#Cash App Customer Service | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

akisteahouse · 29 days ago

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TWST characters working in a diner! Featuring HEARTSLABYUL!

RIDDLE ROSEHEARTS

is one of the managers of this fine establishment(lie).

is Not Okay

forever yelling at the staff(Cater, Ace, Floyd…) to DO THEIR JOBS!!!

takes his job way too seriously

nearly burst a vessel trying to rearrange the staff schedule shifts because everyone just told him the days they couldn’t come instead of doing it themselves - hahahahaha he was stuck in the staff room for about an hour rearranging everything, only for one of the main culprits(Kalim) to tell him that he didn’t need to change his anymore because he cancelled his party(forcing Riddle to unravel the seven other people’s shifts he had to reschedule).

takes full AP subjects in high school, straight A student and also somehow a seventeen year-old single mother of twenty-one(all the other staff)

refuses to acknowledge the weird dynamics this causes with his seniors at school.

‘Let me speak to your manager!’ the nice staff beg rude customers not to, because one does NOT want to deal with manager Riddle in a foul mood. (others grin and yell out his name.)

goes and locks himself in the staff toilet to break down during his fifteen minutes - times it by the second and everything, crashes out for no longer than two minutes and forty-five due to some obscure Queen of Hearts rule.

TREY CLOVER

friendly server that’s a hit with most customers because he actually remembers their names.

great under pressure demanding or rude customers but tries his best not to call manager Riddle for anything because he knows Riddle will lose his temper in .9 seconds and dealing with irritating customers are easier than dealing with an angry Riddle.

one of the staff that ACTUALLY does his side work. some of the lazy mfs attempt to get him do their side work, but he’ll only do it if they have a good reason which most of them don’t, so

here for the part-time cash and that only

Riddle didn’t know why Trey didn’t sign up to be a line chef at first… turns out, he can’t cook for shit <\333333

forever wearing his customer-service smile(being Riddle’s vice-Housewarden does irreparable things to one’s mind)

talks with literally everyone if he’s free, formed a strange work-wife relationship with Jade…no one knows why or how

laid-back father figure of the group… when someone upsets Riddle somehow they go straight to him.

had to clean the staff toilets as his side work once, walked in to seeing two pairs of feet under one stall, heard giggling, and immediately walked out.

a mystery, to this day…

CATER DIAMOND

another friendly server!… who greets every single customer cheerily, even the regulars he’s served from the start, with “Hey there, you!!”

“Taking my fifteen now!” “Wait didn’t you just take it -“ “Nope you must’ve succumbed to the voices!” “Wait what -“ “Bye!”

changes his shift every three days <\33 (the shared google calendar fears him)

steals fries from the line cooks because who can say no to a pretty face <33 (he can tell when Floyd’s willing to spare him a few fries and in return he lets him borrow a few of his sisters fashion magazines)

never, EVER wants to do his side work,,,, always begs Trey or Silver to do it for him, citing some random reason.

“I have to go home early today!” “Why?” “Um… it’s my sister’s wedding?” “Your sister is nineteen.” “Her birthday it is, then!”

once went to the staff bathroom to have his weekly mental breakdown and found Idia in his usual stall, crouched down playing on his nintendo.

introspected for a good bit with Idia while Riddle shrieked in the background because he was missing a server.

also held a seance in the staff bathroom once with Lilia and Kalim for funsies, accidentally invited a spirit called Yuu to stay so now there’s another coworker yay!

DEUCE SPADE

the diner’s busboy/delivery boy because Riddle found out that using drivers from delivery apps took 15% of the cut and didn’t want to talk to the restaurant owner about the missing costs so busboy Deuce got promoted!

the old ladies love ‘im - always pinching his cheeks and telling him not to hunch when he cleans tables or he’ll get scoliosis <333

helps carry the heavy crates of restocked food to the kitchen, unknowing of the fact that it wasn’t in his job description </333 (Riddle assumed he wanted to be helpful, Jade gaslit him into thinking it was in his contract, and Jamil never said anything)

got the job because he was worried about his mom <33333 darling momma’s boy

tries so so hard to keep it under control whenever he’s around rude customer, and he usually does! until the customer says something bad about one of the other staff members, oh then Deuce is ready to throw hands! (Trey and Leona had to yank him away from a customer when he cussed out Epel for spilling their drink during rush hour)

another poor soul that had to clean the staff toilet as his side work once, went in to a completely pitch black bathroom and heard not only ominous noises, but ALSO giggling that seemed to come from a bathroom stall.

Deuce walked out extremely fast and now always begs one of his staff friends to come inside with him if he ever has to clean the staff toilet again(most of them refuse).

ACE TRAPPOLA

ah, the second busboy of the diner!

joined purely for the extra cash(and the opportunity to hang out with his friends)

TRIES to steal food from the linecooks, but unfortunately the two out of the three of them are his club's seniors… tough luck, amiright?

the neighbour grannies don't seem as fond of him as they do Deuce, but kids ADORE him

^^^^mostly because in order to evade DOING HIS JOB he plays card tricks to entertain the kids

one of the slackers that Riddle has to yell at to “STOP TALKING TO EPEL AND GO CLEAN THAT TABLE - oh good morning ma'am, table for three?”

despises doing the side work but fails to get out of it, every single time </33

one of the JERKS that asks someone to cover his shift last minute, giving Riddle his 13th reason :))) (for the nineteenth time)

heard way too many rumours about the supposedly ‘haunted’ staff bathroom, but whenever he went there in his hours, there would only be Yuu, some new server there :/

(never wondered why he never saw Yuu actually working, just assumed they were skipping)

SOMETIMES helps Deuce with deliveries if the diner's online orders are particularly swamped, but doesn't have a driver's permit, so he just bikes - sucks 2 suck, I guess </3333

listen I had a vision I HAD A VISION

#disney twst #ace trappola #deuce spade #riddle rosehearts #trey clover #cater diamond #twst ace #twst deuce #twst cater #twst trey #twst riddle #disney twisted wonderland #twst crack #twst shitpost

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alkalineleak · 5 months ago

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Commissions are open on Ca$h app and paypa!l!! If anyone ks interested please DM me! 3/3 slots are currently opened!

