For anyone who wants to bunk off ...

April 5, 2022 3:30 AM

for anyone who wants to do some flipping perusing, for anyone who wants to taste the apple, for anyone who wants to bite the electric tiger's tail and ride it until the end of the mother flipping line — HERE IS YOUR FLIPPING FREE THREAD.
posted by taz (166 comments total)

It’s like having a big blue sheet of paper to draw on!
posted by condour75 at 3:33 AM on April 5, 2022 [4 favorites]

Except I'm in Aotearoa New Zealand and for me it's bedtime.
posted by happyinmotion at 3:46 AM on April 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

It’s a flipping-free thread? So no flipping allowed. Got it.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:51 AM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

Nobody wants to see me bunk off.

Nobody.
posted by chillmost at 4:01 AM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

Workday starting? New free thread? Time to coast, baby.
posted by mollweide at 4:06 AM on April 5, 2022 [10 favorites]

Next you’ll be letting us hold the Internet!
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 4:37 AM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

Just hit my 17th anniversary here. Seems like 17 minutes, though I'd like to think I've matured as a social media consumer.
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 4:40 AM on April 5, 2022 [7 favorites]

There's already a Fanfare thread about this, but I need US folks to be aware that Netflix currently has 20 episodes available of a Japanese tv show in which small children tackle an errand on their own for the first time. The episodes run about 7-15 minutes long and are extremely cute.

I'm not even mad that many of these toddlers are more competent at errands than I am.
posted by the primroses were over at 4:45 AM on April 5, 2022 [28 favorites]

My favourite song of the last two weeks has been Ibibio Sound Machine's "Protection from Evil," which may or may not be D&D related (I'm not being coy, I have no idea) but is just great as hell regardless.
posted by Shepherd at 4:47 AM on April 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

Being a toddler in Japan is pretty great from what I can tell.

Ages 5 through 22 not so much.

(I taught all ages including preschoolers in Japan for several years.)
posted by The Monster at the End of this Thread at 4:49 AM on April 5, 2022 [5 favorites]

I have been waiting for a free thread that I can post to before leaving for work so I can share possibly my favourite tweet in ages! (And you're welcome for the earworm.)
posted by Kitteh at 4:52 AM on April 5, 2022 [11 favorites]

For various reasons, I skipped a few FPPs I had considered for a series of posts in March, and I'm just going to leave drafts of them here like the others I dropped in the first free thread in January.

FPPs I never posted (#11): "The name of the work not to be Emma ..."

Jane Austen (1816), "Plan of a Novel, according to Hints from Various Quarters": "SCENE to be in the Country, Heroine the Daughter of a Clergyman, one who after having lived much in the World had retired from it and settled in a Curacy." Austen's satirical plan matches the playfulness of her juvenilia, letters [PDF], and novels. In the original manuscript, she tracked who gave her the 'hints'. Elsewhere she also tracked responses to Mansfield Park [orig.] and to Emma [orig.]. "What do the 'Opinions' tell us about contemporary attitudes to Austen's novels?" "Jane Austen's Emma Was Basically Torn Apart in Workshop." Meanwhile Austen's feelings about others' books are sampled in "Jane Austen's Reading: The Chawton Years" [PDF].

FPPs I never posted (#12): "Private feeling and social interactions as shaping forces in history"

Michelle Levy (WPHP), "Lucy Aikin, Feminist History, and the 'Sisterhood of Womankind'": "'our comparative penury is remarkable in royal lives, in court histories, and ... the glory of French literature,—memoir. To supply in some degree this want, as it affects ... one of the most illustrious ... sovereigns, is the intention'" of Aikin's 1818 court history of Queen Elizabeth (one ed. illustrated) and her later work on James I, Charles I, and Anne Boleyn. A selection of Aikin's other work is available in an online edition [PDF] of a larger anthology. French court memoirs still emerging around the same time covered the private life of Marie Antoinette and the captivity in the Paris Temple.

FPPs I never posted (#13): "Scale one inch to each foot," or about nine feet long

Mary Anning (1823), "Autograph letter concerning the discovery of plesiosaurus": "I have endeavoured in a rough sketch to give you some idea of what it is like ... [Y]ou understood me right in thinking that I said it was the supposed plesiosaurus [Plesiosauridae gallery at GBIF], but its remarkable long neck and small head, shows that it does not in the least verify their conjectures in its analogy to the ichthyosaurus [Ichthyosauridae gallery at GBIF]." Marie-Claire Eylott: "Her lifetime was a constellation of firsts." Mary Anning and the Geological Society. Additional images / writeups in contemporary sources. Text of additional letters. Contemporary biography, including the story Anning was struck by lightning as an infant. Tongue-twister folklore re-analyzed. Anning previously.

FPPs I never posted (#14): "You are all of you copies and ..."

Rosemary Hill (LRB), "I am the thing itself": "The initial motive for writing the Memoirs was certainly blackmail ... Yet to say ... that there was 'no creative impulse' behind the Memoirs is quite untrue. Once she got going Harriette Wilson clearly wrote for the pleasure of writing ... The most damaging consequence of the Memoirs' publication was another book." Harriette Wilson, The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson (1825): "I frankly asked Julia, for so we will call her in future, why she invited a strange madcap girl like me, to dinner with her. 'Consider the melancholy life I lead,' said Julia." Julia Johnstone [or someone claiming to be her], Confessions of Julia Johnstone (1825): "And now for Miss Harriette Wilson; how do you do, my old acquaintance?" See also (from the designers of Good Society: A Jane Austen RPG), the free tabletop game The Fictional Memoirs of Harriette Wilson & Her Sisters, which links to actual play demos as well.

FPPs I never posted (#15): "Does the Loddon continue to flow as brightly?"

Mary Russell Mitford (1828), "Grace Neville": "Two or three winters ago, our little village had the good fortune to have its curiosity excited by the sudden appearance of a lovely and elegant young woman, as an inmate in the house of Mr. Martin, a respectable farmer in the place. The pleasure of talking over a new-comer in a country village, which, much as I love country villages, does, I confess, occasionally labour under a stagnation of topics, must not be lightly estimated." Our Village is Mitford's frequently-abridged series of gentle, slice-of-life "sketches"--fictionalized experiences of the village Three Mile Cross [Google Maps]. Series overview. Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 at HathiTrust. A selection at Project Gutenberg.

FPPs I never posted (#16): "The amazement such a missive caused me may well be imagined."

Maria Stella (anno 1830), The Memoirs of Maria Stella (Lady Newborough) by Herself: "In an instant a crowd of ideas rushed upon me; the veil was rent, the cloud dispersed ... There was but one mystery left to clear up, and that was precisely the one I was implored to let alone ... namely, to try every possible means to discover my real father." Maria Stella describes getting an answer: the Duc d'Orléans had supposedly traded her for a son who became King of the French from 1830-1848. Her case (mentioned also in the Annual Register) has challenges, but as a text, her story is an absorbing read.

FPPs I never posted (#17): Ten-Minute Book Club: The History of Mary Prince

Ros Ballaster on "The History of Mary Prince": "Representations of slavery did important work in the argument for abolition. For me the most important aspect of the work is the ... voice of Mary herself ... The fact that it went into three editions in the year of its first publication is testament to the interest in and popularity of this slim 23-page history." Writing for Oxford University's Ten-Minute Book Club, Ballaster provides an excerpt, points to consider, and a little context, but the complete text of The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave (1831)--itself not long--is available at Documenting the American South. At The Women's Print History Project, Sara Penn discusses the history of the text and acknowledges P. Gabrielle Foreman et al.'s CC-licensed Google Doc "Writing About Slavery/Teaching About Slavery: This Might Help" as a list of suggestions for how to talk about slavery. Mary Prince previously.

FPPs I never posted (#18): "Echoes attach themselves to the cloudy moonlight"

Ann Waltner, "Zhou Qi 周綺" in Dream of the Red Chamber--Afterlives: "If one wonders how a young woman responded to Dream of the Red Chamber in the early nineteenth century, one need look no further than Zhou Qi 周綺 ... [A]n important critical edition of the novel in 1832 ... included this text and ten of the poems which follow. 'I happened to be beset by petty illnesses and was sitting lonely in our small tower ... [M]y husband Xuexiang's critical edition ... was sitting on his desk. I read through several chapters and could not help being moved to laughter. It takes human feelings and social relations and locates them in the world of powder and rouge ...'" Many other poets have been moved as well: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Josh Stenberg, "Why you should read ... Dream of the Red Chamber." We Love Translations: "What's the best translation of The Dream of the Red Chamber?"
posted by Wobbuffet at 4:54 AM on April 5, 2022 [37 favorites]

It’s like having a big blue sheet of paper to draw on!

Darn it, all I have here are blue pens!
posted by notoriety public at 4:56 AM on April 5, 2022 [6 favorites]

I've been working my way through the books in our shelves that were assignment reading for various and sundry of the kids over the years. By which I mean that I've finally gotten around to Jane Eyre (which was fantastic) and have started Alcott's Work (which is...OK...so far).

Do any of the Jane Eyre movie adaptions break the fourth wall? I can absolutely see the character addressing the viewer directly throughout the story.

I hope all are well. I remember all of my online communities in daily prayer, so I'm thinking about this hectic big-top of a place every morning.
posted by jquinby at 5:11 AM on April 5, 2022 [7 favorites]

Wobbuffet - San Francisco Opera's 2022 season includes a new-ish Chinese American adaptation of Dream of the Red chamber.

