What is your occupation?

@Trailmix @RedHot OMG - I agree on the divergent diamonds . . . HATE THEM, even though I know they are supposed to be safer and increase / ease the flow of traffic (no left turn in front of traffic to get onto the on ramp) - but they are confusing as my wife during PMS - especially in the dark and in the rain. The intersection that is, not my wife. I first encountered them in Springfield, MO and I was like "what the fuck" in front of my child in the backseat. He was all like "Dad said a bad word and is driving on the wrong side of the road, are we going to die?".

@Trailmix @Pavlov The trouble with DDI is that t hey were (are) new and DOT's have begun using them as a savior in every urban interchange that needs replacing. They are good at certain things like handling heavy left turn movements and they allow huge through traffic volumes to pass through the interchange that aren't actually using the ramps. However, its difficult for me to justify their use in areas with heavy ped and through truck volumes. The peds usually can't tell which way traffic is coming from and the trucks can't make the curves without overlapping lanes. These things can be handled with excellent signing and widening out the lanes and flattening the curves but all those things cost money which no DOT likes.

@Trailmix @Pavlov Also, MO is notorious for gross overuse as a fix all solution.

@RedHot Thanks for the detailed explanation! We haven't gone crazy with them where I live but we just put in a boatload of roundabouts. I don't mind those so much for some reason.

@RedHot Got an opinion on jughandles?

@JerseyFrank As a Pennsylvanian who works in NJ, I certainly do...

@Cinoclav That they're awesome at keeping the left lane clear and subtlely encouraging proper lane usage?

@JerseyFrank I like jughandles, but as a transplant to the region, they confused me for quite a while.

@JerseyFrank No, that they're a needless waste of non-conformity. Maybe if EVERY single left turn was to be made using a jughandle. But no, occasionally you get a left turn lane, normally just at the moment when you've made a point of getting as far right as you can, expecting that jughandle. Not to mention how often you take a jughandle that doesn't simply come around, but instead makes you stop at a stop sign or light in order to make the left, just so you can make your left! NJ is the red headed stepchild of the road system. At least they've finally realized traffic circles cause problems and they're slowly doing away with them.

@Trailmix Jeeze, I just looked up Double Diamond (diverging diamond) interchange... haven't encountered any myself as yet, but made my nuts crawl up and hide just looking at the aerial view of the DD intersection. That said, it's plain that it would help with a high-interchange intersection. Just, people need to know what it is before they get to it. Also, @Trailmix, I love a good roundabout, but people just don't know what to do at them. On the other hand, it's usually somebody that doesn't know who gets right-of-way so I end up with it. ;-)

@PocketBrain @RedHot @Trailmix The data on roundabouts is pretty damn compelling. Once you step back from what you're used to, cross intersections look completely insane; they're just begging for accidents and fatalities. The only problem, as you mentioned, @Pocketbrain, is acceptance, and that will change over time. If it were up to me, roundabouts would be the default and you'd have to make a serious affirmative case for anything different.

Just because I'm so passionate about them . . . The thing about roundabouts is that 1) they slow traffic down, but throughput is actually higher; 2) as you enter the exchange, you only have to worry about oncoming traffic from one direction; 3) because of reduced speed and reduced angles, the severity of collisions and the likelihood of fatality are significantly reduced (note that in a "traditional" intersection, the angles of collision will be one of the two worst: 90 and 180).

@joelmw @pocketbrain @Trailmix I meant to reply sooner but with everything going on here I forgot. RA's are great for use in areas where speeds are already relatively slow. They are difficult to superimpose over existing intersections without forcing the municipality to increase right of way acquisition. The public generally hates them because they don't know how to use them. Teaching them to use them or forcing them to adjust is difficult because you are kind of saying "we're ok with X number of wrecks, personal injury, and property damage until you fools figure this out". When the state gets sued and has to admit they knew there would be an increase in accidents they kinda start thinking twice. Personally I love them when used in conjunction with other RA's. I don't like mixing traditional intersections and RA's because they each impede the other if they're in close proximity. My firm (my office actually) is working on an interstate to interstate interchange which functions almost exactly like a 65MPH RA. but don't tell anyone, its a secret.

@RedHot o.O I like roundabouts but I can't imagine one at highway speeds...

@RedHot Yeah, ROW is an issue. And you need less at lower speeds. Just keep up the good work. I'll keep your secret. ;-)

@RedHot Our agency's first real involvement with them was with a troublesome five-point intersection that had been regulated by stop signs, was prone to various problems and the numbers weren't looking good for any other solutions. There was concerted and ample outreach and lots of buy-in in a small municipality (I work for a county and we typically partner with our member cities). They're proud of it and word has gotten around--even though there still aren't that many. These guys (I know them as Ourston; I think they were bought; say hi to Mark from Joel in TX if you contact them) are great, btw, and helped us with every aspect from engineering to PR: http://www.ghd.com/global/services/roundabouts/

@Headly I'm docking you a full day's pay. Now get back to work slacker.

@Headly I am sitting in a conference waiting for my boss to bring up the details of my review, and I snorted out loud at your comment. I love my boss.. her boss however..

@studerc I used to do this with woot back in the one-deal-a-day days. Faulty products / bad refurbs were a constant thorn, but it was Ebay and Paypal that eventually screwed me. I got dinged by some folks for paper-sleeve DVDs I was selling cheaply. They complained and enough ticked the "bootleg" box that they froze my account. I had to show receipts and whatnot. No big deal, except that they froze the assets in Paypal and took 30 days to review. Meanwhile, I couldn't print shipping labels for the orders that had been paid. I log-jammed the whole pipeline which lead to more complaints and a subsequent investigation by eBay, which took another 30 days. Nothing log-jammed by that time, but my inventory was so stale and my feedback tanked so badly that I lost everything I had earned, and then some.

@JerseyFrank Yea, I strayed away from ebay because it's a clusterfuck of potential problems. My hometown has a "for sale" group where you can post items to sell. A local business picked this as an opportunity to be a pick up and drop off hub for the area. Only had one complaint over a mini heli, but I let her keep it and gave her the money back when she demonstrated that it was in fact DOA. Since October I've profited over $1200 so all in all its been pretty decent. On my salary I can only buy so much and I avoid taking large risks as I can't afford to lose.

