Some of my coworkers...sigh. They are good at what they do. But when faced with a new problem, completely lack initiative. They have worked with this particular system for 20ish years, I barely know how it works, but I'm troubleshooting it and telling you to try something?bDoesn't bode well for Completely New System we're likely getting before the new year. Just...try. A little bit. Don't "I canna" at the first hiccup.

Is there anything to be read between the lines that "seminal" means "important" and also something male-specific?

As my mother would sometimes say. "Oval. What? It doesn't have to be seminal to be important."

I think I still own ovalworks.com, but it's not being used.

Kinda loving your mom, ita.

You guys! My daughter just wrote a beautiful poem for her English class. It's some technique called a found poem. I assume you middle and high school teachers have heard of it before, but I hadn't. You take a story and pull out lines and plot elements that speak to you and turn them into a poem. OMG, hers is just so evocative and lovely. She's amazing.

That's wonderful Burrell.

I just spent 6 hours taking apart and trying to fix a vest one of my students had sewed. She works without me and made a small but catastrophic error that now means I have spent more time fixing it than I would have sewing the vest. She trimmed the seams so I had to go back to the original pattern and draw the seam lines in so everything would be even. I wish she could work when I can work because she has a lot of potential, and I could teach her how to avoid these things, but this is really unhelpful to me.

Ugh Sophia, what a PITA.

I have so much work to do, but I feel like getting enough sleep is more important than staying up late to work, so early to bed for me.

Aw, that's so neat that you like your daughter's poem, Burrell!

Tom, better the stripe than that it got hacked and someone already spent all your money?

So I woke up unnecessarily early, and came to work ditto, but I actually think that means I'm going to be able to get my shit done in a timely manner! I have multiple things that HAVE to get done today, so that's good.

I still want to curl up in a ball and cry, frankly.

So, apparently, buying something at the Apple store — which I do several times a year — in the city I live in — gets flagged as suspicious activity. Also, attempting to withdraw cash to make a purchase after said debit card purchase gets rejected will get flagged as suspicious activity too. Wankers.

Unrelated typography question — spaces before and after an em-dash: yes or no?

No spaces.