Real Life and What's Happening...

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
The Orange County Sheriff's Department has been blowing up my phone all morning with alerts about a tsunami. I was underwhelmed and even a little disappointed to find that it means waves are a foot or two higher today.

We get a lot of mobile phone alerts in CA and I hold the unpopular opinion that many of them do more harm than good. We get Amber Alerts and Silver Alerts that send an ear-slitting screech more appropriate for imminent earthquake or nuclear strike. Using the NUCLEAR DANGER IS IMMINENT sound for everything is causing a "boy who cried wolf" situation.

Edit: I don't think this situation is going to be fixed because anyone who says this in public will be branded a heartless SOB who doesn't care about missing children or seniors.
 
Brock Savage said:
The Orange County Sheriff's Department has been blowing up my phone all morning with alerts about a tsunami. I was underwhelmed and even a little disappointed to find that it means waves are a foot or two higher today.

We get a lot of mobile phone alerts in CA and I hold the unpopular opinion that many of them do more harm than good. We get Amber Alerts and Silver Alerts that send an ear-slitting screech more appropriate for imminent earthquake or nuclear strike. Using the NUCLEAR DANGER IS IMMINENT sound for everything is causing a "boy who cried wolf" situation.
Click to expand...
I get those occasionally too, although they are always for stuff happeneing on the otherside of the state, so I'm not really much help finding this old person. Worst part is they bypass the quiet hours on my phone so I once got woken up by one in the middle of the night.
 
Brock Savage said:
The Orange County Sheriff's Department has been blowing up my phone all morning with alerts about a tsunami. I was underwhelmed and even a little disappointed to find that it means waves are a foot or two higher today.

We get a lot of mobile phone alerts in CA and I hold the unpopular opinion that many of them do more harm than good. We get Amber Alerts and Silver Alerts that send an ear-slitting screech more appropriate for imminent earthquake or nuclear strike. Using the NUCLEAR DANGER IS IMMINENT sound for everything is causing a "boy who cried wolf" situation.

Edit: I don't think this situation is going to be fixed because anyone who says this in public will be branded a heartless SOB who doesn't care about missing children or seniors.
Click to expand...
Somehow I turned those off on my phone.
 
The Butcher said:
I think Omicron got me too.
Click to expand...
Confirmed by PCR. Took the fucker two years and a bunch of mutations but here it is. And I was vaxxed with boost.

Plus side is that I had minor symptoms and only for three days. It's just the home "quarantine" that really sucks. Right now I am feeling rigorously nothing, but have to observe it until next Thursday.

Stay safe, everyone.

Ralph Dula said:
I’m pretty sure if we go chronologically in the “People online telling you what game is good for everything” the order is:

1. Savage Worlds
2. Exalted
3. Savage Worlds
4. Fate
5. Idiot, why are you still asking when I already said Savage Worlds?
6. Cortex Prime
7. I was trolling old forum posts from years ago and saw someone say you should pick up Savage Worlds. They were the idiot, as they should have told you to get a time machine and come to the present to buy the latest edition of Savage Worlds, which is the One True Game for everything.
Click to expand...
Wushu. You forgot Wushu. (We are talking about 00s RPGnet, right?)

spittingimage said:
Me: Hooray! I can finally go back to the gym!
Rotator cuff: Oh you think so, do you?
Click to expand...
Sprained something on my back, most likely levator scapula or trap, one week before opening up with 'rona. Three weeks off the gym for me. I am quite a bit frustrated.

Brock Savage said:
The Orange County Sheriff's Department has been blowing up my phone all morning with alerts about a tsunami. I was underwhelmed and even a little disappointed to find that it means waves are a foot or two higher today.

We get a lot of mobile phone alerts in CA and I hold the unpopular opinion that many of them do more harm than good. We get Amber Alerts and Silver Alerts that send an ear-slitting screech more appropriate for imminent earthquake or nuclear strike. Using the NUCLEAR DANGER IS IMMINENT sound for everything is causing a "boy who cried wolf" situation.