1. You can contact me on discord (aaaabattery), Instagram (crisanto.blooms), Twitter (battsleak) or Tumblr (alkalineleak)! I can't promise I'll respond immediately, but I will try to respond as quickly as possible.

2. I am chronically I'll and experience fatigue, this means that commissions may closed or take a long time to complete. Please be patient and kind.

3. Please be respectful! I will not tolerate rude behavior, and reserve the right to deny or cancel your commission. If this behavior continues, I will block and blacklist you.

4. Do not use my art for any commercial use such as merchandise, book coverage, etc. Profiles and banners are fine since it's personal use, just credit me! The same goes for reposting the art I commissioned, just tag me an or credit me!

5. I reserve the right to post and include all the art I make into my personal portfolio since I still own it. If you don't want the art posted, please tell me and I'll hear you out!

6. Do not submit my art to any AI or AI engine, I do not appreciate my work being stolen and claimed by someone else.

7. Listed prices are the base price, they can increase based on additional details and complexity of the commission.

8. I have every right to deny a commission if I do not meet the skill level required (as to protect customers) or falls under subjects that I will not do.

9. Please provide visual references when commissioning me as it makes my work a lot easier and means I can better fulfill your request and avoid unnecessary mistakes.

10. During the process of commissioning, I will attempt to regularly send updates so that you may request alters or changes. Having to change any major parts of the commission post sketch phase (which I will approve with you) will enquire a fee. Once a piece is past the sketch phase, only minor edits are allowed for free.

11. Do not rush me, but if a commission is time-sensitive, give me two weeks in advance. If you consistently pressure me on completing a commission when I have clearly stated my limits, I reserve the right to cancel or deny a commission.

12. In the rare event that I feel I cannot complete a commission at all, I can give a partial refund depending on how much I've completed. (I will keep 25% of the total cost minimum.)

13. When I am finished, I will message you full res png files of the work, and watermarked .jpegs for social media posting.

FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH A TOS CAN RESULT IN BEING DROPPED, HAVING YOUR COMMISSION CANCELLED OR DENIED, AND BLACKLISTED.

Higher res images of the drawings under the cut

#batterys drawing again #commission #art commissions #dms open #art comms open #art comms info #commisions open #digital commisions #digital illustration #artist comms #comms info #art commisions

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spikedfearn · 1 month ago

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ROSIEEE do you work in property management too???? girl how do you balance writing and doing this stupid ass job 😩😩 any time I get a crumb of inspiration, a resident or a prospect walks in and I lose it completely lol. any tips would be very helpful!! 🫶🫶

no worse…I work at Walmart 😭 specifically at the customer service desk, which means I get the full horror buffet: returns, waste hazard disposal, AND we’re the money center, so I also process financial services like money orders, check cashing, bill payments, domestic and international money transfers, and the occasional customer meltdown over $4.82 (we had to call cops on this geriatric loser last week lmao on average I speak with our local PD like 2-3 times a week, it's ridiculous 😭)

but wait—there’s more! I’m also cross-trained in cosmetics, lawn & garden, electronics, automotive, and the fuel station, so I’m constantly getting pulled to cover breaks across the store annnnd, since I'm the closing associate, I also act as a stand-in team lead when my closing team lead isn't around so I have to do things lkke field complaints, delegate tasks and breaks, etc while running the desk/money center. All for shit wage too 💀

so when I say I write in the stolen scraps of my life, I mean it. I write on lunch, after shifts, in my car, in the notes app while pretending to process claims—I am feral and clinging to fiction like it’s the last piece of driftwood in the ocean. But my advice is this:

steal time—during breaks, before and after work (depending on your hours), a moment between customers/clients! I write messy drafts in my notes app or on receipt paper

voice memos—too tired to type after work? i ramble ideas into my phone and transcribe later

keep a no-pressure doc—a private space where nothing has to be good. just vibes. I will also write a summary of everything j want to happen in the fic so that I have a clear vision in my head

reread your own stuff—reconnect with why you care. even skimming old WIPs can reignite the spark!!

most importantly, learn to forgive yourself—some weeks you write 5k, some weeks 5 words. And that's okay, any progress is good progress and I don't shame myself for it anymore. Being too drained to write is not a failure of discipline, that's just late-stage capitalism trying to smother your creativity!!

You’re not lazy. You’re tired. But if the fire is still there, even a little? Feed it however you can. You don’t need perfect conditions—you just need to keep touching the work, even gently

#sorry for the essay!! hope that helps!!#ask

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hollowg1rl · 26 days ago

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Taking commissions! More information and examples of my work under the cut.

Status & Slots:

Status: OPEN/CLOSED/WAITLIST One commission equals one slot- so if one person orders three pieces, that person fills up three slots. If all slots are taken you may ask to be put on the waitlist.

Slot 1: Open

Slot 2: Open

Slot 3: Open

Slot 4: Open

Slot 5: Open

Waitlist Queue:

Ordering & Pricing:

How to order:

Send me an email: Include the text form somewhere in the message consisting of your order information:

GENERAL INFO:

Your name:

Your e-mail:

Type/category of commission:

How many characters:

Any specific wishes/details you want included:

Background:

CHARACTER(S) INFO:

Character name:

Character personality/description(s): Please submit everything you have on your character that you want me to have in mind when drawing them - also characters from series since I might not know them. You can also send me a YouTube link to a video portraying the characters' personality.

By sending this order I confirm that I have read and accept the terms of service for commissioning “Hollowbackg1rl”.

All above information is required in the email to request a commission.

I reserve the right to deny your request should the confirmation of agreement to the Terms of Service is not including in the original email. You will be required to resubmit a new request with the confirmation before I will proceed.

You can place multiple orders in one email, just include the above info multiple times. Please include reference images of your character(s). If there is anything specific you would like me to draw inspiration from (i.e. environment for background or stock images for poses) please include them as well. If you cannot provide reference for the character (meaning you only have a text description), an additional $5 will be added to the price.

Send your order to [email protected]

Payment method:

PayPal or Cash App

About commissioning me:

Before you order, make sure to have read my Terms of Service in its entirety. These terms apply to private commissions only. This information is NOT applicable for commercial work, therefore the art can only be used for the client’s personal purposes.

