This and that

[VoidCosmos]

5 minutes ago, VoidSquid said:

Exactly what this thread is meant for, my friend, venting some steam!  

We will soon turn into steam engines 

[VoidSquid]

1 minute ago, VoidCosmos said:

We will soon turn into steam engines 

Now that words almost prompt me to say another thing outside the common narrative  

[VoidCosmos]

Just lost a close relative of mine. She passed away just about 4 hours ago

Life isn't fair isn't it? 

[VoidCosmos]

Vent vent vent

I wish that life was completely fair for everyone. But........

Edited January 2, 2021 by VoidCosmos

[Lewie]

On 12/31/2020 at 9:53 PM, VoidCosmos said:

Just lost a close relative of mine. She passed away just about 4 hours ago

Life isn't fair isn't it? 

Sorry to hear about that....our sympathies are with you. Life never is fair, really. Always kicks you when your down

[VoidSquid]

On 1/1/2021 at 4:53 AM, VoidCosmos said:

Just lost a close relative of mine. She passed away just about 4 hours ago

I'm sorry for your loss. Wish I could do more than just writing these lines, it feels stupid, hollow.

If there's anything I can do for you, let me know please.

I lost a close family member two months ago, it hurts every day. 

[VoidCosmos]

1 hour ago, Lewie said:

Sorry to hear about that....our sympathies are with you. Life never is fair, really. Always kicks you when your down

 

1 hour ago, VoidSquid said:

I'm sorry for your loss. Wish I could do more than just writing these lines, it feels stupid, hollow.

If there's anything I can do for you, let me know please.

I lost a close family member two months ago, it hurts every day. 

Thank you for your condolences. I would say the only thing I can do is to just try to move on and remember her. I am really sad that she passed away on the first day of the new year. What a bad start to 2021.

[VoidSquid]

And again, bumped against some forum rules. Stupid rules, as they totally are unable to differentiate between bad intentions and a meaningful discussion.

Forum "ai" replaces a particular 4-letter word with another word that totally means a different thing.

And idiot me totally fell for that, replying to a post while thinking the ai-replaced word was what was written in the previous post in that thread.

Was it off topic? Absolutely. Hence I wrote "it's off topic, let's discuss this elsewhere".

Staying purposely within forum rules. Even contacting the moderators. 

Posts deleted and deleted and deleted. What a waste of time and energy.

Making a fool out of myself.

Don't expect me to like that. Or to like "Political Correctness" at all.

Self censorship, scissors in my brain? No thanks. 

Modern times...

Edited January 12, 2021 by VoidSquid

[VoidSquid]

Sigh... if anyone has a good idea. please let me know:

Again a situation where I truly don't know how to understand it, how to react.

How did the other person mean it???

For the better or worse, we are limited to the written word here. 

No voice intonation, no facial expression, no body language.

Aspie here, fits me perfectly, I can't understand that anyways.

That's why I'm deliberately using emotions, to make the mood perfectly clear.

But what should I do if the other person doesn't give me such clues?

Without any descriptional context, any emoticons, I can only understand the written text at face value.

I know I'm a cripple. But showing me that on a daily basis doesn't accomplish anything.

[VoidCosmos]

9 hours ago, VoidSquid said:

Sigh... if anyone has a good idea. please let me know:

Again a situation where I truly don't know how to understand it, how to react.

How did the other person mean it???

For the better or worse, we are limited to the written word here. 

No voice intonation, no facial expression, no body language.

Aspie here, fits me perfectly, I can't understand that anyways.

That's why I'm deliberately using emotions, to make the mood perfectly clear.

But what should I do if the other person doesn't give me such clues?

Without any descriptional context, any emoticons, I can only understand the written text at face value.

I know I'm a cripple. But showing me that on a daily basis doesn't accomplish anything.

Huh.......... 

 

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

<snip>

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

Edited January 21, 2021 by VoidCosmos

[VoidSquid]

And, at the end of the day, you report to your supervisor that you're happy to have resolved a tricky customer's problem. Only to get "that's your job" for an answer.

I feel so totally motivated...

[adsii1970]

2 minutes ago, VoidSquid said:

And, at the end of the day, you report to your supervisor that you're happy to have resolved a tricky customer's problem. Only to get "that's your job" for an answer.

