The Venting Thread

[marshwiggle]

My ears checked out clean and infection-free.  Apparently they hurt because of a lifetime of grinding my teeth.  Looks like I'll have to revisit the dentist's suggestion about making a mouth guard to wear at night. 

And the shins just need some more time to finish healing.  About what I expected.

A few years ago, I hurt my big toe playing soccer. It surprised me how many weeks it was before I could run at full speed again. You never realize how many parts are involved in everyday movement.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

No! Your advisor (who is getting paid to do this) needs to supervise your experiment for the next few weeks- not me! Why are people trying to rope me into doing things that I did not sign up to do???

[the_geneticist]

No I will NOT figure out "what went wrong" with your experiment.  It's yours.  I'm collaborating with you on one project, not ALL of them.

ETA: And I don't have time or brain space to listen to your wanting to tell me about said experiment.  I have enough on my plate.

[apl68]

So, this morning I came to the library the day after a Board of Trustees meeting with a punch list from the Board, a library newspaper column to write, an important Zoom meeting at 10:00, and some other stuff to work on.  The moment I got in I learned about a "situation" that developed yesterday afternoon when I was away getting rested up for the evening Board meeting.  I also learned that my computer was burping on me.  So far today I have:

Rebooted the computer multiple times until it finally worked
Discussed the "situation" and a couple of other things with the staff
Gone into the Zoom session in media res and tried to pay attention while
E-mailing back and forth with a representative at the state Department of Health about guidelines for resuming meetings at the library to develop a plan for that
And writing my library column for the week
Gotten out of the Zoom meeting and reported to the staff what I learned in that (It has to do with several K of Recovery Act funding that we can put in for to do some stuff we've been wanting to do for a long time.  So it's kind of necessary).
Finally addressed the "situation" from yesterday.  Without going into detail, it involved reviewing security video to determine whether a crime had been committed.  It has, which means we have some decisions to make about police involvement
Helped a patron with a somewhat unusual reference question
And discussed with the staff what I learned from the Department of Health about resuming meetings at the library

Now getting ready to go to lunch, after which I can get to work on the other stuff I have to work on.

And people sometimes wonder what librarians do all day....

[clean]

what became of the ladder on a table issue to clean the mold/dust around the vent? 

[mamselle]

Don't ask!!

;--}

M.

[apl68]

what became of the ladder on a table issue to clean the mold/dust around the vent?

Taken care of.  And the ladder was placed on the floor, in a nice, stable position.

Still working on the "situation" from yesterday.  Since it was a misdemeanor offense involving a youth, we're trying to pursue what I guess could be called a "restorative justice" approach that does not involve the police.  Here's hoping and praying that we can get it worked out--and that the youth will make good use of the second chance, instead of taking it as a sign that he can get away with doing whatever the Hell he pleases.  That sort of attitude is a guaranteed way to end up in Hell.

[Economizer]

OH, HELL YEAH!

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Holy FUCK! Will someone answer the damn phone?

[Vkw10]

TIAA, would you please get your act together? I called on March 2 and submitted the form you said I needed online the same day. You said the transfer would take less than two weeks. The transfer hadn't gone through on April 2, so I called again. Repeat on April 14, April 27, May 7, May 19. Each time, you assured me that the paperwork was fine, transfer in progress, all will be complete in 3-5 days. Today, the consultant tells me that we have to start over, because the paperwork is only good for 90 days, and it never got sent to the state plan rep for approval. Arghhhhh!

I have the date, time, and name of each person I talked with written down. After I calm down, I might just complete that customer service survey you sent me. In detail. People do make mistakes, but four people in a row suggests a massive training issue.

[ciao_yall]

For the love of all things good and precious, please take a class in statistics before ever presenting again.

[ergative]

Don't get me wrong, I'm very pleased that Office365 can import and convert to Word a PDF that was generated in LaTeX. The output is actually perfectly readable. That's all lovely.

But why, why, why for the sake of all whys, does Top Journal In My Field not provide a LaTeX style file? Their guidance for authors says 'please put in Word if at all possible; our typesetter charges us if you submit LaTex' (and I don't blame the poor typesetter!) but even if I decided to not convert and make the typesetter do the work, that doesn't do me any good, because I still have to make sure the LaTeX document conforms to the style guide. And there's no LaTeX style file! ARAAARARARARGH

[ab_grp]

Don't get me wrong, I'm very pleased that Office365 can import and convert to Word a PDF that was generated in LaTeX. The output is actually perfectly readable. That's all lovely.

But why, why, why for the sake of all whys, does Top Journal In My Field not provide a LaTeX style file? Their guidance for authors says 'please put in Word if at all possible; our typesetter charges us if you submit LaTex' (and I don't blame the poor typesetter!) but even if I decided to not convert and make the typesetter do the work, that doesn't do me any good, because I still have to make sure the LaTeX document conforms to the style guide. And there's no LaTeX style file! ARAAARARARARGH

Ugh! I'm always surprised when journals don't have style files, especially in fields in which there might be a lot of non-text material in the paper.  I've had to mock up a few, but that can be a lot of extra work. 

[Economizer]

My vent requires some thoughtful response from y'all because you can arrest the development of other vent worthy situations if you come up with a good understanding or an actionable direction for remedy:

OK. Though not new situations, there seem a greater threat by "computer hackers" to strategic firms and organizations. There are constantly efforts by supplying companies to better protect via their products and products of others. But what about their "APPS"? How safe are these? How can I say this..uh..though many firms push the use of their APPS, my experiences in in-person encounters with..again difficult to say..non-native customer service employees gives me the opinion that they are excessively aggressive in getting APP users. Is it because they get a "spiff" for getting customers to sign on, because they are a good employee, or that they are aware of flaws in APPS by which victimization can occur from who knows who from who knows where.

Specificallly, it is my opinion that the peoples of the U.S. are well into the throes of divide and conquer actions. Nowadays, a strategy of disable, limit, and destroy seems nascent.

[fishbrains]

So we have about 10 extended family members on the in-law side who like to involve anyone and everyone in textfights--or whatever you call creating massive drama on their phones over stupid $hit. I'm talking about some long-ass texts. They started up again yesterday, so I "took" my wife's phone. After ignoring at least 30 texts regarding how Aunt F*face said something to Aunt $hitforbrains about putting cinnamon in the apple butter or some-such nonsense without a response from my wife, they all started calling and asking to speak to my wife. I offered to take a message, but wouldn't give her the phone to talk (she didn't want it anyway), and we turned her phone off when we went to bed.

I had me some fun, and my wife was happy.

The in-laws? They ain't happy and are now, you guessed it, texting about it. So my wife just gave me her phone today. Good times.