Cowboy Who?

This post, Mortification Week: the copied texts, the unamused clients, and more , was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.

It’s Mortification Week at AAM and all week long we’ll be revisiting ways we’ve mortified ourselves at work (pulling comments and letters from the archives). Here are 15 more mortifying stories people have shared here over the years.

1. The copied texts

“So this is from the time when all of IT carried text pagers. I was exchanging, shall we say, non-business texts with my boyfriend. One day I got a text asking me to please call a number and name I’d never heard of before. It turned out to be a poor guy that was getting a copy of every single text my boyfriend was sending me and the guy’s wife was convinced he was having an affair.

We called Sprint together and discovered there was an error on their server that meant he got a copy of every single text I received. And his wife had started calling the numbers I had been sent and asking if her husband was having an affair with me. Vendors, customers, and my boss had gotten calls from her! Needless to say, I was beyond mortified! I have never communicated romantic IMs or texts again!”

2. Biopic

“I was asked who would play me if my someone made a biopic about me. I sat there stupefied for a few moments before saying Johnny Depp. Well – I am a woman and happen to have nothing in common with Johnny Depp as a person or any of the characters that he has played. I simply could not think of any other celebrity names at all in the moment. Thankfully this happened at the very end of the interview (or the interviewers decided that my awkwardness would be a great time to end the interview). I somehow managed to get that job despite it all!”

3. Misanthropy

“First job interview ever, as a page in the children’s room of my local public library, with two librarians who had known me since I was a toddler. I was 13, would have turned 14 just in time for hiring me to be legal, and under a mandate from my parents to get a job.

One of the librarians asked me, ‘Can you describe any weaknesses you might have?’

I looked at her and said quite earnestly and bluntly, ‘Well, I don’t really like people very much.’

No real recovery from that. They thanked me for my time, I didn’t get the job.”

4. Conference call

“I had to be on a call for a massive company-wide customer-facing event that was coming up and it happened on a day I needed to work from home. My computer audio wasn’t working, so I called in from my cell phone and put myself on mute, since I was mostly listening to catch some key info to bring back to my team. During a long side discussion, I thought I’d pop down to the basement to swap the laundry from the washer to the dryer. Except my washing machine drained at the time into a shop sink, which decided to be plugged up and had overflowed all over my basement floor.

The obvious solution was to hang up the concall, but I was panicking so I just said to myself, okay, I’ll call my in-laws next door on the land line and see if they have any Drano to drain this shop sink, and then I can get back to the call. I take out one earbud from my cell phone thinking it’s still on mute, call my father in law, and I’m screaming about the water, and there’s the splash of all the water, etc. And then suddenly, from my remaining earbud, I hear someone shout, ‘WHOEVER IS HAVING A PLUMBING EMERGENCY CAN YOU PLEASE GO ON MUTE!’

Of course I hung up then. The good news is by not being on computer audio, I had only shown up as ‘guest’ in the general con call, but I was mortified, and for the next year I would compulsively check my mute status on any call I was on. I later checked with someone else I knew who was on the call and he assured me no one knew it was me. I now use this story as an intro to con call etiquette whenever I’m training interns. (I also called a plumber and got my washing machine drain reconfigured.)”

5. Your problem

“Once I was on the phone with someone in another department, trying to help them figure out a problem. After they thanked me, I combined ‘No problem’ and ‘You’re welcome’ into ‘Your problem.'”

6. Photoshop

“I graduated smack dab in the middle of the recession with a degree in Speech-Communications (writing and delivering speeches). Job openings weren’t exactly flowing my way so I decided to expand my job search in adjacent fields and I came across an opening for a junior editor at a local photography studio. I’d taken a single Photoshop class in college and figured I could ace the job because if I didn’t know how to do something I could use my textbook as a reminder of what button to push. Optimism of youth and whatnot.

I showed up for the interview in a full suit along with a pearl necklace that Mom insisted would make me look like a more ‘mature’ candidate. The only employees were the owner, his son, and their bookkeeper. The son and I sat down for what felt like a pretty easy interview. I showed him a few items I’d made in college and tried to sound like I knew what I was talking about it. At the end of the interview he told me there was just one last step to the interview — a quick test of my skills.

He showed me into the back office, pointed to a computer with a few high school yearbook photos on the desktop, and asked me to give them a quick edit so he could get an idea of my editing style. I felt my palms go sweaty. That Photoshop class happened freshman year and I made a B- so my confidence was not high. I sat down, he walked off for a bit, and I made my move. The first photo was a redheaded teenager with a few zits so I decided to edit those away, only somehow (and I really don’t know how) I gave the kid TWO NOSES. I pressed Control + Z but I swear nothing happened. The noses stuck. I tried the blur tool and then they were just blurry noses. I added a few color filters, changed the color of his shirt (like that was going to help) and went back to trying to get rid of the second nose when I heard a voice in the room.

It was the owner. He said, with such kindness, ‘I think you might have made a doozie out of this one. Are you sure you know Photoshop?’

I was so mortified! Why did I take this interview? Why did I even try this editing test?

I stared back, gulped, and said the first thing that came to my mind, ‘I HAVE DIARRHEA!’

Then I ran. I just ran out of the door in embarrassment. I even left my portfolio on their desk.

To this day, I have thought about that interview. They must laugh about it on the regular because now that I’ve been on the hiring side of things I know I would die of laughter if that ever happened to me. And, of course, any time something embarrassing happens in my family someone yells out, ‘I have diarrhea!’ to much laughter and cheering.

7. The song

“This was back when I was in the Air Force. I was a weather observer and my duty location was open 24/7, 365 days a year. It was a weekend, the weather was great and me and a forecaster were working the midnight shift. Great weather means very little to do so we were listening to music to pass the time. And listening to the radio and on came that old Bangles song ‘Walk like an Egyptian.’ Well, about 5:30 in the morning after the song came on, I decided to make my coworker to laugh by not only doing the dance like they do in the video but by very loudly singing a change I made in the lyrics. I changed the words to ‘Walk like an erection’ and that’s what I proudly sang as I came walking down the room and around a corner. But alas, standing at the front counter were 2 or 3 pilots who had stopped in for an early Sunday morning weather briefing! EEEEKKKK!!! They heard me and saw the whole dance. Being fighter pilots and used to living dangerously, they roared with laughter but I died of embarassment. And my coworkers just snickered.”

