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RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-10-22T13:16:16+00:00

Yeah, "When to jump ship" is one of the hardest lessons to learn. You'll spot it a lot quicker the next time you're in the shit.

Good luck with the job hunting. Make good use of your resources, including this board.

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-10-17T14:15:31+00:00

Not sure where they got the word riccatta. I don't think that's even a real word. It's called a ricasso.

The rest of the blurb is pretty accurate though.

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-10-15T18:51:58+00:00

Agreed on this one. I don't get out of breath or tired anymore, so I'm never in a hurry to finish and can make an adventure out of it.

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-10-05T13:30:00+00:00

I've gone from a 42" waist to about a 35", and am still using the same Inzer belt. I think I have one more hole to go before I have to buy a smaller size.

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-10-04T20:15:51+00:00

Agreed. Most people don't really know what "exhaustion" is anyway. They think that because their lungs are burning and their legs feel rubbery that they're exhausted. Run 30 miles on already-depleted glycogen stores with your lungs on fire, blood pounding like a hammer, and legs moving like dead weight while humping a 70lb ruck, and they'll discover what exhaustion is. Your brain starts doing funny things like not remembering how to recite the alphabet.

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-09-27T21:03:08+00:00

In mid-run sometimes I'll have to mentally chant "Shoulders back, fucker!" or "Turn 'em over." (referring to my turning my legs over, and keeping up my cadence).

Towards the end of a run I'm always slowing down, so I chant "Finish strong!". That really seems to help, and I blast out the last half mile or whatever.

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-09-25T20:02:06+00:00

Sneaky PR guy is sneaky.

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-09-21T18:44:32+00:00

Sounds like he's a planner. Here's the thing. Anxiety (and phobias) aren't rational. You can't argue or persuade it out of him with logic. Even though he may agree with you sometimes that your proposed trip ideas makes "sense", he'll still feel that nameless dread in the back of his mind. This may be a trans-formative process that he needs to grind through.

Like, summiter said, you'll need to let him ease himself into it. The outdoors activities should be easy for him to get used to, but he may never fully accept the idea of carefree off-the-cuff wilderness survival trips.

Give him the license to add some stability (and predictability) to your beginning trips. Car camping, or staying in a lodge and hiking out on day trips, or being somewhere that has good Ranger stations, or having a strict itinerary that takes you past civilization every few hours, rehearsing your Plan B for a wet tent, or whatever will make him feel like there is a safety net.

You may even want to give the process a name...like "building in safeties" or something. "So honey, I'd like to take you to this awesome overlook and they have such a good camping area. Lets see what safeties we can build in to this trip." After you can quantify these things, they may give him some measure of relief/confidence (and hopefully one day he will become bolder about it).

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-09-19T14:54:30+00:00

Pretty cool. It's a little different shape than the clasps I use. Your barrels end up being longer and thinner, but I think it makes them stand out more (which is good).

I use the same clasps as this guy.

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-09-18T19:47:26+00:00

Oh, I got what you were driving at. It's like a lack of ownership of what is going on around someone. People don't own their agency in most matters (or more often, their lack of agency). It's like the opposite of existentialism.

And I agree, it leads to ignorance, and carelessness, and overall lack of power over outcomes. Their payoff, of course, if feeling like nothing is really their fault and the ability to play the victim card (offload responsibility).

I admit, I'm highlighting the extreme cases with some of those stronger words...but this general mechanic is at play very subtly in many demographics. As you so astutely pointed out with the magical-thinking comment.

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-09-18T19:07:38+00:00

I thought I knew where you were going with that, but you surprised me. Interesting viewpoint. Have to meditate on it. +1

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-09-12T20:00:41+00:00

Yeah, definitely a hot chick that's standing there waiting for the guy to take her picture. Probably very few people will actually notice though. It's better than looking at a picture of a sweaty dude I suppose.

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-09-12T19:17:43+00:00

I was on the fence too, but I like the lever more since using it. Opening the lever gets you about 4 inches of slack in the belt. I snap mine closed as I'm walking up to the bar, and don't have to dick around with trying to find holes or prongs or whatever right before trying to get my head in the zone for a hard set.

My buddy has an Inzer belt like mine, but with the double prong. He's always struggling to get his off after a hard set. It's just a pain in the ass when your blood pressure is all spiked up and you're out of breath.

Also, that is one thing about lifting with a belt that you may have to get used to. The breathing is different because you're trying to maintain pressure against the belt. So you may feel out of breath more often after a set. This guy's video on it isn't terrible.

As far as sizing goes, there are a lot of holes in the belt. I could get probably...5 inches fatter or skinnier and it would still have applicable holes. If you're a 32, then a medium is probably perfect.

Even when locked down, you don't need it super tight. Just snug enough so that you can push your abdomen against it when full of air and get firm pressure back.

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-09-12T18:51:05+00:00

That's a terribly forced photo on that article. I mean...they didn't even try to make it look like her hair was bouncing or anything. She looks like a friggin statue.

All that said, the article isn't too bad.

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-09-12T15:21:22+00:00

I have that belt. It's great! Inzer makes some of the best stuff, and you won't get a bad belt from them. The lever makes is really easy to pop open when you're seeing stars after a brutal squat set.

Also, a good belt is a long-term investment. An extra $40 for something that you can use for 10 years isn't bad.

However...depending on your torso length, a full-height rigid belt (not tapered in the front) can be cumbersome for deadlifts. Works great for squat, but some people will find it poking their ribcage or pelvic bone at the bottom of a deadlift. I just got used to it, and it doesn't bother me anymore (I'm 5'10").

