#i've only ever worked part time retail before

[pyroselkie]

ohhhhhhh i get it now. working 40 hours 5 days a week actually destroys you from the inside out, huh?

[ceasarslegion]

OK...I'm asking....

Yay!

So this happened in what I consider the worst job I ever had. And that is saying something because I very much worked retail in a mall. I had just graduated uni, I couldn't afford toronto anymore, and I needed a full-time job to make ends meet now that the stability of university was gone. So I went to edmonton because I had one family member I could stay with until I got on my feet. And I was not in a position to turn away a job that paid.

So I took a door to door sales position. For telus. I can hear the canadians in the room wincing so to everyone else: telus is one of the three whole mega megacorporations that control the ENTIRE canadian telecommunications network. And all three of those companies are buddy buddy and have us all by the balls. That's why canadian phone plans are the most expensive in the world. Not in the developed world: in the WORLD.

The meth lab incident happened on my 3rd whole day on my own. I was in St. Albert, which is this suburb of edmonton that is like if a kale smoothie and that guy who won't shut up about bikhram yoga had a baby they abandoned in an HOA meeting. Which is what makes this that much more unhinged: it was in the most cookie cutter suburbia part of the EMR.

So I was doing my knocks in my blue Jay's hat and my telus branded polo shirt with my clipboard and I knock on my next door. I'm greeted by a middle aged woman who proceeds to dump on me that she's divorcing her husband of 30 years and moving to New Brunswick. I'm like okay cool I just wanna sell you cable packages, good luck with that?

I write that off and continue along the cul de sac until I knock on this other lady's door. And when I say talkative I mean a real chatty Kathy. She practically grabs me by the collar and plops me down on her deck chairs, shoves a coffee in my hand, and says "HEY TELUS GUY DID YOU KNOCK ON METH GUYS DOOR???" And points to the house of the lady who just told me she was getting a divorce

At this point I have forgotten about my commission. I have forgotten about my shitty supervisor and how every part of this job sucks and how I wanna go back to Toronto. I have thrown away my clipboard I have started sipping her coffee that could very well be spiked with something and I go "you have to tell me about the meth guy"

That house I knocked on? The weird oversharing lady who was getting a divorce? Her husband was running a meth lab out of the basement THEIR ENTIRE MARRIAGE and she ONLY FOUND OUT THEN?? He called it his man cave and said that she wasn't allowed in?? And then one day she went down out of curiosity and it was a METH LAB??? All the bonuses he said he got at work were meth money.

I'm still enamored by how this happened. Did it not smell? Like for those who don't know edmonton there is a HUGE meth problem here. Like across the political aisle we all agree that something has to happen about all the meth, the details get foggy and that's where people argue, but needless to say I have smelled and been offered meth before just by virtue of living downtown. That shit REEKS. Like you know meth smell because it somehow smells like the word "meth." You will know what you are smelling even when you've never smelled it before. And it lingers. It hangs. It gets into walls. I know when I've taken a train car before because the smell of that guy who hotboxed it with meth smoke last week will still kinda be there. There's no way that house didn't smell like ass down to the foundation.

And the "you arent allowed in my man cave" excuse... im enamored by both the sexism towards his OWN WIFE and the way she just... went along with it for 30 years? Never set foot down there? The sexism and the just believing it?

I kept trying to steer the conversation back to the meth lab and this lady I was on the porch of kept actively trying to buy internet deals from me. Like she was the only person I ever pitched who was TRYING to get my bundles. I ended up just handing her my list of products and told her to check off what she wanted and was like "more meth lab?" And she went right to "yknow i think if I was your age I would've been a boy now. We didn't really have those terms when I was a kid" I DID NOT BRING THAT UP MA'AM I DONT HAVE TIME FOR YOUR GENDER CRISIS TELL ME MORE ABOUT THE METH LAB

That job was so shit that that was the only one I ever quit with no back up plan and did not regret for a second. I then went to the mall and handed out CVs and got my retail job by the end of the week from doing that.

[lostinlovingrevery]

VAAANN! 😍

❤️ snow white: name the oldest film or book you like.

💜 vanellope: what is your favorite kind of candy?

💚 tiana: what's your dream job?

DAAAAMIIIII HI!!!!

HMMMM

snow white: name the oldest film or book you like.

For a moment I wasn't sure what to name BUT

Frankenstein for the book!

AND

It's a Wonderful Life for film <3 that has me in tears EVERY TIME i watch it! and we named our dog after his daughter in the movie (Zuzu! Zuzuz petals!)

vanellope: what is your favorite kind of candy?

o.m.g. I'm a huge sweet tooth so I like just about any candy!!!

I LOVE chocolate. my papa used to give me chocolate when I was little every time I came over (Which was nearly everyday lol since my grandma baby sat me a lot)

but skittles, starbursts are soooo good to!

I LOVE BUCKEYES TOO!!!! GOOD LORD I GO FERAL OVER THOSE!! (hint...thats my states tree too...)

But the first candy i remember ever enjoying is gummy life savers, so I gotta say those even if I only eat them ONCE in a great while

tiana: what's your dream job?

with graduation coming up in august, Ive been thinking about that a LOT lately. Like, my degree has a wide range of careers under it so i could look into anything and most people who pursue my degree tend to try everything?

I've done a lot of retail part of it (ugh), and even some independent work. But lately I think I wanna go into conservation! I have some great parks around me that I can work for.

Also, I have to say that secretly I actually really wanna start a flower/plant farm. I wanna grow tulips, roses, peonies, and sunflowers!! as well as fresh fruits and veggies and have people come in and pick their own stuff. (while also selling products at like a market or smth) thats not such an impossible goal to achieve but i need money. and land. So like...one day maybe?

AND (i keep remembering stuff), I go through phases are wanting to become a horticulture therapist. I have to go back to school to get certified though, and then work under a licensed one as an intern for two years before i become licensed- so if I ever do that it'll be later in life!

[dana-chan-the-control-brain]

I enjoy Ted and Bob cuz you are not afraid to let us hate them. Heck, you originally introduced them both to be hated by us in-mass! I've commented before how Lives AU gave us more facets to Dadler, after you gave us so many reasons to hate him and then go "but look at this pathetic we mew mew" about him. And Bob gets it in the main Lofi fic too (less pathetic mew mew and more like "oh hey, guess he's not ENTIRELY ass)

Adding the layer you created these characters to be hated.. but they are not truly villains, just antagonists for certain parts of a story. Then show us their humanity. You allow them to show good sides too while not claiming it washes them free of sin.

LAYERS!

LAYERS EXACTLY!

