B4Print.com

I was already walking 45mins to work so I didn't have to get the bus but self isolating has made us think again.  The boss is diabetic and I have immune system issues since chemo so we took the decision to close the shop to visitors and I took my work mac home.
We've actually been quite busy the last 3 days but IDK how long that's going to last.  I'm in touch with the boss via WhatsApp and picking up work emails so I can do the work here at home with no problems.  Most of our customers are in contact on email and I can keep in touch with them by phone too if necessary.
I send any print jobs back to our shop via Dropbox and the boss is there to run the printing side.  Deliveries by overnight courier so no change there either. 
So far the impact on the business has been minimal.  So far. 

There is 90% drop here, most of the people got sent home for a couple of weeks, and that's just the beginning.
Phones almost stopped ringing, we are prrinting /binding previous week's last orders and Monday morning we'll be looking at each other - or do some cleaning -

Still i don't like working from home.

I've done it once i hurt my leg and it went all wrong - and i'm not talking about job mistakes -

I don't like messing work with family, getting job calls when i'm playin with the kids or jammin with friends, or when i'm doing my own stuff.

It's not that i won't answer or help, but i like getting paid when i'm working and till now i never got paid right offering my services out of the shop.

I'm afraid though that's this is were things are going - with or without viruses - and and don't like the way western society's will evolve in the near future...

I wish they would let me work from home. When you think about it....it is really mind blowing at how many people you come into contact with during the work day.

We've been trying to have minimal contact for a few weeks now, sort of ahead of mandates... and it IS mindblowing how much exposure you get even when trying for zero!

Yeah that is kind of what I meant as I never thought of it before we started the minimal contact thing. Some one asks you about something on their screen and you just by habit lean over to look at it. Oops....contaminated both ways!

I've taken to walking around the shop and take a Lysol wipe to everything I touch...
keyboard, mouse (on several computers), chairs, tables, door handles, time clock...


damn, gonna need a bigger web to write all this down..

:hangme:

Quote from: Joe on March 20, 2020, 09:21:25 AM
Yeah that is kind of what I meant as I never thought of it before we started the minimal contact thing. Some one asks you about something on their screen and you just by habit lean over to look at it. Oops....contaminated both ways!

Exactly! It's like in our brains the danger only comes from strangers?


@david - me too! especially shared areas and items, first thing I do each morning now. And other folks doing it as well.
Better twice than not at all^©

Right on my desk.

My shop has been divided into 2 teams - Team A is in the shop for 2 weeks, while Team B works remotely (if possible - obviously bindery and press crew can't work remotely). Each team has key players in all departments so everything is covered.

Then after 2 weeks we'll switch. We just finished Week 1 and it's been fine in the shop, but the work really dropped off so there isn't much for the remote team to do at this point.

interesting idea

Quote from: DCurry on March 20, 2020, 02:07:35 PM
My shop has been divided into 2 teams - Team A is in the shop for 2 weeks, while Team B works remotely (if possible - obviously bindery and press crew can't work remotely). Each team has key players in all departments so everything is covered.

Then after 2 weeks we'll switch. We just finished Week 1 and it's been fine in the shop, but the work really dropped off so there isn't much for the remote team to do at this point.

Interesting...
How are they handling the pay for the remote workers?
Is it a stand-by rate or full pay as if they were in the building?

I had to give the IT guy my key to the shop so he can come in and take care of things if Indiana gets put on shelter in place. Holcomb said we're not there yet yesterday.  :shrug:

Quote from: DCurry on March 20, 2020, 02:07:35 PM
My shop has been divided into 2 teams - Team A is in the shop for 2 weeks, while Team B works remotely (if possible - obviously bindery and press crew can't work remotely). Each team has key players in all departments so everything is covered.

Then after 2 weeks we'll switch. We just finished Week 1 and it's been fine in the shop, but the work really dropped off so there isn't much for the remote team to do at this point.

I suggested something similar to that this week – then they laid off 2/3 of the shop instead. I'm still on, and it's total madness even though we're down by about 80% of typical work. Don't think it will matter come Monday, Gub'ment will shut it all down before long. Then we'll see what's left to salvage from the rubble I suppose.

Quote from: david on March 20, 2020, 09:43:34 AM
I've taken to walking around the shop and take a Lysol wipe to everything I touch...
keyboard, mouse (on several computers), chairs, tables, door handles, time clock...


damn, gonna need a bigger web to

:hangme:

Don't forget the phones!

The virus crisis will end one way or the other, but the world will not be the same again.

It won't be the same even if the fed out there in the states or the central bank here in europe starts raining money ( which they will, but it can't and won't be enough ).

But let's be optimistic and say that in june economy will be back to december's '19 state, or lets smoke a joint and imagine that in june economy will be back to 2000, printing is getting bigger and bigger and we get a fat raise every year, or we move to the next shop.

Even with that scenario, the world as we know it will be completely different in a couple 
of months.

Most of us here are middle aged people making our living out of an ever shrinking trade.

So, i wouldn't say no to working from home to keep my job, but i'm really skeptical were this leads - in both economical and social ways.
- it won't be for our best interest -

Quote from: motormount on March 21, 2020, 10:46:44 AM
The virus crisis will end one way or the other, but the world will not be the same again.

It won't be the same even if the fed out there in the states or the central bank here in europe starts raining money ( which they will, but it can't and won't be enough ).

But let's be optimistic and say that in june economy will be back to december's '19 state, or lets smoke a joint and imagine that in june economy will be back to 2000, printing is getting bigger and bigger and we get a fat raise every year, or we move to the next shop.

Even with that scenario, the world as we know it will be completely different in a couple 
of months.

Most of us here are middle aged people making our living out of an ever shrinking trade.

So, i wouldn't say no to working from home to keep my job, but i'm really skeptical were this leads - in both economical and social ways.
- it won't be for our best interest -

Ummmmm...what?

We had a situation about 2 years ago where my Father-In-Law was in a coma and we thought we might lose him. At that time, my schedule was rearranged so that I was working 6 hours a day, 3 days a week (8 hours a day the other 2) to accommodate child care, etc. Then my wife switched her schedule to work M-F 8 hours a day, so after a brief couple of regular 40s for me, I went to 5.5 hours a day M-F. My modified work-at-home schedule which was supposed to start Monday, and it was to be 9:30-11:30 M-F (10 total hours), but it started Friday instead. I ended up working 8 to noon and then 2-4 to accommodate the workload, and I'm already behind on Monday's schedule. Thursday after 11 am, our business exploded. I got 23 orders, all for medical businesses for various informational packets, forms, flyers and other COVID19 educational distributables. I worked on security badges for a first responder, as well as some signs that said things like, "lobby closed, still open, call us," etc. and I realized that support for essential businesses might also be somewhat essential as well. I can do most of my job at home, so I can stay and entertain my kids. But I am already working more hours than expected.

Quote from: Joe on March 21, 2020, 11:02:31 AM


Ummmmm...what?

ummmm...

it's my english, sorry.

I'll try again.

Working from home means LESS money.-
- for the average joe* -

Thats because now, you get paid for the time you work IN the shop.

When you work from home, you'll start working all day, and you will be expected to answer the call, or reply to that mail any time of the day.

It doesn't starts like that, but that's where ends.

How much will you charge for that?

And how can you negotiate when out there good job opportunities are so few - and becoming fewer -

You might get even less money, cause you might be laid off and then ''offered'' the chanse to work from home, with less money than your current wage.

That's the economical part of the equation.

There are -and there will be more - consequences on social life and society from ''working from home'' model, sorry i don't have the time to write an essay about them.

I see people takin it lightly - the work from home trend -, and i'm a little bit worried about it.



*There are of-course people who working from home can make more money, but i rarely see that kind of people in prepress deparments.

Ahhhhh....understand now. I thought you meant people in prepress get FAT raises every year. My raises every year are pretty skinny! :D

I've worked from home for a long time but usually just for a few minutes to a couple of hours to fix files in the middle of the night for the press or if something isn't working I'll login to try to get it fixed. I always turn my time in and its never been a problem getting paid for the time I work from home. Even with fast computers and internet it is still slower than being at the work Mac. If I were to work from home I would not be doing it for less money. And I would be available for my "regular" hours but after that I would only log back in and be paid for that extra time.

But I am sure there are some unscrupulous business owners that will try to take advantage of the situation.

Here there is trouble getting paid for ''normal'' overtime ( at work ).
- you make 40 hours, get paid for 30 two months later and then quarrel with the boss to get the rest 10-

Logging in from home is not considered overtime, it's giving a helping hand to the shop.

