#It's not a debit card so I can't fix this

[privateerstudies]

.

[spookypete-94]

So Imagine...

Just a little blurb. Simon solves something by bringing Johnny around.

Simon Riley having to be a total gentleman when around you while home. Watching his mother being mistreated most of her life causing him to make the conscious decision to be better.

Simon Riley walking on the outside of the sidewalk, hand and arm wrapped around your back to keep you safe. Walking a little faster to beat you to any doors that need opened in your path. Thinking you're going to carry any of those groceries he just paid for inside? Yeah right. While on that thought, you keep your pretty shiny debit card in that condition. Don't even worry about sliding it because Simon's already paid for whatever it is you were going to purchase.

So imagine the conversation when he comes to bed, and you are slyly smiling, pulling the covers up to your chin- all because you are laying on the side he was so possessive of.

Reaching underneath you, he grabs the blanket you are on top of, rolling you to the otherside of the bed.

"Come on, Si! Let me lay on your side! I wanna stick my leg out."

Simple, and articulate, he answers with a, "No."

"Whyyy?" You whined and pouted getting under the covers on your side snuggling into a pillow.

"Closer to the door if someone breaks in."

You blinked at him, realizing he was worried about your safety at all times.... But instead of being thankful about it, you smarted back.

"I lay next to a window. You think someone can't come in from there?" Sly smile returning, voice coy in nature. All you were trying to do was be cheeky, still trying to get your way.

He hadn't thought about that... No worries he will come up with a solution.

"Still no, love. Go to sleep, we have company in the morning."

The next day, you welcomed and greeted Simon's long time best friend. Soap, Johnny Mactavish.

The day was full of laughs, stories, and food.

But you see, it was also full of surprises. The guest room had been made up the day before by you just for Johnny. When you found his bag in your room, you brushed it off and he just picked the wrong room. No worries.

So imagine... Night had settled into your bones. Tired and weary, you all headed up stairs to the sleep quarters. Johnny not too far off the entire time. Finally, it had been clocked onto your radar as strange. Every turn, he was not far off. Noticing the excited gleam and shimmer in his eye.

You see, you had failed to hear about their conversation earlier. Simon expressing to Johnny how you pointed out the open window next to your shared bed. How could the love of his life be so exposed to a threat?? Don't stress it though. Who better to fix that thought then the person who does that out in the field for Ghost? Only difference Johnny was now doing it for you, instead of Simon.

So imagine the look of confusion as you faced Simon when Johnny followed you into your bedroom, shutting the door behind him.

"Simon?" Your quiet voice called out to him looking for an answer.

"Still worried about that window, love?" Simon asked backing you up to the bed.

Two unknown arms feeling foreign to you wrapped around your waist, tucking you closer to him. Turning as best you could, you saw Johnny.

He laid closest to the window, Simon closer to the door, and you sandwiched in the middle. No safer place you could be... After they were done with you of course.

Simon Ghost Riley Masterlist

[himimosa]

attractive things bsd men do pt. I

you know there are things men do without being aware that makes them look hot (fixing watch, undoing tie to relax) I will try to add some more~

dazai, ranpo, atsushi

Dazai Osamu: not averting his eyes from you

You had no idea how you ended up here...

It was 2 in the morning... You were barely keeping your eyes open. And your cute, handsome idiot boyfriend was happily sitting next to you, while you were driving... He was singing along to a song, shouting to be exact...

"Dazai, listen to me... I am not even awake enough to comprehend this shit. But if you think again that... it would be a good idea... to wake me up.. at 2 in the morning... just to drive... god knows whose car... to god knows where... i will make sure that-"

(You couldn't finish your threat. To be honest you didn't know how to finish. You can't use death threats on this man, he would happily accept it...)

"Oh come on darling, don't be like that... I am sure you will love it once we arrive... We even have some good stuff!" He swung two different wine bottles in his hands. You side-eyed him with suspicion

"Did you just take them from torpedo? Dazai please put them back, I am not gonna get drunk at this hour and I am sure the owner of the car wouldn't like that-" You suddenly stopped with the realization

"Dazai please tell me you didn't steal Chuuya's car and wine.."

