by By Natalia Contreras, Votebeat and The Texas Tribune
The decision will make Dallas County the largest jurisdiction in the U.S. where ballots are hand-counted. Voters will still be able to vote at any countywide vote center during early voting.
By David Taylor / Managing Editor Harris County Flood Control District is making significant strides in the Aldine area, with a series of completed, ongoing, and upcoming projects aimed ...
The Houston City Council At-Large Position 4 special runoff, one of the most crucial in the city, will take place in Houston, Texas, on December 13, defining the city’s political environment.
The runoff followed the resignation of Letitia Plummer, who had resigned to run for Harris County judge. Out of a preliminary list of 15 candidates, two opponents impressed: Alejandra Salinas, a progressive attorney who championed equity, inclusion, and legal protections of marginalized communities, and Dwight Boykins, a longtime public servant and former council member who deeply understands the Houston neighborhoods and has a long record of engaging with the community.
Salinas prevailed in a close call in the November general ballot, winning by a slim 21.9% over Boykins, who received 21.0%. Salinas has strength in fundraising and the backing of labor groups, civil-rights organizations, and progressive leaders. However, Boykins contrasts with his notable leadership qualities, a record of public service, and a cross-community backing.
In addition to the candidates, the race has shed light on other matters, such as housing affordability, community safety, infrastructure, and access to basic city services. Local groups and organizations that advocate voter engagement have emphasized the importance of voting in the runoff, citing low turnout in local elections that directly affect the daily lives of residents. With the city of Houston constantly expanding and diversifying, the result of this race is likely to shape the city in terms of addressing equity, representation, and long-term policy priorities in the future.
Voting started on December 1 and will run until December 9; the polls on Election Day open on December 13. The battle is intense as the runoff will decide who will lead in the at-large District 4 constituencies in Houston until January 2028.
The city is at the crossroads as Houstonians resume their civic schedules after Thanksgiving. Will they opt for a new legal-focused leadership with its reformation and integration, or well-trodden continuity with its roots in the neighborhood? One way or the other, December 13 will in some way shape the future of Houston.
I’m on vacation. Here are some past letters that I’m making new again, rather than leaving them to wilt in the archives.
1. I saw my coworker buying a beer during work hours
I saw a coworker at the pharmacy near our office this morning (9:45 a.m.) buying a 40-ounce can of beer. I was confused at first and I couldn’t figure out what to make out of it, but then I also remembered that this coworker always falls asleep in meetings.
I wasn’t sure if I should have approached her (I didn’t want her to think I’m being nosy). I do not want to jump to conclusions because I also thought she might have bought the beer for someone else (i.e., a homeless person in NYC or whatever). She got back at her desk around 10:15ish without the bag. I also saw her sleeping at her desk (pen in hand, head down) at noon today.
In terms of her quality of work, my team and I stopped going to her because we never get good answers from her anyway. I also overheard her team members question her ability in doing a project. Is this something that I should report in case she needs help or in case this requires disciplinary action?
The fact that you saw a coworker buying a beer before work is not, in itself, damning. She could have been buying it for after work or, as you say, for someone else. Who knows.
If she’s sleeping on the job or otherwise not performing her work in a way that affects you, or if she’s coming to work smelling like alcohol and/or appearing intoxicated, you should absolutely talk to your manager about those things. But “my coworker sucks at her job” and “I saw that same coworker buying a beer” is not enough of a connection to report someone for being drunk at work — that’s just too much speculation. Focus on the things you know for sure.
There’s an intern at my office who signs off all her emails with “Stay gold.” For example, an email from her might read, “Thanks for sending me the TPS reports! Stay gold, Jane.” I asked her about it and she confirmed it’s from the quote “Stay gold, Ponyboy” from the book The Outsiders. We work in a pretty casual industry so it’s most likely that people will write it off as a weird quirk, but I’m afraid that if she tried using that sign-off in a more formal industry or office that people would think it’s unprofessional. Should I encourage her to start using a more common sign-off?
First, this is hilarious.
But yeah, that’s going to come across weirdly in many (most?) offices, and as an intern she won’t have the capital built up to make it read “amusing quirk” rather than “inexperienced worker who doesn’t take work seriously / has no sense of professional norms.”
If you’re her manager or oversee any of her work, it would be a kindness to talk to her about professional sign-offs.
3. Telling my boss his wife messed up his business travel
I used to work as an executive assistant to a person who did a lot of business travel, but also did a lot of travel for his side-business activities. This was all legit, above board kind of stuff and his main job was aware of it.
As his assistant, I handled all the business stuff: booking flights, doing expense claims, all that jazz. However, his wife handled the side-business travel and I was instructed to liaise with her to coordinate schedules and handle any times when business travel would occur in conjunction with side-gig travel. His spouse was awesome, really organized and a great person to work with, but this was still a little bit awkward. It became more awkward when she made a mistake and booked travel for him at a time he was required to be somewhere else for his main job. I double, triple, and quadruple checked all of our email correspondence and it was for sure something that had gotten mixed up on her end, I am confident in that. So I was between a rock and a hard place: it wasn’t MY mistake but I was probably going to wear it because how am I supposed to present all the evidence to my boss that his spouse, his partner in life for over 20 years, the mother of his children, was the one that made the error that was sort of a costly mistake? He and I had a great working relationship, great communication, he had my back, all in all he was a great person to work for.