My wife read the novel a few summers back and she described it as "the sort of sprawling, open epic that depicts a person's life with indulgent ease. It's not every day where you get novels that have pages upon pages where people are just eating crab, but it's fucking glorious"
posted by bl1nk at 5:25 AM on April 5, 2022 [6 favorites]

"The Welsh coast basks in summer tranquility, then the drownings begin... Not until the monstrous crustaceans crawl ashore, their pincers poised for destruction, does the world understand the threat it faces...."

As opposed to Guy N Smith's er classic Night of the Crabs where the crabs eat the people.
posted by fallingbadgers at 5:38 AM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

Our car died and so I'm having to uber when I visit my father (too far for a bicycle ride to be practical). As a result I'm getting to chat with a lot of uber drivers.
Yesterday it was a young man called Admire who dutifully asked me what music I like when I got into the car.
I said "Reggae" pretty much at random. I like Reggae, but I like so many other things as well. There was a beat of surprise (me = white, female, 50 years old, probably not the answer he expected) and then he got super enthusiastic, working through his play list, telling me "you'll recognise this!" which, in almost every case, I did. To my surprise because he was playing me some newfangled Reggae R&B mashup with autotuned voices.
I recognised the tunes that were being covered, which were Tracy Chapman and Lionel Richie.
When I got out he said he hoped to give me a ride again and I think he meant it.

Each ride so far has been pretty interesting. One guy wanted to tell me all about the charismatic Christian church he'd just left, and how he started reading the bible himself and became disillusioned with their prosperity gospel. "I read the bible from Genesis to Revelations and nowhere it says I must help my pastor buy himself a new Benz!"

Another guy told me about his 94 year old Grandfather who had dimentia, and talking to him was like being in a time machine because the old man was living in the 1940s (in Apartheid South Africa, remember) and worrying about the cops raiding.

Another driver told me how worried he is about the local gangs recruiting his kids.

It's been interesting.
posted by Zumbador at 5:41 AM on April 5, 2022 [41 favorites]

I've contributed enough to it that it seems weird to put in the blue as a post, and I didn't actually create it so it's a bit weird for projects, so here's something for other Star Trek fans that I was recently reminded of and find delightful: Star Fleet Memos which is fanfic about the office memos and routine email traffic in the Trek universe. The related Kestra Tales, where Trek characters explain Trek history to children is also fun, if less active. They are very silly, but almost entirely not toxic, despite being on reddit. (Thanks, Taz, for the thoughtful recent discussion.)
posted by eotvos at 5:46 AM on April 5, 2022 [9 favorites]

Hi, I've been wide awake since 2:30 in the morning. AGAIN. I'm so tired of that. It's at least every other day, I swear.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:12 AM on April 5, 2022 [8 favorites]

I fell into this thread and now I'm at a loss on how to bunk off.

But it's fine. It's all fine.
posted by flamewise at 6:16 AM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

cats vs indoor sinkhole - no kitties were harmed in this video
posted by pyramid termite at 6:31 AM on April 5, 2022 [7 favorites]

eotvos, thanks for those.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:32 AM on April 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

A friend's research in oxytocin and social behavior in lions was recently featured on SciShow! I think it's pretty cool work.
posted by biogeo at 6:35 AM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

Last week I went down the YouTube rabbithole of Billi Speaks - a cat who has been trained to use a 60-word soundboard to communicate with her human - and now every time I talk to my cats, I really want them to talk back, but I am afraid of what they actually might say.
posted by briank at 6:48 AM on April 5, 2022 [9 favorites]

The related Kestra Tales, where Trek characters explain Trek history to children is also fun, if less active.

If I were in charge of Star Trek, I'd put a cheesy sitcom about the Rikers into production. Will's retired from Starfleet and a stay at home dad raising Kestra while Deanna runs a small private counseling practice. And there's a couple of uptight Vulcan ornithologists who live next door that are always outdoors with binoculars ready to judge whatever kinds of wacky hijinks Will is getting into. And his best friend is a Denobulan farmer who has a neverending supply of highly suspect anecdotes about growing up on Denobula and who everyone knows is just replicating all the produce he's supposedly growing.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:48 AM on April 5, 2022 [14 favorites]

Last week while driving a long and boringly familiar road I scanned the radio for something new. Left of the dial, I found a station playing the most awkwardly ridiculous segues I’ve ever heard: Joni Mitchell to “Groove Line” to Pat Benatar to some doo-wop song to the Beatles, et cetera ad nauseam. It literally made me LOL, repeatedly. Turns out it was a noncommercial “all request” show. I considered requesting side 3 of Metal Machine Music, but decided not to be a party pooper.
posted by scratch at 6:51 AM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

I am halfway through a 30-day drawing-composition challenge (at the back end of a 6-week composition class with Ian Roberts) and I was feeling pretty stoked for having accomplished that until yesterday when I almost gave up because what is even the point with all the horror and terror - though it is so far removed from me, at least for the moment.

I didn't give up yet but I fear the mojo may have left the building.
posted by Glinn at 6:55 AM on April 5, 2022 [4 favorites]

HERE IS YOUR FLIPPING FREE THREAD.

This immediately brought to mind Rat's uncle in Daniel Pinkwater's The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death - Flipping Hades Terwilliger:

It turns out that extra-terrestrial thought forms have taken over the minds and bodies of all earth's realtors; but Uncle Flipping has developed a vegputer, called an Alligatron but really a giant avocado, which uses the fruit's natural electrical emanations to repel the invaders.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:02 AM on April 5, 2022 [6 favorites]

Hello from a westcoaster struggling to wakefulness. Thank you Zumbador for your Uber driver stories - this is the type of random encounter I relish and miss from the before times.

I have concert tickets for tonight, purchased in a hopeful boostered moment, but I can't imagine using them. 3h of driving and dog contortions when I'm barely keeping minimum life plates spinning is beyond me.

I don't feel depressed but I cannot figure out how I ever kept extra-work hobbies going. I'm so -tired-!
posted by esoteric things at 7:22 AM on April 5, 2022 [5 favorites]

now every time I talk to my cats, I really want them to talk back, but I am afraid of what they actually might say.

Mad.

Almost always.
posted by fiercekitten at 7:30 AM on April 5, 2022 [11 favorites]

My office at work has a window that overlooks the intersection of two fairly busy (downtown) roads. A new building went up kitty corner to us, and on the ground floor there now resides a Sweetgreen. The roads do not have shoulders or street parking. So, every day starting around 11 and going until about 3 I watch a line of delivery drivers park illegally in the intersect to pick up food for other people.

I realize that there is a whole thing about drivers potentially getting punished or losing tips if someone's meal is the least bit late, but it's honestly a huge hazard. Most people will park in the crosswalk, which blocks the wheelchair ramp and creates a visibility problem for pedestrians. Occasionally, they'll just park right in the street, which has nowhere to pull over, so traffic simply comes to a standstill until they get back in their cars. Usually they're in and out in a minute or so, but sometimes I've seen cars idling there for ten minutes or more.

I'm honestly a bit surprised we don't see more food delivery by e-bike around here like is common in New York. Distances aren't that far, you'd save on gas, and splitting lanes/running lights is a bit more tolerated on a bike. I saw someone pick up two bags from the Sweetgreen in a Chevy Suburban last week - how is that in any way economical? And I guarantee you this workday lunchtime food is being delivered to one of like six office buildings within two blocks of here, it seems like a bit of a waste to me.

Not intending to cast shade on anyone with these observations, it's just what I'm watching while I bunk off at work.
posted by backseatpilot at 7:35 AM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

It's getting autumny in Chile. Haven't worn shorts in a while.
My son's 9th-grade class was sent home for five days because he has 3 classmates with COVID (they're fine). It's been nice.
He's online with his best friend all day, and they play Fortnight during recess.
I work from home and missed having him around during the day, plus I get to cook him lunch.
Probably making ramen today.
posted by signal at 7:50 AM on April 5, 2022 [5 favorites]

Glinn: "I am halfway through a 30-day drawing-composition challenge"

Those are awesome. I'm jealous.
posted by signal at 7:50 AM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

hey if you were going to go to a Trader Joe's this morning, don't, or call them first. Their registers were down company-wide when I had to leave just now. That is all
posted by Countess Elena at 8:02 AM on April 5, 2022 [5 favorites]

i seem to have gotten myself hired for a freelance qa role at a translation provider, very much to my surprise. combined with the online class i'm taking, plus running the sns accounts, answering inquiry emails, and handling any reservations that come in for my main job means i should be busier than i have been since the pandemic started.

which hopefully means i have fewer days like today, where i let myself get too into my own head about being lonely and cried a bunch.
posted by emmling at 8:10 AM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

we had cake to celebrate our 20 years in Canada. It was an amazing cake from The Grand Order of Divine Sweets. We have a lot left in the freezer.

unfortunately, my job's going away again, the second time in two years. Employer was bought, and new owner wouldn't make enough money to keep us on. Have been offered part-time remote work but kind of lukewarm on that. We'll see how it pans out.

at least my hair is a good distraction. Nobody seems to make hi-viz orange hair ties with googly eyes on them, so I had to make 'em myself.
posted by scruss at 8:33 AM on April 5, 2022 [9 favorites]

I just finished exploring an abandoned farmhouse in eastern Ontario, on about 400 acres, most of it rock and swamp. Occupied up to five or so years ago, this house has never been hooked up to the grid. It has no outlets, no lights, and in the kitchen an enormous cast iron wood cooking stove with porcelain finishes. The interior of the house is mostly unpainted chipboard generously festooned with slimy black mold, with insulation and panelling drooping down from the rotting ceiling.