I feel so totally motivated...

I understand that feeling all too well. 

[VoidSquid]

Thank you for your kind kind words @adsii1970, it means a lot to me.

I still don't get it. Five times today I spent substantial time and a lot of energy with this issue (interrupted by other issues from other customers). Three hours, out of nine of my work day. Poorly engineered software (Terminal Server, anyone?). An incompetent and ignorant "support engineer", twice. And yes, that particular "support engineer" didn't understand any of the very basics (Terminal Server, Roaming Profiles, Folder redirection, non-persistent environment, or that users don't have admin rights - just: nothing), nor could speak either German or English in an understandable manner. An unhappy customer. Totally in his rights, of course, but his complaints aimed at me?  Then, to whom he could complain? His 3rd party software vendor? They only offer a phone waiting queue where you can listen to some music, for minutes, if not hours. Finally solved the core issue myself. Lastly, an older guy from the vendor's company ironed out the final kinks (like: to be able to import the data from the old version to the new one, the old one needed to be upgraded). Then the icing of the cake: my boss telling me "that's just your job". 

Something must be wrong with me, having issues and taking offense here.

Modern times, I guess.

If there is one thing we humans do excel in, amongst and foremost of every other creature, it is to make life for every living being on this planet as miserable as possible.

Maybe is this what being "human" means.

Edited February 23, 2021 by VoidSquid

[Lisias]

4 hours ago, VoidSquid said:

Then the icing of the cake: my boss telling me "that's just your job". 

He's afraid of losing you, as he can't afford a raise and he's foreseeing that someone will notice you are the one solving problems there and will try to "steal" you from him.

You see, competent problem solvers are terribly scarce - and if your company is big enough, some boss of another department with a slightly deeper pockets will sooner or later notice you, and make a move.

Don't loose your head and start looking around. No competent manager demotivates their work force without a reason.

Your boss is competent, look around to see what he's fearing.

Your boss is incompetent, look around to see what else is available.

Edited February 23, 2021 by Lisias
My Kraken, it's full of tyops!!!!

[adsii1970]

1 hour ago, VoidSquid said:

I still don't get it. Five times today I spent substantial time and a lot of energy with this issue (interrupted by other issues from other customers). Three hours, out of nine of my work day. Poorly engineered software (Terminal Server, anyone?). An incompetent and ignorant "support engineer",  twice.  And yes, that particular "support engineer" didn't understand any of the very basics (Terminal Server, Roaming Profiles, Folder redirection, non-persistent environment, or that users don't have admin rights - just: nothing), nor could speak either German or English in an understandable manner. An unhappy customer. Totally in his rights, of course, but his complaints aimed at me?

I run into this a lot when teaching on-line courses. Right now, I teach a spread of everything from undergraduate (survey world civilization and historical methods courses) to graduate (U.S. foreign policy, U.S. policy, historical methods, and a few "special interest" graduate seminars ) courses. And there are times where I get the full rage of a student who calls me on the phone to tell me of their problems with the BlackBoard software, Internet service provider issues, not understanding how to use their email client on sending attachments, hardware issues - and because I am reachable - I hear it all. Rarely are any of the issues students are experiencing actually course content related. And to be honest, at times, I get exactly what you are getting now - you're getting hammered because you are the first "person" they can contact. And it makes our job most un-fun when these things do happen.

2 hours ago, VoidSquid said:

Then, to whom he could complain? His 3rd party software vendor? They only offer a phone waiting queue where you can listen to some music, for minutes, if not hours. Finally solved the core issue myself. Lastly, an older guy from the vendor's company ironed out the final kinks (like: to be able to import the data from the old version to the new one, the old one needed to be upgraded). Then the icing of the cake: my boss telling me "that's just your job". 

That's the problem that's becoming more universal. For example, our local ISP, Spectrum Cable, has this habit of making you go through the automated menu. When you are finally put in the queue, you get to listen to the random announcements they want you to hear. And the one that infuriates me is "If you are experiencing connectivity issues, please visit our website... to learn how to use our self-service and diagnostic services..." Wait - that's what I am calling about - my Internet connection is fizzled and you want me to visit a freaking website?!