Dazai smiled innocently "If this is gonna make you feel better, then yeah I didn't steal Chuuya's car or debit card or wine..."

"I-I...HOW DID YOU EVEN TAKE HIS DEBIT CARD? AND FOR WHAT?... You know what, nevermind-"

"And we arrived... Park somewhere, we are going out"

You raised your brows with confusion. There was nothing around you, not even a single building or light source, everywhere was so dark that you couldn't even see a thing. You used your phone flashlight to get out of the car "Dazai, where are we? And what the hell are we going to do in this dark, I can't see anything at all"

Dazai chuckled lightly and pulled you from your waist. He locked his hands behind you loosely "Close your flashlight and look up"

When you did, your eyes widened with the view. Your usual sight of pitch black sky was covered with a blanket of stars that stretched to infinity. They seemed so far yet so close at the same time...

"Dazai... this is...ethereal..." you could only whisper then you turn your gaze to him. He was directly looking into your eyes

"I know..." he said. "...this view is worth it.."

You couldn't help but feel flustered. You were used to Dazai's not averting his eyes from you whenever he was with you, he was always looking at your eyes like he was studying what lays beneath them. But you have never felt this aware of them until now...

"..thank you" you murmured while wrapping your arms around his bandaged neck

He responded with a kiss which could mean a lot of things...

Edogawa Ranpo: being aware of his surroundings and acting thoughtful

"Y/N, I am getting tired~..." Ranpo whined again for the 4th time in the last 15 minutes. You sighed. Taking care of all minors of Ada at the same time would be easier than accompanying your man-child boyfriend to the crime scene, you were sure about that...

"Okay, honey... Let's take a break here" You stopped inside the park you were walking in and put your bag on the bank near you.

Your boyfriend cheered with excitement and lay on the bank as if he walked for miles. You looked around and saw a convenience store.

"I will go and grab some water for us. You can wait here.." Ranpo only raised his thumb, he didn't even get up from the bank he was laying

Not even after 5 minutes, you were coming back with water bottles in your hand. You almost dropped the bottles with what you just saw. Your boyfriend was hugging so cheerfully with a young woman. When Ranpo saw you, he waved his hand with excitement "Y/N look who I found! It has been so long that I haven't met with Hanako, my best friend!"

You frowned. You were sure that Ranpo didn't have any friends but Ada members and Poe... Before you say anything, Ranpo kept on rambling. And they started to tell you stories that you weren't involved at all... You couldn't help but feel bad when you got left-out by your own boyfriend...

After 10 minutes that passed like hell for you, Ranpo suddenly turned his head somewhere, only to remove his hand from Hanako's shoulders "I believe they left, you are safe now miss..." Before you could comprehend those words, the girl started to bow and thanking "I don't know how to thank you, you saved me from that creep-.." and she turned to you this time, only to bow again "I am so grateful for you too, thanks for your cover, I am saved..."

"It's okay... Here, this is our agency's number" Ranpo pulled out the agency's card from his pocket "If he or any other thing bothers you again, you can call us to get help..."

After she left, you looked at your boyfriend with your mouth agape. Ranpo looked at you and sighed "You really didn't notice the creep who was following that woman? He was probably gonna follow her to her house but he left after seeing she wasn't alone... Well, I guess being an amazing detective is not that easy-..." You shut him up by giving a peck to his lips "You are an amazing detective Ranpo.. and an amazing man..."

Nakajima Atsushi: putting his hand on your waist to guide

You looked at the little memo on your hand. You were near to the address Ranpo gave you, as the smooth detective he was, he had already solved the mystery behind the case and sent you there to find the evidence.

As you were getting nearer, you couldn't help but feel uneasy. You always knew Yokohama was not the safest city. Other than the port mafia, there were a lot of gangs, criminals, and sins between these slums...