Outside are various early 20th century farm implements woven into the grass and bushes, along with an ancient snowmobile and an overturned early 50s Mercury Meteor convertible.

The barn is full of hay, but leaning precariously. I suspect a dedicated team of Mennonites could save it.
posted by CynicalKnight at 8:45 AM on April 5, 2022 [8 favorites]

now every time I talk to my cats, I really want them to talk back, but I am afraid of what they actually might say.
---
Mad.
Almost always.

That look says "You know what you did."
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:49 AM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

I hate to be That Guy, but as a scientist who's spent most of my career studying animal behavior, the most charitable thing I can say about the Billi Speaks thing is that it's reminiscent of a more technologically involved Clever Hans. Less charitably, I suspect it's a very effective way of bringing in YouTube ad revenue with just a little careful selective presentation and editing. I love my cats dearly, but they have their own ways of communicating with me, and neither the interest nor ability to use buttons to express language. Here's Rebecca Watson analyzing the phenomenon.
posted by biogeo at 8:50 AM on April 5, 2022 [8 favorites]

I'm the mother flippin rhinoceros
my lyrics are bottomless...
...
...
...
posted by piyushnz at 8:59 AM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

I'm moving into a rental for the next few weeks/months(?). The contractor's promise that the house would be inhabitable while the plumbing is reinstalled turns out to not be all that valid. I've convinced my daughter it's an adventure! I'm hoping it's an experiment in "maybe we don't need all this extra bullshit!"
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 9:05 AM on April 5, 2022 [4 favorites]

"don't you want to use the buttons and tell us things?"

*what's in it for me?*

"why that way you can tell us what you want"

*you're supposed to know what i want*

"that's not a very helpful attitude"

*cat, motherfucker. do you speak it?*
posted by pyramid termite at 9:12 AM on April 5, 2022 [12 favorites]

Bunkbunkbunkbunksssbunksssbunksssbunkbunksssbunkssshhhbunkssshhhbunk
Oh great now I'm accidentally dancing when I'm supposed to be bunking off
posted by winesong at 9:15 AM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

Oh great now I'm accidentally dancing when I'm supposed to be bunking off

You are, in fact, bunking on.

I’ll be in my bunk.
posted by notoriety public at 9:19 AM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

So in 2019 a new wrestling promotion called All Elite Wrestling (AEW) was started with Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks and Cody Rhodes as executive vice-presidents. It was the first really serious challenge to the dominance of WWE in a long time (maybe since WCW folded in 2000). Kenny and the Bucks had built their popularity on the indies and in Japan, but Cody was a former WWE wrestler, son of the legendary Dusty Rhodes and brother (well, half-brother) to Dustin Rhodes, aka Goldust.

Fast forward to early 2022, and Cody *doesn't re-sign with AEW*. And instead he goes back to WWE, debuting at Wrestlemania this past Saturday, no less.

Oh, also, Stone Cold Steve Austin is wrestling again after 19 years of absence.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 9:21 AM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

WHO HERE LIKES TO PAIR A NICE BUNK OFF WITH KNOCKING OUT THEIR SWEEPING?
posted by Press Butt.on to Check at 9:39 AM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

Was asked to be interviewed for an article about homesteading, but the journalist keeps bunking off. It got me wondering at the difference between a homesteader and an enthusiastic gardener. Probably shouldn't worry about labels at all, but some people do seem to be very serious about them.
posted by conifer at 9:40 AM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

this weekend we celebrated my husband's 60 bday with some friends. it was so great to see a small group and we ate lots of wonderful food and opened some fancy wine (including a 2000 Bordeaux!) and got to get in the pool cause it was so warm.

slightly worried the gaggle of 4 year olds might have given me a cold...(and hopefully nothing worse) but it was a lovely time.
posted by supermedusa at 9:41 AM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

speaking of cats

the record shows: some of us sing to the cats and dogs in our household

the two years working from home have contributed to changes in cat's behaviour. I'm around more, and he wants to be around me more, and when I sing or speak or make any mouth sounds he seems to want to find out what is going on. I don't want to discuss personal hygiene but he has also taken to licking my toes and aggressively cleaning dog. When I go out with dog, cat seems inclined to come along. he really does seem to be in a transitory phase in life: am I cat? dog? ape? and, it must be said, he is getting older (coming on 10 years). the pandemic made us more of a pack.
posted by elkevelvet at 9:43 AM on April 5, 2022 [8 favorites]

most charitable thing I can say about the Billi Speaks thing is that it's reminiscent of a more technologically involved Clever Hans.

Next you'll be telling us that horses lack the physiology for human speech.

(While early on Mr Ed's talking visualization was faked; Bamboo Harvester, the horse that played Mr Ed, eventually learned to just start moving his lips when the human lead stopped talking.)
posted by Mitheral at 9:49 AM on April 5, 2022 [4 favorites]

omg, a flipping vibrating broom reference. I feel faint. Next thing you know someone will be asking who here likes pancakes.
posted by taz at 9:50 AM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

We're bunking off!
posted by D.Billy at 10:00 AM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

Mad.

Almost always.
posted by fiercekitten

AND

And I guarantee you this workday lunchtime food is being delivered to one of like six office buildings within two blocks of here, it seems like a bit of a waste to me.

Not intending to cast shade on anyone with these observations, it's just what I'm watching while I bunk off at work.
posted by backseatpilot

The eponynsanity of it!
posted by mumimor at 10:11 AM on April 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

A "tech historian" has been trying to track me down by texting people with my name. One failed attempt resulted in this hilarious tweet
posted by mpark at 10:15 AM on April 5, 2022 [16 favorites]

They probably texted a talking cat.
posted by briank at 10:22 AM on April 5, 2022 [6 favorites]

I wrapped up my two year D&D campaign two days ago. I started it during the pandemic to keep us all sane, and watched it turn into a Zoom safe space for a lot of queer people who needed a community.
A safe space where a group of eight (!) heroes went from being scared by a haunted house in Saltmarsh to defeating Demogorgon on its home plane :)
The campaign ended with everyone participating in a gay wedding between a fallen angel and the new ruler of the 88th layer of the Abyss. There were tears all around.
posted by Flight Hardware, do not touch at 10:26 AM on April 5, 2022 [10 favorites]

*Knock knock knock* "Are you bunking off in there?"

"No! Don't come in!"
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:43 AM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

Oh great now I'm accidentally dancing when I'm supposed to be bunking off

Everybody get down, get bunky!
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:44 AM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

who here grew up with bunkbeds?

my dad built our beds, the high bunk was offset (not over) the low, and they were built into the wall with drawers and storage built into the beds. fantastic beds, in memory, and a quick search fails to bring up anything similar.
posted by elkevelvet at 11:09 AM on April 5, 2022 [5 favorites]

I slept in the top bunk, the washer and dryer had the bottom bunk. So I slept with a white noise generator before it was cool.
posted by thedward at 11:24 AM on April 5, 2022 [6 favorites]

since being home all the time for plague our two already spoiled kitties are now 24-7 demanding petties/attention/food/MOAR monsters. they drive us crazy but they stinkin cute.
posted by supermedusa at 11:25 AM on April 5, 2022 [4 favorites]

I have to start the job hunt thing soon and I am terrified. I took a year off after my friend died and Covid-19 and … and … and …

That’s all I’ve got for now.

Back to grumping.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 12:04 PM on April 5, 2022 [6 favorites]

BUNK WITH ME TONIGHT.
posted by brachiopod at 12:16 PM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

I've been watching American Idol this season because one of my friends is a contestant (go Allegra!) but man that show is annoying. Last night they were telling people if they got through to the top 24, and every one they showed getting through, they did the stupid fake-out thing (e.g. "I'm so sorry to tell you... you won't be... going home anytime soon, because you're through to the next round!") Reminded me of the Key and Peele cooking show sketch.
posted by Daily Alice at 12:18 PM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

I have to start the job hunt thing soon and I am terrified.

I've been on this for a couple of weeks now. The last time I did this was in 2008. Circumstances now are MUCH better than back then, and I'm actually feeling encouraged by responses and interactions. 2008 was basically 3 years of crickets chirping.
posted by hippybear at 12:30 PM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

I guess I'm saying this to encourage you because I've found it, while not unpleasant, at least less terrifying than the last time I did it.
posted by hippybear at 12:33 PM on April 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

I rescued a black woman from a couple of aggressive white guys today. I'm a boring fat white guy, and nobody's hero. But I can't stand women being harassed. (Man, the Jackson confirmation hearings set me off. She waded through them like a champ, but holy moly I wanted to get knuckle to knuckle with Ted Cruz.)
posted by SPrintF at 12:47 PM on April 5, 2022 [10 favorites]

well, since you ask, i am a little bunked off by this word i've heard a couple different people use over the last few weeks: "prebunk." first usage was by one of those institute for the study of war types, describing u.s. intel statements telegraphing russian false flag/disinfo efforts, the second by hohmann of the washington post, on that website's newsroom-styled video coverage of the senate judiciary committee hearings on the nomination of judge jackson to become justice jackson, describing some democratic committeemember's effort to get out ahead of republican comitteemembers' misinformation.

i object and observe that it doesn't work: it says "mislead (nonsensically) ahead of time" to me. maybe, just maybe, one could say "predebunk," (though the temporality remains nonsense) but i'm certain there are better ways to say that.

anyway, i'll be in my bunk.
posted by 20 year lurk at 1:02 PM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

Went out to the desert this past weekend to attend the celebration of life for a member of my extended circus/performer/Burner/artist community. We had many things in common: I'd been out to his compound many times over the years, he hosted events and performances of mine, but we never quite crossed over into being deeply connected friends. He had one of the few true romances I've witnessed in my lifetime, a literal fairytale. He died while in a coma after a hemorrhagic stroke, two days after his 54th birthday. The sendoff was small - probably 30 or 40 people - but every person there had some story about how he'd profoundly transformed their lives. His surviving husband is an aeralist with whom he'd performed as a deeply romantic circus duo for over a decade. And as his husband ascended into the skies, alone in their circus rig, for one more performance dedicated to his beloved, whatever small bit of composure was left in the room completely shattered. It was one of the most moving days I've ever experienced in my life.

