be, it was one of two suburbs for better off people to live. Now? The place is becoming like Little Mexico. Lots of Hispanics have moved in, and within like a 3-mile radius, there is the Taco Del Marr, 3 fairly authentic taqueiras (much better food than Del Mar for only a little bit more money), and 2 Mexican groceries one of which has a butcher. It's awesome food for pretty cheap.

I notice them because for all of my life, Mississippi has been very clearly white and black with the occasional Asian thrown in. Nowadays, there are a lot more Hispanics than I've ever seen. When you live your whole life in the middle of an Oreo cookie, you notice when someone puts a chili in the mix. 

[Engels]

North Carolina, where my family resides, has had much the same transformation over the last 10 years. Used to be your options were Taco Bell or, well, uhh, Taco Bell. There has been an amazing influx of latinos. When I was last there for a visit, I wandered into a Latino grocery, chatted up a checker into giving me her home made enchilada recipe, and then wandered off with all the ingredients. It took a lot of effort to make, what with the toasting then blending of the dried peppers and then straining them with a cheese cloth, but the result was just toe curling-ly good.

[WayAbvPar]

Checked out a tiny little Mexican place down the street from where I moved to. Appeared to actually be staffed by Mexicans. Couldn't read half the menu, so I ordered what was listed as their best seller lunch.

Turned out to be chicken enchiladas in corn tortillas, with a tomatillo based, almost salsa like sauce. Never had an enchilada that tasted anything like that. I will be going back for more.

Love Thai, have a couple nice places owned by Thai folks around me. Unfortunately, most of my friends either dislike ethnic food, or are allergic to nuts, so I don't get to go often. Have to laugh every time I go in to the mall food court and look at "Thai Express". Basically generic food court Chinese food, with the word lemongrass slapped on a few of the item labels.

You need to dedicate yourself to finding all the food trucks in Vancouver. Every food truck show I see has at least one from YVR, and they look AMAZING. Now that I have my enhanced license I am gonna be up there searching for them 

[Polysorbate80]

  Most of it is cooked with lard and that shit will kill you.   

Can't make a proper pie crust without it, though.  Or chocolate cake without mayo.


At least it's a tasty way to go

[Paelos]

I use shortening!

[Ingmar]

Turned out to be chicken enchiladas in corn tortillas, with a tomatillo based, almost salsa like sauce. Never had an enchilada that tasted anything like that. I will be going back for more.

Sounds like suizas.

[Bunk]

You are correct - and it was great.

Food trucks downtown are good (Japadog had lineups more than a block long during the Olympics) - problem is they are all Downtown Vancouver.
Economics forced me to move to Downtown Suburbs.

[Tale]

Massive hacks of LinkedIn and eHarmony passwords. Twitter hacker crowd hinting that there's something bigger too. Google has sent out some "Warning: We believe state-sponsored attackers may be attempting to compromise your account or computer". Good time to change your passwords, especially if you have repeated any across multiple services (dumb).

Check if your LinkedIn was hacked: https://lastpass.com/linkedin/

[Yegolev]

If they don't have a picture of the king on the wall, turn around and leave.

I'll ask if that's who is in the black/white framed photo near the kitchen.  To be clear, though, the food is so good that I don't care that much.  Plus the waitresses are starting to talk to me a lot and are daring me to move up to hotter spice, and I can't disregard cute girls no matter how I try.

[Ingmar]

Almost certainly that is who it is yeah.

[MisterNoisy]

How the fuck is it that the Project Manager is always the only one that doesn't know a goddamned thing about their project?  I'd have better luck getting coherent requests for data from a fucking turnip.

[Murgos]

Project managers have shit to do with data, they balance budgets, talk to the customer.  You want the TD/Lead Engineer.

[Yegolev]

Yes, it does depends on what information you need.  Need to know the schedule or send a message to the client?  Call the PM.  Need to know anything technical, call the project engineer(s).  Of course, this doesn't guarantee the engineer is going to know anything of value.

[MisterNoisy]

Project managers have shit to do with data, they balance budgets, talk to the customer.  You want the TD/Lead Engineer.

