#and we like. work on this projects - THAT WE ARE NOT PAID TO WORK FOR SO *WE* GET TO PAY FOR ALL THE MATERIALS AND SHIT FOR THEM.

[patricia-taxxon]

I want to set the record straight regarding a certain OST for a short film that should be coming out later this year, because one of its directors is making false and hurtful claims about me and my business ethic. After he made a prominent appearance on a drama stream about me & wrote a section of my callout doc, I told him that I wasn't interested in dragging him publicly, but that has felt more impossible as time goes on and I realize the extent of his misrepresentation. I had a vision of this film being able to release quietly in spite of everything, but I don't think that can happen, and I fully expect him to try and hurt my chances at further work.

In 2023, between techdogs 4 and 5, I worked on music for a then good friend's student film. It is by far the most technically difficult job I've ever had, and I did it for free. Now, before you get mad, this is partially (mostly) my fault. I never negotiated a price beforehand, and when I found out partway through that I was working for free, I let it slide for fear of being disruptive. If I was asked to quote a price today, it would have been approximately 900 USD. The work was a hellish and grueling experience, technical in ways I'd never been prepared for, and I sorely regret not putting my foot down, because I was hollowed out by the end of it.

A big portion of his callout against me is concerned with, bafflingly, my decision not to contribute my own money to the film, which at that point would have been a negative paycheck. I didn't pay the thirty dollars that I would've had to pitch in for the film to be screened, and I considered that a fine payment for the nine hundred dollars of work they got from me. He goes on to write that I'm rich anyways, I pay hundreds of dollars on album art (business expenses that I know I'll make back when the music is released) and "furry porn," because apparently if I am occasionally willing to drop a pretty penny on a pleasure purchase then I should simply be compelled to pay them randomly for things I hold no stake in and that I signed no contract for. He also mentions that I paid them later for the DCP file at another screening, of course by that point I had gotten the vibe that they were wanting for me to drop money on their project, so I did, giving the post-hoc justification that "i guess in this case I also care about the film sounding good." He writes "well I guess that was something she deemed worthy" without realizing the implication would then be that he did not see my own work as worthy.

Let me make this clear, this is like if a voice actor worked on my video game for free as a favor with no expectations of royalties, and then I asked them to help me pay to get the game on steam. This is presented along reheated second, third, fourthhand accounts of sexual misconduct.

And before we move on, to the claim that one album artist had to wait for years before receiving payment, this is true. I did forget to pay one artist, and only found out after their assistant contacted me years later, where I then paid six times the asking price as a late fee. I was commissioning over ten album arts every year, and as of now, this is the only time I have made this mistake.

It is impossible for me to refute his claims about the personal time we spent together in Omaha, as it would just be my word against his. I will just say that he should know the omitted reasons that I have grown to feel I was disposed, discarded, and taken for granted by him, and how he has nothing to do with why I hold those memories at that film festival so highly. He also does the classic thing where he positions allowing me to pick the movie in the evening as this favor he did, making me unknowingly rack up debt for a bargain I never consented to.

During all this, he has expressed an existential fear of being harassed for going public about me, and for this reason I want to say that I still hope that this film can be released without a fuss, but his continued participation in a harassment campaign against me has done far more to tarnish his reputation than I ever could. If you really cared about your image, pressure Crim to re-record that drama stream without your embarrassing petty grievances in it & delete your testimony from the callout doc. Thanks.

[sandersstudies]

You have THREE jobs!! How on earth do you balance all that. And what did you mean by only one pays your bills if you dont mind me asking? Are the other two more like volunteer work?

Yeah I’ll just actually be totally transparent for a second.

My job working at a youth arts nonprofit is paid hourly for my classroom time, which is three hours a week, three weeks a month, at 15$/hr, so effectively 135$/month. I’m looking to add one more weekly class next semester so this amount could increase.

My directing time for the same nonprofit is paid by a grant, which means I am paid in one lump sum for all the work on the project, regardless of hours committed. The time commitment varies widely but usually accounts for 6-9 weeks of rehearsal time, 2-3 hours a day 4-5 days a week, and 6-12 performances, depending on demand, plus time committed outside of rehearsal. This is effectively volunteer work, because if I were to break it down hourly, it would come to less than 5$/hr. (Sometimes significantly less)

My work for the school is also paid in a lump sum — actually two lump sums: one for directing two plays yearly, and one for directing large-group and individual competitive speech. This amounts to about 3,000$ over the course of the school year. I’m typically committing 1-3hrs after school for 3-5days/week, but not year-round, just during the play and speech “seasons,” which do overlap.

