Profile for stereoroid:
Recent front page messages:
Best answers to questions:
[read all their answers]
- a member for 7 years, 1 month and 9 days
- has posted 1548 messages on the main board
- (of which 2 have appeared on the front page)
- has posted 1 messages on the talk board
- has posted 11 messages on the links board
- (including 6 links)
- has posted 87 stories and 57 replies on question of the week
- They liked 94 pictures, 1 links, 0 talk posts, and 26 qotw answers.
- Ignore this user
- Add this user as a friend
- send me a message
Recent front page messages:
boeing... boeing... boeing...
whee!
I've now answered some of your queries - sorry 'bout the delay...
(Fri 31st Jan 2003, 14:06, More)
whee!
I've now answered some of your queries - sorry 'bout the delay...
(Fri 31st Jan 2003, 14:06, More)
Best answers to questions:
» Cross Dressing
Cross Dressing is dangerous.
One time I was in a bad mood after an argument, and pulled my jeans on too quickly. Zip... ARGH! The moral of the story is: don't cross dress; take a deep breath, sit down and count to ten, before putting any clothes on.
(Sun 18th Mar 2007, 3:44, More)
Cross Dressing is dangerous.
One time I was in a bad mood after an argument, and pulled my jeans on too quickly. Zip... ARGH! The moral of the story is: don't cross dress; take a deep breath, sit down and count to ten, before putting any clothes on.
(Sun 18th Mar 2007, 3:44, More)
» I Drank Meths (pointless teenage things you did to shock)
altophilia
Some people are scared of heights... I'm the opposite: I love to get as far off this planet as I can. I'm not talking about the "mile high club" or anything fetishistic: in a plane, I get a little buzz from knowing that there are seven miles of bugger-all beneath me. As an adult (?), I can afford to fly across the Atlantic to Toronto, climb the CN Tower, and stand on the glass floor, looking straight down. Show me a skyscraper, and I want to see the view from the top.
As a kid... well, you can imagine what happened when grain silos went up, in the small town I lived in (in Natal, South Africa). Two rows of six concrete monstrosities, each about two hundred feet high, with a conical roof.
We soon found that there were no security guards at weekends, and this was before CCTV became common. My stepbrother was chicken, but I was straight up the ladder on the outside of one of the silos. At the top, each silo was fed by a covered conveyor belt, but there was enough space for me to slide down the outside to the edge, and look down.
Running on the conveyor belts, playing in the service lifts, pulling levers and getting showered with dirty maize... good times. We never got caught, not even close. The ultimate stupidity was something I only did twice: jump across the six foot gap between two silos. If any adult had seen me, I would have been grounded for life. Had I slipped, I would have been "grounded" for sure. Eek!
Length? Pshaw. Tell me how far up it goes.
(Sat 21st Jul 2007, 11:10, More)
altophilia
Some people are scared of heights... I'm the opposite: I love to get as far off this planet as I can. I'm not talking about the "mile high club" or anything fetishistic: in a plane, I get a little buzz from knowing that there are seven miles of bugger-all beneath me. As an adult (?), I can afford to fly across the Atlantic to Toronto, climb the CN Tower, and stand on the glass floor, looking straight down. Show me a skyscraper, and I want to see the view from the top.
As a kid... well, you can imagine what happened when grain silos went up, in the small town I lived in (in Natal, South Africa). Two rows of six concrete monstrosities, each about two hundred feet high, with a conical roof.
We soon found that there were no security guards at weekends, and this was before CCTV became common. My stepbrother was chicken, but I was straight up the ladder on the outside of one of the silos. At the top, each silo was fed by a covered conveyor belt, but there was enough space for me to slide down the outside to the edge, and look down.
Running on the conveyor belts, playing in the service lifts, pulling levers and getting showered with dirty maize... good times. We never got caught, not even close. The ultimate stupidity was something I only did twice: jump across the six foot gap between two silos. If any adult had seen me, I would have been grounded for life. Had I slipped, I would have been "grounded" for sure. Eek!
