Thread 18 - TalkLair: "That's no moon. It's a space station!"

[RasaSayangEh]

(Previous thread 17)

We've had our heatwave - is this it for the summer? All is lush and green in our LairGarden, flowers are blooming, berries are ripening...

In the TalkLair, all the windows are open, the Pimms is chilled, the MN massive salad is ready to serve. The denizens of the lair are a welcoming bunch, always eager for general chit-chat on all manner of topics. We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

I'm sorry @RasaSayangEh - I was distracted by the first part of your post and didn't get as far as the grandmother news. I hope your generation has been able to come to some sort of agreement.

No consensus despite much agonising and numerous lengthy international FaceTimes, but uncle who is nearest to grandmother has insisted on his preferred option so that's that. For now.

But meanwhile if anybody wants to have their gobs well and truly smacked in the most satisfying way, follow this thread:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5439713-absolute-cf-i-know-ianbu-but-sharing-anyway?

Oh I saw that. Some people just have no regard for how the rest of the world see them, do they? But perhaps that's the modern way? It's worked for Donald Trump.

I read that too and my ghast has rarely been so flabbered.

In other news, on of the neighbours has raspberries fruiting. In November, outside and in Newcastle!

There are raspberry varieties that fruit in autumn, SinnerBoy.

That was a very strange thread, the woman demanding £50 sounded deluded. Shame we didn't hear the end of it, though.

Apparently all raspberries will fruit in autumn if they are cut down to the ground at this time of year. Last November, our raspberries were only cut down halfway (Gardener didn’t understand what I meant) and they fruited in the summer whereas normally they fruit in the autumn.

It was interesting having the fruit in the summer – not only was there just too much because all my other soft fruits are producing fruit at that time of year, but the pigeons also ate them, and broke the branches. They don’t tend to eat them later in the year. I’ll be cutting all of mine down this weekend.

Last November, our raspberries were only cut down halfway (Gardener didn’t understand what I meant) and they fruited in the summer whereas normally they fruit in the autumn.

I've done that when I want more raspberries, PoppySeedBagelRedux. It can work well.

In more self-pitying news, I find myself struggling with a work issue (not a major one, but I think my resilience reservoir is a bit low right now).

As happens every year, I'm supervising a couple of students in their final year project. This year's project is a bit unusual in that the students have to work together to prepare and deliver it, and as part of this they have to demonstrate that they are managing it themselves with only limited oversight from me. As the term has gone by, I have discovered that one of the pair is very proactive and go-getting but the other is (how can I put it nicely) somewhat lacking in gorm. At our previous project meeting, the students had agreed that Go-Getter was going to prepare XYZ part, and Gormless was going to put together a video presentation. It has taken Gormless much longer than projected to do this (plus missing a couple of project meetings due to sudden ill-health ) and finally this afternoon she emailed me the video.

So: It is terrible. I don't mean the images or design are terrible (although they are rather). It's that the video barely tangentially touches upon the material she is supposed to be delivering. And it doesn't fulfil the brief of the project in terms of target audience either, e.g. project requirement was for degree-level material and the video (plus script) is at CBeebies level. [Sort of like, if you had to explain the physics of the internal combustion engine and you made a pretty drawing of the countryside with some cartoon smiley cars in it and mentioned that they have engines which use petrol.]

Also, the video doesn't even cover the length of script she sent with it. Which I know is like complaining "The food was awful and the portions were too small."

I know what I need to do is bounce it right back with a polite version of WTF is this shite. But I just closed my email window and went to make a cup of tea. And will stick my head in the sand until Monday.

Ouch that’s tricky @RasaSayangEh . At least you’ve got the weekend to think how to phrase “WTF is this shite” in a professionally acceptable way.

over here I am still in the throes of flu A, with which I as diagnosed after being tested at the doctor’s on Wednesday, having felt ill since Monday evening. My temp of 102F (sorry they don’t do C over here) has now gone down to 100.4, but I am still coughing non stop and feeling generally shitty. I also have diarrhoea, which is very odd considering I’ve eaten practically nothing solid since Monday. Still, not all is bad because I’ve lost about four pounds, but I don’t recommend the flu diet as a way to do this.