My third job is early-morning barista work. I previously worked as a supervisor and was making ~23/hr 30-40hrs a week so effectively a full-time paycheck, but as my other work and also my husband’s recent illness have consumed a lot of my time, I demoted to a regular barista at ~18$/hr ~25hrs a week. This is my most regular, bill-covering paycheck, and this is the job that provides my healthcare.

My husband and I have talked a lot about how my schedule will continue to work after we have kids. Ideally we are in a financial state where I can just do my passion-work and drop my morning job.

I am also working on a novel manuscript that I would love to publish eventually, but it is slow work with such a busy schedule and I don’t know if I will ever make real money publishing.

So some days my schedule looks like a 4:30am-1pm shift at the cafe, 3-5pm at the school, and 6-9pm at the theatre. It’s not like that every day, but many days are like that.

[tenderwatches]

Ch. 14 of Lies We Tell Ourselves is up!

𐡸.:𐫱:.𐡷

chapter teaser

𐡸.:𐫱:.𐡷

chapter excerpt

Chapter 14: An Incurable Malady

“We suffer from an incurable malady. Hope.” - Mahmoud Darwish

Jayce stares at the blueprints for the Hexcore laid out in front of him. It’s been almost two years of painstaking work, examining and extrapolating from Viktor’s notes. Excitement and a fragile sense of hope buzz in his veins; he may now, at last, be close to something like a full recovery.

Tonight will be his first real attempt at reconstruction.

He settles himself at his workbench with a genuine hex gemstone gripped tightly in his hand before releasing a long exhale. The current of magic alive beneath its smooth surface seems to lift him from somewhere within, making him feel weightless.

It’s been difficult to find time for this secret project between solving the problem of the synthetic crystals and nurturing his delicate peace with Viktor. The only time he has to work is when Viktor, Sky, and Thomas have all left, leaving him to his solitude and secrecy. As much as he envies the others’ freedom to leave, he needs these stolen moments.

Hardly for the first time, he wishes he could confer with Viktor on his work directly—but he knows better. If the recent months of recovery in their relationship have taught him anything, it’s that he cannot lean on Viktor to correct his mistakes.

Viktor was right to accuse him of moving placidly through a world that bent itself to make things easy and tolerable for him. Though he hadn’t created this paradigm, he’s never challenged it—never even questioned it. Now, he’s keenly aware that recovering this work is the key to righting his wrong. Nothing will make up for what his mistakes have cost Viktor, but he needs this work to be ready to fulfil the wondrous future of Viktor’s dreams.

Buoyed by his convictions, he crosschecks Viktor’s notes, line by line, against his draughtsmanship. Over the years, he’s become familiar with these contents, but there are complexities to Viktor’s work that he wants to ensure he does justice to. The dozens of tiny pyramid structures he’s created to enclose the gemstone at the Hexcore’s heart have paid off; all laid out in front of him, they align exactly with every ruthlessly documented detail from Viktor’s original concept. And yet, something feels... off.

(Read the rest on AO3!) (Or start from the beginning!)

[the-stove-is-divorced]

there will never be 0 tabs. the tabs are forever. the tabs know all.

Platonic relationships get seriously side-lined and it's honestly maddening. They make a point to have hero teams, long standing and assumingly incredibly tight knit, and then have ZERO elaboration for any of those dynamics! We get a Kate & Immortal, Rudy & Monster Girl which are both weird as best, but no actual exploration into what TT was like! It's so odd? Like they're teams! TT is arguably family-like. AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON MARK AND EVE, OMG. Like, they incited Mark's interest in her, not from Mark just admiring her, naturally crushing on her over time, bonding, or even her flirting first, it's guilt. Like, actual guilt? It's not even her her, it's another verison of her that actively rescued him at such a horrible low, Mark probably feels like he owes her! It feels like they're checking it off the last quickly than natural development? It's so bizarre??? We already discussed Kate, too, but it's all so odd. What are the priorities???? (」＞＜)」 I loathe their ship because of it, istg.