Like... The thing was that Ted was originally created to be like "the main creator one-off guy that was a fucking asshole and dies to progress the story"

Like back near the start, I didn't even really have a name for him, and it shows.

Just by Ted saying vague shit like "you don't need to know my name" when it's really a basic ass name (which is funny to me)

But as I kept building him as such an intricate part of Sun and Moon's trauma and backstory.

I saw a lot of me in him. Especially during my "Dead inside" years of Retail work (especially when I worked two jobs on like two hours of sleep a night for around three years) .

And I kinda adopted him. Because in a way, he was a part of me that needed a lot of healing I wish I had at that time.

Sure, you can take his story in Lofi at face value and not really bother to read the Lives AU if you don't want and just say,

"oh he's a fucking stereotypical asshole dad to fill a role who got what was coming to him"

And yeah, that is true, but at the same time, they are robots, and Ted was very sleep deprived, and I doubt he thought a lot of things through, as shown in later flashbacks, when he seems genuniely shocked when Sun told him that "umm hey, our pain receptors were on?" "OH SHIT. My bad" "wait? you weren't torturing us on purpose? But you acted like you were?" "oh that was probably the demon drug rabbit don't worry about it." "oh okay............THE WHAT?"

There's a lot of Lofi and Twins only readers who hate Ted, and I won't take that away from them if they don't want to read an au where asshole ocs go to therapy. Lol

I really am enjoying writing the chapter of Lofi right now. We'll get a lot of "Bob antagonist" moments, and you can actually see what cause Sun and Moon to HATE Bob so much, instead of being told it by Protag and the Boys in Twins.

Bob will be at his worst, And I slightly worry that everyone will just see that and throw him in the fire cause he's "Mean to the Sun and Moon blorbos" lool

But honestly, I feel Sun and Moon befriending Bob at all in Twins shows expentiual growth on his part, and if you read Twins. you'll be able to see the contrast of how Bob was like five years ago, compared to how he is when Protag enters the picture.

God, I'm just so excited for everyone to hate Bob all over again.

I hope everyone recovers and still likes him by the end of all this.

In Lofi, Bob will be the biggest fattest PILL you have ever took.

[pardonmydelays]

*gasp* My stories are inspiring you? Ahhhh, I'm so happy to know that! I hope you figure out what industry truly makes you passionate and just go for it one day. ♡

I actually spoke to a mother and her daughter last week while ringing them up, and her daughter told me Brooklyn is quite affordable - surprisingly enough. Although I'm taking that with a grain of salt, it was wonderful to know, especially coming from someone who lived there for a year. I think it was for an internship. I totally would've swapped LinkedIn with her if her mom wasn't there because I then would've had someone I personally "knew" but wasn't, like, friends with that I could talk to about apartments and stuff. Anyways, so...uh... I'll be looking at that now (as well as other states)! I do want to leave retail but honestly, at this point, if I can even find a good, salary paying job for assistant manager at a clothing store (I swear I've seen it before, and I totally qualify for mid-senior level!) then I'll take that in the meantime while I continue to seek fashion PR jobs. I'll look at internships too, but not for school credit since I already signed up for the alternative course that replaces an internship. Yessss, take that risk! Things will get better eventually, right? I'm all for things not being easy at first. Besides, moving to a new state won't be the most terrifying thing that's happened to me. . . 🙂

I'll keep you updated but through personal message going forward!! Have a great day, and, again, thank you. ✨

[Lin-Manuel Miranda blowing a kiss.gif]

~🌼

absolutely! i love listening to people who are passionate about something & you are clearly one of them, it makes me super happy & it really is inspiring! so thank you for that ❤️

honestly, brooklyn sounds more than fine (damn, i would literally sell my soul to live in ANY part of new york lol)! & i'm so glad it's actually affordable for you - that is definitely something to consider. & i truly believe it may be actually easier for you to find a great job once you move there (not that i know anything about living in the usa, but i'm pretty sure it works like that in every country haha, new city - new opportunities!). this is a huge change in life & i hope it will give you more strength to follow your dreams! also, i'm throwing in this picture, because once i read the word brooklyn, my fls brain started speaking again:

sorry for that no i'm not 🤭

btw, moving out is only terrifying at first, but then you finally start breathing & it's the most amazing thing ever.

once again, you're welcome & have a great day as well (or evening? night in my case - it's almost 1am here lol) ❤️ & see you next time!

[Lin-Manuel Miranda blowing a kiss.gif] - ok, let's make that happen:

[digi-tama-in-your-pocket]

Heya, I was wondering, is the Tamagochi Connect a good Tama to start out with? I only ever had Digimon V-Pets and the only time I touched Tamagochi itself was from the GBA-Games (which I never get how they actually worked tho lmao). But I'm curious about it and might wanna give Tamagochis a try

I mentioned this before but I never had a Tamagotchi Connection. I only had the original Tamagotchi and a Tamagotchi Angel as a kid, and in my adulthood I've had Tamagotchi On, Pix Party, and Uni. So I can't definitively say, but I can give you my insight.

I hear from the Tamagotchi Community that they're a fan favorite, far more beloved than the original Tamagotchi. Some even say they're the best Tamagotchis.

If you like the original Digimon v-pets, original Tamagotchi is a lot like that, except there's no battling and there's a mini game instead of training, and I believe you have to be more careful when raising your pet to get the adult stage you want.

If my understanding of Tamagotchi Connection is right, Tamagotchi Connection was like the original Tamagotchis, but with many more animations, way more minigames, a currency system, a much bigger evolution tree, and the ability to connect your Tamagotchis together.... to do what? I never really learned that part.

This re-release seems to be based on version 3 of Tamagotchi Connection which everyone says is the best, as the first two are seen as being basic. Version 4 was about sending your Tamagotchi to School and getting jobs, Version 5 was about raising an entire family of Tamagotchis, and version 6 was about your Tamagotchis becoming music stars, and that's the last of the connection line. I do wonder if they'll make more versions of the Connection re-release.

From the sound of it, the Connection does sound like a good place to start, it gives you the full Tamagotchi experience it seems, especially since it's going to be a retail item and will be affordable compared to the more fancy color screened devices ( though I notice the Pix and Uni get listed for pretty cheap on ebay at times )

I'd say yeah, try out the Connection.

My nostalgia biased ass will say gen 1 and gen 2 are perfectly fine places to start as well but I know in my heart that they're really basic and even for fans of original Digimon devices, they might not hold their appeal. The only thing they might have over later Tamagotchi releases is that, for me personally, I like the character designs better.

[boltedfruit]

Employment Struggles

I'm going to do something shocking and use this as an actual blog post.