8. The unamused client

“22, first job out of college, I had done well enough that my boss sent me to a meeting with a client and a vendor we were proposing to work with. The client asked some question at the end of a very long meeting about something totally off topic, and I said, ‘Don’t worry your pretty little head about that.’ To a client. Who was in his 50s. And he was. not. amused.”

9. The hot dogs

“I’m an advisor for a student group (as well as a librarian) and we were supposed to have a cookout for one of the athletic teams. My fridge was packed with 50 packages of hot dogs and condiments. My counter tops were filled with hot dog buns and bags of chips. So, I’m packing everything, getting ready to head out to the field and I get a text from the head coach of the team, the game had to be moved to the opposing teams field, the cookout was canceled. She happens to be a good friend so I texted back, ‘Great … what about the f&^%ing hot dogs?’ and it was a group text…so it went to a couple of the VP’s at the college, the AD, other coaches and higher ups.

Holy crap. I just about died.

Monday morning one of the VP’s came into my office and said, ‘So, what about those f&^%ing hot dogs?” Thankfully, everyone thought it was hilarious … while I was mortified because I hadn’t even been on the job a year and the week before it was announced that I was the County Mom of the Quarter, there was a huge newspaper article about me and our family. The college president sent a congratulatory note and everyone thought I was such a sweet girl.

My cover was blown…”

10. Dudes

“When my husband and I were in college, he did a phone interview for a financial internship in his dorm room (I was sitting on the bed, reading). Suddenly, I heard him say, ‘I have no idea what your company does, that’s why I want to work for you — to learn.’ And he also kept calling their company by the wrong name, then laughed when he was corrected. My jaw dropped open and he just kept on going! I was certain he’d be rejected, but sure enough he got the job, plus a sizable signing bonus.

Thankfully, he’s now much less arrogant. But shows you how far confidence (and/or not particularly adept hiring managers) can sometimes take you when you’re young!”

11. Too comfortable

“I was fresh out of college and was unbelievably green. I had to moved to San Francisco and was hunting for a job. I interviewed with an incredibly cool advertising agency for an admin position. They loved me and invited me back for a second interview to meet the whole office. I showed up in the early 90′s version of skinny jeans tucked into soft-sided slouch cowboy boots, was chewing gum, and put my feet up on the conference table. (Gads, I’m cringing just remembering it).”

12. Hugged the CEO

“Today as I was arriving at work, I got to the door of the building just before the CEO. I was holding the door for him, and he reached over me–I assume to take the door and hold it open for me. I’m a woman, and I don’t know … chivalry? Anyway, my brain interpreted this as him going in for a hug. The reflex to hug back came quicker than the realization that greeting coworkers with a hug in the morning is not something people do. We both just pretended it hadn’t happened and made small talk as we walked towards the elevator.

I’m friendly with him, but we don’t really know each other well. He was involved in hiring me for a fairly junior position I’ve been in for six months, and few months ago we had a running joke that’s since died out, but we don’t work together day-to-day at all.”

(You can read this full letter and the answer — plus an update — here.)

13. Drunk pigeon

“I was walking into the office. Had my purse. Lunchbox. Coat. Everything. Unbeknownst to me, someone had spilled some water right in my path. It was like my own personal patch of black ice. I didn’t just slip. Oh, no. That would have been far too dignified. I flew. Not quite like an eagle. More like a drunk pigeon. FACE FIRST. My purse soared to right (still thankful it didn’t injure or kill any passersby) and my lunch went careening to the left. Once I was wheels down, I confirmed that I was uninjured and alive. My pride, however, was desperately hoping the embarrassment would kill me first. I finally gathered myself. Picked up my stuff. And faced the stunned faces of my coworkers as I limped back to my desk.”

14. Jackscrews

“I’m a female engineer, and we were recently working out a disassembly issue, where we use features called ‘jackscrews’ to push parts apart.

On a call with operators, manufacturing leads, and my own junior design engineer/mentee, I asked, ‘Will this be enough space to jack off of?’

I kept going and pretended like nothing happened but I’m so glad we had cameras off for this particular meeting. I put my head in my hands for the remaining 10 minutes.”

15. Wrong car

“Once when I was getting off work, my partner and I had an understanding that he would pick me up. I saw a red car that looked a lot like his, and without thinking or really looking at who was driving, I got into it. Yup, wrong car. But to make the best out of an awkward situation, I wordlessly handed him a fortune cookie message that I had just gotten that said, ‘Hugs are life’s rainbows’ and stepped out.”

Recently I bought an external 800K Macintosh floppy drive, model M0131, so I could confirm its compatibility with my Yellowstone disk controller card for Apple II computers. The testing didn’t go as planned, and now the drive is dead, but it’s not Yellowstone’s fault. I’m still not clear exactly what happened. Here’s a rundown of my testing misadventures.

For the first test I connected the drive to a Macintosh SE, to confirm everything was OK before moving on to Yellowstone testing. This is the original SE model with an internal 800K floppy drive, not the later SE FDHD model that supports 1.44 MB floppy drives. Immediately after turning on the computer, the M0131 drive began continuously running its eject motor, trying again and again to eject a non-existent floppy disk. I quickly turned off the computer. Hmm, strange.

I connected the drive to a Macintosh SE/30. This time there was no strange eject behavior, but the drive made some ominous noises when I inserted a floppy disk. It was unable to read the floppy. That wasn’t good, but at least it seemed to be a small improvement over mystery ejections. So I returned to the Macintosh SE, naively hoping it would somehow behave differently this time. Nope. The drive still tried to eject-eject-eject for as long as the power remained on.

Back to the SE/30, I tried the drive once more and found success! I was able to read a couple of Mac floppies that I grabbed at random for testing. That was good news. Returning to the Mac SE for a third time, hoping that something would have magically changed there, the drive still tried to eject-eject-eject. This time I let it run for a while, under the theory that maybe it would stop ejecting after the System started to load from the internal hard disk. After 10-20 seconds, the eject-eject-eject cycles gave way to a continuous high-pitched whirring, and an unpleasant smell appeared. Uh oh… Moving back to the SE/30, now I could only get the same continuous high-pitched whirring, and no drive function. It seemed that the magic smoke was released. RIP, brave M0131.

Next I disassembled the drive enclosure. There was nothing of interest inside except for the drive mechanism and some brackets – there are no other electronics. So the M0131 external drive is essentially just an internal 800K floppy drive in a plastic box with a DB-19 to rectangular 20-pin cable. I tried to remove the drive mechanism to inspect it more closely, since it’s fully enclosed in a sheet metal tray. But one of the mounting screws was crusty with age, and I was unable to remove it, no matter what tools I used or how hard I tried. Unfortunately that means I now have a $100 doorstop.

