shalafi

tl;dw: Autonomy, mastery and purpose is essential to happiness. Had all three, in spades, at a previous job. Left for double pay and benefits, total misery after losing them.

First time I watched, "Holy shit! He's about to talk about Linux!", and he did. "Hey! That's how Wikipedia works!", and it was.

I think on this every time I see comments about how someone isn't paid enough to give a shit, work harder. I was making $82K at my last job, miserable and struggled to understand what my damned problem was. Never knew employers existed that treated their people so well. Wife kept telling me I should be thankful, and I was! Yet I was deeply unhappy.

Now I'm driving a forklift and slinging mulch, satisfied as a pig in shit! Weird? I get it after internalizing this video.

• Autonomy: If I see something that needs done, I jump on it. Don't need to ask the boss or get the team's consensus, I just fucking do it. I can look back and say, "I did that!" Nobody comes along and stops me, "Yeah, we don't really have to do that." Nope, I wanted to do that, proud of how it turned out.

• Mastery: Sounds funny, but yes, I could spend a few years mastering all the fine details of this job. If I have nothing on my plate, I'm free to wander off and find someone that could use the help, learning more as I go. Getting better every day, feels good.

• Purpose: Harder to define, but for me my purpose is to "move up". That means gaining the respect of my coworkers, maxing every raise, getting better shifts, getting promoted and generally doing what I want instead of being told. Already my managers trust me, not looking for work to assign, instead trusting me to find what needs done. Every manager I've met, bar none, started out on the bottom and worked their way up. The GM and one of the assistant managers were old IT guys that gave it up to throw rocks and guide people around lumber. One coworker told me I was one of two of the new hires he actually likes, rest are dipshits. Feels good.

Anyway, if you're unhappy with your job, or your personal life, give this video a shot. It's certainly not a "how to be happy" talk, but it shows much about what motivates us.

Gaetz and Boebert in there twice, heysus.

I've got 8 of these things, had them for a few years, never seen this weirdness.

Last time I charged it, it seemed fine until I turned it on. Now it's cycling through every mode; low -> high -> red -> red blinky. It's been doing this for 3 days! Had to shove it in my desk drawer because it's driving me nuts. No, it won't turn off.

Can't find any reference to this behavior. Ideas?

Anyone know the details? I'll start a new one if I can.

I know the AR buffer is a totally different system than what I'm proposing. But still, I have an old spring and weight I could try with just a little widening on the shotgun hole.

Also, I realize the hole isn't angled to kick straight back. But might I see any reduction in felt recoil?

(For those not in the know, as I wasn't last year, you can easily change the weight in the AR system. LOL, didn't know you can pop the spring with a car key! I went up to an H3 (heaviest) and it still cycles like a dream, even with crappy .223. Wasn't sure how much difference I was feeling until a friend and I compared with his stock Aero. Holy shit did his kick harder!)

Insurance at my last company was so low, I'm not certain what it cost. $50mo. I think? When I started it was $35.

Let's do math. $20 every 3-months for a copay to get the doctor to re-up my prescription, $10 for the pills, $30 total. Add in whatever my employer paid for my part over 3-months, add in the doctor's cash-price difference. You get the idea.

And I probably could have found a way to cut the prescription price in half, or less. Ideas? That company Mark Cuban started? (Looks like it's $8.23/90-days there, haven't dug in on total price.)

Just learned about direct primary care, may jump on that if my new job doesn't cover insurance, or it isn't worth it. Thoughts on that?

Obviously I'm an American. You don't know how sad that made me to type. It's humiliating.

For those that missed the original post, I quit my IT career for a part-time job at Lowe's, for 1/4 the pay. Can't afford the low pay ATM, but I think my wife and I can muddle though until I go full-time, get promoted, whatever. I want to thank ALL of you who encouraged me! Cannot say how much more sane you all made me feel.

First thing our trainer did was give me a 10% discount card and program it. "Are you married?" Made another account for my wife. No lie, first thing we did.

