Random Thoughts XII - Floccinaucinihilipilification
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Sarin
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It's actually a real thing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Semple_tank
It wasn't the only improvised armoured vehicle in Second World War. Soviet NI tanks actually fought successfully during Siege of Odessa:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NI_tank
There was a particular episode when these tanks rode into the German camp at night and towed away their artillery. It's not hard to make armour impervious to small arms, and until the proliferation of handheld anti-tank weapons like Panzerfaust or Bazooka, infantry rarely had means to destroy such target, as anti-tank rifles were rarely used due to their ineffectiveness against contemporary tanks and difficult use.
EgonSpengler
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That's awesome. That sounds like something out of a Marx bros movie.It's remarkable how quickly tanks evolved in WWII. At the beginning, I can see how they were thinking of tanks as rolling bunkers with howitzers, like the British "infantry tanks" and the Soviet KV series. It makes some kind of sense to have those juggernauts that could roll along at a speed the infantry could keep pace with and use them for cover. They just needed to be tough enough to deflect rifle rounds and shrapnel from artillery, and their guns were mainly for blowing apart the fixed defenses the infantry needed to get past. Even in the German army, where they were thinking of a tank designed to move quickly and to fight other tanks head-to-head, the Pz III was only armed with a 3.7cm gun and wasn't what you'd call "zippy." It did alright against the French Somua S35, I guess; was fighting uphill against Shermans, Cromwells, and T-34s; and probably just burst into flames at the mere sight of a Hellcat, Comet or T-34-85. Now that I'm Googling them again, I have to say the German tanks did look cool. I think that was the main reason I used to play them a lot in World of Tanks.
If you think the Bob Semple tank is cretinous, at least it wasn't the main tank in operation nor 38.000 years into the future 
Although I am not sure why you'd use a tank when you have mecha or some armored suits. Maybe the imperium is so cheap that it only gives these tractors to ordinary guardsmen regiments.
The thing mostly looks like a smaller and turreted version of that iconic ww1 british tank. Although this can also plow a field.
Although I am not sure why you'd use a tank when you have mecha or some armored suits. Maybe the imperium is so cheap that it only gives these tractors to ordinary guardsmen regiments.
The thing mostly looks like a smaller and turreted version of that iconic ww1 british tank. Although this can also plow a field.
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Get rid of those boxy things on the bottom, and it could be a snowplow.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
I don't think waiters and waitresses in North America should complain so much about getting 10% or less for a tip or whatever. Hear me out.
As long as tips are optional, there will always be people who just don't tip and people who tip less than what you expect to get. That's the nature of an optional payment. You will never convince everybody to make an optional payment, even if you continue to call people jerks and make a big deal about it. Complaining about it is a waste of their energy and time.
The only way to make sure everybody pays this fee is if you make it mandatory. Add on a mandatory 18% service charge to every bill and everybody will always pay it. They will have to. If you make it optional you will get people paying 20%, people paying 30%, 10%, 0%, and whatever they want. It's optional, so the nature of the beast will lead to all sorts of payments. You will never be able to change that, whether you complain or not.
IMO this energy is misplaced. It won't change a thing, and yeah, I understand that sometimes it's just so cathartic to complain about some jerk who tipped 5%, but if you visit certain online communities, there's just a constant stream of complaints about low tippers. It seems like misplaced energy. This will never ever ever change (as long as tips are optional). I realize it's easy to say, but surely this energy would be better spent complaining that you make $3 an hour or whatever crazy amount some waiters/waitresses make in some states.
Yes, I think somebody tipping 5% in a state where you make $3 an hour is a big jerk. I totally agree. But that's the nature of the beast - tips being optional will always give you customers like that. They will continue coming. Yet the way a lot of these complaints read, it's like waiters and waitresses expect this to one day magically stop. It never will. As long as tips are optional, some people will just tip very little. That's the nature of making a payment optional. People can be cheap. You can't change that.
My sister was a waitress and she never complained about tips, but she did complain about work conditions and the pay. So I do feel the plight of these employees to some degree. I was never in their shoes so I can't 100% say I understand it, but I feel it. I felt anger that my sister wasn't really being compensated properly for all the hard work she did.
