Early Risers.

[Grizz]

29 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

They are highly replaceable - that's the point. If something goes 'wrong' they are fired and someone else from 'industry' gets paid a comparable salary to replace them.

 

Now many of them don't want to take the fall, and might try to shift blame but they are nonetheless easily replaced - unlike unpaid volunteers.

I agree, what I meant was that they don’t think that the system can run without them.

They are usually surrounded (deliberately) by like thinking people, who all support each other in their multi incompetence levels…

they stumble from cluster fudge to cluster fudge and often just end up getting promoted to the height of their own incompetence, as the gravy train rolls on.

 

Unpaid volunteers are the back bone. I’ve been one before a few times. Where I last worked as one we had a fantastic team of volunteers and we operated as a team, we were safe, efficient, adaptable, professional (yeah I know that we weren’t paid) and we had over lapping skill sets that meant, with effective planning, we could tackle pretty much anything.
 

Above all, they were a just nice bunch of blokes and I enjoyed working with them. I truly consider it to have been a privilege to have known them. Every day is a school day, I want to learn something new every day. That was the best thing about those guys, they were always happy to share their knowledge, experience and skills. Where I work today, I try to take a leaf out of their book and do the same. 
 

Lead by example. Anyone can manage. Leaders are what we need. 
 

 

 

 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

Chuggers ...

 

There is a scene in Office Space where a door knocker appears. This is a parody of a particular charity trope common in the US - for magazine subscriptions to provide a hand-up to people.

 

I get people doing this every year.

 

The only missionaries I see are the occasional JWs. I live not far from an LDS Ward Meeting house, and there are a lot of LDS members who live in the neighbourhood - so no LDS missionaries, though I think most of their proselytizing is overseas these days.

 

Edited 13 hours ago by Ozexpatriate

[Chris Snowdon]

8 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

 

....Theres a period in March when we let it all hang out.

 

 

 

 

 

I think @chrisf was here for it  when he was down here,  I hope he was because its the happiest time to be here, everyone is just ... happy!  (I'd say that everyone is just... Gay! but that would be misleading!)

From Chris S not Chris F (so, sorry if hijacking) but... 

 

I think that looks OK actually.  Better than I would have imagined if someone had tried to explain to me.

 

BTW in my vocabulary "gay" = "cheerful", "carefree", and similar.  But I'm also the sort of dinosaur who still holds that "lol" is a familiar expression meaning "lots of love".

[Chris Snowdon]

8 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said:

 

There once was a young lady from Japan

Who met with a railway modelling man

She asked if he liked Buddhists

He replied he preferred Bulleids

And they never crossed tracks again

 

 

That's a very good point, so to speak, because I need to try my Spam-Can on points...

[Ozexpatriate]

21 minutes ago, Chris Snowdon said:

BTW in my vocabulary "gay" = "cheerful", "carefree", and similar.

It still does. Gertrude Stein used the other common definition in print 1922 and the OED apparently included it in 1951.

 

The first filmed appearance is a reference in the Cary Grant movie "Bringing up Baby" in 1938. (Wikipedia)

 

It would seem to be in more common usage in the first half of the 20th century than perhaps most of us might guess - but in a 'closeted' way.

 

Edited 12 hours ago by Ozexpatriate

[Grizz]

Suitably stuffed full of meds I chanced it and accompanied Mrs Grizz and Number 1 Cub to process at East Grinstead’s bonfire celebrations this evening (technically yesterday evening). 
 

Considering that this was only the second year that they have ever held this event, it was superb. Well organised and thoroughly professional. Top quality torches, tightly wrapped hessian and wired in well. 
 

Got back to Grizz Castle just after 22:15. Hot shower and a mug of hot chocolate to take up to bed, before another loads of meds. Bit wheezy after my shower, so I’ve had to hit the inhalers hard.

 

I’m listening to a Will Hay film (Ask a Policeman) on YouTube whilst typing on here and messing around on my iPad. Seen it hundreds of times, it is one of my favourites and I’ve never tired of watching it. If anyone has never seen it or is not familiar with Will Hay, he was a British actor, who made a bunch of films just before WW2.
 