 
-12V Strikes Again?

What happened here? I have a theory it’s somehow related to my old friend pin 9, which may be either -12V or +5V depending on the particular drive and the computer model, and which I’ve discussed here several times over the past weeks. I’m vaguely aware that continuous ejection is a somewhat common symptom of floppy drive cable problems in the earliest Macintosh models. If you mix and match floppy drives and drive cables between mid-1980s Macintosh models like the Plus, SE, 512K, and 128K, you will sometimes see this mystery ejection behavior. Internet wisdom says the solution is related to using yellow-striped disk cables instead of red-striped cables, but I’ve never bothered to understand the root cause or what the difference is between those cable types. You’ll find one discussion of this issue at VCFED, where one of the commenters also specifically mentions pin 9.

This is just a guess, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the original model Macintosh SE has a -12V supply connected to pin 9, but the newer Macintosh SE/30 has nothing on pin 9. If this M0131 drive has +5V on pin 9, and the short-circuited voltage supplies somehow caused the eject motor to unintentionally activate, that might partially explain why the drive worked on the SE/30 but not on the SE. But it still doesn’t entirely make sense, because the M0131 should definitely work on a Macintosh SE, and it was released a year before the SE. Maybe the drive mechanism in this particular M0131 was just bad, or the cable?

 
An 800K Impostor?

I have another crazy theory which is probably wrong. Maybe this was actually a 1.44 MB drive mechanism in a M0131 enclosure, the result of somebody’s past Frankenstein experiment or an “upgrade” when the original mechanism failed. From past testing, I know that pin 9 on the 1.44 MB drive mechanism is +5V. Maybe on the 800K mechanism, pin 9 is N.C., not connected? If that’s true, and my guess about pin 9 on the Mac SE and Mac SE/30 is also true, then it could explain everything that happened here. An M0131 enclosure with an 800K mechanism on a Mac SE would result in -12V connected to N.C., and would work OK. The same equipment on a Mac SE/30 would result in N.C. connected to N.C., and would also work OK. If a 1.44 MB drive mechanism were transplanted into the enclosure, with +5V on pin 9, it would result in N.C. connected to +5V, and would still work OK. Any computer newer than a Mac SE would likely also work. But on the SE, it would result in -12V connected to +5V, creating a short.

Two pieces of evidence may be helpful here – one that supports this crazy theory and one that refutes it. From what little I can see of the drive mechanism while it sits inside the sheet metal tray, it doesn’t look like a 1.44 MB mechanism. I say that based on its distinctly old-school look, with lots of large discrete components visible on its PCB. The crusty old screw that defeated my attempts to remove it also suggests that the drive mechanism hasn’t been removed any time recently. But that may not be a reliable indicator of anything.

On the other hand, I belatedly realized that one of the floppy disks that worked briefly on the SE/30 was a high-density 1.44 MB floppy disk. This shouldn’t have been readable in the 800K mechanism of the M0131! At least I don’t think so. It’s a question I’ve never really considered before. All of the extra smarts necessary for 1.44 MB floppy support are in the computer – in the SWIM chip and in the system ROM software, not in the drive. So what actually is the difference between an 800K drive mechanism and a 1.44 MB mechanism? The 800K mechanism spins at different speeds depending on which track is being accessed; the 1.44 MB mechanism can do this too, or it can spin at a fixed speed for all tracks. My guess is that the only really important difference is in the read/write heads. The 1.44 MB drive probably has smaller heads that can read and write weaker magnetic fields, to support the closer bit spacing on 1.44 MB disks. But it wouldn’t completely shock me to learn that an 800K drive could also read 1.44 MB disks, albeit with a lot of errors and poor performance, if it’s connected to a computer with a SWIM chip like the Mac SE/30. So I’m not sure whether reading that 1.44 MB disk really proved anything one way or another.

 
Unsolved Mysteries

Now that the drive is dead, the answer to this mystery will unfortunately remain unknown. I’m still 99 percent sure that the M0131 and other Macintosh floppy drives will work OK with Yellowstone version 2.1, but confirmation will have to come from a beta tester. Meanwhile I have a cool paperweight.

 
But Wait, There’s More

I finally managed to remove the crusty screw and extract the drive mechanism, revealing that my crazy theory was correct, and it’s actually a 1.44 MB drive in an 800K M0131 drive enclosure. The part number MP-F75W-12G matches a known part number for Apple 1.44 MB drives, and the “2MB” text (the raw capacity of a 1.44 MB drive) also confirms it.

This seems to be an older example of a 1.44 MB drive than the one I’d previously been using for Yellowstone testing, and unlike that one, this drive’s pin 9 is not connected to +5V. It’s not connected to any other pin on the disk connector either. Unfortunately I can’t tell what pin 9 is connected to internally; I tried to follow the PCB trace but it disappeared into a confusing network of resistors and vias. Judging by the width of the trace, I’m guessing it’s a signal of some type rather than a voltage supply.

A few more pieces of data: The DB-19 to rectangular 20-pin cable on the M0131 enclosure connects DB-19 pin 5 to rectangular pin 9. That’s consistent with the expectation that this pin should be a -12V supply, and it’s where -12V is shown on the published pinouts of both types of connector. On the Mac SE, at the external DB-19 floppy port, I measured -11.7V on pin 5. But on the Mac SE/30, at the external DB-19 floppy port, I measured 0 volts on pin 5. I’m not certain if that reading on the SE/30 means the pin is grounded, or not connected, or something else. My prediction is that it’s not connected.

So now everything makes more sense, except for what the 1.44 MB drive was doing inside the M0131 enclosure. But I still don’t know what pin 9 on this 1.44 MB drive is intended to be used for, or why supplying -12V on the pin caused the drive to continuously eject.

There’s also a new concern for Yellowstone. Until now I had been building my plans for Yellowstone support of Macintosh drives from tests of one specific 1.44 MB drive, which I assumed would have the same pinout and behavior as any other Mac drive. It seems that I was wrong. On my original test Macintosh 1.44 MB drive, pin 9 is a +5V connection, and I designed the latest Yellowstone PCB version 2.1 around that fact. But on this Macintosh 1.44 MB drive, pin 9 is something unknown, maybe related to the eject motor. That means Yellowstone 2.1 may not work correctly with this type of Mac drive. It also raises the possibility that a true 800K Mac drive mechanism may be different than either of these 1.44 MB examples.

