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[BeoPuppy]

A contradiction.

[pwhodges]

Razors that are not cut-throat razors; i.e., the blade is shrouded.

[jwhouk]

Usually in a plastic head, unless you're like Paul or myself and remember them coming with metal handles where you dropped the razor blade in from the top.

Never had one of those, though.

[Grognard]

I've got one of those... somewhere around here.

and 'Whatshisface' from the Pawn Stars show is doing an infomercial for those type of razors too.

[GarandMarine]

Pawn Stars. Fuck I hate those guys.

[Grognard]

call them up and ask for 'BattleToads'.
4chan has the phone #.

LoL

[Loki]

Usually in a plastic head, unless you're like Paul or myself and remember them coming with metal handles where you dropped the razor blade in from the top.

Yay for Russia being so backwards that I remember my father using those

[ankhtahr]

The one I'm using is one of these:

(click to show/hide)

And these are the corresponding blades:

It's basically a copy of a really old mechanism from Gilette, on which the patents expired. You twist the bottom part of the handle and the top of the head opens, so you can drop in a razor blade. That's why it's called Butterfly, or TTO (twist to open). With most other safety razors you screw the top of the head off by turning the bottom of the handle.

[Papersatan]

Generally "Safty Razor" is used to refer to the type Ankhtahr has in contrast to disposable razors, or the in between kind with disposable heads.  They are "safe" in comparison to a straight razor which is what they replaced. They were originally advertised with image like this:



Stephen uses one and loves it.  They blades are cheaper for one thing, so you can replace them more frequently. 

I grew up in a home old enough that there were razor blades in the walls; when safety razors were the norm, bathrooms were built with slots in the medicine cabinet into which you slid your usec blades for "safe" disposal.  I guess noone thought forward to the people renovating 100 years later who had to deal with a pile of rusty razor blades.

[Akima]

That style of razor is still extremely common in China. My father still uses one of the old-school ones that unscrews into three separate parts. He's had it as long as I can remember.

[Papersatan]

22 days until I interview for my dream job. Still unsure what the job even is, or when it starts, or if this interview is just a formality, or if it is an informal interview and there are other candidates.  So many nerves.
In the mean time I had a phone interview for a different job today which I think went well.  I'll in out at the end of the week if I am moving to the next round.  I think I am well qualified, and as a bonus have experience with the software they are using (which was not listed as a requirement).  My only concern is that if they make an offer they will want an answer before I know what is up with the dream job.  Trying no to deal with that crisis before it happens, because it might not even happen.

I'm so stressed about this and dealing with so many conflicting feelings.  I'm happy and excited, but trying not to get my hopes up.  I am also having major impostor syndrome panic about what if this interview is just a formality and it's an offer, what is the job, can I even do it? omg omg  22 days is foreeeever. 

[tragic_pizza]

My wife almost died in January. Accidental overdose, long story.

We were nearly 2 weeks in the ICU, then psych. The bill was almost $250,000. Insurance paid nothing. But the hospital adjusted the bill to less than $10,000, because that particular hospital is the shit.

I *think* that the last time I was on, I was unemployed. I got 2 jobs, working 13 hours a day for just over minimum, and now I work nights for a decent hourly wage. Not making bank, but paying bills.

Also, this past Saturday I officiated a wedding. That is the coolest thing ever. Or will be until I can perform same-sex marriages.

[ev4n]

Also, this past Saturday I officiated a wedding. That is the coolest thing ever. Or will be until I can perform same-sex marriages.

Most of that sounded bad, but this part sounds awesome.

[Barmymoo]

I'm glad you've found work - you're only working the nights, right, not the two jobs AND the nights?

Sorry about your wife, that must have been pretty rough for you both.

[Patrick]

Usually in a plastic head, unless you're like Paul or myself and remember them coming with metal handles where you dropped the razor blade in from the top.

Yay for Russia being so backwards that I remember my father using those

When I do decide to shave again, my safety razor is waiting for me. And it's a damn fine razor. It's made by Merkur, another German company, and I use Merkur's platinum coated stainless steel blades. My shaving soap is Proraso (from Italy), it's a menthol-eucalyptus scent and it smells amazing. I don't use aftershave or any of that, because I never felt the need. My soap is plenty moisturizing.

[jwhouk]

I'm a member of the Dollar Shave Club. I get a fresh set of blades sent to me monthly for $3. First set came with a handle.

