The 'What happened to you today' thread

[Baloth-Kul]

A successful interview feels good. Confidence, approachable-ness, professionalism. Show them you're human, then show them you're better than human.

Wait, am I commenting on the interview process, or writing a thriller at this point? Maybe both.

[Unionhack]

Speaking of inteviews, I finally got one after applying to like twelve places! I'm going in for a retail bookstore position, which should be nice. People who shop at bookstores are usually pretty chill.

[Dirty Spaceman]

I worked retail at a bookstore two years ago, and it was absolutely fantastic. It was such a friendly, chill environment which was a huge contrast to my prior job as a server in a banquet hall. I had some great interactions with customers and coworkers, and even though I was the youngest employee in the entire store, I felt like I was making good contributions. (The 30% discount was pretty nice as well, haha.) Good luck with the interview, I hope you land the spot!

[Aarah]

Well, looks like my old laptop is kaputt.

It's been overheating and doesn't hold a charge for many, many months now.
I cleaned it with some compressed air, and was going to look up a new battery for it, but today it started crackling and smoke started to come out of the vent.

[The SheoDovah]

It's still usuable, Aarah. It's merely possessed by a demon and requires you to fight it.

But joking aside, that really sucks. Sounds like it's a heatsink issue along with the fans being crap. Would recommend ditching it asap.


Oh, seeing as i'm in this thread. Did the workplacement. Twas fine and they said they would consider me if anything came up. Hopefully, once i've updated the CV, i can get interviews on a regular basis. If not, I may have to take up Daedra worship. No real other option left.

[BetaB17]

So today... Well, technically yesterday (I'm an insomniac, k!) I ended up spending 3.. Maybe close to 4 hours total at the farmers market >_> which is basically.. 4x how long I normally spend shopping anywhere, and I rarely visit the local farmer's market as is(opening hours don't mix well with my schedule). But ya.. Close to 4 hours there <_< bought stuff I probably didn't even need.. Like chile/raspberry jam and this really peppery loaf of bread(How am I going to eat a whole loaf!?) But ya, idk, shopping and thinking about what I can cook or make, really helps distract me from some of my thoughts, not that there is anything particularly wrong with them... But ya, that essentially was how I spent my day off work >_> shopping, stopping by downtown for a coffee n some grub, and coming home to relax and lounge about with the pets, and watched a movie

It was alright, I guess

[leroybrown]

It's been overheating and doesn't hold a charge for many, many months now.
I cleaned it with some compressed air, and was going to look up a new battery for it, but today it started crackling and smoke started to come out of the vent.

Was it an old battery? That's really sketchy thank god there was no fire.

For the record compressed air (assuming you mean the little air duster cans because you shouldn't use an air compressor for electronics) wont help your battery life.

But joking aside, that really sucks. Sounds like it's a heatsink issue along with the fans being crap.

Was definitely the battery. Heatsinks don't go bad, they're just finned metal though I suppose the solder or whatever could break if it got really hot. I'm not a computer tech so what the hell do I know haha but fans are really basic and I can’t imagine they'd go out that often. Regardless you could just put your hand next to the vent to see if it's blowing, or just listen for it.

Regardless though I say battery because this is common for these types of batteries when they die. "Overheating and not holding a charge" suggests it lost all whatever it is laptop battery acid is. Losing batt acid is a natural process because batts vent gasses (really not too sure how much this applies to laptop batts). When it starts running dry so to speak is when the battery gets hot and then bad [&@%!] eventually happens. Worst being explosion or fire.

That being said all heavy duty batteries sketch me out. Car batteries explode and when they do they send sulfuric acid everywhere. Hence why I wear eye protection when checking out old batteries.

[Aarah]

Yes the battery is several years old.
Yeah, I meant the little gas cannister. It wasn't to help the battery, it was because the fan was constantly on all the time, and so I thought the heat build up might be partly due to a load of debris and dust in the circuitry.
Looks like the heat was all battery related, like you say.
I'm not sure if it might be okay with fitting a new battery, if that's where the problem lies, but I don't want to buy one and it still ends up with issues.

