Posts by Sherrie Ludwig 485 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Nov 2013
Less flashy-flashy, more text I can actually read.
The "SPONSORED" tag to be larger and more prominent on Google search results so I can more easily know how many pages to skip before I can find a result I was actually asking for.
Some way to corral together all the ways people contact me: I have some business contacts who text, FB messenger, and email me, and if I had Instagram, WhatsApp and TruthSocial (shiver, oh H no!) there would probably be tender missives from those too, all from the same individual, and necessary info scattered (buried) in each method in a long string of back-and-forth. ARGH! I hate playing "where's the date for that meeting?" I am tempted to go back to a business card with address and maybe phone number (landline - no texting!) for sanity's sake. And always reply by return post, written in fountain pen on nice linen stock.
Yes, I AM old, did you have to ask?
Why are you buying an item to then abandon it in public for the majority of the day?
My husband would take train to nearest station to work, then bicycle the rest of the way in decent weather (the bus was circuitous, crowded, and irregular in schedule). He would buy the cr@piest bike that still worked from a local garage sale, usually around $20 - $30, and a decent but not great lock. He could take the bike inside at work, but had to leave it at the station overnight.
The rules for taking bikes on commuter trains near Chicago involve: must be outside of the rush hours, and then only a few allowed per trip per car on the train (too many bikes when the train got to your station? sucks to be you). So beginning of warm weather he would take an out of rush hour (usually arrange to come in late) train with the bike. Work late and bring the bike when the weather got too cold and snowy.
Bike got stolen once, couple of times the gears were stolen off the bike, but the rest left. Yeah, that's how bad the bikes looked
Worst problem was that despite wearing high-vis vest he got bounced off his bicycle by a numpty turning into the dense traffic without looking for bikers. Fortunately, bruised but not badly hurt. His insurance sent a check that would have bought a VERY nice bike, but Bob still bought a junker and kept riding til COVID and then retirement ended his commute.
However, I had a new coworker -- very Inexperienced, but smart and trainable and hard-working. i.e., the dream young employee. However, while her experience was measured in months, the rest of us in the team measured our experience in decades. So...not too surprisingly, she had confidence problems. She got the fake termination phish test, and she told us she freaked out. And I fully sympathize.
As a young newbie at a company, I might have just been overwhelmed and just headed for home. A really fragile and desperate person might contemplate self-harm, especially if the job were all they had standing between them and destitution. I don't know what a proper phishing scheme should be, but this isn't it.
I didn't know I was extra myopic until I was about 7. Reading books since kindergarten, failing everything in class. Teacher perceptively moved me to the front row, but it only helped a bit. The school nurse (we had them in the USA fifty years ago!) administered a rough vision test and strongly suggested my mom take me to the optometrist. I remember the big black thing with all the lenses being swung in front of my face.
"Is one (click) or two (click) better/"
"WOW!!!" Hard to decide when both were better than anything you could see before.
My mom was spectacularly irritated with me. "Why didn't you tell me you couldn't see!?" "I thought everybody saw the same, how was I supposed to know?"
I remember when I got my glasses that I marveled that trees had individual leaves.
we probably don't bother with civics any more. This is a bit unfair on us immigrants -- we at least had to pass some kind of test to get the right to vote etc.
Natural born USAian here, and I agree. Back in the primordial mists when I went to school (public school in the USA is nothing like your public school, I think you have council school as the lowest common school?) one had to take actual history and US government courses, and had to pass a test on US government to graduate.
Of course, each state sets its own educational policies, and in some the standards are so low I would be surprised if enough literacy to read traffic signs would be included.
Hope she takes the money and fucks him over.
As the late lamented Texas born journalist and commentator on Texas and US politics said:
"As they say around the Texas Legislature, if you can't drink their whiskey, screw their women, take their money, and vote against 'em anyway, you don't belong in office."
Molly Ivins
For anyone who hasn't read any of her columns or books, may I recommend them as time capsules of the Bush I and II era, and very fine examples of laughing at the enemy.
