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BANANA NARWHAL!!!!!!
(Because how could I not?)
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In spite of my gripes, there are many reasons to love Global Megacorporation these days.
My new position is basically involved in implementing HR systems, so I have to read customer questions about how to implement various HR functionality. Some of the "requirements" are just... awful.
But I loved my company's support person today. I can't divulge any details, but her response was pretty much, "Perhaps you could try to train your managers to be decent to their reports instead of trying to implement this functionality."
If I knew who she was, I'd swing by her office and give her a hug. What an answer!
Ah! So that is what J. stood for!
On the one hand anonymity is the best way to cultivate mystique.
On the other hand, It's been pretty lonely and this is the summer to try new things.
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The kids and I are about to start the three-day drive from Mom and Eve's house in Maine back to Texas. Back to work Monday.
I wish I had known. It would have been good to see you in Jersey today.
Better grab your dumbrella, it's real stupid out there today.
i would recommend augmenting that loadout with a dummygun . . . . 'cause it's been so bad the last 48 hours that self-defense is in order.
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Or, if you're restricted to black-powder weapons, you'll have to make do with a dumbderbuss.
Dumberbus? I think I rode that one a few times.
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Ah, the irony.
Yesterday morning I got a call from one of Impus Major's friends that he was late driving them all to the Oakland Zoo for a birthday party. I woke him up and he was exhausted; it turned out he'd been up playing online games 'til 3:00 am the night before. I told him he needed to be home by 11 so he could catch up on his sleep, and he agreed.
In the meantime, we had Shiro over for the evening and watched TV with him until 11:30 pm. I noticed that Impus Major was still up.
NobodysHome: You should be in bed!
Impus Major: I want to be, but you guys are too noisy!
Yep. Parents keeping the kids up for once. Revenge is sweet.
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Fantasy Monster: Creeping Drapery
A curtain tries to wrap around you!
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As a game designer, GothBard really has some insights.
I just upgraded to Windows 11, and of course just like all other major company software it's bigger icons, more white space, larger text with greater contrast... everything you need for a "senior edition" of a book or web site. Everyone I know hates this new design paradigm.
Except... the Boomers...
So I was griping to GothBard about how Boomers were ruining one more thing for us, and she just looked at me and responded, "It's easy to sell new technology to young people."
Touché, Gothbard, Touché.
Not Boomers per se, just marketing to the people least likely to buy your product...
After thinking on it a bit, it bothers me even more because of the condescension of it all. I'm in their target audience: My eyes are starting to go and so sometimes I need reading glasses, sometimes I need screen magnification, sometimes I need to adjust the contrast, and sometimes I need a mixture of all three.
Google Chrome is an example of how things should be: I can adjust the magnification. I can adjust the contrast. I appreciate that it's all available to me. And I appreciate even more that it's not being spoon-fed to me forcefully because I can't possibly figure out how to do it on my own.
I liken Windows 11 to going to a steak house where if you're over 50 instead of offering to cut your steak for you, the waiter does it automatically, then tries to hand-feed you as well...
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Sister. "WOOOOOOOOOLF THERES A SKUUUUUUNK"
Run crash. slamming door.
... How do you live in suburbia youre entire life and have like, the second worst reaction to the fourth most common animal here?
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Sister. "WOOOOOOOOOLF THERES A SKUUUUUUNK"
Run crash. slamming door.
... How do you live in suburbia youre entire life and have like, the second worst reaction to the fourth most common animal here?
Shiro met a woman once night who was beyond herself with fear because of a "strange large animal she'd never seen before" in her neighborhood. It was a deer.
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Shiro met a woman once night who was beyond herself with fear because of a "strange large animal she'd never seen before" in her neighborhood. It was a deer.Sister. "WOOOOOOOOOLF THERES A SKUUUUUUNK"
Run crash. slamming door.
... How do you live in suburbia youre entire life and have like, the second worst reaction to the fourth most common animal here?
If it was at night, I couldn't blame her. Their shadows look completely un-deer-like sometimes and they can make truly off noises.
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I'm at work on a Monday.
And I'm ENJOYING it.
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New neighbor with a deep urban accent. Welcome them to the neighborhood. let them know if they have any critter trouble give me a yell. The animals here are really used to people. They assure me they're from around here and are used to the animals....OK...
3 days later at dusk (its still really light out) I hear EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Walk out onto my stoop. There's a deer trotting from the neighbors yard, sees me. Gives me a look "oh hey its you" and starts browsing on the grass just on my side of the property line, like she read the map.
