QUINCY, MA—Issuing its annual safety recommendations for preventing fire-related injury, the National Fire Protection Association released an updated report Thursday confirming that sitting down in a barrel of water remains the best way to put out a fire on one’s ass. “By far, the most effective method for…
With their large populations of unhoused people, minorities, and gays, liberal enclaves like New York and San Francisco have never been more dangerous to real, red-blooded Americans. The Onion asked conservatives to explain how they survive in the hellholes that are woke cities, and this is what they said.
WASHINGTON—Pushing back a black hood to reveal reddened, glowing eyes, Sen. Ron Darkness appeared on CNN Friday to try to garner support for a 1,000-year reign of blood. “In times of great tragedy, we as Americans must do all we can to enact many millennia of death and suffering,” the independent lawmaker from Hades…
128 Grazer, a female brown bear described as boasting a combination of “skill and toughness,” was crowned the winner of Fat Bear Week, the annual competition to see which Alaskan bears can pack on the most pounds before hibernation season. What do you think?
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go…
1. My new coworker invited everyone to her wedding but me
I’ve been reading through your archives and came across this question, which reminded me of something that happened to me many years ago.
Another coworker, Heather, and I had started at a new job about the same time (no more than one month apart), although I started first (which is relevant). We were both on phones for a small nonprofit, and our team had our desks in a small call center. Besides the two of us, there were three more representatives in the call center and our manager, Veronica.
Heather’s wedding was scheduled for just a few weeks after she started the job. Naturally, the upcoming nuptials became the talk of the room. At one point though, one of the team members made the mistake of talking about attending the wedding in my presence and Veronica shushed her. It turned out that Heather had invited every single person in that room, including Veronica. Except me. It wasn’t a matter of Heather inviting everyone before I started the job. She came on after I was already there.
I tried to “go high” and not let it bother me. But I’ve often wondered about the propriety of what happened and what Veronica ought to have done. She knew what happened, shushed talk about it, but accepted the invitation and attended the wedding. In retrospect, I wish that Veronica had declined to attend, knowing the situation, but I don’t know if that is an unreasonable expectation. What do you think?
Yeah, generally the etiquette rule for weddings and work is that you don’t have to invite everyone (and of course, it’s totally fine to invite no one from work) but if you’re going to invite some people from your team, you shouldn’t leave just one person out.
But the timing here is so odd — Heather started a new job, got married a few weeks later, and somehow in those few weeks decided she liked her coworkers and manager enough to invite them but disliked another coworker enough to leave them out? That’s such a short period of time that it makes me think the explanation is something less hurtful than it might seem — like maybe she and the other four were at lunch and she spontaneously invited them, rather then intentionally excluding you (and then if it did occur to her, maybe they were short on space … especially after adding four last-minute guests). If you pay attention to how Heather treated you outside of this, you probably have some idea how likely that kind of explanation is.
But Veronica … yes, ideally Veronica would have declined the invitation, because a manager attending a social event that a single person on her team was excluded from doesn’t look great. Even assuming there was no campaign to exclude you, it’s just the sort of the thing that will make a lot of people feel crappy and make them question how objective their boss is. But that also assumes a level of thoughtfulness and emotional intelligence that a lot of people don’t have, unfortunately — which I say not to insult Veronica, but because it’s likely that none of this was badly intended, even though it stung at the time.
2. Being told you were never hired — after you already worked a week
I came across this news story about a woman who relocated to another state for a job and worked seven days before being told she had never actually been hired. While she admits she didn’t actually receive a contract or offer letter, she has emails from her would-be boss specifically offering her the job and saying that he would get her into the HR system. The employer did appear to pay her the relocation costs plus $100 (which seems like a small amount for seven days of work) but I’m wondering if she would have any legal recourse for being paid the full agreed upon amount for her week of work (as well as extra for closing her lease in her previous state) without an official signed offer letter?
You can be officially hired without a contract or offer letter. Most U.S. workers don’t have contracts at all, and loads of employers don’t use formal offer letters; they just extend the offer over the phone or email, you accept, you show up and start working, and they pay you. An employer can’t backtrack after a week and say, “Oops, you were never really hired so we’re not going to pay you for the work you did.” The law says that if an employer “suffers or permits” a person to work, they owe them wages for that time. In this case, it certainly appears they permitted her to work; they also gave her a start date and assigned her tasks.
It sounds like there was some sort of miscommunication between the person who hired her and the school’s HR — but that’s something they need to make right, not leave her to clean up. They can’t be forced to keep her on, but they do need to pay her the agreed-upon wages for the days she worked, and if they have any decency whatsoever, they’d also cover her expenses to move back home, plus severance for the massive wrench they threw into her life. But if they’re only paying $100 for the work she did (!), it doesn’t sound like they have any intention of making it right.
3. Are my ouija board earrings offensive?
I wore some small ouija board earrings on an all-hands video call with approximately 200 other people. Later my manager told me word got back to them that someone was offended by them. (For context, I was not presenting on the call, I was just one of the masses listening.) I don’t have the energy to burn capital on something so low-stakes, so I just inwardly rolled my eyes and agreed not to wear them again.
I understand some very conservative Christian people might see these as problematic, but was I wrong to wear them? Are they inherently offensive? To me they’re just kitschy seasonal accessories.
You didn’t do anything wrong by wearing them. Whoever complained overstepped … and the idea that they were that bothered by tiny earrings worn by one participant on a 200-person video calls is A Lot.
Also, I realize this isn’t an angle you’re going to pursue, but for the record: your manager overstepped by asking you not to wear them again! While you only wore them as kitsch, she had no way of knowing that; if ouija boards were part of your faith, this would have been similar to asking an employee to stop wearing a cross — i.e., a violation of the federal law that protects your religious beliefs in the workplace.
