Useless Conversation

[Yegolev]

Island Time is a real thing, too.

[Bunk]

I've settled on the fact that they won't be getting me out of my rental any time in the next ten years if I can help it (I'm paying well under market rate). As a result, I've just accepted that little upgrades I can do are worth the cost. New faucet in the bathroom to replace the 1970's spigot for example. I'm planning on repiping the drain on my kitchen sink soon, because the cost is worth avoiding the hassle of fighting the owner to get a plumber in.

[Khaldun]

I don't know quite why, but I'm just absolutely psychologically worn down to a nubbin at the moment at work. I think I'm losing my ability to shrug off stuff that I barely noticed 20 years ago. Some of it is that I think some situations are objectively getting worse in ways that I really want to stop, but some of it is just like the accumulation of arsenic in the blood--I just used to laugh off, ignore or lightly forgive stuff that really sticks in my craw now. Some of it also that at a certain point you start to realize that no one even remembers that you've been doing certain things in an uncomplaining and highly competent way for 25 years and yet everyone paradoxically expects you to keep doing it.

[Polysorbate80]

It is aggravating how quiet competence gets taken for granted, and people start to only notice when you've done something wrong.  Whilst the loud newcomer gets the attention, blows through and is gone on to the next thing leaving...not much, usually, despite the sound and fury.

I have no solution (yay so helpful, me), but I do hope you find something that puts you at ease.  For myself, that was focusing less on my job.  Not in a negligent way--I feel a responsibility to do the best I can at it, and I still enjoy what I do--but it's ceased to be what drives me.  Mind you I haven't actually figured out what is driving me, but I'm starting to feel comfortable enough to put the questions to myself.

Illegitimi non carborundum, and for what it's worth I feel you've always had some of the most cogent, intelligent posts on this forum, and value your presence.

[Yegolev]

Some of it also that at a certain point you start to realize that no one even remembers that you've been doing certain things in an uncomplaining and highly competent way for 25 years and yet everyone paradoxically expects you to keep doing it.

This is a trap, you are expected to march on because you've done it up to this point. I don't believe this is a paradox.

I was often told that you would naturally advance if you showed up every day and did good work. Eventually I realized this was not how things work.

[Samwise]

Sounds like it's about time you quit and get hired as the overpaid newcomer somewhere else.   

In theory you maximize your compensation by changing jobs every couple years or so.  It's exactly because people are dumb and will take quiet competence for granted when they've already got it, but when they have open headcount they realize that competent people are in short supply so they're willing to offer them lots of money to lure them in.

[Polysorbate80]

This is a trap, you are expected to march on because you've done it up to this point. I don't believe this is a paradox.

I was often told that you would naturally advance if you showed up every day and did good work. Eventually I realized this was not how things work.

True, but he's in academia and that's almost certainly going to require the upheaval of moving the whole family.  Except for the few "rock stars", faculty often don't have a lot of flexibility in their promotion paths and (depending on their field) it can be hard to find the right opportunities.

I myself (staff, not faculty) am as far as I can go at my workplace without either relocating or seeking an advanced degree, and neither is worth the time, expense and effort unless some crisis forces a re-evaluation.  I like the idea of more education, but I want it to be in something that interests me rather than a Masters in Film or Marketing.

Well, I could apply for a similar university position across the border in Washington for probably 50% more money, but I've heard far too many stories about toxic work environments to even contemplate it.

[Yegolev]

Money is only part of the compensation. Sanity is valuable, too.

[01101010]

So finally got in to see someone at sports med about my shoulder. My right shoulder has a small labrum tear that I had an MRI on about 2 years ago, but since Jan, my left shoulder has been pretty gimpy when doing certain movements.  Got a 9a appointment thinking a quick RoM exam and a script for PT or a shot. Ended up being at the clinic all day.

First the doc was 20 minutes late. Finally comes in, ran through the exam, and had a prelim diagnosis of a torn rotator cuff. The imaging person stops into the room 10 minutes later and takes me to imaging, I had 4 xrays and an MRI. Back into the little room, doc returns... no tear but there is a pretty evident bursitis thing happening along with some minor wear and tear. He's going to give me a shot and have the PT guys come talk to me. Nurse pops in, preps me for a shot, doc comes back and does his thing with the needle and leaves me with a script for PT but I am to wait to discuss with their trainers. 5 minutes and a trainer is taking me down to the exercise area and we walk through what I need to do for PT. Finally got out of there at 2:45p. Insane day...