@studerc Fuck eBay (FEEbay) - Craigslist rules.

@Pavlov CL was too much personal interaction for the volume I was moving.

@studerc My kids DIE in social studies. F's across the board, but it's Gen Ed. SLP.

@studerc Always suspected that you were a good guy

@studerc damn $1200 how much did you make over the neoprene? I should deffinately send you a big box of my random meh purchases I will not ever use again.

@parodymandotcom What's your best "I feel famous" story?

@JerseyFrank The time I performed for the Queen of England. Now, to be fair, I didn't know she was the queen at the time, but after I was done she approached me and said "if you're a parodist I'm the Queen of England." badda-boom! Thank you, I'm here all week. But really, maybe the first several times singers contacted me wanting to perform my stuff? Maybe holding the first CD of my material in my hands? When Dick Smothers signed up to follow me on Twitter?

@katylava
try {$DO || !$DO;}
try: command not found

@katylava I'm not a Mehvelopler w/ a capital 'M,' but I constantly feel like a lowercase mehveloper. Hohum.

@Lotsofgoats TradeStation?

@JerseyFrank nay ARE YOU A COMPETITOR?!?!?1/?!/!

@Lotsofgoats 18 years ago, I got my start at that company as employee #95. I left there 10 years ago.

@lisab That is cool. What is your official job title?

@amillar7 I think this week its "Senior Implementation Consultant". Which means nothing. But functionally I'm a problem solver. I help business people understand technology, and technology people understand business needs.

@lisab Does this mean that I get to blame you when the software at work pisses me off?

@Foxborn Sure. I learned a long time ago not to take it personally when folks get mad at software. Its software, not my baby!

@Thumperchick Pinterest pinterest pinterest (I looked into using Pinterest to promote my side job/hobby and realized it wouldn't work for me - but seems like just the thing for you)

@Thumperchick You'll probably have better luck selling things if you actually post your store's link. Also, I hope to see some ads from your store on Meh (and maybe Woot).

@dashcloud I've posted it a few times, when asked. I don't want to spam the forums, so I don't post it without being asked. My stock is a little stagnant at the moment, but since you asked... flourishandglass.com
As far as ads go - that's on my radar, but not soon, really. As mentioned, I'm slacking in the planning department for this year.

@Noddy93 Huh, my Wife does the same thing except for a major jewelry company. And "wrangling" is the perfect term.

@Kidsandliz Um....... why do they keep firing you?

@Steve7654 Cancer - had two different kinds (#2 and #3, had another one earlier) in one year and chemo the next. Other than that never been fired. Quit a few times, quite a few jobs I have had over the years were seasonal, some I got tired of and bailed, and eventually I went back to school and changed professions.

@JerseyFrank sounds like you could move into being a technical project manager if you wanted

@metageist I'm not sure if I've just been insulted. ;)

@JerseyFrank haha not intentionally, but I'm manager and I'm supposed to encourage people to try new things :)

@JerseyFrank If you'd be a good I/T project manager (and more importantly, enjoy it), you likely already know it. And if you're not a match you'd hate it with passion. Folks who enjoy PM'ing are a special type.

@PurplePawprints you might be working harder than half the folks here.

@PurplePawprints It takes a lot to keep a house running well. The standards you set for yourself are usually much higher than those others expect. Take pride in doing what's best for your family.

@Thumperchick @RedOak Nah, I'm the lazy kind of house wife who does the bare minimum. I keep the kids clean, fed, and get them to school and activities on time, but the house is never, ever clean. It doesn't bother me enough to clean as much as I should.

@PurplePawprints No one ever said keeping it perfectly clean was part of the deal. ;)

@PurplePawprints frankly, i go to "work" to get some rest. chores around the house and dealing with munchkin homework and other issues is harder than the so-called "real" world.

@PurplePawprints. Me too. I've had 2 careers prior to birthing babies, but now am SAHM with littles, & dealing with disabling arthritis/fibromyalgia,etc. Also sell vintage stuff online.

@Pavlov - What, no bananas? I was thinking your job must have something to do with bananas. ;-)

@KDemo Nope - no bananas - I just go bananas over bananas.

@Pavlov "huge hurdles" for that European media company? You're a master of understatement! The "drone" part alone runs smack into the FAA assuming they want google like broad coverage. I'm calling my Congress folks now...

But still, sounds like they might have deep enough pockets to fund some fun for you for several years. Good luck.

@RedOak Actually, under the FAA's own Major Provisions of Proposed Part 107 regulations the drone flights would be allowed, as the drone follows the moving platform at a preset height (100 feet) around 25-50 feet behind the actual path of the survey platform over the public right of way, and a follow vehicle is used to ensure the space between vehicles is kept free below - it does not breach airspace above any occupied residence or commercial building and if a moving vehicle is between the survey platform and the follow vehicle the drone immediately hovers over the hardened survey platform from which it was launched until the operator of the follow vehicle re-initiates the flight path when the area below is clear. In all fairness, however, in real world application, the minimum safe altitude over congested and populated areas mandated by the FAA is so ridiculously low for manned aircraft that in most all areas that will be surveyed initially, manned aircraft will be used as the payload weight is greater (hence the imagery is more detailed) and time aloft is much longer - making them more affordable to use than an unmanned aerial vehicle. And, such aerial photo surveys are very common. Although there will be places that the drone will be used (within regulation).

It is the method that this consortium uses that blends HD and hybrid images that yields such high detail - and the fact that they routinely re-survey every three to four months which makes it unique. The real money is not in the photo of your house though, the real money is in mapping the street precisely using LIDAR and HD imaging for "driver-less" vehicles that need hyper-accurate surveys of the right of way and surrounding terrain - and they are coming to every part of the US - and soon.

