Tom Coffman

For today's #HappyMondaySurvey, tell me about something you were expecting to be far more of a hassle than it actually was.

#HeyTomWhatchaPlayingToday?

Amy and I just playing games while she's staying at her dad's as he recovers from a surgery. Today's games? Wingspan, Machi Koro, and Welcome To.

She won the set 2 to 1.

Yesterday Greg and Cindy hosted a wrong party. The goal is that we all dress for a different party or event. We had people dressed for a beach party, a pajama party, a tea party, an Indian wedding, a country line dance, a pirate party, and several others, but I was there for the wedding party.

Today's crazy Edgmont story: some of my students told me they were expecting me to be mean when they first saw me. Which they admitted was mostly based on being tall and having that evil genius beard. I guess it's good to be misread.

#HeyTomWhatchaPlayingToday?

Lightning Train and Twinkle Twinkle!

Maybe a particularly unusual or difficult application process, maybe you got offered a job that you couldn't or no longer wanted to accept in the end, maybe you applied for one job but ended up with a different one. Whatever it is, got any fun stories?

I have job updates, but I'm also waiting for a few details to be confirmed first. But until I do, it's got job stuff in my head, so for today's #HappyMondaySurvey, I just wanna hear some stories about job applications.

Legal question for the crowd: does anyone know what the status of noncompete agreements are now? I was under the impression Biden enacted something essentially saying they were now unenforceable, but I'm not sure if that's still the case.

...while it's all figured out now, it meant that I got a chance to give a detailed explanation to someone's IT department on how it could have been avoided. Because when the process itself gives you a chance to demonstrate a skill you already claim to have on your resume, you always take it. (2/2)

I've been applying for new jobs, and one of them was a paraprofessional job. There was an issue with the application process involving having been set up two different accounts to submit my application, both assigned to different people without the other's knowledge, and... (1/2)

#HeyTomWhatchaPlayingToday?

Power Grid! Due to the high player count and blocking off places, we ended up very nearly going from phase 1 directly to phase 3.

For today's #HappyMondaySurvey, we all know you're interested in supporting the revolution, or at least suppressing the bad guys, so I wanna know what you're doing about it besides just being loud on social media.
And yes, I'm also asking because I think it'll help all of us do more.

#HeyTomWhatchaPlayingToday?

We had Clue Conspiracy, a social deduction game set in the world of Clue, and Seven Prophecies, a trick taking game where you had to predict your overall ranking on each hand. One was a lot better than the other.

Today's crazy Huntington story: one of my students referred to the books she was working out of as "from the 1900s" as if to say it was old, and I feel like pretty much everyone above a certain age is gonna feel personally attacked.
That said, for educational material, she might have a point.

I haven't done a deep dive into today's news yet, but I stand by what I said earlier: we should have abolished ICE while we had the chance.

I'm not saying he's basing things on a board game. But I am saying they've acted on dumber logic than that, so it's not out of possibility.

The board gamer in me wants you to know that Trump's actions around international conflict make more sense when you realize Russia (by way of Kamchatka) and Venezuela are two of the three entry points to North America on the Risk board, and the third goes through Greenland, another place he wants.

(And if you can feel free to substitute another work-com show if you have a better example elsewhere, or just like that show better.)

And then we've got characters like Pam or Stanley, who see things as just a job and mostly seek their fulfillment elsewhere.
With that in mind, the question is this: which of these characters do you see as embodying the qualities and attitudes you have, or want to have, in terms of your job?

We've got Michael, who's pretty much centered his whole life around his job because he believes in it that much. We've got Jim, who wants his job to be fun, yet knows when to goof off and when to be serious. We've got Dwight, who's good at his job because he goes all in on everything he ever does.

For today's #HappyMondaySurvey, I'm gonna borrow a thought exercise from my therapist and one that's pop culture related.
There's a TV show most of you know, The Office, and one of the interesting things about it is that the characters have some pretty different attitudes about their job. (1/3)

On that note, #HeyTomWhatchaPlayingToday? King of Tokyo before all that, then Isle of Cats, Machi Koro, and 12 Days!

Today I had originally set up as an event for the local polyamory community to go to an escape room, but I didn't get enough people on board. Instead, I called in some impulse plans with friends we made on Halloween and got previously proposed plans back in action.

So we've progressed from kidnapping random people from other countries to...kidnapping world leaders from other countries? Did I get that right?

#HeyTomWhatchaPlayingToday?

Jokkmokk, then Living Forest. And if activity on SOBA counts, I'll be teaching the group Concordia a bit later tonight.

No context theater: "In another time, with another crowd and in other weather, I would dance naked around the flame to seal the deal."

Remember when we said during Thanksgiving that Amy's family stories get told so often that we need to play family story bingo next time they host a family event? Well, we were absolutely prepared to follow through on that.

I haven't been much for Christmas over the last 10 or 15 years, but I also don't mind admitting driving around aimlessly through various residential areas looking at Christmas displays makes for a good low-cost date activity.

I haven't looked through the Epstein files closely myself, but these seem like highlights to me.
www.justice.gov/.../DataSet%...
www.justice.gov/.../DataSet%...

Fun idea for later: we should get some of our musically inclined friends to do a karaoke mashup session...by which I mean, you pick the music of one song, but sing the lyrics of a completely unrelated song.
Have fun choosing songs whose meter matches up close enough, but content definitely does not.