OT: Scandy's Rave Party: Pullin' a All-Nighter

[Randy Butternubs]

There's been some suspiciously positive reviews written on Glassdoor for my company in the last few days (one specifically). A number of us think it is HR writing them posing as different departments. The engineer review offers nothing specific to the engineering departments and uses language that very much sounds like HR-speak.

What a shit hole.

[edit] Actually, I think it's just the engineering and construction side of things that are absolute shit. Most of the positive reviews are coming from other departments.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

I woke up at 7am today, shocked that I was going to be able to just bypass the jet lag part of transoceanic time travel despite barely sleeping for two weeks. Then I woke up at 4pm and exclaimed many four-letter words, realizing I just missed multiple doctor's appointments more than 24 hours after landing.

Lesson learned: keep the schedule *absolutely* clear the day after time traveling across the Pacific when you're on 5 accumulated weeks of exhaustion while suffering from chronic exhaustion, oh and you just got 20 minutes of sleep in the proceeding 39 real hours.

I'm a three-toed sloth coming down from a month-long speed bender.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Cold and rainy days in a cobblestoned city are perfect for hot toddies and reading a book.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Cold and rainy days in a cobblestoned city are perfect for hot toddies and reading a book.

Yes please.

*glares at picture perfect SoCal weather with utter disdain*

I confused days and missed another doctors appointment today, in case anyone was wondering how my jet lag and chronic exhaustion were going.

Lesson learned: clear the schedule for a week after ****ing travel. I tried to sandwich this trip between appointments and...yeah...nope. Now that giant empty span of November that was my target to travel next within is going to be full of rescheduled appointments. At least I didn't get ahead of myself and actually schedule another trip yet.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Yes please.

*glares at picture perfect SoCal weather with utter disdain*

My man, your next trip should be to Europe!

 

[Big McLargehuge]

My man, your next trip should be to Europe!

There's like a 90% chance of that being true.

Australia and/or New Zealand would be next if not for the reversed seasons. There's no way in hell I'm escaping semi-tolerable SoCal 'winter' for Australian summer. The need for Weihnachtsmarkt/Christmas markets was fueled further by the hotel bar in Sapporo serving gløgg and having a rooftop fire pit. If everything goes as planned I should have my site launched and running by (American) Thanksgiving, so December appears to be a likely target for my next trip...we shall see.

Finland is going to happen in the summer, that's about as far as I've gotten with future trips.

 

[KIRK]

There's like a 90% chance of that being true.

Australia and/or New Zealand would be next if not for the reversed seasons. There's no way in hell I'm escaping semi-tolerable SoCal 'winter' for Australian summer. The need for Weihnachtsmarkt/Christmas markets was fueled further by the hotel bar in Sapporo serving gløgg and having a rooftop fire pit. If everything goes as planned I should have my site launched and running by (American) Thanksgiving, so December appears to be a likely target for my next trip...we shall see.

Finland is going to happen in the summer, that's about as far as I've gotten with future trips.

Having lived in Australia and visited New Zealand while living in that part of the world, I can say without hesitation you'd love it. Even in the summer. Great places to see. Great people. Wonderful public transportation (using the ferries to tour Sydney is a blast). Will add this. I've been a lot of places for New Year's (NYC and some other comparable ones), but you'd be hard pressed to find an experience like Sydney Harbour on New Year's Eve.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Having lived in Australia and visited New Zealand while living in that part of the world, I can say without hesitation you'd love it. Even in the summer. Great places to see. Great people. Wonderful public transportation (using the ferries to tour Sydney is a blast). Will add this. I've been a lot of places for New Year's (NYC and some other comparable ones), but you'd be hard pressed to find an experience like Sydney Harbour on New Year's Eve.

You have no idea how many times I got this same pitch in the past month.

The one thing you can count on when traveling: there will be Aussies there too.

 

[KIRK]

You have no idea how many times I got this same pitch in the past month.

The one thing you can count on when traveling: there will be Aussies there too.

Excuse my bias. For part of our time, we rented the first floor of a 100 year old Victorian. Very dated interior. No A/C. But, I was a 100 foot walk from this . . .

People ask me what it was like, and I say 'imagine Santa Monica before pot'.

One day, I joked with an expat that the only thing missing was the ice cream truck blaring Mister Sandman, and he joked back (but actually was telling the truth) 'oh, they bring the ice cream up on the boats'.

EDIT: This was about 1km from the heart of Manly Corso (my wife was about 100 feet from the corso while she waited for me to move over). If you've ever seen the Redfoo video 'Let's Get Ridiculous', it was filmed there. Picturesque like I can't even describe.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Basically everyone I've talked to who has been to Australia loves it and pitches it like a loyal salesperson to me, so my expectations are quite high. A Dubliner laid out an entire 2 week itinerary while we were hiking up Fushimi Inari

The sales pitches have worked, Australia & New Zealand are my primary 2020 targets right now. I just want nothing to do with heat. Ever.

