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what-gs-watching · 10 months ago

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“Speaking of not being able to move. I too have had trouble moving. Lately. Past the poverty line.”

Maybe I’m predictable but I’m still settling into this new job and it’s hard to focus on other new things when everything during my day is new so the other night I decided to restart Superstore.

Which is another one of my ‘this show deserves more love’ shows. Maybe one of the last sitcoms I picked up from NBC before I went full on feral for streaming services. It’s charming and stupid and I’m weirdly a sucker for the guy who plays Jonah.

Wherein, we follow the lives of associates of Cloud 9, a big box store, while they deal with working in retail and all of the absolute ridiculousness that goes along with that (COVID, included).

Amy (America Ferrara, who is perfectly utilized here honestly) is a 30-something shift manager at the store with a daughter she had at 19 and a lazy husband. She’s obviously disillusioned with her monotonous life until Jonah (Ben Feldman, who I JUST realized I recognized from ‘Drop Dead Diva’ like whoooa) shows up, a dude who washed out of business school and is annoyingly pretentious but also adorably fun. Hijinks ensue.

I really do love the entire supporting cast of this show. Dina is the psychotic assistant manager who owns a ton of birds, is brutally honest and kind of a bully but ends up being a really good friend. Cheyenne starts out as a ditzy pregnant teen mom but her storyline with her ridiculous wanna-be gangster boyfriend turned husband with a mustache is hilarious and weirdly endearing. And her friendship with Mateo (who is fussy, snarky, undocumented, and has a terrible romance with district manager, Jeff) is life goals.

Y’all know I’m all about the relationships in shows, and I do enjoy the Amy/Jonah slowburn because, like, obvi any slowburn is always gonna get me, but the friendships are really just chef’s kiss. Garrett, the chill dude who does the in-store announcements, loves videos games and doesn’t generally give a fuck, ends up as Jonah’s reluctant best friend. Dina ends up finding the perfect frenemy in Sandra, who is everyone’s punching bag but also creepily FIERCE at times. I also love Cheyenne and Garrett - there’s an episode where the store has amnesty to admit roles they’ve broken and neither one of them have so they dig into the employee handbook to find one, but end up focusing on ‘no hats’ even though Garrett insists “we’re not hatting this!”

The dynamics are perfect.

Basically, I feel this show deeply in my heart. I worked retail for years, it was my first job in high school and I worked at a Burlington Coat Factory entirely through college. The appeal of the show is that they’re a bunch of random ass people that bond over the fact that the store is terrible and minimum wage jobs are demeaning but they make it fun and I’ve totally lived that.

I had two work moms. And I met one of my absolute best friends there. We had adventures following shoplifters, dancing at the registers singing made up songs, throwing parties for holidays, waking up too fucking early to work black friday shifts or doing inventory. We bitched about unfair corporate policies and I saw a few of my friends have babies and have to scramble on how to support themselves. I saw all of the hidden talents my coworkers had and the dreams they wanted to achieve. We suffered through customers treating us like shit, and we lifted each other up.

Working retail is a brutal undertaking but it can also be an oddly beautiful tapestry and that’s what I love about Superstore.

I also appreciate that they talk about the real shit. There’s a walkout/strike after Glenn, the high-pitched, god-fearing, somewhat buffoon of a store manager gets fired for sneakily trying to give Cheyenne paid leave after she gives birth in the store. The associates band together eventually to try and unionize. There’s a bit about Amy asking for a raise, which results in the whole store sitting through a lecture on proper “budgeting” which includes a section about how “Uncle Sam has your food, now go get it!” At one point, there’s an ICE sweep in retaliation to unionization whispers. They follow Amy’s struggles in trying to climb the ladder and make something of herself. It’s real but also exaggerated, and sad and funny.

It’s absolutely a snapshot in time and it lets me romanticize a period of my life that I spent desperately trying to escape. You know that dream people have about sitting for an exam in a class they didn’t know they were taking? I never have that dream. I have a dream where I show up to Burlington as I am now, a thirty-something with a ‘career’, and I know I haven’t worked there in years, but I’m panicked because I can’t figure out what my schedule is and everyone is annoyed I haven’t been coming in for my shifts.

Working a job like that shapes you and stays with you. I managed to escape, I’m the asshole who just spent nine months on the couch pouting about my cushy job being taken away and doing nothing other than trying to force myself into another one, but maybe that’s okay because I lived that retail struggle for a good bit. I understand it, and I am never one of those asshole customers.

All that to say, Superstore depicts that struggle flawlessly. And it makes me miss that unique camaraderie that you��ll never truly get working a tech job. It honestly cannot be duplicated. And if you’ve never experienced it for yourself, at least you can through the absolute ridiculousness that is the gang at Cloud 9.

#superstore #jonah simms #amy sosa #cloud 9 #what g's watching #comfort show

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smoshblr-aita · 11 months ago

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AITA for embarrassing my coworker

I (18 male) currently work a minimum wage part time job while I’m saving for a car (ugh). This job is essentially just an assembly line to put food on trays. So one person puts on the ticket and the silverware and sends it down the line, the next puts on dessert etc etc. Well today I was 1 so I was putting on silverware, liners, creamer, sugar, salt, pepper, and silverware. It’s one of the most difficult stations and I tend to need to focus to read what each individual ticket needs (soup spoon, sugar sub, no salt, etc), we had a somewhat new guy alone on 3. His only job was to put butter on every tray, mustard on any tray with a sandwich, and soup on any tray that wanted it. I was somewhat a little salty probably because 3 is my favorite station and the one I’m an expert at but I had to be put on 1 because the person originally scheduled for 1 called off last minute. So we’re moving at a good pace, I’ve got the trays mostly backed up to the end everyone is doing their best. The manager keeps calling down like “need a mustard” “need a soup and cracker” “you put on the wrong soup” so on and so forth all mistakes by the guy on 3. No biggie it’s only his like 4th time working 3 alone (after like 2 weeks of training) and it’s not slowing us down too much. Plus I get it’s embarrassing to have the manager call out every mistake outloud in front of everyone, but quite frankly that’s just how it is since he needs the mistake corrected and needs to stay at his own spot on the line. So we’re in a lull where I’m not pushing trays because I had to replenish the stack of trays in front of me and switch out my silverware container so I’m not constantly pushing trays down. Again no big deal I can get us backed up again within 30 seconds. But instead this smug little jerk turns and yells down the line “HEY (my name) CAN I PAY YOU TO GO FASTER. HOW DOES TEN BUCKS SOUND” and my response was to yell back “HEY CAN I PAY YOU TO DO YOUR JOB RIGHT” my manager looked like a deer in headlights I’m pretty sure he thought might punch the kid (oh the new guy he’s like 16/17?ish, not much younger than me but not older for sure btw) well after trayline he came up to me (3 not the manager lol) and said that I really embarrassed him and did the “it’s just a prank bro” type defense where he said he was joking and I reminded everyone he was doing a bad job and what I said was too mean spirited. I basically laughed in his face. Because I thought my comeback was good. But then both my manager (who usually really trusts me) and another coworker who I usually get along with really well told me that I was a little harsh and he didn’t really understand how trayline works and he looked like he was crying after I insulted him back (I didn’t see because when I push trays I’m usually looking down at the ticket) and my manager implied I better go easy on him in the assembly for dishroom which really got to me since I don’t think my manager has every taken any one else’s side besides mine if I’m involved in a conflict, I’m one of his go to trainers and I know every station, he wanted to make me an assistant supervisor. So just the fact that he thought I jumped the gun with my retort is really having me doubt myself. I probably would have just polled my friends but I just got home from the above described shift and saw that the smoshblr aith is up and figured I could toss it in here to see what yall think.