But the virus will stop a lot of shops doing it by shutting them down...
- even if you stop paying people you can't survive long with no jobs coming in-

Our State just issued a shelter in place on Friday. We have been deemed an essential business, some of the mailings we do are considered essential. We have been slow for a couple of weeks, but not as slow as I expected. That may change now. So far my company seems to be handling this very well. They have cut us down to 7 hour shifts with a 1 hour gap between 1st, 2nd & 3rd shifts so that we do not have contact with the other shifts. During that 1 hour gap they have a cleaning crew coming in and disinfecting everything. Almost our entire customer service dept is working from home except for a couple. They are now called runners and are shuttling job tickets, proofs ect. between departments. We are not supposed to leave the prepress except for bathroom breaks. No lunch break, but are allowed to eat lunch on the fly. They soon will have some of prepress working from home. They also announced up to 2 weeks paid leave for any coronavirus related absence. Very impressed with how they are handling it so far. Things will probably change if the work continues to dry up.

I am currently work from home. March started out as what looked to be our biggest month ever... Then about St. Pat's, thing started to slow. Wednesday I scrambled to nail down the work-at-home thing. Thursday, I *trained* everyone on what I knew. Friday, I started at home. Friday I worked a lot. Today. I am going past my *reduced* hours schedule already, and it's only 11am PST (I was supposed to be 2 hours a day... going past 3 already). I think tomorrow will settle down, and I really will only be 2 hours a day for the foreseeable future. 99% of the work I have touched right now is for medical offices.

No $#!+ about getting F^@*#} in the ass while working at home. Our *agreed* upon hours were 9:30 am - 11:30 am, but today I clocked in at 9:00 am and I'm still on (currently 12:22 pm). I think the CSR went to lunch because she's not answering texts about a job she F^@*#} up. Luckily school is cancelled, so I don't have to edumacate my kids for some kind of standardized test.

best part is, if you try to complain, the csr only took 2 minutes break while you were working comfortably from your couch  ;D

Holy fucking shit.

Here comes a totally brand new fucking job... I thought I was supposed to be off?

so I'm all set to work from home if needed, I am using Chrome Remote Desktop instead of Team Viewer
as Team viewer needed me to update computers, and I don't want to do that right now.
I still may take 1 of my Macs home as it has all the tools I need and the other Mac will be to connect to copiers
and XMF if needed.

My question is how do you communicate jobs, I'm kind of a stickler with my files so I'm going to do the
best I can do keep it organized, but without a job jacket to work with, I'm not sure how we will communicate.

Joe's Response: What's a job jacket?  :laugh:

oh yeah this remote desktop looks kind of clunky, that's why I'm going to bring one of the Macs home, and remote in for file transfer etc..

Seriously we don't have anything resembling a job jacket. We get a piece of paper usually with critical info still missing. We do assign each and every job a job number in a FileMaker Pro database and enter job info though like I said it is usually incomplete when we get it it so we do have some kind of job tracking ability.

I guess I will make some kind of Form they can fill out in Word form them  :laugh:

Word? Make it a PDF.

Yesterday I was supposed to be on 2 hours and worked 6. I just had a conversation with the owner, and to keep overhead down, I am strictly now on a 2 hour shift, remote from home. And I'm fine with that. I will also provide support for the other shop remotely.

I suppose I could make an editable pdf form
because they need to be able to fill it out and send it to me
word is ok for now tho

I've been working from home for about a week now and it's going OK., It's astonishing that everything seems to be coming to a halt except for anxiety.   :shocked:

I start working from home tomorrow. They gave me a mac mini (circa 2011) and a 22" monitor. I took it home last night and set it up. I'll be remoting in to my work computer. It's gonna take a little getting used to, I have a 27" iMac with a 24" 2nd monitor at work. We are tweaking the work at home thing on the fly. Job tickets will e-mailed from CSR's. We have also created fillable PDF's of the forms we use frequently. One person on each shift will still be coming in to work to handle plating and proofing. Hope this virus crisis is over sooner than later.

We have 2 shops. I got moved to the 2nd shop last September. Work at the 2nd shop IS SO MUCH BETTER!!! There's little interference from the main shop, and FAR LESS STRESS. It's a 20 minute further commute, but I don't want it to change. They laid off one CSR last week, and the 2nd today. The only thing remaining at the shop are the three 2-color presses, the Nuvera B&W, the ColorPress 1000 and the production guy. I still feed it from home. I don't want them to close it!!

''the production guy'' does all the production after prepress on his own?
- supplies orders, cut/feed the paper, print and postpress ? -
Maybe he won't mind if they close it... :hangme:

Meeting at work today about Working from Home.

Boss called late in the day yesterday. We laid off one prepresser and I'm working from home. Our lead prepresser asked to be laid off; she doesn't want to come in to the office anymore. I was asked if I could come in... I have two kids at home. I said I didn't think that would be a good idea, but if they want to load paper in the machines, I'll feed it with files from here. Sounds like me having 2 hours of work to no hours of work now just jumped to 6+ a day from home. Not sure if that's exactly what I signed up, but it's better than doing nothing and drinking all day. My body can't keep doing that.

Still waiting for that meeting...rumors are that it will be at reduced hours. Well if they expect me to produce the same amount of work at reduced hours I have a surprise for them. :evil:

Starting to get upset about employers only thinking of themselves
we have been working faithfully!

Quote from: Joe on March 31, 2020, 11:24:33 AM
Still waiting for that meeting...rumors are that it will be at reduced hours. Well if they expect me to produce the same amount of work at reduced hours I have a surprise for them. :evil:

.
Of course. Isn't that good business?  :sarcasm:

Pretty sure I am going to be, "the Man," pretty soon... like tomorrow soon... I have been fielding phone calls and texts the past two days that lead me to believe that. It's going to be a skeleton crew... One guy alone in the Gold River office making the plates of the files I send him and running the digital presses and offset, and doing bindery and deliveries... and the owner and her daughter at the Sacramento office writing up tickets and loading paper and doing bindery/deliveries, with me doing ALL the prepress for both shops and feeding and queueing all the digital presses. Down from like originally a dozen or so people.

I filed for unemployment today for reduced hours. My hours might actually go up, but I literally haven't worked in a week.

I feel sorry for the guy at Gold River.

Quote from: DigiCorn on March 31, 2020, 05:54:27 PM
Pretty sure I am going to be, "the Man," pretty soon... like tomorrow soon... I have been fielding phone calls and texts the past two days that lead me to believe that. It's going to be a skeleton crew... One guy alone in the Gold River office making the plates of the files I send him and running the digital presses and offset, and doing bindery and deliveries... and the owner and her daughter at the Sacramento office writing up tickets and loading paper and doing bindery/deliveries, with me doing ALL the prepress for both shops and feeding and queueing all the digital presses. Down from like originally a dozen or so people.

Welcome to The Club! I went from trying to fill an 8 hour day with enough work to scrambling around all day, bouncing from dept to dept because we laid off SO many people, we're filling in wherever we're needed. But I'm still on the payroll and maybe we'll even survive it all, I bet we won't know that until into the Summer or even Fall.

Finally had our meeting....working from home a trial basis to see how it goes. One person has to be in the office each day so we will all work at least one day a week in the office.

been working from home for over a week now, it's not too bad, still getting paid for a full 40 hrs, for now anyway.

My wife is a teacher, she won't be going back this year probably, they've closed all the schools till May 4th, which is close to the end of the school year anyway.

Living off our stockpile here, only going out to get a few groceries.
Deliverys are hard to get due to nothing on the shelves. My wife tried to get some stuff and the earliest delivery date was in May.

:shocked:

How does everyone handle paperwork when working from home? I mean we in prepress make production work orders for each job and then have to print and distribute them to other people/departments. Even though they are available for everyone to look at from their PC/Mac we HAVE to have printed copies for every one because that is the way we have ALWAYS done it for the past 20 years. We can still print them from home to the work printer and the idea so far is that the person that is in the office that day will have to gather them from the printer and distribute them. The ideal scenario would be having a printer we could print to at each location but our work orders are 11 x 17 no one else that gets the work orders has an 11 x 17 printer.

:facepalm:

I do everything digitally, but I print to the copiers in the office. Not sure how it's going to work today because I am doing Sacramento work from the Gold River login.

oh boy...

so far this morning I have worked on 3 jobs... creating a memorial program for a woman who passed away... a banner for a church advertising online Easter services... and envelopes and order forms for a company called, "American Caskets (http://www.ibcacaskets.com/cremation_products.php)."

[edit] I'm so happy to be back working today after a week off, I wanna shoot myself... pull a Travis

HTH:

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Pull%20a%20Travis

Quote from: born2print on April 01, 2020, 01:07:15 PM
HTH:

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Pull%20a%20Travis

No. That ain't right. Don't cha'll watch Tiger King???

