What's bugging you? **2025**

[Zad Fnark]

On 3/5/2025 at 10:17 PM, Joseph Zarr said:

Man I would never in a million imagine going to a doctor's office and hearing the words "Stop eating bananas..." What a wild moment that must have been. I'm in several farming and tree and seed breeding groups. I did just encounter a woman overseas who can eat cooked or processed apples but is highly allergic to raw apples. Apparently, the older heritage varieties are potentially palatable due to phenolic acid composition within the genetics of this older fruit. 

Anywho, sorry you are likely seeing the loss of bananas in your cereal. Food 'attachments' or preferences are really hard to overcome. I wish you the best.

When my potassium level plummeted, I was worried they would suggest bananas.  I hate bananas...  Fortunately, Potatoes and spinach are good sources of potassium.

[Joseph Zarr]

53 minutes ago, Zad Fnark said:

When my potassium level plummeted, I was worried they would suggest bananas.  I hate bananas...  Fortunately, Potatoes and spinach are good sources of potassium.

Sounds like you two need a swap of characteristics!

[Brian]

Are QR Codes Hijacking Your Personal Data like Banking?

https://www.cbsnews.com/tag/qr-codes/ 

 

[Jimbo]

On 2/16/2025 at 9:22 PM, Jimbo said:

Brewers ticket office leaving voice messages on my cell phone.  Five times now.  Nicholas, I'm not interested.  Take the hint.

 

Nicholas left a sixth VM.  Finally got around to calling him back.  Lucky for him I didn't drop any f-bombs.  I think he got the message.

 

[GAME05]

When I worked at WeedMan lawncare they did that to customers. Every single week they'd call to try and sell something extra to existing clients. I got so many complaints about it.

[Samurai Bucky]

On 3/12/2025 at 7:44 AM, GAME05 said:

When I worked at WeedMan lawncare they did that to customers. Every single week they'd call to try and sell something extra to existing clients. I got so many complaints about it.

Um... maybe if they were selling a different type of weed... 😉

[GAME05]

I got asked that question about five times a day.

[wallus]

The Supreme Court ads are adding another new low in politics. 

[hawing]

On 3/22/2025 at 11:39 PM, wallus said:

The Supreme Court ads are adding another new low in politics. 

Both candidates' ads are terrible, for sure.  Someone visiting and seeing them would conclude that Wisconsin has child assaulters around every corner in the state. 

[bigred]

On 1/27/2025 at 12:37 PM, CheezWizHed said:

Google? You are so old!

School not teaching critical thinking has been going on for a LONG time.  But there was enough inertia for a few years that people picked it up.  Now you have teachers that weren't taught critical thinking and don't even know how to help the kids when stuck... A school system based on multiple guess testing is going to dumb everything down.  

Even programs like "No child left behind" didn't actually help.  Good intentioned, but the school systems reacted by making things easier (i.e. pulling everyone down) instead of adding additional attention to those falling behind to "pull them up" to the standards. 

Honestly, I think it is time to outsource the school systems.  Pouring more money into them and standardizing everything has only made them worse, IMO.  All we are doing are buying more gadgets and forcing them into one way of thinking.

Bingo! I couldn't agree more. 

[bigred]

On 1/28/2025 at 6:01 AM, greeg35 said:

Teacher here.  I'm not saying there's no bad teaching going on, but teaching critical thinking to kids with an attention span of 2.1 nanoseconds and parents who think their job is to shelter rather than push is a big part of the equation too.  

We have kids coming into kindergarten that don't even know their own name.  I wonder what their parents and siblings are doing 99% of the time?  Hand them a phone to keep them from interrupting your phone time.  Read to them, creative play, socialization, develop loving healthy relationships.?  No way.

The room isn't full of these kids, but there's enough of them to drag classes into the abyss because they are starved for attention and don't know any decent ways to get it.  Administration and parents blame teachers.  No public support.  

Anything about this sound like it would be appealing for the best and brightest people to choose to join or stay in the profession?

Edit:  and don't get me started on administration. Doesn't attract the best of the brightest for similar reasons. At least some teachers are there for the right reasons. Why administrators choose their job? Don't ask me. I would never be an administrator. But I can say that that many of them are not familiar with the processes of teaching and learning, and aren't great at managing, leading, or communicating.  They look to the the latest and greatest idea, which is usually some repackaged old idea. They cycle through these "new" ways of doing things, provide little to no training for the teachers, then blame the teachers when it doesn't work. Then they try something else. If they haven't been fired already, and on to someone new trying some new solve-all solution.

From watching lots of acquaintances/friends who have kid(s), I think lots of it comes from parents using computers and game systems as their "babysitter", instead of actually being a parent. Another thing I've noticed, is how, many people with kids, are more concerned about being their kids "friend", instead of being their parents, first and foremost. 