Oh btw I put on anon which I feel like a little ruins the fun for me because it’d be cool to actually have discussions with moots about it being me but since I made the choice to put my age in here so I could feel like a real Redditor I’m keeping it on anon lol

#r/smoshblr #smoshblraita #smosh reddit stories #but not really <3

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syrupspinner · 6 months ago

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i am obsessed with roman sands re:build

so now im gonna talk about it for a looooooong time. you can hit j to skip posts

roman sands re:build is an upcoming game developed by arbitrary metric (paratropic) and published by serenity forge (ddlc+, lisa definitive edition, slay the princess pristine, basically if it has text boxes and is an updated release it was these guys). notably, it is a remake of a visual novel just called roman sands, but ive deliberately avoided learning anything about the older release because I don't want spoilers

it's hard to pin it to one genre. you could call it an adventure game? you take first-person control of someone... interchangeable. nobody cares about your name, and people seem to use whatever pronouns is most convenient for their perception of you in any given moment. anyway, it's your job to be the busybody at this resort. fulfill requests until the day ends, which takes four room transitions. you start in the morning when you first enter the main doors, then it goes to noon, then afternoon, then evening, then you quit

then it's the next day. you're in a time loop... probably. this is also just what working in retail is like, I've been told. every day has you do the same thing for the same people. oh, speaking of,

everybody hates you. there are four hotel guests: Betty, who will yell about hoe youre awful at your job and you should be ashamed; her husband Harold, who is scatterbrained and weak-willed but at least knows how to say thanks: Sylvia, a high-class lady who condescends at you; and... bunk

I mentioned your perception is inconsistent. Betty sees you as maliciously incompetent, Sylvia is equally insulting but in a way that's more concerned with emphasizing her own superiority, and I'm not sure if Harold even knows you work here. but bunk can flip-flop in the moment. sometimes, he sees you as one of the guys that he can talk with about the good old days where you could complement women on their bodies without them calling hr. sometimes he sees you as one of those women. he doesn't care about who you are in the slightest, you're just a means of gratifying whatever whims he has. well, the others are like that too, but bunk is the most obviously carnal.

the main gameplay loop sees you routing the most efficient way to maximize your XP gain. since entering a door advances time, and the tasks reset every loop, you can do stuff like... getting Betty's pills before she asks for them, and going through the side door so you can fetch Harold a chair before he asks for it. cutting down on backtracking means you can do as much work as possible in as short amount of time as possible, just like a real overworked minimum wage service worker!

the games design and atmosphere does a great job at distilling this sense of frantic pace-keeping. I could never play stuff like diner Dash cuz I always got overwhelmed by having to keep all the orders straight and worrying about customers getting even a little unhappy. RSr:B fixes both of those problems, the former by making everything predictable enough to plan around and account for with previous attempts explicitly not mattering. the later is addressed by making everyone a stupid jerk.

also, just because i dont realy dwell on it, the aesthetic is amazing for non-thematic reasons. i love the use of cool colours despite the tropical setting, it emphasizes the tranquility that is intended by the location, and heavily contrasts with the presence of the sun as a threat to the narrative, which emphasizes the threat's dismissal. wait shit thats a thematic reason again, fuck. i love pretty dreamcast beaches and shiny y2k ui elements and the stupid stretchy noodle people. it just looks so cool man. im and english student not an art studen so i cant really articulate why i think that without just saying its pretty and i like looking at it.

anyway, there are so many minor mechanical things that are built to goad you into hurrying the fuck up. you start each day with two minutes on the clock, and if that clock runs out, you... miss out on a little xp boost. if you walk on an arrow path to whatever task is closest, you go way faster, encouraging you to move straight from one request to the other without breathing. and you cant select responses by scrolling through a menu, you have to select it from the number row. its like in a shooter, if you couldnt use a weapon wheel and always had to quick-select, which of course encourages you to be quick

there's enough that encourages you not to get too stagnant with your loops too. first, there's a sense of mutual exclusivity. there is only one drink, and two people want it. second, there's unlockable items! this is the main use of leveling up. for example, you can get a mop to clean bunks puke (don't actually you'll softlock and the demo doesn't save) or get that checkbook Silvia wants you to sign. or a simple toolbox

ooo, another thing is the tutorial. just when youre about to enter the doors, you get a pop-up of a girl telling you stuff lie "keep your head down" and "hurry up" that dont actually tutorialize much of the gameplay itself. i think this is another deliberate satire of capitalism. the most important part about getting and maintaining a job isnt your skillset, its who you know and how well you adhere to the culture. it doesnt matter how well you do the skills if you dont know your place

also, the game is really good about teaching you things naturalistically. betty asks you for a marg (with the pop-up lady redundantly telling you to get her the marg, but this would be really helpful to the players that were very understandably overwhelmed/disoriented by being yelled at by three people at once). bring it to her and she immediately barks another order at you, which tells the player that you talk to people to get requests. then, you go outside and get her pills like she asked, and you learn about the mechanic where time pass when you go to a different area.

the main goal of the demo, the main thing you're working towards, is fixing the elevator. well youre in luck, because the thing that you get from being level 3 (which you can get in your first day if you know what youre doing) is a toolbox. its not robust enough to fix the boiler in the basement, but... actually no it cant do anything about the elevator because its too sulfur-y. from here im going to spoil the central puzzle to completing the demo, so if anything ive said sounds interesting, leave now and play it

so! if you take some time to look around, youll notice the orrery. yes thats its name, yes thats a real word, yes i also misread it as ossuary and got super concerned for a minute. the orrery it has a large yellow chunk in the middle, and a planet missing from the display. theres a solar system display in the main lobby. so take the planet thats logically missing from both displays (or just take em all and just see which one fits - its mercury btw) and put it into place. now just... rotate the display until the planets align and beam the sun from the left into into the yellow chunk and... it retracts, showing you the idea of sulfur. you can use that to fix the elevator, and then the demo ends! nothing noteworthy or worth mentioning happens after that point. nope, not even [withheld]. look i know too many people that ignore spoiler warning but i still wanna leave something for them to discover when they play the demo, because you are going to play the demo

now, with everything (audible wink) established about what this game is, lets talk about why it is that way. i know i usually jump right into the analysis assuming that the reader already knows about the game, but like, there are three people who have posted about this on tumblr. two of them are developers and im the other one.

so first and foremost, ripping the bandaid off, this game is anticapitalist as fuck. you play as a service worker that has their humanity brushed aside at best for the sake of fulfilling menial tasks. your paycheck is sporatic, and they only things you can spend it on are consumerist trash that literally does not matter. at the end of the work day you vanish into the sea, crawling right back out when the next day starts, as a metaphor for how the people being serviced by these workers see them as their job and nothing else, dehumanizing them to the point that nobody in the game realizes that youre a human being first and a worker second. your opinions and feelings dont matter, just your labour. and i dont have to tell you that the time loop represents the banal repetition of the 9-to-5.

also, its getting hotter. every day is one tick off the countdown where the sun fucks the big one and... maybe youll die, maybe youll just be in hell. this is also anticapitalist, because this is pretty obviously... fuck i dont even wanna call it a metaphor because it just kind of is climate anxiety. its mentioned once as something too far in the future to care about, if its even a problem at all, and youre expected to go about your day without thinking about it. but at the end of every day you still see it. n days until the sun dies. just ignore it, you cant do anything about it

the aesthetic plays into this too. you know im a sucker for paradise-like locals, and my favorite thing you can do in them is explore what goes on behind the curtain to make them paradise. like, in Paradise Killer, a lot of ink is spilled over human "workers" sacrificing their lives to build something that will just be scrapped for some trivial imperfection. here, you essentially play as one of the humans trying to upkeep the illusion of perfection. its supposed to be incongruent to your gameplay experience because youre just a worker, your experience doesnt matter, this is all for the guests sake. your frantic gameplay is deliberately contrasted with the serene locale and calming music

oh! the calming music! theres one track in the game that isnt a chill beat, and its... the level up music. the first thing i thought of when i saw it? a slot machine. did you know theyre often designed to have flashy and appealing scenes play out both when you win and when you lose? its to subconsciously trick your brain into thinking youre doing a better job than you are, that youre winning in some way just by continuing to pour your money away. i dont think thats a coincidence. first, slot machines are a great symbol of the evils of capitalism, a machine that only offers the "service" of a slim chance of receiving money that, realistically speaking, is dwarfed by what youve already lost. the purpose of a system is what it does, and gambling as a systemic part of life is successful in bankrupting as many vulnerable people as possible.

