MERCURY RETROGRADE continues
Stargazing can be depressing, since it seems like there are so many bad omens. There actually ARE a lot of bad omens, and the most interesting things (comets, novae, etc) are the worst omens. There are two reasons for this:
The first is that Astrology, like all real sciences, is based on empirical observation. The celestial influences were mapped to significant events and once a correlation was established, these correlations were codified and promulgated. The issue is that the historical eras in which this painstaking scientific research occurred sucked camel balls. All sorts of bad shit was going on, between plagues, famines, invasions, tyrants, pubic lice, forcible conversions, slave raids, indigestion, hyena attacks and poor kitchen hygiene coupled with no toilet paper, there were many more bad events to match up than good ones. The charts indicate this. There is only one planet that is unambiguous in its beneficence (Venus) and even it goes retrograde every now and then.
The second is that “interesting” things are breaks in a pattern. But with the stars, that pattern is perfection so any breaks are Bad Things. If auto racing were as perfect as the stars, the best driver would have won the pole position, and the race would proceed flawlessly with no changes in the race order. Nobody would watch this. The biggest, brightest, most noticeable deviations in astrology (a new star appearing where there wasn’t one before) are the multi-car collisions sending flaming shrapnel into the spectator seating.
So yeah, lots of bad news to be seen in the night sky.
So what’s the bad news for this week? Not a lot really, at least in comparison to last week. That massive double-alignment of despair has broken up, with a piddly little BARCO double hinging on Mars retrograde (Sol-Luna-Mars (retrograde) and Mars (retrograde)-MERCURY RETROGRADE-Terra) which gives very weak influences in the following ways:
- A conflict will end.
- There will be bad news regarding a war
- A general will have his ass handed to him (possibly literally — this is the same construction that heralded Qaddafi’s death-by-bayonet-sodomy)
As for the celestial houses:
Leo still has to deal with MERCURY RETROGRADE, but at least the moon has skedaddled. If you have a cat, expect more kitty zips and general destruction from the little furball. Haircuts are still risky, but I’ll be getting one because my hair has gotten really annoying when I have to put on a cleanroom suit. This is also backed up by the moon moving into Sagittarius; “Nocturnal hunters awaken.”
If you are a Capricorn, do NOT get into any fights. Mars has backed ass-first into your sign so that Saturn (retrograde) which has been hanging out pretty clearly points to “violence leads to loss.” Yeah, I said that wasn’t going to happen. Either I need better charts, or I need to read them better.
Jupiter in Scorpio: minding your own business leads to good things. The stars give really good advice. SCIENCE!
Finally, Venus in Libra. If you can keep your center, good things follow.
This whole week is pretty pro-Glib. Enjoy.
STEVE SMITH NOT KNOW ABOUT VENUS IN LIBRA, BUT HIM WILLING TO PUT HIM IN VENUS.
ALSO STEVE SMITH FIRST!
Well done Mr. Smith.
For those of you who were worried….
Minnesoda DFL officially endorses Brother Keith.
Ellison wasn’t the endorsed candidate because he joined the race too long. This meeting is usually a formality where the party moves the endorsement to the person who actually won the primary. For example, Tim Walz wasn’t the endorsed candidate, but did win the primary so he is now the endorsed candidate. In this case, there was some drama because of Keith’s women problems.
Luckily for him the DFL wants to win and would rather have Ellison in the tent pissing out than the reverse. They are (rightfully) scared that if they bounced him, he would cry racism and islamophobia.
Forgot the quote:
Yup. A secret ballot so you can “vote your conscience” screams of a party that puts principles first.
Actually it’s logical considering this is the party that loves the ideology of the guy that was quoted saying that in elections the votes didn’t matter as much as who counted them…
Shit, everyone knows this #metoo stuff should only make people go insane and demand blood when it can be pinned on team red morons.