But, there are a lot of people that are dissatisfied with Google and other mapping companies based on the amount of detail they show online regarding one's personal property and the reluctance of these companies to remove the images from their databases is high (in fact, they won't - they will only "blur" or obscure the images), so given that these images are incredibly much more detailed, the opt-out of the high definition imagery is a must. It is the logistics of it that is the issue. Opting out of publicly accessible maps using this new technology is free - but you will have to opt out each and every specific time the data is sold for use (if the data sold is to be made searchable or accessible by the public) - or you can pay a very small administrative fee to have your data removed from every instance of the database regardless of the intended purpose of the purchaser (probably somewhere around $12-17 USD, just enough to cover the ACTUAL cost to strip your property's specific dataset from the 25 or 30 combined repositories that the company merges to form their image and to keep it from being sold, permanently). Although the survey is highly automated, actual removal of the data requires approx. an hour of hands on manipulation by a skilled technician. Every time you opt-out, it is the responsibility of the company or municipality that purchases the data to mask your specific data from public view - which is easily enough accomplished by blurringbased on GPS coordinates - but the data could still be used in the aggregate or it could be used, as a for instance, by a municipality for code enforcement, but not made public. Hence, in such instance, you would not receive an opt-out notification. As such, the consortium is searching for a way to make complete removal an option.

Most people will just opt-out for free each time they are notified the dataset has been sold (which may be quite a few times over the life of the project) - but if REMOVAL of your specific data is important to you, an option will be made available and it assures your property details will not be a part of the dataset in any form whatsoever for the life of the program, and you can accomplish that for a very nominal fee.

The BIG issue is notification and compliance - and that would be my monster.

@Pavlov And yet if you try to go by Zuckerburg's house in Google maps, it simply does not exist. There is a big jump, and you're past it.

@SIMBM Unlimited budget, many attorneys . . . Google makes "blurring" an option for free. They do not discuss removal unless / until you file suit. They have been known to remove properties for certain "highly sensitive" (read: "high net worth") individuals, but they will not remove their hyper-accurate survey of the White House. Apparently, the leader of the free world doesn't rate as high as the founder (term used loosely) of the Facebook.

For the average citizen, even requesting blurring from Google doesn't guarantee it will be done. They turn down more requests to obfuscate images than they approve.

@Pavlov While I appreciate your thorough response and am confident it is accurate, unfortunately my attention span is too feeble to follow the detail. Like I said, time to call our Congress folks if that gets any serious traction. Americans have been pretty oblivious to privacy issues, but at some point will wake up. I hope. Good luck, sincerely.

@RedOak I can appreciate your concerns, truly, which is why I am considering taking the position - I can see both sides and want to help find a balance. It probably will never get traction in the US (a ban) as it has in some European countries. The law is not on the side of the individual in this instance (at all) and the lobby is huge. At least the folks I am considering working for are proactive in addressing the issue and formulating a procedure to opt-out. Bottom line, you have no right to expect privacy when it comes to what may be seen / imaged using legal means as long as such imagery is captured while on public lands or in public airspace. You don't even have the right to privacy in your own home if you leave the blinds open and no one trespasses to look in . . . there's huge precedent on that also. It sucks, but it is what it is.

@metageist I also raise and butcher chickens in my free time. Wrangling chickens is alot like wrangling whiny devs.

@metageist Yes it is, but you can't pick a whiny dev up by the feet and hold it upside down and have it simmer down. I feel you pain.

@Pavlov indeed, and just like chickens it's easy to distract them with treats like trail mix and fruit.

@metageist Ever seen a chicken eat fried chicken? We were having a BBQ years ago and a friend threw KFC at the chickens free roaming out back - they LOVED it. It was weird.

@Pavlov that sounds kinda funny yet disturbing. Mostly because I think neither people nor chickens should eat KFC

@metageist One of my first jobs was at KFC (Delivery Driver in Albuquerque). I loved their food then and still love it now, even with what I know. Can't be THAT bad...

@Pavlov My brother raises "boutique" chickens in the back yard for their eggs. They seem to eat everything put in front of them.

@RedOak They're cannibals!

@metageist Glad to see the followup comments took the high road. My first thought was, "Dammit! I want boobs that can't be contained!"

@editorkid There are definitely some boobs on the site that cannot be contained, and in my personal opinion are just too damn big.

@cengland0 As in real tugboats on the water tugboats? Cool if yes. I have a tug endorsement on my USCG license… (friend has a tugboat I have been up and down the Chesapeake Bay a bunch on back when I used to live out there)

@Kidsandliz I was just kidding. After reading what everyone else did, my occupation seems trivial in comparison so I tried to find something that seemed exciting.

I just work for a bank. I think I'm in the technology department supporting HR, Staffing, and Training.

Unclear how I got to where I am because I was hired as a web developer 13 years ago and they kept changing my job a little bit at a time and kept transferring me to different managers. Oh well.

I'm one of those people that work out-of-state from the rest of the company so I've never met my boss (and many of my former bosses).

@cengland0 Hmm maybe it is a good thing never to have met your boss? I have had a few bosses that I sort of hoped met with a loaded cement truck on the highway. Sneaky - change what you do a little at a time so you don't notice until it is too late that they snuck you into something else an inch at a time.

I love purple.

@Aznatural1 I used to co-manage my agency's MS4 program. Now I'm still involved with it far more than I should be.

@joelmw

Really? Maybe you could give me advice with mine. Where are you located?

@Aznatural1 I'm kind of afraid to be more explicit. Here's my physical location. http://map.what3words.com/belly-salt-flank I work for the County

@Aznatural1 We're pretty non-traditional, and a small MS4 by TCEQ's standards. We don't actually do that much, to be honest. But it seems to be working.

@joelmw

Im at what3words.com/ promoting. Lodger. Bunnies

@Aznatural1 I think a lot of it has to do with your state agency. Ours is a little overwhelmed and frequently at odds with the EPA.

@Fen_Star We have run all the standard tests. Your case is not standard, but we can only run standard tests.

@Fen_Star "We'd like to send you to a specialist, however there are no specialists that specialize in whatever it is that you have that we don't understand." Doctor speak...

@Fen_Star Well that sucks big time!!!

@Fen_Star At least you have free socks. Seriously though, that sucks slippery balls.

@Fen_Star been thru this crap! Not that it helps much but about 5 years ago the Mayo finally gave a huge group suffering from the same thing as I do - a name “P.I.S.” - Syndrome can't be reversed but at least docs can't say we are crazy anymore... Are you aware that the NIH has the UNDIAGNOSED DISEASE PROGRAM? The letter I got back from them was pretty odd. The doctors that applied for me said they couldn’t really understand it… The NIH acknowledged that I had a horrible Undiagnosed Disease but they could not help me! I just went onto the site and there are some interesting links, you may want to check them out and see if you can get a doc to help you apply. MedHelp.org is also an excellent forum (at least for us PISers) ymmv. Best of luck!