I ended up just doing my best to fix it and make everything work out, but it never sat right with me that I had to sort of pretend that it was my fault. I think that if I had tried to present everything to him that it WASN’T my mistake might have just made me look like a jerk or be really self-serving. Did I only have those two choices: screw-up or jerk? Or was there a third option that I just didn’t realize?
You were being way too delicate! It wouldn’t have been a jerky move to tell your boss that his wife mixed something up, because you wouldn’t have said it in a jerky way. You would have just matter-of-factly told him, “Hmmm, it looks like Jane booked you in Atlanta on the 20th when you need to be in San Diego. I’ll let her know.” Your brain was going way overboard with the “partner in life for over 20 years, mother of his children” thing. It’s just a routine business thing, not particularly sensitive information.
If I were your boss and I found out that you were pretending something was your fault because you thought I’d dislike you if you told me my spouse had messed something up … well, I’d actually be really concerned. I’d worry about your judgment, or whether I’d somehow given you the impression that I was too fragile to hear normal business stuff, or whether my spouse had done something to scare the crap out of you. I’d wonder what else you might be sugarcoating, and what else I might want to know that you might not tell me.
It’s worth looking at whether you’re being overly delicate with your current colleagues/manager, because this is a strange instinct! This is just normal business stuff, not anything you needed to dance around or hide.
I just started a new job at what appears to be a great company. On my first day, I learned that my new company is owned by the company my father works for. I also learned that interaction between the companies is expected to increase, and while it’s not probable, it’s possible that I could end up working with my father. At least one of the higher-up members in my division even knows him. (Aside: this company definitely has no concerns about relatives working together.)
The problem is that my father and I have not spoken for three years. I might be able to have a very distant professional relationship with him, but, to be frank, almost any interaction at all would make me want to quit.
It’s known that my father works for the parent company, but no one knows that we have had an intense falling out. Should I mention this to my team lead? I’d obviously couch it in professional verbiage, a la “My father works for [parent company], but we do not get along. If at all possible, I’d prefer that any work that might involve him or his team be delegated to someone else.”
This is literally my second day on the job, and I’m worried about coming across as full of drama. I’m also worried that even though it was my father who disowned me, my reporting our soured relationship will make me look bad, but I specifically want them to know that this goes beyond the potential awkwardness of working with family so that they never intentionally put us together. And, finally, I’m so new to the company that I have no metric with which to gauge how reactions to this information would go.
Yes, mention it to your manager. Your wording is good, but I’d tweak it to this: “I hadn’t realized the extent to which [this company] works with [parent company], but now that I do, I feel I should let you know that my father works for [parent company] and we’ve been estranged for several years. I wouldn’t want that to cause any awkwardness in a work context, so I’m hoping that if we ever have work that might involve him or his team, it could be assigned to someone else.”
Companies generally don’t want to invite family drama into their work, and it’s pretty likely that if there’s a way to keep you from having to work with your dad, they’ll try to accommodate that. (There might not be, of course, but it’s a reasonable thing to flag.) You’re not going to come across as full as drama as long as you don’t … come across as full of drama. In other words, if you conduct yourself professionally and maturely (as opposed to, say, complaining about him all the time, sobbing in meetings when his company name is mentioned, etc.), that’s not going to be outweighed by having a difficult family connection.
And remember, lots of people have tough family dynamics. You’re not weird or dramatic for having one too.
Two years later and I have a doozy of an update about this company.
So, after the last letter, I was working at a new company that happened to employ a lot of people who had left the Email Layoffers. We kept in touch with a lot of people at that company and it was pretty quiet for a year or so, though they kept eliminating positions and letting people go every few months. They did begin to do layoffs over Zoom meetings after my letter got published.
First a small, petty update: I went to an industry conference over the summer. While talking to some colleagues from a leading organization in our field (one you would not want to burn bridges with) when I mentioned I used to work for the Email Layoffers. They told me that a year prior, their org signed with EL as a client, and this was such a big deal that the co-CEOs who stepped in to “save the company” decided to personally manage the project. After onboarding them and planning out the project, the co-CEOs ghosted. They missed meetings, dodged emails, and didn’t update the communication documents. Then, halfway through the project, the co-CEOs finally responded to an email … and informed my colleague that they were changing the contract to instead produce a much cheaper, lower-effort product that was completely at odds with the results the org actually wanted. Think: they ordered bespoke teapots, and they were told they’d be receiving dropshipped flasks instead. Apparently, even the dropshipped flasks had quality issues, and were delivered late. Unsurprisingly, they did not renew their contract.
Around this same time, the co-CEOs were asking the manager of one of the production teams to teach them how to use chatGPT. Normal enough, if a little late for our tech-adjacent industry. Except they wanted him to show them how to make chatGPT do his job. At one point, the CEO’s called this employee to one of their houses so he could talk them through a chatGPT process. They were being weirdly dodgy about why they wanted to learn chatGPT so suddenly.
