Woke up fairly early this am, dreaming of criminals being released back into the neighborhood, and it being my job to take them out if they strayed from the path. Weird.
Currently 47F and 90RH. Grey and drizzle.
Decided to move 2 of my raised beds. I was trying to avoid it but one is where the gennie really has to be, and to move it means the other must move a bit as well.
Something has eaten the leaves off my brussel sprouts plantings in the other bed, but the grape vines are making fruit this year! The beds will be “in transition’ but hopefully the other fruits will be good….
n
@nick
It’s surreal to read of others gardening while I’ve got 3’ of snow compacted against the fabric greenhouse walls.
Front yard is a muddy catastrophe. Back yard has 18” of snow most places, but has receded several feet from the house. The rhubarb is poking up through the snow.
Spring break up is here though one more big snow wouldn’t be unusual.
H1B woes. Boo freakin hoo. I’d ask the woman in Livermore how much of her six figure dowry went into the house with the $4800 monthly payment.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/06/us/indians-h1b-visas-trump-immigration-wives.html
Trump hasn’t *really* done much about the H1B visa situation beyond zapping the special rules Obama implemented with executive orders. Getting a real solution through Congress would be tough with the tech companies heavily dependent on the indentured servants -er- badly needed techical talent.
@jenny,
not only that, but I’ve basically MISSED the window for spring planting on a bunch of stuff. My tomatoes are about racquetball sized, and I won’t have long to grow them before it gets too hot. I’m hoping my radishes and beets beat the heat, and the turnips haven’t sprouted, so I don’t even know if I’ll see one. The asparagus already ‘ran away’ to leafy fern…. The zukes are still alive, and if not growing like wild, at least aren’t getting smaller everyday…
n
$4800/month MORTGAGE!!11!!!! Wow.
My rent house is $300/month.
My home was $1200/month.
Houston has a large enough indian community to support 3 AM radio stations, and 2 FM.
I like the inconsistency in the companies arguments for HI-Bs. 365K jobs went to foreigners while unemployment in the tech sector is at 5.3%.
“Many are Indian software engineers and computer programmers recruited by American technology companies that say they cannot find enough talent in this country [who will work for the low wages that we want to pay- n]. ”
This is shown conclusively by the fact that H1-Bs are REPLACING current workers. They are NOT filling open positions.
“Indian immigrants have long been “essential for American technological innovation” “– really? Did they invent the transistor? The laser? The LED? Did they start ANY of the FANGS? Dell? Did they refine the assembly line? Vertically integrated production? Did they write a single widely used OS? or programming language? (or act as chief designer/architect?)
I’m not buying it.
We need immigration reform. STOP importing uneducated, unwashed, non-english speaking savages and start importing people like the H1-Bs, with educations, english, and work ethic. If imported as citizens, they won’t be held as indentured servants, depressing wages and displacing natives for more than a generation. We give every benefit to ignorant savages, and every impediment to the skilled and educated. Makes no sense (except as conspiracy theory.)
n
My gardening is in a similar state to Jenny’s. About to start tomatos and tomatillas indoors for planting about June 1. Spring is still tantalizing us and it’s been too cold for Maple sap for most of the last three weeks. Still about 18″ of snow over the garden and in the Maple and Oak groves. Mud season will start as the snow melts.
I will start Japanese cukes and squash in three weeks and my wife will experiment with some other vegetables. We have “lack of green” syndrome.
I have mowed twice already this season and need to mow again tomorrow. Had frost last night but it is supposed to hit 70 by the middle of the week. I remember while living here wearing shorts in December. Spring is the most unpredictable. Everything starts budding about the first of March and it is not uncommon to get a snow fall after that. Warm moist air from the gulf collides with a front the north and temperatures plummet forcing the moisture from the atmosphere with resulting snow.
Now off to watch the Masters Golf Tournament, the only golf match I will watch (well sort of, I will sleep through part of it). Unlike baseball where I sleep through all of it.
Those of you looking to profitably waste some time might want to have a look at the comments on Sarah A. Hoyt’s post An exercise for the audience wherein she asks:
“WHAT things are generally accepted as “the truth” that are doubtful or outright wrong in your experience? Particularly things that, like “the population is exploding, zomg,” trend to support higher government control?”
