#convenience fees

[kurgy]

genuinely dont know if my landlord just has the legal right to lower and raise (always raise) individual utility service fees or if she is getting revenge on me personally for consulting a lawyer bc she has raised them every month I've been here and had raised them AGAIN for next month and I simply do not have the extra 119 that gets tacked onto rent in fees that started low. it wouldn't even be as high as it is for next month bc they decided they now only accept online payment, and you get the honor of paying them $60 in service payment fees to then pay them several hundred more in actual rent. i literally hate this i was not built to survive this kind of world

[catandgirlcomic]

I Am the Ticket-Master

[a-s-levynn]

.

[stylinsuns]

koi louis beti bachao trust fund khol raha hai toh bolo

[dawnthread]

the last time i visited my LYS, there was a lady at the table who was trying to frog something and getting pretty frustrated with it and i, vibrating intensely in Imminent Puzzle Stim Enrichment, was like "please let me take care of that for you actually"

i didn't finish it while i was there so she let me take it home, i'm gonna drop it back off tomorrow, but it got me thinking - i know most people think that frogging stuff and untangling yarn barf are excruciatingly tedious miseries, but i actually have a lot of fun doing it, and maybe that's something i could make a little bit of pocket change doing, if people took me up on it? when i'm down there i'll ask and see if maybe they'd let me set a basket or something out like "drop off your yarn barfs, tangles, and to-be-frogged items, and i'll fix them for you for the low low price of $5!"

they might already offer that service in-house, i don't know, but it can't hurt to ask!

[gellavonhamster]

European followers: can anyone recommend a good online bookshop? I try to avoid online shopping as much as possible, but sometimes I need one or another book that is highly unlikely to be available where I live. Something, you know, that doesn't charge an arm and a leg for delivery.

[trivialbob]

This week my sisters, my brother and his girlfriend, and I helped my dad get rid of some unneeded furniture. This meant carrying bookcases to my sister's Honda and a small couch and cabinet to my Ford.

The items I took are now on Craigslist for a nominal amount. I don't like dealing with people who shop CL's Free category. "Hey man, I live in Iowa and am thinking of coming to Minneapolis sometime in December. That love seat you listed is pretty sweet. Will you hang onto to it for me until I find a buddy with a truck who wants to drive 250 miles one-way for a free couch?"

Asking $10 avoids those responses. It also makes other people think they're getting a super deal. When someone willing to pay a few bucks does show up, if they seem nice I will even tell them to put away the wallet, though I might charge a "convenience fee" for helping load the couch into their vehicle.

Moving furniture is one of my least favorite activities. It's right down there with paying convenience fees or waiting for noobs in line at an ATM. What's our PIN, Delores? Didn't you write it down? Is it our dog's birthday? No? Gimme a sec, I'll remember. Should I get the $20 out of checking or savings?

However, my dad took us out for pizza afterwards. Eating free pizza is one of my most favorite activities. It's right up there with pressing the start button on a full dishwasher or sleeping in freshly laundered sheets under a heavy blanket. My desires are simple and easily attainable.

My other sister has one of the filthiest vehicles I've ever seen. She lives at the end of a dirt road. You can recognize her Chevy on a highway as it leaves a cloud of dust when she comes to town to shop at Target or get free pizza.

Sadly, my truck's interior is no better. It has so much dog hair that when that sister went to to put pillows and couch cushions in the back seat I advised her to keep wearing the mask that's required at my dad's apartment building's public areas. In fact, there is so much dog hair someone might think I'm fibbing about that couch coming from a pet-free home.

[gideonisms]

Just heard the pest control guy (supposed to come every tuesday, I pay a fee for this with my rent) knock on one door on my level, ask if the person inside wanted pest control, and they did not, so he left. Hello? There are 6 apartments on this floor

[ladyelainehilfur]

oh, you want to go to this concert with your friends? Give us your firstborn.

[newty]

advent children complete theatre dates came out and im excited to watch the best stupid movie ever in aerith cosplay the day after my bday 🎀

[stardustera]

the ticketmaster "convenience fee" of $50 is fucking batshit insane

[carlosdropshot]

why is my man going to a clay exho in the transition of grass to hard court season oh boy i dont wanna see this

[diableriepervert]

never have I been more grateful for having to go to the secretary of state god bless I did not want to go drinking with my sister and her boyfriend tonight

[daandori]

sometimes ill convert my annual salary to usd just to hurt myself

[puppyeared]

this is the kind of thing ive been trying to put into words for years when i try to tell people what kind of stories i want. i hope you dont mind if i add on to this, but as an aroace who loves soulmate aus, id love to read a soulmate story that expands on this.

what if soulmate marks are something youre hardly conscious of, whether you have one or not? if youre destined to meet your soulmate when youre 58, is it worth it to see other people despite that? if you meet your soulmate in kindergarten, would you feel the rest of your life feeling tied down or think nothing of it? what if people shared soulmates, and you found yours in a group of friends? what if you get your soulmark at a tattoo parlor, perhaps not to will something into existence, but to avoid awkward questions and pitying looks? what if soulmates could be earned, and one day you wake up with a mark on your wrist because someone decided you're important to them?

how does this shape our expectations for love or sense of privacy? do strangers sometimes helpfully check your nape or the back of your ear "to see if you missed a spot," despite how creepy and uncomfortable it feels? do our eyes gravitate to fingers for rings when we form our impression of someone? are we supposed to fall in love with our soulmates, or can they be a friend with benefits or a best friend?

everybody’s always on writing prompts like “what if there was a world where everyone had a timer ticking down to their death… but you met someone whose timer said infinity!” or “what if everyone had their cause of death tattooed across their forehead… but you met someone whose forehead said THE CREATURE!” Enough -

enough. stop with the shock value. there is no need to insert THE CREATURE; the benign concept of such a world is horrifying enough. not even in urgency, but just in banal, everyday interaction. imagine you meet someone and their timer says two years. not tomorrow, not urgently soon, but two years. enough to do quite a lot. they could fall in love in that time - could they get engaged? have a baby? you might otherwise get to know them, befriend them, but perhaps you opt not to, make a conscious choice not to invest in your own grief. what balancing act would every individual person have to participate in - I have ten years, is that long enough to be a good mother to children? is that long enough to secure a caretaker for my own mother? my wife will die a few months before me. my newborn’s timer reads nineteen years.

and cause of death. you interview for a job and emblazoned across the healthy, smiling face of the HR lady is MALNUTRITION. your country is prospering, safe, but every person you meet on the street from the babies to the old women read BOMB. BOMB. what kind of havoc would fate wreak on the world? what about the loss of privacy? how would that shape our notions of hope? idk man I think a lot of those ancient poems were right, and the fates are monsters. I’m interested by the framing of these ideas as trite horror tales when the premises themselves are so much more disturbing if simply taken to their logical ends

[gideonisms]

When you think about it i've increased the value of this place just by keeping it clean something the prev tenants were obviously NOT doing. my landlord should be paying ME