Probs his most famous amongst those with interests in r@!|¥¥@7$ was called ‘Oh Mr Porter’…. another great black and white film. 

Edited 12 hours ago by Grizz

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, Grizz said:

Unpaid volunteers are the back bone.

AKA “amateurs”

 

But let me tell you something about “amateurs” - some of the greatest scientific discoveries where made by “amateurs”  - people whose income was from another profession (often clergymen) whose scientific work was done as a hobby (all all engrossing, time consuming and definitely demanding, but still a “hobby”).

 

Being something of a pedant, I would argue that there is a BIG difference between “amateur” and “amateurish”. I have seen work done by amateurs that is every bit as good as, and sometimes better than, that done by “professionals”. Equally, I have seen work by “professionals” that was laughingly, clownishly “amateurish” - leaving one wondering how such individuals manage to “keep the day job”.

 

One final thought on the unpaid volunteer vs paid “professional”, for many of such (ahem) “professionals” the unpaid volunteer is often more informed, more experienced and more knowledgeable about a subject than some of these “professionals” can ever hope to be. Thus unpaid volunteers represent a threat - to be contained using every management trick in the book. 

Edited 11 hours ago by iL Dottore

[Ozexpatriate]

45 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

... some of the greatest scientific discoveries where made by “amateurs”  - people whose income was from another profession (often clergymen) whose scientific work was done as a hobby

Science, as a profession, is relatively new. Paid professional research dates largely from the late 19th century. Who are you thinking about that made one of the "greatest scientific discoveries" as an "amateur"?

 

The "Bachelor of Science" degree dates only to the middle of the 19th century.

 

I'm sure there are many astronomical discoveries by people with their own telescopes, but I'm stumped to think of recent "amateur" discoveries.

[Ozexpatriate]

7 hours ago, pH said:

We are under a meteorological phenomenon ... now known by the more general, and appropriate, expression “atmospheric river”. From Friday evening to Sunday evening, we’re expecting up to 5 inches of rain, with 7 inches on the local mountains across from us.

Dry here. We're supposed to see some of that (not nearly as much) starting Sunday afternoon.

[iL Dottore]

Everyone has at least one book in them?

 

OK, I'll bite....

 

The Bear smiled grimly to himself, the neuronic whip provided by CCI GmbH was everything he could have hoped for, and then some. He leisurely extended a paw and turned the dial up to 10, pointing it at the bedraggled pain wracked figure hanging from chains in the soundproofed cell. "Tell me again" asked The Bear "why you thought skimming off 99% of your dogs' home charity donations to buy yourself a champagne lifestyle was a 'necessary management decision'?"
 

A claw hit the transmit button and the figure in chains writhed and screamed in pain. "I'll have to commend Captain Cynical on this device" thought The Bear "to stimulate pain nerves to more than they can tolerate and yet leave no physical damage is a stroke of genius"

 

The figure in chains raised his head, face streaked with sweat and tears: "let me die" moaned the figure, "please let me die"

 

"Oh no", said The Bear "we are not done, not by a longshot. We are not going to give you the beautiful and merciful release of death. No, before we are done we will empty your bank account, reduce you to penury  and then release you, naked, onto the streets with the knowledge that we can come back and repeat it all over again whenever we want"

 

The Bear once again hit the transmit button on the neuronic whip and wondered if CCI GmbH could come up with a version that dialled up to 20. As the figure forced a scream out of a lacerated and tortured throat, The Bear smiled and said "and that one's for the doggies.

 

From "Revenge of Bear" by iD 

 

Edited 10 hours ago by iL Dottore
Formatting

[iL Dottore]

10 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Science, as a profession, is relatively new. Paid professional research dates largely from the late 19th century. Who are you thinking about that made one of the "greatest scientific discoveries" as an "amateur"?

 

The "Bachelor of Science" degree dates only to the middle of the 19th century.

 

I'm sure there are many astronomical discoveries by people with their own telescopes, but I'm stumped to think of recent "amateur" discoveries.

It does seem that the days of the pioneering amateur are long gone. I think they were almost exclusively in the late Georgian to Mid-Victorian era.

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Everyone has at least one book in them?

