What is making you happy right now

[GGT]

I was just asking, looking for context. It's pretty hard for me to be excited as you are about new medical/genomic technology "for the future" when we still have states one political party trying to ban stem-cell research, or abortions for birth control.

[rille]

Ha!

So just like the auto etc. there is a need for a legal framework.

Have fun figuring that out for 20-50 years.

[wiggin]

My daughter believes that there is a genre of music about 'a guy standing on train tracks with a guitar', and requested a song from said genre as part of her bedtime today. I'm not sure it's possible to more accurately distill down a certain class of American folk rock/country than that single phrase.

I sang her Harry Chapin's 'Cat's in the Cradle' and Bob Seger's 'Turn the Page'. Pretty sure I nailed it.

[Flixy]

For some reason that made me think of Tenacious D, but I think they were on a road, not rails After seeing Bob seger's album cover for that song, I think your daughter nailed the genre description


Had a really good week so far: found a house to buy, just gotta get the mortgage arranged (fingers crossed, but should be fine). Small house in a row, but pretty near the centre and with a garden, so I'm excited! It will need some work, though, the previous owners weren't really into ventilation it seems.

And my current project is ending in September. I've been aiming to get back in the medical field, and into quality assurance. Last week my business manager found me an assignment which sounds almost perfect, got an interview yesterday and today they already let me know they were very happy with the interview and they want me It's in quality assurance, it's in animal pharma (vaccines), which is both in a direction I want to go, and the manager seemed like the kind I like. And I checked with someone working in that department, sounded like a positive work environment. And to top it off, it's a small pay rise as well (I kinda expected my next assignment to be a little lower than my current one). So a good week!

[wiggin]

Flixy - great news on multiple fronts! Congrats all around.

Although working in dreaded Quality Assurance... *shivers* I complain at my company about our paperwork burden from quality, but my more experienced colleagues tell me that our quality team are literal angels who bend over backwards to help the ops and R&D teams do our jobs, and that at any other company I would want to shoot quality people on sight.

So hopefully you'll be like my quality folks.

Also, searching for 'man on train tracks with guitar' gives you possibly the best image results ever.

[GGT]

My daughter believes that there is a genre of music about 'a guy standing on train tracks with a guitar', and requested a song from said genre as part of her bedtime today. I'm not sure it's possible to more accurately distill down a certain class of American folk rock/country than that single phrase.

I sang her Harry Chapin's 'Cat's in the Cradle' and Bob Seger's 'Turn the Page'. Pretty sure I nailed it.

I thought of Glenn Campbell's "Wichita Lineman" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HFCuBLAjXo

Ya know early electric lines always followed the rail road tracks

It makes me happy that you sing to your daughter at bedtime!



Also, Congrats to Flixy!

[wiggin]

I thought of Glenn Campbell's "Wichita Lineman" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HFCuBLAjXo

Solid choice. I know it makes me an insufferable and unrepentant romantic American chauvinist, but all irony aside I love the mythology of these kinds of songs. There is something almost ineffable about how the American psyche views the open road, the vast continent-spanning railroads, and how the almost existential experience of travel in desolate spaces interacts with the myth of rugged American individualism. I know these stories are told about an America that has never existed, perhaps, but the very fact that they speak so deeply to us tells us something about ourselves.

It makes me happy that you sing to your daughter at bedtime!

Doesn't every parent? Every night is dinner, bath, reading, and songs. I'm pretty sure this is fairly standard in most households.

[GGT]

Not every father sings to their kids at bedtime.

I'm old enough to remember a time when fathers weren't expected to do much besides being the breadwinner, and everything else was relegated to the mother. I felt lucky that my dad not only read to me, but braided my hair, and painted my nails -- things that weren't conventional dad stuff in the early 60's. He didn't sing the lullabyes only because my mom had the better singing voice.

But some of my best childhood memories are of my dad helping with bathtime, putting on jammies, fluffing pillows, and reading stories at bedtime. I can still remember how just holding his hand, and hearing his voice, could make me feel calm and safe.

[Flixy]

Flixy - great news on multiple fronts! Congrats all around.

Although working in dreaded Quality Assurance... *shivers* I complain at my company about our paperwork burden from quality, but my more experienced colleagues tell me that our quality team are literal angels who bend over backwards to help the ops and R&D teams do our jobs, and that at any other company I would want to shoot quality people on sight.

So hopefully you'll be like my quality folks.

Also, searching for 'man on train tracks with guitar' gives you possibly the best image results ever.

A good QMS forces you to take the necessary steps in your process and document everything that's relevant, a bad QMS forces you to check off all steps on a list just to satisfy the bureaucracy. At least in my view. I like to compare it to lab safety - you need some ground rules, but people have to be able to still do their work. If you don't enforce the rules there will be chaos and accidents (if you've ever worked with chemists, I'm sure you agree ). But it's okay to break those rules, as long as you considered it properly in advance, and maybe add some extra measures to keep it safe. Similarly a good QMS in my opinion should allow flexibility, just prevent you from cutting corners because 'eh, it'll be fine'.

I do enjoy trying to find that balance, and (the right amount of) paperwork serves an important purpose. But yeah, I've worked with QA who were fine with bullshit content, but god forbid you forgot to add some term to the abbreviations&definitions list of your document. This role is at a fairly large company, so curious how they do things there.

