The Swamp

Posted: **Thu Dec 17, 2020 9:42 am**

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Mon Dec 14, 2020 1:20 pm
wlu_lax6 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 14, 2020 12:47 pm
Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Mon Dec 14, 2020 12:19 pm
Keep in mind, it's a Republican governor they are complaining about.

Nobody is confusing Hogan as aligned with Trump or that wing of the Republican party.
It's not that they are aligning him with Trump. But in places like Taneytown, Linganore and Westminster there is signage specifically calling out Hogan as a tyrant.

Went to buy air filters the other day and there was a dart board up with Hogan's picture on it on their counter.

Posted: **Thu Dec 17, 2020 9:45 am**

I love my job, but good lord am I bored with it at this point.

Posted: **Thu Dec 17, 2020 9:39 pm**

Good to prepare. When the nurse leaves and it’s just you, the wife, and a screaming baby in the room, it’s good to feel just a teensy bit ready!

Posted: **Fri Dec 18, 2020 8:09 am**

bfj wrote: ↑Thu Dec 17, 2020 9:45 am I love my job, but good lord am I bored with it at this point.

Add about seven years and you're where I am. But I try to remember (especially these days) there are tens of millions worse off.

Posted: **Fri Dec 18, 2020 9:20 am**

Living and working from my mother-in-law's house for the next two weeks and she watches Good Morning America and/or Today every morning and I have no idea how anyone watches these shows. I want to do severe damage to Ryan Seacrest after only an hour of this.

Posted: **Fri Dec 18, 2020 9:24 am**

Agreed. I get pissed when that stuff comes on in the am. Fox is the only local channel not feeding me nyc pop culture drivel.

Posted: **Fri Dec 18, 2020 10:21 am**

brian wrote: ↑Fri Dec 18, 2020 9:20 am Living and working from my mother-in-law's house for the next two weeks and she watches Good Morning America and/or Today every morning and I have no idea how anyone watches these shows. I want to do severe damage to Ryan Seacrest after only an hour of this.

Seacrest is a "news" guy now, or is he doing a celebrity gossip segment or something? It's been so long since I've turned on a TV in the morning, I forgot those shows existed.

Posted: **Fri Dec 18, 2020 10:37 am**

The Sybian wrote: ↑Fri Dec 18, 2020 10:21 am
brian wrote: ↑Fri Dec 18, 2020 9:20 am Living and working from my mother-in-law's house for the next two weeks and she watches Good Morning America and/or Today every morning and I have no idea how anyone watches these shows. I want to do severe damage to Ryan Seacrest after only an hour of this.
Seacrest is a "news" guy now, or is he doing a celebrity gossip segment or something? It's been so long since I've turned on a TV in the morning, I forgot those shows existed.

It's him and Kelly Ripa, which is its own special hell.

Posted: **Fri Dec 18, 2020 10:38 am**

Now it's Wayne Brady hosting Let's Make a Deal which is scarcely better.

Posted: **Fri Dec 18, 2020 10:47 am**

Posted: **Fri Dec 18, 2020 10:54 am**

I will admit to liking the intro music to Today.

Posted: **Fri Dec 18, 2020 11:03 am**

brian wrote: ↑Fri Dec 18, 2020 10:37 am
The Sybian wrote: ↑Fri Dec 18, 2020 10:21 am
brian wrote: ↑Fri Dec 18, 2020 9:20 am Living and working from my mother-in-law's house for the next two weeks and she watches Good Morning America and/or Today every morning and I have no idea how anyone watches these shows. I want to do severe damage to Ryan Seacrest after only an hour of this.
Seacrest is a "news" guy now, or is he doing a celebrity gossip segment or something? It's been so long since I've turned on a TV in the morning, I forgot those shows existed.
It's him and Kelly Ripa, which is its own special hell.

The Regis and Kathie Lee show? That sounds like something I once knew. I can see him being great on that, and by great I mean appealing to post-menopausal women who watch that crap.

Posted: **Fri Dec 18, 2020 11:04 am**

brian wrote: ↑Fri Dec 18, 2020 10:38 am Now it's Wayne Brady hosting Let's Make a Deal which is scarcely better.

Hey now let's pump the brakes on the Wayne haters.

Posted: **Fri Dec 18, 2020 11:25 am**

All of those shows remind me of the times we've lived with parents in between moves. Only people 60+ watch them on purpose.

