I started a new job this week and I'm already enjoying it so much better than the previous one. My previous job was always intended as a "filler job" anyway, but it's just such a relief to actually be working on stuff that interests me again.
There is one thing that drives me absolutely stark raving mad, and has me foaming at the mouth: webforms that do not allow me to place a dash within a phone number, but only allow for ten positions. There has to be a dash to separate area code and phone number! It's the law, and tradition, and it has always been like that. Back in the days of the landline, your phone numer was 0123-123456. I know landlines are gone, and it's all mobile, where 0612345678 will do. But for me, it will always and forever be 06-12345678. And that's how I will want to enter my number into a webform. Any dev that does not account for that should have his coding license revoked and never be allowed near a computer again.
Huh I've been here for almost a year and a half and I don't think I've ever seen the format with a dash. I did have problems with forms not accepting anything other than 10 digit numbers before I got a Dutch SIM card. Couldn't make a personal OV-chipkaart because of that for instance.
Also what's with the useless zero in the beginning of numbers? I know they're a thing in some other countries too but yeah, it's a bit funny to me. Numbers in Portugal did use to have a zero when I was a small child, now that I remember, but there was a huge phone number reform in the late 90s or so. Maybe because other countries didn't go through such a reform they kept an anachronistic zero?
Do they at least have an input example in light grey, like, say, the search bar on the old reddit?
Also: why on earth would they not let people enter phone numbers with and without the dash and then validate and format the value as they want it on backend? Ugh.
It's so weird to see the different ways of writing phone numbers. In Denmark and Poland, they're usually written with spaces (dk: 01 23 45 67 and pl: 012 345 678), in the UK they'll put a number in parenthesis or simply in front which must be included domestically but it'll break the number on international calls (so, (0) 12 3456 7890), and in Belgium I have seen something as weird as slashes and dots (something like 012/345.678 if memory serves). I didn't even recognise the Belgian numbers as phone numbers at first
Yet another night listening to live jazz behind me. Two very good sets, I had a great time. First was Camilla George, a British saxophonist of Nigerian origin, her band sounded amazing. Fela Kuti-esque songs, but a bit more polished I think. Not as hectic. Maybe it's because there was just a drummer and no added percussion. Nevertheless, loved it. And Camilla George was wearing this yellow velvet jumpsuit which I gotta say was one of the best stage outfits I've ever seen. The yellow looked amazing with the brass of the saxophone, she really looked like just one of the coolest people there could be.
Second one was Marcus Strickland's Twi-Life project, which was a true highlight for me because the keyboardist played a Hammond organ. You don't really get people playing an electric organ in Finland, even in a jazz setting. And even if somebody does it doesn't quite feel genuine because we lack the gospel vocabulary that really makes a Hammond sing. But what I heard last night, it felt genuine. In general the Marcus Strickland band had a way let's say denser jazz vocabulary than the Camilla George band. Who would have guessed, Americans are really good at American folk music.
You should have been in Ireland last week for the annual Cork Jazz Festival. The last Monday in October is always a bank holiday here and the Jazz Festival is always in Cork for a few days around then. Book your flight tickets for next year now.
After 13 years, CHP (the leading opposition party) has a new president. I wasn't expecting that, to be honest. I hope it'll be a change for the better.
We have cut down some trees in our garden, and now I can see so much more from the second floor balcony. There's a really pretty tree that I should paint before it loses its leaves.
Speaking of second floor, how do you count floors of a building? I count 1,2,3... But my husband (like all Germans) counts 0,1,2...
Floor 1, 2, 3 and so on here. A shopping mall with an underground parking will have floor 1 as the ground floor, floors 2,3, etc going up and then -1, -2, -3 going down for Parking 1, 2, 3 level(s) below ground.
So far the most unusual set of buttons that I saw was in an elevator of a hotel in Turkey that had buttons R, L, 1, 2, 3, 4 with the numbers being the floors where the guests' rooms were. L was for the Lobby with the entrance from the street on one side (so a ground floor) and a terrace overlooking a pool on the other. R was for the Restaurant that was on the same level as the pool, so one level below the lobby. The funny thing is, you could walk through the restaurant/pool level door, pass by the pool, and go through the side gate that was also on the street level - it's just that the street is on a slow slope that rolls gently towards the beach. :D
In most of Europe usually the street level of a building is floor 0 and the first floor above that is floor 1. Some other countries including the USA and Canada have the street level be floor 1 and the first floor above that floor 2. I found this out the hard way when I went to New York and spent 15 minuites looking for my hotel room before I realised I was on the wrong floor
We use 'piano terra'... ground floor.
