furry function?

It's Labor Day, so a day off from the grind to extend the weekend. I'm going to try to be productive. 

I said I don't follow college football, but I did check in on the final score of the Colorado Buffaloes game on Saturday because of all the preseason hype. It looks as though Coach Prime and the team delivered and now sit at 1-0. All they need to do is win one more game this season to beat last year's record.

The hype and subsequent win inspired me to do this little drawing of the CU mascot, Chip. I haven't done much drawing aside from doodles since the end of last Inktober, so the football weekend was good for something.

And speaking of mascots, over the weekend, I learned that Amazon has a mascot. What? 

Its name is "Peccy" and is described as:

"He’s just a mascot, a symbol of the company’s belief in the power of being peculiar." 

from an article I stumbled upon, written in 2019.

Who knew?

The college where I work has a mascot even though we have no sports teams or intercollegiate competitions of any kind that I know of. 

I'm not sure what his function is, but he's a wolf.

He's a wolf who has the day off.

Stay peculiar.

artificial friends and blood

Last week, we were on a red flag day for high fire danger... and we now know how that ended up.  Today, this is the current scene out  my home office window

Thank you for the thoughtful comments regarding my brother's loss of his home.  The burn area is similarly covered in snow, so it will be a while before any sifting/ cleanup will happen.  The fire  investigation has led to a "religious sect" that owns the property where the fire started.  Geez.

Hagrid and his wife are intelligent and resourceful people.  They'll get through this.  It won't happen overnight, but, baby steps.  

So now it feels like winter, and while the snow hampers things, nobody is complaining.  

I hear people refer to books as "great for a winter day" or "a fun summer read".  Do the seasons determine reading tastes?  I don't think they do mine.  What's a "beach read"?

I just finished Klara and the Sun.  It's set in some unidentified future where "AFs" (Artificial Friends) exist - mainly purchased as companions for adolescents. 


The story is told from the point of view of Klara - an AF to a teen girl named Josie who has some sort of illness.  

I thought the premise sounded interesting as Klara's artificial intelligence makes her very observant as she absorbs the world of Josie's relationships and culture.  

“At the same time, what was becoming clear to me was the extent to which humans, in their 

wish to escape loneliness, made maneuvers that were very complex and hard to fathom”

The author is Kazuo Ishiguro who is Japanese but grew up in England.  I've read other books by Japanese authors and this book feels much like those despite him being "English".  

It got a bit tedious and mundane at times, but the overall story was good and kind of creepy.  The ending felt dark and haunting, but appropriate for this story.  

Another book I'm currently revisiting is Bad Blood by John Carryrou which details the story of Elizabeth Holmes - found guilty this week of 4 counts of fraud - the founder and CEO of Theranos.

I read the book in early 2019 when I was rather riveted by this story.  Omigosh, the money, the LIES, the manipulation, the whistleblowers, the threats...  I just couldn't fathom what the hell she was thinking.  

Was/is she delusional?  A pathological liar?  A sociopath?  A scammer?  Really really clueless?  All of the above?

With her trial just wrapping up after many months, I've been listening to the "The Dropout" podcast.  

“The way Theranos is operating is like trying to build a bus while you’re 

driving the bus. Someone is going to get killed.”

In my past professional life, I was involved in new product development and product launches.  None of that work was for Silicon Valley startups, but still!  The way Elizabeth Holmes kept going on about what a life-changing product her blood analyzers were and where they were operating, thus getting billions of dollars in funding while the machines were repeatedly FAILING AT EVERYTHING just baffles me.  Did she think no one would notice??  

For those not following the story/ case, I won't bore with details.  And for those who are following, you already know.  Suffice to say, the story isn't over just because the jury reached the verdicts.

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:
5. Book review time! What winter read has you snuggled in and turning pages?

changing

 It's a nice building... from the outside.  

The hiring manager seems friendly and competent... although I likely wouldn't be able to pick her out from a lineup.

The facilities and equipment necessary for the job... sound fine

I mentioned that I recently accepted a culinary job offer at a rehabilitation facility to replace my greatly-reduced-hours culinary job at the hospital.  Although I went there for the interview and some followup, I've yet to set foot inside the place.  Hiring practices have changed.

My interview was outside under a patio umbrella.  The manager, whom I texted to let her know I'd arrived, and I both wore masks the whole time.  There was no tour.  I saw no one working.  A handful of residents were outside with visitors.  If asked for a physical description of the manager, about all I can say is she has dark hair and is maybe an inch or two taller than me.

Around the same time I applied for this job, I applied for another that sounded promising.  Once the application window closed, they informed me that I had cleared the first hurdle, then nothing but crickets for nearly three weeks.  I knew they hadn't canned my application because they would have informed me of that too.

Yesterday, they finally emailed that I'd cleared the second hurdle, and about a minute after that, the email that I'd cleared the third.  They want to interview me, but I've already accepted the other offer.  I had a feeling that would happen.

