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@paekakboyz said in Lockdown Check In:
I would highly recommend getting curious about LSD ha ha, but Im 100% with you on meth and heroin
Acid my fave 'hard' drug - probably
Smack's just so fucking boring
Met some heavy P users who were functioning members of society for quite a while but all ended up as the normal whiny, full of excuses, untrustworthy, dependent junky. -
Lockdown checkin, Part Whatever...
Finally looking forward to getting out of Sydney - last time I left the greater Sydney Region was January, and my monthly updates from Google Guide maps are pretty fucking depressing reading.
Tuesday I'm doing a whistle stop tour of the NSW Central West (such wonderfully Ocker names like Gulgong, Dunedoo, Wongarbon etc) in order to scout a ~300km cycle trail I want to complete next year - for which I may have asked Santa for some bike panniers. Bit of back roads, overnight somewhere maybe in the swag this time around. Next year it'll be camping, hopefully a week off in Autumn. Bike needs a service and new rubber before then.
First week of January we're up the coast for some family time away.
In between that, the joys of Christmas with Alco Father-in-law, divorced bro-in-law (maybe his kids will show up), and the wife cooking way too much shit for all of us. Boxing Day with friends watching cricket. Maybe a dawn run over to the northern beaches which we try to sort out at least once a year. This was Freshwater Beach, around the corner from Manly, October last year.
I'm never going back to the office fulltime in the current climate. I'm coming to terms witht he fact I might end up a "Lifer" at the current place, but at the same time I'm conscious that I have a specific combination of skills, experience, and knowledge, that aren't common.
Could I go contracting? Yeah, probably give it some thought after the current role goes stale and some form of inheritance comes through to ease the financial pressure. I'm 45 now and if my Mum or MIL die in the next few years it is time to start getting tactical on retirement planning.
My problem is this: nearly every contractor I've dealt with - or cleaned up after - is a fucking shortcut merchant. I want to actually solve the core problems in a robust fashion, and almost put myself out of a job in doing so. Based on my experience with IT contractors, that isn't a common mindset. Get in, do exactly what they say, get out. Consequences, shmonsequences.
Marriage is still solid. Relationship is not - encountering long droughts in between the occasional burst of activity. Not ideal, and that's another part of The Next Step: letting the wife pull the pin before me to chill her the fuck out. Would improve our relationship significantly.
She's doing management in Aged Care services and it was a fucking nightmare before COVID, partly because she's a perfectionist and therefore nobody else matches up. She is one of those people who could never go ExCo because she's shit at delegating; too busy focussing on minutiae that isn't really important in execution. The fucked thing is she was spoken to by her seniors, specifically about climbing the ladder as identified talent, but has never aggressively pursued it.
Thinks she's not ready but if she just jumped into that sweet, sweet executive salary, I could be a kept man by now!
Absolutely happy to be Mr Mum with two teens in the house. I basically do all the taxi work and 60% of the meals anyway, in my current WFH role.
17yo son has a gf at long last. She's a skinny little thing whose divorced parents have NZ accents despite being Chinese originally. He also hit his straps in his HSC as he's finally doing the subjects he wants. Halle-fucking-lujah!
14yo daughter has had a bf for about a year but he's a safe choice, having not much going for him besides a sense of humour. Another skinny one - I mean rake thin. At least he's not a sports dickhead, tho I've never met him because they're both too chickenshit to show up.
The daughter unit really is the apple of my eye. Amazing human in my heavily biased opinion, but prone to the odd bit of drama. Teens.
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@nta said in Lockdown Check In:
TL;DR
nice picture but...
Mate you're 45 years young. Don't even think about becoming a lifer.
Carpe Diem* and all that
*carpe diem doesn't mean seize the day it's more like take the fruit when it's at its ripest. What you get when Hollywood tries to abbreviate a 2,000 year old metaphor written in a dead language.
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@dogmeat said in Lockdown Check In:
Mate you're 45 years young. Don't even think about becoming a lifer.
Been here 14 years. The current work is interesting enough and probably has legs for another year at least.
The company is big enough that I've not really done the same time for more than a couple of years at a time.
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@nta If you want to avoid the splash and dash contracting have you considered a move into the consultancy side? Solutions architect, enterprise architect etc? There's a huge shortage. And you can be analysing and recommending optimal solutions and designing the compromises rather than just going along with them.
