badmofo wrote:

I'd consider fixing people's heater as having meaning.

Yes, especially when you get the call at 11:00 PM during a massive snow storm. Then it means you wont be getting much sleep 🤣

It happened in those exact circumstances this winter. Turned out to be a broken circulator pump coupling. Thanks the powers above I had a replacement coupling in my stuff... Those bastards are very hard to find at midnight during a snowstorm.

What I like about this job is that everyday is different and you never know what is gonna come at you. The downside is you could get an emergency call at just about any moment.

MaxWar wrote:

I do real estate management.

Does this mean management of high rises or just apartment buildings and such ?

I will keep you in mind if I can clear out my closet and find those dusty skeletons 😜

I do apartment buildings. Mostly old ones.

And yeah, its kind of creepy but I found corpses twice.
When people with no family/friends die at home, it usually goes unnoticed until it starts to smell.

MaxWar wrote:

I do apartment buildings. Mostly old ones.

And yeah, its kind of creepy but I found corpses twice.
When people with no family/friends die at home, it usually goes unnoticed until it starts to smell.

The old ones like with forced steam pipes and such ?

I was wondering if that was indeed the case and it was, it would still be disconcerting finding a corpse of somebody in the apartment building you manage.

I never had to deal with steam heating systems.
Pretty much everything is water based with central boiler.

The worst thing about finding a rotting corpse is the smell. By far. The sight is nothing compared to the smell. Of course if it happens to be someone you knew, its even weirder.

MaxWar wrote:

I never had to deal with steam heating systems.
Pretty much everything is water based with central boiler.

The worst thing about finding a rotting corpse is the smell. By far. The sight is nothing compared to the smell. Of course if it happens to be someone you knew, its even weirder.

Yes, I've heard the smell is the worst, but that is why we humans bury the dead or entomb them.

I see you are from Canada, I love going up to BC and visiting Vancouver and taking the ferry over to the Island and visiting the gardens.

I live on the west coast and it's just a drive up I5 to the boarder.

Of course I do love other things Canada too like Rush, SCTV and anything with Bob & Doug Mackenzie 😁

I was in property maintenance for about 6.5 years mostly working on rich peoples estates/hobbie farms, work was mainly lawns, gardens, fencing chopping down trees etc.

Next job was working as apprentice landscaper for 2 years years but didn't' get on well with the boss, the boss was very, very pandatic and perfectionist and most work was quoted - does not make a fun job at all, physically the job is terrible for your joints and can be a very noisy enviroment, intense is how I would sum it up.

Ive just taken on a new job doing general duties in a factory basically cleaning, one of the weird and wonderful things is that this job actually pays pretty well, nearly 50% more than the last job I left, all ive been doing the last 2 days is vacumming inside a building reminiscent of the Silo level in goldeneye, lots of galvanised flooring and handrails with large pumps/silos & piping, noisy enviroment too, this building is spotless as its the showpiece for any visitors/government officials, the Japanese are fussy on these things too.

I teach college.... but not computer science 😀

vmunix wrote:

I'm a UNIX guy. sysadmin for 14 years , ex IBM ex HP working at Xerox now.

this is me, being a UNIX guy also at home.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P-K5ycAHzI

You don't happen to work for former-ACS in Tarrytown, do you? (Long odds, but you never know - I may work with you on a managed service.)

I'm in a similar situation with mr_bigmouth_502, only that I don't have major mental problems, except for a more severe SAD (Social Anxiety Disorder) and I tend to withdraw a lot and I don't enjoy much being outdoors or in social situations except with people I know well. Also having sleep disorders.

Seeing his post compelled to write in here, as I was worried I'd be the only one here without anything to brag about.
I've currently live with my parents, in my 20's. I've been going to various places trying to move out from living the lifestyle I currently am, been to Dubai, been to Germany, and both failed miserably due to my disorder and on the latter due legal limitations and problems with language (not knowing german very well). Since it all failed I came back from where I started, depressed as ever because of it with debts after the travel/accommodation costs. Ever since I came back here I've been looking for a job. Unfortunately for me the place I live is quite small and there aren't many opportunities. The jobs that are "fitting" for me ask for studies in the field which I wouldn't have the money to do anyway, and the "unqualified" jobs all require you to have gone to a specialized high school or ask prior "experience" or have bosses that would be more fitting as characters in "The Godfather" churning the energy out of the employees for mere peanuts. Having SAD I cannot do jobs that require me to have too many social interactions, I also fear authority figures, so enrolling me in "the family job" (yay for the sense of humour! =D ) wouldn't be an option.
My parents being as unhelpful as fucking ever think I'm just being lazy and I don't want to work, when in reality I so wish I could so I could improve my standard of living. I don't trust them to explain my disorder, them thinking I made it all up, it would only get worse from there.
It's a sad story living in a poor country, with poor dumb parents who failed in everything they did including raising kids and raising their common sense 🤣
Though I'm not giving up. My future plans would include going off as an au-pair in another country. I'm not even sure if I can at all raise kids (even though with my parents, I think I know enough what dumb mistakes to never do) but I want to give this a try since the job has a more homely feel (and thus I would only anxious for a short while, until I get to know everyone). I've even started applying to lots families two months ago and still going, not many offers as of yet, most of the families there get like 50-200 applicants so it's quite competitive.
In the end this might result into another debt, but at least I'd have a easy start and if things go bad all can happen is me ending up back here. But if things go well after finishing working for the family with the money I saved I'd get myself a place, get a job, start my studies (I have yet no idea if I even want to do this, but I thought I'd leave this as a milestone since I could decide later) and finally have a life as far away from this desolate place.

