Met Winter 2021 - 2022 Banter

[Typhoon Tip]

9 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

Ha, I was the MIC there for about 6 years in aviation. I still am with the company (who was bought out by IBM my new employer), but in more of a customer success role. So weather related in terms of solutions, but not forecasting directly. It's most certainly different lol. I miss the weather stuff too.

But the office is going back in as well and I may do so for at least a day...more or less to see some old friends there. I do miss the office comradery and I agree with Phin and Jerry that round table meetings in person seem way better than webex/zoom etc. 

Oh absolutely ...

I'm unfortunately unemployed.  I enjoyed 8 years of contiguous employment as a DB software engineer... blah blah that ended in good terms after this last Xmas.  It's why I've been threading storms this year LOL - have the time.

I'm increasing my search manifold to include the whole nation. Most of these Indeed or LinkedIn ...etc.. boards, have configured Remote as an option now.  Like for example, some head hunter is trying to connect me with Twin Cities financial firm ... Interview by Zoom?   I guess -

I have a Met start up interested ... They're expanding mid summer and said they're interested. They due the typical risk assessing, climate and seasonal ..etc..but I'm getting a vibe that it may be our time soon?  This CC shit is filling E.R.s in summers and crippling TX grids in winters... desiccating the west, and hurricanes notwithstanding... The world going to start needing guys with insight and tech ... perhaps to track nuclear mushroom cloud plumes. 

[CoastalWx]

4 minutes ago, Typhoon Tip said:

Oh absolutely ...

I'm unfortunately unemployed.  I enjoyed 8 years of contiguous employment as a DB software engineer... blah blah that ended in good terms after this last Xmas.  It's why I've been threading storms this year LOL - have the time.

I'm increasing my search manifold to include the whole nation. Most of these Indeed or LinkedIn ...etc.. boards, have configured Remote as an option now.  Like for example, some head hunter is trying to connect me with Twin Cities financial firm ... Interview by Zoom?   I guess -

I have a Met start up interested ... They're expanding mid summer and said they're interested. They due the typical risk assessing, climate and seasonal ..etc..but I'm getting a vibe that it may be our time soon?  This CC shit is filling E.R.s in summers and crippling TX grids in winters... desiccating the west, and hurricanes notwithstanding... The world going to start needing guys with insight and tech ... perhaps to track nuclear mushroom cloud plumes. 

It's coming, even having educated guesses with risk assessments is as good as any.  If you have the technical background which sounds like you do as a DB software engineer....you'll find something. Good luck man.

[WhitinsvilleWX]

I have mixed feelings about WFH. We can’t run a lab that way and although I manage the group, I still like to get my hands dirty. I come in 5 days a week usually. I could WFH 1-2 days a week, and have here and there if I had somewhere I needed to be at 4 in the afternoon and couldn’t get home without leaving early. I let my lab folks wfh here and there if they are doing some sort of analysis they can do remote or working on their lab notebook all day. But by and large a science enterprise like ours works best on site. 
Fir the rest of them, eh. I used to get pissed they were home and we were here, but the caf is easier to get in and out of, your bit running from meeting to meeting in conference rooms. It’s all on Teams. I dunno. I feel bad for the businesses that relied on office folks to make a living.  
 

THRY JUST NEED TO DROP THE GDamn masking!!!!
 

[weathafella]

16 minutes ago, WhitinsvilleWX said:

I have mixed feelings about WFH. We can’t run a lab that way and although I manage the group, I still like to get my hands dirty. I come in 5 days a week usually. I could WFH 1-2 days a week, and have here and there if I had somewhere I needed to be at 4 in the afternoon and couldn’t get home without leaving early. I let my lab folks wfh here and there if they are doing some sort of analysis they can do remote or working on their lab notebook all day. But by and large a science enterprise like ours works best on site. 
Fir the rest of them, eh. I used to get pissed they were home and we were here, but the caf is easier to get in and out of, your bit running from meeting to meeting in conference rooms. It’s all on Teams. I dunno. I feel bad for the businesses that relied on office folks to make a living.  
 

THRY JUST NEED TO DROP THE GDamn masking!!!!
 

In your environment absolutely!  But i doubt it goes away in the clinical setting anytime soon.   I had my 6th colonoscopy (but who's counting).  I went to the endoscopy center vs BIDMC to minimize traffic and allow my wife to park after running around and doing errands while I got reamed, steamed, and dry cleaned....   Naturally the medical staff were masked but i was too.   First time I recall sleeping with a mask on but propofol means who gives a shit.....

