Minor rant thread. Post your rants o' the day here!

Small jobs that turn into headaches!

Alternator packed up on the disco. Easy enough really, but the bottom bolt decided to shear off during removal. berkeley E36 M3 shiny happy person! 

I tried all the tricks in my arsenal but that stubborn little bastard was either cross threaded or had welded itself to the aluminum.

Guess it's time to do all that maintenance I had being hoping to delay till after Christmas. To fix it I have to pull a housing that is shared with the cooling system, so I need to replace a gasket. Because I have to drain the cooling system, I may as well replace the water pump and hoses. Because I have to pull all that and the radiator is empty, I may as well pull and flush the radiator... Oh and because the radiator and fan and all that other junk is out of the way I may as well get in and do the timing belt while I'm in there. 

And for the original problem? Well, because it's a marelli alternator, parts are basically unobtainiun in Australia, it's either order from the us or uk. Alternatively, buy a new replacement alternator at a cost of 500-700 dollars. Thankfully it looks like it was just worn out brushes and one was worn enough that the lead was under tension and eventually snapped the lead. Oh, but marelli, so no standard brushes fit.... I ended up finding a set of denso brushes that were close enough that I could file them down to size.

I mean, I love cars and all, but E36 M3 like this just kills my life... And people wonder why I turned my back on being a full time mechanic...

In reply to Toyman01 (Moderately Supportive Dude) :

Haven't posted this becaus feelings..

My sister in law quit her job at a nursing home   recently. Her and some colleagues got weary, sent in multiple test that never got used, 90% came back positive.

My rant, if teacher doesn't want to teach then quit or get fired. Bet your ass doesn't complain about going out to eat. Or swerving in front of my 18 wheeler and slamming on brakes when I'm trying to deliver your goods to the grocery store your going to.

You know... I've owned like, 5 or 6 iPhones (IIRC original 3G, 4, 4S, 5S, 6S, and now my 2nd Gen SE). I've put many of them through hell- I believe it was the 5S that actually fell out of the back pocket of my biking jersey at speed with nothing other than a bumper case on it and the phone itself was absolutely fine. I've had the SE since May, so less than 7 months- and it is now the first of any of the phones to have a cracked screen after dropping it from no more than waist height... upper right corner is noticeably damaged and a crack that curves in across the center and back to the left side a little more than halfway down.

The good news is that for the most part you can't even tell that it's cracked unless you're looking at it in the right light- but it really sucks to have spend $300 on it and have it break so easily after how well the previous ones have fared. I've looked into it and the replacement screen is like $30 and it's no more difficult than anything else I've ever done on an iPhone... but for now I'm just going to put a screen protector on it and not bother with replacing the screen yet since it's not that noticeable.

And in a disturbing coincidence, when I went down to tell The Dancer about it and show her the phone as she was getting ready to teach a class she knocked a decorative bottle off her dresser that shattered all over the bedroom floor- not a good day for glass objects in our house...

Another evening at the Hospital.  Two days ago I brought my Mother in with her blood pressure crashing due to a change in her medication.  They got her stabilized, sent home, and told to call her doc.  Called doc yesterday.. nothing.  Called Doc today.. nothing.  She went back to the hospital in am ambulance this time, super high blood pressure and a racing heart rate that was pushing 170bpm.

They have her stabilized, now I wait to go get her... if they send her home at all.

I had to actually, like, work on Monday.  And most of yesterday.  And all day today.  And it looks like tomorrow, too.  What is this crap where they expect me to actually do the things I'm supposed to do in order to get paid!?

Got an email from my insurance company. We'll just say that what they valued my car at was less than adequate. More phone calls tomorrow. 

I really hate asking people for money. I probably shouldn't have married the founder/director of a non-profit (though she didn't start the non-profit until after we were together)- and it's especially bad during the week-long fundraising campaign following Giving Tuesday that a local non-profit support group runs. It's a great cause and I do everything I can and then some to support it- but begging people for money is just not something I will ever be truly comfortable with. 

As I've talked about before, I'm really struggling working from home in my basement dungeon. Today I negotiated with my wife to actually let me leave and work from the office for one day.  Back story. Even after COVID is over, I think it's going to be a serious fight to go back to work out of the home. My stay at home wife is really liking having me home all the time. That's even more times she gets to make my decisions for me. 

Today, another situation at home forced me to leave the office at lunch time. Great. Just glorious. Now I'm even more behind. And guess where I'm working at now? The basement, that's where. 

Scotty Con Queso said:

As I've talked about before, I'm really struggling working from home in my basement dungeon. Today I negotiated with my wife to actually let me leave and work from the office. Another situation at home forced me to leave the office at lunch time. Great. Just glorious. Now I'm even more behind. And guess where I'm working at now? The basement, that's where. 

My. Exact. Problem. 

I was working from the home about ten months before the pandemic hit, and I'd signed up for co-working space so I could have an office to go into. The pandemic kneecapped that whole plan, and eventually, the co-working space folded. I'm stuck at home fighting my executive function all day.

I love working from home. I get more done, but I work in IT and most of my job happens without the need for others involved beyond coordination via email and change documentation, with the actual work happening overnight.

I worry that they'll make me go back into the office so I can sit at a desk in a building to do what I've been doing more effectively remotely since people can't walk up to my desk and chat about sports and the weather. 

2.5 motherberkeleying hours for an oil change and car wash on the wife's van. On my 1 hour lunch break that i didn't get lunch on. And work system goes down from 5-7. So guess who gets to work ftom 7-9 tonight?