Length? Pshaw. Tell me how far up it goes.
(Sat 21st Jul 2007, 11:10, More)
» IT Support
The Last Straw
I worked in senior support for a major PC company for nearly eight years, but by January 2007, after much thought, I'd finally decided to give it all up. I sent in my application for a university place, for an Engineering (non-IT) degree, though I didn't want to resign till I actually had the place and it was closer to September. In March I was sent to Colorado for a training course, and took a side trip to see the people doing the same job as me for the Americas region.
The office was like a cross between a Dilbert cartoon and a scene from The Shining. 10,000 square feet of cubicles, almost all of them empty. My American colleagues were crammed in to one corner of this space, and they were not happy. Some of them were much older than me and clearly had more experience, yet probably made 2/3 of the pay I did and got 10 days leave a year. They were pissed off at how they kept getting more work while their numbers dwindled, though they didn't have much time to talk to me. It was just sad to see what was happening to them, and if that was a glimpse of my future, well, I didn't want it.
Their manager drove me back in to town so I could get the Greyhound back to Denver later. Once he got over his amazement that I was happy taking a bus - "guy must be from Europe or sumfing" - we had dinner and beers at a local bar. He was clearly glad to have someone to talk to besides his people, and underlined what I had long suspected: IT Support people were considered expendable, and not really part of the company. I had even been to Bangalore to train some people to do my job, while US jobs were heading to Costa Rica.
By the time the Greyhound pulled back in to Denver, I knew I'd be getting out, and by the end of May, after an interview, I knew I had the university place. I just started 3rd year, and despite the financial insecurity and the possibility I'll be unemployed afterwards, I'm still confident I made the right decision.
(Sun 27th Sep 2009, 0:33, More)
The Last Straw
I worked in senior support for a major PC company for nearly eight years, but by January 2007, after much thought, I'd finally decided to give it all up. I sent in my application for a university place, for an Engineering (non-IT) degree, though I didn't want to resign till I actually had the place and it was closer to September. In March I was sent to Colorado for a training course, and took a side trip to see the people doing the same job as me for the Americas region.
The office was like a cross between a Dilbert cartoon and a scene from The Shining. 10,000 square feet of cubicles, almost all of them empty. My American colleagues were crammed in to one corner of this space, and they were not happy. Some of them were much older than me and clearly had more experience, yet probably made 2/3 of the pay I did and got 10 days leave a year. They were pissed off at how they kept getting more work while their numbers dwindled, though they didn't have much time to talk to me. It was just sad to see what was happening to them, and if that was a glimpse of my future, well, I didn't want it.
Their manager drove me back in to town so I could get the Greyhound back to Denver later. Once he got over his amazement that I was happy taking a bus - "guy must be from Europe or sumfing" - we had dinner and beers at a local bar. He was clearly glad to have someone to talk to besides his people, and underlined what I had long suspected: IT Support people were considered expendable, and not really part of the company. I had even been to Bangalore to train some people to do my job, while US jobs were heading to Costa Rica.
By the time the Greyhound pulled back in to Denver, I knew I'd be getting out, and by the end of May, after an interview, I knew I had the university place. I just started 3rd year, and despite the financial insecurity and the possibility I'll be unemployed afterwards, I'm still confident I made the right decision.
(Sun 27th Sep 2009, 0:33, More)
» Housemates
The Voice Of Experience (O RLY?)
I've been doing this for almost 10 years now, and I've learned a few things along the way:
1) Communication is paramount. Talk to each other. Don't assume: ask. If you think someone's doing something weird, ask about it.
2) People are different. They see different things, and do different things, to different schedules. Don't lose your rag if you spot mushrooms growing behind the bathtub (which really happened to me): sort it. How can they miss that? Isn't it obviously a problem? Well, yes, other people can miss things that are blindingly obvious to you - and vice versa.
3) Use English, or another common language. Don't drop hints or leave "signs": they will get missed. The only way you can be sure someone gets the message you want them to get is to tell them plainly.