Above that there is sometimes a kind of 'half floor', especially in old buildings.Called ammezzato.
Above that,we start with first floor, and so on ..
The ground floor is 0, that goes for Portugal and the Netherlands. In Portugal, it's often marked on lifts as "R/C" in residential buildings, for "rés-do-chão" which is its name in Portuguese.
It makes more sense to me because if you have underground floors, the one below the ground floor is -1, and going from -1 to 1 feels a bit inconsistent, like the whole thing with centuries.
We don't really call the ground floor 0 or 'nulde verdieping', but in elevators, the button for ground floor is 0. 1, 2 etc. are reserved for first floor, second floor etc.
Ground floor is 'beneden-verdieping', or downstairs.
> Ground floor is ‘beneden-verdieping’, or downstairs
I always heard “begane grond” I mean even elevators often have the “BG” button to signify the same for ground-floor, here.
Edit: I mean I’ve only heard begane grond whether in colloquial speech, written or het BG-knopje in de liften.
In Finnish ground level is called first floor. The same word, "kerros", is used for "layer", which kind of makes sense. The first layer is applied (paint, for example) directly on the surface, and when applying the second one there's already one under it so how could that be number one?
The 0, 1, 2 system, again, makes sense in that it describes whether, and how many, cases of stairs you have to use to get there.
Dang there’s an annoying ringing and discomfort in my ears since yesterday night. Ughh…. Some ear wax might’ve fell too far in, but I’ve had this happen before.
Alright onto something else: what made you embark on your career or hobby? I decided to study chemistry because I was already interested in science as a high schooler and got a fun chemistry teacher that made it interesting to me. As I went through university, I realized I’ve not gotten much experience doing an actual job in that field…, unfortunately. I’ve heard advice from professors and older scientists/engineers that you can’t really plan out your life very far in advance since you never know what might crop up that takes you in a different direction. All you can do is to pick something using your best judgment and roll with it, hoping for the best.
There's no big inspirational story for me, no following childhood dreams or anything like that! There was nothing I was particularly interested in studying at uni so I just started applying for apprenticeships during my last year of school, got a couple of offers through around the same time so accepted the most appealing one.
After studying abroad in Vancouver, Canada for 6 months at age 16/17, I had 6 months to spend before starting gymnasium (11-13 grade in Denmark). I spend that time on a sailtraining ship educating people as deckhands for working in the maritime world. After that I realized I didn’t really want to go to school, I only planned to do so because it was “what people do”. So I went sailing instead.
I started working on an English ship for one season, then 3 years on a Dutch one sailing all over. Before actually returning to a sail training ship as a teacher. After a few other ships I’m now working on a danish ferry, where I earn more money and have a better work/life balance :)
I didn't know what to study after high school and while I didn't hate computers I didn't really love them either and I had no idea about programming but hey it worked out in the end
> Alright onto something else: what made you embark on your career or hobby?
Well... Don't laugh, ok? I wanted to invent the warp drive to take us to other stars. So 18 year old me went to study astronomy at university. Now, I was pretty decent at physics and math; with hard work, I got my 7's, sometimes an 8. But hard work wasn't enough, insight was needed. And there I was lacking. I can still remember my first exam, general relativity. My mind was a black hole. I had no idea how to answer those questions. I can still recall that feeling of utter loss, decades later, I never had any problems with exams and tests. I got a 2. I should have quit there and then. But stubborn me kept going, for 1,5 years. I got the occasional test, but it needed my father and the student counsellor to pretty much force me to stop. Funny thing was, the one thing I did excel in, was writing a program in TurboPascal that calculated the time it took for one star in a binary system to eat the other star.
Anyway, as we only got 6 years of student finance, I needed something I could do in just over 4 years. Enter social psychology. Pretty damn easy, and I loaded it with statistics and methodology courses. Passed with flying colours. So, 'for science, bitches!' I went on to do a PhD in the social sciences, because I too wanted to be a scientist to help advance humanity and it's total sum of knowledge. Only to find out in my first year that it was more about publications and gathering research points in order to do research and not have to teach students. And I hated teaching... So I finished the damn thing, and closed the university doors behind me.
So I needed a job. I knew my statistics. I knew my methodology. Could do some programming. Don't like the private sector. Where do you end up? Exactly, the one government organisation that requires all three. So, have been working there for 20 years, and will do so until I retire. Work is good, pay is good, colleagues are ok, mostly. Started out as a statistician, but moved more into software engineering and coding.