That said this role is more data analysis, trending, etc., and in the past I really enjoyed NC/CAPA, validation, so the more technical side of quality. I suppose more the quality engineering than the bureaucracy. Should also fit nicely with the black belt training I have planned.

[Aimless]

These past few weeks have been insanely busy, and I've racked up a massive sleep-deficit because I haven't been able to properly switch back from my latest night-week, and things have been rough all over the hospital because of heatwave and new doctors. But, last night, when I tried to sing my daughter to sleep, she insisted on singing to me... and put me to sleep. Woke up this morning feeling more refreshed and well-rested than I have in months. Absolute chaos on the ward, but life was good again. Could suddenly appreciate the surge of cool and weird and interesting challenges we've found ourselves having to deal with all at once. Solved a seemingly impossible problem by having someone breathe in and out of a bag. That feeling of everything falling into place—suddenly switching from discord to harmony—after a prolonged period of unrest and pandemonium is balm for the soul. It's almost so nice that it makes the chaos feel welcome

[GGT]

Ah, being sung to sleep is indeed a very good thing. Unusual to have a child sing their parent to sleep...but still a very good thing.

I have some of my mom's lullabies recorded on a disc (she made it for my first borne son), but prefer to remember her singing in my own head, when we were both younger, and her voice wasn't plagued by age or COPD.

Owlet, purple owlet
baby owlet
waiting in your nest
Until your wings are strong and steady
strong and steady
before you fly above
high above the nest

Everything can now be searched on the web, including song lyrics, but my memory of her singing to me is the best memory of all.

The other best song is "Christopher Robin". I sang it to my kids and changed the names. From what they tell me, they still remember how special it made them feel. I hope they'll remember it all their lives.

[wiggin]

I think I previously mentioned that we've been trying to teach our daughter fluency in a second language by speaking to her exclusively in that language (and reading/writing a fair bit) since she was a baby. It has broadly gone successfully, though in recent months we've been a bit disappointed that her use of English at home has dramatically increased, likely due to her greater facility in the language from schooling and friends.

This week, though, we heard from her summer camp counselor that a new girl in her bunk does not speak English, and my daughter has become quite close to her by conversing in her native language. Sometimes she really blows me away - both by having the courage and empathy to take the new girl under her wing, and by using her language skills in a setting where it's not normative. These aren't easy things for a 6 year old to do, and I'm really proud of her for doing so.

[Loki]

Wow, a second Esperanto speaker

[wiggin]

Not quite that useless, but not far off.

[Loki]

Does it start with H and end with ew?

[wiggin]

We considered Klingon but settled on Elvish.

[Loki]

Probably for the best. More native speakers.

[GGT]

I think I previously mentioned that we've been trying to teach our daughter fluency in a second language by speaking to her exclusively in that language (and reading/writing a fair bit) since she was a baby. It has broadly gone successfully, though in recent months we've been a bit disappointed that her use of English at home has dramatically increased, likely due to her greater facility in the language from schooling and friends.

Why would that be "disappointing"?

[wiggin]

Why would that be "disappointing"?

...because we're trying to teach her native fluency in a different language in addition to English, and not using a language is a good way to lose fluency? It's a known problem that others face, so I'm not surprised we're dealing with it, but if I want my children to have adult-level native fluency in a language that is not the local standard, I'm going to need to work damned hard to make sure it's used at home.

[GGT]

...because we're trying to teach her native fluency in a different language in addition to English, and not using a language is a good way to lose fluency? It's a known problem that others face, so I'm not surprised we're dealing with it, but if I want my children to have adult-level native fluency in a language that is not the local standard, I'm going to need to work damned hard to make sure it's used at home.

But a family doesn't have to exclusively speak a second language at home in order to foster their child's bi-lingual capacity. Or be "proud" that their kids are bi-lingual at a very young age.

My only real experience with that comes from my sister who married into a Greek family -- where English was the second language, and learning English wasn't expected from the older generations. But it had a bleed-thru effect for every young person and whom they dated or eventually married.

Language as a tribal-accepting factor isn't necessarily a good thing. It's not like Hebrew or Yiddish are dying languages, any more than Chinese Mandarin or Mexican Spanish are.

I just don't understand why you can't be Happy that your kid is bi-lingual, without strings attached?

[Loki]

Why care so much how others are raising their kids?

[Flixy]

The bank approved my mortgage!

[Being]

Why care so much how others are raising their kids?

Cooperative breeding.

[Flixy]

The bank approved my mortgage!

Aaand I am now a home owner

[Hazir]

Congratulations.

I found out about iced coffee and how to make it myself.

[Ominous Gamer]

Aaand I am now a home owner

So what's going to crap out first? The water heater, ac, or roof?

[Aimless]

Aaand I am now a home owner

Congratulations.

I found out about iced coffee and how to make it myself.

So what's going to crap out first? The water heater, ac, or roof?

[wiggin]

Aaand I am now a home owner

That's really fantastic news. May you build many happy memories in your home.

[Flixy]

Thanks guys

So what's going to crap out first? The water heater, ac, or roof?

Not the AC, because I don't have one

[Ominous Gamer]

Lucky. It was the first thing to go for us. We've put an easy 12k in fixes into this place over our 5 years here, and it looks like we are going to drop a few more grand to fix it up to be listed for sale. Just got approved to buy our next place. Lennar has some sweet looking 6/3s in our new budget.