#if i could ban people from ordering One Thing at my store. it would be any drink being ordered with no ice

[asphodeldreams]

if you go to a coffee shop and order your iced drinks with no ice, just know that there is at least a 90% chance that barista fucking hates you

[celabi]

tbh, I feel like I’ve been drifting away from the original scummy scara I made when I first made the au, so I would like to let everyone know that he is a BIG freak. the type of guy you avoid because he’s just… so creepy and weird. like, restraining order, banned in fifty states type of weird.

he will steal a pen you’ve been nibbling on in class, and do all sorts of things to it that you don’t wanna know. like shoving it down his throat or something idk.

he goes through the trash and takes the gun you spat out, and chews it as if he were a man on death row. and at this point he might as well be.

he ‘makes’ you home made lunch. (which is just store brought food he put into a lunch box). awe, so thoughtful, right? NO, he passed out after cumming so much to replace the dressing on your salad.

spits in your drink, so it’s almost like you’re kissing in a way, because his saliva is in your mouth yada yada. he’s so delusional, gosh.

this man jerks off to anything. pictures of you in a bikini. pictures of your panties that he snuck a photo of from under your skirt. hell, he has even fapped it to a post he found on one of your family members facebook where you look like the most ordinary person ever. anything.

he acts like an angel around you, but the moment you turn your back, he has this dark, violent glint in his eyes at anyone who isn’t you.

he STANK. like discord moderator who manages thirty different servers. he plays video games 24/7 and eats only fast food + he lives in his mothers basement so minus points.

his mind is SO dirty too. like you could be complaining about this one girl who has been getting on your nerves recently, and all he can think about is bending you over the table and running his hands all over your body. he thinks of you when he shouldn’t, and in ways he shouldn’t, even before you knew his name.

yeah he’s so sweet, and kisses the ground you walk on. but he also would love nothing more then to knock you up and keep you as his cute little spouse who he can come home and make love to every day.

god and he’s a brat too, don’t get me started. like, throwing tantrums when you decide to sit with someone else at lunch. starting fights with people who so much as look in your general direction (ones that he loses cause he is so small and scrawny). screaming profanities at the professors who separate your seating plans in lectures, and so on.

if you’ve been keeping up with my posts, you’ll know that this man has a literal sex doll replica of you he sleeps with at night. it’s so detailed to the point where there is freckles in the exact same spot they are on your skin. (even some moles and beauty marks that you didn’t even know you had, and god knows how he does).

has a shrine of you in his closet. strands of your hair he has collected. lipgloss and chapstick he has stolen from your bag whilst you weren’t looking. accessories like rings and bracelets. nail polish, all the works. and in the middle of this shrine, in all its glory, is a pair of your underwear that he took while you were in the changing rooms. he prays to it. the holy grail.

he has been dating you in his head the moment he saw you, like, gets a little annoyed when you don’t remember your five month anniversary, but the thing is, you didn’t even know you’re dating at all.

I love him. don’t get me wrong, but he is not the man you want to get involved with, like AT ALL.

go for someone like scummy alhaitham, who has (some) self respect 👍

[childotkw]

I am currently obsessed with the Bookshop au, and sooo many scenes pop up in my head. Current one:

Aurors storming the bookshop, because of rumours and the fact that so many dark wizards and witches are seen around, even the most noble purebloods. There has to be something wrong there.

But… it’s just books. And Harry offering them tea, being pleasantly polite and patient, chatting, asking about the kids, because obviously some of the aurors kids are friends with his godchildren, maybe some have even visited.

They are just so confused because they can’t find anything (because the really dark, forbidden stuff is always ordered and straightly delivered), sure there are some of the darkest things some have seen, but nothing illegal.

And they raid his shop multiple times, but nothing. Each time they get tea, and cookies (they did every possible spell, it’s really just tea and cookies), and they start to like Harry.

So, somehow, the bookshop became a neutral zone, where nobody is allowed to fight, because they would get kicked out. So it’s not weird for an auror to sit straight next to a wanted criminal, and just letting them be.

One auror once tried to arrest someone in the bookshop, but Harry kicked him out and banned every auror until he apologised and promised to never do it again. Said auror got bullied by his colleagues until he did.

And because by now so many people visit him, Harry bought the house next to him (super difficult negotiations, because he almost got it for free from the owner, and that just wouldn’t do), and added a coffee corner to his bookshop, where students come to do their holiday homework, and they always got help from the adults around, wanted criminals could meet their family they hadn’t seen since they were on the run, and the ministry just had to accept that no auror dared to arrest them in there.

Harry's store being Switzerland is honestly the kind of chaos this AU was built for. The aurors accepting that even if he is doing anything illegal they're never going to catch him, so they just join in is 10/10 😂

[reese-is-dum]

Why I hate Jordan Matter

An Essay.

(Disclaimer; I only really know him because my niece watches his family vlogs.)

With the rise of the internet came the rise of video blogs or vlogs. People would vlog their trip to Disney or their everyday life, then came the family vloggers who would record their life or viral trends with their kids who are usually too young to have a tiktok account. Jordan Matter says that he does these public challenge videos because he loves spending time with his kids even though he ends up spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars per video or getting absolutely humiliated. My niece will endlessly watch these challenge videos while I'm babysitting her, so I end up watching these because I become baffled by these kids and their father.