All prices below are base prices. Things that might increase the price are complex character designs, number of characters, not being able to provide a good visual reference, complex backgrounds and amount of detail in the image in general.

Prices

FULL BODY - Line Art Only $55+

Additional Characters: +$30+ each

HALFBODY - Line Art Only $45+

Additional Characters: $30+ each

PORTRAIT - Line Art Only $40+

Additional Characters: $30+

Color+Shadow - $20-$25 additional

Additional Requests and Complexities - $15+ depending on complexity, discussed with client prior to quote

Meme Redraws - $50+

Quick Doodles - $15+

Standalone Weapons - $30+

NSFW - $150+

Backgrounds - $20+

Price increases with complexity and detail

Character Sheets - $100+

Base Price Includes: Front and Back view, one(1) head detailing, custom iris, flat color

Do’s & Don’ts

Feel free to contact me with any questions, concerns or clarification regarding this list.

✔ Will do:

Humans

Children

Creatures

Anthro-esque

Limited Furry

Couples/ships of any gender

Fanart

Original characters

Any sexuality (+Limited NSFW)

Gore

Meme Redraws

Weapons

Armor

Tattoos

Clothes

✘ Will not do:

Certain NSFW

Hate art

Imitation of other art styles or artists (direct mimicry of another artist's style, I can still use them for inspiration in your references)

Extreme Gore

Mechas or Highly detailed Robotic characters

Underage

Incest

1. GENERAL TERMS

All drawings will include a subtle sign or watermark that you may not remove.

I reserve the right to record the drawing process and post it on my YouTube at any time.

Prices are subject to change with notice.

I have the right to reject any order that I do not feel comfortable drawing for any reason.

All art will be protected to fight against Generative AI.

I do not consent to my work being fed into Generative AI, DO NOT FEED MY ART INTO ANY GENERATIVE AI PROGRAMS.

2. PAYMENT

Currency accepted is USD and can be paid through PayPal or Cash App.

Commissions can be paid either 100% upfront or split 50% upfront and 50% after sketch approval.

Don't send me any payment before I have agreed to give you a slot and requested you to send me the payment.

3. PROCESS AND DELIVERY

I will notify you when I have started on your commission and you, therefore, lose the rights to a refund (see point 7 further below for more info on refunds)

While I am working on your commission, I will check in at various stages to ensure it is what you want.

The amount of communication depends on the complexity of the work.

During the communication, you will see the work-in-progress and these images will include a watermark.

The time it takes to finish your commission varies: 1 week - 3 months depending on factors such as health, the complexity of the commissioned piece, and other work.

If anything comes up that will slow the progress of the initially estimated delivery time I will send you an email informing you of the delay.

Once the piece is compete you will receive the full-resolution image along with a web-friendly size. Note that there is no physical product.

4. REVISIONS

Three(3) rounds of revisions to the commissioned piece are included in the price.

A fee will be added for each additional revision on the commission.

If you wish for me to change something in the drawing you have previously approved, there will be a fee to change it. The amount of the additional charge depends on the change you want me to make.

If your reference is unclear from the start, changes will come at an extra fee. If I find your references to be unclear, this will be communicated in our emails.

5. COPYRIGHT / USAGE POLICY

I, Hollowbackg1rl (the artist), claim the rights to the produced drawing, not the buyer. Therefore I am allowed to use the copyrighted artwork to:

Display it on any and all platforms

Promote myself with it on any and all platforms of my choosing

Publish books with it (artbooks, etc.)

The buyer is allowed to:

Use the commissioned piece for personal use unless agreed otherwise (you may upload it on all of your social media profiles, forums, etc.)

Print the artwork and claim the character(s) as your own, but not the artwork itself.

Use the artwork to promote yourself. You are not forced to give me credit when you post it but it is appreciated.

Use the artwork on your YouTube channel and in monetized videos as long as the artwork itself is not the main subject for the earnings.

The following is considered copyright infringement:

Reproducing/using the copyrighted artwork commercially

Claiming the artwork as your own

Removing my signature from the artwork

Altering the artwork without my consent

I reserve the full rights to the image and it's use/distribution unless otherwise agreed upon (rights to the image for commercial use may be purchased at any time).

6. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

I will do everything I can within reason to make my customers happy!

If you have a problem with anything in regards to the commissioned piece, communicate that to me right away so we can find a solution together.

If you do not want me to post your commission publicly, we can discuss this before I accept your commission.

7. REFUND / CANCELLATION POLICY

The buyer is not allowed a refund once I begin work on the commission.

If for any reason I am unable to start your commission, you will receive a full refund.

If you cancel your order before I begin work on it, you can get a full refund.

If you are getting a refund, do not request a PayPal chargeback. I will transfer the money back to you myself.

If you request a PayPal chargeback at any point when you were not allowed to ask for a refund you will lose all before-mentioned rights to the commissioned piece and I will retain the full right to profit further from it in any way. I will decline the chargeback and supply PayPal with our conversations in which we talk about the commission as evidence that I have completed work for you. Furthermore, you will be blacklisted from commissioning me again.

If the buyer breaks any of the terms stated above, they will lose all aforementioned rights to the artwork commissioned from me, Hollowbackg1rl (the artist). I will retain the right to profit further from the commissioned artwork in any way I see fit. These terms are non-negotiable.

What do you get?

Drafts/mockups that you must decide which one I should continue with (depending on the complexity of the commission there may be fewer or more drafts within reason)

Sketch and/or final sketches that you must accept before I continue the work

Insight and involvement in color palette (depending on the complexity of the commissioned piece)

Full-resolution file of final drawing and a smaller version for internet upload. Final file formats are usually PNG.

By purchasing a commission from me (Hollowbackg1rl) you agree to be purchasing my services only. These terms are non-negotiable.

Please read the following terms carefully:

I, Hollowbackg1rl (the artist):

I reserve the right to cancel and refund the order at any time for any reason.

I retain all copyrights over the commissioned work unless otherwise discussed.

I will NOT claim the intellectual property (IP) of the commissioned artwork.

