#at a price i could afford

[richmondflyingsquirrels]

incredibly funny to read a bluecheckmark conservative try to claim that courtside tickets to a washington mystics game are beyond the reach of the working class

[ganondoodle]

the company i work for decided that its switching from the german formal "You"(Sie) to the informal "you" (Du) in all of our websites so now we have to scour the entire database to change it and i quite frankly hate that, not just bc the unecessary extra work but especially bc its such a weird and unecessary change

i bet its bc everything here is getting englishfied (both literally and culturally it feels like, when my new boss talks its half in english bc every second german word is just replaced by an english one despite there being perfectly fine words for it in german too, its so annoying) and bc they want to sound more personal in hopes of getting more clients bc 'company is your fwiend uwu!!', i know this here is the amercian tm site so you wouldnt understand really but i do not want to be greeted with 'du' by companies, no, thats too personal, you dont know me and im not giving you my data, stay away!!

i guess thats how i would describe it .. the formal you is like a polite distance, like someone you dont know staying outside your personal space, but when its the informal 'you' it feels invasive unless i told you you can call me that, and that goes double for companies

maybe its a small thing that doesnt seem important but i cant stand it, im just a little part time worker doing data work so i got no say in it but the companies founder also announced hes giving his post to his kids some time ago so ...... since then theres been alot of changes and new projects that solely aim to imitate whats popular and whats done by other companies, despite ours being one that is, or used to be, intentionally different, like, that was the POINT, but i guess chasing trends is just too appealing for CEOs

[here-comes-the-moose]

When I’m writing my Modern AU but then try to figure out and calculate how the life I gave the Batch is financially possible:

[daphneblakess]

that "what's the most expensive piece of clothing you own" poll going around is exactly why i wouldn't trust any of yall with a guillotine bc a couple hundred dollars is a very reasonable price for a well-made and heavy duty winter coat, especially if it's real fur. short of teleporting into a utopian future where ethical and sustainable fashion also comes at a rock bottom price point i would love to hear your alternate proposals

[smokeys-house]

Does anyone have any recommendations for free language learning apps? Particularly for Latin American Spanish? I used to use Duolingo before their AI garbage, and then switched to Busuu for a while but suddenly after nearly 200 consecutive days of using it, it's suddenly locking all of its lessons behind a subscription paywall.

[rollanan]

two of my favorite mana batteries swap robes

[braininatankwithalaptop]

You know, as set in stone as a spell forger/researcher Zorian is, I think in another life or timeline he could have just as easily become a detective.

An empath that is naturally curious about the world and might look for divination help and be pointed to a detective? I don't think Zorian would join the police force but he in one way or another respects Haslush, and might find his skills fit the field. After all, as a freelance detective/P.I. it would give him the career path of his two favorite activities of "stick my nose into other people's business" and "help my friends."

[lethesbeastie]

Hi! I saw your reblog of the “Never Found” post with the rabbit sign, found your blog from that, and I think I’m in love with your art style now. What program do you use to draw/what brushes do you use? Your art feels like a crunchy summertime snack and I love it

Thank you so much!! I'm glad you like my art so much akfhakfhs!

I currently use Clip Studio Paint for all of my still illustrations, though I've also used Krita for animation (though I haven't had the time to do so for a while akfhs)! As for the brushes I use, a lot of my favorite pens are ones I downloaded off of Clip Studio's asset library! Recently I've been using this set of textured ink pens and this pencil for a lot of my rough sketching, and this other textured ink pen for lineart!! In the past I've also found a lot of use from this cream pencil brush, and the default gouache brush that comes with the program! I started out as a traditional artist, so I tend to gravitate towards brushes that help capture the more textured feel of physical media and let me get a lot of variety with my line weight. I'm glad you enjoy my work, and thank you so much for the ask!!!

