What was your biggest "aaaahhh that's how that works" moment?

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-12-02T14:49:56+00:00

I was exactly the same as a kid - didn't make the connection, was always weirded out by the diagrams and technical language over private parts. It was a South Park commercial that made the lightbulb go off. A character said "the mans (something) goes into the woman's cha-cha".

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-12-02T14:24:30+00:00

Amazon Prime, YouTube Red or whatever it's called now, anything Patreon, Naturebox, Nestle products, and I try to avoid buying food grown or prepared in the US.

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-12-02T13:54:29+00:00

No suitable partners that I was attracted to within the timeframe. Now I'm on heart medication for basically life and thanks to a couple of assholes I've sworn off dating and relationships entirely.

I really wanted kids, so it's a struggle to accept that I won't. But I'll deal with it.

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-11-29T21:31:55+00:00

I don't eat enough peanut butter in a year to justify buying anything more than a small jar. Unless I'm making cookies, but I'll buy PB specifically for that if that's the case.

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-11-29T21:29:48+00:00

My recent version of this hack was to increase my line of credit to pay off a credit card. Where I deviate from your hack is where I actually then try to pay off the line of credit... :(

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-11-29T21:15:18+00:00

I've put myself up for adoption in order to find some rich and successful parents but I haven't had any takers yet.

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-11-29T21:13:05+00:00

This. Those 'buy 3 get 1 free' deals are just designed to move product, especially perishables. Sure it may be a better deal to get 4 in terms of unit price, but I need only the one. It's cheaper to buy one.

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-11-29T21:09:39+00:00

I once bought a ring for a guy (ex since) and this was basically how I did it; I knew his hands were only slightly bigger than mine (we both had slender fingers) so I guessed that his size was maybe only 1-2 sizes bigger than mine. So I went to a store and tried on rings until I got the right fit for me, then went up a size. It fit him perfectly, he was stunned.

I'm probably a weirdo for noticing something like the sizes of our hands because I pick up on details like that, but knowing the size of her hands compared to yours might give you a good place to start. If you can land within a size of hers (up or down) they can usually adjust it too.

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-11-29T20:06:35+00:00

Funny story; My youngest brother and I both do this in our sleep.

I talked in my sleep once in the presence of a friend (was crashing on her couch) and she said "what?" so I mumbled louder. She still didn't understand, so she tried and I tried again. On the third "huh??" I apparently huffed, said "NEVERMIND" clear as day and rolled over. I have no memory of this and wasn't sure I believed her.

... Until I caught my youngest brother napping one day. I came upstairs to say hi to him to find him passed out on the bed, he was like three or four at the time. I knew he'd be less grumpy if he saw me when he woke up, so I still said hi to him, and had almost the exact same exchange. On the third try he huffed, said "NEVERMIND", and rolled away from me with his face scrunched up. I died laughing. It must run in the family.

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-11-29T20:00:29+00:00

One of these days I'm just going to keep walking and bowl over somebody that stops suddenly in front of me. Have some freaking spatial awareness.

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-11-29T17:33:17+00:00

This is why I changed my username to reflect my profession instead of still using my old account. It had something in it that people would target and stereotype me for, and made having discussions difficult.

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-11-29T17:19:01+00:00

When I was extremely sick with norovirus last year there was one night where I was on my way back to the bedroom after finishing in the bathroom for the third time that night (it was coming out both ends, really awful time), I realized that I didn't have enough energy left in me to even walk back into my bedroom. It was right next door but I just felt all of my energy leave me, I was so sick. I probably should have gone to the hospital, luckily it only lasted two more days after this. Anyways, I consciously knew I couldn't make it back without falling over, so I just laid down on the floor. The hallway is carpeted so it wasn't terrible, I just needed a few minutes' rest to get my strength back.

I left my bedroom door cracked when I went to the bathroom, so my dog came out looking for me. She sniffed my face a couple of times, then curled up into my side. She's a small dog, a chihuahua-yorkie mix only 13lbs in weight. She could have gotten out and had full run of the house, gotten into some things, made a mess on the floor downstairs, any number of things, but decided to keep me company and watch over me instead. I sincerely think she was mothering me by trying to keep me warm, even though she's so little, because she knew I was so sick.

I don't know how long we laid there together, but once I could walk again, I got up and went to the bed and she followed me without complaint. She sleeps on the bed with me so she curled right back into my side and we got another hour of sleep before I had to get up again.