After almost ten years of making it my business to know everything possible about Apple floppy drives, I’m surprised to discover that something as fundamental as this drive pinout difference has escaped my attention. Live and learn.

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Replacing the legendary Alex Trebek as host of Jeopardy! is likely a tough role for anyone to fill, but some of the beloved quiz show's fans are seemingly already unhappy with the reported front-runner for the job.

This post, my friend is a bad employee, will attending an anti-gay college hurt me, and more , was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. My friend has bad judgment about work — and we work for the same company

The company I work for has over 1,000 employees. I work as a manager and am in my late twenties. My friend, Bella, is a similar age and in a very different field. In the four years I’ve known her, Bella has gone through three jobs. I know she has anxiety and has had a traumatic brain injury in the past two years.

Last year, Bella left her old company, where she complained about a passive aggressive boss and anxiety-inducing workload, to join my company. I didn’t even know she had interviewed or joined until she announced it, as our home offices are on opposite coasts and our departments do not work with each other. I’m in a different department on a different coast with no overlap.

On her private locked Twitter, which I have followed for years, I’ve noticed her complaining more and more about her job and coworkers. Most recently, I saw she posted that she was planning on quitting if she had to work with a passive-aggressive manager again for a project. I don’t know this manager, nor do I know this situation. I do know that when you scroll her Twitter, it’s venting and angry but also appears to reflect some coachable work issues.

She’s complained about coworkers talking to her and wanting her to participate more and said that it triggers her anxiety. It totally could! But the culture at our company is very collaborative, which is stated up-front and in all of the on-boarding documents. We expect people to participate and bring ideas, etc. to meetings. You’re expected to get along with/talk to coworkers. Calling coworkers names, even without naming them, is not okay here.

She also complained that a coworker apparently pointed out she’s on Twitter a lot. The time stamp of the tweet was in the middle of the working day, as are most of her tweets.

We’re friends and if she wants to quit, she can. But I’m concerned that the passive-aggressive manager part is a pattern now, and perhaps it might be a her thing rather than all of her managers in the past few years being passive-aggressive enough for work to be untenable and to the point that she needs to quit, as well as the job-hopping.

Obviously, I need to block/mute/unfollow her Twitter, but I am unsure if I’m supposed to be a sounding board or maybe give a heads-up to her manager. Or let her know that her private, locked Twitter is not super appropriate for venting/ranting about work and I will need to step back from the friendship?

You don’t need to do much of anything here! Definitely don’t mention it to her manager. You saw Bella’s (private, locked) tweets because of your friendship and you don’t work closely with her team; there’s nothing here that requires you to talk to her boss. Do unfollow her, though, and let her know it’s better for your friendship if you don’t see the stuff she posts about work. You might also suggest that she disconnect from anyone else at work if she’s going to tweet about her job (including that person who commented on how often she’s on Twitter; since her account is private, they could only know that if she had accepted their follow request at some point).

If you want to preserve the friendship, you probably need a mental firewall between your job and Bella. If she ever asks for advice, you could give it (or if you think she’d be receptive you could try initiating a one-time conversation about what you’re seeing — although those can be very hard to pull off in an effective way) but it sounds like you and Bella are really different work-wise, and your friendship will be better if you keep work totally separate.

2. Will having an anti-gay religious school on my resume hurt me?

When I was an undergraduate student, I went to a religious school. They’ve been in the news for their anti-LGBTQ policies, including kicking someone out because they are gay and forcing an undergraduate student to go to conversion therapy. I obviously didn’t think about this when I was 18 applying for schools, and the school’s actions doesn’t reflect my beliefs. (For what it’s worth, I’m about five years removed from college.) Will this school hurt my chances of employment in the future?

It depends on the school and its reputation for academics. There are plenty of religiously affiliated schools with strong academic reputations (think Georgetown, Duke, Wake Forest, etc.). But there are a handful with terrible academic reputations because they’re known for anti-intellectualism and for valuing religious teaching over critical thinking (think Liberty University, Oral Roberts, etc.) From your description of events, it sounds like it’s probably the second category — in which case, yeah, it does risk being an issue. Employers can’t legally discriminate based on religion, but it happens anyway … and some will be skeptical of the quality of the education a school in the second category provided and/or will worry about how you’ll handle working with people different than you.

On your resume, lean into work accomplishments to outweigh that as much as you can, and make sure that in your interviews and cover letter you’re coming across as … well, the opposite of what people might be concerned about (so, for example, open-minded, inclusive, and rigorous in your thinking). If you happen to have done, say, volunteer work for racial justice or LGBTQ rights, including that kind of thing in a Community Service section of your resume could also help counter potential concerns.

3. Workers’ rights in a video game

My friends and I are obsessed with a video game and were talking about how the character is employed and what that means for their health benefits. Basic background, in the game it’s the future and most of the world has been destroyed by ghosts and rain that ages everything within minutes. So, no cars, planes, or infrastructure of any kind. Because of that, society relies on people like your character to deliver supplies, packages, etc. and you do it all on foot. You’re hired by the main company in the game (who also are essentially the American government too) to deliver packages and connect people at your delivery destinations to the internet. Think if the USPS were the only branch of the government left and they hired people to install the internet every time they made a delivery.

One of my friends said that the employees must have excellent health benefits because a) the company is big, b) it’s partly the government and the government always has great benefits, and c) the job is so dangerous, benefits are probably a main perk for employees to retain them. However, I’m arguing that most of the company’s porters are in fact contract employees and not actual employees of the company, which is evidenced by the fact that there are moments in the game where company reps say things like, “We have entered into a contract with [your character].” As contract employees, they are then responsible for their own benefits, taxes, etc.

My friend countered that they’re treated as employees and therefore entitled to the same benefits as actual employees. She points to the fact that your character is allowed to use company facilities and you’re given company-branded uniforms and company equipment to complete your job.

I countered back that that stuff doesn’t mean anything. What matters is what kind of work you’re given and what authority you have over that work. In the game you’re allowed to choose what packages to deliver or to even deliver none at all! You can also choose to recover other people’s packages and deliver those too. I believe that kind of autonomy over your work means you’re definitely a contractor and not a company employee. Who do you think is right?

