Never assume.
Overlooking one tiny detail put a little bit of pressure on the first day of training today - I forgot to get the consultant to get some parts of the application installed on the client side, which meant a lot of dicking around as it requires client IT services to approve it. We got it done eventually and in the meantime I trained other parts of the system, but I am little annoyed at myself for not explicitly giving a list of needs. Thankfully, the systems architect on the case is about as brilliant and experienced as they come and was able to make it happen in the background with a minimum information and fuss.
It is great working with people who know their shit well enough that there is no panic, there is no time spent blaming or complaining - just action. I will talk with him tomorrow about it and thank him profusely (again) for saving my ass.
He couldn't save my voice though - it is knackered. A ten hour day, eight of them talking directly in a manner where non-natives are able to follow takes its toll, and due to the remote setup, feedback flow is difficult, making it a little more lecture-like than I prefer. But, day one is over and day two will begin in just over twelve hours.
The picture is from a 50 dollar Australian note, which arrived in the mail today along with a card for Smallsteps' birthday a month ago. With all of the Covid nonsense going on, the mail delivery services are incredibly slow and we can't even send anything to Australia from here, because they are unsure if the borders are open and if they can't deliver, they have to store it - which means, they will have to pay for it too and obviously, they don't want that. Instead, the Finnish post service is going into further labor negotiations.
The economic cost of this is enormous and while many don't seem to think much of it, the can getting kicked down the road is more of a series of 44 gallon drums that seem to have an endless supply. Considering "we" aren't getting more money, it is interesting to note just where all of the cash injections are landing - and how long they will hold it before converting it into an appreciating asset, as cash is worthless.
The government gives people a grant, that grant is spent on goods and services owned by the companies who are laying people off and getting government assistance on top of that - that profit is then invested into something real, everyone else is left with not only less than what they had before, but what they do have has been devalued due to the immense amount of currency being printed. It is no wonder some companies are converting their cash reserves into Bitcoin - After all, aren't we?
Well, at least some of us are taking a gamble on the future value of various cryptocurrencies being worth more than if we had held that cost to buy in savings or traditional assets. Of course, that gamble is predominantly based on disposable income and depending on our life conditions, we probably on average have less disposable income than we would have had under "normal" circumstances. I know for me, that while all my cash is going into house renovations, I think I would have reduced my investment into anything somewhat under these conditions in order to keep something just in case. Even though holding it might have been expensive, the mind and body would likely have felt it the "smart thing" to do.
Before buying the house, I was taking about worse case scenarios and we are nowhere near that yet, since worst case can be pretty bloody bad. Currently, we are still managing to make ends meet, still managing to hold onto jobs and still managing to make progress on our house, which has some obligations attached to it for our loan, which means it can't be stopped.
I remember my parents struggling back in the early 90s and while not quite a teen, I understood that they were concerned about how they were going to survive the day to day, where the housing loans had credit card interest rates nearing 20% a year. I wonder if this is going to be similar and I wonder if when we look back at this period, will we see it as a test of our survival, or a reason we failed. Stronger for it, or weaker because of it. It is hard to say looking forward, but I would say that "Surviving Covid 2020" is going to be far more financially driven than the impact the virus will have on us.
I am definitely not planning on packing up and giving in, but I get the feeling that a lot of the social unrest is being driven by those on the brink, the desperate who fear for their survival in some form or another and as a result, lash out from their metaphorical corner. Sun Tzu said along the lines of, never completely surround an enemy, always give them a way out, because those with their back against the wall and facing inevitable death, will fight with all they have.
Is that what is happening now? Do we feel the sense of "inevitable death" of our identities and therefore, we are fighting with all we have without limitation? After all, what do the dead have to lose?
Maybe this is the problem with all of this identity politic bullshit, our labels feel threatened and we fight to the death of ourselves, without any consideration for the damage that we do and therefore, we continually push other individuals into the corner to fight with all they've got also. We feel the threat to our economic situation, our social position and who we think we are and then take to the streets, thinking we are fighting as one, when what we are actually doing is fighting against each other - while those who always will, do what they always have - bleed us dry.
But, we all assume we are right, even though me might miss a few tiny details...
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