[WhitinsvilleWX]

4 minutes ago, weathafella said:

In your environment absolutely!  But i doubt it goes away in the clinical setting anytime soon.   I had my 6th colonoscopy (but who's counting).  I went to the endoscopy center vs BIDMC to minimize traffic and allow my wife to park after running around and doing errands while I got reamed, steamed, and dry cleaned....   Naturally the medical staff were masked but i was too.   First time I recall sleeping with a mask on but propofol means who gives a shit.....

That's what Michael Jackson said.

[weathafella]

22 minutes ago, WhitinsvilleWX said:

That's what Michael Jackson said.

Yeah it's definitely in the "don't try this at home" category...lol 

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

7 hours ago, OceanStWx said:

I had cobbled together some crappy panels (left) with chicken wire but they weren't sturdy enough and had big gaps at the corners. So I made cages (right) last spring out of deck balusters and that repurposed chicken wire. Added some decorative hinges and handles (not pictured here) with locks. I could probably dig up the instructions somewhere.

I was looking at doing something along those lines… but when I got the rough quote for what my materials would cost, it was absolutely outrageous. 
 

We also kicked around the idea of just fencing in an area and ditching the raised beds all together, but with the water issues in the yard, I’d we flood, it’s game over.

[Chrisrotary12]

The only downside to both my wife and I working from home is that our house was not designed for it. So with us starting our family...we will quickly outgrow the space.

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

4 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

I took a new position back in May that is fully remote. My team is all over the US. This might be just me, but I do find remote work and the flexibility it allows, highly valuable. I can get up, start some work at 6:30 for an hour, help get the kids ready and my wife out the door (who works 3 days a week at the office). Then come back and work some more until I pick my son up from school. Do more work...get dinner going around 5 so that we eat when my wife gets home. If need be, I can work later. I also have the flexibility of doing something for myself like the gym early morning or lunch time if need be. Some days I spread my work day, some days I can't. As long as the work gets done. 

I find myself much more relaxed abd productive instead of commuting 40 miles each way through the city and wasting 3 hrs a day just commuting. 

Yup. We are both WFH full time with some sprinkled in office visits. Anyone with young kids would agree…the flexibility is priceless. 

[Damage In Tolland]

5 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

I took a new position back in May that is fully remote. My team is all over the US. This might be just me, but I do find remote work and the flexibility it allows, highly valuable. I can get up, start some work at 6:30 for an hour, help get the kids ready and my wife out the door (who works 3 days a week at the office). Then come back and work some more until I pick my son up from school. Do more work...get dinner going around 5 so that we eat when my wife gets home. If need be, I can work later. I also have the flexibility of doing something for myself like the gym early morning or lunch time if need be. Some days I spread my work day, some days I can't. As long as the work gets done. 

I find myself much more relaxed abd productive instead of commuting 40 miles each way through the city and wasting 3 hrs a day just commuting. 

And it also allows you the ability to blast out between 100-700 posts per day on the forum. Up over 143,000 now!

[PhineasC]

4 hours ago, Chrisrotary12 said:

The only downside to both my wife and I working from home is that our house was not designed for it. So with us starting our family...we will quickly outgrow the space.

I hear that from a lot of people these days. It can strain a marriage for sure.

People bought homes thinking bedrooms and bathrooms not two offices and a conference room. LOL

[PhineasC]

Businesses get to offload costs for rent, utilities, cleaning, food/drinks, Internet/TV services etc. to employees. I can see the appeal for some businesses.

[IowaStorm05]

Am I not wrong for suggesting that as nifty as it is, modern civilization is a cancerous aberration of earth? I think humans are predominantly programmed for a simple hunter gatherer lifestyle. And we are not really indicated for expansion to living in all kinds of climates either. We should really only be present where other great apes are. 

It is my contention that since we are currently manifesting a mass extinction, the links that are being removed from the global ecosystems are eventually going to catch up to the food chain causing a high magnitude sequence of famines. After that, human population will be reduced to about 1/10 of what it is today. 

If you stretch this forecast out further, there could be a chance that humans will mostly only remain in tropical climates where food is readily available. Weather and geologic movement will reclaim the environment in other climates and our former presence in those areas will become less obvious with time.

Civilization and technology has advanced far faster than human evolution has. And you want to know why this is a problem? It messes with peoples mental health. There is a link between urban enviornments and schizophrenia. People don't like going to work every day in a lot of jobs that are not pleasantly engaging, because we were not designed for it, so it lacks in stimulating reward centers of the brain and is downright grueling. 