Then, a few months later, our old coworkers told us The Big News.
The team responsible for the majority of the company’s output was concerned about the way our industry was changing in the face of AI. They were interested in taking on different work and had made a plan to upskill team members in a different, more AI-proof skillset, their managers supported it, and so they scheduled a time to meet with the CEOs and propose their plan. They also partnered with the manager who was teaching the CEOs how to use AI.
Alison, they laid off every single member of their production team and that team’s managers, and I am not exaggerating. In a zoom meeting where they were all planning to propose changes to the department. This included people who had worked for the company for 10-15 years, and people who were on or had just returned from maternity leave. The company right now is two CEOs, a single marketing person, an HR worker, sales, and project managers. They sold work they literally had nobody to complete. Then, over the next few weeks, they reached out to almost every single person they had laid off, asking if they could do some contract work so they could actually deliver the work they had sold. They misspelled people’s names in half of these emails. As far as I know, no one accepted the offer. Eventually they listed a few positions … for $10k-20k less than the old team was paid.
After that, of course, the Glassdoor reviews came in.
And the CEOs started responding to them.
One employee left a review, detailing that they had just fired half of their employees and planned to replace them with contractors and AI. The CEOs responded with a typo-laden multi-paragraph rebuttal that was weird and aggressive. It came off as very petty and uncomfortable. They also responded to a review that said “[CEOs] will lay you off right before Christmas without warning” saying, they “wish this employee had come to them with their concerns before leaving this review.” Um, how could they? You laid them off! They also called Glassdoor “a safe haven for slanderous claims and anonymous opinions,” which of course has become a meme among us ex-employees. Then a smattering of vague 5-star reviews came in, clearly from current employees told to help with the DIY damage control efforts. An industry publication wrote about the layoffs from the lens of companies going all-in on AI without thinking about the consequences, interviewing one of the people who were laid off. The surviving sales team posts on LinkedIn about hustle culture, with weird passive-aggressive tones about people who “can’t make it in the industry.” (We work in a pretty chill industry. You don’t have to hustle that hard).
Since then, the CEOs have been unusually quiet online. More 1-star reviews came in on Glassdoor and they stopped responding. They’ve trashed their reputation in our industry and we’re all wondering whether they’ll try to sell or just shut down. We will see!
Hollywood is increasingly looking to Saudi Arabia for financing as other sources of money have dried up in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, though the kingdom’s controversial human rights record makes the relationship potentially problematic. What do you think?
“Let’s see movie critics try and leave a bad review now.”
Trevor Hopkins, Credibility Appraiser
“Do we want a ‘Space Jam 3’ or not?”
Miles Kempfer, Whistle Tester
“So now when I burn fossil fuels, I’m supporting the arts.”
President Trump continues to make misleading statements about affordability despite the Consumer Price Index indicating an increase in costs for many goods and services. The Onion assesses the veracity of the president’s claims.
Claim: The cost of living is low.
True: The cost of living is much lower than what it will be in a few months.
Claim: Trump has brought prices down.
False: We’re pretty sure he means the value of the U.S. dollar.
Claim: Trumponomics is the solution to runaway inflation.
False: Trumponomics is a 1996 CD-ROM game published by Maxis.
Claim: Affordability is a hoax perpetrated by Democrats.
False: Democrats would never run on a salient issue.
Claim: The price of Kellogg’s Stranger Things Demogorgon Crunch cereal has never been lower.
False: Kellogg’s Stranger Things Demogorgon Crunch cereal only cost a nickel in 1901.
Claim: It costs less to feed a family now than this time last year.
True: Remember, one of your kids died of measles.
Claim: The Trump economy has ushered in unprecedented prosperity for everyday Americans.
True: The White House’s economic agenda has been a boon for mom-and-pop hedge funds.
Claim: At Taco Bell, you can add sour cream to the regular bean burrito and it tastes basically the same as the Burrito Supreme.
True: It’s missing some other premium ingredients, but all you’re tasting is the cream anyway.
“A federal vaccine committee took a major step toward Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s goal of remaking the childhood vaccine schedule, voting to end a decades-long recommendation that all newborns be immunized at birth against hepatitis B, a highly infectious virus that can cause severe liver damage.” — The New York Times
- - -
Hi, it’s me, Bobby Kennedy Jr., a man who sounds incredibly unvaccinated. Please, don’t get up. I just took an ice bath in your trash can out back. Not with the garbage, of course. I emptied the garbage back into your pantry—you can and should eat garbage, it helps strengthen your immune system. I found a doctor in Tucson who proved it before he disappeared. Anyway, I just came by to tell you: I hate your kids—I mean, vaccines—and I, um, want them all gone. Yeah, I want vaccines gone.
