Random Thought Thread v2

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by RichieRich

I think I used the paddle shifter on my then-newer car a few times the first week or so of ownership... that was ~5years ago. Kinda forgot about it actually. Is it actually practical to use the paddle shifter on your steering wheel? Who actually uses them?

For shifting up - unless you have a dual clutch that can make your shifts super fast - they're useless. I do use mine daily for downshifting, though. Like to not ride the brakes down a hill, or just to kind of shed some speed.

[Fuzz]

They are handy in a CVT to "shift down" to get into the power band for an overtake, or to lock in 1st for "launch mode"(yes, sarcasm).

[Brendone]

Originally Posted by WhiteTiger

I have used a thumb-ball mouse for years. I absolutely love it.

https://www.memoryexpress.com/Produc...0aAvXwEALw_wcB

Used to love my trackman marble back in the day, now I want one again. They don’t seem to come as a mouse+keyboard combo (single usb)?

[GordonBlue]

I have this old Oiler program featuring Glen Sather after he was elected to the hall of fame. I thought since playoff fever is going on, I might be able to unload it to some Oiler fan.

There is an autograph on it with a silver marker, but it looks very uniform and doesn't seem to be any thicker lines where a marker may have rested. I'm thinking it's an Autopen signature. I would guess that a lot of sports teams would have them.

So I don't think I can put in the ad it's signed or autographed, but I'm hoping that whomever looks at the picture won't make any distinction.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by RichieRich

I think I used the paddle shifter on my then-newer car a few times the first week or so of ownership... that was ~5years ago. Kinda forgot about it actually. Is it actually practical to use the paddle shifter on your steering wheel? Who actually uses them?

It depends on the car. My wife had a Subaru Outback 3.6R and it had paddle shifters which seemed pointless to me especially given the manual shifts were slow and not pleasing. My X3MC had paddle shifters and I used them really only when I had the M-modes dialed up.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

I have this old Oiler program featuring Glen Sather after he was elected to the hall of fame. I thought since playoff fever is going on, I might be able to unload it to some Oiler fan.

There is an autograph on it with a silver marker, but it looks very uniform and doesn't seem to be any thicker lines where a marker may have rested. I'm thinking it's an Autopen signature. I would guess that a lot of sports teams would have them.

So I don't think I can put in the ad it's signed or autographed, but I'm hoping that whomever looks at the picture won't make any distinction.

Pretend to be a clueless and say, "Edmonton Oiler memorabilia with signature"?

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

Pretend to be a clueless and say, "Edmonton Oiler memorabilia with signature"?

thanks. that's a good way to put it without lying.

[GordonBlue]

have a few items I'm trying to sell.

Always a bit depressing when you have the reality of what someone is willing to pay for your stuff. The amount of what I hoped for wasn't anywhere near what I'm getting offered.
A good reminder to forget what the internet tells you. Things are only worth what people are willing to pay. I forgot that a little bit.

[Buff]

Originally Posted by Sliver

For shifting up - unless you have a dual clutch that can make your shifts super fast - they're useless. I do use mine daily for downshifting, though. Like to not ride the brakes down a hill, or just to kind of shed some speed.

My Mazda 5 could use manual shift mode. I would use it in the winter to downshift when it was ice and I was approaching an intersection. Also on the westside hill (I'm in Lethbridge), for both bad weather and to control speed without riding breaks.

[81MC]

Man stressed and don’t know how to handle it. Poor daughter was sent home from daycare today, sick again. That sucks enough on its own man, but trying to balance that with work ia just milling me. Wife makes more and her job has shown growth that mine hasn’t, and she has a less flexible schedule so it only makes sense that I miss the days she needs care. But coupled with my own issues that have cropped up recently and being the one to take her to daycare in the AM, since January I’ve probably missed 15% of work time entirely and been either emotionally vacant or too tired to perform well. So here I am trying to get a promotion that probably won’t come because I’ve been underperforming and because of that I will continue to be the one who misses work during work time and is trying to get housework and job work done at 11pm all the fuxking time.

I seriously don’t know how people do it man. If I had known, we would have had a way stronger financial plan to allow one parent to stay home full time. Stressing about falling behind at work while stressing over trying to get your sick kid to fall asleep is stressing me out.