I tip 20% as a default, no matter where in the U.S. or Canada I go. Even if you make $14 an hour or whatever. It seems that you should tip more in states where the waiters make only $3 an hour and less in states and provinces where they make $14 an hour, but to me.. eh.. who cares. 20% is my default tip. If I'm going out, I have money to spend, that's my philosophy. If the service is alright I might tip 18%. If it's good I might tip 22%. I won't tip under 15% unless the service was especially poor and I've been known to top a lot more than that.
This is not to excuse those who are crappy tippers. This is just to say - This will never change. As long as tips are optional, waiters and waitresses are going to have to put up with it, unfortunately. It's basically a part of the job that you need to expect, because it is going to happen.
As long as tips are optional, there will always be people who just don't tip and people who tip less than what you expect to get. That's the nature of an optional payment. You will never convince everybody to make an optional payment, even if you continue to call people jerks and make a big deal about it. Complaining about it is a waste of their energy and time.
The only way to make sure everybody pays this fee is if you make it mandatory. Add on a mandatory 18% service charge to every bill and everybody will always pay it. They will have to. If you make it optional you will get people paying 20%, people paying 30%, 10%, 0%, and whatever they want. It's optional, so the nature of the beast will lead to all sorts of payments. You will never be able to change that, whether you complain or not.
IMO this energy is misplaced. It won't change a thing, and yeah, I understand that sometimes it's just so cathartic to complain about some jerk who tipped 5%, but if you visit certain online communities, there's just a constant stream of complaints about low tippers. It seems like misplaced energy. This will never ever ever change (as long as tips are optional). I realize it's easy to say, but surely this energy would be better spent complaining that you make $3 an hour or whatever crazy amount some waiters/waitresses make in some states.
Yes, I think somebody tipping 5% in a state where you make $3 an hour is a big jerk. I totally agree. But that's the nature of the beast - tips being optional will always give you customers like that. They will continue coming. Yet the way a lot of these complaints read, it's like waiters and waitresses expect this to one day magically stop. It never will. As long as tips are optional, some people will just tip very little. That's the nature of making a payment optional. People can be cheap. You can't change that.
My sister was a waitress and she never complained about tips, but she did complain about work conditions and the pay. So I do feel the plight of these employees to some degree. I was never in their shoes so I can't 100% say I understand it, but I feel it. I felt anger that my sister wasn't really being compensated properly for all the hard work she did.
I tip 20% as a default, no matter where in the U.S. or Canada I go. Even if you make $14 an hour or whatever. It seems that you should tip more in states where the waiters make only $3 an hour and less in states and provinces where they make $14 an hour, but to me.. eh.. who cares. 20% is my default tip. If I'm going out, I have money to spend, that's my philosophy. If the service is alright I might tip 18%. If it's good I might tip 22%. I won't tip under 15% unless the service was especially poor and I've been known to top a lot more than that.
This is not to excuse those who are crappy tippers. This is just to say - This will never change. As long as tips are optional, waiters and waitresses are going to have to put up with it, unfortunately. It's basically a part of the job that you need to expect, because it is going to happen.
Even during my years as a home typist, I didn't let myself get into the mindset that the clients owed me a tip. Some of them did tip regularly, some occasionally, a couple of them tipped in weird ways (I've related the story of the peanut buster parfait), and most of them over the years never tipped at all.
But then some of the non- or low-tippers also passed my name and number around to classmates or friends, thus helping me get new clients. Many of the nursing, social work, and rehab students were clients for the full 2-4 years of their programs, and that adds up. I had a couple of B.Ed. students for their full number of years, and some students doing their B.A. in various fields. A handful of them continued to have me do their papers even after moving to Edmonton or Calgary; they said they'd tried typists there but hadn't had as good service as they'd had from me, so they'd actually either drive to Red Deer or we'd work out a way of doing it via the postal system. Word of mouth advertising was definitely more useful to me in the long run than an occasional modest tip.