I am SO sick and tired of applying to jobs, only to be ignored completed, or even worse the interview is scheduled and then the role is filled before I can interview. Today the interview was cancelled a minute before the scheduled time. Then the person who would be interviewing me ignored me on email and phone.

I am mentally exhausted. I am broke all the time. I don't get unemployment because I've never been eligible for it. The only good thing about this is that I have full healthcare coverage and food stamps.

I am a medical assistant with experience, I am a certified professional medical coder with internship experience, I have experience in retail, yet I cannot even get a call back from McDonald's, let alone a good healthcare job.

I've considered becoming a behavioral health tech, but I just truly don't want to be hit/bitten at work. I also couldn't deal with the families of children disagreeing with a preset therapy plan while I'm physically stuck in their home. The other options I was looking at was security, or 911 dispatcher, but dispatch classes are few and far between into next year, and also expensive. And security can be dangerous.

At this point, being 30 and just defeated by how unsuccessful I am in life, I am considering going to a trade school. Like welding. Or automobile tech or something that is actually in demand. There is literally no other options for me and I'm literally five minutes outside of San Francisco. I am mildly considering an IT course, but tech is so unstable and unsafe while also being over saturated right now and I don't trust it. But then, you have to deal with stereotypical personalities in 'conservative' trade jobs too. The other risk is I spend time and money doing a trade school and then no one wants to hire me (like I've done twice now). I don't know what to do.

The trades I'm considering:

Electrician

Welder (part of machinist trade) (honestly this is most appealing to me)

Aircraft Maintenance Technology (Can't hurt with SFO next to me and their planes literally falling to pieces in the sky every week)

HVAC (still don't really understand what this job even is)

The guilt I'm feeling is that I am about to finish my BA in psychology next month, and I'm waiting to hear back from the two colleges I applied to for a Master's to become a therapist. If I get in to my top choice, that's $60k+ I'll need to fund. If I get into the state school, which is slim, that's likely covered by school loans, but I'll still want to make some kind of income for three years I'm in the program. If I don't get into either program, then my last choices are: work while getting med school pre-reqs done, or work while doing an online MFT program (which I really don't want to do an online only program but if it's accredited at the end of the day I don't care.) The online only school would also be $60k+ so I'd need to work regardless.

I'm feeling guilty too because I've never been the fanartist who can drop a new print and have thousands of followers want it. I can't make money that way. Commissions have always been my most lucrative offering as an artist, but it's often mentally very taxing. It's also unstable. I don't have a lot of followers to drum up a successful pays-my-rent-every-month Patreon, and with the way of algorithms and sites are these days, I likely won't ever. I'm not trying to complain for sympathy, but this is just how it's been for me.

I know it's stupid to feel guilty for things like this, but I just am in this nebulous space between being apparently unemployable while also not being unemployable enough to receive livable benefits while continuing job hunting.

So I guess I'm looking for opinions on trade professions. I'm trans, but I pass masc in public save for my voice really. I also am not the kind of person to wear pride pins or color my hair rainbow, which would draw attention that way. I'm not too concerned about mean people in a trade job, because honestly the rudest people I've worked with have been in healthcare anyway. And a trade job would mean no customer service positions/working with my hands, which requires little mental gymnastics.

Also pointless, but true, I keep thinking of Debbie in Shameless getting her welder certification after becoming a teen parent.

I guess the takeaway here is, I'm more willing to be hurt on the job by a machine mistake on my part than I am willing to be hurt by other people assaulting me (very real in healthcare jobs/security) while working.

What do you think?

[quannaix]

abelia and sage?

abelia ⇢ do you have a particular piece of jewelry you always wear or can’t part with? Not that it's jewelry exactly but for me it's my watch. I got my first watch in year 2 and I've had one ever since and I wear it every day and I feel really weird when I don't have it on. Only exception is for a couple years I didn't wear one all the time because I was working hospo full time, but literally as soon as I got my next job (retail) I went out and bought a new watch I was sooo excited.

Before phones, I always thought it was funny when I had to get a new battery and the person would tell me to come back in ten minutes like. My dude. I don't know the time you have my watch.

sage ⇢ what ‘medium’ of art (poetry, music, fiction, paintings, statues etc.) is the most touching to you? why do you think that is?

This is soooo hard to answer because they can definitely all resonate with me. Probably most reliably i'd have to say fiction (books), I find so many books have really stayed with me, and there are so many I return to time and time again because I so desperately want to spend time in their world again.

Thanks for asking!🥰✨

[goldenpinof]

Not that this is like, a hot new take or anything, but I can imagine that they both might be going through a bit of a crisis. Like their careers have finally died down but like, what do they do. They haven't done much else but be YouTube personalities (which is more than just YouTube, obv) for like, nearly 15 years. They are probably afraid to venture into new territory, because at this point that will likely mean risking either their brand or their bank accounts (like how Dan had to risk money to do the tour / offer to put up his own money for Dinok). Not that that's a good excuse, but I can understand being afraid and Phil just trying to hang on to his usual content for the both of them (as he also figures out work/life balance). Dan only did DD for the tour and it definitely felt kinda forced. Just doing their old stuff but with their older/out-of-closet selves isn't going to be successful in a way it's safe, for now.

As someone with a lot of the same kind of mental health struggles Dan has, I imagine he might be beyond burnt out and doesn't really want the attention anymore because of the work it requires. And even though it's like, okay it's been months since the tour okay what's next... idk what we'll really get out of him for a while (maybe a few years even?) besides random contract work like the channel 4 thing. Like, projection time, but I just got through grad school with extreme ADHD/executive dysfunction/procrastination etc, and was so burnt out by the end idk how I did it. And I'm like, oh well it's been about 6 months I should probably have a job in my field by now (which I'm probably insane for thinking that anyways because the job market is in so wild). But like, I've been kinda burnt out since 2016 (when I was 16 and a junior in high school, at the end of my og dnp phase) and all I can muster the mental energy to do now is the same part-time / retail work I've been doing the past few years. Which like, I'm barely getting by and I do ultimately feel disappointed that I'm not trying harder to put my fancy new degree to work because I'm barely applying for anything. But I just can't get myself together enough to do that right now. I imagine Dan might be going through something similar, like, he could be doing something creative but he probably is just tired and wants to just live life without any expectations and go on vacations and rely on Phil to be the content creator. He's probably aware that it's not ideal. But he also seems done with compromising any creative vision either because he doesn't want to do sponsorships or anything that isn't a deeply personal piece of art. And he probably doesn't have many deep ideas now that WAD is done and Dinok is stalled and there isn't much he seems to want to do commentary on (because if he just sucked it up he would actually be a pretty good commentary YouTuber lol).

