NABDad

I was a computer nerd from way back. Took summer school classes in programming when I was in middle school. I was the one nerd in the class who did not go expecting to be playing computer games.

I'm college I got a degree in computer science and graduated shortly after the term, "McJob", was popularized. I sent out a hundred resumes, got two interviews, and one offer.

The offer I got was for a job as a DB admin for a university medical research center. Obviously, I accepted.

The university was a perfect place for me to start. When I asked when I should show up, the business admin of the center was obviously confused by the question. She ended up telling me that most people started around 9am, but it was clear it was up to me.

I continued working there for about five years. I found out from my boss that mine was one of hundreds of resumes they received, but I stood out because I had included a cover letter explaining why I was a good fit for the job. He thought that I wrote the cover letter just for that job, but it was just a quick and dirty mail-merge document that I generated for the hundred resumes I sent out, which actually kind of did show I was the right choice.

After about five years there, it was time to move on, but I stayed at the university. I ended up applying for a system administrator job in a research lab (robotics and computer vision systems) at the graduate computer science department. One day I decided to walk over and drop off a resume for that job. I figured there would be a receptionist desk where I could just leave the resume, so I just walked over in jeans and a T-shirt. However there was no receptionist desk, and the person I ended up handing my resume to had me sit down and he interviewed me right then.

After a couple years there, I changed jobs again. That time I technically left the university, taking a job in the university's health system. I've been here now for more than a quarter century.

For the vast majority of my career, I've been free to work how I'd like, implementing solutions with very little interference from my management.

I happened to start at the health system when they still offered a defined-benefit pension, so I've got that to look forward to when I retire. There's also no better health insurance than what I have from my employer. In the US, my wife and I had three kids, all born at the university hospital, with no fees charged beyond my employee contribution to the premiums.

When the pandemic hit, while other employers were desperate to get their employees back in the office, our CEO was asking why they should pay for expensive office space if the employees working there could do the same work from home. Consequently, I now work full time from home and only go in 2-3 times a month.

Also, when I joined the health system, they had just experienced an absolutely massive financial loss two years in a row. The university was considering selling the health system. However, they recovered, and the leadership has operated since with the same frugal care that you'd see in a grandparent who lived through the Great Depression. It's like the entire organization has PTSD. They never wanted to have to have layoffs again. When the pandemic hit and other hospitals in the area stumbled or failed, ours was able to continue to grow, even paying out bonuses to the employees.

I don't spend a lot of time dealing with churches. I certainly don't believe in any of what they say anymore. However, I have gone to some weddings.

When my youngest cousin was getting married, we arrived at church and were greeting family that we hadn't seen in years.

The priest yelled at us because we weren't behaving in a way he felt was respectful (hugging, laughing, experiencing joy). I don't know what he learned about Christ, but the Jesus I was taught about would have laughed in his face.

When my wife's brother was getting married, the priest lectured the entire wedding party at the rehearsal about his belief that children shouldn't be at weddings. As the parents of the ring bearer, my wife and I felt a bit attacked. However, I just assume he didn't want to be too close to temptation.

Freeciv

They shouldn't, but they can.

It's a really bad idea for them to do so.

It seems so strange to me that you're focused on straps and ignoring the heels. There's nothing about either of those shoes that make any sense.

I don't call my parents by their first names. Neither do my siblings.

My kids also use "mom" and "dad", and we also use "mom" or "dad" when referring to each other parent to the kids.

My wife would call her dad by his first name, but only when she was calling him out for being goofy. In response to a dad joke, for example.

Personally, I don't consider it a nickname. More like a title that I've earned. It's like calling someone "doctor". If my kids used my first name, I'd probably give them a raised eyebrow in response.

I've seen my rates decrease automatically when a driver on the insurance reaches a particular age. Usually there's a notice sent.

Yeah, it was a bullshit analogy.

Just like yours.

I thought that's what we were doing.

Taiwan is a representative democracy now, not a dictatorship.

I think a slightly better analogy, if you're serious, would be the relationship of the U.S. and Cuba (to make you feel better, I'll go along with your propaganda and pretend that the U.S. is the only bad guy in the world).

So, China and Taiwan are like if the U.S. tried to control Cuba and failed, and then some other country from the other side of the world (just for example, let's suggest it was Russia), stepped in to prop up and protect Cuba.

So, can you see how maybe what would be best for everyone is that the Cubans should get to decide on their own how they are governed? Much like the people of Taiwan, through their representative democracy, should be able to tell China to piss off already.

I did it, but that was 32 years ago.

Edit: got the degree and started my career. I've had to deal with windows since then.

Your best bet might be working in university research centers. You will still have to work with windows, but most researchers are trying to save pennies and you can't do that using Windows.

I was hired 25 years ago as a systems admin. At the time I was hired, the organization used Macs in offices. Servers were running Linux, Solaris, and OpenVMS, all of which I had been supporting since college. I was valued for most of the 25 years because I could solve problems no one else could, and I did that by writing code on Linux servers.

Now I've got a manager who doesn't believe in writing code to support our users and thinks Linux is a bad word that we should never use because we might have to support it. Still, he's gung-ho for us to support every new bullshit AI that comes down the pike.

I've got 25 years of code on a Linux server that made lives easier, but I have to eliminate it all because linux is bad. At the same time every AI project our group installs needs new Linux servers set up.