A Wild Lurker Appears! Hyoi's Random Banter #232

[Peelee]

Been looking into lab tech jobs, and like with software testing it looks like the main thing I'm missing (besides 'is my degree in this lab's field) is experience as a lab tech.

I hate this kind of job.

What's stopping you from applying anyway? Fortune favors the bold.

[Anonymouswizard]

What's stopping you from applying anyway? Fortune favors the bold.

Which is why I'm still applying when I find suitable labs, It's just really annoying that everybody wants experience.

[Rater202]

What's stopping you from applying anyway? Fortune favors the bold.

If a job requires work experience, they won't hire someone with no experience unless you have an "in" with the company.

If they apply, the best-case scenario is a different position, most likely doing more work for less pay than the techs while getting less respect.

"Experience in this field" required is basically a way of trying to keep new meat out of the industry or force them into more menial jobs in order to "pay dues" that odds are they've already paid off.

The entire thing is toxic.

And that's assuming that the position hasn't already been filled but they put out a listing for it anyway for legal reasons

That aside, yes, apply anyway. You might get lucky, and it's not like there are any fair job opportunities in this world.

[Peelee]

Which is why I'm still applying when I find suitable labs, It's just really annoying that everybody wants experience.

If I was looking for a dream candidate, I'd put down dream candidate bullet points too. Wouldn't stop me from taking someone good enough. Job listing are like negotiations, I figure.

[Anonymouswizard]

If I was looking for a dream candidate, I'd put down dream candidate bullet points too. Wouldn't stop me from taking someone good enough. Job listing are like negotiations, I figure.

Ohb, I know why it's there. Still as annoying as only being allowed one other household in my bubble when I'm dating multiple people.

[DavidSh]

On the other side, nobody wants to take the productivity hit of having their experienced people spending half their time training the new people. So if you can in some way demonstrate that you are a quick learner, it might help.

[halfeye]

I wasn't clear. The way English speakers pronounce "e" is the way evry other language using this alphabet that I am aware of (and that includes german, so it's not a germanic/romance thing) pronounces the letter "i".

There is no definitive English pronounciation of any letters, it varies with accents and dialects. There are a lot of people who spell "than" t.h.e.n., presumably in that word they pronounce the 'a' as e, I always wonder how they pronounce "then". The American name for 'z' is "zee" in England the name is "zed", those are both english. In the Bristol dialect, words which end with a vowel sound, have an L added onto the end. You don't hear it that much any more, but it's apparently where the name Bristol itself came from, and I have sometimes heard windows refered to as "windles".

[Rater202]

In some stories where "MAgic" and what we would recognize as modern science are both things that exist and are treated as equally valid, you occasionally get people saying that Magic is just a science that people don't understand yet but someday someone will "crack the code" and figure out how to explain it with proper scientific models and then there will be scientists studying magic.

But... Isn't a scientist who studies magic and how it works just a wizard?

[Lord Raziere]

In some stories where "MAgic" and what we would recognize as modern science are both things that exist and are treated as equally valid, you occasionally get people saying that Magic is just a science that people don't understand yet but someday someone will "crack the code" and figure out how to explain it with proper scientific models and then there will be scientists studying magic.

But... Isn't a scientist who studies magic and how it works just a wizard?

Well on one hand, Isn't a wizard who sufficiently explains how he does what he does just a scientist? any sufficiently analyzed magic is a science/technology. any sufficiently advanced technology is magic to those who don't understand it and thus haven't analyzed (or can't analyze) the technology to understand it fully by figuring out the science behind it. its a continuum of sorts.

though on the other hand in my personal opinion, people equate magic and science too much sometimes, erase too much of their differences. science is all about revealing and discovering the secrets it finds then sharing it, while magic often has themes of keeping such secrets hidden, mysterious and distinctly "other" from normal existence. people post-modernize magic into being science by another name too much and forget what makes magic magical: the occult, the arcane, the esoteric, the unfamiliar, the mysterious, the wondrous. all because people think they're clever by ignoring all aesthetics and little details that make one thing different from another thing so they put everything into incredibly wide umbrellas because of an abstract underlying structure they want to see. its annoys me sometimes.

[Fyraltari]

In some stories where "MAgic" and what we would recognize as modern science are both things that exist and are treated as equally valid, you occasionally get people saying that Magic is just a science that people don't understand yet but someday someone will "crack the code" and figure out how to explain it with proper scientific models and then there will be scientists studying magic.

But... Isn't a scientist who studies magic and how it works just a wizard?

That rather depends on how the magic and magic users are presented. Historically (and in real life as far as that goes) magic was understood as begging or bartering with more powerful beings through rituals or sacrifices for them to act in the practioner's favour which is about as far from the scientific method as you can get.

