rzepi

she/her | 40s| bi TTRPGs and shitposting, very unserious Actual Plays I love: D20, WBN, CR, Spout Lore, NADDPOD, Transplanar, Rotating Heroes, 3BH, My First Dungeon, B4B. Tv shows: Inside No. 9., Psychoville, Taskmaster, TLOG Books: Kushiel Series, Robot and Monk I write fic for most of the above (and awesome OCs with friends.) I don't link it here but I'll yell about characters for days with you!

[scorpionlafemme]

[myjusticecake]

You can begin this process at any time, regardless of how old you have become.

[sizzlingcandyjellyfishhhhhh]

so what if I want to have total control over every single thing at all times. just let me lol

[horreurscopes]

never forget the universal rule of the order of things: People Will Not Read It

[horreurscopes]

signs at stores? émail? menu ?? instruction ? post online ? caption with andswer to question ? group hand outs ??? street sign ??? no. The Written Word Is The Enemy

[lasrina]

#The number of compliments i have gotten for reading a thing

The ability to occasionally Read A Thing will make you a hero in your workplace, especially if it is for example an error message that tells you what you need to do differently, or instructions on unjamming a printer.

[stephaniematurin]

how dare you say we put jam in the printer

[berkelbites]

Ok reblogging this again because story time.

I work in tech, and much of what I do is support sales reps within the company by resolving errors with the software they use.

There is one sales rep who, every single time I send her a message or email with extremely specific instructions that will resolve her issue, does something completely different from what I tell her. Every time. Without fail. It is so glaringly obvious that she has never read even a single word that I have written to her.

So one day, she sends me a message that says little more than "(software) is broken, help"

So I do my standard song and dance of asking her what she's trying to accomplish, and what specifically is stopping her from doing that. And eventually, after much unnecessary back and forth, she tells me there's an error message. I ask her to send me a screenshot of the error message. She does.

The error message basically says, "these two required fields are blank. To resolve this, please fill in these two specific fields, and then click save."

So I take a few deep breaths.

Then I lie to her.

I message her back, saying "hey yeah, for some reason it's not loading that screenshot on my end. Could you type out the full text of the error message for me?"

She does.

I ask her if she still needs help.

She does not respond.

[samueldays]

I have similar story from tech support.

Client is reporting that Some Thing Program doesn't work. I ask if there's an error message with further information about what's not working. Client says "no". I go over and ask Client to open Some Thing. Client double-clicks on the icon for Some Thing, it starts to boot, an error message dialog flashes up on screen, Client closes error message before I can read it, Thing closes after the error.

"What did that error message say?" I ask.

"What error message?" asks Client.

I tell Client to open the Some Thing again and then not click anything else. Client opens Some Thing, error message appears, Client clicks it away again.

I tell Client to stand up, step away, and give me physical control of the computer. I open Some Thing, start looking at the error message without closing it, and Client says "You should close that." I tell Client that I am reading the error message. Client is apparently accustomed to treating error messages as a kind of spam email that should be deleted as fast as possible, and gets agitated that I'm reading it.

I read the error message. It tells me what the problem is. I fix the problem. Some Thing works now.

---

Later, I start thinking about how such an error message might perhaps be engineered to be more attention-grabbing and close-resistant as a way of making people read it. It's not important for some random program here, but there are more important systems (medical, etc) where it would be reasonable to demand the user's attention because people's lives depend on paying attention to the error message.

But then people with a perverted intellect would still be thinking about ways to avoid reading the message, like dragging it off edge of screen or hiding it behind another window. So maybe the dialog box could have an always-in-front feature to override other windows, and the alert could use the computer's hardware "beep" functionality that can't be switched off by muting the regular sound system, and keep beeping... shit, I realize I'm reinventing pain, and get philosophical about it.

[siryouarebeingmocked]

I've found myself realizing I failed to Read a Thing on occasion. On other times, I was typing it into Google when I realized I already knew the answer.

[ralfmaximus]

I've solved this problem in the past in some creative ways.

My favorite was a recurring issue where, in an accounting system, there were two reports. One displayed the running summary of all cash in all accounts. The other one did that, but also ended the quarter, cleared the ledger, and started a fresh new quarter.

