#plus i was only buying like 10 dollars worth of stuff

[thestamp3d3]

how do u experience genuine human kindness without wanting to sob

[mistyhollowcottage]

Saving Money as a Homemaker 🧺

I’ve posted before that we’re anxiously awaiting and preparing for our second baby and with that we’re focusing heavily on saving money! We have high hopes of buying first cars, paying for college, etc etc for both of our girls and despite the fact one is 18 months old and the other is still in utero, we know that the saving and preparing starts now. I do not bring in an income in our home but I do help manage the money my husband brings in and I work hard at making every dollar go as far as possible, so here are some things that make our money go further:

1. Eating at home - everyone gives this advice and it’s because it’s 100% true. You are literally throwing away money eating out and more and more the food that you buy at restaurants isn’t even that good. An easy way to make the switch is by making crockpot meals. Many are “dump and go” meals that require no skill and 9/10 you’ll even have leftovers for lunch the next day. Plus a crock pot is like $20-25 and they last forever.

2. Pay off existing debt - I’m not talking just your monthly minimums. If you have an extra $100 without a job in your monthly budget, it should go towards debt. Any extra you pay on your principal now is money you don’t have to pay in interest later. If you need more motivation for paying off your debt early, pull up a debt calculator and see how much in interest you’ll be paying before it’s all said and done. I promise you’ll get motivated real quick.

3. Create a budget!!! - if you are just floating through life, spending money willy nilly, I promise you don’t even realize how much money you’re just throwing away every month. I remember after I graduated from college and met my husband, we sat down to look at my finances together and I was legitimately embarrassed to see how much money I spent just getting coffee. I was spending a car payments worth on coffee every month and I literally was a barista. I could make that ish at home!! side note - "fun money" is a category you should have in your budget. You are bound to stumble if you aren't ever allowed to spend any money on yourself.

4. Determine what’s worth investing in and what’s not - for us this is list is pretty short. We invest in food and “clean” products. We eat and feel good on a high protein diet so we prioritize meat within our budget. Yes, there are plenty of cheaper plant protein sources, but that is not how we choose to fuel our bodies and it’s not how we feel best. But, more than just choosing to prioritize this financially, we prioritize the time it takes for my husband to go hunting to help save money on this as well. As far as “clean” products, I’m talking fragrance/toxin free shampoos, conditioners, cleaning supplies, etc. We’ll shop sales if one becomes available but we will not skimp with a $1 bottle of shampoo that will irritate my husbands skin or leave me with a migraine. This list will and should look different for every family but if you have your priorities clearly laid out there’s no room for convincing yourself that something not on this list is worth spending extra money on.

5. If you can make it at home, you should make it at home - cleaning products, food, gifts, home decor, all of it.

6. Thrift! But not as a hobby - I love thrifting and there’s a heck of a thrill in finding a beautiful ceramic mug or stumbling upon a cute sweater, but you’re not saving money like that. You should thrift for the things you need first and make sure to have a clear idea of what you’re looking for before going in. The thrift store should ideally be your first stop when looking to buy, but if you can’t find it after a bit of time looking, you’re not less than for having to buy new.

7. Borrow borrow borrow - sure, it’s kinda annoying to borrow other peoples stuff, but there’s really no reason to buy something you only need once or twice.

8. Learn to sew- I’ve had so many pieces of clothing rip at a seam and if I didn’t know how to stitch that back together, I’d have to throw it away and probably replace it (I’m looking you pockets on jackets). Instead, a five minute YouTube video has saved me, idk, probably at least $100.

9. Order your groceries online - this is probably very dependent on which grocers you have close to you, but ours still has online coupons and sales and it is an excellent way to make sure that you're sticking to your list. Plus, it's a godsend with little kids.

10. Finally, identify yours and your spouse's strengths and weaknesses - by this I mean, can you not help yourself from buying something if you go "just to look around" at your favorite shop? Does your husband add 47 unnecessary items to the grocery order anytime it's his turn to do the shopping? Whatever your individual money spending weakness are, identify those and help keep each other accountable or hand off the things that the other excels in so the temptation is just never there.

Happy money saving!

[the-bjd-community-confess]

I’ve seen people complain about an artist getting popular and then upping their prices, so people don’t want to tell other people how much they love their stuff and it always gets such backlash because it’s not fair that you don’t give someone the praise they deserve and that people don’t really do that, but I’ve bought from the same clothing maker for the last like four years and only a couple people talked about this person and their prices were so reasonable and then a really popular person in the community started praising them so people started buying their stuff and posting about it and now their stuff is so expensive. It’s the same basic stuff they sold which was what I liked about them, but now everything has an extra 5-10 dollars at least added to their prices and now they only use express shipping so all the shipping is $10-$15 even for something that fits in an envelope. Initially, I told myself it was just the rising costs of everything, but it seems to now be corresponding to every time a big name posts about their work.

I’ve been super bummed about it because it was one of the only places I could buy nice accessories for my dolls and not blow my entire paycheck, but now a cute little shirt ends up being like $30 plus another $15 in shipping.

In other hobbies I’ve seen some people brag about doing this. If they get a bit of notoriety, they up their prices by like 50% at least and when people complain they claim they have status and they’re “just getting what they’re worth”. It’s so disingenuous to me that people think that they’ll charge really low prices just so they can get a huge following and then skyrocket to crazy prices under the claim that artists deserve a living wage too. If you weren’t making a satisfactory amount to begin with, why do you boast about how great your business is and then act like you were doing people a favor and now they owe it to you to pay your crazy steep prices.

And for reference, I have actually run a business before and I get that inflation is a thing and that there are costs to cover, but that doesn’t make doing this intentionally any less dickish.

~Anonymous

[eyepool]

So, these are Apple's brand new M3 CPU chips. I don’t know the scale, but I imagine the one on the right is about an inch across.

Per AnandTech, these contain 25 billion, 37 billion and 92 billion transistors each. The features transistors and wires) on the chips are 3 nanometers (3 billionths of a meter) across, which is a new record in resolution set by manufacturer TSMC.

I like to think I’m immured to future shock since I grew up with this stuff (my dad worked for chip pioneer Fairchild in the 70s and would bring home ICs and wafers for kid-me) but HOLY FUCK.

To get technical: a transistor is something like an Oreo. Two layers of one material separated by a filling of a different material. Except both are impure silicon. Applying a voltage to the middle layer switches current between the top and bottom layers on or off. These used to be packaged as little metal cans the size of a pencil eraser with three wires coming out (still are, if they’re being used in guitar pedals…)

So the M3 Max chip contains NINETY-TWO FUCKING BILLION of those, plus miles of wiring between them. That’s 11+ transistors, a handful of little cans, for every human on Earth.

And these can be churned out on assembly lines by the millions. You can’t buy an individual M3 but they’re probably worth a few hundred bucks; but there are plenty of lower end CPUs — “systems on a chip” — with maybe only one billion transistors, that sell for 10¢ on electronics market sites like AliExpress. For five or ten dollars you can buy a little stick of gum like a Raspberry Pi Zero that you can plug a keyboard and screen into and use as a PC.

And how small are these 3 nanometer transistors? A nanometer is a billionth of a meter, or roughly 20 millionths of an inch.

A human hair is about 75,000 nm across

A red blood cell is 6,000 nm across

A silicon atom is about 2nm across (in a very blurry way)

Humans today are manufacturing machines, at high volume, whose components are LITERALLY THE SIZE OF A FEW ATOMS. That is absolutely insane.

The early chips my dad brought home from work had maybe a few hundred transistors. I put a chip under my crappy kid microscope and could see them individually. That was 50 years ago. Now the transistors are literally too small to be seen, because they’re a lot smaller than the wavelength of visible light.

OK, I’m an old guy rambling. But I think we — myself included — spend too much time idly staring at the devices in our hands and on our desks, and not enough time gazing at them in abject awe.

We did this. Humans did this. We can do unbelievable, amazing shit when we try and try and keep working to make things better.

We have to somehow figure out how to make ourselves, our hearts and ethics, better. We can make a billion angels dance on the head of a pin; why are we still killing each other, hating each other, letting each other starve?

[bobpayscash4clothes]

Get Money For Old Clothes Near Me

In today’s society, it seems like we’re always being told to get rid of our old things and buy new ones. But what if I told you that there are actually places where you can get money for your old clothes near me? That’s right – there are actually quite a few places that will give you cash or store credit in exchange for your used clothing. So if you’re looking to clear out your closet and make a little extra cash, read on for a list of the best places to get money for old clothes near me.

How To Get Money For Old Clothes

There are a few ways to get money for your old clothes. You can sell them online, at a consignment shop, or have a garage sale. Selling online is a great option if you have a lot of clothes to get rid of. Sites like eBay and Poshmark make it easy to list and sell your items. Plus, you can reach a larger audience than you would if you were selling locally. Consignment shops are another great option for selling clothes. They typically don’t pay as much as you would get if you sold the items yourself, but it’s a hassle-free way to get rid of your old clothes. Plus, you can often trade in your clothes for store credit, which can be used to buy new clothes. Finally, having a garage sale is a good option if you want to get rid of a lot of stuff quickly. Garage sales can be a lot of work, but they’re worth it if you need to clear out your closet quickly.

The Best Places to Sell Old Clothes

There are a few different ways that you can go about selling your old clothes. You could have a garage sale, sell them online, or take them to a consignment shop. Each option has its own set of pros and cons. Garage sales are great because they are usually easy to set up and don’t cost anything. The downside is that you will likely only get a few dollars for each item and it can be time-consuming. Selling online is a great option if you want to make more money from your clothes. sites like eBay and Poshmark make it easy to list and sell your items. The downside is that it can take some time to ship the items out and there are often fees associated with selling online. Taking your clothes to a consignment shop is a great way to get rid of them quickly and easily. However, you will usually only get a fraction of the original price for each item.

How Much Money Can You Expect to Make?

It really depends on how much stuff you have and how often you take it to a resale shop. Generally, you can expect to make around $10-$20 per trip. However, if you have a lot of high-end items, you could potentially make a lot more money.

What to Do With the Money You Make

There are a few things you can do with the money you make from selling your old clothes. You can use it to buy new clothes, or you can save it for a rainy day. You can also use it to splurge on something special, like a new piece of jewelry or a night out on the town. Whatever you decide to do with your money, just be sure to enjoy it!

Conclusion

There are many ways to get money for old clothes. You can sell them online, at consignment shops, or even have a garage sale. Whatever method you choose, make sure you do your research so that you get the most money possible for your old clothes. Thanks for reading!

[kinsey3furry300]

So how the heck do the Avengers pay for stuff, and how rich are they?

So, in the wake of “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” There’s a lot of debate about why Sam didn’t seem to get paid well for his work in the Avengers (at least in the MCU continuity), and this has got me thinking: we’ve got no evidence that the Avengers are, financially, anything but a hot mess. So lets break it down, Avenger by Avenger, using real-world pay scales for the ones who have jobs.

Tony: a billionaire, so clearly he’s a financial genius, right? Well….. his actions say otherwise. He’s shown to be wildly irresponsible with his money. He inherited a lot of wealth form his parents which was managed by the first Jarvis, Obadiah, and Pepper for him, he buys and then gives away not just woks of art, but entire collections by major 20th century artists on a whim, destroyed his own cars and home without concern, he tanks the value of his own company in the first Iron Man with a bad press interview, gets kicked of his own bord of directors, and ultimately, in Iron Man 2, gives control of his company to Pepper. He’s insanely rich, and insanely smart, but man, he’s not smart with his money. So all the cool stuff, his suits, the Avengers tower, the facility up-state: that’s all paid for by him, but Pepper is holding the purse-stings.  So, does he pay the others? We have no evidence for most of them… but we do with Spidey. Peter Parker is in the Stark Internship Program a euphemism to hide the fact he’s training and mentoring him as a super-hero, but I find the wording interesting: he refers to Spidey, his surrogate son and chosen heir, as an intern. I.E., Unpaid.  I’m guessing this is Howard’s influence over him, some sort of ‘make you own way in the world, son’ attitude, but  if he’s not paying Spidey, is he paying anyone else? He certainly pays for stuff super heroes suits and things, equipment, fuel, the base, but does he pay anyone a wage? No one ever mentions it. You think it would come up.

So, if he’s not paying them a wage, where do Avengers  (and thier allies) get their day-to-day money from, and are they rich? Using google and https://www.federalpay.org, lets find out.