Keith (PBUH) Ellison was my congresscritter for years when I lived in Fridley (North Minneapolis to y’all out staters). He was always a douchebag, and quite frankly, clearly below average IQ. Once he came to speak at my workplace, a defense contractor, and I was asked by our COmmunications Director to prepare a question to ask him after his speech. She assumed I, as a woman, was a DFL-er (Minnesota doesn’t have Democrat party; it’s the Democrat-Farmer-Labor party–Lord help those prairie dwelling idiots).
Needless to say, I agreed to formulate and pose a question to petty criminal Ellison. It wasn’t what they expected. Tee hee.
BTW, Keith is not a “regular” muslim; he’s a Nation of Islam twat. He had changed his name to Muhammed something or other but couldn’t win office in the 90s with that, so he switched to the Scandahoovian sounding Ellison and won.
Piece of crap, that guy.
Ironically, it took moving to California to get myself a Republican US congressman, state senator, and state representative.
Then there’s this.
Ellison is a total scumbag and I would not shed a tear if he suddenly dropped dead, but this accusation sure smells of bullshit.
Don’t care; the accusation stands on its own merits, those being: a woman made it, and a man is the alleged assailant, ergo guilty.
“This whole week is pretty pro-Glib. Enjoy.”
I sure hope it is. As things are playing out right now I will either have a new job soon or my current employer will have to throw another $30K at me to stay there. Yeah, I have a reputation right now as the can do guy where I work and having to start all over and prove myself might not be fun, but that’s a lot of money to leave on the table.
I always think it is better to jump. The problem with getting that big pay bump from your current employer is that they will resent it. Especially if you can’t tie the pay increase to some change in job responsibilities. They will be mad that they are now paying you an extra $30K for the same shit you were doing last week.
The next 2-3 years will also be testy when annual raises are given out. “Well, you got that huge bump in August. We can’t give you that 5% raise now too.”
I get that it is stressful to go to a new place and start building your rep again, but I think you will be amazed at how easy it is to become the new go to guy at the new place.
I’ve been in your moccasins several times in the past. I’ve done just about all the permutations and found that the best move is to jump UNLESS there is some great non-monetary benefits at your current place. For example, flexible schedule or an office instead of a cube. Or a great commute. Shit like that is worth money. Not to your significant other who will always want more $$$, but to your own mental health.
Anyhow, that is my $.02. I may not be the best person to take advice from. I tend to job jump every 2-3 years because I get bored or get lured away.
This is good advice. Never take a counter-offer.
I think the Pontiff of Profundity is right on here. Two buddies of mine got nuked right after they had their best years ever. Both were paid giant bonuses and then soon laid off.
Resentment is a real thing.
I doubt they would ever lay me off, considering I am classified as critical and a single point of failure (I can’t even move to another job in my own company because my CIO will not let me leave), but I do suspect that they will resent they have to bump my pay by that much. And I suspect they will make my attempt to leave hell, demanding I give them at least 3 months to find someone to take over like they kind of hinted in my last few reviews. If I don’t give them the chance to counter offer I am as much as burning this bridge and leaving lots of pissed people behind. Oh, well. The thing I am gonna regret is not having all that time to come talk to you Glibs as much whatever happens, as I suspect I will be doing even more work.
What can they do if you get another job first and then give them your two weeks’ notice?
I am classified as critical and a single point of failure (I can’t even move to another job in my own company because my CIO will not let me leave)
Danger! Danger Will Robinson!
This is a big red flag.
I would not discuss the new position with anyone at your current company, until you’ve accepted the formal offer and have firm start date. Give your current employer two weeks or whatever is the norm for your industry. If they beg for more, apologize and say that you already have a fixed start date and have given your word to the new employer(*). Same with the counter-offer- head it off. If they want to give a counter offer, apologize and say you’ve already accepted and you can’t go back on your word.
(*) I have a boss whose old employer negotiated with his new employer to borrow him for a couple months to finish up some critical projects.