I will NOT profit further from the commissioned artwork unless you (the customer) break any of the terms of the agreement.

I reserve the right to post the commissioned artwork online, in my portfolio as well as in publications such as art books, unless otherwise discussed.

You (the customer/commissioner):

You may upload the commissioned artwork on any website and social platforms.

You may NOT profit from the commissioned piece (reselling, redistributing, uploading to Print On Demand services, etc.)

You may NOT alter the commissioned artwork without my (the artist's) consent.

You MAY be allowed to sell the artwork if it is a part of an Adoptable. Please discuss this with me prior to paying for the artwork.

You retain the rights to the intellectual property (IP).

You may NOT use the commissioned artwork for commercial purposes. The license to the commissioned artwork may be purchased at any point - contact me for further information.

Further examples of my work:

Meme Redraw example

Quick Doodle examples

Weapon Bottle examples

Portrait examples

Full Body examples

Character Sheet Example

#my artwork #artists on tumblr #art on tumblr #digital art #commisions open #art commisions #digital commisions #art community #art comms open #art commissions open #Hollow's art store

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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year ago

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The antitrust case against Apple

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TONIGHT (Mar 22) in TORONTO, then SUNDAY (Mar 24) with LAURA POITRAS in NYC, then Anaheim, and beyond!

The foundational tenet of "the Cult of Mac" is that buying products from a $3t company makes you a member of an oppressed ethnic minority and therefore every criticism of that corporation is an ethnic slur:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/12/youre-holding-it-wrong/#if-dishwashers-were-iphones

Call it "Apple exceptionalism" – the idea that Apple, alone among the Big Tech firms, is virtuous, and therefore its conduct should be interpreted through that lens of virtue. The wellspring of this virtue is conveniently nebulous, which allows for endless goal-post shifting by members of the Cult of Mac when Apple's sins are made manifest.

Take the claim that Apple is "privacy respecting," which is attributed to Apple's business model of financing its services though cash transactions, rather than by selling it customers to advertisers. This is the (widely misunderstood) crux of the "surveillance capitalism" hypothesis: that capitalism is just fine, but once surveillance is in the mix, capitalism fails.

Apple, then, is said to be a virtuous company because its behavior is disciplined by market forces, unlike its spying rivals, whose ability to "hack our dopamine loops" immobilizes the market's invisible hand with "behavior-shaping" shackles:

http://pluralistic.net/HowToDestroySurveillanceCapitalism

Apple makes a big deal out of its privacy-respecting ethos, and not without some justification. After all, Apple went to the mattresses to fight the FBI when they tried to force Apple to introduced defects into its encryption systems:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/04/fbi-could-have-gotten-san-bernardino-shooters-iphone-leadership-didnt-say

And Apple gave Ios users the power to opt out of Facebook spying with a single click; 96% of its customers took them up on this offer, costing Facebook $10b (one fifth of the pricetag of the metaverse boondoggle!) in a single year (you love to see it):

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/02/facebook-makes-the-case-for-activity-tracking-to-ios-14-users-in-new-pop-ups/

Bruce Schneier has a name for this practice: "feudal security." That's when you cede control over your device to a Big Tech warlord whose "walled garden" becomes a fortress that defends you against external threats:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/08/leona-helmsley-was-a-pioneer/#manorialism

The keyword here is external threats. When Apple itself threatens your privacy, the fortress becomes a prison. The fact that you can't install unapproved apps on your Ios device means that when Apple decides to harm you, you have nowhere to turn. The first Apple customers to discover this were in China. When the Chinese government ordered Apple to remove all working privacy tools from its App Store, the company obliged, rather than risk losing access to its ultra-cheap manufacturing base (Tim Cook's signal accomplishment, the one that vaulted him into the CEO's seat, was figuring out how to offshore Apple manufacturing to China) and hundreds of millions of middle-class consumers:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-apple-vpn/apple-says-it-is-removing-vpn-services-from-china-app-store-idUSKBN1AE0BQ

Killing VPNs and other privacy tools was just for openers. After Apple caved to Beijing, the demands kept coming. Next, Apple willingly backdoored all its Chinese cloud services, so that the Chinese state could plunder its customers' data at will:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-censorship-data.html

This was the completely foreseeable consequence of Apple's "curated computing" model: once the company arrogated to itself the power to decide which software you could run on your own computer, it was inevitable that powerful actors – like the Chinese Communist Party – would lean on Apple to exercise that power in service to its goals.

Unsurprisingly, the Chinese state's appetite for deputizing Apple to help with its spying and oppression was not sated by backdooring iCloud and kicking VPNs out of the App Store. As recently as 2022, Apple continued to neuter its tools at the behest of the Chinese state, breaking Airdrop to make it useless for organizing protests in China:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/11/foreseeable-consequences/#airdropped

But the threat of Apple turning on its customers isn't limited to China. While the company has been unwilling to spy on its users on behalf of the US government, it's proven more than willing to compromise its worldwide users' privacy to pad its own profits. Remember when Apple let its users opt out of Facebook surveillance with one click? At the very same time, Apple was spinning up its own commercial surveillance program, spying on Ios customers, gathering the very same data as Facebook, and for the very same purpose: to target ads. When it came to its own surveillance, Apple completely ignored its customers' explicit refusal to consent to spying, spied on them anyway, and lied about it:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

Here's the thing: even if you believe that Apple has a "corporate personality" that makes it want to do the right thing, that desire to be virtuous is dependent on the constraints Apple faces. The fact that Apple has complete legal and technical control over the hardware it sells – the power to decide who can make software that runs on that hardware, the power to decide who can fix that hardware, the power to decide who can sell parts for that hardware – represents an irresistible temptation to enshittify Apple products.

"Constraints" are the crux of the enshittification hypothesis. The contagion that spread enshittification to every corner of our technological world isn't a newfound sadism or indifference among tech bosses. Those bosses are the same people they've always been – the difference is that today, they are unconstrained.

Having bought, merged or formed a cartel with all their rivals, they don't fear competition (Apple buys 90+ companies per year, and Google pays it an annual $26.3b bribe for default search on its operating systems and programs).

