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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 20th, 2023

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  • When I was younger my mom had cats(started normal 1 or 2, got insane… Highest number I remember is 37 but now she has 0). One cat was a hunter through and through. Basically there was a hall way that ended in the kitchen and my room was the first door from the kitchen. I was sitting at my computer desk, the cat was on top of the fridge. The cat jumped up the fridge, hit ground, jumped again reached my door frame, backfliped off it, caught a fly in it’s front paws, landed, ate fly, looked at me like “aren’t you impressed?”

    Another time… Same cat actually… Another cat had a litter of kittens(old enough to walk and see etc but still kittens)… Hunter jumps in my living room window with a live chipmunk. Puts it down and calls the kittens. The basically encircle the chipmunk and the hunter removes its paw and steps back. Nothing happens. Chipmunk is terrified. One kitten walks up and swats it. Chipmunk runs. Hunter chases, grabs it and brings it back to the circle. This cycle repeats until the kittens have a good idea as to how to attack pray. Hunter kills chipmunk, at which point I intervene and put it outside. It’s was like watching a savage show but it was also just nature playing course. Honestly really interesting… Not idolizing the violence and death but the watching one animal teach its family how to hunt and eat.


  • I do this alot but I alway follow up with “Do you know what blah is?” and depending on age/experience/acronym or term I ask them to explain it.

    Sometimes I get assigned work with a senior engineer(where I learn) and sometimes I get asked to help a new person. For example right now I’m in a project being driven by a senior engineer but was asked to assist a professional development program employee(or pdp) to actually execute the project. As a result this is the habit I developed to 1. Make sure I don’t confuse people with random acronyms or terms 2. Ensure we are on the same regarding definition(and they are not just saying yes I know when they don’t).


  • I decided to move out of my mother’s house. I found a place to rent, it was 1.7 miles from my job. It was just a room in a house but it was good enough. I decided to take it and called the owner.

    We met at 5:00 at the panera bread after I got out of work. I signed my first ever real contract. It was my first big boy official legally binding contract.

    Next day I go to work all excited and telling everyone about it. I hear there is a all employee meeting. Then all contractors get sent home early. I go to the meeting…

    They announce they are closing the facility. Everyone will be let go. If we want to move to the new location we will be given priority otherwise it was nice to work with us.

    Less than 24 hours after signing a legally binding contract I was going to be jobless.

    Eventually I agreed to move. I have grown in my career. I live with my girlfriend who I met her. I still work with the same company.

    Overall it’s a improvement over my previous experience and it was 9 years ago…






  • Hold up… You thought maybe you downloaded malware (which in this case that was not the only cause) so you took it upon yourself to reinstall windows on a company issued laptop?

    1. Why are you trying to fix it? Submit It ticket and it’s their problem.

    2. If you suspect malware alert it security immediately. Many malware act as a gateway to lock other systems. Yes you might get in trouble but I’d rather be yelled at for downloading something then yelled at for infecting my company servers will ransomware/malware.

    3. Atleast in my company a computer connecting without a company supplied image of windows will be denied. Completely understand you not connecting to the internet.

    4. This problem was not caused by you but could of been… Take this as a lesson to be more proactive in the future.




  • I’m also a software engineer (at least in title). I agree with the social skills but a different thing came to mind. The ability to actually watch and understand what people are trying to do. I’m lucky as all my software is internal to my company. I don’t make what we sell, I make what tests the products we sell. And yes I test the tests and also test the test’s tests 😭.

    I’ll give an example. I have an operation where the operator is to scan a number off a paper before testing. That number is for traceability we need to know which test results are for which unit. Previous engineer said since it’s scanned off the unit it will never be incorrect as long on the printed barcode is correct(separately validated) so no need to verify format.

    I ran into an issue where units had an extra zero either before or after the number. So if number was 12345 sometimes it would be 012345 or 123450.

    I went to watch the process. The operator scanned the unit( I watched them work all day, this was 1 unit out of a whole days work) and when they put the scanner down the scanner’s corner was on the 0 button of the keypad.

    We did a 2 phase remiduation. Stage 1. Operator instructed to log in and then place keyboard on shelf away from workplace. Stage 2. Verify the number is in correct format in code. Yes the code update is simple but in our field needs weeks of work to test, validate, and release.

    Actually watching the operator closely identified the problem. The code was not the issue, the code passed all requirements and tests. The issue was the tests and requirements did not match the user’s experience but if I stayed in my cube as for weeks I would not of been able to find the bug.





  • I am NT but here is my take…

    1. Typically any holiday is spent with your partner (if possible, exceptions can be made in advance… “I’m sorry I can’t spend fourth of July with you, I need to work on that day” for example)

    2. Discuss limits, periodically confirm limits haven’t changed. Maybe hanging out at a beach with a different potential partner is a limit. Maybe having dinner alone with a different potential partner is a limit. Maybe kissing is a limit. Maybe sex is a limit. Maybe the gender matters, if your partner is same gender as the other person may increase the limit(if your partner is a girl, she may not be ok with your kissing a girl but if fine with you kissing a guy for example). All these vary by partner.

    3. Communicate… Why is she upset? Was it timing? Would what you did be ok next weekend for example? Was it the activity? If you saw a movie with your friend would that be ok?

    4. I don’t mean to be offensive about this one. Why did you leave your partner to spend time with another person? Did you not like spending time with your girlfriend? Did you prefer to be around your friend? Did you just need a break of the party but it’s awkward to return to the party afterwards? Do you just not like that type of party and that’s why you left?

    All of these will influence your relationship. The biggest is going to be 3… Communicate communicate communicate. Discuss these questions with your partner and you should have a better idea of what is acceptable and what isnt going forward.


  • Another fun similar idea is drunk chess. Each piece has a value(for example pawns is 1), there are tables you can look up it’s standard in chess. Each piece you take, you take its value in shots(highly recommend shots of beer). There are strategies this brings up. For example your opponent hangs a queen in early game, you can take it but now you would need to 6 shots making you likely to mess up the late game.


  • So one of the reasons I’m moving is to get away from this. I have this intersection by my apartment. A few hundred feet behind the assassin is a highway intersection, and the road the victim is coming from has 4 huge apartment complexes.

    There is no light. Making a left there(which leads to a outdoor mall) during rush hour requires atleast 3 virgin sacrifices…


  • My kid is severely autistic (like mostly non-verbal sever) and had this stuffed magenta (from blues clue) that he took everywhere(except school). He was in the children’s hospital and they lost it over night.

    Luckily we got him a new one (basically the same except ears and tail not ripped off and now had glasses?) and he seems to be be ok with the change, but it’s hard to tell. Those few days waiting for it to arrive were hell though.