 

OK, I'll bite....

 

The Bear smiled grimly to himself, the neuronic whip provided by CCI GmbH was everything he could have hoped for, and then some. He leisurely extended a paw and turned the dial up to 10, pointing it at the bedraggled pain wracked figure hanging from chains in the soundproofed cell. "Tell me again" asked The Bear "why you thought skimming off 99% of your dogs' home charity donations to buy yourself a champagne lifestyle was a 'necessary management decision'?"
 

A claw hit the transmit button and the figure in chains writhed and screamed in pain. "I'll have to commend Captain Cynical on this device" thought The Bear "to stimulate pain nerves to more than they can tolerate and yet leave no physical damage is a stroke of genius"

 

The figure in chains raised his head, face streaked with sweat and tears: "let me die" moaned the figure, "please let me die"

 

"Oh no", said The Bear "we are not done, not by a longshot. We are not going to give you the beautiful and merciful release of death. No, before we are done we will empty your bank account, reduce you to penury  and then release you, naked, onto the streets with the knowledge that we can come back and repeat it all over again whenever we want"

 

The Bear once again hit the transmit button on the neuronic whip and wondered if CCI GmbH could come up with a version that dialled up to 20. As the figure forced a scream out of a lacerated and tortured throat, The Bear smiled and said "and that one's for the doggies.

 

From "Revenge of Bear" by iD 

 

 

Hmmmmm...

A sort of expanded variation on "So we meet again, Mr Bond..."? 🤔

 

All a bit hands (or paws) off.  Where's the bludd..., etc?  The unbearable playing with the tortured nerve cells is exquisite, but ITS NOT ENOUGH for such scrotes!

 

Actually.

Have you ever encountered "Complicity" by Iain Banks? 🤔

 

Your book might have a similar construction, with The Bear visiting various "charitable" creeps with a different CCI GmbH collection of corrective instruments to apply to each one...

 

 

Edited 9 hours ago by Hroth
extra thort

[zarniwhoop]

2 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

Hmmmmm...

A sort of expanded variation on "So we meet again, Mr Bond..."? 🤔

 

All a bit hands (or paws) off.  Where's the bludd..., etc?  The unbearable playing with the tortured nerve cells is exquisite, but ITS NOT ENOUGH for such scrotes!

 

Actually.

Have you ever encountered "Complicity" by Iain Banks? 🤔

 

Your book might have a similar construction, with The Bear visiting various "charitable" creeps with a different CCI GmbH collection of corrective instruments to apply to each one...

 

 

I was going to say it sounded a bit derivative. But then, almost all novels (or disguised biographies) tend to be derivative. So I'll settle for 'standing on the shoulders of giants' (without asking where the rest of the giants were disposed of.

[Chris Snowdon]

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

AKA “amateurs”

 

But let me tell you something about “amateurs” - some of the greatest scientific discoveries where made by “amateurs”  - people whose income was from another profession (often clergymen) whose scientific work was done as a hobby (all all engrossing, time consuming and definitely demanding, but still a “hobby”).

 

Being something of a pedant, I would argue that there is a BIG difference between “amateur” and “amateurish”. I have seen work done by amateurs that is every bit as good as, and sometimes better than, that done by “professionals”. Equally, I have seen work by “professionals” that was laughingly, clownishly “amateurish” - leaving one wondering how such individuals manage to “keep the day job”.

 

One final thought on the unpaid volunteer vs paid “professional”, for many of such (ahem) “professionals” the unpaid volunteer is often more informed, more experienced and more knowledgeable about a subject than some of these “professionals” can ever hope to be. Thus unpaid volunteers represent a threat - to be contained using every management trick in the book. 

I think i get this - but suspect that we approach the same from different ages and training.  Someone once drummed it into me that "amateur" is "doing it for fun" whereas "professional" is "doing it for its own sake".  So a person can be both whist doing the same job, cack-handedly or well, for money or not.  Someone else told me that a professional has no interest in it other than the money.  But that, in my world, is a "mercenary", a sort of which I was for ~20 years and still am at heart.  As for volenti?  Well, volenti non fit injuria:  "I need three volunteers:  you, you, you!"

cs

[Chris Snowdon]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Everyone has at least one book in them?

