Congrats! Anything QT3 would be interested in, or are you writing juvenile romance novels with supernatural twists to cash in on the Potter/Twilight craze?
Nice idea, could bring some money ;-) But no, it’s about the theology of sin and confession. I wrote a thesis and my professors said that it’s very accessible for non-theologians and original so they encouraged me to publish it. I made the experience that when I give a talk or a homily about it, people show up and want to try out the new approach I’m giving to the sacrament of confession (which I basically describe as a sacrament of encouragement).
JonRowe
3123
Last day of work tomorrow!
Marged
3124
On my first day of work, I learned that staff were taking a 10% cut in salary and moving to a 4 day work week. Yeesh.
Leah_C
3125
Ouch, sorry to hear that! That happened to a friend of mine as well, she’s not too pleased.
I’m still plugging along in my job search. I’m getting a lot of “we love you but we can’t afford you” because somewhere along the line, parents got it in their heads that they don’t have to pay employer costs outside of my hourly rate and they don’t want to give any benefits. Since I’m not willing to work under the table for peanuts, things aren’t really working out.
I had this conversation a couple months ago:
Parent: What is your hourly rate?
Me: It’s $X/hr.
Parent: I saw a girl in West Portal charging $X-2/hr! I’ll only give you $X-2/hr.
Me: I know the ad you’re referring to and it states that she wishes to be paid under the table. I will charge $X-2/hr if you’re prepared for that to be net, not gross.
Parent: {insert parent going nuts and calling me greedy, among other names}
…and today, I see that woman’s ad on craigslist. She’s been looking for a nanny for 2-3 months. Not surprising.
JM1
3126
Oh, a very belated congratulations, Calistas! Only a few more years before you can teach the little blighter Space Hulk / Blood Bowl!
Something similar happened to me at my current job. I started in January, apparently shortly after a round of layoffs. Then about a month later there was another round of layoffs. It was months since their last hire and the company went months before they hired anyone else. In fact there’s only been two other hires in the engineering department (which is almost half the company) since I started. Things have certainly leveled off but those first few months had me a little nervous.
ElGuapo
3128
I was on a behind the scenes tour of the Court today with my parents and we went into this room with the guide. All of a sudden the Chief Justice, Breyer, and Sotomayor come into the room on the way to a breakfast meeting and bumped into us. My Mom was so excited she literally grabbed her chest and started crying afterwards. Sweet Mom.
Griddle
3129
Huzzah Calistas and Wife!!!
Also, the stupid automated door across the hall has a mal-functioning gear, so it makes the “BONERZ” measuring stick on the side of a hardwood desk sound every time someone walks through it.
That’s cool. The Supreme Court tour is nice, but when I went, we didn’t run into any of the robes.
Although I did get to drool on Chief Justice Burger’s fingers at a Christmas party when I was an infant. And Harry Blackmun’s.
Also, congratulations to Calistas, Mrs. Calistas, and Junior Calistas! I hope all’s well and everyone’s as happy and rested as can be under the circumstances.
Congrats Calistas. So, if you’re a Tiny Kiwi Pirate, is junior a Miniscule Kiwi Pirate?
Just got back from a mammoth road trip across northern Australia, about 9,000 km in total we drove. It was interesting watching the effects of the dust storm change as we moved from north to south, and then east to west. Desert sunrises were stunning, and camping out under the clear desert night was even better than waking up in the morning to discover a lack of giant centipedes snuggling up in your swag. I never get tired of finding horned lizards either, peering at you incredulously as you try and get a decent picture. Zooming along dead straight roads as liquid golden light bathes the landscape in the morning, listening to the Kill Devil Hills turned up loud, supping hot expresso from a pot you’ve just boiled, all so much better than flying (wasn’t there a thread about this recently?). Plus there’s that image of the 18 foot saltwater crocodile sliding off the bank at night towards our small 12 foot boat that will remain with me for a while. I was getting a kick out of how jurassic it all looked until the ranger driving the boat lost his nerve and kicked it into getthefuckoutofhere gear, leaving the awe floating in the air behind us. Poor fellow just wanted to say hi, I’m sure.
Thanks all! I am thinking I should register teenytinypirate.com!
Day 4 or so today, this boy is so big our midwife said we should consider starting him on steak and chips and also that we need to move him up to the next size nappies! Apologies for those without babies, it is boring for you all :)
I also made a huge cake today. Full size Chocolate Stout cake. Two layers, jam in the middle, “happy bornday Thomas” in icing pen on top of the chocolate icing on top. It looks fierce, as Tyra would say.