Recently, my niece put on this one video that was a compilation of many other videos, it was about 5 color challenge videos from Jordan Matter. For those who don't know, color challenges are series of challenges where there are usually two competitors or teams, and they have to create entirely new outfits at the mall, buy them and then usually buy things in their color or do something related to the color they picked, there is usually a way to fail so the competitors are fighting for a win. This compilation is what inspired me to write this. As I was watching I realized these videos took place over a span of about 2 years, with in this video Jordan Matter's daughter, who I will not name out of respect because this in no way is her fault, her friends and the Anazala family were all featured. In one challenge it was Asala Anazala and her daughter vs Jordan's daughter vs Jordan, the girls had to buy outfits in their color and then hide somewhere in the mall near something of their color. Jordan had to find them, Jordan was allowed to dispatch a challenge where they had to buy ice cream in their color without getting caught by him. In this challenge the prize was a 5 minute shopping spree in any store, he constantly made comments about how didn't want to drain his bank account by letting either of the other teams win, then why would you have offered this up as a prize? Throughout the video he gets kicked out of a target along with a dozen teens because he ends up recruiting around a dozen of them to find his daughter in the target and they become rowdy and end up running around, yelling and recording. After getting kicked out he then goes back in because he still trying to find Asala and her daughter. He then proceeded to run after Asala and her daughter yelling and screaming. I genuinely hope that he gets banned from that target because he is not only a disturbance to the peace but he just creates more trouble for the workers who are most likely barely scraping by and don't get payed enough to deal with some old man paying teens to help him win a vlog challenge.

In another challenge of the compilation Jordan asks an ice cream shop to allow his daughter and her friend to serve people ice cream. They stick a camera in customer's faces and allowed two twelve year olds to make and serve milk shakes and ice cream to people just trying to order a treat. In this piece of the challenge the girls end up trying to coerce the customers to buy something pink with their order, and many of the customers seem uncomfortable with the pressure coming from the girls. Jordan desperate to win also ends up sticking a camera in people's faces and trying to coerce customers still waiting into not buying anything pink. Jordan not only is a nuisance to the public but honestly a threat to public safety as this is not the only time he has challenged his kid to get behind a counter they don't work at and serve customers that didn't ask to be served by this child. Children are icky! They have so much bacteria and germs and they are not very good at washing their hands, he could have unknowingly caused people to get sick. There was another video (completely separate from this compilation) where he asked his son to ask a coffee shop if he could get behind the counter and fill an order, in short he sucked at it but the coffee shop had someone watching him the whole way through, unlike the girls video where they were pretty much unsupervised by angy but Jordan and the cameras for a good portion of the video.

In short, Jordan Matter is a public nuisance and should have his platform taken because he's exploiting his kids and borderline harassing workers. He has been recording his kids for at least 4 years to my knowledge, his daughter was 11 and his son was 14. He has been sending them on challenges in the mall and in stores for years. Fuck Jordan Matter.

[reveries-and-radiance]

Okay, so I don't have this month's rent. I've asked everyone I know for help but no one can help me. I haven't received enough art commissions so I have no funds coming in at all.

I don't have any employment opportunities available and earning pay would take several weeks even if I did.

I have $150 cad left in my bank account. With that money I can't really go anywhere. More than likely I will need to sell my bed, desk and shelf. Give away my clothing and prepare to be out on the streets.

All of the money I get from selling my furniture will have to go to the landlord for the rent I will owe.

What happens after that? I don't know. All I need is a place to shower, a space to sleep and somewhere I can store my belongings so I'm looking at potentially getting a gym membership to cover storage and showering facilities. As for sleeping that will be a huge problem as this city has a huge population of homeless people and are thus very strict on sleeping in public (I've even been harassed at malls by a security guard when I laid my head on the table at a restaurant while with some co-workers). Homeless tents and encampments are regularly seiged by law enforcement. It's a terribly cruel and injust system.

It's also winter so getting around is difficult if you have a lot of things on you.

I could microsleep in broad daylight at parks but that is unsafe as I am a single woman.

There's always the movie theatre but I don't want to get banned from there.

As for if people have couches available? Perhaps someone does but I'm ashamed enough as it is and would probably not be able to sleep there anyways.

I'm not concerned about food or water as the city provides accessible drinking fountains free of charge in most public areas. As for food, I can probably go 3-4 months without eating as I work to save up to rent another place, or try to leave the city entirely.

I've come to the conclusion that dying is more difficult than trying to survive. Trying to live in a world that actively pushes you towards destruction is a nightmare but I have to keep going.

There's also the option of going back to live with my family. But after everything I've done and who they are as people, that would be just as much of a nightmare than being out on the streets and was why I left in the first place.

I'm still going to be taking art commissions, still going to try my best to work and find a job somewhere in order to earn funds. But I don't know where I'm going or what I'm doing anymore. Everything is such a disaster.

[yinnina]

It Might Be Him

There were more than four-thousand kids in this school, about a thousand for each grade.

A little less than half of those kids were surrounding us. Some kids, who were smart, watched from the stairs reeling, shouting like wild dogs for who they thought would win.

He yelled something that I couldn't catch on due to how loud the people were around us.

"Sorry!" I yelled back, "Doc said I shouldn't listen to bullshit!"

Everyone 'ooh'ed and laughed at the guy, whose name I knew was Eren, and the only reason he found out he was fighting was thanks to Gabby being the one who knew about him.

He got into a fighting position, which looked funny to me, and tried throwing a punch.

Luckily, I had a fast reflex and ducked under his fist, grabbing his arm and pulling it behind my head.

We are face to face now, and taking that to my advantage I kicked the front of his knee, making him fall, but before his face hit mine I moved out of the way, making him fall face first into the ground.

I grabbed his arms and put them behind his back, restraining him from punching or moving due to pressure I'm placing on his back.

"I would give up if I were you." I whispered in his ear.

"Like I would do such thing." He said harshly, struggling to get out of my grip. That was my cue to raise his right arm with the elbow facing me.

Crack!

Everyone was in sock, and the guy was screaming in pain after a few seconds.

His arm was bent, it would not fold frontwards but backwards.

"I warned you, you didn't listen." I told him as I walked away, people making way for me to walk through.

After that was over with, I made sure to head straight for the Grab-N-Go, where I knew Vance would be at.

I walked through the front doors, with the sound of a bell warning my entrance.

"So?" Asked the blondie, not looking away from his game.