[Wormius]

What kind of work environment are you in? Our company is fine bringing in kids once in a while, but if you’re welding or in some manufacturing environment it might be harder. Maybe your spouse’s can accommodate it if yours can’t.

I think best thing we did was to find daycare close to work - not close to home. Much less stress. Keep housework stuff for the weekends. Nobody (except maybe Sliver) really cares when you have young kids if the house is messy, or the mirrors have spots.

Try to find some ways to make your routine go smoother, like making meals that last a few days or a week.

[PaperBagger'14]

81MC, any chance of having some family members help out on occasion?

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Wormius

What kind of work environment are you in? Our company is fine bringing in kids once in a while, but if you’re welding or in some manufacturing environment it might be harder. Maybe your spouse’s can accommodate it if yours can’t.

I think best thing we did was to find daycare close to work - not close to home. Much less stress. Keep housework stuff for the weekends. Nobody (except maybe Sliver) really cares when you have young kids if the house is messy, or the mirrors have spots.

Try to find some ways to make your routine go smoother, like making meals that last a few days or a week.

Why? Their small nimble fingers would be ideal! What if you need chimneys swept?

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Locke

Why? Their small nimble fingers would be ideal! What if you need chimneys swept?

I guess they’re easier to toss on the roof too.

[FireFly]

Originally Posted by 81MC

Man stressed and don’t know how to handle it. Poor daughter was sent home from daycare today, sick again. That sucks enough on its own man, but trying to balance that with work ia just milling me. Wife makes more and her job has shown growth that mine hasn’t, and she has a less flexible schedule so it only makes sense that I miss the days she needs care. But coupled with my own issues that have cropped up recently and being the one to take her to daycare in the AM, since January I’ve probably missed 15% of work time entirely and been either emotionally vacant or too tired to perform well. So here I am trying to get a promotion that probably won’t come because I’ve been underperforming and because of that I will continue to be the one who misses work during work time and is trying to get housework and job work done at 11pm all the fuxking time.

I seriously don’t know how people do it man. If I had known, we would have had a way stronger financial plan to allow one parent to stay home full time. Stressing about falling behind at work while stressing over trying to get your sick kid to fall asleep is stressing me out.

I absolutely feel your pain. I have been back at work from maternity leave since February and have already run through a full 40 hours of banked time and then some. It's obvious that my boss doesn't trust I'll be around and I have surgery on Friday and will have to work from home for at least a week. I have left a few projects for myself to do from home so that's fine but once a month I appear to need two days off to take care of sick kids.

I do have my mom to call and look after the littles on occasion but it's not the same. The repercussions of COVID are that our kids are getting sick more often until they make up for the illnesses they missed over the last two years.

[OutOfTheCube]

I work full time days and my wife works part time evenings (5-10 PM 3-4 days a week), allows us to cover child care for 3 ourselves while bringing in enough income. Of course, your financial situation needs to allow for that scenario -- we have a pretty modest sized home for a family of 5, one of our cars is paid off (while the other got a good down payment, so the monthly payments are pretty low for a new vehicle), we don't go on a lot of expensive vacations or own any trailers or rental properties like everyone else we know seems to. No student loans gouging us. So it all depends, but it might be something to think about if you can swing it.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

have a few items I'm trying to sell.

Always a bit depressing when you have the reality of what someone is willing to pay for your stuff. The amount of what I hoped for wasn't anywhere near what I'm getting offered.
A good reminder to forget what the internet tells you. Things are only worth what people are willing to pay. I forgot that a little bit.

I typically search for the going rates of the same or similar goods and price accordingly based on the condition of the goods I am selling. Always prepare to be met initially with lowball offers of "I will give you $xx today!" as that seems to be the standard approach used on Kijiji, Facebook, etc but hold off for more reasonable offers that usually come in time. If you aren't getting any bites after a month or two it's a sign that your asking price is too high or the item simply undesirable and if it's the latter you have to weigh the pros and cons of just taking a lowball offer to get rid of it or sit on it for a long time.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by 81MC

Man stressed and don’t know how to handle it. Poor daughter was sent home from daycare today, sick again. That sucks enough on its own man, but trying to balance that with work ia just milling me. Wife makes more and her job has shown growth that mine hasn’t, and she has a less flexible schedule so it only makes sense that I miss the days she needs care. But coupled with my own issues that have cropped up recently and being the one to take her to daycare in the AM, since January I’ve probably missed 15% of work time entirely and been either emotionally vacant or too tired to perform well. So here I am trying to get a promotion that probably won’t come because I’ve been underperforming and because of that I will continue to be the one who misses work during work time and is trying to get housework and job work done at 11pm all the fuxking time.