Cap: Well, before Civil war, he’s a shield operative, and he presumably still holds his military rank: he’s a US Army captain, with (well) over 40 years service, so USD$88,142.40 per year, with $237.71  drill pay (pay per drill you have to do on weekends, on leave or outside of normal service) and $175.00 per month hazard pay (which I bet is interesting) on top of that. As a WW2 veteran, he’d be eligible for a war pension if he:

Was not discharged for dishonorable reasons; and,

Served 90 days of active military duty; and,

Served at least one day during wartime ("wartime" as determined by the VA); and,

Had  countable family income below a certain yearly limit; and,

Is  age 65 years or older; or

Regardless of age is permanently disabled, not due to wilful misconduct.

As he’s still receiving 90k per year, he’s ineligible for a pension as his countable yearly income is above the limit.  So if shield pays him in accordance with his rank and years of service, about $90, 600 per year incuding hazard pay.

After civil war, he’s a fugitive on the run, so presumably flat broke. I’d asume he gets his pension returened to him after the snap.

He’s also just gone from the 40’s to the present day, so 70 years of inflation probably makes buying things very confusing for him: everything would seem insanely expensive at first. He’d also not know what the correct prices are for anything invented after 45. You might get used to how much more expensive food and coffee is, but how much is a smart-phone worth? $200? $2000 $20000? Who knows? I bet the others have to facepalm a lot when he either refuses to pay for what he sees as clear price-gouging, and at the same time regularly pays insane amounts of money for goods and services because he doesn’t know better. He also has no known assets other than his pay: he rents an apartment making him one of the few American males in his age-group who isn’t a home-owner

Thor: Does Asgard even have currency? It’s depicted like a “Crystal spires and toga” type utopia with no poverty: even working class Asgardian’s like Scourge seem to be pretty well-off and want for nothing, so he’s from a post-scarcity society where actual magic is a thing. His “Another” coffee cup smashing and the fact he doesn’t have a computer of phone in Ragnarök might indicate that, no, he just doesn’t have, need or understand money. Splitting a bar tab with him must be a nightmare. His breakdown post snap indicates he’s got some cash, but not a huge amount, and is probably skiving of Valkyrie and the other Asgardians.

Banner: Okay, so a PhD could make you a lot of money from patents… in pharmacology or engineering. Theoretical physics? Not so good. And if Banner did have any patents, they’ve probably been seized under eminent domain by the US military.  At the start of The Hulk film, he’s working a entry-level factory job at a botteling plant in Brazil. The minimum wage in Brazil is 1069.62 Real per month, that’s 12,835.44 Real per year, or around $2437.79 US per year, before everything goes wrong for him! He then runs off to India, works for Tony for a bit and then gets shot into space. Spidey may actually make more in allowance than Banner does, and Banner is a gown ass man with bills to pay: I’d imagine he loses a lot in ripped clothing.

Natasha and Barton: Pre Civil-war, both are government spooks, so how well does that pay? The salaries of CIA Intelligence Analysts based in the US range from $25,838 to $685,701 , with a median salary of $125,340, so let’s assume that Shield pays in a similar range: $685,701 per year for Director Fury, around 125,000 for Natasha and Cliff, which explains Cliff’s nice, middle-class mid-western home. Post civil war, presumably not great: we know that Natasha spends a lot of her savings running and hiding all across the world, and Cliff takes a deal and presumably lives of his savings, pension and his wife’s income.

Rhodes: Full USAF colonel with over 10 years service? $105,562.80 per year, plus $293.23 drill pay per drill and $175 per month hazard pay, and because he’s team Stark and not Team Cap in Civil War, he’d not lose any of that. He presumably also gets an injury pay-out after his accident. After T’challa and Stark, he might be the best paid avenger.

Dr Strange: spends all his money he made as a surgeon on trying to cure his hands: spends literally his last dollars heading to Nepal to train. Wong even jokes with him about their lack of worldly money when asking for a tuna-melt. But, can use illusion to make people think he has money, and his home and clothes etc. come with the job, so in the same boat as Thor in that he has no money, but needs none AKA, he’s a bastard to try and split a restaurant bill with.

Wanda and Vision: No know source of income, just sort of live in Tony’s hose and eat his food, and on top of that Wanda goes on the run after civil war… yet they can stay in fancy hotels in Edinburgh, a relatively expensive city, and Vison apparently bought them a house to retire in, so one of them has some source of money. Maybe Tony gave Vision years of back-pay form when he was still Jarvis, or maybe the vison has a day job, which is, frankly, hilarious. Could you imagine him as a barista? I can, and it makes me very happy.

Scott Lang: I’d assumed he’d be super, super broke, but apparently the average pay for a private security consultant in the Bay area is $85,430 per year. Not bad. Pity he gets sucked into the quantum realm just as his business is taking off, so presumably, flat broke again.

Bucky: no known income, and I doubt Hydra paid him for being the Winter Soldier so he probably has no savings, but he should, technically, qualify for a military pension. As a single veteran, he’d be  eligible for federal tax-free pension of up to $1732 per month, or $20,784 tax free per year. Not much for someone who lives in NYC. He may also be eligible for medical benefits over the loss of his arm. Whether or not he got to see any of that money given how confused his life has been over the past 10 years is unclear, but on paper he’s eligible.

T’challa: He is, quite possibly, richer than Stark, and as an absolute monarch pays no tax and has access to his Nation’s vast wealth in vibanium. It’s good to be the king!

Captain Marvel: USAF captain, and a test pilot; the test pilot school only accepts applicants with a service length of less than 9 years 6 months (10 years six moths of helicopters) as they don’t want older applicants. With 8 years service, $79,538.40, plus drill pay and hazard.  However, no know (human) pay since 1990. Flat broke.

Guardians of the Galaxy: no data, but I’m assuming “Cowboy Bebop” levels of perpetual never-ending poverty given the way they choose to live. I’d also assume Rocket has taken all their cash into some sort of Ponzi scheme of his own creation, because just look at him, of course he has.

Spidey: he’s got about $10 of his aunts’ money at any given time, so he can buy lunch… which may in fact be more than Banner or Lang, and we know it’s more that Strange or Thor.

 So, here the big one: how rich or how broke is Sam?

Sam Wilson: annoyingly, we’re not directly told what rank Sam held in any MCU film. USAF pararescue “Maroon berets” are generally NCO’s (but there’ are officer-ranked pararescue) , and he’s seen working on his wings at one point, where as officers don’t generally work on or maintain airframes. He’s shown wearing a Nation Air guard grey while jogging at one point to confuse the matter further. The general consensus on redit is he’s a former USAF tech sergeant (E-6). But how long was he in the air force? With six years service (the minimum sensible time he could have served to work in pararescue based on his age), that would be $41,464.80 per year, plus drill pay and hazard. As Anthony Mackie, the actor that plays him, was 36 as of Civil War, and assuming the character is the same age, and assuming he retired from the air force that year, and he joined the USAF at 17, the youngest you can join, he’d have served 19 years, giving him a pay of $51,566.40, the maximum pay you can get at this rank before promotion to Master Sergent,  but meaning he left just before he’d qualify for the 50% final salary pension you’d qualify for after 20 years. Which seems weird. So let’s assume the character is one year older than the actor that plays him and served 20 years (ages 17-37), that means Sam has a military pension of $25,783.20 per year (20,784 of it tax-free), plus any injury benefits. He councils other veterans, but doesn’t get paid for that. He also chooses Team Cap in Civil War, so would become a wanted criminal, and so lose his income between 2016 and 2018, and then gets snapped and has no income for 5 years, which would destroy his credit rating. Like the rest of Team Cap, he presumably gets his post snap pardon, and goes to work for the US government at his former pay and rank. However, given how Captain John Walker treats him as an equal, it’s possible he’s been promoted to a captain when the  hired back, giving him a pay of between $54,176.40 to $88,142.40 (with 20 years experience, depending on if they take into account his prior service or not, and how much prior service he has), but either way, he’s just starting this as a new job after being legally dead for 5 years: no savings, and no credit.

Commercial fishing vessels cost about 10% of their total value per year in maintenance alone. I can’t identify what sort of boat the Wilson’s have, but some quick googling indicates that the cheapest  15m long wooden in-shore shrimp trawler costs around $140,000, so that’s $14,000 per year in maintenance costs alone, minimum. And that’s a lower estimate, assuming the rest of the business is sound, which we know it isn’t.

So, in concussion, yes, Sam is in some serious financial trouble until he can re-build his savings and credit, but the scary bit is he’s not alone in that: he’s probably better off than Lang, Banner, Danvers, Strange, Thor, Bucky, Wanda and Parker. Only Clint (if he gets a full pardon and gets his full pension), Rhodes, Stark and T’challa aren’t in some sort of potential financial problems. That asshole bank teller was right: despite the fact it seems to pay well on paper, with a few exceptions, the Avengers financials are probibaly a mess. EDIT: Rocket is running the Ponzi scheme, if that’s not clear from context. The others know they have money somewhere, but not where it’s gone. And It’s been pointed out to me that as he’s technically a POW while he’s the Winter Soldier, Bucky is owed over 70 years back-pay, equal to over 3 million dollars, details in the notes.

[phoenixfire-thewizardgoddess]

Aussie Currency Guide [Part 2 - Notes]

Have an aussie character, or sending your character downunder for a fic? Are you coming for a holiday and our weird monopoly money and coins are confusing?

If you want some currency continuity, then here's a little info on our money system. It's pretty self-explanatory, but the bills have been changed recently to include a new design, but the amounts are similar.

------------

Notes

The notes are $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100.

Our currency has changed recently, but you may see old notes in circulation that are still valid currency, so I'll include a picture of both sets.

Above are the OLD notes, they are all double-sided with different figures and images.

Please be aware some vending machines and ticket machines have trouble with bent, damged or new notes. The new notes have a clear strip in the middle and machines that have not been updated go, "?????????" at you and spit it out.

(If you need an action for a character to do while having a late-night wanted-a-snack-from-the-vending-machine conversation with a friend or other person, yelling at the machine due to frustration over emotions, etc. Some, not all, also have new card charge functions).

Of the notes, $5, $10 & $20 notes are used day to day. You get out a $50 if you know its a big event, eg going to the cinema or the local markets, etc. You do not often have a $10 note on you, that's like super fancy birthday or 'let's put this in your savings account' type stuff. I mean, if there's a rich person out there that carries $100s around daily then like... hey, what's the security at your house look like? No reason...

Most ATMs will dispense in $20 or $50 notes only, so you need to think on what you are after. A lot of chain stores have an abundance of smaller notes and coins because of this, but it's still a bit painful to have someone try to buy a $2 item with a $50 just to 'break it up'.

------------

5 dollar note

The old note , lot of details. If you want to look into it, they're fascinating, and there's usually little details you miss unless you're really looking.

The New Note (above) copped a lot of flack from the public who disliked the change.

A lot of things are '$4.99' which straight up means $5, people. Anything with '0.99c' on it, means that you are paying one cent more, and because we don't have 1 cent coins anymore, the retailer builds up additional funding. Etc.

1 x 5 = $5, 2 x $5 = $10, 4 x $5 = $20, 10 x $5 = $50, 20 x $5 = $100, etc.

------------------

10 dollar note

[Old Note above]

New $10 note, with a transparent section (as previously mentioned, this can cause issues with automated machines like ticket dispensers, vending machines, change machines, etc. There's usually a human around you can check with, and most are happy to exchange an 'old note' for you, or vend the ticket directly.

Lots of items for $10 or less, often in larger retail stores like Big W and cheap stores like the reject shop, silly solly's, choice, price busters, crazy clarks, etc. Lots of little meals and things at food stores like Woolies, Coles, IGA, ALDI, etc.

Very easy to understand, in terms of use. 1 x 10 = $10, 2 x $10 = $20, 5 x $10 = $50, 10 x $10 = $100, etc.

-------------

20 dollar note

[Old note]

New note (above), again easy to understand.

Most meals at fast food restaurants or general small meals at a cafe will be around $20 (just under or just over). At restaurants, cheap meals are 18 - 30 dollars, depending on what you order.

Easy to understand - $20, 2 x $20 = $40, 3 x $20 = $60, 5 x $20 = $100, etc.

-----------

50 dollar note

[Old note above]

[New Note above]

Self-explanatory, 1 x $50 = $50, 2 x $50 = $100, 5 x $50 = $250, 10 x $50 = $500.