The $3 is only for the "Humble Twin" - since I have discovered that if I shave with anything that has more blades, I have five o'clock shadow by noon.

[tragic_pizza]

Also, this past Saturday I officiated a wedding. That is the coolest thing ever. Or will be until I can perform same-sex marriages.

Most of that sounded bad, but this part sounds awesome.

It was AMAZING. I have a couple of pictures on my FaceBook.

I'm glad you've found work - you're only working the nights, right, not the two jobs AND the nights?

Sorry about your wife, that must have been pretty rough for you both.

Yes, just nights & the church gig, so I am sleeping again!

And thanks.

[BeoPuppy]

Church is a gig, as in, it pays?

[Barmymoo]

Priests need to live same as anyone else!

[BeoPuppy]

That's a matter of opinion.

Or, more seriously: is there a difference in pay for bigger congregations? Does it pay to be make a career in a church?

[Barmymoo]

I don't know about other countries or indeed other churches, but in the Church of England priests usually work full time and earn a sufficient salary to support themselves and their families. I don't know whether the pay is based on the congregation size; I do know it's funded by donations from the congregation, which go into the amount paid by each parish to the main church (the amount is determined by the size and wealth of the parish, not necessarily of the congregation, so in places which are wealthy but few people attend the church, money gets very tight) and then is redistributed back to the churches.

[pwhodges]

In the C-of-E the amount paid by the parish to the central church (called the "quota") is determined from above.  Often it is more than the collections and donations provide, and extra events such as fêtes are required simply in order to make up the quota, as I know well from my time as a church treasurer.  The parish then has to make its own payments for things like books, repairs, insurance perhaps (often they decide to have no insurance on the church fabric - is it even meaningful to insure a thirteenth-century church against destruction?).  Some parishes have significant investments based on former property - but dipping into that without good cause, or for running expenses rather than capital projects, is bad husbandry.  However, when in the 1970s I did some financial programming for the C-of-E's Central Board of Finance, I discovered (because it triggered a bug - in the system software, I hasten to add, not mine) that there was a parish whose total invested wealth was £0/0s/6d (2.5p in modern terms, maybe 50p when inflation is considered).

The priest is not paid by the parish, but centrally.  They are generally provided with housing as part of that.

[Loki]

I am curious, what'd the bug do? Division by zero?

[pwhodges]

The machine (a late-model GE-115) was a "decimal" machine.  The error noted happened within a library routine. 

The result of an interest calculation had been put into a field that was one character too large for the result.  We then had to round this to the nearest penny (there was some weird rounding logic, because we were working in the period just before the change from a pound containing 240 old pence to 100 new pence, and so had to handle both possibilities - we were working in units of 1/5 old penny aka 1/12 new penny, the highest common factor).  The library that had written the value into the field had filled the unused top digit of the result field with a copy of the bottom digit instead of a zero (the behaviour specified in the documentation). 

So, we then rounded a very large number instead of the correct number.  The extra high-end digit got masked off at the next stage, when the figure was put back into a field of the correct size, and because of the non-standard rounding algorithms, we had failed to notice the error in the rounding that had resulted (OK, that was our fault). 

In our system test low-end value (using £0/0s/6d) the low digit had been a zero, as it happened (because the interest was zero); but in the live parallel run test the slightly larger £0/1s/6d account put a 1 in that digit because the interest was non-zero.  And then, in the case of this very small figure, the rounding caused a switch from 10000000001 to 09999999996 (as I recall), so the subsequent masking left a huge number, and the £0.75 account was credited with £83,333,333.33 interest for the quarter.

The bug was sidestepped by supplying the correct length field to the first routine for the result.

[GarandMarine]

The USS George Washington (CVN 73) under way in the South China Sea, which means my little brother will be getting me another box of weird stuff from Hong Kong.



An F/A-18F Super Hornet from of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 102 (the "Diamondbacks") makes an arrested landing on the flight deck of the U.S. Navy's forward-deployed aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73). This particular aircraft is called a "tail bird" or "color bird" because it's the fighter chosen to be marked up with the squadron's livery and "carry the colors" into the fight.

The USS George Washington is forward deployed in Japan, along with VFA-102, with the latter basing out of NAF Atsugi and the former making United States Fleet Activities Yokosuka (aka the Yokosuka Naval Base) her home port. The American base at Yokosuka is collocated with the Yokosuka Naval District, home of the JMSDF.

[Loki]

Dude, Paul. I am flabberghasted you remember all those little details.

