Topics

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Off Topic / Hey Everyone

« on: January 24, 2022, 04:08:49 AM »

Hi everyone, how's it going?

For those of you that don't know me, I was a long time member of the forums years and years ago. Curious to see if any of the old timers I knew are actually still on here and to stop in and say hi.

I've recently graduated Paramedic school which is a complete and absolute year of hell and stress and now like most new medics I don't know what to do with myself with all the additional free time so I've decided to come back and check on my old stomping grounds that I spent so much time on so many years ago. May stop in to a few servers every now and then to say hi and kill some time.

So for everyone I don't know, I'm Destroyer, nice to meet you. And for everyone I knew a long time ago if you may be here, how have you been?

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Off Topic / Does an employer have the right to call you on your day off and scold you?

« on: September 29, 2015, 03:33:19 PM »

Alright guys so I know pretty much half of you will have no idea to this question but most of the things I've asked here have gotten pretty knowledgeable replies.


So today I get a text from one of my close friends and coworkers. She said she had been crying because two of our employers called her on speakerphone to scold and belittle her. The employers were angry about something that happened 3 days prior on Sunday. A bit into backstory, my coworker is a part time employee and goes to school full time for nursing. She is noticeably under large amounts of stress due to schoolwork and because of this she is only able to work Sundays, which our manager has been fine with for months. Occasionally she will request a Sunday off to further catch up on school work.

She had attempted to request off this Sunday, Oct 4th but upon working 3 days ago saw our manager had posted her request off publicly on a board saying "due to an upcoming event no RO will be honored. Our employer posted this last minute so my coworker was noticeably upset. She was very angry Sunday talking loudly to me about how it was unfair and that she wasn't even part of the event and that she was stressed because of school work. Apparently the current on duty manager "Pete" had overheard her and told our manager who makes the schedules about it. In the meantime, my coworker emailed another manager asking if she can find coverage for sunday and that manager, Kathy, agreed.

So back to today. Pete and our schedule manager both call my coworker on her day off on speakerphone and from what I'm told begin scolding her about this event that happened 3 days ago. Most of the phonecall was our scheduling manager yelling about how my coworker was "Talking stuff" on her. She mentioned my coworker going to Kathy once but it obviously wasn't the point of the phonecall. They disguised the legitimacy of the call by claiming my coworker was "bringing down moral." However I was the only one she vented to that day, and I had not made any complaints. Our scheduling manager was making comments saying how she was going to email Kathy for the sole purpose of having her not find my coworker coverage. They kept her on the phone for 10 minutes scolding her for nothing more then venting her frustrations privately to a friend. My coworker remained professional and attempted to apologize multiple times however "they kept digging like they wanted to get a rise out of me. But I could only take so much until I started to cry." My coworker then sent this manager another apology, to which the manager did not reply.

I personally don't know much about what is allowed for employers to do so I'm curious if any of you do. So forums, are employers actually allowed to call you on your day off and scold you for 10 minutes over something that happened days ago. It seems very unprofessional for an employer to go to these lengths about an employee talking about them. Is there anything my coworker can do about this?

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Off Topic / Instagram Bothering me About Turning on Notifications

« on: March 19, 2015, 08:05:14 PM »

This is a question for anyone with Instagram. Since yesterday it has been giving me this stupid notification telling me to "turn on push notifications."



When I press the "x" to close it it goes away, but then immediately comes back when my motivations are refreshed. I can't find a way to get this loving thing to go away.

Has anyone had this problem?

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Off Topic / Help My Friend Win a Music Video Contest!

« on: February 09, 2015, 10:05:27 PM »

Hey guys. So I have a friend who is an aspiring filmmaker and a contest was made to direct, film, and edit a music video together for a song the company chose. My friend is very talented at making films so I want to try to give him as much help as possible, so I figured I'd post it here!

Here is his video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c739KlPSO4E

If you want to help out, here is the voting page:
http://www.nataliyura.tv/contest/

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Off Topic / Any User Who Drives, Be Careful This Winter

« on: January 18, 2015, 10:17:24 PM »

This is probably going to be a long post but I feel like I should post it to try to warn any users who are able to drive, especially those who just got their license or permit. It mostly applies to those who lives in places with cold weather during the winter.

I live in PA and lets just say it has been a rather uneventful winter. We have had one small snow storm so far. That is it, it has been very warm this winter. Today in the morning it got cold enough to cause freezing rain which caused many accidents. Later in the afternoon, temperatures went up to 38-39 and it just rained, melting the ice away.

Tonight I was driving home from a friends house. Everything was still wet from the rain but the temperature was 35 and roads seemed okay so I didn't think much of any ice. Now some of you have seen my car. It is an All Wheel Drive SUV with traction control and all terrain tires. My tires are brand new with near perfect tread on them. This is pretty much an ideal vehicle in snow and I am able to make it through almost anything. I've been driving for 5 years and I've become very good at controlling slides and driving in the snow through practice.

