Oh, gods, I just got a congratulatory card from the company, thanking me for my 38 years of service, and offering a selection of gifts in appreciation. I can choose from crystal coasters, a glass desk clock, a set of highball glasses, a glass vase, or a wine accessory set. With engraved logos, of course. Who picks this elitist shit out?
somebody from India calling themselves "Tom" but actually named Varshunayintal because the whole process is outsourced now.
funny corporate alcohol related prize moment: when one of my air force supervisors was stationed at Mountain Home ABF in Idaho they had a raffle, and the prize was a children's little red wagon full of booze and a 30-06 rifle.
I searched the net for similar items to see how much the company was spending on us. The coaster set retails for $14.95. The vase is worth maybe $50. Most expensive was the wine accessory kit in the cherry-wood case for $70. So I ordered that. I figure we can take the bottle openers out and use it as a jewelry box or something else actually useful. Didn't companies used to give out gold watches on retirement? Jeez.
Kids these days probably don't know what the hell a wrist watch is, unless it's an Apple watch and they don't make those out of gold, only plastic and composites.
I'll never forget the 6th grader in the deli near work who asked the owner what time it was. The owner pointed at the 12" Hamilton Standard on the wall. The kid said "I can't read that! Does anybody have a their phone?"
I wouldn't suggest giving that complaint around a young person who has heard about the company pension!
FWIW, my brother is thirty and can't read clocks, despite the fact that I FUCKING TAUGHT HIM HOW But I can't be mad at kids not knowing what they don't know if their parents don't bother to teach it to them. I personally can't conceive how difficult it is to figure out, but I've learned the hard way not everyone has the curiosity to find out.
I'm still shocked (but I guess I shouldn't be) that a lot of young people have no situational awareness and can't tell east from west, or have any sense of actual distance : 700 yards north? Three miles northeast? Forty six miles south? They don't navigate that way anymore I guess.
Dafuq is that shit? I was born in 86 and I don't know that! But I can make a guess cuz I know the sun sets in the west
I can do the above. Back in October we were in Kentucky, and the GPS on my phone started acting up. We were headed back to the Airbnd I had rented, and we were about 20 miles from it. Instead of freaking out, asking to use another phone, etc. I took a moment to think of the direction I had come from, the way we needed to go and then kept going I made a few turns to keep the general direction I needed to go, and came out close to where the Airbnd was. We had gone out one way and came back another way. But I've always been pretty good and knowing where I was and can tell N,S,E,W without a compass or anything else. And can estimate distanes extremely well. From knowing within about 1/8 of an inch lengths like 20.5 inches, 42.25 inches etc, within a foot so how far something is, 120 feet, 157 feet, etc, even miles. If I'm driving I can look at a spot on the highway and say the spot is 1.7 miles away, 4.5 miles away, 12.2 miles away. Or can know how fast I'm driving with 2-5 miles an hour just by seeing how fast the terrain is going by. It gets less accurate the faster I'm going. At 30 I'm within 2 miles and hour, 60, about 3-4, 80+ within 4-5. I guess that's a useful skill, or set of skills.
very useful! That's why driving at night is harder for me - I can't see terrain features off in the distance so I get disoriented. Also even if the road/street is lit up pretty well it's still much harder to judge distance in traffic. Granted for those in the navy terrain navigation is kind of useless when there's a horizon 360 degrees around your ship!
If you're in a rate that deals with navigation sure. Even there, the quartermasters' maps are supplemented by the navigational computers run by the ops department. Being in supply department, I only needed to know much much Monster the crew went through in a particular deployment.