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/tiger-king-the-disturbing-story-of-travis-maldonados-death.html/

Quote from: DigiCorn on April 01, 2020, 03:16:50 PM

Quote from: born2print on April 01, 2020, 01:07:15 PM
HTH:

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Pull%20a%20Travis

No. That ain't right. Don't cha'll watch Tiger King???

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/tiger-king-the-disturbing-story-of-travis-maldonados-death.html/

My wife is trying to right now. Every time she gets about 4.5 minutes in to episode one it quits and says they are having trouble.

:facepalm:

Tiger King is having trouble? That's an understatement. The show is a fucking train wreck.

LOL I think it was Netflix having a problem.

Quote from: DigiCorn on April 01, 2020, 04:59:06 PM
Tiger King is having trouble? That's an understatement. The show is a fucking train wreck.

I heard it is more like a car crash.. a slow motion car crash... a slow motion car crash into a train which then hits a fuel tanker.
Something like that.

I haven't watched it. Should I?

I'm afraid it will make me dumb.

Too late for me. I'm already there.

Well, if you watch it, you'll understand this...

Saving Tiger King for next week, the fourth week of lockdown/home work.

Week three has been Season 3 of Ozark!

I watched the first two or three episodes of Ozark and all I could think of was they were trying to re-do Breaking Bad. Probably should have watched longer.

I watched 2 Ozarks with the wife. I liked it and she didn't... haven't revisited the show yet. I felt like I had to watch Tiger King because everyone else was. The first 5 episodes were just crazy. Then I can't remember if it was e5 or e6, but the groundbreaking reveal that they all did meth... big f---ing surpise there. The last 2 episodes didn't deliver on what we were being led up to. I don't know if anyone involved in the show  is redeemable. One thing I learned; Apparently to train and raise tigers, you need to be polyamorous.

SOUND UP a must

https://youtu.be/tqchHRnxV_M

I will be working from home starting tomorow

need a little help, the TeamViewer on my server (PC) needs updating
I found you just click on the help menu and update
I'm. not seeing a menu bar to do this, Im a PC retard

I tried TeamViewer here for some people at work that use Windows. Every time they would log in to the business IP it would say it detected it was a business and you can't use personal (FREE) accounts and it would end the session every 5 minutes. One "PRO" account runs $49 per month so I switched them all to Google Chrome Desktop. It can to PC > PC, PC > Mac, Mac > Mac, or Mac > PC. It can also do Linux > PC or Mac too. And it is free.

Tracy on the PC you need to make sure you download the TeamViewer client and not the server. The server only allows connections to come in to that PC. The client allows you to connect to other PC's or Macs running TeamViewer.

I've been watching Ozark. I'm a few episodes into the latest season. Getting sick of the wife.
A friend of mine is always telling me to watch certain shows and I do and never watch more than one episode, if that. She likes dumb shit. One was Santa Clarita Diet. Garbage. It's just too stupid. And she hates the shows that I like. The Tudors is what I'm watching now....The Last Kingdom, Spartacus, Peaky Blinders, The Irishman. Anyway, her and I clash with tv shows and she keeps telling me to watch Tiger King. She said, "I know you don't like trash tv but you won't be able to look away." I feel like I have watched it because of everything I see on social media. A gay hillbilly with a lot of exotic cats gets a few straight men to marry him bribing them with meth and tigers. A guy that works for him gets his arm ripped off by a tiger. He's not a fan of some lady named Carol who "allegedly" killed her husband by feeding him to a tiger. Most likely by pouring sardine oil on him. Joe Exotic makes weird country music videos about big cats and how awesome he is. And now he's in jail for 2 counts of murder for hire. Is that basically it in a nutshell? Do I really need to watch it?

My wife started watching it. She said it is pretty stupid. I think she is about to walk away from it.

Ok I will try to chrome desktop I have it on the Macs

ok im all set up!!

good luck tracy!

Thanks DPS!

Quote from: Joe on April 07, 2020, 10:47:09 AM
I tried TeamViewer here for some people at work that use Windows. Every time they would log in to the business IP it would say it detected it was a business and you can't use personal (FREE) accounts and it would end the session every 5 minutes.

Yeah, not sure how they "detect" IP ranges. One of our guys kept getting booted from using the free version, I've got it installed on like4-5 machines though and so far - no boot!

QuoteOne "PRO" account runs $49 per month so I switched them all to Google Chrome Desktop. It can to PC > PC, PC > Mac, Mac > Mac, or Mac > PC. It can also do Linux > PC or Mac too. And it is free.

Think I'll add that tomorrow on both ends - just in case. With SO many people doing remote now, I bet the noose is going to tighten.

Quote from: Slappy on April 07, 2020, 09:06:06 PM
Yeah, not sure how they "detect" IP ranges. One of our guys kept getting booted from using the free version, I've got it installed on like4-5 machines though and so far - no boot!

TeamViewer: Why do I see 'Commercial use suspected' / 'Commercial use detected' (https://community.teamviewer.com/t5/Knowledge-Base/Why-do-I-see-Commercial-use-suspected-Commercial-use-detected/ta-p/5265)

Holy Cow!!
working from home and my desk chair is uncomfortable
I look over at my husbands desk, he's got this massive chair, pulled it over to my desk
and OMG! it is so comfortable!! when he gets home from work he's going to see it at my desk!  :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

 :lmao:

My biggest issue working from home today is looking out the window and the sky is blue and it is 85° and I think the fish are probably biting today. :(

go ahead and go fishing! who's gonna know! :dev2:

Quote from: Tracy on April 08, 2020, 02:34:18 PM
go ahead and go fishing! who's gonna know! :dev2:

lol... actually same here! its lovely outside... oh wait I can open my door next to my work table and let in the warmth.

Fishing, boating, tramping and hunting and even surfing are on the banned lists here... cant afford to have medical staff or search and rescue out looking for covidiots!
which is a shame cos duck shooting season starts here on may 1st, and apparently the stags are roaring at present, a lot of annoyed hunters out there

Quote from: Tracy on April 08, 2020, 01:02:09 PM
Holy Cow!!
working from home and my desk chair is uncomfortable
I look over at my husbands desk, he's got this massive chair, pulled it over to my desk
and OMG! it is so comfortable!! when he gets home from work he's going to see it at my desk!  :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

:lmao: That's marriage! How does it go? What's his is yours and what's yours is yours?
Mine is a wooden chair. I'm slouchy, sit Indian style and use pillows so it's not so bad.

covidiots  :lmao:

I love you guys! :group:

Quote from: Tracy on April 08, 2020, 02:34:18 PM
go ahead and go fishing! who's gonna know! :dev2:

OK I'm going to tell my boss that Tracy said it was OK.

🐟

Using TeamViewer commercially for free without issue (knock on Ikea wood). I did tell the boss if it stopped working, we'd have to buy a subscription and she's on board with that. My main issue is that I use multi screens and sometimes I can drag -and-drop to the 2nd screen, and sometimes I can't. I haven't been able to figure out why. I also have a crappy video card at home that only has 1 DVI, 1 HDMI and 1 VGA and I'm using 2 32" 1080 tvs as monitors. I have one tv on hdmi, but the 2nd is on vga because there is no dvi. Anyway, I just plopped down $149 to Amazon on a new upgraded video card that will have dual hdmi output and bring my video RAM from 1.5gb to 4gb and I got the boss to pay for it! Plus, since I bought it and got reimbursed, I can claim it on my taxes as a business expense since I have the original receipt. I'm thinking about upgrading some other shit!

Turns out my new video card was NOT dual HDMI... It was one HDMI and one DP (add joke here). Called around this morning and found a DP-to-HDMI adapter, and just had to brave Best Buy to go get it. I had them pull it aside, and then I went and stood 10 feet apart from people outside the store until it was my turn. I'm going to open up the case later and blow all the dust out and attempt the upgrade. The card is huge! It's like easily two inches thick. I hope there's enough room in there for it!

Update - Week 3 of the lockdown.....

Working from home is going OK but I have a lot of in-between time.  Online gaming is a great help but I thought it would be good to learn a new hobby.  A friend sent me a link to some free software for Modular Synthesisers.  This is what's keeping me sane at the moment;  vcvrack.com (pic attached)

Opened up my case yesterday and I literally had nothing in it except my old upgraded video card (a 1.5gb AMD). I forgot to unlock it, and broke the mechanism on the PCI slot removing it, but I had a plethora of other slots to utilize, so I just chose another. Noticed that while I have 8gb RAM, I still had 2 open slots, so I ordered 8 more GB RAM from Amazon for $67. I also found a 3rd HD that i installed, but never connected to the motherboard, so I did and just increased my storage capacity by 250gb, so now this computer has (will have 16gb RAM), a 1tb drive, a 500gb drive and the 250gb drive plus the upgraded video card and my bluray and dvd burners (x2). I think I originally built it about 10 years ago, but I think I can make it last another 5 at least. I did get the DP-to-HDMI adapter, and it's all working smoothly, so working from home just got even better.