@Fen_Star Man, I hurt for you. That sucks. I'm currently sitting in a brace after my 2nd spinal fusion, but at least we know why. If you don't mind my asking, do you only have issues with your vertebra and nothing else?

@tightwad I've done that too - I like it when they look at you and grin and say "dude, we can't do that" and then you get them to do that. I bought Coke and Mountain Dew by the truckload (literally) while at that job.

@Pavlov Peanut M&M's work well too...

@Cerridwyn I played a game with a friend who rolled 7 natural 20's in a row. Lucky Bastard. As for my best stat rolls, I once had four 18's two 16's and a 13.

@Cerridwyn Aww, don't ditch your discontinued Apple computers just yet! I have TWO Apple IIe Computers and a bunch of disks with the popular programs for them and still play around on it all the time.
I've got some of the classic old games like Oregon Trail (of course), Choplifter, Below the Root, and several of the Microzines.
Good times.

@pepsiwine I used to love Crush, Crumble, Chomp! and The Prisoner. Apple Panic too. I was OK but not great at Choplifter.

@editorkid Apple Panic was fun, too.
Choplifter used to give me such anxiety - trying to get those little guys to run faster to the helicopter so you could take off before the tanks hit you - it's like, RUN, guys RUN!!!
Such pucker-factor!

@Cinoclav Do you do white blood cell scanning? One of the more interesting tests that my son has had. I'm really surprised that kid doesn't glow in the dark yet.

@Cinoclav So on to more trivial matters, how does one get ahold of those used lead containers you ship the nuclear meds in. I smelt the lead to make fishing sinkers and such. Lead is getting real hard to find so every opportunity...

@iluvmingos I do. They're done with either Indium or Technetium. I actually think WBC scans are one of the coolest things in Nuc Med. For those wondering, a patient's blood is drawn in the morning and sent to the radiopharmacy. It's then centrifuged to separate out the white blood cells. The wbc's are tagged with the isotope and returned to the department. This is then reinjected into the patient and given several hours to circulate. As wbc's are drawn to areas of infection they concentrate the radiotracer there so when the patient is imaged we can locate specific areas of infection.

@Mehrocco_Mole Guess that depends on whether you're willing to pay for them. You can find used lead pigs (yes, that's what they're called) online. Ironically, I have a few just sitting here that are leftover from some brachytherapy (radioactive seed implants) shipments. Their weight makes them cost prohibitive to ship.

@Mehrocco_Mole "and such" - read: musket balls, minnie balls - etc.

@Mehrocco_Mole My neighbor uses used wheel weights. You could also use car batteries. Please note all of this is extremely toxic and shouldn't really be done...

@tightwad Wheel weights are now steel or zinc. Lead is considered too toxic for the environment. Batteries are far too dangerous to work with. I'll leave that to the pros. @Pavlov,While I'm not into blackpowder I do some casting for shotgun slugs and #4 buckshot. These pigs are almost pure lead which makes them too soft for bullets. @Cinoclav The folks on eBay get around the prohibitive shipping by using one of those flat rate boxes at the USPS.

@Mehrocco_Mole Cabela's sells "pure" lead balls for shot in various sizes and calibers. They used to sell bulk lead for smelting. I don't reload spent cartridges, so I don't have the foggiest when it comes to whether or not it is too soft, etc. - I just know I see it for sale at the store. And it says "pure" on it - so I figured that is all it was.

@Mehrocco_Mole I believe that what is being said here is that you can use pure lead for buckshot and balls, but not for bullets. I've shot a replica of a Brown Bess musket, that puppy fires a .75" lead ball very inaccurately.

@SIMBM That is correct. For instance you should NEVER shoot a cast bullet (lead without the copper jacket) through a Glock barrel. It voids the warranty and will lead up the barrel in no time. Has something to do with Glock's use of polygonal rifling in their barrels.

@Cinoclav How is the payola? How much school did that entail?

@amillar7 Pay is decent. Nuc Med is typically the second highest paid modality in radiology behind Radiation Therapy. Here's a salary page: http://www1.salary.com/Nuclear-Medicine-Technologist-Salary.html Just so you know, there's a glut of techs out there and jobs are hard to come by these days. I love what I do and I really lucked into a good spot, working 7-3:30 Mon-Fri with no call at all. I went to Thomas Jefferson in Philly where they offer an accelerated dual modality program. You need the prerequisites to get in to any program so I ended up going back to community college for 2 years and then spent 2 more years at Jefferson. It's one of the few degree programs in the country so I have a BS in Radiological Sciences.

@bluetide I work in a smaller community hospital so we don't have our own radiopharmacy. We use Cardinal Health for our doses and compounding. You may actually want to check into them, they have a lot of locations and I've seen job postings for them.

@johnamo What do you think of brain training games? Are they good for anything? Measuring deterioration?

@katylava That's an interesting question. We use a lot of different tasks that are similar to "brain training games" to measure specific cognitive skills and they work well for giving us an idea of the specific deficits people have (working memory, attention, problem solving, etc.). As you say, they are useful tools for assessing someone's capabilities, and possible deterioration, over time (especially important to be aware of if you're bringing the same older adults in year after year!). I do not think there is sufficient evidence to say that things like Lumosity are effective at improving general intelligence -- though yes, you will improve at their specific tasks over time -- or that brain games will stave off eventual cognitive decline... but it never hurts to stay mentally active. :)

@johnamo Those fucking amyloid plaques. What do you think of that recent study with the "synergistic" treatment regime that supposedly reversed cognitive decline? The one with unfarmed fish, fasting, meditation and yoga? My bullshitometer went crazy.

@katylava There is a scotch of evidence that Attention Process Training can help with executive function/attention for brain injury patients. So MAYBE. MAYBE.

@johnamo @amillar7 i like lumosity and pay for it, but i started about 5 years ago just to measure my brain. i think it might help slow deterioriation... but it seems to me that it's good at measuring it. i play every day and there are quite a few games i only get worse at -- the memory and flexibility games mostly. my overall score keeps going up, so i think that's bogus.