[Khaldun]

Academia's compensation is rock-solid stability IF you get the tenured position. Which I've appreciated. But it does lead to people not really appreciating the difference between the guy who is always underperforming and the guy who gives 200% all the time. Maybe as I get closer to retirement (and get my kid finished with college) I'll look for a chance to switch up the situation. The other alternative is to just do as advised above and turn off the part of me that does shit no one appreciates but everyone depends upon, and focus only on the things that return me immediate satisfactions and rewards. It's hard, because some of my skill set feeds into the depends-upon stuff (being able to present material to large audiences on the drop of a hat, being able to connect with folks outside the academy, knowing a lot of stuff about how the whole racket works) and I like using my skills.

I may just really need some form of emotional spring cleaning on my whole life.

[Polysorbate80]

The other alternative is to just do as advised above and turn off the part of me that does shit no one appreciates but everyone depends upon, and focus only on the things that return me immediate satisfactions and rewards. It's hard, because some of my skill set feeds into the depends-upon stuff (being able to present material to large audiences on the drop of a hat, being able to connect with folks outside the academy, knowing a lot of stuff about how the whole racket works) and I like using my skills.

That's not quite what I meant to say.  It's not that I stop doing or giving a shit about my job, but rather that I do it to my satisfaction and standards and stop wondering what everyone else thinks or whether they recognize it or sometimes even notice if I'm there.  Believe me, if they're unhappy they'll let me know.  If everything is good I hear nothing.

Because I'm the one that has to be happy and satisfied with me and what I do, and after that at the end of the day I'm just not my job anymore.

If/when that ever evolves into a problem, then maybe that's one of those re-evaluation crises I mentioned.  But it's almost certainly time for a career change then anyway.



Maybe ironically, I got the best performance review I've had in years--they've always been good, but I got "exceeds" in an environment actively fighting to prevent giving those out.

[calapine]

17 minutes at the passport department to get e-government access. About 10 minutes of that was waiting.



Amtschimmel gets lots of crap, but think that's pretty good.

Also a lot nicer than my other government dealings. Requirement to receive benfits is to provide bank statements going 6 months back. Since I tend to pay a lot with debit card that ended up beinga  10 DIN A4 pages printout showing what I spent at H&M, McDonald's, etc etc. Bye bye privacy

Anyway, no moral here. Just good mood and wanted to share.

Oh. And spring is 'ere!



(I am obviously not good at that making photos thing, but think you get an idea.)

[Sky]

I don't really understand debit cards. Fiancee has an irrational fear of credit cards, but uses her debit card everywhere.

I prefer not to have my own money on the hook for any fraud or theft that may occur. AND you don't get any benefits (afaik), whereas I'm getting $30-50/mo of Amazon credit just for running everything through my Amazon card.

If you're financially responsible, our debt society has made it pretty nice on the backs of the irresponsible.

[calapine]

I don't really understand debit cards. Fiancee has an irrational fear of credit cards, but uses her debit card everywhere.

I prefer not to have my own money on the hook for any fraud or theft that may occur. AND you don't get any benefits (afaik), whereas I'm getting $30-50/mo of Amazon credit just for running everything through my Amazon card.

If you're financially responsible, our debt society has made it pretty nice on the backs of the irresponsible.

Not much to get about them. They were (are) just the default here. Open a Giro-account and you get a debit card. Credit card needs to be requested and isn't free. When I had MasterCard it cost me ~30 Euro (I think) a year, and didn't give me any benefits.

Plus, credit card acceptance is only a thing for the last years. In my youth (1990ies) you wouldn't have found many shops (Louis Vuitton in Vienna, yes. Normal shop: No) or restaurants (except a restaurant in a hotel or upper class) to even accept cards (credit or debit), so what were you gonna do with it?

Today for example Aldi only accepts debit, not credit cards.

Subjectively they don't seem to be taking off that much. What's getting increasingly popular in supermarkets (and the like) is contact-less payment via NFC chip. Hold card against terminal, done. PIN is only required every 5th usage or after a certain amount.

