F
I have discovered that teaching programming goes much better with my fifth grade students if I take the time to teach them about all the symbols I think of as "normal" that are totally new to them.
"These are square brackets, you'll find them over the 'enter' key we use them for lists. In programming we have three kinds of brackets..."
This reduced confusion so much. And I feel a little silly for not realizing that OF COURSE they don't know what they characters are or how to type them.
#PicaTheCat has the vibes of a Roman high official who has been posted to some far northern backwater in England, surrounded by "uncultured" people. (us) who can't even run her palatial manner properly or deliver meals on time.
She is suffering so much poor creature.
That is how she is looking at me right now.
(I have added some photographic evidence of what she is like. Look at her!) #caturday #catsofmastodon #cat #cats #imperious #judgemental #leadership
It's a simple ham-fisted movie but it's so good.
I think realizing this makes people uncomfortable. And it should.
That's why this isn't just a surface matter.
I guess I find the "ads do the reverse on ME" notion unhelpful because it seems like by saying that you won't be around to fight the growth of the ad space with the rest of us.
We could vastly limit this stuff and it could improve quality of life so much.
It could also save media from being so corrupted.
I had some friends at uni who studied advertising. And this was in the early 2000s so long long ago, nonetheless they were doing this thing where they cataloged total add exposure for an average person. I thought it was funny to volunteer since I have never owned a TV and have always avoided ads.
Nonetheless my minder found that I was exposed to over 100 ads per day, shop windows, branded clothing, billboards, at the ATM etc.
Their more typical subject had exposure pushing 800.
I've had a few conversations on here about the corrosive impact of advertising and whenever I do I always see one comment that I sympathize with, but all find concerning.
"At this point when I see ads it makes me want the product less."
I think nearly everyone has felt this way from time to time, and yet the "adspace" keeps expanding to new frontiers and levels of obnoxiousness.
Advertisers know that their ads are effective. Even on people who have promised themselves they aren't.
I live in a building with over 100 units and if about half of the people do even modest tips it ought to add up to something nice.
I'm just going to need to find a way to spin my own bowl. 
You can have sitting creases added to your jeans in advance if you want.
"That's the style, it's a little wavy"
NO.
No. The "style" is a perfect circle. Perfect as you can make it and if you don't wince when you notice it's not quite there you've kind of missed the point.
Anyway.
The reason I treasure the imperfections in the circular shape of the tea bowl is because I know the person who made it was trying their best to make a perfect circle, something impossible to do by hand, even with a wheel. So the imperfections tell a story.
But someone wrote an article in some "Home" magazine about "wabisabi design" and now there are all these tea bowls with *deliberate* imperfections. I hate it.
Give me the machine made bowl instead.
And don't call me a hipster. I'm mad.
The true "spring trap" were those heat lamps where the biscuits slowly turn into leather.
I was a big fan of the first game. Brilliant game design, tapped into some core creepy memories.
But then it became so kid focused it stopped really being scary.
Popeye's fast food fried chicken chain is doing a FNAF themed promotion ... And I'm kind of disturbed they don't think it's too creepy?
I guess they don't sell pizza or have animatronics so... still. Very bold choice for a food chain IMHO.
People on fixed incomes, and people who are going through hard financial times may not do a tip. No one is upset about this.
It's a kind of chaotic system.
But that's what the "card" is about.
In NYC garbage and mail get no holiday tips. But also you rarely even know who that person is as it can change from day to day.
Yeah you see doormen so much tipping them all the time would be wild. It's a once a year gift. Like 50-100 bucks for full-timers and at least 30 for everyone else. But I live in the south bronx in a very old building.
These numbers go much higher if you have "concierge" service and more fancy staff who do many other things beyond keeping the packages safe and minding the door.
I keep thinking that we should do away with this whole thing and just have a flat service fee so it's predictable. But, it's a non-starter at the co-op board meetings since no one wants to raise fees and it's hard to predict what the impact will be.
A building can have as many as 12 or more full time staff and even a modest $20 adds up.
So how much? I go with 2/3rs of maintenance divided between everyone. Which might be a little stingy.
2/2
The combination of American "tipping culture" and NYC leads to the stressful question of "how much should I give the doormen?" around this time of year.
If you are new to NYC you might be surprised to find a card from your building staff about now... a very early "Christmas card" featuring everyone's names and job titles.
This is so you can prepare your tips.
If your building has staff you are supposed to prepare a cash tip for each person. Please do cash never a check.
1/