What are you doing today? Thread

[ATC King]

I was sitting at the computer desk and decided to have another crack at an old digital picture frame that hasn't worked right in years.

Once apart, I noticed it had gotten splashed with something in the past and I guess that's why I took it apart back then for a look. It must have stopped working, at least momentarily. It was working now, just that the touch border wasn't. I could put photos on it but couldn't access the settings menu, there's no manual buttons except for power and volume.

Well, I must have installed the touch border ribbon backwards last time. I noticed it was a little twisted, and realized it was backwards. Works as it should now.

Early Christmas to me.

[ATC King]

A package was delivered today by a seasonal FedEx worker, servant, slave, or whatever corporate refers to them as. Certainly not an employee. I didn't have any idea who it was, because they use personal vehicles, so I was on alert.

They were in a nice newer vehicle, of course, covered in mud because so many people live on gravel and dirt roads around here. Even for a month or two, that kind of driving is really putting some wear on a personal rig.

So sad to see how low these once professional corporations have sunk. Even UPS hardly has the same driver anymore, like it used to be. Just about a new face every delivery, and then, they're on the phone or listening to music with headphones and don't hear anything. Extremely unpleasant and unprofessional. They must have an extremely high turnover nowadays and hire what they can get, not the pick of the litter when the pay and benefits was a major attraction and the dress code very strict.

I've been thinking about putting up gates and a delivery box because I don't trust some of them to be on the property. One driver missed backing into one of our vehicles by inches, and they've got all kinds of room to turn around, completely senseless. The driver was backing at a high speed too, which should go against policy as a rule. Too much of a chance of collision while backing like that, it's reckless, really. Even had one take a shortcut across our property, coming in through the pasture, to get to a neighbor's place quicker. It's not really a shortcut though, considering the bump they hit at that speed probably tossed packages everywhere inside the vehicle.


I have a feeling many seasonal drivers using their personal vehicles aren't letting their insurance know, probably not even thinking about the consequences of using their rig for commercial use, which is very likely not covered under their policy. Maybe big corp is providing additional coverage...


Oh yeah, happy holidays.

[knappyfeet]

I saw a ups truck unload stuff into the trunks of 3 personal cars in a Target parking lot.

This new gig economy is kinda exciting. You can share your home, car, motorcycle, etc.. without going through all the hoops (which there still is some).

When I retire I will probably do proxiypics or deliver for Amazon or something....just to get me out of the house for a reason. You can do it when you want..... cool way to work for those it would work for.

[ATC King]

I don't think I'd be doing deliveries in retirement. There's a lot of shady places I'd rather not drive up to by myself. I've done the seasonal UPS delivery thing, as a driver's helper. It made for a short day, being that busy, but some places I'd rather not revisit. I appreciate the opportunity to get that experience because it's nice to wear other people's shoes for a little bit, and it helps to round out a person's understanding of the world around them.

I'm not too thrilled about the gig economy. There's not enough protections in place for the workers and being most of them are probably living near or below the federal poverty level, they're vulnerable to abuse and without proper legal recourse. Ultimately, many to most of these companies have little to nothing invested in the wheels of the business, not enough to loose to prevent them from being reckless. They're faceless and in some far away office, which makes it even easier to abuse the workers because of the psychology in that situation. The worker is supplying just about everything, even using their own phone for the apps/software, which is a huge risk. The majority of these corporations/businesses are using third party software and services because they lack the ability to do it in-house, which is another security risk. The AI being used is collecting all kinds of personal information, basically unchecked. Regulation is lagging far behind AI.

For an educated, experienced worker, with good financial skills, gig work can be a good thing and fit nicely into their life. That's most likely the minority of the workers though because those business models wouldn't be sustainable if the majority of workers knew their rights, how to assert them, and how to hold those people liable. Really, most of them have a lot of red flags up front, enough that people with stable incomes wouldn't risk it. I'm not suggesting the majority are uneducated, in the sense they're plain stupid, it's just that to a large extent, the worker is basically self-employed and running their own business. That's a huge undertaking for someone who has no idea, prior experience of the self-discipline it takes to be successful at that or even how to file their basic taxes without having to pay someone.

