Notice the II. That is because there was another thread, which I unlisted because it touched on things best kept private. I thank all those who gave me moral support.
I will start thread II with good news: I have a job starting Monday – The Search is over! The assessment went so well that the employer didn’t ask for references (@patdavid thanks for agreeing to be one).
I hope this thread won’t be just about me but more about you all. I realize most are uncomfortable with sharing openly about how they are IRL and that is okay. But do so if you wish. Sometimes, we have pent up feelings that need expressing or need a virtual hug. Of course, remember to respect each other and abide by my plea for civility: search for my “this-is-a-civilized-place” post.
BTW, the II in square brackets [II] reminds me of Bomberman. I miss that game series…
I, too, have a new position. Unusually for me, I went through an application and interview process. That’s unusual because in the Lutheran Church, a pastor is called from one place of service to another. In this case, however, I am starting work as the Queensland advocate for an International Aid Agency on Monday 4 July. I have arranged with the bishop that I remain officially on the Roll of Pastors, and will still be available to fill a pulpit (“freelance”) on a Sunday if I wish. After 9.5 years in parish ministry and 13 in Aged Care Chaplaincy, it’s quite a change of gear.
My referees - all 3 of them - did all have to give fairly lengthy (30-45 minute) interviews to endorse me.
Not the reason for the new job, but a happy fringe benefit: going to new places with new photography opportunities!
First of all: Great reading you have a job come this Monday! Congrats!!
Really!?
I’m not at all happy with this and would love to hear the rationale for it that you and @paperdigits (and/or @patdavid) came up with while discussing this unlisting.
The original topic wasn’t just about one person, many shared their situation and many replied with best wishes and/or similar experiences. Some might even got strength out of reading it even though they did nor reply in any way. All in all a good, although sometimes sad, thread that also showed that we are not alone out there. The fact that it had personal experiences made it what it is was.
Was removing a topic and all its replies actually discussed with one or more of the other admins/mods? These two words (I unlisted) seem to suggest it was not. If this was discussed it might have been a good idea to let some other moderator do the unlisting (when topic starter is also a moderator, as is in this case). Possible conflict of interest and all that. If I would be malicious I could argue that the timing, your new job, and the reason for removing, private content, are somewhat suspicious or it can at least be interpreted that way.
Please do not delete posts, let alone complete topics unless it is absolutely necessary.
As to my work, life, and other detours? Well after almost 2 whole years of waiting, and getting punted between consultants, I had my lumbar puncture yesterday, to hopefully be a step closer to getting a diagnosis of my long term health issues. Of course, the risk is, the results come back as inconclusive… Although now I am on a 3 year restricted “medical drivers license”
Work wise, looks like we’ll all be out on strike soon, due to fat cat CEOs attacking our terms and conditions (“no more sick pay, for you!”), while giving themselves multi million pound bonuses to the Share Holders.
However I do think my working life is coming to an end soon, with medical retirement probably on the cards. I only hope that whatever it is I eventually get a diagnosis of, it is such that it’ll be easier to claim disability benefit with.
My heart dropped at your comment. While liberating, the thread also destroyed me. I was in a dark place creating it and seeing it around. I have unlisted (i.e., it still exists) personal threads previously, prior to my elevation to moderator, but no one noticed, because that was usually the level of attention I got. If @patdavid or @paperdigits believe that this particular one should be revived, please PM me, and we will talk about it. That includes anyone else who participated and would like to see it made public. @Jade_NL Thanks for sharing your concern. I will get back to you.
I don’t remember having anything to do with it. If @afre was uncomfortable, I support the delisting, but I do understand the concern of @Jade_NL. Its not something that happens often (or ever before to the best of my knowledge).
@afre
I understand what you are saying, but wouldn’t it have been better to delete (part of) those specific too private replies you made (including the history) and leave the rest as is? It would have removed some context to certain answers you received, but most of the topic would still be there. This topic started out being about you but there where other stories told and replied to as well.
I made the assumption that due to the impact of removing a topic and all its replies this decision is made by more than one mod, maybe you, Mica, and Pat being the exceptions to this for hopefully obvious reasons.
Yeah, but this is the second time in a relatively short time that a topic+replies was removed from Pixls. And, although I know that this is subjective, the earlier one that you deleted had merit in my opinion, it being a toxic shouting match topic that got way out of hand. The removal of this latest one was based on the (few) replies of one single person that might have been too personal/private.
OK, I’ll stop about this, I’m not here to derail this new thread. I’m open for private discussions if Alan or Mica feel the need!
I have PMed another member who was active in telling their life situation and they are fine with my decision. The issue is more complex than I am letting on. I also have obligations to my former employer and I would like to protect people on the thread who made themselves vulnerable. There is an element of truth that whatever is discussed on the Internet persists, so those with means can always find what they are looking for to harm another.
At the end of the day, it was off-topic to this forum and its unlisting won’t take away from its on-topic discussions. Perhaps, I will do well to lock this one too, because it is equally off-topic. Let me know what you (not just @Jade_NL) think. I still appreciate the feedback. As humans, we are prone to make mistakes or have brain farts. No one is perfect, but we can learn.
Really glad to read that you’re back in work! I don’t have any problem with that older thread going, it doesn’t seem like one with archival value to me if it’s personal/off-topic stuff. It’s not as if memories of the conversations get wiped with it…
For b), https://www.adafruit.com/. They’ve got a lot of little gizmos to do such, with pretty good hookup documentation. FWIW, you might find Arduino to be a better platform for driving such, as the software to drive the devices is more easily integrated (downloadable “sketches”). I’ve recently done a bit of that with Raspberry Pis, and I had to write a bit of C code to glue it all together, and figure out the ins and outs of I2C…
For a), I used to know a bit about such, but my knowledge is horribly out of date.
Make them interactive… python3 with opencv (computer vision) is a pretty basic starting point. IRL I have encountered some professional rPi’s and ‘duinos over the years. In radio frequency and microwave work it is not uncommon to plop down a pi or arduino circuit in a board layout and start designing while waiting for the digital team to become unbusy who replace it with the BGA du jour. For many tasks, GitHub will have a few examples.
Anyhoo, it looks like another detour in my life coming up very soon. Either hours significantly cut at work (I’m already part time 30 hours a week), or redundancy / medical retirement…
Only upside, is I should know in a couple of weeks time at most what the situation is rather than things dragging on for months.
Currently, they are using https://github.com/Screenly/screenly-ose. I am at the setup stage. I have no experience with this at all and will have to figure it out first before moving on to the alternatives. My brain isn’t sharp: maybe it is the insomnia again.
If you have a Raspberry Pi, please help me by trying it out and see how far you get. At the moment, I am having issues loading it onto the RP4 B. The RP4 B keeps on looping startup and suggesting that I update to the latest OS but the Screenly image is what it is - not the RP OS.
I have 3 of those and a RP3 B+. B+ seemed to work but I couldn’t figure out how to get it to have a static IP (or at least set one - ATM, it generates a random one each power on).
Edit: I didn’t follow any tutorials. My next order of business is to do so.
). PM me or post here: thanks in advance!
I have no experience with this at all and will have to figure it out first before moving on to the alternatives. My brain isn’t sharp: maybe it is the insomnia again.