In reply to Balir Ironhide (msg # 662):

Traveling tomorrow, working the weekend. May catch up Monday

Enjoy your travel, if you can, and try to live through the work...

In reply to Ardenas Barehand (msg # 664):

back on tomorrow

In reply to Narrator (msg # 665):

Going to be about with the Mrs, probably back Monday.

Have a nice weekend.  I'm playing with a new variety of film.  :)

In reply to Ardenas Barehand (msg # 667):

That's cool. Been a long time since I worked in that medium. Just got a few more responsibilities at work, and a little c bump to go with it, and I just got mandated to stay a shift.

In reply to Narrator (msg # 668):

Be catching up tomorrow.

In reply to Narrator (msg # 669):

Be on tomorrow hopefully, had training with new te h at work

At least your training makes sense.  I was just informed today that I am "expected" to complete 30 credits of online training by end of the year -- that's about 2 hours a week, give or take, and the boss has strongly encouraged folks to start doing it that way (some each week) immediately.

Only problem is, there are only about 10 credits of courses available that have any vague connection to my job; everything else is about selling, government contracts, management skills -- in other words, stuff I not only don't do, but won't do.

Not to mention about a third of the seemingly relevant training is stuff like "how to use a bolt gauge."  Honestly, if you need to be trained how to use a simple device like a bolt gauge once you've seen one, you probably can't do my job.  "How to use a micrometer" makes a lot more sense -- never mind it's been almost fifty years since I learned that.

I sent my boss an email about this late in the day today, after looking through the (literal) hundreds of courses on the system. We'll see what comes back.  Honestly, at this point, I'm starting to wonder if I'd be ahead getting a job at Starbuck's.  At least I'd get good coffee...

Last time I was in that situation I just hunted for things I wanted to learn, vocational relevance be damned.

Though I guess you've probably already doen that and found bupkis.

That was how I concluded that no more than a third of the credits I need are in any way relevant -- and the other two thirds are stuff I will only go through under duress.

I've been pretty sick of this job employer for a while now, but the same thing applies -- if I don't have another one lined up, I can't afford to quit (though there's never been a better time, in one way -- no rent, car's paid off, but I still have car insurance, cell phone, internet, and electric that I have to cover every month).

If your job market is hiring, it might be the right time.  Save up a few months worth and start shopping that resume around.

In reply to Jareth Mooncalled (msg # 674):

The new toy was one I had similar traini g with before, a portable intraoperative CT machine, only before the union was fighting against us using it. I just got bumped from Radiographic Technologist to Radiographic Speacial Procedures Technologist as part of a group push to reclassify techs running imaging in the OR as folks who can use this thing, which is primarily used when sticking stimulator wires inside of somebody's head.
I ain't no brain surgeon, but I can now run some of their equipment,  all while being irradiated at a higher rate than I used to.

In reply to Narrator (msg # 675):

Yeah, training makes us immune to radiation...It is a time honoured tradition in defence too.

Oh! I thought it was the uniform that made us immune.

In reply to Oly (msg # 677):

No, no. Our policy is quite clear...it is that 30 minute PowerPoint presentation!

Only 30 minutes? why so short?

In reply to Oly (msg # 679):

That is all that is needed for us to be able to handle 5 times the radiation we would subject an untrained person to, of course!

Well, see, there's the problem.  My job market pretty much doesn't exist, halfway locally, for the job I do, except where I work.  And saving up a few months of living expenses is something I haven't ever managed, in forty years in the workforce.  The best I've ever gotten is one month of bills, not even counting rent or groceries.

And the rules for resumes keep changing; the one I had when I got this job, thirteen years ago, would brand me as hopelessly out of date and obviously a mistake to hire (never mind that the only time you need resume-building skills is when you're job hunting, but the skillset you're trying to get hired for, and use every day, is the one they won't even look at if your resume looks like last decade).

And because of the job market situation, I wouldn't even look for another job in the same field.  That market has only two kinds of employers anyway -- big corporations like the one I've worked for for thirteen years (and hated for most of that time) and mom-and-pop shops that need one person in my position, and only hire when the one they have retires or dies.

That circumstance really sucks. My situation only came about because another department invested in equipment no one was willing to use.  I was otherwise pretty much deadended without reeducating again.
Given that I am Status 0 paying Status 1+ rent, I needed something badly. My rent alone was 43% of my pretax income, and thankfully it is now only 37%, but it should only be 25% of my income. The CoL in NYC is killer.

I feel ya.  My goal is to always have 2 months saved up... but I haven't been able to do that since 2001.  I finally got to where I managed in the last two months to save up half a month's living expenses.  I'm hoping I can go a few months without emergencies and get that up my preferred two months saved... but that's not usualy how my luck works.  I get ahead just in time for an emergency...


Ditto.  Up till last month my rent was 50% of my income, if my pay holds at where it was the last month, it's 37%... but I don't believe it will.  A lot of that bump was OT and Job Training bumps and I expect to drop back to my standard rates this month.  Though we'll see.  I haven't been told what the pay rates for new position is (one more week of training processes), but it's supposed to be higher than the credit card mines pay.

What?  Haven't you guys heard?  We're in a recovery economy now!

I'm just glad I didn't miss a single day of work due to the lockdown, and only missed two, with sick/vacation time to cover, to get tested (negative) after a secondhand exposure.

What I need is a quick way to get back to where I was in darkroom printing skills thirteen years ago -- I was a few months away from feeling I was ready to start selling prints on Etsy or eBay.  This is all stuff I learned to do, in principle, in the early 1970s, but as an artistic skill as well as a technical one, it gets rusty.

Tomorrow's main goal is to get my second enlarger assembled and the condenser head installed on the one that currently has a cold light (= diffusion light source).  That'll give me one that enhances sharpness, and one with built-in contrast (and color) filtration that doesn't.  It's been almost fifty years since I've used a condenser enlarger, and I don't know if my negatives are high enough quality (I think I have some cameras that will meet the need), but I can use the color head the same way I was using the cold light before my shutdown (as well as starting to learn color printing).

If I had living costs covered without a job, I'm confident I could be selling prints to more than cover the costs of film, chemicals, and paper inside a year.  Working full time and driving an hour each way, with the costs that entails, it might take me five years.  If I had the discipline to drop everything else, that could be two years...

Yup, and I've been doing better the last 4 years than the previous 8...  the Obama years were terrible for me (not Obama's fault the economy was in shambles.  I know how these things go, but emotionally it's hard to argue against the last four years of steadily increasing paychecks when the previous eight were the mire of unemployment and minimum wage).

In reply to Jareth Mooncalled (msg # 685):

Lol, sounds like a begrudging Trump supporter! Should I ask if he has earn't your vote yet.

[Runs and hides under very heavy cover!]

I will post tomorrow.

Just to say.  I think Rosewood has become little unhinged.
Just thought I give you head up on that.