Random thoughts that are pointless and too dumb to say anywhere else thread: 2015–2018 (plus one)

[Thurston Fluff]

If you click on the video on the right you'll see some of the coolest balloon art imginable. It starts with a lot of building of the art but if you go towards the end it's got all the finsihed products. It's well worth a look. https://worldballoonconvention.qualatex.com/en-us/

[jerichoholicninja]

I've been trying to get our garden planted all weekend. But it's been too damn hot to spend big chunks of time in the sun. When I was out there this morning I was thinking "I wish this garden was more in the shade." Then I realized that kind of defeats the purpose.

[hawing]

We've had plants ready to plant since mid-May, but it's either been too wet or too hot, or the nice days are on days we have to do something else, like go to work, or Miller Park.

[LouisEly]

I drove a car recently that had a feature in it that would automatically slow down if you had the cruise control on and got too close to the vehicle in front of you, and would then automatically speed back up when traffic moved faster or the vehicle no longer was in front of you.

 

Does anyone know how slow that technology will work at? If it works at 5-10 mph when I'm sitting in traffic... that would be absolutely lovely, and provide quite a bit of relief for my right knee and foot.

[SeaBass]

I drove a car recently that had a feature in it that would automatically slow down if you had the cruise control on and got too close to the vehicle in front of you, and would then automatically speed back up when traffic moved faster or the vehicle no longer was in front of you.

 

Does anyone know how slow that technology will work at? If it works at 5-10 mph when I'm sitting in traffic... that would be absolutely lovely, and provide quite a bit of relief for my right knee and foot.

It's called Adaptive (or Autonomous) Cruise Control. I have it on my Jeep Grand Cherokee and use it all the time. It will slow you down to the slower speeds and still speed back up but it isn't intended for stop and go traffic. Mine isn't anyway. Some car models do offer the stop and go but they're the luxury brands, Audi, Volvo, BMW etc. You need to do your homework to check which version a particular car has if you are in the market for a new vehicle.

 

To be honest once it gets down around 10 mph or slower I just kill the cruise and operate it normally anyway. But I'm not in a big city so haven't really been tempted or had much opportunity to test it in heavy slow traffic.

 

Other minor annoyances, on the freeway the cruise keeps you a safe distance away from the car in front of you but then other drivers think that gap is fair game and will cut in front of you, causing the cruise system to slow down even more to allow for the new vehicle in front of you. If your goal is to just keep up with traffic you'll end up cancelling the cruise and driving normally anyway, at least until the traffic lightens up a bit and there aren't as many drivers willing to cut you off.

 

Overall, great feature and I love it. It only gets annoying in certain situations but that's not really a fault of the feature itself.

[RobDeer 45]

Ya I love adaptive cruise! I've had it in the last few cars and now have become accustom to it. When I drive a car without it, I always forget to break. One of our volvos also has driver assistance. It drives the car for you when the cruise is on. You need to move the steering wheel every minute or so, otherwise it will turn it off, because it's not meant to fully take over. I use it on road trips and it really does make the drive much easier. It's like you are driving but you have someone else making helping you, to make sure you're doing a good job.

[trwi7]

I hope you're getting to do everything you loved. Sit under a tree and chew on sticks. Chase rabbits and squirrels. Lay on the biggest bed you can find and look out a window. Just know how much I love you and how much I miss you. You were my first dog. You were one of a kind. I wouldn't have traded you or the time we had for anything. Words can't describe how much you meant to me.

 

 

Sorry for taking the thread down this path. It's been a day and I'm still a complete wreck.

[hawing]

I'm really sorry for your loss, trwi7. It's as tough as losing any other family member.

[stoutdude04]

Ah. Sorry for your loss. My little guy passed away a little over a year ago...it was an awful week. My wife and I rescued a pup about 6 months after and I've never been happier with our decision.

[RobDeer 45]

Man, so sorry for your loss. Really really tough. Went through it two years ago with my first ever dog. It gets easier as time goes by. More smiling and laughing when you think about your dog, instead of being sad, but you'll always miss them. Dogs are the best! I feel for you. Hang in there.

[reillymcshane]

So sorry. Losing a pet is hard. Like others, I went through it for the first time three years ago. They become so omnipresent in your life - when they are gone, it's just a big void.

 

We rescued a dog about 3-4 months after our golden retriever passed away. He's awesome.

[Thurston Fluff]

It's always hard to say goodbye. I had to put mine down a week before Christmas which put a damper on the holiday season. I got rescue dog in mid January and she is about as opposite of the last one as it's possible to be. My old one was the most focused dog I ever met and the new one has the attention span of a gnat.

[Patrick425]

Looking at today's celebrity birthday's today in the GreenSheet. I noticed Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross (the Mom and Dad from family ties) have the exact same birthdays! Same year! They both turn 71 today. Had no idea about that little nugget of trivia.

[Thurston Fluff]

My dog hides in the shower during storms and fireworks. This morning he came out of the shower as I was shaving and half asleep. I spent the next ten minutes trying to sow my head back on. Safe razor my arse.