Do you have a towel? I tried drying myself off with your cat, but it got away. Look, I know you don’t understand how I’m suddenly the guy making decisions about everybody’s kids when I look and talk like a guy who should never be around a kid ever again, but you need to know that I’m doing what’s best for your children. All I want is to get rid of them. I mean, um, vaccines. Get rid of vaccines. Damnit, I gotta stop doing that.
If you don’t have a towel, I’d at least love some clothes. I pissed all over mine before I took my trash-can ice bath. It keeps predators away if you piss yourself. You should actually cover yourself in your own urine at least once a week; it’s a great way to fight off dementia. What was I saying? Right. I want your kids dead. And it’s not just me—I have the full-fledged support of the entire GOP and the president to make sure we find a way to kill your kids. Shit, vaccines. Kill vaccines. That’s what we’re doing. Ignore the other thing I said.
Go ahead, take a look. It’s okay to stare. This is what the peak male physique looks like. You’re shaking your head? Sure, like you know what you’re talking about. There are entire forums that agree with me. Whatever, it doesn’t matter. I’m in charge. I decide who lives and who dies. And I’m mostly focused on the latter.
By the way, I ate the squirrel you’ve been raising for food in your yard. What’s that? You don’t raise squirrels? Wow, free-range squirrel meat! No wonder I can’t feel my legs. Nature’s cocaine. That’s what they say. The doctor in Tucson used to say that.
Okay, let’s review: I do not care at all about your or anyone else’s children and—in fact—I would like all the children of this country to suffer. There. Nailed it.
Wait, no, I mean vaccines. Whatever I said, I meant it to be about vaccines.
Have you ever noticed that I've never done that whole influencer thing? Unless you count this Christmas light tirade, that is. Anyway, that's all thanks to people like you! Viewer support through Patreon keeps this channel independent and possible. If you'd like to join the amazing folks who fund my work, check out the link below. Thank you! https://www.patreon.com/technologyconnections
Object permanence: Denver bomb squad vs 8" toy robot; Iceland's atheist religion; Largest strike in human history; Ad-tech is a bubble; Battery rationality; Pasta carpet; "With a Little Help"; Crooked Timber on Pikett; Tiki-mug menorah; China vs Big Data-backstabbing.
In my book Enshittification, I develop the concept of "giant teddybears," a scam that has been transposed from carnival midway games to digital platforms. The EU has just fined Elon Musk $140m for running a giant teddybear scam on Twitter:
Growing up, August 15 always meant two things for my family: my mother's birthday and the first day of the CNE, a giant traveling fair that would park itself on Toronto's waterfront for the last three weeks of summer. We'd get there early, and by 10AM, there'd always be some poor bastard lugging around a galactic-scale giant teddybear that was offered as a prize at one of the midway games.
Now, nominally, the way you won a giant teddybear was by getting five balls in a peach basket. To a first approximation, this is a feat that no one has ever accomplished. Rather, a carny had beckoned this guy over and said, "Hey, fella, I like your face. Tell you what I'm gonna do: you get just one ball in the basket and I'll give you one of these beautiful, luxurious keychains. If you win two keychains, I'll let you trade them in for one of these gigantic teddybears."
Why would the carny do this? Because once this poor bastard took possession of the giant teddybear, he was obliged to conspicuously lug it around the CNE midway in the blazing, muggy August heat. All who saw him would think, "Hell if that dumbass can win a giant teddybear, I'm gonna go win one, too!" Charitably, you could call him a walking advertisement. More accurately, though, he was a Judas goat.
Digital platforms have the ability to give out giant teddybears at scale. Because digital platforms have the flexibility that comes with running things on computers, platforms can pick out individual platform participants and make them King For the Day, showering them in riches that they will boast of, luring in other suckers who will lose everything:
That's how Tiktok works: the company's "heating tool" lets them drive traffic to Tiktok performers by cramming their videos into millions of random people's feeds, overriding Tiktok's legendary recommendation algorithm. Those "heated" performers get millions of views on their videos and go on to spam all the spaces where similar performers hang out, boasting of the fame and riches that await other people in their niche if they start producing for Tiktok:
Uber does it, too: as Veena Dubal documents in her work on "algorithmic wage discrimination," Uber offers different drivers wildly different wages for performing the same work. The lucky few who get an Uber giant teddybear hang out in rideshare groupchats and forums, trumpeting their incredible gains from the platform, while everyone else blames themselves for "being bad at the app," as they drive and drive, only to go deeper and deeper into debt:
Everywhere you look online, you see giant teddybears. Think of Joe Rogan being handed hundreds of millions of dollars to relocate his podcast to Spotify, an also-ran podcast platform that is desperately trying to capture the medium of podcasting, turning an open protocol into a proprietary, enclosed, Spotify-exclusive content stream:
The point of the conspicuous, over-the-odds payment to Rogan isn't just to get Rogan onto Spotify – it's to convince every other podcaster that Spotify is a great place to make podcasts for. It isn't, though: when Spotify bought Gimlet Media, they locked Gimlet's podcasts inside Spotify's walled garden/maximum security prison. If you wanted to listen to a Gimlet podcast, you'd have to switch to using Spotify's app (and submitting to Spotify's invasive surveillance and restrictions on fast-forwarding through ads, etc).