Having captured their regulators, they don't fear fines or other penalties for cheating their customers, workers or suppliers (Apple led the coalition that defeated dozens of Right to Repair bills, year after year, in the late 2010s).

Having wrapped themselves in IP law, they don't fear rivals who make alternative clients, mods, privacy tools or other "adversarial interoperability" tools that disenshittify their products (Apple uses the DMCA, trademark, and other exotic rules to block third-party software, repair, and clients).

True virtue rests not merely in resisting temptation to be wicked, but in recognizing your own weakness and avoiding temptation. As I wrote when Apple embarked on its "curated computing" path, the company would eventually – inevitably – use its power to veto its customers' choices to harm those customers:

https://memex.craphound.com/2010/04/01/why-i-wont-buy-an-ipad-and-think-you-shouldnt-either/

Which is where we're at today. Apple – uniquely among electronics companies – shreds every device that is traded in by its customers, to block third parties from harvesting working components and using them for independent repair:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/yp73jw/apple-recycling-iphones-macbooks

Apple engraves microscopic Apple logos on those parts and uses these as the basis for trademark complaints to US customs, to block the re-importation of parts that escape its shredders:

https://repair.eu/news/apple-uses-trademark-law-to-strengthen-its-monopoly-on-repair/

Apple entered into an illegal price-fixing conspiracy with Amazon to prevent used and refurbished devices from being sold in the "world's biggest marketplace":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/10/you-had-one-job/#thats-just-the-as

Why is Apple so opposed to independent repair? Well, they say it's to keep users safe from unscrupulous or incompetent repair technicians (feudal security). But when Tim Cook speaks to his investors, he tells a different story, warning them that the company's profits are threatened by customers who choose to repair (rather than replace) their slippery, fragile glass $1,000 pocket computers (the fortress becomes a prison):

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/01/letter-from-tim-cook-to-apple-investors/

All this adds up to a growing mountain of immortal e-waste, festooned with miniature Apple logos, that our descendants will be dealing with for the next 1,000 years. In the face of this unspeakable crime, Apple engaged in a string of dishonest maneuvers, claiming that it would support independent repair. In 2022, Apple announced a home repair program that turned out to be a laughably absurd con:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/22/apples-cement-overshoes/

Then in 2023, Apple announced a fresh "pro-repair" initiative that, once again, actually blocked repair:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/22/vin-locking/#thought-differently

Let's pause here a moment and remember that Apple once stood for independent repair, and celebrated the independent repair technicians that kept its customers' beloved Macs running:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/29/norwegian-potato-flour-enchiladas/#r2r

Whatever virtue lurks in Apple's corporate personhood, it is no match for the temptation that comes from running a locked-down platform designed to capture IP rights so that it can prevent normal competitive activities, like fixing phones, processing payments, or offering apps.

When Apple rolled out the App Store, Steve Jobs promised that it would save journalism and other forms of "content creation" by finally giving users a way to pay rightsholders. A decade later, that promise has been shattered by the app tax – a 30% rake on every in-app transaction that can't be avoided because Apple will kick your app out of the App Store if you even mention that your customers can pay you via the web in order to avoid giving a third of their content dollars to a hardware manufacturer that contributed nothing to the production of that material:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/06/save-news-we-must-open-app-stores

Among the apps that Apple also refuses to allow on Ios is third-party browsers. Every Iphone browser is just a reskinned version of Apple's Safari, running on the same antiquated, insecure Webkit browser engine. The fact that Webkit is incomplete and outdated is a feature, not a bug, because it lets Apple block web apps – apps delivered via browsers, rather than app stores:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/13/kitbashed/#app-store-tax

Last month, the EU took aim at Apple's veto over its users' and software vendors' ability to transact with one another. The newly in-effect Digital Markets Act requires Apple to open up both third-party payment processing and third-party app stores. Apple's response to this is the very definition of malicious compliance, a snake's nest of junk-fees, onerous terms of service, and petty punitive measures that all add up to a great, big "Go fuck yourself":

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/06/spoil-the-bunch/#dma

But Apple's bullying, privacy invasion, price-gouging and environmental crimes are global, and the EU isn't the only government seeking to end them. They're in the firing line in Japan:

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/Japan-to-crack-down-on-Apple-and-Google-app-store-monopolies

And in the UK:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cma-wins-appeal-in-apple-case

And now, famously, the US Department of Justice is coming for Apple, with a bold antitrust complaint that strikes at the heart of Apple exceptionalism, the idea that monopoly is safer for users than technological self-determination:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1344546/dl?inline

There's passages in the complaint that read like I wrote them:

Apple wraps itself in a cloak of privacy, security, and consumer preferences to justify its anticompetitive conduct. Indeed, it spends billions on marketing and branding to promote the self-serving premise that only Apple can safeguard consumers’ privacy and security interests. Apple selectively compromises privacy and security interests when doing so is in Apple’s own financial interest—such as degrading the security of text messages, offering governments and certain companies the chance to access more private and secure versions of app stores, or accepting billions of dollars each year for choosing Google as its default search engine when more private options are available. In the end, Apple deploys privacy and security justifications as an elastic shield that can stretch or contract to serve Apple’s financial and business interests.

After all, Apple punishes its customers for communicating with Android users by forcing them to do so without any encryption. When Beeper Mini rolled out an Imessage-compatible Android app that fixed this, giving Iphone owners the privacy Apple says they deserve but denies to them, Apple destroyed Beeper Mini:

https://blog.beeper.com/p/beeper-moving-forward

Tim Cook is on record about this: if you want to securely communicate with an Android user, you must "buy them an Iphone":

https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/7/23342243/tim-cook-apple-rcs-imessage-android-iphone-compatibility

If your friend, family member or customer declines to change mobile operating systems, Tim Cook insists that you must communicate without any privacy or security.

