Cowboy Who?

Better Homes and Gardens: Sewing Casual Clothes
1966

Submitter: My library holds an annual new book drive where we work with a local group who feed k-12 kids in food-insecure situations to provide a (hopefully) brand-new book to each kid over the winter break along with enough food to last them until school starts again. Unfortunately, sometimes we get donations that are weeded from other libraries, including this gem. I can’t imagine any current teenagers wearing any of this. For that matter, no one of my generation would have worn any of this either, and I’m getting old.

Holly: A book drive is not an opportunity to clean out your basement, people. Have a heart.

The post Sewing Casual Clothes appeared first on Awful Library Books.

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I believe this is technically possible, and I hereby make a no-liability dare.

Tonight's comic wants to activate the pleasure hole!!

If you're one of the many people that play games on your Mac, one thing you may not appreciate is a resource-hog browser. The answer might be Opera's GX, unveiled earlier this year on PC, which is finally available on macOS in early access mode. Opera said that it solves resource problems via limiters on CPU, RAM and network bandwidth. "What this means in practice is that everyone's machines are left with more resources for running games," the company said.

To keep your browser from stealing resources, the GX control panel lets you set how much CPU power or RAM it can use. That means you can leave it running during gaming sessions, confident it won't overwhelm your machine. On top of that, Twitch is integrated directly into the sidebar, and you get shortcuts to Discord, Reddit and other sites, along with Telegram, WhatsApp and Facebook.

To set the right mood, you can also customize Opera GX with a huge color palette, sound effects and wallpapers. It also has a built in ad-blocker, browser VPN and a "GX Corner" that hosts gaming news and deals feeds.

Opera also did some surveys and revealed a ton of statistics on PC gaming, noting that 82 percent of PC gamers are on Windows and 14 percent on macOS. About 49 percent have had technical issues, with 30 percent troubled by network problems, 26 percent having memory issues and 14 percent CPU problems. Opera GX for macOS is now available to download here.

Source: Opera

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Unfortunately, the breeding population of Mars was entirely sysadmins, resulting in dangerous founder effects. On the plus side, their revolution against Earth will be entirely passive-aggressive.

Crafts Jamboree
Macrame, Knitting, Quilting, Rugmaking, Dyeing, Needlepoint, Patchwork, Crochet, Jewelry, Leather, Clay, Stained Glass, Collage, Enameling, Kites, Candlemaking
Deutch
1977

I think this book had every single craft medium known to mankind. To be honest, reading the table of contents is kind of exhausting. I guess a craft jamboree is like crafts turned up to 11.

I think we can all agree that perhaps this book has been around long enough. One look at some of the fashion choices will tell you all you need to know.

I think the bigger question is if a giant book of a variety of crafts works for the crafting patron. For the most part, my experience is that people are looking for a book on a specific craft. If you want to learn quilting or knitting, most people would gravitate toward an entire book on quilting or knitting. Even some of the contemporary compilations don’t try to go too deep on the more skilled crafts. The multi craft books will try and stay within a theme or some kind of parameter.

I am also kind of worried about the person that would embrace this level of crafting. Can you imagine what their house looks like?

Mary

The post Comprehensive Crafting appeared first on Awful Library Books.

It’s “where are you now?” month at Ask a Manager, and all December I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past.

Remember the letter-writer who was being barraged by angry phone calls from her boss’s husband? Here’s the update.

I spoke to Jane and outlined my concerns in full based on what Alison recommended, and Jane was very quiet and heard me out.

She confirmed that she had been moved to this department to put some distance between her and Fergus because she had started divorce proceedings against him and he was refusing to accept reality. I found out that Fergus is also an employee of our company in a managerial role in a different premises, so there was nowhere for Jane to really escape within the company because Fergus would be able to track her down.

