Random Thoughts

[kphoger]

This milk will never expire.  Or it expired in 1712.  Not sure which.

[Molandfreak]

This doesn't really fit into any of the existing map errors threads I'm aware of, but the ESRI ArcGIS Online base map labels US 101 as I-101 from the Golden Gate Bridge to Pelatuma. https://www.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=f9c7a3a1293146bca43f9c93d4893bf3

[1995hoo]

A bus in Sydney identifies as a train.

[kphoger]

A bus in Sydney identifies as a train.

I mean, it is Translink...

[Max Rockatansky]

I haven't used a punch clock to log my work hours since October 2005.

[Scott5114]

I haven't used a punch clock to log my work hours since October 2005.

I never have—at my first job, it was a function of the cash register; at my second and third jobs they had Kronos, which used barcode swipe cards. Now, I just present hourly totals to my boss and he really doesn't care how I log it. I've been doing it in LibreOffice Calc, though I have a half-finished C program to track punches that was my first experience doing my own malloc().

[1995hoo]

I haven't used a punch clock to log my work hours since October 2005.

The only time I ever used one was at my part-time job in high school from November 1989 to August 1991.

[kphoger]

For a few years starting in 2001, I used a time clock that printed our clock-in and clock-out times on a physical time card.  At some point, they replaced it with a magnetic strip one.

Nowadays, I clock in and out through a computer program on my work computer.  This irritates me if the internet is down when I get to work, because there are things I can do without the internet but can't clock in to show I'm working.  (I can get this fixed after the fact, but it's still irritating.)

[ZLoth]

I have to wonder about the people who live in New York City who decided to book a week away in Puerto Vallarta. They probably are grateful that they escaped the blizzard, only to be stuck in their hotel rooms because of the cartel retaliation.

[Max Rockatansky]

I have to wonder about the people who live in New York City who decided to book a week away in Puerto Vallarta. They probably are grateful that they escaped the blizzard, only to be stuck in their hotel rooms because of the cartel retaliation.

Better food in Jalisco and nicer weather.  Granted that authenticity of the food in Puerto Vallarta is probably suspect given it is a tourist city.  We just had a kick ass grill out for dinner where I'm at.

[kphoger]

Better food in Jalisco and nicer weather.  Granted that authenticity of the food in Puerto Vallarta is probably suspect given it is a tourist city.  We just had a kick as grill out for dinner where I'm at.

Carrie and I had our honeymoon a bit to the north 20 years ago, in San Francisco, Nayarit.  We flew in and out of Puerto Vallarta, and we popped down to the Wal-Mart in Nuevo Vallarta a couple of times to stock up on groceries.  That was definitely the only time I've ever seen whole fresh octopus on ice at a Wal-Mart deli area.

[Max Rockatansky]

Better food in Jalisco and nicer weather.  Granted that authenticity of the food in Puerto Vallarta is probably suspect given it is a tourist city.  We just had a kick as grill out for dinner where I'm at.

Carrie and I had our honeymoon a bit to the north 20 years ago, in San Francisco, Nayarit.  We flew in and out of Puerto Vallarta, and we popped down to the Wal-Mart in Nuevo Vallarta a couple of times to stock up on groceries.  That was definitely the only time I've ever seen whole fresh octopus on ice at a Wal-Mart deli area.

I've been curious.  The only Walmart store we have nearby is a Bodega Aurrera.  They are pretty bare bones compared to a full line Walmart.

[Max Rockatansky]

I've been going back through all the 007 movies now that they are on Amazon.  I completely forgot the Bond movies did the fake face thing first instead of Mission Impossible.  The opening scene of From Russia With Love has a SPECTRE agent wearing a fake Bond mask.

[gonealookin]

I have to wonder about the people who live in New York City who decided to book a week away in Puerto Vallarta. They probably are grateful that they escaped the blizzard, only to be stuck in their hotel rooms because of the cartel retaliation.