I am certainly glad I'm not alone here and I'd like to wish mr.bigmouth good luck in everything, and I hope you'll find your way through life. =)

Wow, interesting to see how everyone went after staring out with their retro computer roots. After fighting the introduction of the mouse during my DOS days, I have learned to embrace it as a requirement for my day job as a MS/Citrix/VMWare admin. Dabbled in networking and linux but no job opportunities arose so stuck with Windows and here we are. Some days I wonder how I would have gone as a programmer with all the troubleshooting knowledge gained from being old school, instead of just googling everything like most people these days.

Interestingly enough the Linux skills I learnt in the early days have come back to be of assistance in VMware and Xenserver.

Whats really surprising is the amount of non-IT based people in these forums, I just assumed (stereotyped) everyone in this forum to be in the IT industry in one way or the other 😀

dacow wrote:

Wow, interesting to see how everyone went after staring out with their retro computer roots. After fighting the introduction of the mouse during my DOS days, I have learned to embrace it as a requirement for my day job as a MS/Citrix/VMWare admin. Dabbled in networking and linux but no job opportunities arose so stuck with Windows and here we are. Some days I wonder how I would have gone as a programmer with all the troubleshooting knowledge gained from being old school, instead of just googling everything like most people these days.

Interestingly enough the Linux skills I learnt in the early days have come back to be of assistance in VMware and Xenserver.

Whats really surprising is the amount of non-IT based people in these forums, I just assumed (stereotyped) everyone in this forum to be in the IT industry in one way or the other 😀

Bring back the abacus!!! Luddites unite!!!

sliderider wrote:

Bring back the abacus!!! Luddites unite!!!

I was adamant that the serial mouse was as gimmicky as the analogue joystick and that no one in their right mind would ever end up using it. Even in Windows 3.1 you could quite happily navigate through keyboard shortcuts such as CTRL TAB, ALT TAB, and the obligatory cursor and enter keys. I'm fairly certain I placed a bet with my high school friend that mice were a fad that would come and go and have no useful purpose in the PC era. My saving grace was I was a mere 10 year old child back then 😁

dacow wrote:

sliderider wrote:

Bring back the abacus!!! Luddites unite!!!

I was adamant that the serial mouse was as gimmicky as the analogue joystick and that no one in their right mind would ever end up using it. Even in Windows 3.1 you could quite happily navigate through keyboard shortcuts such as CTRL TAB, ALT TAB, and the obligatory cursor and enter keys. I'm fairly certain I placed a bet with my high school friend that mice were a fad that would come and go and have no useful purpose in the PC era. My saving grace was I was a mere 10 year old child back then 😁

You were already in high school at 10?

MaxWar wrote:

dacow wrote:

sliderider wrote:

You were already in high school at 10?

Lol you are correct, I started with my computer at 10 but had the bet in high school! When I had my computer at 10 mice weren't really popular back then unless you worked for Xerox! It would be another 5-6 years before Windows 3.1 became mainstream and that was where the bet happened. So my saving grace was I was 15-16 😜

I'm a jack of all trades master of none;

I make low poly models in Blender.

I make covers of other music (anything from Nintendo to MS-DOS era) in Impulse Tracker.

I do PHP coding albeit very rarely.

I also maintain a really small credit card sized webserver sitting a few inchs away from me...

I'm a porn reviewer

Got my first Apple ][+ in 1981 at age 12 and the rest is history. I work in I.T. now. Cisco networking, vpns, firewall, wireless, etc. Infrastructure stuff.

No matter how good games get these days, it's the time period (nostalgia factor) I enjoy the most, which is why I'm on Vogons. It's the excitement of learning this stuff for the first time that was thrilling. I can honestly say, looking back objectively, that the thrill of connecting to a BBS at 2400 baud exceeds any web site these days at 25MB, no matter how archaic that BBS software was.

valnar wrote:

...the thrill of connecting to a BBS at 2400 baud exceeds any web site these days at 25MB, no matter how archaic that BBS software was.

Particularly if you'd been re-dialing for an hour, waiting for one of their phone lines to free up!

badmojo wrote:

valnar wrote:

...the thrill of connecting to a BBS at 2400 baud exceeds any web site these days at 25MB, no matter how archaic that BBS software was.

Particularly if you'd been re-dialing for an hour, waiting for one of their phone lines to free up!

Ditto on both points! 😀