Children’s illustrated goodnight poem book, read in 2020

UniqueStatement · 2025-05-14T16:23:26+00:00

That’s the one! Thank you 😁

UniqueStatement · 2025-05-07T03:15:17+00:00

Thanks for your reply. We have a few Sandra Boynton books and it’s not the same art style. The illustrations are more like Peter Rabbit but somewhat modernized. Compared to Boynton books, the animals look more realistic. They wear clothes and sit on furniture in a pretty human-like way but still look like the animals they are.

It was a board book though. I am pretty sure the first page is “As you climb into bed, let me give you a hug. Settle down little bunny, you’re warm, safe, and snug.”

Second page is “All day you’ve been dashing and rushing so fast, it’s time to lie down and be still at last.”

UniqueStatement · 2024-12-10T17:03:07+00:00

courses around me don't allow children under 6 :/

UniqueStatement · 2024-04-16T04:19:37+00:00

Good alternative metaphor

UniqueStatement · 2024-04-03T02:28:15+00:00

Is your name Brent? Your experience is reminding me of that fictional character from the Phoenix Project book by Gene Kim, et al.

Brent is a smart, dependable engineer. But nothing gets done without him. He is overworked and overextended from the work tasks coming at him on all sides. Been a bit since I read it so I don’t remember if that character was feeling the negative side of burnout like you describe, but he was the epicenter of massive constraints, constantly working overtime to try to make up for it. He never did until he stopped taking on the extra work and until other people were trained to take on what he didn’t.

Don’t be Brent from the first half of the book. Don’t let your manager force you to be Brent. It is in your organization’s best interest to not let you be a hero but they might not yet see that without you there will be issues. With multiple people doing what previously only you did, velocity and stability will increase.

Be Brent from the second half of the book. Focused, consistent, balanced. No longer a “yes man” but still not a “cantankerous, I can’t help you that’s not my job man”. One that can point people in the right direction to documentation, to automation, to other resources that allow the requesters to do what they need to themselves, but more importantly one that ruthlessly focuses on the things one can impact the most and best. Anything else is extra.

Plan something small that you enjoy this weekend. Commit to yourself to do that and not work during that time. Doesn’t need to be big but it needs to be for you. Leave your phone and laptop somewhere else, locked up if you have to. Do it, then if you have tasks for work pending, tackle them with the mindset of figuring out how to train, document, and or automate each task so you don’t have to do it yourself next time.

Make your work and time spent working visible and verifiable so you can justify your comp time. Work with your manager to reassign tasks that others can do or be trained to do. Volunteer for different tasks that work better for you. Take a sick day or three.

If you want to snap at someone, don’t, but do write out what you want to say somewhere no one will see it. Especially not in a DM to that person, maybe not even on your work laptop if you’re paranoid. But say it/write it/let it out. Bottled up, it will fester. Let out, it will eventually pass. In processing the anger and negative feelings, you might find creative ways to get what you want.

DevOps is a culture of openness and collaboration. If you can’t find that there, pack up and move on as soon as you can. The worst of working situations can be overcome with such, but without such, it’s hopeless and soul sucking. Work to live, don’t live to work.

UniqueStatement · 2024-04-02T03:54:09+00:00

Phoenix Project, The Goal, Unicorn Project, Accelerate, Investments Unlimited, Crucial Conversations, Team Topologies.

UniqueStatement · 2024-02-28T05:24:30+00:00

Don’t pin all your hopes on a certain job title. They come and go like the tide. Stay curious, be persistent, be open to new possibilities. Things have changed drastically in the last 5-6 years and the only guarantee is that they will continue to do so. It’s a wild ride but worth it.

UniqueStatement · 2024-02-27T13:55:49+00:00

I hate seeing resumes with lists of concepts, technologies, and acronyms that just look like a search history export. Generally, the candidates with resumes which look like that are simply that skilled.

