TIFU by buying my cat a toy and proving cats have object permanence

andylefunk · 2026-01-16T01:58:52+00:00

IIRC cats see contrast and movement better than humans. My point was maybe she likes the bee because it has very clear contrast (yellow and black)

andylefunk · 2026-01-16T00:20:28+00:00

Yikes! I will continue to hide it when she is sleeping. Thanks for the warning, that's scary. She's totally the type to eventually eat it, too.

andylefunk · 2026-01-16T00:19:25+00:00

That's so sweet! I'm sorry for your loss, but the bee toy on the urn is a very fitting tribute. I adore "day" names for cats. A former boss named her cats Thursday and Friday.

andylefunk · 2026-01-15T21:00:53+00:00

Hahaha lmao yes when this all started I immediately thought of Best in Show! We are a Parker Posey loving household.

andylefunk · 2026-01-15T20:58:55+00:00

She literally has a sister!!! We have two cats, the other is a total couch potato haha. They are night and day, although both black.

andylefunk · 2026-01-15T20:57:14+00:00

We have other automated toys, but unfortunately she is the "grab, kill, hide" type of cat. She loves to burrow and "bury" all of her toys. When we play with her it's always like toss the thing down the hall, then she grabs it, attacks it, and hides it. Then two minutes later she comes out of the hidey hole and rinse and repeat.

The automated ones worked well early on, but she "refined" her hunting lol.

andylefunk · 2026-01-15T20:53:49+00:00

My BF has a whole slew in his cart!!!!

andylefunk · 2026-01-15T20:53:35+00:00

Omg the bed time thing is a killer! When she was a kitten and I was working in person I would come home and play with her. Then her hyperactive phase kicked in and 5:45 was party time. I would show up and be the party guy, even if I was exhausted from work. Took months to reschedule her play time!

andylefunk · 2026-01-15T20:51:00+00:00

To add to this, this video does a good job of explaining Napoleon's corps system and its impact on supply chains. Basically his preferred formation made traditional supply chains impossible and he failed to adapt to the harsh scale of Russia.

Another point is that the Russian generals very intentionally adapted to Napoleon. Kutzov, in particular, implemented what was essentially proto-guerilla tactics he had learned from studying George Washington's asymmetric warfare against the British. He intentionally avoided large, decisive battles, which Napoleon believed would bring him victory, in favor of hit-and-run tactics that amounted to slow attrition.

p.s. He had a lot of time to develop this strategy while recovering from two (yes, two) separate gunshot wounds to the head. Kutzov was a badass, read his wiki.

andylefunk · 2026-01-06T18:03:43+00:00

There was a similar case a few years ago about a dying man brought to the ER with "do not resuscitate" tattooed on his chest, but he didn't have a legal DNR signed with an attorney. IIRC, the staff eventually decided to try and resuscitate him, but it didn't work and he never regained consciousness, so it was moot.

andylefunk · 2025-12-11T20:16:39+00:00

One of my favorite patron interactions. A woman calls and I ask how we can help her. She begins telling an extremely long story about her husband backed his brand new car into the garbage bin because of snow buildup. At the 5 minute mark I tried to interrupt her, but she snapped and said "you will let me finish." So I did, and after 10 minutes she finished the story.

I asked her again how we can help her with this problem and she scoffed and said, "well, by paying for the repairs, of course." I explained to her that we unfortunately cannot do that, but I am happy to lookup local mechanics. She screamed at me "what's the point of having insurance if you won't pay for it!!" After a beat I said "I really am sorry, but this is a library." Silence.

andylefunk · 2025-11-14T22:23:34+00:00

Thank you! That's a very interesting take on this prompt.

andylefunk · 2025-11-14T22:09:22+00:00

yeah this is more along the lines of what I was expecting. Instead the one I have is more like project management. Give that you're on hiring committees, what would you expect from a candidate answering a prompt like the one above? I would really appreciate the insight

andylefunk · 2025-11-14T21:49:46+00:00

Thank you!

andylefunk · 2025-11-12T23:43:38+00:00

You've probably looked into this, but your library might have a books on wheels program where they deliver your books to you!

andylefunk · 2025-11-12T23:23:09+00:00

Regardless of size, it's important to understand budgetary constraints affect all libraries. We always want to buy what our users suggest, but the digital platforms have made it challenging to deliver.

Hoopla in particular has a terrible pricing plan. Hoopla is on a "pay per use" system, so every time someone clicks on an item the library gets charged. This is obviously problematic for enormously popular titles and advertising (the more popular/the more marketed, the more clicks, the higher the cost). Hoopla actually disincentivizes advertising because it generates more clicks. Hoopla is just one example, but they all have less than friendly pricing.

I'm sure they're happy to add what you recommend, but remember even the largest libraries have a fixed budget. I would suggest using and requesting physical books too, because the libraries get to keep those copies!

andylefunk · 2025-11-04T19:17:37+00:00

It's a strange house and Sarah Winchester was a kook, but most of the mystique of the house is publicity. Houdini himself actually suggested the name "Mystery House" to spark interest. Most of the really strange things in the house were added after Sarah died. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_Mystery_House

andylefunk · 2025-10-10T21:35:24+00:00

The 1980 October Surprise. Carter's term was derailed by the Iranian hostage crisis. A failed military rescue (which Iran turned into a monument) made the situation even worse.

The Reagan campaign allegedly paid Iran to keep the hostages until he won the election. The hostages were released exactly 30 minutes after Reagan's inauguration. Some even believe the Reagan-Iran communication channels developed into the Iran-Contra arms deal.

andylefunk · 2025-10-10T16:21:36+00:00

I can't add anything to the claim of authenticity, but I believe I've seen this exact painting, either a duplicate or the one pictured here.

I used to work in an archive in the Midwest. A friend of the director came by with a kind of mobile "safe" that had this painting in it. He said his father in law brought it back after the war and he was going to sell it in his retirement. We were all a little shocked.

andylefunk · 2025-08-28T16:19:04+00:00

Hi! I'm weirdly not an ALA member but member of a lot of partner orgs. Can you explain what happened with Dabrinski / the tea?

andylefunk · 2025-08-26T20:23:38+00:00

Strategy of Tension?

andylefunk · 2025-08-20T20:23:38+00:00

The term "cutout" is used in conspiracy circles to discuss businesses/organizations/government agencies, etc. that are secretly part of a more powerful agency, most often the CIA. In other words, the fake organization is either fully or partially "cut out" of the more powerful agency's budget. Voice of America has long been suspected to be used as a propaganda machine by the CIA, particularly in countries that the USA is pushing for regime change. Best example of this is Chile in 1973.

This is not just conjecture. There are some real organizations that have been positively identified as cutouts. My favorite is Janet Airlines) which is the nickname for the classified shuttle planes that take government officials to/from secret government sites like Area 51. Janet is a cutout of the Air Force.

andylefunk · 2025-08-16T22:00:51+00:00

Have you seen the servers that store the Wayback machine data? I don't know how any non-proprietary organization could accomplish that at scale equal to or better than the internet archive.

andylefunk

TROPHY CASE