If there's someone out there you admire, wish you were a little closer to, always think about calling ... it's a stupid fucking cliché, but just do it already. We are all so precious to one another. Better to go out knowing it than wondering what if.
posted by mykescipark at 1:22 PM on April 5, 2022 [11 favorites]

I've been job searching pretty much constantly for 8 months, 6 months ago I landed a temporary contract gig that pays 2/3rds what I was being paid at Trader Joes. The temp job is what I went to school for and I need some experience in that field if I even want a slim chance of getting an interview. I've been networking like crazy and (re)learning coding skills that had pretty much atrophied over the last decade I spent in retail. I've filled out close to 100 applications with a tailormade resume and cover letter for each one and I've only been called in for an interview once (for a permanent position in the office I'm temping in.) Meanwhile I'm constantly having to reject recruiters for retail positions. I've started telling them that unless they want to pay me $30/hr I'm not interested...

The thing that really pisses me off though, is "entry level" jobs requiring 5-7 years of experience. I flag every job on LinkedIn and Indeed with those requirements because I hope it makes the recruiter's jobs that much harder.
posted by schyler523 at 1:24 PM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

> who here grew up with bunkbeds?

I slept on the bottom bunk of bunk beds my Grandpa built, with an enclosed fish tank (AND a few reading cubbies, and multiple drawers)
posted by worstname at 1:52 PM on April 5, 2022 [4 favorites]

it's reminiscent of a more technologically involved Clever Hans.

I've got nothing against Clever Hans, and the debunking was really important and fascinating (and obviously relevant here). But, I do feel a little bad for Beautiful Jim Key, who is all but forgotten. Sadly, I agree with the skepticism about the cat. But, as a thing that's fun to think about rather than a thing that one believes is true, it's neat.
posted by eotvos at 2:20 PM on April 5, 2022 [4 favorites]

It’s like having a big blue sheet of paper to draw on!
Darn it, all I have here are blue pens!

Sekrit writing!
posted by dg at 2:37 PM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

Lemon juice and an iron!
posted by hippybear at 2:38 PM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

The previously mentioned pyridostigmine is helping enough that I have been able to start listening to (familiar) music on earbuds for the first time in fifteen years. So I am finally cracking the gigantic Lowen & Navarro (they're the "We Belong" writers, for the uninitiated) 30th anniversary jump drive that came out five years ago, full of live shows and demos and fan club disks. I picked a 1990 live show from Baltimore to start - WHFS made their name in the mid-Atlantic - and was doing fine until they hit the harmony on the first chorus of "Oh Mary" and just started weeping because I miss the absolute goosebump magic of their voices together so much.
posted by jocelmeow at 2:52 PM on April 5, 2022 [4 favorites]

On a jobhunting note, my boss informed me today that the way HR handles references is that they require two supervisors and two coworkers as references and they all have to fill out some giant survey about your strengths and weaknesses. To which I was all "fuck, I'd really never get hired!"
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:55 PM on April 5, 2022 [5 favorites]

I'm amazed they get anyone hired, to be honest. That's a ridiculous demand from ex-coworkers.
posted by hippybear at 3:04 PM on April 5, 2022 [7 favorites]

I agree, and I question whether that's even legal. jenfullmoon, I've been reading your recent job-related comments and it sounds like the place you work is an absolute garbage fire of a company, and none of the crappy situations/events you've described is even remotely your fault. I hope you find a better job soon.
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:13 PM on April 5, 2022 [9 favorites]

In contrast, the past places I've worked have told me all they can do legally is verify you were employed there from X to Y dates if another company contacts them as a reference.
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:15 PM on April 5, 2022 [4 favorites]

Today I learned that a good night's sleep doesn't automatically increase my productivity.
posted by mecran01 at 3:21 PM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

Ditto Greg_Ace. Basic Employee Handbook 101 about references is send them to HR who will just confirm title and length of employment basically. Makes for a horror show when you think about job hunting and getting references when technically nobody you worked with for the a couple decades isn't supposed to do so and technically you shouldn't even ask them to.
posted by zengargoyle at 3:44 PM on April 5, 2022 [4 favorites]

A young friend of mine who lives in the cloudy PNW is on vacation in Hawaii. My friend is a former US Marine who, like many of his peers, has many many tattoos. Today, his first day in the sun, he mentioned on Facebook that his tattoo sleeves seemed to get hotter than non-inked parts of his body. At dinner tonight I asked my nurse practitioner daughter-in-law if she'd ever heard of that. She said she's heard that people with lots of tattoos sometimes have problems when they have to get MRIs. So I looked it up and here's some info.
posted by mareli at 4:39 PM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

Bunk beds.... I spent a summer at Caltech before my senior year and about half of the dorm rooms had crazy bespoke bunk beds. My room had both beds lifted on this A-frame sort of construction and you had to jump up and grab a bar and swing yourself into bed. What the undergrads told me was that the school would let you do anything you wanted to do, and would even supply materials.... it just had to pass safety inspection. Let the engineer types be engineer types. That's why a bunch of us hanged out in this empty room at the end of the hall, the undergrads next door had the keys because they were moving into it in the fall. So we're all hanging out and painting the inside to look like a dungeon. Met my second girlfriend there, that one evening that ended up getting annoying so people threw a blanket over us and left the room locking the door and giggle snort way too cute she pinned me to the bed and started sucking my face off and grew four extra hands. For three months we made out like weasels. I could probably write a book about those few months, it's chocked full of "this one time at summer camp" stories because it was basically just a couple of stacked university summer semesters and basically we're just a bunch of first year students in dorm rooms. Some of us even won a fight with the administration to get id cards and our meal plan money back so we could cook our own food.
posted by zengargoyle at 4:47 PM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

This immediately brought to mind Rat's uncle in Daniel Pinkwater's The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death
Stereo is for sissies!
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 5:02 PM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

I got a new job. It's at the same college where I was working before and, uh, I guess I got to take Professional Poor Person off my mefi profile. It's a significant promotion. I am making more money than I have ever made in my life (granted this is not a very high bar) and I am now actually absolutely and indisputably in the middle class. I have an office. My own office, with enormous windows that look out on a . . wall! It's fantastic and amazing and I have moved three plants in already, with more to come. I am however terrified that I'm going to screw it up, which is not usually something I worry about with jobs, but then, most of my other jobs have enabled me to go, the hell with it, they don't pay me enough to worry.

They are paying me enough to worry and put Outlook and Teams on my own phone, which is something I swore I would never do, and it's after 5 pm and I don't know when I will be home tonight, or tomorrow night, or next Tuesday night, because salaried and meetings but. . . I am okay with it! I can pay all my bills and have some money left over! I'm not going to be running a deficit! As long as I don't screw this up, there is actual light at the end of the financial tunnel. I am gobsmacked and grateful and determined to make this work.
posted by mygothlaundry at 5:26 PM on April 5, 2022 [34 favorites]

Stereo is for sissies!

"'This, here,' Rat said, indicating another giant piece of wooden furniture, 'is a free-standing Fluchtzbesser turntable. Inside that wooden cabinet is an eleven-hundred-pound piece of granite. Yes, sir, this is about the finest hi-fi ever assembled in the city of Baconburg.'"
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:32 PM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

It's 1:53am and my neighbours are as drunk as merry skunks. There is howling and the stomping of feet. It sounds like a bacchanal. I am likely done with sleep for tonight.
posted by ihaveyourfoot at 5:53 PM on April 5, 2022 [6 favorites]

mygothlaundry, congrats! Sounds a lot like me like 20 years ago in the sorta back to the same university and oops salaried here's your office making quite a bit enough and being a bit worried about what you've got yourself into. Worked out. Hope you have the same.
posted by zengargoyle at 5:56 PM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

So my daughter, who was just here with her boyfriend and a bunch of friends staying in our house on Friday night/saturday, went back to school, and then tested positive. Probably from her boyfriend, who was feeling sick on Friday, but tested negative then... Sigh.

We have all tested negative so far, but, incubation times.
posted by Windopaene at 6:17 PM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

I don't like to whine, but I've got to whine. My birthday is in a few days. And right around then Rich Aucoin is playing a little theater here in Tucson. The last time I saw him was in an even smaller venue, with like eleven people in the audience, and it was the most fun I've ever had at a show ever. His live shows are legendary. And he's announced that he's going to be retiring the show format in a few years, so this may be my last chance to see it.

And I'm immunocompromised.

There's no way I can go near a venue like that right now.

It's been an incredibly sucky year. I really need a show like this. For months now I've known about it, and I've been kind of hoping, sort of, vaguely, that somehow it would be okay. That Covid would calm down enough, that my health in general would improve, that the vaccines would become invincible, or something. But none of that's happened, and I'm in and out of doctors' offices all month, and so I'll be sitting at home instead of dancing under the giant rainbow parachute.