This is also good advice. Get your start date squared away and give your notice.
One of the places I worked offered their sales people a big bonus for any new restaurant that they signed up. One of the sales people had gone to school with a guy who managed several hundred McD’s. The sales guys signed them all up. The CEO flipped out about having to pay that giant bonus (“HE’D BE MAKING MORE THAN ME!”) and refused to pay. I think the official reason was that it wasn’t really a new sale because the salesguy had a pre-existing connection with the customer, but it was really just a FYTW situation by the idiot CEO. They guy quit, sued and got a big chunk of it in a settlement.
It was a real buzzkill for the company though. Everyone liked the salesguy and for the first time figured out how thin skinned the CEO was. Even better as soon as the settlement check cleared the new customer pulled out of the contract so they didn’t even end up with the new revenue.
What a dumbass for not putting a reasonable cap on that bonus.
This is why we must Save Capitalism from Itself™.
Stakeholders and special interests of all companies, unite!
What the fuck does reasonable mean? If the dude brought in that much business, pay the man!!
I was commission only for a long time. It’s infuriating how often pay plans get adjusted after you kick ass.
As a self-employed private contractor, I’m sort of on commission, but I don’t do much contract negotiation; I generally work through agencies now, so not sure that counts.
I only was pure commission once, and only for a few months. When I graduated college I had to go back in the Army, but there was about a five-month delay between my graduation and my Officer’s Basic Course start date. So I worked as a pest control inspector for Orkin, and as you say, kicked some ass and actually made more money than I did when I went back on active duty as a O-1E.
Bonus: I got laid on the job more than James fucking Bond. I loved that work. I really, really did.
“I’ve been in your moccasins several times in the past. I’ve done just about all the permutations and found that the best move is to jump UNLESS there is some great non-monetary benefits at your current place. For example, flexible schedule or an office instead of a cube. ”
This is pretty much the reason I am reluctant to bail: lost of non monetary perks. I have any and all freedoms I want. While other people need to go through hell to get things done, my reputation has made it so they practically never question anything I ask for. I can work from home when I need to. I can take a day off without actually having to use my days off. That’s because my employer knows they will be getting 45-50+ hrs a week of hard and good work from me regardless of where I am or when I take off. I am about the most un-PC bastard you have ever had to work with and the HR people give me a wide berth because they know they can’t lose me.
Yeah, I know leaving is the better move, and that if I don’t I will be nickled and dimed into leaving anyway sooner than later, but I still will miss the good people I work with (and hand picked). I guess in the end what counts is in my bank account.
but I still will miss the good people I work with (and hand picked)
Head hunt the good ones to your new place. You’ll be a senior exec in no time at all with your posse that swarms from company to company. Only half joking.
I know how you feel though. Comfort and avoiding change/unknown is seductive. I’ve got a very cush niche and it’s very hard to leave, but the reality is that it’s not going to continue forever. Best is to start working to moving in a different direction, so that’s what I’m doing.
Pope Jimbo’s advice is spot on. It’s the only real way to get significant increases in pay, position, and experience is to be mercenary. A single employer will not give those to you because they still need you doing what they originally hired you for. As an example, my company has minimum time period before you can apply for another position in house. Does that prevent you from leaving for a new position in another company? No. Does it prevent them from hiring someone externally than doesn’t have that length of time in their current position? No. The only one it fucks over is the current employee.
“Bros before hoes” is never good advice: Fill that mercenary bastard-shaped hole in the world.
Totally agree with the advice to leave. It’s like once a person (or at least a woman) gets up the guts to bring up verbally the “divorce” word, it’s not actually up for discussion at that point, it’s a done deal deep in her heart.
I took my job in Cali with a 50% pay increase. My Minnesota employer tried to match it, but I said too little too late—nothing would have changed.