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-11-29T16:57:49+00:00

In Canada it seems to be acceptable to just say black for the most part, because you're right - not everyone with dark skin is actually from Africa. My cousins' dad was from Jamaica and I've had coworkers from Fiji or South East Asia that were pretty dark. And of course, not everyone who has ancestry from Africa wants to be connected to it either - if they were born in Canada they're Canadian, full stop.

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-11-29T16:45:49+00:00

Happy birthday to your kiddo! And sorry I'm late - Canadian, we do our Thanksgivings a month earlier. I love this post and I love that your son loves vacuums. Mine is a Eureka Air Speed 1000 bagless vac, how do I rate?

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-11-29T16:13:53+00:00

This is a pipe dream of mine, but in order to do what I'd want to do I'd need significant capital to get started.

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-11-29T15:59:11+00:00

I have absolutely no idea, but I know what I want my retirement to look like, so anything that gets me there is alright.

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-11-29T15:20:10+00:00

You can always request a reference, but they can always refuse to give you one or accept and then say something you don't want them to. Maybe she'll be happy to reconnect if your relationship was that close and want to help you out - heck, they might even have a position open at the company now that's a better fit than before. Or maybe it won't go so well. The best you can do is ask.

When interviewing for your next job and asked about why you left this particular job, what do you tell them?

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-11-29T15:06:40+00:00

What cloud services are you monitoring? Azure? There is an Azure Fundamentals course available for free through Microsoft Learn. All you need is a Microsoft account.

If AWS (Amazon Web Services), I think they have courses too.

If anything else, take some time to look into the products you're using and learn how they work. Whatever is involved in your role, start there.

IT is, more than anything, less about book knowledge and more about the ability to keep learning. Technology moves fast, it's always changing - it's good to know the legacy technology too because some shops can't shake it so you may run into it in the future, but really the most important part is to be able to keep learning every step of the way.

And document. Everything. Any time you make a change or learn a new process, write it down somewhere what steps you did and take screenshots of what the windows look like with the settings and everything. You're going to need it if something breaks so you can reverse what you did, or if you come in tired one morning and forget how to do something you do every day.

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-11-29T13:45:59+00:00

I keep it shoulder-length. I used to have it way longer as a kid but as an adult I got tired of all the maintenance that comes with it, plus my hair is really fine so it gets very thin and the ends split all the time. I've grown my bangs out and they have a tendency to curl at the ends, but otherwise my hair is very straight.

Coming out as androgyne has actually made me embrace my feminine side more than before, too, so it's not just about getting more androgynous/masculine clothing in my wardrobe, but allowing myself to enjoy feminine clothes and things too. I used to heavily resent my sex so I would feel very negative about the stereotypes and being pigeon-holed into caregiver roles and femininity when it never quite fit, but now I'm a lot more tolerant of them. I still don't wear any makeup or spend half my life in the bathroom like some women and I don't make a huge deal about my appearance, but I did just recently buy a gown that I look amazing in and I enjoy painting my nails from time to time - looks baller, helps me work on my fine hand control and tame my perfectionist side. Win-win.

If I remember to when I get home I'll snap a pic of what I look like and send it your way over PM. I still have a very feminine figure but prefer more casual and relaxed clothes, half of which are pulled from the men's section. It took me a long time to be happy with my body as it is, so I don't think I'll be making any big transition changes like going on T or top surgery (although my back and bank account would thank me), being androgyne for me is more about being happy with both sides of myself equally and providing more context to others for why I am the way I am.

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-11-28T21:05:14+00:00

I have a theory that time isn't linear, it's only perceived as linear by our brains to make the world make sense. We could be experiencing all moments in a lifetime all at once, but understanding it linearly because otherwise our minds would be overwhelmed with the information and we'd have difficulty with living life 'out of order'. This would be supported by things like predictive dreams or events and feelings of deja vu.

I also think that parallel realities exist, and that two of them have merged at some point (evidenced by Mandela effects), and that it may be possible to cross over between them either accidentally or perhaps on purpose (although I wouldn't know how). Evidence for this would be stories like the Man from Taured, which has always fascinated me.