Posted: **Fri Dec 18, 2020 12:47 pm**

mister d wrote: ↑Fri Dec 18, 2020 11:25 am All of those shows remind me of the times we've lived with parents in between moves. Only people 60+ watch them on purpose.

Hey, fecker. Not all of us!

Posted: **Sat Dec 19, 2020 6:10 am**

Not really a rant, but our production workers at the plant are on strike. Obviously can’t go into details, but their five year contract was up, company has made what we think is a fair and competitive offer (includes guaranteed annual pay raises), but the union has turned it down each time based on some wording on job placement. Regardless, being on the management team I now get to run my section of the plant. That part is fun, actually, but working straight 12’s until they come back is not. Given it’s so close to Christmas I don’t see them coming in before, so I’ll be humping it for the foreseeable future. A fitting end to my 2020.

Posted: **Wed Dec 23, 2020 5:41 am**

Well, today marks the start of my second week on the floor. Found out we do at least get Christmas Day off, so that’s nice. My team on my specific production unit is also humming along quite nicely too, so far, which has been good. We actually had the highest output day on that production center in months yesterday. If you’re interested there is some info online that I won’t link to. Once situation is resolved I can discuss more freely.

All in all, it’s been a very weird time for me. Got promoted three weeks ago, so now am responsible for one whole section of the plant. ~80 of the striking workers are mine. Been coaching my team all week to not develop any personal animosity about the situation, because at some point they will reach a deal, and we’ve got to maintain a strong working relationship. It’s hard though because everyone is pretty tired and getting frustrated. I’m over our casting facility, so those jobs are pretty hot and pretty physical. The operators work this equipment with a few more hands, and never work this many days straight. Add in the obvious danger of working with molten metal and the stress level has been high training the management team to run the equipment. That said, they’ve done wonderfully. Given my background is highly technical, I’m manning our most difficult center, and it’s been good so far. Means that the outgoing manager is staying and covering all the other bullshit right now. But I’ll get to try and clean up this mess when they come back in, which, eh. I guess that’s what I signed up for.

Posted: **Wed Dec 23, 2020 6:53 am**

Square Rob wrote: ↑Wed Dec 23, 2020 5:41 am Well, today marks the start of my second week on the floor. Found out we do at least get Christmas Day off, so that’s nice. My team on my specific production unit is also humming along quite nicely too, so far, which has been good. We actually had the highest output day on that production center in months yesterday. If you’re interested there is some info online that I won’t link to. Once situation is resolved I can discuss more freely.

All in all, it’s been a very weird time for me. Got promoted three weeks ago, so now am responsible for one whole section of the plant. ~80 of the striking workers are mine. Been coaching my team all week to not develop any personal animosity about the situation, because at some point they will reach a deal, and we’ve got to maintain a strong working relationship. It’s hard though because everyone is pretty tired and getting frustrated. I’m over our casting facility, so those jobs are pretty hot and pretty physical. The operators work this equipment with a few more hands, and never work this many days straight. Add in the obvious danger of working with molten metal and the stress level has been high training the management team to run the equipment. That said, they’ve done wonderfully. Given my background is highly technical, I’m manning our most difficult center, and it’s been good so far. Means that the outgoing manager is staying and covering all the other bullshit right now. But I’ll get to try and clean up this mess when they come back in, which, eh. I guess that’s what I signed up for.

Nice to see a solid post.in this thread for Frstivus. Let the Airing of the Grievances begin!

Posted: **Wed Dec 23, 2020 8:42 am**

Square Rob wrote: ↑Wed Dec 23, 2020 5:41 amWe actually had the highest output day on that production center in months yesterday.

Yeah but the average wages on the floor have skyrocketed.

Posted: **Wed Dec 23, 2020 8:49 am**

Image of Square Rob teaching management how to work the floor

wonder if this movie holds up as well I remember it

Posted: **Wed Dec 23, 2020 8:57 am**

Power to the people.

Posted: **Wed Dec 23, 2020 11:25 am**

I like bars and restaurants and have tried to support local places...but I'm sick of hearing owners whining every time there's news about restrictions. Dave Portnoy, conservative sports hosts, politicians and others focusing on the plights of bars and the pressure to open them "to save the economy" has probably prolonged the economic, social, and health damaged caused by Covid. Maybe the news can talk to owners of shut down day cares, barber shops, travel services, hotels, or the million other industries that continue to die off because we had to keep the bars open.

