Useless Conversation

[Sky]

Accounting for 15 minutes travel time amuses me.

I mean after all that, a bonus 15 minutes that will probably be spent sitting around looking at the scenery when you get there. If a trip could take an extra hour, make it an hour 15. Point is to give yourself more time than you think you need, so you can be relaxed while driving and not under preventable stress, and thus a danger to yourself and those around you while also not enjoying the drive (as much as possible, anyway).

And yes, I'm well aware that my 3 minute commute is awesome. There are trade-offs.

[Yegolev]

I assumed so, but adding 15 minutes is different than what I was thinking.  I can get to a large shopping area in 13-15 minutes, but otherwise anything worth a shit is 30+ minutes.

[01101010]

My big thing driving anywhere longer than 30 minutes is gas mileage. Fuck safety, but if speeding hurts my wallet? 

[Yegolev]

I think an additional $.50 per gallon means I will spend an extra $10 per week on gas.  So I normally don't pay any attention to gas prices or my car's mileage.

[Sky]

I assumed so, but adding 15 minutes is different than what I was thinking.  I can get to a large shopping area in 13-15 minutes, but otherwise anything worth a shit is 30+ minutes.

And I bitch about having to drive 20-25 minutes to the next city over for art class 

[apocrypha]

People *hate* it in the UK when you refuse to break the speed limit. Guarantee that whatever road it is, wherever it is, whatever the speed limit, someone will get right up your arse and then angrily overtake you and speed off as soon as they can. I drive to the speed limit according to my satnav, which is consistently 10% faster than my speedometer says, and yet almost every time I drive somewhere I will get a wanker pissed off that I won't break the law. Even happens on the long stretches of motorway that have average speed check systems in place.

Drivers are fucking terrible in the UK, really, really bad.

[Chimpy]

That's because they drive on the wrong side of the road all the time! 

[Paelos]

People *hate* it in the UK when you refuse to break the speed limit. Guarantee that whatever road it is, wherever it is, whatever the speed limit, someone will get right up your arse and then angrily overtake you and speed off as soon as they can. I drive to the speed limit according to my satnav, which is consistently 10% faster than my speedometer says, and yet almost every time I drive somewhere I will get a wanker pissed off that I won't break the law. Even happens on the long stretches of motorway that have average speed check systems in place.

Drivers are fucking terrible in the UK, really, really bad.

Not a unique UK problem I assure you. Here in Atlanta if you drive 55 on the 285 loop, which surrounds the city? You'll be passed like you're not moving. And people will ride your ass. And most likely shoot you the ugly glances or the bird.

[apocrypha]

That's because they drive on the wrong side of the road all the time! 

A Glaswegian is driving home from a business trip in Edinburgh when his wife calls him on his mobile. "You be careful now Rory, I've just heard on the news that there's some idiot driving the wrong way on the M8!".

He replies, "One? There's fuckin' hunnerds of 'em!"

[Sky]

Not a unique UK problem I assure you. Here in Atlanta if you drive 55 on the 285 loop, which surrounds the city? You'll be passed like you're not moving. And people will ride your ass. And most likely shoot you the ugly glances or the bird.

I do make an exception when I get to larger cities with bigger highways, because it becomes unsafe to go the speed limit. I switch to 'flow of traffic' mode for safety.

I rarely drive in those conditions, but I learned in a windowless extended 73 Econoline on the LA freeways, so...

[Selby]

I switch to 'flow of traffic' mode for safety.

This is just smart.  I've been driving all across the country these last few years to the tune of 50k miles and I've found that when I'm in big cities or large highways, I travel the speed everyone else is and let the guys in the left lane go as fast as they want.  In the boonies I will travel my "comfortable speed" which depends on the roads and vehicle I'm in: rarely more than 8MPH over the speed limit (3/4 ton 4x4 diesel truck so fuel economy doesn't change from 65-78MPH).  I always sit in "not the left" lane unless I'm passing.  My only real pet peeve with driving is the "45MPH Construction Zone" situation where it's just barrels put up and left over from a previous job that has been finished a while (Mississippi and Alabama are terrible for this).  Many people really are terrible drivers though, so many are just clueless and have no concern for what's going on around them.