One user in particular kept running the second report too early, when they intended to run the first report. Then they'd call in a panic, wondering "where did all the money go?!"

It already had an ARE YOU SURE? prompt in front of that report. But the user blindly clicked YES without thinking. Every time.

So we added a second ARE YOU REALLY SURE? prompt after that, and moved the YES button someplace else. The user quickly adapted to that.

The final thing that worked? We replaced the ARE YOU SURE? prompt with a requirement that they type out the phrase YES I REALLY WANT TO CLOSE THE QUARTER into a floating text box then click OK.

The first time they encountered that they called us.

Asked us about "the weird new error" and what they had to do to get around it. We asked, "it's not the end of the quarter. Do you REALLY want to run that report?"

After thinking about it for two seconds they said "nope" and hung up.

Problem solved. They never did it again.

[ymutate]

Jason Anderson (British Artist, born 1970)

"Untitled", 2025.

Oil on Wood Panel, 60 × 80 cm.

Private Collection.

[blueeyesshyskies]

The gayest fit I’ve ever seen, 10/10

[dreamlogic]

asked one of my coworkers how she's doing today and she goes "could be better, could be worse," and another coworker nearby who was eavesdropping chimes in with "could be a lil bit o' alligator curse!" i have no idea what he meant by that but i do know that it has been immediately added to the lexicon.

[json-derulo]

fool me once shame on you. fool me twice shame on me. fool me three times this has gotta be a sex thing for at least one of us

[scavengedluxury]

[scavengedluxury]

[sinni-ok-sessi]

I do think the ability to emoji-react is a net win for human communication. not only does it give you an outlet for 'I see and acknowledge this but don't have a verbal response' but it also adds a pleasing alethiometer element to things

my coworker announces that he's off to the dentist. someone reacts with a tooth emoji. is this a statement of dentist solidarity? a wish for my coworker to return with more (or fewer?) teeth than he set out with? simple word association? who can say

[xanaxfarts]

Dante's Inferno (1967) dir. Ken Russell

[dreminens]

Ghostly figures of headless coachmen. A nun, believed to have been bricked up in the walls, that appears and vanishes mysteriously. A screaming girl at the window of the blue room, and dragging footsteps in empty halls. The scene of the ghostly visitations is the rectory at Borley, a few miles from Long Melford, Suffolk. It is a building erected on part of the site of a great monastery which, in the middle ages, was the scene of a gruesome tragedy.

Reece Shearsmith in Borley Rectory (2017)

[panelshowsource]

TASKMASTER 20.01 — Reece Shearsmith

[dragongirlsnout]

don't cry okay? huge as fuck bowl of strawberry

[dragongirlsnout]

Don't cry okay? Huge as fuck container of blueberry

[dragongirlsnout]

don't cry okay? huge as fuck bag of blackberry

[dragongirlsnout]

if i had a quantity of raspberries this large i would end up on the news

[rachels-memories]

Jeremy Brett as Dracula, 1978-80

[jone-slugger]

Gay people can't just say "I love you", they always got to pull something like this

[succubusboyfriend]

are you “adaptable” or are you just willing to subject yourself to existing in low key background-level ambient misery

[succubusboyfriend]

these are different things btw. actual adaptability means not dealing with being miserable long term. and being constantly mildly annoyed/frustrated with a situation but being “able to deal with it” counts as ambient misery. btw.

[succubusboyfriend]

let this be your sign to make your life just a little more livable. get a dollar store trash can for your bedside so Cup City’s invasion plans fall through. block a tag or post that makes you grind your teeth every time you see it. get some grip pads so your bed stops sliding across the hardwood a little bit every time you get in it. tell that person you need a little more support. if you get annoyed at a situation more than a couple times, change it. don’t be content with being miserable.

[demonprincex]

and the more that you start doing this, the better you will get at detecting your own feelings and advocating for yourself! This is an important start to being more of a person in the world if you struggle with that

[maureen2musings]

Wasilla, Alaska

patrickthunalaskaphotos

[withbriefthanksgiving]

ID: white winter trees, covered in snow, under a pastel pink, orange and pale blue sky. White snow blankets the ground. End of ID.