You could feel the gazes on you while you kept walking. When you sensed some people started to follow you, you couldn't help but sigh. You definitely were strong enough to defend yourself from a bunch of bandits but you would wish to avoid as much as possible... All you want was quickly finish your job, return to the office, and write your report.

"Y/N!.." You turn your back only to meet with Atsushi and you smiled brightly. It felt nice to see a familiar face in that gloomy street, you waved your hand with excitement to greet him.

Atsushi waved you back and then looked around him shortly. A frown appeared between his eyebrows, he gave a cold stare to the suspicious types who have been following you. You couldn't help but to smile to yourself, seeing your cute coworker could make a face like that was something else...

Atsushi came close to you and asked for the address. After you showed him the memo, he smiled sweetly at you "You are very close to finding it! May I accompany you, then we can return to the office together?"

You couldn't say no, him accompanying you might have suspend the others... "Of course, let's go!" you said.

While you were walking he started to ask questions about the details, and you started to explain the case to him. While you doing that, you felt a light touch on your back first, then that light touch became a light hold around your waist. You slightly checked the fingers on your waist and looked at him. Atsushi was acting like he did nothing "..and then?" he asked while guiding you with his hand to take a turn...

You couldn't help but feel a little abashed yet you didn't say anything. You felt safe and protected and you appreciated him for that. Maybe he would do the same thing when you were going back? (but God forbid if Dazai saw you like that...)

[harvesti]

Finance advice, how to budget and do weekly check-ins? Any good apps?

I don't recommend using apps for taking care of your finances (of course, except the actual bank app!) because I believe finances need a more hands-on-deck approach, not the convenience that apps provide. money needs attention, and apps are distracting.

I also don't recommend using set methods like the 50/30/20, because I don't think these methods are good for people who are actually poor.

budgeting needs to be as simple as possible, which means it needs to be as planned as possible. so find out your survival budget (your actual needs, excluding ALL superfluous things + your bills), set your bills to auto-debit for your payday, only go shopping for groceries once or twice max per week (I recommend going once for home necessities and another day for fresh food, if you must, but no more) and FOLLOW A DETAILED AND SPECIFIC LIST. oh, and always check wholesale prices rather than unitary prices, they often scam us by charging more in smaller units. memorize the price of your necessities and compare between different stores, so you always know exactly how much you need before spending. learn how to cook if you spend too much in food, it's literally the cheapest way to eat. (food is usually the most expensive variable of budgeting, since bills are usually fixed, so I tend to focus on that.)

when it comes to other needs, forget about buying in cheap stores like shein or fashion nova, or cheap department stores, ALWAYS go for less pieces in greater quality that will last longer and need less maintenance. don't impulse-buy even if you have the money, ALWAYS sleep a few nights before buying something you want so you can assess how much you actually need that in your life. don't indulge on convenience, don't rely on deliveries for everything. know how much money you have every single day you spend it (weird advice, but I know a lot of people who don't check before or after they spend and end up surprised).

and my biggest advice: if you have trouble with budgeting, cancel your credit card. only pay by charge until you can definitely say you're in control of your spending. the best way to be in control of your money is to not be in debt, and not have monthly commitments that aren't your actual bills. if you can only buy something if you pay in installments, you can't buy it.

[brehaaorgana]

What if I just become an annoying ADHD money blogger sometimes

#adhd adult money liveblogging

If you have problems saving money (especially emergency savings money) because you always spend it on too many impulse purchases, or take money out of your savings to cover your fun money:

you need to open a savings account with a new bank. The more impulsive you are, the more I recommend a small credit union or online only bank, or a really local bank. Someone whose online fund transfers to other banks takes three whole business days, so you literally can't just instant transfer money from savings to your checking account to spur of the moment buy things. If you're afraid this defeats the point of an emergency savings fund in the case of, well, an emergency, set up a small checking account with a minimal amount at this bank too, and just set aside the debit card somewhere you won't frequently use because it won't have much money until you pull it from emergency savings and put it in the checking account.

