So I've got a weird computer problem. Random unrelated programs either crash on startup. They're two chess programs: Blitzin and Dasher. Also Skype and now windows help and support. I've uninstalled and reinstalled, both programs on the same drive partition and a different one just to be sure. When that didn't work I booted in safe mode and ran 3 different spyware/virus programs and found nothing. Surprisingly enough, the chess programs work fine in safe mode. Digsby also crashes intermittently. Any ideas what could be causing this?
If only there were, like, a forum where technical questions got answered. Often this is a memory problem. Go into the Windows Event Logs (Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Event Logs) and look in the application and system logs for errors. Either post them in the tech forum or hit up Google. You could try running MenTest86 off a bootable CD to test your memory. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.memtest86.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.memtest86.com/</a>
I'm having a bit of a problem with my landlord. I'm moving out at the end of next month and he would like to show my apartment. I provided him with my schedule for the next two weeks, telling him that I would give him the rest of it ASAP. I work nights, so I often sleep during the day. My only request was that he give me 2 days notice so that I could try to arrange my sleeping schedule and also so that I could have the apartment clean for his showing. Today he very rudely informed me that he was not going to work with my schedule and only give me 24 hour notice as "that's all the law requires." I don't suppose any of you lawyers out there have any advice for me..... Thanks in advance.
I have a question, and I'm not sure what the best place to ask it is, so I figured I'd try asking you here. I keep getting invitations to honors societies, and I haven't been accepting them, because I didn't see the point of throwing $80 at something that only says "Hey, this girl got good grades and decided to give us $80 to put her name on a piece of paper." But now that I'm about to start applying to jobs, I'm wondering if that something that anyone ever looks at. My thought was that my transcript would tell them I got good grades, so why bother paying money for some arbitrary Greek letters to put on my resume. Have any of you a) been on a hiring committee, and b) given any weight/thought to the honors societies the student was accepted into?
Its a crap shoot, theres obviously no guarantee that someone who hires you is going to give a shit or even know what it is and it really depends on what field youre in. I thought being a national fraternity would help me with networking and it hasnt done jack career-wise; but its case-by-case. If you plan on doing it, the bigger, the better as it has a chance of being more well known. Its really just resume filler and it will look like you did extracurricular activities, but its not going to help you beyond an out of college, entry-level position. Overall, I would say do it. It will only help you (even if marginally) and if its only 80 bucks, thats a weekend's bar tab that you wont miss.
There will be a thousand that will send you a letter, what you should do is research the ones you get, find the couple that are the most competitive/exclusive, and join those. A couple of these things on your resume is good to display since it helps flesh out an entry level resume and gives them a quick indicator of where you were academically. Keep in mind that a resume can be seen by a lot of people who might just glance it over, so quick information is always good - they may not see your transcript. I joined two: Golden Key (biggest honor society & reasonably restrictive - top 15%) and Phi Kappa Phi (most competitive at the time I received the letter - top 7%). A hiring manager I interviewed with was an officer in Golden Key (again, biggest honor society = more likely you'll run into someone associated with them) and it gave us something else to talk about. On the other hand, it may be too late if you're applying for jobs now - usually the invitations have a time period where you can respond, and will lapse after that. Don't just join to have random honor societies on your resume. Pick some good ones.
Do any of you have advice when it comes to asking for a raise? I've read a couple of articles here and there, but I figured I'd ask for some more personal experience. My situation's a bit different than the usual raise negotiation scenario because we're paid by the hour and I'd be asking for a raise for the whole group instead of just myself. It's a good time to at least start the conversation, and I have my numbers in mind and my whole list of reasons why we deserve a raise and deserve those numbers, but I'm more nervous about doing well in the actual meeting or even just asking for the meeting. I'm worried that I'd basically just be a pussy and once they inevitably say no immediately after my little shpeal that I won't be cool enough to actually start the negotiation process and just back off and not get the raise. I'm not really sure if that can be taught or anything, but I figured I'd see if anyone has any ideas. My only specific question I have is, is it a good idea or terrible idea to have one of the other people in my position in the meeting? I think I'd feel strength in numbers but I'm worried that we'd accidentally sabotage each other somehow, even though I think we'd be on the same page.
Personally, I can say that these were nothing but resume filler and emails I don't read for me, and the only one with real name recognition in the US outside of its own members is Phi Beta Kappa (although if I recall correctly, you're Canadian, and thus might not have the same organizations). Today, only two years out of school, they're just included in the catch-all list of "Extracurricular activities and honors" section of my resume. The economics one was interesting because they had speakers occasionally, but is of no use post-graduation. I've also done a lot of resume review for hiring, and I can testify that we paid dick-all attention to that sort of thing. It counted for about as much as telling me that you play Dungeons & Dragons (which yes, I saw on a resume. I advocated interviewing that guy for entertainment value and was overruled).
