A self mowing lawnmower, it moved so randomly and was so specific for its operation parameters that I ended up just going back to manually mowing.

According to the patent (US465588A) it should be over.

And people wonder why I still play Factorio, Parkitect, ATS, or RCT. People suck and being able to ignore them is great.

Concerts, the rooms are always tuned visually and sonically for about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way back on the floor. If you care about audio or visuals this is where you go. If you can’t afford the floor, anywhere in the center will still be a good experience, avoid the sides unless you don’t care about visuals or audio. We literally call those the bone seats, because they have no substance to them.

Ignoring the fact that you would go east to reach Hawaii from Japan, because it’s in the northern hemisphere, it would actually curve up not down, and because both japan and Hawaii are close-ish to the equator the curve would be relatively flat.

Fun fact because every country charges you for every nautical mile flown in their airspace, you will actually get lines that zigzag and are less fuel efficient because they are paying less for airspace miles. Example. If you fly from Chicago to Paris or Dubai, you don’t actually head east first, you first head northeast into Canadian airspace and bypass the New England area because Canadian airspace is cheaper than U.S. airspace.

I fell off a stage while holding an HD broadcast camera in the early 00’s. Those were really expensive back then. Ruined about $160k worth of gear.

Let me guess. Boeing

Edit: yep Boeing 737-800

Watch it get bombed because “hamas”

I was doing some work with an academic center that provided continuing education for the teachers and caretakers at orphanages. We always worked with local administration or charities who would educate the administrators and caretakers on how to maneuver the legal system in their country, while we provided the technical training and education resources. The goal was to get the children trained in a trade skill so they could support themselves when they got out. The areas we were working in were often remote and never in good areas, but the teachers and caretakers usually tried, they just didn’t know what they were doing and needed a little help. But at least they were trying.

By this point I had worked all over latin America, and a handful of countries in Africa. All of these people and cultures were different, but you could tell they tried, and the people in the villages and towns respected, and in many cases helped those that tried. Honestly it was some of the best and most rewarding work I have ever done.

I’m saying all of this because back in 2008 I ended up seeing an opportunity to go to Russia and do the same type work. I thought I’ve never been to Europe or Asia, sure that sounds exciting. Expecting to see the same thing I had seen in 18 other countries by this point. People in rural areas who saw a need and stepped in, now they just need training.

Instead of a rural town or village, we ended up in Kostroma, a city of a quarter million people. We find out from our contact from the Ministry of Education, that children are usually kicked out of orphanages at 14 as they are no longer profitable. At that point we should have immediately started asking questions, alarm bells should have gone off, etc. But it was the first day in a new country, we’re still getting to know our contacts before we start training. So there’s still some cultural unknowns, could be a translation error, any number of things.

While we’re doing our training, the teachers and caretakers were very standoffish, much more than we were expecting, but whatever, we’re the new people. They also have very strict times of when we have to be out of there. Makes sense, end of the work day, you’ve got kids to take care of, we get it.

We stayed too late one night and we found out the reason why the kids could become, “no longer profitable.” Evidently all of the orphanages in the area would sell kids for a night, and when they got too old, people didn’t want them, so they got kicked out. When we found out, obviously the first thing we did was try and report it. But we were told by both our contacts from the Ministry of Education, and the police, that’s just how they do business. If the kids want to eat they have to work.

We broke our contract with the Ministry of Education stating what we witnessed and left. Don’t know if anything has changed, but I’ve not been a fan of Russia ever since.

The other thing I always tell people is every year you don’t get a raise that’s at least equal to inflation you’re getting a pay cut. Finding a job that does cost of living increases every year is a huge benefit.

Several years ago my family and I went to an improve murder mystery dinner theater, and my family being the goofballs they are decided to cheer for the bumbling idiot character anytime he accomplished anything, regardless of how menial. So as the night went on the bumbling idiot character would start to cheer for himself followed by all of us, and eventually the whole crowd anytime he did anything.

So now if anyone in my family does something super menial but it was still a big task because circumstances, like mowing the lawn after a long hard day at work, we cheer “Yay, Eric!!!” After the name of the bumbling idiot, from an improve murder mystery dinner theater performance, from 12 years ago.

New one got bought out 3 months in and they sacked my entire department. Old one had been struggling to replace me and offered me a 20% raise to come back.

Contract is up at the end of the year, and we’ll see how things pan out then.