[floorpancakes]

hey did you guys know they released official maru and moro angelic pretty xxxholic collab gowns as a movie tie in but they were ultra limited run custom reservations for a REALLY high price (even for modern ap) so there was no way i was gonna get em but i want them so bad just so i could say i have the official xxxholic lolita dresses anyways

[ladylingua]

I have a very genuine question about the tipping post I promise I didnt read it in bad faith: are people who simply cannot afford to tip not “allowed” to eat out? I’m just thinking about how it works where I am from and while tipping is the norm here if someone doesn’t tip because they can’t afford it it really isn’t a big deal (+tipping norm here us only 10%). so if a poor family goes out to eat to celebrate something and they can barely afford the meal would they still be expected to tip 20% because they shouldn’t eat out if they cant afford it? thank you in advance I’m really curious

If it helps, don’t think of the tip as a separate thing. It is part of the cost of your meal. So if you cannot afford to pay for the cost of the meal including the tip you cannot afford to eat at that restaurant. This is something I myself have to calculate when I’m deciding if I want to eat at a particular restaurant- if I have $15 I can’t go to a restaurant and order a $20 entrée and then refuse to pay the remaining cost, and likewise if I have $15 I can’t order a $15 entrée and expect not to pay the server for their service.

Now that doesn't mean families who can't afford a pricy restaurant can't eat out at all. Since it is a % of your bill you can try to go for a cheaper restaurant (smaller bill = smaller tip), or if you go to a counter service place where you serve yourself you’re not expected to tip 20% (sometimes they have a jar out you could kindly throw a dollar or more in, but there is much less expectation to tip because the workers at a place like that receive a full minimum wage, more on that in a sec). I will also say in my lived experience poor families in America understand and tip well, I’ve almost exclusively been under tipped by wealthy people (which is what kicked off the debate on twitter- if your bill is $700 then you obviously can afford to tip a full 20%, no destitute families are spending $700 on one meal).

Technically speaking you can get away with 18% as a tip, and if you go down to 15% your waiter will think you’re cheap and be annoyed (15% definitely implies you were unhappy with their service) but that is the lowest possible threshold of acceptability. 10% is not an acceptable rate here, and 20% is now the expected norm for good service, and going up from there for great service. And I would never, ever not tip at all. I can only imagine not tipping if like the server had done something deeply offensive or dangerous or something. I've never encountered a situation where I felt the server didn't deserve any tip at all.

Because you’ve asked in genuine good faith I’m going to provide some more context to help you understand a bit more why this is the way it is-

Waitstaff in america are wildly underpaid. Our federal government assumes the tips are part of their expected income, and so a) they are taxed on assumed tips and b) it is legal to pay them less than standard minimum wage. Currently the tipped federal minimum wage is $2.13/hr. Now, states set their own individual rates so some states do better, but $2.13/hr is the lowest they can all legally go. And you’ll notice in that link it mentions the assumed tips and taxing them. I said on my original post, when I worked as a tipped waitress I made $2.68/hr and sometimes my biweekly paycheck was like $60 total. Imagine trying to survive on $120 a month, you absolutely cannot. Tips made up my actual wage, and were the paycheck I depended on to pay for my basic needs. I relied directly on customers to choose to do the social convention of tipping for survival, and when someone would choose to do otherwise it was utterly devastating.

Another thing customers sometimes don’t realize is your waiter may not be allowed to keep all of the tip themselves. It’s a common practice to pool tips amongst all the waitstaff and then divide them equally, and many places require that you tip out other employees there. So if you give me $10 as a tip I might be actually giving a large chunk of that to bussers, bartenders, etc. Or maybe we pool tips and someone else stiffed my colleague so now all of us are sharing your $10 tip. So also keep in mind that the money you leave as a tip very often does not go entirely to the actual waiter, so a big tip can actually become pretty small much faster than you would think.

