thank you for the birthday wishes

Suzi! In the Draw Something game, I really appreciated the Pi pie you drew for "crust." (Or was it "piecrust"? Either way, the pi symbol made me giggle. I wish that game let you do screengrabs.)

What is Junior Achievement? They seem to come to my kids' school all the damn time and as far as I can see it's some capitalist indoctrination gig. Am I wrong?

I'd say more entrepreneur, but that's a quibble. When I was in high school, I asked for more info on JA in response to a card. Instead of giving more info, they assigned me to a company. Tungsten was involved, if I remember.

What Consuela said, Allyson.

Junior Achievement is a capitalist indoctrination gig, but it can be a useful and interesting indoctrination. I was a JA adviser a million years ago, for students who were putting out a city-wide high school paper. I like to think they learned a fair amount about ad sales, planning, making a profit, and writing and editing.

I am frequently tempted to write to a business owner: "Your website sucks. It is offending my sensibilities. Pay me to redo it, and the internet will be a better place." It is Not Done, though, because what it implies the business owner is too stupid to realize his website sucks. The same is true when a real estate agent says, "If you had been smart enough to hire me, your house would be sold." Tacky.

I actually did JA in high school. It was part of an Economics class we had to take. Because I also had to do Christian Service as part of my Junior year thing, I ended up teaching Business Basics at a grade school near my house. This led to me being picked to go the annual JA jamboree (or whatever it was actually called) at the University of Indiana.

All I remember of that week is that I saw a tornado on the way there, my counselor looked like Patrick Swayze and half of us got food poisoning from the campus cafeteria.

If there was any indoctrinating going on, I don't think it stuck.

And why should you assume you'd humiliate yourself?

Oh gosh, I didn't tell you guys what happened in my last interview. I was asked what I thought about the class where I had to bond with a rock. I was honest about it, citing examples, the NAS findings on the weird qualifications of the trainers and methods, and the cheap carny tactics used throughout the morning.

The person interviewing me was a big proponent of the rock bonding class.

FAIL.

I mean, no, I don't think it would work out between us if we have that sort of divide, so it was good that we got that out on the table, but I felt kind of like a jerk.

The other job I think may not be welcoming to purple hair and tats. But, you know, they do call me in to answer the phones every now and again, so they must know that, right?

This cracked me up:

Hilarious: Domino's e-scooters get safer with man-made engine sounds

Domino's Pizza comes up with some pretty wacky ideas. (Exhibit A: moon base.) The latest, called Safe Sound, comes from the company's Netherlands arm. The electric scooters the company uses there are basically silent, which can be a hazard to pedestrians. Solution? Record someone saying, "Vrooom!"

How quiet electric vehicles are is a real danger to pedestrians, bikers and even other motorists, as all of a sudden that two-ton hunk of metal and plastic you're driving is whisper-quiet, as well. The sound of an engine serves to inform everyone around that, hey, you're about to get into a crash and/or run over. As a result, companies have been going back and forth one what's desired: a sound loop that mimics a combustion engine, or something else?

Domino's scooters probably weren't doing a bunch of damage, but it's a clever and funny solution. You know, for like five minutes, before that sound becomes super annoying and suddenly it's the Domino's scooterist that's in danger.

The video is great--just someone driving the scooter around while bicyclists and pedestrians crack up over the silly sounds it makes.

Five high school students build a BSG Viper flight simulator for the Makerfaire.

I mean, no, I don't think it would work out between us if we have that sort of divide, so it was good that we got that out on the table, but I felt kind of like a jerk.

Whoops.... So maybe stick to shorter, less-committal answers to start this time?

No segue. Does anybody have an update on ita?