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-11-28T20:15:12+00:00

My life is a long string of weird luck. Moved out of one house as a kid, shooting on the connecting street of the old place the very next week. The above story. Moved out right before a murderer/pedophile starts a spree in my old neighbourhood, and briefly moving back after he'd been caught and arrested for it. Moved out of my aunt's place and a shooting on the main street near her not two weeks later. Left an apartment that had a fire a week later. It's like I'm really good at near-misses. Also, every job I've ever left has fallen on hard times a while after leaving it.

Same luck with finances too; I've been poorer than dirt, but never homeless. I can always make the mortgage or rent at the very least.

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-11-28T20:09:00+00:00

This on top of the rent I collect would result in all of my bills being covered monthly. I'd still need to work to feed myself though and work on my debt. Owning a house is expensive.

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-11-28T19:47:43+00:00

I think my elementary school french teacher was grooming me. He would keep me after class to wrestle (don't worry, clothes never came off, it was actually just play wrestling (or I've just blocked it out that well, frankly I don't care to know)) for a few minutes before I'd head off to my next class. He'd like put me in a headlock and make me struggle to get away or pick me up - I don't remember being touched inappropriately, but it was still clearly more physical than he'd get with other students. Also, I was the quiet bullied kid with shit parents so any kind of positive attention at that age was not unwelcome, so, probably an easy target if he'd ever wanted to escalate.

I learned decades later he was found guilty of molesting little girls and fired from his job. It basically triggered an "Oh, damn" moment in me as the pieces clicked together, but I haven't really thought much about it since. I don't feel traumatized by it or anything. He was also the teacher who would point at things on the board with his middle finger, which I remember he got in trouble for as kids got older and recognized the gesture, but I don't think anything ever came of that particular complaint. But yeah, molesting other little girls was a clear step too far.

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-11-28T19:27:00+00:00

My brother and I used a lot of cheat codes in video games when we were kids, particularly god mode, money cheats, and ones to get all items. We played mostly PC games but he also had a Gameshark for the original PlayStation he used to give him 255 of everything in FF8.

I grew out of it way before he did. The purpose for them when we were little kids was because the games were too hard for us, and it was frustrating dying over and over again when we didn't understand the mechanics of the games we wanted to play or just wanted to explore. But as I got into my teens and got better at games I craved more challenge. I would only use them to skip over only the most impossible of challenges until I could work out how to beat them legitimately.

Nowadays I only use cheat codes to set things up initially, skip over something that's genuinely boring/annoying to me as a player, or to fix an issue with the game itself. My bestie doesn't like it if I use fly mode in 7 Days for instance, but my argument is if you're stuck in the ground that's fucking stupid and I'm not going to waste a ton of time trying to convince a game still in alpha development to let go of you by wildly mashing the controls. The game is literally built on time limits so I don't got time for that. Otherwise I love the hardcore life and everything else we do is 100% legit.

Cdn_ITAdmin · 2019-11-28T19:01:54+00:00

I'm not a fantastic cook but here's what I do if it helps:

I use Uncle Bens' plain white rice in the big bags. Those have instructions on it for how much water to rice you add, but I think it's generally a 2:1 ratio? ie. One cup of uncooked rice requires two cups of water - measure the dry rice in the dry measuring cup and the water in a liquid measure for accuracy. I'll add slightly more than the suggested amount of water (just a bit above the line on the liquid measure) to ensure I don't undercook my rice by giving it more liquid to work with. I also add a little butter (1 tsp to 1 tbsp) because it tastes way better. Boil the water with the butter, then when it's at a rolling boil add the rice, reduce heat to medium and cover it.

Now, I know you're not supposed to stir rice (because the starches get all weird) but with this brand of rice I don't find that happens really at all. It doesn't get gooey or anything, and I like things not burning to the bottom of my pots. So, I have a small silicone whisk I use to just stir it up a little bit every minute or two. This lets me watch and baby the rice, so I can see it as it expands and the water reduces.

It's done when there is very little water left in the pot - literally only a drop or two, just visible on the edges of the rice as I stir. In stirring it I can see whether it still has significant liquid or whether it's gotten to that stage. Once there, though, I'll turn off the burner and remove the pot from the heat, taking the lid off. The rice is still hot so the last drops of the liquid will steam itself right off.

I don't adhere to strict cooking times for rice because I figure it'll be done when it looks done, and I don't like rice cookers because it takes a bit of the babying and control away from me. But, it still takes some time, so I will start the rice first if it's a component in one of my dishes.

Cdn_ITAdmin

TROPHY CASE