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Several lustrum ago i had a 1968 Dodge Charger, push button shift & a 440 engine...
I’d love to have something like that. Dodge had about the best automatic transmission at the time TorqueFlite 727 was bulletproof.
My bloated Ford F-250 with its diesel will push a person back in to the seat when you get on it. I was merging on to the interstate. By the time I was merging on to the road I was cooking along at 87 MPH and didn’t even realize it until looking at the speedometer. Whoops.
I'm a free man, having been released from City Data limbo/prison last night. I think I'm a 5 time loser now. I've been in stir so often I'm not sure how to function on the outside, so if I ask to use the restroom when that's clearly not necessary, please forgive me. Soon enough I'll be off to Zihuatenejo, where my good friend Andy, and hope, await me.
Chow, you are talking Miata. Take a look at the Fiat Spider 124. Pretty much a Miata body with a turbo. The price isn't terribly bad.
Watching Dodge Challenger videos on Youtube, I want one. Or it makes me miss my Lincoln. When it ran that Lincoln was a hotrod. It had a Flowmaster muffler that gave it some grunt.
Hawk, that was a good year for the Grand Cherokee. With the right tires they have some decent chops for off roading and trails.
Yeah, in my research on the Miata, I did come across the Spider and it looks like a pretty sharp little ride. I'm not really a small two seater type of guy, but they do look pretty cool.
Quote:
Originally Posted by homina12
Good morning,
I'm a free man, having been released from City Data limbo/prison last night. I think I'm a 5 time loser now. I've been in stir so often I'm not sure how to function on the outside, so if I ask to use the restroom when that's clearly not necessary, please forgive me. Soon enough I'll be off to Zihuatenejo, where my good friend Andy, and hope, await me.
I've been in the clink so many times now that I don't know how many "passes" I have left. I have since adapted a two, maybe three go arounds with someone and then I just drop it. LOL, it ain't worth the blood pressure spike.
Probably one of the best all time movies out there.
I have been rebuked, but not "in the clink." One thing I definitely had to learn, was when someone was baiting me (strong sign is if I'm trying to find new words to repeat the same idea more than a once or twice)...and when I'm in danger of bumping a thread off its tracks/topic or hijacking. Sometimes I have ideas, and I want to share them, and I'm responding to something, and it just...wanders. Have to make a conscious effort not to let it wander too far.
But I find this interesting in the sense that it's an evolution of writing ability for me, too. As a kid, I could write pages and pages. At first my teachers were impressed by my verbose ramblings (I mean, I was very literate for an elementary school child.) But as I got older, I started to be told I had to structure my ideas more coherently, and that for instance with business emails, I could not engage in wall-of-text explanations. My boss at one point literally said, "I'm sure that email is very well written. But I'm not going to read it. No one has time for this. Make it 1/4 the length and use bullet points." Oh...ok...
So in a way, even this forum, and having to communicate and connect in the ways that I wish to do with individuals, yet needing to bear in mind various points of TOS...it is shaping my abilities, I think. And since part of my future aspirations is published writing, I see this as a good thing.
I have been rebuked, but not "in the clink." One thing I definitely had to learn, was when someone was baiting me (strong sign is if I'm trying to find new words to repeat the same idea more than a once or twice)...and when I'm in danger of bumping a thread off its tracks/topic or hijacking. Sometimes I have ideas, and I want to share them, and I'm responding to something, and it just...wanders. Have to make a conscious effort not to let it wander too far.
But I find this interesting in the sense that it's an evolution of writing ability for me, too. As a kid, I could write pages and pages. At first my teachers were impressed by my verbose ramblings (I mean, I was very literate for an elementary school child.) But as I got older, I started to be told I had to structure my ideas more coherently, and that for instance with business emails, I could not engage in wall-of-text explanations. My boss at one point literally said, "I'm sure that email is very well written. But I'm not going to read it. No one has time for this. Make it 1/4 the length and use bullet points." Oh...ok...
So in a way, even this forum, and having to communicate and connect in the ways that I wish to do with individuals, yet needing to bear in mind various points of TOS...it is shaping my abilities, I think. And since part of my future aspirations is published writing, I see this as a good thing.
I always know when I'm about to get busted. I have a mean and vulgar streak I'm tempted to say I need to indulge occasionally, but that's not entirely accurate. I like to indulge it occasionally.
This goes way back. In 6th grade I called some guy a *****, which was common parlance in a catholic school in 1968. So Sister Everista hit me with a dictionary and tried to scold me by saying that people who curse have poor vocabularies. I let the ringing in my left ear subside and then responded that the word I used was not really a reference to a woman's anatomy, but was short for pusillanimous, and then I spelled and defined pusillanimous for her. She hit me in the right ear with the dictionary and sent me to the principal, who ironically had me write out 3 pages of the dictionary.
I have been rebuked, but not "in the clink." One thing I definitely had to learn, was when someone was baiting me (strong sign is if I'm trying to find new words to repeat the same idea more than a once or twice)...and when I'm in danger of bumping a thread off its tracks/topic or hijacking. Sometimes I have ideas, and I want to share them, and I'm responding to something, and it just...wanders. Have to make a conscious effort not to let it wander too far.