She was extremely distressed that Fergus’ behaviour was upsetting me (and other affected colleagues) and said that she was personally sorry for bringing this down on all of us. To which I had to tell her that this is not her fault and Fergus is choosing to be this way, and I think she is incredibly strong to be continuing to divorce this guy and try to move on from his controlling, abusive behavior. 

After our heart to heart, Jane herself went to our higher ups and said that she would need protection from the stalking behaviour of her soon-to-be-ex and simply moving departments was not enough. Their solution was to bring Fergus in for a disciplinary meeting broadly about his misuse of company time and company phone to harass multiple colleagues (they kept it as professional as possible to try to limit the personal impact on Jane by Fergus for reporting him,) Fergus lasted about an hour after the meeting ended before calling my customer service line and pouring a stream of unrepeatable hatred down the phone at me. Cue Fergus getting fired for abusive behaviour towards a colleague. As much as it was awful to hear him be so hateful, knowing he’s gone and won’t be allowed back is a relief.

Jane was able to get a restraining order against Fergus on behalf of herself and their children. He can only see them with supervision and he is forbidden from contacting her whatsoever.

So Fergus has no job, cannot live in their shared home, he doesn’t seek visitation because he can’t bully Jane without her there to witness it, and he will be divorced soon too. Jane is cautiously optimistic about the future and we are thrilled to have her back at work and on great form. We are worried that he may retaliate in some way after his life has exploded like this, but you can’t live your life in fear and we’re hoping to move on. Jane and I have a great working relationship and I can’t thank you all enough for encouraging me to speak to Jane again and get to the root of the problem before Fergus caused even more grief.

Happy holidays, all!

update: my boss’s angry husband calls multiple times a day for her was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.

It’s “where are you now?” month at Ask a Manager, and all December I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past.

Remember the letter-writer whose manager wrote down everyone’s minor mistakes in a notebook and made everyone else read and sign it? Here’s the update.

On the evening you posted my letter, I went into work and Jane had written two full pages in the burn book blaming me for something she screwed up that morning, when I wasn’t working. I hadn’t worked the two days prior either, so it was impossible for me to be to blame. I was so furious at the time that I don’t even remember what she was accusing me of.

I used your advice and the advice from people in the comments. I wrote a response in the burn book saying I will no longer be reading any of these notes as they are inappropriate, and that the schedule shows I was not working at the time she said I was. I took photos on my cell phone of the worst pages of the book. Jane’s boss was out the office at the time so I sent her an email explaining the many problems Jane’s behaviour would raise for management including breaching employee privacy laws, workplace harrassment, etc. I’m Canadian and we have very clear employment laws here, so I copy and pasted some points directly from the government’s website which could apply.

The next morning I received an email from Jane’s boss apologizing for her behaviour and saying it will be addressed. She offered to take over as my direct supervisor and speak to me directly about any issue which would arise. I accepted her offer, but nothing was ever brought up, presumably because so much of Jane’s problems with me were untrue or exaggerated. When I went into work that evening, the burn book had many pages torn out of it, but I don’t know if Jane did that to hide her behaviour or if her boss made her take them out. Good thing I took photos!

Anyway, Jane was scratched off the schedule for a week (whether she was suspended or took sick leave I don’t know) then spent the next month or so avoiding me by calling in sick or leaving early on the days we were scheduled to work together. She dropped her attitude and she became much easier for everyone to work with. In addition to that good news, I just finished going back to school and started an amazing new job! I’m so glad to be out of there!

update: my office has a burn book we all have to read and sign was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.

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I await your demands for caveats, QC community!

Houston and London! Submissions are now open for BAHFest 2020!

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That last panel is going on my grave.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft made a startling discovery shortly after arriving at its target, a 1614-foot-wide rock called Bennu: the asteroid was ejecting particles from its surface. While that's common behavior on icy comets, it's much rarer on asteroids. The phenomenon has stumped scientists, but NASA has now offered a few explanations based on observations by OSIRIS-REx and hopes that a sample collected next year will offer a more definitive answer.