"He won't touch anyone for a few weeks if not months." I told him.

He looked up at me this time, not caring about his score and him losing. He was in shock, but it wasn't very visible, only reason it was given away was due to his eyebrows rising up slightly then going back to their original place.

"What did you do?" He asked, rather curious.

"Arm's bend." I said simply, with a plain voice.

He chuckled, but his face showed no new emotion. "Who would've thought, since when do you know how to bend arms?"

"You're underestimating me, I know many things that would fall under the medical field. Some things don't fall under it, but fall under murder 'field.'"

"Surprise me." He ordered.

"If you inject digoxin into someone who doesn't have heart failure then they will die and it will look like they had blood pressure, and if it's injected under the tongue then the pinch mark is most likely to not be found." I reassure.

He was shocked at this, but knew it was true due to how I said it. I didn't stutter once, I didn't eat my words, and didn't trip over them.

It was a rather interesting topic to look into, I didn't use that knowledge on anyone or anything, but it could come in handy.

"Fair enough. I trust that you won't say a word about this?" He glared at me.

I chuckled lightly, "Of course."

It was a shocker he even talked to me, so I better keep my mouth shut to not get on his nerves like I did back in middle school.

His temper was a ticking bomb after all, the only exception was that you knew when a bomb would explode thanks to its timer, with Vance though, it was different, you never knew what he would do.

There was no capable way of reading him.

I turned to leave the store, before I saw it once again.

The black-fucking-ban.

"Oh my, do I have a secret admirer or something?" I whispered to myself.

There was no way I would go out through the front door where they could see me, so I went back to Vance, who was playing Pinball, and sat down next to the machine, waiting for the ban to notice my absence and leave.

I was lucky that the man didn't notice me walking away from the door, for he was probably searching for something on the passenger's seat.

"Asshole's following you again?" Asked the curly haired guy.

I sighed and nodded my head, yes.

I was not playing this man's little hide-&-seek game, I ain't patient enough to hide nor patient enough to seek.

My temper was running short with the top hatted man appearing everywhere I went.

I found it extremely weird how every time he appeared I was always near Vance. It was almost as if he wasn't just targeting me, but Vance too.

"Does he follow you anywhere?" I asked quietly, only for him to hear.

"Not really, it's always when you are around." He confessed. "Vance..." I started and he hummed.

"He only ever appears when you are around..."

He stopped playing, not caring when the machine made a small noise to announce how the game was finished.

His face was stiff, in a position where you could tell.

He was getting pissed, and a pissed Vance was not a pretty Vance.

"That son of a bitch..." He whispered, trying to remain cool.

"You don't think... He's going for both of us, right?" I started fidgeting with my nails. This whole thing was crazy.

Then I thought about the odds. What if he really was the one who kidnapped the other kids?

It wasn't impossible, he seemed cliche already.

"I'm not sure." He confessed, and for the first time, he actually looked down to the floor.

He too was thinking the same thing, I knew it by his face.

This top-hat man might be The Grabber, and was awaiting his next victims.

He was waiting for the next kids he will take from their home.

Those kids might be one of us, and we didn't know who. This man had no reason to do what he did, he merely did it for the sake of his own pleasure and entertainment. We didn't know a thing about him, and he didn't know a thing about us.

And for the first time in a while, I actually got scared. I got scared for myself.

For Vance.

I knew we both could handle ourselves, but this is a new thing, we are talking about someone who has kidnapped other kids who haven't even been found yet.

"I'm not sure..."

[theshadowrealmitself]

So my previous job was one of those app shopping jobs but! What a lot of people didn’t know about that company I worked for is that there were two positions

The first position, that everyone knew about, was the full service workers, these were the people who do the deliveries, so sometimes they would shop an order and deliver, or they would pick it up from our area where we already shopped it and deliver, they were considered contracted workers

The second position, the one I worked for, was the in store shopper position, we would get assigned a store, and we would spend our entire shift shopping orders back to back and putting them in the staging area which contained a freezer, fridge, some shelves, and a “hot” bag, that was just an insulated bag that could keep stuff warm for a bit, but definitely not hot, this position was only part time

Anyways, not a lot of people knew about the in store shoppers, which sucked, because people would hear about the strikes the delivery drivers would do, and would know about their mistreatment, but no one ever heard about us

And those working conditions sucked. One of the biggest things was that we didn’t have a break room. When I first started out, we were allowed to use the store’s break room (we were a separate company from the store), but like a year or so into working for them, the store decided that they only wanted their employees in it, so all of us were banned from it (this was apparently a decision made in all the chains)

Many employees started hanging out in their cars, but for me, who did not have a car, my only option really was to hang out on the curb in front of the store

We also weren’t allowed to store any personal food in the fridges or freezer, which made sense because it was a health code violation, but they definitely never supplied us with a mini fridge or microwave so that we could bring food, you’d either have to store it in your cars, or if you were like me, either buy food from the store (they were half hour lunches and every fast food place in the area had such long lines you could only barely get your food in time, had no chance to eat it), or just go without eating at all

Our company swore they would fix this but they never did

After we all got transferred over to a new store (no clue what was happening at the other stores) where we had to do curbside orders too, we were finally given a singular chair to have our breaks in

Which workers from the store would use occasionally and we weren’t allowed to say anything to them even though they had a big break room because our company wanted us to keep the peace with the store

They still never gave us a microwave or mini fridge

There was a lot more bs happening during this time (shift lead lying about how many breaks we were allowed so she could make us work more to make her look like an incredible shift lead, store workers stealing from us and then refusing to show us the surveillance tapes, the extremely high turnover rate because of all the different bs reasons they could fire us, etc) but I never stopped being upset the break room situation

Anyways, they got rid of our company from their stores because they’re going to do their own shopping system through their store (like how Walmart does it), so everyone in my company was laid off (you were able to move to full service, but since I still don’t have a car I couldn’t do that)

(Also it’s definitely not gonna go great with them taking over, the higher ups for that store never thought highly of our position and from what we’ve heard about how they’re going to do it, it’s obvious they still don’t, and they are so underprepared to take over)

This was originally going to be a post about an annoying customer I dealt with, I was just going to post a little bit of background on my position, whoops

[artikgato]

10/15/2023

Well, it was raining yesterday, so I didn't go out for the jogwalk. I did today, though! It took me until like 10:30 but I did do it!