how does that play into roman sands re:build? well, like a slot machine, the extravagance of the music and the visuals exists to play up what youre getting. on one hand, this is just a reasonable way to design a game, emphasize gameplay rewards with something flashy so players have an increased sense of accomplishment. on the other, this is meant to convince the player that slow incremental progress towards finally earning the right to use a mop bucket is something worth celebrating. it reminds me of how often employers try to trick their employees into being satisfied with stuff like pizza parties instead of, like, raises. this may sound like a stretch to you but id like to take a moment to remind you that this game includes a gacha system for literal useless trash for no other reason than to satirize how consumerism encourages you to spend money on things that cost as little as possible, valuing consumption for consumption's sake rather than the actual value of what youre consuming. why wouldnt they extend this to also satirize how capitalism undervalues workers by withholding basic amenities and minimal compensation as a reward for doing as much as you can as fast as you can? keep working, motherfucker, maybe youll get that better toolbox soon

wage theft is one of the most common forms of abuse done to the working class. it follows, then, that it is one of the most normalized. it takes many forms, like unpaid overtime and withholding benefits. perhaps the most notable are forcing employees to purchase mandatory equipment out of pocket (a central game mechanic as discussed earlier) and asking employees to do things outside of the scope of their position. of course, this is how the gameplay works on a fundamental level. you are asked to do the work of a receptionist, a janitor, a bartender, and even a masseuse. notably, this is done by the customers and not the administration. I'll get into the lack of a distinct employer figure later, so for now I'll go into how the layman's complacency in abusive systems seems to be a major theme of the game

yknow what im gonna talk more about harold. the other guests are actively disrespectful and directly abusive to you, so Harold definitely stands out. he requests things from you politely, and shows you sincere gratitude. here's the thing though, he's TOO accepting. Betty arguably treats you the worst out of the four guests, and Harold is never seen even attempting to oppose her. he's on to something when he hears the vmmmmm vmmmm noise from the basement, because there's a giant ominous machine if unknown purpose, but Betty yells at him until he stops caring. his abuse towards you, the working class, is not through shouting insults at your capability or sexual assault or insulting your personhood directly. it's through witnessing you be mistreated, and embracing it as the status quo, making the most requests to you out of everybody. at least when the others dehumanize you they're blunt about it, but Harold being the nicest person while still only seeing you as a worker to be commanded stings in a special way. being treated this way is normal, it's the best you can hope for

not only does Harold serve an important role in showing how complacency in an abusive system helps perpetuate it just the same as active participation, but he also more specifically connects to the climate change metaphor. just as all the guests mistreat you in a unique way, they all dismiss the growing heat in unique ways. bunk notices it, but is too caught in his vices and self-loathing to really care that much about the realistic consequences inplied by the fucking su dying. betty says that shes fine with an awful thing happening to everyone because itll probably hurt the people she hates, meaning she definitely votes conservative. and Harold, having heard all this, questions it but soon blissfully dismisses his concerns, a toxic positivity urging him that things always turn out for the best. the other viewpoints are selfish in self-explanatory ways, with Harold representing the climate deniers who see the topic as too confusing and complicated to hold a proper opinion on. Harold I'm shoving a microphone in your face how do you feel about the conflict in the middle east

did you notice i didnt mention sylvia? she doesnt comment. she takes the moment to passively insult those shes around. between you and me, i think she knows more than she lets on, it seems too much like shes deliberately dodging the topic. also, from the way she talks about couture later, specifically upholding it as something godly and unfit for mere cattle (the player) it kinda feels like she has to be in some higher position. or being on the same level as the lower-class that she demonstrably hates is really starting to get to her, and she feels the need to distance herself from the likes of us.

let's get back to the lack of an employer figure. depending on how you interpret [withheld] it can be theorized that kara (yes thats her name no you didnt miss anything) holds this role, especially since it seems to be her in the tutorial pop-ups. I disagree with this for more wide-scope reasons, I think you sincerely washed up in shore one day. the doyalist explanation is that it is how all workers are seen to operate. the working class is not envisioned by those they serve as having lives outside of their job. how often have you considered what your cashier's hobbies might be? their family, their weekend plans, their politics? youre probably just waiting for the card reader to let you scan and go home, all you're worried about is the service provided by their labour. I'm using "you" but I do this exact shit all the time too, to be clear. anyway, it further emphasizes the guests dehumanization of you in their perception. they can imagine that when a human works at a job, they answer to a boss. but when presented with a service, a worker just becomes a means to that end, and their humanity is replaced by their labour.

even if you didn't disappear into the sea, it wouldn't make any difference to them, they only think about you to acknowledge when you're not performing with proper efficiency, just like how you don't think about your clothes until they stop fitting, or you don't comment on roads without potholes, because there's nothing remarkable about meeting expectations.

so. what's up with that anyway. I've yapped about metaphors and figurative representation for a while now, but what's the lore? well, fuck if I know, it's a demo. but I've got some theories

theory one, it's a simulation. that would make sense with what is presented to us in the [withheld] segment, and also explain the time loop succinctly. the vmmmmmm machine could be some sort of core of the simulation? the lobby is full of larger-than-life paintings and sculptures, which may be foreshadowing that the entire world you're in is also man made (also, since i dont bring it up anywhere, i like how youre surrounded by art by never encouraged to interact with it, highlighting how capitalist obligation prevents us from truly appreciating the artistic). it is all but told to you that you're an interchangeable replacement for a previous employee, whatever happened to them, and some sort of matrix-style disposable humanity schema would fit right in to that. for the rest I can just say "it's like that one visual novel" and I think most of you will get it

theory two, it's the afterlife. it would make sense considering the location is called paradise in marketing. sulfur as an element is heavily associated with demons, so perhaps there's meant to be some symbolism that's made more solid in later parts of the game? here i can say its interesting that you obtain it by stepping outside of your role and not adhering to commands, which can parallel an angel disobeying the will of god. and using it to actively solve the problem could represent breaking traditional thought with new ways of thinking outside of doctrine? i dunno, it's hard to really say what it represents in the grand scheme before I've like, played the whole thing. also, that could mean [withheld] is a flashback to before you were conscripted into servitude (read: died), especially since the store page specifies that its post-apocalyptic. the cow imagery gains a double meaning here as well: they're seen as livestock meant to be literally churned into product, but hinduism sees them as sacred. something something essential worker, most see the proletariat as a disposable beast of meat, the animal itself just a means to an end of what they produce, but a select enlightened subsect of the world understand their importance to upkeeping society. which i guess are marxists in this metaphor? again ive only played the demo so this is 70% extrapolation

oh, speaking of cows, you can find a cow that has suffocated from neglect. I think this can connect to the whole worker dehumanization theme, but my intuition tells me it'll be more relevant to the [withheld] parts, in a way that is complimentary but still stands alone. god that part is so interesting, kara just could not wait to talk about dying. the voice actress nailed that shit

okay one last thing. the release was originally planned for summer 2023. its almost 2025 and the steam page still says "coming soon". completely sincerely: good shit. it would be hilariously pathetic to overwork for an arbitrary metric deadline when the entire game is like, about how shit that specific practice is. I love to see devs taking their time to make things the best they can.

if you can't tell I'm. kind of excited for this game. i dont usually go this in-depth but the thought of this thing instills the innate autistic urge to yap deep within my soul. but like i said earlier i dont really have the capacity to talk about stuff like how it looks and how it plays without just blindly gushing. did you know in the gameplay reveal trailer on serenity forge's youtube channel, your character nudges forward a little bit whenever they pick something up? this doesnt seem to still be the case, as interacting with objects now gives a full-screen prompt with the option to pick it up or examine it. also you dont seem to be any further forward when the prompt goes away.

okay. im gonna try and be less biased and come up with a critique. um, the demo could benefit from a save system, since its pretty easy for players who are taking their time and taking in the atmosphere to spend over an hour on this. you could argue that since the game is about going fast and being efficient through time loops that its not that big of a deal, and i agree! if a player quits the demo halfway through they can get back to where they were pretty quickly. but the demo does have a few glitches, like moments where it softlocked on a selection menu and it forced me to alt+f4. i know this'll be fixed in the full game anyway though so who cares.

uhhh i can see people being thrown off my having to click the mouse to advance dialogue but not being able to click menu options? i explained earlier how i think thats thematically resonant, but themes or no themes its still an inconvenience that players might have a problem with. the game has the colours and animations so built-in to how it works im not sure how robust the accessibility options are gonna be but that remains to be seen. but players are already complaining that the demo made em motion sick so i hope people sensitive to that kinda thing still have a chance to enjoy this. theres also how it isnt very obvious that you can select other planets in the lobby solar system but the dev said theyd improve that for the full release so im not gonna make a redundant suggestion.

um. there are probably. other things? accessibility/approachability is pretty important, but im just trying to be considerate of other potential players. if youre asking about what i, personally, think needs to be improved i can think of much. maybe if you play you can find a flaw, cuz i sure didnt. when you play the demo, let me know if i missed anything! i feel like i discover something new to talk about every time i launch this thing, which... is too often i think

this post is 4000 words. its almost 4 am. play the demo for roman sands re:build and add it to your steam wishlist.

#roman sands re:build #roman sands #arbitrary metric #demo #indie game #dreamcast #anti capitalism #in progress #also filling up the tags here because i want more people to learn about this game #uh #y2k aesthetic #sega dreamcast #marxism #socialism #those are the ones i can think of #play the damn game!

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yourtoradorasextendedwarranty · 1 year ago

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This post has been a long time coming but it's something I need to talk about. There is a general notion that is saying if you're not a liberal when you're young you don't have a heart and if you're not a conservative when you're old you have no brain. Or something generally to that effect one of the things that bothers me greatly, and why I generally agree and disagree with that sentiment, is because I don't think that it is a liberal principle to have sympathy and or empathy.