@katylava If you're up for a challenge, try Brain Age: Concentration Training for 3DS -- better than lumosity imo

@pepsiwine You're a rocket scientest!

@v Yes but I only use my powers for good; not evil.

@JOATMON Intriguing!

@AnotherDawn this is really cool! what sort of direction do you typically get?

@Lotsofgoats The directors that I liked the most (J.Coen, J.Schumacher, J.Franco) were the ones who told us what the scenes were about. One read to us a bit of the novel on which the movie was based and they were encouraging us along the way. One director, who will remain nameless, never spoke a word and had his assistant bark orders at us. (But the film turned out pretty good) I had a blast being in an audience scene for Get On Up. The pay is mostly crappy at my level, but I still love being a part of it all.

@AnotherDawn Where do you find out about that? I live in MS and am only marginally employed at this point in time unfortunately. I could use some extra income.

@Kidsandliz First place to look is filmmississippi.org and they are also on fb. If you look on facebook, there are several resources: The Holding Tent, Mississippi Actors & Extras Job Postings, Morgan Casting (based in Canton and also Toronto), and various casting agencies such as Caballero Casting and Tammy Smith Casting which are not based in MS but have cast major motion pictures here and nearby. Good luck!

@Mehrocco_Mole I had a buddy who was a Master Controller at NJN public tv. He worked overnight and used to have fun screwing with the viewers by interjecting various sound effects in the middle of the programming. I remember chatting with him one night while a war documentary was on. At the point where missiles were being launched and landing he was adding in the sounds of bowling pins being knocked over. Unfortunately that fat bastard Chris Christie cut funding to public tv and he lost his job, as did his wife who was a camera operator there. They lost their health insurance at that point. Shortly after he was diagnosed with a glioblastoma brain tumor. Sadly, he passed away the end of 2013 after a year and half battle. He was 43 years old and left two young boys to grow up without him. I'll always wonder if the exposure he received at NJN had anything to do with his cancer. (Damn, this really got me thinking about him and started some tears running. I miss him, he was a really great guy.)

@cranky1950 I write the docs, I write the docs, I write the docs.

@cranky1950 Do you also write documentation of love and special things?

@cranky1950 I think documentation writers are awesome people. I was a testing manager and development liaison for a software company. Part of my job was working with tech writers. It's a tough job. You have my thanks.

@cranky1950 Cool written in English on the first try rather than written in one third world country's language, translated to another, then to another and then someone from China translates it into Chinese using only vague pictures and a few ambiguous words...

@trimm can you guys fix ios 8?

@Headly I think you overestimate what I do lol.

@trimm Well, can you fix the people who'll fix iOS 8?

@editorkid You'd have to get rid of Apple as a whole to 'truly' fix that awful and borked "operating system" which I had to use quotes for as it's hardly even justifiable as that.

But before that I ran one of our 100-student dorms for 15 years...

...and before that I served 20 years in the U.S. Navy working in electronics. :)

@kc5rbq I'm a job corps graduate.

@katylava :)

@molfsontan I have a career's worth of experience using C# and .NET to build Woot prior to and post Amazon acquisition, but here we're using Node.js and have openings available: https://meh.com/jobs

@meh Meh should hire you. Fix their broken shipping logistics.

I think my favorite past job was as testing manager and development liaison for a software company.
1. I got to break and manipulate software. That's fun.
2. I was involved at every level with the development of new software and got to interface with everyone in the company (and some clients) to that end and in support of a major version rollout: sales staff, implementation, support, coders obviously, tech writers, the big boss. I was like the vortex of chaos. And we succeeded. Fucking A. Now I'm not even sure what I'm doing--which is my excuse for fucking around so much.

@RedHot Why aren't engineers better with technology? Why, in fact, do they seem to be afraid of it?

@joelmw first I'll talk about my group. We're fairly self sufficient but we have zero in house IT which kinda forces us to know our programs. Our design programs are beasts to deal with and I do not have time to fuck with why the printer/plotter won't connect to the network that I don't have admin access to. As far as needing help with excel and using the internet, those are government engineers. now I'll talk about others outside of my group (still in my office, just not my expertise). they hate change of any kind. Most of the time its because they've found a way to complete their work efficiently and with high quality using the tools and programs they ahve then someone decides its time to upgrade and everything changes and now their project has to eat this 'learning curve' that kind of stuff induces. Personally, I'm a fan of everything tech so long as it doesn't come with hoops to jump through. I love to play with tech at home and have finally accomplished a setup that allows me to control most features of my home from my cell phone anywhere in the world :-)

@joelmw What I mean by eating the learning curve is that I have to spend time learning to use this new program. That time takes up time toward my deadline and every hour I spend has to be charged to a project that I am responsible for maintaining.

@RedHot That all sounds about right. It just amuses me sometimes.

@joelmw I know thats a more serious answer than you were looking for but I'm a bit jaded on the subject since all I have for IT and printer/plotter support are two help desks who promise to resolve my issues in 48 hours :-/ We used to have a great in house IT guy but he was too good and they couldn't afford him. So when he left they never hired anyone else, in fact they've made the same thing happen all over the company (we're international)

@joelmw I learned GIS to map fish and waters. Awesome tech, was fun stuff. Kind of regret moving out of the field.

@RedHot I was mostly just rhetorically bitching anyway. Your answer was in fact better than I deserved. It was good even. But it's been said (by me even) that I have a penchant for the inappropriate. So, yaknow, I'm not sure what that all means together. But I like your responses.

For whatever it's worth, while I am a big advocate for technology and for how it can revolutionize business processes, I'm not a big fan of technology for technology's sake or for technology deployment that over-emphasizes the tech per se and pays inadequate attention to the more important human factors involved.

@Mavyn It is cool tech. And still, IMO, under-exploited, though paradoxically widely available. I kinda came at it sideways myself and it always amuses me when I gather with GIS professionals (to a lesser degree this is true of IT folks too) how many of them are oblivious to the ubiquity and accessibility of technology they still view through the lens of the clunky and antiquated systems they learned in school.

