ddrueding
Fixture
I come to work no matter what, I don't have a backup so there really isn't an option. I do lock myself in my office, and I have a separate entrance to the building, so I'm not endangering others.
Something Random
- Thread starter ddrueding
- Start date
Bozo
Storage? I am Storage!
I go to work sick. If I'm miserable, then everyone should be miserable. Especially management. I make sure I cough and sneeze in their direction. :twistd:
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
ddrueding, if you want a backup, I wouldn't mind having a different job.
ddrueding
Fixture
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
I'm in the same boat, having 2 young kids means getting every cold/flu that seems to make the rounds. I'm off at least 3-4 times a year, however being at Uni fulltime makes things a little more flexible.
Sure, it is common that people come to work even when sick. I'm too weak and in pain these days to do much of anything. It must be a kind of killer flu. Problem is I need to buy some food and I'm also getting dehydrated. Drinking is so painful.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
I never miss work. Some people think I am a machine.
Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
I have taken "sick days" when I wasn't sick but other than that I haven't taken time off work for sickness or been sick at work for as long as I can remember... at least 5 years. When germs think about attacking me they instead attack Chuck Norris.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
No, but I provoked a few...
Me too, every year on my anniversary i have to take a sudden three weeks off to use the vacation before i lose that. Usually i skip mondays for a month or two and try and find a project to do something.
Bozo
Storage? I am Storage!
I usually end up taking the Month of December off, or lose the vacation time.
Stereodude
Not really a
For the second time in about a year someone has managed to create a Facebook account using my e-mail address. The first time I just started getting e-mails like I had an account. So, I recovered my password and shut the account down. This time I got all the confirmation e-mails requesting I click to confirm my account. I deleted / ignored them, but somehow the account still got confirmed and created. So, I recovered my password again and deactivated this one.
My e-mail PW was pretty secure I think. But, I've changed it and made it longer / more complicated anyhow.
Has anyone else had this issue?
My e-mail PW was pretty secure I think. But, I've changed it and made it longer / more complicated anyhow.
Has anyone else had this issue?
ddrueding
Fixture
We have a PTO system that will accrue up to 200 hours of time off. When it hits 200 I cash out 100 and keep going.
Not me.
I've been down that road when I was out visiting CA for the first time. That's a nice drive, but not when you fall off the cliff.
Stereodude
Not really a
They're definitely not fishing e-mails... I went to facebook.com and did the forgot my password thing right from their page.
It's pretty easy. You deactivate it and don't go back for 14 days and it gets deleted.
I get all the PTO up front for the year. However, if I die in the middle of the year and don't take it, there is no payout. A friend was mentioning that she lost someone (only 48) to the ovarian HN1 flu or something like that last year.
I don't know if it is that bad yet, but I have not been this sick in 20-40 years or more.BingBangBop
Storage is cool
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2009
- Messages
- 667
When my father died suddenly, the college he taught at payed out, to his estate, his entire salary for the remaining of his annual contract. This was in addition to the life insurance policy they kept for all their professors. I really don't think they were obligated to, for he obviously couldn't teach any more, but that's what they did.
ddrueding
Fixture
Interesting. When a student of my wife was killed (multiple stab and gunshot wounds, car set on fire), she was counted as a "drop" and negatively affected the performance metrics.
Stereodude
Not really a
Sorry, I had it slightly incorrect. You just have to use this link jump through the hoops and then not log in for 2 weeks.
Will Rickards
Storage Is My Life
Just found the /b flag for chkdsk in windows 7. I told Acronis 2010 to ignore bad sectors when making the backup. Apparently that didn't work as the restore had the same bad sector count. The /b flag should clear the bad clusters. This doesn't exist on XP.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Since my friend in Wyoming is still recovering from the surgery she had back in December, I had to go to my comic book convention stag. As it happens, the convention had a Speed Dating event. I decided to participate and it was a lot of fun.
I was the oldest person in the room, even older than the people running the thing. There were about a dozen women present and 15 guys. I have come to understand that I am a lot better adjusted than a lot of the other guys who were there. There were also provisions made in case anyone wanted to do same-sex speed dates. I overheard one of the female participants indicate that she was interested in that, but since there were no other takers on that side of the fence, she elected to go with the flow and talk to us Y-chromosome types instead.
I also chose to dress in business clothes rather than the comic book guy jeans and dark slogan-bearing T-shirt, both because it seemed like a more respectful option at a "dating event" and because the clothes I wear to work are essentially the only clothes I have that fit due to weight loss.