(Note that this is different from the letter-writer who was creeped out by a ouija board mousepad at their shared workspace, since in that case they were being asked to use the item themselves.)
4. Asking a candidate about odd, pushy behavior when they applied
I am recruiting for a relatively early-career position in a prestigious, highly skilled field. A candidate reached out to me ahead of submitting their application in a way that was a bit weird: emailing a one-line message asking me to “tell them more about the job,” then again several times to ask for information that was already clearly written out in the job announcement. They are very impressive in terms of profile and experience, so it looks like someone I would probably want to interview – but communication skills, independence, and being easy to work with are also essential.
How can I deal with this in an interview? It seems confrontational to ask, “Why did you ask me for information that you already had?” or “Why did you send such a general, broad question?” but I would like to know if this is someone who will take up my time with those kinds of questions if they come work here, or if something else is behind the behavior (like bad career advice). How can I ask it in a way that gives me useful information rather than just conveying criticism?
If they weren’t early-career, I’d say to consider their behavior useful data and not dismiss it. But because they’re early-career, chances are high that they got bad advice (“connect with the hiring manager by asking questions before you apply!”) or just don’t have any idea what they’re doing. Given that, it makes sense to interview them and just pay a lot of attention to what else you see. I don’t think you need to specifically ask about it; you’ll have plenty of opportunities to observe how they handle themselves through the rest of the hiring process.
That said, if you really want to, the best wording I can come up with is, “I noticed that before you applied, you sent me a few messages asking for information that was already laid out in the job posting. You’d need to function pretty independently and resourcefully in this role, so I’m curious about the story with those messages.” But even just writing that out feels like a gotcha and I don’t like it. Of course, if not asking means you’d otherwise just reject the person, then I suppose you could go ahead and ask … but it’s likely to make most early-career candidates (as well as some more experienced people) feel nervous and a bit crappy. I’d be more inclined to write it off to inexperience and then make sure you have other opportunities in your hiring process to see how well they function independently, spot detail, etc. (In particular, if you’re not already using a short hiring exercise with all your finalists that lets you see how they’d actually approach the work, this would be a good time to incorporate one.)
OTTAWA – Cyclists across the country expressed their deepest apologies today after learning that they weren’t actually allowed to run every red light and stop sign they come across. “We had no idea we were supposed to stop,” said Canadian Cycling Association President Xander Tremblay. “Apparently someone was supposed to read the Highway Traffic Act […]
The post Nation’s cyclists mortified after learning that stop signs and red lights apply to them too appeared first on The Beaverton.
The moon is going to get in the way of the sun this Saturday. For The New York Times, Jonathan Corum has the map of when and how much sun coverage we’ll see in the western hemisphere.
Tags: eclipse, New York Times, solar
And Jim Jordan is waiting in the wings.
For a brief moment, many Republicans hoped the party’s nomination of Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) for speaker of the House could quickly unite their fractious conference.
That was a pipe dream that ended suddenly on Thursday night, when Scalise told his colleagues he was withdrawing his name from contention.
The announcement leaves the House GOP in yet further disarray, with the next steps in the leadership contest unclear.
Scalise had narrowly triumphed Wednesday in the first step of the speaker election process, an internal vote among House Republicans. That win in theory meant he’d be the party’s nominee for the next step: the speaker election vote on the House floor.
But on Thursday, the extent of the difficulty he faced in attaining the near-unanimous House GOP support he needed for that floor vote became clear as problem after problem piled up.
With Democrats unanimously opposed, a mere five Republican defections is enough to block Scalise from winning on the House floor — and by afternoon, more than a dozen had already said they wouldn’t vote for him, according to CNN’s Haley Talbot. Most (though not all) of this opposition came from right-wing hardliners who prefer Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH). Jordan conceded and pledged to support Scalise after the House GOP’s internal vote Wednesday, but his supporters weren’t all going along.
Take, for instance, Donald Trump, who endorsed Jordan last week. During a radio interview, Trump argued that Scalise’s recent blood cancer diagnosis meant he was in “serious trouble” and should focus on getting better.
Then former speaker Kevin McCarthy — who reportedly had a tense relationship with Scalise, his number two, this year — undercut his would-be successor Thursday. When asked whether Scalise would come up with the votes he needs: “It’s a big hill,” McCarthy said. “He told a lot of people he was gonna be at 150” in the internal party vote, McCarthy continued, “but he wasn’t there.” (Scalise beat Jordan by just 113 to 99.)
When the GOP conference met again Thursday evening, Scalise had evidently concluded he couldn’t get there — and announced he was withdrawing from contention.
Jordan will now likely make another attempt at getting the top job, and he’ll have hardliners’ backing. But his main difficulty might be winning swing district Republicans who may view him as too controversial.
Because of all this chaos, some frustrated House GOP establishment figures are now floating the unthinkable: asking Democrats for help. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has said he’d be open to finding “a bipartisan path forward” to “reopen the House,” but most Republicans would be deeply reluctant to go there unless they conclude there’s no other choice.
After Scalise won the House GOP conference vote early Wednesday afternoon, things were looking up for him at first. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who’d spearheaded the effort to depose McCarthy, was on board. “Long live Speaker Scalise,” Gaetz told reporters.
And though Jordan was initially cagey about whether he’d back Scalise, he agreed to do so just about an hour later, saying he’d help nominate Scalise on the House floor. There was even talk that the House could hold its speaker vote that afternoon.
That didn’t last long; it quickly became clear Scalise didn’t yet have the votes he needed.
Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Thomas Massie (R-KY), and Max Miller (R-OH) all announced they would not vote for Scalise on the floor. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said the same, citing Scalise’s cancer. “I like Steve Scalise, and I like him so much that I want to see him defeat cancer more than sacrifice his health in the most difficult position in Congress,” she wrote.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) then went on CNN to say that she’d oppose Scalise on the floor. Mace argued that old Scalise scandals — his 2002 speech to a group founded by white supremacist David Duke and an alleged comment Scalise made around that time that he was Duke “without the baggage” — disqualified him.
