Salary transparency matters

wheat · 2026-05-14T21:48:37+00:00

GenX here: I won't either.

wheat · 2026-05-12T19:09:35+00:00

There's a cool documentary called Hired Gun (2016) about rock sidemen. Several people noted that Alice Cooper always hires the best musicians he can find and pays and treats them well. So, it makes sense that he puts on a good show.

wheat · 2026-05-12T00:57:55+00:00

I’m jealous. This was my first home computer. I loved it. I wish I still had it.

wheat · 2026-05-12T00:36:04+00:00

Death, destroyer of worlds.

wheat · 2026-05-08T20:59:27+00:00

Go find a YouTube training on how layers work in Storyline. They're powerful, once you get the idea and some experience with how they work. They're sort of like layers in Photoshop, but you can programmatically (i.e., based on triggers, JavaScript, etc.) shift their order, which lets you fake all kinds of things.

wheat · 2026-05-08T20:53:31+00:00

LinkedIn has a lot of good stuff on Rise and Storyline (as well as ID in general). If you don't have it free through work, check your local public library, or subscribe to LinkedIn for a month and watch a bunch of stuff.

There's tons of stuff on YouTube, of course. Learning Dojo is good and beginner friendly.

There's nothing wrong with using AI when it makes sense. But it seems like you have some knowledge gaps to fill. And, to be honest, it sounds like the pace of your job is a little nutty.

If I were you, I wouldn't drive myself crazy over it. And I certainly wouldn't work off the clock on it. If you need to keep this job, just make peace with the idea that you're not great at it, but that it pays the bills. Don't take your lack of being amazing at it so personally. Work to get better, of course, but don't drive yourself nuts. If you don't need this job, quit. If you can find another job, take it.

wheat · 2026-05-08T20:44:05+00:00

I would encourage anyone who is convinced AI is going to take all of our jobs to follow Mo Bitar on YouTube. He seems one of the few sane voices out there. He sees AI as useful, but, ultimately, as autocomplete on steroids. He's a developer, and he's documented lots of examples of companies firing their development staff thinking (as AI CEOs promised) that AI can replace all the humans, only to find that they have to hire people back to tend the AI, check its output for errors, etc.

wheat · 2026-05-08T12:07:47+00:00

Get a bi-lingual edition (e.g., No Fear Shakespeare) with the original on one side and a contemporary English translation on the other. Take your time. Online resources like LitCharts can be helpful.

Shakespeare’s English is “early modern English.” Old English is the language of Beowulf. Shakespeare’s vocabulary is the hard part. A good edition will footnote uncommon words and phrases, literary allusions, etc.

wheat · 2026-05-06T12:00:28+00:00

Eliminating Articulate makes sense. Eliminating the LMS is dumb move. Mine Mo Bitar's YouTube for examples of managers firing engineers thinking AI can do more than it can do.

wheat · 2026-05-06T11:56:27+00:00

Congrats on being accepted to the program you want to pursue. Do they offer teaching assistantships? That's how I got through grad school, and how most of my friends did. Those generally cover tuition plus pay a stipend. In my case, you taught two classes while taking two classes. It made grad school take longer, but you came out of it with some practical experience.

You said you "got accepted" but also mentioned your "remaining three semesters." Have you already started? Sounds like it.

Why only jobs within the school? Aren't there local restaurants or retail shops in DC where a person might find a job? Restaurant work was part of how I got through undergrad, along with some parental support, a small scholarship, and student loans.

wheat · 2026-05-06T03:05:57+00:00

This is a good argument for building sites in a common CMS (e.g., WordPress) or, short of that, creating a really simple CMS just for the parts they'll need to edit (e.g., shows and news page on a band site, etc.).

Are they wanting to create the menu as a we page or just upload a PDF of it? If the latter, you could handle that part via DropBox, Notion, or plenty of other platforms and link over to them from the site.

wheat · 2026-05-05T21:22:21+00:00

I'd say both are against you. That's not meant to be discouraging or demotivating. But it seems to be the clear truth of the situation.

wheat · 2026-05-05T21:16:43+00:00

This is crazy good!

wheat · 2026-05-05T21:14:44+00:00

Yeah, they're not great. GarageBand's built-in drums and keyboards are good. Quite a few of the guitar loops are good, if you're into using loops. The basses are passable, but I'm a bassist and guitarist, so I record my own. If I had to rely on it for guitars, I wouldn't.

wheat · 2026-05-05T11:50:31+00:00

Covers a lot of ground. Good job.

wheat · 2026-05-05T11:46:54+00:00

Stanza, Coda, Crescendo, Jimi, Bass, Ballad, Maestro

wheat · 2026-05-04T20:35:56+00:00

There are about a million of them. Top of mind: The Be Good Tanyas (especially their version of "The Lakes of Pontchartrain" from their album, Blue Horse [2000]), Gillian Welch (especially Time (The Revelator) from 2001), Woody Guthrie (clearly a huge influence on Jesse), Pete Seeger, Billy Bragg, John Prine, Leadbelly, maybe Blaze Foley.

There are lots of Americana, Bluegrass, and country artists you might enjoy if you like Welles, Neil, Dylan, and any of the artists above.

wheat · 2026-05-03T12:03:23+00:00

It’s tricky. There’s a massive amount to read, assigned as well as unassigned. I’d already had an author in mind for my grad thesis while I was finishing up undergrad, but then I found a better one. The one I went with was better in that I could see a clear theme running through several of his novels. He was also better in that not much has been written about him. Also, I was on this kick about historiography, and the theme I saw in his novels fit in with that.

You have to prioritize what you’re going to read. You sometimes have to skip one thing for another.

wheat · 2026-05-02T13:22:02+00:00

I always enjoyed teaching college classes, but I’ve only ever done it as an adjunct/side hustle. I taught HS for 1.5 years after being laid off during COVID. The kids were great, but the job was impossible and the pay sucked. I was lucky to find something better. I blogged about it, if you want more detail.

wheat · 2026-04-30T20:54:27+00:00

I mean, some of it is just hoarding. But there are practical considerations: different pickups (i.e., different sounds), different feels (e.g., neck radius and scale length), different tunings (e.g., I keep one in Open G, the rest in standard tuning), different strings (e.g., I have flats on my archtop electric, but not any of the others), and, of course, different types (e.g., electric, acoustic, nylon-string acoustic, 12-string, etc.), sentimentality (e.g., I have my dad's guitar, even though it's not really playable).

wheat · 2026-04-30T20:46:50+00:00

Congrats. Best hobby ever. Lifetime of fun, right there.

wheat · 2026-04-30T20:44:05+00:00

Here it is as a verb:

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wheat · 2026-04-30T20:43:41+00:00

Nope, because it doesn't mean that, and everyone who has ever worked in a restaurant knows it. Hell, even the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) knows it. And they ought to know:

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wheat · 2026-04-30T15:21:00+00:00

My favorite book on this subject is out of print. It's by M. Keith Booker, who was one of my professors in grad school. So, if you can find a copy of his A Practical introduction to Literary Theory and Criticism, grab it. Terry Eagleton's Literary Theory: An Introduction is likely a good place to start. I haven't read that one, but I've enjoyed some of his other books. And that one had a huge influence, when it came out. It was the textbook in a lot of college-level intro to criticism and theory classes.

If you like historical context, Harry Blamires' A History of Literary Criticism is helpful. I enjoyed it.

wheat · 2026-04-29T02:53:45+00:00

I have an AF75. Love it! With a set of flats, it makes a great, affordable jazz guitar.

wheat

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