The office: Chatter about your job

It's quite possible to get broadband wired to the register. Well, it might not be if you live in rough mountains, but that's about it.

Work is really kicking my ass. I'm having a real hard time keeping up and have to keep asking friends for help.

Not feeling good about it.

I had two months of nothing but snack bar after the holidays were over, then they started giving me cashier shifts again. After I'd finally gotten to like working the snack bar.

Going back to the register means getting badgered about shoving the store card down every customer's throat again. And they're really hurting on survey feedback, so they're also getting on everyone to promote the survey so we don't just have squeaky wheels filling it out.

And the week I started working the cash register was also the week the manager decided that we should switch from the back bank of registers (closer to the service desk, longer aisles to wait in thanks to having another bank of registers in front of them) to the front bank, so I felt cut off from my support and all the chores I like to do away from the register were further away while the customers arrive at the registers sooner and pile up faster since the lines just go out into the main aisle now.

It's been three weeks, and I'm just finally starting to feel comfortable on the register again. I'm still asking for any opportunity to do anything that takes me away from the registers while on those shifts though.

edited 5th Apr '14 10:05:20 PM by TParadox

I...I just got transferred to a new department. no warning, nothing. just-bang. new job. I will miss my current job, I like it.

<hugs> It sucks when you get all the notice of a paper-clip.

Automatic phone systems should never, ever, ever hang up on you. Ever. They should always default to switching you to a live person.

(Also, protip for US persons dealing with doctors' offices: If the number on your insurance card has changed, that counts as a change in your insurance. Even if it's still the same insurance company.)

So here's the latest fun stuff I've been working on...beams that aren't made out of wood. What you're looking at are 3x6s made from laminated bamboo. It's really cool shit. Each one takes a lot of gluing as you can see from the cross-section. Note: we didn't do all the gluing. We bought panels from a company called Lamboo and glued the panels in layers to make beams out of.

As you can see here, the result is quite attractive. The only real downside is that they are heavy as hell.

However, they cut and mill predictably and sand to a glossy finish even with 80 grit - a far cry from most hardwoods, which are temperamental at best. The beams you're looking at here will end up in a prototype carport/solar charging station for BMW (all you cali tropers can see the result in a few weeks when BMW unveils its new electric car for Stateside release). We're hoping it takes off and we get more orders.

It can be fun sometimes, working at the cutting edge of your industry.

I can imagine it being as strong and flexible as hell. The lamination won't hurt a bit.

Drunk: cool. I have heard some interesting things about laminated bamboo "timber". Is it is as strong and flexible as they say? It is supposed to have some impressive compressive and tensile strength.

Euo: Laminated Bamboo Armor :D

edited 10th Apr '14 6:59:06 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Very cool, drunkie.

@Tuefel: Believe the hype. Having worked with this stuff over the past few days I can say it is better in a lot of ways than traditional timber. Also, the species which produce the raw material can be harvested within 6 years...as opposed to timber companies which have to wait a decade or two to get a yield from their land.

As a last point, check out Photo 3, specifically near the bottom left corner of the front beam. You can make out a scarf joint, used to join two sections together lengthwise. As long as these joints are kept staggered throughout a structural member, there is no upper limit to how long that structural member could be (this is already used in traditional "glu-lams", there are standards surrounding it). Or rather, the only limit would be the design of your gluing press, and there are already glu-lam plants which use "continuous pressing".

So yeah; for-real Bamboo Technology could be on the horizon. It is possible to build skyscrapers out of this stuff.

edited 10th Apr '14 7:24:20 PM by drunkscriblerian

That is pretty damn slick.

The best part is you could grow it in various parts of the US. I kid you not there is a park in Waco, Texas that has small bamboo groves over 20 feet tall. They have to keep it cut back.

And apparentlyhere is a group who specializes in decorative bamboo in Texas.

The type of bamboo that is in Waco is a running bamboo.

edited 10th Apr '14 7:31:37 PM by TuefelHundenIV

@Tuefel: I'm not surprised. Bamboo is basically grass on steroids; anyone who has ever had to cut a lawn knows how tenacious/fast growing grass can be.

The company I work for played around with this idea 10 years ago. What stood in our way then; the only source for this product was China and the companies wouldn't give us certifications on their gluing process, the bonding agents at the time wouldn't work all that well and people just weren't hip to the idea. Now of course all those things have changed.

I remember seeing the crude "beam" samples we glued up back then and thinking "wow, this isn't here yet but damn if this isn't a cool idea". Glad to see it finally taking shape as it were.

I wonder if I could get some of that for flooring. I really like the look and the idea of it being so durable.

Bamboo flooring? Oh yeah. It's commercially available. At the big-box home stores even. Runs between $1.80 and $4.00 /square foot. Which is cheaper than, or in the same range as, wood laminates. I'm giving it serious consideration for my house, when I get to the "put down new floors" item on the to-do list

edited 11th Apr '14 1:13:54 PM by Madrugada

Drunk: Now that I remembered to check the pic links at home. That last pic is exactly what the faces of our doors in our building look like.

@jedi/Maddie: Bamboo flooring is great stuff, my parents have it in their basement. It wears well, cleans easy, is attractive and not too hard to put down. It is available either with the "wide strip" out (the part with the bamboo knuckles) or "narrow strip" out.

Its a great way to have a wood floor without having a dark wood floor.

@tuefel: yeah, bamboo's making inroads as a paneling material. Like I said above, for-real Bamboo Technology is on our horizon.

edited 11th Apr '14 5:27:42 PM by drunkscriblerian

But can you slide across in your socks?

I prefer carpet myself.

Aside from in the kitchen and bathroom.

...That was kind of irrelevant.

edited 11th Apr '14 6:16:01 PM by Galeros

Apparently we have a few variations on the doors and they have dressed up a little bit. Some look like the bamboo others look like a hard wood I am thinking oak or ash. Hard to tell since it has been stained, lacquered, and clear coated.

For flooring I like smooth ceramic or stone tiles.

edited 11th Apr '14 7:31:48 PM by TuefelHundenIV

My opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the IRS as a whole, but I'm pretty sure writing "fucktard" on the envelopes containing your tax forms will not win you much sympathy from them.

Really? Oh...I need to, uh, get my envelope back...for unrelated reasons...

So my boss has started calling me Radar, because I'm apparently usually a couple steps ahead of him regarding what he wants me to do. It's nice to finally have a job where my boss recognizes this fact of how I work and appreciates all that I do to make him look better than he is.

edited 16th Apr '14 5:55:59 AM by Frishman

That's pretty nice actually.

My boss just calls me Hostel, because the big black apron I wear makes me look like the guy from Hostel, creeps all the new hires out. It's great

So today a form asked for our "oracle number". Top of the page, just above the line for our phone number.

You never know, they might be hoping to find coverage against acts of the gods.