Later Wednesday, Rep. George Santos (R-NY) — fresh off his latest indictment — posted on X that he had had “0 contact or outreach” from Scalise and that he’d oppose him “come hell or high water I won’t change my mind.”
The news got worse on Thursday, as Scalise began losing the votes of some members who’d said Wednesday that they would back him, including Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) and Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ). Further “no” votes piled in, too.
Most of the holdout members are still backing Jordan, and their most common complaint is that Scalise represents a continuation of the GOP’s establishment leadership and that a greater shake-up is necessary. Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), meanwhile, said he’d only cast his ballot for McCarthy on the House floor.
Now that Scalise has pulled out, what happens next is up in the air.
If Jordan runs again and the House GOP holds another internal vote, the question will be how strong Jordan’s support is and whether anyone steps up to challenge him. Perhaps now the dynamics will flip and swing district Republicans will be the holdouts to a Jordan nomination. But it’s also possible that, exhausted by the chaos, they’ll simply give in and support Jordan. Of course, Jordan would need near-unanimous support from Republicans on the House floor. Alternatively, a new dark horse candidate could arise.
There’s even that prospect of a deal with Democrats. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) said that the GOP might never get 217 votes for a speaker due to “traitors” in the conference and that Democrats must help.
Rep. David Joyce (R-OH), meanwhile, said that perhaps a deal could be cut with Democrats to make Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), currently serving as speaker pro tempore, officially the speaker on a short-term basis. That could get the chamber — and the country — through the next government funding deadline in mid-November.
But the likely next question going forward is just how unpalatable Jordan is to swing district and establishment-friendly Republicans.
Update, October 12, 8:15 pm ET: This story was originally published Thursday afternoon and has been updated to reflect Scalise’s withdrawal from the speaker’s race.
Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves. For horror. For excitement. For a spine-tingling journey straight through the heart of hell, where all it takes is one mistake, one misstep, or one unhinged motorist barreling toward the Taco Bell drive-thru to send me hurtling into the abyss, never to be seen again!
Prepare yourselves for my next death-defying stunt, where I will walk across… THIS CROSSWALK.
Someone help up that man who just fainted.
I want all present here today to witness the extraordinary agility and superhuman composure it takes to walk the crosswalk with your body and sanity intact.
A grave task indeed, my adoring fans. For this crosswalk is not a well-maintained footpath in the suburbs. No. This is a crumbling concrete gangway surrounded by fiery metal death convoys, where my survival hinges entirely on some lights and a small yellow sign partially hidden by a tree branch.
I did not expect so many of you to be vomiting already. Get a hold of yourselves. You are about to witness a grand spectacle!
Swarms of faceless steel killing machines will turn right in front of me at break-neck speeds to avoid waiting two more seconds. Roaring pickup trucks the size of circus elephants will stop just inches from me, then violently accelerate the moment I walk past. Psychological torments the likes of which you can’t imagine will gnaw away at my faith in humanity—the honking, the jeering, the sickening entitlement infecting the air like a noxious gas. All while a mocking orange hand counts down the wildly inadequate number of seconds I have to get out of the way before a stampede of luxury sedans can surge forward and legally pancake me in the street!
Stop this senseless weeping, dear spectators. I live for danger!
In fact, if I survive this crosswalk, I will take on an even more treacherous one just a block away—a crosswalk at a four-way stop with no speed bumps or traffic enforcement in sight, where hundreds of unruly manchildren in Audis are free to careen right through without the faintest attempt to slow down, look, or brake. Huzzah!
Scream all you want. But do not shield your eyes as I brave drivers so hell-bent on speeding home, so coddled by our car-centric culture, that one may very well leap out of their freshly scented, air-conditioned murder weapon and beat me with their fists because my existence held them up for a moment.
Pray that I last the day, ladies and gentlemen. Pray that I am lucky enough to merely get clipped by a maniac on a Lime scooter, or have my toes run over by a malfunctioning Tesla. For there are still thousands of crosswalks, bike lanes, and Target parking lots for a reckless thrill seeker like me to conquer!
For My Next Death-Defying Stunt, I Will Ride My Bike in This Bike Lane
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
Here are three updates from past letter-writers.
1. My new job’s insurance doesn’t cover my medication
I am the person who wrote in about the company not covering Wegovy when it was on the formulary list they gave me during the interview process and I would not have taken the job if I had known they would not cover it. After much back end discussion, they told me that they were not able to cover it for a variety of reasons which I understood. However, they understood that it is important to me and we negotiated an almost 25% of my salary bonus to commit to staying for two years. Taking into account the other perks of working there, I agreed.
2. How to tell my boss his second-in-commands are making it impossible for me to do my job (#5 at the link)
There’s a wee bit of drama, but the overall outcome is a positive one.
When the director got back from paternity leave, I was initially going to leave it for a while before addressing the situation delicately with him (as he and the Goons are personal friends).
Unfortunately, however, Caligula (thank you to the reader who suggested that one!) got to him first.The director and I were catching up one day when he started to ask me about when I start work, when I finish work and what my productivity was looking like at the moment. I knew that this had come from Caligula, because he was seemingly out to get everyone in Director’s absence. I had anticipated this though so had a response ready. I reminded Director that at my job interview, I made him aware that I have ADHD and have about six hours per day of super productivity before my meds wear off and I crash really quickly, and he had said that was fine.
This is probably where I put my foot in it, though, and word-vomited my grievances about Caligula.Director listened intently to me and then went on his way, until a few hours later where I was called into a meeting with Director and Caligula, and Director told us basically that we needed to sort our differences out. The way that man was acting like a confused puppy in front of Director was nauseating. But I stuck to my guns, and told him that he needs to stop getting involved in my work, stop trying to micromanage me, especially since we’re technically on the same level of hierarchy, and to start contributing where his input is requested. He agreed that he would and that was that.