Not super unusual to have in your purse, especially if you went to the ATM or bank, but not an everyday thing. Plus bigger purchases are more often than not completed by card.

------------

100 dollar note

[Old note above] Have only seen one of these up close on one occasion.

oI mean it looks interesting?

Not many would wander around with this amount of cash in the bag, and I don't think most ATMs give out a 100? As far as I know you have to go to the bank directly to withdraw a $100?

Easy enough to understand, 1 = $100, 5 = $500, 10 = $1000

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please let me know if you have any questions about currency, r what have you.

The Aussie dollar is generally lesser when it come to currency exchange. Like, when buying something from america, it can be 1.5 - 2 x more than the aussie amount. i.e. In american it says $10, but to pay in Aussie dollarydoos, it's between $15 and $20 dollars in practice. And in GBP, it's like 3 x the amount in aussie.

If you want to see what it will be for you, your characters or a family member's trip, there are currency converters online that keep up to date on the daily changes in exchange rates. (eg. today 70 american cents is equal to 1 aussie dollar, but tomorrow, 1 dollar = 1 dollar, and the next day 50 cents = 1 dolar).

Money is a messy factor, but it's worth looking into if you're planning a trip, so you don't get confused or scammed.

If you feel something might be a tad overpriced but you're not sure, feel free to check in. A lot of touristy type shops overcharge, and half of it is the thrill of being at place X, but you don't want to pay $80 bucks for something worth $30, and all.

Part 1 - Coins

[bregee13]

My DTL4 Wish List

Idk why I'm making this, as this won't really do much of anything, but I want to make a wish list of stuff I would want for DtL4. (And maybe for remakes too!) Also, I haven't played TR so everything mentioning it is all from what I've heard. Please get TR if you haven't yet!)

Before I start my wish list, I want to say that some of y'all need to calm down about TR being a "horrible game". It's not that bad, it's just kinda disappointing. It has pacing issues, replayability issues, glitches, gameplay issues, doesn't have much drawing, as well as other things. BUT! I feel like some people need to remember that this game is pretty much the devs way of taking a step back into the DtL scene, seeing how interested people are in it. It's not exactly meant to be an "outstanding game of the year", but rather it's a quick test. Because they want to get back into this series! And if this small 5/10 dollar game (which, may I add is also very obvious sequel fodder) manages to get enough attention and success, they'll have good reason to make more (and better) DtL content!!! ALSO!!! If you think TR isn't worth getting due to it's issues, remember that (unlike the old games) it will get updated and patched a bunch! So while it may never be the best dtl game, it will get better over time! I swear! (Also, switch touchscreen support will be added in the future so... *cough* *cough* get Drawn to Life: Two Realms *cough*) So dear anybody that thinks harassing the devs is a good idea, THEY PUT THEIR HEARTS INTO IT AND WANT TO MAKE MORE DTL! SO SHUT IT!!!

...Anyway, I'm going to start with my wish list now.

1) A nice story that continues off of TR. I don't have many exact demands for plot. Basically, I just want an awesome story! Maybe one that's even better than all the others combined!

2) Return to the old level format! (...kinda) While the concept of these puzzle platforming levels is cool, it doesn't seem to work in execution. For the most part, I'd like levels much like the ones in TNC. Short enough to go through in a breeze, as well as being unique and replayable enough to not get tired of all the levels. But there's some additional things I'd like for levels. Like a few more branching paths to encourage exploration. 

3) Keep a few puzzle elements! As much as the entire game being puzzle levels wasn't exactly the best idea, I would personally enjoy having the occasional puzzle in some levels! The first two games don't really have many puzzles in levels, and I think a bunch of the ones that do really stand out! In fact, if you really want to add a handful of TR-ish levels along side regular levels, that might work! (As long as any TR-ish levels are more polished)

4) BRING BACK COLLECTIBLES! The first game had so many collectibles (most of them weren't optional though...)! The second game not as much. And TR isn't necessarily a collectathon. I'm not asking for a million collectibles required to beat the game, but rather a bunch of optional (and a handful of required) collectibles in the game! Maybe you can have a bunch in different levels, and some in the overworld! Either way, I want to be encouraged (but not forced) to explore!! 

5) SIDEQUESTS!!!! OH MY GOSH, SIDEQUESTS PLEASE!!! Having little levels for a bunch of side characters is a nice start, and it's super cool, but I want MORE! You know how the Wii game had a bunch of characters that gave you sidequests to do? (defeat x number of a certain enemy, getting certain collectibles, beat the level under a certain time, etc.) That was pretty neat! I want that! AND THEN SOME! I also want to complete more specific quests for certain characters! You know how TNC has a bunch of cool Raposa that don't do anything story-wise? I want to do quests for them! (For example, Iolani can't use the bathroom because she misplaced a certain form. I always wanted to be able to go into a level to fetch that form for her!) Oh! And maybe a fetch quest or two? There's so many ideas you can implement with these sidequests. And I want these sidequests to have mini stories too! When I complete them, I want some kind of award! Perhaps a collectible? Even if I don't get anything, I still want acknowledgement from the characters that I helped them! What can I say? I like the dialogue!

6) DRAWING PLATFORMS! I would LOVE to be able to draw platforms again! It's DRAWN to Life after all! Though I wouldn't want to be forced to draw too many in a row. 

7) Optional Drawings! I LOVE the idea of having optional drawings! The ones in TR are nice, though I'd like them more if the characters reacted to my drawings. Like the village creations in TNC! Those were great! (And maybe we could get awards for doing them!) Optional creations in levels are a nice idea too! The Wii game did those, and it was a nice touch. However, it often saturated each level with unnecessary drawing time. Not only because there was a lot of them, but because it was hard to tell what creations were required and which ones were cosmetic. So if cosmetic creations in levels would be a thing, I'd want a way to tell them apart from ones I need to do.

8) Bosses! I would LOVE to fight a couple of bosses again!!! PLEASE 505 GAMES! DIGITAL CONTINUE! GIVE ME SOME CREATIVE BOSSES!!! And honestly? I just really want to beat Aldark to a pulp. 

9) Toys and Enemies? I honestly think toys (as a mechanic) is super neat! Being able to place enemies and tools in a level is cool as heck! Though I wouldn't want every level to rely on that mechanic. Also, here's an idea. What if we go back to calling the little enemy/toy creatures "enemies", and call all the non-living stuff "toys"! ...Unless we're calling them all toys for some plot reason??? 👀

10) MULTIPLAYER?!? Idk how it would work, but it would be cool!

11) Sharing your creations!!! What if we could share our creations in a way that let other people use them? Kinda like animal crossing??

12) MINIGAMES!! MINIGAMES, PLEASE!!! I want to be able to waste my time playing a bunch of different minigames!! Maybe they'll be like an arcade, and require a handful of rapocoins to play (so you have something to use them for after buying everything)? As for minigame ideas, I would be happy with the ones from the old games, plus some! (The snowball fight, the rocket shooter game, the surfboard game) You can even introduce the minigames that were cut from the first game!

13) Developers Grove?!? Not a necessity, but I really miss it. 

14) A level builder?! The idea of building and sharing levels is super neat!! Though it's not my priority.

15) I know I said I wasn't going to focus on story stuff, but I want to be able to get to know all the characters! The main ones AND the side ones! Whether it's by having them all in the main plot, or giving side characters well deserved mini plots! 

That's all I can think of for now, but let me know what y'all think! And maybe add anything that comes to mind?

[reddit-tales]

Some tips for buying a used car for people that know nothing about cars

I’m a mechanic/auto shop owner. I figured I’d put some stuff together for anyone interested in buying a used car but doesn’t know anything about cars. Obviously the best option is to take it to an auto shop to have it thoroughly inspected by a professional before you buy it. The key word here is BEFORE you buy it. I don’t know how many people I’ve had come to my shop for an inspection after they bought it….ugghh. The $150 or so you spend is worth not buying something that may have thousands of dollars of problems. But if that’s not an option, here are some tips to help keep you from buying a lemon:

1-Buy a cheap OBD scanner/reader. You don’t need to spend a lot, as they’ll all do what you need here. A bluetooth OBD reader and the TORQ app for you phone seems to be pretty popular/good choice. Practice using it on some cars. Some of the stuff I'm going over may seem daunting, but if you practice it on a car a few times, you'll get the hang of it, and this will all make sense. You could be saving yourself thousands in repair here, so take a few hours to practice it. It's not hard once you do. You should be able to do all of the stuff I'm going to talk about with your scanner in under 5 mins total. You don’t have to worry about reading and interpreting data. The main thing you want to do is check for codes in the engine and transmission ECUs. ECU stands for Electronic Contrul Unit. Basically, it's the computer that controls the engine or transmission. They are sometimes referred to as ECM, or Engine Control Module, and TCM, or Transmission Control Module. Sometimes they'll be referred to as PCM, or Powertrain Control Module. This is what it's called when only one computer controls both the engine and automatic transmission. The PCM may be one physical computer, but logically, it's 2 computers. So if you connect your scanner to a PCM, you'll still see two separate options, one for engine, and one for transmission. Do note that if you have a manual transmission, there won't be a transmission computer.

So when you connect to each one, there should be no codes in either. If there are codes, there’s an issue. It may be minor, it may be major. Google it if you want, but not knowing what the codes mean, your best bet is to walk away. If your scanner is a better one, you can also check other modules (computers) for codes. However, it’s pretty common on newer cars, especially European, to find obscure codes in obscure modules. Normally they’re not an issue. Focus on the Engine and Transmission. ABS (antilock brakes) and SRS (safety restrain system...airbags, seat belts, etc) modules normally shouldn’t have codes lingering either. Make sure to also check after test driving. The codes may have been reset by the seller to hide a problem (more on that in the next paragraph). They may have returned during your test drive, so check again!

Use the scanner to check the monitors on the engine ECU/Computer. Monitors are a series of self checks that the ECU does on the engine. All applicable monitors should be set (passed/complete). They get reset when you clear the check engine light, or when you disconnect the battery (usually). If all of the monitors haven’t passed, then it’s quite likely the person selling it has reset the check engine light recently (may be trying to hide a problem), or there’s a problem that isn’t allowing the monitor to complete. Not a good sign. Walk away. To complete all of the monitors can take quite a few miles and sometimes several days. So there's a good window there for you to catch someone doing some hanky panky.

2. Crank the engine without starting it. What you want to do is listen to the engine during a continuous crank. On American cars and on Mazdas, this is easy, as they have what’s known as a Clear Flood Mode. You turn the key to the on position, wait a few seconds, depress the gas pedal all the way, then try to start it. The engine will crank away without starting for as long as you hold the key (or in the case of a push button start, until you hit the button again). If the engine starts, quickly let off the gas so you don’t revv up the engine too high and try it again. You’ll want to listen to it for a good 10 seconds or so. This is a very easy way to check compression on an engine. The main thing you hear when cranking an engine is the electric starter working to try and spin the engine. As a piston comes up and compresses the air, the starter has to work harder to spin the engine, and the speed/pitch of the starter changes. Once the piston comes back down, it’s easier to spin the engine, so the speed/pitch changes back, and then repeats as each consecutive piston moves up in the compression stroke. Every engine sounds different, but they all should have a very steady rhythmic starting noise. Kind of a WAAA WAAA WAAA WAAA WAAA. If one or more of the cylinders has low compression, you will hear the starter have an off-rhythmic sound that repeats. So for instance, if you have a 4 cylinder engine with one low compression cylinder, it would sound like WAAA WAAA WA WAAA WAAA WAAA WA WAAA WAAA WAAA WA WAAA etc. Every 4th pitch change will sound different than the other 3.

For reference, here’s what a normal cranking sound should be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v0h_Ygqox0

Here’s what a low compression cylinder cranking sounds like. It’s at about :55 secs :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOghpmVhVng

If you listen closely, you’ll hear the unsteady rhythm. Loss of compression is usually piston rings, valves, or head gasket. All costly. If the engine sounds funny when cranking, walk away.

If the car you’re looking at doesn’t have a clear flood mode, you can remove the fuel pump relay in the engine compartment fuse box, which turns off the fuel pump. Most cars have one, but some don’t. Some cars can be a real PITA to disable it from starting. Google the car you’re looking at with something like “YYYY Make Model clear flood” or “YYYY Make Model disable fuel pump” and see if there’s an easy way to achieve this. I'm sure there will be a Youtube video showing you exactly how to do this.

