We are living in a world that seems like it is out of a 1950-60's Sci-Fi movie

Serious personal question...how do you avoid circling a vortex of despair over the thought that those bad times may very well strike within your kids lifetimes, and the implications that come along with that? Mine are 5 and 8 and it scares the hell out of me.

I second @Chris
Seek out the Lord....His plan of redemption for creation has never changed. When you have a relationship with the Creator everything else in this short life is given its appropriate perspective.
All of this craziness is indeed crazy and is what happens when God removes his hand from a people (as they have chosen to forget him) and they are left to their own devices.

Matthew 6:34
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
 
In my last job we did choose our own timelines, but if they got the idea that we were sandbagging in the slightest they would "challenge" us to move it up. It went both ways though, I saw them at times challenge a project manager that they were being too optimistic. Overall I felt like it was a good system, but some of the decisions on which projects got approved didn't always make sense except for from a quarterly report standpoint.

We also did everything in phases with a gate review at each one, so you were giving continual progress reports and if you went in on a phase that was behind, you were expected to provide new dates for the remaining phases and a darn good explanation.

If everyone is consulted and a date is set, that is usually going to be better. We had a few projects where management came up with a date they liked and tried to make everyone else meet that date. After those projects failed to meet their deadline, they were forced to consult the project managers and try to come up with a 'real' date. Instead of their aggressive deadlines that had no basis on how long the actual work would take. It was a fun time period with shitty management.
 
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Christ, 100%

I know that isn’t the answer that everyone will want to hear (some will even scoff). But I will say that the peace and solitude I have found in Christ could carry me through any situation, no matter how hard.

It should be a Christians natural state to feel that the times are out of joint and that we do not truly belong here.

I believe it will happen in their lifetime. I just hope that I’ll be around to protect them as best I can.

Good answer, and it's the right one and the one I would give if asked. I'm pretty cool about most stuff like work or people drama and even finances but I've always had a hard time making it happen in practice when it comes to things that play to my ability to protect and provide for my kids. Health issues is another big anxiety trigger for me, because it goes back to the same thing. You should have seen me last week when I was prescribed a drug that listed permanent blindness due to intercranial hypertension as a side effect. Every little thing that might have been a headache or a change in vision had me spiralling. It's my least favorite thing about myself.
 
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I see a potential future market for encyclopedias ;) although they'd probably be written by AI.
 
If everyone is consulted and a date is set, that is usually going to be better. We had a few projects where management came up with a date they liked and tried to make everyone else meet that date. After those projects failed to meet their deadline, they were forced to consult the project managers and try to come up with a 'real' date. Instead of their aggressive deadlines that had no basis on how long the actual work would take. It was a fun time period with shitty management.

I never gave it much thought but we were rarely if ever handed down projects from management. We had goals regarding sales margin, market share, and warranty claims and it was up to us to come up with the projects that would meet those goals and present them to leadership for approval based on the balance between how it helped accomplish those goals vs the resources required to execute them.

For context, I'm a design engineer in commercial HVAC manufacturing and the projects were design changes to configurable model lines that were pretty well analogous to automotive (and in fact, the entire product development strategy was based on Toyota and I had colleagues that had previously filled similar roles at Chrysler, Ford and Toyota).
 
If everyone is consulted and a date is set, that is usually going to be better. We had a few projects where management came up with a date they liked and tried to make everyone else meet that date. After those projects failed to meet their deadline, they were forced to consult the project managers and try to come up with a 'real' date. Instead of their aggressive deadlines that had no basis on how long the actual work would take. It was a fun time period with shitty management.

This reminds me of a story. Years back, when I worked in Oceanographic research, we needed to "do something" about the data logger that we used on our Oceanographic moorings (buoys). The existing one was workable, although antiquated - but the core problem was that we had lost several of them and if we lost any more it was going to start impacting the science. In addition, there was a new controller under development, but it was literally years away from being available for general deployments (Academic time schedule). So I called a meeting, and laid out the options.

1) Make more of the existing design. Sub-optimal as it had been patched and upgraded over the years, so all those patches, blue wires, etc, etc would have to be done to each board.

2) Do a cleanup revision of the existing design. Workable.

3) Create an all new design that would be vastly better than the existing, but not as all encompassing as the existing controller project.

After discussion, I was asked what I needed for resources for option #3. I told them - this hardware guy, this software guy, myself, and 90 days with nobody in our fucking way. No interminable meetings, minimal design reviews, and stay out of our road.

They looked at me like I had 3 heads. "How can you do that that fast?". I explained that 60 days was an industry norm, and 30 was a fast track, so 90 shouldn't be a problem. They gave it to me - and we got it done. It ended up taking 120 days as it was over the Xmas holidays AND I was out of the country for six weeks during the whole thing.

Afterwards, the Engineering manager came to me and wanted me to do a write-up as to why this worked so well. I told him I wasn't going to write ANYTHING down, but I'd tell him verbally: We side stepped the whole academia approach, got mgmt to agree to stay out of our hair, didn't have ever-moving goalposts, an absolute minimum of meetings, and had 3 people that knew what needed to be done and got it done. He told me "You're right - I can't tell that to management!"

That was back in Y2K. The controller we created is STILL in use, and the new one that was under development has come - and gone.
 
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I was prescribed a drug that listed permanent blindness due to intercranial hypertension as a side effect. Every little thing that might have been a headache or a change in vision had me spiralling. It's my least favorite thing about myself.

plot twist, it's just doxycycline. Very popular antibiotic that's been generic for decades and is used for all sorts of infections like tickborne illness, bacteria-cause acne, chlamydia, and as a malaria preventative. But apparently in 1-2 of 100,000 people that take it, it boosts their cerebrospinal fluid pressure high enough to cause permanent vision damage.
 