I can’t say based on these facts; it’s not clear either way. U.S. law actually doesn’t have black and white rules to determine if you’re an employee or an independent contractor; it depends on the entirety of the situation. You’re right that they look at things like what kind of authority you have over your work, but that’s not the only factor — they also look at whether you use your own tools or company-provided ones, can do the work at a time and place of your choosing, and other factors. The IRS explicitly notes, “Some factors may indicate that the worker is an employee, while other factors indicate that the worker is an independent contractor. There is no ‘magic’ or set number of factors that ‘makes’ the worker an employee or an independent contractor, and no one factor stands alone in making this determination. Also, factors which are relevant in one situation may not be relevant in another. The keys are to look at the entire relationship, consider the degree or extent of the right to direct and control, and finally, to document each of the factors used in coming up with the determination.”

So it’s not clear-cut based on the details in the game. It does sound possible, though, that this company pays people as contract workers, but treats them as employees — which is illegal and could result in them owing penalties and back pay. In real life, you’d want a lawyer to look at it.

4. I’m being promoted but we haven’t talked about salary

My manager wants to transfer me to a new department, and they’re having me join meetings and do training. I am slowly transitioning from my previous role to the new role. However, when I checked the minimum salary that the position would make, it is more than twice what I am making right now. How do I bring it up to my manager that if I were to work in the new position, that I would like to be paid accordingly?

Approach it as if of course your salary will be raised and it just hasn’t been discussed yet. Say it this way: “Can we talk about my salary in the new role? I saw the range for the position is $X-$Y.”

Do be aware that some companies have a policy that they’ll only raise your salary by X% in an internal move, regardless of what they’d pay an external candidate in the same role (which makes no sense and is a good way to underpay people, build in salary inequities, and lose employees faster than they would otherwise). If you encounter that, here’s some advice on handling it.

5. Taking a vacation day during your two weeks’ notice

I am planning to give notice at my job very soon. I also have requested time off in a few weeks (just a Friday to attend a wedding in a different city) but given how conversations are going with the potential new employer, it’s very likely that this day will fall within the last two weeks in my current position.

Is it bad form to take this day off if it’s within my notice period? Should I volunteer to work one extra day so that I complete the full two weeks? I would be compensated for some unused vacation time if I don’t take it, so part of me feels like I might as well use it. I also know I could also put in my two weeks’ notice after I come back from the trip, but I may not have enough time to do that before the new position begins and I don’t think it would be appropriate to give, say, only a week’s notice before I leave.

It depends on your employer but generally it shouldn’t be a big deal. There are some employers that have policies that you can’t take time off during your notice period, but usually one day that was pre-planned won’t be a big deal (they’re more concerned about people taking big chunks of time when they need them for transition work). You can ask your boss though — it’s fine to say something like, “I’d like to set my last day for two weeks from today, which would be August 24. But I also have the day off on the 20th for a wedding. Do you want me to make my last day the 25th instead or is it okay to just do two weeks from today?”

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New Comic: Xfinitesimal

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The women are shaking like that because in the 21st century disease wasn't cured yet.

Today's News:

Carnivorous plants are rare, but now botanists say they've found one that's long been overlooked. It lives just outside Vancouver, British Columbia, and in other parts of the Pacific Northwest.

(Image credit: Danilo Lima)

This post, the intern who took over an office, the dragon pajamas, and other stories to cringe over/revel in , was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.

Welcome to Mortification Week, where we’ll be talking all week about how we’ve mortified ourselves at work.

To start us off, here are 17 stories people shared here in the past about work moments they now cringe over.

1. The intern’s office takeover

“At an internship, I was upset that I had to hotdesk while all other employees had permanent desks/offices/whatever. We had an available office that wasn’t being used and didn’t have any furniture in it, so I decided that would be my permanent home. I spent the morning moving furniture into the office and ‘customizing’ my space, including extra chairs for when people came into the office to meet with me (WTF was wrong with me?!). I was setting up the computer when the CEO (my direct supervisor) came in and was like no….

Thankfully he and I knew each other from a previous internship I did, and he had a pretty good sense of humor about it so I completed my internship and got a great recommendation. But good Lord that was bad…”

2. The dragon

“I work from home, and since my job doesn’t require much video calls, I used to dress pretty chill when I was at home. Then, my friend bought me a Kigurumi, aka that one piece pajama shaped like an animal, with the hood that is shaped like an animal. A dragon, in my case. A sparkly dragon.

Well, it was comfortable and warm, and one day I was freezing, and I decided to wear it while completing a project. Then our server crashed, all my team panicked, and the boss called. I was panicking, trying to remember if I had made a copy of the project, I forgot what I was wearing and I accepted the video call.

His face was priceless. Still forgetful of my outfit, I asked him to wait a sec while I was going to fetch my second laptop. I stood up giving him a full view of my dragon pajama, complete with a shiny dragon tail, of course. I realized it when I heard him choking laughing. He laughed so much he almost cried. Now I keep the dragon pajama just for sleeping, but the boss still calls me ‘the dragon manager’ from time to time.”

3. The peer feedback

“My first job would send out a peer feedback form every 6 months. The first time it came out, I wrote long, obnoxious diatribes about the supposed shortcoming of all of my peers. We had some really inexperienced managers who then forwarded the feedback, verbatim, to the people it was about. Everyone spent weeks speculating about who wrote which comments, while I tried to keep my head down.”

4. The unauthorized edit

“Listed in the ‘interests’ section of a managerial candidate’s resume: ‘shitting.’ Candidate called us shortly after applying, apologizing up one side and down the other because he’d just realized that his teenage son had made an unauthorized edit to his resume.”

5. The personal business

“My first job after college was a very straightforward clerical job, 8 am – 5 pm. Many of friends had jobs that were structured differently, with later hours or less predictable hours. So, at 5:01 pm when I was ‘off the clock,’ I would hang around at work, because I was waiting for my friends to get out of their jobs, and it seemed pointless to go home just to go out again later. AT MY DESK, which was IN THE C-SUITE, I would put my make-up on, do my hair, call all my friends (loudly) to ask important questions like ‘do you know if the hottie bartender is working tonight?’ or ‘I was going to wear my black boots but do you know if Tami is wearing her black boots because in that case I would wear my silver pumps but tell me if you think they look slutty because if so then I could wear my red sandals unless it rains in which case maybe my Mary Janes etc etc etc etc.’ I would bring projects to keep myself occupied, like plugging in a hot glue gun to work on a Halloween costume, or (this is real) frosting cupcakes that I was bringing to a party later on that night. Even though I was finished at 5 pm, there were still plenty of people still working, or wrapping up for the day, including senior leadership. I am dying thinking about it now.