We were asked to pick a numbered card and sticker off tables at each side of the room. Beneath the cards were numbered papers that we were told not to disturb. To preserve anonymity, we were instructed to refer to others by their number, and not to discuss personally identifying information such as our hometown.
Each "date" was three minutes long. There was quite a lot of awkwardness from everyone, particularly when there might have been a 17 year age difference between me and the person I was speaking with at that moment.
It should be said that in spite of stereotypes, the young women at the event generally seemed very friendly and well adjusted, and there were a few for whom the phrase "nubile hottie" might've been applied. There was also a surprising amount of racial diversity; more than I might've expected from the general appearance of convention attendees. No one at my event came in costume as such, but one of the women was wearing an outfit that consisted essentially of form-fitting leather straps and an overcoat.
If my dates could be broken down into a formula of conversation, I'd say that I usually asked why the other person was at the con, what they did in school (most of them were college-age) or in their career, and whether they were a Marvel or a DC. The Marvel/DC preference was actually the biggest overall indicator of how well I could maintain conversation, with age being the next most obvious issue. Most of the young women I met were DC fans. I did much better with the ones who were either Marvel fans or who did not have a mainstream comics preference (there were two of those).
The issue of comic preference might not make a lot of sense to outsiders, but the two companies offer product that are tonally very different from one another. DC's comics generally have a simpler morality and more idealized heroes while Marvel's books tend to be more human-scale and grim. Almost every comic book fan will ultimately admit to enjoying one more than the other. Personally, I'm a Marvel fan who has not read any DC Super-hero comics since the early 80s, but I'm probably an extreme example.
My last four dates were easily my most successful, both because I learned things from talking to the earlier participants and because it turned out that all the women old enough to be out of college were on the far side of the room from where I started. By far, my best conversation was my last one, which started with almost unanimous agreement on what Marvel comics are worth the $4 cover price and immediately shifted to a discussion of educational and professional background.
We were asked to move to the far side of the room and to write our ID number plus either an email address or cell number on the numbered sheets of the women whom we felt we'd like to meet outside the event. I marked down three numbers. After we finished that, we marched back over to our home table to see what the ladies had written. I wasn't expecting to have a match (my plan for the day was actually to do the dating event twice, just to get in some socializing practice), but as it happens I did have one, my last date.
By far, most of the people in the room matched someone, but as it happens, six of the guys and three of the girls did not. The host indicated that it was very unusual for the women to not have a match, but since there were more men than women present there was no possibility that at least some of the guys weren't going to be disappointed. There were a lot of people who looked absolutely crushed in that moment.
Still, the newly formed "couples" went on to play some trivia games to run out the clock on the scheduled time for the event and then we were sent on our merry way.
Prior to the event, some of the participants were filmed by a production crew. I don't entirely know the story behind that, whether it was for the sponsor or the Speed Dating people themselves, but some of the folks in the room were interviewed for five or ten minutes. There were also interviews with the matched couples after the event.
I didn't realize this was happening and in fact was still rather confused that I had matched someone at all, so after I walked out I wandered off to the washroom while my match went and faced the camera crew alone. When I returned, I waited to speak with her directly, but as it turned out I was brought in to the interview so almost everything I said to her outside of our "date" wound up being recorded. After that 10 minute ordeal, finally alone, we mutually decided that at the very least we did not have an objection to wandering around the comic convention together and so we proceeded to do so.
As the day grew later and later, I saw a few of the other dating participants milling about, but the vast majority of them did not stay together. I turned out to have a positively eerie number of things in common with mine, things that never could have been predicted by our three-minute first conversation. For example, she drives a Toyota Scion for essentially the same reasons I drive a Honda Element. We also had very similar educational backgrounds and a shared sense of humor, leading to a sort of ongoing MST3k-style commentary on whatever happened to be of interest at that moment.
By the end of the day, my new friend had decided to return for the second day of the convention, which she had not planned to do, and to pick up where we left off in the morning, leading to exchanges of phone numbers and email addresses.
Since I arrived at the con long before it opened, I took the time to visit the Speed Dating area. It was well away from the main convention space and so was much less crowded, and therefore had available seats and cleaner washrooms. I overheard one of the speed dating event coordinators talking up the function to a couple young women as I was walking past, and I chimed in briefly with my own experience. The woman running the door asked how I had done the day before, and I let her know that I had plans to see my match again that day.
This might have been a tactical error.
