#hope studio

[uarmyhopx]

Sunday Selfie!

This weekend was hot! Summer really has come now. Though what's your favorite season? It is forecasted to stay this warm for the next 10 days, so please stay hydrated in this weather! I enjoyed the weekend with some minigolf and...paying a little visit to the studio. I miss it.

Today's forecast: lots of relaxing on the couch with a fresh breeze of skin care and energy reachrage for the monday!

[caratbow]

ily chappell roan of arc

x

prints💌

[nevesceramics]

Comfort

2024

cone 02 red earthenware, underglaze

available in one hour! (noon CST)

[hamable]

I’m thinking about Mahito’s great great uncle maintaining and preserving a peaceful and beautiful thing in a way that to an outside observer looks tedious and unimportant, hoping to pass the duty off to a successor but ultimately he cannot find one and dies with it.

I’m thinking about the specificity of the blocks being made and handled with care, not with malice or ill intent.

I’m thinking about Hayao Miyazaki, a bastion of beautiful 2d hand drawn animation who refuses to retire.

I’m thinking about a world where animation is so rarely made with love over profit and efficiency.

I’m thinking about how, though the old man didn’t see it, the next generation still hangs onto a piece of that beautiful, tedious thing and takes it with them because it feels important.

I’m thinking about Mahito being told he should forget, but no. He shouldn’t.

[dailyhatsune]

i’m really sorry (kunai + dead ringers you)

[reasonsforhope]

Federal regulators on Tuesday [April 23, 2024] enacted a nationwide ban on new noncompete agreements, which keep millions of Americans — from minimum-wage earners to CEOs — from switching jobs within their industries.

The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday afternoon voted 3-to-2 to approve the new rule, which will ban noncompetes for all workers when the regulations take effect in 120 days [So, the ban starts in early September, 2024!]. For senior executives, existing noncompetes can remain in force. For all other employees, existing noncompetes are not enforceable.

[That's right: if you're currently under a noncompete agreement, it's completely invalid as of September 2024! You're free!!]

The antitrust and consumer protection agency heard from thousands of people who said they had been harmed by noncompetes, illustrating how the agreements are "robbing people of their economic liberty," FTC Chair Lina Khan said. 

The FTC commissioners voted along party lines, with its two Republicans arguing the agency lacked the jurisdiction to enact the rule and that such moves should be made in Congress...

Why it matters

The new rule could impact tens of millions of workers, said Heidi Shierholz, a labor economist and president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. 

"For nonunion workers, the only leverage they have is their ability to quit their job," Shierholz told CBS MoneyWatch. "Noncompetes don't just stop you from taking a job — they stop you from starting your own business."

Since proposing the new rule, the FTC has received more than 26,000 public comments on the regulations. The final rule adopted "would generally prevent most employers from using noncompete clauses," the FTC said in a statement.

The agency's action comes more than two years after President Biden directed the agency to "curtail the unfair use" of noncompetes, under which employees effectively sign away future work opportunities in their industry as a condition of keeping their current job. The president's executive order urged the FTC to target such labor restrictions and others that improperly constrain employees from seeking work.

"The freedom to change jobs is core to economic liberty and to a competitive, thriving economy," Khan said in a statement making the case for axing noncompetes. "Noncompetes block workers from freely switching jobs, depriving them of higher wages and better working conditions, and depriving businesses of a talent pool that they need to build and expand."

Real-life consequences

In laying out its rationale for banishing noncompetes from the labor landscape, the FTC offered real-life examples of how the agreements can hurt workers.

In one case, a single father earned about $11 an hour as a security guard for a Florida firm, but resigned a few weeks after taking the job when his child care fell through. Months later, he took a job as a security guard at a bank, making nearly $15 an hour. But the bank terminated his employment after receiving a letter from the man's prior employer stating he had signed a two-year noncompete.

In another example, a factory manager at a textile company saw his paycheck dry up after the 2008 financial crisis. A rival textile company offered him a better job and a big raise, but his noncompete blocked him from taking it, according to the FTC. A subsequent legal battle took three years, wiping out his savings. 