Pretty much no one did this. After an internal revolt by Gimlet podcast hosts – whose podcasts were dwindling to utter irrelevance because no one was listening to them anymore – Spotify moved those Gimlet podcasts back onto the real internet, where they belong.
When Musk bought Twitter, he started handing out tons of giant teddybears – most notably, he created an opaque monetization scheme for popular Twitter posters, which allowed him to thumb the scales for a few trolls he liked, who obliged him by loudly proclaiming just how much money you could make by trolling professionally on Twitter. Needless to say, the vast majority of people who try this make either nothing, or a sum so small that it rounds to nothing.
But Musk's main revenue plan for Twitter – the thing he repeatedly promised would allow him to recoup the tens of billions he borrowed to buy the platform – was selling blue tick verification.
Twitter created blue ticks to solve a serious platform problem. Twitter users kept getting sucked in by impersonators who would trick them into participating in scams or believing false things. To protect those users, Twitter offered a verification scheme for "notable people" who were likely to face impersonation. The verification system was never very good – I successfully lobbied them to improve it a little when I was being impersonated on Twitter (I got them to stop insisting that users fax them a scan of their ID, or, more realistically, to send them ID via a random, insecure email-to-fax gateway). But it did the job reasonably well.
Predictably, though, the verification scheme also became something of a (weird and unimportant) status-symbol, allowing a certain kind of culture warrior to peddle grievances about how only "lamestream media libs" were getting blue ticks, while brave Pizzagaters and 4chan refugees were denied this important recognition.
Musk's plan to sell blue ticks leaned heavily into these grievances. He promised to "democratize" verification, for $8/month (or, for businesses, many thousands of dollars per month). Users who didn't buy blue ticks would have their content demoted and hidden from their own followers. Users who paid for blue ticks would have their content jammed into everyone's feeds, irrespective of whether Twitter's own content recommendation algorithms predicted those users would enjoy it. Best of all, Twitter wouldn't do much verifying – you could give Twitter $8, claim to be anyone at all, and chances are, you would be able to assume any identity you wanted, post any bullshit you wanted, and get priority placement in millions of users' feeds.
This was a massive gift to scammers, trolls and disinformation peddlers. For $8, you could pretend to be a celebrity in order to endorse a stock swindle, shitcoin hustle, or identity theft scheme. You could post market-moving disinformation from official-looking corporate accounts. You could pose as a campaigning politician or a reporter and post reputation-destroying nonsense.
This is where the EU comes in. In 2024, the EU enacted a pair of big, muscular Big Tech antitrust laws, the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA). These are complex pieces of legislation, and I don't like everything in them, but some parts of them are amazing: bold and imaginative breaks from the dismal history of ineffective or counterproductive tech regulation.
Under the DSA, the EU has fined Twitter about $140m for exposing users to scams via this blue tick giant teddybear wheeze (much of that sum is punitive, because Twitter flagrantly obstructed the Commission's investigations). The DSA (sensibly) doesn't require user verification, but it does expect companies that tell their users that some accounts are verified and can be trusted, to actually verify that they actually can be trusted.
I think there's a second DSA claim to be made here, beyond the failure to verify. Musk's plan to sell blue ticks was a disaster: while many, many scammers (and a few trolls) bought blue ticks, no one else did. The blue tick – which Musk thought of as a valuable status symbol that he could sell – was quickly devalued. "Account with a blue tick" was never all that prestigious, but under Musk, it came to mean "account that pushes scams, gore, disinformation, porn and/or hate."
So Musk did something very funny and sweaty. He restored blue ticks to millions of high-follower accounts (including my own). And despite the fact that Musk had created about a million different kinds of blue ticks that denoted different kinds of organizations and payment schemes, these free blue ticks were indistinguishable from the paid ones.
In other words, Musk set out to trick users into thinking that the most prominent people they followed believed that it was worth spending $8/month on a blue tick. It was an involuntary giant teddybear scam. Every time a prominent user with a free blue tick posts, they help Musk trick regular Twitter users into thinking that these worthless $8/month subscriptions are worth shelling out for.
I think the Commission could run another, equally successful enforcement action against Musk and Twitter over this scam, too.
Trump has been bellyaching nonstop about the DSA and DMA, threatening EU nations and businesses with tariffs and other TACO retribution if they go ahead with DSA/DMA enforcement. Let's hope the EU calls his bluff.
Of course, Musk could get out of paying these fines by moving all his businesses out of the EU, which, frankly, would be a major result for Europe.
#15yrsago Internet furnishes fascinating tale of a civil rights era ghosttown on demandhttps://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/eddwx/what_the_hell_happened_to_cairo_illinois/
"Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com.
"Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com
"The Reverse Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux about being an effective AI critic. LEGAL REVIEW AND COPYEDIT COMPLETE.
"The Post-American Internet," a short book about internet policy in the age of Trumpism. PLANNING.
A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING
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In brief: Following a brief warm-up this weekend, Houston’s temperatures are back on the cooler side this morning. We’re going to be cold for about 48 hours before the second half of this week is warmer and quite mild for December. By the weekend the forecast turns more uncertain.