Shortly after the main floor of the convention opened, my friend and I were stalked down by the video crew and subjected to another long interview, then followed for five minutes or so as we browsed the convention floor. Neither of us were entirely comfortable with the camera and mic, so we walked as quickly as we could to get away from them.
Still, we did spend another day together. I think, in the world of speed dating matches, that might actually constitute a success story. At the end of a day of panels and photography and shopping, we hugged, said our goodbyes and sort-of gently outlined the possibility of a future non-comic convention meeting.
The event was run by these people, whose Facebook page I can't see because I block Facebook in my hosts file, and this is the Youtube site run by the sponsoring company. I'm not sure but if any of the video stuff shows up it will probably be in one of those two places.
Here endeth the long-ass blog post.
I was the oldest person in the room, even older than the people running the thing. There were about a dozen women present and 15 guys. I have come to understand that I am a lot better adjusted than a lot of the other guys who were there. There were also provisions made in case anyone wanted to do same-sex speed dates. I overheard one of the female participants indicate that she was interested in that, but since there were no other takers on that side of the fence, she elected to go with the flow and talk to us Y-chromosome types instead.
I also chose to dress in business clothes rather than the comic book guy jeans and dark slogan-bearing T-shirt, both because it seemed like a more respectful option at a "dating event" and because the clothes I wear to work are essentially the only clothes I have that fit due to weight loss.
We were asked to pick a numbered card and sticker off tables at each side of the room. Beneath the cards were numbered papers that we were told not to disturb. To preserve anonymity, we were instructed to refer to others by their number, and not to discuss personally identifying information such as our hometown.
Each "date" was three minutes long. There was quite a lot of awkwardness from everyone, particularly when there might have been a 17 year age difference between me and the person I was speaking with at that moment.
It should be said that in spite of stereotypes, the young women at the event generally seemed very friendly and well adjusted, and there were a few for whom the phrase "nubile hottie" might've been applied. There was also a surprising amount of racial diversity; more than I might've expected from the general appearance of convention attendees. No one at my event came in costume as such, but one of the women was wearing an outfit that consisted essentially of form-fitting leather straps and an overcoat.
If my dates could be broken down into a formula of conversation, I'd say that I usually asked why the other person was at the con, what they did in school (most of them were college-age) or in their career, and whether they were a Marvel or a DC. The Marvel/DC preference was actually the biggest overall indicator of how well I could maintain conversation, with age being the next most obvious issue. Most of the young women I met were DC fans. I did much better with the ones who were either Marvel fans or who did not have a mainstream comics preference (there were two of those).
The issue of comic preference might not make a lot of sense to outsiders, but the two companies offer product that are tonally very different from one another. DC's comics generally have a simpler morality and more idealized heroes while Marvel's books tend to be more human-scale and grim. Almost every comic book fan will ultimately admit to enjoying one more than the other. Personally, I'm a Marvel fan who has not read any DC Super-hero comics since the early 80s, but I'm probably an extreme example.
My last four dates were easily my most successful, both because I learned things from talking to the earlier participants and because it turned out that all the women old enough to be out of college were on the far side of the room from where I started. By far, my best conversation was my last one, which started with almost unanimous agreement on what Marvel comics are worth the $4 cover price and immediately shifted to a discussion of educational and professional background.
We were asked to move to the far side of the room and to write our ID number plus either an email address or cell number on the numbered sheets of the women whom we felt we'd like to meet outside the event. I marked down three numbers. After we finished that, we marched back over to our home table to see what the ladies had written. I wasn't expecting to have a match (my plan for the day was actually to do the dating event twice, just to get in some socializing practice), but as it happens I did have one, my last date.
By far, most of the people in the room matched someone, but as it happens, six of the guys and three of the girls did not. The host indicated that it was very unusual for the women to not have a match, but since there were more men than women present there was no possibility that at least some of the guys weren't going to be disappointed. There were a lot of people who looked absolutely crushed in that moment.
Still, the newly formed "couples" went on to play some trivia games to run out the clock on the scheduled time for the event and then we were sent on our merry way.
Prior to the event, some of the participants were filmed by a production crew. I don't entirely know the story behind that, whether it was for the sponsor or the Speed Dating people themselves, but some of the folks in the room were interviewed for five or ten minutes. There were also interviews with the matched couples after the event.