[bigred]

On 1/28/2025 at 12:53 PM, CheezWizHed said:

Fair point about parents.  And my rant failed one of my own "tests" that I call people out on... the expectations that schools are the only educators in a child's life and parents have no responsibilities there. So thank you for calling me on it. 

But the point I was trying to make stands... the school system (note I'm not saying "teachers") has been this way for years and the teachers, admin, and PARENTS grew up in that system where critical thinking was not emphasized. Now their kids are growing up in that second generation (or maybe third?) system where critical thinking wasn't taught to the teachers, nor in the administration.

By contrast, I grew as first generation that wasn't taught classical education, but my teachers generally were.  So while the curriculum didn't necessarily encourage that style of learning, they could flex out and find ways to incorporate it.  So the further away you get, the less and less there is going to be.

A simple example is learning Latin.  It used to be standard (i.e part of classical teaching just like critical thinking).  But now only a few people know it.  Knowing Latin enhances the understanding of vocabulary and spelling (and I'd imagine helps learning Spanish or Italian).  But my generation was quite a ways removed from that being a "norm" in school. Frankly, I didn't even know why someone learned Latin until I had my own kids and started educating myself on teaching methods for their educations' sake. 

I'm ok with Latin going the way of the Dodo (unless you want to win a spelling bee), but unfortunately, critical thinking is going that way also. 

So I wasn't trying to knock teachers... or even parents.  Once you change the system and stop educating people certain ways, those skills will disappear. 

Another thing that a lot of people lack nowadays, especially much of the younger generations, is deductive reasoning skills. 

[nate82]

On 1/27/2025 at 11:37 AM, CheezWizHed said:

A school system based on multiple guess testing is going to dumb everything down.

I always thought multiple choice tests were dumb.  All that multiple choice tests you on is how much you can memorize and then regurgitate that memorization.  Both in HS and in college I always did poorly on the multiple choice section compared to the critical thinking write out your answer section.

[bigred]

On 1/19/2025 at 5:09 PM, nate82 said:

It is just completely toxic and fake.  If you use it for anything other than finding a job sure it is fine.  But poke around on some of the other stuff and it is just absolute cancer. 

Stuff like this:

I agree with you about social media. About one of the pics from LinkedIn, though. I've actually worked in 2 very toxic workplaces. One for 20 years. Leaving a job after having that much seniority, is a very difficult thing to do, but it's also the right thing to do for that individual. It would take hours to say everything I dealt with at these places, but to name a few, 1) I wasn't allowed to leave work when I got a call that my mom passed away from terminal cancer, and the "union" there did/said absolutely nothing for me. They're completely corrupt. 2) I was pretty much physically assaulted by the head of HR, in front of the plant manager and the shop committee chairman, and even though I never raised my voice or flinched a muscle, I was suspended for a month instead of the HR guy. 3) I had FMLA for complications for a couple years, from having my gall bladder out. 3 different times when I used it, a lady I worked told me on 3 occasions, that I was a "worthless piece of s**t, and that I should just off myself". and 4) I stuck up for 2 twenty something Caucasian women who were sexually harassed by a 40+ yr old African American guy. He slapped both of their behind's, and texted both of them a picture of his "anatomy". The company did absolutely nothing to him, even though they supposedly have a "zero tolerance policy" against harassment of any kind. 1 of the women was bawling her eyes out, because they made them work right next to him again. I witnessed him rubbing it in their faces, that nothing happened to him. So, because of how I was raised, I couldn't just sit back and mind my own business any longer. I HAD to say something in their defense. My point, is there ARE times where leaving toxic workplaces is definitely the right thing to do, depending how toxic it is. 

At a different place, I was called a "lazy f'er" by the operator I worked under(I was the next in charge after him) just because my butt was dragging a bit after working 5 weeks in a row, 72+ hours each week, and 2 of those weeks, I did 2 jobs for 8 of the 12 hours. Like I told him, "pardon me for being human". The operators brother, was/is the 1st shift supervisor. Can you say "nepotism". To.make it worse, they kept a woman in her early 30's who was constantly on her phone probably 5 of her 8 hours each day, and her knew thing, was when asked questions(even questions about work), she would answer "meow meow....meow meow MEOW meow....meow, and sometimes actually start purring. Apparently, she "identified" as a friggin cat! SMDH Then they wonder why it never got better around there. It's not rocket science. 

[LouisEly]

Someone sitting in one of the two premiere sections (100-level) that were allocated to the UW season ticket holders for the BYU game on Saturday said that there were two people sitting in front of them who were BYU fans.  Chose to scalp the tickets for money online instead of going themselves or transferring them to other Badgers fans.  And the season ticket holder who requested tickets for me didn't get them - they were gone by the time they got to their level of giving, so the people who got and sold those tickets have plenty of money (enough to give significantly more on top of their season tickets).  SMDH.