This sucks. I hate this.
posted by MrVisible at 6:33 PM on April 5, 2022 [9 favorites]

what is love? - YouTube - found while fruitlessly trolling Google for the other earworm song that has "What is Love?" (but it's not the pages and pages of the obvious results).
posted by zengargoyle at 6:43 PM on April 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

Do you mean this one?
posted by mollweide at 6:49 PM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

Baby don't hurt me!
posted by hippybear at 6:56 PM on April 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

Howard Jones … man, I miss the 80’s. I started enjoying music on my own starting around ‘78 or so, as opposed to liking whatever my grandparents had in their small collection.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 7:05 PM on April 5, 2022 [4 favorites]

Those first two or three Howard Jones albums are pretty much gold end to end.
posted by hippybear at 7:06 PM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

There's no way I can go near a venue like that right now.

Mr Visible, I feel this so deeply.

I am sure you have run through all of the options in your head… would you feel safe double-masking up, getting there a little late, and leaning against the wall outside of the venue for a bit? I know it won’t be the same, but for me, with the bands I love, just being in the vicinity of a live performance realigns my soul.

I trust you’ll make the best choice for you, and I wish you could see them the way you want to.
posted by Silvery Fish at 7:28 PM on April 5, 2022 [4 favorites]

Well, since this is the free thread, don't crack up.
posted by mollweide at 7:32 PM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

wants to bite the electric tiger's tail and ride it until the end of the mother flipping line

SO I ALMOST CHOPPED OFF THE TIP OF MY FINGER.
'bacchanal'
MY GOD THAT WORD MAKES MY DAY.
I WANT TO USE ASK ME TO SEE HOW LONG THIS GLUE STUFF SHOULD STAY IN MY FINGER CUZ IT'S BEEN A WEEK AND IT'S STILL THERE BECAUSE BY GOD IF I SPILL SRIRACHA IN MY GLOVE. AND FOR THE REAL TREAT, CHEF PISSED OFF HALF THE DAY, YEAH.

bacchanal IS THE DAY I HAD. GOD I LOVE THAT WORD. IT ROLLS OFF THE TONGUE LIKE COOLING CARAMEL.
(👣👣👣🚬)
posted by clavdivs at 7:35 PM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

For some reason I have Nik Kershaw connected to Howard Jones in my head even though I only remember the one song. But then I couldn't think of the song, so I looked it up. It... has aged poorly. Wouldn't it Be Good? I still kind of like that alien suit tho.

clavdivs I am glad to hear you did not chop off the tip of your finger.
posted by Glinn at 7:40 PM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

I do remember that Nik Kershaw suit. I'm trying to figure how to phrase a comment about Simple Minds not being the band you might remember them as. Maybe this suffices.
posted by mollweide at 7:49 PM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

They've extremely upped their hiring difficulty since I got hired so many years ago. I had one interview and that was it back in the day, now there's a minimum of phone interview + second interview in which you have to meet the high-muckety-muck(s) of the office that you'll see next to never. I've never gotten a second interview. But it's gotten simpler, my boss said. Oh, we only have to appeal to 2 different committees to ask if we can hire someone now, instead of 3. And then go through HR sabotaging everything, of course.

I'm actually operating as a reference for a former coworker who's trying to join the police department (trust me when I say that I think he'd be an actual good cop and the sort we need) and they've sent me surveys along those lines three times apiece so far, covering the same questions/material repeatedly and threatening to ask me for a phone call and/or in-person visit. Which is a pain in the neck, but also, that's police, not just being yet another interchangeable clerical worker. So yeah, I think it's legal to interrogate references these days. I've never had a reference contacted in my life, as I haven't gotten a second interview ever.

I have no hope of getting another job anyway, but thanks. What I see out there are the same shitty jobs that are even worse than mine that have been in the pool repeatedly for years and/or have already rejected me as is. I've accepted that this is literally the best I can do.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:50 PM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

mollweide, I'm thinking more of something like....
Nature of Love - YouTube or
My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult - Kooler Than Jesus (1989) full album - YouTube or
Soft Cell - Sex Dwarf - YouTube or
The Normal - Warm Leatherette - YouTube or
88 Lines about 44 Women - YouTube.

My roommate was a university station radio DJ, it's probably something really out there. Let free thread know if I ever remember or find it.

That Ministry album was my all time favorite of playing something for somebody who liked Ministry and surprising them "lol, Ministry".
posted by zengargoyle at 8:30 PM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

I just woke up, with "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" playing in my head. Apparently watching Get Back a few weeks ago had quite an impact on me.

Talking about weird neurological quirks, here's one I have that I've not heard anyone else mention. My brain recognises "lid" as a category, but unless I pay attention, it doesn't seem to recognise any sub categories such as size.
I've caught myself trying to put the lid of a tiny marmite jar, on a huge soup pot. Utterly ridiculous. I haven't noticed this kind of mistake with anything else, just lids.

Hey wait, my earworm has just changed to "She's So Heavy" or whatever that song is called. I like that song.
posted by Zumbador at 8:35 PM on April 5, 2022 [6 favorites]

Thank you Glinn. Veggie Calzones all around!
posted by clavdivs at 8:45 PM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

Thanks, Silvery Fish, but there's a chance I'm going to need surgery here at some point, and I'm hoping it'll be soonish because ow, and I'm not taking any risks that I can avoid. Plus, I've got a disturbing number of medical appointments coming up, and I'd feel terrible about exposing any of the medical teams or the other patients to something just because I really need a show right now. It'll wait. There will be other shows.

I'm flashing back to the time when Iron and Wine toured with Calexico for their EP In The Reins back in 2005, which I looked forward to up until two days beforehand, at which point my appendix burst.

Anyway, on a more cheerful note, there's a new Orville Peck album coming out! (Everyone must know about Orville Peck, because hot damn.)
posted by MrVisible at 8:46 PM on April 5, 2022 [5 favorites]

Well I tried to watch that Orville Peck but the face fringe creeped me out too much.
MrVisible, I’m sorry you keep missing shows. How frustrating!

My favorite show was probably Prefab Sprout in a tiny club in Tampa Bay, 1990ish.
posted by Glinn at 9:40 PM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

MrVisible, thank you for the Orville Peck link. I was completely unaware of him but that song is amazing!
posted by mpark at 10:35 PM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

4AM earworms are the worst...

Current one is "Until You Came Along" by Golden Smog.

Have been playing it a lot lately, and I get up to pee, and whatever cool dream I was having is gone. And this song is there. Better than when I had KISS's Beth in there for a while, no idea why, but it's hard to go back to sleep with a song playing in your head.
posted by Windopaene at 10:48 PM on April 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

If I were in charge of Star Trek, I'd put a cheesy sitcom about the Rikers into production.

I've been watching a lot of Law and Order: SVU, and every time they go to Rikers Island I flash on some sort of imaginary TNG episode featuring hundreds of transporter-clones. Sometimes it gets mixed up with an island based reality dating show. None of the versions are a good idea.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 11:23 PM on April 5, 2022 [6 favorites]

I try but still fight sometimes answering some post with a wall of text that if/maybe somebody would pick up that it could be sung to the tune of some randomly triggered earworm. Almost posted once once that was the Sid/Sex-Pistols version of My Way. Luckily there's a combination of being rather lazy and probably shouldn't.

Just spent 4 minutes dripping wet in a towel yanking out my smoke detector which has now gone off twice right after getting into the shower. I think it's just dusty being LA and propensity for mostly leaving windows open and craptons of dust.

Related but Unrelated... we often had alarms going off in equipment closets that were shared with janitorial staff over things like dust. And I once when we were moving equipment bumped a detector and triggered the countdown to the halon dump.... OMG hit the big red button to stop the halon, random accident. Only some will enjoy, but we moved an entire high performance top 50 at the time computing cluster over a single night.
posted by zengargoyle at 11:31 PM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

Luckily there's a combination of being rather lazy and probably shouldn't.

Perhaps it's rude and reckless. But I wish you'd indulge and impress us. We need something to read with breakfast. Silly can't fail. I know that goofy posts take effort. But we've surely found our cohort. Like a furry at their first conference. Silly can't fail. Often mefi is good for my soul. Most other sites are awful (oh no). I don't mind if they curse, but they press me 'till I hurt. Silly can't fail. We should all restrain our temper. Spend less time reading the paper. The mod's won't be our saviors. Silly can't fail. So what do you want to post today? Hey, mefite, you're looking pretty smart. With endless bean-plating and recs for a crock pot. I am down for that.
posted by eotvos at 1:04 AM on April 6, 2022 [4 favorites]

I was actually lurking around Mefi since 2004, but I didn't create an account to post until much later.
Just howling into the void here. Paper due tomorrow, 440 words of 1500. Workloads adequate for URBP 204, need work on URBP 225. Way behind on lobbying efforts for AB 1985. HAC meeting tomorrow. Attempted 1st poem of the year for a poetry festival this weekend; piece is horrible gurgitation of negativity. Two stanzas 19 lines will revisit.
Must call re bar association website. Must fast. Game prototyping is good, must sign up to teach at Kubla Con. Need to call RR re endorsements. Follow up RE CCDSA. Relieved at Biden punting on student loans. Wish I had the funds to go to Karaoke.

Tangent: any professional administrative analysts here with tips? Exam is being administered by Proctor U (ugh, though silver lining is not having to go to carmel). Frankly I don't expect Carmel to hire me, but stranger things have happened.

BOS D4 fundraiser friday, open mic Saturday. No playtesting this weekend.

I'm in a pretty bad state of mind, but that's nearly always the case. I know to focus on the positives et al but seeing very little reward for my labor.

