One positive is that I was born with a finite number of fucks. So as I navigate middle-age, there’s a lot of annoying situations and people that are not given one anymore.
One positive is that I was born with a finite number of fucks. So as I navigate middle-age, there’s a lot of annoying situations and people that are not given one anymore.
My current headache is feeling overwhelmed. No one told me how hard my 40s would be. My kids growing up and being teenagers, driving, dating and needing more of me financially and emotionally than when they were younger, while juggling elderly parents with health problems and needing more of me than ever...while work is the most demanding it's been at this point in my career. The day to day things that need to be done are getting harder to do. I get why people feel burned out at this stage in life. View attachment 114114
OK, this gives me a headache. I had this little product I called LFC, for Low Frequency Control. It's one-half of a 2-band Baxandall EQ: the lows only. I am now replacing it with a new-and-improved version where you can optionally plug in a second pot to turn it into a full 2-band EQ. But it still does the same thing as the original LFC if you don't add the extra pot.
What should I call it?? I don't want to stray too far away from the old LFC name, so people can hopefully recognize it as an evolution of that. But it's no longer just a "Low" FC if you add the treble.
LHFC? LFC+? LFC2? 2FC? LFC Pro? Pro Max Plus Mega Titanium 1000?
Or maybe keep calling it LFC if it doesn't come with the treble pot, and LHFC when it does?
Any variation that includes LFC in the name sounds awkward to me...
I finally got my root canal thing buttoned up. Feels so good to not be in excruciating pain every time I eat or brush my teeth. I'm on vacation this week, too, so I've been catching up on home projects.
I'm thinking about making a major change in my life. I'm not too fond of my job, and my personal relationship isn't doing so hot either. As my parents are aging, it would be nice to be closer to them. I'm in the northeast and they're in the south. But it's scary to uproot my whole life. Stability is the most important thing in my life (besides music of course, ahem). I was close to my mom growing up, and no one else has made me feel at peace the way she did. I don't want to wake up in 10 years to a text from my dad saying I need to get on the next flight.
My current headache is feeling overwhelmed. No one told me how hard my 40s would be. My kids growing up and being teenagers, driving, dating and needing more of me financially and emotionally than when they were younger, while juggling elderly parents with health problems and needing more of me than ever...while work is the most demanding it's been at this point in my career. The day to day things that need to be done are getting harder to do. I get why people feel burned out at this stage in life. View attachment 114114
That concert was exactly as obnoxious as I thought it was going to be.
To be fair, the museum itself is actually really cool. It’s dedicated to Alexander Calder, who's known for his sculptures and mobiles
But the music? Good lord.
We sat in this circular room with three speakers pointed along the wall. And then the “performance” starts…
First half sounded like the guy took a tape recorder, tossed it into his HVAC system, turned the blower on, and just recorded whatever chaos happened in the vents. Just air, rattling, banging, like someone dropped tools down a duct and decided that was the piece.
Second half was a “trio.” Except the violinist basically sat there. The pianist would play some dissonant scale, land on a chord, and then the guy would hum through a vocoder and they’d just hold it…for like three minutes.
Then stop.
Then do it again.
Same 4 or 5 notes.
For 40 minutes.
I read more about the genre and the purpose of it is to induce discomfort which is a convenient way to say it's designed to be annoying on purpose. I would honestly prefer to be locked in a closet for 40 minutes with Elton John wailing the annoying part of Benny and the Jets on repeat.
The frustrating part about this art is that it's,
- low signal / high justification
- reliant on institutional validation (museum, program notes, etc.)
- protected by the idea that “if you don’t get it, that’s the point”
Which is a pretty convenient shield against criticism.
1st. I love Calder. The performance seems ironic, as Calder seems like he was one of the most playful artists I've ever read about. I don't think he took himself too seriously, and his workshop looks like a tinker's paradise.
I like experimental music, but even in experimental music, there is good and bad. We don't have to listen to the horrid symphonies of the 19th century, because time has washed them away.
Does anybody here have bosses who are intelligent and bright but are also sort of lazy and stubborn, and end up making bad decisions that make life hell?
She is my senior and previously held my position at the GS-13 level. She ended up getting two promotions that propelled her to the GS-15 level with supervisory duties, which were completely new to her. I will be the first to say that managing people is a headache. Unfortunately, she is one of those supervisors who delegates things without considering constraints, even when she is aware of those constraints, which leads to poor morale.
