#bc sometimes something i like is mentioned

[whyispickingausernamesohard]

For anyone wondering how this could possibly happen, a little peak behind the scenes (almost all of this is publicly available information but a lil employee info)

Joann has been MASSIVELY in debt for years. I work at a store that consistently makes sales (gained more money than that day the past fiscal year) so idk how it is on the store level but at the corporate level it's bad

Their biggest creditor this fiscal year is the woobles. Like those little crochet kits. This is not because the crochet kits are bad/don't sell (I mean, they don't really, since they're excluded from all coupons and that deters people) this is most likely because joann bought a bunch of the woobles branded yarn and it straight up did not sell. Stores that got it were bombarded with stock, but no one bought it. It was a massively failed investment.

THREE of the biggest creditors are different home decor suppliers. I have worked at joanns since October 2023 and can pretty confidently say that home decor does not sell, at least not until it's on deep discount and standards are lowered. Halloween decor, some Christmas decor, and Christmas ornaments sell. And the porch geese. Spring does not sell. Summer does not sell.

Other big creditor is FedEx. If you have ordered from joanns you may have experienced this problem but not known why it happens. When you order for shipping, that order goes to a store that does ship from store (sfs) that has any of your order in stock. They fill what they can, ship it, and pass the rest on to another store. This is why your orders bounce around in processing hell for a month. This is why you get fabric in multiple cuts in different packages. This is why half your order comes two weeks after the first half. There is not a warehouse for online orders. You may start to see the problem already. When you, the customer, place your order, you are charged shipping ONCE. In a normal store setup this is great! Except joann has to pay FedEx for every package shipped. And sometimes, they offer free shipping coupons! If you place an order on the app while you're physically in the store, you get free shipping! If you say to a cashier that you need to order something that's out of stock or isn't carried at that store, you get free shipping AND get to use your coupons! Joann has to eat that cost, and it adds up.

When you buy something online for in store pickup at just about any store, you have to pay a service fee. This makes sense! A worker has to pull that order and do the shopping for you, and that's time they can't spend doing other things. And when you pick up curbside, an employee has to drop everything and run it out to you. At joann, there were regularly 20% pick up in store coupons. And online-only sales. And no service charge.

I dont have figures on it so this one is speculation, but last year they rolled out the "happy value" line of fabric and craft supplies. It's supposed to be "budget friendly" but it's just shit. If you have touched the fabric you know. They don't recommend that you *sew* with it. I don't trust any of the art supplies, I've only bought the tape measures bc I needed a classroom set. I suspect they sunk a lot of cost into this and it's just... not really selling. Some of the seasonal knickknacks that were rebranded to happy value sell fine but the actual art supplies do not.

Employee turnover rate is shit. Others have mentioned they pay $9/hour unless minimum wage is higher, and in some locations they pay $7.25/hour. They pretty exclusively hire part time. District managers are constantly on store managers about cutting hours. There have been weeks where I get 4 hours a week, and after our sm (only full time employee) the next highest was 14 hours in a week. Almost all of us have second jobs, are retired, or are students. I am regularly working from 6:55am-7:30pm across two jobs, with an hour in between.

With hours being cut, we have no time to put freight out. Companies will claim it was "supply chain issues" the supply chain was just fine, at least for joann. We had the freight, we just didn't have the people to stock it, meaning no one can buy it.

Corporate has routinely received massive retention bonus payouts, despite being in debt and the hourly pay being shit. Before announcing the auction, they removed severance bonuses from our benefits, so they can say it's "in accordance with our new policy." Great American (liquidator who won the auction) has said they have plans for severance pay/retention bonus for those of us who stick around til the end, we'll see what comes of that.

Many employees have already jumped ship or are about to. Those of us who are sticking around at least at my store are doing it out of pride or, in my case, spite (I want to say that I personally had a hand in killing joann).

Idk it feels like old news but I've obviously been keeping up with the info so maybe it'll shed some light on the situation for people wondering how such a popular store could be failing

Source

If you haven't already heard the sad news, ALL JoAnn stores are closing (it was previously reported that only some stores would be closed).

Important: JOANN GIFT CARDS WILL ONLY BE HONORED THROUGH FEBRUARY 28. If you don't have time to get to the store, use them on the website.

[moon-ttokki-x]

Hii! Your 9th member fics are what keeps me going, they're all so good. It's unbelievable!

Would it be okay for me to make a request? Maybe headcanons on how would the members act around a short reader (even shorter than Changbin)? Who would be helpful, who would be annoying? And what if the reader is the type to steal their clothes?