@Dovah
Glad the workplacement went well! Hopefully they'll get in touch in the near future.

[leroybrown]

I'm not sure if it might be okay with fitting a new battery, if that's where the problem lies, but I don't want to buy one and it still ends up with issues.

Can't really help ya there other than to say good luck!

[Unionhack]

This is a yesterday thing, but whatevs. I think I totally aced the interview at the bookstore, because they said they'd like to skip the second interview and go straight to background checks.

So now all I've gotta do is wait on them to scope my stuff out and find nothing because I am a chaotic good boye.

I hope they don't find out about all the cocaine I did in Miami in the 80's

[Velvet LeChance]

Congratulations, Union.

I've always thought working in a bookstore sounded pretty neat (I also imagine the discounts are sweet).

[The SheoDovah]

Congrats, Union!

Aarah, if you have one near you and can spare the cash, get a computer shop to look at it. But if it's an old laptop and you're not really using it, you may as well write it off. It may not be worth the cash to try to fix it and could just have more issues crop up.

[Aarah]

@Union
Good stuff! Sounds like you've got it! Congrats!

@leroy and Dovah

Thanks, and yeah, I don't use it very much and it's about 7 years old, so it probably needs a rest. (Plus, I copied most of the stuff off of it a few months ago when it kept switching itself off, so it's okay for files and things).

[Unionhack]

Thanks everyone!

@Aarah: A computer running for a whole seven years is really impressive IMO, especially when 3-year or so life expectancy is the industry standard. My computers typically start to beg for death around the 2.5 year mark but that's because I do horrible, horrible things to them. I once described it in a tumblr post or something.

Me, on the day I get a new computer: I'm gonna keep it organized and make sure to clean out old files to keep it unpacked, and I'll be sure to not install too many drivers or software packages

Me, six months later: If my laptop was a sentient being then every waking moment it spent processing would be a nightmarish quagmire of suffering and despair. My registry looks like the Library of Alexandria after Julius Caesar was done with it. I have each version of DirectX installed thirteen times over. It takes Firefox the entire runtime of all 3 extended edition Lord of the Rings movies to open up in the first place. ihavenomouthandimustscream.wav

[The SheoDovah]

Sounds like it's really not worth the effort. A laptop that old is likely to be on it's last legs and unless you want to replace parts of it, it is best to just ditch it. If it's the battery, the chances of getting one for that model is slim due to how likely it is to be discontinued. Ditching it means you can put the cash you would have spent fixing it, on your list habit. instead.

That is a darn good point, Union.

I was gonna to mention how the age could be a major factor as well. Wear and tear tends to contribute a lot. My old laptop only lasted 3 or 4 years before I replaced it. Battery issues, power issues cropped up and it got a rather odd issue. It would power on but would end up failing to load anything unless i left it running in taht state for 10-20 minutes then power it on again. Twas odd. My current one is almost 2-3 years old and not a single issue beyond Lenovo's shoddy help centre having the ability to interfer with the boot up process and forces me to do a hard restart.

[Kestral]

I went to work on a Sunday, but not to actually work -- just take advantage of the free laundry machines.

See, I've spent the last year getting nickel and dimed at a laundromat in San Luis Obispo, but now I'm in a different location working for a different company, I decided to stop by the campus and maybe pick up some lunch there too.

The cool think about where I work is that I benefits out the wazoo. Seriously, while I was using the free laundry machines with the free detergent and fabric softener I decided to look through the campus core for something to eat. Of the five different company cafes that I walked by (there are fifteen more), none were open for lunch (only one is open on Sundays and it was a block away from I was) so I decided to just explore the campus core instead. I hadn't eaten breakfast, so I raided a snack fridge and a healthy brunch of some different cheese snacks, honey nut cheerios, and some chocolate pudding. It's all honestly kind of criminal because I've only gone grocery shopping once in the last month since I started working here. [&@%!]'s nutty yo

[The SheoDovah]

Today, I am being held hostage by a phone call. I can not do anything until it occurs and it is the one time I wake up early. BORED!