I was also up until nearly 1am last night...reading a fanfic. A Slayers fanfic. A 60+ chapter Slayers fanfic, currently unfinished, in the year of our lord twenty twenty-three. I have no excuses. I make it a policy to almost never read unfinished fanfics, for one. I also knew exactly what I was getting into when I saw the chapter count and just shrugged and went YOLO I guess?

Okay, so it all started with Anime Weekend Atlanta announced, less than a month out from their con by the way, a whole slew of new guest announcements. The schedule is out now and it's less than two weeks to the con so I think they're done doing that now, but I digress. They announced Veronica Taylor as a guest. Well, years ago I already had the honor of meeting her and getting her to sign my VHS copy of Pokémon The First movie, so I don't necessarily need her autograph on any more Pokémon stuff. But of course she's in plenty of other things, including Slayers, which is one of my absolute favorite media franchises, period. So naturally I have to get her to sign for Amelia! And Lisa Ortiz, the voice of Lina, will be a guest at a convention I'm going to in March, so I can get her to sign, too! Fantastic!

And then, because I haven't really thought about Slayers in a long time, my brain went I should cosplay from Slayers again. I've been wanting to for a while. I cosplayed Filia (from TRY) waaaaaaaaaaaay back in the day, maybe I could remake her? (I do still want to do that, FYI, talk about obscure characters though am I right?) Or despite being so tall, I've always liked Lina's character design, she'd be great. I can probably pull that off before Khromakon in March, but absolutely not before AWA. But do you know who I could pull off before AWA?

Yeah, so I actually cosplayed Xelloss all the way back in high school. I never wore him to a convention, and it was a very bad cosplay. Technically, my first cosplay. (Technically, because my actual first cosplay was a very, very very bad closet cosplay of emperor Hotohori from Fushigi Yuugi the year prior, my junior year of high school. Our high school banned Halloween costumes but a gaggle of my stupid friends and I decided to see if we could get away with just wearing regular clothes but clearly being in cosplay. So I was Hotohori, a friend braided her hair and was Duo Maxwell, etc. etc.)

Anyway, my aunt made the cloak for me, and I still have it all these years later. The rest of the cosplay would be easy, because of how skilled I am now. I can 100% do this cosplay in time for AWA, and it'll be fun! He's a pretty recognizable character from a classic anime, so while I'm sure The Kids won't recognize me, I'll get at least a few people excited to find someone else that remembers Slayers. And hey, I already cosplayed one evil purple-haired anime prettyboy this year (Okada Izou) so why not two?

So anyway, I made a deal with myself. I would go to no more than three thrift stores after work one day and see if I could find a yellow turtleneck. If I could, I would proceed with the costume. If I didn't, oh well, it's not like I don't have a closet full of cosplays to wear. And wouldn't you know it, I found the turtleneck at the third Goodwill. So I ordered a wig, and now I just need to do a few minor alterations and possibly make the staff.

And so, with Xelloss Metallium now fully on my brain, I remembered that, oh yeah, Xelloss/Filia was one of the OTPs for me back in the day. One of the very first ships I got really, really invested in. And I wondered if, in the fifteen or so years since the least time I probably looked, any good new Xel/Fil fics had been written. I mean, the last time I was really invested in the ship, Evolution-R and Revolution hadn't even come out yet! A03 didn't exist yet! What was the harm of taking just a little, tiny peak at A03, right?

And that's how I ended up binge reading a 60+ Slayers fanfiction, in the year of our Lord Of Nightmares 2023. I'm not even done reading, but I've got shit to do today!

Time: 21:41 Weather: 63, sunny Humidity: 60% Song of the Day: Ghost, Mystery Skulls

[nickgerlich]

It’s For You

It is now safe to say that we have an entire generation that has known cell phones their entire lives. They have never felt the need for a land line. They have always had a phone in pocket or purse, ranging from 10-key flip phones, to sliders, Blackberrys, and more recently, smartphones.



I’m talking about Generation Z, of course, the social cohort whose demarcation year—1997—is considered the point after which online life had become nearly ubiquitous. What those demographers overlooked, though, is that this was about the same time that cell phone ownership became nearly as common. While we can all take some credit in this, Gen-Z quickly realized that these phones are for more than just talking or texting. They are lifestyle devices.



I got my first cell phone in 1994, a Motorola bag phone that had to be tethered to both vehicle power and a rooftop antenna. It was basically a heavy walkie-talkie, but it worked. And boy howdy were the fees high. I paid by the minute, which went down a little bit in the evening. Suffice it to say, I only used it for very important calls.



What most people don’t realize is that the first cell phone was introduced in 1973. Marty Cooper is credited as being the inventor, the visionary who saw the need for mobile communications. But the wheels had already started rolling at least a decade prior, because the Dallas Police Department already had dictaphones for squad car and motorcycle cops when John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. They relied on a cellular network much like that which we have today, albeit with much less clarity.

It’s just that it took a long time for this product to diffuse, primarily because of cost. They required development of an entirely new infrastructure, one which we are still trying to complete. I laugh at T-Mobile’s ads that say they have 99% of all Americans covered. Right. If they all stay home. The ad says nothing about how much (or how little) geography they have covered, which we have all discovered whenever we fall off the grid out west.