In the same vein I don't think that being a liberal excludes you from being intelligent. One of the things however, that I have noticed, is that it feels like modern liberals never grow up. They have this very strange believe that bleeding hearts empathy or sympathy makes them a better person. And what makes that particularly funny and interesting, is that it proves them to be moral busy bodies in the exact same way hypercurity Christians were in the 80s and 90s. Which if you really think about it makes a lot of sense. Because they would have been those same kinds of people if they had existed in the 80s and 90s. At least as older teens and or adults. The reason of course that I can prove this it's because back then those people were not really Christians in the actual sense of the phrasing. They were individuals we thought Christianity gave them a reason to moral grandstand and basically bully people into intellectual submission. And we see a lot of that today on the modern left.

To further this point I've recently seen several videos of people talking about how the American dream is dead. How they have X number of degrees and can't find a job, or that they make three times the minimum wage rate and still can't survive. And every time I hear these stories I kind of laugh a little bit. Not because I think it's hilariously funny. But more because I believe that it is generally humorous of the general ignorance of why this is. Recently I heard a couple talking in front of me to a Dollar general clerk. And they were talking about how the minimum wage for fast food workers in California was raised to $20 an hour and how companies were complaining that they weren't going to be making enough so they laid off workers. Something we knew that would be the case and no one listened. A lot of people generally blame capitalism for stuff like this. But that's because they have no idea how companies work, and also have no idea how economy works. Profit is something that generally gets reinvested. The reason for this is so that the company can continue to grow. because there's this weird idea that everyone outside of managers and CEOs at companies all just make dirt poor wages at minimum wage. Which is not only dishonest and not true but broadly ignorant in general. Backed up the matter is people need to that profit of a company does not just end up in the pockets of CEOs or board of directors.

A lot of very rich people in the world do not have access to most of their wealth. Because most of their wealth is actually tied to stocks. Those stocks are known as solid assets. And for those that know Jack squat about economy, that is an asset that is difficult to turn liquid at a moment's notice. And if you don't know what a solid asset is it is likely you also do not know what a liquid asset is. Liquid assets is basically money that you immediately have access to. IE money that you can spend at the drop of a dime. Most filthy rich people on Earth do not just have a billion dollars that they can spend at a moment's notice. So the idea that billionaires can just spend a billion dollars on something immediately is ignorant. Most of you need to learn more about the economy before you keep talking about stuff you have no clues about. When a person is deemed a millionaire it might be because they own a company. That company's worth could be 1.5 million dollars. Because that company is worth 1.5 million dollars the owner of said company is considered a millionaire by proxy.

And because it jeopardizes the wealth of others outright selling stocks in a company in a very quick manner can cause the price of said stocks to either plummet or skyrocket. Due to that there are government regulations that stop this from happening as much as the government is able to do so. That's important because people think that billionaires and millionaires just have immediate access to all of their worth. If I owned a million-dollar home that was gifted to me by a family member when they died, and I have a $50,000 car that I am making payments on. But, I am only making about $20 an hour. What then ends up happening is that the government can steal the home that was gifted from me because I likely would not be able to pay the property taxes on it. But until the government confiscated something that was not theirs, I would be considered a millionaire when I was not making more than 100K a year. And if you do the math I wouldn't even be making 80k a year. Because a metric crapton would be taken out in taxes.

So what is all this have to do with left and right? Well the answer is actually very simple. Leftists often no absolutely nothing about the economy. Though I should hold up just a second and I need to be fair. The reason I say leftist rather than left most of the time is because there is a difference between people on the left and leftists. Leftists are cultists who worship the fact that they are on the left and often a lot of their views are particularly far left. Because they have been inundated by communism and socialism as viable ideas despite the fact that both systems support slavery. Now, back to my point. Leftists mostly do not understand economy and it shows in the people that they vote for. They vote for slavery effectively. They want free money, they want free food, they want free houses, they want free everything. And it's because they think that they have a right to it. Now a lot of leftists will debate this point but it's just fact. Because they don't think anyone should ever have more than they do.

But one of the bigger issues is the fact that people have a tendency to not understand how to manage their own money and that's one of the larger problems. If you are a person who is barely making it from paycheck to paycheck, and you are not living in one of the most expensive cities in the United States, and I'll give another caveat of you're making more than $15 an hour. It is likely you are not managing your money properly. What do I mean by this exactly? So $100 at a grocery store will buy you significantly more food for you to eat, then if you go out for fast food. And a lot of people I personally know who complain about not having money order fast food. Unfortunately because of inflation fast food is more and more and more expensive every single day. And it's going to be funny watching those costs go up significantly higher and places like California because of the minimum wage fast food law where they expect fast food workers to be paid $20 an hour bare minimum. Now forgive me if I laugh my ass off at you if you are complaining about this while subsequently you voted for it. Every single vote for a socialist Democrat like Gavin newsom is a vote for the poor and low middle class to get more poor by the day.

Because if you honest to God believe that Democrats are going to forsake their Rich donors you are out of your mind. They will tell you until they are blue in the face, that they will destroy the rich and make them "pay their fair share". Meanwhile the amount in taxes that the rich are paying currently dwarfs with the other 98% of us pay in taxes. I would say that that's kind of unfair. Because effectively what you are saying is if you make more money that money should therefore be forfeited to the government to spend on things we don't need to spend it on. Which means money going to things you don't want them to go to. So congratulations to you leftists who hate Jews and hate israel. Because every single tax law you've ever voted for to increase the tax rates funded missiles that got dropped on Gaza. So if all of the Jews who have nothing to do with Israel in America are guilty of crimes that they didn't commit according to you you have blood on your hands for taking more money from American citizens for bombs that got dropped on a country who you wholesale support for no reason.

None of you pay attention at all. And it very much shows. Socialist policies do not do anything but destroy countries. Always have and always will. Because do you know one of your bastions of socialist healthcare Canada, is currently cheering on their government funded death care. What do you really know why? It's because their entire healthcare system has been flooded for years with people waiting weeks to months or longer for checkups. Or to have stuff taken care of that they need taken care of, forcing them often to have to find different hospitals that are less flooded or go to a privately funded hospital. But that wasn't the only reason that the Canadian government was praising their own government-funded death care. The other reason was because of how much money they're saving by killing people rather than helping them. Yes, you heard that correctly they are praising the fact that they now get to kill people because they can't continue to afford saving them. So much for your socialist healthcare right.

So let me basically lay this out in a way that makes sense. If you vote for leftist policies you vote for your own demise. If you are complaining about how expensive colleges the fault is Democrats. If you vote for raising the tax rates and watching your money get robbed from you, that is the fault of Democrats. If you are complaining that you cannot find a job at all with multiple degrees, that is the fault of Democrats. And if you truly and honestly want to know why, it is because they have allowed unchecked millions into the United States over the past few years, who they can hire for minimum wage because the government is literally giving them free money. They are fast tracking them to citizenship, and they are giving them all the free stuff that they possibly can so that they can be voted for. And to make this point absurdly clear Joe Biden's administration admitted to flying 300,000 plus people into the United States from foreign countries illegally and dropping them off in undisclosed locations around the US. Meanwhile also pushing a bill through the courts as hard as he can to make it so that non-citizens can immediately get citizenship and vote. If Donald Trump had done this you all on the left would literally be screaming for him to be hung. And yet you continually vote for your dollar to be worth less. You continually vote to not be able to find work. And you continually vote to be robbed blind by your own government thinking that you're going to go get those filthy rich people for being rich. Eat the Rich am I right?

Is any of this saying at all that the right does not do anything wrong? No it is not. The right has done their fair share of really dumb things. Republicans have done their fair share of really dumb things. But one of the dumbest things that the Republicans have done is not enforce rule of law. Another thing that leftists have voted against. Allowing criminals to get away based on their political ideology or the color of their skin. A black man who has BLM stapled all over all of his social media can literally go out and rape murder pillage and anything else and the entirety of the mainstream media will do all they can to hide his ethnicity or call him a brilliant talented scholar who was just misunderstood. But it's not just black either it's trans people it's LGB people it's anyone who is non-white. Unless it's a woman with a very flamboyant hair color that's not natural (caveat her being a leftist activist).

I'm generally sick of the ignorance of leftists and a lot of people who lean left. And it's just funnier and funnier and funnier every single day watching these people complain about stuff that they literally voted for. Unchecked immigration and lunatics in the street? Leftist policies. Have fun getting punched in the face. You're bleeding heart sympathy and empathy is not going to get you anywhere. And it doesn't help others. More often than not it actually harms them by enabling them to continue on very destructive paths. And honestly, as a person who leans left myself, it drives me nuts that I have to make posts like this at all. Because I would love for the Democrats to actually represent me as a person. I would love to have anyone represent me as a person. Unfortunately the only people that seem to do are Rand Paul and Ron Paul. With a few of the new blood Republicans leaning closer to how I view things than not. Because while they are conservatives they're not lunatics. And a large chunk of them are definitely not warhawks.