So, when I get students on the phone who are having issues, I talk them through the steps us older folks know (because we just kinda know these things:

1. Shut down your computer; let it restart.
2. Unplug your wireless router and the cable modem. Plug your cable modem's power supply back in and count to ten. After that, plug in the wireless router's power supply.
3. Log into your computer; is it connected to the Internet now? If so... go from there. If not, try the next step...

The problem is that our younger folks and some of the older folks know how something is supposed to work. But they do not understand what makes it work. They have no idea how to diagnose the problem nor work through the steps to figure out what they need to do. So, they go online to submit an assignment (on the date it is due and always right before the time it's due) and immediately go into meltdown mode when they cannot submit their work.

Sure, I get the whole icing on the cake thing, too. Every semester, when my reviews are done, the deans of faculty at both the community college and the universities I work for always comment on how high my evaluations are and how students always rate me as being student friendly. And then I get told - "you've got a very strong reputation from the students and your peers. We'd expect nothing less from you." Huh? Say what? Can we do something positive, like a promotion, a title change? A parking space? A freaking gift card to the local coffee shop? Nope, nothing. But the faculty who get lower evaluations always get rewarded for even the slightest bit of improvement. I don't do my job for the doodads and accolades of others. But just some gesture of appreciation every once in a while would go a long way.

2 hours ago, VoidSquid said:

Something must be wrong with me, having issues and taking offense here.

Modern times, I guess.

No, nothing wrong with you. But let's face it - as I was told by the dean of faculty at the university where I teach graduate courses, "the younger generation just does not have your generation's desire to be more excellent today than you were yesterday. They simply want to do what is expected and expend the least amount of personal effort and ambition on their part. For you, teaching history is the meaning of your life. For many of them, it is a job they could get with an advanced degree in history..."

Maybe it is modern times. Or maybe it is our doing because we have allowed the idea that not being personally invested in one's vocation is okay. I know that in the past five years, I have changed the way I teach to accommodate the newer trends in education. Unfortunately, I do not think it's working because I see students struggle just as much with the new methods of instruction as I did with the older ways. In fact, I've noticed that the recent high school graduates have more problems in my classes than those who graduated high school just ten years ago - and the major difference is the attitude brought into learning.

Last week, while advising a student, she became angry because I was going to place her in a class that would help strengthen her study skills (she is currently on academic probation for her 1.87 GPA). Her response was "I don't need that class, I passed high school..." thus the attitude. I explained to her she should never have relied on her high school teachers to teach her what she needed to learn. In modern education, most only teach to the standards of the state or local school board. So, she asked me what she could do, short of taking that course, to get out of academic probation - and my response blew her away. I said to her that her education must become more important to her than even her social media presence. Just as she would never trust anyone to post for her on Facebook or Twitter, she should never trust anyone to tell her they will teach her all she needs to know. You should have seen the look on her face - one of total shock.

2 hours ago, VoidSquid said:

If there is one thing we humans do excel in, amongst and foremost of every other creature, it is to make life for every living being on this planet as miserable as possible.

Maybe is this what being "human" means.

It's easy to look down on the human species when that's all we hear is how evil humankind is. But here's the deal - those folks who promote that world view that humans always are evil have never stopped to look a the much larger picture. Humankind is also capable of doing a lot of good - not just for our own species, but for the planet as well.

[Lisias]

4 hours ago, VoidSquid said:

Maybe is this what being "human" means.

Food for thought:  being human is easy, everybody you know was born one.

Being a Man/Woman (or, better yet, a Being) is to learn to transcend from what we born to something on a higher level of existence.

And that's, my friend, it's not remotely easy. We, as a species, took tens of thousands years to learn our way from being a bunch of naked monkeys to whatever we are today. It's said that Humanity started when the first broken bone was healed - as one would need to be cared about (what includes being fed) for all the time the bone needed to get healed!

The first step out of the human, as an animal, to became a Human Being is empathy. Exactly what is lacking nowadays, and it is left as an exercise to the reader to infer where we are going to if we keep our Civilisation running this way.

Edited February 24, 2021 by Lisias
Yeah, typos. Surprised?

[VoidSquid]

Thank again guys for your kind kind words, it helps a lot to know that there are good, normal people  

[VoidSquid]

Another unpleasant work day... just some unsorted thoughts:

Seeing again and again how our customers are treated, I really would like to terminate my employment contract. I do have significant moral issues screwing up people, that is seriously immoral for me. But that is what my by boss expects from me.