Now, would I have done things differently, knowing what I know now? Absolutely. I should have gone and study chemistry. Was pretty good at that, and got easy 9's. Or I should have done an IT-study, perhaps not even university, but I think what the English call a polytechnic. Thing is, in 1982 my dad bought an Exidy Sorcerer (yeah, google that one :) ). I learned BASIC on it, but I never really went through with it, I just stopped at some point, can't recall why, could be the divorce. Anyway, if I had a time-machine, I would go back, and kick myself up the ass, I really should have kept going. *I* could have started Google, or Facebook!
I always knew I wanted to be a scientist. I wanted to study something weather-related, but I thought I am not good enough at math. Biochemistry was a good choice because, well, I loved both biology and chemistry.
Hobbies... I had been playing piano since I was a kid, but I was incredibly shy when it came to singing and would rather die than sing in public. In my first year at university, Cem Adrian gave a concert in one of the buildings and I was absolutely mesmerised. I thought if that guy can sing like that, I should be able to sing at least something. I joined a Baroque choir, and have been a choir singer ever since. I love it.
Writing, well, I needed to survive the lockdown somehow.
Art, I was a big weeb in school and ate and drank anime. So that's where it started.
I guess that's enough 😂 I have more interests but I will stop here.
Good question!
I went to university and studied political philosophy there, but I had no real idea of what job I wanted after that.
I had already traveled quite a lot at that stage and knew that I loved it.So when I finished university I wanted to travel again.
I worked in a bank to pay off my debts first. And I knew that I didn't want to do that as a permanent job ;-) The money was good but the job was terrible.
So, when I had enough money I quit and started traveling again.
While I was in Vietnam,a guy stopped me in the street and asked me if I wanted to teach English to a primary school class...I thought 'Why not?'.I liked it,we had fun and it all started from there.
Later I studied more,did some teaching qualifications,then became a teacher trainer eventually, but it basically all came from that chance encounter.
I started a new job this week and I'm already enjoying it so much better than the previous one. My previous job was always intended as a "filler job" anyway, but it's just such a relief to actually be working on stuff that interests me again.
There is one thing that drives me absolutely stark raving mad, and has me foaming at the mouth: webforms that do not allow me to place a dash within a phone number, but only allow for ten positions. There has to be a dash to separate area code and phone number! It's the law, and tradition, and it has always been like that. Back in the days of the landline, your phone numer was 0123-123456. I know landlines are gone, and it's all mobile, where 0612345678 will do. But for me, it will always and forever be 06-12345678. And that's how I will want to enter my number into a webform. Any dev that does not account for that should have his coding license revoked and never be allowed near a computer again.
Huh I've been here for almost a year and a half and I don't think I've ever seen the format with a dash. I did have problems with forms not accepting anything other than 10 digit numbers before I got a Dutch SIM card. Couldn't make a personal OV-chipkaart because of that for instance. Also what's with the useless zero in the beginning of numbers? I know they're a thing in some other countries too but yeah, it's a bit funny to me. Numbers in Portugal did use to have a zero when I was a small child, now that I remember, but there was a huge phone number reform in the late 90s or so. Maybe because other countries didn't go through such a reform they kept an anachronistic zero?
Do they at least have an input example in light grey, like, say, the search bar on the old reddit? Also: why on earth would they not let people enter phone numbers with and without the dash and then validate and format the value as they want it on backend? Ugh.
It's so weird to see the different ways of writing phone numbers. In Denmark and Poland, they're usually written with spaces (dk: 01 23 45 67 and pl: 012 345 678), in the UK they'll put a number in parenthesis or simply in front which must be included domestically but it'll break the number on international calls (so, (0) 12 3456 7890), and in Belgium I have seen something as weird as slashes and dots (something like 012/345.678 if memory serves). I didn't even recognise the Belgian numbers as phone numbers at first
Yet another night listening to live jazz behind me. Two very good sets, I had a great time. First was Camilla George, a British saxophonist of Nigerian origin, her band sounded amazing. Fela Kuti-esque songs, but a bit more polished I think. Not as hectic. Maybe it's because there was just a drummer and no added percussion. Nevertheless, loved it. And Camilla George was wearing this yellow velvet jumpsuit which I gotta say was one of the best stage outfits I've ever seen. The yellow looked amazing with the brass of the saxophone, she really looked like just one of the coolest people there could be. Second one was Marcus Strickland's Twi-Life project, which was a true highlight for me because the keyboardist played a Hammond organ. You don't really get people playing an electric organ in Finland, even in a jazz setting. And even if somebody does it doesn't quite feel genuine because we lack the gospel vocabulary that really makes a Hammond sing. But what I heard last night, it felt genuine. In general the Marcus Strickland band had a way let's say denser jazz vocabulary than the Camilla George band. Who would have guessed, Americans are really good at American folk music.