The brainrot is real... I'm not even shorter than Changbin... but I had a dream about it...

once i had a dream where hyunjin shaved my head so 'we could be matching' and i woke up sweating . . . another time i had a dream where jisung and i got into a dating scandal so he picked me up and ran along the beach while JYP was running after us shouting 'break up' sooooo . . . it's a stay thing

skz x short 9th member!reader

pairing: ot8!skz x short 9th member!reader

summary: how skz would act around a short member (who's even shorter than changbin)

genre: crack, idol! au, that's literally it. pure crack. and some fluff. also little shit!maknae line au. but. nothing else. i think.

a/n: divider by @saradika-graphics

skz masterlist

first of all

skz have decided that you are an armrest

so you can just be standing anywhere

and some member will come up to you and just

rest their arm on your head or lean on you

usually it's hyunjin bc he's tall, or minho bc he's a cheeky shit

jeongin did it once and you threatened to bite him

so he never did it again

you let chan and felix do it tho bc they're sweethearts

they don't rest their arms on your head, they do it on ur shoulder which is acceptable

han tried to do it once and he missed

and then fell over

like really badly

anyway

not a single day goes by when you don't have to ask someone to get something down from somewhere for you

perpetual aching in your tippy toes from how much you stand on them

you do try to be helpful, just at a lower level

during dance practices, you're always the one to turn the studio music on or off bc it's closer to the floor

you just bend down and tap the music off

which saves most of the members backache ahem chan

especially felix, who has back issues and isn't supposed to be doing that kind of stuff

sometimes you just turn the music off altogether and disrupt everyone

which results in a defeated lecture from chan and an intense glare from minho

he loves you really

you also spend most of your time thrown over changbin's shoulder

he's overjoyed to have a member who's shorter than him

most of the members usually poke your sides and try to make changbin drop you

they stopped doing that after you accidentally kicked seungmin in the chest

puppy didn't talk to you for two days

you also love stealing their clothes

they're just so comfy !! and they smell good !!

they're also ideal to sleep in bc they're so oversized, so it's like a blanket in itself

you can just pass out anywhere

like a kitten

and you usually get carried back to the dorm like a child

being the shortest also means being the brunt of most of skz's teasing

at this point the boys care more about your height than they do about chan's age

which says something

but they know when to stop, because they know what it's like to be teased about something they can't control

so even though they can be annoying, they also try to make things easy for you

you hang out with jeongin a lot

you two maknaes kind of found each other and as a result, spend a lot of time together

which usually means you passing out at jeongchan's dorm instead of the minsung dorm

did i mention you live with minsung ??

anyway

most of the time you're splayed out in innie's bed

or when he has a late schedule and you're waiting at the dorm for him, chan lets you sleep in his bed

and then forgets that you're in there

so when he actually decides to sleep he gets the scare of his life because you're curled up under the sheets

you def own lots and lots of chunky boots and platforms

you love that sort of stuff, not just because of the height it gives you

also useful to kick people

especially sasaengs

but the maknae line comes in handy for that sooo....

no need tbh

honestly i think any of them would be willing to fight for you

even hyunjin

(even tho hes a stick figure and has the combat strength of a singular wet penne pasta)

in reality, you really do try your best for skz and work as hard as you can

often it's the guys who tell you to take breaks or help you to slow down

bc you're just so go go go all the time

and you don't realise how tired you are until changbin sits you down on the couch

and felix hands you a bowl of something hot to eat

being with them is one of the best things that has ever happened to you

so

no matter how short you are, it doesn't matter

bc you want to be with them as long as possible no matter what the circumstances are !!

<3

a/n: i like the divider hehe

[loveydovey489]

How do you think the CoD ppl would react to a suicidal or a depressed reader (choose the one you feel comfortable writing) Need some reassurance and something to warm my heart T-T

Hello!! I hope you are doing alright anon, I hope I get this right, you are loved and appreciated!!

TW: mentions of suicide, poor mental health (I don’t go into detail, bc this is for comfort.) Be careful! Love you all <3

I think that gaz would be very mature about it all. Probably handling it the best, I think he has to deal with a lot after joining the 141. (PTSD) and I think that he would understand, most likely I think that he’d start going on walks (or runs if your into that), cooking, little mindless but fulfilling tasks. To help encourage you, and feel productive! I will also die by saying he is a safe care king, if you can’t get out of bed, best believe your getting a spa day. He’s putting on nice music. Your getting a face mask and a fucking amazing massage,

I think ghost. Has probably dealt with very similar situations, being from a very awful home, having a mother who was probably depressed too, I think her start doing things for you. Cleaning your room, laying out your clothes, making food, paperwork, stuff that he will never outright talk about, he’s not that type of person, but he will silently support you by doing little things! (Bc he’s edgy and won’t tell you that he cares 😒)