I didn't realize this was happening and in fact was still rather confused that I had matched someone at all, so after I walked out I wandered off to the washroom while my match went and faced the camera crew alone. When I returned, I waited to speak with her directly, but as it turned out I was brought in to the interview so almost everything I said to her outside of our "date" wound up being recorded. After that 10 minute ordeal, finally alone, we mutually decided that at the very least we did not have an objection to wandering around the comic convention together and so we proceeded to do so.
As the day grew later and later, I saw a few of the other dating participants milling about, but the vast majority of them did not stay together. I turned out to have a positively eerie number of things in common with mine, things that never could have been predicted by our three-minute first conversation. For example, she drives a Toyota Scion for essentially the same reasons I drive a Honda Element. We also had very similar educational backgrounds and a shared sense of humor, leading to a sort of ongoing MST3k-style commentary on whatever happened to be of interest at that moment.
By the end of the day, my new friend had decided to return for the second day of the convention, which she had not planned to do, and to pick up where we left off in the morning, leading to exchanges of phone numbers and email addresses.
Since I arrived at the con long before it opened, I took the time to visit the Speed Dating area. It was well away from the main convention space and so was much less crowded, and therefore had available seats and cleaner washrooms. I overheard one of the speed dating event coordinators talking up the function to a couple young women as I was walking past, and I chimed in briefly with my own experience. The woman running the door asked how I had done the day before, and I let her know that I had plans to see my match again that day.
This might have been a tactical error.
Shortly after the main floor of the convention opened, my friend and I were stalked down by the video crew and subjected to another long interview, then followed for five minutes or so as we browsed the convention floor. Neither of us were entirely comfortable with the camera and mic, so we walked as quickly as we could to get away from them.
Still, we did spend another day together. I think, in the world of speed dating matches, that might actually constitute a success story. At the end of a day of panels and photography and shopping, we hugged, said our goodbyes and sort-of gently outlined the possibility of a future non-comic convention meeting.
The event was run by these people, whose Facebook page I can't see because I block Facebook in my hosts file, and this is the Youtube site run by the sponsoring company. I'm not sure but if any of the video stuff shows up it will probably be in one of those two places.
Here endeth the long-ass blog post.
Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
So let me get this straight, you left the apartment for something non work related.
Jk. Nice understatement. Dude, speed dating or no, finding someone you can spend multiple hours with and want to do it again later is unique. Don't wait long to call her.
Jk. Nice understatement. Dude, speed dating or no, finding someone you can spend multiple hours with and want to do it again later is unique. Don't wait long to call her.
Awesome, nice job on the speed dating and I'm glad it was a lot of fun. I have to admit, while reading I was expecting the kicker at the end to be that this girl who you connected with was going to be the one female who you referenced at the beginning who was interested in same-sex speed dating but went with the flow. I'm glad that wasn't the case. What was the age difference between you and the girl you met?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Cough. Let's just say there was a mutual appreciation for the chicks in costume.
She is 30.
I am being vague because Google.
She is 30.
I am being vague because Google.
ddrueding
Fixture
So far your weekend was better than mine I ran around in a tux taking pictures of other people in tuxs.
I ran around in a tux taking pictures of other people in tuxs.Stereodude
Not really a
:erm: So, did you take more or less than 5k pictures? And were you the primary photographer, secondary photographer, or just a guest with a camera who pissed off the main photographer? :rambo:So far your weekend was better than mine
Stereodude
Not really a
Dressing for success rather than looking like a slob is always a good start to separate yourself from the crowd. :thumbleft:
Congrats on your connection.
ddrueding
Fixture
Only photographer. There was another guy doing video, actually had the same rig as me (7D with a 17-40/4). Ended up with about 2200 shots, most of them were candid group shots in a large crowd, so much blinking and drinking. About 400 people at the event, including ~30 "VIPs". "Bubba" Paris was the guest speaker, and getting him (6'7", ~340lbs) in the same shots as some of the other guests (5'4", 100lbs) was a challenge.
Sure, though overdoing it may appear desperate. :colors:
So far your weekend was better than mine
I'm still dying here, lying around in bed or on the sofa and and passing out every few hours. I'm still 100F, though that is less than a few days ago.
ddrueding
Fixture
Wow. That does sound pretty bad. What does the doc say?
Stereodude
Not really a
I had assumed you meant some sort of wedding, but it sounds more like some sort of black tie gala.
Stereodude
Not really a
Well, he didn't wear a monkey suit, so I'd say he played it right down the middle. :rofl:
ddrueding
Fixture
Yup. I hate shooting weddings. The expectation for the event is too "perfect".