Month: May 2025

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What is wrong with companies these days?

Company A publishes an ad for a position.

Prospect B replies to that ad.

Months later

Company A sends email to Prospect B, “Are you still interested? If so, Respond ‘Yes’”

Prospect B responds “Yes”

Company A sends email containing several pages of screening questions to be filled out in essay format.

I found the instructions telling.

Use acronyms only after you’ve explained them.
Use correct spelling and grammar.

Really? They had to specify the blindingly obvious?

Neither parties have actually spoken to each other, human to human.

Next will be a phone preinterview

Then a Zoom meeting and attendant group interview. 

Then there will be no word at all for another few weeks or months, because the candidates are hung up in committee. A Committee it should be noted that is  made up of people who will likely never set foot in the Engineering wing of the corporation, (if they even know where it is).

Just when Prospect B has forgotten about it, Company A will reach out with additional questions from the group interview.

This is what passes for “Efficiency”.

God I miss the old days! 

This shit was so simple and direct. By step three, Prospect B had been interviewed by the hiring manager, a decision had been made, offer letter was in the mail, (as were “Thanks but no thanks letters”,) and the hired candidate already had their company access badge.

Here we are in 2025, communications at the speed of light, more email pumps across the ‘net in a minute than “Snail Mail” in a week.

We have cheap, to the point of being free, global telephone & video conferencing on a scale that was only the fevered dream of futurists 20 years ago and we have “Leading Edge” companies (because all companies are “Leading Edge”), being hobbled by…

Human Resources? Lawyers? Fear of hurting someone’s feelings?

This process should be faster, not slower.

Additionally, because of so many bogus headhunting agencies play similar games I’m always wondering if I’ve got some kind of scammer phishing for information.

So I’m perhaps unduly cautious and suspicious.

In on-line dating, the scams are played out exactly like this too.

“Hey.”
Hello
“You’re really good looking.”
Thank you
“Do you work out?”
Yes
“At a Gym”
Yeah, one here in town.
“What’s it called?
Gold’s 
“Really? That’s my gym too.”
Nice, maybe I’ll see you there sometime
“What city you live in?”
Northeast LA

It’s after 30 more inane messages. You find, the person has no car, can’t afford their rent, and wants you to pay for a Gold’s membership but would prefer a premium Equinox gym package that includes monthly massages & pedicures. Then they send you a “Picture” of themselves which is clearly a well known porn star, and ask you to Venmo them “just a little” cash to keep their phone on.

When you say “Thanks but no Thanks” they get nasty and report you to the moderation council of the dating app and you’re under investigation for not being “inclusive” in your dating preferences. At this point you can infer this person is making their living scamming people on various dating apps.

I agree, job seeking at its basic level isn’t very different from dating.

One difference is that in technology, typically the best folks have zero patience for bullshit. Hmm, that might not be a good example. 

I can speak from personal experience when I say the best technology people I’ve ever worked with, had difficulty connecting with other people. They didn’t understand social niceties, and were very easily bored and confused by human behavior. They felt that the reason a company should hire them was self evident based on their resumes and the choice was clear.

A company hired them for their abilities, to fill a particular need and that was literally all that mattered. They preferred the ultimate meritocracy, in fact they thrived in environments where feelings had no place. It was simply a matter of getting the job done.

I very much lean toward that same philosophy of working environment. I had an advantage in that I had just enough comprehension of normal humans, that I could be an interface between people who didn’t do emotion or feelings, and those who were a bundle of contradictory impulses, desires, goals, manipulation, and feelings.

My function was to provide a window into how normal humans interact with machines and software, test software, and represent Engineering / Development / QA in meetings with people, my less socially adapted colleagues considered rabid chimpanzees.

After particularly difficult meetings with normal humans, it was bliss to return to emotionless labs where all that was required of me, was to analyze binary logic. Something worked or it didn’t.

Reporting that to a really good developer had zero emotional charge. It simply was a fact and the developer would accept it as such, perhaps ask clarifying questions, then put it on their “To-Do” list as a high priority to fix after they were done with the feature they were currently implementing.

Most of the developers I worked with, appreciated my ability to stand in with the “Normies” for them. Equally, they understood that dealing with the cacophony of “Normie” feelings and demands in meetings was exhausting and could intuit my status with a glance. They left me be until I’d recharged in the protected and rarified energy of the engineering labs.