Soap, I don’t think would fully get it, at least not at first, but if your close he’ll always come by. he doesn’t really understand (he wasn’t been around very awful mental health during his life) he will act like a dumbass and joke around to try cheer you up, I think eventually he’d calm down once he realised that maybe that’s not that you need at the moment, he seems like a touchy guy, he’d give you a big old spine cracking hug, he’d probably do a lot of research online about how to help someone, because he likes his recon, he cares, leaves little drawings he thinks you’d like sometimes

And price is very dad coded, again, he wouldn’t get it, he’s lwk old (more old fashioned) and mental health awareness wasn’t something he grew up with, but being an honorary dad of very damn recruit who comes into the place, he knows what to do, super soft and sweet, if you want a hug he’ll give you a hug, if you want to stay in bed, he’ll sit on the end of the bed and squeeze your leg. And make awkward conversation, or he’ll listen if you need it, if your ready, he won’t force anything out of you <3

[thebiscuitlabryinth]

I think what drives me crazy is that the Sage of truth is so eager in everything he does, where Shadow Milk's theatrics are more so a shallow mask of who he once was to hide his new fury and disdain for the world, SoT is genuinely excited and having fun. Which makes for a more bitter reality when you imagine he was like this in the past, and cookies not wanting to accept the truth he offered nor offering any new options(the debate thing), not wanting to think for themselves, just wanting him to feed them what they wanted to hear. There is also his pride, and how much he wanted to be heard and seen. Mix it all up and he was a disaster waiting to happen.

That being said, the fact that in the AU SoT is more of a traveling scholar and not THE fount of knowledge does give the idea that he realized the truth much sooner and decided it was better to release himself from the title and start teaching from 0 to change his fate. He keeps his past a secret for a reason.

But the one thing that won't change is his desire and ability to influence people. He wants to spread his word (be it deceit or truth) as far as he can. Which will always make him clash with PV, who wont actively force his ideals, but will defend them like an unbreakable law. As such SM will always seek him out, wanting something from him. Only in cannon, he wants to be understood, while as SoT he wants to understand.

AND PV. Not having his support system meant he saw the truth, and just couldn't take it. Really goes to show how important it was for the kids to be with him bc without them, SM or not, he wouldn't have been able to handle it all. Which is such an interesting and heartbreaking thought. Goes to show SM really was voicing the demons PV had been already battling with long before.

Sorry for the word vomit I'm just going insane over this AU and wanted to hear your thoughts that's all 🙏

YEP YEP YEP i agree with all of this!!

i suspect the biggest difference between sage and the fount of knowledge is ultimately the conclusion they drew when they were confronted with an uncomfortable truth. sage accepted it because he came to the conclusion that truth can be subjective and comes in many forms, but that does not make it any less truthful. the fount, too, realised that truth is subjective but rejected it, concluding that must mean everything is a lie. that's why shadow milk is so focused on this idea of a world where lies and truth becomes indistinguishable - because to him, that's basically what the world is meant to be. if. that makes sense

that said, i don't think sage was ever the fount of knowledge in the au, and that's exactly why they were able to reach different conclusions. sage may not be happy about it, but he can accept when there is no answer to be found. he is a truthseeker, not a knowledge seeker, and sometimes the truth is there is no answer.

the fount's whole identity, on the other hand, is built on being the virtue of knowledge and dispensing wisdom to everyone. i wouldn't be surprised if having that kind of image, paired with the pride that seems consistent with all iterations of shadow milk, made the fount unable to accept that there can be mutiple conflicting truths, because if that is true, then how can his knowledge be fully correct? is it knowledge at all? and yet, people will accept his word no matter what, and that feeds into the idea that nothing matters, everything is a lie. people will believe anything, after all! idk, this is obviously all guesswork - i just find it interesting that shadow milk seems to have a tendency to refer to truth as a singular entity, whereas sage makes a point of referring to truth as a collective co-existing

AS FOR PV one of the things i noticed immediately after ep8 is that, yeah, the whole fiasco at the spire could have so easily ended badly for him. i kind of off-handedly mention it in my black sapphire aftermath fic, but if candy apple hadn't released the gingergang when she had, there isn't really a guarantee that they would have had another chance to talk one-on-one to pv and give him that spark of hope before he genuinely gave up entirely. ironically, if pv had succeeded in kicking the gingergang out at the end of ep7, he would have probably fully condemned himself to that despair too. it's an extension of his extreme selflessness, i think - without a support system there to give him something to fight for, pv is very prone to spiralling into his own self-loathing

oooh don't apologise for the word vomit because this is uh. pretty word vomity too. i hope this all makes some kind of sense 💕

[emioliravioli]

umm rate the birthday invitation i guess???? my mom really wanted me to draw something, so i just.... did this lol

[skrunksthatwunk]

meant to be seen and not heard; meant to be felt, not seen

[pollyna]

Teenage Bradley angst-ing because he wants to ask Ice to adopt him too vs adult Bradley running for the hills because the first thing he has to do when he's back from the mission is getting the certificate he printed in 2011 and run to their home to ask Ice to be legally his dad too.