@RasaSayangEh ... You know you're fully integrated Oop North when you start riffing on "gormless". "Somewhat lacking in gorm" sounds like something one of the two eldest Nottinghamshire aunties (from within 10 miles of Bawtry, so more Yorkshire than Notts) would have said. God, they were ruthless, very funny, and always took my side against The Maternal Unit.

@RasaSayangEh that's going to be a toe-curling conversation but it's got to be done. Glad I'm not in your shoes, it sounds horribly awkward to the extent that my first thought was 'just burn down the department'

Hell yes @Vegemiteandhoneyontoast , I'm thinking that burning down the department would be my preferred way of dealing with this! I showed DH the video last night, hoping for advice from a more experienced and senior manager - he just burst out in incredulous laughter and ran away I'm seriously wondering about asking ChatGPT to help me write a response.

Poor you @Britinme, sending wishes for rapid recovery

Ha, that's what Mr Veg would do, a room-silencing belly laugh and then leave the room. If it was me, I might start by saying that I wasn't sure she'd understood what the task and go from there. Please tell us what happens!

"In its current state, this doesn't meet the project brief. I'd advise you to rework it substantially (list of things to change) to reflect the work that both you, Ms Lack-Gorm (obvs that's a lie) and your partner, Ms Gormful, have put in to date."

Also, start with less personal stuff such as content and errors of fact, and move onto things that may be more personal, like tone, later. I used to do this a LOT with proposals and reports at BigCo.

@SqueakyDinosaur that's much better than what I said, not surprising given I have zero experience of such things.

Do use ChatGPT. I find it very helpful. But do edit the response.

@Britinme I really feel for you. Do rest as much as you can. Hopefully Mr Brit will be supportive.

I've had a bit of 'discussion' with Copilot which has turned my WTF is this shite into something civilised, and this is the current state of affairs (despite my edits, I always feel there is something detectably GenAI about the language and sentence structure):

"Hi Gormless,
I hope you're well. I’ve looked through your script and video and I like the graphical style and fun cartoon visuals - they’re engaging and should appeal to the audience.
I think it may need a bit of revision, though, as the scientific content feels quite light. Since the goal is to help undergraduate students understand the physics of internal combustion engines, it’s important that the explanations aren’t too simplified or overly childlike. It would be great to include clearer explanations of key concepts like the thermodynamic cycle, energy conversion, and the roles of components such as pistons and crankshafts.
Would you be open to revising the video to bring in more of that core content? I’m happy to discuss ideas if that’s helpful.
I also wonder if you’ve sent a short version of the video as it doesn’t quite align with the script you included."

PS: I don't like the cartoon visuals but they're not as important as the content, so will let that slide.

PPS: My DC made better, more scientifically accurate and informative animated videos when they were in secondary school.

PPPS: Obviously, the project isn't about the internal combustion engine.

PPPPS: I'm still inclined to go with "burn the department down"!

Don't about anyone else but 'fun cartoon visuals' are included in serious work it makes me cross. It's too Noddy Goes to Town and feels infantilising. Get rid of it, stick to the subject and be clear.

Ye gods, all those typos in my comments! My excuse is that I'm wearing a weird support thing on my left hand, because of a sprained thumb, and it's making me clumsy.

I’d start with the key stuff about making the content accurate and at the level appropriate required to meet the brief and do justice to the work they (mostly the gormful member of the partnership) have put in and finish by commenting on the design and cartoony elements by saying while these would work in other settings they are not appropriate for an undergraduate level audience.

Or burn down the department, obvs.

Thing is also that this video is only a small part of the project, so Go-Getter actually has plenty of stuff to be getting on with and Gormless too needs to move on to other tasks on the list. I'm only meant to be providing oversight and the students are to manage their own roles, but I don't think Go-Getter should be taking on things that Gormless was supposed to be doing.

I believe that the cartoony theme was sort of agreed between both of them, as Go-Getter's work in progress also has some of the same cartoon characters - but used effectively to illustrate the scientific point, IYSWIM, so I have let it slide as they're supposed to be doing this project their own way.

Are they undergrads or Masters students, @RasaSayangEh? I'm very much hoping the former.