Cowboy Who?

Nothing Hurts But My Heart
Barr
1987

I saw this and immediately picked it up for the perfect 1980s hair and make-up. This is straight out of the Brooke Shields handbook for 1980s beauty. I mean, look at those eyebrows!

Our protagonist is Lisa, who is a high performing gymnast with an eye for the Olympics. However, she is diagnosed with scoliosis and must give up her gymnastics career. She also has to wear a back brace for several years to keep the condition from getting worse. I remember a few students having to wear those back braces. They did look uncomfortable and I can only imagine it was difficult to adjust to the brace and having certain activities limited.

The book is dated, but I liked the fact that there wasn’t a magic solution. The reality for Lisa was no gymnastics and wearing a back brace. There was a lot of discussion about scoliosis, which bordered on excessive. Life doesn’t always go according to plan, but at least there is a cute boy named Jeff from her math class.

Mary

 

The post Friday Fiction: Nothing Hurts But My Heart appeared first on Awful Library Books.

The mess on my work desk has gotten out of hand. I think there might be a few square inches of free space in there somewhere, maybe. If I dig far enough into that pile I might even find a working pen, or a loose resistor with exactly the value I need.

Got a messy desk? Let’s see a photo!

I took a train! Here are my thoughts!
And don't you come for Amtrak. Let's be proud of the things we've built and nurture them - not destroy them.

New Cyanide and Happiness Comic

Go to https://expressvpn.com/cinemassacre to take back your Internet privacy TODAY and find out how you can get 3 months free!!

The Cinemassacre Podcast is every Tuesday around 3pm ET... with the audio-only version launching afterwards. Find it wherever you get your podcasts. Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbQ-gSLYQEc6DHztl7X1DvMoXJnOuD9JE

This is episode 198 of the Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN), a review of the Commodore 64 and a bunch of it's licensed and weirder games. The Commodore 64, also known as the C64 or the CBM 64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International. The C64 took its name from its 64 kibibytes of RAM. With support for multicolor sprites and a custom chip for waveform generation, the C64 could create superior visuals and audio compared to systems without such custom hardware. Except, well, the software was kinda garbage.

Cinemassacre Crew:
James Rolfe: https://twitter.com/cinemassacre
Justin Silverman: http://justysilverman.com
Kieran: https://www.twitch.tv/kieeeeern

For everything else Cinemassacre:
https://cinemassacre.com/

#AngryVideoGameNerd #Commodore64 #AVGN198 #Cinemassacre

Do you think I'm cool?

New Cyanide and Happiness Comic

New Cyanide and Happiness Comic

I thought I could check all the boxes and be well again. The universe had other plans.

Part of the Recovery Issue of The Highlight, our home for ambitious stories that explain our world.

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Aude White is a graphic artist based in Brooklyn whose work has appeared in the New York Times, New York magazine, Outside, NewYorker.com, and more. When she’s not drawing, she’s director of communications at Vox Media.

Alanna Okun is deputy editor at The Goods as well as the author of The Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater: Essays on Crafting and Knit a Hat: A Beginner’s Guide to Knitting. She lives in Brooklyn and frequently collaborates with Aude.

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While showing off bits of this I found out about Foone who is trying to run Doom on their brain.

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It has been 23 days since five zebras escaped from a farm near Upper Marlboro, Maryland, and the black-and-white beasties are still on the loose, traversing Maryland roadways like they own the place. Despite the fact they don’t exactly blend with the DMV’s decidedly un-savannah-like surroundings, officials say they’ve struggled to capture them due to the animals’ […]

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If you rotate your head about 30 degrees and cross your eyes a little, it should show up.

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by Dan Savage

I’m a 26-year-old masculine straight guy who loves exploiting the fantasies so many gay men have about straight men. When a gay guy is into me because I look like his straight-masculine-jock dream, it’s a power trip like no other. It’s always a specific type of bottom gay dude I seek out when I get on Grindr: a very feminine “thicc” guy with a pretty face and physical features begging for a dick. The kind of guy where from the right angles you can’t tell the difference between his big ass and a thicc chick’s big ass. And I always follow the same script: I send my dick pics, I make one of these thicc bottom boys want me, and I tell him to send me a video of him twerking like a stripper for me. But I don’t go through with the meetup. I’ve experimented a few times and have gotten head from a few guys, but I have no interest in dick or fucking one of these dudes. I don’t want to harm anyone or live a lie, but I don’t feel queer or bisexual at all. I actually feel like I’m “earning my heterosexuality” when I do this. It’s like I’m proving to myself just how straight I am by teasing these gay guys. And in all honestly, I feel like I’m doing them a service because a lot of gay guys are looking for that rare, mythical thing—the straight and strict Dom top—and I can play that role. But on some level, this all seems pretty fucked up and I don’t know why I do this and sometimes I’m confused by it. I also worry this comes from a homophobic place. (“Look at this dumb twink, he’s so stupid and obsessed with dick he’ll do whatever I tell him to, I’m the alpha.”) And I guess it is homophobic because when you remove the intensity and power trip of being the straight male in this scenario, I just have no interest in guys at all. I know this was heavy. Sorry. But please answer my question.

