Konstruction Karma

I Know You'll Forgive The Deliberate Mis-Spelling

Because nothing is funnier than messing around with words, right?  Be careful how you reply, this Remote Nuclear Detonator is itching to be tested.

     Okay, this Intro is taken from a Quoran question that stated "I was recently fired from a company.  My old boss just contacted me asking work-related questions.  Should I respond?"

     This has been asked on many occasions, as South Canadian employees have little to no rights when it comes to being fired.  Most states are 'At will', which means a manager can fire an employee for having mis-matched socks, being left-handed or hailing from Miles City, Montana.  Art!

One of the 'attractions' of Miles City.
I've no idea either.

     Many responses from Quorans have been along the lines of "Give me a timeline and intermediate project deadlines, and I'll give you a quote as a contractor."  Which is employee-guff for "I am going to gouge you for $250 per hour, 40 hours a week on a minimum 4 month contract".

     This reply usually means there is no more contact and the old boss has to hire and train someone new from scratch, sometimes more than one person, even three at times, which completely negates any supposed savings accrued from firing the original employee.  Art!

     The reply I'm going over now had to do with one of the construction managers at a large South Canadian building company being fired, along with his staff.  Why so?  Because Bottomhole Boss then brought in a lot of replacements who were cheaper.

     Original Poster, however, had an ace in the hole; the project engineer had warned him pre-firing that the company would pester him for 'as built' drawings and reports for the building he was working on.  I should explain that 'As built' drawings are technical schematics that show what has actually been constructed as opposed to the original blueprints, as there are often many minor changes and several major ones that track building progress across time.

     Sure enough, BB rings OP and asks him if he has the 'As built' plans, because nobody on-site can find them.

     "They went into my apartment dumpster last week."

     Shocked silence.  What about the test results from the reports? is the next question.  The engineer needed them forty-eight hours ago.

     Same destination as the AB drawings, replies OP.  Art!

"OP cackled madly"

     "Because you are a bottomhole and if your guy can't figure stuff out that's not my problem," explained OP.  That was the end of any effort to get info out of OP.  However, BB was still in trouble, as his guy had no idea how to run reports and thus obtain test results.  An outside company had to be contracted to do this work, and they gouged BB because they could, since he had no other option.

     The karma hasn't finished karma-ing, mind.  Thanks to the delays and absence of contractually-required data, BB's company were denied the final 10% of their payment.  Which was BB's profit margin.  There's no more anecdote from OP but failing to make a profit can severely impact a company, leading to an inability to retain their workforce, or lose bids to tender.

     BB found out you get what you pay for! and that a pay cut may cut back.

'On The Edge'

No!  Nothing to do with the guitarist from U2 and his life story.  Rather, this is the theme that the BBC has put up for photographers around the world to respond to, and they have done.  Art!

Courtesy Dan Shipp

     No, it's not a co-ordinated paraglider club in action, it's a time-lapse sequence of one chap taking to the air from a cliff edge in Patagonia.

Conrad Is ANGRY!

Yes, pretty much business as usual, in other words.  We've not had a rail and rant by Your Humble Scribe about Codewords for a while, apart from that photo evidence that I don't cheat at them, because I'd gone horribly wrong.

EPIGON:  Conrad had no idea and I bet you don't know either.  Let me consult my trusty Collins Concise.  

     Hmmm.  Apparently, one of the descendants of the seven mythical Greek heroes who went up against Thebes.  YOU WHAT!  How in Dog Buns are people expected to know this?  Art!

Get Epigone

TUREEN: Yes, the word that threw me and which I considered might be PUTEES or RUPEES.  What is it and where does it hail from?  "A large, deep usually rounded dish with a cover, used for serving soups, stews, etc."  From the French "Terrine", a type of earthenware vessel.  Art!

You know, I think there's one of these knocking around The Mansion

DRESSAGE:  If this is anything to do with fashion or haute couture then it's a ridiculously long reach to expect Conrad, The Man With No Fashion Sense, to get it.  Let me consult the CC.  

     O my.  "The training of a horse to perform manoeuvres in response to the rider's body signals."  Well, that was unexpected.  Art!

Ministry Of Silly Walks, Equine Branch

Good Luck With That, Sparky

Today saw the commencement of E. Jean Carroll's civil defamation and sexual battery case against Darth Marmalade, whom may or may not turn up in court.  His lawyers have been coy about whether he will or not.  Privately Conrad suspects they are praying to the high heavens that DJ Tango doesn't demand to be put on the stand 'to clear his name'.  He's already been lashing out on Twitter Except Rubbish (a.k.a. Truth Social), to the extent that the trial judge has admonished Joey Tacky about his immoderate posts.  I quote: "Mr Trump's lawyer, Joe Tacopina, told the judge he would ask his client to "refrain from any further posts on this case".  You can see why they don't want him on the witness stand, because he ignores advice and shoots from the lip.

"What!  What did he say now?"

"The Sea Of Sand"

Sarah encounters an unlikely ally in her covert attempts to get to Makin-al Jinni.

‘Psst!  Miss Smith!’ came the whisper once again.  Reflexively raising her eyebrows, Sarah realised that Professor Templeman was trying to get her attention.

The vehicles were parked along the N1 track, where the Professor leant out from a stack of pallets and gestured to Sarah.

‘I know where there’s a truck,’ he managed in a hoarse stage-whisper, taking her upper arm in a punishing grip and leading her away from the parked vehicles and soldiers.  ‘Doctor Smith sent it in as a decoy, remember? after draining the radiator, but it will still run for a while.  We can get out to the dig in it, anyway.’

For a second Sarah remained nonplussed.  Why on earth would the non-worldly Professor want to get over to the depot?

‘I want to know what happened to Albert,’ confided the Professor.  ‘Bourgebus was killed, poor devil, by these monsters.  I just hope Albert wasn’t, too.  Damn it, did you know he never told me about being able to fly?’

Since there were only six of them in total, it wasn’t hard for Sarah and the Professor to slip away to find the abandoned Chevrolet, which had rammed itself into a stack of telegraph poles, badly damaging the bumper and radiator.  The ignition key remained where the Doctor left it, in the ignition.  Templeman shuffled his considerable bulk into the driver’s seat and they were off.

Finally -

It's a good seven months since I last visited Gomorrah-on-the-Irwell and I'm beginning to notice a few changes around the old town. Photos if I remember.