For my job 90% of the time it doesn't matter where I am since I'm working on things independent of anyone else. It's been years since I've been working on the same project as anyone in the office I'm the liaison to so being in the office really doesn't make much difference. It's nice to have the change of scenery and the other generally similarly-minded/humored engineers around, but I'm personally in no real hurry to go back to the office- but won't fight it too hard either. What I will do is not hesitate to take my laptop back home and work from here if there's any reason at all to since it clearly isn't a problem.

Kid # 1 usually forgets to put her crayons away

Dog # 2 thinks crayons are delicious

In reply to BlueInGreen - Jon (Forum Supporter) :

They are

Dear online training: I read faster than you. Please just put up the slide, STFU, and let me click NEXT when I'm ready, which is almost always less than half the time it takes you to read it to me. 

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

Dear online trainer: I read faster than you. Please just put up the slide, STFU, and let me click NEXT when I'm ready, which is almost always less than half the time it takes you to read it to me. 

I hate that.  And, if training consists of reading something to me just send me the document and let me read it!  I'be been reading all by my self for close to 50 years.  I think I can handle it.

You don't need to wait for your 13 year old middle schooler to walk in the door to pull away. Door closes. Make 11's. Line moves faster. We're all happy. 

In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :

People spend money on what they want. Your job is if they like your NP program is to encourage them to spend some your way. 

My wife and I have our favorite NP's and would drop $300-$1000 without batting an eye because we believe in the program.  

They just gotta see you and the dancer wife's passion for this and for them to be excited too.  If not, you all move on.  
 

APEowner said:

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

Dear online trainer: I read faster than you. Please just put up the slide, STFU, and let me click NEXT when I'm ready, which is almost always less than half the time it takes you to read it to me. 

I hate that.  And, if training consists of reading something to me just send me the document and let me read it!  I'be been reading all by my self for close to 50 years.  I think I can handle it.

Yeah, I absolutely HATE this aspect of pretty much all of the non-technical training that I have to do each year. Ours is even worse because they've gone to almost all of them being video-based instead of just slides. Frustrates me to no end because it takes a lot more time than necessary, and 90% of the time they could just let me take the test at the beginning and I'd get the required score.

mazdeuce - Seth said:

You don't need to wait for your 13 year old middle schooler to walk in the door to pull away. Door closes. Make 11's. Line moves faster. We're all happy. 

I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Also, you don't have to wait until your car is at the door to let your precious one out of the car.  They are fully capable of walking the 100 feet to the door.  And if you do that, five or six cars can all discharge their passengers at once!  Efficiency!

Welp... I had really been hoping that I wouldn't have to do anything more with the iMac before Apple comes out with the new M1-based iMacs... but it looks like that's just not going to be an option if I want to be able to continue to use it. It's locking up at least once a day now, so I guess I'm going to have to dive into replacing the video card. I picked up a Nvidia K3100M card relatively cheap and will have to deal with flashing the bios on it to get it to work in the iMac. If I don't have to do anything else the upgrade will cost less than $100 which is far cheaper than any other option to tide me over until the newer iMacs are available.

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

I know... I just am really uncomfortable asking people directly for money (well, to a limited extent, asking people for anything really...). She's far better at it, but is also an infinitely more outgoing/extroverted person than I am. I'm much more comfortable being behind the scenes doing things than out in the spotlight...

In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :

Is that card going to physically fit?  Or are you going to redneck air condition it out the back of the case?

Ashyukun (Robert) said:

APEowner said:

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

Dear online trainer: I read faster than you. Please just put up the slide, STFU, and let me click NEXT when I'm ready, which is almost always less than half the time it takes you to read it to me. 

I hate that.  And, if training consists of reading something to me just send me the document and let me read it!  I'be been reading all by my self for close to 50 years.  I think I can handle it.

Yeah, I absolutely HATE this aspect of pretty much all of the non-technical training that I have to do each year. Ours is even worse because they've gone to almost all of them being video-based instead of just slides. Frustrates me to no end because it takes a lot more time than necessary, and 90% of the time they could just let me take the test at the beginning and I'd get the required score.

One of the things I do is teach people to be trainers at the State level.  Most people speak ~ 150 words per minute.  The average person can 'listen' at something like 3-400 words per minute.  This is why most video/PPT training is awful, and most 'lecture' for that matter.

We have a particular number of training hours required per year, and DVDs would come in every December with training so folks could get the hours in if they hadn't been to enough during the year.  For a long time, we could play the DVDs at 2x speed... worked great!  Until the powers that be discovered the trick and the capability was removed.

Rodan said:

Ashyukun (Robert) said:

APEowner said:

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

Dear online trainer: I read faster than you. Please just put up the slide, STFU, and let me click NEXT when I'm ready, which is almost always less than half the time it takes you to read it to me. 

I hate that.  And, if training consists of reading something to me just send me the document and let me read it!  I'be been reading all by my self for close to 50 years.  I think I can handle it.

Yeah, I absolutely HATE this aspect of pretty much all of the non-technical training that I have to do each year. Ours is even worse because they've gone to almost all of them being video-based instead of just slides. Frustrates me to no end because it takes a lot more time than necessary, and 90% of the time they could just let me take the test at the beginning and I'd get the required score.

One of the things I do is teach people to be trainers at the State level.  Most people speak ~ 150 words per minute.  The average person can 'listen' at something like 3-400 words per minute.  This is why most video/PPT training is awful, and most 'lecture' for that matter.

We have a particular number of training hours required per year, and DVDs would come in every December with training so folks could get the hours in if they hadn't been to enough during the year.  For a long time, we could play the DVDs at 2x speed... worked great!  Until the powers that be discovered the trick and the capability was removed.

 

My daughter is in third year vet med, studying form home, and just hates the hell out of the lectures that she can't run at x1.5 or x2.  Drives her nuts.