[HaemishM]

I don't really understand debit cards.

What's not to get? They are more convenient to carry and use than checks, and businesses pay a small fee to be protected from fraud and have the money move from the customer's account to the businesses a lot quicker. Eventually you'll just scan your fingerprint or eyeball and pay directly from your future earnings.

If you're financially responsible, our debt society has made it pretty nice on the backs of the irresponsible.

Clearly you have not met many actual people. Financial responsibility is as rare as a fucking unicorn, banks know this and have made a pretty penny betting on people being dumb as fuck with their money even when they know better.

[RhyssaFireheart]

I don't really understand debit cards.

What's not to get? They are more convenient to carry and use than checks, and businesses pay a small fee to be protected from fraud and have the money move from the customer's account to the businesses a lot quicker. Eventually you'll just scan your fingerprint or eyeball and pay directly from your future earnings.

If you're financially responsible, our debt society has made it pretty nice on the backs of the irresponsible.

Clearly you have not met many actual people. Financial responsibility is as rare as a fucking unicorn, banks know this and have made a pretty penny betting on people being dumb as fuck with their money even when they know better.

And even if you are being responsible, or think you are, it's still way too easy to fall into a debt hole you literally can't get out of.  And then one problem pops up and BAM!  You are sunk.  Husband and I now have a low limit credit card through our credit union and refuse to get anything else.  We use our debit cards everywhere and I don't even carry my CC with me.  But that's what having to declare bankruptcy will do for you, I guess. 

[Sky]

What's not to get?

I wasn't talking about checks   I meant vs credit cards. The problem with debit cards is that it's your money on the line. The banks don't give a shit about you or getting your money back into your account with any alacrity. With a CC, it's their money and they tend to be very motivated to resolve issues.

I get some kind of fraud or theft every couple years on my primary card. With a CC, it's usually a quick phone call with a pleasant rep in fraud prevention, where I run down recent purchases. Used to be next day replacement, now it's usually a few business days, but then I'm back up and running without ever (and this is important to me) having a single dime of my money removed from my bank account. All the conflict and risk is between the bank and recipient of the CC payment. With a debit card, my money is gone until everything is worked out.

It's probably ok, but I don't treat money with that criteria.

[Polysorbate80]

The trick to credit cards and rewards is never to use them for things you can't afford, but always use them for everything you're going to have to pay for anyway - fuel, groceries, all the crap of daily living, and then pay it off in full every month.

[schild]

The trick to credit cards and rewards is never to use them for things you can't afford

I didn't spend the last 5 years getting over a million reward points to NOT fly first class to Asia.

[Polysorbate80]

Well of course dude, that's what the rewards are for.  I used air miles to pay for eight people's airline tickets to Hawaii last time we went.  I think I'm going to wind up doing it again for at least a few people this year.

I was talking about not using the cards for debt, maybe I worded it poorly.  I dones that shit sumtimes.

[calapine]

Going back to e-government for a mom.

Seeing what it can do, and wow this is fancy. Via what is called ELGA (electronic health records), I can pull up all my prescriptions medications I received..

Starts the doctor who prescribed it to such details as the name of the employee in the pharmacy that handed it out.



Most people will never do that, it's designed as a tool for doctors. The system lead to a lot of discussion beforehand, due to privacy, big brother, etc. Interesting discussion which I won't bore you with :)

[Polysorbate80]

And I'm jealous again.  Health records here in the US are a giant pain in the ass.  Dad had a heart attack after mom's funeral, and wound up in a different hospital than he normally goes to.  It was a complete clusterfuck trying to get any information flowing between doctors/hospital/family.

Small example:  Shortly after his arrival in the ER, the docs scheduled a test of his pacemaker for later that afternoon after he was stable.  By the next day, when they were ready to discharge him, they still hadn't done the test because the doctor's request vanished from the system somehow.

[01101010]

And I'm jealous again.  Health records here in the US are a giant pain in the ass.  Dad had a heart attack after mom's funeral, and wound up in a different hospital than he normally goes to.  It was a complete clusterfuck trying to get any information flowing between doctors/hospital/family.