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@jc said in Lockdown Check In:
@nta If you want to avoid the splash and dash contracting have you considered a move into the consultancy side? Solutions architect, enterprise architect etc? There's a huge shortage. And you can be analysing and recommending optimal solutions and designing the compromises rather than just going along with them.
Interesting thought - I am presently splitting my time between the "doer" role and the strategic stuff in the current team. It is a hard shift because I like getting my hands dirty.
My daughter finishes school in 2025, so those might be the years I use to grow into that area before jumping. From what I can see, consulting is mostly bullshitting-with-flair anyway
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@nta said in Lockdown Check In:
@jc said in Lockdown Check In:
@nta If you want to avoid the splash and dash contracting have you considered a move into the consultancy side? Solutions architect, enterprise architect etc? There's a huge shortage. And you can be analysing and recommending optimal solutions and designing the compromises rather than just going along with them.
Interesting thought - I am presently splitting my time between the "doer" role and the strategic stuff in the current team. It is a hard shift because I like getting my hands dirty.
My daughter finishes school in 2025, so those might be the years I use to grow into that area before jumping. From what I can see, consulting is mostly bullshitting-with-flair anyway
You're 50% there.
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@gt12 said in Lockdown Check In:
@nta said in Lockdown Check In:
@jc said in Lockdown Check In:
@nta If you want to avoid the splash and dash contracting have you considered a move into the consultancy side? Solutions architect, enterprise architect etc? There's a huge shortage. And you can be analysing and recommending optimal solutions and designing the compromises rather than just going along with them.
Interesting thought - I am presently splitting my time between the "doer" role and the strategic stuff in the current team. It is a hard shift because I like getting my hands dirty.
My daughter finishes school in 2025, so those might be the years I use to grow into that area before jumping. From what I can see, consulting is mostly bullshitting-with-flair anyway
You're 50% there.
On a related note, the best description I heard of an MBA is "it gives you the vocabulary to speak with confidence on topics that you have no understanding of"
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this cold have gone in one of the COVID threads but this is really just a sad situation that happens to involve COVID
My mum is from the UK originally and has finally decided to move back there for her "twilight years", we're all very happy for her and shes been super proactive selling her house, buying an over 55's apartment on the isle of wight, weve just had two weeks back in NZ and we spent four days in chch helping her pack, throwing trailer loads of shit out
one of the hardest parts about it is HER mum , my grandma has full blown dementia and has been in a full medical facility for a few years, shes 95. mum would go and see her every other day etc but finally realised she wasn't living her live and grandma would be mortified if she realised...so shes having the courage to leave grandma behind and my uncle will check in on her, face time mum etc
she leaves chch this coming Sat, will have a week with us in melbourne....but grandma has just got COVID...after having avoided it for the last two years....which means mum wont be able to actually go and see her for a final good bye before leaving...its just sad
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@Kiwiwomble said in Happiness Scale:
this cold have gone in one of the COVID threads but this is really just a sad situation that happens to involve COVID
My mum is from the UK originally and has finally decided to move back there for her "twilight years", we're all very happy for her and shes been super proactive selling her house, buying an over 55's apartment on the isle of wight, weve just had two weeks back in NZ and we spent four days in chch helping her pack, throwing trailer loads of shit out
one of the hardest parts about it is HER mum , my grandma has full blown dementia and has been in a full medical facility for a few years, shes 95. mum would go and see her every other day etc but finally realised she wasn't living her live and grandma would be mortified if she realised...so shes having the courage to leave grandma behind and my uncle will check in on her, face time mum etc
she leaves chch this coming Sat, will have a week with us in melbourne....but grandma has just got COVID...after having avoided it for the last two years....which means mum wont be able to actually go and see her for a final good bye before leaving...its just sad
Fuck that is tough mate. Covid was never one for timing. It is a shame she can gown up and at least be in the room
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@canefan i'm trying to really play up the small mercies, gradman has no idea...so wont be upset...and if COVID accelerates her passing it might be a blessing
also...might actually get a cure out of her and nothing has killed her yet!
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@Kiwiwomble said in Happiness Scale:
@canefan i'm trying to really play up the small mercies, gradman has no idea...so wont be upset...and if COVID accelerates her passing it might be a blessing
also...might actually get a cure out of her and nothing has killed her yet!
It's not for her, it's for your mum. But you are right about the older generation. Clearly at 95 she is a tough old bird
Lockdown/Covid Check In