Quote from: StudioMonkey on April 14, 2020, 03:41:24 AM
Update - Week 3 of the lockdown.....

Working from home is going OK but I have a lot of in-between time.  Online gaming is a great help but I thought it would be good to learn a new hobby.  A friend sent me a link to some free software for Modular Synthesisers.  This is what's keeping me sane at the moment;  vcvrack.com (pic attached)

A guy I used to work with plays with those in the real world. It's technology meeting music. 
He's all over all the music platforms barry-jamieson and inkfish

I've been "working from home" since mid-March. Chemo puts me at a disadvantage. Kind of hard doing your job 13 miles from your equipment.  By dumb luck, I have a temp in place that I can shout orders to remotely.  We hired her to pick up the bindery slack which I couldn't keep up with, then suddenly shes the only body in the shop for a few months. I taught her all the bindery/finishing, but she has no training on the digital equipment because I did not see a pandemic coming in the future. 8 hours is hard to fill from my home office, but since no one knows what I really do anyway, it's easy to bullshit on the timesheet.

The shop has been really busy, as you can imagine for a municipality its been a non-stop shitshow of CV-19 prints and materials. Like, NON-STOP. The city has shed most of its employees, so I was expecting the work to drop considerably, but it's maintained.  Ironically, the print shop has been on the chopping block every year for the past 8+ years, and suddenly we are an essential division to keep the City's wheels turning. Who the fuck figured?  Hopefully they remember this at the next budget appropriations.

Lockdown week 5 here.

Wondering if I love my wife or if it's Stockholm syndrome.

;D

Is anyone else working from home as fucking busy as i am?

(https://img2-azrcdn.newser.com/image/1293321-11-20200418095530.jpeg) <=====This guy!

Quote from: DigiCorn on April 14, 2020, 10:28:00 AM
Opened up my case yesterday and I literally had nothing in it except my old upgraded video card (a 1.5gb AMD). I forgot to unlock it, and broke the mechanism on the PCI slot removing it, but I had a plethora of other slots to utilize, so I just chose another. Noticed that while I have 8gb RAM, I still had 2 open slots, so I ordered 8 more GB RAM from Amazon for $67. I also found a 3rd HD that i installed, but never connected to the motherboard, so I did and just increased my storage capacity by 250gb, so now this computer has (will have 16gb RAM), a 1tb drive, a 500gb drive and the 250gb drive plus the upgraded video card and my bluray and dvd burners (x2). I think I originally built it about 10 years ago, but I think I can make it last another 5 at least. I did get the DP-to-HDMI adapter, and it's all working smoothly, so working from home just got even better.

$150 is pretty cheap for a GPU, or I am just used to the gaming ones. Not sure of the age of your computer as you didn't really give any specs i.e. CPU and GPU. Adding an SSD as your main boot drive will make a HUGE difference and have you wondering why you never did it before.

I have 1 TB NVME drive that is the size of a stick of RAM, mounts directly on the mother board. Was a little over $100 CDN, super fast, no cables to connect and room for one more just like it. These are the biggest and best change to computer hard ware I have seen in a long time.

WHEN (not if) I build a new computer, hopefully Fry's will still be around... Or Joe Exotic Tiger Direct. Without question, I will start with a SSD 1tb minimum HD as my boot. More, if it's affordable. I don't mean to brag, but I have means. Anyway, this old girl has been a trooper; I mean a real workhorse. I can't remember when I built her, but it's got to be 8-10 years and she is chugging along, almost like new. It's got to be the maintenance; I on the regular clean her up. I can't imagine what a new machine is like, but if it's better, then like WOW, man! She's an AMD Athlon II 640 4-core, 3ghz. 8gb RAM, but waiting on Amazon for another 8gb; Was supposed to be here 4-17, but delayed and NO UPDATE! Eventually, it'll get here. In addition to updating RAM and video, I bought a new speaker system, to replace the one I got circa 2005. $29 on Amazon, and it's a serious upgrade. If I build a new system, I will keep the monitors and speakers, but I will upgrade the video even more, and I will max out the RAM. I'll keep the Bluray burner and DVD burner, but switch from AMD to Intel. My main HD will be a minimum 1tb SSD, but bigger if it's affordable. 2x NAS already in place for backup and offline streaming.

We had 3 people who do what I do. 1 got laid off and one doesn't want to work and wants to stay home on vacation. I am so overwhelmed right now, I'm having a mini-panic attack. I can't keep up with all this work and try to home educate two kids; It's too much. It's slower to log in remotely, and none of this stuff is repeatable; it's all new complex stuff that can't be easily picked up and repeated. I'm starting to burn out.

Relax. It's just printing. Work at your own pace and what gets done gets done. The other stuff can wait in line.

Quote from: Joe on April 21, 2020, 04:38:02 PM
Relax. It's just printing. Work at your own pace and what gets done gets done. The other stuff can wait in line.

ha!

you're new here, aren't you?

No just smart enough to know stressing yourself out isn't worth it. You know what a company does if a worker dies from stress? They hire another sucker.

Quote from: Joe on April 21, 2020, 10:29:16 PM
No just smart enough to know stressing yourself out isn't worth it. You know what a company does if a worker dies from stress? They hire another sucker.

100% truth.

Quote from: Joe on April 21, 2020, 10:29:16 PM
No just smart enough to know stressing yourself out isn't worth it. You know what a company does if a worker dies from stress? They hire another sucker.

In my case the might need 2 suckers.

Quote from: pspdfppdfxhd on April 22, 2020, 07:38:44 AM

Quote from: Joe on April 21, 2020, 10:29:16 PM
No just smart enough to know stressing yourself out isn't worth it. You know what a company does if a worker dies from stress? They hire another sucker.

In my case the might need 2 suckers.

No they would hire one at half price of what you cost and blame it on that guy for being stupid. And also blame your dead body for not making it simple enough for any moron to understand how to do it.

Was off for 2 weeks late March out of precaution (Wife works at a Hospital and her direct supervisor (a doctor) travelled and was ordered to stay home, 3 days after coming into work and supervising her and her staff...) so she was ordered off and since we live in the same house so was I.

Went out shopping a few times for essentials and people are morons. They cannot follow simple instructions or GIANT red arrows and do not know what 6 feet is.
To the lady coughing all over the frozen food isle without a mask or covering your mouth with your sleeve... your a gem. Die in a fire.

We are deemed Essential as we do food packaging (among other things)
Came back to 96+ jobs waiting all with a dead line of May 1 to May 6.  ( I am the only prepress person, my co-worker does inks and plates and layouts/impositions)
All the jobs are complex, clipping paths needed on every damn image so Esko can trap the images to the Pantone background or total dumpster fires which need a ton of re-work in order to be salvageable.
Every 3 jobs out 5 more come in... S.O.S    :)

Working OT most nights just to keep up and keep the 2 presses fed. (for free, Im Salary)

At least the traffic is decent [1 hour 20min commute (each way) trimmed to 50mins]
Gas is cheap too!

Stay Safe and Healthy out there.
Thank God It's Friday.
Time for Whisky!

Trump says you should inject disinfectant to stay safe.

:facepalm:

Reminds me of Merv Griffin in the Man with Two Brains

I just can't believe what comes out of the "donalds" mouth. Pinch me, i think i am dreaming.

Quote from: DigiCorn on April 24, 2020, 04:03:00 PM
Drumpf says you should inject disinfectant to stay safe.

Well, that's how they fight cancer, according to the Drumpftards on BookFace, so he really smart!

<fast forward 12 hours>
Not so fast, he said he was being sarcastic!

<fast forward another 12 hours>
Wait, no he said he was pulling a prank!

:shoots_self:

Quote from: Slappy on April 25, 2020, 04:32:56 PM

Quote from: DigiCorn on April 24, 2020, 04:03:00 PM
Drumpf says you should inject disinfectant to stay safe.

Well, that's how they fight cancer, according to the Drumpftards on BookFace, so he really smart!

<fast forward 12 hours>
Not so fast, he said he was being sarcastic!

<fast forward another 12 hours>
Wait, no he said he was pulling a prank!

:shoots_self:

The tards are the ones that believe the media that translated to that.

Quote from: Skryber on April 27, 2020, 07:23:05 AM

Quote from: Slappy on April 25, 2020, 04:32:56 PM

Quote from: DigiCorn on April 24, 2020, 04:03:00 PM
Drumpf says you should inject disinfectant to stay safe.

Well, that's how they fight cancer, according to the Drumpftards on BookFace, so he really smart!