Posted: **Wed Dec 23, 2020 11:35 am**

EdRomero wrote: ↑Wed Dec 23, 2020 11:25 am I like bars and restaurants and have tried to support local places...but I'm sick of hearing owners whining every time there's news about restrictions. Dave Portnoy, conservative sports hosts, politicians and others focusing on the plights of bars and the pressure to open them "to save the economy" has probably prolonged the economic, social, and health damaged caused by Covid. Maybe the news can talk to owners of shut down day cares, barber shops, travel services, hotels, or the million other industries that continue to die off because we had to keep the bars open.

Yeah, I had to unfollow (and maybe swear off forever, not sure yet) a local place that we really like and that we got takeout from multiple times over the summer because their IG started advertising protest rallies on Staten Island and went all-in on the "tyranny" of DeBlasio and (Gov) Murphy without even the slightest nod to the actual worsening of the current crisis.

Posted: **Wed Dec 23, 2020 11:38 am**

Yeah, I completely emphasize with what they're going through, but the difference in message is where I decide if I hate someone. "This is America you can't shut me down" is shit. "The gov't isn't helping us, we need to be open for us and our workers to survive" is completely understandable.

Posted: **Thu Dec 24, 2020 9:09 pm**

Square Rob wrote: ↑Wed Dec 23, 2020 5:41 am Well, today marks the start of my second week on the floor. Found out we do at least get Christmas Day off, so that’s nice. My team on my specific production unit is also humming along quite nicely too, so far, which has been good. We actually had the highest output day on that production center in months yesterday. If you’re interested there is some info online that I won’t link to. Once situation is resolved I can discuss more freely.

All in all, it’s been a very weird time for me. Got promoted three weeks ago, so now am responsible for one whole section of the plant. ~80 of the striking workers are mine. Been coaching my team all week to not develop any personal animosity about the situation, because at some point they will reach a deal, and we’ve got to maintain a strong working relationship. It’s hard though because everyone is pretty tired and getting frustrated. I’m over our casting facility, so those jobs are pretty hot and pretty physical. The operators work this equipment with a few more hands, and never work this many days straight. Add in the obvious danger of working with molten metal and the stress level has been high training the management team to run the equipment. That said, they’ve done wonderfully. Given my background is highly technical, I’m manning our most difficult center, and it’s been good so far. Means that the outgoing manager is staying and covering all the other bullshit right now. But I’ll get to try and clean up this mess when they come back in, which, eh. I guess that’s what I signed up for.

Hope it gets settled and back to normal soon, Bobby P.!

Posted: **Thu Dec 24, 2020 9:19 pm**

Me too, me too.

Posted: **Thu Dec 24, 2020 9:29 pm**

Yeah, best scenario for everyone is getting this put to bed. Labor disputes aren’t fun for anyone.

Posted: **Thu Dec 24, 2020 9:52 pm**

It’s really hard for me. My family history is labor. My grandfather was a teamster turned politician who supported blue collar workers his whole career. His dad and uncle were coal miner immigrants in Appalachia. My roots are in American labor. I truly care about how these guys are treated.

But on the flip side I also understand the economics of our area, and after the last two weeks have an in-depth understanding of what is achievable in any given shift. Even knowing how this equipment is designed to work, I’d never truly run it until 8 days ago. Two days ago, working with two young salary (one engineer, one maintenance) who were trained just days before, we had the third best production day of the year on our most critical piece of equipment in our department. Just today, we had the second most productive shift of the year. That shouldn’t happen. It should be damn near impossible for us to do that. It tells me that while we have some folks who truly work hard, a lot of others have fallen into predetermined rhythms. They are not pushed, and they are not harshly treated. Almost no one is fired. We have a tremendous safety record (over 8 million man hours worked since out last lost-time injury). The offer includes an annual guaranteed pay raise, and the structure changes within guarantee an additional immediate pay raise for ~60% of the employees. I mean, come on.

Posted: **Thu Dec 24, 2020 10:58 pm**

Not to be a dick, but divide your salary in half or whatever and do you think you’re still breaking records in September 2023?