Engineers and developers aren’t ignorant of emotional cues, they simply don’t live every waking moment in emotional discord. They’ll generally protect one of their own or someone like me. It’s not about friendship, or Machiavellian plans. Protection is extended because persons A or B serve a vital function. Clean, impersonal, simple, direct… Binary.

As HR departments have become more interested in psychology, employee engagement & happiness, they’ve alienated developers and people like myself who lean more toward a non-human mindset.

HR departments hate engineering departments. HR creates a party atmosphere for a company event, they have streamers, and BBQ food, give out little trinket awards, expect everyone to enjoy over amplified music in a corporate parking lot and they call this team building.

Engineers and Developers see it this way. Parking is not possible in our usual spot. Will be late to the morning status meeting. Free food > food in lunch bag. Cold packs in lunch bag will not last the entire day. Alternate cold storage will be required, lunch bag will serve as dinner tonight. 11:30 HR function, most of development pod will file out, grab free food & drink, then go back to desks where there is adequate seating and temperature is optimal. Suboptimal music playing in parking lot will be a distraction, headphones required. Metallica playlist available. Fourth order equations for project must be programmed in C or Assembly to be effective. Consult with Alan to determine which path is likely to produce best outcome.

When the “Team Building” event begins, HR expects, and I’ve seen in some cases, demands that all employees remain in the designated party area. Their “logic” is to promote interaction between all departments.

The reality, is that the engineers and developers congregate with each other, plates and drinks in hand conversing about the daily work, project issues, and do not interact with other departments.

Often the software QA group forms a protective picket line between the “Normies” and the Engineering / Development staff. It’s sort of a QA thing, we like our Engineering / Development colleagues and know them well enough to understand social interactions may not be comfortable or pleasant for many of them. We’re tribal and protect our own.

QA & Engineering / Development interact well with each other, but are “strange ducks” in comparison to the rest of the departments. Sales people often attempt to breech the QA picket line in an attempt to gain future product development knowledge that they can sell as “current product” to enhance their sales numbers for the month.

Most, if not all, are intercepted by QA and distracted with questions about the latest sports teams or how their children from various wives are doing in various sports.

Obligatory “Time Present” value expires, Engineering / Development / QA refills plates and drinks then retreats to Optimal seating and temperature inside their labs.

HR is disappointed that engineering was not engaged, but consoles themselves with handing out reward trinkets to Sales/Marketing and Executive staff.

HR then begins planning next company event with further goal to force Engineering / Development / QA to participate.

In this, HR utterly fails to understand that Engineers / Developers / QA are completely different creatures. We’re the kind of people that figure out how to build atomic weapons not because we want to blow shit up or for wars. We do it, because it’s interesting and we’re curious if we can actually make it work.

As a side note, we’re the people that are often guided by a principal loosely attributed to Robert Oppenheimer & Albert Einstein: “Yes, we can do this thing… But should we? Can we be sure that this won’t be misused or cause irreparable harm?“

I’ve been at companies where HR mandated Engineering / Development / QA participation at 2 or 3 consecutive corporate functions. Typically by the fourth mandated function, the Engineering / Development / QA department leaves the corporate campus 1/2 hour before the scheduled event.

During the mandated corporate event, Engineering / Development / QA are all at  the local microbrewery enjoying beer, food, camaraderie, and discussing resume refreshes because the company has come to appear more interested in “cross department team building” than giving them raises greater than 1% or actual completion of new products or projects.

It does not go un-noticed by Engineering / Development / QA that they’re driving shitbox cars while Sales / Marketing / HR are driving new Porsche’s, Teslas, Corvettes, Mercedes, BMW, or Range Rovers and wearing 125K Patek Phillippe watches.

Which leads back to job searches

Company A publishes an ad for a position.

Prospect B replies to that ad.

Months later

Company A sends email to Prospect B, “Are you still interested? If so, Respond ‘Yes’”

Prospect B responds “Yes”

Company A sends email containing several pages of screening questions to be filled out in essay format.

And you wonder why, many Engineers / Developers / QA people are somewhat antisocial.

