Randomness

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Why The Star Trek Universe is Secretly Horrifying | Cracked.com

[putaro]

A letter from John Steinbeck to his Stanford writing teacher. An excellent read for everyone who aspires to write.

[Alelou]

What's sad is that it's even less likely today that a writer -- after all that poverty -- will ever make a decent living at it. There are very few literary writers especially who will not need a day job or a better-paid spouse. And even the usual day jobs are increasingly poverty-level jobs.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

I feel old...

11 Sounds That Your Kids Have Probably Never Heard

[Distracted]

Sigh. Yep.

[Entilzha]

Arch Enemy cover - We Will Rise (female vocal) http://youtu.be/MvXXTva8C6s now that is one hot chick with a great singing voice .

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

This is the first official day of my five week vacation. In about two weeks time I'll go to Scotland for a week, and return via Copenhagen, where I'll spend a few more days before visiting my parents.

But these coming weeks I'll have nothing special to do. But I plan on getting some new bookshelves and a new TV, and clean up my apartment.

[lfvoy]

I feel old...

11 Sounds That Your Kids Have Probably Never Heard

I'd heard and/or used all of those except the percolator, and that was mostly because neither of my parents drank coffee.

But I'm only 37. I am not old. No I'm not. Uh-uh.

The fact that my friends used to tease me because I could type at 2400+ baud (i.e., faster than the modem) does not date me at all.

[WarpGirl]

KTR I am so jealous of your travels.

[Distracted]

Not to mention five weeks of vacation.

[WarpGirl]

That's actually rather standard for a lot of Europian countries. It's we Americans who are weird in the way that as a country, we're a bunch of workaholics. I read an artical about this during one of my many hospital visits. Apparently there's a school of thought that if this country had the same system as other Europian countries, we'd be healthier

[Cogito]

Yes, my American colleagues are sometimes jealous of the vacation allowances in Europe. But on the other hand they have something called 'sick days' which they seem to treat like normal leave and refer to having sick days 'saved up' for when they need to take time off. On the whole it seems to work out more or less the same.

[WarpGirl]

I have to admit I think the family leave policy in most Europian countries is fantastic. It allows both parents precious bonding time with the babies without causing financial hardship. That is amazing to me.

[Distracted]

Yes, my American colleagues are sometimes jealous of the vacation allowances in Europe. But on the other hand they have something called 'sick days' which they seem to treat like normal leave and refer to having sick days 'saved up' for when they need to take time off. On the whole it seems to work out more or less the same.

Ah, but that presupposes one is willing to be a bold-faced liar. Although many people do treat sick leave just like annual leave, it's technically defrauding your employer to use sick leave when you or a family member aren't actually sick. For example, I'm a state employee so I get two weeks paid annual leave a year. This is the only time I'm allowed to take for vacation. I have to use it or it's gone. It doesn't accumulate from year to year. I also earn one and a half days of sick leave per month. That carries over from year to year and actually counts toward my time that I have to work before I can receive retirement benefits. That's an incentive not to use it unless I'm sick, I guess. Anyway, I'm supposed to give a legitimate health reason and present a note from a doctor when I use it. So it's definitely not the same thing as five weeks off unless I flat out lie to my employer and they let me get away with not presenting documentation.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Well, since I've turned 40 I actually have six weeks vacation, but I'm saving that for later this year...