I was sitting at an intersection and my light turned green so I could make my left turn. The car pulled out normally with no problem but I realized halfway through my turn the rear end of my car completely lost traction and was turning me sideways. I did what i normally would in a drift and just went through with it, but quickly noticed the car was heading for a median. I still wasn't to worried at this point. I let off the gas and turned the wheel to pull out of the skid, as I would do if their was snow. I wasn't expecting what happened next. Immediately after turning the wheel I lost all control of all 4 tires. My car pulled a 360 spin across 2 lanes and I saw I was sliding quickly into a roadside ditch full of rocks. At a last resort I locked up the brakes. It continued to skid but finally stopped after it slid off the road and touched the dirt. I stopped only 4 feet from skidding into this ditch.

I'm fine, the car is fine. Everything is okay. The ditch was about 1-2 car heights deep. I'm thinking if I would have hit the ditch It would have been a low speed rollover accident, considering my SUV is more top-heavy then a regular car. The car would have protected me so I would have most likely had little to no injuries, my car would be done though. Needless to say I was pretty freaked out, hands were shaking bad, ex. A driver passing by pulled over to make sure I was okay which was nice to see.

I stepped on to the road and realized it was a sheet of black ice looking like simply wet pavement. I wasn't driving reckless or too fast. I literally just pulled out of an intersection so i was going 15 MPH if that. The way I see it, this was unavoidable.


What I'm trying to get at guys. Is just please be careful. Now I know some of you already know some of this. But seeing as every time their is freezing rain, hundreds of drivers crash, I guarantee not everyone knows. It doesn't matter what kind of car you have, all wheel drive with the best tires you can buy won't protect you from ice. No matter how skilled you are driving, you have no control on icy roads. The only way you can possible have control is if you have tire chains equipped or if you have metal studded tires.

Like I said, I'm very skilled at driving in snow but have little to no experience driving on ice. That is where I went wrong, I got roostery thinking I could pull out of the skid and almost rolled my car because of it. Just trying to warn everybody, don't get roostery in winter weather.

I know a bunch of you are probably of age of just getting your permit or license so I wanted to make this topic to warn you all. Take it slow when it snows or ices. I don't want to see a user get in a bad accident making the same mistake I did thinking they can control the car on icy roads.

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Off Topic / Officially Begin Firefighter I Training Tomorrow

« on: January 10, 2015, 01:31:03 AM »

Well starting tomorrow at 8:00am I begin my first training day for Firefighter I certification. Needless to say, I'm nervous as all hell. We will all be there for 9 hours tomorrow out in the freezing cold practicing skills we have to pass to move on. And I absolutely hate testing. Tomorrow should be one of the easier days being the first.

I believe we will only be tested on donning our turnout gear in under 60 seconds, naming all the tools, and setting up lighting/positioning trucks/ex. I average 45 seconds to put on all the gear so I'm not worried about that. But I hate when i have to memorize the names of 20 different things on the spot.

I am probably just hyping myself up but this has been my first schooling in a year since I graduated so it is all new again. It is especially stressful because this is what i want to do as a career so it's kind of like a "This stuff matters, don't forget it up or you are screwed" kind of thing. Not sure why I'm making this topic. Probably because I'll be up all night trying to make sure I'm perfect at everything even though I'll be sleep deprived. Wish me luck tomorrow, I feel I'll need it lol.

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Off Topic / Why do Users Make Posts in Small Text?

« on: October 07, 2014, 01:55:31 AM »

Okay guys, this honestly has bugged me and had me wondering for awhile now but I finally feel like asking, especially asking the people who do this. Why do you guys feel the need to make parts of your post's in tiny, un-readable text?

Seriously, what does it accomplish? I mean you obviously want people to read it otherwise you wouldn't be posting it in the first place. All it does is cause others the inconvenience of copying your text and pasting it somewhere just to read whatever you felt the need to make small. People are obviously going to read it, so why not just keep the text the same size as the rest of your post?

I'm really genuinely curious on why people do this.

Oh and I already know some comical genius is going to reply to this thread in small text.

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Off Topic / Does the Forum Change the Attitude of Users?

« on: August 26, 2014, 10:42:44 PM »

This is a question that occasionally pops into my head while browsing the forums. So I figured why not make a topic to let everyone share their opinions.

I know personally I've noticed various changes to my behavior in the years I've been here. Taking a look at my first posts I was generally a pretty positive person. I avoided confrontation and tried helping people out whenever possible. Then somewhere in there after being on the forums awhile I became very hostile and a general starfish. I actively went after people who make me mad and had very little tolerance, making many drama topics.

And while today I feel as I grew older I mellowed out some, however I never went back to how I was when I first joined. As I got older I pretty much figured constantly getting in fights isn't worth it.

I also recall during the period Ephialtes was leaving people pointed out his original posts, being very nice to pretty much everyone. Then somewhere over time he also seemed to have changed his attitude. This is all from my personal perspective and is open to debate.

But the question is forums, especially to those who have been around awhile. How have you changed? It doesn't have to be bad. Maybe you've gotten nicer over time or maybe you've stayed the same. But have you changed?