I think they also have a lot more stuff to work through mental health wise too before they are ever really able to not be cryptic about their relationship, since when ex-phannies or random people who remember them see their tiktoks or whatever it's what they all ask about. Like to some degree I don't know if they ever wanted to be out and famous but it got to the point where they couldn't keep denying it either. I'm so glad they came out because it's clearly so much healthier, but beyond the trauma of being closeted that they had to overcome they probably now have trauma from years and years of people being weird towards them about their relationship and it's like... now they have get through that in order to take the next step. do they really want to go through all that just to help open themselves up to a new era of content? Idk.

(this turned out to be wayyy longer than I anticipated woops. can't even remember if some of this was in response to what was on your blog or some of the other similar conversations I've seen about this today but yeah).

i'm almost crying. i hate us so much. this is exactly why the phandom needs meet ups irl or "bubbles" where we could have conversations. because trying to answer THAT without forgetting something is hard, and also i can't imagine how hard it is to write these mini-essays and get bullshit in response.

i appreciate it a lot. and i basically agree with your message. i see how it can be true. and i know that in case of burnout, Dan can let himself step back. the problem i have with him disappearing and coming back after 2018 is that he thinks that the audience will wait for him and accept everything he puts out with the same passion, participation, and amount of money as when he and Phil were making content without long pauses. but book sales, merch sales, tour ticket sales, views and god knows what else that we can't see show that we aren't willing to wait. and it started in 2019 i guess, so you would think that by 2022 Dan would understand what went wrong and just book smaller venues (or make a smaller stage for it to not be a problem). i'm using wad just as an example. you said Dan could not want attention anymore. but he repeatedly says that he loves attention. and it's not only words, you can see it irl. ofc after tours there is a period of time to rest. but before that, there was a clusterfuck of something that was barely content while the merch releases were consistent. either because it was pre-made or because Dan was still living in a rose-colored world thinking that we would buy stuff without content. i'm not sure what i'm arguing here anymore riuehdfsidxkl apologies, i guess it's related to Dan wanting to fuck off. and he CAN. i don't care, 2019 taught me a lesson. (doesn't mean i can't bitch about it <3)

anyway. i understand your struggles with work and degree. basically, i was in the same position after graduating, and now it's even more difficult but i get it. choosing to work part-time, in retail and similar "easy" jobs because you can't deal with the weight of expectations that come with a degree, that's... yeah. an adult reality that no one told us about. i wish you the best, and i hope everything works out well. whatever you decide to do, remember you don't have to use your degree if you don't want to or just don't feel like you can at this moment. you know, getting a fancy "serious" job is such a commitment, bruhh. and you can always walk out of retail :)

Dan would be a brilliant commentary youtuber, you're right! he just knows how to talk and make people listen.

their brand is already fucked, nothing to save here. i mean, Dan and Phil brand doesn't exist. Dan's youtube brand is all over the place. AmazingPhil is the only consistent thing. and yes, it feels like Phil is terrified of shifting in any direction. we're stuck with 2016 content, it's like a real-life time machine on youtube. and if it works for him, fine. i'm just sad that there is no "trying new things" anymore and that he can't even get old successful things back.

i'm not commenting on their relationship because it would be too long. fuck tiktok though. i think dnp jumped to this "new popular" platform with no actual regular content to present as a distraction and that bit them in the ass.

[theopenbookwigtown]

🏡 Back home in Shropshire, but what a week it's been. 🌟

Grateful for everyone who joined our journey - the locals' warmth, the visitors' love for The Open Book. 😍

It's been the most wholesome week we've ever had.

🗓 18th - 23rd July 2023: ⏰ 41 hours open 🤝 319 people greeted 🐶 16 adorable dog visitors 📚 81 books found new homes

As I've been doing all the posting this week, Gary wanted to say something...

I did not want to be a bookseller. I wanted even less to pay for the privilege.

Stephy had other ideas, however, and it’s in my nature to follow her lead even when I’m convinced she’s gone off the deep end. And so, in 2017, we booked our place at the end of a 3-year wait and Stephy impatiently dreamt of our upcoming trip. This, I believe, is called “foreshadowing.”

2 days before our trip in 2020, we were all locked in our homes for the foreseeable future. And so, in 2020, we booked our place at the end of a 3-year wait and Stephy impatiently dreamt of our upcoming trip.

I tell you this to emphasise that, despite two 3 year waits and a pandemic, I was no more enthusiastic about our bizarre little holiday. I was convinced that we would see too few customers and I would be bored out of my mind or, much worse, that we would see too many and I would be forced to relive the retail experience that made me promise “never again” as a teenager. Either way, I was terrified that my anxiety and my atrophied social skills would leave me trapped in a solid week of awkward interactions and uncomfortable silences.

I ran these scenarios in my head, preparing myself for any eventuality, but I could never have anticipated that I would fit in almost immediately. We were soon visited by many of the locals, invited to events and welcomed into their stores as though we were regulars. This strange, wonderful place embraced us with everything from casual Good Mornings shared across the quiet road as we all set up our signs and displays, to conversation in the street to compare notes after closing. It is rare that I feel a sense of belonging, but I found it here and instantly fell in love.

With the help of Stephy's boundless energy and contagious enthusiasm, I fully discarded my shell within days and, by week's end, was actively greeting everyone who walked through the door with a genuine “How are you today?” like some kind of crazy person.

It was in this question that I found the real treasure of this place, the thing that makes The Open Book far more than the sum of its parts: Those who visit, do so looking for a story or two, sure, but if you ask them, and if you listen, they often gift you a story in return. We encountered people bursting with the kind of joy and wisdom that only comes from a life well lived and learned important life lessons that we will carry with us forever. All it took was a word and an ear.

The dream, the one I didn't understand, can be found here in Wigtown but you are missing the point if all you are looking for is a quaint, cosy stay in a bookshop. The Open Book wouldn't work anywhere else because The Open Book is Wigtown. There is a perfect storm here. The right people in the right place at the right time with the right idea have created something truly magical. How else can I describe something wonderful that shouldn't exist, but does anyway?

This is a place where a modern shop with modern comforts exists but the penny sweet is alive and well, where a parade of 40 horses might run right by your front door and bagpipe music can be described as "spontaneous", where a "little concert" is both cosy and breathtaking in equal measure, where you can enter a store to the sound of live banjo music and learn of the owners attempts to purchase a life-sized triffid, and where you will learn the secret to a long happy life is to pull up your socks, always be curious, never stop learning, and buy a second TV for your spouse.

