Thursday, May 25, 2023

Murderbot Recovered

New coworker mattdamon told me that his favorite robot is Marvin, from Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Murderbot, in Martha Wells's Murderbot Diaries, is a self-aware organic/machine construct with a sometimes snarky sense of humor like Marvin, I told mattd. I said I'd lend him the first diary--All Systems Red (2017).

 Two years ago I wrote 12 posts I tagged "Murderbot"--several of them about trying to envision the character.
The art on the dust jackets is unimaginative and unhelpful--it makes Murderbot look like a Star Wars character, and I read it as white and male ("Sorry, neither", as Uhura says--Murderbot has no gender). I'd taken the jackets off, but I'd saved them.

Last night I replaced the original illustration with a photo of a United Nations soldier from National Geographic, November 2019.
Too specific--would be better if the helmet shield were down--but much better.

 
I got in an argument with Ass't Man after the staff meeting yesterday. He was playing the "Blame Everyone Else, I'm the Victim" game he defaults to. I told him basically to man up. He got mad and told me, "You are hard to be friends with". (This isn't about friendship, it's about work). And I ended up telling him to fuck off.

Yeah, not my finest hour. This is not how I want to be--not because it's "not nice"--I don't care about that--but because it's ineffective.
But NOTHING is effective in a workplace that rewards passivity and discourages innovation.

I ignore the managers if I want to do anything (like putting the colorful rug down--all three managers said they liked it, but if I'd asked them beforehand, I believe they'd have said no, we should sell it).

There's another meeting to create an SOP next week. Groan.

I do best if I keep my head down and focus on Toys & BOOK's.

It was a stupid day. I came home and ordered a girlette with one shoe from eBay.

3 comments:

  1. oh wow! that sounds like something i would have done.

    some stores will put up photos of the banned people -- perhaps here in the back of the store. i think they do it to let people know that they are serious about safety/shoplifting in the store.

    one of the bookstores in DC that i frequent had a banned for life photo up behind the cash register. this person refused to wear a mask when asked to.

    some customers will be very happy to see any actions taking place. what the managers may not realize is if you don't do anything about it, the customers who wouldn't normally shoplift will do so because they never see anyone stopped.

    kirsten

    ps lovely parents setting their children on the path of crime.

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  2. what a day- I do believe that you may be the only effective brain user in the lot.
    Another girlette gets a home full of adventure and thoughtfulness. Yes, follow the girlettes.

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  3. Glen and I just had a long conversation over breakfast a few days ago with Lily and Jason who both work at Publix about shoplifting. The deal at Publix is is that managers and workers are not allowed to confront a shoplifter. That is the rule. And basically, once you're out of the store with the goods, it's not possible to truly accuse a person of theft and besides that, people can get out of a parking lot faster than a cop can get there. So a whole lot of people steal stuff and just walk. Publix writes it off.
    So Lily saw a guy stuffing ribs in reusable shopping bags and he was crazy enough to say things to her like, "Yeah. I love these bags Publix sells. They keep things cooler." This brought the guy to her attention and she reported it before he left. When he was leaving the store with his full bags without paying, everyone was like, "Hey! Can we help you load your groceries on the belt?" And that worked that time.

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