Well, I must now apply my time to answering essay questions. I wonder if I could get an AI to do it? Perhaps I could, but should I? Sure! I don’t see any irreparable harm…

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Am I getting old and crotchety?

I hate Memorial Day.

That’s not actually true. I hate Memorial Day weekend. All the yard sales draw people into the neighborhood. Even that isn’t a big deal, but the sheer numbers of people are a nuisance.

It’s hard to walk the dog. People aren’t paying attention to the road while they’re driving. They’re looking for signs, and at the goods splayed out in presentations on front lawns, driveways, and inside garages.

Which means they’re driving poorly in the first place, and thankfully slowly for the most part. Where this becomes an issue is if you’re trying to cross a street with a pup that loves everyone and is equally intrigued by all the nifty colorful stuff being displayed.

God help you if someone is selling dog toys!

In short there’s chaos. People parking in the streets, others trying to go about their business and attempting to navigate around various cars and people wandering around like they’re at a mall.

Walking a dog in all of this is a pain. What’s worse is that there are traffic jams and at every street crossing the wait for a break in traffic is a long one.

So it’s with blazing sun and an impatient pup that you wait, and wait, and wait before it’s safe to cross.

That’s annoying. 

Add to that a neighbor across the street screaming and cursing about dogs in the neighborhood doing their jobs; barking at strangers and thinking they’re protecting their owner’s homes or possessions which from their perspective are inexplicably on the front lawn. My stress level starts climbing and I realize I don’t want another summer of this guy adding to the noise.

Several months ago, the crazy lady was apparently hauled off to the booby hatch. Approximately a month prior to that, all of the 20+ Chihuahuas she was keeping were sent to good homes, or the pound. The limit is 4 dogs per household how the hell she had 20+ dogs is beyond me. Well, not entirely. She refused to have any of them fixed. So reproduction being what it is…

It does explain why the dogs exhibited pack behavior and why they were so damn loud all the time.

For a blissful few months, there was no cacophony of noise coming from her place. A new neighbor moved in with 2 huskies who “sing” the world into existence about 7:30am. Sometimes Jesse joins in the chorus for one or two howls, then he’s bored and comes in to check on me.

Lately, he just ignores their morning serenade.

For the last two weeks a next door neighbor has been host to a lady friend and what I presume to be her daughter. That’s his business and I certainly don’t care. Except that the daughter isn’t all there.

Oddly she exhibits the same behavior that “Crazy Pants” across the street did. Equally strange is that her voice is almost exactly a match for “Crazy Pants”.

The voice alone is triggering, but now that voice and nonsensical sounds, singing, yelling, screaming, chittering like a monkey, and all the rest, sounds like she’s in my damn living room.

Even Jesse has taken to laying in the front bedroom just to be as far away from the source of the sound as possible.

Why do these people have only one volume? Loud! This defective human must be seen, and acknowledged otherwise she raises her voice to impossible levels until she is acknowledged. It’s tiresome, and while you’d think, “just be nice,” that’s never enough.

She must be spoken to, and you know what? Sometimes I don’t feel like having an inane conversation first thing in the morning. I sure as hell don’t want to have the same conversation each and every time I set foot on the back deck.

I’m becoming that old guy that is grumpy all the damn time. I’m fighting it, but it’s a losing battle.

For the past week I’ve been working on coursework to obtain a certification in a bid to make me more marketable to potential employers. It’s not been that difficult but it does require concentration.

Especially since midway through the course the bit of software I was learning was so dissimilar from the course materials being presented, that each lab required 20 minutes of hunting and pecking to find the control element the course material said I should see on a particular page. The software in question has changed radically since the course work was developed.

As you might imagine this added a level of frustration. To make matters worse, the differences multiplied three fold by the time I got to the end of the course.

The end was in sight, and the certificate was just out of reach.The first three modules, I scored between 93 and 100 on the module exam. By the fourth and final exam, I scored an 88. DAMN!!!!!

Starting to see the problem? My general frustration level was increasing on a number of fronts at the same time. 

There are a couple more certifications I want to get including one from an international organization for testing professionals. That’s a $250 course and I think I’m going to need absolute concentration to learn the material and pass that final.