 

OK, I'll bite....

 

The Bear smiled grimly to himself, the neuronic whip provided by CCI GmbH was everything he could have hoped for, and then some. He leisurely extended a paw and turned the dial up to 10, pointing it at the bedraggled pain wracked figure hanging from chains in the soundproofed cell. "Tell me again" asked The Bear "why you thought skimming off 99% of your dogs' home charity donations to buy yourself a champagne lifestyle was a 'necessary management decision'?"
 

A claw hit the transmit button and the figure in chains writhed and screamed in pain. "I'll have to commend Captain Cynical on this device" thought The Bear "to stimulate pain nerves to more than they can tolerate and yet leave no physical damage is a stroke of genius"

 

The figure in chains raised his head, face streaked with sweat and tears: "let me die" moaned the figure, "please let me die"

 

"Oh no", said The Bear "we are not done, not by a longshot. We are not going to give you the beautiful and merciful release of death. No, before we are done we will empty your bank account, reduce you to penury  and then release you, naked, onto the streets with the knowledge that we can come back and repeat it all over again whenever we want"

 

The Bear once again hit the transmit button on the neuronic whip and wondered if CCI GmbH could come up with a version that dialled up to 20. As the figure forced a scream out of a lacerated and tortured throat, The Bear smiled and said "and that one's for the doggies.

 

From "Revenge of Bear" by iD 

 

More! More!  Is this only the Prologue?  There must be more.

[Chris Snowdon]

Some poetry...

If TNM can use some Auden there, then we can use some Housman here.

"These, in the day the heavens were falling,/ The day when Earth's foundations fled,/ Followed their mercenary calling,/ Took their wages, and are dead.

"Their shoulders held the sky suspended./ They stood, and Earth's foundations stayed./ What God abandoned, these defended,/ And saved the sum of things for pay".

 

Before we all trot off to Addlestrop, perhaps meeting the Highwayman and risking the Gentlemen along the way, does anyone have the Roman Wall Blues?

 

cs

 

[Hroth]

 

@Chris Snowdon  Roman Wall Blues?   Is that the one about sentry duty at the dead of night during Saturnalia?  🤔

 

(Looked it up, not far off on the sentiment!)

 

Edited 5 hours ago by Hroth

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Had a good day yesterday. Our club junior members plus responsible adults, had a great time operating a large model of Cliff Common. Positive day!

 

I managed to do not a lot other than that..

 

Time for a mugatea!

 

Baz

 

[BoD]

26 minutes ago, Chris Snowdon said:

Some poetry...

I don’t like poetry.  If I have spent good money on a book I want the words to go all the way across the page. That’s the least you should expect.

[polybear]

9 hours ago, Grizz said:

Bear I’ve just got to ask you, because if I don’t ask you it’ll wake me up in the night…..because I don’t know. 
 

Your leccy Sander……it’s called Sandy…right? 

 

NOW you've got the idea.....though it's actually Sally....

 

8 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

This could be why privatisation in the UK has been such a disaster, for even when a service or a system is privatised there is still that expectation (fulfilled in the most part) that if things go pear shaped then that service or system will be bailed out by the government.

 

Usually because those companies being considered targets for privatisation would be considered "essential" (Transport, Banks, Water etc.).  Thames Water is in deep, deep do-do at the moment - can you imagine what would happen if they suddenly went Bankrupt and all the taps and poo collectors were turned off as the Employees all say "well buggerthisforagameofsoldiers, if anyone thinks I'm paddlin' in poo for no money then they're seriously mistaken".

 

However, if a certain wondrous Empire such as Mr. Kipling went Bankrupt😱 - perhaps due to scurrilous scare-mongering about the evils of any cake that isn't "Artisinal" then would The Big House jump to it's rescue?

 

5 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

The Bear smiled grimly to himself, the neuronic whip provided by CCI GmbH was everything he could have hoped for, and then some. 