The northern half of Texas is quite cold this morning, just before sunrise. (Weather Bell)
December, one week in
It has certainly felt festive during the first week of winter in Houston. On Sunday, just as temperatures started to warm up a bit, another front blew into the region dropping the mercury precipitously. Through the first seven days of the month, the city’s average temperature of 50.8 degrees is nearly 7 degrees below normal for early December. We will now experience a couple of more chilly days before temperatures moderate in the middle of the week. And so it goes with roller coaster weather, which is often the norm in Houston during December as we are whipsawed between fronts and then the returning flow from a still warm Gulf.
Will this much colder pattern hold? Probably not. In he big picture, it does seem like the first week of December will end up being colder, on average, than the middle of the month.
Speaking of cold weather, I just wanted to send a shout out to the hometown football team. The Texans ventured into the unfriendly confines of Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday night and gutted out a win in a brutally hard-hitting game. Temperatures during the second half hovered around 20 degrees, with wind chills in the low teens. Is it time to start talking about playoffs?!
Monday
Today will be the coldest of the week. Highs will struggle to climb out of the upper 50s, and there will be a chilly northerly breeze throughout the day. Mostly cloudy skies this morning will give way to clearing skies later today, such that we will end up with a fair amount of sunshine. Winds will die down this evening, and with clear skies we’ll see ideal conditions for cooling. Much of the area surrounding Houston, and away from the coast, will drop into the upper 30s, with a light freeze possible in parts of Montgomery and Waller counties.
Low temperature forecast for Tuesday morning. (Weather Bell)
Tuesday
This will be a sunny day, with highs in the low 60s. Winds will shift to come from the south on Tuesday, beginning an onshore flow. But I still expect lows to drop into the upper 40s on Tuesday night.
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
These all look to be pleasant days, with highs generally in the 70s and lows in the 50s. Skies will be sunny to mostly sunny, and winds generally light.
Saturday and Sunday
Our weather this weekend will be determined by whether a front makes it into the region, and frankly it’s not at all clear what will happen. I think it is more likely than not some sort of front does make it in by Sunday, but I would really like to see some consistency before making a forecast. For now I’ll predict highs around 70 degrees on Saturday, and in the 60s on Sunday, but I don’t feel great about it. We’ll probably see a mix of sunshine and clouds, but again that is dependent on what happens with the front. Rain chances are low, but perhaps not zero.
Next week
Unfortunately the forecast for next week is similarly muddled. There are scenarios in which the early part of next week is in the 70s, and there are outcomes in which we get some rain and a significantly cooler front drives into Houston in the Monday or Tuesday time frame. For now I’m going to just say let’s wait and see.
I’m on vacation. Here are some past letters that I’m making new again, rather than leaving them to wilt in the archives.
1. My boss watches me by video call while I work
I’m a 100% teleworker in the research field, which I love. The problem is my boss believes mentoring me means watching me via video call as I work.
I’ve asked my boss to stop (firmly but nicely) and reported it to my boss’s supervisor who was horrified. Even our supreme boss stepped in, but not much has changed. She has lessened up slightly but now complains she can’t mentor me right because of my “complaining.”
Any advice on how to reinforce some boundaries? Is this just a typical part of remote work? I’m a trailing spouse, so I’m job hunting but it takes quite a while for me to find anything even somewhat related to my field.
Noooo, this is not normal in remote work. This is really f’ing weird, it’s terrible management, and it’s a huge waste of her time.
The good news is that her boss was horrified when you told her about it. She probably thinks that it’s stopped now that she addressed it, so you need to let her know that it hasn’t (and that not only is it continuing, but that now your boss is making snide comments about you having complained). Also, when you let her know it’s still happening, you might just ask if it’s okay for you to disable your web camera — so that when your boss confronts you about having done that, you can say, “Oh, (grandboss) told me to do that.”
Also, for the record, the conversation your grandboss should be having with your boss isn’t just “stop doing this, it’s horrifying” but also “let’s do some urgent and remedial training about how to manage effectively because clearly we are not on the same page about what that means and about how you should be spending your time.”
2. Tubs of butter are taking up all the room in our tiny fridge
I had no idea this would be the hill I wanted to die on, but here we are. In our office, on our floor we have a kitchen area with a small dorm-sized fridge. There are 13 of us in our little area although with part-time and working from home, six to 10 is more normal most days.
The bottom of the fridge is taken up by the office milk leaving two rather small shelves. Often people pop out at lunch and get some shopping and fill the fridge after lunch but at that point everyone has taken out their lunch and its mostly ok, although sometimes very difficult to shut.
The problem is the six full sizes tubs of margarine/butter. Seriously. Of 13 people, there are six of these. Sometimes five, but usually six. I first brought this up jokingly that this was ridiculous and a couple people defensively said they were sharing. This is a tiny fridge. With their six tubs and if I am not first in, I cannot put my lunch in the fridge. I have started bringing a cold bag or something that doesn’t need refrigeration. I mentioned that each tub is bigger than 1/13th of their share of the fridge and I just get “but I have toast in the morning.”
