You state "Getting certs is part of what is required for me to get bigger raises and get promoted and all that jazz." So this is not a required part of your CURRENT position. If you want a better position, you will need to invest in yourself, using some of your own time. Sounds like the employer is already paying for the courses and tests, the rest is now up to you.

Do not go in to your meeting with a bad attitude, you will just piss off your boss. Accept that if you want a promotion and higher pay that you are going to have to give up some personal time to get there. Remember, they've already given you time, and you failed, multiple times from what you wrote, so now it is time for you to hunker down and do it on your own time.

It starts with across the board tariffs, then an industry goes to him and says this hurts us, so here is a donation to one of your PACs, or we'll buy some of your crypto coin and you give us an exemption. And lo and behold a reason is found to not have a tariff on that product or just for that company.

Subnautica (Do not use any hint/spoiler sites, just enjoy the evolving story) Last stop Deliver us the Moon/Deliver us Mars and to a lesser extent Quantum Break (play in story mode)

This sounds a lot like the Brexit commentary when it was being started.

• grandiose announcements of how much better it would be
• how the 'rest of EU' was milking them dry
• outright lies of what Britain was sending to the EU
• false promises of what they would get when they left
• and at the end muddle the conversations with tangential issues but make them sound like it is really really germane to the overall discussion

Maybe things are different today, but my old and limited experience is that during a fire, there were warehouses with pre-prepared pallets for x number of people with basic foods and equipment. Sometimes management would run to the local small town store and clean them out to send some fresh food to the line, but realize it was still a small town store with extremely limited selection/stock.

Catering? in the middle of nowhere?

Let me clarify the 'warehouse' was in the local compound and was a glorified large shed. Staff went through everything every spring to confirm that all food stuffs were within date, and would be during the year. The blankets/sleeping bags were not chewed up by local mice, and that no equipment had gone missing since the previous year. Also anything mechanical was tested to ensure it would work.

The site is now live with all the data for all members.

Don't expect anything there for a while. Members cannot be sworn in until the election is certified, which is 14 days after voting day. Then members have 90 days to get everything in to the commissioner. With the massive change to what the members need to report, the first go is going to be painful for them to get it all in and right.

You can also buy a lot of the materials from FCs. Scarce items will be scarce at FCs too, but they do pop up, just get there quickly. also, be prepared to pay a lot for these mats.

There is also mission rewards which drop a lot of rare mats, keep checking every on foot mission board for 'Procurement', but not any that go to a settlement; and, 'Salvage', Crash site or wreckage. Setup your ship with an SRV and a couple of racks of dumbfire missiles as some sites can have a welcoming party that is easiest to deal with from the air. If you do not pickup the target item, you can relog and clean out the sites again.

If you want credits, hunt down the PTN group on Discord. They have various ways to make serious credits.

Anarchy settlements can be massacred and looted with no bounties or notoriety.

XYZZY, Plough & Y2

(From the Colossal Adventure, played on a multi million $ mainframe, when at uni. Probably in the 5-8 yrs before Doom timeframe)

Years ago, the federal government had a cell phone contract that provided unlimited voice, text, Canada wide LD and 1Gb of data for ~$25/month with no extra fees (no startup, SIM, e911 etc) and with a monthly threshold when using more data which raised the rate JUST for that month in $5 increments capped at $50/month for unlimited data. I would guess their current plan is better

Walking, bikes and various forms of public/mass transit are all good, but are still not sufficient in a North American environment.

1. Weather sucks. From ankle deep snow that melts to slush and then freezes to be extremely uneven and slippery makes walking unpleasant to dangerous. As much as my city tries to keep up, there is only so much time and funds to clear snow.
2. Not everyone is fully able bodied. I'll skip the obvious mobility impaired that people can identify by sight, but include those who look fully able, but for various reasons cannot. ie people with middle ear issues who cannot ride a bike due to lack of balance, or a medical issue where they can do a 30-40 minute walk, but takes them hours to recover.
3. Not everything CAN be within a 15-20 minute walk! There are lots on specialty and mom & pop stores that I go to that require longer range transport.
4. If you have kids, and they are involved in extracurricular activities, especially sports, you need a vehicle to get them to and from their destination.
5. Whatever city you live in is different than someone else's. From city design, availability and safety of public transit, environment etc. Should every city aspire to be more friendly to those without a car, sure. But the reality is that most cities have spent the last 50 years being built around a car. Making changes to small pockets to be walk-able is a good start, but the reality is that it will be decades before any major overall change would be feasible. Until then we should also look to minimize the environmental impact of cars and EVs are a good start to that.

Underwater Football. https://www.underwaterfootball.com/main.html

Originally started (late 60s) to get SCUBA students more time snorkelling and and getting comfortable with having a mask flood and learning how to clear it.

Just putting it on top. Should there be anything put between the original desk and this top?

The plan is to use some cutoffs to create a 'frame' so it cannot move (3 hidden sides) and also to then create essentially a clamp under there as well so it is reasonably stable.

This is not meant to be furniture quality, just nice and large enough for me to enjoy in my basement office and to support multiple computer monitors.

Thanks to all for replying to my original request. Decided on using the finish from the above link (ENCurtis - youtube).

Not as many choices of woods around here as in large cities, I went with a cherry plywood, and the edges are a simple D shaped pine trim. After starting and making mistakes along the way, needing to sand it back down to bare wood and restarting, I got the top done. The trim pieces were a challenge as I 1) have never done any woodworking, so 2) have no tools, materials, or experience. Went through 6 different test pieces to get them finished. Since the trim is made of pine, the grain was very different than the cherry, so any finish that brought out the grain just made it look disjointed. Ended up finding Polyshades and that was what worked for me.

Next summer, will try to make a keyboard tray for this desk... Wish me luck!