Here we can all be heard for a little while. Part 3

Pyxis · 3 October 2016 at 8:50PM

codemonkey wrote: »

I agree with you Georgie. Snails or slugs are getting nowhere near my mouth. Boak!

it's really just the same as eating shellfish.
So work was another long boring afternoon. Couldn't even ask for work as the manager wasn't even in.

From mental health perspective, I think I may be having a bit of a midlife crisis. Not in a I'm going to get a red sports car and have an affair with a 20 year old, but rather in a what on earth am I doing with my life, I can't picture myself doing this for the next 36 years, surely there must be some more worthwhile thing I could be doing instead.

Yes there is. Trouble is, a lot of worthwhile things don't pay the mortgage!

What I did, in a similar position, was tell myself I would give myself five years to mull stuff over, have thoughts, explore thoughts, research the thoughts, try out the thoughts, etc. etc. , while carrying on as normal.

By the end of the five years, I knew what I wanted to do, so I went and did it. It was a completely different career, and meant retraining, and lots of study, but I did it. Ended up self-employed as a result. Eventually. (It wasn't a quick fix). So started a completely different job at the age of 40.

There were people older than me who were doing the same!

codemonkey · 3 October 2016 at 9:08PM

I don't eat shellfish either. :rotfl:

Well done for making that change Pyxis. It's very brave. I don't even know what I want to do - I'd like to do something that makes a difference or something creative. Only trouble is, I have no talent. Do you think I can be the person who oils up the WWE wrestlers? :rotfl:

whitewing · 3 October 2016 at 9:19PM

IT does make a difference though, doesn't it?

I am so grateful for the internet. I can remember a much lonelier, more confusing time without it.

onomatopoeia99 · 3 October 2016 at 9:52PM

codemonkey wrote: »

Well done for making that change Pyxis. It's very brave. I don't even know what I want to do - I'd like to do something that makes a difference or something creative.

As I recall you're in the same field as me (programming), though different specialization (for some reason I think you do database things, but not sure why I think that). Anyway, as jobs go it's one that few people can do due to the way you need to be able to think and visualise solutions, so not something you generally fall into by accident. So I'd say go back and look at why you're in this field at all - ignoring the workplaces, the co-workers, the inept human resources not gettinf things ready for your arrival etc, does the actual thing that you do still interest you?

To use me as an example; since I persuaded my parents to buy me a ZX81 when I was 12 I've always wanted to write programs to do stuff. I get frustrated at times - today was an example, a customer reported some bizarre behaviour, I investigated and found an appalling piece of code in a server script. It's so awful I won't even try to explain the magnitude of the awfullness here :rotfl:, but I had to re-write a procedure from the ground up as it did something entirely different from what it was supposed to and could introduce untold problems. Even so, when I can actually create something and make it work rather than spend my time fighting fires, I still enjoy it and wouldn't want to do anything else.

Pyxis · 3 October 2016 at 11:41PM

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

As I recall you're in the same field as me (programming), though different specialization (for some reason I think you do database things, but not sure why I think that). Anyway, as jobs go it's one that few people can do due to the way you need to be able to think and visualise solutions, so not something you generally fall into by accident. So I'd say go back and look at why you're in this field at all - ignoring the workplaces, the co-workers, the inept human resources not gettinf things ready for your arrival etc, does the actual thing that you do still interest you?

To use me as an example; since I persuaded my parents to buy me a ZX81 when I was 12 I've always wanted to write programs to do stuff. I get frustrated at times - today was an example, a customer reported some bizarre behaviour, I investigated and found an appalling piece of code in a server script. It's so awful I won't even try to explain the magnitude of the awfullness here :rotfl:, but I had to re-write a procedure from the ground up as it did something entirely different from what it was supposed to and could introduce untold problems. Even so, when I can actually create something and make it work rather than spend my time fighting fires, I still enjoy it and wouldn't want to do anything else.

:T :T :T

Well said.

Waves_and_Smiles · 4 October 2016 at 1:33AM

I need some random help! I forgot to take a tissue out of my only pair of decent, brushed cotton, black trousers before washing, they are speckled! I am supposed to be visiting my teacher friend in a week's time and they are the only nice thing I have to wear! Help!

Pyxis · 4 October 2016 at 6:51AM

Waves_and_Smiles wrote: »

I need some random help! I forgot to take a tissue out of my only pair of decent, brushed cotton, black trousers before washing, they are speckled! I am supposed to be visiting my teacher friend in a week's time and they are the only nice thing I have to wear! Help!

Have you got one of those clothes brushes where you brush one way to remove stuff from clothes, and then brush the other way to get the lint off?
Try doing that, making sure the trousers are bone dry, and then wash them again or just put them through a rinse cycle.

You can also get rollers with sticky stuff on, to remove the bits.

You could also try hoovering them, when bone dry. Use the upholstery tool.

whitewing · 4 October 2016 at 7:36AM

As a clothes brush is for organised people, so I don't possess one, I have used a normal hairbrush in the past.(Some are too hard for the fabric though).

Or try wrapping sellotape around your fist with sticky side outwards and use that to get the little bits off.

Izadora · 4 October 2016 at 9:28AM

whitewing wrote: »

Or try wrapping sellotape around your fist with sticky side outwards and use that to get the little bits off.

I always use sellotape but had never thought to wrap it round my hand first. I spend ages pulling off a strip at a time and then methodically working down the item in very small lines!!

codemonkey · 4 October 2016 at 9:29AM

The sellotape thing is how I get rid of dog hairs from my clothes, so it definitely works. If you still have residue, wash them again. We've all done the tissue thing.

The midlife crisis thingy started before this whole work thingy, sort of around my birthday when I got closer to 40 and realised I still have as long as I've been alive left to work (manager is awol again so another day spent counting the minutes and trying to look busy). With the retirement age ever increasing, I find it hard to picture myself as a 72 year old programmer and I don't want to be a manager as I have no patience for meetings and management nonsense. I just like to be left alone to write code. Ono, it's difficult to explain what. I actually do as it's a bit of a dark art and there aren't too many of us. I'm confident that if it doesn't work out here (and it won't if someone doesn't give me something to do soon), it won't be too hard to find something else - I've had a few companies contact me about jobs in the last couple of weeks. Just not...excited by it anymore. Meh, anyway, going to try not to think about it too much.

So, how can I spend the next 7 hours, 10 minutes looking busy?

Here we can all be heard for a little while. Part 3

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