Look for one with a high APY relative to having basically no deposit minimum (mine is like 3%) and no minimum deposit or monthly fees. The APY is basically when bank sometimes pays you money for not spending money. It will be like, cents at first. Change in the sofa cushions. But over time, it will be more. Don't worry about it. It's just surprise money for later. Not a lot, mind you. But you're a competitive winner and every cent they give you FREE is a success to zap your brain with dopamine. (Eventually if you have enough money you can do this by like, investing in shit or buying CDs and they just give you MORE MONEY. BUT!!! BABY STEPS.)

This is crucial: if you have some kind of direct deposit paycheck set up, see if you can SPLIT the direct deposit between multiple accounts. The company my job uses to pay people allows us to choose between depositing a fixed dollar amount to certain accounts (with "remainder of paycheck balance" being automatic for one account), OR depositing a percentage of my paycheck to certain accounts. (Percents of a paycheck tend to be higher to start). If you don't get paid this way, figure out a good date to set a recurring transfer from your checking to your savings for an amount so it won't sit in your spendy account long. The goal is to pretend like you just actually never had the savings money in that paycheck. Poof. Gone. Disappeared. It got saved before you became aware of the money.

Feel free to start with a small amount. It can be $5 or whatever. Once you start doing this for a few paychecks look at your money. If you're not genuinely struggling to stay afloat after 2-3 months and are still comfortable, try increasing the number a little. Repeat as needed.

Now you've saved money. 🎉

This is genuinely how I managed to save money more consistently than anything else I've ever tried. Savings money goes in the secret money account. 🤷🏽‍♀️ Incredibly silly but it works.

[askoverlordvox]

Rue poofs in front of you in a cloud of green smoke. “Screen man! I humbly request thy assistance in setting up a ‘credit card.’ This realm doth make the process most perplexing!” She hands you her phone, which is opened to a scammy website offering free gift cards. The phone is hot to the touch, no doubt infected with several viruses.

@ruethefae

... Okay. I'll admit. This is on me.

Vox puts a yellow quarantine label on the phone and sets it aside, producing a new one from his coat pocket and tapping the screen.

Luckily, the Sinfire comes with automatic back-up, so I can easily restore the device without all the malicious software that... got introduced.

Now, Rue, I suppose I should've given you some of the previous editions of our guidebook to Hell and beyond; most mortal souls entering Hell nowadays at least know how a lot of this stuff works. Again, I should've seen this coming, so I apologize.

But it's nothing we can't fix! So, here's some tips: first, you know how deals work, right? Something of value in exchange for something else? Hell works on that principle, too; if something's asking you for personal information, it's because they're trying to get something from you. Unless they clearly state why they need it and what it will be used for, don't give them anything. Second, credit cards are a good way to get into debt. They're basically you promising to pay someone else back, but not saying how much you'll be paying back. You'll for sure have to pay back at least what you owed initially; sometimes, you may pay back twice what you owed! They can be very tricky. Third, ask someone on my payroll if you have questions. We have help desk personnel and, as long as you don't threaten them, they're rather pleasant people.

Vox reaches into his vest pocket and pulled out a shiny, metallic blue card.

So, to help you understand how the currency of Hell works, I'm going to help you out a bit. This card is like a credit card but it's called a debit card. A credit card spends money you don't actually have; a debit card spends money you do have. Click this little button here on your phone and you can see your balance. Don't spend more than you have in the account and it replenishes every six days. Now, going back to earlier, I'm giving you something of value, so what am I getting in return? Frankly, we thought the latest security update on the Sinfire was foolproof and you somehow broke the damn thing in under 24 hours. I'm impressed! If you ever feel like taking a swing at working a job, I'd love to see what else you could do for the Q&A department. Secondly, this is a debit card, not credit, so you won't be able to go into debt; it will decline- and, therefore, stop your purchase- if you try to spend more money than you have. Third, if you need more money or are confused about how it all works, just ask.