Finally, the office manager started hinting that if I wasn’t actually working, I didn’t need to be at work. And I was so clueless, I earnestly wanted to know if there was a policy against it, because sometimes I saw Reginald reading a magazine at his desk while he was waiting for his ride to pick him up, or a lady who was taking an evening class one night a week would sometimes do her reading in the break room between work and class. It was a friendly, casual office and all sorts of people sometimes spent some non-work time at their desks doing some QUIET and LOW-KEY personal business, but I could not see how there was any difference between someone occasionally reading a magazine while waiting for carpool, and me turning my desk into my Own Personal Rec Room several times a week. What was I thinking?”

6. The spam

“I had a coworker who could not tell the difference between a spam email and a real email. She was constantly getting viruses on her computer. Our IT director finally told her she had to call him before opening any new emails from people she didn’t know. Shortly after, she went to call him, but accidentally clicked the ‘all page’ button on the phones, so broadcasted to the entire office was, ‘I just got this email and I don’t know what to do. Do I want to blow the biggest load ever?’”

7. The condescending question

“Our bank was in the process of merging with another bank. During the merger process, all the teller managers had to attend meetings with people from other banks going through the same process. During the first meeting, I did my best to get to know the other teller managers and branch managers (I’m an introvert and was very shy at the time).

I started talking to the woman who was running the meeting. She was the equivalent of a district manager and was around my age (early 20s). I was really impressed with the fact that she was at this stage of her career at such a young age, because I was aspiring to rise to the same level. I asked her how she got started, what were her responsibilities, etc. During our talk, she mentioned how she was thinking of going back to finish up school (she said ‘school’ not ‘degree’). Stupid me asks, ‘Oh? High school or college?’

Thankfully she just said ‘college’ and moved the conversation to another topic. Even though she didn’t acknowledge my gaffe with so much as a blink, I still was praying a sinkhole would open up below me.”

8. The rearranged desk

“I was executive assistant to the president of a local college. She left for a business trip, after sternly telling me that I needed to be more proactive ‘managing’ the things in her office (like Christmas cards, etc.). So while she was gone, I rearranged the items in her desk drawers. I don’t think she ever got over the shock of finding that I had straightened out her entire desk, and I sure wish I hadn’t done it. I believe my time was limited after that.”

9. The ride request

“Oh the shame. One time when I was a fresh and new manager, I asked a job candidate to give me a ride after we had an interview. I had been in a car accident a couple weeks prior, and my rental car coverage time was maxed out. I needed to take the car back that day before they closed or I’d have to personally pay for it (I was so broke at the time, I would not have been able to pay). Immediately after the interview, I asked her if she’d give me a ride. She was gracious, though I’m sure she felt extremely pressured to do it. Needless to say, she didn’t take the job. I saw her at a street fair a few weeks later and gave her a hug. Why or why did I do these things? I’m going to go hide for a bit.”

10. The long-term relationship

“I was interviewing for basically a dream job and was asked, ‘What accomplishment are you most proud of?’ I proceeded talked about how proud I was for maintaining a healthy long term relationship. The interviewers didn’t push back, but they did seem awkward. I obviously did not get the position.”

11. The trouble

“I once went to an interview where they asked for an example of a time I’d resolved conflict – and I responded with a terrible laugh and said, ‘Well, I’ve caused some trouble.'”

12. The relaxed candidate

“In my early 20’s I interviewed for an admin assistant position at a small tech company. I aced the first interview, got along great with everyone, was polished and professional but still friendly. I got called back for a second interview with the execs of the company and for some weird reason I treated it like a day hanging out with friends. I wore jeans tucked into slouch boots, which I remember clearly because I PROPPED MY FEET UP ON THE CONFERENCE TABLE, crossing my ankles. I think I was even chewing — and popping — bubblegum.

In a surprise to absolutely no one but me, I didn’t get the job.”

13. The erotica

“Back in law school I was interviewing for a summer position at a state Department of Justice. My interviewer and I weren’t really gelling and I think we could both feel it…nothing horrible was happening, but the energy was down, and we didn’t really have much of a connection.

At the bottom of my resume, I’d added that I’d published a book, so as a way to build camaraderie my interviewer told me that she was an author as well. I was excited that we had something in common, so I asked what genre. She paused, laughed awkwardly, then gestured to what I realized were pictures of book covers with shirtless male torsos on the bulletin board behind her. She said, ‘Well, I write romance…erotica…’ There was a long pause as she tried to struggle her way out of the explanation, but since I just kept smiling and nodding what she ended up blurting was, ‘I write gay sex.’

Since I could tell she was instantly mortified with herself, and I wanted her to know it was OK since I enjoy a good erotica myself, and I didn’t want it to seem like I was judging the M/M aspect of it, I earnestly replied, ‘That’s my favorite kind!’

And when she kind of laughed in amazement and covered her face with her hands, I DOUBLED DOWN: ‘No, seriously! It is!'”

14. The profound misunderstanding

“As a first year grad student, I asked my grad advisor (a tenured professor) to remind me of my project deadlines because I worked better with a little pressure from authority. He gently told me that managing my own deadlines was my own responsibility. Yup.”

15. The color-coding

“I once got some very much-deserved criticism that I was taking too long (1-3 weeks) to resolve invoice issues that should have, at most, taken a couple of days to work out. The actual problem was that I was prioritizing other work that I found more interesting and only tackling the invoices when someone yelled about them.

My suggestion was to have Accounts Payable print the problem invoices for me on color-coded paper, with a different color for each day of the week, so I could see at a glance when my GIANT PILE of invoices contained too many older ones, so I’d know I needed to tackle them. My boss somehow refrained from slapping me upside the head Gibbs-style, and actually discussed the suggestion with our A/P manager – at the time, I thought she took it to him as an actual possibility and he said no, but now I think they probably had a mutual ‘this is what she said, omg wtf?!??!!’ conversation about it before telling me to consider actually getting my work done as a solution.”

16. The onion factory

“I took a year off from college and my aunt got me a job at a place called ‘the onion factory’ one winter before going back to college. It was a processing plant for onions and they had big trucks come in full of onions that were weighed and then would dump their load into the hopper for processing. Part of my job was to do data entry of the weight of the onions that had come in. They had pre-printed slips of paper that said gross/tare/net. Sometimes they only filled in two of the three sections (but it wasn’t consistent which ones were filled in). I didn’t actually know what those words meant, so I wasn’t sure what to do when only two of the three sections were filled in. This was in the late 90s, before the internet, so I couldn’t just google it. And at that time I was mortified of ‘being a bother’ and ‘asking too many questions’ so I decided to just split the difference: sometimes I put the numbers in one column and sometimes in another.