First and foremost, do your research. I really can't stress this enough. If you go to your boss and say, "I feel that I deserve a raise," with nothing to back up your assertions, there's a very good chance that the conversation will end there. However, if you go to them showing evidence that you're well below the 50th percentile in terms of pay for your respective field, as well as show them comparable and current job listings offering more money, then your statement holds some water. That doesn't mean that your boss will give in right then and there, but it will give them something to consider and show them that you've done your homework. You should also put together something that outlines the evolution of your job description. Have you taken on more duties at your job without an increase of pay? If so, how many hours a week do those duties take up? When I went through similar negotiations, I used payscale.com for all the salary and job listing comparisons. It's free and really comprehensive, so give it a look. Good luck.
First off, strength in numbers doesnt really work in these situations. Your boss might feel like the staff is ganging up on them, not to mention it would put them in a difficult situation if they felt like you deserved a raise and your coworker didnt. One thing to keep in mind here is as friendly as your coworkers are with you, theyre still your competition. When you ask for the meeting, phrase something along the lines of asking your boss for an informal performance review. Heres how you should do it: 1. Make a list of 3 or 4 of your key accomplishments. Memorize them. 2. Very politely ask if there is a possibility of getting a bump in your salary in the near future. This is important, you want to make sure you phrase it as something soon, but not immediate. You dont want to put undo pressure on them. 3. Go ahead and rattle off your accomplishments. And effinshenanigans makes a good point, figure out out what your market rate is. Thats basically it, nothing really wrong with getting right to the point with this stuff. One thing to remember is your boss probably wont know the answer right then and there, you might not know for a few weeks. Or it just might not be in the cards at this particular time, and you might get a "No." Another important point is no matter the answer, especially if its no, dont wear your disappointment on your face or let it show in your performance. Let it roll off your back and ask again in 5-6 months. If you still get a no at that point, it might be worth looking elsewhere for work.
I'm presuming that you're doing this in your nonprofit job. Negotiating wages in the nonprof field can be beyond maddening because your supervisors can and will look at you and say that they don't pay as much as their for-profit peers and leave it at that. It's an acceptable answer, apparently. However, I have negotiated two raises in the past two years. The first one followed the outline listed by Effin and Iwant. The second raise was much larger and I did a far better job at leveraging my skills and responsibilities. I approached my supervisor with all of the facts and figures and instead of asking for more money, I asked to outline an action plan to earn more responsibility that included cross training in other departments as well as frequent meetings to review job performance and discuss other opportunities inside of the company. Then, I put my head down and went to work. I'd hang my head in my manager's office every 45 days and schedule a meeting. I'd bring notes, take notes, listen, ask questions, and ask for explanations where they were needed. It's probably good to mention that my supervisor has held the same middle management position for over 30 years, isn't very smart, and is the picture-perfect example of fat and happy. He is one of the least ambitious people that I know and he will actively try to squash others' ambition. I also stopped applying for positions in the company that I knew I wasn't going to get. When people asked if I was putting in for the job, I'd tell them that my next move wasn't going to be X position (the one that I applied for repeatedly and fruitlessly). And then I shut the fuck up and kept doing a great job. Basically, I told them I would quit without ever, EVER uttering the words. Not once. Instead, I did a better job in my current position and asked for more responsibility. I was bumped 20% about a month ago.
Found a guy giving away 55gal steel drums on craigslist. Want to pick one up to build a DIY smoker. Anyone have any experience with this?
Re: Re: Can someone help me with this? I have built 4 of them, I can help with anything you need. Are they unlined drums? If they have a red liner it's a bitch to get them burned out. This is the best guide I have found for a UDS. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43943" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43943</a>
Honestly i have no idea if they're lined or not. They were used to store motor oil. I figure worst case i'm out an hour of my time and some gas money.
Re: Re: Can someone help me with this? Drill your intake holes and then grab a pallet and fill your barrel, light it and stick a leaf blower down by the intake hole and let it rip. Trust me it'll burn out that barrel in no time. While it's burning nice and hot hit the outside with a garden hose, the water will strip the paint off. When your done your barrel will be ready to assemble, nothing to it.
Two weekends ago, my wife and I traded in my car for a new lease. My car had a certain payoff, that I literally brought in the paperwork for on Saturday. We couldn't get the new car that day, since they had to inspect it and detail it. So, we came back in on Monday, and they told me that my payoff was quite a bit less than what they had factored in for the monthly payments. Today, I get a call from the guy that sold us the car, that the payoff amount was much higher than what they told me the previous Monday. I told him that I had brought in the payoff statement on Saturday so that we would know exactly how much we would be paying per month, and that he told us a new number when we went to get the car on Monday which reduced the payment pretty significantly. My question is, am I on the hook for their fuckup, and am I going to have to pay close to the original monthly payment? Or, are they going to have to eat the cost of their fuckup since we've already signed the papers and have possession of the new vehicle? Thoughts?
Did they already pay your loan off? I would call whoever you had the loan through and check, dealers are shady fucks when it comes to that, never take their word for it.
Question about credit reports: When a credit check is run on a married individual, is the credit score for the couple or just the individual in question?
I don't know if they have or not. I'm guessing that they were just getting around to paying it off today, though. What happens if they have already paid it off? What is the relevance to that? I know how much my payoff was, as I had actually brought the paperwork for it with me the Saturday we did the initial deal. It wasn't until we picked up the new car that the salesman told me my payoff was much less. So, who was I to question whether they made a mistake in my favor?