Not so smooth sailing

[altivo]

Well, it's Wednesday, always the worst day of my week.

Found some issues with the sofware already installed, but mostly they were vendor things and got fixed quickly enough. Found out I was thoroughly confused about the configuration of the internet filters, but the way they actually work is still amenable to what I need.

Installed software on another workstation, and it flopped. The network connection is not working properly. I suspect our network hardware rather than the software, and will move the machine to another port known to work properly tomorrow and see if that helps. I'll also try the current network port with my laptop to see if it works as it should.

My MP3 player, only two months old, seems to have died. Still in warranty, but that's just disappointing and leaves me with no confidence in the quality of the replacement I'll undoubtedly get in a few days.

Off to bed now. Wednesdays are just too long.

Comments

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

Today was day 13 of my 13 day workweek. In other words, I GET A WHOLE DAY OFF TOMORROW! Woohoo!

Then its back to work Friday ... :p

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Enjoy your day off. I'm sure you've earned it and more, just as I'm sure it is morally wrong for any employer to require that of someone, and particularly when they aren't giving you benefits and proper pay.

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

Tell that to the potato farm I worked at, much much worse by far ... 6 weeks with no days off, 90+ hour weeks, no benefits, and because its a farm they didn't have to (and did not) pay time and a half for overtime, so it was all straight time.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yup. And so that they can hire illegals. It's a longstanding loophole in federal law that Congress refuses to close. Why, it might raise food prices. More likely though, it would cut into the profits of the big agribusinesses.

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

What raises food prices is the government purchases gargantuan amounts specifically to keep food prices inflated. They had silos and stores to store some for emergency use, but they were all filled decades ago and the government continues making gargantuan purchases, artificially inflating demand quite a lot.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

That was certainly true years ago. In fact, before the food stamp program they used to give out actual food to low income people. My retired grandparents all qualified for that program and used to get huge cans of peanut butter and blocks of cheese among other things.

But it's also one of the programs that were largely cut away during the Reagan administration. Federal subsidies for price support are now more often focused on paying producers not to produce the crop at all. You've got 800 acres and you're gonna plant corn or wheat? They pay you NOT to plant it, and that saves the trouble of harvesting and storing it. That's another program that has largely benefited the big guys. There are certain minimums in order to qualify. It also causes a lot of inappropriate land use. F'rinstance, around here corn is one of the most frequently grown crops. Not sweet corn, but feed corn, used to fatten livestock for slaughter. That corn is also far from an efficient use of crop land, and requires massive amounts of fertilizer to keep it growing year after year. Some small farmers are starting to realize that they can do much better by growing wheat instead of corn, which is something I applaud. You have to get a co-op going though to own and run the equipment needed for harvesting wheat, so it takes a certain number of farmers working together to get started. The feds don't subsidize wheat prices here I think. Or at least, they don't take the potential into account. Instead, they base farm subsidies on your annual corn yield. So, if you want to grow hay, which is a good money crop here right now, and also get paid for not growing corn, you have to always plant a certain percentage of your land with corn. Wheat would be a better choice for the soil, the ecology, and the end use, but the federal government will not subsidize you unless you can show what your corn yield is each year. It's all foolishness.