I eat cold breakfast cereal almost every day, but i happened to answer this poll before breakfast. So i replied “this week”. Maybe i should reevaluate “today” to mean “in the last 24 hours”, or “my most recent breakfast”, and change my vote.
Or i guess i could return to the poll after i eat breakfast and update my answer. 
So did I, but I “cheated” and interpreted “today” to mean either “in the last 24 hours” or “will have eaten today, once it’s breakfast time.”
Now that I’ve eaten breakfast, i updated my vote.
I first saw “cow-orker” in the Dilbert email newsletter “Dogbert’s New Ruling Class” back in the late 1990s.
As I read the exact text, you’d be okay:
So ASL would be fine, typing would be fine, any other number of options would be good. But the reason I discussed the surgical ‘fix’ is that if I was undergoing surgery, or half asleep, or drunk off my ass in a non-english speaking area even after years of adaptation, and used it while not close to fully self-aware, it’s just as valid.
So yeah, surgery, although I’d probably do something to vocal cords rather than my tongue - I want to be able to taste food. And again, $100 million is a touch too low, thus $1B for an absolute yes, and say $500M for an a very probable.
Again, with the options for text to speech and other communications, I’d rather be healthy (and as just stated, I at least would keep the tongue for FOOD), but at $500M - $1B there is just a lot of good I could do for family, friends, and the world in general. While still living a healthy life of comfort.
On the transcriber service, I was in the current minority that voted keep her, but at a huge paycut.
There is a non-zero amount of proofreading, organizing, and double checking that has been going on as well, which has some value, as does my time in not having to spend all day doing an easy, but also boring amount of work ordering DerChat about, so she’s not valueless. But I’d probably drop it to around minimum wage for actual hours worked (if they hadn’t abused the system, it would be more like $15 per hour of actual work). They can of course leave if they want, but that’s their choice.
I have “money is no object” budget anyway per the poll, and if they want to leave, I don’t want to have them job hunting with zero referrals from me and no income at all as I would if I immediately fired them. And again, the only reason I’d drop it to the minimum wage and not the $15 I would otherwise is a measure of punishment for the abuse. I don’t think the federal minimum wage is healthy in any sense.
I’m just not really motivated by large sums of money, I guess. My answer to those “Would you for a million dollars…?” Is usually no. This one just seems impossible.
I agreed to an arrangement with the transcriber to transcribe a specified set of documents at a specified rate. By the terms of the question I’ve got plenty of money available to fulfill my end. I’d stick with it until the job is done.
If, in the future, I’ve got another transcribing job that needs doing, I’d investigate the current state of the technology before agreeing to a rate. Which probably wouldn’t be a bad idea for other sorts of work, either.
I suspect that whatever the transcriber is actually doing is still worth more than minimum wage per actual hours worked, in any case.
I think i agree with @thorny_locust
I certainly wouldn’t punish the transcriber for finding a smarter way to do the job well. I wouldn’t fire them, or reduce their wages. But… I probably wouldn’t hire someone at that rate going forward. Just like i wouldn’t, today, hire a team of men with shovels to dig a trench to upgrade my home power supply. I, in fact, hired two guys with a backhoe.
I had a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios in front of me and, in fact, a spoonful in my mouth as I answered the cereal question.
My car had an electronic issue this week. It stalled out every time I used the left turn signal. I made an appointment with a garage that’s three miles away.
I put a bottle over my turn signal because I knew that otherwise I would use the left turn signal at some point during this three mile drive.
Go the rest of my life without using the word “the”? Not happening.
Maybe I am unclear on the concept of hot cereal. I generally have oatmeal for breakfast. I didn’t think that was too uncommon. Yet when I voted that I had it today, I saw that I’m the only person who did. Most people voted that it’s been years since they ate hot cereal.
Is eating oatmeal far more uncommon than I thought? Or is oatmeal not considered to be hot cereal?
I can’t speak for others obviously, but I don’t like oatmeal and haven’t had any since I was a kid. Tastes like wet cardboard to me.
I certainly consider oatmeal to be hot cereal. That’s what I meant when I said I’d had some within the past year; and it might have been within the past month, but I’m not sure.
Maybe I’ll have some tomorrow.
I remembered cow-orker from 1990s Dilbert.
This site has it back to 1996 from the “scary devil monastery” newsgroup.
…and also, the Blawnox, Orson Bean and Stoat “memes” only really
appear in Thread Games (despite attempts to integrate them into the
wider community).
I answered that I had hot cereal within the week. I had corn meal mush for breakfast on Saturday. So, not oatmeal. And if I could buy it in the local grocery store, I would have instant Cream of Wheat as a snack probably once a week.
If I make corn meal mush or oatmeal, I make it from scratch, not instant. I’ll also eat overnight oats, but that’s cold, so it doesn’t count as hot cereal.
I used to love cold cereal then my body decided to punish me for it. Cheese and ice cream don’t bother me, just milk. Using some kind of fake milk takes all the enjoyment out of it so I just don’t eat it anymore.
For the benefits question I’m not sure if I answered the way it was intended. I said I used long term disability but it was disability insurance I paid for through work. The only other benefit I used was unemployment after I left active duty.
Chopsticks. I’m “average” for someone who doesn’t use them regularly. I’ve started declining them at Asian restaurants, however, unless they’re the only offering. I can use them, but no longer see a point in doing so. I don’t find them particularly fun or efficient. The food tastes just as good with a fork. And I have an easier time with it. My wife, on the other hand, will always ask for chopsticks, even when the table isn’t set with them. I guess she likes using them for some reason.
That was the intent. I wanted a mirror for SS disability I suppose, like paid (through work) vs unpaid (FMLA) medical leave.
My wife is of Chinese descent. She commonly rags on me (in a playful way) because I cannot use chopsticks at all.