The Awkward Silence

CaldeiraG

04:39

Morning! (doing overtime today from 4am to 4.30pm)

A J

Morning!

Tinkeringbell

06:57

Morning! 30 minutes of work done, 30 to go... then it's about 6 hours of back-to-back meetings XD

@CaldeiraG Oof!

This is the new CM

3

^ As that apparently won't be featured ...

A J

Good to know

CaldeiraG

@Tinkeringbell yep :P

@Tinkeringbell got ya, good to know really

Ael

08:27

Hello, have you people seen what is happening in Texas? It's honestly awful. Some poor neighborhoods have been 40h without electricity and they don't have water either because the water company F up. And they are telling people to boil water before drinking it but they don't have electricity, so that's not really doable for them. Also, if people want to go to the hotel (because their house is too cold), they have to pay between 400$ and 1200$ per person per night

Also, a lot of people are sleeping in their cars because they can have heat in them. And some people have very young children and their house is at 4°C (40F) or less

And also, they don't have electricity because Texas want to cut prices and decided it was a good idea to not be on the same electricity grid than the rest of the country. So now, the rest of the country can't send electricity their way

(like we would to in Europe because we all share the same grid and the only way for us to be without electricity is if several cables physicaly break at the same time in multiple places)

Tinkeringbell

@Ael Yeah, Catija tweeted some stuff about it. I recommended building an igloo at this point :/

I think she said some parts of her house were around 1 degree C.

Ael

@Tinkeringbell Ouch :/ Hopeful here "main" room has more heat?

Tinkeringbell

@Ael Not much, I think. Btw EmC also is in this mess, according to Twitter.

I think there was a room at around 4 degrees, yesterday?

Ael

Oh dear :/

Tinkeringbell

So far they both seem to be doing relatively okay though :)

It does make me wonder how horrible insulation on those homes is. We had freezing (-20 at night), and I slept with the window open (just a tiny bit), and in the mornings my room was around 10 degrees?

Ael

08:36

@Tinkeringbell I mean, they probably have almost zero insulation IMO

Arthur Hv

I didn't know Texas could be so cold at this time of the year, isn't it stereotypically a hot place?

Tinkeringbell

It's exceptional weather apparently, but also not so strange?

Arthur Hv

Okay

Ael

@ArthurHv Texas people didn't know it easier. That's why they are on this mess

Tinkeringbell

> Texas is the second biggest state in America (Alaska is the largest state) with varying climates but, on average, temperatures rarely go above 35°C (96°F) or below 0-5°C (32-45°F).

And I now also found a news article that those homes are indeed not built to retain heat... which I find weird, as good isolation can also keep your house cool when the outside is 35C!

Ael

08:40

@Tinkeringbell Yeah, I don't really understand that either

A J

We have turned on ACs here...

Tinkeringbell

@AJ I mean, sure, ACs are a lot more common in other countries ;) I just love the idea of not having to use electricity or gas to heat/cool a home, and good isolation and sun screens help a lot with that!

Arthur Hv

It could be stereotypical as well but I believe American housing is also made in large part in mass production, with transportation and low cost in mind, which may explain this

Tinkeringbell

We can keep our living room at around 23C when the outside is well over 30C for prolonged periods of time, just by closing the sun screens and curtains and keeping windows and doors shut during the day.

@ArthurHv True. If you watch those 'home' shows on tv, most of those houses seem to be made of not much more than plywood XD

A J

@Tinkeringbell Having been raised in a rural area, I have been without electricity for like 6-8 hours every day and with the water supply once every 4 days. That really made me sophisticated to such conditions. though things are a little better now.

I have even seen this.

2012 India blackouts

Two severe power blackouts affected most of northern and eastern India on 30 and 31 July 2012. The 30 July 2012 blackout affected over 400 million people and was briefly the largest power outage in history by number of people affected, beating the January 2001 blackout in Northern India (230 million affected). The blackout on 31 July is the largest power outage in history. The outage affected more than 620 million people, about 9% of the world population, or half of India's population, spread across 22 states in Northern, Eastern, and Northeast India. An estimated 32 gigawatts of generating capacity...