Edit: I don't think this situation is going to be fixed because anyone who says this in public will be branded a heartless SOB who doesn't care about missing children or seniors.
Click to expand...
When I visited San Francisco (2015) we were about to leave our hotel room when a test of the Emergency Broadcast System came on. For the few seconds it took me to understand it was a test I was terrified. My wife said I had the look of a man who just realized his time on this Earth was up.
 
Last edited:
Brock Savage said:
We get a lot of mobile phone alerts in CA and I hold the unpopular opinion that many of them do more harm than good. We get Amber Alerts and Silver Alerts that send an ear-slitting screech more appropriate for imminent earthquake or nuclear strike. Using the NUCLEAR DANGER IS IMMINENT sound for everything is causing a "boy who cried wolf" situation.
Click to expand...
Yeah, look at how worthless car alarms are. I could easily see overused alerts going the same way.
 
Brock Savage said:
The Orange County Sheriff's Department has been blowing up my phone all morning with alerts about a tsunami. I was underwhelmed and even a little disappointed to find that it means waves are a foot or two higher today.

We get a lot of mobile phone alerts in CA and I hold the unpopular opinion that many of them do more harm than good. We get Amber Alerts and Silver Alerts that send an ear-slitting screech more appropriate for imminent earthquake or nuclear strike. Using the NUCLEAR DANGER IS IMMINENT sound for everything is causing a "boy who cried wolf" situation.

Edit: I don't think this situation is going to be fixed because anyone who says this in public will be branded a heartless SOB who doesn't care about missing children or seniors.
Click to expand...
I grew tired of having the high pitch screeching sound startling the hell out of me and turned all of the damn things off. Keep an eye on the weather the way some do Facebook so a weather change like a tornado etc isn't likely to catch me by surprise. They abuse the system in my opinion these days.
 
Brock Savage said:
Damn that sucks. Is a personal trainer who can work with your injury an option?
Click to expand...
Yeah, part of the service is being able to book time with a trainer to set up a personalised programme. I'd need to do that anyway, because I'm no longer fit enough for the one I already had.

The Butcher said:
Sprained something on my back, most likely levator scapula or trap, one week before opening up with 'rona. Three weeks off the gym for me. I am quite a bit frustrated.
Click to expand...
I've been calling it bad luck, but now I think it's the fact I haven't been flexing those bits properly three times a week that means I get injured easier.
 
spittingimage said:
Yeah, part of the service is being able to book time with a trainer to set up a personalised programme. I'd need to do that anyway, because I'm no longer fit enough for the one I already had.


I've been calling it bad luck, but now I think it's the fact I haven't been flexing those bits properly three times a week that means I get injured easier.
Click to expand...
It was probably poor form + recent load increase that got me injured there. I might also need a better stretching routine.
 
I reveived the official letter of invitation for my booster shot. Mind you, we're allowed to make an appointment before we recieve it so they probably only send them to make sure everyone recieves the necessary info.

Anyway, last time I tried to book an appointment online I got a time slot that was very inconvenient for me so I decided to give it a little more time. Receiving the letter is as good an occasion as any to give it another try.

1642288950389.jpg
 
Last edited:
When it rains it pours. Friday, my bookshelf which was partially falling apart collapsed entirely, on top of me. I spent till 4am or so, shifting books out of the remains. Saturday after a few hours of sleep, I had to answer my phone which was on the desk, and the desk hewed and decided to head northward (It faces East/West) meaning it leaned to the right. I saved my computer with one hand (only the tower as at true risk.) I got a sprained risk. Now stuff I'd planned to do months from now is "must do now" and I'm exhausted.
 
Silverlion said:
When it rains it pours. Friday, my bookshelf which was partially falling apart collapsed entirely, on top of me. I spent till 4am or so, shifting books out of the remains. Saturday after a few hours of sleep, I had to answer my phone which was on the desk, and the desk hewed and decided to head northward (It faces East/West) meaning it leaned to the right. I saved my computer with one hand (only the tower as at true risk.) I got a sprained risk. Now stuff I'd planned to do months from now is "must do now" and I'm exhausted.
Click to expand...
"Raargh! Silverlion smash puny office!"
 
