Will we ever learn?

Since fall is almost upon us, we thought it would be nice to have some fall themed activities for kids who come to Tartarus. We picked some leaves and this apple:

Easy, right?

With time issues, we decided to have Newton do some prep work for us. Remembering the firefly incident, we thought it best to leave very detailed directions.

We left this list:
     1. Trace "a"s on white paper
     2. Cut leaf shapes from dark green paper
     3. Cut red, yellow, green, and lime papers into small squares
     4. If you're unsure of anything, just check the picture or ask one of us

Plus, we left a copy of the above photo and even gave verbal directions to Newton.

This is what we got:

While there were other squares, we didn't want any dark green

These leaves are the wrong shade of green, though perhaps we could have worked with them                                                                                       

These are most definitely not green.

And in what universe do apple leaves look anything like this?

So firstly, shame on Newton for this abysmal interpretation of directions. And shame on us for expecting anything better.
 

What's the point

When Spoof arrived at the main desk today, there was a huge mess. Newton, who was scheduled to volunteer first thing this morning, never showed up. The Mosquito, who was working the desk at that point, did not do any of that work. The Mosquito could also have called either of us to the main desk to handle the extra work. Clearly, that did not happen. Spoof had a few thing to get settled, then intended to handle the extra work.

Then, along came the Hutt.

Looking at the mess and at Spoof like this.

This was their conversation:
   Hutt: Looks like you have quite a lot of work to do here.
   Spoof: Yup. I didn't know Newton didn't come today. Nothing got done this morning. Maybe the Mosquito should have told me.
   Hutt: It's not up to the Mosquito to tell you. You need to do a better job of getting those things done. Don't leave things for Newton.

(At this point, Spoof, who had been trying to stay calm, lost it)


   Spoof: You're only saying that because you like the Mosquito. I should have been told. Are you saying we shouldn't leave any work for Newton anymore?
   Hutt: If you can't handle it, I guess not. *
   Spoof: Then what's the point of Newton even coming here?

And all the Hutt did was glare at Spoof for another minute, then stomp away.

As always, of course, this conversation didn't begin with a reasonable tone of voice. The Hutt started out growling at Spoof and ended up yelling.

Can't. Contain. Rage.

*Specks note - When Spoof told me this I said 'what does that mean'. We can't figure it out

Holy overshare, Batman

Do you remember Newton? Our volunteer? The one who can't cut for beans? Yeah, we have another story about Newton for you today.

So, Newton comes in this morning to sign in and immediately excused himself "'cause I have to use the bathroom." Hey, pee whenever you want. We don't care. No big deal, right?

Ten minutes later, he comes back. "Sorry it took me so long," he says.

"Don't worry about it," we say. All we want is for him to sign in and get to work. 

But no. Newton is having none of that. "Sorry," he says, "it took me longer than normal because I had to go number two."

Ewww. Bad Newton.

No no no! What possesses someone to say a thing like that?! And of course that wasn't the end of it. He came back repeatedly for paper towel to wipe the sweat off of his head. Really, though, the over share alone was enough to turn the whole day the wrong way.

Why do we put up with this stuff?

They Did Fine

This upcoming event may make heads explode. After the issues we had with financing (see our previous Mo post) we thought things were finally settled. With less than a week before the event, we thought we'd spread out the work a little. Spoof and Speck can only do so much. Since the program has a nighttime theme, we thought it would be fun to have some fireflies on the walls. With that plan in mind, we asked the Mosquito to have our volunteers, Newton and the clone, make some for us.

This is what the fireflies were supposed to look like:

 Simple, right?

This is what we got:

We try not to be hypercritical but Newton and the clone are both pretty artistic people. They're capable of something much better than this. We ended up throwing away all fifty that they'd made. 

When the Mosquito heard about it the response we got was "I thought they did fine." 

Seriously?!! What about this is fine? 

Let the brain exploding begin.