Royal Caribbean Cruisers -- How Are Things Where You Are? (was "Routine" ​ 😁 ​day in lockdown... how was yours?)

[Vibe]

2 hours ago, HBE4 said:

 

When I started my I.T. career in the 80's, we took turns having the beeper, on-call one week at a time.  No remote connectivity during off hours so you'd have to drive into the office to fix the problem.  That's always fun at 2 am on a winters night. At the time, it was a 25-30 minute drive for me.  One weekend was really bad & I had to go into the office on 4 or 5 different occasions. Next time it was my turn, my boss took pity on me & booked a hotel across the street from the office, all food and drinks paid & I could have my future DW stay with me too, with all her food and drinks paid.

 

 

My first career job was COBOL programmer on IBM mainframes. Hate those SC07 (bad data) and having to read hexadecimal dumps (aka Egyptian Hieroglyphics ) to figure what and where it came from .....at the aforementioned 2 am winter night. And the dozens of 500 page IBM manuals were useless.

This brings back memories. I remember in College using a key punch machine to write my COBOL programs for the compiler.

 

I started my first job printing on IBM 1403 printers then running multi part paper through a decolator and forms through a burster. Then a Xerox 9700 . I worked as a Computer Operator on IBM 4341 4381 and 3090. MVS/XA JES2

I am retiring soon, At my current employer for almost 35 years, so much has changed. I’m currently supporting the Data Center Infrastructure and the Support Center. When we hire new techs, I give them a history of our legacy systems that we used, 

[Ocean Boy]

4 minutes ago, Ozark_Kid said:

 

Excuse me if I interrupted your Hallmark Movie.

 

Thank God for the internet.

[Sunshine3601]

7 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

 

I remember back in the late 80's and early 90's you only had a pager if you were a doctor, a salesman or a drug dealer.

I was a mortgage loan officer for a nationwide builder in the 90s and had a pager for about 10 yrs.  I was so happy when I didn't need a pager anymore.

[Sunshine3601]

4 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

my first cell phone.

 

Yup mine too

[Vibe]

3 hours ago, George C said:

Those amends codes are very familiar, I knew some JCL but then took a JCL course at NYU that made me more of an expert , best thing I ever did for my career. 
   As I have said this has been a terrible week , spending a couple thousand for a root canal, over a thousand for car repair then by far by worse out beautiful cat Joebob passing. We just returned from our normal martini lunch at our favorite restaurant and my wife’s boss informed her she is getting a very large bonus for a project she was working with . Now I will up our royal up bids for next week . Love that she is recognized for her hard work and we all know that isn’t the norm. 

Sorry about your terrible week. Happy that your wife had a nice bonus. 
 

I also became proficient in JCL. So much had changed. 

[Vibe]

2 hours ago, HBE4 said:

 

I too have a bunch if old manuals, boxed away, Out of sight and out of mind.

 

And I can very well relate to your problem. 🙂

I kept some of the books from the Mainframe days too. The younger guys probably don’t know what a book is. No books, paper or pens at their desks.
I update and maintain the Knowledge Base (which is online) that our Support Center techs reference. 

Edited November 18, 2023 by Vibe

[Ocean Boy]

1 hour ago, Ocean Boy said:

Can't believe I am admitting to this but we are watching a Hallmark Christmas movie called Navigating Christmas. In my defense I only agreed to it because it involves a lighthouse. God, I'm so embarrassed.🥺

The movie is over. I really liked.... the lighthouse.

[xpcdoojk]

16 hours ago, h20skibum said:

Yesterday was the day to print boarding passes for next month’s cruise on Symphony.  Stopped at the bank to pick up some tip money.  

 

Think I can get any new, best friend bartenders with this? 😂😂

 

That is some very generous tip money

[George C]

1 hour ago, Vibe said:

This brings back memories. I remember in College using a key punch machine to write my COBOL programs for the compiler.

 

I started my first job printing on IBM 1403 printers then running multi part paper through a decolator and forms through a burster. Then a Xerox 9700 . I worked as a Computer Operator on IBM 4341 4381 and 3090. MVS/XA JES2

I am retiring soon, At my current employer for almost 35 years, so much has changed. I’m currently supporting the Data Center Infrastructure and the Support Center. When we hire new techs, I give them a history of our legacy systems that we used, 

I never went to college, New York City had a free computer school, they took about the top 100 students from a city wide computer aptitude test which I made so I started as a computer operator in 1967 at 17 years old, kept me out of Vietnam when I got drafted, I spent a year in Oklahoma then a year in Germany during my time from 1969 to 1971. 