I worked closely with HR on my last two jobs to build and improve our onboarding process. Lowe's made me feel amateur. Let's just say it was about as slick as such a complex legal and logistical process can be. (Yes, there's far more than most people see or think about.)

The person that got us going did the job I've done in my last two roles, got new people on the right foot. Yes, even working IT, I was the first person they met and got settled with. She did pretty damned well. Got stuck watching a recorded onboarding meeting, loathed the presenter. Ever known one of those women who are all smiling teeth, while frowning at the same time, and totally fake? "Oh my gosh! What GREAT input!" Fuck me. I started first and the other 3 guys finished first because they skipped some video. Cheating bastards. :)

LOL, they had the exact rig I built for one company. Some flavor of Debian, locked in kiosk mode, Firefox, on a crappy PC. Perfect for onboarding, training and as a time clock.

They seem pretty cool. The CEO was nice to listen to, seems a solid leader. Black guy, and they talked about DEI initiatives a good deal, doubt they're backing out, I'm sold. The store manager chatted with us for 30-minutes. Hell, my last CEO was an excellent leader, with half the staff, and he didn't take 30 to talk to 4 low-paid beginners.

The main thread I picked up, from my interview, to the CEO talk, to the manager, was that you can move up fast if you come in, do a good job and take care of customers. Well hell, that's what I'm best at. Everyone I've met in leadership started on the floor for shit pay, CEO as well.

Turns out my direct super is the British dude that's helped me before, love that guy! Be sweating my ass off in the outdoor area soon enough, the position I asked for, but I think having that man on my side will get me through.

So, be honest, am I fooling myself here? This ain't my first rodeo and I got very positive vibes, but it's a monster retailer so there's that.

EDIT: Forgot some of the meat of the story. Time and attendance policy seems lenient enough, though I'm not used to even thinking about it. PTO is crap compared to what I'm used to, which taking about every Friday off. Can't say about health, 401K, all that, but they offer it to part timers. Not great, more than I expected, who knows. All in all, no threatening crap like I expected for $15/hr. "You toe the line or you're fired!", kinda bullshit. Turnover is a metric they take seriously, and call out management on it. I'll drill into it more tomorrow when training is more 1-on-1.

First off, homemade napalm is in no way illegal, nor does it explode. You've watched too many Vietnam movies. What it does do is burn. Forever. More on campfires to come.

Put a couple of fingers of unleaded in a pickle (wide mouthed) jar, stuff waste Styrofoam in it. You can jam the contents of a 40" TV packaging in a quart jar.

That's it, that easy. Keep cramming the foam in until you get a taffy consistency. Too much and it's too hard to dig out with a stick. Too little and it slips off your stick.

I keep a jar at my campsite and one in the house for starting our little fire pit. A golf ball chunk will start soaking wet kindling.

PRO TIP: Spread the goo on a cookie pan, 1.4" thick, let it dry in the summer sun, cut into little pieces with scissors, put it in a little plastic box (that you had saved already, right?). Now you can pack it out with no mess, no smell!

Never goes bad, as far as I know, can't be too dry.

Sometimes we use the other bathroom, same deal. I never find the lid down, she never finds it up.

I feel like this is some magic that should never be talked about openly, like we agreed without speech and discussing it would break something. Lived with many women, this has never happened.

I'm just being weird, aren't I? I love her for it in any case.

EDIT: I wasn't clear. I'm talking about the seat. We're gross and don't put the lid down when we flush. Yes, I'm aware that tosses bacteria around, don't care. Unless one of us ends up with a compromised immune system, it's not a big deal. And we pretty much never fall ill.

That's an 80s Eastern Bloc (Hungary or Yugoslavia?) military greatcoat. Warmest thing I own. Must admit, that outfit screams for my reproduction black-powder rifle. "Hang on guys! My powder's wet!"

If you can't cosplay a communist without being called a rebel, you might be a redneck.

Been gunsmithing on a crappy Hatfield single-shot tonight, listening to Paul in the background. I learned damned near everything I know about guns from Gun Dad.