In just one week, a bookstore had become a home, a handful of strangers had become neighbours and friends and a holiday I would gladly have missed had become a memory that I will cherish always. I leave this place healed and inspired, thankful for the kindness and the stories that I will take home with me, and saddened beyond measure to say goodbye so soon.

I did not want to be a bookseller, but I will be forever grateful that I was.

Until next time, Wigtown.

💛 Stephy & Gary

[bradenthompson]

Book Announcement: Illcontinuum! (available now)

There's something buried under Wishkah Shopping Center.

Or that was the story Junior heard growing up.

Now that Junior's an adult, all his friends have moved away, and all the remaining artifacts of his childhood have been demolished or remodeled, 

Wishkah Shopping Center is all that remains of the world he was once so comfortable living in.

Now Wishkah is earmarked for implosion, and Junior had precious little time to confirm or deny the biggest mystery of his youth.

An eclectic dirge through a sacred retail monolith, equal parts silent and expired yet lively and inexplicable, Junior finds a titanic mall fighting against its own damnation, producing "ghosts" of its previous tenants and slowly revealing the all-encompassing role it had always been playing in his life. All roads leading to the inconvenient reality that Wishkah shopping center isn't the only thing doomed.

illcontinuum.carrd.co

I thought I'd be announcing Illcontinuum was done and available four months ago, but given the release day and the personal circumstances which this book was completed under, time really is just a friendly suggestion.

This is a book that really snuck up on me, fueled largely by the feelings I needed to unpack following my graduation from college last summer. At no other stage of my life, at no graduational checkpoint, did I experience the same listlessness and grief I did in those first few weeks after unpacking my dorm and heading home for good. In my dreams I was back at college but, obviously, that dream college was exactly such. In the days before taking the podium I'd smoke weed and play arcade games downtown (ever spiral before? It's not without fun) -- unpacking, alone, what exactly I was going to miss.

And it was from those liquid lunches (I'd have a bag of funyuns or something from the vending machine) that Illcontinuum took shape. I've long dug on the notion of liminal spaces but, if you'll let me be real, I do not like the popular set of feelings this suburban phantom pain has taken. Why does it have to be scary? Hm? I'll be less of a sass; is horror, or dread, or melancholy, the only valid emotions we can explore regarding the retail/municipal monuments we leave to waste away in the crannies of our minds? I don't think so. I think in-between there's a very real warmth, and if Illcontinuum were to be listed among "new horror novels" I would worry I had done something wrong.

The end result of what proved to be a turbulent drafting process (probably the hardest time I've had writing one book) is what I think is my most complex and satisfying work. Not always clear and not always meant to be taken literally, the novel enters Wishkah shopping center within a few pages and does not leave until the curious and socially diminutive Junior is cracked open, leaking personal gooey stuff all over the tile.

I'm not sure how that last sentence came to be but I can't bring myself to rewrite it. Anyway...

While reading, feel free to replace details. Readers ought to bring themselves to the text regardless, but do not fight the moments where Junior becomes you (not You from Radiosault but you in specific) and Wishkah becomes the mall you remember but will never see again. Ask yourself what it is you'd be looking for were you given the chance to go back. And laugh a little--the book is funny.

Without further ado, enjoy Illcontinuum. And keep in mind the three initials you'll enter at the high score screen. I use BRA.

[jezmmart]

Chamomile Comic Trivia #28

#146 - Really

This story arc was vaguely inspired by my job experience. I am A manager but not THE manager at my reluctant retail day job, but there's always something stupid happening and I've had to run the place for anywhere between a week to a month or two so many times over the years, so I had a few experiences to draw jokes out of.

#147 - My

Having said that, I feel no ownership or pride of authority, so this one is just fun with characters. In my head, the place that the customer goes to for buying something is just "the till" so I remember it took me a while to come up with, of all things, the words "service counter" - something for Layla to refer to that area by that didn't sound completely unnatural in dialogue.

#148 - Follow

Now this one IS very much based on my own experience going to management meetings and training days. Fleeting moments of inspiration in how to improve things and community with fellow management - followed by immediately getting slammed back down to earth by how hard the ideas would be to implement due to constantly stingy hours and how it's all just about making money in the end.

I remember once pointing out a hypocrisy in a company process during a training meeting. The trainer conceded to my point making sense then came to the conclusion of... "do it like we said anyway". Cool.

The fact that Layla is making notes and paying attention while veteran managers to her left and right doze off was also true to my experience, lmao.

#149 - Help

Very important lore drop here - the addition of the cute little staff only spiral staircase upstairs in the corner of the shop, which was a memorably fun thing to decide "I really want this in Cammie's shop, I'm always fascinated by them when I see them in a shop and ever since I was little always very upset I can't go up and down them" and then realise "right now I have to figure out how to draw that!!". I've checked the blurry backgrounds for the two comics where this corner of the shop was visible before and there wasn't any sign of it, so this is a very light retcon (those blurry backgrounds were very vague anyway though). A rare case of it being more sensible to draw the background in full since it was getting used for all 4 panels, so enjoy some uncensored spiral staircase:

I remember coming up with this joke when a Uni friend was visiting and we were just sort of riffing off each other with work related jokes or something, so this comic takes me back to fond memories of said visit generally!

If you look carefully you can see Layla has already performed her management teleportation spell in panel 3, behind the thief's open jacket.

#150 - Stop

The big 150! Well, it feels like a special number at this stage (250 also feels special, and then after that the 50s don't so much anymore for whatever reason). Either way I decided to do a quadruple lengther!

I haven't always followed this rule but I decided at this time at least, for extra-length comics, I still wanted each "page" to at least vaguely stand-up as a standalone comic too. In that context, the main purpose of going extra length is to keep the pace on a scene which I don't want dragging out across a whole month.

The spot Cammie runs by in this panel is the same one from comic #56, Cammie's footprints permanently a part of this street's history now. I know for sure these two extras in the foreground will show up in a few future comics when I couldn't be bothered to design new ones too.

The "helping the old ladies across the street" part of this chase is one of my favourite comedy scenes I've come up with over the years, I don't remember at all where it came from, I just enjoy it as a reader now, haha! I'm particularly proud his look back and Cammie's responding glare.

On the flipside I wish I could have come up with something a bit more meaningful than just "there is a dead end" to finish the chase but it's not really super important, the seagull joke is the point.

And now for something that hasn't come up in a Trivia post before - significant unused content!