So keep whining on tick tock and Twitter and every other platform about how supposedly Republicans and conservatives are ruining your lives when literally every single thing that is ruining your life is literally a policy created by the left. (However, here is a honorable mention for the Republicans that voted for sending more billions of our dollars to foreign countries for wars we don't need to be involved in. Yeah fuck you guys too)

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forabeatofadrum · 1 year ago

Text

Just Some Guy (6/9)

Notes: Chapter 6 of 9? Brah, 69? NICE lol - J.J.

AO3

–

Year 6

MATT

From 6th year on, Watford students can have student jobs. They aren’t a lot of work and you get paid minimum wage, but it’s something to do to pass the time. This is definitely needed now that the Mage banned mobile phones for some reason. He claims it’s for our protection.

Rumour has it that it has something to do with Simon Snow, as usual.

Goddamnit, Simon Snow.

Although John wonders if it’s a political move. The Mage uses it to prevent the Old Families from contacting their kids. Look, I don’t care for the Old Families either. I don’t even care for politics, but making it harder for parents to reach their kids is a dick move.

This whole civil war shit is getting eerily close. Man, I really wish I was living in uninteresting times.

Anyway I get a job in miss Possibelf’s office, which consists of cleaning and ordering. John decides to work out on the grounds. Leslie and Luis decide to work as kit managers for the football team. Ryan cares for the plants. Arnold helps in the kitchens. Scott also gets an office job, but at the Minotaur’s office. Sam is from a rich family (not an Old one, mind you!) and doesn’t see the need to work.

(I mean, my mum’s family also has money, but she still thinks I should have a job.)

“Do you know if Simon Snow got a job?” Arnold wonders one day. He’s staring at something and when I follow his gaze, I see the usual trio: Simon Snow, Penelope Bunce, and to my dismay, Agatha Wellbelove. (Yes, I am still not over Agatha.)

“Dunno, don’t care,” Sam says.

“He’s too busy trailing some bunnies, or something,” Luis says.

“Hares,” John corrects him, “The Six White Hares.”

“John, how do you always know so much about the Chosen One’s whereabouts?” Leslie asks and I have to admit, I have questioned the same thing several times.

John just shrugs.

“I know everything,” he says, cryptic as usual. We know John, so we’re not too bothered by it and Leslie lets it slide.

“So, does he have a job?” I ask.

John shakes his head.

“Makes sense,” Arnold says, “He’s so caught up in the Chosen One shit, I bet he and his friends don’t even know that Watford has jobs!”

“Must be nice not to have a job,” Ryan sighs, “Or not to be bored these days.”

“Simon Snow is always up and running,” Scott nods as well.

Just when Scott says that, I hear a small explosion coming from the Wavering Woods and on a cue, Simon Snow and Penelope Bunce run towards it. Agatha Wellbelove watches them leave. So do we. This is a normal occurrence. Even the smoke coming from the Woods doesn’t faze me anymore. I do feel back for John, who now also manages the Woods for his side job.

Can Simon Snow please let anything outside of Watford explode for once?

Leslie asks if I want to go to a football game with her.

Sure, why not?

Ever since Leslie and Luis have joined the team as kit managers, (“That’s what the ‘man’ in kit man stands for,” Leslie had explained, “Although I still like to say I am a kit woman.”) they’ve gotten more interested in football.

John and I show up at the game.

Leslie frowns when she sees us.

“What’s up?” I ask.

Leslie casts a quick glance at John, but then says it’s nothing. She walks us to the stands and gives us a basic explanation of football, since we’re woefully unfamiliar with the sport.

“It’s not hockey,” John laments.

“… Right,” Leslie says and continues her explanation.

Once we’re seated, she bids us farewell and goes down to the field with another word. I wonder what is up with her.

The team is already on, including Luis, who waves from below. After a few minutes, the game starts. The Watford football team is split into two and both sides are playing against each other. Baz Pitch is on the team, which I never knew, but I also don’t keep track of his whereabouts.

Unlike Simon Snow.

Since last year, everyone’s noticed that he’s been trailing Baz Pitch and today is no exception. I didn’t even notice him at first, but after ten minutes into the match I can feel his magic leaking over the stands in waves. It’s fucking annoying, honestly. It distracts me from the game.

I gloat at him, but he doesn’t seem the notice the visible discomfort of everyone. He had his head resting on his hands. He’s leaning forward and he’s staring intensely at Baz Pitch. Penelope Bunce, his trusty sidekick, is sat next to him, but she’s reading a book.

I am so annoyed by him, that I keep looking and therefore completely miss the first goal.

Fucking hell, Simon Snow.

My year goes on as usual. I go home for Christmas and when I go back to school, two things are discussed. First off, the Mage apparently got kidnapped over Christmas, and he had to be saved by Simon Snow.

That’s cool or whatever, but the second thing is more prominent. When you’re in 6th year, Watford also starts preparing you for your future.

We all need to attend a mandatory class in our first week after the vacation. Miss Bellamy is talking about all our options in the World of Mages. Most of us will attend Normal uni, if we even attend uni in the first place, but we can then use that knowledge for our world.

Honestly, I hadn’t given my future a lot of thought. I am just a 16 year old guy. What do I know? Adulthood seems scary, if I may say so.

“It’s fine,” John reassures me during our break.

“How would you know?” Scott bemoans.

“I’ve been an adult before,” John says cryptically, “Even went to college.”

All of us share a look before we collectively decide to let it go.

John’s words weren’t as reassuring as he’d hoped, because when we return to class, we’re reminded of the reality that in one or two years or so, we’ll be gone.

Miss Bellamy has decided to make this an interactive class, which is every student’s worse nightmare. She’s started singling people out to ask them a question. I try to keep my head low.

“You,” Miss Bellamy points in my direction, but then I realise she’s pointing towards the person behind me, “Mr. Snow, what are your plans for the future?”

Everyone turns around to face Simon Snow. This is another reason why interactive lessons suck. The focus is on one poor person, and it happens to be the Chosen One.

Simon Snow shrugs.

“Dunno,” he says. He’s as eloquent as ever.

“Mr. Snow, I know it might seem like you still have time, and yes, you do, but 16 is the perfect age to start thinking about your options,” Miss Bellamy says cheerfully, as if that would magickally motivate anyone to start thinking about their future.

“No, Miss, it’s just…” Simon looks around and sees everyone staring.

“Yes?” Miss Bellamy beckons him to go on.

Simon shrugs. I think he shrugs a lot.

“Use your words, Snow,” Baz Pitch sneers from behind us and some kids snicker. I roll my eyes. Of course that Pitch brat sees this as a moment to mess with him.

Miss Bellamy also tells him to be quiet.

Simon shrugs again. Is he addicted to shrugging, or something? What a weirdo.

“It’s just that I don’t expect to live past 18, that’s all,” he says casually, as if he didn’t just drop a fucking verbal bomb on us, “Don’t see the point of thinking. About my future. Or just, thinking.”

He shrugs yet again and I am not even bothered by it, because I am too shocked by what he just said.

The silence continues. Penelope Bunce looks upset and she opens her mouth as if she wants to say something, but then stops herself. Agatha Wellbelove has an empty look in her eyes as she stares out of the window. Even Baz Pitch isn’t cheering about the Chosen One’s inevitable demise, or something. The only one who doesn’t seem bothered is Simon himself.

This must be an everyday occurrence for him. The worst part is that he might be right.

Miss Bellamy awkwardly interrupts the even more awkward silence by asking Niall Kelly what he wants to do next.

The future.

It is a thing.

And unlike Simon Snow, I do expect to live.

Oh Merlin.

It hangs over me during the remainer of the year.

And then the academic year ends. I am hugging my friends goodbye. We’re all hanging out in the summer, but the realisation that another year at Watford is over, hits me. Two more years left, since I am planning on doing the optional 8th year. But what will I do next? I am just some guy, I don’t have a destiny. I don’t even have a girlfriend! That’s another Watford milestone. My parents met here.

Which… in hindsight doesn’t mean anything, but still. Even Simon Snow has a girlfriend and he spends more time saving the world than being with her. Not only that, but rumour has it that Agatha Wellbelove has been kidnapped several times since she started dating him. Yikes.

If I were her boyfriend, she’d never be on the bottom of a well.

Although, I must admit, ever since Agatha became unavailable, I’ve gotten less interested in her. It sounds bad, I know, but why dream for the unattainable. The other day, during Magickal History, I was paired up with her for a debate assignment, and it went alright. I wasn’t a mess.

Damn, does that mean I am not into her anymore?

“Shit, I need to reassess my plans,” I say out loud, like an idiot.