4) Your flatmates are (usually) on your side. They're paying rent too. I know there are wackos, and I've met a few of those, but I've also been seen as a wacko, when I was anything but. (I did something the others didn't immediately understand, and they assumed the worst, rather than simply ask me about it.)
(Sun 1st Mar 2009, 23:27, More)
The Voice Of Experience (O RLY?)
I've been doing this for almost 10 years now, and I've learned a few things along the way:
1) Communication is paramount. Talk to each other. Don't assume: ask. If you think someone's doing something weird, ask about it.
2) People are different. They see different things, and do different things, to different schedules. Don't lose your rag if you spot mushrooms growing behind the bathtub (which really happened to me): sort it. How can they miss that? Isn't it obviously a problem? Well, yes, other people can miss things that are blindingly obvious to you - and vice versa.
3) Use English, or another common language. Don't drop hints or leave "signs": they will get missed. The only way you can be sure someone gets the message you want them to get is to tell them plainly.
4) Your flatmates are (usually) on your side. They're paying rent too. I know there are wackos, and I've met a few of those, but I've also been seen as a wacko, when I was anything but. (I did something the others didn't immediately understand, and they assumed the worst, rather than simply ask me about it.)
(Sun 1st Mar 2009, 23:27, More)
» Being told off as an adult
my signature is wrong
I'm a new mature student at University College Dublin, and I was told off yesterday. Or, at least, someone tried to tell me off, but the years leading up to this, working for a large IT company, have left me with zero tolerance for bureaucratic bullshit.
Sequence of events:
- 1st Physics lab has a sign-in sheet, which I duly sign, next to my name in the column marked "signature"
- another bloke - prob. the course head - comes in to class, looks at the sign-in sheet, and calls out my name. The following (paraphrased) dialogue ensues:
"I can't accept this signature."
"Why not?"
"I can't read it."
"Eh?"
"I can't decipher your name from your signature."
"Well, it's my signature, next to my name."
"I need to read your name from the signature"
"Why? If you had a reference sample of my signature, you could match it."
"Well, I need to read your name, to see if it matches."
"Well, that's my signature. I can print my name if you like."
"No, I need to read your signature. This signature is wrong."
"How can my signature be wrong? It's my signature, and it's not going to change now."
Bloke wanders off, muttering to himself, and I printed my name alongside my signature. I suppose he's used to dealing with 1st year kiddies, still wet behind the ears, whose signatures are not yet fully formed. Well, I've had 20+ years for my signature to solidify in to its current form, and it's not about to change just because someone can't read my name from it. Twunt.
(Sat 22nd Sep 2007, 15:29, More)
my signature is wrong
I'm a new mature student at University College Dublin, and I was told off yesterday. Or, at least, someone tried to tell me off, but the years leading up to this, working for a large IT company, have left me with zero tolerance for bureaucratic bullshit.
Sequence of events:
- 1st Physics lab has a sign-in sheet, which I duly sign, next to my name in the column marked "signature"
- another bloke - prob. the course head - comes in to class, looks at the sign-in sheet, and calls out my name. The following (paraphrased) dialogue ensues:
"I can't accept this signature."
"Why not?"
"I can't read it."
"Eh?"
"I can't decipher your name from your signature."
"Well, it's my signature, next to my name."
"I need to read your name from the signature"
"Why? If you had a reference sample of my signature, you could match it."
"Well, I need to read your name, to see if it matches."
"Well, that's my signature. I can print my name if you like."
"No, I need to read your signature. This signature is wrong."
"How can my signature be wrong? It's my signature, and it's not going to change now."
Bloke wanders off, muttering to himself, and I printed my name alongside my signature. I suppose he's used to dealing with 1st year kiddies, still wet behind the ears, whose signatures are not yet fully formed. Well, I've had 20+ years for my signature to solidify in to its current form, and it's not about to change just because someone can't read my name from it. Twunt.
(Sat 22nd Sep 2007, 15:29, More)