I seriously don’t know how people do it man. If I had known, we would have had a way stronger financial plan to allow one parent to stay home full time. Stressing about falling behind at work while stressing over trying to get your sick kid to fall asleep is stressing me out.

I get it. It sucks. I tell some people that being a parent is like being on overdrive all the time. Performance wise, your batteries will never charge over 60-70% ever again, but you find out you have two batteries, so your actual output is more like 120-140%. Give yourself props. You're doing more per day than you used to before. The challenges are higher at 2+ kids, but some of these things get easier as they age and you use more tricks on them to find a happy medium.

If you can't sleep, I found that's a good time to do some chores (assuming it's quiet) or some hobbies rather than stress during the day about how you are too tired to fully enjoy the hobbies or will be too tired to do those chores. Sometimes you throw money at the issue. Shop for groceries at 3AM and then you can pick it up for a few bucks? Worth it. Automate some of your home or solve smaller problems that congeal with other small problems to be a bigger problem. Things like that. Learning how to survive on 3-5 hours of sleep on a regular basis is part of the skillset to learn as a parent.

At work, be open about being apologetic about missing so much work due to illness (kids or your own). If someone comments, seriously, push back. "I'm not happy either. I'd rather be in the office working hard towards a promotion rather than taking care of a sick kid, but it is what it is... If you don't like this, I'll find a role that can better meet this." Be firm, fair and nice about it. I did this as well. It was uncomfortable for a few hours or days after the conversation, but everything shook out and is working out for the better afterwards.

I mean, I'm also the type where I put in like 10 hours and I can get 13-14 hours worth of output. I'm just not consistent with recent events and it goes way up and way down. After chatting with the owners, I even offloaded 40% of my previous admin work to the managers that pulled me aside to have that conversation and they non-stop bitch about the fact it's a lot of work. Also, they take like 45 mins to 2 hours to do it and I can do it in 1/3rd the time because I'm so used to it.

Some people just got used to my efficiencies and take it for granted and now they've started showing appreciation for it. For some of the admin work I've spun off, I've had some others approach me at the office and ask me to do tasks and give me gifts (bribe) me to agree to do them. "Sorry DoubleF, can you help me with this instead of manager? You do it way faster and it's easier to follow than manager."

Overall, yes, perhaps I'm underperforming for the moment, but it is likely just going to be a 1-2 year temporary blip. I've way overperformed for the years prior and I'll reach overperforming/par again later on. Don't worry. If the company is being #### about the scenario, #### them. If they won't someone else will. No need to stress. There's always a silver lining.

Good luck.

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

I typically search for the going rates of the same or similar goods and price accordingly based on the condition of the goods I am selling. Always prepare to be met initially with lowball offers of "I will give you $xx today!" as that seems to be the standard approach used on Kijiji, Facebook, etc but hold off for more reasonable offers that usually come in time. If you aren't getting any bites after a month or two it's a sign that your asking price is too high or the item simply undesirable and if it's the latter you have to weigh the pros and cons of just taking a lowball offer to get rid of it or sit on it for a long time.

yeah. A couple of items I did settle for the low offer, as there are just too many of the item out there for sale and something is better than nothing.
I'm usually happy to get rid of an item over having it taking up space.

My advice to people is to not collect anything. My parents collected a few things that are now out of fashion and there is no market whatsoever for them. I remember my dad saying "these will be worth a lot of money one day".
heh. no. it's worth less than what was paid for the stuff 30 or 40 years ago.
it's garbage.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

yeah. A couple of items I did settle for the low offer, as there are just too many of the item out there for sale and something is better than nothing.
I'm usually happy to get rid of an item over having it taking up space.

My advice to people is to not collect anything. My parents collected a few things that are now out of fashion and there is no market whatsoever for them. I remember my dad saying "these will be worth a lot of money one day".
heh. no. it's worth less than what was paid for the stuff 30 or 40 years ago.
it's garbage.

Kinda curious what those were.