 

A claw hit the transmit button and the figure in chains writhed and screamed in pain. "I'll have to commend Captain Cynical on this device" thought The Bear "to stimulate pain nerves to more than they can tolerate and yet leave no physical damage is a stroke of genius"

 

'Tis indeed a most wondrous bit of kit - and well worthy of a Nobel Prize.  Just one complaint though - the batteries don't seem to last long?  Or maybe it's because Bear keeps pushing the "Transmit" Button a bit too often - and keeps it depressed for too long?

Edited 5 hours ago by polybear

[DaveF]

It's cloudy and dry with very little wind so far.  I had another good night's sleep and am now up and ready to face the day.  I suspect I shall be kept quite busy, indeed in a few minutes I must get on with the phone calls and e mails to friends or they won't get done.

 

David

Edited 5 hours ago by DaveF

[polybear]

BH....

 

Well after yesterday's fun activities with Mickey the Miele and Daisy the Duster I've gone and woken up with an achy left shoulder.  Poo.  Yet I can spend all day loading & unloading Vans & 'umpin & dumpin' at the W/H....why??

 

It seems that Smartass Alexa does indeed predict the Weather better than our own Met Office - the weather over Bear Towers is indeed cr*p (and predicted to be so all morning), meaning the chances of getting the Storage Cabinet sanded are looking decidedly iffy.  TC's.

 

So it looks like the fun for the morning will be.....drivin' Mickey the Meile up the stairs and round the Bedrooms, with occasional interludes from Daisy as required.  The good news is it means a very, very large lump of Bear Towers gets cleaned (giving Bear a nice, warm snuggly feeling) without toooo much effort (certainly nothing compared to Larry the Lounge).

 

Bear's Tip of The Day.....

Now when's the last time you tried to turn off your stop-cock (and others too - such as those in the loft)?  That Long?  Well go and try it - and set yourself a recurring reminder for every 6 months.  Bear did so yesterday (it's behind the telly, so needs a bit of effort to access) - it's been "a bit" longer than 6 months this time and as such it was TIGHT; give it a squirt of oil beforehand as well.  Work it closed/open a few times but don't open it all the way again when you finish - back it off maybe a 1/4 turn; if it does get awkward next time it gives you the option of freeing it off by turning it in both directions.  One day you might just be glad you kept it maintained when there's water p1ssin' thru' the ceiling....

 

Right, time to wriggle....

 

BG

[DaveF]

9 hours ago, Chris Snowdon said:

Sounds like a throughly well-spent mis-spent day!  I haven't been to the Tri-angfield Railway since I was an early teenager (call it 35 years ago) but was planning a truncated bookshelf-railway during the pest-induced lockdown, when I read about their copper-theft which made me very sad.  But, do they still have "the good stuff in the shed", including a couple of Harton electrics?

As for driving, I don't go home often enough.  I don't drive often enough.  But when I do both, I am usually appalled at the rest of this country's race to the bottom, to be as bad at driving as Londoners.

 

I noticed this after I wrote my post a few minutes ago.

 

The Tanfield Railway is just like it always was, very friendly and with lots of fascinating things to see.  The electrics are still there, safely stored in one of the sheds along with lots of other nice things.  They also have many interesting railway books (second hand) in their shop.

 

David

[TheQ]

Moorings Awl,

1 hours sleep, woke with book on chest and glasses on, 5 hours sleep, long awake, 1 hours sleep.

So now I'm running late not had breakfast.. so i' m late for....

 

Nothing..... The summer sailing club finished last week,  the winter club starts next week..

 

Dull grey dry ish and breezy, but so far the wind is only half the forecast quantity.

 

I certainly was mercenary for the last few years, there was increasing pressure at work, it was only the lack of money that kept me there, and at that age it wouldn't have been difficult to find another job locally..

 

So today,  I must finish the other boats floorboards for next week, which is all of a half hours work.

Swmbo's light with new battery has charged and works ok.

 

Then it's onto ,

Muddling, cutting the support frame joints, marking out for a medieval bridge now I've got the dimensions of the approach ramps and walls..

 

Time for brekky.

 

 

 

 

Edited 4 hours ago by TheQ

[Gwiwer]

7 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

One final thought on the unpaid volunteer vs paid “professional”

As the meme has it 

“Amateurs built the Ark; professionals built the Titanic”