Minions, Version 2.0

Well, it's that time of year again. The time when hiring for the semester is just about complete and the brand-spanking new minions are beginning to appear at the desks, fresh-eyed and eager to begin their new career of slavery and torture. It always warms my heart to see them gleefully coming to work on their first day full of joy and hope, only to have their spirits broken and their tiny dreams crushed to death by the monotonous drudgery of customer service and office work.

I think we hired somewhere on the order of twelve new student workers this semester, which is a lot for us. Typically we have about 50-60 student workers at any given time. Of these we tend to lose about 5-10 per semester to graduation, internships, and of course, the occasional giant panda attack.

Of course, the worst part of this time of year is trying to learn the names of all the new student workers. I have a really bad memory for names and faces, and it doesn't help when we have three Britneys or two Chrises, or half a dozen Gorgoth, Devourer of Soulses. I've heard that it helps to try to use mnemonic devices to associate names with facial features or outstanding physical characteristics, but that's hard to do when you never know which bits are going to be hacked off at the next bi-monthly morale building meeting.

Well, in the end I suppose that I'll eventually grow to love this new batch of gremlins and imps just like I have in the past. These things can't be rushed, after all. A true Overlord-Minion relationship takes time, effort, and trust to develop.

Well, that and a big d**n vat of boiling oil.

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Things to Read While You Suffer update:

Circle Versus Square: This is circle. Circle is level headed and patient, and is content to let life come to him at it's own pace. This is square. Square is hot headed and impulsive, and creates complex schemes to get what he wants. Circle hates square. Square hates circle. Everybody hates triangle.

This is a hilarious webcomic about a group of shapes that argue, fight, and try to one-up each other in ridiculously amusing ways. The fact that there's no real art to speak of forces the comic to rely on it's wit, humor, and intelligence to succeed; and it does so beautifully. If you're into some of the more outlandish and intelligent minimalist comics on the web like XKCD or Bonobo Conspiracy, you should probably give this one a try. It only started this past January, so there's not much archive to peruse, but it updates tri-weekly, and it promises to be a good comic to keep an eye on.