What You've Done Today - Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life

[Amentep]

On 6/20/2022 at 9:42 AM, bugarup said:

Went to the family doctor about fever and sore throat, got hit with 180. Didn't even know it was a very bad number, now I'm still pondering what to do with this information.

Had you taken any cold medicine with a decongestant?  Pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, phenylephrine, naphazoline and oxymetazoline are all supposed to raise blood pressure.  Might also be a situational aspect to it as well (ie stress from going to the doctor and being sick).

On 6/20/2022 at 10:07 AM, BruceVC said:

Most people I know, including myself, who have had high\elevated blood pressure (BP) do one of 2 things 

• make lifestyle changes particularly around diet and then monitor your BP after 6 weeks or so to see if its dropped. Exercise is important because this is not about weight loss so diet isnt everything 
• they take daily BP medication and dont change their lifestyle that much but they still monitor

Sometimes if you sick or stressed that can artificially inflate your BP. Thats normally why many doctors will suggest the BP monitor device so they can understand your overall BP

But you should use it when you better and not sick. And its very " normal " to go on BP medication but a lifestyle change is better. I haven't  used medication yet but I will if I have to 

 

Making sure you're not dehydrated can also help with BP, as I understand it. Also 

[Gfted1]

I keep the thermostat set to 78F during the day and it drops to 76F at night when the thermostat enters "Sleep" setting.

[Gromnir]

mechanical ac were invented in 1850, and it didn't work as intended. yes, the invention cooled air and eventual led to modern refrigeration, but a doctor were attempting to prevent his patients from catching malaria. at the time malaria were believed to be caused not by disease carried and transmitted by mosquitos but by bad air-- fetid swamp gasses and the like. look at the word: mal aria. so dr. john gorrie creates a contraption for generating cool air which would displace the bad swamp air o' his hospital ward.

as kinda an afterthought, doc gorrie recommended patient beds be surrounded by mosquito netting to make the sick and infirm more comfortable. 

point is, ac has been around a fair amount o' time, perhaps longer than many suspect. weren't a last couple days kinda situation, so the "grumpy" posts (multiple posts and plural grumpies) 'bout sacramento heat almost certain did not predate the availability o' ac. am predicting a long summer.

the good news for grumpy cat is the utility bills is not near as bad as one might suspect, even with peak and off-peak hour bumps. we used more than 2x as much electricity in december 2021 as July 2021. 'cause o' summer rate hikes we most certain did not pay half as much for the july bill, but we did pay $61 more for our december bill ($220) as 'posed to july ($159)... and keep in mind we got a not new, 2800 sqft and two-story home... with a water heater way past its replacement date. the only energy saving features we got is our wash and dryer is newish and we replaced the shake roof with steel. regardless, our home is not a model o' energy efficiency by any stretch. regardless, am always surprised by how relative not terrible is our summer bills for electricity.

8 hours ago, Hurlsnot said:

The tough part is when it stays warm after dark. 

yeah, for us this is the worst part. is one o' the numerous reasons why the wildfires make life less pleasant. even if it does cool down outside when the sun sets, from mid july all too often the literal hazardous air quality means you keep windows shut. 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited June 22, 2022 by Gromnir

[Keyrock]

Me 5 seconds after stepping outside:

We hit 100⁰F today.

Edited June 22, 2022 by Keyrock

[Sarex]

The warmest we are looking here is 37⁰C next week. I guess that is much better than the 50 south of Spain was getting.

[Hurlshort]

We went to the beach today to get away from the heat. My favorite beach is Lover's Point in Monterey, so we packed up wetsuits, towels, and my daughter's paddleboard for a good swim. When we arrived, thry had just closed the beach. A swimmer had been attacked by a shark right where we regularly swim. It was serious, he was airlifted away with major injuries. It is most likely a great white attack.

I am pretty shaken. My wife and I swim there often, and my daughter goes out with us on her paddleboard. My son, who has recently gotten good at swimmimg, was going to get in the water as well. I hope the guy is ok, but I am also just disturbed by the whole incident. Lover's Point is usually thick with kelp, but lately it has all disappeared, and I think that has made it unsafe. Scary.

[Gromnir]

those waters has always had shark issues. south o' monterey to north o' san francisco is relative dangerous and such were the case when we did matriculate at cal. the thing is, the statistics tell us shark attacks is considerable less probable compared to being involved in a car accident driving from san jose to monterey, but am admitting shark fear is a bit more primal.

in any event, 'cause is so few shark attacks per year (again, relative speaking), is difficult to come up with meaningful statistics. a few extra attacks in a season results in a major change in the statistics. get these peculiar spikes and people blame on el niño, kelp bed decimation or even sunspots. correlation v. causation. 

regardless, am terrified o' few things, but sharks is near the top o' the list. no agency. life or death is depending on a dead-eyed eating machine?