Ally Loves Personifying Homophobic Assholes

Epispode: 2712 Yutaka Taniyama and the Taniyama-Shimura Conjecture. Today, a tragic ending.

It’s a strange time a year. The historical peak of the Atlantic hurricane season came fewer than two weeks ago. Moreover, a little more than a week ago, Hurricane Nicholas struck the Texas coast and knocked out power for hundreds of thousands in the region. And today, Space City Weather is saying hurricane season is probably over for Texas? Really? Why yes. Yes we are.

There are a couple of reasons for this. Historically, the odds of a hurricane striking the state of Texas are about 1-in-50 after September 24. Our confidence is increased this year because, looking ahead at the next 10 days, the western Gulf of Mexico looks pretty quiet, especially north of the Bay of Campeche. This is the time of year when the jet streak starts a seasonal swing southward, and our region becomes more prone to cold fronts, which push any tropical systems in the Gulf of Mexico to the east. We’ve already seen one weak front about 12 days ago, a stronger one yesterday, and there’s perhaps another front coming early in October.

All of this means that we’re pretty confident that Texas is not going to get hit by another hurricane this year, even though the “Atlantic season” runs through November 30. We may very well still see tropical mischief, in the form of a depression or moisture that sparks some heavy rainfall. But the blowy, storm-surge stuff—we’re probably done with worrying about that for 2021. As always, we’ll keep an eye on the tropics. But you don’t have to if you don’t want to.

Thursday

There’s not a whole lot to say about our weather other than it’s gorgeous. Lows this morning range from the 50s inland to about 70 right along the coast. Today will bring more dry air, with light easterly winds, sunny skies, and highs in the mid-80s. Lows tonight will drop into the low 60s.

Friday and Saturday

Expect more of the same. Highs in the 80s. Sunny skies. Mostly dry air.

Sunday

The second half of the weekend should see continued sunny skies, but dewpoints are going start climbing, and so while temperatures remain in the 80s it will start to feel a touch more humid. Lows Sunday night will be notably warmer, likely only dropping to around 70 in Houston.

Next week

Much of next week will be something of a return to summer-lite weather, with highs near 90 degrees, lows in the low 70s, and lots of clouds. As the influence of high pressure lessens, we’ll open back up to moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, and rain chances will increase to perhaps 50 or 60 percent each day. As a rough guess I’d say much of the metro area sees 1 to 3 inches of rain total, or thereabouts. But it’s still too early for any precision. The models are starting to hint at a front in the Friday or Saturday range of next week, but there are certainly no guarantees.

This post, how do I not feel jealous of my wealthier coworkers? , was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.

It’s the Thursday “ask the readers” question. A reader writes:

I grew up in deep poverty with an extremely dysfunctional and abusive set of parents. It was not the “money and food were tight sometimes, but we always had love” kind of poverty. I ultimately aged out of the system when I was 18 and managed to accumulate a massive amount of student debt and graduate right into the recession. I have little contact with my family.

However, I currently work at a wealthy university. Most of the students and my colleagues are way more privileged than I can ever hope to be. Most have very little, if any, student debt, and supportive families. I am often the only person like this that they know. I am never sure how to handle situations where people are discussing things that are so far out of my league, like buying houses, traveling, kids and families, etc.. People aren’t doing it maliciously or to rub it in my face, but just part of the everyday conversation. I don’t want to be a martyr and say that their experience is nothing compared to mine because I understand that everyone has their own personal issues and trauma and it is all valid. But at the same time, I get tired of the pity and the false “proudness” that people give me when I explain my background. Sometimes I wanna scream when people talk about how they got this house for a steal at $250,000 or how they had to alter their yearly European vacation when I am over here proud I have a checking and savings account with actual money in it. How do I handle these situations and not feel jealous all the time?

Readers, what’s your advice?

What You Should Know Before You Buy a Car
Till
1968

This is one of those books that is part consumer guide and part “let me show you the sleazy dealer underworld.” I don’t think that today’s car shopping remotely resembles how it was in the 1960s. Like any consumer purchase, there should be an attitude of “caveat emptor.” Car shopping today is much different with the Internet and sites like Kelley Blue Book, Cars.com, Autotrader, and others that can give consumers more information and buying options.