<fast forward 12 hours>
Not so fast, he said he was being sarcastic!

<fast forward another 12 hours>
Wait, no he said he was pulling a prank!

:shoots_self:

The tards are the ones that believe the media that translated to that.

Translated this direct quote?
"I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that,"

Quote from: Designia(o_O) on April 27, 2020, 08:40:38 AM

Quote from: Skryber on April 27, 2020, 07:23:05 AM

Quote from: Slappy on April 25, 2020, 04:32:56 PM

Quote from: DigiCorn on April 24, 2020, 04:03:00 PM
Drumpf says you should inject disinfectant to stay safe.

Well, that's how they fight cancer, according to the Drumpftards on BookFace, so he really smart!

<fast forward 12 hours>
Not so fast, he said he was being sarcastic!

<fast forward another 12 hours>
Wait, no he said he was pulling a prank!

:shoots_self:

The tards are the ones that believe the media that translated to that.

Translated this direct quote?
"I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that,"

He's not talking about injecting disinfectant into your body. NANCY PELOSI said Trump is telling Americans to inject Lysol into their lungs. Is that at all what he said? He's talking about is there may be a way to kill the virus in a similar way that disinfectants do. If you actually translate that to "Americans should inject disinfectants into their body," there's no hope for you.

Dems are GRASPING! And it's entertaining.

QuoteTrump, April 23: A question that probably some of you are thinking of if you're totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting. So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said that hasn't been checked, but you're going to test it. And then I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you're going to test that too. Sounds interesting, right? And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it'd be interesting to check that. So that you're going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me. So, we'll see, but the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute. That's pretty powerful.

Here, Bryan responded to a reporter's question about injecting a cleaner into the body, and Trump backtracked on his previous speculation about an "injection":

ALL I said was Trump said we should inject disinfectant. I got the quote wrong. My bad

Quote

He's not talking about injecting disinfectant into your body.

"And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside "

Yea, yea he is. He's that fucking stupid.

QuoteReporter, April 24: Can you clarify your comments about injections of disinfectant?

Trump: No, I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you, just to see what would happen.

Now, disinfectant, or doing this, maybe on the hands, would work. And I was asking the question of the gentleman who was there yesterday — Bill — because when they say that something will last three or four hours or six hours, but if the sun is out or if they use disinfectant, it goes away in less than a minute. Did you hear about this yesterday? But I was asking a sarcastic — and a very sarcastic question — to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside. But it does kill it and it would kill it on the hands and that would make things much better. That was done in the form of a sarcastic question to the reporters. Okay.

Reporter: But you were asking your medical experts to look into it.

Trump: Uh, no, no, no, no.

Reporter: Were you being sarcastic with them?

Trump: To look into whether or not sun and disinfectant on the hands, but whether or not sun can help us because, I mean, he came in yesterday and he said they've done a big study. This is a study. This isn't where he hasn't done it. This is where they've come in with a final report that sun has a massive impact, negatively, on this vir– in other words, it does not live well with humidity, and it doesn't live well with sun — sunlight — heat. It doesn't live well with heat and sun and disinfectant. And that's what I brought out. And I thought it was clear. Okay. Anything else?

Skryber, what part is pissing you off? The fact that he didn't say, "Lysol," because he very clearly said disinfectant...

Quote from: DigiCorn on April 27, 2020, 10:11:21 AM


Trump: No, I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you, just to see what would happen.

Just what this country needs during a goddamn pandemic, when the economy is collapsing, people are dying and most Americans are scared shitless. Fucking sarcasm. But is wasn't sarcasm, he's that fucking stupid.

OK if you all want to have a political debate I suggest you take it to facebook or twitter or a forum that was created for that purpose. No one on the right or left is going to be swayed to other side by a "what he said vs what he meant debate" in a prepress forum. I'm asking nicely.

None of it pisses me off. It's entertaining, like I said.

The company that makes Lysol did issue a warning after this debacle not to take it internally. I'm sure it's on their product labels too, but who reads instructions?
:lmao:

I won't post anything more about it here publicly. I hate fascism. (sorry. last one.)

I had to cancel my old Amazon RAM order. It was supposed to be here 2 weeks ago, but it says "delayed" and then no updates. I ordered the same RAM, different brand, different supplier (oddly, less $$$) and it's supposed to be arriving today. I decided to also order RAM to max out all my other upgradeable machines in the house. Some of it might not be here until June, based on the shipping estimates. I understand that Amazon is overloaded, but I find computer parts to be a priority, especially to those of us working from home who could really use the upgrades.

In other news, just found out about Instacart. I ignored it originally, because local chain Raley's has eCart... you place your order online, and then go pick it up. Instacart delivers. And it's Costco, Target, Safeway, Raley's, BevMo, Total Wine, Sprouts and others in our area. So now that I found out it's $9.99 a month for unlimited deliveries (as long as each order is over $35) and I can get beer delivered... well, it's on! Challenge accepted!

Instacart had a wait list of a week at one point here.

Ours is 2 hours... eCart is 5-7 days. That's why I switched.

[edit] I'll be honest though... Instacart is a total crap shoot. My Costco run went perfect. My Raley's fucking sucked... I said "No substitutions" on a couple items, and the fucker substituted items I can't use, plus I literally got a bag of rotten potatoes. The website only let me complain about 1 thing, so I got a refund on the potatoes, but now I have to eat almost $10 of products I can't use, and they aren't responsive to complaints. My first Total Wine beer run was a bit of a debacle too, but that's because I wanted stuff not available, and substitutions weren't readily available, and on-the-fly texting wasn't quick enough to resolve.

I'm a bit of a beer diva sometimes.

Quote from: DigiCorn on April 27, 2020, 12:49:22 PM
I won't post anything more about it here publicly. I hate fascism. (sorry. last one.)

I had to cancel my old Amazon RAM order. It was supposed to be here 2 weeks ago, but it says "delayed" and then no updates. I ordered the same RAM, different brand, different supplier (oddly, less $$$) and it's supposed to be arriving today. I decided to also order RAM to max out all my other upgradeable machines in the house. Some of it might not be here until June, based on the shipping estimates. I understand that Amazon is overloaded, but I find computer parts to be a priority, especially to those of us working from home who could really use the upgrades.

I've learned with Amazon to research who you are buying from and to find out where they are shipping from. Never order from any place that is shipping from China as there is a damn good chance you'll never see the item and they don't respond when you try to contact them and eventually you have to get Amazon involved. Thankfully Amazon always makes it good but I just make sure to never place an order coming from China. (nothing to do with COVID-19 but that is another reason presently)

Quote from: DigiCorn on April 27, 2020, 02:20:57 PM
I'm a bit of a beer diva sometimes.

I hadn't noticed. :sarcasm:

I just installed my new RAM and reseated my old RAM. I thought I had 8gb, and was adding 8 more, but after installation, Windows says I have 24 gb. I went back and looked at the package and it says 16gb 2x8. Went back to Amazon, and dummy that I am I orderd 16 2x8... which is funny, because it was the same brand (Patriot) as the one that never showed up, was less $$$ and the previous order was only 8gb 2x4, and I didn't even notice!

Wow. That rig might run you over.  :banana:

FUCK working from home. I swear they invent BULLSHIT stuff for me to do, just to keep me from having any fucking free time, even though the goddamn government is paying my fucking salary right now. I'm mocking up 44 fucking BULLSHIT high school graduation signs, that I 100% GUARANTEE will never see the light of day... #1, they don't have the school name or mascot on them; #2 they don't have the school logo on them; #3 they don't have the student name on them... WHO THE FUCK, is gonna buy a generic graduation sign that vaguely has the high school colors on them??!!??!!

I'm SO FUCKING pissed off about this bullshit, I can't even see straight right now. FUCKING BULLSHIT WASTE OF TIME.

Quote from: DigiCorn on May 05, 2020, 03:40:52 PM
I'm SO FUCKING pissed off about this bullshit, I can't even see straight right now. FUCKING BULLSHIT WASTE OF TIME.

Obviously you are referring to humanity, yes? I agree!

In my life I have spent an incredible amount of time working on things that do not matter and will never happen.

thank god for liquor


:drunk3: :banana: :drunk3: :banana: :drunk3:

glad to see your still here gnub!
keep on keepin' on!

Quote from: DigiCorn on May 05, 2020, 03:38:36 PM
FUCK working from home. I swear they invent BULLSHIT stuff for me to do, just to keep me from having any fucking free time, even though the goddamn government is paying my fucking salary right now. I'm mocking up 44 fucking BULLSHIT high school graduation signs, that I 100% GUARANTEE will never see the light of day... #1, they don't have the school name or mascot on them; #2 they don't have the school logo on them; #3 they don't have the student name on them... WHO THE FUCK, is gonna buy a generic graduation sign that vaguely has the high school colors on them??!!??!!