 

[KIRK]

Basically everyone I've talked to who has been to Australia loves it and pitches it like a loyal salesperson to me, so my expectations are quite high. A Dubliner laid out an entire 2 week itinerary while we were hiking up Fushimi Inari

The sales pitches have worked, Australia & New Zealand are my primary 2020 targets right now. I just want nothing to do with heat. Ever.

Then forget December-February. I definitely wouldn't go during our summer/their winter. Not fun weather, especially in New Zealand and southern cities like Melbourne. Honestly, late October/early November OR late March/early April are the perfect times in terms of weather.

BTW, their dollar is absolute CRAP right now, so it's a perfect time to go in terms of your spending power. 1 Australian dollar equals 68 cents (for comparison, when we first moved there in 2013, the Australian dollar was worth a tiny bit more than the US dollar; one reason we left is because it fell 30% in value over 18 months).

 

[SouthGeorge]

Basically everyone I've talked to who has been to Australia loves it and pitches it like a loyal salesperson to me, so my expectations are quite high. A Dubliner laid out an entire 2 week itinerary while we were hiking up Fushimi Inari

The sales pitches have worked, Australia & New Zealand are my primary 2020 targets right now. I just want nothing to do with heat. Ever.

Australia seems fun until you see that 20 hour flight. I'd lose my mind.

 

[KIRK]

Australia seems fun until you see that 20 hour flight. I'd lose my mind.

It's about 15 hours from LA. It's going to be a red eye, so figure you'll sleep for a minimum of 5 hours. Then, you've got the full entertainment options with private screen, not the crap from a domestic flight. Don't get me wrong, it'll drag at times, but if you're on a decent airline like Qantas, it's better than I suspect you're envisioning.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Idk if I've mentioned this in here before, but I got an offer to do PhD research for one of the top thermal/fluids/nuclear professors at Pitt back in July. I'm taking a fall course with him rn, and he upped the offer last night by including a $5k "signing bonus" if I'd start in the Spring. It seems like he really wants me to do research for him

I haven't fully committed to it yet, but the fact that the stipend supposedly covers all of my expenses and I'm getting that $5k bonus makes it much more feasible from a money POV.

 

[SouthGeorge]

It's about 15 hours from LA. It's going to be a red eye, so figure you'll sleep for a minimum of 5 hours. Then, you've got the full entertainment options with private screen, not the crap from a domestic flight. Don't get me wrong, it'll drag at times, but if you're on a decent airline like Qantas, it's better than I suspect you're envisioning.

Yeah, that's not too bad I guess. Split it up and spend a day in LA. Basically like a flight to Hawaii. That was the longest I ever did.

 

[EightyOne]

Gonna answer this the same way I do whenever you bring up an option, Empo...

Do it!!!

You're gonna get old fast and regret letting doors close/experiences pass by.

Source: my f***ing life

Don't be me. Don't settle into one spot.

 

[Ogrezilla]

Yeah as long as you plan to see it through, youre much more likely to regret not doing it.

 

[EightyOne]

Worst case, you can ALWAYS resign a position or have someone tell you 'we went with another applicant.'

But you can't always create opportunities for yourself.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Yeah as long as you plan to see it through, youre much more likely to regret not doing it.

I'm not sure I plan on seeing it through, but the minimum is that I do it for a year, hit the requirements for a master's and leave with a master's. I don't really view that as a bad option either, it's basically another senior year but I'll also be doing research as well. The worst case scenario is that I save less in 2020, finish with only a master's and have to find a new job in 2021, which shouldn't be that difficult with a master's and the work experience I have.

It really seems like the only downside is how much money I'll be saving, plus I'll lose a little bit of 401k money that I'd only get if I stayed at my job for 3 years. I think I'd get more time off throughout the year (although I'm not sure if graduate students doing research follow student breaks) and my day to day life would probably be better.

 

[Ogrezilla]

I'm not sure I plan on seeing it through, but the minimum is that I do it for a year, hit the requirements for a master's and leave with a master's. I don't really view that as a bad option either, it's basically another senior year but I'll also be doing research as well. The worst case scenario is that I save less in 2020, finish with only a master's and have to find a new job in 2021, which shouldn't be that difficult with a master's and the work experience I have.

Yeah as long as you come away with something, I'd say it's worth it. You were already planning to get a masters, right? Just more slowly through your current job instead?

 

[Empoleon8771]

Yeah as long as you come away with something, I'd say it's worth it. You were already planning to get a masters, right? Just more slowly through your current job instead?

Yeah, I'm already essentially halfway done with a masters. My finishing date for a masters doesn't change with the switch, I'd still probably hit the course requirements for the masters in Fall 2020 (could be summer 2020 if I take 2 courses next summer, though). The fact that they're the same should give you an idea for why I hate doing part-time grad school

 

[Shrimper]

Urgh, back to work after 2 weeks off..

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Huzzah for post-travel colds.

 

[Shrimper]

3 weeks Thursday until my birthday. Now to come up with things to buy...


Can you buy a girlfriend....asking for a friend...

 

[EightyOne]

3 weeks Thursday until my birthday. Now to come up with things to buy...


Can you buy a girlfriend....asking for a friend...

Meh. Barely worth it even when they're free lol