[metatomatoes]

Long-ass personal story/rant under the cut. Feel free to skip, I'm mostly just writing this down to get it out of my system.

So, 2024 did not start out all that great, but it was manageable. And then February hit, everything proceeds to fall apart. Yay.

February 1

My beloved uncle John died of cancer after transitioning to in-home hospice care in early December. This one is rough. I'm very close to him and his family. I was raised by a single mom, and while I was very young my uncle was her go-to when she needed someone to watch me. That, and she wanted me to have an positive relationship with an adult male family member because I couldn't get that kind of social development at home. TL;DR he was kinda my surrogate dad when I was little and we never lost that bond.

The following week was kind of a blur of tears, grieving and prepping for my uncle's wake and funeral. I volunteered to do a reading/reflection at the service. I went to work, although I definitely was not at my best. For example, I accidentally purchased $800 worth of company swag on my personal debit card. Stuff like that.

February 9

My parter and I go to his wake in the afternoon and get home around 10 pm. Sad, difficult, exhausting, but also full of love and support.

Feb 9/10

I'm not sleeping well so I'm up late watching something, when around 1 am I hear water dripping inside a wall where that does not make sense for that sound to be heard. The upstairs unit in the 3-decker condo I live in is currently unoccupied, so I go up there to discover their living room radiator has a massive leak. We turn off the heat and the radiator valves, stopping the outflow of water and get as much of the water on the floor mopped up as possible.

February 10

Wake up to a water-soaked living room ceiling. Apparently the leak went on just long enough that a lot of water got under the floorboards upstairs, despite our best efforts to soak it all up. So, now we have pretty significant water damage that is going to have to be fixed at some point - fingers crossed we just have to strip and repaint as opposed to needing to have the whole thing re-platstered.

I can't think about all that right now though, because this day is also my uncle's funeral. It's a nice service. I read one of my uncles' favorite poems and give a short reflection, which goes well. Reception followed by family gathering. It really was good to see all my extended family, and people I haven't seen since my uncle John got married. (I'm quite famous among my aunt's family from their wedding, where I notably accidentally drank champange and gave a very enthusiastic performance as a "bop bop" girl when the wedding party was recruited to pretend we were a band at the reception. I was 6 at the time, so I do look a bit different now 😂).

Feb 12/13

I wake up in the middle of the night because my partner is burning up with a fever and tossing around like a fish out of water. Yep, he got the Covid - turns out my uncle Eric (who my partner and I spent a lot of time with over the course of the wake and funeral for my uncle John) tested positive when he got home on Sunday. Honestly I have never seen my partner this sick in the 8.5 years we have known each other! Neither of us have contracted Covid before now and this shit is no joke.

I have an oral surgery on Friday so I'm crossing my fingers I don't get sick as well.

February 13

At work, my amazing employee "A" of 3.5 years lets me know her last day is going to be March 1st. She's leaving for personal reasons which are 100% legit and I know it was a hard decision for her to make. Still, I am really going to miss this girl, as will everyone she works with on our team.

And on a somewhat selfish note, this also means a lot more work for me as I fill in for her responsibilities and start the recruiting process. So that's a lot to plan for, but at the time all I felt was just....loss. And pride, because I know it took a lot for A to make this decision and prioritize herself and her family over work. I'm just sad about it. And a tad overwhelmed, but I can manage, right?

February 14

Partner is still very sick, but by the end of the day he's starting to improve. Unfortunately, my wonderful cat Killick passes away in the evening. This was not out of nowhere - he's a senior cat who was diagnosed with hyperthyrodism a few years ago, which he never quite bounced back from despite our and our vet's best efforts. The last few months he's been losing weight, but we actually thought he was doing a bit better because his activity and social time was increasing. However, in the last week he hadn't been very interested in food and was sleeping more than usual, so we scheduled a vet appointment to see what was up, but it was not to be.