By the 1970s, there was considerable change in product liability laws and other consumer protections. So, by the end of the 1970s, this book would have been out of date and eligible for weeding. Since this isn’t a straight up buying guide, but rather a bit of a narrative on shady sales techniques, it might have value in a specialty collection on consumer scams or business practices.

Mary

The post Haggle your way to a new car appeared first on Awful Library Books.

The end.

This is my second favorite post of the year to write—that fall’s first real front has finally arrived in Houston. (Tomorrow, I plan to write my favorite). Not only will we see drier and cooler air, one of the pleasant surprises of this front is its sticking power. We should see about four days and notably cooler nights before humidity levels start to creep up on Sunday. More typically, our first fall front washes out within a couple of days. So let’s enjoy!

Wednesday

Dewpoints have generally fallen to the upper 50s this morning, and should fall further throughout the day. Accordingly, the air will feel much drier. With lots of sunshine, temperatures will quickly warm to the mid-80s this afternoon, but drop again as the Sun sets. Winds will be out of the north from 10 to 15 mph with higher gusts. Overnight lows will vary widely, from about 50 degrees in Conroe to 70 degrees right along the coast, in Galveston Island.

Thursday and Friday

More of the same: Sunny skies, highs in the low- to mid-80s, and cool nights down in the low 60s in Houston, and cooler for outlying areas.

Saturday and Sunday

The weekend looks a bit warmer, with highs in the mid- to upper 80s, but there should still be enough dry air to keep conditions pleasant, especially on Saturday. Skies will be sunny, and rain chances near zero. Plan outdoor activities with confidence.

Next week

As the onshore flow really returns on Sunday, we’ll start to see dewpoints climb, and we’ll get back to late summertime weather with highs near 90 degrees. Rain chances should also start to increase by Tuesday or Wednesday as atmospheric moisture levels rise, along with lots of cloud cover. Most of next week will probably be warmer and muggier.

New Cyanide and Happiness Comic

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Just to be 100% clear this has nothing to do with any current event - it was written months ago and I suspect I can use it to whinge online for ever after.

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Last chance to buy!

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Focus on Nicotine and Caffeine
Perry
1990

Submitter: It’s a little jarring to see nicotine and caffeine lumped together. Maybe nicotine has decreased in “everyday drug” status since 1990 or maybe I just don’t take caffeine seriously enough, but it seems like an odd pairing. And the “current” stats (from 1989) on smoking are obviously a little of out date by now—down from 29% to about 14% in 2019, per the CDC. The sentence “Like little smokestacks, smokers send out poisonous gasses into the world around them and deep into the world inside them” is pretty great though.

Holly: I think you’re right – smoking is just not as commonplace as it was when this book was published. Caffeine use, however, is still very prevalent (or, at least was in 2018 when that article was published). And I agree – we don’t generally lump those two drugs together. Maybe also because there’s no age-related law on purchasing caffeinated foods and beverages. Kids can buy a chocolate candy bar and a Coke; they can’t buy cigarettes.

The post Nicotine and Caffeine appeared first on Awful Library Books.

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Anyone who takes this the wrong way and chooses to email me will be met with profound respect.

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This post, I disabled my coworker’s caps-lock key, employee calls me his “manageress,” and more , was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.

I’m on vacation today. Here are some past letters that I’m making new again, rather than leaving them to wilt in the archives.

1. I was fired after disabling my coworker’s caps-lock key

I just finished my sophomore year of college. For the summer, I got a three-month internship at a company that does work in the field I am getting my degree in and want to work in after I graduate. This was my second job, after the internship somewhere else I had last summer. I was hoping to get some good experience like last summer.

I was paired with the same person for two-thirds of the work I was doing. She has lots of skills, but I noticed when she types she uses the caps-lock key each time she needed to make a capital letter instead of using the shift key. She is only five years older than me, and she is very good with technology and computers. I didn’t understand why she would type this way, because even though she does type fast and efficiently, using the caps-lock key would slow her down. I mentioned it to her and even showed her, and she said she had no idea but she would keep on using the caps-lock key.

I thought she just needed to see how efficient it was so when I was using her computer I disabled the caps-lock key. She was very upset when she found out that it didn’t work and I explained what I did and why she should give the shift key a chance. She complained to the manager, and even though I was just trying to make things more efficient, the manager sided with her and I was let go a month into my internship. HR sided with her too when I went to them. I’m confused because I was only trying to help and make things more efficient. Did I really do something wrong or did the company overreact?

You overstepped. You interfered with someone’s workflow, which you didn’t have any right to do. This isn’t a perfect analogy, but it’s similar to if you decided that her filing system was inefficient and completely reorganized her files without her permission; it’s not yours to do and it would undoubtedly mess up her workflow.

You can’t mess with people’s computer, files, etc., even if you’re just trying to help. It’s presumptuous and it’s overstepping.