HA! Good Fun!

[Hurlshort]

Hey, you gave me some pretty good advice back in 2018 @Gromnir  

[Gromnir]

19 minutes ago, Hurlsnot said:

Hey, you gave me some pretty good advice back in 2018 @Gromnir  

our first competitive open water swim were not our finest athletic moment. 

HA! Good Fun!

[bugarup]

17 hours ago, Amentep said:

Had you taken any cold medicine with a decongestant?  Pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, phenylephrine, naphazoline and oxymetazoline are all supposed to raise blood pressure.  Might also be a situational aspect to it as well (ie stress from going to the doctor and being sick).

Making sure you're not dehydrated can also help with BP, as I understand it. Also 

Nope, don't think so. Fever was of a very nasty kind, though, maybe contributed. Oh well, got the apparatus, it consistently shows high numbers, so booked a visit with the doc and shall wait for instructions while bracing for inevitable lifestyle change. Scary but better than finding oneself in Obituary thread.

[Sarex]

Got a second internet line in, a 2gbit connection. It's free the first year, so I just gave it a shot. Still keeping my old one as I have heard not so good things about the support for the new provider, but as I'm fairly close to them I'm hoping there won't be many issues.

[Malcador]

Just now, Sarex said:

Got a second internet line in, a 2gbit connection. It's free the first year, so I just gave it a shot. Still keeping my old one as I have heard not so good things about the support for the new provider, but as I'm fairly close to them I'm hoping there won't be many issues.

2 gbit and a free year ? What utopia do you live in ?

Super busy week, have an interview tomorrow at 9, not too keen on the job the more I think of it, more pay but just a feeling I have about how they operate and what the job would be.  Probably mostly inertia though, am part of the furniture around my current place

[Sarex]

7 minutes ago, Malcador said:

2 gbit and a free year ? What utopia do you live in ?

Utopia, riiiight... They offer up to 10gb and have been hounding me for years to sign up with them, but I hesitated as I have heard bad things about them. Figured I can try them out now and see the quality of service. Still have my old backup.

9 minutes ago, Malcador said:

Super busy week, have an interview tomorrow at 9, not too keen on the job the more I think of it, more pay but just a feeling I have about how they operate and what the job would be.  Probably mostly inertia though, am part of the furniture around my current place

Good luck! It's pretty hard to change companies after you've worked for one for a long time, but I think it will be good for you, even if it doesn't turn out to be that good at a new company. You can always find another.

[Malcador]

4 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Utopia, riiiight... They offer up to 10gb and have been hounding me for years to sign up with them, but I hesitated as I have heard bad things about them. Figured I can try them out now and see the quality of service. Still have my old backup.

I think the top tier in Canada is 1.5 gbit No way they'd ever offer a year trial here, best you'd get would be $20 off for a year or something like along those lines

6 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Good luck! It's pretty hard to change companies after you've worked for one for a long time, but I think it will be good for you, even if it doesn't turn out to be that good at a new company. You can always find another.

The job does involve some more interesting stuff, still involves babying finance bros though.  More working in a satellite office too, which sucks.

[Sarex]

3 minutes ago, Malcador said:

I think the top tier in Canada is 1.5 gbit No way they'd ever offer a year trial here, best you'd get would be $20 off for a year or something like along those lines

I told them I was under contract with my previous ISP for a year, so they offered it for free for that year. That kind of threw me back, so I thought what the heck. If I sign up for a bigger package in the second year they will discount it 50% for that year. But my installations are cat5 so even the 2gb is overkill. Although I will remedy that, when I get the time.

5 minutes ago, Malcador said:

The job does involve some more interesting stuff, still involves babying finance bros though.  More working in a satellite office too, which sucks.

Ah, traveling. Well that does suck. But it will do you good to see fresh faces which you can get to hate all over again. Maybe you even meet someone who doesn't suck, you never know.

[Guard Dog]

17 hours ago, Gromnir said:

 

mechanical ac were invented in 1850, and it didn't work as intended. yes, the invention cooled air and eventual led to modern refrigeration, but a doctor were attempting to prevent his patients from catching malaria. at the time malaria were believed to be caused not by disease carried and transmitted by mosquitos but by bad air-- fetid swamp gasses and the like. look at the word: mal aria. so dr. john gorrie creates a contraption for generating cool air which would displace the bad swamp air o' his hospital ward.

 

HA! Good Fun!

This was a question on Jeopardy LAST NIGHT! You sir are ahead of the curve! 

[Gromnir]

4 hours ago, Guard Dog said:

This was a question on Jeopardy LAST NIGHT! You sir are ahead of the curve! 

we learned the info from watching a pbs series in the late 70s... were a bbc release in 1978

episode 8 is the installment which contains the gorrie reference.

btw, even though connections is a 1970s science show, it holds up remarkable well 'cause is reflecting on past scientific discoveries and how those incremental advances... connect.

highly recommend watching the series if you are able to find it. (edit) looks as if at least the first four episodes is available via youtube. is ten total episodes.