My boss didn’t even check my work until the end of the season. When she finally asked me what was going on with the data I meekly explained what had happened. This usually verbose woman was speechless. I think she was in awe of my incompetence? An entire season’s worth of data was useless.”

and last, in a place of permanent honor…

17. The infamous Joaquin/Wakeen debacle

“I had a coworker named Joaquin. At the time, I spoke exactly zero Spanish, and didn’t know how to pronounce it. I didn’t make the connection when other coworkers talked about ‘Wakeen.’ For MONTHS, I honestly thought I had two different coworkers, Joaquin (pronounced JOE-a-kwin) and Wakeen. In my head, I assigned them different personalities and areas of responsibility and everything. I sent emails saying ‘we should get Wakeen to look into this’ and talked about what Joe-a-kwin had been working on, and no one said anything, including poor Joaquin. I wanted to DIE when I finally put it together.”

Easy-to-Make Puppets
Stockwell
1973

Submitter: Easy To Make Puppets allows you to make…

• Middle Finger Dumbo (Handy to keep at the circulation desk for those fun patrons)
• High as a Kite Clown
• Stop wasting food heads (A mom’s favorite)
• And many more!

Holly: The disembodied head on the cover ought to give Mary sweet dreams. And if that doesn’t do it, the double-whammy clown puppet in the last image below will for sure. (You’re welcome!)

The post DIY Puppets appeared first on Awful Library Books.

‣ Thank you, Bonnie Bees, for making this video possible: https://www.patreon.com/cgpgrey

‣ The Director's Commentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AJErTj92VI

## Related Links

Someone Dead Ruined My Life… Again : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEV9qoup2mQ

Physical Characteristics of The Tiffanys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhCAbDeLgTw

SHARKS! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8xhdL8BPvU

https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations

## Special Thanks

Dr. Richard Coates, Professor Emeritus of Onomastics, Bristol Centre for Linguistics, University of the West of England

Dr. Gregory Clark, Distinguished Professor of Economics, University of California, Davis

## Bonnie Bees

Ben Delo, Bob Kunz, Bobby, Nevin Spoljaric, Donal Botkin, BN-12, Andrew Bereza, Rebecca Wortham, Richard Jenkins, Marco Arment, Phil Gardner, Martin, Steven Grimm, Colin Millions, emptymachine, George Lin, Jason Lewandowski, Saki Comandao, David Tyler, iulus, Jordan Earls, Nick Fish, Nick Gibson, Tyler Bryant, Xueqi, Oliver Steele, Kermit Norlund, rictic, Alex Simonides, Tim Stumbaugh, Nicholas Welna, Christopher Mutchler, Derek Bonner, Mikko, Orbit_Junkie, Tómas Árni Jónasson, Bear, chrysilis, David Palomares, Drago175, Emil, Esteban Santana Santana, Freddi Hørlyck, John Rogers, Peter Lomax, Rhys Parry, ShiroiYami, Tristan Watts-Willis, Veronica Peshterianu, Dag Viggo Lokøen, John Lee, Maxime Zielony, Elizabeth Keathley, Birdstryke, AUFFRAY Clement

## Music

David Rees: http://www.davidreesmusic.com

Post was a longtime television regular who appeared in shows from "Cheers" to "Scrubs." But she was best known for her seven-season run as the public defender on NBC's "Night Court."

(Image credit: Gus Ruelas/AP)

For those of you who have lived through August a time or two in Houston, you’ll know there’s really not much escaping the heat. Fortunately, we’re not going to fall under a classic heat dome this week, so highs should remain below the triple digits. But there will be enough high pressure to keep rain chances fairly low. The bottom line is that it’s an easy forecast: hot, humid, with scattered afternoon rain chances. The tropics are more interesting, so we’ll discuss them below as well.

Monday

Did you like Sunday’s weather? Because that is what in the cards for today, with highs in the mid-90s and partly to mostly sunny skies. Most of the area has about a one-in-four chance of seeing a brief shower later this afternoon as the sea breeze gets fired up. Winds will be out of the south, gusting up to 20 mph later this afternoon. Overnight lows may briefly drop below 80 degrees overnight, but will remain warm and sticky.

Tuesday through Friday

Right now we just don’t see much variability in the forecast through Friday. So for now, expect Groundhog Day-like weather, except for the odd shower that pops up during the afternoon hours.

Saturday and Sunday

Maybe this pattern changes by the weekend, but more likely it probably won’t. So expect to see more partly sunny skies this weekend, with highs in the mid 90s, and a few stray showers. We are in the middle of August, and this is the real Houston weather we all know and hate. Love! I mean love. This is the real Houston weather we all know and love. Yeah. That’s what I mean.

Tropics

It has been exactly one month since the demise of Hurricane Elsa, and it sure has been a nice break in the Atlantic tropics. But alas, all good things must come to an end and now the tropics are very much coming to life. There are a couple of blobs on the National Hurricane Center’s five-day forecast.

94L

We’ll start with the system that has a better chance of developing sooner. This system has about a 70 percent chance of becoming a tropical depression or storm within the next two days as it moves across the Caribbean islands. It should affect Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, Cuba, with rains, if not strong winds as well.

The jury is really out on whether 94L will strengthen much beyond a tropical storm as it must not only interact with these islands, and the overall pattern is not not ideal for intensification. But with that said the models have been under-selling 94L and it would not surprise me to see a strong tropical storm or modest hurricane near Cuba or South Florida by Saturday of this week.

After that? Perhaps it will ride up the Florida peninsula or track a bit further westward into the Gulf of Mexico before turning north. Regardless, at this time, direct effects for Texas seem a low probability. We’ll keep watching regardless.

93L

This system is far less organized, and will likely remain so for a while. However, as the tropical wave moves westward into the Caribbean Sea this weekend, it may eventually find more favorable conditions under which to organize. (Or it could very simply fade away). Regardless, it’s something to continue to watch if its holds together this week. Why? Because in Texas we never really want to see low pressure systems in the Caribbean Sea of Gulf of Mexico this time of year.

I might make this my alarm sound.

