Real Life and What's Happening...

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I used to lecture some lads coming from Eton College and similar. Nice fellas but the above is certainly true.
Someone I know who used to run an associate (i.e. contractor) based consulting business recounted an anecdote when he wanted to tell a hiring manager words to the effect of "There just aren't that many 28 year-old Cambridge grads in London."

A COO at a place I used to work still has "Captain of the rowing team", or words to that effect, on his Linkedin profile (Oxford MA, naturally). He's also totally the sort of chap who would have been a frat boy jock if he'd been born across the other side of the Atlantic.
 
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So, I contacted the I.T. Department about my missing desktop computer yesterday, to learn that they were done with the upgrades and had apparently not got around to letting me know this. I picked the machine up just before the end of business yesterday and set it up this morning. It seems to be a new (to me) though several-years-old machine. There have been the usual teething problems with setting up MS software for the first time, which are still not entirely resolved.

But: the machine was set for a malware scan as soon as it was booted up. This found a piece of malware in an administrator’s temp file. I have quarantined it but am waiting for the Help Desk to reply to my email before taking further action.

Since it is a new machine rather than my old one, repaired, none of my files were on it. Fortunately, I had backed these up before handing the desktop over last week. But reinstalling them will be a minor pain.
 
So, as some of you may know, the #1 spawn is autistic. Now I think #2 spawn is starting to get old enough to be a bad influence on him. Apparently they just got into the cocoa powder today and spread it everywhere. Fortunately tile floors are pretty much standard in Indonesian houses, but it seems the mess they made was something to behold.

In related news and a sign of the times, #1 spawn sneezed and #2 spawn (who is about 2.5 years old) called it covid.
 
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So, as some of you may know, the #1 spawn is autistic. Now I think #2 spawn is starting to get old enough to be a bad influence on him. Apparently they just got into the cocoa powder today and spread it everywhere. Fortunately tile floors are pretty much standard in Indonesian houses, but it seems the mess they made was something to behold.

In related news and a sign of the times, #1 spawn sneezed and #2 spawn (who is about 2.5 years old) called it covid.
I remember sneaking into the pantry for cocoa powder when I was about 5. The stuff was horrid raw!
 
My computer died last night. I’m not sure if it’s just a power issue, or something worse, as between the first power issues and it shutting down it did some very strange things before the end. It’s been almost six months since I went online with it or downloaded anything to it, so I think I can rule out malware or a virus.

Two years ago I had issues with it not turning on, and paid a big fee to learn it was a loose wire. If there wasn’t a vast amount of data I need to recover from it I’d just throw it in a corner. Now I have to see if I can fix it myself this weekend, or if I need to take it in again.
 
My computer died last night. I’m not sure if it’s just a power issue, or something worse, as between the first power issues and it shutting down it did some very strange things before the end. It’s been almost six months since I went online with it or downloaded anything to it, so I think I can rule out malware or a virus.

Two years ago I had issues with it not turning on, and paid a big fee to learn it was a loose wire. If there wasn’t a vast amount of data I need to recover from it I’d just throw it in a corner. Now I have to see if I can fix it myself this weekend, or if I need to take it in again.
Do you just need data off the drive? It might be cheaper to buy a external drive bay and a cheap new computer to solve your issues
 
Driving down tomorrow to stay with the inlaws for a few nights. Then we'll do some tourist stuff before coming home. Neither Spittingwife nor I have seen the Waitomo glow-worm caves yet and it seems like a good opportunity while the country's in isolation.
 
Driving down tomorrow to stay with the inlaws for a few nights. Then we'll do some tourist stuff before coming home. Neither Spittingwife nor I have seen the Waitomo glow-worm caves yet and it seems like a good opportunity while the country's in isolation.
Um, what the fuck?
 
Don't you hate it when you're following tracking for an item that has been shipped to you, and it arrives at your post office on Thursday night. You think, "cool. I'll have that package Friday afternoon! I'll be able to enjoy it this weekend."

And then it just sits. It never moves to "out for delivery." And the post office doesn't ever seem to deliver packages on Saturday. So you know that package isn't going to get on the delivery truck until Monday.

It's like USPS intentionally teases me.
 
Don't you hate it when you're following tracking for an item that has been shipped to you, and it arrives at your post office on Thursday night. You think, "cool. I'll have that package Friday afternoon! I'll be able to enjoy it this weekend."

And then it just sits. It never moves to "out for delivery." And the post office doesn't ever seem to deliver packages on Saturday. So you know that package isn't going to get on the delivery truck until Monday.

It's like USPS intentionally teases me.

I've not encountered that one, but I have once or twice watched packages be misrouted--there was one a few years ago which made it to a regional hub near me, only to be sent off 500 miles away because someone (or some piece of machinery) had misread one of the digits in the zip code. It took about an extra week to arrive.
 
I've not encountered that one, but I have once or twice watched packages be misrouted--there was one a few years ago which made it to a regional hub near me, only to be sent off 500 miles away because someone (or some piece of machinery) had misread one of the digits in the zip code. It took about an extra week to arrive.
I've had the same issue a couple times, damn frustrating.
 
I've not encountered that one, but I have once or twice watched packages be misrouted--there was one a few years ago which made it to a regional hub near me, only to be sent off 500 miles away because someone (or some piece of machinery) had misread one of the digits in the zip code. It took about an extra week to arrive.

A common thing I see is what I call "the yo-yo." It hits a USPS distribution center, and then it's sent to another USPS distribution center. Then it's sent back to the original distribution center which sends it back. And this may repeat for a few cycles. So far the record is half a dozen back n forths. That record was set with it bouncing back and forth between Dallas and Houston. But it's more common to have it caught in a Ft Worth to Dallas repeating cycle.
 