[xpcdoojk]

I have a brand new iPhone 15 pro. I haven’t used it for more than 3 days. I haven’t tried to post a photo with it. I am now going to post a photo and I expect it to post with zero effort. Let’s see what happens as I am going to post whether the picture appears or not.  
 

Viola. My new truck shell to protect my pinnarello dyodo from thieves

[Etta1213]

3 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

Damn cat just walked into the den and vomits on a throw rug that is surrounded by easy to clean hardwood floors.😡

My dog prefers to throw up on my king size bedspread. House is all hard flooring. Dang!

[aussielozzie18]

4 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

Damn cat just walked into the den and vomits on a throw rug that is surrounded by easy to clean hardwood 

I think there should be a pets who cheese us off support group.  DH is currently in a MOOD due the epic battle of wills this morning attempting to brush Max (& he has the scars to prove it)  After a few other disasters this morning, he suggested I vacate the house.  Happy to oblige since the Black Friday sales are currently on….so I had a pleasant afternoon shopping to my hearts content 🛍️

[aussielozzie18]

6 hours ago, Luckynana said:

We are at my grandson Jacks high school play tonight.  Jack is Audio for the Play.  We are so proud of him!!

What a handsome young man.  How wonderful for you to see your grandchildren doing so well.

[grapau27]

Good morning.

I hope everyone is safe and well.

Sorry to hear George 'Funky' Brown co founder of Kool and the Gang has died aged 74.

[brillohead]

On 11/15/2023 at 7:03 PM, Momof3gurlz said:

I’m trying to work on Christmas shopping but just can’t seem to get into it this year.  It’s so hard to figure out what to get everyone, especially when they don’t really need anything!  And I make myself crazy trying to come up with thoughtful, creative gifts.  I’m my own worst enemy I guess!

 

I had dinner at the kids' place (my son and his GF) last weekend, and I had been asking them via text to think about what they want for Christmas / birthdays (his is in January, hers is in February).  I told them that if they wanted to combine them all for a big ticket item, I was fine with that.  They've only been living in the apartment for just under a year (he got out of the Army last Christmas) and they're in their early 20s, so I thought they might want a dresser/bureau for the bedroom or a couch for the living room, etc.  

 

So now that I had them in person, I asked again if they had any ideas for Christmas and birthdays... my son looked at his GF and she gave him the "go ahead" nod, and he asked if I'd be willing to use the money I was going to spend on them to get presents for his coworker's three kids... the coworker is separated from the kids' mother, and money is tight for him paying rent and child support.  (They work at a landscape / lawncare business, so they're not earning the big bucks.)  It was a proud momma moment, for sure.  

 

A couple decades ago, before I got disowned from my adoptive family, I had told everyone to only get presents for my son, and not to get anything for the adults... and that we wouldn't be giving presents to adults, either.  In my family, I was giving presents to my mom and dad, my brother and his wife, their three (at the time) kids, my aunt and uncle on my mother's side and their two adult kids (my cousins), my aunt and uncle on my father's side and their three adult kids (my cousins) and spouses, plus the four adult kids of those cousins.  

 

It was so stupid, b/c I usually only saw these people once or twice a year (twice being if there was a funeral that year), and in most cases I hadn't even been inside the homes of my cousins.  How do you get a thoughtful, meaningful gift for someone when you don't know how they like to dress / what size they wear, how they decorate their home, what hobbies and activities they like to do, etc.??? 

 

So there were a bunch of meaningless "just because" presents, like the various gift baskets they sell everywhere... the two coffee mugs with a bag of beans and a coffee grinder, or the set of perfumed hand soaps and lotions, or the hot chocolate set, or the pizza stone with a bag of dough mix and a recipe book, etc., etc., etc.  Stuff that nobody actually wants, but this way you can say you "got them a gift" for Christmas.  I just said enough, and told everyone that I would rather they spent the money on their own families, or made a donation to an animal shelter.  

I kinda thought that my brother and sister-in-law and my various cousins and aunts/uncles would all jump on the bandwagon -- it had to be just as frustrating for them to shop for and wrap a bazillion meaningless presents, right?  I was still doing presents for the children, because who doesn't love watching kids open presents, right?  And shopping for toys is fun!  But NOBODY else in the family was on board with the idea... they all felt it necessary to get gifts for all the adults, too.  They didn't even want to do a "everyone pull a name out of a hat" and only buy a present for one person type of gift exchange.  