Sigh. I just think it’s so selfish and I’ve been as up front about it as I can think and people just do not see that a full sized tub is too big for a teeny shared fridge. I’m annoyed but not insane, this isn’t a management thing, but I would like to understand why their big tubs of margarine trump my lunch. You may just advise I take up meditation or up the martial arts training to channel my aggression but maybe you or the readers have a brilliant suggestion here to transform coworkers into sensitive space sharers? I really really like a cold Diet Coke.
Convince your office to buy a full-sized fridge (a dorm fridge for 13 people is way too small). Failing that, you could propose a butter club, where all the butter eaters chip in for a single tub of butter to share. (Or perhaps a butter club and a margarine club.)
But perhaps the best solution of all — butter keepers! They don’t go in in the refrigerator at all.
3. I cried at work and worry I missed something important when it happened
I screwed up at work. Thanks to reading your blog for so long, I was able to handle the screw-up immediately and appropriately to make things right. Fortunately, I was not fired for the offense, although I was given a formal write-up. During the write-up, I sat up straight, looked my boss and grand-boss in the eyes, and held my head up — basically, I realized this was business and not personal, instead of cowering or running away as I would have previously in my career. They were both respectful and professional during the meeting, expressing what happened, what went wrong, addressing that it was corrected immediately, expectations going forward, and how they would both me helping me to move forward. I appreciate being given another chance, in addition to being soberingly humbled by my mistake.
However, I started crying in the meeting. I’ve never cried at this job before. My boss and grand-boss ignored the tears, continued to treat me with respect, and the meeting wrapped up (it was almost over). Unfortunately, I don’t remember what was said to me during the time I was crying. I was trying so hard to keep control over myself and maintain myself, I lost focus on the discussion. I know what I did wrong and how to move forward from it positively, and I’m not concerned it is going to haunt me or be held over my head unreasonably.
So, do I need to go back and tell them I missed part of it? I remember hearing my grand-boss expressing disappointment on a professional level. But I don’t know what else he said for another 3-7 minutes. I don’t know if the rest was professional feedback, I don’t know if it was instruction on how to make amends to the client, I don’t have any clue what it was. What do I do? And if I have to go back and say I didn’t hear him, HOW do I say that?
If you think there’s any chance that you missed instructions or something else important, then yes, go back and correct that! All you have to say is, “I really appreciated you talking to me about the X situation the other day. Because I was stressed by the situation, I want to be absolutely sure that I didn’t miss any action items for me, particularly from the end of the conversation when my stress was at its highest. Can I confirm with you my plan for moving forward and make sure this sounds comprehensive to you? I plan to do X, Y, and Z. Is there anything I missed?”
Or, you can be even more straightforward about it, replacing that second sentence with, “I’m sure you noticed I got a little emotional toward the end of the meeting. My apologies — it was a stressful situation, but I really appreciated how you handled it. I want to be realistic that getting emotional toward the end may have diluted my focus and I want to be sure I didn’t miss anything I should have taken away.”
And don’t be too mortified. People sometimes cry in serious meetings about mistakes. It happens! Your boss and grand-boss have probably seen it before. As long as you handle it professionally now, it should be fine.
4. I was rejected because the employer thought I wouldn’t do well in a small start-up
I am from a large multinational company but was just recently rejected from a small start-up company and received the email below. I seemed to impress them but was rejected, and the hiring manager wanted to “stay in touch.” I don’t get it. I’ve been feeling down about this, and I just keep sulking over it. Please help provide any insight and what this really means. What did I do wrong?
This is the email: “Hi Jane. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting you and appreciated your taking time to come by the office. We love your portfolio and experience. In particular your process and analysis skills are some of the best we have seen! As much as we’d love to add you to our team, we feel the move from such a big company like X to such a small operation as ours will be a tough transition and your skills would much better serve a business that has already reached some scale. I encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn and I would like it if we could stay in touch. I wish you the very best in your job search!”
I would take it at face value: They think you’re great, and they also think you won’t thrive in a small operation like theirs. That could mean anything from “We’re still figuring things out and we need someone entrepreneurial who’s comfortable setting up systems from scratch and working with a tiny budget, and we don’t think that’s where you’d shine” to “Because we’re small, we’d need you wearing 100 different hats here, pitching in on things like reception duty and inventory, and we don’t think you’d love that — and even if you say you’d be fine with it, we’re not willing to take the risk that we’re right” to all sorts of other things. In other words, think of all the reasons someone might not thrive in a small start-up when they’re used to a huge company, and there are your possible answers.
People get rejected for jobs all the time because while they’re qualified in many ways, they’re not quite the right fit in other ways. That doesn’t mean you did anything wrong; it just means hiring is about lots of things beyond just your actual skills.
THE ARCTIC CIRCLE—With a vow to destroy the abomination she had created if it was the last thing she ever did, television host Oprah Winfrey has spent weeks on a ship pursuing Dr. Phil through the Arctic, sources reported Tuesday.