It's bad enough that the NCAA only allocates 500 tickets to each school and sells the others well before the teams are announced, which only feeds the scalpers.  They need to make the tickets they give to the school non-transferable.  It's easy to do with all tickets electronic now.  Red Rocks Amphitheater has made the tickets for the first four rows at shows there non-transferable.

And they need to allocate more than 500 tickets per school.

[hawing]

15 hours ago, LouisEly said:

Chose to scalp the tickets for money online instead of going themselves or transferring them to other Badgers fans.  And the season ticket holder who requested tickets for me didn't get them - they were gone by the time they got to their level of giving, so the people who got and sold those tickets have plenty of money (enough to give significantly more on top of their season tickets). 

Forgive the buzzphrase, but I'll have to put a pin in this for whenever I have more time to write what bugs me about Badger athletics' priorities for season ticket holders.  Watch this space, someday, for the rare hawing screed. 

[CheezWizHed]

On 1/30/2025 at 3:11 PM, nate82 said:

I hate how my company calculates the tax for my bonus they use the aggregate method so bonus + monthly pay over 12 months.  Which puts me in the 33% tax bracket I think.  Screw you Uncle Sam stop taking muh moneyz!

I think it is every company because I've had three do the same thing.  If you are pretty confident in the bonus every year, you can adjust down your withholdings so that your overall withholdings balance.  They will still take nearly 50% of your bonus check, but then under withhold from every other check.  

[LouisEly]

Yeah, that's tax law.  It's always happened to me.  You're taxed based on that being weekly/bi-weekly/monthly/whatever your pay cycle is projected out to annual. 

[owbc]

I really screwed up withholding this year due to my wife’s RSUs and ended up with a $20K tax bill. It’s hard to project. The W2 withholding on the RSUs was way way too low. I consider it a good problem to have but it wasn’t ideal. Thankfully we bought an investment properly last year and I was able to figure out how to write off most of it, but it will increase my tax burden down the road. 

[Jim French Stepstool]

My state tax refund was deposited in my account promptly, about two weeks ago. While checking my online statements today, I found a second refund check was deposited a couple days ago. It wasn't a duplicate; different amount, different name, the last four digits of the SS # were different. They just deposited this guys' check in my account. Now I get to take a trip to my bank & try mightily to avoid having to call the Department of Revenue & sit on hold for nine days.

[wallus]

Wait, you guys get refunds?

Signed, non married with no kids

[GAME05]

10 hours ago, wallus said:

Wait, you guys get refunds?

Signed, non married with no kids

Same here and I do. The key is to work the bottom rungs of a government job which is close to replacing you for a 16-year-old.

[igor67]

13 hours ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

My state tax refund was deposited in my account promptly, about two weeks ago. While checking my online statements today,

I can't speak for other states, but the last time I had to call WI It wasn't terribly difficult to get a hold of a person, I just put down to get a callback. Possibly similar issue my address got autocorrected in their system.

[Jim French Stepstool]

3 hours ago, igor67 said:

I can't speak for other states, but the last time I had to call WI It wasn't terribly difficult to get a hold of a person, I just put down to get a callback. Possibly similar issue my address got autocorrected in their system.

I went to my bank today, and to my relief they're handling everything on their end. No need to call. Thanks though.

[hawing]

On 3/26/2025 at 11:19 AM, hawing said:

Forgive the buzzphrase, but I'll have to put a pin in this for whenever I have more time to write what bugs me about Badger athletics' priorities for season ticket holders.  Watch this space, someday, for the rare hawing screed. 

Okay, I've overhyped this, but it bugs me that UW-Madison athletics places a low value on longevity when it comes to season ticket customers.  We've had volleyball season tickets since 2000, and over that time our seats have come to be branded as premium. When it comes to the NCAA tournament, they have seated football ticket holders ahead of us and other volleyball ticket holders because the football tickets + seat license fees bring in more revenue.  So we were seeing football and basketball fans who wanted to get in on the now-popular volleyball tournament matches primarily to boost their athletics spending, and maybe get them better football/basketball perks down the road.  (Somewhat ironically, we weren't displaced as much for the 2024 tournament matches, likely because they started charging us a seat fee last fall.) 

Even the Brewers value longevity more.  We are not their biggest dollar customer by any means, but we've been at it since 1996 (also 1993 and 1994, but we skipped 1995 because of the strike), and while we are not demanding front row field seats, we generally get our first choice of fan perks and our last few years of postseason ticket locations have been excellent.

UW athletics seems like a giant rat race in which we have no interest in competing, and now it's even creeping into women's volleyball.  We could empty out our savings and there would always be a deeper pocketed donor with one more dollar.  I imagine this will only get worse as NIL continues.  Anyway, even the Brewers organization of the 2020s has been more friendly.