General Discussion Thread

[Róisín]

May it prove a productive one!

[wavewright62]

Dear lord but job hunting is a grind.

Soul-sucking agony, I usually find, but here's hoping a person of your calibre gets snaffled up quickly.  My husband is in the same boat, and has been since November.  Totally different market, of course, but still no place for a weak stomach. 
My husband (with a PhD in genetics and an MBA) has fallen back on building skills he learnt as a youngster, and a truckful of decent tools, and is doing handyman work.  It's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, and he's actually lost 8kg with the increased activity and confidence it brings.

[Iceea]

Dear lord but job hunting is a grind.

Amen to that. Been there and done it. No fun indeed.
 
As wavewright62 notes working at a different skill or way beneath ones level is sometimes needed to make ends meet. I worked in a HiFi repair shop for $11 an hour for almost a year. It was sort of fun and I did learn quite a bit about electronics as practiced in the consumer environment. Can you say, build it as cheap as possible....

[thorny]

My husband (with a PhD in genetics and an MBA) has fallen back on building skills he learnt as a youngster, and a truckful of decent tools, and is doing handyman work.  It's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick

For a significant percentage of people, it's also actually better work; though many of them don't know it.

[Róisín]

Yeah, I actually prefer working in the forest to some kinds of working in academe. Lecturing and actual hands-on field botany were good, but the endless writing of papers and reports was irritating! It is more satisfying to lead a group of foragers through the forest teaching them what is safe, what is dangerous, and how to gather and prepare the safe stuff while respecting the forest enough to make sure that there is a crop next year. And growing and selling food and flowers is far more satisfying than sitting through endless unproductive meetings!

[Iceea]

[snip] is far more satisfying than sitting through endless unproductive meetings!

I'm often reminded of the Dilbert cartoon where someone declares, "It's not a meeting until someones time is wasted."

[refract3d]

I would much rather be out in the field doing things hands on or at least collecting stuff to analyze later, but I'd have to go back to college (money) or probably take a pay cut while trying to figure out my path into that (not saying it wouldn't be worthwhile but I'm nervous about not being able to afford stuff like insurance. ahh america) And even things like foraging classes are kind of expensive? though it seems possible to live off it if you're actually good, because people do pay to learn!

also, my roommate took her cats to get their summer haircuts (they are normally super fluffy longhairs suited for cold winter, and it's hot here in summer). they look like fuzzy black and white bobcats with their long ruffs and fluffy pants. so silly and so cute.

[Róisín]

I always found the fieldwork most satisfying in careers in both botany and geology. Whether that was collecting mud samples along the length of a river in outback New Guinea, collecting mineral samples in an Australian desert,  or collecting seeds on a mountain in Nepal, it may not have been as safe or easy as office work, but it was far more productive and useful. As a retired botany lecturer who still had a mortgage so had to earn a living, I parlayed into fulltime work several things I had used to enjoy doing in term breaks or between formal job contracts, and now make most of my living by teaching on-the-ground classes in bushcraft, wilderness survival, wild food foraging, camp cooking, food gardening and home brewing. Add to that selling in the local Farmers Market (which I helped to start) the produce of my garden: fruits, flowers, herbs, vegetables, perfume plants and dye plants - and I can earn a moderate living and feel useful while I do so!

[Solokov]

Found the Chimney photo.

[Purple Wyrm]

Found the Chimney photo.

I'm getting Spire in the Woods flashbacks!

[urbicande]

I'm sort of back.

[Solokov]

I'm getting Spire in the Woods flashbacks!

Never read it.

I'm sort of back.

Welcome mostly back?

[Solokov]

So, committing a bit of taboo with the double posting, but I'm here once again to hawk my wares promote spam-adventure

So the short of it is the player character is controlled by you, through a vote system where all/most of the actions are decided through voting on a group of choices.

The cliffnotes of the story thus far: The player character named Larc grew up in a sleepy town and then one day bandits attacked, they turned out to be refugees from the north, and so she and her adoptive dad headed north like adventurers ought to do instead of what rational people would have done and fled south.  Exposition happened, eldritch lobster monsters attacked, constructs from before the world was young were found, and dragons have been met. Currently we're in a slow bit and crossover with Spamkingdom... which means all the world ending shennanigans going on in spamadventure? Yup that mean's they'd canon for spamkingdom. Guess the rolls better pan out well?

Anyway voting on the current round in spamadventure ends friday afternoon (my time) where I will be posting the next update.

[urbicande]

Welcome mostly back?

Mostly thanks!

[Solokov]

Security cert expire?