For a short time I was thinking about following the above with a new arc dealing with an actual fallout from the shoplifting incident, with two comics scripted out. It's been years and I've never used or repurposed these so I think it's safe to share them. I reserve the right to still use a variance of these one day if it really feels right for another story though, not everyone reads these trivia posts, haha!

I'll let the scripts speak for themselves first.

Unused #151:

Unused #152:

From here the idea was that Bri and Cammie would have had a falling out for a little while (maybe a couple months worth of comics I was thinking) due to Bri, her dearest and most understanding friend, outright calling her stupid in the heat of her deep concern, sort of an expansion of the little moment where Vi genuinely hurt Cammie's feelings by referring to her "rampant idiocy" back in #59 / #62.

But as the deadline to begin work on the #151 approched I just wasn't coming up with anything I liked to follow that thread through, so in the end it didn't happen and we got... *flips page* a comic about Cammie putting a bucket on her head instead! Good stuff.

I still think canonically, Bri wouldn't have approved of Cammie's chase, but in this case she kept her frustrations to herself!

[Trivia Archive | Browse from most recent]

[gamergirljournalist]

Is the keyboard hobby dying?

The year was 2021.

I was doing some online classes and I've received complaints that my gaming keyboard was too loud when used in class. I did try to type softer but my classmates can still hear it.

So I've embarked on a journey to create my first custom keyboard. My first board was a silent keyboard, using parts I got from Ali Express. It took at least a month for everything to arrive. From there, I stumbled down a rabbit hole in the keyboard hobby. I have to say, this has to be the most expensive hobby I've ever entered, especially when I began to seek higher quality products.

Two years later, I've collected 24 keyboards, with some still being made due to manufacturing delays. But ever since I joined, I've noticed the landscape has changed. For starters, there are more extras for keycaps unlike before. Also, the amount of group buys that have entered the market somewhat reduced. Meanwhile, the WTS pages on Discord tend to be filled with the same listing, with some announcing that their departure was the cause of their sale.

Are people now getting sick of keyboards?

Let me set the scene.

The year was 2020 and working from home became somewhat the norm. At the same time, there was a pandemic happening. People decided to play video games since they couldn't go outside. So building a custom keyboard makes sense since it is an item that we use a lot at home. There were videos where the things that we typed on made really cool sounds. Also, there was the retail therapy aspect of it, where you'd spend hundreds of dollars for parts, only for it to be built a few months, and in most cases, years later.

If there is one phrase that people in this hobby are aware of, it's the term "Group Buy." For those who don't know what it means, it is essentially equivalent to a "Kickstarter Pre-Order." Designers would ask vendors to host these group buys to determine if a product like a keyboard or keycap would meet MOQ (minimum order quantity). Once it hits, it can begin the manufacturing process, which could take months, and in most cases, years.

An example is the keycap set, EPBT Dreamscape. This set entered Group Buy in mid-2021, but it began shipping in mid-2023. This was a two-year wait for plastic. It's no wonder why some people resorted to buying clones (which is a whole separate can of worms).

Fortunately, vendors would list extras and the price would be somewhat higher than the initial group buy listing. However, I've noticed lately that some sets were unable to leave the shelves. An example is GMK Dracula V2.0. The first version was super sought-after and would sell out within minutes. Now, it seems like not everyone is interested in buying this set, at least in the Australian market.

I spoke to some community members about this on Discord, and they told me a variety of reasons why extras aren't being sold as heavily as before. For starters, the hobby has slowed down lately. Also, we're in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. Hobbyists are now being careful about what they're purchasing. But one major reason why not many people are buying extra keysets, at least for GMK, is the quality and how people received terrible and "funky looking" sets after years of waiting. Now, people don't want to wait another five months for replacements.

The reason why there is a lack of in-stock products is due to the MOQ. Producing custom keyboards for the market is very expensive and if something goes wrong, the designer would be out of pocket. Sure, there are a few in-stock items, but they're usually cheap and not as high quality. Fortunately, as time went on, more HQ in-stock items entered the market. However, the concept of Group Buys may have caused people to bounce.

As mentioned earlier, Group Buys are done through vendors. These are your online stores where you can buy parts and extras. If you're lucky, you could still get a keycap set that was first sold last year. However, it was reported during the past few months that some became shady and have closed due to the mismanagement of funds.

Keyboard YouTuber, Taeha Types released a video that goes into excruciating detail about this type of situation and how many people were heavily affected and were worried about their orders.

As someone who's been in the hobby for two years, these factors were the reason why I stopped participating in group buys. Sure, it was cool to get a fancy bespoke board and really cute keycaps. But when it took two years for my orders to be produced, and it's taking longer for some of them to ship due to regional issues, the waiting game started to get boring.

Also, I joined two group buys that were either cancelled or heavily delayed due to a vendor's mismanagement. Fortunately, the Asia-Pacific region isn't heavily affected. But when you see the designer announce on Discord that a group buy re-run would put them under the red, that's not good.

We live in a world where we have one or same-day shipping with Amazon. How items will arrive within a week or so. And when they do arrive, it usually isn't that bad. Meanwhile, we have custom items that are taking forever to come out, and when they do, the quality is shit. By this point, you're better off buying cheap alternatives.

But are these issues enough to kill a hobby?

Not exactly.

As of writing, not many products have entered the group buy stage. However, manufacturers are slowly trying to release more in-stock products. An example is KBD Fans with PBTFans collection and Osume and its releases. Hobbyists will be able to purchase decent keycaps that will ship immediately. If there is an issue, it is usually resolved in an instant.

At the same time, designers like HIBI.MX and Mode Designs are releasing more in-stock keyboards for those who want something high quality but without the 1 year waiting period.

While more people are trying to downsize their collection, the hobby has changed since it rose in popularity. In-stock items have risen in quality. Sure, they are still cheap plastic keyboards. But we're also seeing some aluminium builds for less than $100. This means that selling an old $90 acrylic keyboard may be difficult now due to the amount of options there are in the market.

While it is sad to see people announce their departure on Discord and Facebook groups, as well as see people struggling to downsize their collection due to lack of interest, it is important to know that the hobby is changing. Sure, it may look like it's dying, but perhaps it's going through a long and well-needed change. This is no longer 2020. And as long as there are those interested in creating these amazing builds. Don't expect this hobby to die out anytime soon.

[asheimmortal]

I've been meaning to do a video on this, but ya know, can't make videos in or around the shelter at all.