Then a month later, we met again at a navy event, and they offered to double my salary. That would have been quite a pile of cash for Minnesota. I felt a broad smile spread across my face like the Grinch and said I was flattered, but that they should have shown me a little love when I was there; I have a mission now, and I’m fulfilling it.
I’m sure you’ll find your purpose elsewhere too. Go for it.
*wonders whether it’s possible to convince your divorced wife to stay if you offer to double her alimony*
How hard up for candidates would youbhave to be to offer twice the cash, rather than rolling that into new payroll for two lesser employees?
Nicely done RS/HS.
Once you’ve said you’ll leave. Leave. You’ll forever after be the guy who doesn’t want to be there. If you leave on good terms you can often go back and it’ll be ok.
You’ve made yourself indespensable in one place you can do it again. Likely in a different area which will make you more valuable. ONce your boss won’t let you go you’re stuck and will stagnate. Been there. The move was scary at first as I was used to being the expert, but it worked out great and I became the expert in several areas I had known nothing about – “sure, I can do networks and timing systems!”
I don’t know, I always liked Bronn despite his being an unrepentant mercenary.
Either way, it sounds like a big win for the State of CT and the Federal Treasury!
Vertigo sucks.
Yes it does. Sorry.
Notorious is much better.
Assuming you mean the actual ailment, I’m sorry. I’ve thankfully never had it, so I have no idea how much it sucks.
One of these days, you’ll be travelling in Morocco, or waiting at a cornfield crossroads, or staying at an out-of-the-way motel, and you will regret that comment.
Only if you’re traveling north by northwest.
If you do that, try to avoid strangers on a train.
The best way is to take the rear window seat.
Even if there’s a torn curtain?
Without a shadow of a doubt.
Just don’t sit next to Marnie
Thanks. First time for me. My dads had it before.
If you’ve ever been so drunk that the room is spinning, it’s kind of like that.
I think i threw up and called it quits before I got that drunk. And I only did that like twice. Now I stop at “one”* drink because I don’t want to get that drunk, and I’m cheap.
* “One” because I’m probably putting rather more than one drink’s worth of vodka in my Electric Lemonade or vodka on the rocks.
A bottle is one drink. Lol.
It is. I don’t get it too badly. How bad is yours?
If I sit still and don’t move my head around it’s not too bad. Once I get up and try and move around it’s not good. Lightheaded, dizzy, nauseous. I’ve almost fallen a couple times. Turning my head around makes me feel like passing out. Even after I sit down it takes a while to subside. Going to doctor tomorrow. Prolly going to try and sleep today. Fine lying down except when I turn or roll over. Not fun.
Mine is nowhere neat that bad, I only get it when dealing with heights. Good luck at the doc. Hopefully it’s easily treatable.
Mine came from a bout of labyrinthitis. It’d come back after a cold or an allergy flare-up. I’ve been completely free of it for a few years.
Yeah, I’m wondering if I have something similar. I’ve had some issues with my left ear over the last year and I half and I also occasionally have ringing in my right ear.
Thanks. Yeah, hopefully some meds will knock it out. Trying to save my personal time off for the fall so don’t want to miss more than tomorrow.
If you have a cat, expect more kitty zips and general destruction from the little furball.
Talk to your cat about the dangers of catnip.
That second cat is scary. Also, it that a cat-cat or a little big cat?!
It’s a domestic cat, but bred to look otherwise.
“Also I wonder what the gender pay gap looks like in the NRA”
https://twitter.com/davidhogg111/status/995007124383117317
To ask is to answer.
That is worse than my pick up line: Does this napkin smell like chloroform?
I shouldn’t have looked at that. I’m trying to rebuild my gun budget.
Me too. Unfortunately I want all the guns.
It doesn’t help that I check GunBroker every now and then. The Amoskeag Auction just released their catalog for the August auction. I’ve decided that I won’t go to view the items because I’m tempted enough as it is.
I need to start buying accessories like holsters, scopes, slings, etc. But I always end up just buying more guns:) lol.