@joelmw Some of the stuff we were doing was neat--defining water ways, associating characteristics with the water object, tracking species, habitat evaluations, etc. It was pretty cool because we could enter things like direction, volume, speed of water flow and replicate say...and oil spill. Cool stuff.
Then you have the USAF, who sent their GIS team out to document and tag every tree on base. Woop woop? I asked why we couldn't use it to track computer assets and was told that was a security risk. Guess it's good to know trees aren't a security risk.

@Mavyn Mapping flow (and the general problem of least-cost transportation analysis) is part of how I got into the business (started working for a company that optimized school bus routes). It still intrigues me. Time is the thing that's starting to emerge as a next new fun. Ultimately I think we'll want to tag every object. And someone will do it (they just may not admit it). But maybe that's just me.

@joelmw Game management agencies were looking to use GIS to identify and track migration routes for wildlife and then be able to use that guide development and road construction. It was awesome for being able to make each variable a layer and make predictions based on tweaking the layer.

@RedHot So what you're saying is engineers are great with well designed technology but struggle with illogical feature sets and interfaces.

@meatyochre That sounds exactly like what an engineer would say.

@quietearth Read through everyone's post above yours. Your job is the only one that caused me to say out loud, in my office, all by myself with no one in ear shot, "Lucky". TWO AT THE DOOR ;)

@Bogie Pssht! Yeah! Regular Burger or the Little?

@quietearth Thanks for my lunch!

@mehjohnson No purple?

@Barney Haha all your fault there were no purple trucks where I interviewed. I posted that pic for you, though. Purple Peterbuilt!

@mehjohnson Aww, thanks and good luck!

@mehjohnson where do you live? We are looking for an Systems Ops/Analyst

@tightwad I'm outside of Pittsburgh. Anywhere near?

@mehjohnson Sorry, we are in Dallas, TX

@tightwad No worries, I appreciate the thought.

@Barney Blech. Purple.

@koalamoo I was never so relieved as I was the day I hired my first HR professional in my first business in 1987. The weight of HR is immense and I do not envy HR professionals, but I absolutely appreciate them. A good HR pro can save a company, and their employees.

@Pavlov I try hard to be that person. I frequently don't make the decision that would make people happy, but I make the decision that will let me sleep soundly at night.

@koalamoo anybody with the patience to filter through hundreds of resumes (often completely different-qualified) to yield a manageable stack for the hiring manager has my appreciation. Of course it's heavily automated now, but still.

@koalamoo Why some of my best friends are HR folk.

@koalamoo my problem with HR is that I don't believe you. Your job isn't to keep me happy. If a choice needs to be made between an employee and the company, you must choose the company. This runs counter to how I have to do my job where any decisions I make as an advocate for good development practices is necessarily in the company's interest. HR comes off as insincere or worse, treating me like I'm stupid when they try to tell me that they are there for me.

@JerseyFrank I will not disagree with you that there are many in my profession like that. However, I will say that as a group, we're fairly split. Those who fell in to the field, or those who have been doing it since it was still called Personnel seem to be the worst offenders for the behaviors you describe. People like myself, who chose this profession, and went to school for it, we tend to not be that way. On a legal level, I know that if I'm endorsing the company's unethical decisions, I can be sued personally. As in, lose my home, my possessions, future wages garnished, that sort of thing. On a personal level, I just can't stand there and do the wrong thing. My job is to make sure you're as happy as possible while working within my legal, ethical, and moral parameters. Do I always back my employees? No, sometimes they are flagrantly in the wrong. Do I always back my company? Definitely not. My plant manager will happily complain to anyone about how many times I have stared him down and said that we were absolutely not doing whatever it was that I didn't agree with, and in the end, I get my way, because that's what they pay me for- to be the ethical compass for the company. I hate that the HR "professionals" you've worked with in the past haven't been a shining example, and I hope that you do run in to someone like me soon.

@koalamoo Oh, it's not that there aren't good HR people out there. The best are the ones who don't try to be your buddy. When they do, it comes off as insincere and conniving. Stick to hiring, firing, retention, benefits, and labor law compliance (did I miss anything?) and you've got my seal of approval!

@koalamoo Real world example: Legal required all of us to complete a harassment (sexual and vanilla) computer-based-training. If you took it and read between the lines (as nearly everyone did), you'd see it as a cover-TheCompany's-ass training. Someone took it too literally and reported to HR that they may have heard someone on a particular team use some off-color words in a meeting. The person was only identified as being on my team. Everyone on the team was pulled into a meeting to be warned/informed. That's all well and good. It was the right thing to do. What wasn't right was to tell everyone on the team that this was a "refresher course that all teams will be receiving," and to scare everyone. Three years later, we're the only team that's been refreshed.

@MrHappypants Ever hear of or use YUPO synthetic paper? Any thoughts?

@DParz Oh sure, it was one of the first synthetic stocks around. A real pain to run back then but now there are others & it's a little more commonplace. I haven't seen any on press at this shop though.

@MrHappypants I just joined Yupo recently in Business Development... still trying to learn more about the market and different applications. If a sales rep hasn't been around and you might be interested in some of our new products just let me know. Thanks

@therealmrsbeny if it is southwest then I both hate and love you. had my bags get lost in Alanta (no surprise there) they did get them to me latter that night, it just took several follow up phone calls

@JonT I believe the cat gifs. The rest you made up, I'm certain of it.

@Pavlov

@JonT So far you're doing a great job on the fukus, keep up the good work.

@pooflady thanks!! :D

And @RedHot, this is a really cool thread, and I can't wait to curl up with it once I get home. (Because deadlines.)

@editorkid As a newscast director I would sometimes rip scripts for the other news shows. This also gave me a chance to see what was happening in the news. One day while skimming the stories as I was ripping them I came across the following open, "For the second time in a month a Fort Walton teen was murdered." I turned to the Executive Producer (our Copy Editor) and asked, "Why? Wasn't he dead enough the first time?" All I got in return was a blank stare. #sigh

@stryper2000 if?

@Mehrocco_Mole actually I should clarify that I help out busy or not.

@stryper2000 My point was with all that going on it sounds like it's always crazy.

@JonT aw shucks

@JonT I think @RedHot has earned a special Fuku bag for this thread. Seriously, I just spent an hour+ catching up on the new posts and adding smart ass comments where necessary.

@Mehrocco_Mole imma adding the dumbass comments now.