[daincrediblegg]

Guys you have to start going to brick and mortar stores again instead of buying every little damn thing online. I am so serious

[rooolt]

television shows should not make one off jokes about character possibly being autistic, not because it’s in poor taste or anything, but because it invites speculation on an alternate, better show in which that person’s autism was actually focused on as an important aspect of their character and something integral to their arc and development throughout the series

[mysteryboy1249]

Finally went and watched Zero Tea Time and like, how is this man still functioning at all??? If we're to assume that Furuya sleeps about 2 hours a night regularly, I'm sorry but this man would in no way shape or form be able to do what he does. - Sincerely, someone who has legitimately slept 3AM to 5AM regularly for several months due to having pre-existing sleep issues and a job that started at an ungodly time.

Like, yes I get that I shouldn't be thinking too deeply since anime logic, but also on this same schedule I felt like I was about to die by week 3 and was essentially a human zombie with my mental health down the sink by week 6(and technically I was sleeping more than 2 hours since I would take some naps as well) so I have some strong feelings about this. Hell, there's no way this man would be able to keep track of what time it is let alone all his jobs and secrets with that amount of sleep. Even if we go under the assumption that he sleeps 3-4 or even 4-5 hours usually and the 2 hours was a special case this man would still not be able to make all those deductions and chase all those criminals. Sure you won't feel as shit, but you definitely will still be feeling quite shit.

No wonder this man depressed and insane with a sprinkling of anger issues and seems to be constantly lowkey disassociating in Zero Tea Time. Yes most of it is because he's the only one left and is horribly traumatized but also like Furuya, have you considered taking a nap? It doesn't solve the trauma, but give yourself 8-10 hours of proper sleep and you'll be waking up ready to take on god.

As a side note, are there fics where Furuya is severely sleep deprived and how that impacts him? Because so far I haven't seen any but I also don't usually go out of my way to find Furuya centered fics. Because if there isn't I'll write one myself, not enough chronic sleep deprivation rep round here in general. Mans mother hens everyone around him, he deserves someone to mother hen him back to force him to sleep because the world will not in fact end if he takes some time off.

[cerealmonster15]

i forgot grunt meant like henchman or whatever for a second i thought they were like yeah leonas bitch ass grunts and growls are partial proof to savanaclaw being an athletic leaning dorm lol

[where-the-water-flows]

If you know how to do it you can use someone’s phone number to find their full legal name and home address. It’s just a bit of Google and knowing what websites stores this kind of info. Saw your tags asking how a phone number could verify someone’s age

So, I appreciate you dropping into my askbox to pass that info on - genuinely, it's kind of you - and I can see how my tags came across, but what I actually meant wasn't 'how can you find info on someone just with their phone number??' -- I actually do exactly that kind of thing in my day job pretty regularly, and I have to conform to a lot of real strict ethic constraints that uh, bluntly, random discord moderators...do not.

What I was actually getting at is the fact that, assuming the hypothetical server is just using a phone number as age verification (and doing data broker/google search on that), how in the hell is it controlling for someone doing what people under the arbitrary age limit du jour have been doing since we started implementing this sort of check, ie, lying like rugs and supplying info for someone in their family/social circle instead who is older than [whatever age].

like. sure. maybe you get a phone number for age verification. awesome. plug that into your data broker/google/etc of choice, run your searches, and ok, it belongs to jane smith, 38 years old, accountant who lives in ballarat, she's totally fine to join the 18+ server! come on in jane, the smut is plentiful and the doves are extremely dead. Jane smith has a kid. jane smith's kid is 15. jane smith's kid isn't allowed in the server, because it's an 18+ only server.

jane smith's kid almost certainly knows their mum's mobile number.

how the hell can Hypothetical Server Mod control for 15 year old jane smith's kid putting in jane smith's mobile number instead of their own? and also, separately, how the hell is HSM dealing with the many -- many many many -- different privacy laws around the globe?