I was on a beach vacation in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area the week everything shut down because of COVID-19.  Florida was a bit slower to respond to the whole thing than much of the rest of the country, which worked well for me.  The last day or two it was getting hard to find an open restaurant ("Sorry, sir, we were open earlier but we were told to close at noon.")  I stuck to plan, and the day I flew home the beaches were ordered closed, probably by Miami-Dade or Broward County rather than by the state, but actually the previous couple days the beaches were delightfully people-free as many snowbirds saw the writing on the wall and went home early.

[Scott5114]

Better food in Jalisco

Birria is life-changing.

[kphoger]

I was on a beach vacation in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area the week everything shut down because of COVID-19.  Florida was a bit slower to respond to the whole thing than much of the rest of the country, which worked well for me.  The last day or two it was getting hard to find an open restaurant ("Sorry, sir, we were open earlier but we were told to close at noon.")  I stuck to plan, and the day I flew home the beaches were ordered closed, probably by Miami-Dade or Broward County rather than by the state, but actually the previous couple days the beaches were delightfully people-free as many snowbirds saw the writing on the wall and went home early.

I was on a church mission trip in Mexico.

The day before we left Wichita, museums in downtown Pittsburgh were open for business.  (I know, because one of our team members was there for a conference that got canceled, so he went to a museum instead before flying back home the night before our departure to Mexico.)  I asked the customs agent in Mexico if he'd heard anything about border closures.  He scoffed at the idea, said nobody had said a single word about anything like that.

The day we drove back north across the border a week later, no restaurants in the whole state of Texas were open for dine-in.  The next day, I thought it was really weird to see a lady carrying multiple packages of toilet paper out of a Stripes convenience store in Wichita Falls.  That evening, my boss delivered my work computer and office supplies to our front porch, in a big cardboard box, and backed away from the house like we had the plague.

[Max Rockatansky]

Better food in Jalisco

Birria is life-changing.

The first time I visited my wife's family in Jalisco her aunt made Birria from freshly slaughtered goat.  That meal was amazing and one of the best dishes I've ever had.

[D-Dey65]

This milk will never expire.  Or it expired in 1712.  Not sure which.

I still have vague memories of a fake threatening letter in some humor magazine by a terrorist group calling itself the "Army of the 32nd of July."


Anyway, onto another topic. I recently did some Wikipedia-related work on Southchase, Florida (which is the real location of Gatorland, not Orlando) and Meadow Woods, Florida. While I was there, I decided to do some fact-checking via Google Street View, and one of the things I looked on was the Meadow Woods SunRail station. What I found was that there was only one road sign directing motorists to that station, and it was on northbound CR 527 right next to the entrance to that station. Nothing southbound and nothing in either direction on Landstar Boulevard.

That's very inconvenient.

[Max Rockatansky]

I was on a beach vacation in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area the week everything shut down because of COVID-19.  Florida was a bit slower to respond to the whole thing than much of the rest of the country, which worked well for me.  The last day or two it was getting hard to find an open restaurant ("Sorry, sir, we were open earlier but we were told to close at noon.")  I stuck to plan, and the day I flew home the beaches were ordered closed, probably by Miami-Dade or Broward County rather than by the state, but actually the previous couple days the beaches were delightfully people-free as many snowbirds saw the writing on the wall and went home early.

I was on a church mission trip in Mexico.

The day before we left Wichita, museums in downtown Pittsburgh were open for business.  (I know, because one of our team members was there for a conference that got canceled, so he went to a museum instead before flying back home the night before our departure to Mexico.)  I asked the customs agent in Mexico if he'd heard anything about border closures.  He scoffed at the idea, said nobody had said a single word about anything like that.

The day we drove back north across the border a week later, no restaurants in the whole state of Texas were open for dine-in.  The next day, I thought it was really weird to see a lady carrying multiple packages of toilet paper out of a Stripes convenience store in Wichita Falls.  That evening, my boss delivered my work computer and office supplies to our front porch, in a big cardboard box, and backed away from the house like we had the plague.

We were in Jalisco during February 2020.  Jessica's family members kept making jokes about the "Corona Beer Virus" and Americans panicking over everything.   It really didn't affect our trip but I'm to understand by March there was a pretty wide shuttering of businesses.

