Well I have returned from my homeland (which is just an 8 h drive from where I currently live) from reaquianting myself with a past profession: making rubber stamps. If you're never trained for such a practise, I'm not surprised. It's not your normal run of the mill job. But this family business has provided a roof over our head (though there were many months where we pondered putting up a FOR SALE sign on the front lawn) and as well as valuable trade skills from working heavy machinery (table saws, bench drills) to finer details with properly cutting rubbers carefully to account for the correct pressure applied in stamping to computer designer skillz to make custom stamps to even proper book keeping and dealing with retail.
However among the skillz for making rubber stamps, one does not still learn how to deal with impossible idiotic people. The target of the past week: lazy ass govt employees. We tendered to make 350 new stamps and 30 repairs... they send us 500 new stamps and 65 repairs. We call back, "this isn't what we agreed"; they answer, "so what?"... drama ensues. To top it all off, if we did what they requested, 60% of the final product would be wrong due to wrong addresses and/or postal codes. It's our job to make the stamps... not question "hmmmm why does 1900th block have the same postal code as the 2000th block?". At the end of the week at home helping with what could be done, only 30% of the order was completed. My mother was thankful for the help, but I wish I could have done more.... woe well.
So I'm back at my bench... need to figure out a few things before fresh minions enter my lab to be trained (I'll save that for another post), plus prep a "fascinating" abstract for a conference in late May. ye gawds.... it's May already!
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