But now Mr. Cooper, still a visionary, predicts a future in which we will all have cell phones implanted under our skin. Cue the Biblical prophesies of end times and all that once more. It’s one thing to envision using our palm print to buy at an Amazon store. It’s quite another to imagine our iPhone embedded in our body.

It’s not like others haven’t already tried to go down this road, but it was with wearables. Google Glass was a well-intended but poorly deployed set of eyewear that could function much like a smartphone. It landed with a $1500 thud in 2013. More recently, there is the collab between Meta and Ray-Ban that has yielded similar glasses.

But wearables have always been more about the hype than the hope for a better user experience. They still have a long way to go, which may have served as impetus for Mr. Cooper to picture a phone that was not just on our body, but also in it.



Of course, this leaves a lot of other unanswered questions, because without a visual aspect, it just becomes another Alexa device. We need screens somewhere, which necessarily involves a handheld device, or perhaps holograms that are projected before our eyes. Now it’s time to cue the crashes and missteps.



And how might we issue orders? By merely thinking of them? Or would we have to actually say something, kind of like we do with our digital assistants today? And if we are texting to someone, would we similarly have to enunciate it and rely on voice dictation—which can be dangerous—to get the job done?

Now imagine the ability to merely “think” something into action. Or being able to instruct the computer that is inside your head to access ChatGPT and have it compose an essay while you are finishing an in-class exam. Of course, you’d have to be able to download it somehow, but those are mere details. And consider social media. We might be able to post content, as well as click the Like and Heart icons without ever tapping a finger. The possibilities are limitless.



By now you have probably detected that I am poking a little fun at this notion. Truthfully, I consider it just a bit absurd. Well, I once thought the same of the first iPhone, but a year later I drank the Kool-Aid. I have guzzled it ever since, and I bet I could just as easily drink from this fountain as well. I think Mr. Cooper’s idea needs some fine-tuning and then selling. It could take a few years, maybe decades.

Just like the first cell phones needed a quarter of a century before they took off. Innovations can be like that. Gen-Z can say they were at least here for the beginning of the conversation of the embedded phone, but there may be a couple more generations down the road before one emerges that can lay claim to having lived their entire lives with it.



And now I am left trying to figure out what my generation can claim as ours. I’m thinking color television and microwave ovens. They’re not much, but they were a start, and we embraced them. You’re welcome.

Dr “We Were Simple Like That“ Gerlich

Audio Blog

[maolong]

When working in retail, this statement was so obviously true that it hurt. I'm trans and autistic, but also white. If someone was being an ass to me over one of those things I could weaponize my whiteness in order to get them to back down and I will fully admit that I did that pretty much every day that I worked there. We still got a lot of bigots in, and pretty much everyone had more then a few customers who hated them. But the ones who got the worst of it were always the people who weren't white. One of my coworkers at the time was a highschooler that wasn't white, not sure what race she was in specific but what really matters for it is more so how many people treated her worse. She got more sexual harrasement then any other women I worked with, and it ended up getting to the point that she had a guy that would litteraly come in here and try specifically to harrass her so badly that we tried to get him banned from the store for it. He was not banned, but a black guy who did far less then him was. We had a ton of disabled customers, though usually the same twenty or so once a week or so and all the white ones got treated fine, but I had a supervisor step in and tell me to stop helping a black disabled man because we 'didn't have what he was looking for.' If a women was having problems you can bet your ass hat the white women got reated better then anyone of a different skin tone, with a number of them having such bad experiences that they refused to come again with the managers refusing to do anything about it at that point when I'd seen them do their best to solve the issues for white women with the exact same issue. This was a repeating pattern for basically everything listed here, and it was to the point where even if working in retail wasn't hell already then the customers and management were trying to create their own personal hells for people who weren't white. It was litteraly to the point where I was getting less then a hundreth of the shit that one of the black girls I worked with would be getting up front, even when I was being directly antagonistic to customers and I was able to get away with it as well when there is no way in hell that she would have been able to. Being white not just made things easier, it made things easier to such an insane degree that the idea that being blind and deaf wouldn't have been an excuse to not see it happening.

i dont think whites understand how being white makes literally everything easier.

it effects everything.

being trans is easier when youre white.

being gay is easier when youre white.

being disabled is easier when youre white.

being a woman is easier when youre white.

being autistic is easier when youre white.

oppression is eased when you are white, as you get extra privileges, and your whiteness is seen as a positive characteristic that in some ways counter-balances your other forms of being a minority. whiteness controls everything.

you are automatically way more innocent in your own oppression as a gay, trans, disabled person because of your whiteness.

never forget this.

[more-than-a-princess]

🐣What were you like as a kid? Allegedly? Has anything changed, and have people noticed?

In Depth and Personal Munday Meme - Accepting!

My favorite places as a child were quiet, full of books and/or dolls, and somewhere I could wear a pretty dress, eat sweets, and read to my dolls or stuffed animals. I'm an only child and have parents with busy careers, so I was left on my own (middle school and up) or with a sitter or nanny quite often. I had trouble making friends and relating to other kids as I was constantly surrounded by adults whom I could reason with: I'm pretty sure part of the reason why I was bullied so much was that I attempted to reason with other kids the way I did with adults (or tried to) and couldn't understand why they just teased me instead. I begged to be homeschooled but my parents said no and sent me to private school hell instead. I think the only time I really liked going to school for something more than my favorite classes was university.

That said, my favorite things in life were the bookstore and/or library, Scholastic Book Fair (I was that kid who ordered whatever I wanted off the book list and needed help carrying the bags to my parents' cars), the Disney Store (beeline for the stuffed animal tower and the TV playing film/song clips usually, if I wasn't distracted by dolls), and whenever I got new Barbies or American Girl dolls. I actually preferred AG more: the fact they came with books and girls from historical eras was the coolest thing to me! Those dolls and my cats at the time got to hear a lot of me trying to read aloud as much as I could.