Likewise, if the incantations and rituals do hold power of their own do the wizards just repeat stuff passed from their forebears without understanding it or are they actually trying to work out the underlying mechanics, coming up with new uses and trying to fit the mecanism within a model of reality that also explains more mundane phenomena like special relativity? If they're doing the former and not the latter then they're not scientists.

Finally stories where science and magic coexist often belong to the urban fantasy genre where the magic belongs to a "hidden world" or sorts where the larger scientific community is actively being kept from learning about magic making the claim of "science we don't understand yet" somewhat accurate.

[Form]

Been looking into lab tech jobs, and like with software testing it looks like the main thing I'm missing (besides 'is my degree in this lab's field) is experience as a lab tech.

I hate this kind of job.

Are these entry level positions? Yeah, kind of BS to demand experience if they are. How do companies think people get experience to begin with?

[Cazero]

Historically (and in real life as far as that goes) magic was understood as begging or bartering with more powerful beings through rituals or sacrifices for them to act in the practioner's favour which is about as far from the scientific method as you can get.

Hold it right there.
No matter how innaccurate they are (yet) and how much we despise them, social sciences are still scientific.

[halfeye]

In some stories where "MAgic" and what we would recognize as modern science are both things that exist and are treated as equally valid, you occasionally get people saying that Magic is just a science that people don't understand yet but someday someone will "crack the code" and figure out how to explain it with proper scientific models and then there will be scientists studying magic.

But... Isn't a scientist who studies magic and how it works just a wizard?

I would say that the difference between science and magic is entropy. Science is stuff that works within entropy, magic is stuff that ignores entropy.

[Rater202]

Is Gilmore Girls basically just Seinfeld with different characters?

My mom's been binging it and every time I walk out they're having a conversation that I swear to god sounds like the kind of pointless conversations you'd see in an episode of Seinfeld.

[Anonymouswizard]

But... Isn't a scientist who studies magic and how it works just a wizard?

You and I have read vastly different Harry Potter books. Or, in other words, wizard=magic scientist is a D&Dism.

Remember, in modern English wizard, sorcerer, and in fact most terms for 'magic user' are technically interchangeable, magician only isn't because it also refers to a practyitioner of stage magic. In fact I believe that both witch and wizard are even gender neutral in modern English despite not being used as such by most people.

In Earthsea wizard is mostly an advanced rank for spellcasters, although there are complications (I believe wizard is where celibacy begins, for instance), in Second A[pocalypse it means 'Sorcerer not associated with a school', and I believe there's at least one series of books where the only magic wizards can do is demon summoning (while other varieties of magician use actual spells).

So no, a scientist who studies magic is not just a wizard. They are a wizard, assuming they practice a system of magic people in their world associate with wizards, but they are also a scientist.

[LaZodiac]

Is it weird that I find learning about ways the Earth could be destroyed and the science behind how that would work relaxing?

On this discussion; did you know that I am technically living on top of a doomsday weapon?

The mines up here in Yellowknife are extensive, and are FULL of arsenic. Thanks to the cold we're able to keep it all frozen in a non rising state, but... it'd be entirely possible to get it out.

There's enough arsenic total to flood the entire ecosystem to the point of global crisis like, three times over.

Is Gilmore Girls basically just Seinfeld with different characters?

My mom's been binging it and every time I walk out they're having a conversation that I swear to god sounds like the kind of pointless conversations you'd see in an episode of Seinfeld.

Basically yeah.

[Rater202]

Basically yeah.

Like, seriously, in one episode a guy rants over the phone about the costs of apartments and how they all seem to be trying to screw over the renters and I swear to god I've heard the same general argument in the same tone from George Costanza.

[Rater202]

"Fabricate evidence and lie to children for years about the existence of Santa Claus = genius" but "make up fake fortune cookie messages = excessively manipulative" is an interesting take to have.

I think the dessert/dessert thing is hilarious but only ok if you already have a positive, trusting relationship with the child, and you would definitely need to pay up the promised delicious treat once you've had your laugh.

I think that there's a difference between selling the magic of a holiday to children and actively telling a child who can't read yet, who is thus dependant on you, that their fortune cookie fortune says "always listen to your father, he knows better than you."

The first is harmless, the second... Isn't nessesarily bad, but it's kind of a jerk move and honestly a bit of a red flag.

The third wasn't a "desert/dessert" thing, that was me not paying attention to the spelling.

This was the dad promising his children that they'd be trying a brand new and special treat called "zilch" for dessert that night and then gave them empty bowls and said it was their fault for not looking up what 'zilch' meant in the dictionary.

That seems relatively minor, but that's the kind of crap that can damage a child's ability to trust their parent: If a parent is willing to pull such a mean prank on their kids, can they be trusted for something more serious?