And I’m happy to report that he has noticeably wound back the BS. Not completely, but enough that I can toe the line between pacifying him and keeping my own peace.
Goon 2 is still an absolute bozo, but I fortunately don’t have much to do with him anymore now that Director is back.
I also recently had my probation/performance review where Director told me that I’m his “best hire in about 18 months,” which is saying a lot for a place with relative turnover, and he also assured me that he’s aware of some of the other managers not taking me seriously and he’s been addressing this with them in their own performance reviews (one guess for my gender and that of the other managers). I’ve also heard from two lower-level managers that every time something is said against me or my work, Director shuts it down pretty quickly.
So it’s still not perfect here, far from, but knowing that Director has my back definitely makes things easier.
3. I’m scared to tell my boss how behind on work I am (first update here)
First, an update on my husband. He finished his chemotherapy treatment in the fall of 2019. He started a new job in March 2020. He is still employed there today and it has been wonderful. Each follow-up scan for cancer has been clear and after one more clear scan, he won’t have to visit the oncologist again!
Back to me: At some point in 2019, my department divided the hierarchy so that Toxic Boss was over the other half of our department, and I reported to a new boss. She was a lovely boss, who actively solved problems and advocated for us that our workload was too much (and we were growing, so it was constantly increasing). She really pushed back on the work on which I was months behind, so when we were relieved of doing it at all, my stress level dropped immensely. Honestly, if my role hadn’t switched to reporting to her, I would have quit solely because of Toxic Boss. I felt sorry for the department half that reported to Toxic Boss.
Side note: I later discovered that a lot of my colleagues were also behind as much as I was, but didn’t have the guts (or realization of how far behind they were) to own up to it in the meetings.
My role evolved into payroll accounting. I loved doing it, but I was still working with Toxic Boss. Eventually the tasks that brought me into contact with Toxic Boss were moved over to Lovely Boss, so my job became even more enjoyable. With the shelter-in-place order in 2020, I started working remotely and I’ve been remote since then. In the fall of 2020, I started working with payroll, which really got me away from Toxic Boss, as she had no authority over payroll. I only saw or heard from her if I went into the office and even then, it was merely social conversation. To boot, Lovely Boss was promoted over Toxic Boss and became Toxic Boss’ boss, so I really had no work reason to contact Toxic Boss anymore.
My job title changed again in 2022, as did my boss, and I view him as a mentor. My workload can fluctuate, but I’m not stressed or overloaded. I really enjoy my work. I have reached the light at the end of the tunnel!
Final Piece: In September 2022, Toxic Boss RESIGNED. I keep an eye on her so I can avoid working with her ever again.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
A reader writes:
I’m working in low-level tech retail (phones, phone accesories, other related stuff) and I frankly hate that job. The worst parts are the strict sales quotas that are unrealistic on most months and people who think we sellers are the end-all of decisions (common retail problem). Aside from that, there are more internal things that started bugging me, like manager not notifying me about change of opening hours (I was scheduled the next day, so less than 24 hours notice), not telling me she added me as a fill-in for another location, and things like weird internal communication between complaint corporate and other offices (suddenly, “how it’s done” changes for small things that have gotten me almost yelled at).
I put in my notice few days before the end of my trial period (my manager knew I didn’t want to stay, but didn’t have a date on paper) when I was absolutely done one evening. My manager asked if I’d be able to stay until they find someone. I was apprehensive, but agreed. We put in a solid date, but I’m worried they’ll try to get me to stay even longer if they don´t find someone. I already sent out applications and I know having no end date is a minus point for interviews (no solid timeline).
Frankly, I doubt they will find someone until that date we set. This is a position that gets new person every 3-6 months thanks to long hours and weekends (basically 12 hours on weekdays and 9/8 on weekends). The pressure, all the info needed, and people make it unbearable to stay. The sales bonus is far from reach on non-summer and non-holiday months, so it’s minimum wage.
Would it be bad if I hit a solid boundary? I don’t want to burn my bridges, but most of my off-days are spent either at doctors appointments, running errands, or trying to catch up to sleep, and my brain keeps slipping into my old high-anxiety mode.
OMG, put in two weeks notice and be done with it!
You are under zero obligation to stay until they find someone to replace you. They’re allowed to ask, and you’re more than allowed to say no. It’s very normal to insist on sticking to two weeks, even if you’re pressured to stay longer. This is true of all jobs, including very senior, very high-powered, very prestigious ones — and it’s exponentially true for low-level tech retail. In fact, if anything, people are more likely to leave jobs like the one you have with no notice at all rather than agree to stay indefinitely.
I’m sure you’ve realized this, but your manager has no incentive to crank the search for your replacement into high gear when you’ve said you’ll stay indefinitely. What if it takes months? And it sounds like you’re telling prospective employers that you don’t know when you’ll be able to start with them — thus torpedoing your own chances with them?! Under no circumstances should you do that.
You get to tell your manager you’re leaving by Date X and then you get to stick to that.
In fact, because you’ve already given some notice even though you didn’t set a concrete end date, I’d argue that you don’t even need to give a full two weeks now. If you want to get out sooner, you could say, “I realize I told you I’d stay until you rehired but I’ve realized that won’t work for me. I need to set my end date no later than one week from today.” It sounds like she’s already had weeks and weeks, and you don’t really owe her an additional full two more. But if you prefer, you could just say, “I’ve realized I do need to set a concrete ending date, so my last day will be October 26.”
Also, if you want, you also have standing to say you won’t be able to work weekends during that period, or otherwise modify your availability to better fit your needs. When you’re leaving and they want you to stay, you have leverage.
