Useless Conversation

[Khaldun]

I have not lost my cool at work for...well, maybe ever, I can't think of ever really getting in anyone's face about anything professionally for 20 years, but I almost lost my shit this morning when a guy I otherwise like a lot started in on me in the middle of a social gathering for something that is not my fault and about which this guy is in any event profoundly wrong and a bit unbalanced. I ended up just getting up and walking away quietly, but I could tell it surprised the hell out of everybody there since I think I'm known for being genial and tolerant.

It isn't just the country where everybody has to dial it down a notch. I think it's pretty much modern life in every context. There is a lot of stuff that people really stress about getting exactly their way where it would turn out more or less the same if they didn't get their way.

[Merusk]

Crap.  Now I have to decide if I should drive for 12 hours with a 1-2 hour break or actually spring for a night at a hotel in Chicago.

On the upside.. in-person interview, whee.

[RhyssaFireheart]

Where in Chicago is your interview?  If it's downtown, you might be better off driving and/or finding a hotel to stay at outside the city.  If it's in one of the suburbs (even one of the inner ring burbs) it shouldn't be too horribly expensive, unless you're around one of the airports.

[ghost]

in-person interview, whee.

Yay.  Hope it goes well.  

It isn't just the country where everybody has to dial it down a notch. I think it's pretty much modern life in every context. There is a lot of stuff that people really stress about getting exactly their way where it would turn out more or less the same if they didn't get their way.

This is a great point.  All the niceties of society are gone.  Maybe the impersonal interactions of the internet are turning everyone into assholes.  Or maybe letting their inner asshole hang out. 

[Nebu]

I find that people are getting both meaner and dumber.  It's almost like a pleasant surprise to run into someone that isn't a stupid, self-entitled asshole.

[Ingmar]

I find that people are getting both meaner and dumber.  It's almost like a pleasant surprise to run into someone that isn't a stupid, self-entitled asshole.

Hey screw you, buddy! 

I can never tell if people are getting meaner and dumber, or if I'm just getting more irritable and less patient as I get older. Maybe it is both.

[Chimpy]

You are getting meaner and dumber!

[Khaldun]

I find that people are getting both meaner and dumber.  It's almost like a pleasant surprise to run into someone that isn't a stupid, self-entitled asshole.

It's certainly getting harder and harder to get people to give a shit about something that doesn't directly benefit them. I know one reason that I'm getting more and more heavily roped into managerial stuff at my university is that most of my colleagues will reliably do one and one thing only when they get involved in high-level decision making and that's try to defend their own departmental turf at all costs. I could care less about doing that, generally can see more than one side to most decisions, and think that the only thing to really avoid at all costs is a huge fucking mistake. (E.g., most other decisions come down to tomato, tomat-oh, so let's not stress about it too much.) Plus life is too short to be an asshole about 99% of this stuff. But being a mean, self-centered asshole does seem to have one big advantage: you don't get asked to do very much work or shoulder many burdens.

[Paelos]

I think in reading some of the posts from the past, we've softened as an internet society on this board.

We're getting older and less pissed. Even WUA and Haemish have managed to be normal.

Of course I stopped venturing into politics years ago, so I have no idea what you people do over there.

[Nebu]

Of course I stopped venturing into politics years ago, so I have no idea what you people do over there.

You'll find that politics brings out the best in people.   

[Merusk]

Where in Chicago is your interview?  If it's downtown, you might be better off driving and/or finding a hotel to stay at outside the city.  If it's in one of the suburbs (even one of the inner ring burbs) it shouldn't be too horribly expensive, unless you're around one of the airports.

Schamburg, right off I-90.  There's an extended stay suites I just found via Google maps right across Roselle for only $65 a night.  It's (their estimate) a 20min drive to O'Hare.   Lots of bad reviews for the hotel, but hell so long as there's no bedbugs I'm ahead of the game vs. anyone trying to stay in Cincinnati.   

Thanks for the well-wishes folks.  To get back in the spirit: You're all a bunch of bastards.

[RhyssaFireheart]

A: Congrats on the interview!

B: Schaumburg - used to live there, actually.  O'Hare is about 20 mins if you're going in the middle of the day.  During morning or evening rush hour, it's longer, of course.  Hmm.. there is a Radisson right at Algonquin Road and Rt. 53, which essentially means it's at I-90 and 53.  But if it's only for one night, even an extended stay should be fine.  Hyatt (I think it is) right on Golf, just off I-90 near Woodfield Mall.  I tihnk there's an American Suites (something like that) at I-90 and Golf as well.  The area around I-90 and Rt. 53 has a few hotels and is easily accessible because of the convention center off Meacham and Woodfield Mall right there.

X: Everyone on the internet is a male pencil necked asshole geek until proven otherwise!

