Orbital Owl @Zuph@octodon.social

It's been over a year since I've been here! Things have changed a lot! Here's a new #introduction

I'm Brad, 33, he/him (mostly), in the US midwest, working on space science hardware (as far as I can get from the military-industrial complex)

I'm into:
#electronics, #embedded, #cooking, #hiking, #tabletop, #knitting, #sewing, #rats, #anarchism

I'm getting into:
#rust, #MushroomGrowing, #clarinet, #ukulele

I want to:
- Live in community with friends
- Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism

I'm just gonna assume any new chat apps or social media concepts that hit the scene for the next few months are written by/catering to fascists and steer clear

I don't think we should bring back CRT monitors, but I do think we should bring back their hubris. Taking up 90% of my desk space? Pointing an electron gun into my skull? That's a real workstation, room for the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and maybe coffee. Maybe.

I am now a week into my new job, and honestly, I'm really enjoying it. Seems like they value work-life balance, and the pay/benefits are better than I'm used to.

As usual, work is bullshit and the 40 hour work-week doubly so, but I'm glad to have landed in a place that's gonna give me some brainspace to work on the stuff I actually want to work on.

Update on this, they forced her to take the $7k pay cut and pay back the $10k with a combination of giving up benefits and paycheck deductions.

She's looking for a new job and already has several promising leads.

You would really think the world would have figured out how to share one set of peripherals between multiple computers, but apparently that's just fucking impossible.

Since DisplayPort is such a hot mess, I'm just gonna buy new monitors, build my own KM switch with audio, and write a little daemon that switches the monitor inputs over software when the right USB devices appear or disappear.

I started a new job today.

It still exists under capitalism, and thus, sucks. But wow, it's already such an improvement on the old gig.

I've been talking to a former coworker. She's one of two people in a department, and they're WAY overworked. She's single-handedly saved them from drowning, and documented SO MUCH process, despite an incredibly rough year personally.

She just had her yearly review (late), and noticed an error on her salary/raise.

Turns out, they've been paying her $10k MORE per year than they thought they were. AND NOW THEY'RE TRYING TO NEGOTIATE HER DOWN TO THAT AMOUNT.

On the up side, I'm getting some really solid personal server maintenance in this week

Got really high last night and went down a rabbit-hole of NixOS docs. God damnit, I don't have time for another subhobby!

One of my favorite things: The NASA Tire Assault Vehicle (TAV), used during the testing of Space Shuttle Tires, should they become dangerously damaged or worn and require deflation.

It's an RC Tank with a drill bolted to the top.

https://t.co/vPpejoBsh4 https://t.co/Js1i4bBOIJ

Rip to me, who heated up the oven, got leftover pizza out of the fridge, put foil on a pan, put the pizza on the pan, then walked off for 20 minutes without putting the pizza in the oven

I've been dusting so much today and my sinuses are on fire 😂

Today was my last day at the current employer. I left a little early, did the rounds and said goodbye to folks. 2 hours after I leave, I get a message from my manager: "I assume today was your last day. Sorry we didn't get to do a farewell lunch. Good luck!"

wow

I got lectured about Werner Von Braun by an unfathomably old man while buying beer at the Publix, so I guess you can say I've had the full Huntsville experience.

There's some bitter irony in the fact that the first, only, and last time I visit a NASA Center with my current employer, it's during the middle of a pandemic, and I can't even enjoy it. Tours, museums, etc are all shut down. No on-center dining is open. It'll be lab -> fast food -> lab -> hotel -> fast food -> hotel -> repeat for 3-5 days.

Cool cool, my covid-denying boss is walking around the office coughing a whole bunch :)

Wow, I am not even done with $oldJob and I already feel the weight of its oppression lifting.

At the new place, I'm gonna build a fancy grape arbor from some rough-cut cedar the local sawmill carries, and join it together with some fancy Japanese joinery

I'm definitely still working my way through this one, but leaving the space industry soon has my in my thoughts.

One of the hardest realizations for me is that working in a mostly-positive subfield of an industry that is essentially a giant military industrial subsidy does not a greater good make. In fact, mostly what you get are halfass attempts at science from folks that would rather be working at furthering fascism.