"What the hell is THAT!?!"
" Deer. White tailed deer. "
"I KNOW that! what is it doing on my LAWN"
"eating grass? Deer... stuff. Like i said they're used to the people here
Deer: Snort
"She's new she'll get used to it.
Anyone would like to contribute to a charity auction and get me an Ars Magica, 5th edition rulebook on paper?
Eh, just asking.
I bid 100 (about $25) but unless the sky falls, I will be outbid multiple times before the auction ends on Thursday.
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As a game designer, GothBard really has some insights.
I just upgraded to Windows 11, and of course just like all other major company software it's bigger icons, more white space, larger text with greater contrast... everything you need for a "senior edition" of a book or web site. Everyone I know hates this new design paradigm.
Except... the Boomers...
So I was griping to GothBard about how Boomers were ruining one more thing for us, and she just looked at me and responded, "It's easy to sell new technology to young people."
Touché, Gothbard, Touché.
Not Boomers per se, just marketing to the people least likely to buy your product...
Sounds like they are adjusting their design not based on who is actually buying it and enjoying it but instead based on the feedback provided by the loudest and grumpiest segment of their customers who, tellingly, have similar complaints even through the things they are whinging about are actually strengths of the service/platform.
I bid 100 (about $25) but unless the sky falls, I will be outbid multiple times before the auction ends on Thursday.
Outbid, raised to 200... It's still less than a hardcover goes for on a few American shops that still have it ($75 or much-much more).
Shiro met a woman once night who was beyond herself with fear because of a "strange large animal she'd never seen before" in her neighborhood. It was a deer.Sister. "WOOOOOOOOOLF THERES A SKUUUUUUNK"
Run crash. slamming door.
... How do you live in suburbia youre entire life and have like, the second worst reaction to the fourth most common animal here?
The year before we left California, I was with the kids at the big park just up the hill from your house. Some parents were shouting and freaking out because was there was a "giant scorpion" in the creek. It was a crayfish. I mean, they didn't even look at the tail.
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Step-by-step instructions on the most effective way to clean a child's car seat:
Step 1: Light it on fire.
Step 2: There is no step 2.
Halfway through a lengthy road trip with my children when they were little, I once pulled off the highway into a Target, bought a brand new booster seat for Hermione, gave her old car seat to Val, and left Val's utterly befouled and vomit-soaked car seat in the Target parking lot and drove off.
Yes, I was afraid that a security cam would catch my license plate and I would get fined, but I considered it worth the risk. It was that bad.
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Rejoyce, rejoyce, for noe longer do we fighteth in ye stynkie and unventylated gymnasiumme, filled with gymnasiumme folks who dyd seeme verye Peturbed at ye presseynce of so manye Maisters of Defensse in one playce, but in ye Towne Halle, which hatheth vvindowes, and an Barre, though ye Barre wath sadlye closed.
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Or they're simply working to come into compliance with standard accessibility design criteria.
It's not necessarily a generational issue.
(and wow, are a lot of you older folks angry about being older folks. You've seriously bought into the ageism negativity. In the US especially, aging is seen as a horrible event, one that people loudly proclaim "I'm not that kind of older person)
If a behavior has been documented in primates as well, is it ageism? (Pertinent quote: "If the parents or their contemporaries (or their parents) are too old, they do not adopt the behavior.")
In a broad generalization, older people, dogs, primates, or any other studied mammal are less open to changing their behavior. I don't claim to be an exception.
The situation is literally:
Microsoft: We've changed things.
NobodysHome: I don't like change.
(And you're probably referring to my resentment of the Boomers, but I reserve that right because I'm Generation X -- we spent our entire lives being told we were too irresponsible to be trusted with anything, so the Boomers kept control for our entire lifetimes. Yep. We resent that. A lot. And it has nothing to do with how old they are.)
But GothBard is right: As the population ages, companies like Microsoft need to cater to that aging population to maintain their numbers. My issue is the way they do it: Even my 92-year-old mother (who's already had a stroke) mislikes the new Windows 11 interface because the "icons are too big" and "there's too much unused space".
The only people I know who love the interface are designers between 30 and 40 who still think that somehow they'll find that "golden UI" that works for both desktops and phones. I wish they'd stop.
I bid 100 (about $25) but unless the sky falls, I will be outbid multiple times before the auction ends on Thursday.Outbid, raised to 200... It's still less than a hardcover goes for on a few American shops that still have it ($75 or much-much more).