An example is this (atypically long) comment. The majority are only a fraction of the length, but equally thought-provoking.
Memphis was 30f when we awoke this morning. A freeze in April is unusual.
When I ran Server & Messaging at Fannie Mae back in 2005, before the massive IT layoffs, half our new hires were H1B. Easy to tell the new staff as they built TP nests on the toilet seats many layers deep and generally plugged the plumbing at least once a week. Eighty percent of my staff were from outside the US and 50% didn’t speak English as a first language. My only real trouble maker was a rich kid native of Long Island who was always saying the “brown skinned Ba$tards” were out to get him. He was smart but not nearly as smart as he imagined and I had to write him up a couple of times for racial slurs in meetings. I tried to council him but he KNEW he was so much better than the rest of the team because of his skin color. Finally transferred him to VM Development. Oddly (or not) he was a flaming liberal who couldn’t imagine that a person who had lived in 7 countries around the world (me) could possibly hold conservative values.
We are up to 59 F here in the sticks of the Land of Sugar. The daughter turned the heat on in the main portion of the house and I’ve got the heat on here in the game room watching the Astros. The Astros announcers said that this is the coldest home game ever for the Astros with the roof open, 52 F. The previous coldest roof open home game was 57 F.
This is shown conclusively by the fact that H1-Bs are REPLACING current workers. They are NOT filling open positions.
This should not be allowed.
And no, the jobs will generally not be offshored. The offshoring is proving to be a disaster in most IT jobs.
32º and cloudy as I type. Son and I just got home from an hour-long walk. Had a blast. He likes to look around and play. He’s planning a birthday party (that he’s not getting this year, as it’s already past). He wants a Super Smash Brothers party.
Planting in this area won’t start until mid-late May. Just too much frost to get anything in earlier. We are starting some things in pots. Kids’ sandbox is getting torn up & turned into a planter this spring. They didn’t use it once last year. Too old for it I guess.
Snow from the other day has all melted away.
I realized recently that I don’t hate many people any more. I quit looking at Facebook. Whoda thunk it?
@JimL said:
I attribute Alexa. Since I got my Echoes (Dot, Echo, and Echo Show, my favorite) there is no more MSM, not even FOX, playing in the background. Just the music I want to listen to. Sure has improved my attitude. I get all my news through careful selection in my RSS Reader.
I still look at my Facebook. It is restricted to a selection of direct blood relatives. The only problem is my liberal sister and her youngest daughter, but I have blocked all the liberal crap they put on their timelines and they have learned to not message me any of that liberal crap.
It was only a matter of time:
London’s Mayor Declares Intense New ‘Knife Control’ Policies To Stop Epidemic Of Stabbings
Yup. “no one needs to carry a knife.”
Well, I carry at least 2 every day. Fork you. I use a knife at least 20 times a day.
Look up “glassing” in the UK to see what happens next. Or “acid attack”. Frankly, I’d rather have someone come at me with a knife.
I thought there was hope when Brexit passed. But it looks like they are too far gone.
n
Closer to home, have moved the bed 3 feet to the south. Have moved about half the other bed into place next to the one that moved. LOTS of feathery roots in my beds.
The one I’m moving the farthest was originally filled with Miracle Gro potting soil. NOTHING, not even weeds, will grow in that soil. I added about 1/3 steer manure last year and finally got carrots to grow. Now that I’m moving the soil it still looks pretty much exactly like it did coming out of the bag, years ago. This stuff is NOT soil. I’ll add a bunch of manure this year too. Hopefully something will grow.
Also moved some sod to the front of the house, loaded the pickup with scrap metal, got the lamb roast prepped and into the oven, picked the last of the collards and got them simmering, and just put an acorn squash in the microwave. Lamb, squash, and collards. Yum!
Feeling pretty good about today.
n
also treated the foundation of the house and a tree for carpenter ants.
It’s a lot easier to get work done when it’s not 100 degrees out.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-08/subprime-auto-implosion-full-effect-lenders-start-dropping-flies
Nothing to see here, move along, move along……..
n
I thought there was hope when Brexit passed. But it looks like they are too far gone.
I was wondering if the article was about them throwing muslims in the English Channel. But, it was not. I know, I know, heartless.