Practice this beforehand on cars you have access to if possible to tune your ear to the sound. You can also do this periodically on your own car to see if any problems are arising.

3. Check the fluids. All of the fluids will have minimum/maximum marks. If fluids are low, someone has not been maintaining the car well, or it has developed a leak. Not a good sign. When checking the engine oil, it should range from clear to black. If it looks like chocolate milkshake, there is a major problem. RUN AWAY. You can also smell the oil on the dipstick to see if it smells like gasoline. If it smells like raw gasoline, the engine is either injecting way too much fuel or you have bad piston rings. Either way they're bad. If the oil level is WAY above the full mark, like an inch or more, then either some other fluid is making it's way into the engine (very bad) or someone sucks at doing an oil change. Remember to check the oil with the engine off and on level ground. Some new cars don’t have dipsticks (mainly European). If so, you’re SOL. Check the coolant in the reservoir. It should be green, pink, red, yellow, orange, blue, or purple, depending on manufacturer. If it’s rusty, walk away. Remove the radiator cap (only if the engine is cold) and look at the cap and in the radiator. If you see any rust or chunky/gritty brown stuff, walk away. If it’s just water, walk away (be careful here, Ford’s yellow coolant almost looks clear). Check the automatic transmission fluid. For the most part, it should be red, but sometimes amber or green. It may be black. That’s dirty. Not a deal breaker, but they haven’t been keeping up on maintenance. It should not smell burnt, though. That’s bad. If it looks like strawberry milkshake, that’s really bad. Also, remember that you should check the level on automatic transmissions while the engine is running in Park and after driving it and getting the transmission good and hot. The only exception is most Hondas. That’s checked after driving but with the engine off. Google it for the car you plan on looking at to make sure. Many new cars don’t have a transmission dipsticks, so again, you’re SOL there.

4. Start the engine and listen for any noises. The engine should be cold. If it’s at operating temperature, the seller may have warmed it up to hide some cold start engine noises. Be wary. If it makes any noises, walk away.

5. Look for maintenance records. If it has consistent oil change records at an oil change place, at least they’ve been changing the oil. Unfortunately, oil change places only check easy profitable stuff. It’s better than nothing, though. If the records are all at an independent shop, that’s better. Indy’s will usually do a pretty thorough check up on the car when servicing it. If it has all dealer records, that’s the holy grail. Dealers will find any nick nack that’s wrong and upsell it. They also commonly don’t do thorough diagnostics (this is an unfortunate effect of the way dealer shops operate). So if it needed repairs, on top of having new parts that needed replacing, it may have other new parts that it didn’t even need. Plus those new parts will be good quality OEM parts, not chines junk of questionable quality.

6. Check that everything works on the car. Check the A/C, the heater, the windows, the locks, the mirrors, the head/parking/brake lights, etc. If the owner neglected to fix obvious problems, what else did they decide not to fix?

7. Look under the hood and look for any hokey work. Random zip ties holding things on, tape, broken plastic pieces, a battery that can move around if you push on it, wires hanging, etc. If it looks like unprofessional work has been done on what you can see, how bad is what you can’t see?

8. How does the car look? Is it dirty, full of scratches, stained? If the owner cares so little about the interior/exterior, they probably have the same attitude towards the mechanical part of it.

9. Check the tires. Aside from general condition, do they all match? If all the tires are different, they’re cheap/broke, and have probably cheaped out on a lot more than just tires. Lay your hand flat on the tire tread and light feel around the tires. If you feel a repeating pattern of flat spots/dips, you have suspension problems.

10. Try and stay away from used car dealers. Used car dealers get the majority of their cars from auctions. A lot of cars that go to auction are sent there by someone that doesn’t want it, usually because there are problems. Not all, but many. New car dealers send trade-ins that are too old or the wrong make to put on their lot, and some of those are decent. However, the small used car dealers usually buy the bottom of the barrel cars at auction. They’ll fix the minimum needed with the cheapest parts possible to maximize profit. They’ll make it look pretty, though. Good chance you’re buying a polished turd. Not all used car dealers are bad, though. Check reviews. Look at what they have on the lot. If they have a lot of high resale value cars on the lot, they're buying the good stuff at acution. If all of their cars are under $10k, with a lot under $5k, move on.

11. Obviously, test drive the car. Drive it at different speeds up to highway speeds. Brake easy, brake hard. Find a crappy road or railroad tracks to drive over. Make sure there are no noises or vibrations. Get it good and warm. When you’re done, open the hood and take a good whiff. Make sure there are no strong smells (like burning fluids or other things). Look under the car and see if anything is dripping or the bottom of the engine is covered in fluids (bring a flashlight, it can get dark under there). Don’t be alarmed if you see water dripping under the car at about the same area as the base of the windshield/firewall. If the A/C or defroster was on, that is just condensate from the A/C system. Touch it. If it’s not oily and looks/feels like water, it should be OK. If you’re test driving a manual car, the clutch engagement point should be somewhere in the middle of the clutch pedal travel. If it’s right at the top or right at the bottom, clutch repairs are in the near future.

12. This one is a little more advanced, but not too difficult. It’s also pretty important. You’ll need your OBD scanner. What you want to do is look at the engine data and search for the fuel trims. An engine computer injects fuel based on a bunch of sensor inputs. It has a base fuel map programmed into it that it references, based on those sensor inputs, and injects XXX amount of fuel. There is an oxygen sensor in the exhaust system that analyzes the exhaust gas and acts like a quality control inspector. It tells the computer whether it injected too much or too little fuel. The computer then makes adjustments to that base fuel map to make sure it’s injecting the proper amount of fuel. Those adjustments are called fuel trims. A 5% fuel trim would mean the computer had to add 5% more fuel than the base map. A -5% fuel trim would mean that the computer had to reduce fuel by 5% from the base fuel map. In a perfect world, fuel trims would be zero. However, that’s rarely the case. Fuel quality, different atmospheric conditions, engine wear, engine or sensor problems, etc, make it so that the base fuel map is never perfect, so the computer is always adding or subtracting fuel (usually it’s adding, but sometimes it’s subtracting). I don’t like to see a computer adding or subtracting more than 10% fuel. Any more than that and there may be a problem. Any more than 15-20% and there is definitely a problem.

So what you’re going to want to do is look at the data on the engine computer. You want to make sure you connect to the computer using the GENERIC OBD2 option on your scanner. Different car manufacturers will call these fuel trims by different names, and display the percentage in different ways. If you connect to the engine computer the standard way, you may be confused trying to find and read the fuel trims. But if you connect using the generic obd option, it’s always going to use a standardized display format across all vehicles. Some really cheap OBD scanners only connect using the generic OBD protocol. You’re going to see a long list of a bunch of different data. Scroll through until you find “short term fuel trim” and “long term fuel trim”. I'm not going to explain what the difference between those two data parameters are, as that doesn't matter here, and may end up being confusing. I'm just going to tell you what to do with the values you see.

Short term fuel trim, depending on your scanner, may be displayed as: Short term fuel trim, STFT, ST, or ST%

Long term fuel trim may be displayed as: Long Term Fuel Trim, LTFT, LT, or LT%

Let’s assume your scanner uses the more common STFT and LTFT designation. You’re going to see a number after the letters, so STFT1 and LTFT1. The number means the “bank” or side of the engine. A 4 cylinder engine only has one “side” so you’ll only see STFT1 and LTFT1. However, a V6 or V8 engine has two sides of the engine (3 or 4 cylinders on one side, and 3 or 4 cylinder on the other side, hence the V6 or V8). The computer controls fuel independently for each side of the engine, so you’ll see a STFT1 and LTFT1 for one side of the engine, and STFT2 and LTFT2 for the other side. Don’t be alarmed if you’re looking at a V6 or V8 engine and you only see STFT1 and LTFT1. Many late 90s cars and some early 2000s cars didn’t control fuel separately for each side of the engine, and lumped both sides into one bank.

When looking at the short term and long term fuel trims, you’ll notice the long term fuel trim number stays pretty steady, but the short term fuel trim number may change a lot. This is normal. What is important to note is that they are cumulative. So if STFT=4 and LTFT=3, then your total fuel trim is 7%. Let’s take a look at some examples on a V8:

STFT1 : 3 ... STFT2 : 6

LTFT1 : 2 ... LTFT2 : 1

So the total fuel trim on bank 1 is 5% (3+2) and the total fuel trim on bank 2 is 7% (6+1). Each bank is below +/- 10%. That’s pretty good.

STFT1 : -5 ... STFT2 : 3

LTFT1 : 3 ... LTFT2 : 1

Bank 1 fuel trim is -2% (-5 +3) and bank 2 is 4% (3+1). Again, that’s good.

STFT1 : 6 ... STFT2 : 7

LTFT1 : 10 ... LTFT2 :15

Bank 1 fuel trim is 16% (6+10) and bank 2 is 22% (7+15). That’s not good. Walk away from this one.

Here's one more that's a littlte different:

STFT1 : -20 ... STFT2 : -20

LTFT1 : 22 ... LTFT2 : 20

Hey, 2% and 0% total fuel trim on each bank. SWEET! this car is running almost perfect! Well not really. Why is the LTFT adding 22% but then the STFT is taking a bunch of it back? There may be an intermittent issue going on here. So add the absolute values together as well (treat -20 as 20) and see what that total is. Here we have 42 and 40. There's some interpretation required here that you'd need some experience to do, but I'd say anything over 25 when adding absolutes is cause for concern.

Check these numbers with the engine running at idle, and rev up the engine and hold it at about 2500rpms and check it there. Like I said, you may see the STFT number change pretty quickly, so just use the average of the numbers you see for that one. If you have someone with you, you can have them check the numbers while you drive as well.

Practice this on a car you have access to beforehand.

13. Last and not least, don’t trust the person selling the car. Trust your eyes, your ears, and your instinct. You don’t know this person, they may be lying about the car, or try and tell you that the thing you’re worried about is no big deal, it’s just this or that. Or they had a guy check it out and it’s a really easy/quick fix. Be patient and find the right car. If something is fishy or doesn’t seem right, move on to the next car. A car is a pretty big expense. Most people budget for the purchase price of a car and don’t consider there may be considerable extra expense in fixing major problems. Minimize the possibility of those extra expenses by inspecting the car the best you can.

I would recommend running through these things, and any others you want to add, on your current car, your parents’ cars, friends’ cars, etc. Do it several times. Get comfortable in making these checks so that when you’re doing them in front of some stranger on their car, you won’t forget anything.

[cottagecore-peach]

heyyyy !!! i hope ur doing v v well !!!!! so. this might sound a lil random but i've seen u posting abt it sometimes and i've been wondering whether i should buy stardew valley ?? i don't know if u urself play it or if u just reblogged some posts abt it so feel free to ignore this ask !! but yeah !! it looks super cute but i don't rlly know if it has lots of stuff n content to play thru or if it maybe gets boring rlly quickly ?? n i don't rlly know much abt the plot either to be honest but it's just looks so sweet !! plus if i were to buy it i would have to do it on my computer bc i do not have any kind of consoles so i don't know of it's like,, the type of game for computers i guess ?? aaaa i don't actually know much abt videogames in general i must sound so silly,,,, welp ! anyways. love ur account + i hope ur doing very well !! sending love !!