“What plans?” Leslie asks.

I try to bullshit my way out of it. I already knows how it will sound. But I give up, since Leslie’s icy stare is killing.

“My future with Agatha,” I confess.

“I swear to Merlin,” Leslie sighs and walks off.

I frown. I expected a longer rant from her.

But maybe I should count my blessings.

“Plenty of fishes in the sea, Matty,” John slings his arm around me. He then slightly turns me towards Leslie’s direction.

I look at Leslie, who has her back turned to me and she’s talking to Sam.

“What are you implying, John?” I ask.

“Have you ever wondered why Leslie is so bothered by your crush on Agatha?”

“Because I tend to use language that presents Agatha as an object I want to possess or a prize I deserve?” I say automatically. Those were her exact words once and they’re fried into my brain.

“That as well,” John says.

“Huh?” I look at John for an explanation, but he smiles. He lets go of me, but does give me a pat on the back.

“Happy summer, Matty Chris D.,” he says before saying goodbye to Arnold.

#holy fuck I wrote #story: just some guy #carry on #snowbaz #2024 #multichaptered

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kaiaden · 1 year ago

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Ninjago Au

Use this au if you want! Plz read my rules!

rules:

NO PROSHIPS PLZ like ew no thank u not in my au

please give credits and lmk what website u post your works on whether it’s art or writing, so that I can check it out

You may not change anything set in stone, if it says that a certain rank is in the hierarchy, then you can’t move it up or down, and you can’t remove it, or when I explain what Cyrus Borg does or what rank he rose from, you may not change anything written abt it, you may only add to it

Pg. 1 World building:

Hierarchy- (high to low)

Upper class-

Royals

Scientists

The rich

HighLanders

Bounty hunters

Middle class-

Wall builders

Builders

Workers

Teachers

Factory workers

Third class-

Low income families

Servants/maids

The experimented

Slaves

Have no rank/are the lowest of the low-

Elemental Masters

Pg. 2 Upper Class:

The Royals:

Not really involved with politics all that much, no one really knows them besides fellow upper class people when the Royals hold formal balls or coronations.

Scientists:

It is honestly a name to call the cruelest of the human race. They typically work with the experiments and the Elemental Masters (see page 4) everyone knows what they do and everyone with a bit of empathy strays away from them, and the scientists take great pride in both that and their work. Typically asocial people who lack basic empathy. The job market is typically free and easy, however, only 1 in 10000 people actually take up an offer.

The Rich:

The name says it all, these people own lots of money, typically old money. Very few people actually rise to this position, but those who do are praised for their hard work, one such person being Cyrus Borg, (see page 7) who rose to fame and fortune with his genius innovations.

HighLanders:

Don’t let the name confuse you, the HighLanders are not people who are high on land. These people are some of the most dangerous people. Typically, this group of people include gangs, mafia leaders and members, assassins working for other upper class groups, and the police force (see page 7)

Bounty Hunters:

As their name says, they are people who often go and collect bounties, and some are privately and illegally hired by scientists to ‘collect’ Elemental Masters (see page 5) in order to illegally be tested. They are highly respected since they are often in ties with the rich, unless they are new and have no experience.

Pg. 3 Middle Class:

Wall Builders-

These people are a step above Builders (see section below Wall Builders) they created, fixed and maintained the Wall (see page 8) They are decent people who are the highest in their class, they live near the wall (see page 8) where they can be close to their jobs, unfortunately this occupation has the highest fatality rate.

Builders-

This group of people are essentially Wall Builders (see section above Builders) except they build homes and buildings. They also have a decently high fatality rate.

Workers-

These are people who have average jobs, they afford their homes, have a decent financial stability, the average joes of the hierarchy.

Teachers-

These are people who teach anyone, whether it is in schools or in a dojo teaching martial arts.

Factory Workers-

These people, as their name suggests, work in factories. They are responsible for the production of goods and utilities. Often times they borderline low income, and have the 3rd highest fatality rate due to lack of funds, budget cuts, and safety violations that aren’t properly managed.

Pg. 4 Third Class:

Low Income Families-

These people are typically borderlining homeless, but also have a very tight budget as 90% of them either make or make less than minimum wage. They often find themselves seeking better jobs, but most of them will fail due to lack of experience for hiring companies. Their best bet is aiming for factory jobs, but due to the harsh work environment, only the most desperate workers will end up in the factories.

Servants/Maids-

They typically work in the homes of the Royals, Scientists, and the rich (see page 2). They serve for work, but they have it easier than lower class families (see section above servants/maids) because they mostly live rent free in their bosses homes, and they get paid a bit better, however, they are looked down upon by a certain amount of people in the Third Class due to working directly for the Upper Class (see page 2)

The Experimented:

These people are some of the most unfortunate. Mainly people who have signed contracts or have been pushed to the lowest, and are subjected to be tested and experimented on by the Scientists (see page 2). Life is horrible and they get paid half of the average minimum wage.

Slaves-

This rank was deemed illegal, however, some upper class people still practice this, and the living conditions are the worst among the rest of the Third Class.

Pg. 5 No Ranks/Low Lives:

Elemental Masters-

Unfortunately for the elemental masters, they are subjected to the most abuse, as they aren’t seen in the best of light due to their powers. They are often kidnapped at young ages and subjected to the Scientists (see page 2). Their kidnapping reports go unbothered and kidnapping reports aren’t even filed if at all. They live in horrible conditions and are often forced into unfair work conditions.

Pg. 6 The Kingdom:

Cities-

Ninjago City

Stixx

Stixx-

The smaller of the two cities consist mainly of the Middle and Third Classes, and barely any Upper Class citizens. Many factories reside here, and fishing companies have taken over the sea side, and the whole south and east sides of the cities are outlined by the oceanfront.

Ninjago City-

Consists of all classes, it is the largest city by a landslide, containing a whopping 900,000+ population. This is where the rich end up since there are many opportunities in the city.

The Countryside-

This area consists of many different types of villages. Mostly consists of the Third Class, and farming is a main source of income for them. Scientists and Bounty Hunters often linger in search of Elemental Masters in hiding, or more potential experiments.

Pg. 7 Influential People

The Emperor:

The main leader of Ninjago, not really involved with the kingdom, the Royals never have been and everything has no order, besides the obvious hierarchy.

The Empress:

Known to be married to the Emperor (see section above The Empress). Also not really involved with the kingdom. All that is known about her is her birthday, April 15th, and that she is infertile, unable to produce heirs.

The Jade Princess:

Surprisingly she was adopted from the Third Class, she is a former low income citizen (see page 4). Only two pictures are public, however, they are about 8 years old.

Cyrus Borg:

Known for being a former low income citizen (see page 4), due to his genius innovations and inventions, he helped upgrade all of Ninjago seemingly overnight. He is a very found and generous man m, and is known to donate and distribute money to the less fortunate.

The Police Force:

No one truly trusts them, as the whole force is formed from corruption. Upper Class citizens often have people on the inside in high positions.

The First Family:

Most people believe they are a myth, only people who believe in them are mainly the elderly, but this family is known to have begun humanity, as the head of the family was known as the First Spinjitzu Master, who created the realm. Not much is known, only that he had two sons, but even this is debated among many, even the believers.

Pg. 8 The Wall

The Wall-

No one truly knows the reason for the wall, many conspiracy theorists believe that monsters lurk beyond it, but all anyone knows is that anyone who went over, either never came back, or were found to have been mangled and mutilated beyond recognition.

ENJOY MY OCEAN WAVES

#ninjago #lloyd garmadon #ninjago lloyd #ninjago dragons rising #lego ninjago #ninjago fandom #ninjago au #Au #kingdom au

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ilikepjo24 · 1 year ago

Text

On the subject of "I want to be treated like an adult"

Kids often say that, don't they? That they want to be treated as adults. And patents often think that by that they mean they want more freedoms. They want to control their own bedtime, they want to drink alcohol on family events, like grown ups do, they want to drive around so they can control where they go and when. They want to vote because they think they understand politics and while they are intelligent enough to understand the basics, the complexity of politics is not something they fully grasp yet. They want to have adult money that they spend on toys or merch of some type.

Right?

Wrong.

Because that's not what they mean.

But I'll get to that later.

First, I want to talk about the reactions they get from their parents when they say stuff like that. Parents falsely assume that their children mean it in an "obnoxious", "entitled" and "demanding" way which results to them perceiving the request as disrespectful, and they chastise their children. They go on and on about how being an adult is not sunshine and rainbows. "Oh? So you want to go to work every day to get paid minimum wage? You want to start paying the bills around here? You wanna do our taxes this year maybe?"