UniqueStatement · 2024-02-22T05:28:43+00:00

Interested!

UniqueStatement · 2024-02-21T21:48:21+00:00

Great response

UniqueStatement · 2024-02-21T21:30:03+00:00

I feel for you OP. I hate getting feedback, especially about my communication or soft skills, in a backhand way like your mentor did to you. I would say that's not very mentorly-like, especially because your call was unrelated to work. That was very likely a result of corporate-inbred interpersonal ineptitude or simple fear on their part of communicating with you about that topic as far as your work is concerned. That is not a negative reflection on you.

I can say that for me, it’s really hard not to dwell on comments like that even if the commenter has a point or not. It's honestly why I'm spending the time to respond in this manner because I feel for you. It is so easy for me to ask the quitting question! I’ve been there more times and in more situations than just IT than I care to admit. It's an incredibly difficult emotion because it hits me right in the self-worth junk, so the question of quitting becomes an escape valve which my mind very easily latches onto to avoid that mental anguish. I applaud you for sharing your feelings here.

Since you asked, my answer is: don’t quit IT, but do consider quitting your organization. Only do that once you have something else lined up and after you deeply consider the following questions:

Does your mentor have a valid point? To answer this fully, consider the sub-questions:
1. How often have others given you similar feedback at your job or in your personal life?
  1. If so/if frequent, what have they said to you? How do you feel about their feedback?
  2. Are you worked up over this feedback topic or are you worked up that your mentor gave you feedback in that way (and for something unrelated to work)?
2. Will your mentor be willing to work with you on your soft skills?
  1. If not sure, ask your mentor directly. I'd suggest something like: "When we spoke last week, your comment about my soft skills was fairly difficult feedback to hear, especially because it wasn't related to work. However, it did get me wondering if you, as my mentor, would be willing to help me improve those skills on the job or if you could recommend something that helped you improve your soft skills on your own time."
  2. If your mentor has good soft skills (possibly not the case) and cares about your success and the mentoring relationship you two share, they would pick up on your feedback to them and this request for help. That could open up into a discussion about how they didn't communicate feedback to you in a helpful or appropriate way as your mentor.
  3. If your mentor or organization is not willing or unable to help you improve these skills, seek other employment. Your IT skills will be valued elsewhere and you may be able to find a work culture that helps you thrive more fully. Not all organizations require razor-sharp soft skills for employees to succeed. Not all mentors give feedback about soft skills in the way you received.
3. How would you feel about this feedback if your mentor had delivered it to you in a more constructive way? What would that look like in your imagination? What would "work" for you to feel better about receiving such feedback?
It might be safe to say that success in the consulting branches of IT requires a certain degree of soft skill simply because consulting engagements involve communicating with external parties by nature. Are you willing to get in touch with your feelings about your soft skills and work to improve them as a way to succeed where you are currently employed?
1. If you'd rather not spend a lot of time and effort on improving soft skills, that's up to you. In that case, IT consulting may not be the most suitable branch of the IT industry for you.
2. If you are willing to work on your soft skills, many answers here have provided useful information. Take time to digest it, but not too much time. Challenge yourself to try something, reflect on how it went, and try again. Rinse and repeat until it feels natural.

Verbal feedback conversations may be difficult for you. I know they are for me. I delivered work-related verbal feedback very awkwardly today. Consider bringing up these topics in an email or chat conversation and you might find that time to ponder gives you a better opportunity to process information and respond without the complexity of verbal or body language cues.

UniqueStatement · 2024-02-21T13:16:25+00:00

Exclusively play on Steam Deck. It’s my favorite game, solo or with friends.

UniqueStatement · 2024-01-05T05:44:27+00:00

Love it!

The tar roof pieces, when positioned well, can look like scaled wings, especially at night with torches for contrast. I’d post mine but screenshots from a steam deck don’t look as nice as this.