-- yoga anon 💌❣️ (yes i am going to sign all my anons now bc i took that 'i feel like we're pals' little comment v seriously bc u are v sweet & i just !! feel like we're pals as well. plus it feels like signing a letter !! even though yoga is like. not my defining trait at all i haven't done it in so much time hhjdjdkajsj ne ways i'm rambling now !! bye !! lots of love !!)

omg omg you have no idea how happy this made me!! hello my friend!! thank u for opening this can of worms and allowing me to rant about my current hyperfixation 💕💕💕

first of all: i would 100% recommend stardew valley! it’s only like $16 CAD or something so it’s not a huge loss if you end up disliking it. but my friend taught me her criteria for what she thinks makes a game worth the money, and it’s this: can you see yourself playing the game for at least 1 hr/dollar spent on it? if yes, buy the game!! my ex bought me the game 2.5 years ago (while we were together obvs, bless her) so technically i spent $0 on it, but given that i’m nearing 400 hrs played on steam, i think it would be well worth it even if i had spent the $16!

onto the actual game!!! if you don’t play a lot of video games, i think this would actually be a very good game for you!! looking at guides for how to maximize profit can get really overwhelming, but it’s really easy to just vibe and get immersed in the cottagecore/farmcore energy. the game actually does have a lot of depth to it, most of which is revealed as you progress through the long term, story-driven goals, but you literally never have to finish them if you don’t want to!! there are plenty of different things to do, and you can focus on anything you like! 

you might choose to focus on farming (which i would say can be split into two subcategories: plant or animal farming, though you can always work with a balance of both), or you could work on reaching the bottom of the old mines in town and collect lots of rare gems and artifacts to donate to the museum, or you can spend your days fishing to bring in the money, or you can go for my personal favourite: befriend/romance all the townsfolk!! talk to them every day and give them gifts they’ll love (that’s basically the only thing i use the guides for lmao). there are 10 possible characters to romance and you can still befriend everyone else in town! some characters have amazing backstories that they reveal to you as you become better friends with them, and there’s honestly tons of tea to be spilled in this tiny community!!

if you have any more questions or want anything explained more clearly pls pls let me know, i obviously have tons to say!!

ps: it’s also been a hot minute since i did yoga, don’t worry about it, friend 🥰

[argylemnwrites]

Fight or Flight - Chapter 2: Priorities

Pairing: Drake Walker x MC (Riley Liu)

Book: The Royal Heir (canon divergent from the end of book 2)

Word Count: ~2900

Rating: R (language only)

Summary: Ninety minutes since The Walker Absconding

Author’s Note:  A series that follows the Walkers, their friends, and Cordonia as a whole after they flee the country with their daughter during Barthelemy Beaumont’s attempted coup. To catch up on this series, check out it’s masterlist, linked here.

Drake glanced over at his daughter sleeping soundly against his shoulder, her fists clutching tightly to the collar of his old denim shirt. The rocking of the car had lulled her to sleep within 20 minutes, before they’d even passed Applewood Orchards. Combine that with the fact that this was around her usual nap time, and she was out for the count. It was a blessing, he supposed, that she was so easily calmed in a car. This whole situation was stressful enough without a screaming 10 month old on top of everything. Plus, she hadn’t really noticed Riley’s utter breakdown.

When Drake had found Riley and Bridget out on the drive, he’d not even been a little bit prepared for what was about to happen. Obviously, he’d known Riley would be raging about Barthelemy’s plan. That was a given. And he wasn’t exactly surprised that the conversation she’d had with Olivia had been about a plan to get Bridget out of there. Riley had been acting cagey and weird, but when Olivia had pulled him aside not even a minute after Riley had left the room, pointed at a tube of diaper ointment on the floor, and told him to get to her driver and head to Lythikos, he’d assumed that nerves over getting caught by Barthelemy and his allies had been why she hadn’t even looked him in the eye before she left the room.

But it was a much bigger mess than that. He’d known something was up when Riley didn’t hand Bridget over when she called and reached for him. Bridget seemed to like being with Drake more at the palace, probably because he held her more at balls and galas while Riley worked the room. For Riley to insist on keeping Bridget in her arms was odd. And then, the truth came spilling out. That Riley had planned to just… up and leave Cordonia. With his daughter. Without telling him a damn thing.

At first, all he’d felt was a swell of anger. But rapidly, a million other feelings had flooded his mind. Pain. Confusion. Guilt. Sadness. Longing. Concern. Protectiveness. And those were just the ones he’d noticed as he’d scrambled to follow her pleas and desperation. Even now that the initial shock was starting to wear off for him, he wasn’t sure exactly what he was feeling. Too many things were competing in his mind.

All he knew was that he had to stick with his wife and kid. That had to be his number one priority. And so when Riley told him that she was leaving the country and taking Bridget, he knew he was going too. Even if he couldn’t fully understand her thought process at the moment, he knew she was just trying to protect their kid in the best way she could think of. So, he shoved the storm of emotions down and tried to be solid and steady, since it seemed like she was crumbling to pieces before his eyes.

Seeing her like that had been so strange. Even before, when Riley had cried about something in front of him, she’d never seemed out of control or desperate. Tears of righteous anger? Sure. Fear and anxiety? He’d seen that a few times as well. Even pure hormones during her pregnancy and postpartum period. But never had he seen her just panicking, her eyes wild and out of control, her whole body trembling just slightly. He’d never really seen anything like it before.

The closest comparison he could make was to the time he’d snuck out of bed when he was seven years old to grab a cookie and had stumbled on his parents fighting. It was the first time he’d ever seen them so much as disagree, and he’d been unable to go back to sleep that night, convinced his parents were going to split up. His mother had been in tears, begging his father not to take the promotion. The next morning, he and Savannah had learned that Dad had a new, more important job, so they would be living at the palace a lot going forward. At the time, Drake had thought his mother was just dumb. Moving in with Liam while Dad got a cool new job had seemed like a no-brainer as a child. Now, as an adult, he could look back on that moment and understand his mother’s fears and concerns. But watching his wife, who had been through so fucking much in her life, lost, unsure, and out of control had made him feel a bit like an unsettled and worried seven year old all over again.

Of course, he was now a grown ass adult, and he should not have been so thrown by his wife needing stability and support from him after the news they’d just faced. Hell, he should have known that the threat of having her child taken from her would hit her harshly, given the number of times her own mother lost custody of her. Riley was always so insistent she would be nothing like her mother, and it hadn’t even occurred to Drake that what Barthelemy was discussing would feel a little too similar for comfort. It should have, though. She had trusted him with the entire story of her childhood - her father’s abandonment, her mother’s addiction, her time in foster care - and he couldn’t even be bothered to think about how that might affect her when some asshole was threatening to take custody of their kid. 

He’d been worried about the big picture, what the goals of this fucking coup really were. What this meant for everyone. Meanwhile, he’d left his panicking, traumatized wife to worry first and foremost about their kid. And that’s why she hadn’t been planning to tell him until she already had Bridget somewhere safe, wasn’t it? Because she’d sensed that he wasn’t as solely focused on protecting their child, no matter the cost.

When had he become numb to the toxicities of court? When did that fucking happen? It seemed like it wasn’t that long ago he was telling Riley that court was going to chew her up and spit out her remains. But somewhere along the way, he got complacent. He’d found a few good people mixed in with the shitty ones, and suddenly it was all fine? He should have seen this coming a kilometer away. Someone is always scheming, plotting, maneuvering. Always. How had Riley absorbed all his early lessons while he somehow forgot everything he knew? He’d let them play him like a fool, standing there as they voted to take Bridget away from him and Riley and the crown away from Liam. Blindsided and sputtering, caught off guard. Like an idiot.

To be fair, there were still a few people he trusted at court. Liam, of course. Hana. Maxwell too, as his father’s actions had clearly caught him off guard. Besides, Maxwell had always been too earnest and accepting of everyone to have any desire to get caught up in something like this. And Olivia, oddly enough. She was clearly loyal as hell to Liam. And she’d worked with Riley to create a plan to keep Bridget with them. A plan that probably would have been a lost simpler than the shitshow they were about to face. 

Drake honestly had no idea how bad things were about to get, and based on the state Riley had been in out on the palace drive, she hadn’t given it any thought beyond feeling that having her daughter by her side was worth any price. But shit, this was probably gonna be a disaster. Their only destination was “Greece,” but it’s not like they had a place to go when they got there. Flying to Texas to hide out with Mom was out of the question since they didn’t have their passports and were therefore bound to the EU. Taking money from the accounts tied to their titles was morally questionable at this point, and it might not even be an option anymore, depending on who was running Cordonia at the moment and if they’d already moved to freeze the Valtorian accounts. Hell, his personal account, which didn’t hold that much, might be frozen, too. Their only funds that the government couldn’t touch was if Riley still had an American bank account, but something told Drake that a former waitress from a very expensive city wasn’t sitting on tens of thousands of dollars. And that didn’t even touch the fact that technically, Bridget was legally under Liam’s custody as a child in direct line for the throne.

Hell, even simple things. They didn’t have toothbrushes or toothpaste. Riley’s glasses or contact solution. A change of clothes. More than the dozen or so diapers that were left in the bag. Baby food. A pack n play or crib or even car seat. Shit, they literally couldn’t let Bridget out of one of their arms. They were going to have to figure out a way to buy some basics. And at the moment, Drake knew he needed to take care of some planning for Riley and him. She had already panicked enough without being confronted with the reality of her decision.

He glanced down at Riley, her head resting on his knee as she also slept. Within a half hour of being on the road, Riley had gotten very shaky, pale, and lightheaded, presumably dealing with the after effects of her adrenaline rush. Drake had encouraged her to lie down and take some deep breaths, and before long, she was lightly snoring. Given how broken and frantic she’d seemed, he wanted to let her get a little bit of rest before they dealt with the practical shit they were gonna need to address. But at this point, they probably needed to actually talk. Things weren’t going to get magically better, and he needed to get a sense of what she was thinking.

Shifting slightly, trying not to disturb Bridget, he settled his left hand on her shoulder, giving her a gentle squeeze as he whispered, “Riley.” After several seconds, her muscles tensed, and her eyes blinked open.

“Sorry to wake you up,” Drake whispered, “but we gotta talk about some stuff.”

Riley stretched slightly before sitting up. “How long was I out for?” she asked as she rubbed her eyes.

“About an hour.”

“So we’re still in Cordonia?” she cast him a wary look at that.

“For the next 45 minutes or so, yeah.” Drake had been hoping to get some clarity from her on why Olivia’s Lythikos hideout plan was not an option for her, but based on the way she was looking at him, that topic was going to have to wait. He couldn’t have her panicking again. “That’s not what I wanted to discuss, though. I was just wondering if you had a destination in mind in Greece.”

Riley gave him a small smile as her shoulders visibly relaxed, but shook her head gently. “Not really. I thought maybe we could just head to the closest American consulate? There has to be a closer option than Athens, right?” she asked as she pulled out her phone and moved to open her map app.

“No, Riley!” Drake cried out, ignoring the little squawk Bridget gave out as he lunged for Riley’s phone. She looked at him with clear confusion, so he continued, “You need to turn off location services. Otherwise they will be able to track our location.” Since his little outburst had already woken up Bridget, he leaned to the side and tugged his phone out of his back pocket, turning off location services on his phone as well before rubbing his hand along the back of Bridget’s head, hoping to lull her back to sleep. After several minutes of murmuring soothing words to her, he could feel her getting heavier in his arms, and soon enough, her little eyes fluttered shut.

Once Bridget was asleep, Drake turned his head toward Riley. “Sorry,” he whispered, “I just didn’t want this all to be for nothing by giving them our exact location.”

Riley nodded, looking at a page of search results on her phone. “There’s a consulate in Thessaloniki, which is still a haul, but at least isn’t as far as Athens. How does that sound?”

Drake shook his head, “You had to renounce your American citizenship to be named duchess, remember? They aren’t going to be able to do anything for us.”

Her eyes fluttered shut as she breathed out a rough sigh. “Fuck,” she muttered, “That was my only plan.”

Sensing she was about to go back to that panicked state, Drake reached over, squeezing her knee in a manner he hoped was reassuring. “It’ll be okay. Ioannina is not too far from the border. We’ll be able to get a hotel there and lay low while we figure out next steps, okay?”

Although her eyes remained shut, she nodded, but a few stray tears spilled out of the corners of her eyes. Drake reached up and swiped them away with his thumb. This prompted Riley to open her eyes and turn more towards him, her lips pressed together tightly.

“Shhhh, we can take this one step at a time, Riley. This was never gonna go perfectly with how much that asshole fucking blindsided us,” Drake said, trying to be reassuring as he beckoned Riley to scoot closer and throwing his arm around her shoulders when she leaned up against his side.

“I just thought…” she began, but quickly trailed off when her voice started to quiver.

“I know. But we didn’t have much time to think it all through, did we?”

He felt her shaking her head against his side, so he decided to soldier on. “The way I see it, the first thing we’re gonna need to do is try and withdraw as much cash as we can from our accounts. That will prevent them from tracking our location, and if our accounts get frozen, we won’t be completely screwed.”

“Makes sense,” she whispered.

“After that, we need to stock up on some basic supplies. Diapers, toiletries, a change of clothes, some baby food, that sort of thing. We should also probably pick up a baby carrier so that we have a way to contain her but keep her with us. After that, we can find a cheap hotel, someplace where there’s little chance that someone is going to recognize a foreign duke or duchess. I think that’s a good enough start, don’t you?”