I have this nagging feeling that all this was planned.
Well, if it was, it worked, and at the very least one party would seen to be smarter and better organized. Sounds like a reason to vote for them.
If it wasn't planned, then the image of an aging statesman stepping aside despite personal ambition for the good of the country sounds like a reason to vote for them.
If I found myself in an open bank vault, would I steal stuff?
Many years ago, a friend was interviewed for a head cashier post at a big city parking garage operator. This was in the days of all cash for parking, so the monies handled daily were considerable. She was asked if that much money tempted her, and she answered honestly that to be able to escape to a place without extradition and live luxuriously for the rest of her life would take more money than they handled in a day, and the audit trails would catch any gradual siphoning, so, no. She was offered the job.
trying to find a pilot with the free time to test them after repair. His solution was that they paid to get him trained up to be able to do the testing and shakedown flights ........ which they did!
Well, the cook should taste the dish first, and if he's willing to fly it first that should inspire confidence.
Best bit? Highly memorable: the language. Utterly forgotten: what was being advertised.
USAian here, I get the Spanish ad occasionally as well, but I don't know what any of them, English or otherwise, are about because on my laptop I always have a solitaire game minimized, and play it while the ad drones, back to content.
I get the feeling that many career politicians are nothing more than self-serving narcissists and the political parties have a hard time finding somebody to back that won't embarrass them on the evening news.
Why does every democracy have "career politicians"? 1. Incumbents have an edge. The devil you know... 2. Name recognition brings votes. this is independent of the incumbency thing, which is why old actors (cough...Reagan...cough) and reality tv faces get in. 3. Experience in fund raising strongly favors someone with a track record, and a track record in office is a strong aid to gathering more voters. 4. Congress and Parliament have complex rules and traditions that take a period of learning to use in one's favor, so the first term is not going to be more than figuring out where the loo is and what form to use to get a new office chair, let alone who to speak with to get one's agenda advanced.
a TTL on each Tweet/Xeet so it can be shared once. (Or twice).
Well, it's an idea, but then that kills some real public usefulness in my rural area. Immediate news of school closures, or a road accident blocking one of the sparse roads is usually disseminated by Facebook. Also garage sales, birth and death announcements, small businesses promoting themselves, etc. The local newspaper is moribund, the larger news channels don't bother unless it's a tornado they can get nice dramatic pictures from. For all it's flaws, Facebook does serve some purpose.
My only issue with mandatory voting is what if you don't think any of the candidates is worthy? Mandatory voting only if there is a binding "none of the above"
USAian here with a question for those with mandatory voting in their country. If all candidates for a particular office are distasteful, or is there is only one candidate on the ballot, unopposed, is it allowed to leave that office unvoted, as long as you turn up and cast a ballot? I often find one of the two options above, and I have betimes left that race blank, voting the other questions as normal. It is called an undervote, and is perfectly legal here, although the electronic voting machine will flag it and ask you to confirm that is your intention.
As for home electricity subsidies, no one needs a car to live. I don't mean this as some authoritarian environmentalist statement, I mean that I find it hard to put running private transport in the same category as heating, lighting and food preparation.
I wish I lived in your utopia. I live in rural USA. Running private transportation is the only thing that gets us to where we can get food, medical care, and other sort of necessary things. Public transportation is essentially nonexistent, a phone-to-book for disabled or elderly, and it may or may not be available when it is needed.
I had a heart-stopping moment a while ago. I live in a rural area, and one little-traveled road is in a heavily forested area, so even on a sunny day there are patches of deep shadow. I crested a small hill and almost didn't see the boy (mid-teens, I would guess) bicycling in the middle of the road. He was wearing dark clothing and basically blended in with the asphalt road surface. I slammed on the brakes, and in passing mentioned that the patchy shadows made it difficult to see him, even in daytime, and he might consider wearing a white or bright color shirt to improve visibility. The remark was received politely with the deadpan look every teenager has when hearing an adult. Had I hit him, the clear sunny day would have made it hard for the defense on "I didn't see him".