@juststephen Not fun, not fun at all. Sorry to hear about your health issues.

@juststephen Sorry to hear! Maybe meh will do colostomy bags next Two-fer-Tuesday?

@DaveInSoCal @juststephen Hopefully purple ones.

@DaveInSoCal I'm hoping I can figure out something so I don't have to get it done.

@Nikodemus I totally identify with this post. One of my resumes is still Business Analyst. And it's a thing that I think more technology people should be doing. Notwithstanding that it's also a term over-used and unnecessarily ambiguous.

But I love that space between the dumb users and the obliviously geeky coders. Seriously. Damnit.

@Nikodemus your post sounds mildly self-deprecating, but that seems like an important job to me.

@Nikodemus Translating luddite to code monkey is an important skill.

@joelmw I hear you on the ambiguous part, type my title into a job finder and its astounding the crazy variety of jobs with nothing more than the title in common.

@pooflady did you ever talk to that marine guard after you moved to his hometown, or did you just stalk him? cuz i been there, done that.

@no1 Just stalked him. Peeped in his windows. Stole his underwear off the clothesline.

@killdevil I see you skipped the violent machinery and humans options. Don't blame you.

@killdevil Considering your user name, I hope to stay away from your ER.

@iluvmingos oh, it's just a reference to the Wright Bros. Killdevil Hills is where they launched from in their first planes.

@killdevil Are you actually in NC? And have you ever lept and rolled done the dune at Killdevil :-)

@killdevil More importantly, have you ever had the pleasure of Kill Devil's Custard? I dream of that stuff...

@killdevil is it ok if i check all the boxes a-d?

@killdevil medicos! i'm a bit off from residency (i'm MS-1.9 lol) and have no clue what my future in medicine will be. i use midnight at meh as a break from studying. speaking of which, meh... back to the grindstone.

@eyewerks Sounds like you should start a new thread for those stories! amirite?

@eyewerks Do any of them start with "This one time, in band camp, when I was shot at in a helicopter"?

@eyewerks Brian!!!

@cleverogre Sorry your wife is having difficulties. That has to be hard.

@cleverogre i too would like to say i'm sorry to hear about your wife. but now i know what to blame for separating me from the monkeys.

@Kidsandliz @no1 thanks. and trust me you want that separation:

ps: please excuse typos and lack of grammar. myphone isterrible.

@derek17j Meditech?

@ChadP Hey, I tried to buy Bovine- is that yours? I couldn't figure out how. Sorry.

@sammydog01 That is mine, yes. you should just be able to click the title, click I WAN THIS, and follow it through. Let me know if it isn't working.

@sammydog01 let me know what you think of it.

@ChadP I figured out how to buy it. I liked the zombie cow idea, kind of different. Is the guy in the red shirt based on you? I'm not really a comic book person, and I didn't get why they took the cow's tongue. But it was pretty cool. I'll keep an eye out for more of your stuff.

@jsh139 Program start = new Program()?

@JasonKim Well, Main is static, so you wouldn't need to instantiate the object. Program.Main(null); would suffice.

@jsh139 Yeah I see that.... thank you for pointing it out. C# looks cool! How is it compared to Java?

@JasonKim I am not well-versed in Java, but from what I have heard C# is superior.

@PocketBrain I take it someone would have to kill you if you removed the black boxes? LOL

@Kidsandliz best not remove the black boxes; they're rigged to explode.

@PocketBrain Umm yeah probably it is you who blew up the servers on fuku night….

@PocketBrain is that what happened to the black boxes on malaysia airlines flight 370?

@grum I hear that so many Amazon developers get burnt out by the stress of it all. Not true for you?

@metageist Nah. I've been working there for over a year and a half now, and I have had a very good work-life balance. I think it is all dependent on the team you get placed on. I guess I just got lucky!

@no1 Did they upgrade?

@Mavyn yes, but i had to use all my miles.

@no1 Worry if you are invited to join the mile-high club.

@no1 ... I almost had the same profession as you but as an after thought the bosses decided I wasn't worth the paper work so they just fired me.. I had been a certified goof-off watcher, I would go around reporting goof offs but eventually they got wise as they realized I was goofing off watching others goof off and soon I found myself in the pickle I'm in now. .. Unemployed!

@unkabob i like pickles.

@no1 ... And I'm sure pickles likes you (she's such a romantic chick).

@pwinn

I should add to my resume, I make shirts.

@pwinn You worked for Nimblebit? Awesome. I used to be addicted to Tiny Tower!

@danoinct It's a common misconception, but no, actually Nimblebit had very, very little to do with that game. It was a Disney product all the way.

@lisaviolet I like shirts. Not so fond of blonde jokes, though. :(

@pwinn I'm blonde. I wear this shirt to Disneyland. A lot. :)

@PilotJim Do you get free flights as a benefit? My sis-in-law's sister is married to a senior airline pilot and they jet all over the world.

@Teripie Sadly, not anymore with my present job. I am training pilots in corporate jet simulators. It isn't what is used to be though with free travel on stand-by, since airlines overbook and it is tougher to get an open seat. But still a good perk for the airline guys.

@Mehrocco_Mole exactly

@hippiechik We used hospice for about 6 months when my dad was sick, thank you and all in your profession for what you do for people.

@tinkertime you're welcome! I love my job. It's very rewarding

@jaremelz penis cozies! Pics please!! :D

@hippiechik They were gifted out. But when I found the pattern I had to. Gotta love a pattern website with an adults only section!

@bluedog The wife just passed the one year mark cancer free. Chin high and never lose your sense of humor!

@Mehrocco_Mole Sense of humor is crucial. I wear viking horns to my chemo sessions. I am a warrior!

@bluedog Wishing you much purple health (that's the best kind)!

@bluedog I worked big pharma for a while, and it was great. I would have stayed if it had been an option. Fingers crossed for you.

@bluedog The wife got a wig that matched her hair color and had her hair and the wig cut to match. When the chemo started to thin her hair she had a head shaving party with her sisters. It was months before anyone realized.

@Mehrocco_Mole Thankfully (because I've spent 3 years growing out a what-the-hell-was-I-thinking super short haircut), my particular chemo cocktail does not have complete hair loss as a side effect. At worst, there may be some minor hair thinning. Give your wife a BIG hug from me and tell her she's now one of my inspirations.