Positives: game development well. AB 1985 still possible. SM finds my theory of the meaning of life plausible (will glurge on topic if poked). No disasters re semester 2, even if funding for semester 3 untenable. Will get that job at Carmel on basis of my diverse credentials (urban planner and attorney). SBC Bar will come around. My candidates appear to be leading in their races. No fast food in a fortnight.

Time to sleep. Tomorrow goes from 10AM- 7:30PM.
posted by LeRoienJaune at 1:44 AM on April 6, 2022 [2 favorites]

It occurs to me that earworms must have been a rather different experience before recorded music.
More likely to be just the vocals and maybe one or two instruments?
posted by Zumbador at 2:55 AM on April 6, 2022 [2 favorites]

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind - Wikipedia
Snow Crash - Wikipedia - Nam Shub
Monty Python: The Funniest Joke in the World - YouTube
Basilisk - Wikipedia

The earworm meme is as old as time itself. Things running around in your brain enough to lead to catastrophe.

Use the voice Voice | Dune Wiki | Fandom

(I tend to treat earworms as cats)
posted by zengargoyle at 4:24 AM on April 6, 2022 [3 favorites]

Oh good fucking lord Eris is trying to flirt with me.... One of the national news channels just ripped off the first few bars of Warm Leatherette. Spit-take earworm WTF.

May just be getting old where "I see what you did there" elevator music will become unavoidable.Kudo's to the person who was A/V editing and Everything Is A Remix dropping something.
posted by zengargoyle at 4:53 AM on April 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

I ended up rewatching Idiocracy yesterday. Instead of rehashing that film's various problematic shit, I'd like to just note that even in that vision of the world gone entirely stupid, it is explicitly stated that the Nazis were gone forever. Because who the fuck would think even an intellectually decimated world would want to let that shit happen again. And yet, here we are.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:20 AM on April 6, 2022 [6 favorites]

my theory of the meaning of life... (will glurge on topic if poked)

Let's have it, then.
(Though, you sound a little busy. It can wait til later.)
posted by Glinn at 7:20 AM on April 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

Ok I haven't been around so much lately, but what's up with the all the Pepsi posts?

There have been posts about Pepsi for 6 days in a row and counting

...Are you ok geoff.? Have you been taken over by some kind of Pepsi mind-control device?
posted by LizBoBiz at 7:28 AM on April 6, 2022 [4 favorites]

Got up feeling rested and refreshed ( my nights are fractured by old man issues but old age also brought retirement and time to catch up. It might take me 10 hours to get my 8 but I make sure I get 'em). A leisurely breakfast in perfect silence. Online taichi/qi gong with a kind, wise, gentle man in his 40s. He teaches for free to old folks with the range of health issues from bust hips to cancers. We all love it but are unlikely to make the Olympics any time soon. I picked up 5 fuchsias in the market for a couple of pounds. Blossom loves flowers. It rubbed off on me. I will plant them alongside my rain viewing meditation veranda (my mate who helped me build says it's more like a rural bus shelter). Jasmine and honeysuckle grow there already. The fuchsia will bring colour to their fragrance. There's half an hour now to sit quietly and listen to Handel before heading off into the city to meet my eldest lad for dinner at his favourite Indian. He's a pearl and a delight. Over dinner I will be astonished again to know that he loves me as I love him. We were a single parent combo when I was 21. It's a miracle either of us survived it but we did. It's been a lovely day and its far from over. Most of them are. Old age is far from all bad. Embrace the day. Know joy. If there's only woe that's also fine. It means I am alive. Better get going. Have a good one, Bluesters.
posted by dutchrick at 8:36 AM on April 6, 2022 [13 favorites]

Because who the fuck would think even an intellectually decimated world would want to let that shit happen again.

Mike Judge is an optimist at heart.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:52 AM on April 6, 2022

So my first job interview today ended up with me walking out with intake paperwork. I guess I'll go to the second interview just to be nice.
posted by hippybear at 11:28 AM on April 6, 2022 [9 favorites]

So my first job interview today ended up with me walking out with intake paperwork.

Hurrah! So good news, I hope everything turns out right.
posted by mumimor at 11:37 AM on April 6, 2022

May just be getting old where "I see what you did there" elevator music will become unavoidable.

I've had a bunch of moments like that, like hearing Depeche Mode or The Smiths in grocery stores, or whatever random grunge rock. The worst so far was about ten years ago I was in a local corner store in Seattle and the radio was playing Jane's Addiction "Been Caught Stealing".

When I went to pay for my items there was a younger guy with long hair wearing a Nirvana T-shirt looking everything like he would know who Jane's Addiction is and I said "Man, I haven't heard Jane's Addiction in years! Cool!"

"I have no idea who that is..."

"Perry Farrell? The guy who started Lollapalooza?"

"What's Lollapalooza?"

Oooof. So old.
posted by loquacious at 11:43 AM on April 6, 2022 [7 favorites]

I've had a bunch of moments like that, like hearing Depeche Mode or The Smiths in grocery stores, or whatever random grunge rock. The worst so far was about ten years ago I was in a local corner store in Seattle and the radio was playing Jane's Addiction "Been Caught Stealing".

There is a small hamburger chain where I live that does muzak but it does modern ones, and The Smiths and Depeche Mode are both included.

Most of the actual restaurants around me play pretty cool music almost all the time. It's such a shock to go some other place and they play like generic soft-rock pop radio stuff. Like the first time I ever heard Generals and Majors by XTC was in a restaurant. I'd heard their hits [Mayor of Simpleton, Making Plans for Nigel, etc] and they were ok but not great enough for me to search their back catalogue. That song rules.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:29 PM on April 6, 2022

modern ones, and The Smiths and Depeche Mode are both included.

'modern ones' - How Soon is Now and Personal Jesus are like 30 plus years old. Ouch.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:32 PM on April 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

"Man, I haven't heard Jane's Addiction in years! Cool!"
"I have no idea who that is..."

"Perry Farrell? The guy who started Lollapalooza?"
"What's Lollapalooza?"

nothing shocking. i've had a craving for old jane's addiction cassette-tape-for-car-drivin' lately, but haven't pursued via modern or archival means.

have referred elsewhere to muzak third rock from the sun, but recently heard a song in the grocery store with the first and third line of the verse sharing the tune of pixies' "here comes your man" that stopped me in my tracks. it turned out to be an entirely different song with only partially plagiarized (?) tune, and not muzak but ... i dunno ... like B- or C-list popish music. usually i shop with my own library playing in my ears i guess.

i am impatient to get gardening but still some nights in the low 30's in the forecast.
posted by 20 year lurk at 1:00 PM on April 6, 2022

TIL that Jackie Siegel and her family, who were profiled fairly unblinkingly in the documentary Queen of Versailles now have a reality show on Discovery+ called Queen of Versailles Reigns Again. The very idea of fame that came from being given rope and hanging yourself with it while a camera looked on unforgivingly can be transmuted into influencer/reality family without irony is just so peak 2022.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:06 PM on April 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

"Perry Farrell? The guy who started Lollapalooza?"
"What's Lollapalooza?"

"There can only be one truly great festival a lifetime and it's the "Us Festival"."
"The what festival?"
"The "Us Festival"! Yeesh! It was sponsored by that guy from Apple Computers."
"What Computers?"
posted by downtohisturtles at 1:42 PM on April 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

As I was reading this thread, what happened was just this: zengargoyle post, it filled a wish, and caused my brain to twitch. I found a brand new hobby, a meta-meta pitch. And now, the urge, to scratch this silly itch, will keep me occupied until I make the mefits bitch. And gather all around just to throw me in a ditch, which is not a healthy sitch-uation for a beanplate dish. The content won't be rich, comments will be like this. Song lyrics horribly distorted to make these free threads sillier, but with a hitch. Now my coherence will be reduced to nothing but. . . inco-herent. . . kitsch.
posted by eotvos at 2:55 PM on April 6, 2022 [2 favorites]

If you have ever suffered a relapse, you know where I am right now. I'm disgusting! Goddam alcohol! (Look, I can spell! Still sober enough guys!)
posted by SPrintF at 2:57 PM on April 6, 2022 [3 favorites]

Sorry to hear SPrintF.

No relapsing. you've got this

Try Pepsi...
posted by Windopaene at 3:06 PM on April 6, 2022 [2 favorites]

"There can only be one truly great festival a lifetime and it's the "Us Festival"

Not to spoil your quote, but for the record I should probably say I thought Lollapalooza was corporate for profit dreck from the beginning, and I was there for the first 3 years.

Not that Lollapalooza invented any of this, but it did have some cool inclusive and interactive features like having large scale art, weird drumming or musical sculptures, art/market booths and side shows and local stages and stuff, all in addition to a pretty kick ass and diverse lineup, and it did all of this "Burning Man" - like alt/counterculture stuff back when Burning Man was just getting started on Baker Beach.

But it was still total corporate dreck via Ticketmaster and the usual suspects like (I think) Goldenvoice basically monopolizing the local concert and major venue industry.

I also think Perry Farrell is kind of a major asshole and have conflicted feelings about liking Jane's Addiction at all.

So maybe it's for the best the cashier I was talking to had no idea who Jane's Addiction was. It still made me feel totally old. Ho hum.
posted by loquacious at 5:29 PM on April 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

In not great news I'm pretty sure I have most of the symptoms of long covid and chronic fatigue syndrome, including some super weird and unsettling symptoms.

I'm foggy and exhausted all the time, everything hurts, I'm a wreck and I've kind of gone to pieces.