Don't you hate it when you're following tracking for an item that has been shipped to you, and it arrives at your post office on Thursday night. You think, "cool. I'll have that package Friday afternoon! I'll be able to enjoy it this weekend."

And then it just sits. It never moves to "out for delivery." And the post office doesn't ever seem to deliver packages on Saturday. So you know that package isn't going to get on the delivery truck until Monday.

It's like USPS intentionally teases me.
Every single time I have selected tracking on a package from overseas, which is where most of my packages come from, it enters the country and then switches to 'no information available for this item'. It then takes 6+d6* weeks to reach me. This seems to be a specific area where we're not a first world country.

* slight exaggeration because you don't let the truth get in the way of a good rant.
 
We got a letter they're going to switch us to fibre for free, at no extra cost /month.
We got switched to fibre today. Had to get up at noon, because the guy was going to arrive at 1 pm, so I only got about 4 hours of sleep after working night shift this week, but now we have fibre. Yay.
 
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Every single time I have selected tracking on a package from overseas, which is where most of my packages come from, it enters the country and then switches to 'no information available for this item'. It then takes 6+d6* weeks to reach me. This seems to be a specific area where we're not a first world country.

* slight exaggeration because you don't let the truth get in the way of a good rant.
Customs clearing seems to be a super random affair.
 
I'm waiting on a dice order that /left/ China last month but has not arrived (Maybe getting through customs is a pain.) Also, bought something off a group and had no shipping info, and it looked hinky, so disputing the latter. Sighs. Other than that, I've been fighting the mucus plague, while trying to get my gaming in--running MSH (one Sunday every two-three weeks) trying to put another group together for it on Mondays. Also generally, trying a lot of supers stuff, because I'm so weary of fantasy outside of a handful of games.
 
A common thing I see is what I call "the yo-yo." It hits a USPS distribution center, and then it's sent to another USPS distribution center. Then it's sent back to the original distribution center which sends it back. And this may repeat for a few cycles. So far the record is half a dozen back n forths. That record was set with it bouncing back and forth between Dallas and Houston. But it's more common to have it caught in a Ft Worth to Dallas repeating cycle.
I've had that happen to me. Only once, thankfully.
 
Don't you hate it when you're following tracking for an item that has been shipped to you, and it arrives at your post office on Thursday night. You think, "cool. I'll have that package Friday afternoon! I'll be able to enjoy it this weekend."

And then it just sits. It never moves to "out for delivery." And the post office doesn't ever seem to deliver packages on Saturday. So you know that package isn't going to get on the delivery truck until Monday.

It's like USPS intentionally teases me.
I recently ordered proofs of a couple of products I’m trying to get up on DriveThruRpg. The books were printed about a 25 minute drive from me, and then I watched as they were sent across the border into the US to the distribution centre, before taking another day to come back across the border and get delivered to me.

My house is literally on the route between the printers and the US/Canada border. I know they don’t do direct address-to-address shipping, but it still seems wrong to me that they drove past my house to take my books into another country before bringing them back to me.
 
We closed on our new house today. After five moves in three states over the past four years, it feels great to finally be able to settle down. The house is beautiful, in a great neighborhood, only 10 minutes from my office (still no word when we're returning to the office at all but at least it'll be convenient). Best of all, it's got a great finished basement with gas fireplace and built in bookcases that will be the new game room. I've already contacted the guy who makes the game takes for my FLGS to get one started.
So life is good right now.
 
Don't you hate it when you're following tracking for an item that has been shipped to you, and it arrives at your post office on Thursday night. You think, "cool. I'll have that package Friday afternoon! I'll be able to enjoy it this weekend."

And then it just sits. It never moves to "out for delivery." And the post office doesn't ever seem to deliver packages on Saturday. So you know that package isn't going to get on the delivery truck until Monday.

It's like USPS intentionally teases me.
It's a result of all the hubbub around USPS from talking to my carrier. Media Mail and things without SLAs on the delivery are particularly affected.
 
We closed on our new house today. After five moves in three states over the past four years, it feels great to finally be able to settle down. The house is beautiful, in a great neighborhood, only 10 minutes from my office (still no word when we're returning to the office at all but at least it'll be convenient). Best of all, it's got a great finished basement with gas fireplace and built in bookcases that will be the new game room. I've already contacted the guy who makes the game takes for my FLGS to get one started.
So life is good right now.

Just did that earlier this year- my first since my ex screwed up my credit during the divorce by dragging her feet and not allowing the house to be sold even though neither one of us was living there and I couldn't afford the whole house payment. Sucks when your best option is to let a property be foreclosed on, and funny how fast things proceeded once that was off the table.
 
Brock Savage Brock Savage Bunch Bunch I may go either route you suggested, but first I want to see if it’s another instance of the one wire slipping loose, as I paid to discover in 2019.

it really is a terrible computer that I should replace, but as you might have guessed from my comment about how long it’s been since I went on the internet with it, it’s rare I use it in recent years. So I putter along until a new problem crops up with it again.
 
Uff the weather is going to get too warm next week. I applied for two half days off, on Wednesday and Thursday. Fingers crossed they get approved so I can go home by 7pm, before maximum workplace stickiness sets in.
 
One of the guys I first gamed with here in town, nearly 20 years ago now, is in the hospital with COVID
I'm still in the hospital. They have had to increase my oxygen supply a few times. The doctor said that will happen, and that it will be like this for a while. It's a hill that I need to get over, and then I'll be on the path to recovery. It's been a rough battle, but I'm still fighting.
I may have a bad data set, but I've not seen many people turn that corner
 
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