 

Shortly after that, I ended up getting disowned, so it wasn't a problem anymore.  And now, my "surrogate" parents and my newly discovered birth father all want for nothing.  And I can't think of a single item that I would need someone to purchase for me, either.  

 

I think people would enjoy the holidays a heck of a lot more if they focused more on spending time with family and enjoying delicious foods/treats instead of running themselves ragged shopping for presents for people who don't need anything.  I know I do!

[brillohead]

On 11/16/2023 at 2:13 PM, Ocean Boy said:

You mean "Airplane" was not a realistic movie?🤔

 

Surely, you're joking. 

😉

[brillohead]

18 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

I never considered the repair issue. I would definitely have to look into that. Trees could be an problem. I once had a tree damage the roof of my office building and the asphalt roof was pretty easy and inexpensive to fix.

Maybe check with your insurer, too... they may offer discounts on your premium because metal roofs are less likely to have pieces fly off in a windstorm, or catch fire if there are floating embers from a nearby fire, or have ice dams cause water damage, etc.  They can probably give you an idea of whether metal or shingle roofs incur more maintenance costs, too. 

 
With the way prices are right now, I'd probably go for a metal roof unless I was going to be in the house for less than ten more years.  With metal being roughly twice the cost of shingles right now, if you're going to have to pay for the next batch of shingles in 20-ish years, goodness only knows what that second batch of shingles will cost at that time, whereas the metal roof will still have 50+ years of life in it.

[brillohead]

21 hours ago, aussielozzie18 said:

Talking about technology and cash - last week one of our main Australian telecos had a castrophic outage. Their system crashed early in the morning and they only  started to get it  back online around 3pm.

 

Millions were impacted -Hospitals, businesses -  small and large.  No phones, no internet, no payment transactions + people couldn’t make emergency calls to 000.

 

Given how rapidly we are heading towards a cashless society here in Australia, it raised serious questions…

 

 

What a complete and total clusterfrick!!!!

[brillohead]

6 hours ago, Etta1213 said:

My dog prefers to throw up on my king size bedspread. House is all hard flooring. Dang!

 

At least the bedspread can be tossed in the washer/dryer.  The couch or recliner, on the other hand....

[h20skibum]

9 hours ago, Ozark_Kid said:

Maybe this will work...
Copy the OLD photos from Photos and move those copies to the Files app.

@helen haywood If nothing is working for you, why not just take a screenshot of the photo and post the screenshot.  I believe screenshots are all in jpg format. 

[h20skibum]

11 hours ago, Luckynana said:

We are at my grandson Jacks high school play tonight.  Jack is Audio for the Play.  We are so proud of him!!

Lots to be proud of there.  I hope your grandson’s play went well.

[barbeyg]

@brillohead, we did the same thing years ago, with the gift giving. It had gotten way out of hand with adults as our family grew.  Took us a few years to convince everyone we really meant it, but I’ve had some tell me they wished they had the courage to do the same with their adult family.  There are several older relatives we get gifts for, but it is so nice not to have to fight the crowds in malls anymore for so many people. And like you said, kiddo gifts are fun! 🙂

 

Phooey on the family for not even considering your idea. 

[h20skibum]

Since we were going to be gone, long before Christmas, we debated how much decorating to do.  Initially, Susan said, “Let’s just put up the small pencil tree in the family room.”  Ok, that is fine with me. 

 

Then she said, “Oh, since we will celebrate with the grandkids in a couple weeks, we better put up the living room tree.  And put up the legos, because they like to play with those.”  Ok, didn’t plan on that, but….

 

 

Then I said, “Stop, or pretty soon we will look like this”

 

 

 

Anyhow, decorating is done.  I hope!

 

 

[Etta1213]

3 hours ago, brillohead said:

 

At least the bedspread can be tossed in the washer/dryer.  The couch or recliner, on the other hand....

Well, I have to take it to the laundromat and use a large front loader. At least it's washable. It's the laundromat hassle that's annoying. Dog says she's sorry and gets forgiven.

[jmh2006]

5 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Good morning.

I hope everyone is safe and well.

Sorry to hear George 'Funky' Brown co founder of Kool and the Gang has died aged 74.

That is too bad.  Kool and the Gang are one of my faves.  😞