Aside from all this: I’m curious how you got into a mindset where you felt you owed your employer your labor until some indefinite time when it becomes convenient for them to let you leave. Any chance you’re overly deferential to employers in general, or a people pleaser, or reluctant to assert yourself in other areas of your life when you should be? (For example, when’s the last time you asked for a raise / pushed back against an unreasonable schedule / said you wouldn’t fill in on your day off?) I might be reading too much into this one situation, but it’s worth looking at because I’d bet money there are other places where you’re subverting your needs to other people’s in ways you shouldn’t be.
Glasstire counts down the top five art events in Texas.
For last week’s picks, please go here.
Louise Nevelson, “Lunar Landscape,” 1959–1960, painted wood. Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, Purchase with funds from the Ruth Carter Stevenson Acquisitions Endowment
1999.3.A-J
1. The World Outside: Louise Nevelson at Midcentury
Amon Carter Museum of American Art (Fort Worth)
August 27 – January 7, 2023
From the Amon Carter:
“One of the first exhibitions to explore Louise Nevelson’s midcentury sculptures and works on paper in dialogue with their historical moment, The World Outside: Louise Nevelson at Midcentury illuminates Nevelson’s multidimensional mastery of form and attunement to postwar American culture. The Carter-organized exhibition features over 50 defining artworks by Nevelson on view together for the first time, including wall works, installations, and prints from across the country. These landmark artworks include Lunar Landscape, Royal Tide I, Rain Forest Wall, and Transparent Sculpture I. Divided into thematic sections that explore Nevelson’s identity as an artist, The World Outside allows Nevelson’s sculptures and works on paper to be viewed through the lens of the artistic and cultural landscape that shaped her vision and reaffirms her significance as an artist in postwar America.”
AMoA Biennial 600
2. AMoA Biennial – 600
Amarillo Museum of Art
October 14 – December 31, 2023
From the Amarillo Museum of Art:
“The 2023 AMoA BIENNIAL-600 is the tenth iteration of an ongoing series of juried biennial exhibitions exploring areas of artistic practice, material, and content. Previous biennial exhibitions have focused on materials like clay, glass, and textiles. Other exhibitions have investigated processes such as drawing, printmaking, and architecture. This year, the AMoA staff and Board of Trustees are excited to offer the museum’s exhibition spaces to artists working across all materials and genres. The exhibition will feature approximately 100 works of art from 58 artists who are living and working within a 600-mile radius of Amarillo, TX.”
Adam Marnie, “The Red Show”
3. Adam Marnie: The Red Show
Basket Books & Art (Houston)
September 9 – October 14, 2023
From Basket Books & Art:
“Basket Books & Art is pleased to present The Red Show, a solo exhibition by Houston-based artist Adam Marnie consisting of a selection of works in sculpture, painting, and photography, variously linked by the color red. With The Red Show, Marnie returns to artmaking after a studio hiatus of several years. The exhibition stretches out in different directions, and the works—most of which were made over the last month—are immediate, formal and linguistic explorations, making use of material directly at hand. Red, supersaturated and primary, operates here (as it often does) as an expressive misnomer or deflecting shield, both holding the works together as a group and operating as a current running through and alongside the work.”
Yuliya Lanina, “Mother/Land”
4. Yuliya Lanina: Mother/Land
Austin Central Library
August 24 – November 5, 2023
From Austin Central Library:
“Yuliya Lanina’s exhibition, titled Mother/Land, delves into the artist’s complex relationship with the war in Ukraine. Through animation, sculpture, and installation, Lanina continues her introspective exploration of the emotional and physical impact of war and trauma. The exhibition’s centerpiece is a large animation she created during her residency at Artpace composed from emotionally charged ink drawings she started making since the war began. The continuous scroll of images represents the artist’s experience of the war from afar. Accompanying this moving animation is a soundscape by Nina C. Young containing fragments of melodies from the Ukrainian national anthem, sirens, and birdsong. Lanina’s drawings will also be on view.”
Sandy Skoglund, “The Outtakes”
5. Sandy Skoglund: The Outtakes
Bale Creek Allen Gallery (Fort Worth)
September 2 – October 31, 2023
Learn more about this exhibition through Erin Keever’s interview with Skoglund.
From Bale Creek Allen Gallery:
A show of photographs by artist Sandy Skoglund.
The post Top Five: October 12, 2023 appeared first on Glasstire.
1. People are talkin’
2. Talkin’ ’bout PEOPLE
3. I hear ’em whisperin’
4. You won’t believe it
5. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
6. They think we’re lovers… kept undercover
7. Uh-huh
8. I’ll just ignore it
9. But they keep sayin’
10. [twang twang twang guitar noise]
11. Maybe they’re seein’… somethin’ we don’t?
12. Darlin’
13. Let’s give ’em something to talk about
14. Whooooo waaaaannnnts kitty treats?!? Who’s a good kitty?!?
15. Turn down these voices in my head!
16. Just hold me close, don’t patronize
17. DON’T PATRONIZE ME
18. Cuz I can’t make you love me if you don’t
Bonnie Raitt: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17,18
Paranoid recluse talking to his cat: 14
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Elapsed time: 122 hours from design concept to finished product in my hands. Hey, it works!
Last week I wrote about my attempts to design a Macintosh-to-VGA video adapter with an integrated sync splitter, separating composite sync into the separate hsync and vsync signals expected by most VGA monitors. I bodged together a proof-of-concept circuit using an LM1881 chip, which sort-of worked on some of the monitors I tested. After that, my goals for this prototype PCB were:
sync detection LEDs: Two LEDs to visually indicate whether the Mac is putting out composite sync, separate sync, both, or neither.
self-powering: The chips in the adapter should be powered by rectifying the sync signals themselves, instead of requiring a separate 5V supply.
usable VSYNC: The extracted vsync signal from the LM1881, when combined with the original csync, should enable at least some monitors to work with my Mac that didn’t work before.