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AI is here and developing at a truly irresponsible pace. And there's no going back now. The only defense you will have against an AI, is another AI.
 
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plot twist, it's just doxycycline. Very popular antibiotic that's been generic for decades and is used for all sorts of infections like tickborne illness, bacteria-cause acne, chlamydia, and as a malaria preventative. But apparently in 1-2 of 100,000 people that take it, it boosts their cerebrospinal fluid pressure high enough to cause permanent vision damage.

Clint-lucky.jpg
 
So this.... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/05/15/social-media-influencer-ai-chatbot-caryn-marjorie/

Influencer launches AI app that makes her your virtual girlfriend for 80p a minute.
Caryn Marjorie, 23, says the app was designed to be ‘fun and flirty’ and help her fans with loneliness

So there are people in this world who are willing to pay for a "virtual girlfriend". :oops: WTF is wrong with people? They need to get off the drugs, crawl out of the goo, go outside and interact with reality. I'm scared...

I'm surprised that there is such a huge market out there for internet cam whores.

Free porn is everywhere on the web so if someone wants to look at that, why would they pay for it?

I'm still flummoxed that simps would pay for an internet cam whore's used bathwater.

And she made over $12 million selling it o_O

People spend their money on what makes them happy.

I just never imagined that dirty bathwater would make anybody happy.

I wonder how much McDonald's could sell their used french fry grease for?
 
I wonder how much McDonald's could sell their used french fry grease for?

Actually used fryer grease is in demand and people steal it. They use it to make home made biodiesel. So there is a somewhat lucrative market for it.
 
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This reminds me of a story. Years back, when I worked in Oceanographic research, we needed to "do something" about the data logger that we used on our Oceanographic moorings (buoys). The existing one was workable, although antiquated - but the core problem was that we had lost several of them and if we lost any more it was going to start impacting the science. In addition, there was a new controller under development, but it was literally years away from being available for general deployments (Academic time schedule). So I called a meeting, and laid out the options.

1) Make more of the existing design. Sub-optimal as it had been patched and upgraded over the years, so all those patches, blue wires, etc, etc would have to be done to each board.

2) Do a cleanup revision of the existing design. Workable.

3) Create an all new design that would be vastly better than the existing, but not as all encompassing as the existing controller project.

After discussion, I was asked what I needed for resources for option #3. I told them - this hardware guy, this software guy, myself, and 90 days with nobody in our fucking way. No interminable meetings, minimal design reviews, and stay out of our road.

They looked at me like I had 3 heads. "How can you do that that fast?". I explained that 60 days was an industry norm, and 30 was a fast track, so 90 shouldn't be a problem. They gave it to me - and we got it done. It ended up taking 120 days as it was over the Xmas holidays AND I was out of the country for six weeks during the whole thing.

Afterwards, the Engineering manager came to me and wanted me to do a write-up as to why this worked so well. I told him I wasn't going to write ANYTHING down, but I'd tell him verbally: We side stepped the whole academia approach, got mgmt to agree to stay out of our hair, didn't have ever-moving goalposts, an absolute minimum of meetings, and had 3 people that knew what needed to be done and got it done. He told me "You're right - I can't tell that to management!"

That was back in Y2K. The controller we created is STILL in use, and the new one that was under development has come - and gone.

It's interesting when someone who knows what can be done is accidentally put in charge makes it happen. Most mid - upper mgmt types have no clue how things like this happen.

BTW, where did you work Oceanography? I did four years with NAVOCEANO (USNS Harkness and USNS Wyman).
 
plot twist, it's just doxycycline. Very popular antibiotic that's been generic for decades and is used for all sorts of infections like tickborne illness, bacteria-cause acne, chlamydia, and as a malaria preventative. But apparently in 1-2 of 100,000 people that take it, it boosts their cerebrospinal fluid pressure high enough to cause permanent vision damage.

Don’t sweat it; I’m an ophthalmologist and I’ve only seen idiopathic intracranial hypertension in patients taking doxy 2-3 times in 20 years. And those were females in teens or 20’s. The elevated pressure doesn’t develop rapidly, and if it does happen, the vision loss is very slow and usually reversible.

So just don’t become a 25 year old female and you should be fine.

I’ve seen more optic neuropathies associated with viagra use and more cranial nerve palsies associated with covid vaccines than vision loss from doxy.
 
Don’t sweat it; I’m an ophthalmologist and I’ve only seen idiopathic intracranial hypertension in patients taking doxy 2-3 times in 20 years. And those were females in teens or 20’s. The elevated pressure doesn’t develop rapidly, and if it does happen, the vision loss is very slow and usually reversible.

So just don’t become a 25 year old female and you should be fine.

I’ve seen more optic neuropathies associated with viagra use and more cranial nerve palsies associated with covid vaccines than vision loss from doxy.

Damn, I should have posted this a week ago. It does at least make me feel easier about if I have to take it again some day.

I wasn't always this way. It started when a prescription dose of ibuprofen for back pain gave me tinnitus that I still hear 15 years later and any dosage of any NSAID ratchets it up louder. Since then it just seems like I'm a medical curiosity with drugs that don't seem to bother normal people but for me are worse than what they're supposed to treat. Last year I learned I can't take Pepcid for heartburn because I get heart palpitations. A couple thousand dollars worth of testing and evaluation ruled out any of the conditions normally associated with that side effect. Obviously with this situation I didn't have a choice not to take the antibiotic, but I've gotten to where if the drug is just to treat a symptom and doesn't prevent death or permanent damage, I'll pass.
 
You mean like the CCP virus "vaccine"?

yep, not taking that. My wife was forced to for employment but was able to hold out long enough for the traditional vaccine, Novavax, to get FDA approved and released. She was down to about a week from the cutoff but she was ready to say bye to a career to not be a subject in that experiment.