Posted: **Fri Apr 09, 2021 10:11 am**

What was supposed to be a standard one-hour annual HOA meeting turned into a 3-hour one because we passed an amendment last year to make our building "non-smoking" and one of the owners decided that this amendment was a personal attack against him and lawyered up and since we follow parliamentary procedures we had to entertain all his motions and an ill-conceived resolution that he made up on the spot. The no-smoking amendment had passed easily (75% vote required but ended up with 80%+) but since this owner had a minor dispute over a shared wall repair with his neighbor who happens to be on the board, he interpreted this amendment as retaliation (he's a smoker and likely the only unit to vote against the amendment).

Thus I missed Teen Wolf. Fucker.

Posted: **Fri Apr 09, 2021 8:34 pm**

I’m sorry, PDX. That guy sounds like a shit.

And man, do HOA meetings suck. Years ago, back when I bought a condo, I went to a meeting right after I moved in. Iirc, we spent at least half an hour listening to people debate whether or not a dead tree should be removed. I never went to another meeting. (I was tempted though, after they put a big nasty note on my door threatening horrible, dire penalties if I didn’t immediately remove a dart board I had on my balcony.)

Posted: **Tue Apr 13, 2021 11:23 am**

Fucking Trump "tax cuts" are killing me. I knew he capped the amount of property tax I could deduct, which really killed me since I was paying on two houses for 7 months this year. I've been taking home office deductions for several years since my company officially listed me as a remote employee. I put in for that, and despite changing the amounts and getting different credit amounts, it wasn't changing my total tax liability. Now I realize you can only deduct income from a 1099 or business you own, the 2018 "tax cuts" prevent you from deducting home office stuff from W-2 income. Also annoyed that this is the first year itemized deductions seem to help me, and it's the one year we didn't have to attend a fuckton of fundraising galas with expectations of sizable donations. I hate taxes, if only someone had a plan for a flat tax. What happened to that Pizza Man with the 9-9-9 plan...

Posted: **Wed Apr 14, 2021 10:40 am**

The Sybian wrote: ↑Tue Apr 13, 2021 11:23 am Fucking Trump "tax cuts" are killing me. I knew he capped the amount of property tax I could deduct, which really killed me since I was paying on two houses for 7 months this year. I've been taking home office deductions for several years since my company officially listed me as a remote employee. I put in for that, and despite changing the amounts and getting different credit amounts, it wasn't changing my total tax liability. Now I realize you can only deduct income from a 1099 or business you own, the 2018 "tax cuts" prevent you from deducting home office stuff from W-2 income. Also annoyed that this is the first year itemized deductions seem to help me, and it's the one year we didn't have to attend a fuckton of fundraising galas with expectations of sizable donations. I hate taxes, if only someone had a plan for a flat tax. What happened to that Pizza Man with the 9-9-9 plan...

If I hadn't have gone back to school we would have been on the hook for a manageable but not negligible amount of taxes. Because I paid 2020 out of pocket though, i got a deduction, so it really helped. Will help pay for the part of 2021 my work won't!

Posted: **Mon May 03, 2021 6:15 pm**

Not sure where else to put this, but my wife has melanoma and I just fucking hate everything.

She went and got a mole removed back at the end of February and the biopsy came back positive with what was initially a 2mm melanoma, but ended up being 1.2mm.

At the end of March I went on emergency leave to assist through her surgery to get the 'sentinel' lymph node removed. That too came back with a 1mm melanoma.

So now it's immunotherapy. I had to come back to Korea, but I'm told it can get curtailed (I'm supposed to be here until November), but I'm waiting for her oncologist to give me some signed documentation for the humanitarian reassignment package. He's taking forever with that.

In the meantime I'm just trying not to cry all the time. She doesn't deserve this. I'm going to remain hopeful. I just hate that my mind keeps wandering into bad thoughts.

Posted: **Mon May 03, 2021 6:20 pm**

Jeebus. Good luck with that, man!

Posted: **Mon May 03, 2021 6:30 pm**

Oh Johnnie, that is awful.

Posted: **Mon May 03, 2021 6:35 pm**

Fucking hell, man. Sorry to hear that.

Posted: **Mon May 03, 2021 6:47 pm**

Stay strong, airman.

Posted: **Mon May 03, 2021 6:55 pm**

All the best, Johnnie.

Damn.

Posted: **Mon May 03, 2021 7:09 pm**

Thanks, fellas. Her and I will get through this.

The Swamp

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