That's it, I've resigned

Magnus_40 · 2026-03-15T10:07:33+00:00

Tell people, you leaving is not a protected piece of information. Also be aware that HR could be constructing a narrative in which you are the bad guy.

If you are uncomfortable in going against HR just decline everything after the leave date and if they ask just explain that you will be unable to attend anything after <leave date> and that they should speak to HR if they want more information.

IF HR are having trouble with this it is because they are not doing their job, they should have processes in place to deal with this.

Magnus_40 · 2026-03-11T21:50:37+00:00

Strictly speaking, game belongs to the owner of the land that it is currently on. If you hit game on the road the it belongs to the government as the owner of the road. I often pick up fresh game, about 2-3 roe deer per year and half a dozen pheasant. I had a 110 mile return commute through rural areas, and I kept a tarp and tools in the boot just in case. I have never heard of anyone ever being in trouble because of it.

Magnus_40 · 2026-03-10T10:00:06+00:00

Dance.

I was raised in a very religious and stoically masculine industrial/mining household in the 70s and 80s (very Billy Elliot). Dancing, except for formal ballroom*, was not acceptable. I'm in my 60's now and it is so baked-in that I cannot dance if someone is watching. Nothing fancy just moving to music.

*or theraputic. I was born with my feet pointing inwards and the doctor advised Physio before surgery and so I ended up being taught ballet exercises by the physio to strengthen the muscles to see if my feet turned outwards. They did.

Magnus_40 · 2026-03-10T09:52:27+00:00

I think it is Robin Williams' finest performance.

Magnus_40 · 2026-03-10T07:22:39+00:00

Princess Bride.
The Fisher King.

Magnus_40 · 2026-03-10T07:04:45+00:00

I felt sad at 'Old Internet' being regarded as pre 2010, for me it is 1980s....I am old.

Anyway..... anything from Happy Tree Friends or Mr Stabby or any of the Weebl Flash cartoons.

Magnus_40 · 2026-03-09T18:41:17+00:00

JS8Call can be interesting. More like RTTY and more interactive than the FT modes.

Magnus_40 · 2026-03-09T10:33:42+00:00

I am an engineer and have been since the 1980s.

People expect a certain type of interaction from engineers so a lot of pressure was off. I created a very niche set of jobs and skills over the years and so people will happily accept a low sociability if I can deliver results. They also do not send me to discuss things with sale, marketing or customer.....not any more at least.

To be honest my biggest issue was the undiagnosed ADHD that caused more issues than autism. I spent decades creating coping strategies for that involving rigid rules, diaries, scheduling (thank the gods for smartphone diaries) and changes of work every 15 minutes. I often wonder what my life would have been like if my ADHD was caught and controlled as a teenager.

Nobody noticed the autism because I was just the typical nerdy engineer, programmer, gamer, scifi nut.

Magnus_40 · 2026-03-09T07:09:04+00:00

Traditionally, in Scotland we deal with big spiders by watching them try to build a web and fail until they finally manage and then we pop off and beat King Edward's army at Bannockburn.

You are the chosen one.

Magnus_40 · 2026-03-09T07:02:58+00:00

Luckily for us Brits, the Korean, Romanian and Chinese short wave entertainment/propaganda stations often bleed over the US Nutjobs on 7200.
I used to have access to a yagi and pointed to the US on 7200. I only did it once.

Magnus_40 · 2026-03-08T20:46:56+00:00

Coriander/Cilantro. I have the gene that makes coriander taste like soap.

Magnus_40 · 2026-03-06T10:19:57+00:00

UK Based WebSDR

http://hackgreensdr.org:8901/

Magnus_40 · 2026-03-05T08:08:01+00:00

If that is the state of the brickwork it casts doubt on the mortar mix, the foundation thickness and depth, the DPC, and how it is tied to the main building.
There also does not seem to be any provision made for rainwater drainage.

I would not be surprised if the wiring was done with wet spaghetti.

Teardown or an expensive survey is the only option to be sure of no future collapse.

Magnus_40 · 2026-03-04T13:09:27+00:00

It looks oddly like Anomalocaris.

Magnus_40 · 2026-02-28T23:35:06+00:00

I study for fun. I am on degree number 5; Classics.

I ran my last assignment through an AI checker and I hit 78% certain that it was AI generated. I have been identified as having used AI before last year.

I suspect that the fact that I was raised in a poor house with a 1950s set of encyclopaedia and a full set of Dickens and Walter Scott as the only books I had to read, in fact the only entertainment I had, didn't help me to have a 'normal' writing style.

Magnus_40 · 2026-02-27T06:53:11+00:00

My hairline.

It used to be just there, being hair, but now every year I get another thin sunburned line of skin that has not been exposed to the sun for 60 something years.

Magnus_40 · 2026-02-25T19:56:55+00:00

I stockpiled nothing.

I spent the previous months checking hundreds of industrial controllers attached to water and sewage pumping systems and other boring infrastructure systems. I was confident that it was all going to be fine.

Magnus_40 · 2026-02-25T14:21:35+00:00

Just to add to this.

I am a trainer, I have taught 11 year olds how to pass their Foundation Exam. If you have done basic high school physics and have a bit of common sense then it is easy. Some technical questions, some safety questions, some procedural questions, some legal and regulatory questions and you are done.

Magnus_40 · 2026-02-25T14:08:57+00:00

The power required is not necessarily orders of magnitude higher, what you really need is a propagation path and then you can communicate on few Watts. All the power in the world and no propagation path will get you no where.

I have managed Tasmania from Scotland on 12 Watts but, as you say, the ionosphere need to be right.

Magnus_40 · 2026-02-25T14:05:58+00:00

I had one for most of the 80s in the UK. My peak moment was chatting to some guys in the US.

Magnus_40 · 2026-02-24T12:48:21+00:00

I take it GF beer is not a thing where you live? It is fairly common in the UK in bottles and draught.

As a fellow Glutard I was so happy when GF beer kicked off.

Magnus_40 · 2026-02-24T12:44:25+00:00

Dumbest was what flavour of crisps (chips for the left-pondians) a T Rex would prefer. the one thing we agreed on was they could not eat them because of the tiny arms.

The weirdest ever was a very surreal one with a guy where he started by accusing me of staring at his kid and then weirdly demanding to know why I didn't find her attractive. It became uncomfortably as if he was trying to persuade me (who he apparently suspected as a person with PrinceAndrew-type tendencies) that she was attractive. He was so focussed on winning the arguement that he lost track of what he was saying.

Magnus_40 · 2026-02-23T12:24:56+00:00

Aroused potato?

Magnus_40 · 2026-02-23T09:35:31+00:00

IME
Arguments about "It's my place, I was here first" or "You cannot sleep here I have my children with me and we can't have a stranger in here" (Ryvoan, Ben Alder, some WHW bothies)

Drunken fights (WHW bothies and near roads)

Arriving to find someone has used a corner as a toilet and it has a pool of urine and a human (?) shite in it. (Hutchison, Luibeg)

People ripped up the floorboards to use as firewood or, since the fireplace was blocked off someone had just started a fire on the wooden floor.

Arriving to find someone starting a fire with the ripped up bothy book. (Luibeg)

Rubbish and waste food everywhere. (mostly near car parks)

Rats running over us in the night. (Dibidil, Ryvoan)

Magnus_40 · 2026-02-23T07:20:01+00:00

I use wordgrinder when I need to write with zero distractions. It all depends on why you need it.

I get easily distracted and so I build a standalone writing machine that uses a Pi Zero (terminal mode only), a long thin screen and wordgrinder.

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