Kate and Mark need to hang out and just chill, please. Literally they both need it.

Yeah, and if they're test subjects, or anything like Rex, this normally would be an insanely fucked up thing to do, but especially fucked up thing to do! Where's the rage at feeling like a lab rat all over again? If Robot got them all together, where's the accusations that he was just testing them, seeing which one made the best to copy? AND RIGHT? Why doesn't it affect how Rex sees Amanda? How Amanda sees Rex?Where's any commentary about this impacting dynamics permanently? Why are they just cool with it? Where's the arc to gain trust back? Why haven't the dynamics shifted for a season, mistrust? Missions gone wrong because they don't believe him? Leaving rooms because he's in there, even. Outright refusing to even go on the field with him. Go dramatic and have him kicked out the team! SOMETHING! What GDA doesn't and do know about the Mauler twins will never not be funny to me like they're casually pushing the boundaries of technological accomplishments when blackmailed, and even not, they could single-handedly end wait lists for organ transplants.

I'd love more look at Art as a way to explore the hero ecosystem, like him being outright, stubbornly neutral. Does he have discounts for non-indestructible supers? How does he keep from being pressured to spill anything about villains if GDA/GoG knows/figures out what he may know about dangerous villains? Does he kinda just know everybody by proxy? Like does he refuse to know any details about what people do, or does he just get close to some clientele like Nolan? Does that make an unintentional informant, if he wanted to be? Do registered supes have their suits paid automatically? I'd love if villains/heroes referenced him randomly, like "damnit, I just saw Art," like randomly.

The Immortal and Mark comment is actually insane, when have they ever? Immortal actively distrusted him???? Like, there is potential for Mark somewhat projecting into Immortal and trying desperately to prove himself to him specifically, because if someone who KNEW Nolan AND hates Mark changed their mind about him, then it could really prove he's not his Father's Son...and dammit I want a fic on this now. That's so compelling. Dammit. But in canon, it's just like one-sided mistrust that dies after one mission and they're like distant coworkers. Though, kinda crazy Mark isn't trying to have some mentor, I'd think he'd want to model himself after anybody else. He wanted to be just like his Dad so bad, it'd make sense to me if he tried find a new role model. Idk gimme desperate asf Mark.

AND YES. Please give us SOMETHING to work with 'cause why is no other nation even mentioned? How is there NO throwaway lines about that? Shadow gov't type comment would work so perfectly, it's so fitting??? [[ Also still baffled that Immortal cared so much to yell at Shapesmith about AMERICANS getting left behind on Mars and not just, y'know, HUMANS. ]] <- This is such a good fucking point cause why does this show ffr not mention ANYONE ELSE. And why is Immortal (incidentally???) such a patriot??? I'm too tired to add on my own questions, but it's such a head scratcher. This is needed world building here. AND INCENTIVE for hero kids is so interesting. Like hero recruiters trying to snatch up needed heroes, or even flex how many they have in case of anything. Is having more heroes like having more nukes/weaponry, or something adjacent? Like is it a threat if one nation has more loyal heroes than others considering how potentially destructive they can be?

NO FR! WHAT WAS THE CECIL INCIDENT AND WHY IS DEBBIE NEVER LETTING IT GO. I would fucking laugh my ass off if it was because while babysitting, Cecil stopped paying attention while his precious teleporter was still in production and he just fucking lost Mark. Like they were running tests and Mark got hit by a stray beam of light, or sneaking somewhere and they lost him. I'd never forgive that either. What do you mean you lost my CHILD? AND HE COULD BE ANYWHERE ON EARTH OR EVEN FUCKING BEYOND? Please, let this be the reason I'd die laughing. It'd be typical of a kid POV if for Mark he had this grand adventure one day but after his Mom HATED Cecil and he never babysat again.

ALSO YES? This is what I'm talking about like the impact of a Hero Family, because yes Debbie shouldn't be afraid of her own husband but also like,,,, he could kill you in seconds, I'd be wary, personally. Like her sense of danger should be skewed? Maybe even desensitized to violence, death, threats, dangers. At what point does the vaguely dangerous stuff your husband does become mundane? Like, at what point does it become kinda meaningless??? Or, has she always been a Take No Shit kinda person?

