[Weird Week In Review June 20
Virginie Fayad
The comment section on this post is open for discussion with other readers on any work-related questions that you want to talk about (that includes school). If you want an answer from me, emailing me is still your best bet*, but this is a chance to take your questions to other readers.
I work in tech and have worked remotely for my whole career. I live in a one-bedroom apartment and my desk is tucked into a corner of the living room. This setup has worked great for the past five years, living with my husband. We had our first child three months ago and my maternity leave is ending soon. We have in-home childcare arranged (combo of nanny and grandparents).
Several years ago, I worked for a company with a vacation policy I found truly bonkers. I worked at the corporate headquarters of a large regional chain. Everyone at the corporate office was salaried and exempt and worked a standard 40-hour work week, Monday through Friday. It was incredibly rare to work late (and no one worked on weekends). We got three weeks of PTO a year.
But while there might be a state law out there that this would violate (California, is it you?), in most states this would be legal. No law requires your employer to give you vacation time, so companies can generally make up whatever weird rules they want to about it.
They have done exit interviews in the past, but not consistently, and I want to document my feedback in writing before leaving. I will not need them as references as I am quitting to work for my own business.
When applying to college, I asked my high school history teacher to write a letter of recommendation for me. Our school had a system in place where the teachers would submit letters through an online portal. The student cannot view the letter until after submission, and only then if they request a copy.
I got rejected or waitlisted by every school I applied to. It has been almost a decade now and I still wonder. How bad of a mistake was this? Is this enough to reject an applicant on its own? Would it be worse in a professional context, rather than academic?
I would contend that conference attendance is a perk and she is not an hourly employee, so this should really be an eight-hour day. What is a reasonable policy here? Is there a distinction between a conference (often at a desirable destination) and required travel to perform ordinary work tasks?
Cut to this week. I just got back from a two-week business trip with Petunia and several other coworkers. Petunia was a disaster on the trip: tons of drinking, verbal abuse, and lack of professionalism with customers. It was two of the of the most stressful and exhausting weeks of my life. As a group, we approached Bob (who was not with us) towards the end of the trip with these issues. He removed Petunia from the last few days of the trip and fired her the following week.
I have yet to get a BFP but I have been having vivid dreams every single night for over a week. I rarely have dreams (especially not EVERY night). I am about 11dpo and just hoping that I get that BFP. dream seems to be my only symptom.
I had a dream last night that I was helping a family friend plan an event. I wasn't sure who it was for but I knew it was a wedding. I started to miscarry while helping her and asked her what to do (in real life she's a doctor). She never answered me so I kept on helping her. Then I'm working the wedding that turns out to be for my husbands sister. So I was also a guest. And I had to wear a kids-like ballet outfit that was white so the miscarriage was super obvious. But none of my husbands family knows we are pregnant so I was trying to hide the fact. It was so weird!
Having crazy vivid dreams every night!! I wake up at 2/2:30 every night from having these crazy dreams! Some are nightmares like the world is coming to an end, or someone is chasing after me. Some are just about people and places I haven't seen or been to in a while.. either way, haven't had a decent night sleep in a few weeks! Does this last the whole pregnancy?! Lol
In more news from Paris, an "experienced climber" got to the top of the Eiffel Tower early on Aug. 17 and parachuted off before guards could stop him, The Guardian reported. The unnamed man landed safely after the leap from about 1,100 feet and was promptly arrested for endangering the lives of others. "This kind of irresponsible action puts people working at or near the tower in danger," scolded Sete, the tower's management company.
Sure, Mountain Dew has been compared to battery acid, but one suspect thought a can of the stuff could save her from being fingered as a killer. Fox35-TV reported that on Aug. 5, Nichole Maks, 35, was charged with first-degree murder in the death of her 79-year-old roommate, Michael Cerasoli. Cerasoli was discovered beaten and stabbed in the home they shared in Daytona Beach, Florida, on July 1. Officers tracked down Maks around 3:30 the next morning at a Krystal's restaurant, where she had blood on the side of her leg and part of her shirt had been torn or cut away. As they approached, she dropped a knife and hammer she'd been carrying; she told officers she often carried such items. Police said that as they questioned her about her roommate, she became "agitated" and asked for a drink; they gave her a can of Diet Mountain Dew, which she poured over her body and hair, hoping to eliminate any evidence on her person. Unsurprisingly, that stunt didn't work, and her DNA was found on the knife used to kill Cerasoli. She currently resides at the Volusia County Jail.