In an attempt to terrorize their children and crush their "rebellious" instincts, parents make adulthood out to be hell. And I'm not gonna lie, it sucks sometimes. But you cannot control your child through fear. And lashing out at them in order to scare them into submission is emotionally immature and if you do that to your kids no rational person out there will respect you and you should start slicing vertically instead of horizontally.

A child does not have the mental capacity to understand that adulthood isn't the boogyman under their bed. The only thing this treatment will achieve is making them anxious about the future and as teenagers they'll be depressed and have existential crisis like it's dinner. Plus, that's not even what they mean.

Fucking toddlers don't know about taxes! This isn't their version of adulthood at all. By saying "I want to be treated like an adult" they don't mean they want to be reduced to a stressed out, pathetic ball of sadness. They simply want to be treated with respect. Basic human fucking decency.

From a very young age children are being conditioned to behave from both their parents and school/daycare. But the double standards are insane!

They are taught to not interrupt grown ups because it's backtalking. And yet adults interrupt them all the time.

They are taught to be quiet, not to yell, and use their indoor voice, because that's proper. And yet their parents yell at them when they make a mistake.

They are taught to do what adults command. To listen. To bend over backwards to please the grown ups. "Don't touch that", "Look at me when I'm talking to you", "Don't distract me right now, I'm busy", which is basically just adults setting boundaries (in very rude and disrespectful ways, but still).

And yet when children set boundaries ("I don't want you to put my hair on a ponytail today", "I don't like that shirt, I don't want to wear it", "I'm full, I don't want to eat the rest of my food") they are being ignored. Their boundaries are being crossed. Or worse, in done cases they get scolded, yelled at and punished for attempting to set boundaries, like adults do.

But what adults tend to forget is that not being interrupted, not being yelled at and not having your boundaries crossed is not an "adult privilege", it's basic fucking human goddamn decency. And it is how you should treat everyone, including (if not especially!) your children. And that's what they mean when they say "I want to be treated like an adult". They want you to extend to them the same amount of dignity and respect that they extend to you. They want you to lead by example.

Which is very fucking normal! It's not a bizarre request! They didn't ask for a pet unicorn, they asked to be treated like a human! And you know why is that?! Because they are human! I genuinely believe some parents forget that their kid is as much of an actual person as they are, and deserves to be treated with decency just as much as they are.

And maybe they don't know how to word it properly yet. Maybe they don't understand the seperation between basic respect and adulthood. Maybe they think that to be treated with respect they must be an adult. And that's a failure on your part. I'm talking directly to you, parent reading this. If your children has to ask you to treat them with respect, instead of you having the decency to treat them like a person since they day they were born, you are a miserable, pathetic failure of a parent that forgot their child is a human, has human needs and MUST be treated like a human.

But you, miserable, pathetic failure of a parent, are not beyond redemption. All you have to do to patch up the situation is not to lash out at your child when they ask to be treated like an adult. You have to do what they ask you to do. And also explain to them the difference between being worthy of basic fucking human decency and being an adult, because those things do not go hand in hand. One happens with time and the other must be granted since day one. And hey, maybe if you're feeling emotionally mature and your ego is not that fragile, you could even go as far as apologizing to them for forcing them to ask for something you should have given them already. You are an adult, aren't you? Put on your big boy pants and hold yourself accountable.

Thus proven.

#how do i even tag this #life meta #?#life advice #multiple paragraphs of dumbing down something that should just go without saying #idk #everyone should just listen to me bc I'm wise

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pomrania · 2 years ago

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Okay, so I should write stuff about what I’m planning to do this month, for art. It’s not going to start today or tomorrow, but yeah.

First off, it’d be for mutuals and half-mutuals. “Half-mutual” is a term I came up with, because I didn’t know of any other term, and it just seemed to fit. It’s for when you follow my blog, and I follow your sideblog. (Or the other way around, but I don’t have sideblogs that people follow, so that wouldn’t apply to me.) I know there’s at least two different half-mutuals I have, one where I follow their cat blog and another where I follow their art blog; there may be more, even ones that are regularly active, but this is just off the top of my head.

I’m limiting it to mutuals and half-mutuals because I don’t think I could handle it unlimited; therefore, it logically follows that I think I CAN handle it with the given limitations. Which leads back into the perennial problem of people going “I don’t want to impose” or “I don’t want to give you extra work” or “I want other people to have a chance”. STOP WITH THAT.

Let’s take it in order. “I don’t want to impose.” If I’m asking you to give me something, and you give me the thing that I ask for, that is like, the exact opposite of “imposing”.

“I don’t want to give you extra work.” I’m not on salary. I’m not some minimum-wage employee getting paid the same amount regardless of how much I do or have to do. Heck, I’m not getting paid at ALL for this; it’s something I do because I WANT to do it. And if I feel like I can’t finish all of a thing in one day, you know what I do? I carry it over to the NEXT day.

“I want other people to have a chance.” This is actually a valid concern, but don’t worry, I have a system for dealing with that, and it’s worked very well in the past. Basically, you can only make a second (or third, fourth, etc) request once your first request has been done and posted; and that new request goes to the bottom of the list, like all new requests. I can explain it in more detail if needed -- either because you don’t get what I’m saying (totally possible) or because you don’t see how it solves the problem -- but it boils down to that the only way someone can monopolize stuff, is if nobody else makes a request.

If you keep following me, you’re prolly going to see the above stuff a LOT, as it keeps being a problem for every damn request-based art event I do. So like, just trust that I know what I’m doing, and I’m capable of making my own choices, and don’t try to make those choices for me.

Okay, rant over, what’s the other stuff I’ll need to talk about....

Subject matter. It’s “drawing pets as monsters”. Last year I got a lot of “vampire” requests, and I don’t know whether that’s because I put ‘vampire’ in the list of examples, or if people just really want to see their critters as vampires. I’d rather not, in general. Mostly because there’s only so many different ways to represent “vampire” and it can get boring after a while. I mean, I’m not OPPOSED to drawing critters as vampires, but I’d prefer that either a) it’s something you really want, as in “oh boy I can’t wait to see this critter as a vampire”, or b) you give me something more descriptive than just “vampire”; doesn’t have to be a vampire from a specific folklore or anything, “cute little vampire like you’d see on spoopy decorations” or “monstrous blood-sucker” would also work quite well for purposes.

Duration. Uhhh I have no idea; I think I’ll start with requests open for a week, and then see how that goes. And I’ll have to remember to put that in the post too; that it might be open for just a week, and it might end up as more than a week, I don’t know.

OH something else I need to make sure everyone knows, although I might not need to put it in the post itself. That once requests close, that does not mean that the EVENT closes; I’ll still be drawing requests that came in. This is something that people keep getting wrong and worrying about; is there a better way of phrasing it, that’ll be easily understood?

Also, my normal rules wrt the definition of “pet” will still apply; that is, a critter you have some type of connection to, past or present, and you can give me their name. The “name” thing is important because that’s what I do for file names, so without a name I can’t get past super-rough sketching (because I’m only going to put actual effort into a piece once I’ve saved it, which I can’t do without something to name the file, and I refuse to depart from my naming scheme).

#no fandom #not a reblog #personal

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formulatrash · 2 years ago

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hi hazel! i hope you’re well. i totally understand if you don’t want to answer this since i’m sure you get a lot of Working In Motorsports questions. but basically i read your post about breaking into the industry and how you should never work for free…unfortunately i’m not that smart and do, in fact, Work For Free. i’m at the point now where getting paid would be quite nice actually, so i was wondering what your advice would be on taking the next step? tl;dr experience under my belt but seeking a paid role. where do you think are the best places to look? thank you! <33

hello,

honestly, understandable, it happens to a lot of people. god knows I have done a fair amount of work for free in the past year and I should surely know better.

anyway, where to look depends really on what you're looking for. if it's specifically motorsport journalism work then it's worth reaching out to people at publications* and saying "this is my experience, I appreciate you probably have a full roster at the minute but if you ever need someone to help out, I'm really looking to take the next step. include some links to your work, say what you're really interested in covering and what you can cover in a broader way and if you're available for travel.

be polite and keen and show that you understand the publication you are writing to, reference stories they already have that are the sort of thing you would like to write. if you don't hear back, email them again in a few months, persistence has weirdly paid off for a bunch of people I know; make sure you're bringing new ideas and talking about new things, saying "I know it wasn't last time but just wanted to say I'm still interested."

there are then broader industry publications where you might get commissions or where you can pitch motorsport stories. JournoResources does a newsletter every week which includes freelance pitching opportunities, all of which are paid.

if it's not journalism then start chatting to and getting in touch with people in the area you want to work. if it's social media then follow agency accounts, look out for chances where people are asking for people. speculatively getting in touch with individuals on their personal accounts isn't ccol but look out for the agencies and places like Pace Six Four, which is a huge agency, have a page to submit a speculative application in case you don't fit their roles at the moment but they might have something in future.

don't shoot over the sun by emailing Ferrari to ask if they've got any social jobs going - clearly, if they did, they'd advertise them - but it's worth asking eg: junior teams if they need any extra coverage during what's about to be a very frantic part of the season with every series racing simultaneously in Europe for weeks on end. showing you understand motorsport doesn't begin and end with F1 goes a long way.