I feel like this is what I mean but how it's ODD that Invincible tries to have the "normal family for YEARS" dynamic that ONLY changes when Mark gets his powers, but refuses to elaborate on how average they can possibly be with their shown dynamics, or possible implications considering who they are? I get why, it's a classic comic setup, average teen until POWERS, but also... it is so much more fascinated and makes more sense if they're fucking unhinged in weirdly specific areas by proxy. Debbie has a completely warped sense of danger + unimpressed by most heroic activities b/c they've become mundane, Mark, subconsciously, views heroic work as ultimately superior if it's more important than his Dad being home, Nolan thinks is fine to be majority hands off for his own child, etc, etc.

While I'm not too familiar with the DCU- your batfam meta posts are intiguing- so in transfering some of the broader strokes from them- I think you tackling a 'Mark isn't Nolan's biological son' fic would be fascinating. Sort of a step to the side of the 'what if Mark never got his powers' fic that sometimes pop up in the fandom

OOOOOO chewing on this currently, hm, the much a distinct flavor of exactly what you’re talking about, but the potential for more family drama depending on WHO knows. Does Mark know?? Is he waiting every day only to be crushed? Does he confused non-Debbie features with Nolan’s? I suppose I’m not the most enthusiastic about non-power AUs, but I think there’s something very fun to explore about Mark having to settle with, if he knows all his life, he will never have powers? I think the trajectory of his dreams will obviously shift, I can see him still having that distinct fatherly idolization, but perhaps embraces being useful to the GDA? Cecil’s number one intern—only intern—curtesy of nepotism, ha! There is something tickling me about Mark taking the Robin Route/Role for the Teen Team in terms of having no powers, just insane skills, BUT there’s something way more delicious about intern Mark when s1e01 happens and Mark tries snooping around to find out the truth about what happened to his Dad.

I wonder if, with Mark having a whole another father, if they’re more or less distant relationship, depending on WHEN Nolan entered Mark’s life? Like if Debbie met Nolan later for this, or just for fun, they dated once, separated (Mark being born during then), then they happened to stumble into each others lives again and Mark’s already been born, anywhere from tween to teenager so there’s a gap in how close they are. I feel like one important aspect of the whole Family Drama is how close they’re supposed to be, a functional, loving family turned upside down? So I wonder what more distance does. I wonder how Nolan copes when his family is entirely human and he can’t project onto Mark.

I love thinking about these, omg.

[conspicuous-clown-car]

ougghhh next month is gonna be BUSY

finish playing all fnaf games (SL-HW2) on twitch, make (as in like literally sewing) an outfit for a concert, ARTFIGHT which will probably take up most my time, putting together/making several cosplays for a con (one im not excited to cosplay as but im doing it for my partner), plus some other stuff i definitely forgot, all on top of working. wwouughbh

[autumn-applepie]

University ever pushes you so low you have to go buy a couple of beers? /srs/neg

I'm gonna vent in the tags for a moment humor me for once /gen

[tchaikovskym]

Everyone thinks that "I won't get far" if I don't suck up to someone or if I don't mildly deceive anyone to get my way, but no one knows that I actually want to he happy and I can only do that if I'm not disgusted by myself. I really can't feel joy of promotion if it happened because I licked my bosses boots. World might be spun by corruption, but I will do my best to resist it and prove that competence is a value.

[fuckrealityfictionisbetter]

They could have even been like we wanna make new exciting content that we don’t think will work on YouTube and put that on a ‘streaming service’ whilst keeping the YouTube style stuff on YouTube

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

Girl all this fuss about Taika's marriage, wait until you people find out about Minnie Driver

[fernsandsunflowers]

You know, no matter what happened there was always a part of me that was hopeful that we’d someday be able to come together and take down corporate greed towards a better more functional and fairer society. But that hope died, fell to its knees and impaled themselves on its own sword the day they reported that Netflix’s password sharing crackdown worked.

You just made new accounts?? Why? I just want to understand?

[chradi]

I'm strexcited about potentially working at a school in the next few months/year and being paid a minimum of 22$/hour

[overexciteddragon]

Suffering from the "the world is a hell place trying to take away my rights and will to live and I don't think I'll see a world where I don't work my way into an early death" kinda depression I call that "rational depression"

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[fingertipsmp3]

Can’t have SHIT in a small town

[katzish]

i hate work sm

[flowachild]

gonna make some matcha finally clean and do laundry then see bestie later