Here’s the PCB schematic:
There are two specific elements worth mentioning here. One is the LM1881 RSET resistor, which is 680K ohm in the LM1881 reference design, but I lowered it to 510K ohm here in a belief that this value would be more appropriate for Mac video resolutions.
The second element is the way the Mac’s csync signal is applied directly to the LM1881 video input at pin 2 (or “directly” through a blocking capacitor), instead of first passing through a resistor voltage divider to reduce csync to the approximate voltage level of a composite video signal. I experimented with both approaches, and an earlier schematic used the divider. But I think the combination of the resistor divider and the blocking capacitor formed an unwanted RC filter, resulting in oscillation and strange behavior. I could have taken further steps to address this, but since many other people have used 5V sync inputs with the LM1881, and it appeared to detect the sync just fine, I used the simpler approach without the divider.
Shiny New Prototype
My first prototype was an ugly mess of wires and breakout modules, and it didn’t even try to implement sync detection LEDs or self-powering, so I was excited to try this new prototype PCB. I’m happy to report that sync detection works, for both csync and h+vsync. In an effort to reduce the adapter’s current consumption, the LEDs are powered with less than 1 mA of current, but are still easily visible. This is exciting and this feature alone is a great diagnostic tool. At this weekend’s Mactoberfest Meetup, you can bet I’ll be running around plugging one of these adapters into every Mac and Nubus video card that I can find, and making a list of which ones output csync, separate H+V sync, or both.
The self-powering also works. The self-powered supply voltage (diode rectified from the sync signals) results in a VCC about 4.09V. That seems to be high enough for the chips to work, but we’re in uncharted territory for the LM1881 and it may not work completely correctly at this voltage. The Schottky diodes used for rectifying should drop about 0.3V from 5V, so why isn’t VCC 4.7V? Well, there’s also a 180 ohm series resistor on each of the Mac’s sync outputs that will cause additional voltage drop, and the sync output drivers also have some internal resistance. Based on these numbers, I estimate the adapter is drawing about 3.3 mA (0.6V drop divided by 180 ohms) from each of the three sync signal outputs, or about 10 mA total.
It’s great that self-powering works, but the resulting VCC is lower than I would have hoped, and the dependency on that 180 ohm series resistor is troubling. If other Macintosh models and video cards have a larger series resistor or a higher internal resistance on their sync output, then self-powering might not work.
The vsync signal that’s output from the LM1881 has a voltage during its high parts of only about 2.65V. I think 2.65V is still high enough to be a valid logical high voltage when seen at the monitor, but it’s cutting it close. I might add a buffer or transistor here to bring the vsync signal all the way up to VCC, if it doesn’t increase the adapter’s current needs much.
There’s a second oddity about the LM1881’s vsync output with this prototype, aside from the voltage: the vsync pulse width is significantly longer than with the first protoype (about 16 lines versus 10), and it’s also variable (from about 15-17 lines on any given frame). The falling edge of the vsync pulse always comes at exactly the same spot relative to csync, but the time until the rising edge is variable. With my change of RSET from 680K ohm to 510K, the vsync pulse width in this new prototype should have been shorter than before, not longer. I’m not sure if this odd behavior is because of the lower VCC, or because one of my other component values is wrong, or what.
I can try all this again using a 5V external supply, instead of self-powering, and see how things change.
Field Testing
So does it actually work for separating hsync and vsync? The answer is yes, sort of. On my Dell 2001FP monitor it works, but the picture jumps up and down vertically by a couple of lines, probably due to the problems with VSYNC. I wouldn’t have guessed that the timing of vsync’s rising edge mattered much, so this is a little surprising.
I just received a Dell EL151FP monitor, which doesn’t work with the IIci normally, but does work via this adapter. Awesome! However once again there’s some vertical jitter.
My Viewsonic VG900b doesn’t work. This is the pickiest monitor in my stable, and it didn’t work with my first prototype either.
The Viewsonic 6 CRT works. This monitor doesn’t work with the Mac IIci normally, so this proves the adapter is doing something useful.
Goodbye LM1881, Hello MCU
As promising as this second prototype is, I’m not going to pursue this LM1881 design further. I’m not going to switch to a different sync-splitting chip either. It finally dawned on me that all the sync splitting chips are designed to do something much more complicated than I need: they’re meant to extract sync signals from a composite video signal that contains actual video data, chroma bursts, and negative-going sync, all at low voltage levels around 0.7V. But I don’t need any of that – I already have a 5V composite sync signal and I merely need to extract HSYNC and VSYNC from it.
After giving it some thought, I decided that the best path forward is to use a microcontroller to process the input sync signals, extract HSYNC and VSYNC, turn on the activity LEDs, and do anything else that’s needed. This will create some new challenges like clock-based jitter and VCC-imposed limits on clock speed, but it will turn this into more of a firmware plus circuit design problem, instead of a “read the datasheet” problem involving some complicated sync chip designed for a different purpose than mine.
I’ve already had some success with testing this approach, and in fact I was able to get a usable video image from the Mac IIci on the Viewsonic VG900b monitor, which had rejected all my prior attempts at feeding it synthetic sync signals. There are still more problems to work out, though. More updates coming soon.
Scientists are thrilled with the tiny asphalt-black rocks, and most of the sample hasn't even been revealed yet.
(Image credit: Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebersold/NASA)
Strong winds will bring some risk of localized power outages across the Central U.S. and increased fire danger in the Southern Plains as a fall storm winds up today.
With Sean back down to tropical depression status, there’s not a whole lot else to discuss for the next few days. I would not be shocked to see the low pressure system develop that’s presently bringing rain and locally gusty winds to the coastal Southeast. A couple tornadoes were reported earlier this morning near Tampa, and there are a couple tornado warnings ongoing as of this writing. All this will race east across the Atlantic, however, and poses no further risk to land as it exits.