LinkedIn is a hole and I have absolute no idea how Gen Z use it with a straight face (you guys, what the hell is this 'weekly update on my goals' business come on, millennials might be cringe but not that way) but it can be useful to follow team PRs and be able to pick up on opportunities. it's also worth following companies you want to work at, to get job alerts - check the parent companies of magazines or agencies and keep an eye out.

overall: good luck. it is incredibly rough out here at the moment and there is little to no work. I don't say that to discourage you, I say that cus if it's a struggle for you it's not because you're useless it's because everyone is struggling.

*By this I mean paying ones. of which there are astoundingly few. Autosport, Motorsport.com, Top Gear, CAR, Motor Sport Magazine and RaceFans are the only ones I can verify/vouch for are paying legal wages that are motorsport-specific in the UK - do not accept ultra-low-paid work, I've heard one publication pays £50 for a weekend of coverage which is about an eighth of minimum wage. £100 per day is still below minimum wage a lot of the time but a semi-depressing benchmark of where things are broadly at, unless you happen to have hit the big bucks (this is what I get paid). do not participate in having your labour abused, anyone doing that is not going to help you in your career.

in Europe, AutoHebdo and AmuS pay but I'm not sure much beyond that, in the US then Jalopnik, The Drive, ESPN, Road & Track, ARSTechnica etc all pay but have relatively few, if any, motorsport commissions because they tend to go to staff writers - if you can come with a unique or grassroots story though, they will pay attention. Motor1 has also just been sold so may start commissioning again soon but there's some flux going on there. I don't know if The Athletic accept motorsport pitches.

#work asks

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maple-crusader · 2 years ago

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You know? People say a lot "I was born the wrong generation" for a lot of things, and there's one thing in particular I think about that makes me think the jobs we have today are just unfulfilling.

As hard as work was back in the 40-50-60s (my grand parent's years) I feel like most of it would be more fulfilling than most jobs these days.

They HAD to cut down wood because people NEEDED it for housing, people had farms because people NEEDED those farms to survive, villages were starting to be built so EVERYONE in the village had an important purpose because it was such small communities, everything everyone did affected everything around them, and if you did something good it would show, it would be appreciated, you know that by having your farm selling the food in the nearby village it would feed the village, people who built houses in that village could see people living in them and being able to make their own positive impact on their community

Today? Sure, working at a coffee shop is cool and all, but it doesn't feed a village, even less a city. We are more and more disconnected from the impact our work does, what's fulfilling about stacking store shelves so that entitled customers don't get mad? What's fulfilling about being a secretary doing basically minimum wage for a company that makes billions every year?

"We need to appreciate the little things" That's true, and also the whole "If I'm able to make just one person smile, I'll be happy" Of course, I am not denying that and especially for how much I actually enjoy customer service and talking with people and providing them with a good experience.

However, today? We see how the world is getting worse and worse from big companies, the actions/ lack of actions from the government. And us? We can't do a single thing on our own. We are powerless, we can try to make our OWN situation better, and I encourage anyone to go on strike to get better working condition, always, but we can't exactly strike in a meaningful matter to be able to get billionaires to agree to stop fucking up the planet so much.

We still need to eat, we still need jobs and we have people we need to provide to, we are powerless towards the environment and so many other things.

With the education we have that makes basically slave workers ready to be exploited, and some places (I won't name the country) but they keep dumbing down education and banning books, basing the studies on religion rather than facts which all leads to people not being smart enough to vote for the people that wants to actually help.

On top of that, even those who have a decent education have less and less opportunities to go to higher studies with the current salaries and prices around.

Imagine if everyone had access to the opportunity to learn new skills, get more education, be able to do the work they want instead of a minimum wage job that doesn't pay the bills, the world would be such a better place, there would be more people on the front discovering new things, achieving new inventions and breakthroughs, you know; a fulfilling job.

All and all, I got a bit sidetracked but now with all of us doing exploited jobs that really aren't fulfilling, no wonder most of us are depressed or using drugs or alcohol to cope, life is getting worse and we are powerless

#powerless #life #current things #minimum salary #fulfilling job #work #job #I was born the wrong generation #generations #tired #exhausted #i just want to be able to do art and express myself as i please

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the1975attheirverybest · 2 years ago

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This is unrelated to matty and the guys but I'm interested to hear your pov about the writer's strike

It's a very complicated issue because of the number of factors involved. I can't speak on all of them with equal levels of "knowledge" or whatever, but I can speak on a couple things.

TLDR: Unions ( are vital in our capitalist society; I'm largely in favor of the strike; we need to invest more in the arts overall (including TV and film).

MBA: So, the fact that the Minimum Basic Agreement (the agreement that enforces wages for film and tv writers, etc.) leaves out writers for streaming is INSANE to me. Especially when more and more productions are starting to make media (film, tv shows, Late Night talk shows, etc) exclusively for direct to streaming. Like tons of shows are made FOR Netflix. Tons of TV shows are "Netflix originals," or "Apple+ originals." Hulu is also involved in this, but I think Hulu has a lot of partnerships with broadcast tv, so to a slightly lesser extent. Meaning, those writers, unlike their fellow broadcast writing staff have less protections and must negotiate for themselves individually, without the support that they would get otherwise.

Residuals: Same as the above. Writers report a significant decrease in the amount of money they seem from residuals after steaming has gotten involved. Like, compared to a decade ago. I get that streaming is a fairly new phenomenon, but it's not THAT new at this point. And there are so many of them that things get murky. Like HBO has one, and so does....CBS? Whatever "Peacock" is supposed to be. So, there are cases where shows are being made for both TV AND streaming. we've had it long enough, though, to have data. And to be able to see how much money is being spent and where it's going. Writers deserve to see their fair share of that money.

Mandatory Staffing: This one's a bit tricky, mostly cuz I don't know enough about it, but also because I have mixed feelings. Essentially, writers are calling for a requirement that companies have a minimum number of writers on their staff at all times. Like, regardless of project, x number of writers would come to work every day and know that they have a job to do. If Y TV show is finished/ not being worked on right now, then Z project is still there. etc. And I don't know if that's feasible? I imagine that there's enough work in Hollywood for everyone to be doing something all the time, lol. Like, for allll the tv shows and movies that we see, there's TONS that don't get made, or get a pilot but don't get pick up by network, etc. But they still needed writers to make them in the first place! so, its not like the minimum mandatory writers on staff will be twiddling their thumbs all year, lol.

I could see it MAYYYBBBEEE getting to be a problem if, like, someone's a comedy writer, but gets stuck on a horror show or some shit and turns out not to be great at doing the job. Or if they do scripts for John Oliver and they suddenly have to write a Game Of Thrones spin off episode, lmao. But, realistically speaking, that would probably happen very rarely? and I imagine most tv and film writers have had to write across genres throughout their career at least a couple of times? It's not like the WGA is demanding that EVERY SINGLE ONE of their writers be employed at all time. they just want to negotiate a certain number of minimum staff members. Like, (im making this up now for examples) 8 out of the 30 that usually work on a team. a portion of them. not all 30. you know? Again, I don't know much about financing production companies for media, but I'm going to take a wild guess and say that first they pay themsleves, then the actors, then everybody else, lol. Basically like any other capitalist institution, people at the top get the goods, and everyone else gets leftovers.

Pensions and Insurance: This one I feel VERY passionately about. I wanted to be a novelist when I was younger. Up until like the first two or 3 years of undergrad. Published short stories here and there, but then when I realized the financial scarcity involved, I did some math and I JUST couldn't see a way where I would make it work. Like, say I get a job and "write on the side," in this country and culture id be committing my whole damn self to said "job" and barely have time, energy, etc to write. But I can't be jobless and JUST focus on writing cuz then I'd have no health insurance, no 401K, no perks or benefits whatsoever. But this gets us into a conversation about how healthcare should be free for all. And...thats a different issue.

We glamorize the idea starving artists, but artists can't make art when they're starving. Why SHOULDN'T someone be able to maintain health insurance and get paid a decent living to like, keep their apartment/ mortgage, etc while they make the sort of art that influences us and our culture? when we think of TV and film, everyone's always interested in the actors. Sometimes, if you're Chris Nolan or Taranto or whatever, then maybe a director or producer. Seldom are screenwriters acknowledged and that's wild to me because they are behind the storylines and words that we see!!!

idk, just my two cents lol.

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