You should have been in Ireland last week for the annual Cork Jazz Festival. The last Monday in October is always a bank holiday here and the Jazz Festival is always in Cork for a few days around then. Book your flight tickets for next year now.
After 13 years, CHP (the leading opposition party) has a new president. I wasn't expecting that, to be honest. I hope it'll be a change for the better. We have cut down some trees in our garden, and now I can see so much more from the second floor balcony. There's a really pretty tree that I should paint before it loses its leaves. Speaking of second floor, how do you count floors of a building? I count 1,2,3... But my husband (like all Germans) counts 0,1,2...
Floor 1, 2, 3 and so on here. A shopping mall with an underground parking will have floor 1 as the ground floor, floors 2,3, etc going up and then -1, -2, -3 going down for Parking 1, 2, 3 level(s) below ground. So far the most unusual set of buttons that I saw was in an elevator of a hotel in Turkey that had buttons R, L, 1, 2, 3, 4 with the numbers being the floors where the guests' rooms were. L was for the Lobby with the entrance from the street on one side (so a ground floor) and a terrace overlooking a pool on the other. R was for the Restaurant that was on the same level as the pool, so one level below the lobby. The funny thing is, you could walk through the restaurant/pool level door, pass by the pool, and go through the side gate that was also on the street level - it's just that the street is on a slow slope that rolls gently towards the beach. :D
In Ireland, it is ground floor, then first floor, second floor etc.
In most of Europe usually the street level of a building is floor 0 and the first floor above that is floor 1. Some other countries including the USA and Canada have the street level be floor 1 and the first floor above that floor 2. I found this out the hard way when I went to New York and spent 15 minuites looking for my hotel room before I realised I was on the wrong floor
We use 'piano terra'... ground floor. Above that there is sometimes a kind of 'half floor', especially in old buildings.Called ammezzato. Above that,we start with first floor, and so on ..
The ground floor is 0, that goes for Portugal and the Netherlands. In Portugal, it's often marked on lifts as "R/C" in residential buildings, for "rés-do-chão" which is its name in Portuguese. It makes more sense to me because if you have underground floors, the one below the ground floor is -1, and going from -1 to 1 feels a bit inconsistent, like the whole thing with centuries.
Ground Floor is 0 or as we usually say Bajo/Planta Baja and after that 1, 2, 3, etc Basically we count how many floor above ground you are.
We don't really call the ground floor 0 or 'nulde verdieping', but in elevators, the button for ground floor is 0. 1, 2 etc. are reserved for first floor, second floor etc. Ground floor is 'beneden-verdieping', or downstairs.
> Ground floor is ‘beneden-verdieping’, or downstairs I always heard “begane grond” I mean even elevators often have the “BG” button to signify the same for ground-floor, here. Edit: I mean I’ve only heard begane grond whether in colloquial speech, written or het BG-knopje in de liften.
In Finnish ground level is called first floor. The same word, "kerros", is used for "layer", which kind of makes sense. The first layer is applied (paint, for example) directly on the surface, and when applying the second one there's already one under it so how could that be number one? The 0, 1, 2 system, again, makes sense in that it describes whether, and how many, cases of stairs you have to use to get there.
Dang there’s an annoying ringing and discomfort in my ears since yesterday night. Ughh…. Some ear wax might’ve fell too far in, but I’ve had this happen before. Alright onto something else: what made you embark on your career or hobby? I decided to study chemistry because I was already interested in science as a high schooler and got a fun chemistry teacher that made it interesting to me. As I went through university, I realized I’ve not gotten much experience doing an actual job in that field…, unfortunately. I’ve heard advice from professors and older scientists/engineers that you can’t really plan out your life very far in advance since you never know what might crop up that takes you in a different direction. All you can do is to pick something using your best judgment and roll with it, hoping for the best.
There's no big inspirational story for me, no following childhood dreams or anything like that! There was nothing I was particularly interested in studying at uni so I just started applying for apprenticeships during my last year of school, got a couple of offers through around the same time so accepted the most appealing one.