For the most part, this is manageable because my team is filled with responsible and competent people. However, we are drastically overworked after many of our colleagues were RIF’d or took retirement. The current administration has also had a hiring freeze in place since January 2025, so we cannot replace any of the vacated positions.
One way to get around that is through temporary details, where someone from one office moves to another. Detailees tend to be stigmatized because, most of the time, they are looking for an out from their original office due to conflict.
The detail in question is for a GS-14 employee, and the guy my boss likes is a nightmare.
He was brought to my attention when my immediate supervisor asked if I knew him. I knew something was up, so I asked what the concern was. She said he was very arrogant and bragged about having four degrees (a bachelor’s, two master’s, and a PhD). She also said his answers were long-winded and didn’t make sense.
So we Googled the guy, and what followed was nothing but red flags. The man has a series of glamour shots online of himself wearing a graduation cap and a cape.
He also wrote a book about his journey from homelessness to getting a PhD. I thought maybe there was some merit to his story, but there really wasn’t. Despite putting “homelessness” in the title, it’s mentioned on one page, and he was only homeless for a week. There’s no backstory, no cause, and no reflection on how the experience affected him, just a claim that the week-long experience allowed him to sympathize with the chronically homeless.
Then there’s the one-sided storytelling about his marriage. He complains that his wife is Catholic, says the marriage was sexless, and goes into sordid detail about the settlement and child custody battle.
The book has grammar and syntax errors out the wazoo. This is an actual sentence:
“All the basic things I took for granted, such as swallowing, talking, and hearing, things I took for granted, such as swallowing, talking, and hearing, pound dumbbells on my tongue.”
Dude, how do you have this many degrees and still write so poorly? On every single page. Second, who the hell self-publishes a book bitching about his wife and sells it on Amazon?
I always hear about candidates being Googled by hiring officials, and it sounds skeevy, but now I see why. I don’t know the guy personally, but he comes across like a total narcissist with poor judgment and boundary issues. I don’t think our office can afford the distraction this guy would bring.
He's going to have a bad experience and when he does he will self publish another book about the weirdly exasperated, bald white guy (me) that sighed and rolled his eyes each time he mentions his four degrees.
After 6 years in the role with the last 7 months unsupervised my inept, clown of a boss got demoted back to sales a couple months ago. Sadly, he kept using manager permissions while they backfilled the role. He’s been a mess, lying, trying to steal clients, even claiming a “big win” with a client that’s actually blacklisted and in litigation with us. Got caught in multiple lies just last week and leadership is onto him for abusing manager privileges.
He tried to snake his way onto one of my accounts, claiming the client “reached out to him directly” and that I should hand it over, right after they got a big funding boost. I pushed back politely but he kept insisting he had a deal lined up and that the main contact wanted to work with him. Problem is that contact is my college roommate, we’d already talked about the funding weeks ago, have a deal in motion and even went to a soccer game together Saturday. Even then he still tried to spin it, then backed off with a “I’ll let you run with it,” like he was doing me a favor.
We finally have a new manager starting today, but on Friday the regional SVP (who hired her and was supposed to train her) got fired out of nowhere. So now she’s walking into chaos with zero onboarding and the CRO is overseeing things for now. We are a $2billion a year company, not sure if the CRO will have time to do it right or will he micromanage us since we are a mess.
Just going to stick to a proverb from a crusty old salesman told me when I first started my career.
Thought I broke my toe at my girlfriend’s cousin’s wedding on Sunday, but the more I looo into it, the more likely it seems that it’s actually early-onset gout. Yesterday by toe was fairly painful if I bent it, and stepping down from a high curb to cross the street would sting pretty bad for a few seconds. Last night and today it’s gotten to a point where anything touching it at all is excruciating. Woke up at 5:00am from the pain.
Seems I’m a high risk. Three different grandparents who had it, and my dad has had multiple bouts of uric acid kidney stones over the years.
At 26, I’m certainly not as healthy as I should be, but I’ve been trying to be a lot better since graduating.
I was supposed to get together with a high school friend tonight to jam and swap some records, but I think I’ll have to cancel because I genuinely can’t get out of bed. Feel awful about it since he’s been trying to get together for like 6 months at this point but stuff kept getting in the way.
If I have a new chronic condition to add to the other chronic pain I have, it certainly won’t be good for my chronic depression. Fuck this noise.
JLCPCB just rejected my PCB because I put "Made in Canada with imported parts" on the silkscreen! But...but... the finished product does meet the Made in Canada requirements, especially with the qualifier "with imported parts"! Final transformation happens in Canada (assembly and test) and more than 51% of its production cost is incurred in Canada. That's what it takes.