[Chimpy]

If it is the Extended Stay on Roselle Rd. by 90 you should be fine. Pretty much a ridiculous amount of hotels in that area, and that is not one of the ones right by the mass of office parks on Higgins and Golf and thus will be easier to get in and out of.

I will give you a driving recommendation since I assume you are coming up 74 to Indianapolis and then going up 65 from there. Skip taking 90 through the city, take 80 west to I-355 and take it North all the way to 90, it will cost like 4 bucks in tolls but it is SO MUCH FASTER than any other options for getting to Schaumberg from outside the metro area from the south or east.

[Minvaren]

Just had a vendor tell me they're going to send us a file that's pipe-delimited in CSV format...   

[Salamok]

Wouldn't that make it psv?

[Chimpy]

I guess it is time to open it in wordpad to find and replace all pipes with commas !

[SnakeCharmer]

Fuck Boeing. 

[Ironwood]

...and ALL I CAN THINK NOW is 'Magritte is going to have a real problem with that spreadsheet.'

[Merusk]

That's far too geek for me. I'm lost now.

Chimpy, that's the exact hotel, yes.  Also, thanks for the tip.  I would have just blindly followed the Google directions which did indeed have me going up I-90 and through the city.  I would have hated myself because I remember doing that to visit some EQ friends 7 years ago.  Even at 9pm on a cool night in May traffic was aggravating.

If I get hired I'm thinking of moving into the Schamburg area itself.  I read they've got some of the best schools in Chicago and I like being close to work.  The downside is the houses are damned expensive. Any tips on other good areas that might not give me a 90 min commute but aren't so expensive? 

[Sky]

You're all a bunch of bastards.

Technically I'm a bashtard. Also, ze luck. For you to have it. Make with it the success and the happiness.

[bhodi]

Fuck Boeing.  

Well, we couldn't very well have our next tanker built in France, could we.

[SnakeCharmer]

You seriously think that's what were it was being built?

[bhodi]

Do we need to re-introduce green? What role did you play in all that? Obviously, you were on the airbus side of things...

[SnakeCharmer]

Sorry about that.  The whole 'Thank God it's being made by Americans in America' misconception has been a popular comment around various newsites.

No real part other than the fact it was going to be produced here (Mobile) and add several thousand jobs to the area.  It was awarded to Airbus once, Boeing cried that it was unfair and the process started over again.  It's just disappointing that 'our' lobbyists couldn't beat the lobbyist from Chicago, despite the fact the Airbus is ready to go, flying, etc whereas Boeing only has a proposal on paper.

[Merusk]

Hey now, I'm sure they'll be able to fold that paper right up and get it flying in no time.

[Strazos]

So whoever gave French the reputation of being a beautiful language was...exaggerating.

[Ingmar]

So whoever gave French the reputation of being a beautiful language was...exaggerating.

Has a lot to do with who is speaking it.

[Merusk]

Americans really, really mangle it.  Tho I agree with John Cleese from A Fish Called Wanda, Russian is much better.

[Sky]

Fuck the military industrial complex.

And I find deutsch is the language of romance.

[Johny Cee]

Fucking lawyers.

While $1 may be sufficient consideration for a binding legal contract, it does not pass the economic substance test for tax purposes. 

Attorneys always leave it to the accountants to break that lovely piece of news.

[Paelos]

Fucking lawyers.

While $1 may be sufficient consideration for a binding legal contract, it does not pass the economic substance test for tax purposes. 

Attorneys always leave it to the accountants to break that lovely piece of news.

My response when clients complain on that, "You should fire your lawyer."

[ghost]

It's amazing to me how little many attorneys know.  CPAs generally seem to know their shit though, so kudos to you guys. 

[Nerf]

Fucking lawyers.

While $1 may be sufficient consideration for a binding legal contract, it does not pass the economic substance test for tax purposes. 

Attorneys always leave it to the accountants to break that lovely piece of news.

This sounds like it would be pretty damned funny if I knew what you were taking about, details?

[Paelos]

My guess is some smartass lawyer told the client he could trade an asset to another party for $1 and it would be a legal contract. The client believed this would probably avoid any income.

However, tax law doesn't see it that way due to the economic substance over form test.

[Johny Cee]

My guess is some smartass lawyer told the client he could trade an asset to another party for $1 and it would be a legal contract. The client believed this would probably avoid any income.

However, tax law doesn't see it that way due to the economic substance over form test.

Yep.  It's more interesting than that because involves the US, Canada, VT, New York, Quebec, Ontario, and a crossborder estate.


Mostly, I just get pissed of because people don't bring us in when they're structuring these things, and we're playing catch up 3 weeks before the deadline.

Edit:

I gave up on that for the afternoon, so back to trying to get a hold of this guy in Bahrain.