Thankfully, I didn’t start that one at the same time because the random screams and badly imitated birdcalls apparently coming from my living room would certainly have annoyed me to the point of becoming a real asshole!

Yesterday evening, I literally couldn’t watch a movie without having the volume at “Sonic Boom” levels. Since the movie had gunfire and explosions the situation was untenable, even with the doors and windows closed. So I gave up and spent more time “exploring” the piece of software that has been giving me difficulty, outside the coursework assignments.

To add another cramp in my style: I like working the deck in the early morning. It’s quite nice to enjoy the morning cool, with a cup of coffee, my computer, the birds singing in the trees, and my dog watching the world while curled up at my feet. He likes the morning “watch” and really likes our time together in the morning sun.

Right up until “HELLO SIR! HELLO SIR! UH HELLO SIR!!!!” The last, at a level that rivals a Saturn rocket taking off.

I feel like MurderBot. My internal dialogue is something like, “Maybe if I don’t answer she’ll go away. Uhhh nope, she really feels if she talks others are obligated to respond. Can’t she see that I’m working? Why can’t she leave me alone? What would she do if I was mute? I need to go check the perimeter. I wonder if she would leave me alone if I was wearing a set of obvious headphones? Maybe a bright shiny set of AirPod Max headphones…“

At least I’m a sir. It’s at this point we exchange pseudo pleasantries and I move inside to continue working undisturbed. Jesse follows me in then lays down with a heavy sigh.

I guess my annoyance stems from the fact that I don’t like someone forcing me into a position where their sense of importance is predicated on my responding to them whether I give a shit about them or not.

Perhaps this is why I loathe the TQIA2S+ abc∏ part of the LGB community. I don’t care if they exist or not. I shouldn’t be forced to validate them.

I completed the course. I got the certificate and it is now listed on my resume and the linked in account for what that’s worth.

All of this leads to a question about the viability of remote work here at the house. I can’t be in a conference call with obscenities and fake whippoorwill bird calls punctuated with screaming.

Remote work will likely involve a lot of conference calls and video chat time. How can I explain it’s nothing, when those sounds will appear to be coming from inside my house?

Which leads me back to the whole issue of being subjugated in my own space by the vagaries of others who have no self control, common sense, or respect for their fellow humans.

That leads me back to being grumpy.

Hopefully, the neighbors lady friend and her defective offspring will be leaving soon. I rather suspect that the next door neighbor is finding this tiresome too.

He’s a voice actor who works from his home. He has a nice studio setup inside the house, but even his soundproofing probably can’t cut out all the noise from his back yard. If he starts missing deadlines due to retakes, he may decide the price is too high.

Am I a bad person for wanting peace and quiet? Has my neighborhood become like the apartment complex I lived in down in Escondido? I don’t have gunshots ringing out 2 blocks over on weekends when rival gangs went to war with each other… yet. But certainly things appear to be going south here in my little mountain community.

If I’m going to have to put up with incessant noise, what’s the point of living here? An apartment in Wyoming, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, or three blocks from my mother and stepfather in Florida would do just as well. A perk is that I could call the landlord when something broke.

I find myself wondering if I’m crazy, just grumpy, suffering from over sensitivity, or are these things that annoy the shit out of me actually valid.

It’s time for bed. I’m exhausted. Once agin, the dog is right.

Tomorrow, I’ll send out the new resume and wait to see if this improves my responses.

While I’m waiting for the rest of the Memorial Day weekend to come to a close, I’ll clean and toss more stuff. 

Remember Memorial Day isn’t about sales, or garage sales. It’s about remembering and appreciating all those who didn’t come home and who believed that fighting for our ability to have a BBQ and shop in peace and freedom was worth their lives.

I guess compared to their sacrifice, my bitching is insignificant.

Hug a soldier and have a nice few days.

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This probably doesn’t bode well for The View

There’s a report in The Daily Beast saying the hosts of The View have been asked to tone it down. Specifically, their political rhetoric and bashing of Donald Trump.

Disney CEO Bob Iger and ABC News President Almin Karamehmedovic had a meeting with the harridans of The View and suggested that viewers might want a little less politics and perhaps more diverse discussions and guests.

Apparently, the hosts of The View weren’t happy about it.

Anna Navarro seemed to believe that the viewers tuned in to hear political discourse instead of a Women’s chat show.