Sailors aboard the vessel confirmed that while Winfrey appeared ill and exhausted from continuous exposure to the harsh tundra, she nonetheless spent hour upon hour peering through a brass spyglass and scanning the desolate landscape for any sign of the grotesque TV personality and formerly licensed therapist. Despite the heavy winds and raging sea, the 71-year-old media entrepreneur reportedly urged the ship’s captain to press northward.
“There! There he is, that speck on the horizon!” said Winfrey, who had armed herself with a pistol, several daggers, and a heavy hardcover copy of Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections in preparation for a final face-to-face encounter with Dr. Phil. “I brought this horrid creature into the world, and now I must take him out!”
“The dæmon will pay for what he’s done to my legacy,” Winfrey continued.
The ship’s captain, 50-year-old Rodney Walton, told reporters that crew members had picked up Winfrey after spotting her stranded on a piece of fractured sea ice with a sled, a team of dogs, and a slightly mad look in her eye. Although she was evidently suffering from pneumonia and malnutrition, Winfrey was said to be hellbent on the immediate pursuit of Dr. Phil.
Had he not caught a glimpse of the monstrosity himself, Walton stated, he would not have believed in such a television host’s existence.
“He was tall and impossibly hideous, with a mustache that made my blood run cold,” said Walton, who shuddered visibly as he described Dr. Phil’s gruesome visage. “His voice, too. I’ll never forget it. He kept moaning about out-of-control teens stealing pills and cutting class. It wasn’t human.”
The malevolent abomination is being sought in punishing climes.
Winfrey expressed remorse over the fateful night years ago when she created the TV host at Harpo Studios, telling reporters it was a hubristic desire to play the Queen of All Media that compelled her to bring Dr. Phil to life.
Sketches in her possession revealed that she had reanimated Dr. Phil after exhuming the freshly buried remains of a deceased cutthroat and scoundrel, which she then combined with the rotting organs of a door-to-door Amway salesman, several telemarketers, and a disbarred attorney.
“What beast have I unleashed upon the world?” said Winfrey, who seemed hardly to notice the icicles forming on her eyelashes as she paced back and forth on the deck of the ship.
Winfrey stated that she had spent the past few months on the trail of Dr. Phil, traveling thousands of miles through the Alps, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, the Russian wilderness, and, at one point, Los Angeles, where he was embedded with federal immigration officers. Winfrey alleged the pursuit was instigated after Dr. Phil strangled her beloved Stedman in retaliation for her refusal to create a female Dr. Phil to serve as his companion.
“Oh my dear Stedman, how I weep for thee,” said Winfrey, crying out in anguish as she recalled how she had looked up from the spot where she discovered her longtime partner’s limp body and seen a cackling Dr. Phil perched on the window sill. “I fired my pistol, but it was too late—the fiend leapt from the window and dove into the lake.”
“By the power of my 19 Daytime Emmy Awards, I shall vanquish you, wretch!” Winfrey added.
According to sources, Winfrey’s already poor health took a turn for the worse after the vessel became trapped in ice and completely grounded the hunt for the creature. When Winfrey’s condition forced her to take to her bed, she entered a state of delirium, alternately shivering in silence and cursing Dr. Phil’s name at the top of her lungs. She was overheard vowing to hack through every last iceberg herself should it prove necessary to wipe him forever from the face of the earth.
“Promise me that if I perish, you shall pursue the creature yourself,” said Winfrey, peering up at the ship captain from her bundle of furs in one of her last lucid moments. “This year, my favorite thing is vengeance.”
At press time, Walton had reportedly discovered Dr. Phil hunched over Winfrey’s lifeless body, weeping.
WASHINGTON—During a confrontation in which it was firmly reiterated that the front entrance was for approved personnel only, Vice President JD Vance was once again reminded by White House security to use the service door, sources confirmed Tuesday. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop right there. You know the rule. You’ll need to use the service entrance ’round back unless you have special permission,” said Marine Cpl. Nic Afton, a West Wing guard who stepped in the path of the vice president and Hillbilly Elegy author to sternly repeat the policy that forbids low-level staff from entering the premises through such a prominent, public-facing entryway. “You can’t just use any door you want, Mr. Vice President. You’ve been told several times this entrance isn’t for you. I’m gonna need you to go toward the back, take a left by the garbage cans, and use that door. You know the one.” Upon reaching the service entrance, Vice President Vance was reportedly stopped yet again and asked for identification by the head of White House maintenance.
This 3-by-4-inch plastic dish is a perfect place for you to sleep and live if you are a block of hand soap. If you are not a block of hand soap, this would likely not be a good place for you, unfortunately. Contact now!
SMITHS FALLS, ON ― In an attempt to assuage customers’ consciences and boost last-minute Christmas Eve sales, local handmade clothing store, The Silver Thread, has announced that they will not force overtime on those of their employees who actually have loved ones they could be gathering with this December. “We always want the best for […]
This wild animal was in terrible danger in its natural habitat until I sealed it in a box and put it in the trunk of my car for three days. You are welcome.
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