I wasn't very athletic so sports teams were out of the question most of the time (I lifted weights instead starting in middle school in lieu of a school team due to how badly I was bullied. It just wasn't a great idea for my mental health to keep me around those kids longer than I needed to be), and I wasn't allowed video games until high school (right around when I'd sent my college applications) because my parents were convinced that if I played video games, I'd never get into a good university. This is a big reason why I never became much of a gamer! I didn't grow up with the hand-eye coordination practice with consoles and controllers many kids did. I also didn't get cable TV until the end of middle school: things like Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel were luxuries for me, ones I only got to indulge in at other family members' houses.

I think the funniest bit of it all is how I went from very much a dress-loving, pink-adorning, dress-wearing child to a teenager, constantly sullen, dressed in black/Hot Topic/early Torrid attire with the goth-iest high school senior photoshoot...and right back to a woman who adores dresses, classic colors, neutrals, and pastels, and just feels better about her day when pulling a dress and favorite pair of shoes/bag out of her closet, just to go to a cafe and shopping/a bookstore. My parents have definitely noticed this and are having the last laugh at middle/high school-era Rae, who would only wear wide leg JNCO style trousers with so many ripped holes at the bottom, bondage pants/skirts, anime/geek t-shirts, fancy dresses from The Pyramid Collection (I had a wicca phase) and the darkest red lipstick that wasn't black but still broke the school dress code so the administration made me wash it off each morning (despite me swatching it on my hand and showing them no, it wasn't black: black lipstick was banned, like jeans, miniskirts, tanktops, and anything featuring 'gang' logos or relating to Eminem or Nelly. Honestly, besides the jeans, good move school!)...is now a far more cheerful and content person, who has embraced color, dresses, bows, etc. once again.

tl;dr - my teenage years were awful, do not want to revisit no matter how much my high school keeps insisting I should show up for my 20-year reunion.

In a more nerdy sense, I'm realizing that in my late thirties with more disposable income, I can finally wear all the costumes I wanted to do as a teenage cosplayer but didn't have the funds to do so. I am doing or rewearing so many old school costumes in 2024, and upgrading some outfits I already love with higher-quality pieces.

[hubbardhead]

   Seven and Seven or Southern Comfort and Coke were the drinks of choice that night. The music was loud and the party goers were rowdy. The polished oak dining room floor vibrated as friends danced to the rhythm of Chicago Transit Authority, known later as merely Chicago. There were more than 60 people releasing their anxiety and frustration from being prisoners in their own home for over seven days. The Commonwealth had implemented a travel ban in order that the state could clean up from the worst blizzard in a century that started almost a week ago and most of our neighbors just needed a reason to participate in something, anything at this point. We didn’t really expect many to show, seeing as how they would have to walk or break the law and drive to our home, so we invited many, 64 to be exact. To our surprise every one of them came. Fortunately, my two sons and I pulled a sled through the snow to the only store that was open over two miles away and placed bags of food on the sled for the party that night. There were no cars to be seen and we pulled the sled home in the middle of streets still covered with snow.  The blizzard of 1978 was the omen of inexplicable events that transpired later that same year. It was the year when five lives where abruptly altered, then and forever.   

    Today, 45 years later I was inadvertently associated with a previous life, an association that has troubled and confused me. The visit to the same room where friends were dancing is now empty and cold, devoid of any living being, an empty coffer of past events. The large 2X12 fir beams that I carefully applied covering to is still vertically standing and holding all the shelves that I had made. Gone is the music, the AR amplifier and speakers. A large television screen is inappropriately hiding where there was a turntable and records. There are no lights inside the shelving and the indirect lighting from the ceiling cast a dreary ambiance to what was an active and animated wall many years before. I had trouble taking my eyes away from this. I thought of all things that may or may not have happened here that I was never aware of. Were the years of my absence void of the joy so vibrant of the time when I was a part of this home? I hoped not.

   I married the girl that was the most vivacious person in our high school class in 1963, so voted by her classmates, myself included. We bought a home in 1964. That girl has lived at that home until a few weeks ago. No one lives there now and she will never be able to go back to that home again. Suffering now from an insidious disease that propels her from hospital to rehabilitation centers and then back to hospitals in a redundant circle of confusion for all involved. I would love to think that the life she knew for 45 years without me, in the home that she loved, was happy for her and that many happy memories still live with her. I am very sad for the troubled life that has to be endured by, at one time, the most vivacious woman I ever knew.   

[radgalaxyhottub]

From Friends to More! Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker’s Relationship Timeline

Despite the major PDA, when they were leaving dinner, both Bryce and Addison denied that they're dating. נערות ליווי במרכז With a population of just over 3.9 million1 and being one of the largest city areas in the country, dating in Los Angeles can often feel like a wild guessing game where you don’t know the rules. No, but Mars being my sign equals big trouble in the love department. You can type in your birth date and get a general reading, but you're getting the same reading as everyone else who shares the same sign. Your sign might not be the focus during this astrology reading, but your answers will chart your personal course for the day. In fact, marrying a mail order wife will cost you less than it would be with an ordinary girl. You'll need to look into your romantic future and back at your relationship past, but your answers will predict how your day will go. The search for romantic connection is a universal human experience.

Someone who posts their social media handle on their profile may not be an overt red flag, but it could suggest that they're only looking for followers and not a serious dating match. Dating material drawn from the archaeological record can be made by a direct study of an artifact, or may be deduced by association with materials found in the context the item is drawn from or inferred by its point of discovery in the sequence relative to datable contexts. In 2019, the star was found guilty of assault during a Stockholm fight and given a two-year suspended sentence. If you are looking for a serious relationships with foreign woman who is smart, beautiful, family oriented, and has a character, then you need to choose a bride from an Eastern European countries. Who knows, you might learn something about whether you're ready for the next step! As you might already know, some herpes dating sites focus on casual hookups, while others are geared toward long term relationships and marriages. I've never seen one, but I might look it up now.

