Technology thwarted me today, as it often does. Someone wanted to present from Google Slides. How does one go full screen in Google Slides? I didn’t know. I didn’t even know Google Slides was a thing until this came up in conversation. The presenter says “I need a youth! I need a youth to help me!”

She was, herself, about 24 or 26.

So I guess it’s encouraging to see that sort of thing kicking in at ever-younger ages. (Bodes well for, say, 2045 or so.)

About this same time, and in no way related, Facebook announced they’d gone Meta. I care less and less, beyond the extent of how people aren’t paying attention to how Facebook/Meta are deliberately behaving as bad actors in the online space.

This is where your standard issue fictional dialogic character leans back, waiting for my Facebook and 2045 joke, but I would say, no, this isn’t important, because Facebook isn’t liable to be here in 2045.

And that fictional character I’m carving out of soapstone to advance the point would say, You’re kidding, right? They’re huge!

“Sure,” I would say, “and so was Sears and Roebuck. And now the Sears Tower is the Willis Tower.”

Then the make believe person, really helping me move this point along, replies, But no one knows it by that name. Everyone calls it the Sears Tower. No one even knows who Willis is.

“And don’t you think that’s Facebook’s goal here? Also, Willis is a London-based insurance brokerage concern. This might also be Facebook’s goal.”

And my completely invented person sits back and thinks about all of the bad plates of unhealthy food and all the photos of poorly regulated bungee jumping and unsupervised spelunking and out-of-code electrical wiring jokes they’ve made on Facebook over the years, because this character is an electrician who is an adrenaline junkie, and they sit back in a deep and sad silence.

After work today, having set up another studio shoot (and, somehow overseeing the setup of a reception) I took the recently new and even-more-recently broken toilet seat back to Menard’s. I said last night, as I was looking for a bag to carry it in, that I hoped some surly old man was working at the customer service desk, rather than some cute young person in their first or second job. It just seemed like the sort of thing you could talk your way into with a tired old guy who’s seen it all, done it all, and just wants to get off his feet at his next break.

But it was a young woman who looked like she was fresh out of school.

“I hope,” I said as I was trying to remove the seat from the bag I was carrying it in, “this is the weirdest thing you have to deal with today.” I explained the problem. She took the receipt and punched a few keys and printed out a receipt that showed the return as a credit on my debit card. She could not care less.

I think that means it wasn’t the weirdest thing she’d dealt with today.

I drove home in the rain, but with a few bucks back in the bank account, to have chili and to prepare for tomorrow. I have an interview in the afternoon, and a few small things after that which will wrap up three long weeks. It’s going to be a good feeling.

And that’s not even saying anything about the chili!

Here’s the third episode of the B-Town Breakdown. I think they’re starting to have fun. And, I don’t know how you feel about tortured spellings as clever wordplay, but the IU Even A Fan segment is becoming must watch for me.

The desk show, all the highlights of the last week, and a look ahead to the weekend’s sporting activities around IU:

And here’s the other talk show. This week’s topic: uniforms. You won’t see any, so bring your imagination: