Chirping Away

[cricketaria]

I wish that I had played Charade Maniacs before Jack Jeanne, because after playing a game that commits that hard to the "The cast is periodically acting in plays through the game" concept (even with the obvious marked difference of one cast doing this because they want to and the other being forced into it) the quick blurbs of scenes you get in Charade Maniacs just don't compare.

But mostly I now want a crossover where the aliens snagged Kisa and Neji when they were picking, and now these two lunatics are constantly redoing the scenes they get in different ways, and barging in on other people's scenes to send them swerving, and Neji's actually bugging the aliens to let him write for them... Maybe they should get one other Univeil student to make a full new group of three, but I'm not sure whether it should be Chui to complete the trifecta of actual Charade Maniacs, or if it should be Fumi or Sou to trick the rest of the CM cast into thinking the school has some normal students until they get into an act and oh, nope, they're just as bad they can just be more subtle about it.

[cricketaria]

[assiraphales]

I don’t think we’re rick rolling each other enough anymore. 1. it CANNOT die out 2. this under saturated market is perfect for unsuspecting victims who’ve been lulled into a false sense of security. be the person you hate. bring back the dastardly link

[json-derulo]

someone actually studied the falling Rick Roll rate for their Ph.D dissertation recently and published the paper

[junefrombug]

okay but this made me wonder if there was actually any academic literature on rickrolling and YES THERE IS this is a paper about rickrolling WITHIN academic literature. As in, studies that attempt to rickroll the people reading them. Best part is no one is going to believe me and click that link even though it’s 100% true.

[niltia]

My friend's book is mentioned in this paper!!

[teaboot]

There is no earthy way of convincing anyone that the rickroll study link is real. But for what it's worth. It is

[chaotic-carnifex]

Then this must be an unearthy way

That's the paper. Link's safe.

[cricketaria]

If you do give the thread enough trust to read the paper (the second one, which is real, don't click the first and then assume it's all a lie) make sure that you click through the link to its comments as well, there's some really interesting additions there.

[imsobadatnicknames2]

I love the very idea of the paris catacombs like. yeah sure the real-life city of paris has a straight-up megadungeon sprawling under it. Why not.

[memingursa-deactivated20250625]

There’s also bones.

[memingursa-deactivated20250625]

“Well how much bones.” I can assure you a comical amount. You’d think I was joking amount. Dark Souls ass decoration amount

[memingursa-deactivated20250625]

This is just like. A couple of pictures off google. i’ve been there. There’s piles of bones they haven’t been through.

[memingursa-deactivated20250625]

Nobody in the notes mentioned this fact but i need to emphasize there is absolutely so much bones. There is a dungeon and it’s decorated like this. There’s bone piles and shit that hasn’t even been discovered. The mega dungeon is not only big it looks like that. They literally need to sort it out from the amount of bones. There are so many dead people beneath paris in a dark souls crypt.

[imsobadatnicknames2]

Lotsa people in the notes of this post pointing out that Paris isn't unique in this regard and actually most cities have sprawling underground complexes under them (sewers, cisterns, railway systems, etc)

And like yeah but like. None of them look like a stereotypical evil dungeon in an RPG as the Paris catacombs. It's not just that it has a lot of tunnels under it it's that it has a lot of Dark Souls looking ass tunnels under it.

[cricketaria]

As a Dark Souls player I gotta say that, for all the Dark Souls comparisons here, that's actually way more bones that you're going to find in a Dark Souls dungeon. Even when you're including various skeletal enemies and, you know, Nito:

[cricketaria]

Game Changer

I'm only halfway through the episode and about to leave work so I won't be finishing until I get home, but I can't imagine anything is going to get more viral than D20 On A Bus (also, sorry to Paul and Trapp but that's the only one so far I definitely will not be watching, because while I did like doing glue hand patches as a kid the whole body is squicking me fiercely).

[cricketaria]

Finished now! Izzy and Lily are added to the "Oh, this squicks me" pile, but I am both impressed with Jordan for getting them all and with the fact that Izzy, Lily, and presumably Becca absolutely just got away with pocketing two grand each (the final hundred going to making the bottle stand; they wouldn't have needed to pay anything to pasteurize it they just need to borrow thermometer and a stove from the Gastronuats set).

Grant's just made me go "Don't do that! Especially if you're saying right now you have bad joints!" Here's a good pile of reasons why.

Izzy's buttholes made me laugh the hardest after D20 on a bus. I still think Katie's pitch will beat Vic's but Vic was also fabulous (though it would have killed me if they'd walked out with their brother and started right back up on the pitch from One Year Later).

Though I will say, the one video I'm actually going to share on its own with other people is Human Puppy Bowl, because as a non sportsball-person I will always toss silly sports-based things that I enjoyed at my very sportsball-people brothers and sister-in-law for familial bonding purposes.

[cricketaria]

Game Changer

I'm only halfway through the episode and about to leave work so I won't be finishing until I get home, but I can't imagine anything is going to get more viral than D20 On A Bus (also, sorry to Paul and Trapp but that's the only one so far I definitely will not be watching, because while I did like doing glue hand patches as a kid the whole body is squicking me fiercely).

[unpretty]

today was the day we finalized the migration of essential software at work from some old and busted shit that was ready to die at any time, to the new cloud version of the same software that we are no longer responsible for maintaining. which is good because no one was actually maintaining ours. it's just been slowly crufting into unusability for a decade. so anyway they set aside an hour for a teams meeting where they'd walk us through the different interface and how to go through normal processes.

"it's not that big a change," they said. "it's all the same stuff, it just looks a little different," they said.

they did not account for the fact that the primary user of this software is someone who doesn't actually know how it works or what it's doing. they learned how to do their job entirely through rote memorization. they know which buttons they are supposed to press in which order, and that is the full extent of what they know. they also did not account for the fact that this person's processes were learned thirdhand from other people who were not using this software normally to begin with.

it's like. imagine if someone had only ever used tumblr in the app. and you try to get them to use it in a desktop browser, but they cannot figure out how to post. and you go through explaining where the button is and how to format text and add tags, even though you could have sworn it was all the same in the app. but then they're like, "okay, but what's the phone number" and you're like "what" and they're like "the phone number to call to make a post?" and it turns out somehow they still had the ability to post by calling a phone number, and every time they posted on the app they called the post in first and then edited the audio post to transcribe it into text before screenshotting the text for a photo post. and nothing you can say to them will make them understand that none of that is necessary or correct. they shouldn't have even been able to do some of that. they can just type into the post box now, like a civilized person. "okay," they say, "but what is the phone number, though? because when i made my account my friend gave me this checklist and the first thing on it is to call the number."

so anyway we were on that teams call for almost three hours and they still don't have a handle on the new software

[unpretty]

details have been changed but i want you to imagine that this software is used in part to record payments and send out updated invoices. in this software there is a special process to send invoices to collections. generally, you use special filters to determine what does and does not get sent off to collections. but this person kept asking that poor trainer to run the collections wizard on all invoices. every one of them. unpaid. paid. brand new. all of them. and the trainer is like. i am not doing that actually. and the person keeps insisting. "i need the report" they keep saying. "this isn't a report" the trainer keeps explaining.

as far as anyone can tell, decades ago, the person who first worked with this software added a custom report that prints before you can run the collections wizard. they would go through that report manually highlighting every invoice going to collections, with a highlighter, because they didn't trust the software. because this was old software without any kind of autosave functionality, they could just abort the collections wizard after they got the report, before doing it again and manually flagging the invoices they highlighted. everyone using this software since then has just. done that. assuming it was necessary for some reason.

"please," the trainer kept saying. "can you tell me what the report is called. what is the report. can you scan the report and send it to me. we can just run the report. we don't need to run the collections wizard. we actually specifically should not. there is no report here. we would need to add that in if you want that. but you won't need to run this wizard to get that report. you can just get it. the report. without doing this."

"it's fine," they kept saying. "i can show you the report. just hit okay on the wizard and it should pop up."