I miss my kitty 😭

February 16

Alas, I could not escape the Covid 🤒. I wake up with a high fever, achy all over and sweating. So I cancel my oral surgery and spend the next 2/3 days mostly horizontal. I do have some very creative fever dreams though.

Today

I am mostly recovered from Covid. I've spent the last few days getting my life back together as during all the above events and illness my partner and I ran out of pretty much everything in the house (like groceries and toilet paper) in addition to falling behind on things like house cleaning and groceries. We've also been spending a lot of time focused on our other cat, Mia, who is adjusting to being an only cat now. She's gettting there, and so are we.

I'm still a little behind at work, but catching up as I can. Luckily, my position allows me to set my own schedule and priorities and I have never been more grateful for that kind of flexibility.

Emotionally, I'm a little all over the place. I have broken down in tears over tiny things, like me forgetting an item at the grocery store. I have times where my mood is downright awful and I'm mad at everything. I have had trouble sleeping and maintaining focus, times when I'm hyperproductive and times when I really just want to do nothing but zone the fuck out. I know it's going to take time to find my equilibrium again, and I'm doing my best to give myself the grace to do that.

Anyway, there's no real point to this story other than FUCK this stupid shit show of a month. If you made it this far, thank you for reading, and I hope your month has been better than mine!

[bloodsbane]

okay, ive officially started s12 of project runway (i just watched the intro ep before) and they're popping off this time around... lots of changes, including a new brand for the accessory wall, self-designated budgets + debit cards for the designers instead of fixed budgets per challenge, and tim sitting with the judges!! idk if he'll be giving critiques BUT while he can't affect scoring, he CAN save ONE (1) eliminated designer for the season if he disagrees with them.

i feel like i vaguely remember this being a thing, but maybe i was just remembering the previous season, because the winner of s11 had almost been eliminated a couple challenges prior to the end - she only stayed on because tim convinced the judges to keep her, which hadn't happened before

other quick comments on this first ep: there's a younger designer who is very into sustainable resources and recycling in his fashion. he's got a lot of REALLY COOL ideas, but im already nervous about him in this first challenge. he's leaning hard on his concepts and doesn't want makeup on his model (he even said anything 'plugged in' couldn't be used on her hair, so no straighteners/curlers/etc.) i think he's cool and would like to see him go at least a good handful of challenges, and there are some other choices being made in this first runway that will probably keep him safe now, BUT. im wondering how long he can keep up his self-imposed limitations before it catches up with him. i guess he'll just really have to prove himself with his actual designs

and, slightly related to an above comment, there's this one woman who basically said 'i don't like the material they gave us for this challenge so i'm not gonna use it and that's just how it's gonna be :)' and im like ohhh girl. you seem cool enough but you better hope your design is like BOMB AF or at least someone else is worse bc the judges truly do not like when people don't follow the assignment lol

[coyacoonadillo]

man I fucking hate credit card debt. you go from being perfect, an obscenely high score bc you treat it as a debit card with benefits, then you have 1 (one) emergency and it's all out the window. You eat less and cheaper, you move somewhere cheaper, you get cheaper insurance, you stay home more, you learn to change your own oil and starters and fix your own water heater and HVAC and fence and plumbing but you still can't pay it down. Every time you get close to starting to see progress, BAM. emergency. You're over your credit limit. You're nickel and diming every grocery trip. You consider letting the ED win bc hey you'll be cheaper to feed.

You got a better job, but your APR went up by your exact raise.

Gods, it feels so hopeless.

[icaruskeyartist]

I must tell you all what's happened to me since the end of July:

My phone got ran over. Twice. This is the first time I've ever smashed/shattered my phone ever and it's by two goddamn cars.

My scooter got a mystery flat that I'm fighting to this fucking day.

I broke my foot. I have literally never broken a bone in my life and I've fractured my far left metatarsal trying to go down the stairs to let my dog out.

Related to the foot thing, my boss won't let me have a stool to take the weight off my foot. My doctor is mad about this and mad that I'm prioritizing school and work over my own body at the moment.

My fan broke to the point where I couldn't force the corpse of it to even semi-work anymore.