Thanks for satisfying my curiosity!

[pwhodges]

Although I hadn't written the routines concerned (I was working on some utilities for pretty-printing the content of the database), I got involved in the debugging.  It was perhaps the first time I experienced debugging a lower level than the program I was actually writing, and so might be seen as a pivotal incident that got me hooked and thus helped direct my career into system and OS programming.  1971 - a pivotal year.

Anyway, if you look carefully, I only had to remember the effect of the extra high digit on the rounding, and everything else can be deduced (and memory triggered) from that.  And of course, as you will discover in due course, every interesting solution that you find goes into your toolbox of experience that is carried around in your head for the rest of your career - from time to time, you may even get a match, though not as often as you would like!

[Masterpiece]

It's funny, on paper I study a field that is connected to "computer sciences", but I have literally no idea about system and OS programming.

One of our tasks in Uni is to write "Flappy Bird" on our own, using our own assets, etc. I did a test render in After Effects to see if I managed to do parallax correctly and I think it looks OK!

[tragic_pizza]

That's a matter of opinion.

Or, more seriously: is there a difference in pay for bigger congregations? Does it pay to be make a career in a church?

The church pays me very little, but yes, the church gig pays.

I am basically a lay pastor, which means I serve very small churches in my denomination who cannot afford a full time, full-fledged ordained minister.

Simply put, I write a sermon every week and preach.

[Loki]

very small churches

Do they float in water?

[tragic_pizza]

very small churches

Do they float in water?

[ankhtahr]

Today was a very interesting day. A friend of mine is volunteer in the volunteer fire department of a village around here. They were organising a practice for their youth group, and I volunteered as casualty. So I took part in two practices, in rooms full of fog (from a fog machine), with make up to make me look like I had severe burns on my arms/hands, pretending to be in pain and shock. I'm not that good at faking pain, but I was apparently very good at faking the shock. The paramedics (in training) really focused their attention on me, as soon as the "wounds" of the others were taken care of.

Note: I seriously hope the active volunteer firefighters are better than these youths. I would have died in the first (which took place in a school building), and maybe died in the second scenario (taking place in the depot of a logistics company). The paramedics were good though.

[Loki]

Hah. I would have loved to see that

[ankhtahr]

Seriously the youngest of them were just plain adorable. Having a ten year old take you at the arm and lead you outside is funny, and made it difficult to pretend you're in pain. But I don't exactly know why, or how, but I actually managed to look into me and see what I'd feel in this situation, which made the shock very easy to fake. I know how I feel after accidents. It was actually difficult to drop this facade when they were finished, that's how much I got into the scenario.

And let me tell you, being in a room, where you can't see a window, until your face is 30 cm from it, is scary as hell.

[Papersatan]

did my nails up for Pride.  (wasn't there a nails and makeup thread? did it die? )

[pwhodges]

(wasn't there a nails and makeup thread? did it die? )

The Makeup thread

[Welu]

Your nails look great, Kat. Nicely cleaned up from the Snapchat.

I'm terrified about the next two weeks. Gonna be training for my second job ever but since it's in a partner place it'll be a person I know teaching me. I remember them being nice but I'm so scared I'm gonna fuck up.

[Patrick]

I don't understand how I can have so many long weeks and not go completely insane.

[Aimless]

Back from Hungary! It was a short but thoroughly enjoyable trip. Weather was amazing, and, though things were (as usual) not as clean or as modern as they are in Sweden, the cities were absolutely BEAUTIFUL.

We spoiled ourselves silly on this short trip, treating ourselves to a little luxury and a lot of relaxation. This was really nice, and i liked the price-tag that evoked memories of the Bratislava-phase of Eurotrip, but there were many jarring and discomfiting reminders of the real cost of the good life and the advantages we tourists avail ourselves to when on holiday.

It wasn't just the elderly homeless people. There was an over-abundance of massage-parlors and freelance masseuses that offered all sorts of exotic therapies to "discerning gentlemen" as well as to adventurous couples. I got the distinct impression this sort of thing was viewed as icky even there, but the ads still popped up in the most unexpectedly "clean" settings so I dunno.

There was a touch of the absurd overlying the ick, in that a parlor would describe in lurid detail the erotic features of some treatments and then state that they absolutely did not offer any kind of "sexual favors". I can only assume they meant that the blowjob was not a FAVOR.

Exciting though the idea of tantric couples massage may be, we stuck to the straight and narrow path. I had my first professional massage (never been comfortable with it before) and now understand why the missus loves it so much. We learned a few useful tricks that we'd never thought of before.