We’ve gotten half of the foot of snow they predicted. My sleep schedule is a mess, and despite it being the wee hours of the morning I’d like to start shoveling. However, they’re now calling for freezing rain after this lull, and I’d rather deal with ice atop snow, than ice on shoveled sidewalks.



Part of me says since I’m awake I should sign in for work, since I brought my gear from the office to do so. Late Thursday night I got moved back to my new boss from my new new boss, and was given a work assignment. Friday morning I wasted three hours on my first assignment because my new boss gave me the wrong data, followed by a meeting I doubt you’d believe. I was so angry I actually left at my regular time on Friday, rather than staying late.



I signed in Saturday, and discovered my new boss sent out an e-mail after everyone left for the day, moving everyone’s deadlines up from the end of the month. My deadline is now Wednesday, on a basic system I haven’t used in several years, combined with a modification I’ve never been trained on.



Yeah…..
 
Ralph Dula said:
We’ve gotten half of the foot of snow they predicted. My sleep schedule is a mess, and despite it being the wee hours of the morning I’d like to start shoveling. However, they’re now calling for freezing rain after this lull, and I’d rather deal with ice atop snow, than ice on shoveled sidewalks.



Part of me says since I’m awake I should sign in for work, since I brought my gear from the office to do so. Late Thursday night I got moved back to my new boss from my new new boss, and was given a work assignment. Friday morning I wasted three hours on my first assignment because my new boss gave me the wrong data, followed by a meeting I doubt you’d believe. I was so angry I actually left at my regular time on Friday, rather than staying late.



I signed in Saturday, and discovered my new boss sent out an e-mail after everyone left for the day, moving everyone’s deadlines up from the end of the month. My deadline is now Wednesday, on a basic system I haven’t used in several years, combined with a modification I’ve never been trained on.



Yeah…..
Click to expand...
Are these people aware that people are resigning all over the place? Wtf?
 
Thankfully, power survived the snowstorm, and it seems we're past it. Less snow than predicted (looks like only 3-4 inches with a sheet of ice on top), and the trees I was worried about didn't come down.

... but we're supposed to have snow again this weekend, and I have plans.
 
Bunch said:
Are these people aware that people are resigning all over the place? Wtf?
Click to expand...

Probably not, I think a lot of employers are still in a fantasy land where people are desperate for work and will do anything for a job. Probably the best thing to come out of Covid is people re-evaluating priorities and realizing cutting back on expenses is an option to working for a crappy employer. Obviously not an option for all, but it has been for many.

My wife and I have done this since we got married, she stayed home with the first kid until he started school, and only worked part time with number 2 until I retired. It is actually possible to live on a single salary.

I have contemplated getting a part time job doing something interesting, but refuse to work for less than Starbucks pay. It is surprising how many jobs pay less than Starbucks.
 
Toadmaster said:
Probably not, I think a lot of employers are still in a fantasy land where people are desperate for work and will do anything for a job. Probably the best thing to come out of Covid is people re-evaluating priorities and realizing cutting back on expenses is an option to working for a crappy employer. Obviously not an option for all, but it has been for many.

My wife and I have done this since we got married, she stayed home with the first kid until he started school, and only worked part time with number 2 until I retired. It is actually possible to live on a single salary.

I have contemplated getting a part time job doing something interesting, but refuse to work for less than Starbucks pay. It is surprising how many jobs pay less than Starbucks.
Click to expand...
Out of curiosity what is Starbucks paying in your state?
 
Toadmaster said:
I don't know about statewide, but locally I understand they are starting at $16-18/hr. We are a relatively low cost of living area in California so I'm sure much higher in the larger cities. Even the big burger chains are locally advertising $15-16.
Click to expand...

Bruh, my wife worked at Starbucks a few years back here and they were paying like barely 10.
 