I've had boards made by JLC before that said the same thing and there wasn't any problem. I've just chatted with them and they confirmed this is a new thing. They won't put Made in Canada on the PCB itself, because as far as they're concerned, it's Made in China.
Annoying! I'm going to have to put some ugly stickers on.
JLCPCB just rejected my PCB because I put "Made in Canada with imported parts" on the silkscreen! But...but... the finished product does meet the Made in Canada requirements, especially with the qualifier "with imported parts"! Final transformation happens in Canada (assembly and test) and more than 51% of its production cost is incurred in Canada. That's what it takes.
I've had boards made by JLC before that said the same thing and there wasn't any problem. I've just chatted with them and they confirmed this is a new thing. They won't put Made in Canada on the PCB itself, because as far as they're concerned, it's Made in China.
Annoying! I'm going to have to put some ugly stickers on.
Thought I broke my toe at my girlfriend’s cousin’s wedding on Sunday, but the more I looo into it, the more likely it seems that it’s actually early-onset gout. Yesterday by toe was fairly painful if I bent it, and stepping down from a high curb to cross the street would sting pretty bad for a few seconds. Last night and today it’s gotten to a point where anything touching it at all is excruciating. Woke up at 5:00am from the pain.
Seems I’m a high risk. Three different grandparents who had it, and my dad has had multiple bouts of uric acid kidney stones over the years.
At 26, I’m certainly not as healthy as I should be, but I’ve been trying to be a lot better since graduating.
I was supposed to get together with a high school friend tonight to jam and swap some records, but I think I’ll have to cancel because I genuinely can’t get out of bed. Feel awful about it since he’s been trying to get together for like 6 months at this point but stuff kept getting in the way.
If I have a new chronic condition to add to the other chronic pain I have, it certainly won’t be good for my chronic depression. Fuck this noise.
Dude I started getting it in my mid 30s and I was in fairly decent shape, but my diet and water intake wasn't great. Cut out some foods high in purines. Not everything, but at least cut something. I switched to wine over beer and drank less. I drink a lot of water daily now . Walking and exercise at least a little once a day. And if I do drink at all or have a bbq weekend, I take a tarte cherry pill. Haven't had it in over 3 years now. That last one was enough to make changes.
JLCPCB just rejected my PCB because I put "Made in Canada with imported parts" on the silkscreen! But...but... the finished product does meet the Made in Canada requirements, especially with the qualifier "with imported parts"! Final transformation happens in Canada (assembly and test) and more than 51% of its production cost is incurred in Canada. That's what it takes.
I've had boards made by JLC before that said the same thing and there wasn't any problem. I've just chatted with them and they confirmed this is a new thing. They won't put Made in Canada on the PCB itself, because as far as they're concerned, it's Made in China.
Annoying! I'm going to have to put some ugly stickers on.
I'm honestly going to have to agree with them on this one. Putting Made in Canada on the PCB kind of implies that the PCB was made in Canada, which it wasn't. Obviously the finished unit the PCB is going into will be made in Canada and should bear that marking, but you're printing Made in Canada directly on the imported part before it's even imported.
Thought I broke my toe at my girlfriend’s cousin’s wedding on Sunday, but the more I looo into it, the more likely it seems that it’s actually early-onset gout. Yesterday by toe was fairly painful if I bent it, and stepping down from a high curb to cross the street would sting pretty bad for a few seconds. Last night and today it’s gotten to a point where anything touching it at all is excruciating. Woke up at 5:00am from the pain.
Seems I’m a high risk. Three different grandparents who had it, and my dad has had multiple bouts of uric acid kidney stones over the years.
At 26, I’m certainly not as healthy as I should be, but I’ve been trying to be a lot better since graduating.
I was supposed to get together with a high school friend tonight to jam and swap some records, but I think I’ll have to cancel because I genuinely can’t get out of bed. Feel awful about it since he’s been trying to get together for like 6 months at this point but stuff kept getting in the way.
If I have a new chronic condition to add to the other chronic pain I have, it certainly won’t be good for my chronic depression. Fuck this noise.
Gout is AWFUL!
I've been living with it for a couple decades now. The alopurinol 100mg every day works great for me. Colchicine works great for if you feel an attack coming on. It's expensive so I only keep for emergency but I literally only get some every five years or so. I get attacks in my big toe/knee/lower back. I'm sorry if you're one of us with the "disease of kings".
