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The Out Of Work & Burnin’ Down The House Complaint Thread.

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  • TJohnTJohn Posts: 11,227
    edited December 1969

    Kyoto Kid said:
    ...well in the Bummer of a Monday dept. Logged on to declare my first week's UC claim (what is called the "waiting week" - no benefits) and told that, as I did not declare the week previous (so there is supposedly now a "gap" of time that needed to be accounted for), I have to restart my claim. Waitaminute, wasn't I told everything was set?

    Now, I held off reporting the first week after I was laid off, as I received several letters which mentioned that I had to see an intake worker as the next part of the process.

    So last week I went to the orientation and was assigned an intake worker where mentioned that I didn't declare the previous week. He told me that would be fine, and I could use last week (23rd - 30th) as the "waiting week" week as long as I filed first thing in the new week. Now I am told I have to restart my claim. Excuse me?

    The real irritant in all this is that I cannot do so online, I have to call them. I do not have a phone and in these days of cell/wireless, the once ubiquitous phone booth has become about as scarce as water in the mid Sahara (Superman must be having a really rough time these days, maybe he uses the loo now: "This is a job for *flushflooshgurgle* SUPERMAN"). They let you sign up, file your weekly claim, and look for work (and even submit resume's applications) online, but to deal with this I have to make a bloody stupid phone call.

    So my choices are, hunt around the neighbourhood for a pay phone (where I'm not drowned out by traffic noise), or spend another 5$ bus fare, plus several hours of my day going out to the burbs (where the centre is located), to deal with this after I was told everything was OK and my claim was ready to go.

    Do these people know where their left foot is?


    I believe it's called "Red Tape".
    You may call it by your favorite expletive. (grumbles with KK "Stupid bloody sanctimonious useless bureaucratic $&%#!")
  • RezcaRezca Posts: 3,393
    edited December 1969

    Is finished finally :D

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  • RezcaRezca Posts: 3,393
    edited December 1969

    Hahaha an Easter Egg material preview object? XD

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  • DanaTADanaTA Posts: 13,263
    edited December 1969

    Kyoto Kid said:
    ...I'm just a bit miffed that they have to make me use such an archaic device like a phone to deal with this. I guess I should be glad I don't have to post them a hand written signed letter (which would first go from Portland, 160 miles up to Seattle for presort, then back down to Salem OR which is 50 miles south of Portland).

    Yeah, that always made me wonder about the Postal service. In my area, things often go to Providence, RI before coming back. when I lived in Fall River, MA, it would take a week for a bill to go to the other side of town, because it first went to Providence to be sorted and routed! :-/ I could walk it over faster...much faster. I could cross the city on foot in less than an hour.

    Dana

  • DanaTADanaTA Posts: 13,263
    edited December 1969

    tjohn said:

    I believe it's called "Red Tape".
    You may call it by your favorite expletive. (grumbles with KK "Stupid bloody sanctimonious useless bureaucratic $&%#!")

    In my old city, it was because they spent millions on the new sorting unit in Providence, so they had to send everything from the whole region there, simply to justify the expense it took to build it, and to pay the people working there! It was a pretty lame excuse, even then!

    Dana

  • DanaTADanaTA Posts: 13,263
    edited December 1969

    Rezca said:
    Is finished finally :D

    Sweet!

    Dana

  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 41,249
    edited December 1969

    ...the running joke with Canada's postal system used to be if you, lived in say Winnipeg and were posting a letter to Toronto, giving it to a someone who was travelling there to post locally, significantly upped the chances of it reaching the recipient.

  • DanaTADanaTA Posts: 13,263
    edited December 1969

    Kyoto Kid said:
    ...the running joke with Canada's postal system used to be if you, lived in say Winnipeg and were posting a letter to Toronto, giving it to a someone who was travelling there to post locally, significantly upped the chances of it reaching the recipient.

    I have to say that the US Postal Service has gotten much better over recent years. Although, perhaps that is because a lot of people are using email and social media to correspond, and many are paying bills online, too. That's probably it, actually.

    Dana

  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 41,249
    edited April 2013

    ...doesn't surprise me that they are losing volume as competition has also come from the private carriers like UPS, FedEx and DHL who all provide express letter service which can actually be tracked enroute. Received my 32GB USB stick via DHL "mail" and not only got it in less than three full days, but on a Saturday as well.

