I was a computer nerd from way back. Took summer school classes in programming when I was in middle school. I was the one nerd in the class who did not go expecting to be playing computer games.

I’m college I got a degree in computer science and graduated shortly after the term, “McJob”, was popularized. I sent out a hundred resumes, got two interviews, and one offer.

The offer I got was for a job as a DB admin for a university medical research center. Obviously, I accepted.

The university was a perfect place for me to start. When I asked when I should show up, the business admin of the center was obviously confused by the question. She ended up telling me that most people started around 9am, but it was clear it was up to me.

I continued working there for about five years. I found out from my boss that mine was one of hundreds of resumes they received, but I stood out because I had included a cover letter explaining why I was a good fit for the job. He thought that I wrote the cover letter just for that job, but it was just a quick and dirty mail-merge document that I generated for the hundred resumes I sent out, which actually kind of did show I was the right choice.

After about five years there, it was time to move on, but I stayed at the university. I ended up applying for a system administrator job in a research lab (robotics and computer vision systems) at the graduate computer science department. One day I decided to walk over and drop off a resume for that job. I figured there would be a receptionist desk where I could just leave the resume, so I just walked over in jeans and a T-shirt. However there was no receptionist desk, and the person I ended up handing my resume to had me sit down and he interviewed me right then.

After a couple years there, I changed jobs again. That time I technically left the university, taking a job in the university’s health system. I’ve been here now for more than a quarter century.

For the vast majority of my career, I’ve been free to work how I’d like, implementing solutions with very little interference from my management.

I happened to start at the health system when they still offered a defined-benefit pension, so I’ve got that to look forward to when I retire. There’s also no better health insurance than what I have from my employer. In the US, my wife and I had three kids, all born at the university hospital, with no fees charged beyond my employee contribution to the premiums.

When the pandemic hit, while other employers were desperate to get their employees back in the office, our CEO was asking why they should pay for expensive office space if the employees working there could do the same work from home. Consequently, I now work full time from home and only go in 2-3 times a month.

Also, when I joined the health system, they had just experienced an absolutely massive financial loss two years in a row. The university was considering selling the health system. However, they recovered, and the leadership has operated since with the same frugal care that you’d see in a grandparent who lived through the Great Depression. It’s like the entire organization has PTSD. They never wanted to have to have layoffs again. When the pandemic hit and other hospitals in the area stumbled or failed, ours was able to continue to grow, even paying out bonuses to the employees.

I have sufferef from bad insomnia my whole life. On a good night, I would lay in bed for a couple hours with my eyes closed trying to fall asleep. On a bad night, I’d lay like that until my alarm went off in the morning, and then I’d get up, shower, and go to work. That (not sleeping at all) would happen at least once a week for years.

I tried a lot of things. I tried prescription meds. They didn’t work. I tried booze. No luck.

On Reddit about 10 years ago I came across a post about a podcast. The Sleep With Me Poscast.

It doesn’t work for everyone, but it was like a miracle for me. The guy running the podcast is so incredibly boring and the episodes are so unbelievably meaningless that I could actually feel myself falling asleep while trying to follow his meandering stories.

When I first started listening, I’d play one episode, but then when the episode ended, I’d wake up. Then I started setting it to play all episodes without stopping, but then I’d sleep through my alarm. I finally had to set a sleep timer to stop the podcast a minute or two before my alarm.

I don’t call my parents by their first names. Neither do my siblings.

My kids also use “mom” and “dad”, and we also use “mom” or “dad” when referring to each other parent to the kids.

My wife would call her dad by his first name, but only when she was calling him out for being goofy. In response to a dad joke, for example.

Personally, I don’t consider it a nickname. More like a title that I’ve earned. It’s like calling someone “doctor”. If my kids used my first name, I’d probably give them a raised eyebrow in response.

I’ve seen my rates decrease automatically when a driver on the insurance reaches a particular age. Usually there’s a notice sent.

All that to say, if the job you want exists, you won’t be able to get it because I’ll beat you to it!

I did it, but that was 32 years ago.