Even where Apple tries for security, it sometimes fails ("security is a process, not a product" -B. Schneier). To be secure in a benevolent dictatorship, it must also be an infallible dictatorship. Apple's far from infallible: Eight generations of Iphones have unpatchable hardware defects:

https://checkm8.info/

And Apple's latest custom chips have secret-leaking, unpatchable vulnerabilities:

https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/03/hackers-can-extract-secret-encryption-keys-from-apples-mac-chips/

Apple's far from infallible – but they're also far from benevolent. Despite Apple's claims, its hardware, operating system and apps are riddled with deliberate privacy defects, introduce to protect Apple's shareholders at the expense of its customers:

https://proton.me/blog/iphone-privacy

Now, antitrust suits are notoriously hard to make, especially after 40 years of bad-precedent-setting, monopoly-friendly antitrust malpractice. Much of the time, these suits fail because they can't prove that tech bosses intentionally built their monopolies. However, tech is a written culture, one that leaves abundant, indelible records of corporate deliberations. What's more, tech bosses are notoriously prone to bragging about their nefarious intentions, committing them to writing:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/03/big-tech-cant-stop-telling-on-itself/

Apple is no exception – there's an abundance of written records that establish that Apple deliberately, illegally set out to create and maintain a monopoly:

https://www.wired.com/story/4-internal-apple-emails-helped-doj-build-antitrust-case/

Apple claims that its monopoly is beneficent, used to protect its users, making its products more "elegant" and safe. But when Apple's interests conflict with its customers' safety and privacy – and pocketbooks – Apple always puts itself first, just like every other corporation. In other words: Apple is unexceptional.

The Cult of Mac denies this. They say that no one wants to use a third-party app store, no one wants third-party payments, no one wants third-party repair. This is obviously wrong and trivially disproved: if no Apple customer wanted these things, Apple wouldn't have to go to enormous lengths to prevent them. The only phones that an independent Iphone repair shop fixes are Iphones: which means Iphone owners want independent repair.

The rejoinder from the Cult of Mac is that those Iphone owners shouldn't own Iphones: if they wanted to exercise property rights over their phones, they shouldn't have bought a phone from Apple. This is the "No True Scotsman" fallacy for distraction-rectangles, and moreover, it's impossible to square with Tim Cook's insistence that if you want private communications, you must buy an Iphone.

Apple is unexceptional. It's just another Big Tech monopolist. Rounded corners don't preserve virtue any better than square ones. Any company that is freed from constraints – of competition, regulation and interoperability – will always enshittify. Apple – being unexceptional – is no exception.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/22/reality-distortion-field/#three-trillion-here-three-trillion-there-pretty-soon-youre-talking-real-money

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 6 months ago

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 18, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Jan 19, 2025

Shortly before midnight last night, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published its initial findings from a study it undertook last July when it asked eight large companies to turn over information about the data they collect about consumers, product sales, and how the surveillance the companies used affected consumer prices. The FTC focused on the middlemen hired by retailers. Those middlemen use algorithms to tweak and target prices to different markets.

The initial findings of the FTC using data from six of the eight companies show that those prices are not static. Middlemen can target prices to individuals using their location, browsing patterns, shopping history, and even the way they move a mouse over a webpage. They can also use that information to show higher-priced products first in web searches. The FTC found that the intermediaries—the middlemen—worked with at least 250 retailers.

“Initial staff findings show that retailers frequently use people’s personal information to set targeted, tailored prices for goods and services—from a person's location and demographics, down to their mouse movements on a webpage,” said FTC chair Lina Khan. “The FTC should continue to investigate surveillance pricing practices because Americans deserve to know how their private data is being used to set the prices they pay and whether firms are charging different people different prices for the same good or service.”

The FTC has asked for public comment on consumers’ experience with surveillance pricing.

FTC commissioner Andrew N. Ferguson, whom Trump has tapped to chair the commission in his incoming administration, dissented from the report.

Matt Stoller of the nonprofit American Economic Liberties Project, which is working “to address today’s crisis of concentrated economic power,” wrote that “[t]he antitrust enforcers (Lina Khan et al) went full Tony Montana on big business this week before Trump people took over.”

Stoller made a list. The FTC sued John Deere “for generating $6 billion by prohibiting farmers from being able to repair their own equipment,” released a report showing that pharmacy benefit managers had “inflated prices for specialty pharmaceuticals by more than $7 billion,” “sued corporate landlord Greystar, which owns 800,000 apartments, for misleading renters on junk fees,” and “forced health care private equity powerhouse Welsh Carson to stop monopolization of the anesthesia market.”

It sued Pepsi for conspiring to give Walmart exclusive discounts that made prices higher at smaller stores, “[l]eft a roadmap for parties who are worried about consolidation in AI by big tech by revealing a host of interlinked relationships among Google, Amazon and Microsoft and Anthropic and OpenAI,” said gig workers can’t be sued for antitrust violations when they try to organize, and forced game developer Cognosphere to pay a $20 million fine for marketing loot boxes to teens under 16 that hid the real costs and misled the teens.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “sued Capital One for cheating consumers out of $2 billion by misleading consumers over savings accounts,” Stoller continued. It “forced Cash App purveyor Block…to give $120 million in refunds for fostering fraud on its platform and then refusing to offer customer support to affected consumers,” “sued Experian for refusing to give consumers a way to correct errors in credit reports,” ordered Equifax to pay $15 million to a victims’ fund for “failing to properly investigate errors on credit reports,” and ordered “Honda Finance to pay $12.8 million for reporting inaccurate information that smeared the credit reports of Honda and Acura drivers.”

The Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice sued “seven giant corporate landlords for rent-fixing, using the software and consulting firm RealPage,” Stoller went on. It “sued $600 billion private equity titan KKR for systemically misleading the government on more than a dozen acquisitions.”

“Honorary mention goes to [Secretary Pete Buttigieg] at the Department of Transportation for suing Southwest and fining Frontier for ‘chronically delayed flights,’” Stoller concluded. He added more results to the list in his newsletter BIG.

Meanwhile, last night, while the leaders in the cryptocurrency industry were at a ball in honor of President-elect Trump’s inauguration, Trump launched his own cryptocurrency. By morning he appeared to have made more than $25 billion, at least on paper. According to Eric Lipton at the New York Times, “ethics experts assailed [the business] as a blatant effort to cash in on the office he is about to occupy again.”

