The Private Citizen 100: Let Me Tell You a Bit about Myself

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What you mentioned about English grammar is so true. As you know I am a school teacher, I teach maths, science and IT. My English is shit. It’s funny the humanities and English teachers get away with saying “I can’t math” but other teachers take issue when I say “I can’t English”. It is not entirely true I can English and often very well but I don’t understand it.
Anyway, I have a very bright year 8 student who speaks English as a second language. She would hand in technically accurate assignments in broken English. Initially, I would accept them because the science was correct and I could understand them. However, for reasons I decided to help her draft future assignments.
I could spot her grammar mistakes, but did not know why so I would just say here you do this because reasons (she seemed to like this approach).

An excellent milestone episode, thanks for your hard work.

One of the topics that came up in it was the apparent lack of respect and professionalism being shown these days that many of us seem to be noticing. I actually differ in my opinion on this and do feel that this is partly do to social media. My reasoning for this is that while I do get engaged by people on social media that feel it is OK to act this way when talking with me, I very rarely get this kind of reaction with people when discussing in person. In social media, I am just another face and name. In person I am a person that has been lifting weights for decades and maintains an ex military appearance. It is far easier to be disrespectful when a person is safe at home in a distant and unknown location than it is in a face to face situation. But that is just my theory.

Oh cool! It seems to have been very well received. You’re not the first one saying this. I am glad people like it! :blush:

I completely agree with your assessment here.

However, I was mostly talking about other things. Maybe I didn’t make myself clear enough. Things like Ikea taking 10 months to bill me for erecting my kitchen. My ISP haven’t been able to send me a correct monthly bill in over 12 months. Stuff like that. It seems to me people aren’t doing their jobs properly anymore. Not everyone, of course. But enough that I notice it very often these days.

I didn’t have access to my PO box for over two months because they billed me for it twice (basically), I complained and they cancelled it. Then they changed the lock and had to send me a new key. I was paying for it the whole time.

If you have a problem with your internet or your landlord or something… try calling the company responsible. Try getting it resolved these days. It’s like grinding your eyes out with a cheese grater. Mostly because everyone is incompetent. The actual people are probably not at fault. It’s probably middle management. It always seems to be. But whatever it is, it’s destroying professionalism everywhere as far as I can see.

I join the group: a great episode, really enjoyed. Especially the musical number at the end — oh, them good old days!

I wholeheartedly agree with the “go travel” advice. I didn’t have a chance to live abroad for a year in my high school days, I only got a month (in Sweden, really close georgaphically, but far enough culturally those days), and I envy you, but I dread the idea that I could not have gone abroad at all, like many of my peers; lack of the perspective and experience I received there would make me a much lesser person, that’s for sure.

Oh, and don’t expect many invocations of Stalinism in the same vein as you invoke the Third Reich from us Russians. In Russia, it is actually illegal (and punishable by jail time) to equate the Soviet Russia and the Nazi Germany. And if something you say can be taken as an insult to Our Grandfathers Who Fought The Great War (and saying things like “they fought for a questionable cause” or “they did horrible things in that war” is certainly viewed as the said insult in courts), it’s up to five years behind bars. Go figure.

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I fully agree. I have been fighting with my electric company for months. It seems they stopped reading my electric meter at the very beginning of the year and instead decided to just charge me a flat rate every month. The problem being that I use $400/month in the winter and $30/month in the summer. But to account for that, they chose the winter month amount to apply to every month for the entire year. Every month I call them. Every month they say they will fix it…

So it took me 4 days to complete listening to this episode :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: but part of that is because I am on holiday so no longer have a commute.
2 more thoughts:
Firstly, I was thinking regarding travel and living abroad in your formative years how do you think the country you travel to affects the outcome. I would expect there to be more similar outcomes than different but for example your unlikely to pick up Australians colourful language if you spend a year in Mormonville(Salt Lake City) US. Just wondering if you are still in touch with any of your fellow students who may have travelled to a different country.
Secondly, Sudo Modprobe man that takes me back. It actually made me emotional just listening to it. Thanks for the memories.

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Gawd. That sound horrible. But somehow, it doesn’t surprise me at all. :roll_eyes:

Congratulations on your 100th episode! :partying_face: :clinking_glasses:
It is interesting to learn something about your background. Much of what you tell seems familiar to me. Especially as far as working is concerned or the relationship thing. I am also someone who prefers to work from home, but during the pandemic I realized how important it is to have some people around you in everyday life. I have been in the home office situation for almost two years…
I’ve been reading the articles from heise and ct for many years and I can’t believe they thought you didn’t work enough. WTF?! As a reader, I didn’t get that impression. I perceived you as a very productive person. I don’t know all the names of the editors, but the fact that I remembered yours says a lot. I wondered at the time why you weren’t there anymore.
I don’t remember exactly when I started listening to your podcast, but I look forward to listening to a new episode every time. I also think it’s cool that you live stream it. It’s is one of those podcasts where I feel like I’m learning something new because others often just tell me what I already know. I guess it must be a challenge to balance knowledge with a relaxing talk. I hope you produce much more episodes.
I wish you much success on your way and a happy new year!