Intelligence of humans alongwith anatomical makeup allowed people to manage to develop advanced technology. But we were not genetically designed for that to happen with purpose. As a matter of fact it took hundreds of thousands of years before the required sequence of actions for the swift accumulation of learning required to get advanced technology fell into place. 

We were not intentionally cut out by nature to develop modern technological society. We just did because we could. Eventually.

The above theory I delivered applies if you rule out things like God or alien civilizations having a direct hand in human civilization and technology progressing. And I think that my theory is a likely one because when you look at the big picture, there is still a lot of randomness and loose ends with modern civilization so it is probably not some heavenly utopia tailor-made for people to enjay.

A very special thanks goes out to 

Stephanie Stattler,

Brenda Frampton,

Chris Darling,

Virginia & Rob Peters,

Vonda Prentol,

Barbara Franceton,

PJ Watters,

Bonnie Fish,

Tye Roland,

Christy Timme,

Ronnie Vye,

Pam Vandeltar,

Roland Eckarde,

Penelope Walters,

Jo Von Welt,

Shontae Haun,

Joe Andersen,

Felicity Van Poole,

Quentin Byers,

Peter China,

Jan Garcia, 

[PhineasC]

I consider myself to be an exceptional ape, actually. 

[HIPPYVALLEY]

So this happened down the street tonight.

https://www.wwlp.com/news/local-news/franklin-county/plane-lands-on-i-91-in-greenfield/

 

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

5 hours ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

So this happened down the street tonight.

https://www.wwlp.com/news/local-news/franklin-county/plane-lands-on-i-91-in-greenfield/

 

Well done pilot.

[bristolri_wx]

RE: Work from Home

I work in IT (going on year 25), and for many years have been able to do 95% of my job remotely.  In fact, many years ago I setup remote systems and impressed one of my previous supervisors so much with the ability to support "emergencies" going on after hours before WFH was much of a mainstream topic. I still was in the office 5 days a week, but didn't need to be.  It didn't bother me too much when I was younger, but as you grow older and responsibilities increase, getting that commute time back (2 hours a day for me), and the ability to multi-task (like taking a quick break to put dinner going at 4PM so it's ready for 5PM, etc), is a huge advantage without losing any work productivity.

The simple equation for WFH is this - if you have good employees, who want to work from home, they will be productive, and it will benefit them.  It's that simple.  If you have shitty employees who goof off, well, WFH is not for them, but, they're probably not productive in the office environment either.  I still like to go into the office and see people and work from my desk, where I have a better setup than at home.

As for meetings, well, that's another story.  75% of the meetings I'm calendared to attend are a waste of my time.  I'm sure some here probably have better luck with that, but this new trend that everything needs a meeting "to discuss" is a waste of the productive hours in a day, and more an example of narcissism than work productivity.  The number of managers and directors who have the skillsets to run successful meetings is quite low, and most of the items discussed on meetings can be done through written communication such as chat/e-mail.  The nice thing about being on a remote meeting, for me, is the ability to multi-task and get shit done that's actually important while the useless meeting I'm required to attend is going on.  If it's an in-person meeting, then it's 50/50 if I can do something else without looking like I'm being rude.  Sometimes managers and directors forget that productive employees need time to be productive with their job responsibilities.  If it's an important/productive meeting, then it gets 100% of my attention.

There will always be responsibilities, tasks, projects, etc where WFH will never work, or hybrid approach is required, but I think for many people, WFH is a benefit, especially for those that have long commutes.  I think the only thing that needs to catch up are the tools and oversight required to make sure the "slackers" don't take advantage, but those types of employees were already terrible before the pandemic occurred.  Another key to the WFH equation is understanding that life isn't fair.  If you work at a job where WFH isn't possible, and you see others doing it, your choice is to accept the fact that you can't, or get a new job.  Being jealous at those who can WFH is not productive - it is what it is.

Just my two cents, and I know my opinion differs with others, but I have been promoted many times, and every annual review has been in the category of getting me raises and/or promotions, so I must be doing something right.

[tamarack]

15 hours ago, Damage In Tolland said:

And it also allows you the ability to blast out between 100-700 posts per day on the forum. Up over 143,000 now!

Check your arithmetic.  IIRC, amwx came into being late in 2010, so it's more like 35-40 per day.  

On another topic, IowaStorm should add Dave Foreman (founder of EarthFirst!) to the credits.  He said (and I'm paraphrasing from memory) "Humanity is a cancer on the planet and I'm the antidote."

[Supernovice]

Busy morning- Russia to declare 'martial law' on Friday? That's the rumor.  No more flights out of Russia between now and then so people are driving out.  Couple tech guys I spoke to had some very interesting conversations w/ border guards on the way out. They had arranged for "temporary remote work" to get out- phones were checked, took them forever to cross.