There is some potential for another lower-end Cabo Verde type system in 5 to 7 days, but at this point between that and a likely quiet Caribbean for a bit, there’s no reason to sweat anything out on land.
Wind is the story today for the U.S., with a deepening low pressure system over the center of the country driving a pretty healthy wind event. Wind gusts of 40 to 50 mph or higher are likely from about South Dakota into western Nebraska, northeast Colorado, much of Kansas, northeast New Mexico, and the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles.
We get a handful of these events per fall, winter, or spring so it’s not too unusual. But it may have impacts ranging from localized power outages to tree damage to wildfire risk. The “critical” area of fire danger risk today is from southwest Kansas, across the Panhandles into northeast New Mexico. The combination of drought, low humidity, and winds will combine to enhance that risk.
Wind advisories, high wind warnings, and red flag warnings are posted in many of these regions for today.
With a storm like this, you usually get some severe weather, and this may be the case today in Nebraska and Kansas in particular. There’s a modest tornado risk today but more likely, we’ll see hail or damaging winds take prime billing later today as the low pressure area works east. Tornado risks are highest in Nebraska.
A slight (level 2 of 5) risk of severe weather is posted today. Heavy rain will also be possible, especially across South Dakota, where as much as 3 or 4 inches of rain may fall between Pierre and Sioux Falls. Enhanced precip may also occur in the Rapid City area and Black Hills, though a chunk of that will fall as snow.
Maximum snow is expected northwest of Mt. Rushmore in the Black Hills, where as much as a foot or so is possible. Snow will also occur in the mountains of Colorado and Wyoming and in parts of northwest Nebraska.
The flood risk will shift east tomorrow, when Chicago, Milwaukee, and Madison all fall into a slight risk of excessive rainfall (level 2 of 4), as 1 to 3 inches of rain are expected. More on that tomorrow.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. My boss unfollowed me on Instagram … but still follows everyone else
My senior head of department follows all her team on Instagram. She followed me and then out of the blue unfollowed me. I’m not an over-poster; it’s usually just my dog or a quote, plus family pics. Anyway I checked and she still follows the rest of the team. I never asked her why and went on to unfollow her back! It sounds a bit pathetic, really, but why? It’s been bugging me for ages, and I suppose only she can answer that, but now I feel ostracized. I get a sixth sense she doesn’t like me. Am I being ridiculous?
There are so many reasons this could have happened! Who knows — maybe she’s grieving her dog who looked just like yours and it’s painful to see your photos right now, or she has a schnauzer phobia, or your brother looks like a guy she used to date, or you once posted something really personal that she assumed you wouldn’t want her to see more of, or she clicked unfollow by accident and doesn’t even realize it happened… or sure, maybe she finds you horribly irritating on Instagram, but any of these other possibilities are just as likely too.
That said, when you ask if you’re being ridiculous … what you’re being is human! It’s easy for me to sit here and say you shouldn’t care, it’s only social media, blah blah — but the reality is, when your boss appears to be shutting you out socially in a way she hasn’t done with anyone else on your team, it’s normal to notice and wonder about it. The best thing you can do is to assume it’s one of the harmless reasons above (or even find a way to enjoy the mystery of it, if you can manage that!) and then focus on how she treats you at work. Is she a decent manager who gets you what you need to do your job? If you work on keeping your focus there, it’ll likely take a lot of the sting away.
That said, if your sixth sense that she doesn’t like you is related to anything other than the unfollow, that’s worth exploring more. But that would be about whatever you’re picking up on at work, and what it means for your ability to thrive there (and then the unfollow would be a symptom more than the meat of the issue).
2. Is my current degree program harming my job search?
I am going to school for cybersecurity and am expected to have my bachelor’s degree in less than a year! However, I was recently laid off from my previous job as an administrative assistant due to a lapse in funding for my position (I had been there for a few years). I am actively looking for jobs and had an interview last week for a senior office assistant position, but this week I was informed that I was not selected for the position, with the employer stating I having a strong resume. When I went in for my interview, the hiring manager asked about my education, even congratulated me for making it so far, and asked what I wanted to do with my degree. I answered their questions about my schooling and what I wanted to do, but now I feel that is the reason I was passed over for the job, considering the timing for when I graduate. I have asked for feedback after the rejection, but I want to hear what your thoughts are: is being close to graduation with a bachelor’s degree in an irrelevant field in which I’m currently searching for a job a potential deterrent in why I’m getting passed over?
Yes. It might be different if you were getting a degree in something with a less specific professional focus, but very few people go to school for cybersecurity without the goal of working in that field. So employers assume that as soon as you graduate, you’re likely to change jobs — which means they’re likely to lose you in less than a year. Most people hiring for admin assistants don’t want to go through all the work of training you and waiting for you to master the job, only to have you leave a few months later; they’d rather hire someone more likely to stay for at least a few years. (Obviously things change and anyone could end up leaving sooner — but you’re seeming like a particularly bad bet on that front.)
So you’ve got to think about ways to overcome that. It could mean targeting jobs where your schooling will be an asset, or being vaguer about what you’re in school for, or looking for jobs where staying for less than a year isn’t such a big deal, or some combination of all three.
3. Coworkers think I’m Jewish and invite me to safe spaces, but I’m not Jewish
I have a Jewish-sounding last name and dark curly hair, so people often assume I’m Jewish, but I have no (known) Jewish heritage. I’ll casually correct them if it seems like they’re trying to build a connection over a heritage we don’t actually share, but sometimes I’ll just say nothing.
Yesterday, I received an invitation from a very well-meaning colleague (albeit one I don’t know very well) to an informal conversation about the events occurring in Israel. It was VERY clearly meant for Jewish employees, inviting them to a safe space for Jewish employees to come together and process the events. (Note from Alison: The writer shared the invitation with me and it definitely reads like it’s only being sent to fellow Jews.) There are about 40 individuals on the list, and we are a very large law firm (over 600 attorneys alone), so it’s a relatively intimate group.
