[Full Trucker]

a former coworker told me a story once that at one of his prior jobs (for a smaller company), he was in china overseeing the start of manufacturing of their product there (this was a contract manufacturer, not a site owned by the company). it was his first visit and he was getting a tour. he happened to be going down a hall, and in a room that happened to have its door opened, he peered inside and saw his company's product being, shall we say "inspected" by a team that wasn't assigned to his company. he didn't say anything immediately, but excused himself during lunch and made some phone calls to the US home office. less than 24 hours later a portion of the US team was on the ground in China pulling everything they owned (ie design IP) from the factory; turns out the manufacturer was illegally trying to copy it to undercut the US brand (Chinese regulations require product for the Chinese market to be manufactured there, and they have notoriously lax IP laws).

That's like a real-life version of the Ben Affleck / Uma Thurman blockbuster "Paycheck" !

 

[TreeSaw]

Production meeting, recipe development meeting, marketing meeting, blah. I miss brewing.

I miss beer! I have only had 1-2 since May. Can you brew a low carb, low calorie beer that tastes great (like some nugget nectar or perpetual or trogenator)? K, thanks bye

 

[TreeSaw]

It's only Tuesday and I feel Thursday tired. This no subs and cleaning our own space so we can stay in school is getting old. We are short staffed and working twice as hard to make it. Ugh....bourbon will ease my tired mind!

 

[rideit]

@AngryMetalsmith

you good?

Hikers told to forgo entire Appalachian Trail due to coronavirus

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy made the suggestion because it feels the pandemic makes long-distance hikes unsafe.

www.wmur.com

 

[rideit]

Might have to travel to cities a bunch this summer, just to get away from all of the people.

Wyoming named top travel destination for 2021

JACKSON, Wyo. — Vast open spaces, breathtaking landscapes, and western charm are just a few reasons Wyoming has been recognized as one of “The 50 Best Places to Travel in 2021” by Travel + Leisure and a top North American destination in AFAR’s “Where We’ll Go in 2021 – When We Can.” With...

buckrail.com

 

[AngryMetalsmith]

@AngryMetalsmith

you good?

Hikers told to forgo entire Appalachian Trail due to coronavirus

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy made the suggestion because it feels the pandemic makes long-distance hikes unsafe.

www.wmur.com

Yeah, that's the ATC's official stance yet they have re-opened registration and published guidelines for thru hiking during a pandemic. There have been over 500 more hikers registered for this year than this time last year as a lot of hold overs are starting soon. Going to be extremely crowded this year going NOBO.

Three things have to come together for me to go this year. 1. It needs to be safe for my parents to get out on their own again. And both have received the first shot. 2. I have to get the money together, again. Being closed to the public since March isn't helping. 3. I have to get vaccinated.

Going NOBO in April like I had previously planned has a low probability of happening. However a July start of a SOBO is still possible. Starting in Maine would be more challenging both logistically and physically. There are of course several pros and cons to a SOBO. But I am up for it if I can get all three things in place.

 

[stoney]

I miss beer! I have only had 1-2 since May. Can you brew a low carb, low calorie beer that tastes great (like some nugget nectar or perpetual or trogenator)? K, thanks bye

Wait, are you stuck on my diet now?

 

[stoney]

So lender called back, they have no record of the C&D (shocker), said it will be off in 24hrs. She will email a statement first thing tomorrow and will follow up with a call to make sure it was received.

@stoney was spot on about that name drop, wow. Be glad to be done with this mess.

The urgency when someone says CFPB is obscene. Someone says they "might file a complaint", you inform a manager and compliance them move on. Someone files a complaint (not even regulatory level), you're going through old communications and getting a timeline ready for manager and compliance. Someone files a regulatory level complaint and now I'm cancelling shit to get every detail needed by compliance, management, and legal (who are now involved) asap.

Threatening CFPB takes you right to that last level. They are the last people we want to deal with, especially if there is a chance that we are the ones who are wrong or fucked up. Even if it doesn't get filed, we qualify that as a complaint because of the escalation level.

I have a complaint action scale (mind all get dealt with) of "please get your shit together and stop blaming me" to 'on the phone with my boss, while writing emails to everyone else on my team related to the situation in any way, and asking my admin to cancel meetings'. CFPB is the latter and we aren't really even regulated by them. It's just the risk of having to deal with them.