Toadmaster said:
I don't know about statewide, but locally I understand they are starting at $16-18/hr. We are a relatively low cost of living area in California so I'm sure much higher in the larger cities. Even the big burger chains are locally advertising $15-16.
Click to expand...
The minimum wage in CA just went to $14/$15 an hour so it's not like a wild and crazy thing. Lately I have seen a lot of local signage for entry-level food service jobs offering $15-16 an hour.
 
Around here $15 in the minimum and $18 is starting to be common. It's causing so much disruption as low training jobs compete semi effectively with mid training jobs. The 18 year old high schooler I talked to at chipotle the other day was kind of blown away that $18 still wasn't enough to entice people to show up consistently for work. He was bummed the store closed due to lack of workers that day.
 
I'm on approx $20-21 an hour. That comes with way too much stress and paperwork. If I could get similar for shelf stacking or another low paperwork/low planning/low responsibility job I'd be gone like a shot.

(My best job was pushing trolleys around a car park - returning to that is my aspiration).
 
Toadmaster said:
I don't know about statewide, but locally I understand they are starting at $16-18/hr. We are a relatively low cost of living area in California so I'm sure much higher in the larger cities. Even the big burger chains are locally advertising $15-16.
Click to expand...
That's not bad. Here in Spokane we're looking at a general starting wage of $15/hr as that's what's needed to compete with Target and Mcdonalds. A lot of food service places have struggled with updating their wages and are suffering for it. Minimum wage in Washington state is $14.49/hr stating this year, which while not as good as Bunch Bunch 's Seattle wages is still better than our wayward neighbor Idaho ($7.25/hr same as federal minimum wage). $18-$20/hr is becoming more common for jobs one tier above entry level around here.
 
Stumpydave said:
I'm on approx $20-21 an hour. That comes with way too much stress and paperwork. If I could get similar for shelf stacking or another low paperwork/low planning/low responsibility job I'd be gone like a shot.

(My best job was pushing trolleys around a car park - returning to that is my aspiration).
Click to expand...

Yeah, I basically make $21 an hour right now. If I could make 17-18 to do something that was just "go in, do my 8 hours, go home, don't think about it again until I go back in" I'd 100% do it.

Yeah I'd make less money, but I'd be so much less stressed.
 
EmperorNorton said:
Yeah, I basically make $21 an hour right now. If I could make 17-18 to do something that was just "go in, do my 8 hours, go home, don't think about it again until I go back in" I'd 100% do it.

Yeah I'd make less money, but I'd be so much less stressed.
Click to expand...
That's happening a LOT. It's causing all sorts of issues. Especially in union jobs. The exact thing that made them desirable (employment protection, strong pay, seniority for staying longer) are issues in the current economy. Young workers with no buy in to a job don't have a strong economic reason to put up with anything they don't like. Another job is right around the corner for roughly the same pay. No one cares you quick your last job after 2 weeks. They just need bodies. It's brutal on the older (and in some case just old old) union workers who are now having to fill in for newbies quiting on short notice. The longer your in the union the more it has its hooks in you so you can't just leave and go somewhere else or you lose benefits. At least right now. I've hear from multiple sources that new folks don't want to do grunt, "pay your dues" work to get to cushy stuff. And they are getting it. What's the option? If I as a long time union guy quit I lose my retirement, health insurance etc. So after paying their dues once they're doing that crap work all over again only in much older bodies and at crappy shifts. It's really odd.
 
Bunch said:
That's happening a LOT. It's causing all sorts of issues. Especially in union jobs. The exact thing that made them desirable (employment protection, strong pay, seniority for staying longer) are issues in the current economy. Young workers with no buy in to a job don't have a strong economic reason to put up with anything they don't like.
Click to expand...
Maybe it depends on what kind of union you're in? In my experience what you are saying is more true for unions that represent semi-skilled workers, like grocery stores and dock workers. Every skilled worker I know that's in a union is doing quite well but they are in trades that require a large and ongoing investment in training, education, and certification to prosper.
 