300.
That's my final offer.
Funnily, I hope someone will outbid me before Thursday evening because we are reaching the point of me spending money that I can't really afford to spend currently on a single—very nice and all, but still single—rulebook that I am not likely to use much, because I finding the group for it will be quite hard if possible at all—players are lazy and unruly bunch, and this game requires some degree of interest, dedication, and actually learning the rules.
If it was at night, I couldn't blame her. Their shadows look completely un-deer-like sometimes and they can make truly off noises.
Those aren't deer...
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I accidentally fell down a weird neopagan feminist rabbit hole on the Internets this evening and ended up reading an essay about how the Barbie movie is basically Inanna.
The Internet: legitimizing the ramblings of that one weird kid in your college dorm since 1990-something.
If it was at night, I couldn't blame her. Their shadows look completely un-deer-like sometimes and they can make truly off noises.Those aren't deer...
This is, by far the most eerie reply I have received.
I accidentally fell down a weird neopagan feminist rabbit hole on the Internets this evening and ended up reading an essay about how the Barbie movie is basically Inanna.
The Internet: legitimizing the ramblings of that one weird kid in your college dorm since 1990-something.
...shit.
I can see it.
Morning.
Never mind it is almost 2 pm.
I bid 100 (about $25) but unless the sky falls, I will be outbid multiple times before the auction ends on Thursday.Outbid, raised to 200... It's still less than a hardcover goes for on a few American shops that still have it ($75 or much-much more).300.
That's my final offer.
Funnily, I hope someone will outbid me before Thursday evening because we are reaching the point of me spending money that I can't really afford to spend currently on a single—very nice and all, but still single—rulebook that I am not likely to use much, because I finding the group for it will be quite hard if possible at all—players are lazy and unruly bunch, and this game requires some degree of interest, dedication, and actually learning the rules.
Huh. No one outbid me yet?
Not sure what to feel about that. On one hand, it's charity auction. On the other, it is three weeks of groceries.
Speaking of which. I have to get groceries.
Oh, wait, it's raining.
...
No. It is not.
Interestingly, no one seems to be bidding on a Polish translation of Exalted, 2nd edition book posted at the same time.
I have English core rulebook at home (belonging to my former players whom I haven't seen in a few years because they live in a hard to get village just beyond the city limits, which is hard for me to get, as opposed to other friends who live in a different village just beyond the city limits that are closer and better connected) so I have little need for it, and even less money to spare.
...
No. It is not.
Yes, it is.
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It's funny; Dancing Wind's comment got me thinking about aging, and I think GothBard hit the nail on the head: When you're younger, change tends to be good: "I just got a job!" "I just got a promotion!" "We got the house!" "I'm pregnant!"
As you get older, change gets worse and worse. "The house needs a new roof." "The kids are moving out." "Our friend just moved away." "Our friend just passed away."
There's a fundamental negativity towards change that increases as you age. It doesn't explain the resistance to change shown in animals, but it provides a strong psychological basis as to why older people tend to resent change.
(Yes, there's a lot of upheaval in our lives right now. But in my commitment to not post about others unless they want me to, I'm carefully not discussing it. I'm still a wage slave for Global Megacorporation, and likely will be until I get the opportunity to retire. So, as my friends like to say, I'm a fundamental constant of nature.)
Not sure what to feel about that. On one hand, it's charity auction. On the other, it is three weeks of groceries.
Speaking of which. I have to get groceries.
At that rate it's getting closer to two weeks of groceries. Though I might overspent on some non-essentials.
Let's see... Meat. Check. Tea. Check. Powdered garlic. Check. Some washing sponges. Check. Small ice cream. Check. That's essential, right? Two milk drinks. Check. Three boxes of chocolate bars (they are fiber-rich... no, really!). BBQ sauce and two cheap pizzas... Ok, that might be stretching it, but I haven't had pizza in a long-long time. And one kilogram of cheese.
Interestingly, no one seems to be bidding on a Polish translation of Exalted, 2nd edition book posted at the same time.
I have English core rulebook at home (belonging to my former players whom I haven't seen in a few years because they live in a hard to get village just beyond the city limits, which is hard for me to get, as opposed to other friends who live in a different village just beyond the city limits that are closer and better connected) so I have little need for it, and even less money to spare.
I truly enjoyed the Exalted Scroll of Swallowed Darkness add-on.
You shouldn't swallow darkness, that's unhealthy.