Obviously, I’m not going to attend; this is not a space for me. But I’m not sure how to respond to the invitation. Is it best to just ignore it? Thank them for the invitation, decline, and offer support? Am I overthinking this?
Ignoring it would be totally fine if you prefer that, but it would also be fine to write back and say, “Apologies if I’m misreading, but I think from your wording this is intended for Jewish employees so I wanted to let you know I’m not Jewish. But I really support you in doing this and hope you’re okay.”
4. Does “no upward gifting” apply if there’s no gift?
At my job over the past year, for each of the executive’s birthdays there’s been a private channel created on our team messaging tool where all employees have been automatically added, asking us to contribute to an e-card for their birthday. This e-card has no way to give gifts, it’s just positive birthday messages and gifs, but it’s only been done for the executives. Part of this might be because the whole process has been run by what I think is the executive assistant to the C Suite. If the context matters, we’re an approximately 300-person company, not some intimate 10-person startup.
My company does an end-of-the-year employee feedback survey, and if this is inappropriate like I feel it is, then that’d be an anonymous way to comment on it.
Does this birthday card only trigger the no-upwards-gifting rule, or am I biased because I tend to worry our company leans a little “cult of personality” around our executives? If it is inappropriate, what’s the most professional message to give that feedback, without sounding like I want these people to have bad birthdays?
It’s not as bad as if they were pressuring you to contribute money toward gifts for executives, but it’s definitely a little ick — it makes the execs look self-important (even if they had nothing to do with setting this up) and like only their life milestones matter, and it creates inherent pressure to “perform” birthday wishes toward people with power over who don’t give you the same consideration back. It also feels a lot more performative than it would if it were being used within a team for everyone within that team; that’s a context where people would probably have more genuine interest in wishing colleagues a happy birthday, whereas it’s pretty unlikely that people give two craps about the birthday of a random exec multiple levels up who they might never interact with. It’s somewhere on the same continuum with that CEO who made everyone watch a slideshow of his vacation; people just don’t care that much about the personal lives of their company’s leaders.
So yeah, if you feel like mentioning it as part of your anonymous feedback, you wouldn’t be off-base to write something like, “It feels like an odd use of power to organize all-staff birthday greetings for executives and no one else. I’d rather see individual teams recognize the birthdays of their members at all levels, not just managers (with no pressure to participate on either side).”
5. I was offered an interview even though they’d already filled the job
I reached the final interview round for a job I was pretty excited about. A few days before my final interviews (four one-hour interviews), I got a call from the recruiter that an offer had been accepted by another candidate and I was no longer in consideration for the role. Having sunk quite a bit of time preparing for the interview (a previous round of interviews, a written assessment, and numerous hours of prep), I was pretty disappointed, but I understood this is par for the course during a job search.
Here is where something came up that I’m not quite sure what the right call should have been. The interviewer said the team wanted to acknowledge that I had already put quite a bit of time into the process, and, as a show of goodwill, they are all willing to still interview me at the scheduled time in consideration for a future role that might open up. I asked a few questions and was told there was no timeline for when an opening would come up but “maybe sometime next year.” In addition, everything I had done so far would remain in my candidacy package and if I decided to forgo the interview now, I would be fast-tracked through the interview process should a future opportunity open up. I decided to decline the interview but thanked the recruiter for their time and said I would appreciate being contacted if an opportunity became available.
My rationale was this: the benefit of doing the interview would have been to get practice and get my name out to key members of the company. However, the huge drawbacks seemed like 1) I would have to take PTO and give up a lot of time to interview for a non-position when I could put that time to either my current job or further job searching, 2) I was concerned that the interviewers would see this as a waste of time and potentially bias them against me (the interview was scheduled for the Friday before a long weekend), and 3) who knows whether I’ll even be job searching when that future role finally opens?
I followed up with some close mentors afterwards and their opinions were mixed. Some thought I should have gone for it because I had already earmarked that time to interview, done the prep, and “you never know what can come of it.” Others agreed it would’ve been a waste of time and effort and even if I had done well, there was no reason for the company to lock me in as a front-runner for a future position. I know I’m curious what your advice here would be.
Yeah, I wouldn’t have done it either. It sounds like they were offering it mostly out of guilt for short-circuiting your interview process at the last minute, not out of any strong desire to have substantive conversations about a future job. I could maybe see doing it if you hadn’t interviewed with them at all yet, because that could be a chance to get to know each other and explore future possibilities … but you’ve already met with them. I’m skeptical that enough good would come out of doing a non-interview to warrant the time and energy.
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JERSEY CITY, NJ—Honoring the sadistic royal for his success at such an early age, popular business publication Forbes announced Thursday that a bloodthirsty boy king had been included on its “30 Under 30” list. “Bartholomew has shown incredible industry savvy while executing all who dare cross him, though he is still…
LOS ANGELES—In an effort to treat fans of the recently revived sitcom, Paramount+ announced Thursday it was releasing all 432 episodes of the Frasier reboot at once. “For any viewers excited to see what Freddy, Lilith, and a certain incorrigible psychiatrist have been up to over the past 20 years, Paramount+ is proud…
A Minnesota horticulture teacher set a world record for the heaviest pumpkin after growing a giant jack-o’-lantern gourd weighing 2,749 pounds. What do you think?
Although they are known to be the most virile, physically attractive men on the planet, many Joe Rogan fans still find themselves painfully single. The Onion asked women why they don’t date people who listen to The Joe Rogan Experience, and this is what they said.
ITHACA, NY—In an effort to improve student safety on campus, Cornell University reportedly completed the installation of 36 red-light emergency phones Thursday for conservative students to use if they feel they have been assaulted by progressive beliefs. “We are committed to protecting any right-leaning student who…
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