Also Nuclear deal w/ Iran to be signed in~72 hrs...their oil is back on the market.

 

[Cold Miser]

20 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

I took a new position back in May that is fully remote. My team is all over the US. This might be just me, but I do find remote work and the flexibility it allows, highly valuable. I can get up, start some work at 6:30 for an hour, help get the kids ready and my wife out the door (who works 3 days a week at the office). Then come back and work some more until I pick my son up from school. Do more work...get dinner going around 5 so that we eat when my wife gets home. If need be, I can work later. I also have the flexibility of doing something for myself like the gym early morning or lunch time if need be. Some days I spread my work day, some days I can't. As long as the work gets done. 

I find myself much more relaxed abd productive instead of commuting 40 miles each way through the city and wasting 3 hrs a day just commuting. 

I wish my job allowed this kind of flexibility. Unfortunately it's the nature of my beast that I do be in the office, and at job sites during the week.  My commute is 38 miles, but when I get there I have a work vehicle that I use to get from site to site during the day. 

My architecture company allowed this for a while, but it was not profitable enough for me so I had to find a "real job". 

[SlantStick]

11 hours ago, IowaStorm05 said:

Am I not wrong for suggesting that as nifty as it is, modern civilization is a cancerous aberration of earth? I think humans are predominantly programmed for a simple hunter gatherer lifestyle. And we are not really indicated for expansion to living in all kinds of climates either. We should really only be present where other great apes are. 

It is my contention that since we are currently manifesting a mass extinction, the links that are being removed from the global ecosystems are eventually going to catch up to the food chain causing a high magnitude sequence of famines. After that, human population will be reduced to about 1/10 of what it is today. 

If you stretch this forecast out further, there could be a chance that humans will mostly only remain in tropical climates where food is readily available. Weather and geologic movement will reclaim the environment in other climates and our former presence in those areas will become less obvious with time.

Civilization and technology has advanced far faster than human evolution has. And you want to know why this is a problem? It messes with peoples mental health. There is a link between urban enviornments and schizophrenia. People don't like going to work every day in a lot of jobs that are not pleasantly engaging, because we were not designed for it, so it lacks in stimulating reward centers of the brain and is downright grueling. 

Intelligence of humans alongwith anatomical makeup allowed people to manage to develop advanced technology. But we were not genetically designed for that to happen with purpose. As a matter of fact it took hundreds of thousands of years before the required sequence of actions for the swift accumulation of learning required to get advanced technology fell into place. 

We were not intentionally cut out by nature to develop modern technological society. We just did because we could. Eventually.

The above theory I delivered applies if you rule out things like God or alien civilizations having a direct hand in human civilization and technology progressing. And I think that my theory is a likely one because when you look at the big picture, there is still a lot of randomness and loose ends with modern civilization so it is probably not some heavenly utopia tailor-made for people to enjay.

A very special thanks goes out to 

Stephanie Stattler,

Brenda Frampton,

Chris Darling,

Virginia & Rob Peters,

Vonda Prentol,

Barbara Franceton,

PJ Watters,

Bonnie Fish,

Tye Roland,

Christy Timme,

Ronnie Vye,

Pam Vandeltar,

Roland Eckarde,

Penelope Walters,

Jo Von Welt,

Shontae Haun,

Joe Andersen,

Felicity Van Poole,

Quentin Byers,

Peter China,

Jan Garcia, 

Been saying that for years! We are to smart for our own good

[Cold Miser]

I just finished an online course on snow retention system for roofs. 

Some of the pics were pants-tent-worthy.

 

 

[DavisStraight]

2 hours ago, bristolri_wx said:

As for meetings, well, that's another story.  75% of the meetings I'm calendared to attend are a waste of my time.  I'm sure some here probably have better luck with that, but this new trend that everything needs a meeting "to discuss" is a waste of the productive hours in a day, and more an example of narcissism than work productivity.  

 

I used to work at an appraisal company, worked at quite a few over the years but this one particular guy always had to have meetings, all the meetings were a waste of time and a loss of about an hour out of my day, after a couple I stopped attending, pissed him off but I wanted to work and make money and not listen to that narcissist act like he was an important man.

[HoarfrostHubb]

I had to cancel/postpone my school Ski Club again... not due to weather, but could not get a bus driver...  4th postponement.  1 for a rainstorm, 3 for no bus.

Anyone know someone who can drive a bus that needs a few $$$?