On our second day, we went to Szechenyi, one of Budapest's thermal baths. It was a little confusing but REALLY relaxing. Sweden doesn't have thermal baths (that i know of) so my envy and regret was great that day. It would be fun to learn a little more about the history and cultural influence of these baths

I'd neglected to notify the concierge team in advance about the restaurants we'd hoped to check out, so we couldn't get any tables at our top picks. Instead we found some excellent but less busy restaurants that featured Hungarian cuisine. The dishes were elegant and perfectly executed interpretations of essentially "simple" traditional dishes. The local wines were delicious and didn't break the bank The service was impeccable and the staff very friendly. I have to admit I enjoyed the restaurants far more here than I did in Paris (or, for that matter, in Sweden). The flavors of Hungarian cuisine worked for both me and the ginger.

On our third day, we went to the university town of Szeged to attend a  wedding. We traveled the by train, which was a simple, cheap, relaxing and fairly painless experience with the occasional flash of confused terror. We were fined on a tram due to a misunderstanding (I'd intended to take a cab but was persuaded, despite my misgivings, to take the tram by someone who unfortunately didn't remember Hungary very well).

Guys, the wedding was so beautiful :') the hotel was nowhere near as polished as our previous, but it was SPECTACULAR. One of very many remnants of a wealthy past l suppose? Anyway, it was gorgeous and fun and though we were tired and had to get up at six the next day we made sure to let loose just a little We were swept up in the best conga-line ever and resolved to learn how to dance "properly".

We came back to sthlm today and the trip back put me in a bit of a foul mood. Everything was fine and we were exceptionally early to the airport, had checked in online and had our digital boarding passes ready but the lady at the security checkpoint said we couldn't use those and had to queue to get a printed boarding pass. Unlike pretty much every other airport in the world, the Norwegian Airlines check-in station featured four desks each with its own queue. We picked the wrong one, with the slowest guy ever. When we finally got back to the security checkpoint they brusquely said we had to go to another terminal because this one was "full". Wth? I dunno, but I wasn't impressed.

On our way back we overheard a conversation between two teenaged guys that was simultaneously hilarious and terrifying and then w got home, ate mum's delicious food and collapsed leaving for Umeå again tomorrow and we'll see if we can visit dad before then. So that was our trip, and here are some pics for your viewing pleasure!

[Thrillho]

I went to see Marina Abramovic's 512 Hours. It was remarkable, a profoundly emotional experience. Three hours passed and I didn't even realise because there were no clocks in there. Nothing outside of some of the most incredible albums ever made has ever made me experience that much emotion in so short a space of time.

[BeoPuppy]

I'm so very, very fucking ill. It's beyond fucking funny.

[Welu]

First day of training went well. It was actually someone I knew teaching me so that helped a lot. The workload is a little intimidating but more because it's a big responsibility than I think I'll struggle to do it. So much counting.

My body clock is already so thrown off by working this morning, which I haven't done in months, and doing another shift tonight.

[LTK]

The cat just bolted into the house, immediately followed by a small yappy dog. Fortunately they didn't start fighting, the cat froze at the end of the hall and I was able to pick him up and put him on the counter, and then I pushed the dog out the door. That was weird. I haven't seen the cat since, he's probably pretty shaken up. Oh wait, there he is now, glad he didn't run away!

[GarandMarine]

[pwhodges]

My new ambisonic microphone is shipping from India today.

[GarandMarine]

I almost started a fight with a squad of paratroopers in the airport this morning. I decided to let them off easy.

Hodges what is an ambiosonic microphone? Looks both delicate and expensive

[pwhodges]

Hodges what is an ambiosonic microphone? Looks both delicate and expensive

The delicate bit is the frame for the wind shield.

My present microphone is this (cost $999 plus about $400 extras).  The new one is this (cost $649, all in).

An Ambisonic microphone records sound pressure and direction at a point, and can be used to make fully three-dimensional sound recordings to be reproduced in an enveloping sphere.  I was involved with the inventors, and some of my recordings using the technique have been used in demonstrations around the world.

[GarandMarine]

....what do you do again?

[jwhouk]

Something above your pay range, Marine.

(and mine, very likely.)

[GarandMarine]

....I can repair firearms that cost more then a sports car and until recently was responsible for multimillion dollar aircraft and all lives aboard, you speak for your own pay grade there J :p