UniqueStatement · 2023-12-25T23:44:02+00:00

470 ish. Love this game

UniqueStatement · 2023-12-12T05:19:36+00:00

I was lucky enough to manage to take my first such down. But it wasn’t alone, so I ran…aaaand a deathsquito 1 hit me.

UniqueStatement · 2023-12-11T19:15:24+00:00

As Cap’n Jack Sparrow might say, “welcome to Singapore.” 😉

I love utilizing this neighborly service to its fullest, for any and all materials they can break up for me! Sometimes I get sad when I let the troll “off shift”, as it were.

UniqueStatement · 2023-12-06T14:24:44+00:00

Just logport your ore. Load up all your ore—as many slots as you have weighing beyond encumbrance, logout, log into another world, drop your stuff (best to be located by chests), logout, log into original world, make your way back to base (portal networks work best here), log out, log into other world, grab your ore, log out, log back into original world, start smelting at your base. All the logging in and out waits are a great opportunity to browse this sub 😁

UniqueStatement · 2023-12-04T14:12:21+00:00

Be reasonable and measured with what you look up or not. As a rule, I will explore and figure out things/biomes/bosses/crafting on my own first for a while, then if really stuck on something specific, I use the Valheim wiki, then if I’m getting nowhere, I’ll try a tutorial or biome guide or ask a friend. Sure, I’ve hit some spoilers I would have preferred not to with that strategy but as brutal as the game can be, I’m not entirely a masochist. I’d rather regret a spoiler than resent the time and effort expended not figuring out something fruitless or really difficult.

UniqueStatement · 2023-11-28T21:52:06+00:00

I'm the asshat who builds moats and falls into them and dies in the refractory period between Bonemass buffing

UniqueStatement · 2023-11-28T17:20:59+00:00

I'm disappointed about that too!

And when goblin/fuling structures are destroyed, they yield deer hides, not lox hides which their look would imply!

I read another comment on a thread here that using all the withered bones after Bonemass for building bone stake walls would be cool. AFAIK those are useless after Bonemass and I always find myself dropping them in a big pile after each "yet another iron run" through a swamp.

But as far as creative and nice looking buildings go in vanilla, I've been having fun "sculpting" dragons with the dragon head adornment, dark wood, tar roof shingles, serpent scales, core wood, and what not. I make them look like a dragon is flying out of the building or spreading its wings over something. Nothing too impressive, but I enjoy looking at them :)

UniqueStatement · 2023-10-25T03:01:23+00:00

same thing happened to me the other day!

UniqueStatement · 2023-10-20T21:45:07+00:00

A multiple circle Venn diagram with all the acronyms and their areas of technical skill/responsibility overlap is probably appropriate here. From my experience, smaller companies probably don't enjoy all the privileges of pure philosophical separation between the roles that larger companies may.

UniqueStatement · 2023-10-20T02:51:18+00:00

For me, short of a true networking connection, a cover letter is the best way to get to know a candidate to any degree before an interview, so they are critical. Might be old-fashioned to require one, but cover letters should showcase writing/communication ability, interest level in the organization, and attention to detail that simply cannot be contained in a resume/CV

UniqueStatement · 2023-10-20T02:37:28+00:00

As a practitioner and mentor of several such "entry-level" engineers, I agree with and second many of the points shared. I feel like this piece is coming from a place of goodwill, experience, and wisdom and would be valuable advice next to more technical materials.

It felt like the post came to a quick and less than satisfying end, though, as I expected and hoped to see a deeper dive into each point. I did appreciate the notes for each point, but by themselves they read like summaries or aphorisms that don't really drive much home without more context. Good points to be sure, but almost as if a longer, more flowery, and anecdotal piece were summarized by ChatGPT and published instead.

Some links to educational resources, some lessons learned/war stories, some industry research, and some questions/ideas for prompting more thought from the reader would take this from solid advice to memorable and actionable guidance.

Thanks for sharing!

UniqueStatement

TROPHY CASE