Basically every episode of Columbo. The mystery isn’t the crime, but how he’s going to solve it.

On the other side of the spike wall in an inner moat. I presume the inner spikes help trap people and creates a kill zone. Also arranging spikes in an X pattern is simple to produce.

Space Jam, for sure.

I really love when RPGs give unique dialog options based on non-dialog skills.

For example, if you are spec’d into a certain class of weapon you unlock dialog with a relevant vendor. Or if you have a high gambling skill, your character can talk about the finer points of gambling.

Taking this a step further, reactivity from having accomplished something requiring application of these skills allowing unique dialog.

This can all either be unique flavor dialog, dialog that gets the conversation to where it would have gone anyway, or dialog that opens up new quests or quest resolutions.

Always keep an updated resume. If you are at a current job and accomplish something or get some kind of skill, put it on the resume or a word doc. Just keep everything up to date so that when you leave you have material to work with. Similarly, make sure to have contact info for people who will have your back. (Not like most places actually call, but it never hurts to be prepared).

When actively tuning up a resume for a job search, I’ve always been told to keep it just to one page. Having many pages of bloat has been told to me to be turn off. I usually have made variations of a resume during job searches to cater to different jobs by highlighting different relevant topics.

Know what kind of work and environment you are most comfortable with when looking for a job. Know what kind of downsides you are willing to accept. Some jobs with unique downsides like weird schedules, travel, or some sort of physical demand can have upsides in terms of valuing people who don’t run off. Of course, sometimes those jobs have downsides and don’t value employees, so I suppose you have to feel that out. If it is a job requiring special skills plus having the downsides it is more likely to value you.

Naturally, don’t trust interviews where the place is trying to oversell you on the job. Don’t trust places where they highlight things like a nice break room over actual benefits.

If you are going through a job agency, you often get temp-to-permanent offers. These are often sketchy, where they string along the temp contract workers with the promise of a permanent position but never serve it up. In my experience, both cubicle grunt work and entry level manufacturing do this a lot to people. On the other hand, some temp-to-hire positions are legit, and the temp time is basically a probation period that the company wants to be done with if the person is a good fit. In my experience with this, look around the workplace to see if they have any other temp people getting strung along, look to see how specific your value is, and look at the overall size of the company.

FWIW, my current job was a temp-to-hire situation. I was initially skeptical, but the interview sold me. Much of it was the boss who did not sugarcoat the downsides to the job, to be very clear with what I was getting into and what was expected, and make sure I was okay with it. There was a short kind of demonstration walkthrough of what I could expect. All this gave me the signal he was looking for a good fit and not just a warm body. My temp period was “up to” six months, but got cut off at about 3 when it was clear I was ready to stay.

No, but it was a good suggestion. I had a whole cache of photos to sort through, and just happened to get to the armor before I saw the comment.

Good tea.

Bad parenting is a Star Trek tradition. Remember Worf’s son? Because Worf didn’t.

Since I sat out the last few of these, here’s my go.

Best one so far.

I recently had a cashier call another one over for a purchase issue of mine and referred to me as a “guest”. It felt weird. I was not a guest. I was trying to exchange money for goods and services and leave.

I don’t know what corporate big brain came up with the guest terminology, but it feels weird from every angle.

There is always going to be a divide between people who have done restaurant closings and those that haven’t. Some people who haven’t done it will not see any issue with showing up 10 minutes to closing and ordering everything on the menu. You can’t change their minds.

The last time I was traveling and absolutely had no choice but to go into a Chiplote 20 minutes to closing (it was the only place for miles still open), I made sure to be flexible about only asking for things that hadn’t been put away already. I ended up getting what seemed like quad portions and free chips. Be nice to servers and they are nice to you.

Focused.

A little from quadrant A, a little from quadrant D.

Racks phaser

“Cargo bay’s haunted.”

I went to Pamela’s Diner and it was super underwhelming.

It was a little bit underwhelming. It was clear the lion’s share of money went the the U.S. Civil War displays, which were decent. From there onward the displays decreased in quality and size. It was obvious this was an overgrown Civil War museum that was trying to cover all eras. The display cards in Civil War exhibits were often lengthy and thorough, but by the modern era there was maybe a single sentence for most items.

The supposed modern displays were showing stuff from 2005 at the latest, and there were small mistakes or mistake-by-implication in the display cards.

I actually laughed when I noticed it in person.