I'd have gotten out by then. Doubt the Military would have been my career, but who knows. It was never meant to be.

But, yeah, strange skills and bits of knowledge do seem to follow us. Maybe I should make a list of what I know someday, just to have it handy...

I'd probably end up similarly, but I'm 4-F half a dozen different ways, so meh.

You'd have been drummed out of the US Army and given the suggestion to join the Canadian Armed Forces?

No, but the others. Save perhaps goblinizing; I'd probably stay human.

Between allergic reactions to noob butterbars and legitimate medical stuff I was nto allowed to pursue a career, and no Xhan, we're not shadowrunners... for the most part.

Let me guess, no one's made the right offer yet?

Everyone has a price, wether of honor, money, or, for the psychos out there laughs.

Military wanted me, but... yeah not my style. Probably could've gotten high level clearance so I could work on commercial nuclear plants once I got done, though.

Ghost. I used to work at McDonalds. I live in a small world.

Patriotism. It's a dying thing, but still exists. And is why I'm angry with my body for failing me.

Couldn't you be an officer or something? (I know nothing about the military)

Don't feel so bad. I worked for costco, then got fired in less than a month. I had an even shorter stint with safeway that lasted all of 3 work hours. In that case, it was just a matter of having found a more interesting and better paid job.

No, that's it. You just read my CV. I worked in the kitchen for 3 months before being sacked. That was in August. So far, I've really lived a pathetic life.

Pathetic is what you make of it. But yeah, I would say working at McD's is pretty low on the totem pole. You do have to start somewhere though.

Oh no, don't worry, I'm fine about it. Just sucks that I can't afford rpg books on government benefits, not that there's anyone within 50 miles that's even heard of SR.

Ahem. Back on topic now. Sorry about that.

Patriotism is part of honor, as I see it.

You want pathetic? Three years of Tech Support.

Now, if you excuse me, the memories are coming back and I have to go gibber madly in a corner.

Sixth months myself. Was a co-op job, so its not like I quit or got fired.

"Gibbering in the corner" is pretty much the only thing you can do.

(Or as I said this morning when this woman sent a screenshot of an issue for our product, "I didn't know 'docx' was an image format." Her issue? She wasn't clicking on something and was instead hovering the mouse over it expectantly)

You have to take a pretty Zen attitude with tech support or it eats you alive. Living with not one, but TWO (now former) tech support people gives you lots of stories to that end.

Oh, it gives you stories all right.

Horror stories. The type that keep you awake at night when you realize the types of jobs some of these idiots have.

It pretty much legitimizes the Incompetent [Skill] quality.

Some people really ARE that inept at various things. And will never properly learn better.

It's worse when you have eye contact with them and you notice that vacant "WTF is this guy talking about" stare. That's when you realize, "No matter what I tell this guy, he's going to screw it up." So you just go all out and fill their head with babble and make them never want to talk to a tech support person again.

"Wait, you're a brain surgeon, demand I treat you with the respect due your position... And you can't figure out where your computer is plugged into the wall for electricity?" "I don't understand this technical ****!" "You are never getting near my brain."

Please tell me that didn't actually happen.

I. Wish. I. Could.

It's been said before. I'll say it again.








WHAT.

We have a client-employee like that. She tried to run the application from inside the .zip folder (without extracting it AND told windows NOT to extract it).

Look, if he knows where to cut and his hands are steady, that's all that matters. Let someone else plug in the doohickeys for him.

Then he should have had someone else phone his Tech Support for him as well. I'm not about to ego stroke someone who can't figure out a simple life-long performed procedure that's been around since, what, the late 19th Century.

I'd give him some slack, that 10+ years of medical school probably pushed anything else relevant from his brain years ago. Some folks just don't have the data storage for a PhD AND the rest of their lives.

OK. I can go with that.

Now, how about the idiots that can't figure out the same issue that doesn't have that kind of excuse? "Please unplug it from the wall like you would a toaster or a hair dryer." "That's so technical, I'll have to wait for my Husband/Wife/Kid/Neighbor/Electrician." "Guh?"

Sadly, natural selection is blunted in human society.
[Warning: TvTropes link]

Surprisingly, this thread has returned a touch of hope to me. Even if what we know tends to be a bit on the dangerous side.

Of course, knowing some of us, we're probably the type to go, "Hold my beer and watch this!", and have it be our last words...

More like "Nah, I can hold my beer and do X at the same time!"

I've got to say though, that sentence was much more interesting when I misspelled "Beer" as "Bear".

Actually... A Regiment from Winnipeg said "Hold my bear and watch this" to a London Zoo and then fought in WWI.

And then there were those Poles in WWII who said "Here, Bear, hold this [howitzer shell] and take it over there."

He did more than that. He caught a spy in the shower once, too. Boy, was that one surprised spy!

Yeah, but you have free health care, so you can really take risks and do crazy things to try and get ahead in life. Go freaking nuts, but in a constructive way.

Free Health Care, if you can survive the Emergency Room Waiting Period.

He's a cutter. If he was a doctor, then I would be concerned.....

Awwwwww, does it have to be constructive?

Triage only works properly if you have the facilities to handle the urgent cases, well, urgently :-/

I'm still trying to convince my wife to let me buy a DNA sequencer to set up in the garage. I figure I have about 3-4 years before they actually enter my price range. But yeah, seems like the potential for a 'hold my beer' (or 'this aught to be the best beer ever!') type moment.

What's far worse than the truly ignorant that understand that they are ignorant, and thus leave it up to the tech support to fix?

People that have JUST ENOUGH knowledge to decide THEY can fix it, before calling in the tech support a few hours later after REALLY screwing up things good and proper.




-k

My father's repair shop has a sign with his rates:
$75/hr flat rate
$100/hr if you're bringing the new parts in
$150/hr if you worked on it before bringing it over
Additional $25/hr if you want to spectate the repair.

Late to the party, but somewhat back on topic:

KY lube is really good for removing dried blood. Yes, I'm serious.

Or anyone bothers to check on you after you've gotten into the place and started to fill out forms, only to pass out in the middle of them and quietly die.

Hours later...

That said, I'm happy for my Health Care! The cost I'd have had to pay in doctor's visits and specialists alone...

So how did you learn this?

Really? Weird. I wonder why?

Which variety?