HA! Good Fun!

 

Edited June 23, 2022 by Gromnir

[Gorth]

Feeling a bit under the weather these days... even called in sick this morning (first time in almost 3 years, thanks to lock downs and social distancing). Sipping warm water with honey in it for my poor throat, which feels like I failed badly in a sword swallowing contest

Just in case, I did a RAT test (to check for Covid) and while not a substitute for a lab test, it was clear.

 

[Azdeus]

Hope you get well soon

 

Midsummer here, so going to head to meet some friends and celebrate. It's been a while...

 

Oh, and happy midsummers y'all

Edited June 24, 2022 by Azdeus

[Malcador]

23 hours ago, Sarex said:

Ah, traveling. Well that does suck. But it will do you good to see fresh faces which you can get to hate all over again. Maybe you even meet someone who doesn't suck, you never know.

Moot point in any case, could sense the guy thinking I was an idiot

At least I took an hour off work, got to skip out on another genius at work making a typo when dropping objects from a DB.

[Sarex]

57 minutes ago, Malcador said:

Moot point in any case, could sense the guy thinking I was an idiot

At least I took an hour off work, got to skip out on another genius at work making a typo when dropping objects from a DB.

Yeah, that sucks. Had a few of those myself. But interviewing is like anything else, with practice you get good at it. Nowadays I'm on the other side of the table and am the one throwing curveballs.

[Malcador]

Hey I'm old, I've bombed a lot of interviews  

Had one funny one where the guy told me they hired the guy before me, another one got real awkward when the interviewer told me my area was full of <slur for gays>. I like giving interviews, myself, am fairly easy so I just ask stuff they'll need for the job and try to be helpful - rare as everyone with me is trying to flex on the poor candidates.

My dream one day is to ask one guy the questions from Blade Runner in an interview.

[Sarex]

37 minutes ago, Malcador said:

Hey I'm old, I've bombed a lot of interviews  

Had one funny one where the guy told me they hired the guy before me, another one got real awkward when the interviewer told me my area was full of <slur for gays>. I like giving interviews, myself, am fairly easy so I just ask stuff they'll need for the job and try to be helpful - rare as everyone with me is trying to flex on the poor candidates.

My dream one day is to ask one guy the questions from Blade Runner in an interview.

Oh, I was under the the impression that you were somewhere in your 30s.

My worst one was with a company where I applied for a job of QA lead. I got rejected, which is fair enough and they even replied which was nice of them. The issue began after that when another HR from the same company called me for another position. They called me in for an interview, both technical and hr at the same time, which I accepted because the pay offered was more than twice what I had. Now I came in to the interview, the hr lady sat down with me and straight of the bat told me "the tech interviewer was in a meeting and she would call to let us know if she can make it."... I rolled with it and continued the interview, because I was already there, but I kind of lost it when she started talking about my background and saying things which were not in my CV. When she realized that I had no automation experience, she started saying that they didn't call me for a specific project and that she would see if there was a good fit for me. After asking an acquaintance, who worked there, about the whole interview, he was confused about the whole thing and asked the tech person who was supposed to interview me what the whole thing was about. It turned out they just wanted to talk to me and feel me out... But the icing on the cake was the essay that the HR person sent me not half an hour after that, about how I should have asked her any questions I had, obviously mad I went around her back and how there was no position available at that salary for someone like me.

The funniest thing is that I applied for a position at that company some years later, the interview went fantastically and they were visibly happy with me, but again even though I clearly stated I had no automation knowledge, they wanted me to do the assignment, which I obviously couldn't.

I'm 99% certain that none of those positions ever did any automation.

edit: my go to question is to ask the candidate to open the notepad app and tell me it's basic functionality and how he would test it. You would be surprised how many people fail at that.

Edited June 24, 2022 by Sarex

[Malcador]

4 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Oh, I was under the the impression that you were somewhere in your 30s

I am, nearly out of them though

5 minutes ago, Sarex said:

edit: my go to question is to ask the candidate to open the notepad app and tell me it's basic functionality and how he would test it. You would be surprised how many people fail at that.

Looking at our developers who release stuff that doesn't actually do anything...I can imagine many.  I was asked once how I would test a spice rack once, honestly not sure what the **** that was supposed to indicate.

[Sarex]

4 hours ago, Malcador said:

I am, nearly out of them though

That's still young.

4 hours ago, Malcador said:

I was asked once how I would test a spice rack once, honestly not sure what the **** that was supposed to indicate.

It's a standard kind of question for junior QAs, not the spice rack per se but test something really basic, like a marble for an example. It's supposed to show if the candidate has a QA mindset, which is mostly bs.