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There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

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Messages - Doktor Howl

#1
The interesting thing is that we are feeling the effects of a recession, but there's nothing wrong with the economy.  At least nothing that's new...We of course still have billionaires being liquidity traps.

What is happening instead is a societal failure.  It is 45 years of bad decision-making catching up with us.  That's why there's no easy fix.  The entire system is rotten, from our banks to our culture.  In the USA, this started with the Carter/Reagan election. Carter said there was hard work ahead, but also prosperity.  Reagan said he'd give us all a tax break right now.  Guess who won?

Reagan also made bigotry acceptable again, with his ridiculous shit about "Welfare Queens" that even he had to later admit was a product of his imagination.  In addition, he taught America to distrust experts, and to hate the government.  We just didn't see it happening, at the time.

We see all that now, in widescreen, and we wonder how a once space-faring nation decided that vaccines aren't a thing, and that a nation with more guns than people is somehow not going to allow guns to fall into the wrong hands on the regular.

Of course, the presidents that followed - all of them - reinforced these very things, or at least some of them.

More to follow

#2
So, The Finals are due.  The Coming Weird Times arrived.  The party has begun.

And nobody was ready.  Everyone freaked the hell out, because suddenly, it wasn't funny anymore.


We had a fat smelly orange thing in the white house.

The boat got stuck.

We had a plague.

We had an insurrection.

There are outright Nazis in the house, defending an unprovoked war in Europe.

We have nation-state piracy in the Red Sea.

This is an ugly time to be alive.  But here you are, and here it is.  And now you want someone to tell you what to do, how to be saved.  SAVED?  That was NEVER part of the bargain.  Nobody is coming to save you, and nobody every promised or even suggested that they would.  And what kind of agent of chaos hides in the basement the moment things get FUNNY?

There was never any promise, implicit or explicit, that you would die in bed of old age, surrounded by loved ones.  Remember that.  Act like it is a fact carved in stone.

Now get out there and be part of the problem.

Or kill me.

#3
Quote from: QuestionsTheSoil on February 09, 2024, 03:42:52 PMMy life is really going nowhere.
Fuck me

It's not you.  It's the entire world.
#4
Imagine my company as the Titanic.  You keep hearing groaning noises as the hull torques from the water in the front end.  Senior leadership is blowing holes in the side of the ship below the waterline to let the water out.
 
But I'm still getting a paycheck and the band is pretty good.
#5
Quote from: Pergamos on January 10, 2024, 05:49:18 PM

Personally I see Babbit as one more victim of the police, along with folks like Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, or Patrick Lyoya.  I don't agree with her politics but that doesn't excuse her murder.

Go fuck yourself.
#6
(Conversation with Pango this evening)

You sound like the wimps on our board of directors.
"NO, YOU CAN'T DROP TUNGSTEN RODS ON NEVADA AS A TEST."
"YOU LET THOSE TWO PERVERTS FUCK IN THE MASS CENTERFUGE? THEY JUST GOT OUT OF THE HOSPITAL!"
"WHY IS THAT ON FIRE?"
They called me *mad*, Pango. I'll show them. I'll show them *all*.
#7
Quote from: chaotic neutral observer on December 22, 2023, 12:29:11 PM
Quote from: Doktor Howl on December 21, 2023, 12:54:25 AM

Scott and Fatima are back, only now they have wedding rings.  They got married the same day they were moved out of the ICU, apparently.  That is so Tucson, I don't even know where to start.


They were in the ICU?  I am morbidly curious as to how they had the shaker table programmed, and the type of injuries incurred, but... some things are better left unknown.

Quote
Our CPO actually said, with a straight face, "we must leverage our synergies" to improve purchasing BY MAKING THE ENTIRE GLOBAL ENTITY RUN *ALL* RAW MATERIAL PURCHASES THROUGH THE HOME OFFICE.  I found myself desperately trying to choke my computer out, because you apparently can't strangle anyone through the internet (note:  save this idea for the next round of proposals).

Our management has a fetish for something called a "single source of truth."

"Single source of truth" and "single point of failure" are strictly synonyms.

How about "root cause of failure."

This usually boils down to "People demanding that there is a single source of Truth."
#8
So.  The board of the company I work for has entered terminal decision paralysis, the company officers are morons who think that eroding our capabilities is a good way to deal with lowered profits (ie, lay off your skilled labor so they run to the competition) instead of leaning into it and accepting some short term losses today to own the market tomorrow.  Our CPO actually said, with a straight face, "we must leverage our synergies" to improve purchasing BY MAKING THE ENTIRE GLOBAL ENTITY RUN *ALL* RAW MATERIAL PURCHASES THROUGH THE HOME OFFICE.  I found myself desperately trying to choke my computer out, because you apparently can't strangle anyone through the internet (note:  save this idea for the next round of proposals).

I work for bad people.  Not bad because we build the eschaton for a living, but because they are stupid, and decide - among other things - that randomly firing a skilled technician for a minor "infraction" that saved the company $15K is a good way to make everyone work harder.  And it has.  We're all working very hard on updating our resumes.

