Curious_Canid

I am also a software developer. The interview process in our industry has become increasingly offensive over the last 30 years. That started out with high-prestige companies who provided exceptional pay and benefits. Some people were willing to put up with that, so they mostly got away with it. Now most companies assume they have all the power and can demand whatever they want from applicants.

Refusing to participate is perfectly legitimate. It may keep you from finding a job, at least in this industry, but that may be better than giving up your self-respect for basic survival. And there are still decent software companies to work for, although they are hard to find. Changing careers is also a viable option.

Our overall economy is so broken in favor of the super rich and their corporations that individuals really do have very little power. Organized actions, of various types, give us some counter-leverage. Collective bargaining, strikes, and political efforts to push for better regulations all have the potential to improve things, at least in the middle- to long-term.

We all need to keep the big picture in mind while we do what we need to get by individually.

This is genius! Deeply disturbed genius, but still genius.

I have always expressed my emotions, to some extent, but I think I’ve gotten more comfortable with it as I’ve gotten older. It goes along with a general trend of worrying less about being disapproved of by others. I take negative feedback seriously, but I feel that negative judgments say more about the people making them than they do about me.

I someone brought that cat inside as soon as that picture was taken. It deserves a fireplace and a comfy blanket.

It can completely ruin my mood. External noise doesn’t both me too much, if it doesn’t include actual words. Anything with words disrupts my concentration badly. It keeps me from reading. It even makes it hard for me to follow a train of thought. It feels almost like a physical assault, to me.

I’m amazed that there aren’t frequent murders over this.

I still use a mixture of both. I am not actually opposed to proprietary software, as long as it comes from small, employee-owned companies. Whatever the business model, people deserve to be paid for their effort if they are delivering something useful. I also donate to FOSS projects that I use.

I have been steadily moving away from corporate software for several years. There are still a few specialty apps I need, but I have very little of it left.

That’s a very nice build.

Thank you!

Actually, I liked the idea so much that I designed a general-purpose bracket that would let me put almost any handgun up there.

Oh, and I also added a bracket so I could mount the Nerf “Machete”. It wasn’t useful, but it did make the thing look even sillier.

It’s kind of you to say so.

For a while, I was into Nerfsmithing. I built a lot of different things, but my masterpiece was a heavily modified Stampede with a Strongarm attached to it as a front grip. The Stampede would fire 8 darts per second out to around 100 feet. It was fed from a 35-round drum.

It was also designed to look as silly as possible. It had an attached laser, red dot sight, and tactical light; a folding bipod and an adjustable rifle strap; and side holders for extra darts. All of the accessories were repainted in bright nerf colors to match the original scheme.

My proudest moment was when someone decided to hold an office-wide nerf war. (There were around 300 people in our office.) They sent out an email that ended with “Everyone is invited to participate except Curious Canid .” There is no higher accolade.

I hope you are suitably proud. What a smart cat!

Does anyone not?

I hold conversations with my pets all the time. And sometimes I sing to them while sometimes I sing with them. Doing harmony with my husky is tricky, but fun.