Here in mid Wisconsin, we are similar to Jenny and Minnesota Dave. Frost is still well in the ground. Lots of snow cover. Was driving out of the valley I live in to go to the “spring” trap league this morning. It was about 10°F. Had a buck saunter out and stand in the road in front of my truck. Acted more like a moose. The wild life is getting stressed from lack of food I think. But if he wanted to commit suicide by car, he needs to find someone else.
I’ve been there. Done that. Being the first of the class we got to do a lot of things that were never publicized, but had to be done to prove the class. Rickover was tired of calculations and computer simulations. He wanted this class to actually do it all. We had some fun times and some times a terror.
Video and sound a bit down the page.
This Is What It Looks Like Inside A Submarine Breaking Through Ice
The daughter turned the heat on in the main portion of the house and I’ve got the heat on here in the game room watching the Astros.
Weird. We were in shorts in Round Rock (Austin) this afternoon.
Oh, I was wearing shorts in Houston too, but I was busy shoveling, toting, etc…
Took my sweatshirt off at one point!
n
And no, the jobs will generally not be offshored. The offshoring is proving to be a disaster in most IT jobs.
Companies are now shaking down various levels of government for tax concessions to build “onshore development centers” in rural areas where H1Bs have no interest in living. This is where the offshored product gets corrected by domestic labor working for ~ 1/3 less than typical in a large metro.
I worked for CGI’s onshore center in Belton until the end of February. I was miserable to the point that I had decided to call it a career when my year was up. Fortunately, the new C++ job came along at a privately held European company whose owners understand that indentured servitude is not a good way to grow a business.
But, to play devil’s advocate, @Lynn, wouldn’t you admit that your life would have been easier if your junior programmer hadn’t left for the C# gig? Wouldn’t you have been tempted if you held a visa over the guy’s head?
The daughter turned the heat on in the main portion of the house and I’ve got the heat on here in the game room watching the Astros.
Weird. We were in shorts in Round Rock (Austin) this afternoon.
The daughter runs a perpetual low grade fever with her Lyme disease and gets cold quickly because of that. I am on blood thinners and am perpetually cold now. The wife is in the 15th year of the change and is “living her own personal heat wave”. We went for a mile walk this afternoon at 60 F and the wife just wore a short sleeve tshirt and sweat pants. I wore a long sleeve tshirt, sweat pants, and my hoodie. And I pulled my dog in her wagon for 2/3rds of a mile. And I was still cold.
But, to play devil’s advocate, @Lynn, wouldn’t you admit that your life would have been easier if your junior programmer hadn’t left for the C# gig? Wouldn’t you have been tempted if you held a visa over the guy’s head?
Nope, I have known this man since he was five years old. I taught him in bible school several times over the years until he graduated from high school. I want what is best for him, period. I value the 13+ years that he gave me and wish I could have afforded to keep him longer.
For anyone else, no way. Holding a visa over anyone’s head is not the right way to do business. Having a resentful employee is just a good way to screw up one’s organization. There are many Dilbert strips providing examples of this.
Wow, the ham bands – 80m especially, are coming in good tonight, and are busy. I think the antenna is part, and good conditions must be part of it too.
I’ll go out on a limb and say that if you are trying HF or listening to shortwave and not getting much, it’s probably your antenna.
n
Going to bed now, I’m beat up from all the shoveling.
For anyone else, no way. Holding a visa over anyone’s head is not the right way to do business. Having a resentful employee is just a good way to screw up one’s organization. There are many Dilbert strips providing examples of this.
Millennials aren’t into Dilbert. I see the old antics starting to creep into management behavior as X-ers push towards retirement age.
At CGI, I had an ex-Army/ex-cop manager who spouted unbelievable cr*p which would have been laughed out of the room at “Peak Dilbert” about 20 years ago.
I know you would do the right thing, but a lot of people have a … flexible … morality anymore. H1B visa games are more a symptom of industry ills than a problem IMHO.
Companies are now shaking down various levels of government for tax concessions to build “onshore development centers” in rural areas where H1Bs have no interest in living. This is where the offshored product gets corrected by domestic labor working for ~ 1/3 less than typical in a large metro.
Back in the days when mainframes were new and rare, programming was a job that commanded some respect. With the commodification and ubiquity of hardware has come the diminution of all things computer-related. After all, if Granny can handle a computer, how hard can it be? Even back in the 80s and 90s there were proposals to train ex-cons to program as part of their “rehabilitation”.