I estimate we print over 6,000 signs. All different. Most with logos, some with names. Some cut out into shapes. Designing all of it. Busy AF and we are still interrupted to make happy birthday signs for family members.  :drunk3:

Quote from: david on May 05, 2020, 06:27:08 PM
In my life I have spent an incredible amount of time working on things that do not matter and will never happen.

Same here, as well as my wife, and my father before me. Lining bird cages has been very good to my family.

Quote from: born2print on May 06, 2020, 09:39:08 AM

Quote from: david on May 05, 2020, 06:27:08 PM
In my life I have spent an incredible amount of time working on things that do not matter and will never happen.

Same here, as well as my wife, and my father before me. Lining bird cages has been very good to my family.

I think that is actually the definition of prepress. Prepress: an incredible amount of time working on things that do not matter.

And yeah....they pay us for that.  :rotf:

My kids have been watching me "work" from home. They cant believe i get paid for what i do, but then they are not exposed to the stress and retardation i have to deal with on the other side.

Quote from: delooch on May 06, 2020, 01:38:12 PM
My kids have been watching me "work" from home. They cant believe i get paid for what i do, but then they are not exposed to the stress and retardation i have to deal with on the other side.

My wife: While looking at me going through some pages in Acrobat..."That is all you do?"

Me:  :death:

Spoke with my co-worker who returned after a 6 week hiatus yesterday and told her I was going to try to take some time off, and she was okay with it. Spoke briefly with the owner, and told her I was starting to lose my mind after 6 weeks of holding it together. I told her how dealing with all the extra work at home, and how trying to home school 2 kids and running the household was just getting to be too much. I asked if I could reduce my hours, or maybe just go on hiatus and she could bring back the guy she laid off.. she mentioned something about her loan and how maybe I could go on paid family leave. She didn't get back to me today.

Good luck with that. Those loans come with a lot of stipulations.

Quote from: Skryber on May 06, 2020, 08:19:12 AM

Quote from: DigiCorn on May 05, 2020, 03:38:36 PM
FUCK working from home. I swear they invent BULLSHIT stuff for me to do, just to keep me from having any fucking free time, even though the goddamn government is paying my fucking salary right now. I'm mocking up 44 fucking BULLSHIT high school graduation signs, that I 100% GUARANTEE will never see the light of day... #1, they don't have the school name or mascot on them; #2 they don't have the school logo on them; #3 they don't have the student name on them... WHO THE FUCK, is gonna buy a generic graduation sign that vaguely has the high school colors on them??!!??!!

I estimate we print over 6,000 signs. All different. Most with logos, some with names. Some cut out into shapes. Designing all of it. Busy AF and we are still interrupted to make happy birthday signs for family members.  :drunk3:

Our sign stuff has picked up slightly, the grad things are rolling in but most are one-offs, a few multiple orders for small private schools and almost nobody has any idea wtf they want, so it's eating up design time I'm positive wan't quoted. Oh, and the internal designer was laid off early, so I've been hacking/slashing together garbage in my "spare time" which isn't much.

One person even sent a screenshot from their iAndroid of an Etsy seller's sign that they loved. I suggested just buying the effing design, then changing the name(s) but instead they opted for spending an hour+ on recreating the garbage.

We're not making it out of this alive, are we?  :shoots_self:

So it's Saturday night close to midnight, and I'm boozing in the garage bar and it dawns on me, I haven't checked in on B4 in a couple days. OK, all you cool cats and kittens, here's the skinny: On Tuesday, I was absolutely losing my fucking mind working from home, educating a 6 and 10 year old, and running a household. My fellow prepress co-worker returned Monday after something like 6 weeks off. I basically told her, I can't fucking do this any more; the stress is literally killing me (I had a blood pressure episode that lasted about 2 days where I was in stroke territory with a sustained average blood pressure somewhere in the 170/110 range). I had a conversation with the boss, and Thursday morning (after working abut 3 hours) we came to arrangement that puts me on paid leave until the middle of June... I get a little less than half my normal wage... and I'm sort of *on-call* but not really. I didn't even care about the money, but it's a government loan/edd thing, so whatever. I had to compose a letter that said I'm unable to work because I have childcare issues, that our schools are closed, our childcare facilities are closed and that I'm caring for family members (my father-in-law has COPD, diabetes, and is 85 and I do their shopping/handyman-type stuff for them right now). Anyway, I told the boss that I solely set up the new shop we bought last year, and it's my baby and I don't want anything or anybody fucking it up so if they need me, I want control over files/plating stuff at that shop but other than that, I'm off for 6 weeks, and regardless of whether the state re-opens or not, I'll be working from home for the foreseeable future, even upon my return. I did do an hour and a half on Friday after all that went down. I'm the kind of guy who always falls into shit, but ends up smelling like roses.

You really did the right thing. If a stroke doesn't kill you it can leave you an effin vegetable. Then the boss would be on the hook because he'd been warned.

Quote from: DigiCorn on May 10, 2020, 12:47:04 AM
So it's Saturday night close to midnight, and I'm boozing in the garage bar and it dawns on me, I haven't checked in on B4 in a couple days. OK, all you cool cats and kittens, here's the skinny: On Tuesday, I was absolutely losing my fucking mind working from home, educating a 6 and 10 year old, and running a household. My fellow prepress co-worker returned Monday after something like 6 weeks off. I basically told her, I can't fucking do this any more; the stress is literally killing me (I had a blood pressure episode that lasted about 2 days where I was in stroke territory with a sustained average blood pressure somewhere in the 170/110 range). I had a conversation with the boss, and Thursday morning (after working abut 3 hours) we came to arrangement that puts me on paid leave until the middle of June... I get a little less than half my normal wage... and I'm sort of *on-call* but not really. I didn't even care about the money, but it's a government loan/edd thing, so whatever. I had to compose a letter that said I'm unable to work because I have childcare issues, that our schools are closed, our childcare facilities are closed and that I'm caring for family members (my father-in-law has COPD, diabetes, and is 85 and I do their shopping/handyman-type stuff for them right now). Anyway, I told the boss that I solely set up the new shop we bought last year, and it's my baby and I don't want anything or anybody fucking it up so if they need me, I want control over files/plating stuff at that shop but other than that, I'm off for 6 weeks, and regardless of whether the state re-opens or not, I'll be working from home for the foreseeable future, even upon my return. I did do an hour and a half on Friday after all that went down. I'm the kind of guy who always falls into shit, but ends up smelling like roses.

good job! now do take some time for you as well

My solution to the madness is to do my kids school work. Everyone knows that's happening anyway. My 7 year old can type 40 words per minute. :rotf: Half of the time it doesn't work anyway. There are 11 different sign ins. You have to read a description on how to log on to each assignment. There may be a message from the teacher somewhere in an email or bulletin about it not working and to disregard but of course you don't see it because they communicate with the kids 4 different ways. Yesterday, there was a technical problem where the other students answers were visible. So I just copied their answers. Can't show work for math so I did 8 pages of long division with a calculator. Found some other kids essay on Orville Redenbacher so I stole that and turned it in. 3 weeks left. I'm not a teacher. Breaking point reached. :drunk3:

Its overwhelming, but  i wont do thier work for them. I will guide them and answer questions, but they have 24 hours a day sitting on their ass, they can spend the usual 6 hour school shift figuring it out. they arent doing as great, but i think they are learning they are not going have a safety net when they hit employment age. They didnt do shit in the beginning, but the follow ups from the teachers fixed that.

If my son can figure out blender to make sim cars on his own, he can learn the math. My daughter thinks they are going to let this semester slide, but thats not going to happen. The usual threat of taking her iphone or macbook away doesnt work, because they need them for school. but she doesnt get a pass either. if she slips, a zoom meeting with her teacher usually gets her back on track for a while.

on top of that we are all suddenly home school teachers, i hate to say i dont have the time, but since working from home i seem to be putting in 10 hour days instead of the usual 8.

Also, when this started my daughter was and her moms house, then mom started showing symptoms (still TBA if it was real), so she kept her for 5 weeks. I didnt push it because my immune system is shit from chemo.. She allowed her to sleep all day and didnt follow up on her work, so basically made me the asshole for being the diciplinarian to get her back on track.  Such a goddamn struggle with the ex. did i metnion we are still legaly married?

:)

What's the hold up with the divorce?

It would be a little different if my kids were with me. They are with my parents in Chicago. Also, if they were older. They are 7 and 9 and can't figure out why the shit isn't working. Their teachers do not care either. I already told them I'm doing it to pass state's requirements otherwise it's not possible to get done at all. They said ok. Plus, all of the "special" classes (that's just what they are called it's not for challenged kids) it's the same assignments for my 2nd and 4th grader. And when I tried emailing the teachers about it bc I thought I was missing something, they didn't get back to be for 5 days. And yes it's the same assignments. Fuck that.