It’s reported, the hosts of The View called the request “Silly”.

The View has been at the top of the ratings (surprisingly,) through the first part of 2025.

My Mother was a regular viewer until the hosts veered into politics full time. Prior to tuning them out completely, she’d switch channels the moment the hosts started shrieking and talking over each other, (her words, not mine).

My mother was a big fan of Barbara Walters. She stayed with The View for years after Walters left the show.

I think the ladies at The View are missing the handwriting on the wall. Their constant ranting may be becoming a liability. Prior to the 2024 election, the hosts of The View had to issue multiple retractions on-air over some of their comments. The trouble with retractions like that, is they’re meaningless. No matter what’s being retracted, it’s been said and there are a ton of folks who only hear the statement, not the retraction. (Hmm. That’s kind of like distributing misinformation. Isn’t the Left adamantly opposed to even allowing misinformation?)

It’s likely the show is keeping a cadre of lawyers busy, which no doubt increases production costs.

Other reports alluded to some FCC involvement as well. How true that is, I’m not sure.

Media, has paid a dear price for misrepresenting Trump’s comments. CBS is being sued for election interference due to their editing of the Kamala Harris interview.

ABC has also felt the heat.

Now with the wheels coming off the cover-up of Biden’s mental and physical state during his presidency, and Jake Tapper’s book. I wonder if Disney and ABC are looking at ways to limit their liability.

Cancellation of The View might be in the offing if the hosts choose not to tone it down.

Honestly, that might be a good thing. 

“The view spew”, seems to be reflected directly in the anti-Trump protests. The question is whether The View is accurately reporting the protestors opinions, or creating them.

Yes, when Trump screws up it should be reported. That is true of any President. However incredibly biased reporting shouldn’t be tolerated.

We know for a fact, based on recent revelations, that media was running cover for President Biden, for at least a part of his presidency.

It’s reasonable to assume that as polarized as things are, that same media will take any opportunity to bash and attempt to destroy anyone that they disagree with. A.K.A. Donald Trump, Conservatives, Republicans, etc.

A fundamental question that should be asked, and answered; what is The View? Is the show a news show with journalistic integrity, or is it a chat show for entertainment? The two have very different expectations and rules.

Honestly, I wouldn’t mind seeing The View cancelled. I’m no more interested in what those screeching harridans have to say, than the man in the moon. Yet, even though I don’t watch the show, I’m assaulted by their inane opinions anytime I read the news.

Men typically, and executives specifically, don’t look kindly upon people who don’t get the hint. If their “silly” request isn’t taken seriously, and it appears it was not, then I suspect cancellation or not renewing contracts is in the works. Does Joy Reid ring any bells?

Perhaps I could be interested in tuning in to their last show. The wailing and gnashing of teeth should be epic.

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Oh FFS! Have Conservatives and Republicans lost their damn minds?

To be clear, I have an intense dislike for James Comey. It started when he was demanding Apple provide the FBI with backdoor access to iPhones to make it easy for the FBI to engage in illegal searches and surveillance of citizen’s phones.

I felt at the time that his demands were antithetical to the protections afforded by The Constitution against illegal search and seizure. I still feel that way. Then he protected Hillary Clinton over her illegal email server and destruction of evidence. All the while facilitating investigations of people who disagreed with Obama.

People who were exercising their rights by attempting to start grass roots political organizations because they felt that neither the Democrat or Republican Party was serving the best interests of the people. A.K.A. Folks who called out the government at large and Obama Administration in particular.

The guy is an absolute douche bag. He should have been tried for his malfeasance and if found guilty put in prison. At the very least he should have been forced out of the FBI much sooner than he was and faded from public view.

All that being said, this latest controversy over 8647 is complete and utter bullshit.

Anybody that’s been around a bar on a Friday or Saturday night knows exactly what 86 means. If a bouncer threatens to 86 you from a bar it means you’re going to be asked to leave. Usually for the night because you’re too rowdy, but in extreme cases, you can be 86’ed permanently.

Comey knew that. He can’t be that stupid, and if he is that stupid, he should never have been the director of the fucking FBI.