OSIRIS-REx has been surveying Bennu since it arrived on December 3rd, 2018, with the aim of finding a boulder-free landing site. Based on observations so far, scientists have several theories about the eruptions. One is that small fragments of space rock called meteoroids are striking Bennu, dislodging particles.

Another explanation is thermal stress fracturing. Bennu's surface temperatures fluctuate widely over its 4.3-hour rotation; while warm when exposed to the sun, at "night," the asteroid gets extremely cold. That may cause rocks to fracture and shed particles.

OSIRIS-REx also discovered water on Bennu, and that may be released from clay on the rock when it's heated. That could cause surface agitation, "causing particles to erupt," NASA explained. If so, then only water-bearing asteroids might have such eruptions. If it's thermal stress fracturing or meteoroid impacts, then any asteroid could have sporadic ejection events.

In any case, the mini-explosions have given NASA a new theory to test and scientists hope to actually gather some ejected particles when samples are taken. "The material returned to Earth from Bennu will almost certainly increase our understanding of asteroids," NASA explained.

Once a sample site is picked in summer 2020, the Lockheed Martin-designed spacecraft will descend to the surface at just a quarter of a mile an hour. It will bounce gently off the asteroid while a sampling head uses a blast of nitrogen gas to collect dirt and small rocks.

Bennu is considered a danger to Earth that will pass within the Moon's orbit in the year 2135, and currently has a 1 in 2,700 chance of impacting the Earth between 2175-2199. NASA hopes to collect anywhere from several ounces to nearly four and a half pounds of material, which will be delivered to Earth in September 2023.

The end is nigh for Windows 10 Mobile. We already knew that technical support for the mobile operating system would end on December 10th, 2019 (yep, that's tomorrow). Now, we have an official end-of-life date for the Windows 10 Mobile Office apps, too: January 12th, 2021. From that point onwards, the much-loved software suite -- including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote -- won't receive any bug fixes, security updates and general technical support. The apps will still work, Microsoft confirmed, but you won't be able to install them on any new devices.

"Because of the lack of security updates, we strongly recommend that if you wish to use Office on a phone you transition to the latest Microsoft Office apps on an iOS or Android phone," Bill Doll, senior product marketing manager for Office apps strategy at Microsoft urged.

The announcement isn't a huge surprise. Windows 10 Mobile was a commercial flop and it's been years since Microsoft released a new Lumia smartphone. The platform is slowly being retired and that, inevitably, includes any Microsoft-made apps. If you're still clinging to a Lumia 950, though, you have another year-or-so to poke around the Office apps and imagine what could have been. Personally, we're ready to move on and embrace Microsoft's dual-screen, Android-powered mobile future. We'll miss some of the platform's crazier ideas, like Continuum -- a concept Samsung is keeping alive -- but very little else. Goodbye, old friend.

Via: themrpc

Source: Office Apps Blog

New comic!

It was bound to happen eventually.

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You can categorize countries by how many derivatives you need to take before you can feel good about yourself.

Don't forget what's truly important during the holiday season.

The Odessa Spire

On December 16, Odessa Arts, an organization that promotes art and humanities in the Permian Basin, will unveil a new piece of public art, titled The Odessa Spire, by Philadelphia artist Ray King.

The 109’ 7 3/4” lighted work incorporates the former Rock Hill Springs shopping center sign, which had been abandoned and derelict for nearly 30 years. During the Public Art Master Plan, Odessa residents identified the sign as a piece of Odessa history. Ray King, whose projects of lighting-based public art span the country, was selected out of 75 applicants.

The lighting of the Spire will occur on December 16 at 7:30pm at 820 N. Maple Ave, in Odessa. Live entertainment will begin at 6:45.

The post Odessa Unveils “The Odessa Spire” appeared first on Glasstire.

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I would actually pay good money for a guy who stands on the street in a tophat telling you uplifting macroeconomic data.