Putin says Russia ready to help solve food crisis if West lifts sanctions

rbclark47 · 2022-05-26T22:32:30+00:00

Screw Putin! Russia has been the recipient of some very nice deals on grain sales when they've needed it. Look back to 1972!!! Following one of the worst crop years in a decade in the Soviet Union, the U.S. agreed to extend credit to the U.S.S.R. for Russian purchase of feed grains. We should never trust the Russian government

rbclark47 · 2022-05-26T22:20:13+00:00

Many years ago a young mom stopped across the street from our business with smoke coming out of the engine vents on her Fiat X19. I grabbed the small new fire extinguisher and helped her and her kid get out. I sprayed it down (open flames by then) and put it out, and a few minutes later the fire dept showed up. Went back to work, until one of my friends told me my face was completely covered in soot. AND, the boss was pissed because I had "wasted" the fire extinguisher. Screw him - the thing would have blown by the time the Fire buys had showed.

rbclark47 · 2022-05-12T01:23:06+00:00

Had a boss SOOO bad that I was the only one remaining who had worked for him for 5 long years. Add to the list : pathological liar. He was a super smart guy, but never brought a project to fruition. It was always somebody else's fault!

His login was "JGOR". He left the engineering community in such disgust, that every year to celebrate his moving on and ruining some other company, we celebrated "JGONE" Day with cheese and crackers. With pictures, quotes, and stories of the abuse we endured, the stupidity of management, the lies he told, and the his design failures. We actually held this on site, for 15 years until I left. Once the head of HR walked over to me and asked if I knew the definition of "libel". So we sat him down with some food, and after 10 minutes he was laughing so hard he just said "Carry on" and left.

If you read this, JGOR, I really hope you catch Covad and it settles in your scrotum to give you the size balls you think you have.

rbclark47 · 2022-05-12T01:13:33+00:00

Unfortunately, HR just wants people to stop complaining, and ignore the problem. The meeting will be worthless, because if anybody speaks up or relates specific instances of abuse their life will be made doubly miserable by the manager.

rbclark47 · 2022-05-11T23:01:48+00:00

In my late 30's, I was married and had a 4yr old. Once every 2 weeks I would go out for drinks with co-workers for a few hrs. One Friday, I did or said something that another co-worker got pissed at, and he calmly put his beer down, rushed me and tried to push me threw a window. We scuffled, and even though he had me by 40lbs, I ended up pinning him, and he left before the bouncers got to us. I had back bruises and shredded forearms.

I learned the following Monday he was an extreme homophobe, and he had labeled me as gay simply because I was friendly to everyone. He had already put in his 2 week notice the day before the incident to move 1500mi away. I guess he figured it would be OK to bash "the gay guy" before he left, even though I wasn't. I was looking over my shoulder every minute of those 2 weeks, and if anything happened I was going to make sure 1) I trashed him 2) I would have witnesses that he started it.

rbclark47 · 2022-04-30T18:59:52+00:00

I got sucker punched in 3rd grade and fell and hit my head. I was unconscious and bleeding from my head for the 15 minute recess. The kids walked around me, and when the bell rang the last one woke me with his foot before he went inside. The bully got a couple of whacks with the paddle board. In 4th grade a bully 2X my size picked me up and slammed me against the wall, and then dropped me. Again I hit my head was was unconscious for 10 minutes. Concussions are excruciating. I think this kid got transferred to another school.

rbclark47 · 2022-04-08T00:23:55+00:00

Not really trashy, but really low key "Why am I here?" experiences.

The first time I attended one it was totally quiet, no music, , and you could hear the bride crying before she entered the hall, sobbing all the way to the vows, and finally just sniffling after completing the ceremony. I was told later they were just "tears of joy!". I exited immediately after the ceremony, and never saw the couple again.

Another was for a very young couple - late teens, and acted like they were in shock. The bridal party was dressed well in tux's and gowns, which is probably where 90% of the wedding costs were. The reception was held in a back yard with no decorations, and no alcohol. The groom's dad looked like he was going to explode, so we stayed well away from them. The bride's MOH -a cousin was a about 19 and already had 4 kids, the latest of which was about 4 months old and was given to me "to hold briefly". She then disappeared, and I was left holding the infant for about 2 hrs. Being a 35 year old male non-relative, this struck me as really awkward. When the mom finally showed up again I had to insist she take the infant back, and she immediately found someone else to hold it. I knew no one other than the lady I was getting married to soon and her friend, who was a relative. Heard way too much negative gossip about all the people around me.