Our teachers hold regular *office hours* and host zoom meetings on the reg. They utilize Google Classroom for assignments. In the pre-distance learning days, they had about 2 hours a day to keep them up-to-date on what they've already learned. In the Distance Learning Days, it jumped to about 6 hours a day to keep up. There's a website my 6yo uses for schoolwork called See Saw and another called Raz Kids and his progress is monitored and adjusted based on time spent doing assignments and skill level assessment at the after work *tests*. My 10yo daughter uses Moby Max and Prodigy for math, and again, results are monitored. She uses Epic for reading, and I get an email at the end of the week to follow up.

The school district handed out something like 30,000 Chromebooks and arranged for free internet access for those in need. We have plenty of computers and internet, so we didn't accept. They are 100% doing the work themselves. I don't teach. I make sure they do assignments and check the websites for completion. I print out their paper assignments and make sure they do them, and I am here to answer questions and assist in showing how to do things. Beyond that, I had been working but now I am just cleaning house and fixing up the yard. I ran a ton of new irrigation line yesterday and tied into our existing sprinkler system. I set up our garden/planter box and made sure it's getting watered so I can plant seeds this week.

i so feel for you all! my kids are with me mon-friday at present cos Im 'working' from home, my ex is working at work (builder) and cos he would be hopeless at getting them to do any schoolwork anyway.

mine are 10 and 11, oldest is at intermediate school this year (probably junior high ish USA I guess?). his teachers have been fab, one zooms most days (maths) and I am pushing him a lot with most classes, often having to spend time going through stuff but he is doing ok, He understands has has a certain amount to get done before he can chill on roblox after school. oh and for the first two weeks i had no printer (eventually managed to buy one) so had to handwrite all his work out...   :facepalm:

the other one (primary school still) has a zoom class each day but he tries to multitask at the same time, doing maths online while semi tuning into the meeting (maths, voluntary reading and spelling is about all they have given them to do). Yesterday a school questionaire I responded to got the teacher messaging me and asking does he need more work and me going YES PLEASE! he thinks that cos the teachers are letting them do what they want he can just watch utube all day while his brother moans about having to do work... and me in the middle kinda stuck and not able to give him work cos " the teacher didnt say i had to do it!" and the minute its 'after school' he is on roblox as well
grrrrrr....

on the up side yesterday the govt announced we will go into level 2 on thursday, kids back to school following monday... yehaaaaaaaaa
Not sure when I go back into work though

Quote from: Skryber on May 11, 2020, 10:52:55 AM
What's the hold up with the divorce?

Shes playing the system well. She's figured out how to delay the damn thing without punishment. Ive been pressing her for support and she refuses. She got fired last year for drinking, now shes claiming "mental anguish" and is on disability, meanwhile shes working off the books.  Also, while shes on disability, shes doesnt have to pay her $1100 school loan, and she gets to stay on my health insurance.

We had a mediation in January, and i thought i came out ahead, but as we left she hopped in a fairly new mazda SUV, shes still making payments on her cooper, and has an $1800 rent payment. Shes also got some cuck on the hook which im sure shes using as an ATM. I lost my mind right there again and was able to withdraw the settlement agreement.  Obviously shes more than financially sound.

If i press her in court for support, on paper shes broke, and ill end up having to pay her instead. So now im on lawyer #3, and this time hes going to do all the conversation with her, i just have to sign papers and he gives me updates.

Shes very smart woman, psychotic, but smart.

Quote from: delooch on May 11, 2020, 05:17:26 PM

Quote from: Skryber on May 11, 2020, 10:52:55 AM
What's the hold up with the divorce?

Shes playing the system well. She's figured out how to delay the damn thing without punishment. Ive been pressing her for support and she refuses. She got fired last year for drinking, now shes claiming "mental anguish" and is on disability, meanwhile shes working off the books.  Also, while shes on disability, shes doesnt have to pay her $1100 school loan, and she gets to stay on my health insurance.

We had a mediation in January, and i thought i came out ahead, but as we left she hopped in a fairly new mazda SUV, shes still making payments on her cooper, and has an $1800 rent payment. Shes also got some cuck on the hook which im sure shes using as an ATM. I lost my mind right there again and was able to withdraw the settlement agreement.  Obviously shes more than financially sound.

If i press her in court for support, on paper shes broke, and ill end up having to pay her instead. So now im on lawyer #3, and this time hes going to do all the conversation with her, i just have to sign papers and he gives me updates.

Shes very smart woman, psychotic, but smart.

That sucks. I'm sorry you have to go through that. Hasn't it been a few years now?

Quote from: Skryber on May 12, 2020, 07:28:19 AM

Quote from: delooch on May 11, 2020, 05:17:26 PM

Quote from: Skryber on May 11, 2020, 10:52:55 AM
What's the hold up with the divorce?

Shes playing the system well. She's figured out how to delay the damn thing without punishment. Ive been pressing her for support and she refuses. She got fired last year for drinking, now shes claiming "mental anguish" and is on disability, meanwhile shes working off the books.  Also, while shes on disability, shes doesnt have to pay her $1100 school loan, and she gets to stay on my health insurance.

We had a mediation in January, and i thought i came out ahead, but as we left she hopped in a fairly new mazda SUV, shes still making payments on her cooper, and has an $1800 rent payment. Shes also got some cuck on the hook which im sure shes using as an ATM. I lost my mind right there again and was able to withdraw the settlement agreement.  Obviously shes more than financially sound.

If i press her in court for support, on paper shes broke, and ill end up having to pay her instead. So now im on lawyer #3, and this time hes going to do all the conversation with her, i just have to sign papers and he gives me updates.

Shes very smart woman, psychotic, but smart.

That sucks. I'm sorry you have to go through that. Hasn't it been a few years now?

summer of 2016. you think the court would compel her with a fine by now. i did learn that the myth against men in the family courts is unbelievably true. i really hate saying that but if the tables were turned i would have been fucked from day 1.

Quote from: delooch on May 12, 2020, 09:09:23 AM

Quote from: Skryber on May 12, 2020, 07:28:19 AM

Quote from: delooch on May 11, 2020, 05:17:26 PM

Quote from: Skryber on May 11, 2020, 10:52:55 AM
What's the hold up with the divorce?

Shes playing the system well. She's figured out how to delay the damn thing without punishment. Ive been pressing her for support and she refuses. She got fired last year for drinking, now shes claiming "mental anguish" and is on disability, meanwhile shes working off the books.  Also, while shes on disability, shes doesnt have to pay her $1100 school loan, and she gets to stay on my health insurance.

We had a mediation in January, and i thought i came out ahead, but as we left she hopped in a fairly new mazda SUV, shes still making payments on her cooper, and has an $1800 rent payment. Shes also got some cuck on the hook which im sure shes using as an ATM. I lost my mind right there again and was able to withdraw the settlement agreement.  Obviously shes more than financially sound.

If i press her in court for support, on paper shes broke, and ill end up having to pay her instead. So now im on lawyer #3, and this time hes going to do all the conversation with her, i just have to sign papers and he gives me updates.

Shes very smart woman, psychotic, but smart.

That sucks. I'm sorry you have to go through that. Hasn't it been a few years now?

summer of 2016. you think the court would compel her with a fine by now. i did learn that the myth against men in the family courts is unbelievably true. i really hate saying that but if the tables were turned i would have been fucked from day 1.

Not in Indiana. Jerry's ex wife was held in contempt multiple times. They ended up throwing them out in a deal but out here it's always what best for the kids. Your lawyer should file a motion to compel her financials. Although if nothing is going in her bank account, there's probably not a way to prove anything. It's sad it gets to that point. I had my divorce handled before I filed. 60 days done. We were fair.

thats just the thing, theres nothing worth this battle.

We were supposed to keep this honest, but she just wants to walk away with half the house & my retirement while i keep $30k of debt. She gives up nothing.
Ironically she wants me to pay on her school loans, which isn't going to happen. Her MBA has nothing to do with me. She tried coming after my inheritance last year, she lost that battle too.

The 2nd lawyer focused on her submitting her financials, which after 2 more court hearings she still hasn't. $1200 later that didn't work either.  now lawyer #3 sounds confident, but the last 2 did as well.

If she wasn't trying so damn hard to hide it, id have no interest.