---

We find out what happens when big investors spend billions of dollars buying mobile home parks and make them less affordable for the people who live there. Then we learn how the government helps them do it, with super low-cost loans that were meant to support affordable housing. | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

New Cyanide and Happiness Comic

New comic!
Today's News:

We're going to need to hire more children.

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The good news is we've all been training since, what, myspace?

Today's News:

Something happened in the last year. Without indoor gatherings, the streets became the de facto social space. The shift wasn’t even, however. Shutting down business meant shutting down a reason to go anywhere. The cross-pollination of neighborhoods and the through-flow of North Texas stopped. The chance encounters with friends and acquaintances stopped, and it seemed that going out or staying in yielded the same result: no familiar faces to be found.

People filled the streets during this time, to be sure. People walked their dogs morning, noon, and night. People brought Champagne to the park and laughed on their terraces. There were people, it seemed, who could weather the storm and wait at home, with each other. For them, waiting for normal may have felt like a family staycation.

Under normal circumstances, I would not be alone so much of the time. I would be visiting artist friends, in their studios or at their receptions, catching up on all the ways they have found their own pathways to creating over these months. Hearing their stories enriches the viewing experience, but it’s also comforting. Artists often live in ways that seem unconventional, or inventive, which, while I sheltered in place, I realized to be rare. I was bound to my neighborhood. Looking out my window toward my neighbors, I started to see differences that I hadn’t noticed before.

In this time, I’ve encountered three literary works by contemporary artists that offer a surrogate experience: Autofictional stories of life under the creative impulse.

Simon Hanselmann’s Bad Gateway is a continuation of the artist’s popular Megg, Mogg & Owl series, in which a witch and her cat boyfriend waltz through life one day at a time. Hanselmann uses humanity to endear us to these degenerates, but doesn’t pad out with pleasantries the banality of underachieving. These people make bad decisions in broad daylight, loudly.

Megg and her roommates are short on rent, in part because they buy too much weed and, more importantly, because they avoid working. Megg makes a desperate plea to the welfare office to continue her financial assistance from the state, and later, the crew try to sell a pair of roller skates so they can score one night’s share of drugs for the three of them. At every stage, they stumble to make even the most meager gains, and their collective failure strains the friendship. They are unwilling to compromise their lifestyle for any semblance of normalcy — even when it comes to making rent on their modest hovel, which is lined with wine bottles and beer cans.

Megg, the titular witch, has green skin which beams glamorously from the flat world of Bad Gateway. Mogg, her boyfriend, is a talking cat who is unhireable, adding to the impending rent crisis. Werewolf Jones, a local friend, hangs around between benders, pushing the boundary of how much hedonism is too much for the group. Megg encounters her own needs through the demanding situations that friends put her through, and eventually is summoned home. On the flight to answer her mother’s call, we can feel that this does not portend a respite from the chaos that troubles Megg.

Hanselmann has spoken about how comics were an essential outlet of his life growing up in remote Tasmania. Daniel Clowes has called Haneselmann’s work “the real deal,” and once wrote: “I actually find his comics really depressing and thank God that I don’t ever have to hang out with anybody like that ever again.” In other words, Hanselmann is capable of telling these stories: of the abject and the noncompliant. They’re endearing in the sense that they are relatable. In Bad Gateway, a bottle is not a symbol of an evening of well-spent relaxation. Sometimes, the bottle is the problem as much as it is a fact of life.

In Brat, Ms. D is a stretchy provocateur; she’s famous for “delinquence,” an art form that she has singlehandedly elevated into popular consciousness. Michael Deforge’s worlds are occupied by the silliest ordinance of people who don’t act as if they are living in a cartoon world, which brings the slapstick antics down to Earth in the unlikeliest of ways. The main character here is a universally lauded artist, even if her art form is subject to the pitfalls of celebrity. Ms. D has no authentic relationships, and she’s too singularly revered to have peers. She lives as a myth, so famous that her own identity has lost all of its roots.

Ms. D pontificates toward the reader in various passages about how unfulfilling it is to be adored. Her type of artwork, call it social practice or public performance, has been adopted so wholeheartedly by the mainstream that she has become incapable of topping her own antics. All of her relationships are cynical. In a late-stage panel, Ms. D’s intern, Citrus, expresses her ambivalence about being accepted to her preferred college, and asks her mentor if she has an opinion. Citrus has taken an oath of compliance for D’s heinous acts — quite the investment for an uncompensated position. The devoted Citrus is looking for direction, and the emotionless Ms. D defers the decision back onto Citrus. Do what you want. A pregnant future.

The post The Other Side: Stories From the Artists’ Perspective appeared first on Glasstire.

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
I wonder if actual farmers also play farming games.

Today's News:

The Cinemassacre Podcast is coming THIS Tuesday night to the channel. It's an hour long video podcast, but the audio version will be posted wherever podcasts are heard.

Anyway, thanks for watching AVGN for 15 years! It's been a long time since I've done a behind the scenes sort of video. But, I wanted to share some of my new technical updates, the basic set up of a Nerd episode, other projects, and even address some of your complaints.

See the detailed process of Making an AVGN episode, in this older (out of date) behind-the-scenes video, that also counts as episode 102, with the featured game being Barbie (NES)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfnSqLzUzfM

Cinemassacre Crew:
James Rolfe: https://twitter.com/cinemassacre
Justin Silverman: http://justysilverman.com
Kieran: https://twitter.com/Kieeeeern

Check out the AVGN Deluxe video game:
http://avgngame.com/

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

#AngryVideoGameNerd #NerdRoom #BehindTheScenes #Cinemassacre

I cut the conversation in half and put the second half before the first half. I think it works. David McQuary is a comedian, writer, actor, animator, and music nerd. He has written for the Onion and placed in the finals for Funniest Person in Austin. We've known each other for years and we like a lot of the same stuff. 

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
For the record, missiles and blimps don't really work from a physics standpoint, but don't let that stop you being true to your bloodlust.

Today's News:

Digital libraries
Balasubramanian
2021

Submitter: I was excited to see this book at my local public library. I always like learning more about what other libraries are doing in the way of digital libraries. This book is a joke! Just take a look at the scanning section. Not to mention the pixelated HTML screenshots. Sad…

Holly: Apparently Ess Ess Publications is a publisher of library science materials in India. I don’t know where Submitter’s library is located, and I don’t know how useful this would be to libraries in India. I was surprised at the publication date, though, and those screen shots on the example pages (below) are impossible to read. Not your best choice on the subject here in the U.S.!

The post Digital Libraries appeared first on Awful Library Books.