Edit: got the degree and started my career. I’ve had to deal with windows since then.

Your best bet might be working in university research centers. You will still have to work with windows, but most researchers are trying to save pennies and you can’t do that using Windows.

I was hired 25 years ago as a systems admin. At the time I was hired, the organization used Macs in offices. Servers were running Linux, Solaris, and OpenVMS, all of which I had been supporting since college. I was valued for most of the 25 years because I could solve problems no one else could, and I did that by writing code on Linux servers.

Now I’ve got a manager who doesn’t believe in writing code to support our users and thinks Linux is a bad word that we should never use because we might have to support it. Still, he’s gung-ho for us to support every new bullshit AI that comes down the pike.

I’ve got 25 years of code on a Linux server that made lives easier, but I have to eliminate it all because linux is bad. At the same time every AI project our group installs needs new Linux servers set up.

Personally, I’ve never liked the taste of beer. It’s just not my thing.

I’ve always assumed I wouldn’t like the taste of piss either, although I never tried and I never imagined the flavors would be similar.

I’m left wondering how you determined that beer tastes like piss. Did you do a comparison? Did you do a peepsi challenge?

In high school physics I wrote a parabolic motion simulator. You could set the angle and initial velocity, and it would draw the path of the projectile. I made it so you could set the force of gravity. I also added the ability to set a horizontal force just for shits and giggles.

When I was in gym class later, we were out on the field playing baseball. I saw a ball hit into the wind and the trajectory matched my simulation of the trajectory of a projectile with a horizontal force acting on it.

So, I was pretty pleased by that.

I had a rule for my kids for dealing with bullies in school.

First, tell a teacher.

If that doesn’t work, tell me, and I’ll tell the principal.

If that doesn’t work, deal with it yourself, but avoid causing permanent damage.

I never really expected telling the teacher or the principal would help. I just wanted it on the record in case shit went down and lawyers had to get involved.

I argue with our guinea pigs when they demand their cookie (hay+vitamin C tablets with molasses for a binder) before 5:00pm.

I insist that they can see the clock from where their enclosure is, so they should know what time it is.

I have a rifle and a revolver, but they’re both limited edition items that my grandfather got from a steel mill where he worked, so they’re a “shoot if you have to” kind of thing.

I’d like to have more, because I enjoyed target shooting as a kid. However, they’re not cheap, and I’m not sure I have the time.

At the same time, I’m in the US and the inmates are running the asylum, so I feel like I should have more.

Halloween gets collected and stored. The last bits went to the attic yesterday.

There’s a conversion to Thanksgiving decor, then right after Thanksgiving it all gets packed up, and we convert to Christmas.

Christmas gets packed up and stored sometime before June.

Looking at the state of the US right now, calculus wouldn’t be where I’d devote my energy.

I feel like perhaps you don’t know enough people from the entire range of human abilities to understand why requiring calculus might be going too far.

It should certainly be an option, and it should be a requirement for certain career paths, but making it a high school graduation requirement would just unnecessarily result in more people dropping out of school.

You messed up. Plenty of people will tell you that.

I wanted to address the challenge you face with your spouse not accepting that you don’t like change.

I find myself to be much the same, and very occasionally my wife tries to get me to change. I’ve explained it like this:

I don’t like change. I find something I love, and I keep it forever. I don’t want something new. I don’t want something different. I want to keep what I have.

If I say it right and give her a chance to think about it, my wife, who I have been with since I was 16 and she was 15, figures out that she’s ok with me not wanting change.

Whip it out and piss on the desk.

I had to Google that to know what the hell you were talking about.

I don’t know if it would bother you, because it can be noisy, but:

Flowbee

People thinks it’s ridiculous, but I’ve been using one since well before the pandemic. It does as well as a barber ever did.

This is that guy?

No wonder he’s spewing bullshit. It’s leaking out of his brain.

When I was at LaSalle, the non-alcoholic nightclub on campus made “pizza skins”. A personal pan pizza style crust covered with mashed potatoes, cheddar cheese, and bacon. Served with sour cream and I think chopped scallions.

It was awesome.