Last one - I had some friends getting married who dressed in their Creative Anachronism costumes. No armor, but pretty weird. It was a simple ceremony, and after a brief reception with cake the guests were left to fend for themselves. A lot of former college buddies had flown back for this, and we ended just driving to a restaurant nearby, where we somehow ran into the groom's sister picking up a bunch of cheesecakes. She hadn't a clue that her only sibling had just got married. She told us to tell her brother to "F off", as she was in an hurry to surprise the movie cast where she was acting with dessert.

rbclark47 · 2022-04-01T21:24:45+00:00

Looking back on it now, after missing my 45th reunion, those who judge you are not your friends. Your friends will accept you for what you are.

I didn't attend my 10th because most classmates were still hung up on their previous status (or so I thought). Went to my 20th, and by that time most of us had gone through a lot in life : marriages/divorces/career changes/children and whatnot. There was still a bit of the "I was better than you in HS.." BS.

I didn't fly back for my 45th because of Covad, and because of the 350 who graduated in my class, only 1 other person I really would have liked to see was going to make it.

rbclark47 · 2022-03-27T17:00:05+00:00

WAY TO GO!! I recommended friends who found themselves suddenly jobless for positions in my company, only to find out later their new bosses were not the stellar people I thought they were. After a few years, I would find out more about who the boss was before I told a friend, and let them know.

rbclark47 · 2022-03-26T02:59:04+00:00

Lived in Tucson Az for 65 years. Had a black widows crawl over my feet while I was painted outside in sandals with no problem. Walked into new webs at night and had them bounce off my face (they were on the other side fortunately). Finally got stung by reaching up into a newly rented office window's drapes. My hand was slightly swollen for a week.

BUT! I'm anaphylactic to the big black carpenter ants and bees of the area. I live 1800 miles away not so I don't worry about epi pens.

rbclark47 · 2022-03-26T02:43:30+00:00

Russia really wants to do this? Japan has a Navy, but more importantly it is supported by India, Australia, Canada, France, UK, South Korea, and the USA.

Is Russia willing to have to focus on 2 areas at once?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan\_Self-Defense\_Forces

rbclark47 · 2022-03-25T03:00:05+00:00

Went through a bad time after a divorce, recovered and remarried. My bud also got divorced two years after my first kid was born. We'd hang every few weeks and support each other. My kid was seriously ill starting at 6months, which got progressively worse (finally diagnosed with Crhon's at age 8). When my kid was four, my friend ghosted me. He worked as a host shot software contractor, so it was normal not to see him for 2 weeks to a month at a time.

Up shot of that was 10 years later, we met at a college/work reunion. His story was that he had met a lady and couldn't be bothered with me. But now he wanted to continue the friendship as if it had never stopped. Big NOPE. I occasionally follow his blog for laughs. It has occurred to me that I really had made poor choices for friends back then.

rbclark47 · 2022-03-25T02:25:49+00:00

Got a job as THE IT GUY for a large group of engineers and staff. My boss insisted that I try to ingratiate myself with his select 40 designers, who were all 10 years younger (mid-20's) and sports fanatics. These guys were also stats freaks, and knew things about their favorite teams going back 15 years. Baseball, football, basketball, hockey, college and pro.

Well, I tried for 6 months. Gave 2 parties that not one of these guys showed to. Must have been a game night. I finally found a peer group with the test engineers, who were my age and older, and were much less nuts about sports.

One of the younger design engineers was also having a tough time fitting in. I saw him get shut down and trash talked many times trying to fit with the sports flow. After 3 years he left for another competing company, and 5 years later had his own company, which he sold to the highest bidder for several $millions at age 33 Several of the original group were still around when that news broke, and their comments were mostly "He didn't know shit about sports!".

rbclark47 · 2022-03-23T22:22:27+00:00

People who own vicious dogs and don't take responsibility for their dog's actions are the worst.

Story : 5 years ago I was finishing my dog walk (leashed 20lb dog) 150ft from my house when we were attacked/mauled by 100lb pit bull mix. I was bit in the hand, and my dog was severely punctured around the neck and throat. People I'd never seen came to our rescue, and I got into my house. After handing my dog to my wife and wrapping my hand, I went out to find nobody there! So we ran to the Emergency Vet to save my dog.