And I never freak out over seeing a police officer.  Chances are you've got to be doing something STUPID like 15-20+ over or weaving like crazy to get them to pull you over outside of the obvious small town speed traps.

[Sky]

I'll obey the posted limit in construction zones, even when it looks like it's not active. Fines are doubled in NYS, and I used to work road construction and have almost been killed way too many times by drivers not paying attention. There might be a skeleton crew doing some work overtime or setup for the next day or something.

[apocrypha]

Most UK motorways are 3 lanes, the inside lane is clogged with lorries, caravans and giffers, so maintaining any kind of constant speed is impossible unless you're happy to do 40mph for hours at a time. The outside lane has a regular supply of tiny penised morons wanting to do 100mph+ who will aggressively and dangerously bully anyone going slower than they want to out of the way. The middle lane is intended for overtaking only (as, in fact is the outside lane but that's ignored) but due to the problems I just mentioned becomes the only place to drive for a sizeable proportion of drivers who want to drive at the intended speeds of the motorway, between 50 and 80mph.

It means that motorway driving has become difficult and stressful for *everyone*. It's exacerbated by the result of decades of transport policy that has wrecked our public transport, pushing more and more commuters and freight onto the roads, and ever increasing alienation within society leading to more adversarial rather than cooperative attitudes, which manifest themselves in the roads in vile and ignorant driving habits.

I try not to travel too much any more 

[Rendakor]

What's a giffer?

[apocrypha]

Haha, sorry, an old man. 

[Morat20]

I'm poking at getting another degree, one rather outside my current set (straight engineering, as opposed to Computer Science) and the roadblock I'm running into is....as a post-bacc student, the school's view is "You've taken these specific classes, you don't need to retake them so we won't add them to your degree plan" and my view is "I took those classes 20 years ago and haven't used them since, I don't remember them and math is sorta important to an engineering degree" and my company is "We don't like paying for classes you've already taken/aren't part of your degree plan".

Nobody wants to bend. I can get my company's position (they're paying for it) but you'd think the school would be like "Oh, your calculus classes are 20 years old? Yeah, you probably don't remember that stuff, we're happy to add it into your plan rather than transfer your old credits". (Because, you know, they get paid for that).

I'm pretty sure that walking into an engineering program with 20+ year old math and basic sciences knowledge is not really the recipe for success. Maybe I should switch to an MBA instead.

[Torinak]

I'm poking at getting another degree, one rather outside my current set (straight engineering, as opposed to Computer Science) and the roadblock I'm running into is....as a post-bacc student, the school's view is "You've taken these specific classes, you don't need to retake them so we won't add them to your degree plan" and my view is "I took those classes 20 years ago and haven't used them since, I don't remember them and math is sorta important to an engineering degree" and my company is "We don't like paying for classes you've already taken/aren't part of your degree plan".

Nobody wants to bend. I can get my company's position (they're paying for it) but you'd think the school would be like "Oh, your calculus classes are 20 years old? Yeah, you probably don't remember that stuff, we're happy to add it into your plan rather than transfer your old credits". (Because, you know, they get paid for that).

I'm pretty sure that walking into an engineering program with 20+ year old math and basic sciences knowledge is not really the recipe for success. Maybe I should switch to an MBA instead.

Have you looked into any (free) online courses to use as refreshers, or even just plowing through some relevant textbooks? You might be surprised at how quickly stuff comes back. Or you might realize that you never really learned some of it in the first place (diffeq  ) and may need some serious math prep beyond re-taking Calc 101 or whatever.

[Morat20]

Have you looked into any (free) online courses to use as refreshers, or even just plowing through some relevant textbooks? You might be surprised at how quickly stuff comes back. Or you might realize that you never really learned some of it in the first place (diffeq  ) and may need some serious math prep beyond re-taking Calc 101 or whatever.

The fact that I know I skated through differential equations in the first place and barely understood it is one reason I'd like to retake it, as an adult serious about my education with an eye towards using this stuff.