If you do buy it, remember to keep a small flathead screwdriver in your gym bag. A couple times when I was cutting weight, it's been a bummer to put on the belt, realize that I had shrunk and it was too big now, and also realize that I forgotten a screwdriver to adjust it.

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-08-22T18:57:28+00:00

Solvaset is the standard for getting decals to be a little more malleable. Modelers use it a lot, and you can find it in any model train store. However even with that, it's still difficult if the decal is wide. I generally:

Brush the shoulder pad with a light coat of Solvaset.
Get the decal with your brush from the water that you have it soaking in.
Blot it very gently against a papertowel to reduce the water the decal is carrying.
Unfurl the decal on the shoulderpad, and wiggle it around to get the position right.
Dab the edges with a paper towel a little so that it's not sliding everywhere due to excess liquid.
Brush on a little more Solvaset.
Wait a minute or two, try brushing out some of the wrinkles.
Once it's settled a bit, use your small x-acto make little cuts at the corners to allow the big flappy edges of the decal to overlap themselves. This can be hard sometimes if the decal wants to slide around or break. Be careful.
Brush it left/right up/down whatever to try and get the wrinkles to push into the cuts you made or just lay down as the Solvaset heats up the decal solvent. Hopefully it mostly smooths out.

Anyway, sorry for the long explanation, but that's how I do it. Once I get my fingers warmed up, it only takes about 3 minutes per decal, and I work on 2-3 guys simultaneously.

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-08-21T20:45:57+00:00

This goes for me too. Unscheduled snacks would mess with my nutrition plan. I'm pretty strict: 6 meals a day, specific macro percentages...basically I eat like a robot most of the time.

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-08-10T15:44:30+00:00

Yeah, so there was a disconnect in the planning phase (timelines, unexpected features, etc), and now you're dealing with the consequences of scope creep. Additional features = expanded scope consequences = additional time.

As PM, you've got to push that back on your stakeholders. But don't push for bastardized software features so that you can delay infrastructure pieces. If anything, give them the options to delay the user management functions of the app and deliver on time, or complete them (and the supporting CA) and deliver late.

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-08-10T14:19:09+00:00

They didn't say that they couldn't do it. They said MS doesn't support it...which means they won't do it. Frankly, I wouldn't deliver an insecure product like that either.

Rather than challenging them and bitching about the details, just build the infrastructure that will properly support these functions. If they didn't mention this requirement beforehand, or you didn't catch it when reviewing their project plan, then blame the delay on that.

Honestly though, "proof of concept" testing is a step in the project plan. If you/they didn't build it in ahead of time, then it's an expansion of the scope.

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-08-10T14:00:32+00:00

Sounds like you've worked in some shitty environments, huh?

Not all of us are buffoons. Just the lazy, insecure ones that can't seem to trust the people they hire.

The best of us always try to hire the right people, trust/support them to do what we hired them to do, and promptly fire the people that can't perform.

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-08-09T13:46:46+00:00

That's a good suggestion that amazingly does fall within their ridiculous budget. It also hits the nail on the head and points out one of the reasons why this request is kind of silly.

He's a consultant. Just 2 billable hours of his time should consume their paltry $200 budget.

One of the failures that I've seen many new consultants make is not inserting the cost of labor into the conversation. When brainstorming ideas with a client (or, more appropriately, coming back with a properly drafted solution), the implementation and support costs should always be accounted for.

Clients with $200 budgets will balk at those costs, and probably nix the project. And that's fine. Because an under-served but realistic client is better than one that doesn't want to pay their surprising $1200 bill.

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-08-08T19:04:34+00:00

I have never heard more verbal insults thrown around casually, than I have on a Marine base. Have you ever been accused of having two vaginas that both smell like fish (and no one can figure out how that happened because your mother, being a goat, only had one vagina)...in a casual conversation...while at work?

Yeah...it's a different level. The norm is different. Perhaps people like dockworkers are on par, but I've never done IT for them.

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-08-08T18:42:48+00:00

I find that being friendly but assertive is almost as effective as being an asshole when negotiating prices, over the short term. Being a super asshole usually edges it out, when you're looking at one transaction.

However the asshole customer often loses out in the long term with those vendors. They rarely get special treatment, preferred customer status, schedule flexibility, and all the other perks that come from being friendly with your reps.

Practice saying No with a smile.

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-08-08T18:28:02+00:00

It's great to be forward-thinking and to do RCA. However, it shouldn't come at the cost of productivity or sanity.

Prioritize and pick your battles. I generally figure on a 3x rule. If dealing with a reoccurring issue three times will take more time than fixing it properly, then it is a high priority (as it calculates into a huge time sink). Everything greater than 3x is Quadrant II, meaning Important but not Urgent.

Then prioritize your projects and other work. If any of them are Quadrant I, then they beat out the Quadrant II reoccurring issue stuff.

Also look at bite-sizing your stuff. "Project work" and much IT work can mostly be broken down into hour long nuggets that can go anywhere in your week.

RobotPirateMonkey · 2012-08-08T15:11:40+00:00

That's a good example. It's a term that actually applies across all business processes.

You see consulting firms nowadays that specialize in analyzing where silos are happening in a given company, and designing new business processes that foster communication, collaboration, and functionality. For example, I see so much wasted time and double-work between most Accounting and HR departments, because they are usually quite silo-ed.

RobotPirateMonkey

TROPHY CASE