The Off Topic Topic

[The Larch]

I'm using this:
http://www.eurail.com/eurail-passes/select-pass#passtable

Which are your plans exactly? Depending on what you want to do you might have cheaper options.

[Josquius]

I have considered Eurail a few times in the past but it always works out cheaper to just get tickets as I go

[MadImmortalMan]

Roughly splitting two weeks between Vienna and Ljubljana with day trips to various places. It might be hard to cram it into five travel days actually. I'm not paying a ton extra just to hit up Venice though. I'll go to Split instead if it's that significant.

[The Larch]

Roughly splitting two weeks between Vienna and Ljubljana with day trips to various places. It might be hard to cram it into five travel days actually. I'm not paying a ton extra just to hit up Venice though. I'll go to Split instead if it's that significant.

Yeah, Slovenia and Croatia come as a package deal anyway, so you can sneak down to Split or Dubrovnik instead, and just pay for a normal trip to Venice if you feel like it. Then again some of those trains might be cheap anyway so maybe it's no big deal just to pay for the normal tickets.

[mongers]

If you're just looking for easy work and a change of pace then come to japan. Stick to ALTing and it's no so bad if you don't have any ambitions

Ide, this seems like a good idea, at least would get you out and about.

[frunk]

If you are depressed now, you shouldn't start programming. That's not exactly the way to bliss and happiness. It's a tedious, mind-numbing job.

There are few things as fun as writing a sweet, tight program that does everything you want it to do with no "unpleasantness".  There's few things as soul deadening as ripping apart that program because the business requirements have changed.

I blame business though, not programming.

[CountDeMoney]

"business intelligence".

I thought that encompassed all use of data analysis, not just hounding employees. For example, I designed an application that looks for certain patterns amongst billions of datapoints to increase production and reduce downtime at energy plants.

. They're certainly not going to call it "business counterintelligence"', now are they.

[alfred russel]

I'm thinking about taking some programming courses/reading some books/whatever.  I don't know what coders do or how they do it, but I can (probably?) learn and then, conceivably, profit.

Edit: God, I am so depressed.  And broke.  I'm about $50 away from having to borrow some cash from my parents.

Accounting. 

You don't need to be as smart, you can get into the field a lot quicker, and there is the possibility of getting some use out of your law degree. Most people consider the job market fairly solid for new entrants (it is very strong for those with experience).

[Queequeg]

No it doesn't. Or I'm talking about something else. Central Europe always used to be quite a fraught term. There was a large argument between whether it was a liberal dream of German and Austrian ruled Mitteleuropa while Czech liberals wanted a 'Stredni Evropa'. But as a cultural zone it did definitely exist. Now I think Germans use the more neutral term 'central Europe' too.

Then you had the Cold War and the entire region ended up solidly Eastern. I think it's great that the Czechs and the Poles and the Slovaks have agency again and are busy recreating this idea politically and culturally. I love that they're making the point that they're not Eastern European and have never been Eastern European, except for 50 years when they were forced into it.

Germany's half-in, they get invited to the official dos, but they're not members. I think Vaclav Havel described Germany as a country with one foot in Central Europe.

Germany considers itself, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia and the Baltic states as Central Europe.



The colors indicate the countries belonging to each region, the lines indicate where the cultural border is seen.

This map is fucking brilliant, as far as these things go.

[CountDeMoney]

I'm thinking about taking some programming courses/reading some books/whatever.  I don't know what coders do or how they do it, but I can (probably?) learn and then, conceivably, profit.

Dude, either you want to do that shit, or you don't.  There's no middle ground, and it's the sort of thing that if you don't have the interest in, you're going to want to blow your brains out.  Really.

Go the technical writer/editor route, like I did;  just as boring, but not nearly as maddening. And even as a contractor, it's gotta pay more than doc review.

Edit: God, I am so depressed.  And broke.  I'm about $50 away from having to borrow some cash from my parents.

Borrowing money from Mom > "Is that where we leave our shoes now?"

[DGuller]

If you are depressed now, you shouldn't start programming. That's not exactly the way to bliss and happiness. It's a tedious, mind-numbing job.

I find programming to be one of the most interesting parts of my job.  Programming is one of the easiest way to lose track of time.  That said, I do the programming for myself, to solve the problems I myself need solved somehow, so I guess that cuts out a lot of the bullshit that real programmers face.

[CountDeMoney]

That's because you're a sociopath.

[DGuller]

That's because you're a sociopath.

Me?

[CountDeMoney]

Yes, you.  You and Dorsey are the Henry Lee Lucas and Otis Toole of Languish.

[alfred russel]

I'm thinking about taking some programming courses/reading some books/whatever.  I don't know what coders do or how they do it, but I can (probably?) learn and then, conceivably, profit.

Edit: God, I am so depressed.  And broke.  I'm about $50 away from having to borrow some cash from my parents.

Accounting. 

You don't need to be as smart, you can get into the field a lot quicker, and there is the possibility of getting some use out of your law degree. Most people consider the job market fairly solid for new entrants (it is very strong for those with experience).

Actually Ide, if you are good at math, you could become an actuary. If you can pass the exams you can probably get a job. Unless things have changed, a lot of people land jobs with 2 exams. I think some pass more though.