Giganotosaurus said:
That's not bad. Here in Spokane we're looking at a general starting wage of $15/hr as that's what's needed to compete with Target and Mcdonalds. A lot of food service places have struggled with updating their wages and are suffering for it. Minimum wage in Washington state is $14.49/hr stating this year, which while not as good as Bunch Bunch 's Seattle wages is still better than our wayward neighbor Idaho ($7.25/hr same as federal minimum wage). $18-$20/hr is becoming more common for jobs one tier above entry level around here.
Click to expand...

CA minimum wage goes to $14 this year, so these are still quite a bit more.

I'm mostly just shocked that some of the more interesting jobs that I looked into pay less than that, welding, wood working and machine shop all are advertising in the $15-16 range. Sure they are entry level jobs into these fields but require more training and skills so I expected that they would pay at least a few dollars more than flipping burgers.

I'm aware of the pay compression issue that Bunch mentioned and I'm sure it plays a large part. My guess is these jobs have not seen a significant pay increase in the past decade, so what was probably a decent starting job in these fields has flat lined while the lowest tier jobs have come up.

I'm sure if I actually went down and talked to somebody, with my work history I could probably do a little better than their advertised starting wage, but honestly I could probably sell widgets at the farmers market and do better without the headache of a schedule. That is my other issue, schedules, I didn't retire to go back to work 5 days a week, and that is what many expect and then don't pay that much on top of it.

Oh well, 1st world problems.
 
Toadmaster said:
CA minimum wage goes to $14 this year, so these are still quite a bit more.

I'm mostly just shocked that some of the more interesting jobs that I looked into pay less than that, welding, wood working and machine shop all are advertising in the $15-16 range. Sure they are entry level jobs into these fields but require more training and skills so I expected that they would pay at least a few dollars more than flipping burgers.

I'm aware of the pay compression issue that Bunch mentioned and I'm sure it plays a large part. My guess is these jobs have not seen a significant pay increase in the past decade, so what was probably a decent starting job in these fields has flat lined while the lowest tier jobs have come up.

I'm sure if I actually went down and talked to somebody, with my work history I could probably do a little better than their advertised starting wage, but honestly I could probably sell widgets at the farmers market and do better without the headache of a schedule. That is my other issue, schedules, I didn't retire to go back to work 5 days a week, and that is what many expect and then don't pay that much on top of it.

Oh well, 1st world problems.
Click to expand...
I was doing some research into Long-Haul trucking a couple months ago and one of the things that kept coming up was that the industry hasn't seen an increase in wage since the 90's. It's still $40k a year but with inflation that's not as much as it used to be.
 
Brock Savage said:
Maybe it depends on what kind of union you're in? In my experience what you are saying is more true for unions that represent semi-skilled workers, like grocery stores and dock workers. Every skilled worker I know that's in a union is doing quite well but they are in trades that require a large and ongoing investment in training, education, and certification to prosper.
Click to expand...
Just to be clear the problem isn't getting enough hours or getting paid enough as a medium term union member. It's that there's a lot of crap jobs and shifts and vacation times that usually get assigned to less senior workers. The pool of new recruits is shrinking and they wont take all the crap. Definitely grocery stores but I have also heard it from people in jobs that require more training. There's just too many jobs around for a new recruit to feel force to "Pay your dues" with unevenly assigned crap work.
 
Ralph Dula said:
I only know of one fellow who genuinely believes it, and to the best of my knowledge he’s been a believer since the 70s.. He’s also a dude who has had a successful enough career in publishing you’d recognize his name if I said it. Combined with another successful fellow I know in publishing who is convinced he’s psychic, it’s kind of interesting to see people who are able to function in society and have high levels of success while having such beliefs that most would expect them to be incapable of the prosperity they’ve had.

Unrelated personal life bits:
I posted a while back about how I missed out on a job while my one family member was in the hospital. Said position was relisted yesterday, and reading the (very) expanded description I think I dodged a bullet. As it’s now written, being bilingual means you’re expected to do all the work of someone who knows English, on top of foreign language assignments, for the same pay.