In Indiana it's 50/50. What you had before you were married stays yours. What you obtain while you are married is 50/50. That includes both your retirements but only what's added while you were married. Debt would be split 50/50. And it doesn't matter who obtained what. She can get you for half of her school loans but again, only if they were incurred during your marriage. Any debt incurred after the divorce was filed is not split. She can try for hardship but one look at why she lost her job, depending on the judge, he/she would throw that out. Submit character evidence too. Should be easy for the judge to see what she's doing.
We don't have alimony in Indiana. But there is "maintenance" but that ends when your divorce has a final judgement. It's meant for bills to continue to be paid. And whoever is paying the maintenance gets to write it off during tax time. The person getting it has to claim it as income.
Every state is different.
I'll never get married ever again.

this is my 2nd round, there will not be a 3rd. all i got out of this marriage was 2 awesome kids and a personality disorder. i swear to god i have ptsd from it

in CA its all 50/50 as well, except I don't have any responsibility toward her school loans. she also cashed in her 401k before we split, and the lawyer says i cant get that back as it happened before separation, even without my knowledge.. so there's that.

we did mediation but is wasnt successful because im not bargaining shit without seeing her financials. the last year we were together she made $108k.. that's 2x my salary and im still paying on everything we own.

Quote from: Skryber on May 12, 2020, 10:22:21 AM
In Indiana it's 50/50. What you had before you were married stays yours. What you obtain while you are married is 50/50. That includes both your retirements but only what's added while you were married. Debt would be split 50/50. And it doesn't matter who obtained what. She can get you for half of her school loans but again, only if they were incurred during your marriage. Any debt incurred after the divorce was filed is not split. She can try for hardship but one look at why she lost her job, depending on the judge, he/she would throw that out. Submit character evidence too. Should be easy for the judge to see what she's doing.
We don't have alimony in Indiana. But there is "maintenance" but that ends when your divorce has a final judgement. It's meant for bills to continue to be paid. And whoever is paying the maintenance gets to write it off during tax time. The person getting it has to claim it as income.
Every state is different.
I'll never get married ever again.

sounds pretty similar to NZ... I wasnt married to this ex (although after three years a partnership is treated like a marriage in NZ) and I have a separation agreement (which states who gets what if we separate) so it should be straight forward. My previous marriage split was ok a well, but no kids then

BUT OMFG delooch, what a saga you have gone through! It would totally do my head in!

shit this is the least of my problems. fucking cancer is raising its head again, they are talking a 2nd marrow transplant, my left arm is pretty much useless, they found a 3rd fractured vertebrate... even though im somewhat paranoid with this CV19 shit - (no immune system too!) i say BRING IT THE FUCK ON. It will pass. It seems im somewhat indestructible at this point. and i say that, every. fucking. time...

Im not sad about it anymore. i lost 2 years of my life worrying about whats next.

In all honesty, im going to end up wrapping my Rx7 around a pole or something stupid like that.

Sorry, delooch. That whole fucking thing licks donkey balls. Hairy donkey balls. Dirty, hairy donkey balls.

Quote from: delooch on May 12, 2020, 02:38:36 PM
shit this is the least of my problems. fucking cancer is raising its head again, they are talking a 2nd marrow transplant, my left arm is pretty much useless, they found a 3rd fractured vertebrate... even though im somewhat paranoid with this CV19 shit - (no immune system too!) i say BRING IT THE FUCK ON. It will pass. It seems im somewhat indestructible at this point. and i say that, every. fucking. time...

Im not sad about it anymore. i lost 2 years of my life worrying about whats next.

In all honesty, im going to end up wrapping my Rx7 around a pole or something stupid like that.

WOW....good luck man. I know that doesn't help much. :'(

Sorry delooch! sheesh so much to deal with, Praying for peace for you brotha!
I'm starting to fight with nutrition, knowing what chemo does to your blood
I'm trying to replenish with foods that boost red and white blood cells and iron.
The Covid does make it a super scary thing.

I was getting my white blood cell injection and I met a bubble boy, well actually bubble man :laugh:
He has no immune system and he gets a treatment that gives him super immunity so he doesn't have to live in
a bubble. Interesting

Eat lots of cauliflower

Molasses is good for red blood cells, especially black strap molasses. It's not all that sweet but it's not bad. I used to have to eat a tablespoonful a day when I was a kid because I was sickly.

goodgod...
I'm working from home and I have neighbors that want to have dance parties all day long...
in the driveway...
that is just 10 feet from my office window...
did I mention he has a DJ setup...
with speakers on a pole...
pointed at my house...

oh and the kids are almost as loud as the adults.

:shoots_self:
:drunk3:

I just read a thread in another forum about lousy neighbors. One was blasting music til 3 a.m. in the back yard. Day after day. They had it so loud it was too loud for them and their guests to stay out on the deck.

Another had the same problem. The poster got together with the neighbor on the other side, both rigged up speakers and blasted them at the middle offending neighbor. He finally gave up.

Quote from: david on May 14, 2020, 03:41:05 PM
goodgod...
I'm working from home and I have neighbors that want to have dance parties all day long...
in the driveway...
that is just 10 feet from my office window...
did I mention he has a DJ setup...
with speakers on a pole...
pointed at my house...

oh and the kids are almost as loud as the adults.

:shoots_self:
:drunk3:

Open Window. Yell as loud as you can "GET OFF MAH LAWN"!

:gom:

I blast reggae when working in the yard but it's in the late morning and I'm pretty sure my neighbors enjoy it. 3 a.m. would be a noise ordinance in my neighborhood.

yeah, they are from Belize, so the reggae is going all the time.


Same song... over and over and over and over and over...


:banghead:

Blast some old Broadway show tunes at them.

If only they had something like a pocket size computer and speakers that would fit in their ears without any wires that could play songs that only they could hear...someone should invent something like that.

Quote from: Joe on May 15, 2020, 08:24:22 AM
If only they had something like a pocket size computer and speakers that would fit in their ears without any wires that could play songs that only they could hear...someone should invent something like that.

nah, it'll never work.

:gom:

Quote from: david on May 14, 2020, 03:41:05 PM
goodgod...
I'm working from home and I have neighbors that want to have dance parties all day long...
in the driveway...
that is just 10 feet from my office window...
did I mention he has a DJ setup...
with speakers on a pole...
pointed at my house...

So, close enough that if you say, worked buck nekkid & stood up in front of the windows a LOT, it would be a distraction?  :hello:

Quote from: david on May 15, 2020, 07:59:16 AM
yeah, they are from Belize, so the reggae is going all the time.
:banghead:

We once had elderly Greek neighbors, who would annoyingly played traditional music in the morning when family were visiting ... one morning (in reply) their music was met by   https://youtu.be/StZcUAPRRac (https://youtu.be/StZcUAPRRac) Rammstein's Mutter album ... and it never happened again!
GREAT clip by the way ... about 1:20 in you go "WHAAAAaaaaaaa!!?" :hello:

We have a large Serbian and Macedonian population here and boy you know it when there is a wedding going on. They do the church first (always on a Sunday morning), then to the parent's of the bride's house to pregame, and then the reception.

Quote from: Skryber on May 18, 2020, 01:50:58 PM
We have a large Serbian and Macedonian population here and boy you know it when there is a wedding going on. They do the church first (always on a Sunday morning), then to the parent's of the bride's house to pregame, and then the reception.

Events are ALWAYS a cool/acceptable reason to make some noise ... but you don't see me causing a ruckus here every week, feeding a baby to the dingoes, just because of where I'm from!  ;)
:git off mah lawn:

I enjoy it! You'll see me dancing and doing yard work.  :aljolson:

We live in an older community, which is a semi-affluent part of Sacramento called Carmichael. The house across the street sold last year for upwards of $600,000 and the house next to it is values at over $850,000. Our home is probably just south of half a million.... and kind of across the street and next door is a duplex... the only one on the block. That's Carmichael for you - a million dollar home next door to a hovel.

Anyway, the $850,000 home is owned by a guy who runs a chop shop body shop and does high-end specialty add-ons to off-road vehicles. He has A SHITLOAD OF TOYS: a RV (tour bus sized), a dune buggy, speed boat, jet skis, golf carts, a lifted 4x4, a 5th wheel, a toy hauler, and other shit. He also feels the need to park them all over the street every weekend utilizing every available spare space of road for half a block. Fucking used to block half my driveway until I got pissed about it and called him on it.

Out of nowhere, last week, he decided to drag out a dirt bike I haven't seen (or heard) in 4 years of living here. At the same time, apparently one of the duplex renters hooked up with a guy with a chopper. Now, especially on weekends, fucking constantly I hear nothing but motorcycle engines revving. I can't fucking stand the sound. When I lived in the Bay Area, my house was between 4 guys that owned Harleys. All weekend long from sunup to sunset, revving... Can't they ever get them tuned right? They have to constantly work on them... It may have cost me my first marriage - the fucking revving makes me insane. Now I have to deal with it again.