Nevertheless, whether management will admit it or not, programmers are important. But today no sane parent would urge his child to go into a “career” in programming.
Even the professions are no longer what they were; nowadays you see your “health care pr9ovider”, not your doctor, and lawyers are starring in TV commercials: “In a wreck? Need a check? ….” Heck, most jobs are descending into peonage!
A question for the RPOE: Forgetting all the “fulfillment” balderdash and assuming the person has the necessary abilities, what well-paying, respected career would you recommend to someone just starting out today?
(h/t to OFD! 🙂 )
I think that has been the case right along, just new unhappy wrinkles.
For someone starting out, I’d think about any job with a van full of tools. I’m reminded of the DeNiro fixit character in Brazil (One of my fave movies!) Marketing or salesperson for the right temperament. Franchisee if they’ve come up from the bottom. A retail micro niche with a focus on web presence. Oh! Any of the service / repair contractors I’ve known needed an office manager / bookkeeper to keep the trains running on time. Nowadays, FIRE careers have heavy lucre potential, but I question their viability in even the short term for a newby.
Independence from institutional hierarchy, not too many government forms and an absolute minimum of $taff. Not an easy prospect.
I’d like to hear Mr. Lynn’s thoughts. 🙂
Anything that makes you happy is a good gig. It’s better if it pays enough to put food on the table.
My task right now is to grow the side business enough that my kids can take over (and split if they like) and make a go of it if they want. Barring that, anything they can do honestly and like. College only if they WANT to, and a degree is not required. Mike Rowe is right.
That is exactly what I tell the kids at school. If you have a job that makes your miserable while chasing money and status at the end of 40 years they have pissed their life away. Making oneself happy is the most important goal.
I also tell many of the kids that are obviously not college material that they should pursue a career that involves working a trade, indoors or outdoors. They will make more money in the four years they would have wasted in college. But oh no, the school district and the state want to keep the college numbers up. Send people to college who would rather be building homes, tearing down trees, keeping things running. Waste four years of their lives while ensuring jobs for the otherwise unemployable working at the colleges.
Some of the students are considering going in the military which I also encourage. Not a bad way to spend four years, get to travel, learn to do things they thought were impossible, put a few dollars in their pocket, grow up and mature. Most can learn an excellent skill set, get college paid for if they desire that route, all while getting paid.
This crap about sending everyone to college has to stop. Colleges are turning out liberal idiots that are generally unemployable, have a self important, world owes me ’cause I is educate, attitude. It is having the effect of creating a bunch of uneducated losers.
I used to think working on an assembly line has to be one of the worst jobs one could get. I no longer think that way. For me it would be a miserable job. But for the ones that have those jobs it probably suits them. They don’t have to think a lot. They end their shift and don’t think about the job anymore. They work their shift and any problems belong to someone else in the company. Their nights (depending on shift) and weekends are theirs to spend with their family and friends. If the job provides enough to provide housing, food, and other necessities then more power to those workers. The US would not be where it is today without those workers.
When I quit full time work I thought about a part time job. But that would have a schedule. So I opted for subbing instead. I really don’t have to think much, it is easy work, pay sucks (so what), gives me something to do, most of the kids are quite good, and most importantly if I don’t want to work on any given day I don’t have to work with no ill effects. Can’t do that with a part time job.
Certainly not a living wage job and I knew that from the start. It probably pays about what a Walmart greeter earns without all the baggage. I think last year I made a whopping $4K for the entire year. I could sub every day if I wanted to do other schools and quadruple that amount. But I chose to restrict myself to the high school because I wanted it that way. Money is not the issue, never has been.
A big part of the problem with college, starting in the 60s, is that there are way way too many people there who should not be there. It’s not going to change because all the “shouldn’t be there” are a cash cow for the colleges, helped along by the student loan program. The main product of today’s college education is people who know less than when they graduated high school and kids with debt loads way beyond anything their parents ever had.
DC wrote:
“Rickover was tired of calculations and computer simulations. He wanted this class to actually do it all. We had some fun times and some times a terror.”
USS Hartford sure had a lot of bad luck…
Facultativo Braçal formada através da Comunna Câmbio. https://wiihealthy.com/estimulantescerebraisparaestudar/estimulantes-ginseng/