He is stupid and weak, and destroyed ex-Twitter by firing the competent people who could do what he is being asked. Take that tack and see how fast the spoiled narcissist takes to comply. Hasn't anyone dealt with a petulant toddler before? "You're too little to know how to pick up your toys" "Oh yeah?? Watch me!"
I gather some mystery writers have a horror of the FBI (etc) pulling their internet (search) history and jumping to conclusions.
That isn't new, the Dorothy L. Sayers novel Strong Poison is actually about a woman mystery novelist who is on trial for the murder of her ex-lover, largely based on the premise that she knew all about the poison used.
When I see somebody using a Gmail account for business, my first impression is they aren't a professional.
Well, good. I'm an old woman who has a very non-techie small business. I use gmail, have since it was generally available, and it suits my needs, thankyouverymuch. I get 50-100 emails a day, mixed business and personal, and just weed through once a day and delete, answer, unsubscribe as I get them. Empty spam folder just about daily (wow, three clicks. How do I EVER find the time?) The wailing and gnashing of teeth and promises of "I could set something up much better" need to be met with, "OK, then do so." I await your better mousetrap.
I'd go much simpler than that and ask any death penalty proponent: 'if I put all the senior members of your government and justice system (wherever you live) in a room, handed them each a loaded pistol and told them there would be no repercussions for their actions would you willingly walk into that room?'
No, I'd say "welcome to the USA." It's gotten crazy over here.
They aren't slaves they signed an employment contract.
Excuse me, what's this signing an employment contract? Most workers in the US don't sign anything except the W-2 forms that tell their owners (companies) how much to take out of the pay for Uncle Sam. You might get an email that details what the company will (sigh, GENEROUSLY) give you in sick days (not mandatory most places), health insurance (and how much they will deduct for that privilege), and a long list of don't-dos. To be in effect until they decide unilaterally to change the rules ("Pray I don't alter it any further") or drop you like a hot potato without warning.
I use a business Amex. I am a long, loyal user after my previous card, a Discover through Advanta Bank, suddenly CEASED OPERATIONS, with a week's warning. The email was something like, "We are closing and your credit cards will no longer work on (date a week away). But, of course, you'll still owe us the dosh." I had a room reservation for an upcoming business trip that would not be held when the card went away. Called other card companies, and they couldn't get me a card in a week, maybe not even two. American Express, which I had not had since the old green charge card, welcomed me back, overnighted me the card, and I am a loyal customer since. Their service, including user-friendly liveware on the phone, is an example of how to get and keep a customer.
Canadians have pennies!
The Royal Canadian Mint stopped producing and distributing pennies in Canada as of February 4, 2013 due to rising costs relative to face value and the significant handling costs of the penny for retailers, financial institutions and the economy in general. Reference Canadian Bankers Association.
It's not training until the point that the trainee has actually been observed ( and coached if required) to actually perform the task and deal with any issues- more than once.
I have always gone by the motto, "see one, do one, teach one", repeat until the "teach one" can be at least explained fully to a person unacquainted with the system as a whole.
Or an app for farmers looking to buy cattle at a cattle mart: display details of the animal in front of you, possible illnesses or injuries not apparently visible, estimated weight and so on?
Oh sweet summer child, another city boy who thinks there is WiFi, or even a prosaic cell signal, everywhere just like in New York City or Chicago. The rural corner of the Midwest I reside in there are large stretches (not hilly or mountainous, just flat land) where a cell phone is utterly useless. This is especially since 5G became the law of the land, time was I could get a 2G cell signal everywhere but those days are sadly past. Unless one lives like a caged laying hen, the telcos don't find us cost effective.
I wish there were a way to, when called by an unwanted robocaller, KEEP THEM FROM HANGING UP. To hold the line hostage for as long as the called wishes, until every one of their lines are so held, preventing them from scamming others and forcing them to beg or bribe us beleagered recipients to release the line for some consideration. I would pay very well for such a service for several months, especially the months leading up to US Medicare Enrollment Period.
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