    When I recently had package sent to me via UPS, I was able to track it every stage of the trip as well as redirect it for a minimal charge to a UPS store outlet to pick it up on my way home from work.

    People will pay if they know it will get there on time and can monitor it's progress. Even USPS's Priority and Express mail tracking is a joke (and you have to pay extra for it while online tracking is automatically included with the other carriers' services).

    About the only thing I feel that is keeping the USPS in business these days is "recycle bin filler". as many periodicals (even comic books) have gone electronic (heck, even some news dailies like the Seattle P-I only offer an electronic version). About the only thing I ever physically post anymore are my tax forms (that "free" electronic filing is actually not so free as you still have to sign up for one of the services and pay a fee).

    Post edited by kyoto kid on
  • DanaTADanaTA Posts: 13,263
    edited December 1969

    Our tax person doesn't charge extra for electronic filing, just a flat fee for her service. And we get direct deposit. I like it that way, it's much faster...and no need to worry about anything getting lost in the mail.

    I got something by DHL mail last year, too. I seem to remember it was pretty fast.

    Dana

  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 41,249
    edited April 2013

    ...mine are not so complicated that I cannot do them myself and save the fee. I tried to do the "free" electronic filing through the IRS one year and when everything was ready to submit was routed to the "TurboTax" site where I had to pay them 9.95$ before I could send the forms off.


    This is why I do them early and keep backups of everything (both electronic and hard copy). A 46¢ stamp is a lot more cost effective and as long as it is postmarked before midnight on 04/15 all is good. Never had my forms delayed or lost.

    Post edited by kyoto kid on
  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 41,249
    edited December 1969

    ...ohmygosh, sitting here at the cafe and just looked up, Suddenly I felt I was in a Young Teens render.


    ...guess school just let out.

  • ps1borgps1borg Posts: 12,776
    edited December 1969

    Morning. Wet, grey warmish kinda day, not enough rain to make puddles but just enough to make everything shine a little :)

  • DanaTADanaTA Posts: 13,263
    edited December 1969

    Rained here today, too. Late in the afternoon, though. Better than snow!

    Dana

  • RezcaRezca Posts: 3,393
    edited April 2013

    Dawww a friend of mine who knows I love the hydras in Warcraft did this as a gift for me, and I didn't even ask her to do it XD

    She's so nice, tolerant of my stranger interests and enjoys talking about our art :3

    haha, even implied the outcome if the image (Before I could make a similar comment :P )
    "No matter which head you choose, you'll end up in the same place. They've got multiple heads and mouths, but only one belly." XD

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    Post edited by Rezca on
  • RezcaRezca Posts: 3,393
    edited December 1969

    Random glow-y thing drop o3o

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  • ps1borgps1borg Posts: 12,776
    edited December 1969

    Rezca said:
    Random glow-y thing drop o3o

    Glowy thingy is real nice :)

  • DanaTADanaTA Posts: 13,263
    edited December 1969

    Rezca said:
    Random glow-y thing drop o3o

    Nice colors, and sharp contrast between the hard lines and sharp angles and that snakey thing that flows.

    Dana

  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 41,249
    edited December 1969

    ps1borg said:
    Rezca said:
    Random glow-y thing drop o3o

    Glowy thingy is real nice :)
    ...I concur. Will have to wait until I get Carrara installed to play with stuff like that.

  • RezcaRezca Posts: 3,393
    edited December 1969

    Glad folks liked my glowy thing ^_^

    To be honest I only spent about ten or fifteen minutes on it XD (Not including the twenty minutes rendering)


    Step 1: I wanted some glowy thing in a dark room
    Step 2: Added plane object for floor
    Step 3: Added a Platonic primitive
    Step 4: Selected all vertices, picked Extrude Inner and disabled "Preserve Groups" and made a new polyon in the middle of each face.
    Step 5: Extruded these inwards, then used Extrude Inner again, and Extruded them back out.
    Step 6: Selected the insides and applied a Diffuse (Plain) material with Emission (GLow? :P ) enabled. Set the Emission Type to 'Blackbody' and a temperature of 1,700K
    Step 7: Drew some freehand splines, placed them in a Sweep object, set the Camera ISO/F-Stop, and changed Tonemapping from Reinhard to a Camera simulation (Lights are too muted and dull with Reinhard.)
    Step 8: Hit render =3

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  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 41,249
    edited December 1969

    ...OK another Kid drop here.