There's probably going to be a lot of future trouble with 1099s from the gig industry and once that impact is large enough, the whole industry will be turned on it's head and a lot of earning potential lost, which will harm the low paid workers the most. These things tend to work out like that, because they aren't intended to last, just to take advantage of current economic situations and laws. It's more a sign of an unstable society than a product of prosperity, a way to invest the least possible with the largest returns, which ultimately means not investing in the workers. Maybe wage slavery would be a good description, but so would deception. Most of the gig industry couldn't function without government assistance propping up their business, the same as it's done for many large corporations over the past several decades. Worker makes so little, if tax money wasn't keeping them afloat, they wouldn't even have the means to work a job. No food, no shelter, no transportation, no reason to work for something they can't have. What that will eventually leave is the largest corporations having to foot the taxes, which also means the government could only function by keeping those corporations afloat, even if they're failures. At the end, society is only composed of the ultra wealthy and ultra poor and humanity is set back centuries, again, ingenuity and innovation comes to a standstill, mass starvation and disease again becomes rampant. Despair is the mindset and tomorrow isn't even a dream.


Of course, I could be wrong about all of it. <---Smiley face means I'm not going evangelical doom doom.


I'm not putting my foil hat on or standing on the corner with a 'End is Near' sign, just thinking out loud about history and the future of humanity. It'd sure be nice if the world could be human.

BTW, FedEx driver showed up today, outside dual completely destroyed, wheel edge smashed in about six inches and the tire hanging on for dear life. Been driving like that most of the day, trying to get deliveries done and change it out at home (?), with what, I don't know or how they expect to have something strong enough to remove the lug nuts. I didn't get that far into it, but it'll need a new wheel and tire and I'm not certain they understand how tight those dual wheel lug nuts are. Certainly colon blow tight if trying to use something like a 4-way. I was going to offer to change it, just pull it next to the shop and have at it, but apparently they don't carry a spare. All I really know is that was one heck of a hit, definitely rattled the giblets.

[knappyfeet]

This is something you don't see everyday....an HD on a pit stand.

Installed the stand bobbins today... nice to have for general things

[ATC King]

That'll certainly make some things easier to work on.

You could park it in front of a large monitor, sit on the bike and make engine noises, during nasty weather. Maybe when nobody is home, if being walked in on would be awkward. 'If I tried to explain it, you wouldn't understand'.

With how so many bikes are now, there's hardly anywhere to use a typical motorcycle jack. Easiest thing now is to have a hoist and lift them by the bars or rear when doing things like tire changes or suspension work. Even just some strong ceiling anchors and ratchet straps will do the job. For lightweight bikes, like dirt bikes, I'll throw a strap over the rafter and use that to hold the front or rear up.

[ATC King]

Waiting to see if we get enough snow to put the snow tires one and go for a ride.

It's getting pretty white, but hasn't covered the field grass yet.

[ATC King]

A little snow at the beginning, then mostly sleet the rest of the day. It's still sleeting now. The roads are going to be a real show in the morning with all the slush and ice.

There wasn't enough snow to justify putting the snow tires on, but I did ride to the station. I was soaked and freezing by the time I got home and the trike had ice building up on everything. It was a fun ride, but very uncomfortable. I did wear my full face bike helmet that has a double layer snowmobile face shield, breath deflector, and chin curtain, but it was still fogging up and freezing with ice. The (cheap) LED bulb I'm running in the upgraded headlight doesn't cut it for distance, but the beam is wide enough to make it alright at dark, just can't ride very fast.

[ATC King]

I got some more riding in today. In the south we get more ice than snow, to the point we get ice storms, which breaks trees and takes out power lines. When the conditions are like that, the breaking trees sound like constant gunshots. I went to bed already hearing it and woke up to the same, but it wasn't as bad as it has been in the past. Our power only flickered a few times. There's plenty of smaller broken branches in the roads and some younger trees that were bowed over to the point they blocked the road, but most of the ice melted today. Some large trees did fall, but the ground was already saturated before this precipitation and they went over roots and all.

[knappyfeet]

I got some more riding in today. In the south we get more ice than snow, to the point we get ice storms, which breaks trees and takes out power lines. When the conditions are like that, the breaking trees sound like constant gunshots. I went to bed already hearing it and woke up to the same, but it wasn't as bad as it has been in the past. Our power only flickered a few times. There's plenty of smaller broken branches in the roads and some younger trees that were bowed over to the point they blocked the road, but most of the ice melted today. Some large trees did fall, but the ground was already saturated before this precipitation and they went over roots and all.

Nice.

Now I won't feel weird about installing a mirror on my 200X

What's the led display for? The one under the bars that indicates 4?

[stoshu]

Working on my snowthrower tonight. Started bogging down in deeper snow. Belt was pretty worn. Tried a new one. Not the main problem. Pushed on the auger. Drive shaft isn’t spinning. Opened the chain case. Problem found. 2 year old sprocket. Chinese garbage.