Firing you was an extreme response, but it’s possible they’d had other concerns and this was a final straw kind of thing.

– 2017

2. Employee keeps referring to me as his “manageress”

I was recently promoted from a four person team and became the head of that team, replacing a male manager who departed.

I have no complaints, except that one person consistently refers to me in emails to others as his “manageress” instead of his “manager” – e.g. “I’ve copied my manageress into this email”.

Even with that person, I have no complaints about his performance, which makes me think I should just let it drop, but I wanted to ask if you think that’s the right thing to do and also if it’s normal to refer to female managers as “manageresses”?

No, it’s not normal. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he’s doing it because he thinks it’s funny, but you should tell him to stop because your gender doesn’t need to be such a focus of how he identifies you at work. Also, it’s like the problem with saying “male nurse” or “woman cop”; he’s saying that he thinks that men are the default for managers.

I’d say this: “Hey, Bob, I know that’s meant to be funny, but please cut it out; I don’t want that kind of focus on gender on our team.”

(I’m picturing this guy as the “hello, m’lady” guy from this Amy Schumer sketch.)

–2016

3. Bringing a camera to a job interview

I’m going to interview with a company in the gaming industry next week in their headquarters. Their headquarters are a monument to nerd-ism, and I’d love to bring a camera and take some pictures! Do you think it would look good if a candidate says: “Can I take a picture of this 5 feet tall statue of a game character?” Or I ask for a picture with one of my interviewers, who works as a game designer on a title that sold 25 million copies the same day it was released?

I’m so excited about this opportunity, and I don’t want to ruin it because of a silly mistake.

Don’t do it. You’ll look like you’re there as a fan rather than a serious candidate. Plus, they’re making time to talk with you as a job candidate, not as a fan who wants to take pictures. While some people might not be put off by it, enough will that it’s too much of a risk. (Read this for a longer explanation of a similar situation.)

–2013

4. What to say to a job applicant who plagiarized a cover letter

Since you posted the question about the stolen cover letter on May 5, I’ve received that same cover letter, too. There are a few tweaks, but it’s nearly identical.

I’d like to let the candidate know her plagiarism was discovered. She applied through our applicant tracking system, so we haven’t been in contact before. I’m comfortable giving candidates feedback, but I can’t figure out how to contact a stranger for the sole purpose of telling her she effed up. Email? Phone? What’s a way to phrase it that’s direct, but not overly punitive or condescending?

As an additional note, she’s completely unqualified for the position she applied to. Even with a perfect cover letter, I’d reject her.

I’m glad you’re going to say something; this pisses me off.

In the past when I’ve had similar situations, I’ve sent an email saying something like: “This cover letter appears to be pulled from (URL). Can you shed any light?”

I include that last sentence because (a) I find it fascinating to see what people say, and (b) I believe, perhaps overly optimistically, that  being made uncomfortable in that specific way decreases the chances they’ll do it again … but even if not, it’s reasonable for them to have to deal with the awkwardness of it.

–2014

5. Recruiter wants me to run jobs by her before I apply

I began working with a staffing agency in the past few weeks. I’m still at my current job until next week, but am moving mid-June and the recruiter has been talking to me about possible opportunities that would start in that timeframe. They do creative staffing–web, editing, graphic design.

I’ve read your previous posts on recruiters, and this lady seems like a respectable one, or at least one who won’t jerk me around. She’s been respectful of my time, has asked more probing questions about my experience to give her clients a better idea of my skills, and she mentioned that they get payment directly from the client, instead of a percentage of what my rates are, so the pay range I’d given was what I’d actually be paid. I haven’t done any interviews or jobs yet, obviously, but so far it’s been a good experience.

My question is this: She has mentioned that if I see a job I want to apply to, I should run it by her so she can see if she has a contact at the company. That makes sense, but I also suspect it’s a way for her to get more clients. Should I actually do this, or will it hurt my chances if it’s someone she hasn’t worked with and she approaches them out of the blue?

Yesterday, I had a former coworker contact me about a job his company is hiring for. I ran it by her as asked, but I’m worried that if she approaches them, they’d find it odd, especially since my coworker knows that I’d heard about the job directly and not through the agency.

Nooooo, don’t do that! If that company isn’t working with her already (and they’re probably not), then she’ll be using your interest as a way to try to win their business. If they’re not interested in working with a staffing firm (and they’re probably not, which is why they’re advertising on their own), then she may now “own” your candidacy and they won’t consider you (even if you later apply on your own) because they don’t want to pay a staffing firm fee.

Don’t think of a recruiter as being like your agent; they don’t need to manage every contact for you. She’s one part of your job search, but not the whole thing.

–2014

New Cyanide and Happiness Comic