“I’m alive, or I’m the world’s healthiest zombie. I’m not sure which.”
I just wish someone else could verify it.
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The only thing a billionaire can buy that a member of the middle class cannot is power.
Right now I can drop a few hundred dollars on an all inclusive trip to some island somewhere and get my ass kissed and drink myself to oblivion in some of the most beautiful places in the world. I can save a couple thousand and take similar trips in even more exotic locations. I may not be able to buy a Bugatti, but I could spring for a Mustang, or Camaro which will last longer, and get me fewer tickets. I can go out right now and buy a computer just as fast, and a phone just as good. Housing I can compete with in style, if not location or pure numbers (As in number of homes and square feet) but my house would have the same basic features as a billionaire’s, no car elevator maybe, but close enough. I can have a home theater room, I can have an inground pool with a motorized cover and heated Jacuzzi.
All this in comparison to 100 years ago, I’d still be living in a single room with a shared bathroom if I had a city job. With my wife and kids living in the country with her’s or my family, or both. I’d be walking everywhere, while my “betters” were driven in a car or carriage. I’d be dying of some awful disease, while the rich would hold hankies over their faces as they passed. My clothes would be homespun and falling apart, boots lined with old socks.
While back then the power disparity would be even worse.
I’m pretty sure we’re doing pretty darn well as a society and I hate to see where we’ll end up if things keep going as they are. Every time the government tries to fix something they break it.
Having a bag full of jellybeans in my desk might not be the best idea on earth…
munch, munch, munch
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Sometimes when it’s laugh or cry, you just can’t laugh.
Just got Office 13 at the office.
Everything looks weird and it’s making me really uncomfortable. The greasy sliding around the selected cell does in Excel, the hiding of scroll bars, the elementary school fonts and colors for tabs, the way the cursor slides when you type instead of jumping. The goofy green bar at the bottom that says Ready? WTF is that?
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Right? That was the weirdest thing.
I find those really annoying. I type pretty fast, so I hate watching my typing in Word lag just a bit behind my keystrokes sometimes. You can turn the animations off by doing the following:
- Windows + U (open Ease of Access Center)
- Click Use the computer without a display (under Explore all settings)
- Click Turn off all unnecessary animations (when possible)
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Since I volunteered to help my son’s robotics team, I’ve learned a few things.
They just have a basic safety guideline. I can help develop a set of procedures and training program the will bring them up to industrial standards. I’m not sure if they even have an operations manual. A lot of the teams are set up like an industrial company. I can leverage my experience of 30 years working in the plastics industry here.
I can train them on the concepts of LEAN Manufacturing. With only 6 weeks to design and build a robot before it’s bagged and tagged for competition, time is an extremely valuable resource. LEAN is a program that is based Japanese system of eliminating waste in the workplace. Basically, more time spent working on the robot and less time searching for the proper tool to work on it.
The engineering team of lead Mentors skews very young and don’t always think like a parent so I can help them there as well. We are also weak on the electrical team so I’ve been doing some research at the forum most of the robotics teams use. A lot of the issues stem from poor wiring connections and cable management. A lot of the better teams won’t even consider picking your team as an alliance partner after qualifications if you’re wiring looks like shit. Tim, the industrial electrician where I work is about to become my new best friend. My Amazon wish list is starting to have electrical tools added to it. I never thought I’d see a hydraulic crimper on that list, but it’s there now.
If I can get the team to buy in on what I’m selling, we can get our team noticed by the better teams. Some of these larger teams (seriously?) run like well-oiled machines complete with lots of resources including scouting departments and game strategists. If you can prove that you have a reliable and controllable robot that can give them a strategic edge in the playoffs, they will pick you as an alliance partner.
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That’s pretty awesome man, there are advantages to being the only adult in the room sometimes.
Seriously? Our school closed auto shop a few years ago, no way they’d do this. You can take 5 full years of textile classes though.
I’m impressed with all the 20 something hot shot engineers willing to help some high school kids with a dream. That says a lot about them to me.
Another parent mentor works at a local machine shop, which is a huge bonus for us. I can bring my experience as a trainer/supervisor in a constantly evolving industrial environment to bear. I’m the user on the other end of the phone with corporate IT banging my head against the desk. 
I’m pretty sure the student parking lot in the “seriously” link is filled with BMWs.
I was referring more to being the only one in their 40’s in parent meetings. I hadn’t totally made the connection that these dudes weren’t even parents, that is pretty cool.
The nannys drive beemers, the parents drive Land Rovers.A shop like that is in reach for a lot of schools, but at the cost of the new auditorium to replace the 10 year old one, and the new bleachers to replace the ones at the football stadium that’s 12 years old.
Our school used to work with the auto shop at the prison. They’d strip the vehicle, the prison workers would fix the body, and then the kids would put the car back together. Stuff like that, same with engines and other rebuildable systems. I wonder if cash for clunkers killed the program.
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50 now. 
There’s a shop teacher that’s also older as well. They also don’t use forums, which is a shame. I’ve dug up a lot of information there that is already making life easier for me. It’s a shame that dedicated user forums aren’t the source of information they used to now that we’re in the age of social media. It’s a goldmine of good information if you know how to filter the BS. I’ve already learned that Indiana is chocked full of good teams as are most industrialized areas. A lot of the top teams everywhere freely share a lot of technical and business related information. I just “borrowed” an outline for an excellent student/parent handbook, something our team from this parent’s viewpoint is sorely lacking.
I would’ve killed for a program like this back in the day…
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I’m in the town I went to university in many moons ago to teach a one-day class on campus. I haven’t really been back here except to stop for fuel, lunch, or coffee, since I graduated in 2000.
The room in that link looks like one of the labs in the STEM dd14 will be attending next fall. Also, around here the nannies drive Mercedes. 
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I last visited my alma mater in 2000 as well (a year after graduation). Would like to go back for a visit, but it’s pretty far out of the way and I don’t have a good excuse. Maybe in the fall for a hockey game w/ one or both kids.
I did a little at three schools before going online to actually get the degree.
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UC is so broad and sprawling I can go through parts without realizing they have spread - although my physical school was closed and relocated years ago.
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Xavier is more contained, but the parts I’d know best are in the center of campus, and the street where I used to park hasn’t been open for traffic for a while - no idea how long.
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Kettering College brought back the most memories. The whole family flocked there when $Niece2 almost died, and some of her friends did die in a single-truck accident.
I stayed with $Brother4, walked him down to the cafeteria and bought him dinner. It was vegetarian then… it no longer is.
Apparently I have a “Boy Scout Mode” in my behavior (probably closer to a command presence or even “Dad voice”, in hindsight) that kicks in when a near-emergency happens in a restaurant with someone choking at the neighboring table.
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Good for you! I’ve seen crowds gathered around people in crisis and NO ONE doing anything. I’d sure as h3ll rather be looked at as “bossy” but save a life than stand around like the sheeple with my thumb up… well, you know.
That’s what pissed me off the most. half a dozen women in their early 60s all gathered for lunch, one starts choking, wheezing, not able to talk, the other 5 just continue clucking along quietly, kind of watching, saying “oh she’s fine”.
After about 45 seconds I stood up, took a step over to the table and said in my best “go to your room” Dad voice “is she choking?” They said no, she kind of mimed like she was but she was working on getting it out, and I didn’t sit down until I heard her get a full breath and say real words.