Arthur Hv

08:47

9% of world population in outage and I've never heard of it. Our media system is so flawed

Tinkeringbell

@AJ We are spoiled here, we have very few serious blackouts. I can remember 1 instance of losing the water for a few hours, and perhaps 2/3 small blackouts. All were due to 'graafschade', damage done to cables/pipes while digging.

It's one benefit of living in a 'soft' country: The soil is soft enough to dig cables into, so there's less risk for e.g. a storm to damage them, they won't freeze as fast either.

A J

@Tinkeringbell And how long did it last?

If someone sees a burst of Twitter notifications, don't panic. It's me going through the Twitter feed, which I didn't for a while. ;)

Tinkeringbell

@AJ The water pressure lasted from after dinner until I went to bed... it was back in the morning ;) For the electricity I don't remember all too clear, but I would say generally no more than 3 hours. Anything over 3 hours makes the news here ;)

A J

It really does.

Tinkeringbell

Oh, there was this local loss of electricity in Amsterdam one time, that did take a bit longer, but it also meant a lot of the train traffic was cancelled. Does that count as being negatively affected? :P

A J

08:53

lol

Although, I haven't heard about this Texas power out until you mentioned it. There is nothing about it in the newspapers. Anything that happens in the USA does make it to the news here.

Tinkeringbell

@ArthurHv I mean, there was 1 small article about the weather and power outages in Texas here yesterday, the rest of the day was mostly filled with articles about the curfew (a judge ruled the curfew was implemented the wrong way and should be cancelled immediately, then the government asked another judge to overrule the part about cancelling it immediately until at least the appeal, which was granted...)

I don't mind that much though, as the latter is a much nearer problem that I would rather be fully informed on.... I can't do anything about things in Texas, while it's useful for me to know if I can or can't be on the streets past 9pm ;)

Arthur Hv

@Tinkeringbell I think media owners and readers sort information by proximity, scale, and severity. I never cared about proximity so if it's a large event it's worth the news for me even if some random politician said whatever stupid thing closer to me

Tinkeringbell

@ArthurHv Yep. You can as a reader also sort for that though, at least over here... we have local news services, national news services, and I'd bet there's also some international ones for e.g. expats here... I just wouldn't know where to find those ;)

Arthur Hv

There is also sensationalism around sometimes single persons being murdered in France, when actually by the time you read it's thousands dying elsewhere.

Tinkeringbell

Fair point, though I wouldn't ignore 'someone being murdered in France' just because people die everyday ;)

It could probably well do without the sensationalism though :)

Ael

09:02

@AJ As far as I can remember, I never had any electricity outage that lasts more than a few minutes. Like it was maybe 15 minutes max? As for water, the only time we have been without was for planned maintenance (where they inform you several days in advance and then cute it during the daytime when everyone is working and not eating so it's not as much a bother)

A J

There is even a joke circling around this.

> Reporter: What's the secret of your happy country?
PM: Well, it's because citizens celebrate every hour exclaiming "Hurray! The power is back!" happily;

Ael

x)

Oh, I think I also had one power outage that lasted 30 minutes but it was in an isolated "house" at the top of a mountain and during a snow storm. So it doesn't really count. Also, the only reason I was unhappy with it was because there was no internet x)

A J

Since it's been a while, I never noticed that some spam profiles follow me. I will get rid of them after work.

Tinkeringbell

11:19

If someone named Peter drops by, I'm out for the next 30-45 minutes for lunch ;) say hi for me though, they're here because of interpersonal.stackexchange.com/questions/26768/…

Journeyman Geek

That dosen't look like a Peter

A J

Does that really?