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TikTokker Michaela Witter was on Day 20 of a series she was posting about "100 solo dates" -- activities like reading in the park or buying herself flowers. On Aug. 7, as she browsed in Barnes & Noble in Burbank, California, Witter inadvertently captured a stalker on video as he followed her, kneeled behind her and sniffed her (and another woman) repeatedly. Fox News reported that Witter's post unleashed a torrent of similar experiences -- even with the same stalker. "Bro that same man was crouching behind me and following me thru Marshalls today," one commenter posted. "The same thing happened to me at Ralph's in Burbank," another said. One TikTokker had the same experience in the same bookstore. Glendale police arrested Calese Carron Crowder, 37, on Aug. 11, but a judge placed him on probation and released him on Aug. 15. Los Angeles County Jail records show Crowder has been booked there 41 times.
The California Public Utilities Commission voted in early August to allow Cruise and Waymo to offer paid driverless rides to customers during the day, The New York Times reported. On Aug. 15, as Paul Harvey, 74, looked on, a Cruise vehicle in San Francisco drove into a city paving project and became stuck in wet concrete. "I thought it was funny," Harvey said. "It illustrated how creepy and weird the whole thing is to me." Rachel Gordon with the San Francisco Department of Public Works noted that no one was hurt, but added, "That portion of the road has to be repaved at Cruise's expense." Paul Leonardi, a professor of technology management at the University of California, Santa Barbara, chalked up the experience to a teaching moment: "It needs to experience a diverse set of use cases so it can learn, and driving into wet concrete is one of those use cases."
At Stoke Fruit Farm on Hayling Island in England, the sunflowers have been in full bloom for several weeks. The colorful fields offer a perfect background for photo shoots, but, the BBC reported, the farm has seen an "increase of reports of naked photography taking place" since July 28. "People are having fun and taking pictures for their Instagram but we just ask that they keep their clothes on," said Sam Wilson, who runs the site. In an Aug. 11 Facebook post, the attraction cautioned that "this must not happen during our public sessions please." One commenter said her son "got a right eyeful" after stumbling across a woman wearing just a thong. "Should have seen his face!"
When the European Space Agency shared a composite photo taken by the James Webb Telescope in late July, highlighting two actively forming stars, another shape in the photo caught the attention of Earth-bound gazers: an orange formation in the shape of a question mark. Kai Noeske, ESA communication program officer, explained to NPR what scientists think the shape is: "a group or a chance alignment of two or three galaxies. The upper part of the question mark looks like a distorted spiral galaxy, maybe merging with a second galaxy." Galaxy mergers result in "all kinds of beautiful shapes and structures," said Macarena Garcia Marin, a Webb project scientist. They are "a normal phase in the life and evolution of galaxies."
An unnamed man called his dangerous stunt "a joke" after being arrested in Ostrobothnia, Finland, Sky News reported on Aug. 9. The man allegedly stored 26 pounds of dynamite in his friend's two cars before calling the owner and telling him. The owner wasn't laughing: He alerted police, who evacuated nearby buildings. "In addition to the dynamite, detonators were also confiscated from the cars," said Tony Rauma, detective chief inspector with the Ostrobothnia Police. The jokester told police he did not intend to blow up the cars, and links to terrorism have been ruled out.
Here is a band that came into my life late last year, and has since enveloped a huge part of my personal music tastes, and I find myself often mimicking their sound and feeling when I put on my stage character with my group Project Mantra.
For weeks leading up to their recent performance at the annual Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival, all I could talk about was how one of my favourite bands currently making music was gracing the stage for a free show in my own backyard. And all I could think about for days leading up to the concert was how would I go about approaching them if I had the opportunity? Would they like my July Talk inspired forearm tattoo? Would they live up to my expectations?
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