(and that's just legal practices, wage theft and illegal practices run rampant in the restaurant industry, just fyi)

If you are wondering why tipping culture here is so grim, it is because of slavery. Tipping got big here as a way to keep forcing Black Americans into working for free, now with a small tip but still no actual wage. It was designed for oppression. Waitstaff are overwhelmingly not wealthy people. It is very common for them to be on food stamps, require housing assistance, or to otherwise be living under the poverty line. If you are eating out and not tipping because you yourself are poor, you are taking money out of someone else’s poverty wages to do so. When we debate minimum wage here in america, conservatives are really good at painting a picture of waitstaff being perky middle class college kids making an extra buck, or teens from wealthy homes wanting some spending money. There is an implication that they don't really need the money that badly. That is not the reality of who makes up most serving jobs in america. Minimum wage workers are likely to be in poverty, they’re likely to be women and specifically they’re likely to be women of color. Americans of color are significantly more likely to be working at minimum wage than white americans. There is a pretty sizeable number of minimum wage workers who are over 50, and a not insignificant amount of them who are mothers who support their families. There are also those teens who just want extra cash, and they deserve good compensation for their hard work too, don’t get me wrong, but they are only a portion of who makes up the minimum wage workforce.

If you’re like “But that’s such a shitty system, you’re saying it’s pitting poor people against each other for basic human comforts!” yup. I 100% agree. I am a vocal proponent of raising the minimum wage for that reason. I also advocate for a Universal Basic Income, because I understand that when it comes to small mom & pop restaurants the owners aren’t always making a ton of money either and it seems like truly no one is winning in this system. It is set up to oppress and to demean and to grind us all down. There are lots of orgs in America that are fighting to improve the system, or to radically change the system. There are also restaurants that have tried to do things differently- there’s a wine bar in my city that says specifically on their menu that their wine is more expensive because they pay their workers a true livable wage so there is no tipping there. Instead as a customer I pay a higher upfront cost that covers the true expense of running the bar- including server wages. I love that, I wish more places would do things like that. In the meantime, when I’m choosing where to eat I factor in a tip of 20% when calculating my estimated bill, because paying for service is part of the cost.

Refusing to tip fully in america is not doing anything to change the system. It does not make restaurant owners rethink their pay structure, it does not put pressure on our government to fix minimum wage, it does not make a political statement. It just means your server is going home wondering if they can afford their own meal that night.

Thank you for asking for clarity, I hope this helps. Please feel free to ask more if you have any remaining confusion or are curious about other aspects of american culture. If I can answer and the questions are respectful, I am happy to reply!

[dopecarmilla]

is anyone else seeing the prices for the d20 live show?! a ticket in the nosebleeds is $700 and if you want front row that’ll run you at least 2k! i don’t know who is responsible for setting those prices but I’m super disappointed in dropout right now.

[rubenesque-as-fuck]

Anyway I got notified that I'll be getting a nice $$ bonus from work today and I wish that I could celebrate with someone in a way that didn't just feel like obnoxious bragging. Like beyond the financial aspect, it's just nice to be recognized for good work and I actually feel... good?? about this job??

But it feels so silly to say I want to celebrate when I just got back from what felt like my first real vacation in a very long time and am doing cool comic con stuff this weekend and am scheduled for a new tattoo next weekend. I am already doing lots of things to try to make myself feel good! It feels selfish to want more!

But I guess even with all of that, there's just still a hunger for external validation from trusted sources. Will I ever grow out of wanting someone to be proud of me?

[ferronickel]

I am begging artists to charge more for their commissions. Pleading. If you are charging anything less than $20/hour you are undercutting the market and making it harder for working artists to earn a livable wage. (And really, truly, you should be aiming at something like $50/hour). Why would anyone want to pay artists what they're worth when there are artists out there asking for pennies for the same thing?

I understand that it's difficult finding commissioners willing to pay higher prices (because they've seen artists charging nothing for art, that's why), but that's something we can fix together if we normalize charging what our work is actually worth!

[n7punk]

not to be obsessed but last week i had a dream i checked my ebay notifs and finally got the she-ra statue and i've been actually fucking insane ever since. meanest thing my brain has ever done to me

[leona-florianova]

* looking at prices of new rock boots*

"It cant be That hard to make some fancy boots yourself, right?"

*i say while fully aware of how hard it would really be*

[sergle]

also for folks who ask if I could try medical tourism instead: Technically I Could, Yes... that’s on the list of possibilities. only problem: adding even MORE steps to the process of getting my surgery kind of makes me want to cry.