This is his no-shit avatar, or whatever, at Twitter. What a complete tool.
Ugh. Linky
Jeezus. I’m going to bed.
Is there an equivalent of the ten-second rule for SF’d links?
Asking for a complete stranger on the internet…
Yes, if you fix it before Ted (or anyone else) catches it, then it never happened.
I’m not the only one who catches screwed-up links. Why did you have to pick on me? 😉
Because it’s fun!
He has no chin. Still punchable.
My pellet gun arrived today. Ordered off Amazon on Friday, here Sunday morning. No signature required on delivery. Fuck you NJ, NYC, DC, Chicago & Philadelphia. It’s how ordering a firearm was like during most of this country’s history, and still should be today.
When the major metropolitan governance (with honorable exception) is basically Ralphie’s mom.
That is tits. I wish I had weekend delivery here in the boonies.
Now, go dispatch Chip and Dale!
have you seen the big bore air rifles? They’re getting pretty advanced. No restrictions on silencers or tracking. I imagine it won’t last but, still pretty cool.
”Agency of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be a convenience store”
Amen. Don’t forget Explosives. BATFE.
What did you get?
This guy
https://www.gamousa.com/product.aspx?productID=68
Very nice:)
OOooo… that looks nice.
“HAND DRYERS DO NOT WORK EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER BEEN BORN HAS BEEN DISAPPOINTED TO SEE A HAND DRYER INSTEAD OF PAPER TOWELS”
https://twitter.com/KatTimpf/status/1031029056282734592
“Hand dryers suck in fecal bacteria and blow it all over your hands, study finds”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/04/12/hand-dryers-suck-bathroom-bacteria-and-blow-them-all-over-your-hands-study-finds/511723002/
As the old joke goes, there are uncontacted Amazonian tribes who know that Nickelback (still) sucks and that hand driers don’t work.
What ever happened to the cloth pull down towels. They worked well and were sanitary.
No joke, but my ‘data research firm’ was commissioned to do a study on ‘automated bathrooms’ by group of big corps…. looking at IR faucet-triggers, toilet-flushers, hand-dryers, etc. and trying to figure out if there was any clarity to the cost-benefit and health-aspects of the thing…
….because many others had published studies so for different reasons, and there was conflicting information… which is the norm, frankly: lots of data is generated by universities with different goals/mandates, or trade organizations trying to sell people on ‘upgrades’ for upgrading’s sake, or shitty news-media saying there’s a science consensus on the word of like 1 or 2 pet-experts….
so they went and asked us (a bunch of number monkeys) to read all the research, consolidate it/clarify it, do some validating surveys (calling up many large orgs that had implemented changes) and Q+A what the benefits really were, if any.
i can’t remember all the shit (this was late 1990s), but one detail i remember being laugh-worthy was the fact that, on average, these “Automatic” systems broke/failed so frequently, that 20-30% of facilities (toilets, sinks, dryers) were non-functional at any given moment.
Basically, 1) you spend 30% more capital to build new, super-toilets. The most significant outcome of that investment? Is 2) that you’ve just made 1/4-1/3 of your facilities perpetually unusable.
This doesn’t even touch on the repair/maintenance/replacement cost over time.
The calculus however, wasn’t that simple. The lawyers said, ‘reduced illness, reduced liability’ actually offset investment; the ‘benefits’ really aren’t for the user, they’re for the Huge Organization which wants excuses to reduce labor expense while building liability-protections. iow, the mistake, from the POV of our research, was presuming that the “goal” was improving the actual user-experience. It isn’t, necessarily.
Anyway, that project was like one of my early lessons that, “not every decision is based on what you think its supposed to be based on”.
Speaking with an architect here in NYC, it doesn’t matter. You want a LEED’s certified building it’s got to have the shit plumbing.