As for my own tipping practices... it depends. Service has to be at least the minimum of what I expect to consider a tip, and if it's below that - like a food order where the driver is lost, and won't admit that he's lost and argues with me about where I live - or a taxi driver who either deliberately takes the long way (expecting me not to know the difference) or mixes addresses up in a way that taxi drivers should know enough not to do, or mishandles my walker - situations like that don't warrant tips, and in fact usually result in my calling their supervisor and making a complaint.
The rest of the time, I will tip taxi drivers and food delivery people (though not the people who deliver the weekly groceries since I'm already paying for that). Taxi depends on how much the fare is and since I pay with cash, it's usually a "keep the change" thing (which is almost never the same twice in a row). Food delivery drivers receive a flat amount, whether it's the pizza guy or the Chinese food guy. I'm a bit more generous for Christmas or New Year's, if I order takeout at those times.
amadeus
Bishop of Bio-Dome
... You don’t hear much about MENSA anymore ...
... California has too many professional baseball teams ...
... How come we haven’t standardized buttons by now? ...
... I say the best kind of donut is glazed ...
... The bluebird is by far the laziest animal as far as its name goes ...
... California has too many professional baseball teams ...
... How come we haven’t standardized buttons by now? ...
... I say the best kind of donut is glazed ...
... The bluebird is by far the laziest animal as far as its name goes ...
Gori the Grey
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blackbird's gotta be considered at least on a par
amadeus
Bishop of Bio-Dome
Baked in a pie? Sounds like a raw deal, except its baked.
Fashion
amadeus
Bishop of Bio-Dome
Turn to the left!
Take a look at the average craft site (sewing, not beer). Buttons are incredibly diverse, in size, shape, color, and they don't even need to be usable to be decorative.
They come in very handy when you're playing Rummoli and can't find the poker chips (though they don't stack well), and also if you're playing a board game that only needs one token and you don't know where they are.
They can be fun to collect, whether you use them or not. I still have my grandmother's collection of buttons. All of them are older than I am; I suspect some of them were probably bought or given to my grandmother in the 1930s or '40s.
Pink buttons make a good pig snout if you attach them to the face of a 3-D needlepoint pig magnet or squeezum.
They can be made of a wide variety of materials, whether dirt cheap or insanely costly (nobody needs diamond or gold buttons, but they're a status symbol). For people with limited wardrobes, changing the buttons around (assuming you have the time or patience for that sort of drudgery) can be a way of making it look like you have a less-limited wardrobe.
Of course, what matters is if they do the job of keeping your sweater or shirt closed.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
I had a dream last night that @Birdjaguar responded to one of my posts and called it "the stupidest thing I've ever written" or something like that. I remember thinking "heyy now that was uncalled for" in the dream, but I was busy with something else so I was only able to write a quick passive aggressive response and move on to whatever else was happening in the dream (which I can't remember now). A bit later in my dream at some point I returned to the post and was going to edit it and make it nicer, but I don't think I got anywhere
If I'm going crazy and this actually all happened in real life then that'd be weird. I am ilke 98% sure it was a dream though.
If I'm going crazy and this actually all happened in real life then that'd be weird. I am ilke 98% sure it was a dream though.
That is the stupidest thing you have ever written.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
That is the stupidest thing you have ever written.
Lol there was no smily in the post, I remember that somehow. It was basically you making a grand pronouncement that my post was hella dumb that I should basically feel bad
I think that was the only CFC dream I've ever had
Depending on what you said, in which thread, in which forum, a band of certain boorish TrekBBS mods would indeed have said that on that forum (as they said about other people's posts, and then wonder why they're not universally respected).
Different forum cultures.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
It was the fact that every other discussion degenerated to American style left vs right slugfests and everybody caring about how many ridges the Klingons have a bit too much that made me leave that place. I used to be a somewhat regular poster. Being a fan is fine but being a fanatic about it can easily create a toxic atomsphere for somebody who just wants a lighthearted chat and doesn't care too much about "canon" (I mean, I do, but I'm not obsessed about it like half the people on that forum)
The left vs right nonsense is what pushed me over the edge though. What a waste of time and energy
Here's a random thought though: At some point all men on the planet probably had beards
The left vs right nonsense is what pushed me over the edge though. What a waste of time and energy
Here's a random thought though: At some point all men on the planet probably had beards
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