Small example:  Shortly after his arrival in the ER, the docs scheduled a test of his pacemaker for later that afternoon after he was stable.  By the next day, when they were ready to discharge him, they still hadn't done the test because the doctor's request vanished from the system somehow.

YAY HIPAA!!

I have to deal daily with EMR records and ICD/CPT/DX codes. I had to jump through sooo many honest broker hoops just to be able to do my job. What is really vexing are the patients with multiple MRNs because of different hospital systems... hell even within some systems. It's bananas.

[Khaldun]

Debit cards are just checks as I see it. We've had issues in our lives with credit cards, and I don't ever want to be holding that debt again. I don't really care what it takes to get people to be responsible--whatever the mechanism necessary is the mechanism necessary. That's all.

[Father mike]

YAY HIPAA!!

I have to deal daily with EMR records and ICD/CPT/DX codes. I had to jump through sooo many honest broker hoops just to be able to do my job. What is really vexing are the patients with multiple MRNs because of different hospital systems... hell even within some systems. It's bananas.

Not only HIPAA, but every EMR system I've interacted with is complete garbage.  The UIs look like a GeoCities site, the backend stuff is slow and unreliable, updates are infrequent and often broken.  But doctors never question it, and purchasing managers only care about cost.  So they entire EMR industey gets away with selling complete crap.

[Mandella]

And I'm jealous again.  Health records here in the US are a giant pain in the ass.  Dad had a heart attack after mom's funeral, and wound up in a different hospital than he normally goes to.  It was a complete clusterfuck trying to get any information flowing between doctors/hospital/family.

Small example:  Shortly after his arrival in the ER, the docs scheduled a test of his pacemaker for later that afternoon after he was stable.  By the next day, when they were ready to discharge him, they still hadn't done the test because the doctor's request vanished from the system somehow.

YAY HIPAA!!

I have to deal daily with EMR records and ICD/CPT/DX codes. I had to jump through sooo many honest broker hoops just to be able to do my job. What is really vexing are the patients with multiple MRNs because of different hospital systems... hell even within some systems. It's bananas.

My own conspiracy theory is that the wide acceptance of HIPAA by the health industry is less for patient privacy (when the hell as the government actually cared about citizen privacy?) and more to make it easier to cover up errors and incompetency in the industry.

[Polysorbate80]

Pulling another Kurobuta ham out of the freezer to thaw for Easter, but I don’t want to wait!  Pork products now, plzkthx.

[calapine]

I want to be the bottom squirrel....

[Sir T]

You sure that bottom one is a squirrel? 

[calapine]

You sure that bottom one is a squirrel? 

Whatever it is its having fun.

A propos: Subreddit recommendation: /r/fatsquirrelhate

It's basically a wholesome version of fatpeoplehat full of pictures of obese squirrels.

[Sky]

My neighbors dump out one of those mega barrels of cheese puffs on their back patio, daily.

Mostly skunks devouring them, but we have some of the fattest squarls I've ever seen. Often I think I see a rabbit or cat in the yard, nope it's a squarl.

So goddamn many skunks tho. They're really nice little dudes, but they dig up the yard something fierce.

[Father mike]

One of my earliest memories is seeing a low-rent version of Jack Hanna on Captain Kangaroo promoting the idea of skunks with removed scent glands as housepets.  To this day I have no idea if it was just some 70s, cocaine-fuelled, bullshit idea or if skunks really make viable pets.

[Samwise]

I've definitely heard of that being a thing.  It's not any crazier than having, say, a pet ferret.

[rattran]

They make pretty good pets, but diet is somewhat more complicated than a cat, and people have an irrational fear of rabies. A friend in Texas had one for years, it was the only animal my cat of the time (Be'elzebub) would tolerate.

And it was probably Jack Hanna. He was his own low-rent version. My friend Steve did some appearances on Leno with him as a bird handler (he runs a raptor rescue/rehabilitation) and tells stories of how Hanna was useless at best and dangerous at most times.

[HaemishM]

I've definitely heard of that being a thing.  It's not any crazier than having, say, a pet ferret.

Depending on how the person takes care of the ferret, I'd say it's about 50-50 on which would stink worse, the unwashed ferret or a skunk with full scent glands. A buddy of mine used to have 2 that he kept in a cage in the closet and the funk was legendary.