Note that neither of these jobs is high stakes, high falutin', high anything really.  My college degrees don't mean a whole lot in this realm.  So I guess I've changed too.

But in my current "season",  I'm pretty sure I would enjoy either, be appreciated, maintain a nice work-life balance, while generating some income.  Yes, that's my current season.

I did do a bit of nerdy decision analysis when realizing the second place might still call after the first offered me the job.  

I ranked each of five criteria on a scale of 1 to 5 for each job, applied the importance-to-me factor, then summed up the scores.  

According to the nerdliness, the rehab place "won" by 3 points.  Not the best for pay, but feels more secure during these questionable Covid times.  And the commute?  It's like a mile and a half from my house.  And really, as I revisit this, the pay differential isn't that great.

Feels like the right decision... Since I'm beyond "Trophy Wife" season, and mostly skipped it altogether anyway.

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:

4. Write a blog post inspired by the word: changed.

uncultivated

Dear Abby,

Someone I thought was a "nice guy" stood me up, then was dishonest about it.  I arranged for another meetup, thinking I would stand him up so as to get my revenge.  But in the end, I was nice.  We didn't speak of the previous engagement, and now I think I want him for an LTR.  Am I being stupid?

Abby with the bush

-------------------------------------------------------

Okay, so remember my tale of woe last week when I'd set up a consultation from a bush guy about our junipers?  He didn't show but tried to say that he did?  I was upset enough to schedule another consultation, thinking I'd be a no-show or I'd cancel at the last minute or I'd lead them on only to say, "NO WAY!".  Show them!

Well, none of those scenarios seemed very me-like once I'd cooled the engines.  He showed up a little while ago for our re-schedule.  I didn't say anything about the first appointment, neither did he.  He looked at my bush and seemed to like it enough to want to come back.  I'm seriously thinking of entering this relationship.  Yup, probably gonna do it. *SIGH*

We did get other quotes, but I think I've found my bush guy.  Red Flags and all. 

Speaking of bushy, Meego turned 20 last week.  Twenty?!  Not that twenty is necessarily bushy, but we had a birthday get together with the whole brood.  Stay-at-home restrictions have lifted somewhat and the state parks have opened.

With that in mind, we hit Lory State Park on Saturday for a lovely bit of nature, fresh air, and sunshine.  The guys actually allowed us to get a few pics - rare as a Bigfoot sighting, but not that different in appearance.  It was like a "Who's Got the Biggest Hair" contest

Tough to call, really.  My hair is relatively short in the back these days, but top and front are rather "Cousin It", but can be tucked into a cap.  The guys have harder times controlling their lockdown hair.




Magnum is the cleanest cut of us all since I'd given him a kitchen buzz a couple of weeks ago.















All in all, a beautiful day for a hike and some family time. 

Chaco's county has tougher restrictions than ours.  While masks are required inside public buildings, they are not required outside, and I rarely see them outdoors here.  Chaco's county also requires them in public places outside, including hiking trails and such, so this was like a new experience for him - seeing all the naked faces.

But actually, the trail was a lot less crowded than I thought it would be considering it was a beautiful day on a weekend, and the trails had just reopened.  Much social distance to be had.

Surprisingly, however, the ticket booth people were neither masked nor gloved.  They greeted vehicles, took in money, handed back change, and answered questions all willy nilly from the confines of their small booth. 

Hmmm, the things we find strange these days.

stood up, lied to, spit out

I had the morning off and had arranged a meet up with this guy.  As the appointed time approached, I prepared for his arrival - cleaned myself and the house up a bit, took the dogs out back so they wouldn't interrupt the liaison.  

The appointed time arrived, but he did not.  "Maybe running a little late", I deluded myself.  Surely, he was on his way.  He'd even sent an email to confirm we were still on.

We'd met online through - I guess you'd say - a mutual interest.  He wanted to check out my unruly bush, as he was apparently into such things.  

Well.  I had plenty to offer.  I'd even given my bush a once over earlier that morning, to make sure to impress.  

So, where was he?  At ten minutes past, I decided I'd check in.

A woman answered.  What?

I explained the situation, and she said she knew of our scheduled meetup.  She would find the man and call me back.

A few minutes later, it was the woman on the phone again.

"He said he was there and rang the doorbell and knocked, but no one answered, so he left"

"But... but... my bush?", I stuttered.  "Will he be coming back?", I asked pathetically after confirming they had the correct address.

No.  He had other places he needed to be, but I could arrange for another time....

What the hell?

First of all, the he-was-there-but-no-one-answered story was ridiculous.  (A) I specifically watched for him as I value people's time. (2) the dogs will bark if someone approaches our house, and they were quiet the whole time, and (Last but not Least) we have a freaking Ring®️ doorbell that records all the comings and goings to and from the front door, and there was a whole lot of nothing since I walked in at about 6am.

He was a no show.

So I'm all, look, if you don't want the job of removing the juniper bushes from the front yard, just say so.  Don't make me block time out for you, then not show up, and try to make it look like it's my fault.