I haven't been posting as much because I'm exhausted, I feel about half as smart as I was before the pandemic, and one of the super weird symptoms of record that are emerging from long covid is that apparently it can drastically alter your sociability or ability to even want to be social. Like it's not just anxiety about the pandemic, it's like it's just not even there.

Another symptom is sleeping way too much as well as too little. I seem to be swinging between bouts of major insomnia where sleep just doesn't happen or I can sleep for 20+ hours.

It's all so new that there isn't really a known treatment or plan of attack for it yet but I'm still reaching out to my doc.
posted by loquacious at 5:46 PM on April 6, 2022 [13 favorites]

My sister has been on oxygen for 2-3 months after getting covid. She also lives in Texas so I don't know what her prospects are for getting genuine long term care that won't bankrupt her family.
posted by hippybear at 6:30 PM on April 6, 2022 [5 favorites]

I think there was a little earthquake just now. Or else it was just that creeping dread has affected my relationship with the living room. I have nothing else to blame it on. I have relapsed into sweets, via the Winco cinnamon roll with creamcheese frosting, and pecans added on top. Then I bought BBQ out today, at Angry Barnyard, The Trailer Trash Casserole, a layer of fritos, layer of chili beans, layer of shredded cheddar, and choice of meat, which was smoked brisket, cubed, all over the top. Words fail me as to how good this was. Food. Joyous day, actually, capped by a visit from my grandson and the two big dogs of his.
posted by Oyéah at 9:02 PM on April 6, 2022 [5 favorites]

Glinn:

I have no small amount of temerity in posting this, as I have little doubt that actual physicists and cosmologists will tell me how stupid my interpretation is.

It's going to take a while because the model of my proposed ethical imperative is a syllogism.

Thesis One: Cartesian model, aka the holographic universe theory, wherein our universe is ultimately a soup of differing densities of information.

Thesis two: Our discrete universe, per m-theory, is an 11 dimensional structure with boundaries. We exist within 11 dimensional timespace.

Thesis three: Observation of outcomes has an effect upon the outcomes (the Planck) effect.

Thesis four: A little bit of inverted (or mirrored) neo-platonism: there is the model of the multiverse, wherein a continuum exists that involves all the possible variations of matter/energy. I would like to posit the concept of a metaverse: that is, the Gnostic concept of a Supernal Realm, i.e. a higher realm that observes and instantiates this universe

Thesis five: We are also in turn demiurges- to what we describe as fictive realms, Middle Earth, Westeros. But one can argue from Jungian and Sorelian theory that fictive media can nevertheless become real. Here we need to discuss the Sorelian concept of the Mass Myth- the idea that the Act of the Deed or the Mass Strike becomes real via the belief in the reality. I suppose I'm presenting a bit of Ship of Theseus metaphysics here: how christlike does a Christian have to be before they are effectively Christ. Maybe the Buddhist concept of boddhisattvas is more useful. But it does not end with mimicry of religious figures. We've had young girls murder for Slenderman, and mass killers who dress up as the Joker. My point is that the fictive realities are real in a stochastic and mimetic sense- that fictional works and universes nonetheless have an observable outcome in the adoption and imitation by real world humans.

Thesis six: So I have this theory of a metaverse- that there are discrete universes which are sub-pernal to us (what we call fictional) and supernal or ultrapernal to us (the cave in which we are but the shadows projected).

Thesis seven: there exists a phenomenon opposite to the phenomenon of entropy, which is pantropy, the tendency towards organization into ever denser forms of information. Entropy, being a simple phenomenon, is easy to observe and measure. Pantropy, possibly not being equal to entropy, and involving more abstract processes of accumulation and formation, has yet to be established as a measurable phenomena. In this matter we are victims of the anthropic principle- it is easy for our primate minds to grasp scarcity as the standard of this cold planet, but there may actually be a contrary principle at work in the universe.

Thesis eight: the emergence of life and the emergence of sapience are manifestations of pantropy.

Thesis nine: both across the multiverse and across the metaverse, the phenomena of entropy and pantropy run in parabolae and algorithms that we yet comprehend.

Thesis ten: but ultimately, our strata of the universe was coated, organized, and initiated within the imaginations of a supernal tier of the universe; and we, in turn, via our imaginations, incept and initiate and cohere a near-fractal range of possible realities upon our lower tier, the subpernal realm.

Thesis eleven: therefore the multiverse and metaverse exist as self-perpetuating fractals, each tier of reality supernal to and incepting a sub-pernal reality which then in turn perpetuates further sub-pernal realities.

Thesis twelve: within this model, then, I argue that the act of creation is a moral imperative; that sapiences are manifestations of the tendency of pantropy, and it is our obligation to this reality to resolve and counter and balance entropy, and that we have a moral obligation to continue to exist both in order to serve as the inceptors of future sub-pernal realities, and to act as archons to help sustain and perpetuate the sub-pernal realities which we have already created.

The purpose of life is to create life. That which creates serves the pantropic principle and is generally good and worthy of affirmation; that which destroys serves the entropic principle, and is generally contrary to the imperative life, and as such, should generally be opposed.


Questions/ concerns/ critiques?
posted by LeRoienJaune at 11:54 PM on April 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

Hrmmm, out of weed.
posted by zengargoyle at 12:58 AM on April 7, 2022 [3 favorites]

Thank you to Wobbuffet for the series of links above, about 19th century literature. I had never heard of Mary Russell Mitford and her sketches of English village life. Quite fascinating. Here she is, talking about a man who suffered a bout of severe mental illness and was supported by the community:

Poor John Evans, the gardener—an excellent gardener till about ten years ago, when he lost his wife, and became insane. He was sent to St. Luke's, and dismissed as cured; but his power was gone and his strength; he could no longer manage a garden, nor submit to the restraint, nor encounter the fatigue of regular employment: so he retreated to the workhouse, the pensioner and factotum of the village, amongst whom he divides his services. His mind often wanders, intent on some fantastic and impracticable plan, and lost to present objects; but he is perfectly harmless, and full of a childlike simplicity, a smiling contentedness, a most touching gratitude. Every one is kind to John Evans, for there is that about him which must be loved; and his unprotectedness, his utter defencelessness, have an irresistible claim on every better feeling. I know nobody who inspires so deep and tender a pity; he improves all around him.
posted by MinPin at 8:56 AM on April 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

Questions/ concerns/ critiques?

this sounds much like tolkein's idea of subcreation only with gnostic postulates instead of catholic ones
posted by pyramid termite at 9:05 AM on April 7, 2022

Can someone please explain to me how the staff survey is both "anonymous" and yet "emails with a unique link for you?" I mean, I don't trust it anyway since I found out this year that if your supervisor has enough staff under them your answers are sent directly to them, but doesn't that sound um...wrong... to say?

(Suffice it to say I put no comments on the survey this year.)
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:11 AM on April 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

Ok I haven't been around so much lately, but what's up with the all the Pepsi posts?

how come we're not getting cheeseburger posts?
posted by pyramid termite at 9:16 AM on April 7, 2022

Can someone please explain to me how the staff survey is both "anonymous" and yet "emails with a unique link for you?" I mean, I don't trust it anyway since I found out this year that if your supervisor has enough staff under them your answers are sent directly to them, but doesn't that sound um...wrong... to say?

Tom-Hanks-I-Don't-Think-So-That's-How-They-Get-Ya dot gif.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 9:19 AM on April 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I ignore company surveys unless they're mandatory, and even then only give bland answers. That's not only because of them being not-really-anonymous, but they're also uniformly pointless - nothing changes as a consequence of employee surveys anyway (though I'm prepared to accept that's because everyone else is also answering cautiously for the same reason). I might voice some real opinions if I had access to a truly anonymous paper-based suggestion system.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:34 AM on April 7, 2022

how come we're not getting cheeseburger posts?

I want more dollar grilled cheese posts!
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:35 AM on April 7, 2022

Can someone please explain to me how the staff survey is both "anonymous" and yet "emails with a unique link for you?"

At my job, one year they actually sent out personalized e-mails to people who had not completed the survey reminding them to complete the survey. Like, "Hey, how are you? I know you have been swamped with work, but can you do the survey? Tell your family I said hi!"

they're also uniformly pointless - nothing changes as a consequence of employee surveys anyway

To be fair, I have seen things get worse because of surveys. Sometimes, things are not on management's radar at all, and then someone mentions it on the survey....
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 9:51 AM on April 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

Whoopsie...
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:05 AM on April 7, 2022

The boring answer to the anonymous-with-a-direct-reply thing is that in principle it's entirely doable: you can in any number of ways have a computer create a one-to-one mapping in between a person and a record of that person having done Activity X (and sending a copy of that activity or whatever to some email address) without exposing any of that information to management or other employers or whatever. So long as you trust management and/or the systems administrators not to violate that expectation of privacy, it's easy enough to do.

The problems are human problems: 1. do you actually trust management to actively uphold and protect that veil of privacy in the first place, and 2. is everybody's *functional* identity within the organization—who they work for, what work they do, what sort of things they would have context to comment on, how many people hold positions similar organizationally or functionally to theirs, whether their writing style is identifiable in free-form answers, whether their comments correlate to non-anonymous comments they've made previously, etc, etc, etc—actually anything like anonymous? In an ethically run organization, the answer to (1) might well be yes. In almost every real world situation, the answer to (2) is inherently no and only the explicit will of the organization to be artificially blind to that correlating data helps it remain at least in principle anonymous.

