Weeeeeeeeeeeell fuck.
Here we are again. Thursday night’s prep for Friday’s post. What to talk about. I’m kind of stuck in this state of having so much to deal with I can’t focus on one thing I need to do. Generally I can choose a task and complete it, then move on to the next thing, but recently I’ve just sort of frozen when confronted by a group of things. Since I don’t block out all thought to do with things other than what I’m doing I don’t work as fast and task start to back up. I’m finally starting to reach a level of overwhelm that I can’t power through. Another thing that I do when I reach these points is I start to get distracted by the desire to play. Usually I can ignore that urge. Which is why I have literally a 20 year backlog of incomplete games. Of course the problem is that when I reach this state even when I do allow myself to goof off I want to play something I find comforting. Old games I’ve already completed. Recently that game has been SimCity SNES. I don’t need to finish it. You can’t really finish it at all apart from picking a goal and achieving it. I just like noodling around building different city layouts.

Of course my copy is an original, so the battery was extremely old and it died. My response to this was to get out the soldering set I inherited from my brother in law, and learn how to replace batteries in old games. This amounted to listening to 2 40 minute crash courses on 2X speed and memorizing what I heard. I looked at what they were actually doing when it seemed like something I needed to see to understand. So, after 40 minutes or so I felt like I knew enough to accomplish this task I didn’t really NEED to do. I was able to remove the old battery and solder the new one to the board and now my game saves again. Battery replacement is very much an entry level soldering task. I’ve seen it done in retro modding videos many time, so I had some understanding of what I was getting into already. I bought enough batteries that I could replace all of the ones in my collection and then some. They’re quite cheap. Really, what I should do I fix my Pokemon games, put them in their boxes, and sell them. There’s probably a lot of my collection I don’t need to keep anymore. I’m just being sentimental about it.

I dunno. If nothing else I’ve picked up the basics of a new skill I’ve been interested in for a long time. I didn’t get things done I needed to do in a timely manner, but there’s a silver lining at least. I should go to the local radio Shack and get more of the supplies you need to do soldering properly. I assume they would keep that sort of thing around. Although I’ve never even looked in walmart for braiding wicks or anything. Maybe they have it too. I’ve just become accustomed to them not having things anymore.

One of the things I originally wanted to do after I learned to solder is to make a new light bulb housing for the Tomb Of Doom playset from Tonka’s Super Naturals. The original version is just a standard light bulb with a weird battery of uncommon dimensions. They still make the battery but this toy is the only thing I’ve ever seen one used in. I can, in theory, wire up an LED that will be brighter, last longer, and use less power. The light should also be more clear and white so that the hologram gimmick will work better. I guess I can actually do that now. I have all the stuff I need basically. But I should do all the other important things first…

Bleh. Anyway, there’s another look behind the curtain. I’m goofing around when I should be doing things for money. Which is why I’m not excelling! You gotta get on that grind to succeed! XD

As always, support links are above the post. If you would like to ensure I keep telling the strange tales of these fictional lives please consider becoming a patron. I hope you have a safe and pleasant weekend and will return to me on Monday to see where this kooky guy takes his impromptu class. Until then, transform and rise up!

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I’ve never really figured out what motivates any particular person working under me. I have always set the tone, been friendly, been fair, worked harder than them, and just expected them to follow along. If they didn’t, I’d try to work with them, get them on track, but I’d get rid of them if they didn’t fall in line. I always had pretty good success, at least as much as I could when the overlords over me were underpaying the staff and not letting me make things work better.

That’s because most (or at least a pretty significant chunk of) people are motivated by respect and camaraderie, especially when underpaid and probably used to managers that *didn’t* respect them. It might not be a *primary* motivating factor for a huge percentage of people, but it’s a pretty solid starting point. It really *shouldn’t* be surprising, but it turns out that treating people like people goes a long way to motivating them to do what you want.

The next step from there is to figure out what motivates them in particular. Honestly, for the purposes of most jobs,this much is sufficient, though. Some are motivated by status, some are motivated by challenge, some are motivated by accomplishment, some are motivated by family, some are motivated by fun, some are motivated by curiosity, etc. Many of these things are intangible, which means they are either way easier or way harder to provide, depending on the nature of the job and what you are able to bring to the table personally.

Nail on the head. There are two reasons to go to work. Money and because humans like to talk in front of each other. If you can’t offer enough money then you gotta offer a place people actually want to come in to every day.

This is why Thomas is a born leader. He really sells the “honorary head of a community you actually want to join” vibe very well. Thomas though knows he doesn’t need to put himself on the pedestal to accomplish this and would rather not be the one on the block when things come to a head. Which is why he is just simply not a leader even though he has natural aptitude for it. The increase in pay and social standing is not worth the extra stress to him.

It’s his biggest character flaw and the author has written it so perfectly over the years we sometimes forget without ever really forgetting that in the end. Thomas is kind of underachieving on purpose.

I’m not sure I’d call a lack of ambition and being generally content with one’s current position (even if one dislikes said position, one can be content with it by accepting that most or all alternatives available to them would be worse in some way) a character flaw. Work is there to support life, not the other way around, if one’s idea of a happy, fulfilling life does not necessitate financial or career success, then what you do to fund your lifestyle doesn’t really matter. Some may call that underachieving because they are *capable* of reaching significantly higher plateaus in their career, but if that is not something they *want* out of life, why is it more worth putting their effort toward career advancement/achievement than their hobbies or loved ones or whatever else they consider important?

The life we had is ended. The world tomorrow isn’t here yet.

There’s no time like the present. And there’s no present like Aardvark in a Can!

…that’s not how you spell “Log,” sir. And Log is the best thing ever.

It rolls down stairs. Alone or in pairs. And rolls over your neighbor’s dog.

It’s great for a snack. It fits on your back.

It’s Log. Log, Log.

In the organisation that I used to work for, it was a corporate article of faith that the only way to motivate people (even to do things that they were not strictly speaking required to do as part of their jobs; no, not that) was to dangle the prospect of promotion in front of them, which meant that they were not keen on people like me, however good we were at our jobs, who got to a particular level and were content to stay there.

Or worse, figured out the con and didn’t rise to it.

Many supervisors fail to understand this and it’s always very frustrating.

Last month my boss called me up a half hour after I already got home and wanted me to come back in to do something.

I told him I wanted the call in rate which was four times overtime. He refused so I hung up on him.

He then called me back asking for my coworkers numbers and I told him he should have them already and hung up against.

My lead then called me and told me he’d give me a paid day off any day I wanted if I came in.

I told him all they had to do was play ball. I came in, took me like a half an hour and went home.

If we push the recent meme of it meme hard enough, maybe we can get the corporate world to realize a pizza party isn’t a cure all either.

2707 How To Basic.

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