The Bachelorette hasn’t been around as long as The Bachelor, but it is now becoming more popular than the original series, without a doubt. I think it messes with my things more than my life. I think they are highly accurate. I'll wait a few dates so they don't think I'm weird. Chicagoland Singles is made for you, and we have thousands of men and women database at the exact same place in their lives: in their 40’s, looking for companionship and love. I love how Rochelle was able to put together chicken gifs made by John Johnston (see his posts with those gifs here and here) into the beginning and end of the video, moving along in time to the music, which was the Mel Blanc and Sound Effect Man- Chicken Farm Song. You have to give things like that a little time. It doesn't take long after using this app to realize that you're going to be wasting your time. No, but I do take notice. Sorry, but I do take looks into consideration. Some of us fall in love at first sight, while others can take years to fall in love with one person. I take them with a grain of salt.

Once you open up about your love life, we'll give you the daily horoscope that's meant for you and only you. On an Android device, open up "settings", click "application manager", check for apps that have "disable" toggled on. What does today have in store for you? Don't rely on the old-fashioned way of finding out what your stars have in store. How many kids Does Jack White have? We have separate blankets. As you go through this quiz, we are going to relate your love life to the stars. Answer these questions and you'll love life will give it away! In the last section, you will be asked to upload a photo. Be very careful about how much personal information you share on social network sites. They can act to get people off sites immediately to help safeguard you and others. This can cause conflict and hurt feelings. You can always tell how I'm feeling. However, Jennie did note that there’s an exception to the ban, which is that any rule can be broken as long as YG Entertainment’s former CEO Yang Hyun-Suk gives his permission. She mentions the binder with her therapist's notes, dating back to 2011, from the beginning of the relationship.

[tsabhira05]

Incorrect Quote Generator

(Alnith is my Tav- female outlander wood elf moon druid... who preferred wildshaping into a polar bear until owlbear became an option... yes she romanced Halsin (and Gale, thank you mods!) who I did not know existed when I created her)

Wyll, gardening: Hey, can you bring me the hoe? Minsc: Yeah, sure. A few minutes later Minsc: Here you go. Wyll: Minsc: Halsin: Why am I here?

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Alnith: I love you. Gale: How many people have you said that to? Alnith: Everyone. Gale: What? Alnith: I told everyone that I love you.

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the Squad cleaning up Wyll: Pick up the nearest piece of trash and throw it away. Karlach, to Astarion: Aight, which bin do you wanna go in—

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Gale: You know I think my life has value. Wyll: Who are you and what have you done with Gale?!

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Halsin, texting group chat: What flavour of ice cream do you guys want? I’m at the store so be quick! Minsc: Moose Tracks is good! Astarion: What the fuck is that!? Minsc: Gasp How dare you insult moo- Astarion: No. No no not that. What the hell. Why do you spell flavor like flavour. It’s like you have flavor but then this guy shows up and is like “Oui Oui Would you like chocolate flaVOUR or vanilla flaVOUR. Halsin and Minsc: what? Astarion: I don’t get it why add the EXTRA u when it’s PERFECTLY FINE AS IT IS!? Halsin: You done now? Astarion: Yeah ok. Halsin and Minsc: … Astarion: …Can I have the Mint Chocolate chip flavour?

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Astarion: ARE YOU- Alnith: Fucking. Astarion: KIDDING ME?! YOU- Alnith: Fucking. Astarion: IDIOT! Halsin: …What was that? Alnith: Gale banned Astarion from swearing, so I’m helping them out.

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Dammon: What's the scariest horror movie you've ever watched? Astarion: IT. Karlach: Annabelle. Shadowheart: Paranormal Activity. Halsin: High School Musical. All throughout high school I was scared that everyone was gonna randomly get up and start singing and dancing, and I would be the only one who doesn't know the words.

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Astarion: Oh no! I’m doomed! Gale: Seriously? All you have to do is not insult Alnith at their own memorial service. Astarion: Exactly! It’s impossible!

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Alnith: Hey Dammon, I’ve got an idea for how to solve this. Dammon, pulling out a shotgun: Yeah? Alnith: Wh- No! That’s not the idea, Dammon!

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Alnith: Make her pussy wet not her eyes. Minsc: Make his dick hard not his life. Halsin: Break her bed not her heart. Astarion: Play with her boobs not her feelings. Shadowheart: Get on his dick not his nerves. Gale: Always salt your pasta while boiling it.

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Jaheira, looking at the squad: Okay, so I need to become a therapist faster.

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Alnith: I once went on holiday and pretended to be twins. It was amazing fun. I invented this mad, glamorous sibling and went around really annoying everybody. And d'you know, I could get away with anything when I was my crazy twin Alnith. Minsc: But you're Alnith. Alnith: Kinda stuck. It’s a long story.

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Jaheira: Why shouldn't you put a toaster in a bathtub full of water? Karlach: Because your toast would get soggy!

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Alnith: Hugs Astarion from behind Alnith: Tucks Astarion's hair behind their ear Alnith, whispering: Eat all the frosted animal crackers again and they'll never find your body.

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Alnith: I woke up and chose VIOLENCE. I WILL COMMIT ARSON AND BURN EVERYTHING TO THE GROUND!!! I AM ANGRY- Gale: Awwww, you’re so adorable! Give me a hug~ Alnith: Wh-What? nO, yOURE SUPPOSED TO BE SCARED OF ME! TREMBLE BEFORE MY WRATH- Halsin, recording: This is so cute.

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Dammon: Are you drunk? Gale: Only on the spirit of Christmas! Wyll: And the spirit of whisky.

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Alnith: And have you learnt anything this Christmas, Halsin? Halsin: …Not really. Alnith: Nothing? Halsin: Tell you one thing I have learnt—Christmas; ultimately, commercial holiday. Who's the real winner at Christmas? Amazon. they have drones now! Tiny little dystopian slaves delivering iPads and headphones. I ordered a toaster; It was on the doorstep five hours later! Do we need that? It was 4.99! For a toaster! I mean, someone's being exploited there.