I don’t know if that certification existed at the time we did our research.
according to quick-check, it came out in 2000
0
which makes sense. A shitload of this ‘corporate sustainability’ stuff started heating up in the early 2000s and was an area prime for lots of $-sucking initiatives all over the place.
Everyone was getting in on the “organic”, “rainforest safe”, “dolphin free”, “100% approved by X council of super-experts”-labeling-certs in those days, and it was something that crisscrossed all over the industries i covered (which were mostly CPG related)
I think the CSR craze has somewhat died down, or at least matured. I’d guess its all “Diversity” related now, whereas 10 years ago it was all about climate-change + ‘sustainability’
https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanmcpherson/2018/01/12/8-corporate-social-responsibility-csr-trends-to-look-for-in-2018/
My wife works in a Leed Platinum certified building. The toilets are basically seats over holes in the floor over large bins that collect everything that comes out of the human keister. They mix in sawdust and some other stuff, presumably bacteria, and turn it into compost. So, in 2018, “green” technology is basically the same “plumbing” that was used in medieval buildings.
This doesn’t even touch on the repair/maintenance/replacement cost over time.
A building I once worked in had automated flushers for the toilets and urinals. Office building, lots of tenants, looks nice from the outside.
One day, one of the urinals in the men’s room stopped flushing. We complained to the property manager. Eventually the property manager came back to us and said, “The battery is dead. We need a special tool to open the device to replace the battery. It’ll be six months before the tool arrives.” Huh. Sure.
Did the property manager have a sign put up stating the urinal was out of order? No. People kept using the urinal. Eventually someone from my company put a sign up on the urinal.
When my company decided to close the office, the only thing I missed about that building was the commute. It was walking distance from where I lived.
We don’t have paper towels at our building because,as the story goes, several years ago somebody backed up the toilets with an insane amount of paper towels, to the point that there was a serious backup with sewage coming out of the bathroom. Part 0f the floor is still uncarpeted because of that.
Yeah, this is the nut of the thing.
If you want to fix a toilet, you have a dumb-as-rocks janitor who has some basic plumbing experience.
You want to fix your automated IR triggered facilities? well, you need both the janitor, plus the electrician, plus the guy who knows how to calibrate the system and fix the lens and set the flow rate and the….
and that’s how the costs over time stack up, and consequently? The businesses say, “Fuck it, we’ll just fix them less often: schedule annual repairs”; and so 20% of facilities get knocked out of commish, and only repaired during scheduled checkups.
Once upon a time they had foot pedal operated toilets and urinals in public restrooms.
This always seemed the most practical solution to me.
My wife hates them. If we’re someplace with them, she’ll ask for napkins.
I guess they don’t #believeher.
That suit is very similar to mine. Although I have to wear safety glasses with mine, and the hood is flat-topped.
You work in a fab, if I’m remembering right?
Yup. GF’s Fab8.
Wiki says you guys are going to 7nm. Good Lord…
Once the traces are only one atom’s width I wonder where we go…
Diamond Age!
Yes, we have commodity chip fabs in Singapore, but 8’s mission is to create the most advanced, impossible to build dies and charge exorbitant prices for them. What we lack in yield we make up for in margin.
I am somewhat dreading our post-silicon future, since that means I’ll need to start a new career.
That guy in the bunny suit should be wearing safety glasses.
Not Adahn, Don’t know if you saw I answered your ‘walk through ?’ short version, don’t worry about getting the CO early, and you’re really just kicking the tires at this point, cosmetics and such. Unless you’re going to climb up on the roof or crawl around in the attic all you can do is make sure doors and windows operate smoothly. You won’t really notice the small things that might need attention until you’re living there awhile.
Thanks! Ordinarily I don’t stress out too much about these things except 1) I’m not an expert to know what’s really going on and 2) It’s SO MUCH GODDAMNED MONEY!
poor kitchen hygiene
I had to work today, but seriously, not one of you could muster up a Chipotle joke? It is in the charts for christs sake!