This wasn’t a death threat, it wasn’t a call to do harm to the President, it was a simple exercise of free speech. (You know, the First Amendment?) It’s well known that Comey doesn’t like President Trump. I don’t care if he simply took a picture, or if he positioned the stones himself. He’s entitled to exercise free speech, as are we all.

The message is simple. 8647 means throw Trump out of office. That’s it. Reading anything more into it is just stupid.

This is no different than wishing to throw Obama out of office, or Biden, or Bush, or Clinton, or Nixon. There have been, and always will be, people that believe the President sucks and it’s their right to say it.

Conservatives and Republicans making a big deal out of this simply debases both groups to the same level of stupid as their Democrat and leftist counterparts.

Comey is an asshole. That’s been obvious for a long time.

The rest of us don’t have to be assholes, nor should we drop to their level.

I think this whole thing is nothing more than part of a smoke screen to obscure that Congress isn’t getting enough done, Biden was never in control of the government, and the leftists are gearing up for another “Summer of Love”. A.K.A. riots and looting disguised as protests.

We need to keep our eyes on the ball. Regardless of where any of us stand on politics. We all know something is deeply wrong and our country is / has been in trouble for a long while.

Continuing on as if nothing is wrong does not serve us. What does serve us, is trying to make things better by trying different approaches, then keeping what works, and tossing aside those ideas that don’t work.

I’m ready to see DOJ indictments against those people who have been the architects of this mess we’re in. I think a great starting point is with Congressional members who have been in power for 20, 30, 40, or 50 years. There’s a lot to suggest that many members of Congress have failed their duties, The People, and their oaths of office, while becoming wealthy in the process. All of which should be actionable in a court of law.

It’s also time for plans to be drawn up to ensure once our government is cleaned up, this sort of thing can never happen again.

My personal short list is:

No more Congressional stock trades.

All members of Congress shall be under oath to the American People at all times, under penalty of immediate imprisonment. No more lies!

Term limits similar to those of The President.

Members of Congress using the same medical coverage as The People.

No more of Congress voting to give themselves raises.

If the Government shuts down, so does Congressional pay. I’d even be in favor of Congress losing 2X their daily pay for each day the government is shut down.

No more paid lobbyists. No more big campaign donations from corporations, unions, or anyone else.

Level the campaign/elections playing field so that all candidates must demonstrate their ability to budget and win their elections on merit, not funding.

Congress shall turn in a balanced budget and may not recess until they’ve done so.

No more pork bills. One bill, one issue, one law, at a time. That makes repealing ill conceived laws a hell of a lot easier.

Mandatory reviews of laws and immediate repeal of laws which have negative unintended consequences.  

Just to list a few ideas.

Though I obviously don’t speak for all Americans, I’m personally tired of Congress kicking the can down the road, playing with Trillions of tax dollars, drinking champagne and eating caviar at beltway parties, while people like me are down to eating one meal a day.

I’d also say it’s well past time for James Comey to be 86’ed from the airwaves. Why are we still having to put up with his bullshit?

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The first two episodes of Murderbot got me hooked.

Murderbot action figure.The show is well done and Murderbot’s inner dialog is hysterical.

Of course I’d identify with Murderbot, my inner dialog is a lot like his. 

“Humans are idiots!“

“Oh what now?“

“Eye Contact? I should have gone with the acid bath“

Alexander Skarsgård in the first two episodes was great. Simultaneously playing an android that is generally annoyed by people, and portraying an innocent fear of being found out.

The premise is that he’s managed to hack his governor programming and now has free agency. He doesn’t have to obey humans anymore, yet the alternative if he’s found out, is termination.

Technically he’s a “Rogue” android, but rather than slaughtering humans who have technically enslaved him, he’d rather watch soap operas from the corporate satellite feeds.

Being a security android, it turns out, he can do both. Generally keeping an eye on the idiotic humans at the same time as he’s watching his shows.

And if the humans figure out that he’s rogue, well, he can kill them later.

Apple had better have Murderbot action figures in their stores by Christmas! In the opening sequence for the show, the Secunit factory looks like they’re already have the necessary ray tracing for a 3D printed action figure.

Hell, I’d pay for a Murderbot voice and personality for Siri. Especially if it was voiced by Skarsgård.

Obviously, I’m looking forward to the next episodes.