    Played around with UE a bit tonight. Decided to see just what my beast could do so cranked up the Occlusion Sample rate to 512 (as high as it would go), Ray Distance to 500, and render ray trace depth to 4.

    1 UE light as the Primary source with soft shadows
    1 UE light as the Ambient with no shadows
    1 Spotlight Helper with ray traced shadows at 25% softness
    2 Linear Point lights with ray traced shadows at 15% softness

    ...total render time: 4 min 2 seconds.

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  • RezcaRezca Posts: 3,393
    edited December 1969

    Four minutes? :O

  • DanaTADanaTA Posts: 13,263
    edited December 1969

    Kyoto Kid said:
    ...OK another Kid drop here.

    Played around with UE a bit tonight. Decided to see just what my beast could do so cranked up the Occlusion Sample rate to 512 (as high as it would go), Ray Distance to 500, and render ray trace depth to 4.

    1 UE light as the Primary source with soft shadows
    1 UE light as the Ambient with no shadows
    1 Spotlight Helper with ray traced shadows at 25% softness
    2 Linear Point lights with ray traced shadows at 15% softness

    ...total render time: 4 min 2 seconds.

    Cool! Is that Genesis with the old V4 texture?

    Dana

  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 41,249
    edited December 1969

    ...looks like those eighteen months of system design research and careful purchasing paid off. :cheese:


    Yep, she is a beastie alright.


    Of course other than the OS, its basic utilities, and the proggie for my 3G modem (only used for direct updates and software registration), there is nothing else to vie for resources so all eight threads and 12 G are totally devoted to 3D production and rendering.

  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 41,249
    edited December 1969

    DanaTA said:
    Kyoto Kid said:
    ...OK another Kid drop here.

    Played around with UE a bit tonight. Decided to see just what my beast could do so cranked up the Occlusion Sample rate to 512 (as high as it would go), Ray Distance to 500, and render ray trace depth to 4.

    1 UE light as the Primary source with soft shadows
    1 UE light as the Ambient with no shadows
    1 Spotlight Helper with ray traced shadows at 25% softness
    2 Linear Point lights with ray traced shadows at 15% softness

    ...total render time: 4 min 2 seconds.

    Cool! Is that Genesis with the old V4 texture?

    Dana...yep. Lotus Flower is a wonderful set (bought the entire bundle when it was still only available on Rendo). The Geishas textures may be more "authentic" however I feel these are still more stunning and have since become the "iconic look" for the character.

    As I used Teen Julie for the base, she already had the V4 UV. More and more I find the Young Teens so useful, the best 55$ I ever spent on a bundle.

  • RezcaRezca Posts: 3,393
    edited December 1969

    "Dunno what this is but it looks pretty" drop =3

    Rendered for 1hr 33min, and am gonna let it keep rendering while I go to bed, just to see how much it clears up ^_^

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  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675
    edited December 1969

    i pushed the IDL setting higher. it goes up to a hundred.

    idl @ 25. didn't expect it to finish o/n :)

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  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675
    edited December 1969

    Kyoto Kid said:
    ...OK another Kid drop here.

    Played around with UE a bit tonight. Decided to see just what my beast could do so cranked up the Occlusion Sample rate to 512 (as high as it would go), Ray Distance to 500, and render ray trace depth to 4.

    1 UE light as the Primary source with soft shadows
    1 UE light as the Ambient with no shadows
    1 Spotlight Helper with ray traced shadows at 25% softness
    2 Linear Point lights with ray traced shadows at 15% softness

    ...total render time: 4 min 2 seconds.


    i sees a family resemblance? :) she looks like your avi

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675
    edited December 1969

    what would be a superhero name for a squirrel?

    Shyloh
    Sherloch
    Squidley
    Squiracula
    Scritchiepoo

  • SkirikiSkiriki Posts: 4,976
    edited December 1969

    Nutcracker
    Nutgrabber

This discussion has been closed.