The question then is, do I try to stay in this job which allows me to feed my family? That is my responsibility.

Or do I follow my moral compass? That is my consciousness, me being able to look into the mirror tomorrow.

Almost, albeit on a much smaller scale, feels like the (in)famous excuse "I only followed orders".

[Caerfinon]

@VoidSquid You can stay in a job you dislike with its questionable morality  to support your family. This is a moral good, but it is a heavy price for you to pay over time. The problem with bad workplaces and their demands, are that the demands always increase over time and become increasingly more morally untenable, 

Better is to form a plan to move to a job/career that you do not have moral issues with that allows you to care for your family. This is a better moral good as it aims to correct the moral issues you dislike at work. This said. it is not an easy thing to do. 

[Lisias]

On 2/25/2021 at 8:23 AM, VoidSquid said:

Seeing again and again how our customers are treated, I really would like to terminate my employment contract. I do have significant moral issues screwing up people, that is seriously immoral for me. But that is what my by boss expects from me.

More food for thought (we will end up with fatty minds, this way!):

Every client has the service provider he/she deserves. Unless you are talking about a monopoly, the client has the option to switch providers and if he/she doesn't do it, who are we to question him/her?

 

On 2/25/2021 at 8:23 AM, VoidSquid said:

The question then is, do I try to stay in this job which allows me to feed my family? That is my responsibility.

Or do I follow my moral compass? That is my consciousness, me being able to look into the mirror tomorrow.

Not mutually exclusive choices on the long run, only on the short run: plan ahead.

In the middle 2000, I was working on a Company where I was in the exact same situation as you. But I was already on the top of the food chain on the city I was living, I had no other place to go - except by doing what my bosses were doing, something I definitively refused (and still refuse) to do.

What I did? Examined the situation, and concluded that my only way out was leaving the city.

How to leave the city? Making myself employable on some other city.

What city to go? Spent some years looking, about 3 or 4 - and ended up going to the place where everybody goes anyway, São Paulo city.

I spent that 3 or 4 years accepting every single advanced training program that the Company had offered me. From PMP to MS Master Classes (from Visual Studio to Office Automation), including some basic Sun Java training just to grab the Certificate, I took them all. I sold my life for more 2 years (as by Contract I would had to repay them the training costs if I quit the Company before that), and kissed my SAS bye-bye for almost a decade (8 years, to be honest).

On the exact month my "tuition" was over, things started to change: I said "no" every time what was I being told was wrong, and I was really vocal about - and when we lost the big client as I said we would, my bosses got fired, me not. I was starting to consider staying when the new boss ended up being worst than the old ones together, and I concluded enough is enough.

Got myself fired (the best way to get rid of a job on my Country due our laws, study carefully your own country laws and practices before doing a stunt like that!) in a way that burnt the bad boss' reputation (I was told 2 years later that he was fired, and what I did played a role on the decision), packed all my stuff and leaved the city.

It was not easy, I had some really, really bad times on my first years here - to the point that some people think I made a bad decision.

I don't agree with them.

 

On 2/25/2021 at 8:23 AM, VoidSquid said:

Almost, albeit on a much smaller scale, feels like the (in)famous excuse "I only followed orders".

Choose to follow orders, even if they are bad. It's way easier for your psique to choose doing bad things because not doing them is worse, than just accept following orders without questioning them.

Edited March 2, 2021 by Lisias
Entertaining grammars made less entertaining. V2.0

[Lisias]

That's the thing:

There're Cathedral Builders, and there're Wall Builders.

We need Cathedral Builders, as someone need to know where, how [when] and why the walls will be built.

We need Wall Builders, because badly built walls will collapse and ultimately we will have no cathedral.

Software is like cathedrals. Some are yet more complex, by the way. So we need Cathedral Builders and Wall Builders too.

And when the Software is constantly failing, crumbling or plain crashing, I think it's more than clear where the problem is!

The Wall Builders, Issue Solvers from now on, are committed to the task, not to the product. They will solve the problem with the less effort possible, because they have a lot of issues to solve and "wasting" time on anything that is not directly related to the issue under their nose is, ultimately, counter-productive for them - they are on a schedule.