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Minsc: Not gonna lie, I'm kind of afraid of Astarion… Gale: As you should be. Minsc: No, for real, they're kind of- Gale: As. You. Should. Be.

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Karlach: You fuckers don’t know about my knife stick. It’s a knife taped to a stick and it’s the ultimate weapon. Jaheira: Spear. Karlach: BLOCKED.

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Wyll: It doesn’t have a bone. Minsc: Then why is it called a boner?

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Karlach: This is a judgement free zone. Pulls out a knife the size of their forearm Karlach: And I mean it.

[ewmagines]

Could I ask what date nights are like with the main four?

ooooh i’m in my element here -mod matt

edd

-always comes up with the most extravagant date plans possible

-would love to take you anywhere and everywhere. if an outing could conceivably be called a date then edd has fantasized about it with you

-(spoiler alert: like 90% of the time you wind up just cuddling on the couch anyway)

-not really the type to dress up for dates; might put a clip-on bowtie on his hoodie as a joke

-the chill dates are probably the best just because anything outside of the house and there’s a nonzero chance somebody will wind up in the hospital. honestly this is true of all four of them

matt

-public dates. restaurants, malls, taking you to the fair. he wants to show you off

-(on a more selfish note he wants people to look at him and say “wow, that guy is on a date!”)

-by this logic, he’s the type of guy to always have an arm wrapped around you or his hand in yours while you’re out

-overdresses for dates. like, three piece suit for a casual walk in the park overdressed

-that doesn’t exactly mean he looks… good, though. like he’s THIS close to looking like jon arbuckle in all those garfield strips where he wears the tacky clashing patterns for dates

tom

-sitting in his room together while he tunes susan and you play on your phone is a date right

-he really does prefer chill dates. like, throwing on a movie and then not paying any attention to it in favor of talking to you but still calling it a movie date

-he likes the idea of getting some food delivered during one of these dates but hates the idea of paying for it, but has just enough sense to not ask you to pay for it. so he’s always like *sighhh* i would love to order a takeout right now… *does nothing*

-for dates outside the house, he still prefers things chill and secluded. like, sitting outside together

tord

-in stark contrast to tom, movie dates with tord are a dangerous game because he’s going to pay more attention to the movie than to you. nothing against you i promise

-sort of like matt, tord likes showing you off on public dates, but for him it’s more about being possessive of you

-i promise i’m going to make points about tord that aren’t relative to the other guys points

-ykw i think the 2016 era boyfriend quizzes are right about this tord would take you on a date to a gun store or a shooting range. he genuinely thinks it’s romantic and if you’re confused he doesn’t notice

-“don’t worry babe i’ll cover it *opens wallet* ….next time i mean” doesnt have the heart to make you pay so he just books it. you’re banned from like four different restaurants for dining and dashing at this point

[theminecraftbee]

Like. I’m thinking again. That can be dangerous. But. We’ve talked about merch. We’ve talked about movies of the au. I’m just. Thinking. Of cosplays. Of team scar and Grian and people just… maybe making their own spirits to either cope that they were possessed or because they think it’s cool and wanna look dubiously elderitch. Cosplays of varying qualities too. Like store brand cosplays. Like. Like cosplays you’d order from Amazon. Then flippin homemade cosplays from people who know how to sew. And casual cosplays as well. Also props. Imagine prop making. Also. I’m soft for the idea of little kids in wheelchairs cosplaying Scar’s magickal persona. Or really any folks who are physically impaired. Who do you think would have the most cosplays of themself? Also, on the social media, the Twitter I think it was, do they ever like, like, fan art or fan works or cosplays? Or deep dive analysises? I have another thought but it’s a bit more to the side so I’ll send that in a separate ask. Also I’m hoping to high heavens that tumblr isn’t eating my asks cause I got really excited when talking about the possibilities of spirits the other day and I’m just. A ball of anxiety.

i think scar saw a cosplay of him in magical girl form one time on a like twelve-year-old girl and almost burst into tears, is what i think happens.

i think scar probably has the most cosplays by virtue of being A) the most visible magical girl who is B) not a supervillain - like, grian probably gets people dressing up as him, but it's like, you know there are people who are "fans" of criminals in real life, but they get weird looks, right? and over time blackbird fans get... somewhat less weird looks as she gets less blatantly a supervillain and starts to appear to be helping more often. BIG social media fights on what "villain" even means. and then with the other two - cub mostly sticks to the background except when he does big dramatic chaotic things (and also has not nearly as much of a costume as scar for a while he'd be less fun) and bdubs... bdubs gets a pretty dedicated set of fans too i think but less than just scar.

i think we've made the jokes about fanfiction already (bdubs has it saved on his phone to blackmail scar with as needed lol) but also yeah, that definitely exists. fanart also definitely exists and i think after bdubs joins the team he shows scar and cub how to properly find fanart that isn't being sold as merch when he gets their in-persona social media in order.

as for analysis... i think the local newspaper eventually has to ban op-eds on the local magical girls for like two weeks because they got NOTHING BUT OP-EDS ABOUT THE LOCAL MAGICAL GIRLS and they're like. okay. we need to publish op-eds about other social issues guys. there are probably SO MANY video essays and thinkpieces about "are they good" and "what could they be doing better" and you know, all the stuff i said got talked about, haha. as i said, basically the only taboo here is people who try to do analysis to dig up their real identities, mostly because that gets you cancelled off the internet. which is good for scar, right up until he outright reveals his own identity to the world.

i think a good thing to keep in mind is that they’re basically like... a cross between celebrities and political figures and also sort of fantastical action stars, all at once. they’ve got some weird stuff going on with public relations you know