So throughout my life I used to think that super skinny hot girls only get into whatever to snag the men. This could be scenes or specific sports, what have you. Scenes can mean music genres or things like hanging around tattoo shops. There is a bit of that need to be the queen bee and stick their nose in the air that they married a tattoo artist, a doctor, a pro dirt bike rider, whatever the fucking scene they choose to rule over. As a younger adult I was trying to figure out why every last guy who is into goth, punk, metal, etc. will ONLY be with a size 0 perfect 10 normal looking preppy queen bee. Like don't you want someone who shares your interests?! But at this age I've learned the answer is NO, cis het men are 1000% about LOOKS and looks alone.

Then fast forward to recent times and before I got into the shelter I bought a pack of poster board to make signs to panhandle with. And I was trying to think of something kinda funny about like "goths can be homeless too", or something. But I couldn't think of anything. Then it dawned on me that there ARE NO other homeless goths today. Maybe when I was a teenager, but not now. And so maybe I've been asking the wrong questions all of my life! 😮

1. Why does every other goth have a good job and financially secure life?!?! How come everyone else can have crazy hair, be covered in tattoos, face tattoos, holes in their face and whatever else the fuck they want to do with themselves and STILL get to fucking work at Bank of America, Microsoft, a doctor's office, a regular retail store, or what have you??!? Why does everyone else get to do what they want and still get a job when I've been completely outcast for being a fat girl just in itself?!?!!! That has driven me nuts my whole life!!! It's always been expected of ME to ultra conform, be under 100 lbs, be 0% body fat, have long hair, and appease the cis het yt man's ideals in order to ever have hope of having a job or a man in my life ever! It's what they've all been trying to pound into my head since I was old enough to walk & talk!!! Why in the fuck does everyone else get to be exactly who they are but I've been condemned to a lifetime of unemployment & homelessness?!?! Why is every other goth financially secure and not in danger of homelessness?!?! Why does everyone else get to do as they please but I'm expected to finally conform and fit all of the boxes of under 100 lbs, 0% body fat, long blonde hair & pretty in order to get a job & be a part of society?!?! It's the endless cycle of WTF I've been stuck in my whole life!!! I'm autistic and I need answers!!!!!! It's fucking maddening!!!!!!

SO the conclusion that hit me was, I'm sort of asking the wrong questions... Maybe the bigger question is why don't other fat girls have any kind of personality?!? Why aren't there other obese people (specifically afab ones) that are hardcore into goth, punk, metal, etc.?!?!?!!? Maybe if there were representation and a wide variety of what obese people were into, maybe we could have normalized this in society by now that not all obese people desire to be ultra conformist?!?!!!?! So why is it all the obese people are all the God, guns, church & football 'merica conformists?!?! I'm just the ONLY fat ass afab anti-capitalist, anarchist, punk, goth, metalhead in existence?!?!!! No wonder it's been so rough!!! I'm the outcast of the outcasts! Yeah if I had no personality and watched football and only babbled about God, Jesus and the bible I probably would have been married and had some average life and not be homeless! But I've always been the rebellious, fuck this, fuck society, fuck12, goth little horror kid from the start and I always refused to conform! I just happen to be fat and afab too. And the unholy trinity of fat, afab & rebellious means I truly am cast out to this lifetime of unemployment, homelessness and loneliness.

Even if I finally figured out what has plagued me my whole life, I STILL flat out refuse to even try to conform. Fuck no. It's too exhausting. I have tried before. I really have tried. But the vampire freak who likes food is just who I am. I wish I didn't have to be homeless to be me. 😞

SIGH.

[andrasta14]

Planned obsolescence is truly an insidious evil istg. 💀

They use the cheapest materials possible to reduce the cost of production and then retail it at like a 400% markup (or far more!), only for it to need expensive custom repairs or to be replaced before you know it. AND THEN all this deliberately poorly made merchandise just goes straight into our landfills to pile up and wreak havoc on our environment!

And all so these fucking conscienceless corporations and big businesses can make MORE MONEY while underpaying their employees who actually do all the hard work with little to no respect for them added into the bargain. It's sickening. Capitalism is humanity's deadliest disease at this point. 💀

But back to the sewing machine (LOL)…my grandmother has one pretty similar and she's been using it for over 50 years, and yeah, it's so well made that it rarely needs repairs and when it does it doesn't cost an arm and a leg either. It's usually just a small part that needs to be replaced. It's great. For both the consumer AND the environment.

And I have a set of French Provincial style furniture that's well over 50 years old (that was my mom's back when she first moved out on her own - that she'd originally bought used - and that she passed down to me when I moved out over 15 years ago), and aside from the cushions being worn down on sofa I use most often everything else is in pretty good condition. And, most importantly the frame is still very strong.

I'd been idly contemplating getting a new couch for the last several years and looking around, but I've finally come to the conclusion that I'd honestly rather just pay to have the old one reupholstered and have new cushions made than get a new couch. (And I'd feel so damn sad to throw out the old one because it's still far more beautiful than any of the new stuff I've seen in the stores or online. Most modern style furniture has zero character istg. smh 🙄)

The cost would basically be the same as a new couch, but new furniture is complete shit these days these days in terms of quality (and style most of time) (unless you have upwards of several thousands of dollars to shell out on well-made furniture, which I certainly don't). If I bought new one I'd end up having to replace it in a decade but my old sofa will quite possibly hold out for the rest of my life.

Honestly, pretty much everything I've ever had passed down to me that's many decades old - from my mom, grandmother, and great-grandmother when she died - has been far better quality and lasted a hell of a lot longer than anything I've ever bought new. And that speaks volumes.

That lack of quality nowadays is just another issue that comes from things being mass produced by corporations. Making money is all they care about. They take no pride in the quality of their craftsmanship the way people used to in the old days. It's both tragic and infuriating. And corporations keep putting smaller local businesses out of business making it harder and harder to bloody well boycott them and cut them down to size.

So yes, I completely agree, we DO need to push for right-to-repair laws, and legislation against planned obsolescence. It will be of enormous benefit both to society and to our planet. And the corporations can go f*ck themselves for all I care. They've taken more than enough from all of us. ~

Sewing Machines & Planned Obsolescence

I’ve got these two sewing machines, made about 100 years apart. An old treadle machine from around 1920-1930, that I pulled out of the trash on a rainy day, and a new Brother sewing machine from around 2020.

I’ve always known planned obsolescence was a thing, but I never knew just how insidious it was till I started looking at these two side by side.

I wasn’t feeling hopeful at first that I’d actually be able to fix the old one, I found it in the trash at 2 am in a thunderstorm. It was rusty, dusty, soggy, squeaky, missing parts, and 100 years old.

How do you even find specialized parts 100 years later? Well, easily, it turns out. The manufacturers at the time didn’t just make parts backwards compatible to be consistent across the years, but also interchangeable across brands! Imagine that today, being able to grab a part from an old iPhone to fix your Android.