And then things got weird.  5 weird things, all today:

Scott and Fatima are back, only now they have wedding rings.  They got married the same day they were moved out of the ICU, apparently.  That is so Tucson, I don't even know where to start.

Billy tried to hire ME.  This is clearly out of the natural order.  And he's a monster.  I know this because I *built* that monster.  And I don't work for monsters, though I will often work for terminally stupid people.

One of the board members, all of whom are ancient & evil British people, pulled an Elvis and died on the toilet.  He had told his secretary that under no circumstances was he to be disturbed while he was in his office, so nobody was there to help him.  UNLIKE Elvis, through, he was wearing some kind of outfit that caused our stupid leadership to put out a global email saying that nobody should talk about it, because it didn't happen that way, you can't prove it did, so stop saying that.

There is now a 107th use for ballistic gel.

and

On the road home, I passed 3 multiple car pileups (and when I say I passed, I mean I slowly crawled forward in Baltimore traffic that somehow wound up here), 6 people on the side of the road with flat tires, and one cop jabbering into his cell phone wedge his car under the ass-end off a semi.

Everything is falling apart.  The center cannot hold. 

THE FUCKING WORLD IS COMING TO AN END, AND I AM STUCK IN TUCSON.


#9
Principia Discussion / Re: On Pentabarf V.
December 21, 2023, 12:28:11 AM
I came to this thread expecting pinealism, and what did I find?  ACTUAL, ORIGINAL THOUGHT!

This place is going to hell in a space shuttle, I tell ya.

Keep going.
#10
Quote from: Saint K1000 on December 05, 2023, 03:02:14 PM
QuoteAn Error Has Occurred!
The attachments upload directory is not writable. Your attachment or avatar cannot be saved.

Is the upload of avatars prevented to disable the influence of (an)eristic avatars into the forum? Is it a way to reject our Goddess?

:mind ray:
#11
Principia Discussion / Re: Local 73rd Hermits Cabal
December 05, 2023, 12:14:14 AM
Quote from: Tinfoilment on December 03, 2023, 08:17:42 AM
[ curse fraudulence null ] , That name is awesome.  I don't know if the legalist aspect is relevant, beacuse of disregard for the authority of the state over church.

To be honest, I have been off and on forums decades ago, this is my first forum in years.  To encounter prejudice at the first is weird, but whatever.

Prejudice?  You were rude to Altered.  This is what you fucking get.

Try not being a fucking dickbag, and see where it gets you.
#12
Quote from: Chelagoras The Boulder on November 14, 2023, 06:37:54 AM
hey yall, still alive somehow. Spent pretty much this entire year living in a bad Mexican soap opera. I'll probably go into more detail when i have more spoons.

Good to see you.

But it's worth mentioning this board is a misery fest at the moment, so you are once more in a Mexican soap opera.

Altered is having a rough go, my mother just went into hospice care, and Scribbly (previously known as Demosquid) is also not dancing any fandangos. CNO seems to be doing alright.

And aside from one or two pinealists, that's all that's left.  Everyone else drifted away (by which I mean "ran") when wossername's ring wasn't properly kissed.

#13
So Fatima and Scott will be out for a little while, because somehow they thought the vibe table would be a fun place to knock boots.

They are expected to make complete recoveries.
#14
Things I said at work today:

"Well, I don't know why you would need the keys to the wind tunnel, Fatima, but I'm sure you have a good reason.  Here you go."

"No, I don't know why the camera for the wind tunnel went down.  Might be related to the altitude chamber camera problem."

"I'll wait til I get home to take a shit."  *Gets on I10*  *parks*  *nothing moves*  UNNNNNNNNNG
#15
Board member:  "Can you explain the video clip we just watched?"

Hamish:  "Yes.  That's two of my engineers fucking in the altitude chamber.  I would think that was obvious."

Board member:  "I can see that.  What are you going to do about it?"

Hamish:  "Get the janitor have him clean up, and give him a nice bonus."

Board member:  "No, what are you going to do with those engineers?"

Hamish:  "Nothing.  I'm a married man."

Board member:  "Don't play stupid with me."

Hamish:  "I never play."

Other board member: "WHY. ARE. THEY. STILL. WORKING. HERE?"

Hamish:  "Because normal people won't work here.  We make war crimes.  These kids are instrumental in said war crimes, and all they ask is for the use of the chamber once in a while."

Both board members:  "..."

Hamish:  "I also believe that we're looking at unrealized assets, here.  People would line up to pay to fuck in an altitude chamber."

Board member:  *turns red.  Hamish's job security is looking dicey*

Hamish:  "I mean, we only use that thing for like 3 hours a month, and that depreciation isn't getting any cheaper."

Other board member:  "Just get out.  Go back to work.  Or whatever you do when we're not here."

Board member:  "What DO you do here?"

Hamish:  "I find weasels who rat their buddies out to the front office, and then I come up with the hundred and *fifth* use for ballistic gel.  Look, this is really simple.  You allow minor perversions, and these kids will make really, really big perversions for you.  I mean, next to what we produce, what is a little hanky panky at 2500 meters?"

Other board member:  "Which part is giving you trouble?  The get part or the out part?"

Well, back to work.