I got an appointment with a new therapist only for him to leave his job three days later.

My debit card has been stolen. And the person who stole it SPENT $500 ON NIKE. WHO SPENDS THAT MUCH ON FUCKING NIKE

My air pump was apparently also stolen. Who the fuck steals a debit card and an air pump. Anyway, because the air pump is stolen, I can't test and fix my dumb scooter inner tube.

In addition, a small tragedy in that I wasted 2 hours pulling paper that looks shit so. Fun days.

Anyway, this has been going on since July 29th. At least my ADHD meds are working?

[baaaa-king]

Vent post warning

:read more:

The bank REALLY wants me to fucking HATE THEM this year.

First off the bank took a HUGE chunk of my money without paying it out to me. They are yet to reverse it. I now have to go to the bank to fix it. But my next free day is next week and I don't even have enough money left to last me this week .

Then, when I went to geta new card (cuz I lost my old one) it's as if they gave me a faulty card because it almost ALWAYS declines before accepting any transaction, so I get debited TWICE nearly all the time.

And now, because my country made the very stupid decision to change our currency in only three months and oh so Conveniently forgot to release said new notes, there is a very small currency crisis where there is no money for anyone anywhere unless, you work in a bank, and the deadline for when the old notes are still legal tender is just around the corner so people are rushing to every ATM and POS to get as much if the new notes as possible, leaving a lot of people (like me) WITHOUT money and it's very frustrating.

I might have to change banks.

And even though this isn't bank related I can't collect my voters card which means I can't vote which that unless a miracle happens, I won't be able to take part in my country's election.

2023 is starting out great it seams. 🙃

[my-job-is-a-series-of-sidequests]

So... I kind of want to explain the origin of my Tumblr's name. This will be a long one.

As a certified Elder Geek, I've managed to both a) have a resume that reads like an author's bio from a bad paperback from the early 80s and b) be only marginally attached to the labor market for over a decade. This did not play well with my depression and the toxic capitalist idea that my value was tied up in work.

I am now, and have been for the better part of a year, gainfully employed doing side quests for people.

More specifically, I am a case manager working in community mental health.

There are many types of case management jobs, but I am quite happy with mine.

First -community mental health means that I work in my community. My agency does not do inpatient psychiatric treatment and I don't work in a hospital. Most of the clients I work with are covered under Medicaid, but that's not universal throughout my agency. We have outpatient therapy for both children and adults, substance use disorder counselling, medication providers to prescribe, an on-site full-service pharmacy, and a primary care provider. We also have a crisis department and a respite center. I might go into some of those in a different post.

And we have case management services.

I wear a couple of different hats in my job, but my primary function is working with clients on social determinants of health. That's a fancy way of saying that it's really hard to start recovery with a mental health condition if you, say, don't have a warm and safe place to sleep, a medical condition that interferes with your daily living, or enough food to eat. When I first meet with a client, I first assess their needs - what needs fixing - and in my clinical guise, we focus on functional strategies and coping skills to help manage daily living.

When clients do their intake with my agency, the criteria used to assign someone to me (or one of my colleagues) is functional impairment - a behavioral health issue that interferes in some way with their activities of daily living. That's generally a variety of conditions - schizophrenia, schizoaffective, bipolar, depression, PTSD, you name it. I generally don't look at the diagnosis until after I've met with a client - and I have two reasons for that. The first is that I work with my clients as people, not as walking diagnoses. The other is, of course, that I don't actually have a background in behavioral health and sometimes have to do a bit of reading before I know what that actually means for my client.

Some of the things I do are one and done - here, we got you signed up for food stamps, found you a primary care physician. That's not what takes up much of my time.

A lot of the time, my clients will ask as quest-givers for little sidequests. "Hey, I need someone to give me a ride to pick up my medication." "I can't physically haul all of my groceries by bus." "I need to find a prepaid debit card I can use to put some money in my son's jail account." And that's where I live.