To clarify, he's sending me the requests for information, but his requests never make a goddamned lick of sense and we always end up having a back and forth when he gets what he asked for and realizes he wants something else entirely.  It's made for a frustrating few months.  He's still as clueless as all the other PMs where I work anyway - I've taken to running his requests through the other people on his team that actually do something first, which is the only thing that helps.

Edit:  Clarity (and irony!)

[RhyssaFireheart]

Some PMs are pretty darn clueless and don't bother learning or knowing anything about what they are managing.  We have a few around here but there are some who are awesome at what they do.  The former are the PMs who probably think that project management is the same no matter what the deliverable is, while the latter tend to be specialists in what they deliver on.

So the company I work at currently is splitting... eh, fuck it... I'm working at Abbott atm and if you haven't heard, the company is splitting at the end of the year.  There was a big employee all-hands meeting today to talk about how the organizational structure is going to look, or at least that's what I heard it was about.  Since I'm a contractor, I don't get to be privy to those kinds of meetings.  But my dept/group is going to be part of the new company AbbVie, which is fine with me.  But oddly enough, I'm finding myself really resentful to be finding out the information second-hand and having to wait to be told what's going on.  I hear employees discussing aspects of what's new around me, but I've been told nothing directly yet.  I'm apparently important enough to the company to need around, but not enough to know what's going on, at least not with any sense of immediacy.  Either way, being a contractor still sucks.  I'm part of the company and part of the team, until something like this slaps home that I'm really not.  Trying to figure out if I should be feeling this way or not. 

[Cheddar]

  Either way, being a contractor still sucks.  I'm part of the company and part of the team, until something like this slaps home that I'm really not.  Trying to figure out if I should be feeling this way or not. 

Not to be a dick, but yes.  Been on both sides of the coin- never feel comfortable when you are a contractor.

[Yegolev]

The fun part is if you spend a decade working with people and are then outsourced, retaining a similar role.  You find out quite a bit about people that you thought you knew, who are still employees.  Ched is right, it's all fuck or be fucked.

[Paelos]

So being a contractor is like being in porn.

[Ironwood]

Some PMs are pretty darn clueless and don't bother learning or knowing anything about what they are managing.  We have a few around here but there are some who are awesome at what they do.  The former are the PMs who probably think that project management is the same no matter what the deliverable is, while the latter tend to be specialists in what they deliver on.

So the company I work at currently is splitting... eh, fuck it... I'm working at Abbott atm and if you haven't heard, the company is splitting at the end of the year.  There was a big employee all-hands meeting today to talk about how the organizational structure is going to look, or at least that's what I heard it was about.  Since I'm a contractor, I don't get to be privy to those kinds of meetings.  But my dept/group is going to be part of the new company AbbVie, which is fine with me.  But oddly enough, I'm finding myself really resentful to be finding out the information second-hand and having to wait to be told what's going on.  I hear employees discussing aspects of what's new around me, but I've been told nothing directly yet.  I'm apparently important enough to the company to need around, but not enough to know what's going on, at least not with any sense of immediacy.  Either way, being a contractor still sucks.  I'm part of the company and part of the team, until something like this slaps home that I'm really not.  Trying to figure out if I should be feeling this way or not. 

I've been refraining from posting on purpose because I can be a cunt at times, but :

I'd get the CV ready.  Your posts lately have set off my spidey sense.

[Pennilenko]

I'd get the CV ready.  Your posts lately have set off my spidey sense.

Good Solid Advice

[Ironwood]

Girl walks into a bar and asks the bartender for a Double Entendre. So he gave it to her.

Wait, are you spoiling the joke on purpose or is this a different translation ?

[Yegolev]

I think it works better in the queen's English.

[Cheddar]

I've been refraining from posting on purpose because I can be a cunt at times, but :

I'd get the CV ready.  Your posts lately have set off my spidey sense.

Very important to note: if there is any sense of downsizing, and you are a contractor, you will be first one let go.  Many times without warning.

Without going into the boring legal/HR stuff it's simple; you cannot layoff actual employees if there are contractors filling similiar positions.  Regardless of how good that contractor is.