Adav Noti, executive director of the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, told Lipton: “It is literally cashing in on the presidency—creating a financial instrument so people can transfer money to the president’s family in connection with his office. It is beyond unprecedented.” Cryptocurrency leaders worried that just as their industry seems on the verge of becoming mainstream, Trump’s obvious cashing-in would hurt its reputation. Venture capitalist Nick Tomaino posted: “Trump owning 80 percent and timing launch hours before inauguration is predatory and many will likely get hurt by it.”

Yesterday the European Commission, which is the executive arm of the European Union, asked X, the social media company owned by Trump-adjacent billionaire Elon Musk, to hand over internal documents about the company’s algorithms that give far-right posts and politicians more visibility than other political groups. The European Union has been investigating X since December 2023 out of concerns about how it deals with the spread of disinformation and illegal content. The European Union’s Digital Services Act regulates online platforms to prevent illegal and harmful activities, as well as the spread of disinformation.

Today in Washington, D.C., the National Mall was filled with thousands of people voicing their opposition to President-elect Trump and his policies. Online speculation has been rampant that Trump moved his inauguration indoors to avoid visual comparisons between today’s protesters and inaugural attendees. Brutally cold weather also descended on President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, but a sea of attendees nonetheless filled the National Mall.

Trump has always understood the importance of visuals and has worked hard to project an image of an invincible leader. Moving the inauguration indoors takes away that image, though, and people who have spent thousands of dollars to travel to the capital to see his inauguration are now unhappy to discover they will be limited to watching his motorcade drive by them. On social media, one user posted: “MAGA doesn’t realize the symbolism of [Trump] moving the inauguration inside: The billionaires, millionaires and oligarchs will be at his side, while his loyal followers are left outside in the cold. Welcome to the next 4+ years.”

Trump is not as good at governing as he is at performance: his approach to crises is to blame Democrats for them. But he is about to take office with majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate, putting responsibility for governance firmly into his hands.

Right off the bat, he has at least two major problems at hand.

Last night, Commissioner Tyler Harper of the Georgia Department of Agriculture suspended all “poultry exhibitions, shows, swaps, meets, and sales” until further notice after officials found Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or bird flu, in a commercial flock. As birds die from the disease or are culled to prevent its spread, the cost of eggs is rising—just as Trump, who vowed to reduce grocery prices, takes office.

There have been 67 confirmed cases of the bird flu in the U.S. among humans who have caught the disease from birds. Most cases in humans are mild, but public health officials are watching the virus with concern because bird flu variants are unpredictable. On Friday, outgoing Health and Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra announced $590 million in funding to Moderna to help speed up production of a vaccine that covers the bird flu. Juliana Kim of NPR explained that this funding comes on top of $176 million that Health and Human Services awarded to Moderna last July.

The second major problem is financial. On Friday, Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen wrote to congressional leaders to warn them that the Treasury would hit the debt ceiling on January 21 and be forced to begin using extraordinary measures in order to pay outstanding obligations and prevent defaulting on the national debt. Those measures mean the Treasury will stop paying into certain federal retirement accounts as required by law, expecting to make up that difference later.

Yellen reminded congressional leaders: “The debt limit does not authorize new spending, but it creates a risk that the federal government might not be able to finance its existing legal obligations that Congresses and Presidents of both parties have made in the past.” She added, “I respectfully urge Congress to act promptly to protect the full faith and credit of the United States.”

Both the avian flu and the limits of the debt ceiling must be managed, and managed quickly, and solutions will require expertise and political skill.

Rather than offering their solutions to these problems, the Trump team leaked that it intended to begin mass deportations on Tuesday morning in Chicago, choosing that city because it has large numbers of immigrants and because Trump’s people have been fighting with Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson, a Democrat. Michelle Hackman, Joe Barrett, and Paul Kiernan of the Wall Street Journal, who broke the story, reported that Trump’s people had prepared to amplify their efforts with the help of right-wing media.

But once the news leaked of the plan and undermined the “shock and awe” the administration wanted, Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan said the team was reconsidering it.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Consumer Financial Protection Bureau #consumer protection #FTC #Letters From An American #heather cox richardson #shock and awe #immigration raids #debt ceiling #bird flu #protests #March on Washington

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atlafan · 1 year ago

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“You’re acting like that meme of Jamie Lee Curtis where she’s aggressively drinking that water and telling someone off at the same time.” Layna groaned at her boyfriend who finally stopped glaring at his phone to look up at her.

“I have absolutely no idea what that is.”

“Yes you do, I’ve sent it to you before!” Layna takes her own phone out and shows him after searching it quickly on Google.

“Ohhhhh.” He smirks. “Right, now I remember. It’s usually you who looks like that when you’re about to brawl with someone.”

“Now that you’ve calmed down, can we think about what just happened rationally?”

“No, and I will try to call customer service again.” He holds his phone up to his ear.

“Your ass is not on the phone!”

“I’m listening to a voicemail!”

“Okay, Mr. Corporate.” She rolls her eyes.

“Just because I was promoted at the gym, does not make me a corporate meow meow asshole. I think it’s perfectly reasonable for to be upset about this.”

“I’m just going to go in and see if we can book a new reservation with my credit card. The room is technically available..”

“Not until I get to the bottom of this.”

“There’s nothing to get to the bottom of.” She groaned.

“The bottom is gaping. This is a job for the FBI.”

“Who are you, Kris Jenner?”

“Ew, no.” He grimaces. “She’s insane, why would you say that?”

“Because you just said…ugh! Why can’t you know the same references that I do?”

“I’m so sorry that I haven’t spent hours upon hours watching E! I’ll try to rectify that at some point. Now, let me do what I need to do.” He taps a few things on his phone and then presses it to his ear. “This is why I hate credit cards, cash is so much easier.”

Layna pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. She reached into his pocket for the paper confirmation Harry had brought with them so they could check into their hotel with ease. He has wanted to plan a long weekend for them, so he booked everything with his name and his credit cards. When you check into a hotel, you need to show the card you used to reserve the room. The woman said the cards didn’t match. When Harry tried again, the app for his card put a lock on his account. So now they’re out on the curb trying to figure it out.

As Layna scans the paper she furrows her brows, then reaches into Harry’s pocket again for his wallet. He pays her no mind while he speaks with another representative from the card’s customer service line. She takes out the credit card he used to reserve the booking and realizes that Harry inverted the expiration date, and wrote Harry Edwerd Styles, instead of Harry Edward Styles. Two simple mistakes that the woman behind the counter could have been nicer about helping with instead of just turning them away.

