Random Thought Thread, aka The RTT (**possible spoilers**)
04-04-14, 01:02 PM
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just got news that a proposal effort I was leading won a sizeable contract over the next 3 years, great way to finish up the work week.
04-04-14, 01:07 PM
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GC that story made my Friday.
Regarding Battenkill, maybe people are voting with their feet. The UCI aspect is a factor. No marquee host for the pre ride is another. The fact that the promoter cancelled a whole race series, and backed away from promoting a historical race at the last minute last year year is a factor.
Regarding Battenkill, maybe people are voting with their feet. The UCI aspect is a factor. No marquee host for the pre ride is another. The fact that the promoter cancelled a whole race series, and backed away from promoting a historical race at the last minute last year year is a factor.
04-04-14, 01:12 PM
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So as idyllic as my work life should be, in actuality I have to deal with some fairly healthy doses of the same crap most folks do. I have to speak to a facilitator later today to prep for a week long meeting that takes place mid april. The gist of the meeting is that one the guiding teacher of our foundation has some serious passive-aggressive issues, a major inability to stay on point long for projects to come to completion, along with some power dynamic control issues. He empowered several committees to run things ( a board of directors and a teacher's council) and then went out and started another organization so he can effectively do whatever he wants when he doesn't like decisions that are made. One of my teaching colleagues retired and named internally the issues with him that led her to this decision. So it's off to Chapel Hill I go to sit in talky meetings that will likely effect no change whatsoever. I'm hoping my wife and I are able to get our gluten free flour mix company off the ground enough that it could replace this. Having made money and not so much money in life, making money was better in many ways. Having been my own boss, and working with others, being the boss was better. I've found it best to rely on family and close friends in life.
04-04-14, 01:15 PM
bf is my facebook.
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Cup4Cup
04-04-14, 01:22 PM
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Oh, and I thought taking this job would be working toward my passion - I work in pedestrian and bicycle safety. But no. I am bored out of my mind 95 percent of the time, mostly because no one here knows how to use their time efficiently or effectively.
04-04-14, 01:28 PM
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Same at my university. I used to work at a newspaper with daily deadlines. Meetings were short and too the point - we had to determine what would be in tomorrow's newspaper. But at the university, deadlines are more like suggestions, and there is no problem that can't be solved by 18 meetings about it.
Oh, and I thought taking this job would be working toward my passion - I work in pedestrian and bicycle safety. But no. I am bored out of my mind 95 percent of the time, mostly because no one here knows how to use their time efficiently or effectively.
Oh, and I thought taking this job would be working toward my passion - I work in pedestrian and bicycle safety. But no. I am bored out of my mind 95 percent of the time, mostly because no one here knows how to use their time efficiently or effectively.
04-04-14, 01:38 PM
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Regarding Battenkill, maybe people are voting with their feet. The UCI aspect is a factor. No marquee host for the pre ride is another. The fact that the promoter cancelled a whole race series, and backed away from promoting a historical race at the last minute last year year is a factor.
All of the factors you listed are valid, but thinking over the guys I know who've done Battenkill in the past but are passing on it this year, none of them cares about the UCI race or whether they get to meet Greg Lemond or whatever. Pretty much all of them are passing because they've done it before and they don't want to pay the $120.
It's a small-N sample, but it might be a simple matter of mispricing. Events and trends have a lifespan, as a promoter you can't just assume people will always want to do what they did in the past.
04-04-14, 01:40 PM
out walking the earth
Thread Starter
04-04-14, 01:42 PM
out walking the earth
Thread Starter
Not posting this to be snarky just seeing if you've heard of it. They sell it at my wife's work.
Cup4Cup
Cup4Cup
haven't. thanks.
04-04-14, 01:50 PM
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I hate the terms "buy in" and "stakeholders." I am so very tired of hearing them.
04-04-14, 01:58 PM
Making a kilometer blurry
04-04-14, 02:01 PM
out walking the earth
Thread Starter
most gluten free stuff tastes like ass. My wife has worked pretty hard at coming up with some cookie formulas that taste like regular cookies. She has it placed in a bunch of stores and we haven't even started producing yet. So, here's hoping. Plus I'm sure to get fat, so for racing guys there's that.
04-04-14, 02:13 PM
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04-04-14, 02:14 PM
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04-04-14, 02:18 PM
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in my dealings with universities, which are pretty substantial, they are by far the worst types of organizations for being encumbered by bureaucracy. anything involving decision making is uber political and requires "buy in" from so many "stakeholders" that it's very frustrating to get things done ... and that doesn't even address the inflated sense of self importance.
It's super frustrating. For my own sanity, and I realize this sounds bad, I've just stopped caring. I do my job, or whatever version of job it is this week, and I improve things I'm able to influence directly, but I've just abandoned hope for the greater-scale changes I used to envision.
04-04-14, 02:20 PM
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And man, maybe it's me, but is there any profession more sensitive to jokes about their profession than lawyers, or a profession more frequently joked about? I would think some tolerance would build up, instead they seem rubbed raw all the time.
04-04-14, 02:29 PM
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04-04-14, 02:29 PM
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04-04-14, 02:31 PM
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My family had squirrels in the attic one time when I was growing up. My dad read on the internet that moth balls apparently will drive the squirrels away. So instead of doing the intelligent thing and putting a couple moth balls in a container up there, we decided to play a game. Which was moth ball baseball. Basically one of us would pitch the moth ball, and the other would try and hit it with the baseball bat. Well we littered the whole attic with destroyed moth balls. Good news is the squirrels were never to be seen again. Bad news is, we almost had to vacate the house the smell was so overwhelming once we came back downstairs. It took us about 2 years to get rid of all the tiny pieces of moth balls in the attic insulation and eventually the smell went away. LOL.
04-04-14, 02:40 PM
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I am offended by this post.
04-04-14, 02:47 PM
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Are you a lawyer, because I may or may not have bones to pick but I am fearful of doing that because you could, via your profession, inflict a burden upon me which would require that I immediately go out and hire another of your profession to "defend" me.
nttawwt
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04-04-14, 02:49 PM
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I hear that, though when I was at a private research institution of academic scientists that got new boards in that tried to use business-ese and run things like a business it was even worse. Multi-hour long meetings full of buzzwords and Gant Charts.
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Last edited by himespau; 04-04-14 at 02:55 PM.
04-04-14, 02:53 PM
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hamstring tendon feels way better after I lowered my saddle and took a bunch of days off. After about 2 hard days of riding and a couple hard'ish rides on the weekend, it hasn't bothered me as much as it did a few weeks back. Ugh I was getting stressed out thinking about it!
Racing this sunday, hopefully I wont suck as usual haha.
Racing this sunday, hopefully I wont suck as usual haha.
04-04-14, 02:57 PM
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university work is the confluence of DMV-style "never going away so there's no real impetus for change" work multiplied by the wholly-political what will a, b, c, ... zz, say about this.
It's super frustrating. For my own sanity, and I realize this sounds bad, I've just stopped caring. I do my job, or whatever version of job it is this week, and I improve things I'm able to influence directly, but I've just abandoned hope for the greater-scale changes I used to envision.
It's super frustrating. For my own sanity, and I realize this sounds bad, I've just stopped caring. I do my job, or whatever version of job it is this week, and I improve things I'm able to influence directly, but I've just abandoned hope for the greater-scale changes I used to envision.
04-04-14, 02:59 PM
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