Riley just nodded, so Drake tightened his arm around her, trying to provide some comfort. “We’ll figure it out, Riley. We just gotta take it one step at a time.”

She let out a little chuckle. “When you met me, I had no problem traveling to a foreign country on a moment’s notice, not sure where I’d be staying, how long I’d be gone for, anything. It didn’t faze me in the slightest. But now, with her… I just… I’m worried, Drake. I know it’s impossible, but I want more of a plan.”

“I know. But I think this is as good as we’re going to get for now, alright?”

Before Riley could respond, Drake’s phone started buzzing and lit up on his lap. The name “Liam” flashed across the screen in white letters. Drake jerked his head around to look at Riley, her eyes wide as she reached for his phone. When he didn’t stop her or say anything, she grabbed it and swiped the red circle. But seconds later, the phone lit up again. She ignored that call as well.

“He’s not gonna give up, Riley,” Drake sighed, “It was only a matter of time before he was one hundred percent sure that we’d left the palace.”

“I know, I know. But please, can we wait to answer until we’ve crossed the border?”

“What difference is that going to make?”

She let out a big sigh before she spoke again, “He won’t be able to talk you out of doing it.”

Her words were like a punch to the gut. Again, she didn’t trust him. Again, she saw them as divided, with similar, but not the same priorities. He had to make her understand that if they were going to do this, they had to be in it together.

“Riley. If this is what you think we need to do for Bridget, this is what we are going to do, okay? Liam doesn’t get a say here. She’s our kid, not his. But we need to talk to him at some point, if only to figure out who is acting as king at the moment.”

“I know we do, but... please. Can we wait until we aren’t in Cordonia anymore?”

Drake knew they both had a lot to talk about here. This issue of her lack of trust in him wasn’t going away, and if they were fleeing the country and hiding out with basically nothing to their name, they needed to feel like they could rely on one another. But now was not the time for that discussion. So he just nodded and said, “Okay. We’ll wait,” before switching his phone to silent. Hopefully, that concession would allow her to trust him enough… for the moment.

Permatag:  @walkerswhiskeygirl   @riley--walker  @bebepac @ravenpuff02 @oofchoices @octobereighth @drakewalker04 @kimmiedoo5  @mfackenthal  @thequeenofcronuts  

The Royal Romance/The Royal Heir: @ao719 @mskaneko @katedrakeohd @jovialyouthmusic @marshmallowsandfire @axwalker @kingliam2019 @sirbeepsalot @texaskitten30 @princessleac1 @ladyangel70 @dcbbw @yaushie

Drake x MC: @drakeandcamilleofvaltoria  @iplaydrake @gibbles82 @drakewalkerisreal @notoriouscs  @drakesensworld @drake-colt-lover-99

Fight or Flight: @burnsoslow @bobasheebaby @shz256 @iaminlovewithtrr​

[the-bjd-community-confess]

I’m the anon who was talking about not liking to be told I’m “undercharging” for my work. I do not get benefits, and I can’t work a regular job. My small business is my only means of making money; but when a business is starting out and I’m not some cute charismatic trendy person who goes viral on tiktok you find that sometimes making 1$/hr (In profit after you’ve calculated time and product cost I’m not an idiot) means you actually sell items.

Everyone says you have to charge your worth, but if no one will pay what I’m worth then how do I make money? I don’t. So I charge what I would be able to pay for an item and people buy and it makes money. It’s a process, you don’t start making a living wage, small businesses don’t work like that ever unless you went viral or something. That’s why people start out with a normal job and do “hobby stuff” on the side. Unfortunately my life doesn’t work like that, so I get by. In the future maybe I would charge a bit more but I may not ever have the luxury of that kind of branding, so I sell to the people who wish they could have what people often charge hundreds of dollars for when it doesn’t cost that much in time or money to actually make that item.

A small item I can make for cheap and with ease in a day other people charge $200 for because they have 14k insta followers. I sell it for what it costs to make plus profit for myself and it’s less than $50. Artists love to inflate costs because “they deserve it” and I guess if they’re lucky to get people to pay that then that’s that I guess. Also I have no idea what kind of yarn and where people are buying because you can get a pound of good quality yarn that’s soft, washable, dryer safe, and durable for like $10 and I live in an expensive ass state where everything is crazily priced. You can make a big ass blanket with like 5 pounds of yarn. Also it’s easy to get good deals on yarn if you just look around a bit.

I’m not pretending like I’m rolling in money and atm I’m lucky that I don’t have a ton of costs to cover in order to stay alive, but I make enough money to get by and I don’t feel guilty when I sell someone an item for 2-3X what it should cost just because I think I deserve it. And I hate the concept that handmade items are a “luxury” all items used to be handmade, but now we live in a corporate capitalist nightmare. People deserve quality items that actually pay people and not corporate pockets. I would rather pay a small business for an item instead of Walmart, but if a small business is charging 15x Walmart’s price it’s hard to justify the purchase when you don’t have money to burn and I get that. Especially if it’s easy to just research what an item costs to make. If an item costs $10 to make and it only took you 6hrs to make it ( where I live) that’s still only like $70, but people charge $150. You can’t tell me that’s not asking too much. Tack on an extra $20-30 maybe, but I can’t justify doubling the price.

~Anonymous

[fungusqueen]

Here it is! The promised car-buying tips from my amateur and frugal experience! My general tips are to be prepared, do your homework, and don’t get caught off guard by not doing research and agreeing to things/paying for things you didn’t plan on. 

Car salesmen are not your friends and they’re trying to lead you down the path that’s most profitable for them, which is never going to be the best situation for you. It’s their job to try to sell you on a bunch of stuff you don’t need, so be prepared for their tricks and understand the process so you’re not blindsided. Something specific to the coronavirus pandemic is that dealerships will be very desperate to sell (because no one is buying cars right now) and dealerships are willing to take a loss on a sale! BUT! If you go unprepared, it may also leave you vulnerable to dealerships attempting to do unethical shit BECAUSE they are so desperate to sell. They might try to make profits in places you may not suspect. A lot of aspects of buying a car (especially in financing car) sound good up front, but you might find out you’re getting screwed over. 

I’m not going to discuss what makes a good car, or what you should buy etc. because I really don’t know and that’s your business! I’m mainly going to talk about the steps before and during the car-buying process (inside of a dealership and over the phone inquiring prices etc). I did my car search and car-buying alone (due to the global pandemic and my own desire to have minimal contact with others) and for my first time ever! So I’m only going to share my experience and offer resources.

I recommend this podcast episode from NPR’s Life Kit, “How to Buy a Car Without Being Taken for a Ride” as a simple starting point for car buying advice. It’s 23 min long. I know not everyone will listen to the podcast episode (and you don’t have to) so I summarized some of those episode tips below and elaborated on certain points.

1) Don’t appear too excited (at the dealership); they will try to build your excitement as high as possible. Playing on your emotions and creating a fantasy of a new life in a new car puts you in a position to make irrational decisions. When I was in the dealership, they actually asked me “Are you excited?” and I said “No.” I was also wearing a face mask, so with half my face covered, concealing my excitement was pretty easy! Their attempts may also appear as them trying to get you to talk shit about your old car to get you complaining, and further idealizing your future car. Overall, appearing too eager will not make them fight over you to get a sale. Make them beg!

2) Get pre-approved for a loan before going to a dealership. Know what kind of interest rate you can get and what kind of monthly payment you can afford. Your credit score will inform this; the better your score, the better your rate will be (so if you have time to improve your score, try to build it as high as possible). Your bank/credit union should have rates listed easily online. You don’t have to be a member of a credit union to get a loan with them, but there may be a discounts if you’re already a member. PLEASE KNOW that after applying for a loan, your bank/credit union will give you a time limit on how long you have to find a car/use the loan. My credit union gave me 20 days from the time I applied, but it can vary. You can also call to increase or decrease the loan if the car you initially wanted is no longer available or you choose a different one. When you apply for a loan, you have to supply the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number), but obviously car shopping can change so make sure you supply your bank/credit union with the new VIN number of the car you decide to go with. Your bank/credit union may not approve you for a car that is too old. This happened to me (I first applied for a 2013 car in my budget) and they let me know they typically dont approve loans for cars older than 2014, which was a blessing in disguise because I found a newer model of the same car for around the same price. I ended up changing the car VIN/loan amount 3 times overall from the time I first got pre-approved for my car loan. Just keep your bank/credit union updated. Also! It’s not necessary but it helps if they can send a written (emailed) confirmation of the loan amount with APR listed, as the dealership will need it later in the finance office. 

3) Definitely TEST DRIVE a car you see online before considering purchasing it. It might feel different than you thought! I test drove an older model of the car I wanted before test driving a slightly newer model and I’m really glad I test drove the older one so I had something to compare it too. There was only a two year difference between the models but the upgrades made a difference in ways I wouldn’t have thought before sitting in the driver’s seat!

4) Beware the 7 year car loan. It’s probably not the right car for you if you need 84 months to pay off. Car loans are not like home loans; cars are always depreciating in value. Interest on car loans is also always front-loaded, so the money you put in your first few years will mostly go towards your interest, not the principal of your car loan, and you could be spending way more than you thought. If the car does not last you 7 years, you may owe more than the car ends up being worth if you want to or have to sell it. At this point, it might be a smarter decision to lease a car, if for whatever reason, you insist on getting a specific car. 

4.5) To add to this last point, you’ve probably seen dealership ads on TV or in print that say “0% APR for 84 months!” This is kind of a scam (at least imo) because it’s very seductive in a way that can distract you from other ways you can save. These advertisements serve the purpose of getting people into showrooms. This is because interest rate is only ONE SMALL FACTOR into finding what’s right for your budget. An APR offer is minimal compared to your monthly payment...if the monthly payment is too high (overall car price too high), are you really saving $$? These offers might even be for a shorter payment term, (ex. 36 month instead of 60 month), your monthly payment could be too high for your budget because you didn’t have the flexibility outside of this offer! If your term payment is longer (ex. 84 months), while your car depreciates in value, you may end up owing more than it’s worth by time you pay it off. 7 years is a long time! As well, these offers are usually only for NEW cars (again, more expensive than necessary) and buying used might be a better option. As well, they are not transparent about the minimum credit score required to qualify for 0% APR, so you may not even qualify...even with great credit! The 0% offer is also usually offered along with other incentives, like a manufacturer rebate (thousand $ and above). You’ll often have to chose between one incentive or the other...you could be turning down a multi-thousand dollar rebate because that 0% is very seductive...but if you did the math, it might not be the best option for your budget. ALSO! If you’re going to buy new anyway, banks/credit unions offer better APR rates for new cars rather than used so compare. If you can get a super low APR from your credit union on a new car, why get stuck with a higher monthly payment on a too long/too short loan term you otherwise wouldn’t have chosen just to get that 0%?

5) To continue with the point above ^^ When you are with the salesman, start with price of the car and don’t talk about ANYTHING else until later. THIS IS WHERE THEY GET YOU! They will try to get you to talk about financing, how much money you want to put down etc. BEFORE promising you a juicy competitive price on the car. SO! APR rates shouldn’t even be discussed until you can agree to the price of the car! Sort of another way they GET YA! So distracting! Can prevent you from getting your lowest overall price possible! 

6) IT IS SO FRICKEN IMPORTANT AND I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH, BECAUSE THIS HAS HELPED ME THE MOST OF ANY TIP I’VE HEARD FROM FRIENDS: ASK FOR OTD (Out the door) price. The prices you see listed online or on a sticker on the car window are not the prices you’ll end up paying. OTD price includes everything, tax, fees etc. A few dealerships nearby had the same car I wanted (only varying slightly in color, mileage etc. but exact same year and model) so I called a few and said “HI I saw your car online, could you give me the OTD (out the door) price?” Ask them to break it down for you, what’s the price of the car, what’s tax, document fee, dmv fee, etc. If the OTD price is very high above the car price plus tax, beware! You should not be paying thousands of dollars in additional mystery fees. If a handful of dealerships have basically the same car, see which one can give you the best price. If a dealership cannot be up-front about their OTD price, and break it down for you so you know how all the money is adding up, RUN AWAY! You can ask for this information over the phone, some fees are often not necessary and are negotiable.