Spurned, I went on the prowl.

I arranged another meetup at the university, with a young college student, no less.  He was punctual and gave me exactly what I'd (ordered earlier online for curbside pickup) needed.

Before returning home, however, I made one more stop.  The pet store.  The exertion elation was almost indescribable (35-lb bag of dogfood) as the burly man well met my needs.

So yeah, I feel better after a couple of competency fixes.  But you're not off the hook, Davey Tree.

Did she lie to me?  Did he lie to her?  Were they both out smoking a bowl in the truck?  We'll likely never know, but he's not gonna touch my bush.

A woman scorned and all that.

by their right name

Years ago, when I was in college and working in retail, our management asked us to refer to customers by their first names if possible - usually if they paid by check or credit card where we could see their names.  Most of us felt that was kinda weird and didn't follow those instructions, not all the time anyway.  Maybe if we actually knew the person outside of work we'd use their first name.  Maybe.

We felt that, while some people might like it, others would find it strange and/or an obvious attempt to pretend we're all chums when we're actually strangers conducting a short and simple business transaction.  Plus, there are some people who have their legal names printed on checks and credit cards, but it's not the names they use day-to-day.  Magnum is one of those.  It helps him screen telemarketers.

I don't care much one way or the other when strangers refer to me by name while doing their jobs.  Maybe it's because I figure their boss told them to do that like mine did.

I'm thinking about this because I'm having to fill out a short "competency test" for my hospital job.  It's multiple-choice and pretty easy to answer many questions by process of elimination.  One such question:

Do you ever call the patient by their name?  When would you do this?  Why would you do this?

and one of the answer choices:

d.  you should refer to patients as "Buddy" or "Chief"

Ha, I'm pretty sure that one's not the correct choice. Also, it doesn't answer the question of, "why would you do this?"

Uhmmm, maternity ward...

"Good morning, Buddy!  Congrats on your new baby, Chief Mom!"

Another instance in college, a (female) friend of mine went to see one of our (male) professors during office hours for clarification on an assignment.  He referred to her as "Honey".

OMG, right?

Never mind that we were rare females in a male-dominated major, but I'm pretty sure professors wouldn't easily get away with that now.

Do you like to be addressed by your first name by strangers providing some small service, like retail?  What about things like, "Honey", "Buddy", "Sweetie", "Chief"?
I'M  QUITE  POSITIVE  I'VE  NEVER REFERRED TO ANYONE AS "CHIEF"

In other news, I indulged some more in #inktober52 with the prompt "spider".  In my version of the story, the spider and little miss Muffet were good friends.




We also visited downtown over the weekend.  There we were halted by yet another train.  Weirder still to have a long *ss train haul through the middle of a downtown area, but there it was.

What we've learned about the local train situation:  none of the locals likes their interruptions, and the train people don't give a hoot (see what I did there?)

are you an expert at the unpredictable?

Today I learned what a locomotive firer is.  I won't spoil anyone's fun it by defining it here.

Why did I investigate locomotive firer job description?  I recently read a couple of articles about jobs most at risk of being replaced by automation.  Locomotive firer was at the top... in both articles.  Conclusion:  if you are a locomotive firer and still have a job, might want to update the old resume'.

For those who are not locomotive  firers, here's a chart of percent risk of automation replacement by job type.

Where do you land?

Some other jobs that were tops on the list of the chopping block include telephone operators (those are still around?) and fast food workers.

Occupational therapists were tops as far as job growth.  I'm guessing that's owed to "unpredictability" and "applying expertise".  Along those lines, I didn't see any stats for strippers or prostitutes, but they're probably safe too...

Bottom line:  be special.

In other news, here's what my outside looks like today

... and it's corollary, the inside

I can do the job of a locomotive firer, but a  Roomba can't do what I do.

fashion

A couple of days ago, the guy on the radio was asking trivia questions.  One was,

"What is the most valuable apparel brand in the world?"

In the world?  Most valuable?

This week's prompt at Illustration Friday is "Fashion", so my fashion-challenged self pondered what to depict.

The answer to the trivia question was Nike.  I wasn't too surprised, but I also don't know a whole lot about fashion, so thought it would be some brand - maybe from Italy or France - I'd never heard of, and certainly never worn.





But yes, Nike of course.  They produce more than just athletic wear (that consumers actually purchase for participation in athletics).  Whole "style" themed pages on social media - one was a source for me for this drawing - are dedicated to Nike clothing.

I dug a bit on the internet and found a list of the top ten from 2017.  One site wanted me to pay money to see the list for 2018, so this is good enough for free...

SOURCE

Okay, I've actually heard of most of these brands and have owned products from two of them.  I'm not familiar with Zara, number 3 on the list.  I highly doubt I'm in their target market.

I will mention that, during my extensive *ahem* research on this topic, I've learned the difference between "handbag", "purse", and "satchel"... sort of.

How important is brand to you when selecting clothes and accessories?