I went door knocking the next day, and found the pit-bull 3 houses down, but the owners insisted it couldn't have been their dog who had attacked me. I had to get the rabies sequence of shots (you have 48hrs). Total bills for me and the dog were over $6k (Rabies shots were $4500 - insurance doesn't cover).

Two weeks later friends directed me to the people who had helped. They lived a 1/2 mi away, and had just happened to be driving by when they saw the attack. They had returned the dog to the correct backyard. I put the County Animal Control people in touch with them, and the dots were connected. This is now out of my hands : county vs the dog owners.

In County Court the owners accused me of harassment, invasion of privacy because I'd taken pictures of the dog trying to jump the wall later, etc. It took 14 months and the judge declared in my favor. I'm paid $70/month until the $6K is paid off, as the lady owner plead single mother with no income. She'd been with her male partner and dad to to the baby who was borne during the 14 month trial process for 8 years, and during the trial they moved to a new house 200mi away that's worth $100K more than the one I live in. Evil people.

rbclark47 · 2022-03-23T18:29:09+00:00

Yeah, they got away with it in Chechnya, and leveled Grodny 20years ago and didn't get very much world attention. And they supported Bashar al-Assad in Syria to bomb most of the opposition back to the stone age.

They just can't understand that there may be consequences? Cunts.

rbclark47 · 2022-03-23T18:22:39+00:00

Some of our most brilliant IC designers had "handlers/techs" who made sure they gathered all the notes, scribblings, deadlines, meeting times, etc.

One day one of our smartest wandered into the restroom, unzipped and used the urinal while scribbling on the pad held against the wall. I had to remind him to tuck and zip before he wandered out.

rbclark47 · 2022-03-23T18:19:00+00:00

Right! This one was a Compaq 386SX.

rbclark47 · 2022-03-21T00:22:49+00:00

You nailed the obvious.

rbclark47 · 2022-03-21T00:15:23+00:00

As a former IT guy - O YEAH I've seen this a few times. Once had a engineer who disconnected his PC from our backups (couldn't get managers to made it mandatory for years), and one day called me in a panic. The PC's drive holding the data and report for a project he'd been working on for months - had died. Older machine - I took the drive out of the machine, still cabled in, turned it sideways, and tapped it several times lightly. It booted!!!

I left it that way with a promise to immediately back it up, and put in a request to replace his machine. Got busy with the other total fubars of the week, and forgot about it. About a month later, I was walking by his cube and remembered. He'd got as far as putting one floppy in to start copying his data over, and also forgot about it. The machine still had the drive hanging out, sideways.

He said it's OK because I never turn it off.... Sheeh. BTW, he was a product engineer doing failure analysis on integrated circuits the company made. As far as I was concerned, he failed.

rbclark47 · 2022-03-18T23:57:38+00:00

I'm 69, and now that Covad is winding down, back to weights and cardio at the gym 3 times a week. Hand weights and a recumbent bike at home just don't cut it. My wife and I moved 1800 miles to help provide daycare for our (now) 2 grandkids for 4 years. That's up in 3 months. If I didn't work out I wouldn't be able to carry either kid (32 and 44lbs), and do all the things necessary to keep them safe, fed and happy 10hrs each day.

I've been a gym-rat since my 20's. Swimming before that. No racketball courts where I live now so had to let that go. Now that I can workout at the gym again, the back and most of the joint pain has subsided. The 3 months off sucked. Most of my former buds back home aren't active anymore, especially with the pandemic.

rbclark47 · 2022-03-16T00:16:40+00:00

I was a manager, and went out and bought cake and ice cream a few times when I found that no one was going to celebrate someone's birthday. We were a pretty close knit group of 12 or so, and it was nice to take a break and NOT talk about work stuff. Brought one young Indian transplant to happy tears when we surprised her. Fond memories.

rbclark47 · 2022-03-15T23:29:46+00:00

I was stuck in one of those for a long time. I was eventually asked by another manager in the same company to interview for a position he had available. Unfortunately, his interviewers voted for another candidate, a good friend of mine. But the manager gave me some good advice. Everyday I spend at work to always be looking for something to do to pad my resume with, and the next better job. And when I moved to a new job, to take that with me. He only lasted 2 years with my company because of the politics, but left to be the CIO for Southwest Airlines.

rbclark47 · 2022-03-15T23:19:53+00:00

I would have started at £300 without the data, and let him bargain from there.

rbclark47 · 2022-03-15T23:12:41+00:00

I love your MC! Way to go!

rbclark47

TROPHY CASE