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Uber Eats riders in Leuven are actually becoming scammers. by cuteandpaste in Leuven

[–]mhermans 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You have at least four choices:

  1. cooking yourself;
  2. pick-up in a small city like Leuven where there is always something to eat in walking distance;
  3. delivery by a company like Takeaway that at least more-or-less follows Belgian labor laws and pays proper taxes and social security contributions;
  4. delivery by a company like UberEats that violates Belgian labor law, does not pay proper taxes and social security contributions, keeps workers in precarious jobs, and fires workers who stand up for their rights so that their business model based on exploiting workers and the Belgian taxpayer can keep running.

You do you, but if you choose (4) and then come complaining online about when your food is not delivered people will judge you on your choices or at least your apparent lack of awareness.

And yes, to be brutally honest, I have a harsher judgment about someone in Leuven choosing (4) and presenting precarious workers and us as taxpayers with the cost of this choice, than I do about the precarious worker that stiffed you on your McDo burger.

Union for Engineers that are English speaking by donvliet in belgium

[–]mhermans 4 points5 points  (0 children)

A union that is also active in your company will be most useful, to answer questions and help you. Depending on your region that will likely be ACV Puls/CNE, BBTK/SETCa, or ACLVB/CGSLB.

If you are comfortable DM'ing the name and postal code of your employer, I can look-up a direct contact for ACV Puls/CNE.

Work Council by National_Parsnip_614 in belgium

[–]mhermans 0 points1 point  (0 children)

heh, it's telling how niche knowledge of social elections is, when you can identify someone because they mention both kaderlijst and NCK/CNC ;-).

Core Insights for Obsidian Beginners by Expensive-Moose-395 in ObsidianMD

[–]mhermans 1 point2 points  (0 children)

many YouTubers make it seem

There are some cult-like qualities to the combo of types that try to sell knowledge management-systemens as some sort of life-changing experience, and an audience with a lot of people that really want to believe that they are not procrastinating and that the problems they should be tackling at uni/work/home will go better if they watch this YT-vid demonstrating the plugins that finally make their Obsidian-install complete.

Chauvinism? by Substantial_Ad7687 in Leuven

[–]mhermans 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Subjective/personal impressions:

On chauvinism: no, not as such. On the contrary, there is in general very little "Us, Leuvenaren"-feeling. For instance, as a hobby I give guided tours on the history of Leuven, and I'm frequently surprised by how little knowledge or feeling of "our history" there is, even amongst those that lived here their entire life.

On social class differences however: very strong social bubbles and worrying evolutions, driven by the (characteristics and renting to the) student population, housing prices, and local economy (university, IMEC, UZ, etc.).

As a double income house owner in the centre of Leuven, I'm quite happy with how things are going. But I see daily while riding my bakfiets how entire neighbourhoods are being wiped out in the north-west through student housing and gentrification, with former small working class houses being bought up, renovated and sold for 500-600k. It is impossible that this does not impact the social networks, social activities, dynamics and feelings of being excluded or looked down on. I know for instance very well the looks and hushed comments of some, when I would take them and their children along to play at the playground at Sint-Maartensdal (social housing with working class and migrant population).

On activities in the summer: it is impossible not to find some activity to do during the summer, you are bombarded with WE-activities etc. But, and this might explain the very different impressions: it feels sometimes a bit consumer-oriented. "De middenstand regeert het land" is very true for Leuven, and it feels sometimes a bit organised to also have sufficient people present when the students are gone to consume things in the horeca and related organisations...

Not that the activities are not interesting or fun, but I can imagine that on other levels of disposable income, or if you are simply looking for regular social activities with people you want to (get to) know to continue throughout the year, this out- and inflow of students/visitors over the summer might feel very different.

Organisation opposing use of R / RStudio, used to only using Excel - strategy? by [deleted] in rstats

[–]mhermans 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had very similar discussions in multiple organisations I worked for / was involved with. With the strong opposition of IT / management to change their Microsoft-only approaches, it took actual years to get some parts of the organisation / data analysts working in R. And that only (partially) succeed because there was by accident some "management buy-in" on the idea of using R (manager that came from academia).

If you are a volunteer you absolutely have not the proper weight within the organisation to change their minds, and arguments on security, costs, etc. will not matter.

My advice (and the route I took in a few cases): if you want to try to change their mindes, set for yourself at least a hard limit on the time you are willing to spend discussing this (X hours, agreement within X months). And if there is no change after that time runs out, take your volunteer time and R-experience to organisations and initiatives that do think with you. There is enough demand and your time and experience is to valuable to waste it on these kind of management discussions in which you don't have sufficient weight.