not just in terms of handling that sort of information on people (and also requesting it in the first place!), but also just. some countries you can get so much fucking info on someone! (the US. I'm talking about the US.)

some you can't. because privacy laws, because the info isn't publicly accessible, because it's not online and is only in hard copy at the local government office, because it's collated but only in a nonenglish language, because it's geolocked-- etc.

also, like. even if the hypothetical phone number brings up someone in the US, and also your hypothetical mod team has decided, y'know, fuck privacy laws, security of information and data ethics can take a long walk off a short pier, we're keeping this server 18+ or dying trying!

data brokers aren't...actually consistently what you would call...super accurate, or like, accurate at all. if you have a unique name, yeah, sure, you're probably kinda fucked! (assuming you're in, again, somewhere the data brokers focus) but like. if you're named something a little more common - say, james smith, or maria sanchez in the US- uh. well. there sure are a lot of people you could be, and some of them - most of them! - are over 18.

and ok, sure, a phone number is (usually) only associated with one person, but. you can get a lot of false positives, false negatives, and straight up 'we don't know 🤪', the latter of which is sometimes hidden by the databrokers going 'our best guess is that this person is: An Age!! somewhere between 0 and 200 years old. 😇'

again, I use this stuff for work, I can tell you exactly how inaccurate it can get as soon as you throw something like 'not based in the US/UK' or 'uses a nickname/multiple name formats' or 'isn't super online' or 'older than 65 and not turbo wealthy' at some of these - I've had more than one confidently tell me that [my wallet name] is an accountant based in darwin who makes horror films in alice springs on the side, and also, is 26, and had 2-3 kids with her husband Lauchlan.

literally none of these facts are true. like. even vaguely.

and that can of worms doesn't even get into if someone has requested to be removed from data broker databases and/or takes online privacy Very Seriously and/or is just fundamentally ungoogleable, which is...more common than you'd think. less common than you'd like, but more common than you think, even before google started enshittifying itself out of existence.

which is why when you're trying to do things like prove your identity to uhhh goverments, banks, etc, they want multiple forms of ID, one of which is usually a photo ID, none of which anyone should be sending to a random on discord, or, frankly, asking for from a random on discord, both bc my god privacy and security risk but also like. handling that information can actually have legal requirements!

anyway. extremely long ramble on the failings of databrokers over, I appreciate you reaching out to help explain and it was very kind of you anon, sorry that I have. uhhhh kind of a lot of professional feelings about data privacy and basic social engineering, by which I mean saying 'no I'm totally 18 pinkie swear' in the grand tradition of teens wanting to get into age locked areas ever, your forebears lied on LJ so you could lie on discord.

[dyketennant]

oh i can already tell i’m about to have some really unpopular opinions about the edge of sleep tv show

[perilegs]

i need to learn to bake something new as everyone at work already knows i'm bringing them some carrot cake on friday....

[yardsards]

I guess to follow up that I know as a fandom we agree that Odalia favors the twins but I kinda just realize, we haven’t seen her intact with them that much either. Does she favor them really? Or does she neglect them while abusing amity the most? And what do they think of her?

i think the facts that she favors them AND the fact that she just neglects them more while abusing amity more are both true

(i think around early s1 that was one of the sources of their rivalry with amity. amity resented them for being odalia's favorite, they resented amity because she got more attention from both parents)

i think it's best represented by that one scene in coth where she's scolding amity like "you've even got the twins to act out!" (whereas we know well that the twins do not need prompting to "act out" and that their plans for causing chaos were way more extreme than amity's). the mix of blaming amity but also clearly not knowing anything about her oldest children.

i think she may even have moments of expressing affection to them but it's things that just feel hollow. praises that feel more like she's praising herself, expensive gifts that don't suit their tastes at all, etc.

most of what we hear them say about her in canon is just "don't tell mom!" i think they mostly see her as the threat she is. but at the same time their feelings towards her are probably complicated, the way most people's feelings towards their shitty parents are at that age.

i think when they were young, they might have gravitated more towards her than alador, because they were her favorites but not his. but as they grew up they realized that both of their parents were pretty equally neglectful to them.

my headcanon is that soon post-divorce, they're equally wary of both alador and odalia, because both parents neglected them pretty equally throughout their childhood. but as time progresses, alador improves and apologizes while odalia stays stuck in her old ways and refuses to acknowledge her mistakes, so they slowly end up not talking to her anymore. like it's more of a gradual thing than the way amity cut her off. (i had begun exploring this idea in a post-canon fic that i never ended up finishing)

[skrunksthatwunk]

yyh shipping opinion charts (NIGHTMARE MODE)

blank versions below cut