Sometimes, I can complete a quest chain for a client - getting them housed in a horrible housing market, completing Department of Corrections supervision, getting SSDI payments, things like that. That's the objective with all of my clients - get things to a state where they can handle their daily lives independently. Some just have a couple of side-quests before they're done. Some are going to be with me for a while, with daily or weekly quests for me.

I think of my job as doing all the tiny filler quests in big open-world RPGs - find some yeast for the baker, bring the old lady her medicine. The difference, of course, is that my clients are actual people with actual needs, not NPCs that are going to give me a doorknob I'll need for a puzzle later. My job is helping to navigate obstacles, to reduce barriers, so that my clients as individuals with agency are able to do for themselves.

But I love it - because while the work can be difficult, at the end of the day, my job is to be professionally kind. I help people out a little bit, with things that are just a little beyond their reach due to limitations of resources or mental health. I can try to make things a little easier for people who don't have a lot of resources, who might be marginalized due to the stigmas surrounding mental health challenges, who have difficulty navigating the world.

[digitalgate02]

Re: Paypal and denied transactions

Paypal sent me emails warning about their changes, and such. I don't like paypal anymore because for my country they do not allow you use a business name, only your real name. And I don't like to use my real name outside my personal & private life. And other stuff Paypal does as well.

I moved to Stripe, but apparently two people couldn't manage to get their comm. transactions completed for some reason. Stripe tells me to contact them and tell them to contact their banks.

It doesn't mean everyone who commissions me will face this problem -- some other peeps managed to make it work, so i highly suggest contacting your bank and check what's wrong with your credit/debit card.

(i tried to check the options on Stripe, but i can't find any way to fix the issue... If anyone has suggestions please let me know)

[spider-xan]

It's so frustrating bc I have money to donate to escape funds, even though I don't have a job right now and I can't go too far into my savings bc that's all I have in both the short term and long term (ie. that's my retirement fund too), and I want to donate, but I can't use credit cards bc of the aforementioned issue of none of my cards being in my name and the actual cardholder would cancel any donation charges as scams, so my only option is donating directing from my debit account, but PayPal won't let me do that either and there's likely no fix for this, it's so frustrating.

[wernerherzogs]

I have all my bills in direct debit so i don't have to worry about them!! I only use my laptop now for Word and then to send it to my work email so i can print documents at work 🙈

Oh and good luck with the moving!!!! Tell us how it is after all the moving's done 🙏🏼

yeah you can't really do that here as most bill payments (aside from like for the internet and to mobile companies) don't have fixed rates for more than 2-3 months at a time, and even for those with fixed rates you still have to edit data every month (like an invoice number, even if you have an unique account number set up w/ your utility providers). also most utility providers have separate websites these days where you pretty much only have to click one button to pay for the current invoice, but not all of their mobile apps are user friendly, so i prefer to do everything on laptop (for example, the app of my electricity provider is good, but when you have to pay rent to an association that owns the building your flat is situated in, then those associations typically have Ancient websites, so, laptop it is). tl;dr the only payment i have in a direct deposit is the one to my current landlord, and there are also automated debit/credit card payments for streaming services, and that's it. 💁🏻‍♀️ SO it's just been Easier to pay for everything in bulk from my laptop via bank website&separate websites of different utility providers, especially for the past two years when i've had to pay for two different flats at the same time ☠️

[dillyt]

Love how my family just decides we're going somewhere today even though I feel like shit today and of course they want to go to Walmart which I hate too and already forced myself to go to with no sleep yesterday to get stuff I needed to feel less like shit but ofc as soon as I start feeling better from whatever else was wrong with me my fucking period starts and I'm in so much pain and I'm straight up fucking nauseous but everyone else here decided we're going places today without me so fuck how I feel I guess. Oh and I probably am going to have to pay for everything today too because my mom refuses to get her debit card fixed and everywhere will only take chip and doesn't even let you use the strip on the back like why do cards even have that anymore if you can't fucking use it GRAHHHHH!!!!!!