Linqpad is awesome! Sadly, I don’t get to code in C# for my day job anymore but I still use Linqpad all the time. It’s main purpose originally was for building and testing Entity Framework SQL queries but it will run basically any C# code you plug into it on the fly.

Now, I primarily use it for testing out design concepts that end up getting translated to TypeScript. I also use it for validating the hot garbage that Elastic Search is serving up on a given day so I can send a nifty little report (Linqpad easily generates and exports tabular data) to the data team to show them that it is in fact their Elastic Search template that is an error laden dumpster fire rather than my code.

If you’re familiar with C#, F#, or Visual Basic, Linqpad is an incredibly valuable tool.

I read an interview in the Democrat-Gazette with the daughter of Ms. Taylor, one of the victims. There are no words to describe how awful it must be to have one of your friends or family members just minding their own business only to be shot to death while checking out at the grocery store.

Ms. Taylor’s daughter expressed frustrations that she wasn’t there because she thought she could have done something, implying that she would have shot the assailant. In her defense, the woman’s grieving and people who are in that state tend to think and say all kinds of stuff.

But here’s the thing, the “good guy with a gun” mantra is idealistic at best. Even if you are a “good guy” with a gun, odds are that by the time you can even respond, the “bad guy” has already killed someone. Not to mention that in that very panic filled moment, there’s a much higher chance that you might accidentally shoot another bystander.

“Good guy with a gun” is not a solution to “bad guy with a gun” because no amount of bullets fired by “good guys” will bring back the people who are already dead.

At a former job, there was one – and only one – lady in customer service who would actually reboot and do all the basic troubleshooting steps before calling IT. If we heard from her, we knew something was legitimately broken. Oddly enough, I’m married to her now. Best decision I ever made.

Just a matter of time before they add a higher deductible specifically for space junk. 😒

almost never

So you’re saying there’s a chance?

“I’m going to get so much done today.” or “If I clean the house, it’s going to stay that way for more than ten minutes.” are just some of the lies I tell myself to help me stay motivated

Pretty safe to say The Donald covets all kinds of things that aren’t his, especially power, and he has definitely missused the Lord’s name. So we’re at least up to five now. If we can interpret the fact that he has to put his name on everything as being a form of idolatry, that’ll be six.

Try having O Negative. They’ll practically chase you down the street.

I subscribe to two newspapers. My local weekly paper (which is actually owned by our large statewide newspaper), and the state “business” paper. They both cover topics I’m interested in although the quality of reporting in the business paper is better.

On a separate note, if you don’t support your local print media, it will go away. The demise of local news outlets, throughout the US anyway, has been ongoing for a long time now. That has not been a positive development.

No, there’s the original trilogy, the prequels, and the “Oh, it was Palpatine the whole time. …again. How original.”

My personal experience essentially echoes what you’ve said. I’ve usually found that when I actually ask Trump supporters, which is probably most of the people I know, what they think and why, they are pretty candid about it. They will also voice frustrations, many of which I can understand or even agree with them on. There is a lot more common ground there than you might think.

The problem is that most of the issues are complex and nuanced. Not that surprising. Issues that impact the population of an entire country, or even a sizeable chunk of it, are bound to be pretty complex. Here’s where things go off the rails.

Kind of like you said, Joe Blow from Louisiana is often uneducated at best or a complete moron at worst. Joe Blow does not understand all the complexity surrounding the issues he’s upset about and figures that if he doesn’t understand it, neither does anyone else. He’s also a little too proud to admit he doesn’t understand it.

This is why Republican party completely abandoned an issues bases platform, aside from completely fabricated pearl clutching social issues like those scary tRaNs PeOpLe or AboRtIoN. They know full well that they have nothing when it comes to meaningful solutions to actual problems and if they did, the few supporters they have with functioning brain cells would start to ask to many pesky questions. A divide and conquer strategy is much simpler and more effective; albeit incredibly destructive.

Retail is definitely OK. I think it was more to the point of, “Don’t build a career that you’re going to look back on with regret.”

My first “real” job was in retail. One of the assistant store managers was an old Vietnam vet named John. John spent his whole [civilian] career, 40 something years, working there at a job he absolutely hated. He was notoriously grumpy, rough around the edges, and smoked like a freight train. But, John did two things for me that I will never forget.

First thing: One day a customer was looking for something in a department that I wasn’t familiar with. I tried (and failed) to help him find what he was looking for. There wasn’t anyone staffing that area so I called John for help. The customer was an asshole. He was being a complete jerk from the start and when John showed up, he proceeded to tell John just exactly how incompetent he thought I was, while I was standing there.

John just glared at him and very politely but sternly said, “Sir, I’m going to have to stop you right there. jubilationtcornpone is one of our finest employees and I’m sure he tried to help you as best he could. I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t talk about him like that.” The guy wasn’t happy but that did shut him up.

Second thing: John and I are talking one evening and he just kind of puts his hand on my shoulder and says, “JubilationTCornpone, You need to get the hell out of here and go make something of yourself. You don’t want to be here when you’re my age. Don’t waste your life.”

16 year old me didn’t particularly like John. He was a hard boss. Also, did I mention he was perpetually grumpy? But, he earned my respect. He stood up for me and wasn’t going to just stand by and let someone else treat me badly. Even if that meant losing a customer. If you’re an executive or manager and you force your people to just sit there and take it while they’re being bullied or harassed, then you’re an enabler.

Nobody deserves to be treated like that. People get upset. Sometimes for legitimate reasons. i get that. That doesn’t give them the right to treat others like they’re less than human. Even if it’s someone that they’ll never meet face to face.

And August.

“Sacred Rituals”. This is what I call things that have to be done exactly the same way every time or it screws everything else up. For example, as soon as I get up, the very first thing I do is take my meds. Nothing, and I mean nothing, happens before taking my meds. Gotta pee? Can’t. Gotta take my meds. House is on fire? That sucks. Gotta take my meds. If I don’t, I will definitely forget to take them and fuck up my entire day.

Shoot it?

Don’t give the rednecks any ideas.

A flea in a box, inside of another box that you’ve mailed to yourself?

The only way I get things done is by doing something to procrastinate at something else I should be doing. Couple this with inner restlessness and the guilt I feel for not getting the things done that I need to and voila! We have productivity!

Granted, it’s all in the wrong order and I’m exhausted due to my inability to just sit down and relax for a minute. But, look at all the stuff I’ve gotten 3/4 of the way done! Pats self on back

Well you see, in the United States, the way some politicians, specifically ones belonging to a certain very authoritarian political party manage to get elected is by making sure people don’t or can’t vote.

This is often coupled with throwing a huge hissy fit about “voter fraud” which doesn’t actually exist on any remotely meaningful level.