[unpretty]

i have to keep notifications muted on this post to keep me from biting my own tongue off reading people's well-meant defenses of Scabsy The Papillon Poisoner, but i nevertheless feel the need to clarify some things

the tech guys with the upgraded software did try to assess how much training we would need, but Scabsy lied to their faces about their own competence, repeatedly and at length.

the only person who knows enough about computers to know that Scabsy was lying was me, the person with zero authority to call Scabsy out for lying.

despite my best attempts, i did not successfully convey with only my face over teams calls that Scabsy was lying and we would actually need the more in-depth training.

there was never any need for anyone to be running the collections wizard or going through a report with a highlighter. the person who first started doing that did it when they moved from fully analog in order to seem more essential to the process. they have repeatedly fucked up accounts doing this and then blamed it on the software being glitchy to emphasize how essential they are because they know how to fix the thing they broke by doing it wrong.

whenever it's suggested they document anything so that they're not the only person who can do essential processes, they call out sick until everyone else is too busy to care about anything but the job getting done right now immediately.

you do not have to explain to me that the cloud is just other people's computers. if a rando had come to us suggesting we pay them five figures to move the existing software to a server they kept in the cleaning closet at their laundromat down the street, i would have suggested we take the deal. we were already paying five figures annually for a service contract that only included tech support with no routine maintenance. you can stop trying to shame the IT department we don't have. we do not have a single technical employee. we have me. an accountant. before me we had another accountant who knew how to use an old version of adobe dreamweaver that came on a CD.

here is my crude representation of the change between the old software and the new cloud service:

the next day Scabsy 'discovered' a report that 'should work', which was the same report as on the old software, which the trainer had repeatedly asked about while trying to figure out what they were doing. Scabsy found it by entering the name of the report, which the trainer had suggested repeatedly, into the search box.

[cricketaria]

What to do is quit this summer because you need insurance (unless they're willing to give you the raise and benefits you deserve for being an essential employee).

I know it can make you feel guilty if you know the people you're leaving behind will have a time of it without you, but if your life would be better elsewhere you are not beholden to other people's incompetence.

Editing to add: And if the guilt does start gagging you when your sending around your resume or getting ready to give your notice, repeat this to yourself: "I deserve to be able to go to the doctor without being terrified to see the bill."

[theprofessional-amateur]

For no reason here is a library story

[theprofessional-amateur]

There will be millions of actions like this over the coming years. An important thing to remember is that for them to work (anywhere, not just libraries) is people absolutely can’t announce that this is what they are doing.

Not seeing constant acts of resistance doesn’t mean it isn’t happening all around you all the time. Some very effective methods require silence and secrecy.

Something to keep in mind.

[vexheart]

"The number of hours we have together is actually not so large. Please linger near the door uncomfortably instead of just leaving. Please forget your scarf in my life and come back later for it."

poem by Mikko Harvey

[cricketaria]

Slight correction I didn't see anyone else making:

[dirtylaundryshow]

The real question: who is the celebrity?

Watch the full episode now!

[skinn1-system]

[cricketaria]

A few more for the pile.

[dropoutdottv]

Los Angeles folks - how would you like to be part of something new on Dropout?

Submit here: https://liveaudience.castingcrane.com/

[cricketaria]

So sad I don't live anywhere close to LA (and also couldn't say for sure I'd be free anyway) because I do have a weird phobia, people laughing at me over it is usually the easiest way for me to handle it so I would be fine with comedians reacting to me talking about it, and, most importantly, because Dropout is the one comedy platform in the universe that I fully trust does not plan to trigger people's phobias for entertainment value during whatever they're gathering phobia-havers for.

Like, most shows would get the wariest of side-eyes from me if they put something up with the exact same wording, not "Oh, I wish I could!"

[cricketaria]

I thought I was done for the night, but after dinner I was not. (My night has become just hitting the random button on the softer world site until an idea hits me, lol.)

[phantomarine]

HOW DARE YOU (affectionately)

[cricketaria]

At first I misread the first panel as "so mad" and was happily trying to decide what panels of Cheths and Phaedra bickering I wanted to use, then I realized my mistake and took a massive swerve. I've already snipped the text from the original, now I'm committed to using it!

[cricketaria]

I thought I was done for the night, but after dinner I was not. (My night has become just hitting the random button on the softer world site until an idea hits me, lol.)

[cricketaria]

Put together some Softer World edits for Phantomarine while I was lazing around.

[cricketaria]

Ao3’s down 😭 😭 can’t read your fic yet noooo

Oops! I'd closed the warning box about there being maintenance today and promptly totally forgot about it, or I might have been smart enough to hold off on posting the link around until it was over. orz

Just three more hours until it's over!