Had a dreaded wage meeting as union rep yesterday - but no more firings or wagecuts. They just wanted to inform us that their “get out of the promised rises”-conditions, which was a surplus more than 10% lower than 2008, had been met, so we could accept a wage increase that exactly met inflation on behalf of all our members or leave it completely up to each member to fend for themselves - since that would be fighting over small scraps we accepted the approximately 1% rise.
Considering how our competition is doing (some being fired other accepting 10% wageloss) it could be much worse.
I also had the budget for my CES trip in january accepted and here the bad performance of the US dollar as well as the desperation of the Vegas hotels means that my money goes a lot further this time.
Saw my first 3D movie ever.
Yes, ever.
As I’ve posted about in 3D-threads I had eye surgery to fix my cross-eyedness at the age of four and one of the consequences was that after wearing a patch over my good eye to train the bad for a year, my eyes lost their ability to work together, which of course also lost me my ability to see the world in 3D. At least that is what I’ve been told by eye doctors ever since.
I’ve tried the red/green glasses a few time to no avail and always steered away from 3D features, since that was a waste of time. The earlier this year I used the polarized glasses at a Kraftwerk concert and while nothing seemed to come out at me, there was cooperation because the glasses made the fuzzy pictures become solid. Then last week at a BenQ pressevent I tried more advanced polarized glasses and had fucking trees flying at my head… no doubt I could see 3D. So the whole family went to watch UP and it worked (on many levels).
… but I think my eyes are still very sensitive to this newfound ability. They got very very wet many times during the movie.
This also means I can pursue the dream of being an astronaut or fighter pilot laid to rest so many years ago.
Wow. It worked? Thanks. I’ll have to try it. In other threads, I’ve mentioned that I have the exact same problem. But how do you get your eyes to focus at the same time? I mean I can’t see 3d under normal conditions, so how would glasses really help?
tiohn
3136
I used to have issue where my eyes didn’t look in the same place, which was very apparent when I would read, as reading comprehension goes through the floor when only one eye is involved. Then I did a year of pretty intensive visual therapy/training involving lots of picture hunts from Highlights magazine (these are almost offensive to someone in high school) and playing games on an old Atari. The games were especially rage- and headache inducing, as they involved doing things like playing Pong with red and blue glasses on where the paddle was red and ball was blue. It was a complete mindfuck when my misaligned eyes would tell my brain that the ball should have hit the paddle, but instead appeared to go right through it. I’ll never forget the feeling of triumph when I finally played a game successfully, one which has never been replicated by any other video game.
These days, I can read pretty well most of the time, but when I am tired of have been reading for too long, my eyes give up and refuse to cooperate. The doctor claimed that I would never be able to do it 100% all of the time, but I’m really glad that I got back at least some of it. As much as I’ve always loved reading, I became pretty miserable when I couldn’t do it worth a damn anymore.
I don’t think the glasses made the difference. I think the doctors were wrong… if you know for certain you see the world in 2D, then you’re probably still fucked - but do try, I’m no expert and haven’t asked a doctor after my find - but I’ve been like this since I was small kid, so I had nothing to compare to and just believed the doctor.
I do remember red/green 3D movies or posters in the late 70s early 80s not working for me, but I don’t remember my view of the world changing at some point, so if my eyes somehow got better, it went unnoticed. Or perhaps I’m the same in everyday stuff, but can make it work when I’m focused on that particular task - and special glasses and a movied that’s completely fuzzy if you don’t, will probably help you concentrate.
My depth perception is still crappy as hell.
So have you ever tried eye muscle training? That’s what fixed my eyes lazily wandering out of sync with each other and saved me from needing expensive prismatic glasses. So perhaps it helps in your case, too.
I have a friend with exotropia. He couldn’t watch a 3D movie to save his life. He is a private pilot though.
I have just passed my BZEE (Bildungszentrum fur erneuerbare Energien) certification, which for those of you that don’t know (everyone I’m assuming) means I’m now qualified to work on Wind Turbines. It’s the certification that is required in Europe, except with Enercon, to work on wind turbines and which makes me highly prized in NA. As of Monday I’ll be installing Vestas V90 3MW turbines for TransAlta as part of my practicum.
This also concludes my first sober night in 3 days because me and my classmates have been wishing each other farewell by drinking and partying non stop since Thursday night, as of this morning half of my class has scattered into BC, Nova Scotia, Britain, and Ireland.