-via CBS Moneywatch, April 24, 2024

--

Note:

A lot of people think that noncompete agreements are only a white-collar issue, but they absolutely affect blue-collar workers too, as you can see from the security guard anecdote.

In fact, one in six food and service workers are bound by noncompete agreements. That's right - one in six food workers can't leave Burger King to work for Wendy's [hypothetical example], in the name of "trade secrets." (x, x, x)

Noncompete agreements also restrict workers in industries from tech and video games to neighborhood yoga studios. "The White House estimates that tens of millions of workers are subject to noncompete agreements, even in states like California where they're banned." (x, x, x)

The FTC estimates that the ban will lead to "the creation of 8,500 new businesses annually, an average annual pay increase of $524 for workers, lower health care costs, and as many as 29,000 more patents each year for the next decade." (x)

Clearer explanation of noncompete agreements below the cut.

Noncompete agreements can restrict workers from leaving for a better job or starting their own business.

Noncompetes often effectively coerce workers into staying in jobs they want to leave, and even force them to leave a profession or relocate.

Noncompetes can prevent workers from accepting higher-paying jobs, and even curtail the pay of workers not subject to them directly.

Of the more than 26,000 comments received by the FTC, more than 25,000 supported banning noncompetes. 

[wuntrum]

2025 horror pin up calendar!!

print version | digital (/print it yourself) version

a labor of love, truly <3 prepare for the new year with 12 suggestive (and silly) horror characters :) featuring characters from: american psycho, bride of re-animator, the evil dead, hannibal, jason x, frankenhooker, alien, an american werewolf in london, jennifer's body, saw, the thing, and scream! to see the full specs of the calendar, check out the pages above!

[keydekyie]

I've Been Waiting...

close-ups under cut:

I want to credit @monstermonger for inspiring the style of this one. Her style gives me whatever the visual equivalent of ASMR is. It makes my eyes water (in a good way lol).

When I was young I used to ink with pen a lot, sometimes painting in with watercolor, but I'd gotten out of that since learning digital art. I'm finding I miss it. There's something about nice black ink that tickles my brain. With this piece I wanted to try to imitate the technique digitally. You can be the judge as to whether I achieved that.

The pose was inspired by an Amur leopard at the Cleveland Zoo. My friends and I went on a rainy day, and it was very quiet. There were times when we were all alone, just us and the animals. We were standing in an empty courtyard reading informational signs, and when we turned and looked up, we were surprised to see the beautiful Amur leopard laying sprawled on the overhead walkway, just watching us serenely.

[everyone-calm-down]

Yeah yeah yeah, The Boy and the Heron was amazing. The themes, the art, the Robert Pattinson. I AM going to choose to focus on the fact that this guy waited seemingly less than a year after his wife died to get his sister-in-law pregnant tho.

[userfrieren]

Howl's Moving Castle (2004) dir. Hayao Miyazaki

birthday gift for @shadowsofrose ♡

[kittarts]

Some Coraline fun before I get back to the Coraline horrors. 🐈‍⬛

[captainofwonder]

They told you to fix a world they couldn't but you realized you can't fix it with the broken, maliced soaked blocks they leave behind. So you choose to a different way, one that embraces the world and its impurities but you keep a block because to forget is to repeat.

[zephyrine-gale]

conductor pose studies ft. arlecchino (refs below!)

[meatiors]

coach is WHAT???

[urdreamgirls-dreamgirl]

scream 7 fires their highly successful female lead who revitalized their franchise & made them millions of dollars all because of her pro palestinian stance but not a single word from netflix on their side characters in an ensemble cast who are literally saying shit like “zionism is sexy” and advocating for absolutely no ceasefire under any circumstances. this is a hell world.

[hellenhighwater]

Okay I've had literally dozens and dozens of asks about Calcifer. He survived his first firing! I'm starting glaze. Will update again when he's done!