On 2022-12-11 20:20, Bernard wrote:
> Op zo 11 dec. 2022 om 09:07 schreef Mike Ham <mikeham@...>:
>
>> <TECH>
>> I'm still alive. How are y'all?
>
> Interesting read!

Most gracious. I thought it was a horrible rush job of little merit, but
I was determined to ensure I managed at least four (three? Or it is just
two) news posts to the board this year.  :/


> I had missed that climate change affected Vexillium too;

i-aint-touching-that.jpg

It seemed to be documented in previous posts by others, but I will
emphasise that Vexillium is warming out of a far lower temperature base
than Earf, so I don't imagine all the effects are the same.

But, what do I know. I certainly wouldn't be guilty of setting any
global parameters for this planet.


> More snow is always good

We had it in my state last week. Just to be clear, this is not a
continent world-renowned for snow. Much less in summer.


> I'm still alive too.

Thanks for the report. Always interested in hearing folks are fine, no
disasters, no coups in their country. (I'm looking at you, Winfried,
living in your coup-prone, fragile state!)

Just out of interest, is housing where you are mostly state-owned or
privately owned? It's fascinating that in Europe it seems as though most
housing is state- or personally-owned (as in owner-occupier), that
there's been no attempt to privatise it all as happened here.

(Here's how it works here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXCDcvCdA18 )
(Or, if you can handle the Australian penchant for profanity:
v=gqFPhsO-2W0 )


> Work goes fine too

I envy your relaxed and low-workload work environment. A friend of mine
who has worked for thirty years at a still government-owned utility
company remarked that on rare occasion he's worked 'til after midnight,
EVEN to 3am on one occasion ... after I told him I worked until 5am on
Thursday eve', worked Saturday reconciling accounting balances, and
haven't had a holiday since ... um ... while working for a new boss
who's a panic-prone narcissist who enjoys long lunches being wined by
suppliers, alcohol, gaslighting me into believing I don't have
"burn-out", and diminishing our autonomy with micro-management by taking
the task and decision-power, deciding -- without the slightest modicum
of knowledge on what my job entails because he's "the decider"* -- a
course of action I purposefully sought to avoid, and delegating the task
back to me. At one point he was perfectly okay with resetting a senior
manager's network-and-everything password so we could approve some
purchase orders in his name while also magically avoiding any
implication we looked into his sensitive HR, financial or operational
records.

Okay. Sorry. It's possible I may have just started ranting.

* Y'all remember this guy, right? https://youtu.be/irMeHmlxE9s?t=47


> As for geofiction: ... I already scrapped 5.5 of my lesser developed
> NationStates nations to this purpose as they ate too much of my time
> while the communities ('regions') in which they were didn't really
> deserve it.

Primary reason I never gave in to NS pressure to participate beyond the
first month.

> The ideal solution would of course be if I could use my empty days
> at work for geofiction, but my bosses will probably frown upon that.

OH, TOO RIGHT!! Better yet, they can pay me to stay home and Vexillium
some of the grand designs I've nursed for a couple of decades, that'd be
peachy!

Nice hearing from you, Bernard.