And yeah, I have considered online refreshers. I've seriously considered taking my Friday's off (we do nine nines) and plowing through Cal I and II, then yanking up some simple real-world problems and seeing if I can apply them.

What's really making me hesitate on that is I don't recall my math grades (they were passing, but I seem to recall B's and C's not A's and B's) and I know the local engineering programs have a GPA limit on math classes, especially for chemical engineers.

Taking the math first would let me prove to myself that (1) I can do better, as a focused adult with experience and (2) leaves me just with organic chemistry as a "Fuck this shit" class.

[Sky]

Pony up the money and take night classes at a community college. Show yourself, your employer, and the college you wish to attend for reals that you are serious.

[Morat20]

Pony up the money and take night classes at a community college. Show yourself, your employer, and the college you wish to attend for reals that you are serious.

That'll be plan B, right after Plan A of "My company pays for this after I ask nicely".

[IainC]

Having a nightmare month so far. My phone died in a way that's terminal but that LG have said they will fix. Except they won't fix mine because they can't agree which LG centre is responsible for it (it was an import from Dubai, bought in Kyiv). I'm still tryign to get that resolved and so far I'm not getting anywhere and I'm without a proper phone until it is. Then on Friday I got scammed on Amazon. Bought a current model but used MacBook Pro to replace my almost dead MacBook Air and Amazon wouldn't let me add my Slovakian address (which isn't uncommon). So I contacted the seller directly to ask about another option. He said to confirm the address and he'd raise a manual order via Amazon. I get an email shortly after with bank transfer instructions to an Italian account in the name of Amazon payments. I'm suspicious but I do a whois on the domain that the email came from and it's a legit address so I send the money. Then I realise that the whois lookup has stripped out the .co.uk from the domain and defaulted to .com. I recheck and sure enough the .co.uk address is registered to some random guy in Nottingham. A bit of googling and it's apparently a reasonably common scam. So I'm out a bunch of money that I can't really afford (I was super borderline on ordering it anyway, it's only the fact that my laptop restarted itself trying to load the browser page that convinced me to go for it in the end). Then, yesterday I was hiking with colleagues in the High Tatras when my camera strap failed and dumped my DSLR and most expensive lens onto rocks. Both are fucked and I can't afford to replace or repair either right now thanks to all the other shit going on.

[Cyrrex]

Dude.  I'll try to send some good karma your way.  That blows.

[Signe]

Geez, Iain.  That really is a bad week or so.  That's your three... broken phone, scammed, camera... so something wonderful is going to happen any minute.  I'm sure of it.

Also, someone told me that Nancy Grace has been sacked from her show.  HOORAY!!!  What a horrible bitch she is.  How does someone so nasty and evil get famous?  I hope she spends the rest of her days residing in a cardboard box at the worst bus station in Chicago living on cheap cat food.  Srsly.

[HaemishM]

I'm honestly amazed that Nancy Grace was still on TV. A more horrible, shrill harpy I have never seen.

[Draegan]

Any good place to eat in Lexington KY?

[Chimpy]

Any good place to eat in Lexington KY?

I'm sure there is a Waffle House if that fits your fancy.

[Nebu]

I'm sure there is a Waffle House if that fits your fancy.

He didn't say a "fancy Kentucky place".

 

[Merusk]

Any good place to eat in Lexington KY?

More places than Ft. Wayne, Indiana. I've heard Merrick's is good but you have to like Southern cuisine.

Up here in IN, looks like it's Chain restaurants or places of dubious quality.

[WayAbvPar]

I'm sure there is a Waffle House if that fits your fancy.

He didn't say a "fancy Kentucky place".

 

 

[Sky]

Any good place to eat in Lexington KY?

I hear the fried chicken is good.

[Yegolev]

*puts Lexington KY on the "Do Not Visit" list*

[schild]

Prime day. More like Buy Our Overstock Garbage Day.

[01101010]

Prime day. More like Buy Our Overstock Garbage Day.

What are you talking about? They have Segways on sale!   

[Trippy]

Still better than last year's though.

[Yegolev]

Bezos' genius knows no limits.