With this coronavirus pandemic, you should not be paying this full OTD price on the car, ask for at least 10% off and see what they say. In my situation, I called, got the OTD price at two different dealerships, one dealership asked me what they could do to get my business and I said, “I might come in today if you can give me 10% off the OTD price.” (I was cackling behind my phone tbh! it seemed ridiculous to me but whatevs). The salesman I was speaking to calculated it, said he’d call me back after asking his manager. When he called me back, they offered me just under 10% off...which sounded pretty sweet to me because the car was already being sold below it’s Kelly Blue Book value and that was the dealership I eventually went with. So u never know if you don’t ask! I asked the same of another dealership and they basically said no. So call around! This guy, Kevin Hunter, on youtube, gave me this idea! His channel is full of car buying wisdom so I highly recommend! 

He has a great recent video specifically about the car buying market in during this coronavirus pandemic. He has videos on topics like, honest car salesman techniques, are certified preowned vehicles worth it, fake fees you shouldn’t pay for, etc. 

7) Something I experienced that Kevin Hunter ^ also explains, (in this video titled, CAR SALESMAN TRICKS YOU into buying a car! DEALERSHIP Rip off: The SET UP) is this weird 4 square setup they did to me...and they do to everyone at a dealership. It’s another distraction tactic, that they will use to distract you from getting a good price on the car. It will look like this:

So the salesman will bring this informal piece of paper out. It’s not a contract, it’s not official, but they’re going to use this paper to pull information from you THAT YOU SHOULD NEVER GIVE THEM! At the point they bring this out, you should only be talking about car sales price. So this piece of paper has spaces to write trade in value (if you’re bringing in your old car to trade in), down payment, monthly payment, and car price. Anything that is not the car sales price will be used against you to try and get you to pay more. They’re trying to create the best profit for the dealership. 

When I was at the dealership, the salesman kept pushing me to say how much cash I wanted to put down, what kind of monthly payment I wanted (ie. how much money can I spend), (and in my situation, I didn’t have a trade-in car, so discussion about that wasn’t brought up). Practice refusing to answer these questions...I kept saying I did not want to discuss financing or cash down until we could agree to the price of the car. You can also say you prefer to discuss this with the finance manager. He tried to get me to sign this 4-Square paper with a higher price on it than I was given on the phone. Do not sign this, it’s weird. I brought out a paper with a much lower price and asked him to sign off on that price instead. Bring the focus back to the car price. Be prepared to walk out and TELL THEM you will leave if you don’t get the price you want! 

which leads me to my next point...

8) DO NOT SAY YOU ARE PAYING CASH. Do not say how much cash you have, do not discuss HOW you are paying at any point with the salesman. After you can agree to a favorable price on the car, you’ll be handed to a finance manager in another room. The salesman is NOT the finance officer. You should not tell your salesman your financial details. If anything, you only have to give the salesman VERY BASIC details so they can run a credit check before handing you to the finance manager.

and below....here is a WHY YOU SHOULDN’T DISCUSS HOW YOU’RE PAYING WITH THE SALESMAN. 

9) Dealers can make a lot of money off a car loan...if you finance through them. Make them believe in the possibility that you might finance through them. They might give you a lower price on the car because they might assume they can get ya with a high APR or long term payment...which will bring them money in the long term. Don’t tell them you’re financing through your bank/credit union before you settle on the car price! In some cases though, a dealership might be able to give you a better deal thank your bank. You can say, “Why don’t you run my credit and see what you can offer me” and then see if it’s better than what your bank/credit union can give you. They also might test you with a high APR, even if you qualify for a lower APR (just to see if you’ll take it), and might even use details of your credit report against you...

10) If you have a trade in, they will also try to make a profit from not giving you enough $$ for your old car. Get a price quote from Carmax and check the Kelly Blue Book value beforehand to see if they’re giving you a good price. If it’s not good enough, you might want to consider walking away from the dealership and just selling to Carmax. Because of online transparency and easy access to prices of cars, they will try to make money in other areas OTHER THAN the car price, and this is one of them. 

11) After you’ve settled on the price of the car and they’ve run your credit, you’ll be moved from the salesman to the finance office...where you’ll be signing contracts and discussing other add-ons, (warranties, insurances, protections etc.) When you’re in the finance office, DONT BUY ANY ADD ONS THE DAY YOU BUY YOUR CAR. If you decide to, research a good price for what they offer you. You can call the dealership and ask to speak to the finance manager ahead of time and ask what additional items you may be offered. These might be paint protection, tire protection, extended warranties, gap insurance etc. When they offer these things to you, they are often overpriced. You can also get these later, or get these elsewhere for a better price. Research ahead of time to see what’s right for you and don’t try to figure it out unprepared because they will try to convince you. 

That concludes my numbered dealership tips! I probably left some stuff out, so please continue to do your research.

This podcast episode from This American Life, 129 Cars, illustrates the importance of using timing and desperation on the part of salespeople to your advantage. This is a longer listen, over an hour long, but it follows salespeople during their work day as they try to meet their monthly quota in order to reach their sales bonus. Towards the end of the month can be an ideal buying time because dealerships may be willing to take a loss or make no commission from a sale because if they’re able to reach their quota, they will either...not be fired, or they may receive a sizeable bonus. Overall, TIMING can be key in getting a good deal. Dealerships also have yearly sales quotas, so if you can wait, you may be able to get a better deal on a car towards the end of the year. 

As well, I recommend a Monday/weekday since dealerships are least busy during this time. AND! If you need to contact your bank, it might be impossible on the weekend. Because of coronavirus, operating hours for banks/credit unions have been shortened so if you need to finalize some financing details or ask your bank/credit union questions, make sure you’re able to do so when needed! I ran into this problem and was delayed because my credit union was closing early. 

One last tip! You also will also need to insure this new car so call your car insurance carrier and let them know you’re car shopping and they can help you add the new car to your current policy, or change your current insurance. You car insurance might increase or decrease with the addition of a new car. And if you’re getting a car with a higher value, you might want to consider adding more coverage to your current coverage. The dealership might give you free temporary insurance so you can drive the car off the lot with coverage. When I called my insurance carrier to add this new car onto my policy, it didn’t take effect until midnight that night so the dealership gave me temporary insurance just in case something happened on the drive home. You legally do need insurance to drive it off the lot or if you’ve never been insured before. So if you’re currently on somebody else’s policy, get some quotes from different insurance carriers and try to get an idea of the future cost.

Those are all my tips! This took a lot longer than I thought, heh heh, but I seriously hope this helps someone because buying a car is a HUGE DEAL and there’s so much potential to get taken advantage of due to the lack of transparency!!! There’s a lot more I could have covered so I encourage you to take more time to do more research! And good luck if you plan on buying a car soon!

[rushingheadlong]

This isn’t exactly Queen-related, but since this is my “bandom” blog y’all are getting this post over here instead of on my main so. sorry about that I guess lol.

I mentioned this a little bit in my post about the sale Tim Staffell is having on his bandcamp right now, but I also want to talk about this in it’s own right too: Music artists, especially independent creators, earn hardly any money from streaming services and it’s important to actually buy their products to support them!

I know there are other posts going around talking about the problems with Spotify’s payment model right now, but a) I can’t find them to reblog at the moment and b) I think it’s easy to get confused when you look at “average amount paid per stream” because that’s not actually how streaming sites pay out their artists at all.

Rolling Stone did a breakdown in August 2020 of what Spotify most likely pays out to artists, based on the available revenue information. If you don’t want to read the whole article, the long and short of it is that:

The conservative estimate for the number of artists on Spotify is 3 million - of which only about 43,000 artists account for the top 90% of streams on the site. 

Spotify doesn’t technically pay artists per stream. All the revenue that it distributes to artists each month is pooled together, and artists are paid out from that pool based on popularity of individual tracks. 

As this separate Rolling Stones article explains, if five hit new songs by one artist pull in 2% of all the streams in December, that artist (and everyone with rights to those five songs) gets 2% from that pool of money. But that means that if you listen to nothing but small, independent artists the money Spotify makes from you is going first and foremost to top-name artists and not the people you actually listen to.

Here’s a breakdown from that first article that makes this a little clearer: The top 43,000 artists make about $22,000 per artist per quarter. Everyone else (over 98% of all artists on Spotify) averages $36 per artist per quarter, or roughly $12 per artist per month.

You can also see that in breakdowns of what artists with high stream numbers actually make. Just over 1 million streams earned one group just under $5,000 across three months. Although to be clear, this is not a problem with only Spotify and buying digital copies of albums from places like iTunes and Amazon also doesn’t result in high profits for artists - usually netting them less than $1 per album, or about 9 cents per track downloaded. 

Here’s the thing, though: If you buy directly from the artist themselves that percentage of profits goes way up. 

That should be obvious, but it’s easy to rail against how unfair Spotify and other streaming sites are and lose sight of the fact that there is a very clear way to support independent and/or less popular artists and it’s by simply buying their stuff without using a middleman!

Not to keep talking about Tim Staffell but that’s exactly what we’re going to do for a moment here: He sells his music and limited merch through Bandcamp which takes 15% of each sale of digital downloads and 10% of each sale of merchandise. 

His albums are priced a little more expensive than a $9.99 iTunes purchase, but you can buy digital copies of his entire discography for £24 and he’ll make about £20.40 on each sale. If you buy a physical copy of one of his albums for £20, he makes £18. Hell, even if you buy a CD during his 50% sale he’ll still take home about £9 from it and that is still a significantly higher profit than what either streaming sites or iTunes pay out. 

This article talks more about how much more money artists earn selling through Bandcamp than they do through streaming sites. One example given is a band who made $4,200 releasing a new album on the site, vs maybe making $100 a year in streaming. 

From a broader ethical standpoint, that same article talks about some of the charity donations that Bandcamp makes from their revenue and the fact that since the COVID-19 pandemic started Bandcamp has launched “Bandcamp Days” where they waive their percentage from each sale entirely so all profits go directly to the artists. (There’s also the fact that Bandcamp simply pays out artists faster than streaming sites do, so they aren’t waiting for their money to be released.)

It’s also worth noting that Bandcamp requires artists to set a minimum amount, but you can also choose to pay more if you want so if you have some extra cash to burn you can, in fact, give it directly to that small indie artist whose music you fell in love with if you so choose!

And the thing is, it can be really easy to look at a group and see that they have their music on iTunes or Amazon or whatever and just buy from there out of habit, but I guarantee that if you look at their website they’ll also have a link to their Bandcamp page - but you do have to go looking for it!

If you follow my main blog, a few weeks ago I was waffling over whether I wanted to buy merch from The Longest Johns (yes, you’re getting a real glimpse into my musical tastes today). I spent well over an hour looking through their store and I was so tempted by the vinyl copy of their newest album. And I’m still tempted by it but y’all, I live in the US and conversion from £ to $ plus international shipping is not always the kindest so I didn’t buy it. And I will never judge anyone for not having the money to pay for international shipping to support independent artists.

But here’s the thing: The Longest Johns also have a Bandcamp page, which I never went looking for because I’ll admit that I found their music to stream and I just did that and never looked further into it. But now that I know that I can buy digital copies of their albums for £10, of which 90% of that is going directly to them, I am definitely going to be doing that instead.

I get that not everyone has the money to do this, and I fully understand that streaming sites are sometimes the only way that people can listen to the music that they love. If you don’t have the money to spend on something, then of course that’s fine!

But if you do have the money, considering spending it to directly support an independent artist!

Look, Queen is a multi-million dollar enterprise. It’s one thing to advocate for supporting new album releases, like Live Around the World, because that can influence future projects that they might release - but at the end of the day, I genuinely don’t care if you illegally download their music or stream it or anything else. (Seriously, I don’t care if you stream Queen, because the issues with Spotify’s payment structure don’t matter to them when they’re that rich already and there needs to be a massive overhaul* across all streaming platforms anyway in order for smaller artists to make a reasonable profit off streaming sites.)

But if you have an independent artist that you love - be in Tim Staffell or The Longest Johns or Omnia or anyone else - how you engage with their music does matter a lot more. And if you’re financially able to do so, look into buying their music or their merch from them directly, either through Bandcamp or whatever other storefronts they may use. They’ll get a much larger share of the profits if you do that than any amount of time you could spend streaming them on Spotify.

*If you want to do something to start forcing changes with how streaming sites pay out artists, the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers has a list of demands for Spotify specifically which includes paying at least one cent per stream, adopting user-centric pay models, revealing existing payola and then ending it altogether, and crediting all labor in recordings, among other things. You can sign on to support them and read more information HERE and there’s a tumblr post you can reblog HERE as well.