@Barney Now I just need a set of purple viking warrior horns. I have black ones, red ones and green ones already. (Sorry for the large photo size, I don't know how to resize it.)

@JonT Got any spare horns laying about the warehouse?

@bluedog Yes, purple horns. You go, girl!

This is suppose to be a picture of purple horns at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Original-Minnesota-Vikings-Helga-Braids/dp/B00ADD87OA/ref=sr_1_60?ie=UTF8&qid=1424747824&sr=8-60&keywords=helmet+viking+horns

@Mehrocco_Mole Love them! Just ordered them, and will wear them proudly for @barney.

@bluedog Aww (purple blush).

@bluedog The cancer gig sucks. I'm on my third. Hope yours ends up relatively uneventful. Get yourself a nice warm fleece throw for chemo. For reasons best only known to them they seem to think that the cancer patient chemo room refrigeration project will slow down the passing of germs while sitting there watching chemo drip. Glad your job is being nice to you. My job dumped me over cancer after forcing me to put in 40 hours even chemo week. If you end up with neulasta the bone pain from that can hurt like hell. Claritin D extended release, for reasons unknown kills the pain. Day before the shot 1 in the morning, one in the evening (12 hours apart). Day of the shot the same. Day after the shot the same. Reduces the pain from 4 -5 days of 10/10 to mild pain one day about 4 days after the shot.

@Kidsandliz Where the wife went for her chemo they had a few warming units the size of a refrigerator full of toasty warm blankets.

@Mehrocco_Mole Yes so did the place where I went, but many of those blankets were threadbare. Fleece is warmer over time sitting there, softer… I used their blankets between me and the plastic chair.

@Kidsandliz One word: FMLA (about losing your job)

@bluedog email me at my user name here and then the usual that goes with yahoo

@Mehrocco_Mole Done with chemo a while back so leave isn't an issue anymore. Their complaint was I was too expensive for their insurance - in an email no less. Filed an EEOC complaint.

@bluedog Hey how you doing now that is it 2.5 months later?

@Kidsandliz Hi there and thanks for checking in on me. I'm hanging in there. About 6 weeks ago I found the chemo wasn't working, found it out when I ended up in the hospital needing a stent in my small intestine. I'm on my second round of radiation (big woo hoo to Radiation Techs!) First round was on the abdominal/pelvis area, concentrating on getting the mass under control. The second round is on my lower neck area, by my collarbone, trying to reduce the swollen lymph nodes sticking out like some sort of weird, lumpy, sci-fi creature. 6 more treatments left, then we regroup and figure out the next step of the battle plan. Which reminds me, I owe @barney a photo of me in my purple (who doesn't love purple) warrior horns. I'll post one later.

I, for one, LOVE purple. Hey, @bluedog, don't worry about the Barney pix. The main thing, right now, is for you to take care of yourself and get better. And then we will celebrate purple!

@bluedog @Barney Sorry bluedog but I'm not letting you off so easy. Wanna see the purple picture!

@RedHot imma proofreader for court reporters. "... to know a little ABOUT the community?"

@no1

@no1 Engineer's have little use for grammar.

@RedHot my son is an engineer (geomatics engineering or over educated surveyer as he says) and he uses grammar goodly.

@Mehrocco_Mole I spent some time doing geomatics for USDOT myself :-) My mother is an english teacher so it was pushed into me, I just can't seem to care on the internet, I usually do a lot of proof reading here at work. These people are embarrassing.

@RedHot It's the communication of the message that is important; not the grammar. Us engineers just like to be efficient with our time and taking the time to polish up grammar when the message has already been adequately communicated is an inefficient use of time.
I honestly just wait for the day when we can finally just communicate by reading each other's thoughts. :) Boy THAT oughta be FUN!!

@pepsiwine good grammar helps with clarity. we engineers know that the clarity that comes with better grammar makes communication more efficient.

@no1 Engineering question: is the glass half empty, half full, or too much glass ?

@Mehrocco_Mole The glass is simply twice as large as it needs to be, possible over design is the concern. This costs the client and the firm money making the glass more expensive than it needs to be to construct. It is possible the engineer had flood mapping information for rise in milk levels during cookie events. Without further research the glass is an adequate container for the milk and is filled to half capacity.

@Foxborn At least you don't have to deal with the drunks at 2AM who ran a tab and have a negative balance. Contact Center for a financial institution open 24/7/365. Yes we're open Christmas day.

@Mehrocco_Mole Not at 2AM but Drunks yes

@Foxborn I shadowed a Branch once. I Do not envy you guys at all.

@Mehrocco_Mole if you like studying people or people watching it can be loads of fun, I'm just lucky to have the best boss I've ever had, though I'm scared shitless of the "I need to see you in my office"

@Foxborn I go to bars to study people. The branch I shadowed was too busy to study anything. My position is about equivalent to a branch manager so I guess I'm the one making the office invites. And it usually involves a dollar loss or an attendance issue. We don't deal with cash so overages aren't an issue.

@Foxborn I used to work at a bank. I really liked it, with the exception of the hard-sales push, even as a teller.

@Mehrocco_Mole @Foxborn @alexthegirl i rob banks because that's where the money is,

@unkabob Did your diploma come with a cardboard box big enough to sleep in?

@Kidsandliz ... Yes, a cardboard condo with a brand name manufacturer to die for.

@unkabob But wait! there's more! Act now and we will send you a FREE gallon plastic jug! that's right! YOU can have a box with your very own indoor bathroom! Only 3 easy payments! Act now!

@Steve7654 ... hmmm.. Now that sounds like a sell.

@Relleluck May energy and love come your way; I'm familiar with the brain fog/fatigue life, too. It doesn't mix well with most work situations, for sure.

@Relleluck @MSticklefeather - Brain Fog and Fatiguers Un...NAP! Nap time. Definitely nap time.

@danoinct After spending many years working in foodservice, I can tell you with authority that a large percentage of the employees in fast food places can barely read, organize themselves, or show up for work when they are supposed to. Trying to make them work efficiently and productively with software must be challenging, to say the least.

@spacezorro Ahhhh, DEC/VAX/VMS. Makes me not hate Windows so much. ;-)