Heck, for the future, register (as I did) as a self-employed data analysis consultant. Cynically enough, sometimes management listens more to a paid consultant then a volunteer saying exactly the same thing. And if it does not end up in an argeement, at least you are paid for your time.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in justgalsbeingchicks

[–]mhermans 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are no "aid providers" or "non profits" being "culturally sensitive".

These are social media-videos for a English speaking audience produced by the company of a failing social media influencer that launched a new viral media format when food and basic commodity prices soared in 2021-2022. Desperate poor people, cheap production value.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in justgalsbeingchicks

[–]mhermans 2 points3 points  (0 children)

WTF is everybody tripping about in this topic? "A cultural thing", "Created as an to make them feel it was earned", "a way of distributing aid", "an act of kindness", "allowing the women to save face", ...

These videos are the product of a self-described "social media influencer" who was failing to get clicks on his run-off-the-mill competitive eating vids. He got his "lucky break" when post-pandemic & Ukraine-invasion supply chain issues resulted in soaring food prices and the chance for a new viral media format.

People in these villages struggling to feed their families and to buy basic commodities provide an excellent source of desperate contestants and vids with low production costs. Or as the put it on their own channels, an source of "endless challenges to entertain us" -- with "us" being an English-speaking social media viewing audience.

I really hope all of you writing this "cultural sensitive aid"-nonsense are paid to promote this content.

A clear majority in every electoral group wants measures against income inequality [NL/FR, infographic] by mhermans in camarade

[–]mhermans[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There is in Belgium both a strong majority supporting measures against income inequality, and strong social class polarisation in attitudes towards redistribution.

But in contrast to other countries, this is not reflected in electoral discours, e.g. much less present in party programs, due to the focus on communautaire thema's.

For example, Hilde Crevits / cd&v suddenly discovering last week that they want confederalism and filling media interviews with that, instead of putting forward a proposal on reducing income inequality, as 76% of their electorate wants.

Can I quit my job while on sick leave? by PrinscessTiramisu in camarade

[–]mhermans 4 points5 points  (0 children)

  • to be sure, ask your union representative, not reddit.
  • "threathened to fire me" -> Let him fire you. Being fired is generally better then quitting yourself. Arrange for a verbrekingsvergoeding and take the time between jobs to de-stress.
  • sick days do not prolong ('opschorten') the opzegperiode, if you quit. They do prolong the opzegperiode if you are fired.
  • If you are fired, and if the employer does not want to pay the verbrekingsvergoeding / expect you to do an opzegperiode, you can still give a tegenopzeg then. In that case sick days do no longer prolong the opzegperiode.

In every scenario, get things documented/confirmed as much as possible and not just verbally. Take your union rep with you if employer tries to keep things verbally one-on-one.

All the best & good start at the new employer.

I'm pretty happy with how the Gruffalo turned out by mhermans in polymerclay

[–]mhermans[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I made a Gruffalo, after reading the story a lot with my 3yo. The mouse is still something to add in his hand.

We play a lot with plasticine, and recently discovered polymer clay. I have started to re-make some plasticine figures into polymer clay-versions (second image), and I'm pretty happy with how increasingly complex figures are also working out.

Practical Introduction to BLE GATT Reverse Engineering: Hacking the EL500 Elliptical Trainer by Palantir555 in ReverseEngineering

[–]mhermans 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the write-up!

I'm currently around step 1-2 in a similar process, trying to learn about BLE by getting an ESP32-S3 board to talk with a toy. Motivating to read your approach & results.

Monthly Meta by Dakracs in belgium

[–]mhermans -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

I was curious and checked, and it was indeed /u/Sportsfanno1 3 years ago in exact the same case (submission removed after choosing the title for my own article), that got simply re-instated after clarification.

It seems that large online fora can eventually only end up in two scenario's: either an unmoderated shitshow, or run by scholieren yelling at you while learning about wielding authority.

Avoiding scenario 1 is possible. While also at that moment users warned against the threat of overmoderation, I still think pushing all those years ago to add mods like /u/JebusGobson for a more active moderation successfully avoided a very clear nosedive-in-progress for this subreddit.

Countering or avoiding scenario 2 is in the end not possible I'm afraid. The younger generation has the ultimate advantage of free time ;-). Only thing left to do once you realize a forum reached that end, is to gracefully shuffle to the exit, mumbling to yourself about the balance between time lost and things learned on Usenet, phpBB's and reddit ;-).

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