But I find this interesting in the sense that it's an evolution of writing ability for me, too. As a kid, I could write pages and pages. At first my teachers were impressed by my verbose ramblings (I mean, I was very literate for an elementary school child.) But as I got older, I started to be told I had to structure my ideas more coherently, and that for instance with business emails, I could not engage in wall-of-text explanations. My boss at one point literally said, "I'm sure that email is very well written. But I'm not going to read it. No one has time for this. Make it 1/4 the length and use bullet points." Oh...ok...
So in a way, even this forum, and having to communicate and connect in the ways that I wish to do with individuals, yet needing to bear in mind various points of TOS...it is shaping my abilities, I think. And since part of my future aspirations is published writing, I see this as a good thing.
My whole career I was a "technical" guy, I still am, but not in the same way since I've changed jobs. People who lean technical and engineer types aren't typically always the most skilled when it comes to relaying technical information to a non-technical audience. The ability to condense, draw parallels and as you said bullet point things out in a way that people can digest is a pretty good skillset to have. I'm working on that and I still struggle at times. You have to figure out a way to not lose people. I sit in meeting all the time and I see that when certain subjects go too deep into the "weeds" that you lose people, people glaze over and you've lost a certain amount of people in the room. It's challenging at times.
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
41,936 posts, read 36,995,252 times
Reputation: 40635
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chowhound
My whole career I was a "technical" guy, I still am, but not in the same way since I've changed jobs. People who lean technical and engineer types aren't typically always the most skilled when it comes to relaying technical information to a non-technical audience. The ability to condense, draw parallels and as you said bullet point things out in a way that people can digest is a pretty good skillset to have. I'm working on that and I still struggle at times. You have to figure out a way to not lose people. I sit in meeting all the time and I see that when certain subjects go too deep into the "weeds" that you lose people, people glaze over and you've lost a certain amount of people in the room. It's challenging at times.
Sometimes less is truly more.
It often is. I was a STEM major for my first undergrad degree. We were taught, in effect, to write in scientific journal format. Intro/materials&methods, etc etc / conclusion. Brevity was fine. Use the space you need to lay out your hypothesis, your experiment/research, your analysis and your conclusions. Often it could be quite brief if all went well.
When I went to grad school for a more policy type focus, it was "25 pages by Monday on _______". I was totally flummoxed. Why in the world would they want 25 pages when I could make my argument well, with support, in 10? But, that's the way it was, and I learned to play that game. It's still a "game", depending on the audience/client, but it sure can be exasperating at times.
And explaining science/technical stuff to lay audiences is a challenge. I do it a lot. The problem is, well, I frustrate the more technical experts I work with, because with a fair amount of science, to distill it down to an understandable level for the layperson, we're technically getting it not quite right. There is some fudging to make it understandable. But that's often been the case, even in school. The 200 classes told you "remember what we taught you in 100? Well, that's not quite right, in reality______" and that happens each time the deeper in the weeds one gets.
Last edited by timberline742; 10-18-2019 at 11:33 AM..
But I find this interesting in the sense that it's an evolution of writing ability for me, too. As a kid, I could write pages and pages. At first my teachers were impressed by my verbose ramblings (I mean, I was very literate for an elementary school child.) But as I got older, I started to be told I had to structure my ideas more coherently, and that for instance with business emails, I could not engage in wall-of-text explanations. My boss at one point literally said, "I'm sure that email is very well written. But I'm not going to read it. No one has time for this. Make it 1/4 the length and use bullet points." Oh...ok...
So in a way, even this forum, and having to communicate and connect in the ways that I wish to do with individuals, yet needing to bear in mind various points of TOS...it is shaping my abilities, I think. And since part of my future aspirations is published writing, I see this as a good thing.
Sometime the process of writing is how I think things through, if so I am quite verbose because my mind wonders around while I am working through the various issues. You may have seen that in some of my threads.
But if I think before I write, then I can be a lot more to the point. Also if I understand a topic a lot better, I am much more to the point.
Yeah, same goes with my line of work. Half the time it's not as detailed and the other half the time it's much more involved.
The line of work I'm in now is one where there is really no "deliverables" other than reports. I came from a more hands on position to this one I'm in now and it's been a struggle to go from producing something a little more concrete to basically providing reports.
One of our tasks is to provide a "Final Systems Report", that one is the biggie that has to be polished and look "professional." When I first started this job and the guy I'm working with gave me an example of one of those final reports it came off as redundant as hell to me. Sometimes we work with systems that are pretty extensive and complicated, other times we have much smaller projects.
My supervisor has a thing with producing large manuals and documentation, he thinks it is a good thing. I guess it can be perceived that way by the customer because it looks like were really doing something. It's one of his things he likes. So I'm going through the example and I think, Jesus, this is way redundant and unnecessarily longer than it needs to be all in an attempt to dress up a simple system and to make it sound more impressive you have to get creative. All this nonsense in the attempt to produce a thoroughly documented final project.
I really do have a less is more approach as I also have a thing with boring people. I tend to talk fast because I hate to bore people. I wished more people would approach life that way as well. I don't have as much patience as I used to I guess and to me I respect people's time and when I ask for the time, please don't tell me how to build a watch.
No offense to our southern friends, but the same goes to you too folks, pick it up please.
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
41,936 posts, read 36,995,252 times
Reputation: 40635
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chowhound
No offense to our southern friends, but the same goes to you too folks, pick it up please.
Oh god, yes. I smile and nod, but inside I'm like, GET TO YOUR POINT. If I need the minutiae to put the point in context or flesh it out, we'll get to it then. Chop chop.
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