[Typhoon Tip]

2 hours ago, SlantStick said:

Been saying that for years! We are to smart for our own good

We've written some long prose with creative turn of phrases regarding the paradox of human evolution - over in the climate forum.Yup, I hear ya. I mean we both know there have been scholarly studies, to dystopian novels written, for decades.  

Folks should get into Fermi's Paradox ... and the hypothesis' that explain. 

The paradox was a destiny prescribed by Nature, its self.    Look around us everywhere, in biology.   Nothing that exists, that is alive, does so with no purpose. Nature does not waste time moving organized energy ... directly to entropy.   You don't have a 3rd eye, for a reason...etc, but one eye fails depth perception.   Two is just right ... oth intra process in the organism, its self, and how/service necessarily give in the integrated ecosystems of the larger biosphere. 

Therein is the problem... evolution provided our survival advantage being cooperation with higher intellect and ingenuity. Our survival has become hyper efficiently successful.  8 billion evinces that truism. 

Which by that "natural law of necessity" ( above), means that what got us here, ...  effectively canceling out what got us here. 

 

[Ginx snewx]

3 hours ago, bristolri_wx said:

RE: Work from Home

I work in IT (going on year 25), and for many years have been able to do 95% of my job remotely.  In fact, many years ago I setup remote systems and impressed one of my previous supervisors so much with the ability to support "emergencies" going on after hours before WFH was much of a mainstream topic. I still was in the office 5 days a week, but didn't need to be.  It didn't bother me too much when I was younger, but as you grow older and responsibilities increase, getting that commute time back (2 hours a day for me), and the ability to multi-task (like taking a quick break to put dinner going at 4PM so it's ready for 5PM, etc), is a huge advantage without losing any work productivity.

The simple equation for WFH is this - if you have good employees, who want to work from home, they will be productive, and it will benefit them.  It's that simple.  If you have shitty employees who goof off, well, WFH is not for them, but, they're probably not productive in the office environment either.  I still like to go into the office and see people and work from my desk, where I have a better setup than at home.

As for meetings, well, that's another story.  75% of the meetings I'm calendared to attend are a waste of my time.  I'm sure some here probably have better luck with that, but this new trend that everything needs a meeting "to discuss" is a waste of the productive hours in a day, and more an example of narcissism than work productivity.  The number of managers and directors who have the skillsets to run successful meetings is quite low, and most of the items discussed on meetings can be done through written communication such as chat/e-mail.  The nice thing about being on a remote meeting, for me, is the ability to multi-task and get shit done that's actually important while the useless meeting I'm required to attend is going on.  If it's an in-person meeting, then it's 50/50 if I can do something else without looking like I'm being rude.  Sometimes managers and directors forget that productive employees need time to be productive with their job responsibilities.  If it's an important/productive meeting, then it gets 100% of my attention.

There will always be responsibilities, tasks, projects, etc where WFH will never work, or hybrid approach is required, but I think for many people, WFH is a benefit, especially for those that have long commutes.  I think the only thing that needs to catch up are the tools and oversight required to make sure the "slackers" don't take advantage, but those types of employees were already terrible before the pandemic occurred.  Another key to the WFH equation is understanding that life isn't fair.  If you work at a job where WFH isn't possible, and you see others doing it, your choice is to accept the fact that you can't, or get a new job.  Being jealous at those who can WFH is not productive - it is what it is.

Just my two cents, and I know my opinion differs with others, but I have been promoted many times, and every annual review has been in the category of getting me raises and/or promotions, so I must be doing something right.

Excellent post

[Ginx snewx]

2 hours ago, Cold Miser said:

I just finished an online course on snow retention system for roofs. 

Some of the pics were pants-tent-worthy.

 

 

Snow retention? Splain. This was a designed snow release at my job. Worked well but actually made for mad repairs to the pavers down below and window frames in 2015

 

[ineedsnow]

home heating oil is going for 4.54 a gallon now around here yikes!

[dendrite]

4 minutes ago, ineedsnow said:

home heating oil is going for 4.54 a gallon now around here yikes!

I don't mind my furnace shitting the bed with these prices...pellet backup ftw.

[BrianW]

20 minutes ago, ineedsnow said:

home heating oil is going for 4.54 a gallon now around here yikes!

The billboard I drive by that has the price listed everyday had $4.24 a gallon this morning. It was like $3.49 a week ago. 

Natural gas prices are up 60% in Europe and that is going to have a huge impact here. I can guarantee we are going to be sending tanker after tanker of LNG to Europe to cut off as much gas from Russia.

The Natural gas futures for the summer in New England are sky high as well. Huge electricity rate increases are almost certain when utilities adjust to summer rates in June.