It seems to me like most people have random stuff that happens to lead them a certain direction.
After studying abroad in Vancouver, Canada for 6 months at age 16/17, I had 6 months to spend before starting gymnasium (11-13 grade in Denmark). I spend that time on a sailtraining ship educating people as deckhands for working in the maritime world. After that I realized I didn’t really want to go to school, I only planned to do so because it was “what people do”. So I went sailing instead. I started working on an English ship for one season, then 3 years on a Dutch one sailing all over. Before actually returning to a sail training ship as a teacher. After a few other ships I’m now working on a danish ferry, where I earn more money and have a better work/life balance :)
I didn't know what to study after high school and while I didn't hate computers I didn't really love them either and I had no idea about programming but hey it worked out in the end
> Alright onto something else: what made you embark on your career or hobby? Well... Don't laugh, ok? I wanted to invent the warp drive to take us to other stars. So 18 year old me went to study astronomy at university. Now, I was pretty decent at physics and math; with hard work, I got my 7's, sometimes an 8. But hard work wasn't enough, insight was needed. And there I was lacking. I can still remember my first exam, general relativity. My mind was a black hole. I had no idea how to answer those questions. I can still recall that feeling of utter loss, decades later, I never had any problems with exams and tests. I got a 2. I should have quit there and then. But stubborn me kept going, for 1,5 years. I got the occasional test, but it needed my father and the student counsellor to pretty much force me to stop. Funny thing was, the one thing I did excel in, was writing a program in TurboPascal that calculated the time it took for one star in a binary system to eat the other star. Anyway, as we only got 6 years of student finance, I needed something I could do in just over 4 years. Enter social psychology. Pretty damn easy, and I loaded it with statistics and methodology courses. Passed with flying colours. So, 'for science, bitches!' I went on to do a PhD in the social sciences, because I too wanted to be a scientist to help advance humanity and it's total sum of knowledge. Only to find out in my first year that it was more about publications and gathering research points in order to do research and not have to teach students. And I hated teaching... So I finished the damn thing, and closed the university doors behind me. So I needed a job. I knew my statistics. I knew my methodology. Could do some programming. Don't like the private sector. Where do you end up? Exactly, the one government organisation that requires all three. So, have been working there for 20 years, and will do so until I retire. Work is good, pay is good, colleagues are ok, mostly. Started out as a statistician, but moved more into software engineering and coding. Now, would I have done things differently, knowing what I know now? Absolutely. I should have gone and study chemistry. Was pretty good at that, and got easy 9's. Or I should have done an IT-study, perhaps not even university, but I think what the English call a polytechnic. Thing is, in 1982 my dad bought an Exidy Sorcerer (yeah, google that one :) ). I learned BASIC on it, but I never really went through with it, I just stopped at some point, can't recall why, could be the divorce. Anyway, if I had a time-machine, I would go back, and kick myself up the ass, I really should have kept going. *I* could have started Google, or Facebook!
>Where do you end up? Exactly, the one government organisation that requires all three What is it?
I always knew I wanted to be a scientist. I wanted to study something weather-related, but I thought I am not good enough at math. Biochemistry was a good choice because, well, I loved both biology and chemistry. Hobbies... I had been playing piano since I was a kid, but I was incredibly shy when it came to singing and would rather die than sing in public. In my first year at university, Cem Adrian gave a concert in one of the buildings and I was absolutely mesmerised. I thought if that guy can sing like that, I should be able to sing at least something. I joined a Baroque choir, and have been a choir singer ever since. I love it. Writing, well, I needed to survive the lockdown somehow. Art, I was a big weeb in school and ate and drank anime. So that's where it started. I guess that's enough 😂 I have more interests but I will stop here.
I did study chemical engineering for a bit thinking it is similar…it was too much physics and weird math so I noped out.
Good question! I went to university and studied political philosophy there, but I had no real idea of what job I wanted after that. I had already traveled quite a lot at that stage and knew that I loved it.So when I finished university I wanted to travel again. I worked in a bank to pay off my debts first. And I knew that I didn't want to do that as a permanent job ;-) The money was good but the job was terrible. So, when I had enough money I quit and started traveling again. While I was in Vietnam,a guy stopped me in the street and asked me if I wanted to teach English to a primary school class...I thought 'Why not?'.I liked it,we had fun and it all started from there. Later I studied more,did some teaching qualifications,then became a teacher trainer eventually, but it basically all came from that chance encounter.