[ernestsinclairs]

How Rich are You?? - Bloodbound Edition

Welcome to the MONEY Series, where I draw up how rich everybody is. Here, I estimate how rich ALL the Bloodbound LIs are because literally everyone likes cash, not just me.

ADRIAN: Literally one of the first details about Adrian we ever got was that he’s a billionaire. And from the way PB stresses it, it seems like he’s one of those super-billionaires or something. I doubt he’s at the Jeff Bezos level (publicly at least), but this guy has some serious numbers in his bank account. Now, CEOs 

like him don’t have billions in cash sitting in some bank vault somewhere. Most of their money is made up of the amount of their company that they own and how much that slice is worth. Seeing as Adrian probably founded his own company, it’s pretty fair to say he has a good chunk of it. And Raines Corp. seems to be like the golden child of a capitalist mother. MC mentions that the Raines Corp. was one of the fastest growing companies in America (in the job interview with Nicole), Adrian was voted ‘CEO to watch’, and she also said ‘like no one knows how profitable Raines Corp. is’ in Marcel’s library. Plus Adrian’s other assets like a private jet and great car and stuff, that’s a CRAZY amount of money.

Net Worth: $40 - $50 billion (the company’s had a lot of time to grow and rake in profit and value, seeing as vampires are, you know, a little thing called immortal)

But wait, there’s more! There’s this super shady thing that rich people do called offshore accounts! Basically, they shovel their cash to places like Bermuda and the Cayman islands to avoid paying taxes and hide their boatloads of cash from the feds. I’m pretty sure Adrian does that, not to avoid taxes, but to hide money he made in the other centuries he’s been alive, like the lucrative mega-businesses of the Gilded Age, that he otherwise wouldn’t be able to explain.

COMPLETE NET WORTH: $80 - $90 billion (includes previous profits in offshore accounts, physical things like gold and artifacts, real estate, international company investments). 

Probably Owns: Obviously his private plane, which seems quite large and luxurious (Gulfstream perhaps?). He definitely has that decked out penthouse with a prime view of the Manhattan real estate market and a car described as a ‘slick sports car’ in Book 1 when you’re rescuing him. I am 100% sure he has a giant wine collection spanning centuries old as long as multiple estates around the US. In Book 1, Kamilah mentions she didn’t know about Adrian’s colonial estate, implying that there are others. So, if you like jet setting to giant mansions with centuries old bubbly, there’s that. 

KAMILAH: Our vampire queen is not just the queen of literally everything, she is also the queen of raking in the sweet sweet cash. She’s in finance, and if it’s one thing I’ve learned, finance is profitable. Now, it’s obvious she’s extremely wealthy, but the curious things is that it’s not emphasized as such. It’s stressed that Adrian is a billionaire and has a private plane and whatnot, but there’s no mention of the extent of Kamilah’s wealth. So here’s what probably went down: Kamilah’s public wealth is lower than Adrian’s, but her hidden wealth is a lot higher. I literally would not be surprised if she could go to Egypt, dig a random hole in the desert, and turn up a motherlode of gold she hid thousands of years ago. 

Net Worth: $20 - $30 billion (as far as the outside world knows. But if you factor in all her hidden wealth and earnings and random gold statues and hundred carat diamonds floating around the world, I’d estimate it at about $200 billion. This insanely high number is yes, due to the amount of previous earnings and valuables like precious metals and artifacts she has, but also their age and rarity)

Probably Owns: A really nice residence in Manhattan (I’m thinking a penthouse apartment similar in concept, but different in style to Adrian’s), along with apartments in every city she has an office in. I’m also sure she also has a walk in closet stacked wall to wall with custom made suits. I’m also quite sure that she still owns a few artifacts that are stored in private holdings around the world, like on in Egypt perhaps, and maybe some in remote areas like the deserts of Nevada or Argentine Patagonia. 

JAX MATSUO: Okay, what I know about Jax is that he was basically a college dropout in the 80s who spent his tuition dollars on LSD trips and bad disco clothes. And the last time I checked, disco clothes aren’t that valuable anymore (and never should have been). Now, I theorize that any personal wealth he gained was redistributed to help the Clanless and others that he took in. So, he’s not crapping blocks of gold and hundred dollar bills like Adrian and Kamilah. He’s crapping out those rolls of quarters you get at the convenience store and the occasional fake diamond earring from Claire’s. However, his new position on the Council is definitely bringing in some much needed cash.

Net Worth: $3 - $4 million (mostly due to him reinvesting in his Clan, and being relatively new to business and Council duties)

Probably Owns: I don’t think Jax has as much material wealth and homes/properties as Adrian and Kamilah. I think he has a nice, safe, and comfortable quarters in the refurbished Shadow Den so he can be with his people at all times. He probably scraped up enough for a respectable car due to nagging from Lily, but other than that, I theorize that he prefers to live a little more under the radar.

LILY SPENCER: The only piece of info I have about her was that she was able to buy us 10 pizzas when we first met (flashback in Book One). Now, the price of pizza in NYC is rising, with the average being $16.98. Ten pizzas is roughly $170 dollars.

Net Worth: $170 (but in reality, I estimate about $35 - $60k with any debts fully paid off. Running with Jax is definitely drawing in income, and I won’t be surprised if she’s drawing a salary from her service or a commission from Fangbook.)

Probably Owns: 0 delicious pizzas because she ate them all. But seriously though, we know she still lives in the apartment with us, so that hasn’t changed. I don’t see a need or means for a car or private jet or anything like that, and I can’t see Lily buying hugely permanent things. She seems much more of a ‘spur of the moment’ person, and purchases reflect that. Like one of those ten foot teddy bears from Costco. Or a signed David Tennant photo from eBay. Or a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mask worn by the stunt man. Take your pick.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

@bailey-choices @europeanguy @furiouscloddonutpeanut

[soyouareandrewdobson]

Oh not again the Paywall!

… Oh boy. This comic will be deader than expected.

When Dobson announced a few years ago he was working on a new comic involving a mountain cabin and supernatural elements, I was at the very least intrigued enough to see where this was going. I never expected it to be a groundbreaking comic or the worst thing anyone has ever done, but considering his track record so far when it came to creating original, long planned out comics, made me at least curious. Would it be better, worse or more woke than Alex ze Pirate. One thing I did however hope for was that Dobson would be for once smart enough to not hide his stuff behind a paywall, which has so far always killed his comics that are neither Ladybug or SYAC related. But hey, unlike Dobson, I can admit when I am wrong with an assumption.

 To be clear here, I am aware that Dobson “hides” the comic behind a 5000 dollar paywall only so that some person who donates to him the necessary dollar a month to see the panels uploaded by Dobson thrice a week can no longer do so and leak them to kiwifarms.

 However, even the dollar per month thing to me is a very, very dumb idea.

 I get it. People want to make money of something they create. I don’t hold it against webcomic artists to sell merchandise/tradepaperbacks of their stuff or create additional content to their regular updated comic pages, that people can pay for to see. But here is a major difference between Andrew Dobson and almost every other webcomic artist out there and which has been a key factor in why Dobson’s career as a comic creator has never taken off to.

 Webcomic artists stay relevant, by making their major comics public.

 I know Dobson’s work for a couple of years and the overall quality (or rather lack thereof) in his work aside, one thing I was dumbfounded the most off was how he basically sabotaged his own “career” in the medium. I have read a couple of sprite and webcomics over the years and even if the webcomic in question was utter bullshit for some reason cough sinfest cough one thing I saw was that in one way or another the comic and its artist would find an audience, BECAUSE the comic was easily to access on the net. You did not need to pay for the privilege of seeing  something someone created out of a whim. You could see the thing develop and go on because the person creating it became aware of people liking it and in doing so getting an extra boost to continue on.

 And by doing so, as time went on those people would eventually manage to make money of their work and even improve at least some aspect of it, may it be the storywriting or just the artwork.

 But Dobson made sure that when he wanted to start off his career, his stuff would not be seen.

 See, before SYAC became the thing he focuses on the most, there were at least two major comic series Dobson created and wanted to make money off. Percy Phillips, a detective comic about a Holmes knock off and Formera, a story about a boy stuck in a prehistoric fantasy world, no one is really sure about where it was heading for (not even the author).

Dobson made sure there was fanart of his characters and at least reading samples of around 10 pages on average everywhere he went to online the most (deviantart and smackjeevee). But aside of that, he did nothing with his creations online. Some random, unregularly uploaded fanart on aside, he would never upload more pages of Formera e.g. on deviantart, nor information about the comics direction, assuring that average interest of people in his stuff and the story was dimished fast. And when people are not interested in your story, they are not interested in you as an artist much. And when people are not interested in you as an artist (and your behavior online starts to additionally alienate them from you even more) it is no wonder your career never gets off. Now some may wonder, if Dobson drew reading samples, did that mean he wanted to draw more? Yes of course he wanted. And he actually did. But you needed to buy the tradepaperback to see those pages.

Basically what he did back then was, that he falsely approached the “webcomic” audience in a manner more suffice for people who want to buy physical copies of comics in bookstores or comic shops. Release a few reading samples, hope they get people interested in you and then make money by them buying this stuff. However, this entire approach was faulty. First off, the general quality of Dobson’s writing and artwork even back then made it not really look in any way worth to buy the comic, when there were way better products to be found either professionally published or online. To give you an example, these are some of the opening pages of Formera, published around 2005-08.

By comparison, that is a page of infamous internet webartist Bleedmann and his Powerpuff Girl comic , released around 2006.

I am sorry to say that, but why should I pay good money for Formera, something that looks like it was drawn by an average 16 year old anime fangirl at the time, when I could have something “better” drawn and designed by others? Even if those others are freaking lolicons.

I mean sure, the backgrounds look okay here and there, but composition wise the thing looks just not good. And that is from someone who went to art school and had the gaul to talk shit about mangas?

Secondly, the reading samples where just the first pages of his comics in general. Meaning nothing really happened in them and with the lack of information about the comics provided, nothing was really there to get others’ attention. Add to all of that the fact Dobson wanted between 10 and 20 dollar for 170 pages on average or less (Look up Legends, the precursor to Alex ze Pirate. Only 78 pages! Formera at least had around 152 per volume at prices between 9,99 and 15$) when you could buy a manga with more than 250 pages for less at the time…

And people said nope and rather looked up what the heck this Sonichu was people talked about.

As a result, Dobson never really sold stuff as proven with deviantart entries like this…

and he cancelled his comics after 1 or 2 volumes, not even wrapping up his stories he was supposedly so proud of and wanted to tell. All because Dobson essentially cared more about “making quick money” instead of telling a decent story he wanted people to read.

By abandoning these projects (and the characters in it) unceremoniously, Dobson had in my opinion also contributed a lot towards his online infamy. After all, what are you supposed to believe about a creator, who abandons his own creation completely instead of at least trying to salvage it (he could have still made Formera publicly readable by making it a webcomic) and has the audacity to call the overall popularity of others (particularly anime and mangas) the reason for its failing success. Plus it seems that their failure was the main reason why he would rather create 4-panel or one page comics instead of stories with more complexity afterwards, which resulted in the way Alex ze Pirate was presented (and is a topic for a later entry) and eventually SYAC.

 Bottomline, creating a “paywall” for his original work resulted in people on average not becoming aware of Dobson as the creator of some okayish comics, because they never saw them and instead would be exposed to other, “inferior” if not outright meanspirited and toxic artwork and opinions. And creating a paywall for Cabin’s Rest, even if as minimalistic as 1$ will just result in history repeating itself. He can claim that he creates a great comic as much as he wants, if we can’t see it for ourselves and judge, we can only say “what comic”? He won’t gain widespread popularity this way, because so far only 13-16 people (the total amount of Patreons he has to my knowledge) even were able to see the comic.

And now not even they can, because Dobson wants to spite his critics/trolls and take away the chance for them to see it, by making it unwatchable for anyone. I know he claims it is only for as long till he finds a way to get rid of the leaker, but that also begs the question: How do you want to do that? How do you want to assure only those who will not leak it, see this comic? You have already so little traffic on the site, you should actually be happy even for trolls paying you, cause at least it pays for a Happy Meal once a month. Dobson, if you really want Cabin’s Rest aka muslim vampire comic to succeed, you should just make it public. I know doing so will mean you are also exposed to all your critics and yes they will find something to mock and criticize, but at least you are out and have a higher chance to find also people willingly ready to support you, cause they want to see it.