Work has been so insane I haven’t been able to sit down and write down the insanity, it’s been coming so fast. I had an outburst at work years ago that caused one coworker who witnessed it to cry, and another later tell me “You were exceedingly angry, yet amazingly polite” as I raged. The person I raged at was also ket go by the company a few days later, for unrelated reasons. We may finally have another such incident tomorrow.



For a while now I’ve known Facebook had been erasing text from my old posts, while leaving the post itself up. Yesterday I found out they’ve also erased pictures of mine on posts, but not text. My discovery of this has led me to wonder what was so offensive about pictures of my cat they needed taken down.
Click to expand...

A well known professional basketball player was also a flat earther until the public mockery forced him to roll it back, confirming beyond any doubt that those college players don't actually need to attend class to graduate. Believe a prominent cricket player is also a flat earther. A biggish rapper as well.

www.forbes.com

Rapper B.o.B Just Started A GoFundMe To Prove The Earth Is Flat

The Earth is not flat. We all agree on that right? Apparently, rapper B.o.B isn't on the same page as the rest of us as he just set up a GoFundMe campaign in order to prove the Earth is Flat.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com
 
Bunch said:
Are these people aware that people are resigning all over the place? Wtf?
Click to expand...


They live in so much of a bubble I doubt it. Two weeks ago my new new boss was shocked when I told her I wasn’t working overtime one night because I had to go out and shovel all the snow that’d fallen that day. She lives a handful of miles from me, so she knew how much we’d received, but still actually sputtered when I told her “no.”



I’ve been working on my assignment every day since Friday morning, and am still nowhere near done. A friend who has twice as much work as me is also nowhere near done. A mutual friend who’d talked to us about what’s going on called me last night, as his work assignment is so tiny I could finish it in an hour, and it’s an area I wouldn’t call myself competent in.



We have a team meeting today. I expect the vitriol will be hot enough to melt the snow outside.
 
Last edited:
Voros said:
A well known professional basketball player was also a flat earther until the public mockery forced him to roll it back, confirming beyond any doubt that those college players don't actually need to attend class to graduate. Believe a prominent cricket player is also a flat earther. A biggish rapper as well.

www.forbes.com

Rapper B.o.B Just Started A GoFundMe To Prove The Earth Is Flat

The Earth is not flat. We all agree on that right? Apparently, rapper B.o.B isn't on the same page as the rest of us as he just set up a GoFundMe campaign in order to prove the Earth is Flat.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com
Click to expand...
I mean to be fair to the college here, Kyrie Irving was a one and done in college, so he probably only attended like, 2 semesters at most. Probably took minimum load, easiest classes possible cause he was going NBA after one year anyway. Not like he went 4 years and graduated.
 
Bunch said:
Just to be clear the problem isn't getting enough hours or getting paid enough as a medium term union member. It's that there's a lot of crap jobs and shifts and vacation times that usually get assigned to less senior workers. The pool of new recruits is shrinking and they wont take all the crap. Definitely grocery stores but I have also heard it from people in jobs that require more training. There's just too many jobs around for a new recruit to feel force to "Pay your dues" with unevenly assigned crap work.
Click to expand...
Ah, now I understand. I agree that the "pay your dues" phase for new hires is definitely a thing in union culture. That said, there's been a shortage in skilled tradesmen for a while now and I wasn't aware the past year was significantly different. Even though the ROI for a bachelor's is dropping, people prefer to wear a clean shirt and sit behind a desk.
 
Brock Savage said:
Ah, now I understand. I agree that the "pay your dues" phase for new hires is definitely a thing in union culture. That said, there's been a shortage in skilled tradesmen for a while now and I wasn't aware the past year was significantly different. Even though the ROI for a bachelor's is dropping, people prefer to wear a clean shirt and sit behind a desk.
Click to expand...
Or wear pajamas and sit at home for those of us doing remote work.
 
Unions must work different where you lot are from. Over here (UK) Unions exist to provide backing and support to members, they might get consulted about work practices but if I get benefits from union negotiation, so does everyone else, members or not.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top