Anonymity is hard even with good intentions. Anonymity + incentives from those in power to compromise that anonymity is just a fucking clown show.
posted by cortex at 10:19 AM on April 7, 2022 [4 favorites]

one time at work we did a survey and later held meetings at which certain answers were taken up and the employees were asked for their solutions to the problems brought up

one of them was that many had agreed that "management doesn't listen to our opinions"

"so we need suggestions on how you guys can solve the problems of management not listening to you"

"wait a minute - isn't that something management has got to do?"

"we need you guys to brainstorm and tell us what your solutions are"

"you're the ones who aren't listening - why don't you come up with solutions to that?"

"you see the way this process works is that the employees need to come up with suggestions on how they can solve the problems"

"we can't solve the problem - it's on you whether you listen or not"

"that's not how this process works - you guys need to come up with something"

"how can we make management listen? you're not even listening to us right now"

"so is anyone willing to work on this? come on, people ..."

etc etc

that was the last survey we did, although i believe it was more a matter of expense and not giving a fuck in the first place, than the poor outcome of this question ...
posted by pyramid termite at 10:28 AM on April 7, 2022 [4 favorites]

There is something about this week that is so exhausting, despite being actually rather better than other weeks lately. I was ready to blame it on the ol' plague, but all of my coworkers have complained similarly. Perhaps it is the lousy Smarch weather.

So I am grumpy and dragging my feet at work, feeling out of sorts despite an abundance of good news, including the acquisition of a new home after many false starts. (I may not permit myself to be unboundedly happy about the new place until I am in it; I remain afraid that something will go wrong between now and then. The last time I attempted to rent a new place, I had to put off the process a few days because of travel, and while I was out of town the damn building--and several around it!--burned to the ground. So.)
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:57 AM on April 7, 2022

us senate votes to confirm judge ketanji brown jackson to the supreme court. _justice_ ketanji brown jackson.
posted by 20 year lurk at 11:41 AM on April 7, 2022 [3 favorites]

(Man, the Jackson confirmation hearings set me off. She waded through them like a champ, but holy moly I wanted to get knuckle to knuckle with Ted Cruz.)

She just got confirmed so it worked out.

I've had some low-level Smarch weather creeping-icks the past couple days too - nothing serious, just the weird feeling I get in my throat when I'm in an unusually dry room. One colleague had a migraine yesterday, and two other people are out sick. And one of those colleagues was supposed to do the heavy lifting for some office moves I'm overseeing (including my own). The other Mover Guy is insisting he can do it on his own and so far is making good, but still.

I'm seriously considering adopting Sheriff Hopper's motto from Season 1 of Stranger Things and making the rule that "mornings are for coffee and contemplation" because I'm fried for the first hour of every day usually.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:45 AM on April 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

nothing changes as a consequence of employee surveys anyway

Literally there is a question on the survey every year asking if we think anything is going to change as a result of this survey! EVERY YEAR! And every year this is ranked low! I CAN'T IMAGINE WHY ANYONE WOULD THINK THAT NOTHING'S GOING TO GET BETTER!

At my job, one year they actually sent out personalized e-mails to people who had not completed the survey reminding them to complete the survey.

They do this as well. And what cortex said about anonymity. Like they say "we only send your answers to supervisors with 5 or more reports," but FFS, if you have five reports, you're gonna be able to figure out who's who from their writing style and what they do alone. Most people don't have like 25 reports to guess at. And while my supervisor normally supervises three, right now she theoretically would be supervising more than that had not half the staff dropped like flies in the last few months because another manager got a new job.

Oh, on a related note, our last remaining temp got a permanent job today. At least that one gave two weeks. Oh, and I'm told I'm going to get another supervisor because mine (doing 2-3 jobs as is) complained of being super overloaded. We'll see if that actually happens, right? My supervisor is sounding the alarm loudly about the lack of staffing, but who knows if anything will improve, but it certainly can't improve fast if it does.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:59 AM on April 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

BASEBALL IS ON!!!!!!!!!!
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:06 PM on April 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

Anonymity is hard even with good intentions. Anonymity + incentives from those in power to compromise that anonymity is just a fucking clown show.

I was until very recently a very trusting and open person, who believed that my suggestions for improvement would be received by management in the spirit they were given: as knowledge from someone totally loyal to the organisation, who wanted improvement of productivity and quality. Well, that ended in a bad way.

But this discussion reminded me of a significant difference between two interactions with IT in jobs where I left in a kerfuffle.
First time, I got up to leave, and then contacted IT to hear if I could have my workmails sent to my private mail (for instance if I decided to get the union to take a look at management). No question, they were all there within the hour with a final good luck <3 mail. In the end, I didn't involve the union, and in the end end, the boss was kicked out a year after I left, because I was right.
Second time, I contacted IT to hear if I could have my workmails and the data in my work cloud sent to my private mail (for instance if I decided to get the union to take a look at management), and they were like. Who are you, you filthy traitor, you have 60 minutes to download what you can. After 10 years of work, that wasn't a lot.
Recently I learnt that at that place, there is something called a lex mumimor, which is that regardless of how loyal, productive, well-loved, smart etc. you are, you will get broken if you go against management. They won't just fire you, they will try to ruin the rest of your life. And I can add as a detail: IT is on their side, so never use your work mail for anything even vaguely critical. A culture of fear, one might say.

Now I know to stick to my private mail and cloud if I am discussing sensitive stuff. Though I suspect that at my current workplace, IT is too busy with their real jobs to be spying for management.
posted by mumimor at 12:41 PM on April 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

I was until very recently a very trusting and open person, who believed that my suggestions for improvement would be received by management in the spirit they were given: as knowledge from someone totally loyal to the organisation, who wanted improvement of productivity and quality. Well, that ended in a bad way.

I'm inclined to say that if anyone actually wanted something fixed, it'd be fixed. But also there's layers of bureaucracy and plenty of people who affect your job who don't want things changed, and if they don't, then nothing's going to happen.
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:11 PM on April 7, 2022

Chicago Cubs on pace for 162 wins. UNDEFEATED. Wow, I love a win on opening day.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:42 PM on April 7, 2022 [3 favorites]

elis regina and tom jobim - aguas de marco
posted by pyramid termite at 7:12 PM on April 7, 2022 [2 favorites]

In not great news I'm pretty sure I have most of the symptoms of long covid and chronic fatigue syndrome, including some super weird and unsettling symptoms.

....and one of the super weird symptoms of record that are emerging from long covid is that apparently it can drastically alter your sociability or ability to even want to be social. Like it's not just anxiety about the pandemic, it's like it's just not even there.
.....
It's all so new that there isn't really a known treatment or plan of attack for it yet but I'm still reaching out to my doc.

That is terrible news, Loquacious.

There are a bunch of papers out there suggesting a link between long Covid and low oxytocin levels, such as:

A convincing cure for COVID-19 remains elusive, but beyond the horizon looms long-COVID. However, here, we propose a treatment: oxytocin. In this hypothesis paper we provide an under-lying mechanism for long COVID: the oxytocin neuron could be infected by SARS-CoV-2 leading to a reduction in plasma oxytocin. It is postulated that the reduction in plasma oxytocin leads to the variable multi-system, remitting and relapsing nature of long-COVID. Numerous experimen-tal data can be shown to correlate with oxytocin and long-COVID symptoms and conditions, thus providing strong circumstantial evidence to support our hypothesis.

And since oxytocin is preeminently the sociability hormone, that may be why you’re not feeling it right now.
posted by jamjam at 7:56 PM on April 7, 2022 [2 favorites]

Manhã de Carnaval
posted by mumimor at 10:45 AM on April 8, 2022 [2 favorites]

mumimor: …and the sun rises again. Thank you.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 11:27 AM on April 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

Gilberto Gil - Refazenda.

If there's a theme I missed, I do apologise. I'm just posting a song I like by a Brasilian singer I love.
posted by ihaveyourfoot at 3:29 PM on April 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

So, out driving around town today, clouds of marijuana smoke in traffic, like a local Friday afternoon incense...I wasn't seeing the drivers smoking, but nevertheless it was a feature today.
posted by Oyéah at 10:20 PM on April 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

There is a reason I used to call it, my yearly employee evisceration.
posted by Oyéah at 10:24 PM on April 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

Can someone please explain to me how the staff survey is both "anonymous" and yet "emails with a unique link for you?"

Yeah, this would be something that would probably fall to me. After working out some of the details and having run some tests...

./bin/blast-emails --yesireallymeanit

And I could solemnly affirm in court that there's no way to match email addresses to URLs unless you could predict the random number generated by the system at the time and the exact time down to the millisecond that it started.

Else... somebody else would have to had hacked the mailing system or easier yet file a request to whatever corporate email outsourcing we're using to get a copy of every email sent from [e-mail] with the title "Evaluation Time Again!" sent around YYYY-MM-DD.

I also did anonymizing of good-lord-tons of network traffic information for research purposes.

Heh, I'm actually a name on a published paper listed at the end of the list of names with a little '*' for providing the data.

All in a days work.
posted by zengargoyle at 7:51 PM on April 10, 2022

Haha! I didn't exactly know this: Greece is quite the outlier here in the south on the number of metal bands per Capita. (Europe map of Metal bands per 1 million people.) Our neighbor across the street is in one of the bands mentioned in the thread; he has a Sphynx cat who likes to sit on the window ledge and receive the admiration of walkers-by. Really nice guy, and very quiet! Actually, my husband told me he just moved, which is sad, but he lived there for very many years! Here is some (fan?) art of him. (cat is not actually quite that big)
posted by taz at 5:29 AM on April 11, 2022

Well look at that, a new Free Thread.
posted by cortex at 9:45 AM on April 11, 2022