Journeyman Geek

You have less of an excuse :D

A J

hands over a book containing 101 excuses ;P

Tinkeringbell

11:36

@JourneymanGeek hahaha I linked my own reply to Peter's comment, as that contains the invite and thus would be the reason they'd pop up here ;)

Arthur Hv

I left without warning a "training" meeting that started at 10am and is still sorta running atm

Over 2 and a half hour later, when I'm hungry as hell, and my tolerance for useless information is low

CaldeiraG

:/

Tinkeringbell

12:05

@ArthurHv No breaks?! You're very well right to leave it then, especially if it ran past it's designated end time. Though it has become a bit more common over here to just 'take your break' on long meetings... especially if they'd would have that informal get-together character in the office setting too :)

Arthur Hv

12:28

No breaks, no. That was also recorded so it was difficult to just pop and say "ok you're becoming boring I leave"

Tinkeringbell

Hahhaha I usually do go with 'Sorry, I have to go now!' :P

In chat, in case the meeting is recorded, as to not interrupt the speaker.

Arthur Hv

That also felt really amateur of them to prepare their training like this. There were multiple issues with which-screen-am-i-sharing and connection issues and all. I suspect most if not all of the speakers made no previous repetition of what they were going to say. It was way to long for way to little content.

I would have felt more considered if they just sent me a prepared and cut version than to assist live to the recording.

Tinkeringbell

Sounds familiar...

A well-prepared training can make a load of difference.

Ael

13:33

@ArthurHv Do these people make training for a living? Because I can understand if someone who doesn't usually do training has to do one and it doesn't go well. But if they do those kinds of training regularly, then they really have no excuses. Also, if a meeting is more than 1h30 long, it should have breaks. Even a 1h30 meeting could benefit from a break

Arthur Hv

No, the training is proposed by members of other teams in the company (and the CEO as well mostly as intro).

Ael

Well, I wouldn't be too hard on your coworkers then (I know I'm terrible at doing training and I actually hate doing them and would much rather just write you something, you read it, and I'm available for a meeting if you have questions).

But also, they probably could and should have split this training session into several shorter training sessions

Arthur Hv

13:56

Splitting is what I am going to propose as feedback actually

Tinkeringbell

14:25

@ArthurHv You might also want to add that there could be more info in less time anyways, because splitting a long thing with little information in small parts just makes small parts with little information, those can be just as boring :)

Hah. Hi @Peter !

(Don't let the 'ping' noise scare you away... )

Journeyman Geek

More of a THUNK

Mithical

DOINK

Arthur Hv

14:47

the ceo is kind of putting it back into me "you didn't get that link where i posted the meeting content?" and "Experience shows investing heavily in background information is worth it". So IDK if he consider I should have attended or not, all I know he's not happy I'm dissatisfied

Tinkeringbell

Well, if he things you listening to the background information is worth it, I would recommend getting a second screen and wireless headphones. And something else to do ;)

(the wireless headphones are ideal as you can mute them, and still walk around the room/house getting stuff like a bite to eat or more water to drink)

IPS Comment Bot

"sex before marriage is the worst thing imaginable other than being gay". "Although I never was a bigot". I hate to say it, but it sounds like you were, in fact, at one point in time a bigot. This is not to blast you for it, it happens to most people in the same situation. But you should at least recognize it — Cruncher 38 secs ago

Matched regex(es) ["possible-aic"]

CaldeiraG

@IPSCommentBot tp

IPS Comment Bot

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CaldeiraG

you're not helping either shrug

IPS Comment Bot

15:14

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Matched regex(es) ["short-comment"]

CaldeiraG

15:39

@IPSCommentBot giggles

IPS Comment Bot

Invalid feedback type. Valid feedback types are tp, fp, rude, and wrongo

CaldeiraG

short-comment XD

Mithical

that's... odd

lila

17:18

hi

M.A.R.

17:36

سلام

Tinkeringbell

19:13

Hey

M.A.R.

20:30

Halo

lila

hi

M.A.R.

22:11

heh

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