It's up to the Cathedral Builder, that on Software are a role fulfilled by Designers, Manager and Team Leaders, to tell the Issue Solvers how they should close the issue without creating new ones later. They need guidance. It's up to them to guide the programmers about how to solve the problems, otherwise they will take any shortcut they can in order to deliver the task sooner - and once the commitment ends with the task, so the responsibility.

Or so they think - because once the Cathedral collapses, everybody will get their heads chopped off by the King.

Spoiler

 

Edited March 2, 2021 by Lisias
Cathedral Builders needs to now Where, When and Why. Wall Builders are the one that needs to know HOW.

[VoidSquid]

A significant part, if not most of the time, of my job I have to work as an Issue Solver. And one of the core issues is that the Cathedral Builders never listen when we tell them what's wrong, and further more, they don't give a bit about what the users of the cathedral want and need. 

[Lisias]

4 hours ago, VoidSquid said:

A significant part, if not most of the time, of my job I have to work as an Issue Solver. And one of the core issues is that the Cathedral Builders never listen when we tell them what's wrong, and further more, they don't give a bit about what the users of the cathedral want and need. 

Curiously, pretty similar to a certain entertaining device where we pretend to send green critters into Space (or After-Life, most commonly...)

Well, sooner of later the "King" will chop some heads off - he wants a working Cathedral, after all.

Take measures to prevent yours from being part of the "Party". Sooner or later, the money ends and someone is going to pay.

Spoiler

 

The Milking Cow will eventually dry off....

Edited March 2, 2021 by Lisias
The Milking Cow will eventually dry off....

[VoidSquid]

3 hours ago, Lisias said:

Curiously, pretty similar to a certain entertaining device where we pretend to send green critters into Space

Yes and no... in the end, we are well aware that those animated little green critters are just bits any bytes, no consciousness etc.

3 hours ago, Lisias said:

or After-Life

You got me here. Despite "they" are just animated bits any bytes, I actually do like them, and feel affection.  Tamagotchi 2021. 
I always go for F9, never let any of my imaginary green little people die. Call me crazy, whatever, I can not do that. Responsibility. My ethical compass, quite old fashioned (I still open the door for the lady, help her with her coat, insist paying the restaurant bill, and so on.). Do what is the right thing to do. Even for/with imaginary critters. He who doesn't respect life of a fellow  animal, can not respect life of a fellow person.

3 hours ago, Lisias said:

the "King"

Won't get me alive. Enough said.

3 hours ago, Lisias said:

Sooner or later, the money ends and someone is going to pay.

I hope for sooner.

--------------------

And now for something completely different: I'm glad you found this thread, @Lisias, it is meant just to let your thoughts roam free, which is what you do  

That said, I assume that you are aware that I'm the diametrical opposite what nowadays is "political correct". You have been warned  

Edited March 2, 2021 by VoidSquid

[Lisias]

22 minutes ago, VoidSquid said:

You got me here. Despite "they" are just animated bits any bytes, I actually do like them, and feel affection.  Tamagotchi 2021. 

Yeah. I try to do not feel (too much) guilty when some of them dies...  

I'm a bit less "compassionate" however.... I try and retry missions as "training",  in these ones dead Kerbals are resurrected - but then I say to myself: "ok, this one is the real deal", and anything going wrong is permanent. But, boy, I feel guilty when this happens...  

 

26 minutes ago, VoidSquid said:

Won't get me alive. Enough said.

Yep, I know the feeling. Didn't worked by SAS out all that years just because I'm stubborn - besides being stubborn as hell surely played a role on all of that!

 

28 minutes ago, VoidSquid said:

And now for something completely different: I'm glad you found this thread, @Lisias, it is meant just to let your thoughts roam free, which is what you do  

Uh... I had posted here before!

Spoiler

Additionally, I think we were involved on some discussion on some other thread - one that I got moderated, by the way!!!  

 

30 minutes ago, VoidSquid said:

That said, I assume that you are aware that I'm the diametrical opposite what nowadays is "political correct". You have been warned  

My posts here are an exercise of self-censorship - 3 or 4 posts of mine the way I would really like to write them, and I get banned from the whole Internet.