[cesser000]

My dog hides in the shower during storms and fireworks. This morning he came out of the shower as I was shaving and half asleep. I spent the next ten minutes trying to sow my head back on. Safe razor my arse.

That is one of the funniest things I've ever read on these boards

[LouisEly]

Wondering what products people have had success with regarding buffing out paint transfer on a car.

[nodakfan17]

Do they still sell souvenir soda cups at Miller Park?

 

I have about 20 (one for every game I’ve attended in my adult life). However, I wasn’t able to find them for sale on the terrace level during my one trip last season nor during my May visit this year.

[nodakfan17]

My summer intern was watching a World Cup match on his phone yesterday while at his desk. Is that still taboo? I personally wouldn’t do it, but in this day and age, I feel like it might almost be acceptable. There’s an expectation in my office that we must be available on some nights and weekends to work on certain key projects, so the boundaries of traditional 8-5 schedule have been blurred.

[tmwiese55]

My summer intern was watching a World Cup match on his phone yesterday while at his desk. Is that still taboo? I personally wouldn’t do it, but in this day and age, I feel like it might almost be acceptable. There’s an expectation in my office that we must be available on some nights and weekends to work on certain key projects, so the boundaries of traditional 8-5 schedule have been blurred.

 

I'd say there is a difference between "watching" and just having it on in the background. If they're just head down watching it for several mins on end (clearly not paying attention/working) then it's a problem. If it's just on so you can keep updated every once in a while and see if something major happens then no big deal. For example, in my office we have TVs on the wall and generally sports on when something's going on. Just don't be the idiot with your back to the computer watching for 20 mins. That said during the WC we've had to deal with a guy doing exactly that, along with putting headphones on and watching crap on his phone over and over.

 

One thing I try to remember is that in a way this is just more blatant or obvious than what I do of reading online and posting on a board like this, this type of thing just isn't as clear that you're not working and since I'm looking at my computer I can do two things and immediately see anything that comes up on email. And we all know that everyone wastes time on random stuff through the day and watching something like WC isn't much different. Biggest thing I try to remember dealing with this type of topic is smoking, as in if joe schmo watches WC for 10 mins is that really any different than people who go stand outside for 20 mins at time multiple times per day, really it's better since the person isn't killing himself.

[chuckiehacks]

I once had an employee (she was a millennial) tell me that "catching up on Gilmore Girls" on her ipad while she "worked" was no different than listening to music at her desk.

 

Um, what?

[LouisEly]

I'll bet she still is a millennial.

[hawing]

My summer intern was watching a World Cup match on his phone yesterday while at his desk. Is that still taboo? I personally wouldn’t do it, but in this day and age, I feel like it might almost be acceptable. There’s an expectation in my office that we must be available on some nights and weekends to work on certain key projects, so the boundaries of traditional 8-5 schedule have been blurred.

This has been an issue at my library checkout desk for quite a while, because (1) unfiltered internet is necessary for our work and so literally at our fingertips, and (2) my employees are all college students for whom online multitasking is second nature.

 

I decided years ago to not try to ban the use of "personal" internet at the desk. I can't enforce it (if I had time to, I'd be staffing the circulation desk myself) and I won't pretend I never peek at Gmail or Twitter or BF.net or listen (with earbuds) to a day game.

 

Instead, I tell them that judicious personal use is okay, if they limit it to the approximate amount of time they'd otherwise use on a break. I ask them to avoid image-rich sites (**story below) and to not use their own devices. Audio is out at the front desk because it's a library. If it's a football Saturday, they can keep a window open with the score of the big game. Stuff like that.

 

Honestly, since some of the projects I make my students work on are pretty tedious, once their eyes start to glaze over I'd rather they stopped for a few minutes to check their email or whatever.

 

It seems to work okay. I used to ask that they keep phones off while on desk duty, but since text alerts are how the university delivers emergency messages (like a threat outside), I altered that rule to phones on silent while on desk duty.

 

 

**Story: One of my students in the early 2000s decided to spend an evening perusing the Lands End website for new swim trunks. Lands End is not a racy website by any stretch of the imagination, but it took just one person walking by who happened to notice topless men on a screen, and confusion ensued. Thankfully it was easily cleared up.

[Thurston Fluff]

Honestly, since some of the projects I make my students work on are pretty tedious, once their eyes start to glaze over I'd rather they stopped for a few minutes to check their email or whatever.

 

Ditto for us. We employ mostly teenagers and college age kids. We ask them to work the shop alone and give them projects to do that can sometimes be tedious. As long as the projects we give them are done on time and correctly I don't mind. The only other demand is they have to be responsive to the customers when they come in. Don't act out out or ignore them while you finish your tweet. In some ways I think it can help them when a job demands they pay attention but is really boring work.

[AKCheesehead]

Whenever I read Brice Turang’s name, in my head I read it in Lurch’s voice. “Tuuraaang?”

[nodakfan17]

If a Packer fan owns a Brett Favre Vikings jersey, are they still a Packer fan? Jets jersey? Fine. Vikings jersey? C’mon.