I could be shopping ffs! Send tea, scones and biscuits.

[dremorababe]

So I slept early last night to fix my schedule. Spoiler alert, I still woke up late despite my family's attempts. Summer vacation problems.

[The SheoDovah]

No phonecall meant that.....I wasted my entire ****** Morning yesterday! AARGH!

Turns out there is some construction work happening on the roof yesterday. Only, i think there is tiny oversight with it. NO NOTIFICATION! They are quite noisy and I have a [&@%!] headache today because of it. Woke up at 8, needed a bit more, so an hour's more of snooze and woke up for good. Hate headaches. >:( Seriously, no noticfication. Noisy as heck! Thanks, Council. You utter buggering buggers. Yes, I'm annoyed at having a headache.

Howeever, on a more less typical brit being annoyed at typical things and doing typical british thing, aside, i think I have mah groove back. My passion for food is back. I'm moviated as heck to end unemploymented(Instead of it being just something I need to do and want to do, if that makes sense).

Added the workplacement on the ol' CV. Not as much as i thought i would but hopefully, the time of the employed dov is at hand and unfortunately for UESP, Egostical Dovah will return. This is unemployed Dovah that haunts the forums atm. I am kidding. I'm JokerDovah.

As you can see, i'm positive and hopefully, this positivity will be my normal mood.

But seriously, headaches suck. And i don't do medicine. I know, it's dumb but it's A. cost issue. B. Er.... i er... have trouble physically swallowing tablets/pills. C. I am a very stubborn man and go by a policy that consists of "Oh, OH, you dare to inflict yourself on me? Well, welcome to Dovah's Immune System ****!" And tough it out. Unless it's a chest infection. Even I know not to [&@%!] with that. That and it always kicks my ass like an anime fan on prom night. What?

Time to wrap this up, me thinks.

[Baloth-Kul]

Going to be working my new job in 2 hours. Ruh-roh.

[Unionhack]

Job: get!

I don't start for a few days but that's all good.

[dremorababe]

Congrats on your jobs folks. I just went shopping today ew.

[The SheoDovah]

Hopefully, i can say the same thing by the end of summer. If not, can I become Alduin and destroy the world? No? Come on! I merely want to eat teh world out of petty revenge for life being life.

I finally really actually did it. I applied for two jobs this week! Not much to be happy about, i know but considering that June was utter crap and most of my days were "Bugger.Bugger. Damn. Bugger, bugger. BUGGGER! BUGGER!" whenever i searched for jobs, this is a darn good indicator. Good pay as well. With luck(I will eat you if you continue to mess me around, luck), I will get interviews this month. That and I really do not want to reach the two year mark of unemployment. That would be a [&@%!] thing to mark.

On non-job related things: Erm.... nothing else. Literally nothing worth mentioning apart from deciding to run an experimental weekly food meal thing next week. Just 4 or 5 meals out of 7 will be egg noodle based. £1 for a pack in Sainsburys(No, Sainsburys, i am not putting coffee on it or using a billion gazillion tons of olive oil) and will be interesting to see what toppings i select along with seeing how much of the food budget is left.

Yeah, nothing else to add aside from erm....... Dovah knows things that M'aiq does not?

[The-Shadow-One]

Well yesterday: I got told to switch over from DLA (Disability Living Allowance; what I've been told I'd get for life) to PIP (Personal Independance Payment) which has a [&@%!] tirad of horror stories clinging to it. Even in my own circle. It's apparently grossly and abundantly *stacked* against disabled people, in particular deaf due to the fact they require you to *call* them just to start the claim. Holy [&@%!].

This is going to be a [&@%!] doozy.

[BetaB17]

So then My bird Willow laid a sterile egg today So ya... That's a thing that happened