“Harry…hang up the phone, baby. I figured out what happened.”

“Yeah?” He hangs up the phone. He was on hold so who cares?

“Um…I don’t want you to feel embarrassed because I’ve made mistakes like this before too, but it appears that you inverted the expiration date on your card…and spelled your middle name wrong…”

“I did?!” He snatches the card and the paper and scans them both. “I’m not seeing it.”

“Can I point to them?” She asks gently and he nods. She shows him the expiration on the card and then points to what’s on the paper. “See, the expiration is 06/29, you put 09/26…and you spelled Edward with two E’s…”

“Oh.” His cheeks redden, obviously very embarrassed by his blunder. “I should have had you look at it before I submitted…”

“It happens! I’ve done with my security code and my exportation date before. I think if we go back in, we could explain it better. And then see if that snotty lady will be cooler about the mistake.”

“This is so embarrassing.” He groans.

“I know it feels that way right now, but I promise, I’m not judging. I know your dyslexia flares up more when you’re stressed and reading all the fine print for a hotel reservation can be really daunting.” She wraps her arms around his neck and pecks his nose. “The sooner we go inside and fix the reservation, the sooner we can go to our room and I can help you forget alllll about this.”

“Might have times where I think of it randomly and I feel embarrassed all over again.” He grips her hips, squeezing them.

“Then I guess wherever we are you’ll just need to pull me aside and use me until you forget again.”

No Complaints Blurb

#no complaints #harry styles imagine #harry styles fic #harry styles smut #harry styles fluff #harry styles x reader #harry styles y/n #harry styles x y/n #harry styles x oc

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moonchildscents · 3 months ago

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The count down begins. We have two of our four park tickets paid for. We have our room reserved. And now comes the savings to have fun, save with me! We are believers in the disney chase visa card and the Capitol one platinum visa card. The cards have great rewards programs, amazing cash back programs, and have really decent customer service help both on the apps or when you call in.

https://www.referyourchasecard.com/200v/0WRRE2LOQT

https://capital.one/3HHpfDD

See you soon Disney and Universal!!!

#disney #harry potter universe #savings #earn rewards

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atcuality2 · 2 months ago

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vorenado-m · 1 year ago

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happy disability pride month! please consider helping me take back my life as a disabled person!

the TL;DR is that for the last 3 months i have had an absolutely soul-sucking miserable minimum wage retail job that, due to the way scheduling works (and the app being broken as fuck) has prevented me from having access to literally any of the life-saving mental health/medical care i need as a disabled person.

my disability is best managed through a combination of medication, therapy, and casework-- not a single one of which i have had since march! :) contextually, up until i got this job, i took three daily medications and had casework once a week and therapy once or sometimes twice a week. these services are offered at an affordable cost to me through a local organization that is threatening to close my case due to lack of participation.

ill make another, more detailed post later with some of the services i can offer for money (i draw! i code! i write!) but until then here is a code you can scan if you have a few dollars to spare:

there are more details beneath the cut (idk about you guys but im kinda nosy so i wrote some more stuff in case anyone else is also nosy) but thats the gist of it. you can also always ask for details. i dont have a therapist right now so it might feel good to say things.

my plan is as follows: i would like to take the month of july more or less "off" from work to get my affairs in order, starting with scheduling appointments for therapy and casework and getting back on my meds. i am actively looking for a job, but i would like the ability to be somewhat picky instead of applying everywhere i think might have me for the sake of having money coming in to pay rent.

for the last two years i have made less than $800/mo and i can survive on roughly $600-$650 a month. my july rent ($550) is paid and my august rent (at least $500) is most likely also squared away, through a combination of some cash i was hoarding, a previous donation, my last expected paychecks from my current job, and my brother generously offering to cover whatever is left over. the extra $100ish is for roughly a months supply of the food that is part of my daily routine that i get cranky without (i have tea every morning, for instance.)

i have a fantastic roommate who is not struggling as much financially who will do everything in her power to make sure i have access to staple foods (rice, eggs, etc) so i really just need to buy the things only i consume (kimchi, milk, etc.) there is a food bank i go to, so i am not worried about food, but i can only go to it once per month. we have a barter system where i trade her the things i dont want from the food bank and she buys me things i will eat; alternatively, i sometimes give her things i get from the food bank (eg meat) that she turns into meals for both of us.

i live independently/"alone" with roommates and do not have support from my family pretty much at all. they have never been particularly useful for emotional support and have openly denied me financial support since i was a teenager. moving in with them/getting help from them/talking to them is not an option.

i have emailed my caseworker at the mental health organization i work with as well as my caseworker with the disability vocational program i work with to help me find a new job that is "back of house" and requires less customer interaction. i did this over the weekend, so i expect to hear back from them sometime this week. in the meantime, i am searching for jobs on my own in places like indeed, jobhat, careerbuilder, etc. as well as checking company websites of places like chain grocery stores to see what is available in my area.

my job pool is a bit limited due to the fact that i cannot drive (due to both my disability and the medication im supposed to be taking for it) but i am very well-versed at taking the bus, which is free. getting to and from work is not a concern for me; it is being able to do the job without being driven to the edge of a mental breakdown that is the problem.

the disability vocational program is my ticket out of poverty! last month i had a follow-up evaluation (i had to call out of work for it, but frankly i was at the end of my rope then too) where they approved my career goals as a web developer and we are in the process of deciding what my next steps are! the program will likely (depending on what route i take) help pay for vocational training, too, but i obviously have to pay rent while in training. which i think i can do if i have a job that doesnt make me want to die.

i have some other things that make my life a bit harder (im mixed race, i am nonbinary + gay, etc) but i would say those things dont really impact my ability to get a job as much as the disability does LOL which is why i did not feature them prominently in this post. like, the reason i cant get a job isnt because people dont want to hire me because i have blue hair and pronouns, its because im obviously disabled.

if you have any other questions, no matter how intrusive you think they might be, feel free to send a DM or an ask, and i will try to answer.

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