Are they fully blind or can they see some things? There is a new line of thought called Cortical Visual Impairment. Its important to know the difference. Regardless, I find that holding my Childs hand is without a doubt the most reassuring thing I can give her in an unknown place. Your son will find his way, with love. Praying for your family.
When I was 11, I had the incredible opportunity to join him in the recording booth during one of his voice-overs for Bell South. I stuttered badly at the time, but he was incredibly kind and understanding. He took 30 minutes out of his day to sit with a kid he didn't even know and talk about the art of speech—it was life-changing. I’ll never forget that day.
A few months later, we received two large 3x3' posters in the mail. Blown-up photos of us working together that day. In the lower right-hand corner of each, he had signed them, "May the force be with you! JEJ / To my friend, Best Wishes, JEJ (AKA Mustafa)."
What an awesome guy. I just pulled those pictures out, and 29 years later, I’m still filled with awe and immense gratitude.
PowerShell was (and still is) the go to for me in any M$FT shop. People like to group VBA and PowerShell together but I am amazed by the vibrancy of the PowerShell community and the deep history it holds. PowerShell releases are frequent and I'm excited about what I continue to see and hear being developed.
This brings me right back to June of 2009, as the markets started to spoil and the derivative markets fells to shambles. A few hapless souls in Baltimore would be tasked with manning 2 standing 12 hour shifts for as many weeks as it would take to properly reconcile what could only be described as a tsunami of unreconciled data for a single large custody player in the sub-prime markets. It took about 4 months, and went through several phases of rebalance but we got it done. As I look across the landscape of LLM, the word "context" screams back at me. I think the processing power involved to make all the poor choices necessary to find the right choices and wonder how that could've been done without a teams of people thinking about the same problem from many perspectives.
I am going through something right now mentally as a middle aged man and being alone every day starting at 8:30am and only coming home to the same 3 people (who i love unconditionally) is kind of driving me mad. My professional life prior to covid had me weaving the halls of an office I knew and many of the people there were very special to me. To have none of that these days leaves my mind to be pre-occupied by things hard to escape. I'm ready for a change but I don't know if that involves going back to a 9 to 5 with a commute. I really like the top post on here about creating community and understanding its an investment. I hope others benefit from this as well.
The PowerShell Podcast had Doug Finke on back in mid February of this year, he made a great point at the end of the discussion.
Don't be afraid to drive in another lane. Take the opportunity when you see it.
In a previous life, I had a management who told me to, "stay in my lane" and this led to a series of events where I ultimately left. Anybody who tries to keep you down or limit you ability to learn and think needs to be avoided. Those who foster this type of growth need to be held close.
I had my boss and the CTO (both Black) tell me I was no longer "part of their culture". This was after mid year reviews where attendance at DEI events was the center of discussion.
There is a thin line between personal and professional when dealing with DEI, and it is a tough line to walk. I agree that two things can be true at once.
I also believe that every individual has the ability to break cycles of hate and prejudice, regardless of what we have experienced and encountered. If we are to have hope in the human race, I pray the ability to choose peace is what saves us all.
Get out. The same thing happened to me and my mental health has yet to recover. There is nothing you can do about it. This is the oligarchy of capitalism, the HR team, sorry the "Human Capital Management" team is only there to execute the bidding of the management hierarchy. The sooner you leave, the sooner you heal.
Thanks for sharing. I think plenty of people get into these situations. They are tough to recognize, and even harder to act upon. I respect your thought about recovery, its been almost a year since I left my scenario, I've had to learn slowly how to forgive myself for not being able to get back up to 110%. You'll get there at some point but all those years in a bad situation do take a toll, be patient with yourself and celebrate every step of progress. (like the .5 lbs I lost this week!)
I graduated in May of 2008 and only managed my way into the bowels of a large bank due to the fact I had interned there over the summer and spring. This big bank was allowed under state law to pay us "premium pay", it was 50% of what we usually made after 40 hours, we were grinding 70 hours in 12 hour shift due to how badly the recon was after the crisis. By October of 2009, I had watched 4 or 5 colleagues with 25 year careers get carried off the floor due to the shock of losing their jobs. This stuck with me as I prepared for secondary school and decided to go with a master in applied technology, I was the only white kid in the program. Since then I've slowly accepted that I have a skill set that will keep me employed for years to come. Will it fill my pockets with the riches, not really, but it will keep me from getting the type of eviction notices I found on my dad's rental as a teen. Everything is relative - for those who do get laid off, I feel for you and want you to know that this too, shall pass.
i've got a refurbed evoo with a Ryzen 5, it cost 225$ from walmart, it'll run anything, linux, win11 - you name it. I use every port on the laptop when i'm at my desk, its super lightweight and the battery life is admirable. my point here is that its all about the users preference, if you want something totally plug and play, you're going to have to pay for it and then you will still probably have issues. i've got an old gaming rig that i've transformed into a proxmox host, between the laptop and being able to connect to any of the VMs, I find that I have everything i need to stay productive, keep my data safe and not be limited by hardware or cloud costs.
Fun story - '94 there was a deodorant ad with Charles Barkley where he plays an "explorer". In the first two seconds of the commercial, you can hear the grinding of stone doors (think Indiana Jones).
How did the jingle house create such a noise you ask?
Two toilet tank tops from the bathroom, rubbing together. A perfect match!
White, straight, male, 37 with two kids. One who is severely disabled and under the age of 5. In the past couple of years, its become clear to me that I will probably become a caretaker to my daughter at some point in my life. The prospects of keeping a full time job, in my field are quickly changing - I am no longer desired. Doing this in a financial services setting is especially stark because there's no empathy. Its been really rough the past couple of years. I am trying to find my peace with the idea that I've done a good job, I did everything I was supposed to do, but there were forces outside my control that will dictate the future. My wife just made partner at her firm, and I was told by a c level executive, of color, that I'm "no longer part of where the firm culture is headed". I see this issue every day, it gets harder as we get older. As we head towards 2024, that sentiment on the other side of the fence gains momentum from this type of isolation, regardless of race. It will be interesting to see how many men vote in 2024 vs. previous elections.