[kphoger]

It really didn't affect our trip but I'm to understand by March there was a pretty wide shuttering of businesses.

Yes.

While we were there that week in March, school was out on Monday for a holiday.  Then, Tuesday, the schools called and said classes were canceled.  Then, Wednesday, they said classes were suspended completely until further notice.  Thursday, we were told classes were suspended for the whole rest of the school year.

I think it was Thursday, the more touristy spots closed down.  We went out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants on Friday evening, and the waiters were all wearing masks and looking at us like, How dare you bring your virus into our country?  And at bedtime, it was weird not to hear any noise drifting over from the plaza on a Friday night.

Burger King in Monclova still had dine-in, but we ate in the car anyway just in case Trump decided to close the border.

[Max Rockatansky]

It really didn't affect our trip but I'm to understand by March there was a pretty wide shuttering of businesses.

Yes.

While we were there that week in March, school was out on Monday for a holiday.  Then, Tuesday, the schools called and said classes were canceled.  Then, Wednesday, they said classes were suspended completely until further notice.  Thursday, we were told classes were suspended for the whole rest of the school year.

I think it was Thursday, the more touristy spots closed down.  We went out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants on Friday evening, and the waiters were all wearing masks and looking at us like, How dare you bring your virus into our country?  And at bedtime, it was weird not to hear any noise drifting over from the plaza on a Friday night.

Burger King in Monclova still had dine-in, but we ate in the car anyway just in case Trump decided to close the border.

The irony now is that in general I see way more people out in public who still wear masks in Mexico versus the U.S.  The Mercado seems to be where I see the bulk of the masks.

[Rothman]

It really didn't affect our trip but I'm to understand by March there was a pretty wide shuttering of businesses.

Yes.

While we were there that week in March, school was out on Monday for a holiday.  Then, Tuesday, the schools called and said classes were canceled.  Then, Wednesday, they said classes were suspended completely until further notice.  Thursday, we were told classes were suspended for the whole rest of the school year.

I think it was Thursday, the more touristy spots closed down.  We went out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants on Friday evening, and the waiters were all wearing masks and looking at us like, How dare you bring your virus into our country?  And at bedtime, it was weird not to hear any noise drifting over from the plaza on a Friday night.

Burger King in Monclova still had dine-in, but we ate in the car anyway just in case Trump decided to close the border.

The irony now is that in general I see way more people out in public who still wear masks in Mexico versus the U.S.  The Mercado seems to be where I see the bulk of the masks.

How is that irony if they were wearing masks all along?

[kphoger]

How is that irony if they were wearing masks all along?

From this American's perspective, Mexico was kind of schizo about the virus.  They immediately suspended classes for the whole rest of the year, and everyone had to wear masks in public.  Yet they never restricted travel into the country at all, and Mexico was one of the easiest places to travel to all along.  No testing required to fly in, ever, as far as I'm aware.  A lot of people thought the masking requirements were stupid, but I never heard about anybody actually pushing back about it.

[kkt]

I haven't used a punch clock to log my work hours since October 2005.

I have never used a punch clock.  We wrote down our hours on timesheets and could be trusted not to fudge the times.

[Max Rockatansky]

I haven't used a punch clock to log my work hours since October 2005.

I have never used a punch clock.  We wrote down our hours on timesheets and could be trusted not to fudge the times.

That reminds me of a story from back at Sears.  My store had an off site warehouse cage on Lower Buckeye Road at the Phoenix Distribution Center.  I received a tip from the DC GM that our off site warehouse guy was shorting the time he was reporting back to the store.  I put a covert camera in and he shorted the first I reviewed week by about 15 hours.  On top of that he mostly slept in our warehouse cage and smoked a crack pipe almost daily. 

I went down to interview our warehouse employee and got a pretty easy admission (he was super fucking high).  After the interview dude walked out of a fire exit for some reason and fell off the receiving dock.  He fell a good five or six feet and broke his right shoulder.