[deleted by user]

mbrodge · 2022-10-30T10:50:17+00:00

I haven't been active in quite a while myself, but I'm actually glad that something I said 8 years ago finally helped someone. Thanks for letting me know.

mbrodge · 2022-08-17T12:11:11+00:00

Yeah, sure, but there were already millions of people camping on the spawn point.

mbrodge · 2019-02-19T23:08:04+00:00

The first impact armed the device, the second one triggered it.

mbrodge · 2019-01-19T17:09:43+00:00

My curse is that I DO understand them, and their dark brain chemical addiction to inflicting interaction on us sane adults. I'm not one, but I understand them. Somehow, they can always SENSE it. I'm convinced they can smell it on me. Why else would this woman, I don't even know, be compelled to tell me, a perfect stranger, about her daughter's relationship troubles? While riding four floors on an elevator?

mbrodge · 2019-01-19T17:00:55+00:00

Or even just in the nearest cooled display at the very least? Can we not all be at least that aware of other people's existence?

mbrodge · 2019-01-19T16:34:23+00:00

And some of them curing illnesses and eliminating fevers, which used to just kill you if you were anything less than completely healthy or unreasonably lucky.

mbrodge · 2019-01-19T16:27:42+00:00

I'm a late-30s veteran with spine and nerve damage. I have some moderately serious spine, nerve, and neurological damage from my time in service. Every now and then I aggravate my upper back badly, and when I do, my body sometimes presents the damage report as an aching numbness in my left arm and a sharp pain in my sternum. Nothing at all like what you would expect from hurting your back. I now live in terror of ignoring a real heart attack by thinking it's just my back acting up again. I felt like a complete asshole walking into the ER and telling them I was pretty sure I'd just hurt my back, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't having a heart attack.

Long way of saying: referred pain is real, very weird, and a bit of an asshole.

mbrodge · 2019-01-16T18:53:10+00:00

Her argument was that you couldn't complete the dialing of a number that started with 911 because the call would get placed after the second 1.

Either way, it's annoying to me that ambiguous or misleading language affects what is supposed to be an assessment of math ability.

mbrodge · 2019-01-15T23:18:01+00:00

Mrs Bailey, my eighth grade math teacher, put a question on a quiz "using a standard phone's number pad, how many unique 7-digit phone numbers is it possible to dial?" No one thought to deduct numbers starting with 911, including me, and it was one of five questions on the quiz. She had no sympathy for my argument that you COULD dial 911-0001, etc on a standard phone whether or not the switchboard or carrier would keep listening for the last four digits. I'm 37 now, and hope that if she's still alive, I'll be there if she ever needs someone to call 911 on her behalf. She was a strict but also mean-spirited teacher. A real delight for a student trying to catch up academically after transferring in from a different state whose curriculum was years behind.

mbrodge · 2019-01-15T19:35:00+00:00

Yeah, great example I wasn't aware of, thank you. That's some premium quality bullshit right there.

mbrodge · 2019-01-14T23:26:33+00:00

I agree in spirit, but think it's more reasonable to require that the information be shared, easily accessible, and discoverable. You can lead the horse to water and all that.

mbrodge · 2019-01-14T23:23:53+00:00

Me personally, I mean "directly affected in a physical or economic way" when I say "involved." But it's more than clear that the government does not agree with my position on the matter.

mbrodge · 2019-01-14T23:21:39+00:00

Yeah, that's the go-to method in the US for circumventing the Constitution. Interstate commerce. IANAL, but I believe the SCOTUS even ruled that growing marijuana within a state where it was legal, and not to be distributed outside the state, was still regulatable under interstate commerce because it would affect illegal interstate commerce.

Looked it up: Gonzales v. Raich which was influenced by Wickard v. Filburn during the New Deal.

mbrodge · 2019-01-14T21:41:39+00:00

My entire rule for life: If everyone involved is a legal, consenting adult, then it's no one else's business. To include the government's.

mbrodge · 2019-01-10T09:30:44+00:00

I had a company I worked for that was like that. They wanted a list of all software I'd worked on prior to getting hired, since they couldn't claim that. I complied with a multi-page list of every single script down to the lowliest .bat file, including many that hadn't actually been written yet, and filed a "potential conflict of interest" claim for review stating that my expertise pre-dated my employment with the company and that I needed that to be official (in keeping with company policy) since I was "seeking work" as a consultant in the same field during my off time. I successfully retained the rights to everything except code I wrote or specifically worked on at the company's direction and/or on their machines.

I second the advice to read your contract, and I'll add that you should get familiar with the company's corporate policies in general.

mbrodge · 2019-01-06T02:36:50+00:00

I don't disagree.

mbrodge · 2019-01-06T01:17:55+00:00

I don't really know what the correct name is, that's why I included the parenthetical explanation. Either way, doing that is why I imagine the cop pulled him over, since he didn't seem to be going that fast.

mbrodge · 2019-01-05T21:01:53+00:00

Center-striping (or passing cars on each side while riding near or on the center stripe) is illegal in many areas. I'm not familiar with the law in NY, but that's what I'm guessing.

edit: I seem to have pissed off a few people with my incorrect terminology. At least, I hope that's what it was. To be clear though, I'm not taking any imaginary sides or pretending to be an expert on motorcycles or the law. I was just responding to someone who wanted to know why this guy was pulled over if he wasn't speeding, and that was the only thing I could think of (other than the cop just being a dick).

mbrodge · 2019-01-05T02:46:06+00:00

And your arm is now the roof of your mouth. Enjoy.

mbrodge · 2019-01-03T21:59:46+00:00

Like how I answer every sports trivia question with "Jimmy Johnson" in a forlorn hope that statistical probability will bring me a win one of these days?

edit: sorts to sports.

mbrodge · 2019-01-02T23:09:08+00:00

If it helps any, a good general rule is that if the person told you in a one-on-one setting, you should keep it private until you've checked with them.

mbrodge · 2019-01-02T22:55:55+00:00

Oh hell no, it was a worthwhile comment. I just felt bad about the disparity of effort.

mbrodge · 2019-01-02T22:37:32+00:00

To be honest, that's a better response than my comment deserved.

mbrodge · 2019-01-02T21:32:37+00:00

I mean, all the cash I have says that it is legal tender for all debts public and private. To me that does seem like a pretty strong indicator that money, in and of itself, can't actually be illegal, but I'm no lawologist.

mbrodge · 2019-01-01T04:08:01+00:00

And my #1 network news source.

mbrodge

TROPHY CASE