[Anonymouswizard]

Been doing more messing around with RPG Maker trying to make a game, and urgh. While I've got the hang of scripting and the like creating spells and enemies can be tedious. Due to how I've decided to set everything up I've had to scrap the default spells and write my own, and that means eight attack spells, per element, just for PC-useable magic without even considering status creation and removeal spells (which should hopefully be simpler).I just go blargh when I'm having to manually copy things that I've given a consistent formula to. It should be better when I'm designing later game enemies and bosses and can just make spells as needed instead of in one go.

Like, I'll take a break and add another scene to the story soon, but I want to try to get the base of the game all set up before I get into the first 'random encounters' area.

[Rater202]

If you had the ability to do everything you ever needed to do without ever leaving your bed if you didn't want to... Would you? Just stay in bed all day when you feel like it?

[Peelee]

If you had the ability to do everything you ever needed to do without ever leaving your bed if you didn't want to... Would you? Just stay in bed all day when you feel like it?

Of course not. There's a difference between needs and wants. I need to poop. I want to read a book in a hammock on a shady, warm spring day, or read a book under a shady umbrella on a gulf beach in the summer, or read a book in a rocking chair with a blanket on the covered porch in the fall. Mostly I just want to reach books in nice places.

Theres also gardening. And plenty of people love their jobs or would go to school forever.

[factotum]

If you had the ability to do everything you ever needed to do without ever leaving your bed if you didn't want to... Would you? Just stay in bed all day when you feel like it?

No. A few years ago when I was out of work for a few months I tried, experimentally, just not changing out of my nightwear all day. Frankly, I felt icky by the end of the day--there's just something not comfortable about wearing the same clothes for 24 hours on end.

[Anonymouswizard]

No. A few years ago when I was out of work for a few months I tried, experimentally, just not changing out of my nightwear all day. Frankly, I felt icky by the end of the day--there's just something not comfortable about wearing the same clothes for 24 hours on end.

Yep, plus it's hard to bathe properly in the stuff. While I don't always wash when I get up I do use it as a way to force me to change when I'm not going out.

Plus lying down all day doesn't feel goo, as my lockdown taught me fairly quickly. If I could lie in as long as I want and then get up to the things I need and/or want to do it would be a different story.

Plus, you know, bathing in the same place you sleep sounds risky. Is this the random omnipotent being handing out offers again? I knew something was fishy.


Anyway, because haircuts are now allowed again I have invested in a good pair of dining shoes. I shall flee all the barbers!

[factotum]

Anyway, because haircuts are now allowed again I have invested in a good pair of dining shoes. I shall flee all the barbers!

Or treat them to lunch, more likely by the sound of it.

[Anonymouswizard]

Or treat them to lunch, more likely by the sound of it.

I hate swipos.

[Rater202]

More grilled cheese experiments. Remember when I did that?

Pepperoni and Colby jack on white bread that's been lightly coated in conala before frying is a odd but not unpleasant combination of flavors.

[Peelee]

grilled cheese
[snip]
Pepperoni

Not familiar with the reddit user "u/****_blue_shells", I take it? The Meltdown, as it has become known, is quite the read.

1. There is a very good reason I'm not linking it.
2. I'm only referencing it for humor purposes your sammich sounds delightful!

[Lacco]

The storm glass I got from my sister got broken today. Luckily, no kids were present at that moment and it spilled on the floor. We managed to clean it up before kids got back from kindergarden. Since it did not come with a manual, I only now found out it contained some camphor - had I known that, it would have ended in trash long ago. So much for my sister's great gift-giving sense.

Still, the whole kitchen smells of eucalyptus now. It's irritating. I got a minor headache while cleaning up.

Anyone knows any good tricks how to remove the smell?

[Rater202]

So I'm rewatching TFS(specifically Scott/Kaiser and Ben/HBI2K) play No More Heroes, which they did a couple years ago before Ben left the group for those who pay attention to that kind of thing.

For those of you who don't know, no more heroes is a... controversial and honestly kind of silly game about an otaku who becomes an assassin becuase he needed money and gets involved in a contest to become the world's best-ranked assassin. The plot somehow manages to be both simple and overly complicated at the same time.

However, a significant amount of the gameplay loop is "driving a motorcycle around the hub level and/or doing odd jobs in order to get the money to upgrade your equipment or pay the increasingly steep fees for this competition."

And honestly, ignoring everything else about it for a moment, driving a motorcycle around a livly but mostly empty suburban area while occasionally stopping to do simple jobs whose reward is directly proportionate to your effort seems like it'd be pretty relaxing. I mean, in real life I'd want a helmet, but otherwise?

Is that weird "morotbiking through an empty suburb would be relaxing?" That's not a strange opinion, is it?

[Peelee]

That's not a strange opinion, is it?

Short version, most of your opinions or daydreams aren't weird. They're just human.