Anyway, 6 months into having them both, I can confidently say that my busted up trash machine is far better than my new one, or any consumer-grade sewing machine on the market.

Old Machine Guts

The old machine? Can sew through a pile of leather thicker than my fingers like it’s nothing. (it’s actually terrifying and I treat it like a power tool - I’ll never sew drunk on that thing because I’m genuinely afraid it’d sew through a finger!) At high speeds, it’s well balanced and doesn’t shake. The parts are all metal, attached by standard flathead screws, designed to be simple and strong, and easily reachable behind large access doors. The tools I need to work on it? A screwdriver and oil. Lost my screwdriver? That’s OK, a knife works too.

New Machine Guts

The new machine’s skipping stitches now that the plastic parts are starting to wear out. It’s always throwing software errors, and it damn near shakes itself apart at top speed. Look at it’s innards - I could barely fit a boriscope camera that’s about as thick as spaghetti in there let alone my fingers. Very little is attached with standard screws.

And it’s infuriating. I’m an engineer - there’s no damn reason to make high-wear parts out of plastic. Or put them in places they can’t be reached to replace. There’s no reason to make your mechanism so unbalanced it’s reaching the point of failure before reaching it’s own design speed. (Oh yeah there is, it’s corporate greed)

100 years, and your standard home sewing machine has gone from a beast of a machine that can be pulled out of the literal waterlogged trash and repaired - to a machine that eats itself if you sew anything but delicate fast-fashion fabrics that are also designed to fall apart in a few years.

Looking for something modern built to the standard that was set 100 years ago? I’d be looking at industrial machines that are going for thousands of dollars… Used on craigslist. I don’t even want to know what they’d cost new.

We have the technology and knowledge to manufacture “old” sewing machines still. Hell, even better, sewing machines with the mechanical design quality of the old ones, but with more modern features. It would be so easy - at a technical level to start building things well again. Hell, it’s easier to fabricate something sturdy than engineer something to fail at just the right time. (I have half a mind to see if any of my meche friends with machine shops want to help me fabricate an actually good modern machine lol)

We need to push for right-to-repair laws, and legislation against planned obsolescence. Because it’s honestly shocking how corporate greed has downright sabotaged good design. They’re selling us utter shit, and expecting us to come back for more every financial quarter? I’m over it.

[hamausagi]

HIII BAE!! it took me so long to reply to this but here i am!! (finally)

I'M ALSO SO GLAD WE'RE BACK IN TOUCH!!! it's so nice talking to you pookie and i've also been hoarding the ask you sent me HAHAHA i promise i'll reply to it soon 🙂‍↕️ and yes i'm feeling better but this sem is sooo packed! it's a shorter sem so everything is crammed into 7 weeks instead of the usual 14 ugh 😭 fighting for my life out here </3

HELLOOO I WOULD LITERALLY BE SO HONOURED TO PLAYTEST FOR YOU,,, like tbh i'm not that good at games but STILL!! this being your first big project is so exciting, i'm sure you're going to do amazing!! 💓 tell me everything abt it omg <333 as for the resort, customers being rude and crazy what's new 💀 im so sorry you have to deal w that, it's actually insane how ppl are so comfortable being rude to ppl who are js doing their JOB??? like HELLO please go back to kindergarten and learn some basic empathy before ever coming back here!! that guy sounds like an idiot i'm gonna assassinate him for you (/silly) LIKE you don't have the freaking screws is he expecting you to pull them out of thin air or what 😭😭😭

hmm well i'm finishing up my first year and for now we've got a lot of overlapping classes w the other engineering divisions (mechanical, civil, electronics) bc they want us all to learn the basics. some of my classes are like engineering maths + engineering design & analysis, thermodynamics, etc etc (they're all ass). honestly i'm not really sure what i'll be doing after uni for now! i'm just hoping i'll survive this degree and then i'll think about it KSJDSK 😭 and YES the nodding emoji is literally so peak i use it all the time <3

I LOVE YOUUU OMG 😭🥹🥹🥹 i'm really lucky that i get to do this part-time hjdkjsdk it makes me very happy! it does get stressful & overwhelming sometimes on top of uni & being sick but i honestly wouldn't change it for the world!! you're so sweet though ARGH ilysm <333

I HOPE YOU'RE DOING WELL TOO POOKIE!!! i take a million years to reply to asks bc im pretty busy irl but js know ilysm!!! 💓💓💓💓💓 have an amazing day and take care of yourself!!! and YES this catch up has been so silly and fun MWAHHH <333 here's to more yapping 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

HI QUEEN KIRA 😋😋💗💗 IM SO SORRY IT TOOK ME TEN YEARS TO REPLY TO THIS OMFG 😭😭 i have such bad object permanence when it comes to tumblr i got your ask and was so excited and i read it a bajillion times and started replying at work, saved it to my drafts and then FORGOR i am so sorry. ANYWAY !!

TAKE UR TIME WIT MY ASK TOO LOL i know u be busy asf with ur super cool degree and SUPER cool job so don’t even fret 🙂‍↕️ not ur sem getting cut in half BYE the way that wld piss me off sm….

YAYYYY i MIGHT be able to get you a copy of the build…. we are highly likely going to publish it to steam in a few weeks tho so maybe i can get you a copy that way 👀👀👀 BUT ILL LET YOU KNOWWWW we def need playtesters in the next few weeks with the sem coming to a close and as we enter the polish phase so 💪 im doing all the animations and model rigs which is lowkeeyyyy hype for me, its a little stressful doing all the animations but its been turning out slay 😋😋 spring break hit and then i just kind of slept for a week and now i have to go back UGH but its okay i only have like 3 weeks left of school and then im fucking FREEEE

speaking of free... IM ALSO FREE OF THAT JOB 🔥🔥 the snow season is over so now i hop from one retail service job to another... back to being a barista girlie 😋 but yes bro the entitlement NEVERRR ENDS i just keep gathering stories 😭

girl you are so cool..... thats so slay, i hope that you find something that you enjoy doing with your degree, hopefully u make a bajillion dollars very fast and then u can retire early and be able to dance forever 😌 as AWFUL as it sounds to have to be learning all the basics for all the different paths i suppose its nice to be well-rounded when u eventually find a career path 💔 u got this girl

DW I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND 💕💕 i'm the same, i do love hearing from u so take as much time as u need 😌↕ things are sooo much crazier than they were 3 years ago SJKDFHS but I LOVE U SM SM SM SM SM AND I HOPE YOURE HAVING AN AMAZING DAYYYY ❤❤