Also, what do you guys think causes people to change? Maybe it is years of dealing with problem users. Maybe it is just growing older and changing your views.

Discuss.

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Off Topic / Fiat's New Advertisement Commercials Give me Cancer

« on: June 24, 2014, 08:26:35 PM »

Have any of you seen them? They are absolutely awful. I thought car commercials were supposed to actually talk about the car, not show random and pointless GIFs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23zKx60aKoY

I literally see/hear this commercial at least twice a day as it plays. Hopefully this dies down soon.

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Off Topic / Anybody Know About Mechanics of ATVs?

« on: June 20, 2014, 10:43:18 PM »

I want to ask those of you who ride ATVs/Know about ATVs/Know about maunal transmissions for your advice on a problem my 2005 Raptor 350 has just recently had.

I went to load up my quad onto the trailer to go off-roading at a location. I turned the key, started it up, went to shift into 1st and noticed the engine making a bizarre and loud clicking noise. The clicking would go faster and faster depending on what gear I shifted to.

The quad would also not move. While in first I let out the clutch slowly waiting for it to catch but the quad would just rev as if it was in neutral. I can also let the clutch out completely in any gear and the quad won't stall, also as if it was in neutral.

Something i don't understand is nothing I can recall would have caused this. Last time I rode my Raptor, it performed fine. I got home and put it in my garage. Now out of nowhere it is making this clicking noise and won't move?

I uploaded a video of the problem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMeEbnyEey8

Personally I think it is a problem with the clutch that is preventing me from switching fully out of neutral and into a gear.

Any suggestions on what may be the problem for those of you who know about mechanics?

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Off Topic / UPS Hires Very Incompetent Drivers

« on: March 05, 2014, 10:14:04 PM »

So what is worse then eagerly awaiting a package to arrive at your house? Being within 50 feet of that package and having it drive away again.

I ordered an interior emergency lightbar to have as a dash light for my EMS and firefighting. It has been ordered since then 27th and is being delivered by UPS. Well today I looked at the tracker and my package was in town and had the order status: Out for Delivery. How exciting.

I live in a cul-de-sack so when a car comes down our street pretty much everybody knows about it. So I see headlights and look to see a UPS truck pull up, and stop in front of my house. After a minute or two pass I get out of bed and go to the door to claim my package only to find the idiot drove away without delivering it. I went to the tracker to find the status: "Exception- A CORRECT STREET NUMBER IS NEEDED FOR DELIVERY. UPS IS ATTEMPTING TO OBTAIN THIS INFORMATION". So I decided to check my order, all of my correct info was there.

The loving idiot was literally out front of my house for 5 minutes leading me to believe he doesn't know how to read packages properly. An hour later the status changed saying the "problem" was sorted out and delivery was rescheduled. No clue when, just rescheduled. This should have never even happened.

UPS is a joke.

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Off Topic / Video Editors: What effect is this?

« on: January 16, 2014, 10:16:48 PM »

Hey guys, this is for all of you who use video editing software. I use Sony Vegas Platinum 11 and I've seen this effect used on many videos before. I'm not sure if it is a series of effects combined or just one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTYm8MkOsQY
1:50-1:53

Anyone know what it is?

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Off Topic / Extracting Data from External HD?

« on: December 31, 2013, 01:30:49 AM »

Hi guys, I know a bunch of you know a lot about computers. I don't know much so I'm looking for some help.

I had my external HD plugged into my laptop and forgot it was plugged in. When I went to pick up the laptop the HD fell off an end table and landed on the floor. It appears like the USB connection bent a bit. Now when I plug it into my laptop it either does not show up. Or it tells me "Device not recognized", stating the device malfunctioned. The messages vary if I wiggle the cord. Also, the times it doesn't say anything, I will remove the cord and for a split second it tells me to format the drive, like it didn't know anything was connected until I remove the drive.

It sounds like it spins up but will occasionally make these clicking noises.

I store all my pictures and videos on this drive so is it possible to get the data off of it?

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Off Topic / Certified EMT

« on: December 22, 2013, 04:00:04 PM »

My EMT classes ended today and after extensive testing I am now a certified Emergency Medical Technician! It took so much work but it finally paid off and I'm one step closer to doing what I love.

5 months, 3 days a week, hours of hands on practice and lecture, clinical hospital time, 40+ online quizzes, 180+ hours of combined classroom time, and 4 huge tests later. It all paid off

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Off Topic / Yay I'm Screwed- Car Repair

« on: December 13, 2013, 03:43:15 PM »

So it turns out my transmission is on the fast track to dying. I got it looked at today and my only repair option is a complete rebuild and upgrade of the parts. They need to take the trans out, take out each part, upgrade parts that need it, and rebuild everything.

As of now I can still drive the car, but it slips going into 3rd gear. They can't tell when its actually going to go, could be tomorrow or could be months. But its eventually going to fully break and I'll lose 2nd and 4th gear.

Repairs like this average $2,600.

forget my life.